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India’s Lesser Known Storytelling Traditions - The Narrative Paintings of Paiṭhāṇ

2026-10-21T06:42:35Z

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==== Introduction ====
Paiṭhaṇ paintings come from a flourishing tradition of narrative illustrations and are the work of the village artists from the Mahārāṣṭra-Karṇāṭaka border region belonging to the Citrakathi caste, the earliest ones traced to the town of Paithan near Aurangabad.(1) They are known for their bold and striking stylistic visual representation of tales from the purāṇas and itihāsa, redolent of the shadow puppetry traditions of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The primary purpose of Paiṭhaṇ paintings, referred to as Citrakathas or picture-stories, was their use as visual aids in bardic recitals and story-telling by the Citrakathi caste, who would perform at village fairs, during festivals such as Navarātri and Gaṇeś Caturthi, and at other large gatherings. This particular painting (represented in figure 1) is part of a complete set (pothi, or a loose-leaf folio) of sixty paintings, currently housed at the British Museum, London, which depicts the story of King Hariścandra, one of the most popular stories told and retold across the length and breadth of India. The source of the story referred to is primarily the text of the Mahābhārata, but is elaborated in in the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, although it also finds retellings in other purāṇas such as the Devi Bhāgavata. Multiple variations of the tale exist in a number of regional languages. However, there is reason to believe that the Citrakathis appear to have relied on the Marāṭhi version of the tale. (2) King Hariścandra, or ‘Satya’ Hariścandra, as he is so called — the protagonist of this tale — is known for his unflinching adherence to the truth, dharma and his word, and his character is tested by the sage Viśvāmitra who puts him through the most brutal of trials and hardships.

Paiṭhāṇ paintings have an audacious and striking visual impact. Vibrant pigments, and boldly drawn human figures form the primary focus of the narrative vision. The faces in a typical Paiṭhaṇ painting appear stoic, however, the detail and the relative size and stance of the characters conveys the intended melodrama. This particular composition (figure 1) measures about 29 cm by 40 cm, and portrays one of the important scenes leading up to the climactic point in the story. On the extreme left is Hariścandra, reduced to the status of being a slave to a caṇḍāla, who is, in actuality, Yamadharmarāja in disguise. Hariścandra is dressed in a dhotī and shrouded in a dark black uttarīya or cape, alluding to his role as an executioner, and holds an imposing curved sword while leading Tārāmati to her impending death. Queen Tārāmati’s shoulders and arms are bound by rope in an ornate winding pattern, and she is dressed in a sāri, with her rich black hair cascading down her back, richly adorned in jewellery — although in the story, she had lost her entire kingdom and had been enslaved, impoverished, and devastated by her son’s death. Tārāmati is followed by the caṇḍāla, who wears a jāmā (a long-sleeved shirt), and the figure seen on the far right is Viṡvāmitra, whose presence was simply to keep a close watch on the actions of Hariścandra. Anna Dallapiccola describes the style of the paintings as having<blockquote>“a certain monumentality reminiscent of wall paintings”, (3) while Eva Ray, in a similar vein, states that the style is best described as “muralistic”, where “the broad and clear forms vividly delineate the narrative scenes”. (4) The narrative purpose of these works is served exceedingly well by the monoscenic imagery. With the depiction of each episode in the tale arrested in the mind of the viewer, the narrator is then enabled to fill in the details and elaborate the scene depicted in each folio through song or recitation accompanied by a rhythm provided by musical instruments.</blockquote>Another painting from the same pothi (bundle) that illustrates the narrative effectiveness of these paintings is the one that depicts the climactic scene in the story, when Tārāmati is about to be decapitated by Hariścandra. In the lower half of the painting, Hariścandra raises his sword and is on the verge of executing the queen, who stands demurely before him, her hands folded. In the panel above, the gods — Śiva wearing a rudrākṣamāla, seated with a yogapaṭṭa, with his hair in a coiled jaṭa; Viṣṇu holding a śankha and a cakra; the four-headed Brahma holding a scroll; and the Sage Vaṣiṣṭha, an advocate for Hariścandra, watch the queen’s impending execution and contemplate an intervention. A decorative border divides both the worlds, similar to the manner in which horizontal compositions are often partitioned into two through the use of a vertical element (5). Paiṭhāṇ paintings are almost always horizontally aligned, with few exceptions. This is the only page in this particular pothī which is vertically arranged. The change of format is due to the dramatic nature of the scene being depicted: it brings the viewer’s attention to the fact that the gods are watching the story as it plays out in the cremation ground. Hariścandra and Tāramati, on the other hand, despite the morose gravitas of the situation, are portrayed as if at the culmination of a marriage ceremony.

==== The Citrakathis ====
Citrakathi, meaning ‘those that tell stories through pictures’, or “picture showmen”, is a specialized jāti of artisans from Mahārāṣṭra. The Citrakathi community is scattered across the region in pockets, as described in multiple accounts compiled by colonial anthropologists and surveyors. However, many of the families described have either moved out of this occupation or their lineage has unfortunately tapered off. At present, it is surmised that only a small group of Citrakathis who are still engaged in their hereditary occupation remain. Eva Ray documents that “the Thakars who live in the Gudewadi section of Pinguli village (in the former princely state of Sawantwadi) in Mahārāṣṭra are known to present picture shows to this day. They claim that the pictures in their possession were painted by their ancestors. The Thakars have also in their collection leather puppets and wooden dolls, which are likewise exhibited along with narration.”5A similarity between the styles of pothis produced at different locations reveals a correlation between the artists and Citrakathi families in various regions. Dallapiccola postulates that in all probability, “every family has its own style which evolved in the course of time depending on the ability or otherwise of the individual.” (6) The similarity in style and approach, in turn, can be attributed to the hereditary transmission of the knowledge of the stylistic elements and the technique of painting.

Valentina Stache-Rosen, in her posthumous work detailing the Citrakathis of Pinguli, situated in the Ratnagiri district of South Western Mahārāṣtra, describes a typical performance (7):<blockquote>A Chitrakathi’s performance is accompanied by a huduk (a kind of drum), a three-stringed tambura, and cymbals, called jhinj. The performer squats on the ground and places a wooden board the size of the pothi against his knees as a support for the pictures; a piece of cloth prevents them from slipping. Sometimes the pothi will be placed on the ground near the performer, and the pictures will be taken up one by one as the story progresses. In other instances, the performer puts up the whole pothi against the wooden board and flings the pictures aside when he has finished with them. .. Every performance begins by showing a picture of Ganpati and that of Sarasvati on the reverse, but not every pothi has these pictures. These deities will be praised in a song before the actual performance starts. No special pujas are performed in the houses for the pothis, but during Navaratri the pujāri performs pūjā with arati, coconuts, flowers, red powder, and incense.</blockquote>

==== The Landscape of Narrative and Storytelling Traditions ====
A host of regional bardic and storytelling traditions exist across India, each of great antiquity, each having its own kathā exposition style and employing a multitude of creative visual aids, such as puppets, images, costume, wooden dolls, etc. Stories from Sanskrit texts such as episodes from the purāṇas and itihāsa were disseminated widely among the masses in creative and compelling ways, as plays, bardic recitations, puppet shows, folk songs, and rich and varied traditions of storytelling.

