Ushering India back to a vedic future

Modi is a modern techie, but is he a moderniser? He cannot be as long as he and his govt propagate back-to-the-scriptures science

Shekhar Gupta  November 20, 2014 | UPDATED 14:01 IST

 

Is Narendra Modi a moderniser or a traditionalist? Is he forward-looking or trapped in the past, however glorious? Does he aspire to lead India into a brilliant new future, or bring back "Sone ki Chidiya" (the golden sparrow) fantasy? I know the answer to all three questions from his many followers: he is a forward-looking moderniser who wants to lead India into a great future. He loves technology, he celebrates science. He took the cue on using social media for political campaigning from Obama and improved on it greatly. He takes selfies with fellow heads of state (Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in this case) and tweets them, and when a glamorous, star struck Bollywood leading lady, towering a foot over him, bends over his shoulder to take a selfie he looks back in debonair style to ask, "Got it?" In more ways than one he comes across as India's most modern prime minister since Rajiv Gandhi. At which point, we need to ask yet another question. Will his government reflect his own modernism or RSS nostalgia?
The two cannot go together. Modern thinking is about science, technology, curiosity to discover what hasn't been discovered yet and humility to accept that the human race has to reach new frontiers, that what we may know yet is a fraction of what we don't. The traditionalist RSS view, on the other hand, is that whatever mankind may be hoping to imagine, discover or design in the future had already been perfected in Vedic times. All you need to do in that case is a close but open-minded reading of the Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads. We had lost it because the Hindu empire and heritage suffered with the decline of the Gupta and Mauryan dynasties and with the arrival of invaders from the west, leading to subjugation by Muslims and then Christians. Modi's rise, therefore, is India's first chance in a millennium to leapfrog backwards and connect with that past. Or, to put it more rudely, set the clock and calendar back.
This is a serious issue to raise at a point when the new government seems to be settling down. A crucial Parliament session is beginning. It needs to be raised because it is a key mainstream issue and not a mere distraction from the entertaining fringe of true believers with degrees from Dina Nath Batra Vidyapeeth.
'We are a country steeped in superstition. Our missile scientists perform pujas and break coconuts before test-firing a new Agni. Our space scientists take a model of Mangalyaan to Tirupati.'It will be delusional to dismiss Dina Nath Batra as a lone maverick and merely the slayer of Wendy Doniger's scholarship. He represents a new force in our political and intellectual discourse even if it is a force of old think. His power over the BJP's HRD ministry is now evident. This week a new precedent was set in New Delhi as German Ambassador Michael Steiner called on Batra, reasoning with him to calm down on his opposition to German language classes in schools. But you can see Sanskrit winning, in spite of all his diplomatic charm. At a moment like this, a gentle intervention was needed from a modernising prime minister. Something like, why should it be Sanskrit versus German? Sanskrit is a wonderful classical language and should be made attractive to all (and liberated from its pandit ji stereotype), and why just German, Indians must have a choice of many important foreign languages, French, Spanish and even Mandarin included. This is a globalised world, a globalising India and Modi is our most outgoing prime minister since Nehru. This is no time to go back to the depths of the old trenches of cultural and linguistic insecurities. This young India wants to go out and embrace the world, just as Modi does with his global peers. (Note meanwhile that the government of Haryana has already decided to seek Batra's advice on "modernising" its education system.)
This argument is not about an individual, but about a state of mind. Where you confuse rationality with tradition, curiosity with scripture. It gets more complicated. In 2001 I was among the many senior journalists on Atal Bihari Vajpayee's entourage to Iran. And it was every bit worthwhile, particularly as we all reached Persepolis, the ancient city wrecked by Alexander the Great. As we surveyed the ruins, an eminent RSS intellectual in the group started "educating" all of us on "history". He said, see, what a terrible man Alexander was. This is precisely what he wanted to do to India. But he was defeated by a minor Hindu king, Porus, whose real name was Paurush (manhood). He was fleeing India in fright, his army disintegrated, and died a forlorn man. At which point I tried to intervene saying that history was quite different, but was ignored. My much wiser friend, and strategic affairs pundit, C. Raja Mohan tapped me on the shoulder and said, don't argue with them, they confuse history with faith. His words come back to me often these days.
Because history has been a political and ideological football in India for long, you can probably understand why RSS intellectuals now want to get even with those of the Left, who reigned all these decades and brought in their own loaded, secular distortions. History can still survive robust disagreements and debate, even if it is often as irrational as arguing that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple. But a much bigger challenge arises when not just history, but even science is confused with faith. Which is the provocation for this week's National Interest.
Last week Home Minister Rajnath Singh nearly stole the headlines from Modi in Australia with his statement (in a speech on Hindi Divas) that physicist Werner Heisenberg had learnt his famed Uncertainty Principle from the Vedas. (It is a different matter that some over-enthusiastic spin-master in his ministry had not heard of Heisenberg and issued a press release calling it Eisenhower's Uncertainty Principle instead.) This is a tricky pattern of thinking.
It fits in with the larger, enduring mythology that anything being discovered by the Western world now had been developed in Vedic times already. Lord Ram returned with Sita and Lakshman in Pushpak Viman from Lanka to Ayodhya, so see, we had airplanes then. You talk about ICBMs with multiple warheads, Patriots which intercept incoming missiles, Strategic Defence Initiative, what were the "Shakti-bans" that Ram and Ravan traded routinely in the battle for Lanka? Or Arjun with his awful Kaurav cousins? Ramanand Sagar worked so hard to remind you of this "heritage" in his endless tele-serials. Never mind that today we can't even put together a reliable assault rifle for our troops.
Nobody is denying that our scriptures (Vedas, Upanishads) and epics (Ramayana, Mahabharata) are truly ancient, and also brilliantly capacious in their imagination and wisdom. It is likely that we imagined mechanised flight much earlier while our intellectual rivals, the Greeks and Romans, were still fitting giant bird wings to human forms, from Icarus to Phoenix. Of course Aryabhata and disciples visualised, debated and documented many astronomical facts and ideas for which wise Europeans were burnt at the stake or poisoned hundreds of years later. Possibly, someone even imagined plastic surgery, animal to human organ transplants, stem cell research, surrogate motherhood. But to say we already "had" all of these is not just funny, it is dangerous. We are a country steeped in tradition and superstition. Our missile scientists perform pujas and break coconuts before test-firing a new Agni. Our space scientists take a model of Mangalyaan to Tirupati to be blessed by Lord Balaji before the launch. If you also tell them they are simply replicating, if not reverse-engineering, what we already had millennia ago, it will be dangerous. Because many of them may not even contest it.
This is Modi's big challenge going ahead. He does have a modern, even a techie mind. But he and the ideological/cultural juggernaut propelling him also have delusions of ancient grandeur. The two, scriptural mythology and quest for modern new discovery, cannot co-exist. If there is one leaf Modi needs to take from Nehru's book, it is scientific rationalism.
MEANWHILE in Pune, at the feet of Aryabhata: I had the privilege last week to spend a few hours with Prof Jayant Narlikar, by far the most eminent Indian astrophysicist today and co-author of the Hoyle-Narlikar theory questioning Big Bang. He had built the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) at Pune University and his central garden has large statues of the greatest of all times: Newton, Einstein, Galileo and, most certainly, Aryabhata.
Narlikar is also among India's bravest and most thick-skinned rationalists. Even at 76, his eyes light up when you mention superstition and ancient beliefs. Nothing irritates him more than people confusing his science with astrology. The Pune phone book usually lists IUCAA as a centre for astrology.
To make a point, he says, he collected a couple of hundred horoscopes of the most brilliant student achievers and mentally-challenged children and gave them to India's most eminent astrologers. None was able to pick the right ones.
Narlikar says astrology is bunkum and that to call it Vedic is a travesty. In Vedic tradition, he says, there was no astrology, no Mangal ruining marriages, no Brahaspati spreading beneficence and no Shani messing it all up unless you presented the tribute of mustard oil and cash every Saturday. All of this, he says, came from Greece. Alexander had also brought along many "wise" men with his army, some stayed back and spread astrology, to which our ancestors, Hindu or not, Porus or Paurush, took so warmly. So whatever else, let's at least not blame our Vedas for the faults in our stars.
Follow the writer on Twitter @ShekharGupta

Humsafar A journey after the Marriage.

"Humsafar" is a Pakistani TV serial with a good script and dialogues aired in Indian
Television channel two years back (2011-2012). The story explores the trials and tribulations
of the married couple. 'Humsafar' which means companion is about their journey after the
marriage.

