Nataraja.

Nataraja.

On the TOI column, ‘Speaking Tree’ of 7.4.1999 carried a feature on the spiritual significance ‘Nataraja Shiva of Chidambaram’. It is an old pastime of ardent believers to ignore all history and concentrate on spirit only. Incidentally the article listed the temples where the deity Shiva is supposed to manifest in five forms of elements i.e. earth, water, fire, air, and void (sky). The temples are respectively:

1.     Earth – Pridhvi:        Kanchi

2.     Water – Ap:               Jambukeswar

3.     Fire – Agni:                Thiruvannamalai

4.     Air – Vayu:                Kalahasti

5.     Void – Sky-Akash:    Chidambaram.

In Tamil Nadu both Shiva and his son Murugan are important deities; but in North Murugan is not a deity in any important temples. How this difference is to be explained and what historical reasons? The early Tamil literature is full of shaivism that is much less in norther Sanskrit literatures. Similar is the Vaishnava cult spreading in south. Grant structures are built to house these deities like in Srirangam, Tanjavur, Rameswaram,etc. However, the north is mainly Krishna, Devi, Shiva, etc. and they are not comparable with all the southern ones. There might be studies why the difference in emphasis between the two regions. Kerala seems something completely different from other parts. It has its own temple architecture much different from the grand structures built in other parts of India. All these must have some historical roots and it will be fascinating to more details about them. Unfortunately, I did not have any book on this subject among my collections.

K.N.Krishnan.

April, 1999.      

Indus Sanskrit

TOI of 26.4.1999 carried a news item from Hyderabad that featured N.S.Rajaram, as having prepared a book claiming Indus Seals are written in Sanskrit in the form of cryptic sutras of Panini and some others. It is the same Rajaram who at an earlier occasion scripted and published two tracts namely ‘Aryan Invasion’ and Politics of History’. The Hindutva groups published them as part of correcting history. This time Rajaram teamed with a Vedic Sanskrit scholar Jha, in interpreting the signs in Indus Seals as that of Vedic ones.

If what Rajaram and his teammate Jha claimed to have unearthed evidence for interpreting the Seals; then there should be enough and more evidence to the Vedas being part of Indus Civilization. Shiva and Pasupati are commonly mentioned in Rig Veda. In it, it is Rudra or rather eleven Rudras. In Indus finds there are no evidence of Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Marut and Agni etc. the common divinities variously described in Rig Veda. One cannot accept the argument that during the Indus Civilization the Vedic divines were already disappeared. It will be an absurd contention. Moreover, the horse that is so much referred, praised in Veda is not supposed to be an animal native to India but found only very later in this land. That should have been the time for Rig Veda. Besides, the archeological findings from Indus do not include anything remotely connected with horse. If Sanskrit is the language of Indus people, they have to be the heirs of Vedic traditions. But they are not any prominent in Indus archeology.

The only motive for Rajaram to collaborate with Jha in preparing the book is to bolster up the communalist claim for the ancient Indus Valley civilization. There have been a good lot of such unfounded claims in the past, from supporters of Sangh Parivar ideology of Hindu Rashtra. Now they are propagating that their concept of Hindu religion is the one natural and universal in pre-historic times. While in other countries that natural religion i.e. Hindu succumbed to the propagation of Semitic ones; India did not go under them because of its original roots in India. According to Hindutva ideologues, there was no Aryan immigration to India but a reverse emigration from India to other countries including America in pre-historic times. No need of any evidence since Hindu is natural to all. Rajaram reminds that historians other than people like him did not find any literary evidence in Indus except its archeological remains. At the same time, they maintained that Vedic people did not leave any evidence other than literary ones. If according to Rajaram the archeological evidence of Vedic Aryans is Indus civilization itself. Then the problem starts as to why the two i.e. archeological and Vedic literary evidences do not tally each other in all phases. Literary evidence is for northern mountains and rivers (most of them could not be located with accuracy), the archeological evidences are confined to a vast area that could not be located in then Vedic literature. According to the propagandists of Hindutva, the Vedic times were earlier to Indus Civilization. If so, the question arises about the progress made in those literatures during nearly 2,000 years of Indus period. We have more knowledge on the literary output after the Indus than during. The horses that were in abundance in Vedic times are not traceable in Indus Valley for about 1,500 years. They cannot disappear just like that. Some evidence of horse was said to have found in the last years of Indus civilization. May be some are being imported by that time.      

If the script found in Indus Seals is Sanskrit it should not have been forgotten by the later inhabitants. The Hindutva claim for an uninterrupted history tumbles necessitating Rajaram likes to re-invent the script. Only in cases of discontinuity or disappearance of civilizations, make scripts and language unintelligible. While Indus valley created an advanced urban living, there was a long gap thereafter to find urban settlements in India. Why did the people following Indus times did not take with them the advanced urban settlements? Indus had baked bricks and planned houses and streets. That legacy came about only some hundreds of years later.

K.N.Krishnan.

June 1999.          

Karen's Book on God.

BOOK TITLE: "HISTORY OF GOD" 4-4-2006

4000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam By Karen Armstrong.

This book is too fascinating on the ideas and concepts of god thru the ages mainly among the three Semitic religions and people professing them. Historically Judaism followed pagan rites, then Christianity. The beginning is antithetical. The Islam was not an outgrowth from Christianity. But an independent one from the pagan and savage surrounding of the Arabia. Karen finds an Arial age in ancient history between 800 & 200 BCE when people inhabiting known civilizations formed an idea of god an all encompassing power, indescribable energy a god. That is not knowable and so on. Such ideas were developed in Vedic & Upanishad period in India. Buddhism is a clear manifestation of that idea. At last, it was nothing a construct from the minds of people in deep thought. After more than closely typed 400 pages of the book, Karen comes to the conclusion that people need a god but that god is not the one understood and accepted by the man of faith. The God of the masses was a simple entity like themselves with likes, dislikes, hate, envy, benevolence and punishment.

It looks like from Karen's treatise that god is construct of mind of thinking people under given historical times/periods. Those who wield political power used and misused the then prevailing ideas of god to subjugate people as well to expand their dominions. All of history witnessed the fight between people and nations professing different ideas of their gods. However, Karen did not dwell deeper into the phenomena. She pointedly skipped thru them the crusades, witch-hunts, anti-Semitism and religious wars. She gives more space to individual emanations or revelations that formed cults and formations from time to time. The theological literatures were created, to show that the idea of god is not something uniform. The god is not an objective entity coming out of logical arguments but a closed and subjective experience.

She gives more importance to Sufism and Mysticism, contemplation and devotion i.e. Dhyan & Bhakti in Indian term. There is an emphasis on the need for guidance from a teacher i.e. guru to initiate to the mystic ways. She introduced some of them revealing in trance. I think we do have such men and women in past as well as today in India. The Bhakti saints in Tamil and Hindi, Bengali Ram & Krishna bhaktas were experiencing a kind of divine presence chaitanya danced all the way from Bengal to Vrindavan, Meera sang and danced thru Rajasthan. The author of Geeta Govindam, Shri. Jayadeva and his wife Padmavati danced through forests, villages and cities of Orissa. All such saints had and still have followers. But they are not the dominant trend in Hindu communities. They are occasional. The predominant trend in all religious communities is that of a domesticated god. A god at home to pray to complain to grieve and console. Contemplation is a rare. Communal religious observations are the norm. Karen touched upon none of these in her book. Ofcourse her book is not about the Hindu gods or anything Indian. The entire contents of this book is on the subject how some few men invented, constructed and sold a god of their need that the mass lay persons accepted and followed. There were changes even contradictory that came about in certain historical circumstances. Since, no ideas and constructors could be held fixed and permanent so the concept of god even & of changing back and forth. There were movements that gripped sections of society at times and packed thru times. Only the personalized gods carrying the contradictory characteristics continued to be acceptable. Personalized gods carried hate & revenge. At the end of her treatise, Karen deplores the manifestation of fundamentalism during the current decade. This god is abhorrent and detestable and she declares herself against such a god. She advocates a universal god of love and compassion. She has no road map for that. Her universal god seems to be multi cultural and multi ethnic. I fear that any multi cultural god will invite new conflicts. Let us admit that at much of international conferences on religious amity the various religions, leaders accept oneness of the teachings of all religions but no one of their followers practice any such precepts. Each of the religions wishes and wants to be dominant universally above all others. If religious teachings are of universal value and complementary why not we consciously try and evolve some universal practices as part of religious functions and festivals. Karen seems to think that god has something to do with ethics and morality meaning there by that there are unchanging ethical and moral rules given not by human experience but by god. This is mis-leading and denial of god and religion will not result in chaotic or anarchic society. 4000 years of god did not bring a just society neither it brought love among humans.