Though the hereditary profession has all but died out, the remarkable achievements of the Citrakathis, both artistically and as narrativists, have lived on. Anna Dallapiccola remarks that the “visual language evolved by the Chitrakathis is most refined, revealing an astonishing degree of psychological insight. Highly imaginative and very concise, the visual idiom is based on a set of formulae common to all painters and rigorously applied in the rendering of human figures, architectural elements, as well as in the arrangement of the landscape. The evolution of such highly sophisticated language was possible in a milieu in which artists and audience shared the same cultural background.” (8)

==== Conclusion ====
The Citrakathis and their painting and narrative traditions are but one of the many fine instances of the phenomenology of a complex visual culture that evolved over millennia and migrated, transmogrified, and manifested in diverse fashions. Given the inveterate Indian tradition of storytelling, the typology of traditions that have been lost due to the advent of successive colonisations and subsequently, modernization, are undoubtedly

Significant. Nevertheless, the corpus of knowledge that remains is indicative of the richness of the landscape of Indian narratology. (9)

==== Endnotes and References ====
1 Ray, Eva. “Documentation for Paiṭhān Paintings.” Artibus Asiae 40, no. 4 (1978): p. 239 [https://doi.org/10.2307/3249820. https://doi.org/10.2307/3249820.]

2 Ibid., p. 280

3 Dallapiccola , Anna L. “”Paithan” Paintings: The Epic World of the Chitrakathis.” Essay. In Jain, Jyotindra, ed., Picture Showmen: Insights into the Narrative Tradition in Indian Art Vol. 49, 3rd ed., p. 68. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 1998. \

4 Ray, Eva. “Documentation for Paiṭhān Paintings.” Artibus Asiae 40, no. 4 (1978): p. 241. [https://doi.org/10.2307/3249820. https://doi.org/10.2307/3249820]. Accessed 06 Feb. 2023.

5 Ray, Eva. “Documentation for Paiṭhān Paintings.” Artibus Asiae 40, no. 4 (1978): 240. [https://doi.org/10.2307/3249820. https://doi.org/10.2307/3249820.]

6 ”Paithan” Paintings: The Epic World of the Chitrakathis. Anna L. Dallapiccola in Picture Showmen: Insights Into the Narrative Tradition in Indian Art. India: Marg Publications, 1998. p. 71

7 Stache-Rosen, Valentina. “Story-Telling in Pingulī Paintings.” Artibus Asiae 45, no. 4 (1984): p. 255. [https://doi.org/10.2307/3249740. https://doi.org/10.2307/3249740.]

8 ”Paithan” Paintings: The Epic World of the Chitrakathis. Anna L. Dallapiccola in Picture Showmen: Insights Into the Narrative Tradition in Indian Art. India: Marg Publications, 1998. p. 70

9 Indian Narratology. K. Ayyappa Paniker; Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, 2003. p. 1

Jain, Jyotindra, ed. Picture Showmen: Insights into the Narrative Tradition in Indian Art. Vol. 49, 3rd ed., Marg Publications* *for the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai, 1998.

K. Ayyappa Paniker,Indian Narratology. Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in association with Sterling Publishers Private Limited,* New Delhi, 2003 .*

Ray, Eva. “Documentation for Paiṭhān Paintings.” Artibus Asiae 40, no. 4 (1978): 239–82. [https://doi.org/10.2307/3249820. https://doi.org/10.2307/3249820.] Accessed 06 Feb. 2023.

Stache-Rosen, Valentina. “Story-Telling in Pingulī Paintings.” Artibus Asiae 45, no. 4 (1984): 253–86. [https://doi.org/10.2307/3249740. https://doi.org/10.2307/3249740.] Accessed 28 Mar. 2023.

Authored by Sai Priya Chodavarapu.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Celebrating Andaḷ - the Eternal Bride

2026-10-21T06:41:25Z

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In the auspicious month of Mārgaśīrṣa, known as Mārgazhi in the Tamizh calendar, a profound celebration venerates Āṇḍāḷ (alternatively, Āṇṭāḷ), or Godā Devī, the Eternal Bride, across the southern regions of Bhārat. This period, marking the transition from Dakṣiṇāyana to Uttarāyaṇa, witnesses the Sun’s apparent northward journey, symbolizing a shift from a phase of rest to one of vibrant activity. This transition follows the Cāturmāsya period, spanning from Āṣāḍha to Kārtika, during which Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, or Mahā Viṣṇu, is believed to be in a cosmic slumber.
Mārgazhi Māsa, heralding the end of this celestial rest, is thus a time of profound spiritual significance
In Hindu culture, transitions or Sandhyās are revered as moments of immense potential, offering opportunities for deeper spiritual connection. Mārgazhi, akin to the Brahma Muhūrta of a day, is a potent period for deepening meditative practices and advancing on the spiritual path.

==== Tiruppāvai - The Sacred Song ====
The genesis of Tiruppāvai, set in the backdrop of Srīvilliputtūr, is a tale of divine intervention during a time of drought. The villagers, seeking Varuṇa Deva’s blessings for rain, turn to the village maidens to observe a sacred Vratam. Emulating the Gopīs of Gokulam, these maidens, led by the devotion-filled Godā Devī, embark on a journey of Bhakti, envisioning themselves in the divine presence of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

During this thirty-day Vratam, Godā Devī, also revered as Śrī Āṇḍāḷ, composes the Tiruppāvai, offering her poetic devotion to Śrīman Nārāyaṇa. Her divine poetry elevates her to the status of an āzhvār. Her father, Viṣṇucittar, none other than Periyāzhvār, serving at the Vaṭapatraśāyi Temple, offers garlands of flowers (''pūmālai'') to Śrī Viṣṇu, but it is Āṇḍāḷ’s Pāmālai, her garland of pāsurams and words, that is believed to be dearer to the Lord.

The verses of Tiruppāvai, rich in rhythm and spiritual depth, encapsulate the essence of the Vedās and the profound mysteries of the Viśiṣṭādvaita Darśana. They are recited with great delight and even performed to this day especially in the state of Tamil Nadu.

==== The Awakening by Śrī Godā Devī ====
Śrī Godā Devī composes verses known as pāsurams first waking up her fellow maiden friends from their slumber; then later verses which playfully wake up the Lord Himself from his slumber and call him to complete his morning bath in the river. The final pāsurams praise Him with great devotion.

In awakening her friends and calling them to come with her, Godā Devī implores them to give up their inertia, inactivity and stagnation and come along with her to pay obeisance to Śrīman Nārāyaṇa.