From Outlookindia

AP

The eternal amorist Mohan Bhagwat at an RSS meet in Bangalore

ESSAY: HINDUTVA

The Morality Tale That The Mahabharata Just Isn’t

Its epic transgressions surely cannot be the underpinning of the Sangh parivar’s Hindutva

SUMANTA BANERJEE

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The new chairperson of the Indian Council of Historical Research (appointed by the BJP-led government), Yellapragada Sudershan Rao, has promised to push research projects to rewrite ancient history based on the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. According to him, they are truthful accounts of historical events. But he should be careful when choosing the epics.
The stories of the Mahabharata, for instance, are often at odds with the Hindutva that the BJP government and its parent Sangh parivar preach. Although the votaries of Hindutva worship the epic’s heroes and heroines, the messages that most of the latter impart may not be suitable for the present government’s programme to educate our people in the “moral and cultural values” that they want to uphold in the name of Hindutva. In fact, the deities and mortals described in the eighteen volumes of this hefty tome had never once been designated by the term ‘Hindu’. The Mahabharata may turn out to be a rather uncomfortable quarry for the BJP ministers and Sangh parivar historians to dig up models to suit a Hindu-specific Indian ideal of morality and culture.
The just-replaced health minister Harsh Vardhan (a medical practitioner!) played a major role in this effort to create a behavioural pattern based on a supposedly “Indian moral culture”. In an interview to the New York Times, he is reported to have recommended abstinence from “pre-marital and extra-marital sex” as a better means of avoiding aids instead of using condoms, since such abstinence is “a part of Indian culture”. In yet another effort to reform the sartorial preferences of Indian women, a BJP minister of Goa, Sudhir Davalkar, warned: “Scantily dressed girls (do) not fit in our culture.” Plans are also afoot to revive ‘Indian culture’ by RSS institute Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Samiti which has laid down guidelines for writing history from our puranas, to cleanse the current history textbooks of “corrupt Western cultural influences”.

The Mahabharata’s heroines did not conform to the Hindu ideal of female chastity our ministers want our women to follow.

But these views and norms about sexual practices and female behaviour and attire that these venerable gentlemen are propagating and laying down as the one—and only—‘Indian culture’ sanctified by their Hindu religious tradition were flouted by the heroes and heroines of the Mahabharata itself. Most of the heroines did not set much store by the Hindu ideal of female chastity that our ministers would want our women to follow. Going by the explicit description of the beautiful contours of their bodies (quite visible behind their dress) that we find in the epic, they beat hollow the hip-hugging jeans-clad women that the Sangh parivar’s moral guardians are objecting to. As for the heroes of the Mahabharata, they merrily indulged in pre-marital and extra-marital relationships. And let us not forget that they and their children, who were born out of wedlock, were elevated to positions of superheroes.
Birth of the ancestors of Kurus and Pandavas: Without pre-marital and extra-marital sex, which Dr Harsh Vardhan and his party leaders blame as the main cause of our problems, they would not have had their heroes like Veda Vyasa (who wrote the epic), and the sons that he bred through adulterous relationships (Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura), and his grandsons (the five Pandavas). Let us listen for instance to the story of the birth of Veda Vyasa, as described in the Adi Parva of Mahabharata: One day the great sage Parashara, in the course of his pilgrimage, arrived on the shores of the Yamuna river and saw an extraordinarily beautiful woman with a charming smile on her lips, seeing whom he was affected by the excruciating desire of making love to her. The woman happened to be Matsyagandha (her name meaning ‘smelling of fish’, since she was the adopted daughter of a fisherman family), who used to ferry passengers in her boat across the river. When Parashara approached her with his desire, she expressed her inability to immediately satisfy him, drawing his attention to the large number of rishis (sages) waiting on both banks of the river for her to carry them across. Parashara immediately created a fog that immersed the area in darkness—so that the rishis could not see what he planned to do. Although impressed by Par­ashara’s miracle, Matsyagandha pleaded: “But I shall lose my virginity if I satisfy your desire. How can I then go back to my home, and live in society?” Parashara said: “If you satisfy me, I shall give you whatever you pray for...and res­tore your virginity.” Matsyagandha prayed: “Please let my body exude a sweet smell.” Having been granted that req­uest, she agreed to sleep with Parashara—and in due course, gave birth to a son who came to be known as Krishna Dwaipayana (meaning dark-skinned and born on an isl­and). Vyasa left home to be an ascetic, but reassured his mot­her that he would come back to her whenever she needed him.

The chirharan Was putting Draupadi on stakes any lesser sin?

It was through Kshetraja or the practice of producing children through extra-marital recourse that Pandavas were born.

Sometime later, his mother (now known as Satyavati, her body “sweet-scented” and her “virginity restored”—thanks to Parashar’s blessings) got married to a king called Shantanu. Through him, she gave birth to two sons—Chitrangad and Vichitravirya. After Shantanu’s death, Chitrangad was killed in a battle, and Vichitravirya ascended the throne. He married two sisters—Ambika and Ambalika (both daughters of a king). TheAdi Parva describes how Vichitravirya failed to produce any children, even “after spending seven years with the two queens in continuous vihar (amorous frolic), (following which) he fell victim to tuberculosis in his youth,” and died despite sincere efforts by his friends and doctors. The problem started now. How were the two childless queens expected to carry on the dynasty? Their mother-in-law Satyavati first requested her stepson Bhishma (her late husband Shantanu’s son by his first marriage) to impregnate the two young widows. When he refused, she summoned her own first son Vyasa (who had promised to help her whenever she needed his help)—who was willing to solve the problem. But Vyasa, having followed a rather earthy lifestyle in the forests all these years as an ascetic, looked quite hideous and repelling to the two dainty queens. After being persuaded by Satyavati, her eldest daughter-in-law Ambika agreed to welcome Vyasa to her bed. But then seeing his ferocious countenance from close quarters—dark skin, blood-red eyes and matted hair—she closed her eyes in fear. After completing his required role, Vyasa told his mother Satyavati that although a son would be born endowed with superhuman mental and physical powers, he would be born blind—because Ambika had committed the error of closing her eyes during his conception. That was why Ambika gave birth to the blind Dhritarashtra. In order to correct the effects of the error, Satyavati sought another grandchild in the family who would be perfect this time. She recalled her son Vyasa again, to impregnate the second daughter-in-law Ambalika. But Ambalika again, at one glance at Vyasa’s fearful visage, turned pale—and thus gave birth to Pandu (coloured yellow). Disappointed by getting another imperfect (discoloured) grandson, Satyavati summoned her son Vyasa to again impregnate her first daughter-in-law Ambika. This time, however, Ambika subverted Satyavati’s plans. Refusing to suffer the unwelcome “sight and smells” of the jungle-bred Vyasa, Ambika cheated him by dressing up one of her beautiful slave girls in her own ornaments and sending her to him. Unlike the two queens, this woman, who suffered from no scruples, made love to Vyasa with all abandon, and a happy Vyasa blessed her with the words: “You are henceforth free from slavery, and your son will become extraordinarily wise and extremely pious.” Thus was born Vidura, the most perfect and intelligent of all the three brothers (Adi Parva).

Birth of the Pandavas
The legacy of pre-marital sex, and the practice of producing children through the extra-marital recourse (of requesting or appointing another male to impregnate the wife or widow), known as ‘kshetraja’, continued even after the birth (through such means) of the ancestors of the dynasty that Mahabharata celebrates. It was only thanks to the custom of ‘kshetraja’ that all the later Pandava heroes were born—Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna and the other two inconspicuous brothers (Nakula and Sahadeva)—whom the Sangh parivar worships, and its ideologues are at pains to turn into ‘historical characters’. Let us begin with the story of their mother Kunti. The Mahabharata describes how Kunti, the virgin daughter of a king, satisfied the sage Durvasa when he came to their house as a guest, and obtained from him a blessing that allowed her to summon any god who could impregnate her with their power to produce their respective sons. A young and impulsive Kunti, in order to test the veracity of the blessing, summoned the sun god, who immediately appeared and demanded satisfaction of his desire to sleep with her. Through a cunning combination of persuasion, threat and charm, the sun god seduced a reluctant and fearful Kunti, promising to restore her virginity, and then disappeared in the skies. But Kunti found herself left in the lurch, when she gave birth to a son born of the sun god. Scared of facing social ostracism for her impetuous act, Kunti got rid of her first-born by throwing him into a river. Luckily, a family (belonging to the lower caste of charioteers) picked up the son and brought him up, enabling him to emerge as the powerful warrior Karna (Adi Parva).