In the 4000 year of its history the idea of god though conceptualized to bring order and harmony in society, in fact brought disharmony, hate, conflicts, murders and assassinations all thru Karen Armstrong recognizes all these still she hopes idea of god as benevolent and compassionate fascinates her. She also approves the concept of god as contemplated by Yogis, mystics and Sufis. She does not venture into an alternative way of living without any god or religion. Living beings except humans have not professed any religion. Still there is an order in their living when the order is upset for whatsoever reason or cause the specie die out or get mutated to survive. Humans need not assumes to have any special role bestowed by god. Just because the idea is too ancient doest not mean that is real. More ancients died out

Review By:

K.N. Krishnan

AIDMK

AIDMK & BJP

More and more news are coming in the daily papers on the bizarre acts and behaviou of the AIDMK chief Jayalalita. At an occasion she blurted out that she is willing and aiming at becoming the Trime Minister, after scuttling the Vajapeyee coalition. But there are no takers for it as of now. Still, one cannot predict as to how the present political situation might develop. In the past Charan Singh of a minuscule party in UP became PM for a few months without any majority in Parliament. He resigned even without calling Parliament in session. Similarly, the one time socialist Chandra Sekhar sat on PM’s chair for some days and went down without getting confirmation from the Parliament.  Once again such travesty of representative government can be manufactured with Jayalalita on the chai. The lady is too much of a naïve that when she reached New Delhi on 12.4.1999, she took a suite in Maurya Sheraton costing more than three thousands per night. She also had the audacity to bring along the much vaunted Sasikala, who is charged with corruption and assault, in number of cases filed in Chennai courts.

Who is going to be impressed by this exhibition of pomposity and splendor? We will know within the next few days. The lady in all respects deserves to be shut up permanently from the political life of the country. One might expect this to happen during the next general elections. There are too many small parties in states, who are utterly, shameless and unscrupulous in their dealings with each other. They are not only corrupting the political stage but also in their material life. The people like Ramamurthy, one time president of Tamil Nadu Congress formed his one man party named after Rajiv Gandhi and joined with the communal outfit in the centre in order to be in power. The fun of it is the name of this party connecting Rajiv Gandhi who could not associated with any communal tag.   

There are many more outfits upholding communalist positions in the name of caste and region. They have joined the BJP in power for their sectarian interest alone. The story of George Fernandez is the most fitting example. The man at one time fired by noble ideological position, is today turned out to be obsessed with anti-Nehru family feelings. To uphold the same, he has sacrificed all his high ideals of socialism, when he was a vibrant trade union leader in Bombay. This transformation is something pathetic to watch today. He was the one who thrumpeted Pokran II as well as the Agni missiles. His outbursts show that these tests were ordered and undertaken not as part of any defence requirements but solely to subdue criticism in domestic political sphere, to the policies adopted under the BJP coalition government. Neither China nor US and any other country for that matter got scared of Pokran II and Agni.

K.N.Krishnan.

16.4.1999.

BJP & Jayalalita.

One vote majority on 17.4.1999 voted out the BJP government. Almost all the comments around number by which the government failed. Some of the comments questioned the opposition as to their motive in voting the BJP out. There were comments as if the votes were in favour of Congress or in favour of corrupt Jaya. They specifically questioned the left about their anti-Congessism. None of them made any emphasis that the vote is really for or against the BJP led government and for or against Jaya or Congress. Some of the comments boarded on bizarre saying that there is visible alternative for a BJP led government. They also implied that a vote against it amounted to treason. There might not be any alternative as the vote was taken but the question could raised only after the result of voting. Just as in the case of AIDMK and DMK re-alignments might come in the other small parties based on the given situation. In the case of UP, Kalyan Singh created a majority for himself by purchasing legislatures from other sections against Mayawati. of BSP. Similar bargaining can be envisaged for an alternative government whether they succeed or not. AIDMK and DMK in turn demonstrated that in politics there are no friends and or enemies as far as the seats of power is nearer. The political outfits including left in the country convincingly demonstrated this. No one in opposition to the BJP alliance supports or justifies Jayalalita. On the other it was the high priests of morality, like BJP and Samata who did support and justified her up to last week. All the time they were hoping for Jayalalita to stay put with them. Suddenly, all those  central government acts that allowed DMK’s Karunanithi against Jayalalita for corruption became null and  void. DMK with its complicity in the Coimbatore blast case turned out to a moral model.

The hypocrisy of such behavior on the part of BJP combine is not a topic for commentaries. When the BJP all the while proclaimed loudly enough, theirs is an alliance earlier made for the last election and the present coalition is just a natural follow up. But it is being hidden today that the BJP-AIDMK joint front is a pre-election formulation with a promise to be together in government. It is the just and correct morality on the part of the BJP to resign from the government as soon as the alliance broke up. The AIDMK is the second largest in the BJP coalition next to its tally. they disregarded the brake and continued to depend on some speculative majority that would come out in support of their government. It was too cynical a hope and assertion. Still they have not learned the lesson that support and dependence on Jayalalita is not desirable but part of a power game. When commentators try to blame left parties who oppoed the BJP led government for being supportive of a corrupt Jayalalita, they are fostering a big lie on the public. Just prior to the election BJP used the glamour of corrupt Jayalalita with a promise to bring down the DMK for not keeping law and order in the state. There were repeated suggestions to remove DMK rule, which did not materialize, not for reasons of want. The BJP’s claim to be the principled is as immoral as that of Jayalalita claim for it.

K.N.Krishnan.

25.4.1999.        

     

George & Bhagwat.

Admiral Bhagwat.

In these days, Admiral ‘Bhagvat’ is very much in the news as also the Defence Minister, George Fernandez. However, the minister is still in a sticky position unable to justify his action against the Naval Chief. Most of his charges boomeranged on his ministry and himself. A BJP enthusiasist and top defence consultant K.Subrahmaniam lambasted the ministry and the minister in his columns in Times of India in the recent past. The TOI carried a number of edits and articles critical on the ministry actions. On 8.4.1999, the paper carried a news feature by its sub-editor M.D.Nalapat who also is a BJP enthusiasist, extremely critical of the last press conference of the minister. In the same issue, there was a letter to the editor by the Samata Party spokesman praising the minister for all kind of achievements. There was news item, which said that Admiral Bhagwat challenged the minister, to prove his charges. This weeks India Today headlined “Swing or Sink together with George”. The government is asked for an answer.

K.N.Krishnan.

8.4.1999.      

Hindutva Claim.

Hindutva Claim.