A central theme in Hindu philosophy is the awakening to the Divine. In Viśiṣṭādvaita tradition, as expounded by Śrī Rāmānujācārya, this awakening is directed towards the pure and flawless Nārāyaṇa. Tiruppāvai, often recited by Rāmānujācārya, invites spiritual seekers to shed inertia and embrace the path of Bhakti.

==== Garlanding the Divine with the Self ====
Hindu thought venerates the Divine as the ultimate source of all creation. The Advaitic perspective sees this Divine as the all-encompassing essence, beautifully articulated in the Mahāvākyas “Aham Brahmāsmi” and “Tat Tvam Asi”. However, the Viśiṣṭādvaita philosophy, recognizing the potential misinterpretations of Advaita, introduces the Tattvatraya concept. This concept not only acknowledges the existence of Īśvara, the pure divine force, but specifically also the interplay of Cit (sentient) and Acit (insentient) entities, all pervaded by the Divine.

In this context, '''the relationship between the Jīvātma and Paramātma is explored. While acknowledging the unity of all in Brahman, Viśiṣṭādvaita posits a special form (Viśeṣa Rūpa) of the Paramātma.'''

This profound narrative is further illuminated through the story of Śrī Godādevī. Her father, Śrī Viṣṇucitta, would daily adorn Śrīman Nārāyaṇa with exquisite garlands at their temple. On a fateful day, Śrī Godādevī, enveloped in a state of deep imaginative union, adorned herself with the garland designated for the Lord. In this act, she experienced an indistinguishable unity with Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, embodying Sāmaśleṣaṇa Bhāva – the profound, imaginative experience of oneness with the Divine.

Upon discovering his daughter’s actions after finding a hair in the garland that was meant to adorn Śrīraṅganātha, Viṣṇucitta was engulfed in worry, for such an act was unthinkable. The thought of offering the same garland, now worn by a mortal, to Śrīman Nārāyaṇa seemed inconceivable.

It is then recounted that Viṣṇucitta was graced with a divine vision. In this dream, Śrīman Nārāyaṇa Himself instructed him to offer the very garland worn by Godādevī, and to send his daughter to Him the next day. This divine directive symbolizes the profound journey of the Jīvātma towards the Paramātma, a journey made possible through the path of Bhakti. The Jīvātma, yearning to overcome the pangs of separation from the Paramātma, seeks a complete and sacred unification with the Divine. Āṇḍāḷ is decked up as a bride by her father and taken to Śrīraṅgam, where she merges with the Lord as His rightful consort, an incarnation of Bhūdevi herself.

This yearning and its fulfillment are celebrated with great reverence during the auspicious month of Mārgaśīrṣa (Mārgazhi). Devotees and seekers from all backgrounds wake up before sunrise and chant the garland of pāsurams composed by Godādevī Herself, awakening her friends and playmates just as She did, and finally awakening the Lord Himself from his slumber, too.

==== Sevā and Satsaṅga ====
In the rich tapestry of Śrī Vaiṣṇava Sampradāyas, there is a profound emphasis on the collective odyssey towards the Divine. This sacred journey towards union with the Divine is envisioned not as a solitary endeavor but as a vibrant, inclusive celebration that transcends societal divisions of class and status. Śrī Āṇḍāl, in her inspirational act of uniting the maidens in her divine quest, beckons fellow Bhaktas to partake in this path of devotion alongside a harmonious community.

Furthermore, the concept of selfless service, or sevā bhāva, holds a place of paramount importance in this festival. The coming together of the community to observe a ''vrata'' — aimed at alleviating a collective crisis — mirrors the deeply ingrained essence of Bhakti in this culture. This communal spirit, fostering unity and selflessness, is a testament to the profound spiritual ethos that underpins the Śrī Vaiṣṇava tradition.

==== References ====

* Thiruppavai by D. Rama Swamy Iyengar, 1967, 2nd Edition OCR
* Andal’s Thiruppavai by T. Raghavaiah, English Translation
* Photo Credit: The hero image for this article is a painting by artist Śrī Keshav Venkataraghavan.

Authored by Namrata Anantharam.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Pāṇinian Grammar:Part 7 - Introduction to Object Oriented Programming

2026-10-21T06:36:46Z

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In this section, I will take a little step further and introduce object oriented programming concepts. Again, this can be safely skipped for those to whom it is a day job. In this section, I am going to introduce a few more concepts that may sound sophisticated but are in essence simple to understand. They are the following - class, object and inheritance.

==== Class & Object ====
The standard types of data that computers are trained to manipulate are routine objects like integers or strings or arrays. When we deal with more complicated data types, one needs to come up with the notion of a class. A class is simply a blueprint for a combination of a novel data type and a set of instructions one is interested in. For example, I can define the class for driving a car named CAR_CONTROLS with the following attributes - fuel, speed that also has some operations associated with it - accelerating and driving. All these characterize a car control system (there are lots of others too but for now, let us stick to only these). For example,<blockquote>class CAR_CONTROLS {

float fuel_level

float speed

float driving(float accelerator) {...}

float braking(float brake_position) {...}

}</blockquote>Here, the class CAR_CONTROLS has two data associated with it - fuel_level and speed. And we have two operations - driving and braking that take as their inputs, accelerator and brake position and modify the speed accordingly in the {...} section. So, this is what the concept of a class is - a template for a combination of a data set and instructions.

Now, this class is a template for creating so many actual cars having some values for these numbers specified. A specific car may have a fuel_level of 0.5 in liters. An object is an instance of a class.

==== Inheritance ====
A very important concept in object oriented programming is the notion of inheritance. Consider two classes - the class HUMAN and the class STUDENT. We see that all students are humans and hence we would like the class STUDENT to inherit the data and instructions in the class HUMAN. This phenomenon is called inheritance. Of course the class STUDENT could contain more specific information like name of the school that is not present in the generic class HUMAN but we all agree that it should logically get the properties of the class HUMAN. This inheritance saves lots of programming time and space since one need not keep on mentioning the repeating set of features in all the inherited classes from a given parent class.

Consider the even more generic class ANIMAL. And now the class HUMAN which is an inherited class from ANIMAL. Now consider the instruction MOVEMENT. In the generic class ANIMAL, the instruction MOVEMENT would be something like: position four limbs vertically upright and touching the ground and then actuate to move. But we know that humans, while being an inherited class from ANIMAL do the movement differently - we walk erect with just two of our backlimbs (called legs) positioned vertically and touching the ground and we reserve our forelimbs (called hands) for novel tasks like tool making and grasping. So, consider the scenario:<blockquote>class ANIMAL {

movement {..walk using four limbs..}

}</blockquote><blockquote>For other classes of animals like DOG, CAT, etc this function “movement” using four limbs can be inherited directly. But it cannot be done so for humans. So, for the class HUMAN, we must have

class HUMAN: ANIMAL {

movement {..walk using two back limbs..}

}</blockquote>Now, let us say that I create an object from the class HUMAN and call the function “movement”. What should be implemented? It turns out that instructions in the inherited class overrides the instructions in the parent classes. This phenomenon is called function overriding in object oriented programming. Its formal definition is given below.