Swami Nithyananda The ‘obliging’ godmen of the modern era

After having hidden that act of sexual indiscretion, Kunti reappeared on the scene as a princess, ready to choose her husband from among numerous royal candidates, through a custom called swayamvara (which allowed the woman to embrace a spouse of her own choice from an assembly of candidates). Will the present BJP government—which claims to restore the so-called Hindu traditions—dare to re-establish the custom of swayamvara? To come back to Kunti, in the swayamvara assembly, she tied the garland of flowers around the neck of Pandu, thus announcing her choice of him as her husband. They led a happy married life, till one day Pandu, during a hunting spree, interrupted the mating of a pair of deer by shooting at them with his arrows. The deer were actually a human couple. The husband, who was the son of a sage, had decided that day to take on the form of a stag and transform his wife into a deer, to savour the delights of animal sexuality perhaps! Angered by being stopped mid-way in his adventure, the sage’s son cursed Pandu, predicting that he would die if he ever tried to make love to his wife. An anguished Pandu requested Kunti to conceive through other means, in response to which she made use of Parashara’s old blessing—and summoned, one by one, the gods Dharma, Vayu and Indra, sleeping with whom she gave birth respectively to Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna. Requested further by Pandu to help his other wife Madri to conceive, Kunti summoned the twin gods Ashwini Kumars, who impregnated Madri which led to the birth of the other two Pandavas—Nakula and Sahadeva. The above accounts are from the Adi Parva, the first volume of the Mahabharata—which the Sangh parivar ideologues cannot surely dismiss as figments of a Marxist imagination! What follows in the next 17 volumes of this fantastic epic is a cornucopia of romantic stories, secret intrigues and surreptitious love affairs (with which the main narrative of battles and wars are interspersed) that unfold a variety of sexual lifestyles and inter-caste/racial liaisons (which had made possible the birth of Vidura in the past, and the later romance between Bhima and the forest-girl Hidimba, or the marriage of Arjuna with the Manipur princess Chitrangada).

Since RSS ideologues revere Mahabharata’s characters, they should permit the emulation of their liberal lifestyles.

If consenting adults in India today seek to follow a similar pluralistic lifestyle of multifaceted and multi-integrated romantic relationships cutting across caste/racial/religious lines, it invariably invites violent opprobrium from the parivar. In the rural areas, in the name of preserving the purity of the multi-tiered Hindu caste system, its ideology of ‘Indian culture and tradition’ encourages the khap panchayats to lynch any couple daring to follow the example of Bhima and Hidimba, or excommunicate a modern Vidura as ‘illegitimate’! In the urban areas of India, the same ideology encourages a xenophobic, aggressive bias against people from the non-Hindi-speaking northeast—leading to the rape of today’s Chitrangadas of Manipur in the streets of national capital Delhi.
Sangh parivar sants and BJP politicians in the role of gods of the epics: As for the heroes and heroines of Mahabharata, the ideologues of the Sangh parivar may explain away their acts of pre- and extra-marital sex, inter-caste or inter-racial relationships, as blessed and sanctioned by the gods. But since those divine progenitors of the Pandavas—Dharma, Vayu and Indra—have failed to reappear in modern times, the Sangh parivar appears to be creating their human counterparts in the shape of godmen and MPs and mlas. We thus find characters like Asaram Bapu and his son Narayan Sai from north India, and Nithyananda from south India—all close to the parivar—taking on the role of gods to seduce their female devotees with the promise of divine salvation. They are facing criminal charges in the courts. Then, there are the BJP ministers and leaders, like Nihal Chand Meghwal (Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers), Kri­shnamurti Bandhi (BJP MLA from Chhattisgarh) and Madhu Chavan (BJP leader from Maharashtra) among many others—who have been accused of rape. They can perhaps be seen by the followers of Sangh parivar as reincarnations of the all-mighty rishis of the past (Parashara, Durvasa and others who could always get their own way by threats or curse), and as a privileged lot like them, can pick up any female of their choice, and—because of their present political clout—can silence their victims and their families with threats of elimination.
Given this reality, the present BJP-led government and its ideologues will have to make up their mind about the Maha­bharata. Since they revere the heroes and heroines of the epic, and want to prove that they were historical characters, they should permit the common citizens to emulate the liberal lifestyle that they led. But then, what happens to the Sangh parivar’s grandiose plan of creating “a morally pure Hindu” society populated by sexually constipated men and women? In order to overcome this embarrassing dilemma, the BJP government and its RSS mentors have two options. One, in obeisance to both the female and male deities and and mortals who are described in the epic as following a rather permissive sex life, they should scrap their own programme of imposing rules and restrictions for the man-woman relationship, ignore cases of pre-marital sex or relationships between consensual partners, and stop branding inter-religious liaisons like a Muslim boy’s love affair with a Hindu girl as ‘love jehad’. The other option is banning the Mahabharata in its original version altogether—so that the public does not have access to the full text. The RSS historians can bring out, instead, sanitised editions of the epic that blot out the explicitly described stories of the promiscuity of their deities and the birth of their heroes and heroines.

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(Sumanta Banerjee is a cultural historian who specialises in research into popular culture, particularly of the colonial period. He is the author of many books, including The Parlour and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta.)

You forwarded a web article claiming that the Higgs Boson is the dancing Nataraja. Though i was taking note of the news reports on the matter for a long time since the reports came a few years back. But upto now I did not look at the net. After 6th July I was searching the net and found a number of portals claimed a religious significance to the discovery. They were mostly hindu and christian sites. I did not see any from islam. One claimed that 'god particle' was extensively dealt in our ancient scriptures like upanishads etc. where the Paramatma is mentioned. Now science is providing proof of it after thousands of years. This is the most silly idea I found there. When I opened the net there was the long article in Wikipedia. Though Wikipedia is not as scholarly as Encyclopedia Britannica or the US counterpart; it carried a short history of the developments upto 6th July. Good and informative. It did explain as to how the name 'god particle' came into it. It was a fancy name giver by a science journalist in his book. No scientist connected with research has used any such name. In fact they detest such misleading names given. the Higgs Boson is a sub atomic particle and material in every sense and connect it to anything spiritual is to be termed as cheating the people in the name of religion. Hindu Paramatma could not be perceived. If someone claim it the same cannot be verified by any other person. In the case of Higgs Boson it was perceived by all the scientists gathered there uniformly. God is not like that. People like Deepak & Co has appropriated the god in themselves and never subject the claim to verified by another. This much for the time being.

Yours Appa.

Ernesto Guevara's book "Guerrilla Warfare". Jay

Dearest Nana,

I have finally finished reading Ernesto Guevara's book "Guerrilla Warfare". Getting to know the experience of the Cuban revolution from first hand of one of its leaders is very interesting, inspiring and full of knowledge.

Apart from specifics of the Cuban experience, there are some issues that you can relate to how things are happening, for example, in Irak, Afghanistan, Siria, etc. as well as some of the moments from the past such as the Vietnam War. You can understand more in depth how the local people are trying to, and in some cases, managed to, defeat the army of the first superpower of the world, what tactics do they use, what mentality they keep and all the sacrifices they have to make in order to fight oppression.

There are also many things that relate to Sun Tzu's sayings in "The Art of War", that apply to the guerrilla lifestyle. The thing is, that Guevara, in this book, makes special emphasis on the revolution starting in the countryside, with the villagers, but the basics can apply to any situation, taking into account its specific conditions.

That is all for the moment. More on the next one.

Yours loving,

In reply to his Grandson Jay

Jay Dearest,

I have not read anything by Guevara in my past but knew about him and the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro. I am plucking bits from my long lost memory. I have not checked on any of these in the web as well. It is too bothersome to go thru those webs. I also think that rather than Guevara it was Mao who instilled and inspired communists here. Possibly it is the result of successful revolution in that vast country an Asian one.

In those days we were demonstrating against US attack on Cuba. We also demonstrated in support of China.

I came to know much from the book Red star over China by Edgar Snow a well known American writer. Another was a book on the long march undertaken by the Chinese Communists by Agnes Smedly. The Japanese war on China helped the party to form armed resistance from hilly rural areas towards urban. But Chiang with active support of US gained much. However it did not help and Chiang fled the main land to remote Taiwan.