People preaching Hindutva fantasies as history who advocate that ancient Indians are Hindus are averse to call themselves Aryans, even though that name is an accepted one in Veda and other sacred texts. May be because of the stigma attached to the word Aryan through its association with Nazies? They cannot claim any specific character for the ancients that are not with others. They established civilizations similar or with some difference in many geographical areas. It is appoint to consider that there are not convincing and connecting evidence between Indus Valley civilization and the later Gangetic one. This fact is completely obscured by those ardent advocates of Vedic people being indigenous and that include Indus Valley as well. If there are evidences to show that their habitats were outside, the same evidences could be interpreted as spreading from inside to outwards. The gaps between Mohanjo Daro and Harappa compared to  Vedic is so great that they demarcate two different civilizations in the period of Indian history. There are very few similarities than disparities in them. While all others agree that, the Harappans are pre-Aryan i.e. pre-Vedic the pariavar believe that the Vedic is pre-Harappan much earlier than Mohanjo Daro and Harappa. The difficulties encountered in such presentation are either kept in silence or dismissed as imaginations. They are strenuously trying to explain away that the urban manifestations of Indus Valley as natural development from Vedic times. But so much are awaiting explanations in order to establish a firm foundation to the claim. Some of them try to find Vedic rituals and practices in some aspects of Harappan life. However, they seem to be not sure of themselves in their conviction.  All of them do agree that the two periods are separated through years. Very selected features found in later Hindu life like Shiva and Shakti cults are ascribed to Indus Valley and thus Vedic.

If Mohanjo Daro and Harappa are the continuation of an uncertain Vedic past, they should show much more sign of the knowledge of the vast Vedic legacies starting with Rigveda. The reason might be that the Vedic lore is already past and mostly forgotten in between. Even though that there are no known literary evidences, the archeological evidences available show that the Harappan was a development from low to high going through several faces from food gathering to agriculture and then to an urban face. The development exhausted for unknown reasons and finally buried in the banks of rivers in Panjab. The present finding are that even during the period of its decline the Indus Valley developments expanded to a very large part of north and west India. They also came to an end due the decline at the centre. The period is estimated to be some two millennium. Te later period started with low level developments and went on to form the highly urbanized Mauryan period and so on. Since; the continuity are very much visible and recorded in history by several sources. All these show the so called Hindu and Vedic became wide in the country in later years and not much earlier. If we accept that, the Vedic was earlier than Harappa there is no clinching explanation for the complete elimination of urban signs such as horse. One cannot hold a view that the horse which was in abundance in Vedic lore disappeared from that part of India in the succeeding two millennium of the Indus period. They reappeared in the later decades. Still more studies are required to get at the real history of horse in India.

K.N.Krishnan.

April 1999.        

Sign of Change.

Sign of Change.

Re-assuring developments that will eventually get the country out of an eventual future are showing signs nowadays. The TOI on 2.4.1999 carried an article on its edit page, from the Arya Samajist saint Swami Agnivesh. It is about a multi religious pilgrimage to visit the slain Stains place in Orissa. The priest Stains and his children in their teens were burned alive by the RSS Parivar followers. Soon after news was public, everyone in the RSS Parivar that include the political leaders in BJP, were rationalizing the gruesome crime, as a response to the alleged prosylytation activities on the part of Christian missionary. Even the highest i.e. the BJPs PM joined it in his own way by suggesting, discussions of conversions in the country. Arun Shourie a real representative of the Parivar was fulminating against conversions of tribals by Muslims and Christians. The re-conversion resorted to and organised by the Parivar are extremely farcical. It was reported that some tribals who earlier converted themselves to Christian faith were re-converted to Hindu. It may be that they were re-converted to be the same tribals since; no caste is converted to another in Hinduism. The caste is by birth even if one changes one’s profession the person remain in his caste by birth. But the tribal were not part of the four Varna’s. They were outside of Hindu caste system and were called panjamas i.e. fifth groups. Arun Shourie at one stage claimed that Brahmins are not born but created on attainment of wisdom. The least he must be able to do is select and name some of those created ones from any part of India. No one will be coming forward and get accepted by other Brahmins if they are not born as one. There are highly learned people born in non-Brahmin castes but not recognised or accepted as Brahmin. Even the greatest of them Sri Narayana Guru of Kerala though much more learned in Vedic and other sacred texts and himself a Sanskrit philosopher poet was/is not accepted in their fold by any Brahmin group in Kerala or outside.

Aside from these arguments, there are signs of people changing their attitude towards communal forces in politics. The real test will later this year when many states will go to their assembly elections.

     

K,N,Krishnan.

April 5, 1999.

Eminent Historian a Review.

Eminent Historians by Arun Shourie.

After reading 118 pages in this book one finds little to applaud the author. This book is written in the same vain as his journalistic writings. His target is ICHR (Indian Congress of Historical Research) for all un-completed jobs as if writing history is some instant cooking noodles. Every history is too complicated and crowded with contradictions and they do not allow being charectarised as positive or negative. The charge is that the historians staffing ICHR are bunch dishonest persons, motivated to make money at public expense. He himself admits that the amount used or spent by ICHR are not comparable to the scams that are getting into media almost everyday. In one of the chapters, Shourie concentrates his derisive criticism exclusively on some selected passages from West Bengal Government circular on history textbooks. According to this, there are advices to delete and or alter texts motivated to avoid any characterization of communal enmity between Hindus and Muslims. Shourie says that such matters are kept out of textbooks ostensibly to protect young minds from being influenced by communalism and the resultant tensions and or violence. The author argues against such a policy. According to him, the misdeeds of the Muslim rulers against Hindus and other religions should be thought in the schools. In this connection, one thing comes to mind. The BJP rulers in Maharashtra trotted an alibi that divulging the Srikrishna Commission report to the public will result in inflaming communal feelings and therefore disturb peace in the society maintained so far. The fidelity to tell truth that Mr.Arun Shourie projected in his present work, did not make him advocate for the truth contained in Srikrishna Commission report to be made public. Even today, he is silent on this suppression of the report by the government in which his party is associated. This shows that his advocacy of freedom is too selective and biased towards one community alone.     

The author was quoting passages from historian Satish Chandra’s history textbook for high school in a derisive language. He gives no authentic citation from sources independent of the ruling parties but from ‘evidence’ collected by another communalist ‘historian’ Sitaram Goel. He also tries to make use of writings and speeches from Dr. Ambedkar completely forgetting or keeping them hidden that unto the very recent past, communalists of the SS and Paivar were sprouting venom on the same Ambedkar for his writings and speeches condemning Hinduism. The Maharashtra government manned by SS and BJP combine succeeded to keep the published works of Dr. Ambedkar out of reach to the public. The earlier Congress government was publishing the works.  There was a violent agitation headed by the two opposing naming of Nagpur University to Dr. Ambedkar University. Of late, they realized that opposing Ambedkar is alienating the dalit and poor from them. Only political expediency made them to recognise Ambedkar for reasons other than merit. Still there are pockets from where such communal opposition to Ambedkar comes out. As for the West Bengal example of ‘re-writing history’ books it is nothing in comparison to the ‘re-writing’ of history undertaken by the BJP headed government in UP and Rajasthan. One cannot expect Mr. Shourie pontificating against these concoctions. They say that the whole world was Hindu before the spread of Christianity and Islam.

While Shourie praises his communalist teacher Sitaram Goel for his meticulous collection of so called writings from Muslim period, he has refrained himself from inspecting so called historical writings in the same way as his own ‘Eminent Historians’. Ofcourse when communalists write history there need no confirmation from other independent sources. When those ‘historians’ claim that during the Muslim period, so many temples were destroyed from North to South, from West to East and they are supposed to include the famous Ujjain temple, the Puri temple, the Rathambore temple etc. they cite the elegies written by the court historians of those Muslim rulers. There are no mentions of any archeological findings on the destruction of so many temples of yore. It should have been an obligation on any historian dealing in remote pasts. We all know court historians of ancient period’s eulogized kings in Sanskrit writings. If idols taken out of Hindu temples were broken and used as stepping stones in mosques here and abroad there will be enough archeological remains that could support such claims. The court history should not be taken for granted.