==== Function Overriding ====
Function overriding is a concept in object-oriented programming which allows a function within an inherited class to override a function in its base class. This is very important and saves lots of programming time - if you have a general instruction that is applicable by default but some special set of instruction to override it for special cases, then function overriding ensures that by simply rewriting the function for the special case, the special instruction is implemented for the special case and the general instruction is ignored.

==== Multiple inheritance ====
How about a class that inherits from two or more base classes? After all, biologically, a child inherits from two parents. This phenomenon is called multiple inheritance. For example, the class INDIAN_BOY needs to inherit both from the class INDIAN and the class BOY. But what if there are two instructions of the same name but doing different things in the two parent classes? If both the parent classes contain different implementations of a function named X, then when the subclass inherits it, from what parent class will it implement X? If the inherited class has another instruction for X, then it turns out that by overriding, it overrides both of the instructions of X in the parent classes. Otherwise, there should be an explicit redefinition of X in the inherited class that tells us from which parent class, the function X is inherited in the inherited class.

==== Programming Genius ====
You might ask again what the above things have to do with Saṃskṛta? Let us see now.

In Saṃskṛta, to form the present tense of most verbs, one adds an extra अ before the personal endings. I give some examples:

# Root पठ् (to read) => पठ् + अ = पठ => पठ + ति => पठति (he/she/it reads)
# Root पत् (to fall) => पत् + अ = पत => पत + ति => पतति (he/she/it falls)
# Root लिख् (to write) => लिख् + अ = लिख => लिख + ति => लिखति (he/she/it writes)
# Root रक्ष् (to guard) => रक्ष् + अ = रक्ष => रक्ष + ति => रक्षति (he/she/it guards)

This is the case with most of the verbs. About 80% of the verb roots get an extra अ vowel before the personal endings are attached in the present and some other related tenses. But there are some classes of verbs that refuse to adhere to this rule or do something weird. Some examples are:

# Root हन् (to kill) => हन् + ति => हन्ति (he/she/it kills)
# Root अस् (to be) => अस् + ति => अस्ति (he/she/it is)

So, we again have a general rule applicable to all verb roots but a special exception for only some small class of roots. Does this remind you of inheritance? Note that there are many other rules in action as well and the picture is more complicated - I am simplifying it and am taking only one aspect to demonstrate in a simple fashion.

Pāṇini as usual solves this by using inheritance. He defines a class of ROOTS in general and divides them into ten subclasses - CLASS_1 , CLASS_2, CLASS_3, …CLASS_10. He generally gives an instruction to add the extra vowel अ to all roots by giving it in the parent class ROOTS but redefines that instruction in certain irregular classes and overrides them in the irregular classes.

This is a general rule in Pāṇinian grammar:

Whenever there are two rules competing to be applied on the same object, with one rule for a generic case (applicability in a larger domain) and the other for a particular case (applicability in a smaller domain), the smaller domain is viewed as an inheritance of the larger domain since it it is a part of it and hence the rule for the smaller domain overrides the rule for the larger domain.

Authored by Rama Seshan Chandra Sekaran.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Sāmatvārtha : Transforming India's Welfare and Urban Policies for a Regenerative Future

2026-10-21T06:35:56Z

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This article discusses the need for a simpler approach to Indian welfare and urban policies for a regenerative future, highlighting the complexities and pitfalls of current systems.

==== Welfare & Urbanism - 1000s of policies, same old fallacies ====
Just like the taxation story, welfare and urbanism in India are no stranger to spaghetti convolution of policies. We will take a much briefer look into where the trend is heading towards, much dangerously so. Then we will finally explore potential simpler heuristics to solve these key pillars of taxation, welfare & urbanism for a regenerative solarpunk indic futurism.

==== Welfare State of Freebies ====
The welfare system in India is also a labyrinth of overlapping social welfare and security schemes for its citizens. These schemes are funded either by the central government, state government, or concurrently. Schemes fully funded by the central government are referred to as “central sector schemes” (CS), while those mainly funded by the center and implemented by the states are “centrally sponsored schemes” (CSS). In the 2022 Union budget of India, there were 740 central sector (CS) schemes and 65 centrally sponsored schemes (CSS). The funding for these CSS’s in 2022 was ₹ 442,781 crore. There were 157 CSs and CSSs with individual funding of over ₹ 500 crore each.

While the intent of these schemes are noble, ground realities reveal a stark disparity. The challenges lie not just in often flawed policy design, but also with the last-mile implementation hell-hole. Concerns persist over corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, rampant leakages and market distortions, which dilute the intended impact of any welfare initiative. It’s the same control freak begets power creep behavior all over again! Means-testing morphs into a tool of rent-seeking and exclusion than of efficient welfare. I mean you get the idea, it’s the same story as taxes. India under Narendra Modi focused on Direct Benefit Transfers to tackle some of these issues, step by step, but now there is a new hydra in town - freebies!

There are no heroes in this story, from AAP’s free electricity and what not subversion in Delhi, Congress’s free electricity and bus rides in Karnataka, to BJP’s Ladli Lakshmi in MP. This is very dangerous policy making becoming a quick norm in India. There is no sustainability baked in, but rhetoric is selling like hot cakes and alcohol during election seasons. And now when the budget deficits are starting to hit real governance and welfare work, typical politicking on ‘federalism’ to ‘tax burden’ has begun to deflect away from fiscal responsibility.

The latest in this trend is the announcement by the congress party of ensuring INR 1L per annum cash benefit transfer to women from poor families. This is not great because it neither has the benefit of UBI (no means testing, universal upliftment of opportunity) yet has the pitfall of huge fiscal burden without much responsibility as well as typical implementation corruption and leakages. All in all these are dangerous policies considering everything, and if the political economy is getting settled on this hill, there needs to come a trojan horse which can cut through this trend and get better outcomes with much responsibility and with universal autonomy.

So while the intent behind the multitude of welfare schemes in India is commendable, and we are not questioning the need for welfare safety net, but we can indeed question if there are some easier approaches as well which can aggregate most of the intentions as categorized in above chart (Education, Food, Civic, Medical, etc. ) into effective and efficient outcome driven approach, possibly also avoiding the pitfalls of means-testing and while providing more autonomy to the citizen on the welfare they prioritize for themselves.

==== Masterplan for Urban Decline ====
Our cities, towns, villages are very much superorganisms like ant colonies. Some people move in, some move out, some stay put where they have been. Through these migrations, the superorganism also grows, evolves and sometimes even dies down. India is urbanizing. India needs to urbanize. But does urbanization only mean migration to bigger and bigger cities - with ever worsening civic amenities, or can it also mean a Cambrian explosion of more local urban clusters out of their rural past?