In India communists here and there formed armed struggles after India attained independence. One of the earliest was in Punnapra-Vayalar in then Travancore in Kerala. Another was in Naxalbari in West Bengal. The second lasted for more time under the leadership of Charu Mujumdar and Kanu Sanyal. Finally this resistance collapsed. Mujumdar lived longer frustrated and alone. Communist party/parties changed their ideas at times and fragmented except for the CP Marxist. The once united party turned first pro Moscow and the other split being pro Chinese. They termed Chinese revolution led by peasants as the guide to third world countries where industrialization is little and therefore no dominant working class. Marxism was re-interpreted.

Take today’s situation. The rural in developed countries is too negligible to lead any movement. The middle class is not interested in changing the system. All the occupy Wall Street movement never got the momentum to achieve the results. So many protest rallies in Europe like in Greece or in Spain and many others cannot help due to apathy of the others. This is a background where extremists are trying to embark on armed revolution.

After the 2^nd world war it was time for all kinds of movements to claim legitimacy claiming that they are for socialism and democracy. None f those countries like Egypt, Algeria etc in Africa. The so styled people’s democracies in Europe failed abjectly in both counts. You must have heard about Patrice Lumumba of Congo in West Africa. By the way there was/is a university named after Lumumba in Moscow catering to students of third world countries.  Belgium supported armed forces finished him off. The military dictatorship ruled for decades. I have not checked its present status.      

In India the Maoist movement is spread along the tribal belt from Naxalbari in North to Western Maharashtra chasing from Bihar, UP, Odissa, Andhra and so on. They seem to be very active in confronting the authorities in the states, abducting and killing officials. In my view they are keeping the tribal isolated from mainstream developments at the same time demanding developments to their satisfaction. There are a well knit group of sympathetic intellectuals like Ms Arundhati Roy who argue the case for Maoists. They have no answers to questions posed by others not so sympathetic or adversaries. The middle class is moving towards a better life for them under the circumstances. The peasants are not interested in anything but their lands. The poor is looking to all to help them survive. I need not say anything about the rich. So what is the future? Conflict, civil and armed? I don’t know. I am unable to envisage any future. Might be there will come people better equipped to meet the problems and find practical solutions.

One problem that may not resolve is the conflict between resources including land as against the unlimited increase in world population. China went thru a face of one child in family and today reports are coming about the aging population versus younger. So long!! 

Yours own Nana.

Kodungallur Bharani Festival

Today I had an idea to search for info on Kodungallur Meena Bharani in google. Now the Meenam month is starting. There appeared a long list of windows. I don't know whether you are aware of this festival. I mentioned this in my autobiography but few words. The Google sights are full of info on the strange festival. The followers sing obscene songs about the goddess. Today it seems to have more followers if we witness the photos and videos. In sights there are too many Bharani pattu matters. Since I cannot hear, I perused only those I could and see. You may try the search on the subject.

The legend about the temple is connected with the Tamil Classic work"CHILAPPADIKARAM" the story of Kannagi and Kovilan. Due to circumstances they move to Madurai the capital of Pandya kingdom. There Kovilan goes to sell one of Kannagi's anklets in market. The police took him as the thief of anklet of the queen and took him to the court. The king sentenced him to death. He was done to death. Kannagi heard about and too angry furious reached the court of the King and questioned the king to prove that the anklet that was with Kovilan was that of queen. She broke her anklet by throwing on the floor and established that anklets are different. Kannagi plucked one of her breasts and threw it onto the Madurai city that caused the city to burnt to ashes. She left the kingdom and reached Kodungallur in Kerala and stayed there. She is called Godess of single breast (otta mulachi) I had the Malayalam translation of this Tamil classic by my Sanskrit teacher P.Narayanan Nair. It was so many decades back and I have forgotten a lot of this story. During the annual festival i.e. Meena Bharani devotees chant very obscene songs and dance all the way through all villages upto the temple. Google has sites featuring these songs. You may try and locate the sites.

This is all for the present. Happy to hear about welbeing of all in location.

Yours with lots pf love Appa.

Daddy's opinion .

You must have noticed the happenings during last month and weeks passed. The UPA is very much affected adversely. The have reacted to the happening in manner that is not fitting to the norms of democracy. The media went crazy with half digested reports from sourses not known. The future of the UPA is in danger of collapse with so many scams featuring DMK ministers. Some time I felt that the judiciary acts/make observations that are not exactly judicious. 2G spectrum looks like the verdict is already made up. When a bench is monitoring/directing the ED, IT & CBI the lower courts will be influenced by that. When the ED presented charges against Hassan Ali on the matter of money launderng the lower court presided by Justice Tahilramani threw those papers as having no value. It was the intervention from the highest that started the long name droping exercise. I am stoping here.

Poems of Love and War 17-4-2006

Title poems of Love and War, selections from Tamil "Ettuthogai and Pathu Paatu". Selected and translated by A.K. RAMANUJAM.

This is one of the two books by Ramanujam sent by Sarasvathy and received by Laxmi

a fortnight back. I have read about AKR in media articles as a famous scholar Tamil classicals and folk tales. I had a copy of his collection of Folk Tales which Bina used to read several times until the paper back got unhinged and torn. As expected this book is stellar in character and expositions. The poems are part of the famed sangam literature variously dated 100 BC - 200 AD. Compared to much of sanskrit literature, sangam works are more secular and earthly. No religion could be assigned to these authors other than just natural. I have very little idea of the location and society of sangam literature. Whatever I read in Malayalam did not elicit a full picture. There were some Keralite poets in the sangam. Some names of kings or heads seems to be Kerala origin. In those times there was no seperate Malayalam language. So Tamil is much older and matured. There is a big gap from sangam era to the time of later Tamil epics such as Kampa Ramayanam. The two known and popular epics are Chilappadikaram and Manimekhalai. They are the works when budhism was widespread in South. Jainism also was prevelant. Both Budhists and Jains must have written many works in Tamil as in the case of North where Pali and Prakrit works of both followers are in abundance. AKR mentions the Tamil Tatha U.V. Swaminatha Iyer not aware of the existence of Sangam and Jain Krities in Tamil. It seems that Sanskrit speaking Brahmins who came to south in the early common era overwhelmed the rulers and ruled with their vedic rites and practices occupied the cultural scene exterminating the indigenious one. Then it seems that we lost a good part of Tamil classics as it was with budhists texts in the north. But many of them were retreaved from their chinese and tibetan translations. No such luck to the Tamil.

With such historical back ground we should cherish what were left out from perishing and made known still some manuscripts might have been kept hidden. A concerted and dedicated efforts to find them is the need of times. Let us look at the newly found gospels from the dead sea scrolls to the latest Judas gospels. Unfortunately scholarship of such caliber nor the wherewithals are easily available in todays Tamil Nadu. A good lot of time, intellect and money wasted in futile and rediculous persuits petty and personal politics. So long this scene continues there is no hope for any cultural renewal except fundamentalism.

By,

K.N. KRISHNAN

Nana's e-mail to his younger grandson 'Ravi'.

Dear Ravikutty,

Your email set me thinking deep. I feel happy for your thoughts since, they are still in the process of evolving into set ideas. But I would say that one should avoid any set ideas. They enslave one’s mind and direct our behaviour. I would prefer my own ideas to be in flux, always ready to think differently. I fully agree with your favourite MURPHY LAW, something wrong somewhere imperceptible to many. It is also my view that thinking should be open not confined to self. In today’s technically advanced atmosphere, it is possible to convey thoughts to many others even unknown thru media. People have varied experiences they formulate their thoughts from different view points. Sometime our ill thought ideas get clarified in others thoughts. They might fill up the gaps that occur in the process. We also might think and act differently on getting fill up from these responses.

What you pointed as intentions of people that they either try to negotiate, reject, ignore or try to impose ideas. “How true”. Still there will be few who both receive and give. In the process they themselves change. It is possible to spot personal or self interest while mingling and interacting with like or unlike minded. We should leave them there to sense and realise their flaws.

Some of these thoughts came to me after ruminating on points brought out in your e-mail. They might have been in my subconcience , but they got words after you stimulated it. I am trying to fathom the full and complete meaning of your expressed thoughts. I very much appreciate your perseverance to find meaning in life. I won’t go too deep. Hundreads nay thousands got into a mire and established a cults that goes on increasing the mindless faithfuls. Take life as it is. Enjoy it without getting polluted. What I mean is that don’t get attached to any firmed ideology. Picasso’s Guernica might be ambiguous as you say but thousands got inspired thru this painting and they found solace in overcoming fascist scourge in the European Scene. Others realised the enormity of hate and violence perpetrated on common people. That is for the time being.