The quotations from Swami Vivekananda and Ambedkar are entirely misleading. At no time, the Swami justified or rationalized the communal practices on the part of Hindu militants or fanatics. Dr. Ambedkar all through his life opposed Hinduism as a blatant manifestation of Brahmin jingoism. He at places compared it to fascism. Vivekananda wanted a complete reform and transformation of the Hindu religion and customs and for this he established or helped to establish a new order called Ramakrishna Mission, which today is not considered as traditional Hindu though they teach ancient Hindu scriptures like Veda and Upanishads. As for Arabindo, he led a completely new order that also is not accepted fully into the mainstream Hinduism. When it is to his liking Shourie quotes Dr. Ambedkar against the “eminent historians” for instance in case of Muslim rule. However, he studiously avoids quoting Ambedkar against K.M.Srimali on beef eating in ancient times. Dr. Ambedkar has quoted chapter and verse from several vedic literature including Rigveda to say that beaf was eaten in those times. The moderator or coordinator of the program Apki Adalat and those who challenged Srimali did not look into Ambedkar´s works. At the least one expected Shourie to have read the works of Ambedkar as a Magsaysay award winning journalist before asserting himself that there are no references in Vedic literature to beef eating before branding Srimali as a charlatan. Srimali at his age may not be remembering all those references listed in Ambedkar´s writings. So who is practicing suggeso veri supresso falcy?

Arun Shourie who at one time fulminated against Indira Gandhi for declaration of emergency as fascism in reality, continues to be the avid spokesman for Hindu fascism as very well documented and characterized by Dr.Ambedkar,

in the same volume from which he quotes portions against the “eminent historians.

It is beneath one to go on reading Arun Shourie . half way through it is clear that he through his charges and assertions not only tries to debunk Marxist historians but Marxism as an ideology and philosophy. His only evidence is distorting and quoting them out of context.

However, he cannot get away from the facts that mainly economies govern almost every thing. All measurements are based on the economies of individuals, society, state etc. he cannot refute the fact all progress, economic, social and others go through lower to higher, simple to complex through conflict between opposites. his prejudices and mental blocks are exhibited all through the pages of this book. When derides the Marxist historiography, he did not look back and pause that the same descriptions and epithets can be hurled at him and his writings. He has just used his having got the Magsaysay award to churn out a lot of treatise that are just prejudices. When he cited the comments of Dr.Kosambi on the context of Gita, he hides that   Dr.Kosambi is not explaining the teachings of Gita but the historical context in which it is given. The contradictory teachings of Gita were analysed. Shourie is too abusive to say, what is history and the discipline needed to train oneself to be a historian. He interprets all critical writings through his imperatives. He did not accept that there are no absolutes in history and it is more firmly reflected in Indian history as well. He seems to think and claim that Hindu history is some thing different than that of universal history. It was not a discovery of Marx or Marxists that all history is the history of struggles between classes.

According to Shourie there were no tribals or any original inhabitants in India. According to him  the description of people as Aryan, Dravidian and adi-vasi are of foreign origin but he firmly defends himself to be a Hindu a nomenclature that itself is foreign Arabic. Even the Smriti texts describe the people of India in different names having possessed of different duties, marking them apart from caste Hindus. In ancient times there was no one word describing all the people of India.

History it seems developed and developing according to unstated Hindu tenets since, it is a product of some superior wisdom of the ancient seers or Rishies. The knew, what God wanted and they in turn disseminated the commands of the God. Shourie subtly appropriated the findings of Harappa and Mohanjo Daro civilizations without giving any firm evidence. He discounts the battles described in Rig Veda as a concoction of Marxian historians in opposition to Hindu religion. He without ceremony claimed that all ancient scientific developments are Hindu disregarding the facts that there were mutual give and take between all ancient civilizations. Although the astronomer Aryabhata observed that the it is the earth that goes around the sun and not otherwise. However, how many of his Hindu contemporaries and all those later generations accepted this discovery and followed it with further findings? The discovery was hidden from the masses of people by other learned men. They even did not mention it in their writings. Instead of astronomy, the mumbo-jumbos of astrology sways the Hindus in all their activities even today. Rahukalam, Gulika kalam, Yamakandakam, Soolam and such like could be noted in all published almanacs and calendars. That is our Hindu tradition and legacy and not Aryabhata’s scientific pursuits. While he misquotes and misleads about Dr.Kosambi on his stringent criticism of the communalists, he fails to  inform us that his new found idol Dr.B.R.Ambedkar was more severe in his criticism of Hindu religion, its scriptures, its heritage and legacy. When he castigates people with Marxist leanings on the basis of that “GOD THAT FAILED” for their repudiation of Hindutva communalism, he has to keep himself silent about the thoughts and writings of Ambedkar except his outright criticism of Muslim rule. So he wrote a tome denigrating Ambedkar on his stellar role in drafting the Indian Constitution. According to Shourie the bureaucrat B.N.Rao, ICS was the real author of our democratic constitution.   Even so it was Ambedkar who steered the Constitution Assembly to adopt the Constitution all the way. So that is Shourie telling his truth. Recklessness, thou name is Shourie!

He may even deny that his first major critical writings on the emergency regime of Indira Gandhi was first published in a magazine named “Seminar” a monthly from Delhi, owned and edited by Ramesh Thapper, who was prominent as a committed leftist and edited a weekly journal, “Cross Roads” when Communist party’s own journal came to be closed in Bombay after the congress of the CPI in 1948.    

When he questions critical passages about Hindu fundamentalism and the consequent communalism, Shourie makes out that the critic’s criticism is on Hindu religion and its followers. It is the most dishonest canard propagated by him in almost all his writings. His evidence in support of condemning communism is that all of them upheld Soviet Union and its activities uncritically. At the same time he ignore the ant-fascist stand of the communists and all other leftists. Shourie is dishonest in not divulging in his writings that the RSS his own spiritual head is enamored of Nazism of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. The RSS itself is modeled in uniform and weapon (lathies in case of RSS) wielding Nazi troupe parading in open spaces. The writings of the RSS bigwigs as well as the Hindu Mahasabha never fought against British imperialism in its days. They lined up with British during the quit India agitation in 1942-43 just as communists but for differing reasons. Even today people like Thakre of Shiva Sena has only praise to Hitler and the Nazies.                

Shourie will not accept that one of his early forerunner was the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, Nathuram Godse a high class Brahmin by birth and brought in the traditions of Hindu fundamentalism.

While deprecating Marxist historians for their contention that as of today the Aryan immigration is more real than otherwise, has deliberately kept himself away from mentioning that the Aryans were a race from artic, in Tilak’s historical study “Artic Home of the Aryans”. This book was written and published much earlier than any so called Marxist started writing history.  Dishonesty seems to be a stock in trade with Shourie. He uses a slight of hand trick in dealing with texts from Marxist historians. When he quotes from them, he does not allow the quote to speak themselves as to whether they constitute any offence that he attributes to them. He goes on interpreting and commenting on those quotes, by slipping in his own words in between and twisting  the meanings to his characterizations. It is a degrading experience to read them. At one point he quotes from a Pakistani tract and makes out that the understanding is at variance or some are in keeping with the Marxist reading of the history. He concedes the fact that reading of history between different schools might carry similarities, which does not signify any other than different views.

When Shourie questions the conduct of the communists during 1942 quit India movement, he puts a mantle of a nationalist who took part in the movement. But it is history that neither there forefathers in Hindu Mahasabha or RSS participated in the movement. Shourie tries to appropriate quit India movement led by Mahatma as a Hindu movement. So his love for truth in telling history stands exposed. He is a charlatan pretending to be very intellectual. Surely, he seems to be popular with and approvingly quoted and referred by all Hindu communalist outfits. When he quotes national leaders against communists, one might suspect that he is a part of those leaders. But the fact is that he is an un-repented foe of all national leaders unless they show some fringe communalism. Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Gandhiji are quoted only if they can be interpreted in favour of Hindu and against Islam. Shourie’s own ideological senior Nathuram Godse found Mahatma as an evil, a concealed Mussalman fit to be killed for the safety of Hinduism itself. Shourie’s book is a rehash of all the arguments and theories propagated by Hindu fundamentalists of yore from Savarkar, Golwalkar and others. Savarkar was not crude and irrational compared to Golwalkar or Shourie. Sure, there were some in the national movement who were Hindu communal but were very restrained and sophisticated in their sayings.