The urban planning process in India is characterized by a multiplicity of local bodies, rigid master plans, restrictive zoning regulations, whimsical solutions, etc. This often leads to inefficient land use and hinders the ability of cities to grow and adapt to changing needs. So when rapid urbanization leads to unprecedented growth in India’s cities, it strains existing infrastructure and resources. Bimal Patel recently revealed an interesting example of this, where setback rules have contributed to just dead parcels of land which could instead have been public streets or civic infrastructure centers, and simply reclaiming setbacks in a city like Mumbai can unlock loads of under-utilized land. This is just one random exhibit!

To quote from one of his public articles -<blockquote>“The consequence of not focusing on land use efficiency is not small. In well-planned cities like London, Paris and New York, approximately 40% of the land is devoted to the public domain, 45% covered by buildings and 15% leftover as private open space. In stark contrast, for Mumbai (Island City), the proportion is 24% in the public domain, 24% covered by buildings and 52% leftover as private open space!”</blockquote>Another exhibit for misguided urban policy can be the random rural/urban classification and respective regulations, which certainly don’t help when any city starts expanding beyond what ‘masterplans’ allowed for. This urban sprawl not only hampers livability but also contributes to environmental degradation and social inequalities. The influx of rural migrants into urban centers exacerbates issues such as inadequate housing, overburdened transportation networks, and insufficient access to basic amenities.

Couple these factors with poor local governance with plethora of corruption, shadow real estate economy to hide untaxed income or save further tax on capital gains, automobile centric worldview preventing prioritization of many necessary civic amenities & tree-cover, weird regulations from FSI to setbacks, disregard for natural ecosystems, etc. our cities are just somehow making it through. There is so much which can be expanded on each point, but hopefully you get the idea!

When we consider that India is 10x the density of the US, 5x of Europe and around 2.5x of China, this patch-fix approach to urbanism will lead us to nowhere great. Just as living organisms adapt to changes in their environment, urban landscape & cities require flexible planning frameworks that can accommodate evolving needs and challenges. Indians might love its Chandigarh, but the reality is that it’s the worst approach we can take to our urbanism. What India instead needs is 100s of Singapore & Kyoto - where natural ecosystems, cultural heritage and urban lifestyle can blend seamlessly with a regenerative soul. Also, way more trees and less asphalt at any random place!

Doughnut Economics Action Labs has come with with an exhaustive [https://doughnuteconomics.org/tools/doughnut-for-urban-development-manual-and-tools Urban Development Manual and Toolkit] for any planner to gauge where their region stand, so we will not repeat that exercise and limit our approach to just address potential tokenized protocol for air-space, greenery & public space credits which can help accelerate this journey!

Authored by Moberation.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Philosophy]][[Category:Health and Wellness Sciences]][[Category:Philosophy]][[Category:Health and Wellness Sciences]]

Sāmatvārtha - the Vision

2026-10-21T06:35:14Z

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This essay articulates a vision of Sāmatvārtha, a fusion of balance and purpose in culture-compatible policy, advocating for a transformative approach to economic policy, technology, and societal harmony.

==== '''The Vision of Sāmatvārtha''' ====
'''“Sāmatva” and “Artha”: Sāmatvārtha.''' Sāmatva embodies balance, equilibrium, and harmony, while Artha represents not just material wealth but also purpose, meaning, and prosperity. I am no expert in Sanskrit, but this union of words perfectly encapsulates the policy proposals under this series. It is not about certain specific public policy frameworks - though that and the change management thereof is a big part of it - but it is also about a mindset, a set of principles and heuristics, and a better and more rooted vision of Indo-Futurism and Indic/Accelerationism.
'''Sāmatvārtha is about radically leveraging the multiplier of technology, first-principles thinking, and price-discovery of markets. It is about respecting the freedom of our complex adaptive (eco)systems and preferring simpler heuristics over delusionary micro-management.'''
It aims to tame the collective action problem and internalize the cost of externalities. It is about turning one’s supposed weaknesses into strengths for '''leapfrogging into a futuristic Indic Civilizational State'''. It is about saving India from the charlatans of fabian-socialists as well as the subversion of candy-capitalists. Thus, this set of policy proposals will ultimately aspire to blur the lines between fiscal and monetary, hard-coding economic sustainability by default. But, to avoid disruption, a smooth transition is an equally important part of any reform proposal. Sāmatvārtha is also respectful of the need to balance the motion of change.

A holistic approach towards '''The Embedded Economy.''' A balanced approach to growth paradigms - one that embraces fair, sustainable, regenerative, distributive freedom of interactions between our plural ecosystems. It is not about chasing GDP growth blindly, or some monotheistic appeal to ‘equity’; '''It envisions a more open, prosperous, interoperable, sovereign, federated, modular, inclusive, sustainable, and regenerative future'''. But How..?
'''Sāmatvārtha begins by rejecting many proto-notions and false binaries in the economic thinking memetic sphere: degrowth-vs-prosperity, altruism-vs-accelerationism, capitalism-vs-socialism, free-markets-vs-regulations, etc.'''
Economic policymaking has become a victim of over-abstraction and novation. Coupled with the need for rent-seekers to justify their existence, we get a spaghetti code of conduct. The bureaucrats of the fabian socialists wanted to predict and control how much you would consume, and when. On the other end, the marketing professionals of the candy capitalists want you to never stop consuming anything, even on credit if ‘need’ be! Cronyism is not even needed anymore for failure, and the system trickles down to corruption nonetheless.

'''Control freak begets power creep''', forgetting that one of the best ways to regulate complex adaptive systems is to have simpler heuristics for broad macro-governance, and not centralizing micro-management for every other interaction. This over-abstraction is making us lose sight of what is important!
'''We over-engineer our policies with utter disregard towards the second-order effects. We pretend to know the unknowns or the market winners, all in vain to tame the complexity.'''
Either stupidity or malice, only for all of it to leave more loopholes and '''incentives for the rent-seeker and the corrupt'''. All of this does nothing else except fueling anti-governance and public-policy sentiments like ‘taxation is theft’, etc. '''The baggage of the socialist.'''

We are also frequently consuming just for the sake of it. Shallow progress in lifestyle - often an illusion - to justify the concentration of resources at the top! Trickle-down, at what ecological costs? Society needs to find better goals than reducing the purpose of life to just hedonism - i.e. ‘need to consume more, capture more, exploit more’. The singular focus on GDP is not only justifying consumerism but is also now coming to exploit the care economy in the name of increasing that GDP number. Goodhart’s Law on steroids at the population scale! '''The subversion of the capitalist.'''

Between all these memetics of economic, technological and cultural thinking, the deep history of our planet - and maybe our existence - is of many cycles of progress and destruction. To restrict ourselves with notions of the past few centuries as being the end of history is doing a grave injustice to the possibilities of both - progress and destruction.