Yours very affectionately,

Nana.

Untouchables from Tehelka: 25.07.2005

Daddy’s article on Untouchables from Tehelka: 25.07.2005

TO AKHIL,
AFTER READING THE TAHELKA ARTICLE I TRIED TO REMEMBER. THERE IS NOTHING IN MY READING AND OR EXPERIENCE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE TOPIC IN TEHELKA. IN MY VILLAGE DAYS THERE USED TO COME A VANNAN(WASHERMAN) EVERY FORTNIGHT. THEY WERE UNTOUCHABLES BUT STILL THEY CAME TO OUR HOUSE TO COLLECT THE LAUNDRY. THEY WILL STAND OUTSIDE AND MOVE 10 TO 15 FEET FROM US. CLOTHS ARE COUNTED AND BUNDLED BY THEM AND TAKEN TO WASH. THE CLOTHS ARE WASHED IN HEATED LIME BHATTIES, STARCHED AND IRONED AND BROUGHT BACK IN 2 WEEKS. AGAIN THE CLOTHS ARE COUNTED AND KEPT IN A NICHE IN HOUSE. ONE HAS TO DO A WET WASH AND TAKE BATH BEFORE USING THE CLOTH FOR DAILY WEAR. THIS WAS TRUE IN KIZHAKHANCHERI AND NEMMARE. A CHANGE CAME IN BOMBAY. THE SERVICE OF A WASHERMAN WAS AVAILABLE FOR MANY YEARS AT CHEMBUR ALSO. I DON’T REMEMBER AS TO WHEN THE SERVICE WAS DISCONTINUED. MAY BE WE STARTED WEARING POLYSTER.
I AM NOT SURPRISED TO READ THE TAHELKA ARTICLE. THE MEDIA DID MENTION ABOUT SUCH PRACTICES ON TAMIL NADU AFTER THE TSUNAMI DISASTER. VIDEO CLIPS WERE IN THE CHANNELS. THE REPORT WAS SOMETHING SIMILAR. CERTAIN CASTES THOUGH VERY LOW IN THE LADDER DID OBJECT TO BE PUTUP IN THE SAME PLACE OF REFUGE WITH FAMILIES OF LOWER STATUS. THEY PUSHED THE LATTER FORCIBLY TO OPEN ROADS. THERE WERE ALSO REPORTS OF THE LOWESTS RATIONS CONFISCATED BY THE CASTE CONCIOUSE AND FORMER WERE ALLOWED TO SCAVENGE FROM THE WASTE.
I HAVE A BOOK TITLED “SANGATI” MEANING NEWS, INFORMATION OR OCCURANCES. THE NARRATIVE IS ABOUT THE MODES AND MOVES OF THE LOWEST CASTE PARAYAR IN TAMIL NADU. NEWS FROM LONDON IS NOT VERY ASSURING. PLEASE KEEP CONTACT WITH JAI AND RAVI ABOUT THEIR WELBEINGS. MORE IN NEXT.

Daddy

WEIGHT LOSS.

Weight Loss By Upamanyu Chatterjee. Novel. 10.4.2006

It is weird narrative without any message. May be a sample of literature with no aim of objective. Really it could not be reflecting any social reality. Is it nihilism? Not in my opinion. Chatterjee's prose is flowing and readable enough incidents and episodes undergone by the protogonist are beleavable but not that probable in real life. The hero Bhola views everything as sexual manifestation to which he has explanation from the millenieum old spiritual traditions bequitted from the time of Vedas. Bhola is not a flesh and blood person but amalgam of servession, unusual in one person. Though it seems that he acts a rebel the idea is far from his mind. He just rolls on from moment to moment. His pranks in the school is an assertion of his own individuality, that never gets acknowledged by others. His ties with parents are nebuleus.

No episode or encounter get connected to the development of the story. It is just fantasy that rules his mind in relation to his teachers and girl students. I find it unconvincing his dreamy encounter with the vegetable vendor and wife. He drools over their body contours both homo and hetero sexual terms. These two follow him throughout his life some times unexpected forms. Though he looks them down as low and despicable and dirty he also accepts and reveals in the dirt. I think psychologically Bhola is punishing himself for being from an upper caste but not rich. The details of what they do in bed are inviting only to himself. This is self delution. It is mostly oral sex and not some healthy one. With full knowledge that he might get infected Bhola upends all limits Dr. Borkar is a pervert and justifies his perversions with spiritual explanations. His married life did not elevate him. Still he gets mind with the same duo. Their criminality gets registered but instead of seperating oneself Bhola turns out to be an apologists. He continues to pick up relations with the duo after every break. Only with the relation with his elderly land lady is beleavable but not fully. For years he lived in her quarters but there was no clue as to their sexual attraction. Not that the hero had anything alternative, when the relation is mentioned for the first time the same is an old hat. No prelims or introduction. He freely parts her upper garments and handles her fleshy breasts without preparing the reader for it. Most of the sexual encounters are bizarre. One could not get convinced that the hero is a sex pot. He is not even though he unusual exploits might give a wrong idea. The end is self inflict without any reason for that end. On the contrary there is reason enough for him to try and retire are a life for Karuna.

B R Ambedkar

There was a report in “Asian Age” of 29.4.1999 that quoted Neelalohitadasan Nadar, a minister in Kerala government protesting against the depiction of Narayana Guru as a normal and regular Hindu Sanyasi in appropriating him to Hindutva and RSS Parivar. Even if it is admitted that the Guru through his writings and practices did uphold Hindu values, the concept and contention of the Guru was not of orthodox Hindus. He was a rebel using Hindu scriptures and teachings against all communal and high caste forces. The upper caste Hindus never accepted Narayana Guru as a revered swami nor did they accept the oneness of all religions as propounded by him. These historical facts are completely obliterated in transforming the Guru as a Hindu swami. The same transformation effected in case of Swami Vivekananda as well. The Swami was reduced to an agitator against Muslim and Christian religion and their work of conversion of people to their respective faiths. Almost similar fate awaits Dr. B.R.Ambedkar in the hands of Hindutva protagonists. The Sangha Parivar meticulously researched for quotes from Dr.Ambedkar to demonize the acts of conversions resorted by other religions. The Hindu right writings completely ignored the voluminous writings of Ambedkar against Hindu religion in all its phases. Major parts of Ambedkar’s writings are critiques of Hinduism as such. It was because of such writings the Hindu right led by the RSS in Maharashtra agitated to ban publishing of Ambedkar´s writings. However, there are several parties and groups both political and social practicing and defending him against absorption by Hindu right, while in case of Vivekananda and Narayana Guru there are none. The Ramakrishna Mission as well as the SNDP Yogam is steeped in their tradition and more and the founders intended more evolved into Hindu cults instead of spearheading social revolution for which there. The ruling BJP uses its religious card to take over all the revolutionary social formations advocated by Swami Vivekananda, Narayana Guru and Ambedkar and many more.

K.N.Krishnan.

30.4.1999.

Geethagovindam.

Geethagovindam also known as Astapadi is sung in temples like Guruvayoor and others on a daily basis. It is a Sanskrit work of medieval period composed of poems and songs.

The author is Jayadeva (12^th CE) an ardent devotee ofKrishna an avatar of Vishnu. The legend is that while Jayadeva sung those songs his wife Padmavathi used to dance to the tunes in the temple of Jagannath at Puri, Orissa. The poems are the narrative of the episodes or circumstances of the theme Radha Krishna Lila. The songs are the dialogues of Radha’s companion as well as Radha and Krishna. Before narrating, there is the invocation of god Vishnu in his ten avatars. However, there are two departures from the tradition. First, is omission of Krishnaas an avatar and second is including Budha as the ninth avatar inspite of the fact that Budha preached against the Vedic rituals and Brahmanism as such. He in fact instituted a completely separate religion not recognizing any god or gods. This is admitted in the invocation song. There is one about Vishnu as Vamana cheating Bali the grandson of Prahlada both devotees of Vishnu.