Todays Shouries are drunk with power that came through the BJP led coalition at the centre. Shourie is an avatar of Herman Goaring  the Nazi propagandist. Repeating lies and half truths are natural to their propaganda schemes. Shourie is just following those foot trips. All his arguments in favour of a Hindu interpreting Indian history, were successfully and satisfactorily refuted by historians of all creeds during the days of struggle for independence and in the succeeding decades. Why did Shourie take up subject today? There is only one reason that all the communal propaganda unleashed so far has not shaken the foundation of secularism in Indian masses. He is trying to separate secularists and Marxists and blame the later for distorting history. According to Shourie denigration of Marxism automatically down grade secularism itself. When we read this book one might feel that  the struggle against British rule was Hindu origin and others had little or no part in it.

The way in which Arun Shourie explains his Hindu position the time may not be too far when they will encounter very extreme reaction from other communities. There will be demands for a second partition. More Pakistan may become necessary in the future. How the Hindu communalists will face that situation? Can they pack all the Muslims, Christians and other religious people to some other part of the world and how? Will it be accepted as a solution by world communities? Do they think that minorities could be silenced permanently, in our own country and there will be no reacton from anywhere abroad? It looks like maddest reasoning on our part to envisage such futures. Only time will tell.

I feel sorry for repeating harsh words in relation to Shourie. They came due my sensitivity to the upbeat dishonesty displayed by him in this book.

K.N.Krishnan.

March 1999.

                 

Indian Gods.

INDIAN GODS

DEAR NANA,

I AM GETTING IN CONTACT WITH YOU AFTER SOOOOOOOOOOO LONG PERIOD. NEVERTHELESS, I AM ALWAYS AWARE ABOUT YOU, NANI, BINA, KALA AUNTY AND AJAY MAMA THROUGH MY MUM AND DAD. THEY ALWAYS KEEP ME UPDATED ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT´S GOING ON IN INDIA WITH OUR LOVELY FAMILY.

IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A VERY WEIRD EMOTIONAL SITUATION FOR ALL OF US, SPECIALLY FOR JAY, RAVI & ME, AND ALSO RAKESH (GOPAL CHACHA´S SON & OUR DEAR COUSIN-BROTHER), TO LIVE SO FAR FROM OUR ROOTS. WE DONT FEEL NEITHER INDIANS, NEITHER SPANISH. ONE DAY PAPA SAID ONE SENTENCE THAT HAS BEEN RECORDED IN MY BRAIN: "DOBI KA KUTTA, NA GHAAR KA, NA GHAAT KA" (SORRY FOR MY SPELLING!!, IT MIGHT NOT BE WRITTEN THIS WAY). I GUESS YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. WITH THE YEARS, WE HAVE LEARNED HOW TO FIT AND FEEL FAMILIAR IN ALMOST ANY COUNTRY OR WITH ANY KIND OF PEOPLE. HOWEVER, WITH SOME OF THE PEOPLE THAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT FOR US (ALL YOU IN INDIA) SOMETIMES WE CAN FEEL AS STRANGERS, OBVIOUSLY, DUE TO LACK OF CONTACT.

YOU & NANI ARE OUR GRANDPAS, AND WE ALMOST HAVE NO CONTACT IN YEARS. OUR FEELINGS TOWARDS YOU ALL ARE ALWAYS OF PURE LOVE AND ADMIRATION. HOWEVER, DUE TO DISTANCE, WE ARE JUST NOT ABLE TO SHARE OUR DAILY LITTLE THINGS WITH OUR NANA AND NANI. WHEN I SEE HOW CLOSE VENITA´S FAMILY LIVE IN MAURITIUS, I GET A BIT JELAOUS, BECAUSE WE HAVE NEVER LIVED THIS WAY (ALTHOUGH I DONT HAVE ANY COMPLAINTS IN LIFE, SINCE MY PARENTS AND BROTHERS ARE THE BEST COMPANY WITH WHO I COULD HAVE BEEN GROWN AND RAISED). IN MAURITUS, EVERYONE IS SO CLOSE, SINCE EVERYONE LIVES TOGETHER. FOR VENITA, FOR EXAMPLE, HER DAADI IS EQUAL TO HER MUM, SOMETHING WHICH I FIND VERY BEAUTIFUL.

I ADMIRE MY PARENTS MORE THAN ANY ONE IN PLANET EARTH, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, THEY ADMIRE YOU AND NANI MORE THAN ANY ONE ELSE. MY PARENTS ALWAYS TALK ABOUT YOU. FOR ME, YOU ARE SUCH AN AMAZING MAN. THE WAY IN WHICH HOW YOU HAVE LEARNED EVERYTHING BY YOURSELF MAKES ME BE MORE PROUD OF MYSELF, SINCE I KNOW THAT DEEP INSIDE, SOME ESCENCE OF YOU LIVES INSIDE ME. AS MEN, YOU AND MY FATHER ARE THE ONES I RESPECT AND ADMIRE THE MOST.

WELL, I DONT KNOW WHY I HAVE WRITTEN ALL THIS, IT JUST CAME OUT WHEN I STARTED WRITING TO YOU. I NEVER REVISE WHAT I WRITE WHEN I SEND EMAILS TO MY FAMILY,  SO I WONT DO IT THIS TIME AS WELL. PLUS, I AM AT WORK, SO I AM WRITTING QUICKLY QUICKLY IN ORDER TO CONTINUE WITH MY JOB!!  SO, IF THERE IS ANY MISTAKE OR SOMETHING THAT DOESNT MAKE SENSE AT ALL, JUST FORGIVE ME!!

I HAVE READ SOME COMMENTS IN YOUR BLOG AND I HAVE GOT SO AMAZED ABOUT HOW INTELLIGENT AND WISE YOU ARE. I HAVENT SEEN NO PHD THAT WRITES AS GOOD AS YOU. YOU ARE REALLY INCREDIBLE!!!!!! SINCE YOU ARE HUGELY WISE, I WANTED TO ASK ONE THING:

- THE OTHER DAY MY DAD WAS EXPLAINING ME DIFFERENT STORIES OF THE INDIAN RELIGION. WELL, HE WAS EXPLAINING ME BECAUSE I ASKED HIM. YOU KNOW I DONT BELIEVE IN NO RELIGION, BUT I AM ALWAYS AMAZED ABOUT HOW PEOPLE HAVE INVENTED SO COMPLEX "NOVELS" AND MYTHOLOGIES IN ORDER TO EXPLAIN THE UNEXPLAINABLE.

- WELL, AFTER LISTENING CAREFULLY TO MY DAD´S EXPLANATIONS, I GOT SO INTRIGUED ABOUT CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE INDIAN RELIGION. SO, I STARTED SEARCHING BY MYSELF AND READING A BIT MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC, THE DIFFERENT INDIAN GODS, DEVILS, THE HISTORIC CONTEXT OF INDIA WHEN THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS WERE WRITTEN, ETC.

- AFTER READING ABOUT THE PURANA VEDAS, I CAME OUT TO FOUND THE CHARACTER OF "BRAHMAN", & NO "BRAHMA" OF THE DIVINE TRINITY.

- WHEN I TOLD MY FATHER ABOUT THIS, HE DID NOT BELIEVE ME, SINCE HE HAD NEVER READ ABOUT ANY DIVINITY CALLED "BRAHMAN"

- ACCORDING TO WIKIPEDIA: In the Hindu religion, Brahman is the eternal, unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything beyond in this Universe. The nature of Brahman is described as transpersonal, personal and impersonal by different philosophical schools. In the Rig Veda, Brahman gives rise to the primordial being Hiranyagarbha that is equated with the creator god Brahmā. The trimurti can thus be considered a personification of Brahman as the active principle behind the phenomena of the universe.

- THE SAME OR SIMILAR IS WRITTEN IS SO MANY WEB PAGES.