==== '''Why Sāmatvārtha over Effective/Accelerationism/Altruism''' ====
Effective Accelerationism (aka e/acc) is a reactionary meme against Effective Altruists (aka EA). Without going much into the noise of half-baked origins of these alleged ‘philosophical’ movements, the key current thing that triggered the recent wave of manifesto wars is advancements in Artificial Intelligence (or Intelligence Amplification per Andrew Karparthy), and how fast or openly should it be pursued.

In a nutshell, the Altruists (EAs) worry about poly-crisis; that humanity is facing multi-pronged risks - some existential per se - which might break their silos and spillover to cause great misery. The Accelerationists (E/ACCs) worry about the stagnation of humanity - which according to them might cause great misery as well.

The E/ACCs attempted to root their meme into a philosophical framework by basing it on the nature of entropy. To advocate for accelerated change, this was an attempt to counter the altruism thesis right at the foundations. While it seemed promising at the beginning, it soon fell into the traps of any American discourse and in regard to EAs - of false, extreme, unnecessary polarization.
'''Their outright rejection of the concerns shared by degrowth-ers regarding poly-crisis, or the belief that the ‘techno-capital’ machine will solve everything just by ‘accelerating’ everything, is naive at best or sinister at worst.'''
Post-AI economics will not magically solve the problem of human consensus on the metastories. Both EAs and E/ACCs seem to be victims of Western meta stories, that of selfish genes and thus either requiring over corrections that EAs prefer or blind acceleration that e/acc have started to vouch for!

Accelerationism and Altruism themselves have a very mixed-bag memetic history. Indic futurism therefore needs a better call to action than the singular monotheist manifestos. One which can accommodate the harmonious prosperity this land will strive for, one not based on the meta-narrative of the selfish gene, but that of [https://www.brhat.in/dhiti/dharmikagene The Dhārmika Gene]. One that is mindful of its deep civilizational itihāsa, [https://www.brhat.in/dhiti/dharmikagene The Bhāratāyan]. One that is ready to leapfrog to a solar-punk Indic-futurism.

Thinking that only commoditizing consumerism can sustain the economic growth cycle required for technological progress is the mistake that E/ACCs make. This is at odds with degrowth-ers, who want the world humans to consume less because of their ecological impact. But won’t things align if the proposition becomes to use technological accelerationism for de-growing consumerism’s externalities?

You don’t need to sell everyone a large cyber truck to be pro-climate change, and the irony of it should not be lost on supposed American capitalists. A society which roots its economy so deeply in consumerism will only lead to harmful accelerationism. Social media is the biggest example. The digital fentanyl is not just limited to TikTok as they say, but Instagram, YouTube, Tinder and the biggest of them all - Porn. Making this a USA vs China issue, or capitalism vs socialism issue etc. is disingenuous and won’t help anyone.

On the other hand, you also cannot expect India and Africa to live in poverty and lower standards of living because Europeans want to degrow and impose a carbon tax. Irony might be lost to the West, but the global south will not ignore this new age of imperialism and digital colonialism. So degrowth-ers’ affection for the effective/altruists’ control concentration approach will never sit well. They need to fight centralisation, not advocate for it.

It is not paradoxical to be not against markets but against ‘marketing’; be not against growth but against ecological exploitation; be not against profits but against singular profit motive; be not against stakeholder capitalism but against ESG™; be not against consumption but against hedonism; be not against social governance but against state fascism; be not against pluralism but against universalism and intersectionality.

Thus, without falling into the traps of these false debates, can we just simply ensure we don’t repeat the pitfalls of imperialist capitalism, consumeristic hedonism, fascistic socialism, universalist intersectionality, and modernist metaphysics?

Authored by Moberation.
Published by Brhat.[[index.php?title=Category:Philosophy]][[Category:Philosophy]]

The Saga of the Padmanabhadasas IV - Practice and Patronage of the present day Travancore Royals

2026-10-21T06:34:41Z

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Śrī Padmanābhasvāmī Perumāḻ is the lord and sovereign of the land here in Thiruvananthapuram. Even while flying in, it is apparent from the skies that He has blessed this land with abundance. On landing, the small and elegant airport offers a royal welcome: the entrance is adorned with lamp-holding madanikās, distinctive Kerala murals, a portrait of the Travancore Mahārājā, and a sleek snake-boat from the famous races. This airport land, once owned by the monarch, paves way twice a year for the palanquin of Śrī Padmanābha to pass through to go to the ocean for his āraṭṭu [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/city/kochi/watch-sree-padmanabhaswamy-temple-procession-passes-through-thiruvananthapuram-airport-runway-shut-for-5-hours/videoshow/95247555.cms?from=mdr ritual bath], as it has been doing for centuries. This was the condition laid out by the then Śrī Padmanābhadāsa Mahārājā Chithira Thirunāḻ Balarāma Varma when he built this airport in 1932. The āraṭṭu procession goes to the Shangumugham beach to participate in the ritual festivities along with the temple elephants, purohits, devotees, CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) personnel lead by the current head of the Travancore Royal family Śrī Padmanābhadāsa Mūlam Thirunāḻ Rāma Varma in traditional wear, with a green headgear and a ceremonial sword in hand. Devotees come to this far southern town from all parts of India, as its auspiciousness is not bound by borders. This is one of the 108 divya deśams, a legendary mahākśetra, and a pilgrimage spot that grew around an ancient temple not around a commercial hub, as is common.

Just as Perumchoṭṭu Udayan, the great king from this land during Mahābhārata’s Kurukṣetra war, fed the armies of both the warring factions; today too, annadānam continues in Śrī Padmanābhasvāmī’s name. On all the days, we students were also treated to the traditional Keraḻa sadya on banana leaves with other sumptuous delicacies including a variety of pāyasams. For me, this was one of the highlights of the whole programme apart from the dance workshop itself! One day we would be treated with the naivedyam offered to Śrī Padmanābha Himself from the temple kitchens, and on another day we would relish a special Bōli-pāyasam treat, and yet another day there would be a totally unique version with palm jaggery from the palace since it was a royal’s birthday. It was a culinary delight to explore such unknown rasas, especially after a whole day spent in sweating it out on our feet.<blockquote>“Despite its famed tolerance, for a very long time Travancore headed by Thiruvananthapuram was probably the only country in this part of India where Hindu tradition, manners and custom, Hindu learning and Hindu religion were preserved in their original simplicity and purity owing chiefly to the continuous and prosperous rule of a long line of Hindu Kings from old.”

