Memories

Memory of Brahmin-non Brahmin Kitchen.

"Outlook" dated 17-12-01 had one letter to editor by one R. Sidhartha in Chennai. It was in response to the feature article (26.11.01) by columnist Anita Pratap on the roles of the current Kanchi Swami on "Rebuilding Morals". It was a laudatory article on the activities of Kanchi Swami. The letter recalled the swami’s attitude towards women specifically those who are working and also about widows. The latter also mentioned about a controversy over separate hostels for Brahmins and non-brahmins. Self was utterly surprised to hear about this controversy after about 60 years. I recollect in the year 1941 when the then Madras Govt abolished separate kitchens in the Govt run Maharaja's College of Sanskrit and Tamil studies at Thiruvayaru, Tanjavoor. The Kanchi Swami (or is it Kunbhakonam Swami?) established a separate kitchen for Brahmin students and insisted upon the Brahmin students to boycott the Govt run facility. Not only separate kitchen was insisted upon but living outside the common hostel. Swami also insisted upon Brahmin students using Brahmin dress i.e. no shirts and also Brahmin hair style i.e. shaving the head on front and keeping knotted long hair at the back. The college was catering to very poor Brahmin and non-brahmin students to impart higher studies (degree courses) in these two languages. All the Brahmin students were in Sanskrit section and only non-brahmins entered Tamil courses. However a few non-brahmins from Kerala were in Sanskrit section. I remember a Kerala Christian as one of my class mates.

In 1942 Kanchi Swami (or is it Kunbhakonam swami?) stopped providing meals & accomodation to students who joined the college in 1941-42 season. I was one of the affected but continued to be in the college up to August 9, 1942. The Quit India movement disrupted all civil life specifically the schools and colleges. After leaving the college for good I have no idea as to the further developments in the college. Even today I have no idea whether the college exists today with same & or other facility. It is strange to hear about the same controversy stocked by the current Kanchi Swami who is said to be much modern.

K.N. Krishnan.

Legend and Myth of Devi in Hindu Mythology 12-11-2001

The Sunday Asian Age 11.11.01 featured several articles on the legend and myth of Devi in Hindu mythology. One characterised the Devi as a blood thirsty one mainly in Bengali up to 19th century. This Devi is portrayed a divine for the dacoits. The article recollected several stories of dacoits committing human sacrifice to this bloody Devi before and after committing dacoity. There seem to be several heroic legends about dacoits in Bengal.

Another story is about the installations and perpetuation of Smashan Durga Cremation ground goddess in Delhi on the banks of Yamuna named Nigambodh Ghat. The legend is post independence installed by a RSS man in conjunction with a Namboodiri from Kerala who was made a priest to the Devi. The legend survives even though the priest is dead and no replacement is there for the present.

Another article is about the durga Devi of Calcutta in the past and present day. There are durga temples in the city vicinity where animals are sacrificed on a daily basis and on certain days the number of animals sacrificed go up to 1000 or above.

M S Veenu Sandal a Tarot Card reader has penned a very long tract extolling the mystic of Devi appearing in trance in many female devotees. She makes that a number of instances where devotees act possessed by various devies, mostly based upon locally popular deities. One might recall Kerala experience of trance or velipad of velichappad. In the temples velichappad is a hereditary one, son following father or nephews following uncle. At first the velipad is faked or induced then during the course of time the trance come naturally without much effort psychological ones. According to Mr. Veenu Sandal the common trance is that of Santoshi Maa a Devi produced by the Bollywood film of Jai Santoshi Maa a couple of decades back. This fact goddess building is not mentioned at all; making it out as if the goddess of some ancient one of Hinduism.

Another article unsigned makes out a devout tale out of Devi Bhagawata story of Laxmi. The article says that Laxmi was banished by her husband god Vishnu from Vaikuntam for unspecified fault on her part. The goddess was transformed to be a mare and sent to earth to atone the unspecified sin for unspecified time. The goddess in the form of mare goes on to penance to Shiva. After unspecified period of penance the god Shiva appears before the mare and the dialogue centers on the remedy. According to Laxmi she will be restored to Vishnu after she gives birth to a son but how. Since the husband god is not available Laxmi tells Shiva that he and Vishnu are one and the same and therefore Shiva should bless her with a son. The reasoning is based on other legends. But Shiva did not comply but advises her to wait for Vishnu himself to appear before her as a horse in heat and relieves her from the present condition. The things change and horse Vishnu comes as a horse to redeem his wife. The husband god is not worried that his goddess wife was praying to Shiva.

One more feature was a long excerpt from a book titled Devi by one Bulbul Sharma. Just like every other devotee the author unethically narrates different legends from different puranas as if all of them homogenous by themselves. He narrates the story of churning of the ocean milk by Devas, Asuras and how Devi Laxmi rose out of this churning. Indra's elephant and the divine Kalpavriksha also came out of the churning process. That will mean that both these were not known and therefore not available before churning of the milky ocean. But the legend also says that Durvasa the fiery maharshi was presented with a garland of flowers from Kalpavriksha that in turn the rishi presented to Indra when he was leading a procession on his elephant i.e. Iravatha since a lot of bees were attracted to the flowers in the garland which was placed by Indra on the head of Iravatha. The elephant got irritated and annoyed by the bees and then took the garland and threw on the ground and kicked by his legs. Durvasa got angry at this show of disrespect for his presentation and cursed not only Indra but also all entire group devas. The contradiction so palpable on this episode is completely overlooked by the devout. If Kalpa vriksha and Iravatha were already existed in heaven how did they arose from the milky ocean later? When did they disappear in the ocean after Durvasa curse! Only one or the other can be true. Not both even if the story is puranic. Either the puranic loves are irrational or they are lies.

Similar a case of Vamana & Parasurama avatars. The legend is Vamana subdued Bali the king of kings of Kerala but another legend claims that Kerala was claimed from the ocean god by Parasurama. If the first legend is to be believed, Kerala was there much before the Parasurama so one of these legends is absurd and therefore a lie. It only shows that our legend makers were not concerned about rational of any story. The irony is that both legends are firmly accepted and believed by literate Malayalee. They don't raise any questions about these two legends; instead they proudly proclaim these as their heritage. If some one or other for example foreign religious mission people raise these issues and describe Hinduism as an antiquated and pagan religion, the Hindus of all hues line up behind Hindutva brigades such as VHP in protest. The example is from last year when the American Southern Baptist in which President Clinton was a member. This group published a propaganda tract castigating Hinduism a pagan and backward. The NRI wing of VHP and other parivar in America started protesting and the same was echoed by the Parivar in India as well. Even if the mission finally withdrew its propaganda the fact remain for all to see the hypocrisy and humbug that is being propagated as religious truths by the Sangh parivar as well as their unwilling supporters like the Bulbul Sharma, Veenu Sandal and others. The articles in the Sunday magazine of Asian Age of 11.11.01 is proof that Hindu as a religion is backward