SCIENCE EXPLAINS THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE WITH EXPERIMENTS BASED ON THEORIES OF COSMOLOGY, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY AND OTHER RELATED SCINECES. WE BELIEVE IN THOSE BASED ON EMPIRICAL FACTS THAT DEMONSTRATES WITH EVIDENCES THAT WHAT SCIENCE EXPLAINS IS TRUE. LIKE, WHY WE FALL IN LOVE, OR WHY DOGS ENTER IN SEASON OR HEAT, ARE EXPLAINED BY SCIENCE ACCORDING TO THE PHYSICAL REACTIONS OUR BODIES SUFFER. HOWEVER, THESE EXPLANATIONS DONT LEAVE US SATISFIED ENOUGH. IT IS LIKE SUCH A PERFECT DESIGN OF SOME EXTRAORDINARY FORCE (NATURE, GOD, OR WHATEVER). WE FALL IN LOVE, THEN WE HAVE SEX, THEN SO MANY PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL REACTIONS HAPPENS INSIDE OUR BODIES, THEN A NEW LIVING BEING IS BORN. IT IS THIS CHAIN OF DESIGNED COINCIDENCES THAT SCIENCE CANT EXPLAIN.

RELIGION, ON THE OTHER SIDE, FOCUSES ON ONE CREATOR THAT HAS DESIGNED EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS IN THE UNIVERSE FOR SOME "UNEXPLAINABLE REASON".

LIKE RELIGION DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN THE ORIGIN OF THIS CREATOR-GOD, SCIENCE DOES NOT KNOW TO EXPLAIN THE ORIGIN OF THIS FIRST ATOM, NEUTRON, PROTON OR ELECTRON THAT EXISTED BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE. NONE OF THESE TEACHINGS OR DOCTRINES GIVES US THE DEFINITIVE ANSWER.

WHILE WE DONT HAVE DOUBTS OF WHAT IS SCIENCE, WHICH IS KNOWLEDGE BASED ON FACTS, I THINK RELIGION (AND NO GOD), COULD BE TWO THINGS:

- AN INVENTION OF STORIES OF SOME WISE AND INTELLIGENT PEOPLE USED TO CONTROL THE MASS.

- FACTS TAKEN INTO EXAGERATION AND PERFECTION, TO MAKE PEOPLE ADMIRE SOME LEADERS THAT GIVE MEANING TO THEIR EXISTANCE. WITH THIS I MEAN THE FOLLOWING: SAME AS ALEXANDER THE GREAT (WHO WAS CONSIDERED BY MANY ALMOST LIKE A DIVINITY) TOOK A BUNCH OF WRITTERS WITH HIM IN ALL HIS TRIPS AND WARS, TO DESCRIBE HIS ADVENTURES AND FOLLOW ALL HIS STEPS, AND TO BE ABLE TO BE DESCRIBED AND RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING FIGURES IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY, MAYBE SOMEONE LIKE KRISHNA OR JESUS CHRIST EXISTED CENTURIES AGO IN REALITY, AND SOME WRITTERS UNDER THEM, JUST DESCRIBED THEM AS REINCARNATIONS OF DIVINITIES. ALSO, AT THAT TIME, THERE WAS NO EDUCATION AND CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AT ALL, AND THE MASS JUST BELIEVED IN THEM AS REAL DIVINITIES, ALTHOUGH THEY WERE ONLY AMAZING MEN, BUT ONLY MEN. SOMETHING SIMILAR HAPPENS WITH THIS SATHYA SAI BAABA, BUT WITH THE CULTURAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES OF TODAY, NO MAJORITY IS GOING TO BELIEVE IN HIM AS A DIVINITY. BUT MAYBE 2000 YEARS AGO, THE MASS WOULD HAVE BELIEVED IN HIM LIKE THEY USED TO BELIEVE IN JESUS, AND MAYBE TODAY WE COULD HAVE HAD A DIFFERENT RELIGION  THAT BELIEVED IN SAI BABA AS A GOD.

WELL, I HAVE REALIZED THAT I HAVE WRITTEN QUITE A LOT!!! I DID NOT WRITE NOTHING SERIOUSLY AND I HOPE IT IS WELL WRITTEN FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING, SINCE NOW I DONT HAVE PATIENCE TO REVISE EVERYTHING I HAVE WRITTEN.

I DONT EXPECT ANY SPECIFIC ANSWER FROM YOU. I JUST FELT LIKE WRITING. THE ORIGINAL TOPIC I WAS GOING TO TALK YOU ABOUT WAS "INDIAN GODS", SPECIALLY TO HAVE AN IDEA ABOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE IN THE EXISTENCE OF "BRAHMAN", BUT I GUESS I GOT SO DIVERTED FROM THE ORINAL TOPIC I WANTED TO ASK YOU ABOUT.

I SEND YOU, NANI, BINA, KALA AUNTY AND AJAY MAMA, LOADS OF LOVE. HOPEFULLY, ME AND VENITA (AND IF BINA GETS MARRIED, THEN ALL OF US!!!!) WILL COME TO INDIA AND MEET YOU ALL.

YOUR GRANDSON,

RAJESH

Oct.21, 2010

Rajesh Dear,

I was reading and re-reading your letter so that I could respond to it in a proper manner. I don’t know you and anyone else should feel rootless in ‘a foreign country’. I think that my family and I also should feel like outsiders in Mumbai since we left our original home while we were out of our teens. If you mean to say that religion, region, or language defines your roots, the same will have to be taken true for people all over the world. Archeology, anthropology and sciences have established that human race is one and the same having trekked up down the several continents thousands of years back from the original home in North African deserts. During their trekking, they picked up several traits making them different in their physical and mental make up. The Australian aborigines and tribes of Andaman & Nicobar Islands were from the same roots but did not go beyond a stage while so many others progressed up several steps in the ladder. I for one am against differentiating people on any basis. Unfortunately, today people are being divided and discriminated in almost all countries around the world on these really fictitious grounds by people supposed to lead them ie. Politicians mainly and sociologists in general. I would like you to read some writings of Richard Dawkins, Karl Sagan and others on the evolution of humans. Evolution is not a lineal process but multifaceted and moving back and forth-in line. Some progressed and slid back in more occasions than one. Only in this sense, human beings are seen different. Therefore, while everyone’s root is same they branched off into several shapes, sizes and colours. The families in Mauritius are insular as the case in many other groups. This has resulted in inseparable differences among religions through historical times ending in mutual killings that has yet to see an end.

Man evolved from his animal ancestors and carry vestiges of that origin and tradition. I have a slim book titled “Naked Ape” by Desmond Morris a zoologist, where in he has convincingly mapped the evolution from ape to man. I have also copy of “Ancestors’ Tales” by Dawkins, which starts from present to back in time through evolution. Another one (just now, I don’t recollect the title & author) which details the life from its beginnings as single cell organism to present day human.

The term Hinduism is an indefinable word. While other religions could be defined more or less precisely Hinduism is an amalgam of several ways. The most earliest seem to be based on Vedic rituals and practices. It was prevalent for some centuries. In time it slowly under went a transformation to be philosophical during the years of Upanishads. Crude Vedic rituals were refined and some of them diminished. The third stage starts with several separate sects claiming authority to separate gods based on Puranic lore or may be that the puranic came into being after the sects. In between the second and third there were several prophets who advocated their views completely in contradiction to earlier two. The main trends were that of Jain and Buddhism. According to historians, these two dominated most of land from north to south. However, the Brahmanical Hinduism gained again after Ashoka and Mauryan dynasty collapse. The Puranic face also had several sectarian conflicts in it. There were efforts at isolating one another since the kingdoms were in conflict mode after the great Gupta period. Todays Hinduism is the results of conflicts and conciliations among all sects facing with foreign invasions.