The narrative starts with thus: Nanda(gopa) the foster father of Krishna, tells Radha that the sky is full with rain clouds and the forest path is dark with Tamaala trees and he i.e. Krishna is scared of the night and therefore reach him home. Hearing these words both Radha and Krishnaleft and played love dalliance in each of the grooves of trees along the banks of river Yamuna. This indicates that Radha is much elder to Krishna a boy. There is a legend that says that Radha is a young sister of Nandgopa. Thus, the Radha – Krishna story justifies the love between older women and boys. The narrative might give the idea that the poet will be describing love plays of the couple but that is not so. He follows the conventional rules in portraying Vipralambha (separation in love) and Sambhoga (union in love) Sringara. There is no concept of love, as we understand it nowadays. At the start of his compositions, the author makes it clear that his work is about “Vasudeva’s love plays”. (Sarga 1. Verse 2) And again he mentions two ways to look at his compositions thus: If (you are) too interested in devotion to Hari i.e. God Krishna or enamored in pleasant arts (meaning love plays); then listen to the sweet, beautiful and attractive garland of Jayadeva’s musings. (Sarga 1. Verse 4) He reiterates the same idea at the end in Verse 72.

He starts with the description of the season Vasantha or spring. The season is supposed to induce different sentiments in different groups of people such as couples together and separated. There is pleasant nature facilitating such sentiments.

The poet introduces Raas-leela in Vrindavan where Krishnais in love play with a large number of young Gopies. From the description, it seems like one Krishna going around hugging, kissing and making love to each one of them. The Gopies are mature to be described having heavy milk bearing breasts in more than one place. The word used is “peena payodhara”. In Sanskrit, it could be explained that way. Jayadeva pictures Raas-leela with one Krishna and many Gopies whereas “Narayaneeyam” describes as many Krishnas as Gopies.

While the raas-leela was going on Radha feels neglected and moves out of the venue in anger and envy. The female companion of Radha describes what is going on and tries to induce her to go back to Krishna. She tells her: “You will be like the lightning in the clouds, when you are on top ofKrishna’s body performing Viparita Rati.” “Vigalitha vasanam, parihrita rasanam ghadaya jaghanam apidhanam.” Meaning thereby “discard the clothes and remove the jingling belt and join your wide open midriff” toKrishna’s body. There are more and more explicit descriptions of love making with different Gopies as well as Radha. One more example is there in Geetam 23, Verse 69. Krishna asks Radha to mount above him and play love. The verse 69 roughly means:

During the emergent love battle, she did something fantastic to be victorious over her lover and due to that performance; her midriff calmed down to rest, her hands loosened their tight grip. Her breasts were heaving and her eyes closed. Surprise; wherefrom women get such manly traits?

However, the text is mainly about Radha and Krishna with Radha’s friend intervening. Why Radha’s friend did not consort with Krishna like all other Gopies is not raised nor answered. There is praise for the God Krishna at every last line of Ashtapadi invoked by the author. There is an invocation at the end of Sarga 11, Verse, 16 in which the author says that Krishna remembered the large heavy breasts of Radha while hitting on the two head mounds on Kamsa’s elephant Kuvalayapida to make it dead. The simile looks a little out of place but the composer is the king in poetry. I found this verse omitted from one publication.

Most of the commentators and translators noted that Jayadeva’s composition is very much erotic in its essence inspite of his invocation to God at every step. But they caution the readers not to be carried away by the erotic descriptions and concentrate their attention on the devotional motive in them. The devotee author used his unfettered freedom in writing the love plays of the God.

Look at a different view. Omit the composition of all words referring to the God and also rename the words Gopies as well as Radha and Krishna. Make a translation of all remaining texts in any language and get branded as an obscene and pornographic writer. That is a reality.

By

K.N.Krishnan.

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V.Panoli on Adi Sankara.

V.Panoli on Adi Sankara.

V.Panoli a multi language scholar and learned in Adi Sankara literatures is reported to have prepared a well researched work on Adi Sankara in English titled “Adi Sankara’s Vision of Reality”. The Matrubhumi weekly carried an adv. for pre-publication orders for the book. Reading about the contents of the book self became curious and ordered one. 31^st March 1999 was the last date and now, it is the end of April 1999 and still there is no announcement as to the date of book publication.

According to the advt. Panoli questions so many long held views on Adi Sankara. He is said to contest the authorship of Bhaja Govindam, Soundarya Lahari and many more works attributed to Adi Sankara. He is also said to have maintained that both Bhakti and Yoga are not part of Adi Sankara’s teachings. V.Panoli is said to deny the widely held view that it was Adi Sankara who propagated a rigid caste society in Kerala making everyone Sudra other than Nambudri Brahmin. Un-touchability and pollution of lower castes were said to have been established by Adi Sankara in Kerala. These views are said to have questioned by Panoli. On the whole, Panoli is said to have advocated a fresh look from un-touchability, Dalits and women towards Adi Sankara’s real views in the light of his Vedanta philosophy. He also says that it will help the Dalits and others to understand that they also are the followers of Vedic religion. Does Panoli view that Vedic religion and today’s Hindutva are two separate entities?

The Matrubhumi publication”Adi Sankara’s Vision Reality” by the renown Sanskrit scholar V. Panoli was received in the afternoon of 1.6.1999. Self completed reading a large part of the book on the same day. In the next two days, I tried to complete it, by selected readings. However, I was unable to understand the real motive behind writing such a book by the scholar. The author in his preface to the book claimed that he wrote this book to dispel certain commonly held understandings on Sankara’s many published works. The author Panoli did not attempt any critical appraisal of the ideas and philosophy propagated in the name of Adi Sankara. Instead, he starts with saying that Adi Sankara is not a mortal man but an appearance of divine miracle that might happen in a Yuga. Adi Sankara is made out to be an avatar who appeared in the land of Bharata just to write correct commentaries for the Upanishads, Geetha and Brahma Sutra i.e. Prastana Trayee and also to subdue other contemporary philosophical views and systems likeMimamsa, Sankhya, Vaiseshika, Nyaya, Yoga etc. He is also said to have campaigned to expel Buddhist philosophy and practices from the land of Vedas. The author goes on repeating his homilies to Sankara in establishing the supremacy of Advaita philosophy. The claim for the supremacy is said to be Vedas and the divine revelations.

The learned author Panoli claims that his writings on Adi Sankara’s Vision of Reality, were meant to dispel certain interpretations that were said to have entered or inflicted over the original writings of Sankara. The author says that beside the superstitious imaginations and myths about the Acharya, which too have marred the purity of his teachings. These were specifically pointed out in the book but it ended there.

The author has not tried to get into details as those given below:

Most of the philosophical systems and ideas dealt with in Adi Sankara’s ‘authentic works’ were that of northern Indian origin and they were predominant there only. Then why divine took birth in an obscure place in Kerala? Sankara went all the way to the banks of Narmada in Maharashtra to learn all the Vedas etc. from his Guru Govndacharya. The historical truthfulness of this happening is not clear. Does it mean that there were no institutions in Kerala itself to impart Vedic learning to the Brahmins? But there must be some in Tamil Nadu, Andhra or Karnataka. Leaving all these places Sankara traveled all the way to Narmada, at a young age of 12. Who guided him to go all the way in search of this particular Guru? Can it be assumed that at that point of historical time there were collections of Vedic and other literatures in the Ashram of Govindapada on the banks of Narmada? Sankara learned all the Vedic and others in a fast pace. He must be an extra ordinary student to complete not only his Vedic education, Upanishads and Brahma Sutra but also write commentaries i.e. Bhashyas on them within four years i.e. when attained the age of 16. According to this book, Sankara did not write anything there after but went on travelling the length and breath of India, except the present South India. Sankara entered into discussion and dispute with several scholars of the system current at that time. He established his mutts in East, South, West and North; i.e. at Puri in East, Sringeri in South, Dwaraka in West andKashmir in North respectively. There is not one in his birthplace in Kerala! There are little supporting evidences to all that were attributed to Sankara. It is popularly known that Sankara attained Samadhi at the age of 32, after completing his life mission. It is acclaimed by the author of this book that Advaita advocated by Sankara is a monument to Indian philosophy. At the same time the author deplored the fact Indiai.e. Bharat deviated from the teachings of the Acharya and continued to follow despicable ways and behavior in their life that are authentic in Vedas and smrities. He has not made any attempt in analyzing the historical context of these revelations. How is that then Adi Sankara is took samdhi so early in life? Did he not know that the people for whose elevation, he appeared in the land has failed to absorb his teachings, specifically his philosophy of Advaita Vedanta as truth? Can it be concluded that Sankara’s teachings were not intelligible not only to the mass of people but also to people who were supposed to teach and guide the masses? If they felt the divine origin and message of Sankara, it is inexplicable as to why they did not continue campaigning and propagating Sankara’s ideas. Just by establishing, the four mutts in four corners of Indiacannot be considered as revolution in social or even in philosophical sphere. Did any of his mutts tried to attract any one other than the born Brahmins? It will be useful to do some research on the functions of these mutts during their entire history of more than 1,200 years of existence. The author of “Adi Sankara’s Vision of Reality’ himself admits and quotes others in support that theses mutts themselves created and propagated myths about interpolations and attributions to Sankara’s works. Many of them took the freedom to attribute authorship of their own works on Adi Sankara. But all such claims based on certain pre-conceived notions and ideas do not amount to de-mystification when the author is so firm and ready to peddle other myths about Sankara. At one place, the author makes out a case to deny any kind of writing on the part of Sankara where some kind of sex is mentioned. The reasoning and arguments resemble the catholic missionary ideas that he has absorbed as part of his education. One feels sorry for him that he has to explain away Sankara’s commentaries on Brihadaranyaka and Chandokya Upanishads where sexual activity is explicitly explained and sensuality is accepted as normal functions. (It will be good to know that the monumental Brihadaranyaka Bhashyam of scholar sanyasi Nitya Chaitanya Yati, who expired only a few days back omitted the text itself, from his published Bhashyam.) In another work of commentary on Chandokya Upanishad the texts of those mantras dealing sexual acts of pleasure though given but not commented saying that it is the tradition. It all shows a recent mindset conditioned with 18^th century teachings on morality to exclude any thing sexual. All these modern scholar know that in Rigveda there are mantras extolling explicit sexual acts. However, they seemed to feel ashamed to accept them and try to explain away them as allegorical and mystical means. What is that prevents Sankara from following Veda in this subject and why he should be deprived of authorship of such works of poetry? One cannot accept any such exclusion at least in context of ancient Indian thoughts. The anti-sexual and anti-female feelings of many of today’s scholars cannot find support in the ancient texts. Even if some of the works credited to Sankara are kept out, still there are innumerable passages in his works that portray females as obstructing men striving and attaining Jnana or knowledge of self; Atma and Brahma. As the author Panoli maintains; one should not expect contradictory extremes in Sankara and when such contradictions are found, they should be discounted as Sankara’s.