Chapter VI of the State Manual of Travancore, V. Nagam Aiya</blockquote>Even as the world is witness to the coronation of Prince Charles as King, and many probably are taken in by the glamour of it all, history does not excuse the British Royalty of the crimes committed against humanity. Seeing their sad example, one might assume that monarchy and royalty all over the world suffers from such delusions of grandeur, and that power and wealth make most kings and queens victims of their own might. Such was the fall of the Mughals, undoubtedly either due to fanaticism or to narcissism. But there are many examples in India, of those who were just and able rulers; who were cultivated and cultured; who developed their kingdoms not only economically, but also artistically and aesthetically; and who ruled with dharma as their ideal. <blockquote>“Even in the mid-1970s, we had a sizeable number of people who earned their livelihood as poets or singers or bards, performing Bhāgavata Melās, Rām Kathā, Purāṇās, Harikathās, etc. These artists were largely illiterate but they had an unmatched power to swoon thousands of people with their renditions and storytelling prowess. The entire society respected them solely for that reason, because they had that education. They carried copious amounts of our cultural treasure in their head and heart — the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, stories from our Purāṇās, Kritis, Devāranāmas, folklore, etc. Sadly, their “educated” children and grandchildren became poorly-paid labourers in mills and factories or worked as waiters in bars and restaurants. But on the larger canvas of our cultural landscape, the loss was primarily twofold. These descendants not only lost the sublime and ennobling education that their forefathers had but their lives were not economically better either. This is how the destruction of cultural education and memory translates into, in real life.

This is savagery, not education.”

Dharmic Education in the Era of Planned De-Hinduisation of India by Sandeep Balakrishna</blockquote><blockquote>यतो हस्तः ततो दृष्टिः

यतो दृष्टिः ततो मनः

यतो मनः ततो भावः

यतो भावः ततो रसः॥

नाट्य शास्त्र</blockquote><blockquote>yato hastaḥ tato dṛṣṭiḥ

yato dṛṣṭiḥ tato manaḥ

yato manaḥ tato bhāvaḥ

yato bhāvaḥ tato rasaḥ

Where your hands go, your eyes follow

Where your eyes go, your mind follows

Where your mind goes, it gives rise to feelings

Wherever there is a feeling, there is a particular mood

Nāṭyaśāstra</blockquote>And nowhere do the eyes play such an important role in performing arts as in the dance forms of Keraḻa. In Mōhiniāṭṭam, the dance of the enchantress, quite suited for ekāhāra abhinaya of a solo performance, the swaying graceful movements of the upper torso is accentuated. Endowed with kaiśiki vṛtti which is said to stem from Sāma Veda itself, expressing tender emotions in a soft manner, dancers imitate apsaras who engage in such sensuous movements. Also mimicking the abundant coconut trees in the region and the lush lulling tempo of the oceanic waves kissing the verdant landscape, this is a dance form that is not in a rush. It takes its time to establish itself, to fix its feet, and when it does, it allows the body to undulate to its heart’s content. With an all white and gold dress and the hairdo stylishly to the side, Guru Gopika Varma ji exudes lāsya. This is the gentle feminine response of Pārvatī to the vigorous tāṇḍava performed by Naṭarājā, the Lord of Dance. It is no wonder that this innovation by Devī herself caters to women of all sizes, shapes, and ages, to indulge in expressing themselves via dance without having to be lithe and young.

This is one aspect of Mōhiniāṭṭam that struck me on the first day of our workshop at the Levee Hall in Thiruvananthapuram (the erstwhile audience hall of the Travancore Royals). It was an unexpected reward to see ladies of all ages, from young girls to senior women, not being conscious of their body types while merrily making their way about the historical building, chatting and catching up. Just as the geography of Rājasthān influences its regional architecture, music, and clothing, with them being in [https://www.inditales.com/water-culture-heritage-rajasthan-neeraj-doshi/ harmony]; so too here in Keraḻa, the land and its influence is evident in the innumerable dance forms and arts it has produced. The dance itself is not to be brushed away as light and easy. The chuzhippus (the circular exercises of the torso), and the chuvaḍu-sadhakams (the body movement exercises combined with the footwork) give this particular classical dance form its distinctive character. With elements of Kaḻarīpayaṭṭu and Kathakaḻi for body movement and abhinaya, with only the upper body swaying high and low while the feet remain firmly planted on the ground, there may not be much thumping of feet as in Bharatanāṭyam or fast paced footwork as in Kūcipūḍi - yet it is strenuous like any of its sister classical dance forms and needs a lot of stamina to portray spontaneous sensuality.

That Mōhiniāṭṭam is performed only by women is no surprise. The name says it all. There is no clamour from men crying discrimination either, wanting to ‘take over’ this space. Keraḻa has many dance forms dedicated to men alone, such as Kathakaḻi or Theyyam. It also has many temples dedicated to Devī, some temples where women are high priestesses (Maṇṇāraśāla), in some others where only women perform certain rituals or festivities (Āṭṭukāl Bhagavatī temple), many where womanhood is celebrated (Cengaṇūr temple), and some even where men have to dress as women to offer worship (Koṭṭaṅkulaṅgārā temple). This small western state, birthplace of greats such as Ādi Śaṅkarācārya and more recently Svāmī Chinmayānanda, exhibits a unique taste for the arts with a myriad dance, martial arts, and theatre forms surprisingly thriving under a communist rule. One of the reasons for this could be the continuing patronage and the shining example of the royals themselves, who do everything to keep art alive.

Having had the fortune of being under the tutelage of both Kalāmaṇḍalam Kalyāṇikuṭṭy Amma (author of “Mōhiniāṭṭam - History and Dance Structure”, the only authentic documentation of this dance form) and her spouse Padma Śrī Kalāmaṇḍalam Krishnan Nair, the Kathakaḻi maestro, Guru Gopika jī has gone on to create her own style which she teaches at ‘Dāsyam’, her dance school at Chennai, and in workshops such as this one. Married into the royal family, to Poorurṭṭāthi Thirunāḻ Mārthāṇḍa Varma - a descendent of the famous Travancore king Swāthi Thirunāḻ Rāma Varma, she is a worthy inheritor of both the art and the servitude that the first family of Thiruvananthapuram exemplifies. Hindu kings and queens are always known to patronize temples, arts, and crafts; but the Travancore kingdom is replete with royals who themselves sang, painted, composed, and danced. They were and are scholar-practitioners, not mere spectators or patrons.

It was a beautiful experience to immerse myself in this new cosmos - and that too with seventy other participants, dancers and dance teachers, from all over the world. The nature of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) is such that with a little bit of discipline and faith, it can take one a long way even in a span of three days. Technology played a huge part too: those who had signed up were sent the song and its meaning beforehand in both English and Malayāḻam. This helped us to familiarize ourselves with the musical composition which was inspired by the 10th canto of Bhāgavatam, to which we would learn the dance choreography. This rare kriti, a composition by Mahārājā Swāthi Thirunāḻ, depicting Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s whole life from birth to svargārohaṇam, was thrilling to dance to in the very place where it was first composed, the Kuthiramāḻika Palace. Originally in rāga Punnāgavarāḻi and Khaṇḍa Cāpu tāla, under the guidance of legendary Śrī T.K. Govindarāju sir, it was re-composed and recorded in Rāgamālika and Rūpakam for ease of performance.