Now let me try to explain my own understanding about the gods of Hindus. The Vedic corpus are a collection of family hymns supposed to have been heard (Sruti) from the mouth of Brahma which is not specifically mentioned in any texts at that time. The later texts attributed such an origin. The Rigveda hymns are not of uniform view. There are several versions of the origin or creation. There are down to earth prayers to obtain wealth of cattle. There are praises of chieftains for bestowing wealth and cattle to Brahmins. There are some which a discerning reader might find evasive about life here in earth. A few are some kind of exorcisms from perceived evils. There are hymns with sexual connotations etc.     

There is no Brahman mentioned in the earliest Rigveda. The word Brahma occurs very rarely as compared to the word Prajapati. Prajapati is the priest of the gods born much before the gods. The Vedic gods are Indra, Agni, Varuna, Soma, Maruts (seven in number), Rudras (eleven), and Adityas (twelve) and so on. None of these gods remained in their position in later day Hinduism. Instead some selective ones like Vishnu, one of the Adityas, Shiva one of the Rudras and some goddesses. Each of the Puranas upheld one or other of these deities as the sole and omnipotent etc.  

The word Brahman comes in the upanishads and later in Vedanta philosophy. The other strands of philosophical thoughts do not subscribe to any Brahman. Nagarjuna the scholar of Mahayana Buddhism conceived the world as Sunya (void) which then borrowed by Sankara to mean Maya or false image. For centuries, the philosophies were debated using rhetoric among great scholars. However all these debates and discussions were confined to learned Brahmins in the main. The vast majority of the populations were denied access to any literacy and they were innocent of learning those philosophies.

But people cannot be kept out of thinking for themselves for too long. This might have been the reason for puranic lore to spread among common people. Lore was the making of Brahmins mainly though some contributions might have come from others. It is also possible for local lore of deities getting mixed and absorbed by Brahminical ones making those Puranic gods and goddesses. Still, the literates were Brahmins the contours of these lore became Brahminical, There seems to be a lot of mix up which we are unable to unravel. For example, for years no one outside Kerala seems to know or understand the origin of Sabari Mala Ayyapan.

(The legend is that a chieftain or king of Pandalam a very small region in Kerala prayed to gods for a heir in his family. His queen remained childless for too long. Once king went on a hunting trip as usual, found a baby boy abandoned in that forest. He took the boy as a gift of the gods and presented him to the queen to care. He was growing with lot of love and care bestowed on him. The boy was christened Ayyapan. As years passed, the queen became pregnant and delivered a boy. The love and care changed from forest boy to her own. But she was not satisfied. She expected the king to bestow the kingdom to Ayyapan. Then she pretended to be sick and restless. Ayyapan took note and asked the queen about getting some medication. She told him that her sickness would not go without taking tigress milk. It is said that Ayyapan went inside forest and brought a herd of lactating tigresses riding himself on a tiger. King, queen and all people present were astonished and prayed to Ayyapan to calm himself and protect them. Ayyapan conveyed that he has finished with the kingdom and going back to the forest. He got a friend named Bava a muslim to accompany him and keep guard at the foot of the hill Sabai Mala.)

The legend completely Keralite transformed as Brahmanic in the form of Shasta a son to Vishnu as Mohini and Shiva. Similar is the transformation of Murugan or Andavan of Tamils into Kumara or Karthikeya etc. 

As I said earlier gods and rituals differ from region to region and caste to caste. I might refer to another Kerala ritual. Almost all the Kerala temples celebrate an annual festival with caparisoned elephants with elaborate accompaniments on them. Trissur Pooram is biggest show of them. They are taken in procession accompanied by drummings that are specific to Kerala alone. Panja Vadyam & Chenda Melam. You have to witness it to know its specifics. This system of temple celebrations were adopted in Tamil Brahmin temples in Kerala. Such celebrations did not go anywhere outside Kerala.      

Just completed Navaratri/Dassera celebration, though spread all over India; has differences from region to region. It is observed as Durga Puja of nine days in Bengal ending with immersion of murthies in rivers or ponds. Little further, west it is celebrated as part of Ramayana battle against Ravana. On tenth day evening the effigies of trio ie. Ravana, his brother Kumbhakarna and son Meghnad burned publicly to the delight of the people with fire works added. In Gujarat the nine nights of group singing and dancing are performed. Women alone take part in Garba Dance while Dandiya is for the mixed men and women of young and elders. Nowadays all these are commercialized. In the south the Nava Ratri is performed more soberly, people visiting all nearby temples. At home they prepare a Kolu an exhibition of metal and ceramic figurines of animals, birds, humans and gods. Neighbors and families visit each other in the evenings. The ninth day is observed as Sarasvati puja when books and manuscripts are gathered from shelves and made puja for them. Tenth day morning is auspicious for initiating children to start learning. It is called Vidyarambham. In Kerala, they conduct Aayudha puja devotion to weapons. I have not conducted any investigation on many other ways of celebration in other regions. The concepts of gods and goddesses so varied among Hindus, it is impossible to list them all by any group of individuals.

You could find more of my thoughts in the blog.    

N B. For Trissur Pooram photos try click in google.

Two Seers.

   Arabindo’s Hindutva.

 Sri Arabindo’s 125^th birth anniversary is supposed to be in 1996. The Hindutva group has appropriated the saint as their own prophet for hinduising the whole world. They have been quoting the writings and sayings of Arobindo so as to claim superiority for Vedic thoughts and practices as interpreted by the saint. Some of those sayings exhibit rank communalism keeping in view the conditions today.

When Sri Arabindo started his public life, the country was awakening itself against the British Imperialist rule. Arabindo himself was a political refugee in French enclave of Pondicheri. The isolation from the environment of national struggle might have affected the sage to look for internal solutions for outward problems. Whatever may be the motive for his renunciation of worldly affairs he got interested in religion specifically the sources of Hinduism and its philosophy in Rig-Veda and other ancient texts. The result was a commentary of ancient hymns, based on the modern understanding of the world and its philosophical questions. Arabindo drafted the new theologies prevalent, into the interpretation of Vedic literature asserting new meanings to hymns. I have not gone thru these writings of Arabindo but my own readings of Rig-Veda and some of the Upanishads make me to think that meaning of Rig-Veda is in the preceptor. The language used is very much this worldly as mainly commented by the sage Sayana. The meanings of a mysterious and or spiritual that are being discovered   in the wording of the mantras are the result of allegorical interpretations with meanings to confirm with later and modern thoughts. Such interpretation of ancient thoughts is in vogue in all regions of the world. Unlike in the case of ancient India other civilizations disappeared from the face of those countries. Even the people of the original civilizations transformed to other faiths

In certain instances those people of original civilizations, were forced to revert to the past through circumstance brought by new conquerors.   But the ancients in India developed through changes and adoptions that became Hinduism at a later date. They survived many an adverse conditions though their sociological thoughts were still governed by their own primitive origins.

It is under such conditions the British rule was felt to be alien rule, by English educated elite Indians. It was they who first started to claim uniqueness of the ancient India. They were much far off from Hinduism as understood today. It is dishonest of the RSS and Sangha parivar to claim today that people like Arabindo and Vivekananda were the promoters of Hinduism as understood and practiced by them. Of course it is true that much of the thought construct by the two Hindu revivalists are amenable to such interpretations in support of Parivar propaganda. There are no separate religions and or gods and they cite the sayings of Shri Arabindo and Swami Vivekananda in support of their main contentions. However, even they avoid explaining the hindutva quotes from these two saints. They seemed to be contradictory to each other that the Hindutvavadies make out a case for hindutva in denigration of other thoughts and other religions.

Whatever may be their motivations one cannot accept the stand of the Parivar that Hinduism must conquer the world for itself since, ancient, medieval and even the modern Hinduism is not amenable to proselytisation. Only the Arya Samajists accept it and practice it. However, orthodox never accept such change of faith to Hinduism from other faith. It is very much known that in Puri Jagannath temple no converted foreigners are allowed to enter inside the premise. For them a Hindu is born and not converted.