There is the claim that Sankara was expounding the Vedic philosophy of Advaita, but a serious readings of the Vedic texts will show that there are too few mantras dealing with oneness i.e. Advaita in those texts. It is all conjured up commentaries to sustain long preached positions of the Advaities. The most authentic commentary of Sayana did not give that much credence to these claims and followed a common sense method in interpreting Vedic Hymns. The chart provided by Panoli on the sources quoted in the “Prastana Traya” of Sankara is worth telling. While cross quotations from one Upanishad to another Upanishad Bhashyas and other two namely Geetha and Brahma Sutra abound, quotations from Rigveda Samhita are confined to 20 alone. That means that the Acharya mainly depended on cross quotations from Upanishads to develop and sustain his advaita philosophy, Yajur Veda had only 4 and nothing from Sama and Adharva Vedas. Manusmriti is quoted 23 times. Panoli says that there are no quotations from Ramayana, many more of the Puranas not even Kalidasa. Can it not be concluded that Sankara’s acquaintance with works Sanskrit then existing and available, is only limited? That will be a correct one, considering the length of his period of learning being only 4 years. He mastered only one part of the ocean ofSanskrit studies; a smart prodigy he was able to master that part well. He used his learning to win over most of the opposition. He debated and argued with the then scholars of other subjects on the basics of Advaita. V.Panoli cites that there are quotations from 54 earlier works in “Prastana Trayee” Bhashyas of the Acharya. Except for 17 from Jaimini’s Mimamsa, 2 from Nyaya, 2 from Yoga, one from Samkhya, one from Vaiseshika all other quotations are from kindred works supporting Advaita. Why Buddhist, Jaina, Lokayata and others are not mentioned though they were very prevalent at the time? Reason may be limitations of his learning, not the availability of those sources. If he was learned and powerful, the Bhakti and Yoga paths should have been sidelined in his works and only Advaita thoughts and practices to be established as relevant. The later day practitioners of Vedanta mixed up all Bhakti, Yoga and Vedic rituals along with preaching Karma and Jnana. The then rulers did not propagate any Advaita philosophy, but to cater to Bhakti movement and cement it in the minds of masses, constructed the monumental temples. One cannot assume that the movement to build temples was motivated to subdue advaita philosophy but it had that effect in the later years. The heads of Advaita Mutts while mouthing fidelity to advaita practiced and propagated idol worship and various pilgrimages for man’s salvation. . they never left out of dvaita philosophy in the long years of their existence. In fact, all the Hindu orthodoxy found refuge in them.

The author’s dislike of the Smrities in general except that of Manu, is the result of his blind faith in the ideas of Swami Dayananda Saraswati the founder of Arya Samaj in last centuary. Swami’s work “Satyartha Prakash” is not based on a verifiable historical inquiry but blind faith in performing Vedic rituals. Even his interpretation of Vedic literature is not universally accepted because not historical but also due to Christian influence.

While Panoli accepted the Swami’s contention that only Manusmriti is authentic worthwhile, he explained away the so-called interpolations as not desirable. He seems to think that the author of Manusmriti is the fore-father of all earthly creations. What a pathetic understanding of history? But his own idols like Adi Sankara and modern Vivekananda did not ascribe any interpolations as false. One might expect Panoli undertake to edit and publish an authentic text removing all interloping by imposters with a rigor as was done to Mahabharata by Bhandarkar Institute, Pune. The author mentions approvingly and uncritically a stanza from Balakanda of Ramayana as if there is no other opinion about this part of Ramayana. He also might have forgotten that ancients themselves considered Uthara Kanda as not belonging to original text. That was the reason for Bhoja to conclude his Champu Ramayanam with Yudhakandam. Today a good number of Sanskrit scholars but not the Pandita Siromanies accept the above.

On his own admission that “the cradle of human race” and “native land of the highest philosophy” i.e. India did not follow those precepts i.e. Advaita and thus down graded itself. He claims that through his writing “Adi Sankara’s Vision of Reality” he is trying to lift up the national and real traditions and correct the perspectives. The claim is simple and silly. He has not come forward with any practical way to restore the past glory of Hinduism. He has not demarcated himself from the “protectors of Hindutva” represented by RSS, BJP, VHP, Bajarag Dal and so many other manifestations of the Parivar. What the author of “Adi Sankara’s Vision of Reality” tried to bring out in the learned dissertation is of limited value. Some of the works attributed to Adi Sankara or those added to originals might be true. It will not make any difference to people recitingSoundarya Lahari and Bhaja Govindam or some other devotional poems whether Adi Sankara or some other Sankara in fact composed them. Panoli’s claim that the Acharya did not accept or approve of Bhakti will never persuade people from following their favorite god worship/ while according to Panoli, the divine avatar who came to establish basic worth of Vedic thoughts and philosophy; in his own admission no such restoration took place during the more than 1,200 years after the Samadhi of the avatar. On the other hand all kinds of myths and superstitions were inaugurated through many more smrities and Puranas. There is some similarity with Tantric and Yogic practices as well.

Then also according to Panoli, no one was as scholarly as Sankara until the appearance of Swami Dayananda Saraswati a Gujarati Brahmin by origin in the second half of 19^th century. We were supposed to believe such a claim even though there were good lots of writings in all faculties in Sanskrit were created and propagated in the land. This happened while the land was more or less under Muslim rule. Panoli’s claims belittle the contributions of Ramanuja, Madhva, Vallabha, Nimbarka, Sayana, Madhava and many others whose names are legends. In his book, Panoli did not mention works other than that of Dayananda Saraswati. May be, in his opinion they were less learned than the Swami. This kind of extreme positions taken by Panoli is negative.

Matrubhumi of 6.6.1999 carried an article by learned historian Dr. N.V.P.Unithiri in reply to an earlier article by Vasudeva Bhattathiri extolling the ancient Sruti/Smriti Puranas for advocating good only for men against women and Sudras. According to Bhattathiri, people of modern times did not understand the meanings of Sruti/Smriti Puranas and because of that, meanings of teachings of those ancients are not truthfully reported. He specifically dealt the subject of Sudras and women to learn Vedas. During the argument, Bhattathiri relied on selected quotations and half verses. He also attributed his own meaning to them. These included certain portions of Apasudradhikaranam from Brahma Sutra and its Sankara Bhashya.