The Parivar also selectively quotes from the writings of Babasahib Ambedkar

They were citing Babasahib on the matter of Indian origin of Vedic Aryans (whoever they might be) and also on the Muslim rule of repression against Hindu religion as might be found in the medieval history of India. They quote these later portions with relish, since; Babasahib relied upon the British records for the history of Muslim rule in India.

But those writings were not intended to be a study of Indian history but polemical arguments on the existing repression on the dalits in the Indian society. He was interested to state that the Sudra caste was part of the undifferentiated population of India from ancient times.

ADI  SANKARA’S  STOTRAMS:  A collection

Some days back while I was talking to Anna, he asked me to get a book of the collection Adi Sankara sthotrams in Malayalam lipi. I was sure of such collection available but unable to move about finding it. Then I told our Sethu to find the book from Giri Traders in Matunga when he gets time.  It was raining cats and dogs on those days and it took long for Sethu to travel upto Matunga. However, he did it on a day and got two books of the collections, one in Malayalam lipi and second in Nagari as per my request. They were brought here on another day. I kept them for a few days to compare the contents. The Malayalam one has 60 compositions and the Nagari one has more. The extras were longer compositions. The Malayalam had an introduction mentioning the significance of some of them and short life sketch of Adi Sankara. The truth is that there are no reliable sources to know about the life of Sankara; only legends, miracles, imaginations as described in so many Sankara Vijayams.

I read all the stotrams contained in the Nagari edition.  On the face of it none of them could be a composition by person like Sankara who dedicated his life to propagate Vedanta teachings i.e. nirguna brahmam.   These collections are aimed at so many Hindu deities starting with Ganapathi. More over each deity is attributed with superiority over every other known one. Ganapathi is the highest to whom alone obeisance offered. Similarly on every other Subramania, Rama, Krishnan, several forms of Vishnu, Shiva, Devi and so on. It is strange to see such self contradictory stands on the part of the same person.

Secondly, the stotrams were just words strung together for their rhyme and rhythm. They have no significant meanings. The stotrams in themselves has no continuity with any theme. With these flaws still the stotrams could be memorised and recited through with little effort. Most of them are composed in hard spelling compound words for effect.

Anna who is not familiar with Sanskrit and so will surely find them unpronounceable. I feel pity for him, who has not expanded and diversified his reading habits.  When we were there at Charlottesville, he wanted to read Shiva Purana. Saras brought two volumes from her college library but Anna returned then in a week’s time. I think he got bored reading them. Same might happen with Adi Sankara also. Let us wait for that time. Still at an earlier occasion he was trying to read Narayaneeyam in Malayalam. But he never claimed   having gone thru it in full.

All the stotrams are male centred offers, even in case of the female deities. The composers whether one or several are one in describing bodily pleasures almost anywhere. While all devies are described as having heavy, high and rounded breasts the males are portrayed as being embraced by their spouses with heavy and high breasts. All human passions are attributed to these deities. But human passion is depreciated and denounced.

Consciously or not there is denigration of female as distraction and fouled.  The prayer is always to protect the male devotee from the attraction towards female sex. None of the stotrams seemed to have addressed by any woman even though the prayer is to a female deity. One could see that composers hate females except those deities.

A good number of these stotrams find their way to the home of Hindus for their intonations and not for any meaning.  Both girl and boy children are made to recite them devotionally. Nobody bothers to see the downgraded status of the women in all these compositions.

11.8.2007

Bhaja Govindam.  6.12.95.

There are a lot of Hindu   upper caste men and women, avidly reciting Bhajagovindam slokas in Sanskrit. They believe that reciting such slokas will bring them God’s blessing to overcome their worldly woes and also move them out of the birth death cycle. This bhajagovindam is said to have been authored by Adi Sankaracharya in order to enlighten the masses. A cursory look at the point is necessary. One doesn’t know whether any of the ardent devotees give any thought on the meaning conveyed by these slokas. We take here two of the slokas for short analysis.

The first sloka is addressed to all those involved in the studies of language, grammar and literature. The author says O idiot, your scholarly pursuits are not going to help you when death comes nearer; only devotion to Govinda and prayer to him of any help at that eventuality. Here the author implies that this death is not the end of life, that there might be another birth and death and several more cycles. Even if equipped yourself with scholarly qualifications, you will still remain an idiot unless you recite the name of Govinda. Also here author instils fear in the mind of people. Since, the aim of life is to overcome the birth death cycle only the name of Govinda will help to obtain that aim.

However, it is to be noted that Adi Sankara a scholar par excellence seems to advice all else, not to pursue any kind of education but remain an idiot i.e. uneducated and recite Govinda. Govinda; Rama. Rama; Krishna. Krishna; Shiva. Shiva and Narayana. Narayana keeping everything else out.  It is strange coming from Sankara’s mouth since, he himself pursued scholarship (as if he just consumed the languages and grammer in a swipe and not by rot) wrote, learned and authoritative commentaries to Prastana Thrayam i.e. Brahma sutras, 10 (some maintain the number is 108 or even more) Upanishads and Bhagawat Gîtâ. Although not everyone refrained from pursuing one or another line of scholarship, a vast majority of people in India remained innocent of any education literary or otherwise. They were thought to recite those god’s names, prostrate before all temple deities, to go on pilgrimage to all kind of shrines through out their life and therefore presumed to have escaped from birth death cycle and straight away ascended to heaven. But neither the scholar nor any devotee seemed to have believed that anyone ascended to heaven. Even the most pious are not believed to have reached that objective. The Sai Baba of Shirdi was considered the most pious sage of the time, but many today believe that the Satya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi is the sage reborn. It gives a jolt to the belief that pious living brings you straight to heaven. The meaning of the first sloka is some make believe situation with none trying to find the fact. They don’t even think of any meaning to the sloka.  There is also a kind of conceit in the author. Only he has the right to education and knowledge to attain scholarship and the vast majority should follow his dictates and recite god’s name all their life.  May be this is the reason for the largest number of people to be kept in dark, illiterates and idiots outside.

Did the advise to recite bhajagovindam is confined to all or men only? It seems that the advice is addressed to men only. Another sloka makes the necessary clarification and confirmation. It says: “Do not get emotionally involved i.e. Kama – desire, on seeing the heavy breasts and deep navels of the women folk. They are only the contours of meat and fat and that should be mentally considered.” There are certain points popping out of this sloka. Is it contented that women by nature are objects of desire and pleasure to men? They entice by their body flesh, men, from being god minded or devotees and therefore not fit or eligible to attain the objective overcoming birth death cycle? If so what are the conditions for the women to attain that objective or is it suggested that women are not human enough and therefore fated to be objects of pleasure to men?

Another point is that why and how the author who was a sanyasi noticed and thought “Naree Stanabhara Nabhee desam” at this juncture? It looks and spells a demeaning status for female body. Possibly these came to his mind from where the seer himself was born,  since at that point of time ladies may not be used to wear any upper garments thus exposing their full breasts and deep navels,  for all men to contemplate the pleasure hole beneath the two. One may not agree or approve of the derisive way women are depicted in this sloka.

There are more that could be cited for their absurdity in this composition by the famed Adi Sankara (?)  These two are just the samples.

5.12.1995:

An add: In another famed composition of Adi Sankara “Soundarya Lahari” carries the following verse:

“Naram Varshiyamsam Nayana Virasam Narmasu Jadam,

  Thavapangaaloke Patitam-anu Dhavanti Satasah;

  Galadveni Bandha: Kuchakalasa Visrasta Sichayah,

  Hadhad Trutyad Kanjyo Vigalita Dukoola Yuvatayah:”

The meaning is roughly is here. “(When) your (Goddess) side glance falls upon, an old man, decrepit, ugly and idiotic; (then) hundreds of young women follow running (behind him) their knotted hair tumbling, covers of rounded busts slipping out, girdles broken and divesting (all their) cloths.”

Imagine this picture in your mind before forming an opinion.