The writer of Adi Sankara’s Vision of Reality, V. Panoli on the other hand maintains that the portions of Apasudradhikaranam in Brahma Sutra as well as its Bhashya by Sankara, both are spurious interpolations. The historian Dr. Unithiri, questioned Bhattathiri quoting relevant verses from Smrities and Bhashyas including Apasudradhikaranam. The historian is of the view that whatever meaning Bhattathiri finds in those quotations the fact is that no woman is free in life, she has to always under some male protection. Similarly Sudra by his birth, a low caste and he cannot become a learned as with higher caste born.

It is ironical to find a learned scholar like Panoli, to write a small tome, at this end years of 20^th century, just to explain and establish that sacred works attributed to Adi Sankara are myths and interpolations and or complete fabrications. Ofcourse the Sanatani Hindu society evolved in the last two millennia, has accepted, absorbed and practiced certain rituals, rites and behaviors as god given, whether they actually had any scriptural base and support. Ironically, this includes the common understanding about Sankara. Unless motivated by efforts in bringing social and religious reforms, writing such long tracts has no point at all. Dayananda established Arya Samaj to meet the needs of modern times, as he understood. He tried to reform Hindu religion based on his interpretations of ancient texts, although those same texts were subjects of interpretations by so many of the scholars in historical times. Dayananda opened a new path in understanding the ancient texts. One may agree with him or may not, but his efforts resulted in forming one more group in the society. The other reformer was Vivekananda and his followers. They tried for a compromise between the ancient and modern while not making a fetish of ancients. They got more influence outside India than inside. The same fate fell upon Arabindo as well. Scholars and others not wanting in quoting sayings from Vivekananda when they want to impress and buttress their arguments. There are still less who quote Arabindo and still less who refer to Dayananda and his writings. However, none of their teachings, writings or practices did create any significant change in the rites, rituals and practices of the mass of people called Hindus.

A good lot of Keraleeya scholars had been writing about on the ancient literatures including philosophical mainly Advaita. They have never even thought of the Buddhist, Jaina literatures available in abundance. For instance, the writings of the earliest authors/scholars like Kodungallur Kunjikutan Thamburan, Vadakumkoor Rajaraja Varma Raja, Ulloor Parameswara Iyer, Vallathol Narayana Menon, Kuttikrishna Marar etc. in their writings dealing on Indian philosophical traditions did not go into any other than Hindu. They discussed and explained Vedas and Upanishads of Sankara’s Advaita philosophy, never venturing or even mentioning pre-Sankara developments in philosophies. May be the Buddhist and Jaina literatures were in languages other than Sanskrit. However, there are many Sanskrit works that of Nagarjuna, Dingnaga and more. Even these available literatures were kept out of their purview and making it seem that Sankara’s Advaita is something unique and original. It should fill the Keraleeya hearts with pride. Such scholarship on the part of Keraleeya pandits did create a halo and divinity on Sankara. That the tradition that he is the source all things in Kerala nay Hindu traditions of the whole of India, kept people and scholars of Kerala origin out of other traditions.

True to this historical background the author of Adi Sankara’s Vision of Reality, extols Sankara not as a human being but as a divine avatar. Avatar of which God? May be Shiva since his guru Govindacharya is recognised as such i.e. Sankara of Kailasa, on his first meeting with his pupil. But Sankara himself did not approve or recognise Shiva as the source of universe. At least Panoli argues for such a case in his book. Was Sankara is an avatar of Vishnu? Might be, since he composed a great Bhashya on Bhagavad Gita as being a saying of Krishna an avatar of Vishnu. This was not approved by Panoli. Still he maintained Sankara as divine avatar who appeared in this world to reclaim Vedic teaching and traditions. But what is the significance of his birth in Kerala about which he never mentioned anything n his writings? There is also no reasonable explanation for a Kerala Brahmin of 8^th century to go all the way to north upto Kashmir and Kedarnath to preach and propagate his philosophy but not in South India. Was it because in his time, Sankara found south India following the true Vedic tradition and the north forsaking the same? Or will it be correct to say that Buddhist and Jaina were strong in north thereby he worked there. But a number of Buddhist scholars belonged to south who wrote Buddhist treatises in Sanskrit, prior to Sankara. Except in Kashmir, there were very few Buddhist scholars in north. Most probably, the Vishnu, Krishna and such personalized cults were wide spread there such as in Punjab, Rajasthan, UP, Bengal and Orissa. But Sankara did not target these personalized cults in his works. His targets were those who proclaimed their affinity to Sankhya, Mimamsa, Nyaya, Vaiseshika like group of philosophers. Occasionally, the Vijnana Vadin and Sunya Vadin of Mahayana Buddhism. Contrary to claims, Sankara followed the ideas of Buddhism by making certain additions and alterations in the then Buddhist philosophies. Several scholars accused him of being ‘Prachhanna Budha’ in those times. V.Panoli did not go deep into these in asserting that Sankara never barrowed any idea from outside of Vedic. In proof of his contention, he depends on “Sankara Vijayam” a biography of Sankara by another divine Swami Vidyaranya. There are many more “Sankara Vijayams in vogue in this country, mystifying the birth, workings, writings and death of Sankara. None of those could be relied to tell the truth of Sankara’s life.

Two matters did not find full mention in Panoli’s book. One is about the so-called “Sankara Smriti” that is popularly claimed as codified rules of conduct to all castes in Kerala. I have not seen any published copy of this Smriti, but read in books and articles where the same is discussed. The report is that there are many versions of this work in circulation in Kerala and outside. It is said that matriarchy is imposed in Kerala to all castes except the Brahmins i.e. Nambudries.

The second is the claimed biography of Adi Sankara in circulation in several versions. No one so far proved the authenticity any one of them. They are full of stories of divine miracles performed by Sankara during his short life in this world. Panoli cited only one of them as stated earlier. According to my readings, some others claimed authenticity and sanctity to one “Sankara Dig Vijayam” certified by the Sringeri Sankaracharya as authentic. But this also propagates the same or similar myths and miracles as in other versions.

Some of them are downright absurd and farcical. Look at the following story cited by some ardent devotees of Sankara.
Adi Sankara was challenged to a debate by Mandana Misra, a learned and well-known Purva Mimamsa scholar. They agreed that Mandana’s wife, Ubhaya-Bharati, a renowned scholar in her own right, would be the referee and that the loser of the debate would become the disciple of the winner. After debating for many days, Mandana Misra lost and was about to become the disciple of Adi Sankara. However, Ubhaya-Bharati then challenged Adi Sankara to debate her, on the grounds that since she and her husband were one person upon being married, he would have to defeat both of them in order to win the debate.
Adi Sankara accepted her challenge. The debate went well for Adi Sankara until Ubhaya-Bharati began posing intricate questions on the science of erotica (well accepted, in the appropriate context, as a topic of sacred discourse and knowledge in Hinduism). If it was “considered unseemly” per traditional Hinduism for women to talk about sex. (Adi Sankara ended up satisfactorily answering the questions on eroticism and Ubhaya-Bharati accepted her defeat.) How?

Sankara took a few weeks leave to continue the debate. As a young sanyasi, he was not initiated anything in sexual mores. They were known only to the married. Therefore, Sankara performed a miracle. One of the kings in a kingdom died (no cause is given in the story). It meant that the soul left the body. Sankara knew about this and using his divine power moved his soul out of his own body and entered the body of the dead king.Queens and relatives rejoiced at the king coming alive. (We have no idea about the age of the dead king. Must be young.) Sankara with the king’s body indulged in all sorts of sexual acts and thus learned the essence of eroticism and sex.

There is more than one question rising out of this miracle episode in the life of Sankara. Although it was claimed that Sankara mastered all knowledge available at his time, was he not aware of the Kama sutra of Vatsayana much earlier to him?Kama sutra explained elaborately on all aspects of sexualities. Any one could have benefited from it without going through real experience in sexual activities. But that is what Sankara is said to have adopted. Before entering the dead body of the king, he had no knowledge as to what the king used to with his queens. How did he act with them? Since he had no idea of sex, as he was an ascetic, maintaining celibacy the behavior with the queens should have been strange. In turn, the queens would have sensed it and wondered about the dead king coming to life. Even today, faithful are scared of ghosts possessing people and then behaving strange. At those long past era not only the queens but also everyone else in the court would have taken the king as a ghost.

What is the moral sanctity on the part of Sankara to disguise as the king? Was it not cheating and appropriating other’s identity? His performance of sex with the queens might be considered as a kind of rape, even in those times. Devotees did not envisage their telling of miracle by Sankara kindle these quarries and they need to be answered.

K.N.Krishnan.

June/July 1999.