The svarās and jatīs via individual videos were shared a few days before so that we could practise at home and perform them during the workshop. At the venue it was pleasantly surprising for me to notice that the guru and students both had a hand in deciding which mudras and what abhinaya would be appropriate for the various sancārīs. Through the three days we were also guided to an early morning darshan of Ananta Padmanābhasvāmī, to the Kuthiramāḻika Palace and Museum, as well as professional group photo sessions before and after the workshop hours. Many subject matter experts, dance critics, film-makers and speakers graced the workshop, not to speak of the two Princesses of the Travancore Royal Family, simple and humble, who spoke to all the participants and encouraged us to follow our heart in learning and performing the classical arts irrespective of age and other constraints. Gopika chechi shared the performance ready music on the last day of the workshop and encouraged us to be thinking dancers, to not blindly emulate her - or anyone else. The video of the whole dance choreography is on its way to each student.

It was very refreshing to see that there was no cut-throat competition amongst the dancers as is seen in similar spaces, nor was there any ridiculing or criticism by the guru herself. Chechi has managed to convey her passion and love of dance to her students without subjecting them to unwarranted homilies or advice. She simply lets everyone be, there was no air of royalty or of gurudom. As one student Neha Jayadeva pointed out, ‘she lets her students grow’ - unlike some renowned and able gurus who despite reviving an almost dying dance form from scratch, and teaching it free to students for several years, now prevent those very students from performing it on stage. Unfortunately for such gurus, blinded as they are to everything but their own decisions there is no thought or concern for the art, or for the students who have sacrificed so much, nor for their own legacy.<blockquote>बलं बलवतां चाहं कामरागविवर्जितम् || 7.11 B.G ||

balaṁ balavatāṁ cāhaṁ kāma-rāga-vivarjitam

Any balam (power, strength) which is free from kāma (desire) and rāga (attachment) is the manifestation of īśvara. It is bestowed onto me and I am the trustee of this power, I may be the user but am not the owner. Ownership is only my notion. Nothing belongs to me, If I assume so I will suffer….everything belongs to HIM alone…</blockquote>This, the Travancore Royals have completely internalized, and exhibit this belief in their day-to-day behaviour. To be a witness on how they conduct themselves in everyday life and to learn from them on how to care for the arts and live a fulfilling life, to watch them pursuing it with sincerity, all this made me ask myself if dhārmika monarchs are not the answer to our cultural and civilizational woes. By giving up on them for a westernised notion of a nation-state called democracy, we have indeed been remiss.

'''And what is so great about IKS, or say a classical dance form like Mōhiniāṭṭam, that it has to be preserved?'''

Hindu classical dance as explained, moves from the gross to the subtle; from I, me, myself to Śiva Śakti. In any bhāratīya jnāna paramparā there is co-existence and interdependency with other disciplines, it is not a stand alone art by any standards. For example in dance, the following aspects play a key role: body engineering and movement, mind-body correlation, breath control, time and space management, self and team management, psychological health, music and rasa appreciation, costume, jewellery, make-up, stage production, exercise, diet, harmony and so much more. What we learn from it apart from the obvious sākśi-bhāva wherein the dancer can sense oneself as an audience witnessing herself, is also the ability to appreciate aesthetics, beauty, refinement, poetics, culture.

A consummate dancer moves very quickly from first person to second to third person, and then to no person when she is the dance itself and she has completely sublimated her ego and her being, and finally to oneness where she recognizes the aikyam of who she is in reality with respect to the cosmic whole. There is a spiritual message in each of the acts performed, they are not merely stories for entertainment - they are that too, yet something more. Humility is built in the learning pedagogy itself where one is reprimanded in front of other co-students even for a single misstep and there is no room for hurt pride. For those who take it in their stride, there is a lot to gain: energy, flexibility, agility, quick thinking, intuition, body and self awareness, not to speak of mokṣa, if that is what one ‘seeks’.<blockquote>Julius Lipner has likened Vedic culture with all its branches to a Banyan tree, a species that grows wide and puts down new aerial roots that in turn become trees, and so grow into a huge polycentric organism.** ….The 1975 film Altar of Fire made by the Dutch scholar Frits Staal captures some of this culture of memorisation and deployment. More than three thousand years after the texts were first set down in this way, we can still see Nambūdiri brahmin families of Kerala keeping alive the purely oral form of the canon, reciting verses in baroque patterns, dancing out the verbal structure as well as chanting it. The time and chronology, the precise geometric shapes of the altar, the actions, the sounds and their grammar, all had to be exact. If it was not perfect, then the Gods would not reciprocate with their own gifts of rain, food, health, safety and sons. Sciences of perfection evolved around the ritual: astronomy evolved to calculate the proper time, and Pythagoras’ theorem was discovered (some time before Pythagoras) to ensure the bricks of the altar were set just right. The words had to be spoken in pristine pronunciation, metre, and linguistic form. Sciences of phonetics, prosody and grammar were developed. Eventually even the theoretical and metaphysical implications of these sciences came to be captured in some of the world’s earliest philosophical texts. The ritual inspired its own canon, growing from the small seedlings of action into saplings of word and theory…

[https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the-vedic-canon/ The Vedic Cannon by Jessica Frazier, April 26, 2023]</blockquote>Nowhere is this exactness and continuation of ancient form and tradition more apparent than in Keraḻa, which has kept the vaidika sampradāya alive in its Architecture, in Ayurveda, in Temple rituals, in Textiles, in Kaḻarīpayaṭṭu, in Kathakaḻi, Kūdiyāṭṭam, Mudiyēṭṭu,Theyyam, Mōhiniāṭṭam and more.

Back in Hyderabad when I look out of my window reminiscing on the sights and sounds of Thiruvananthapuram, I see a mango tree caressing the sill, letting an unripe mango entice me, appearing luscious under the pre-monsoon showers accompanied ably by the call of the koel. I try my best to break out into a song, something original, instead I laugh at my foolish attempt. I am no Swāthi Thirunāḻ! He was inspired by coconut trees, banana groves and jackfruits. Sitting in his exquisitely carved wooden but spartan palace with smooth black oxide floors, from where he could spot the gopuram of the Padmanābhasvāmī temple, he let loose his imagination and ended up composing more than 400 compositions both in Karnāṭik and Hindustāni styles, and all of them in his very short life of thirty three years. He remains in our hearts through his music and in the songs that his direct descendent Prince Rāma Varma (a student of Padma Vibhūṣaṇa M. Bālamuraḻī Kṛṣṇa) sings today.

“Overall, the Hindu ideal and practice of education was designed to inculcate a sense of moderation and contentment in our external life by emphasising the cultivation of certain fundamental values in our inner life. This lends stability to the external life and perpetuity to this profound value system. The brilliant scholar, Prof M. Hiriyanna captured the whole essence of the Sanātana educational ideal in these words: “the aim of education is not to inform the mind but to form it.” Or to quote the prolific Ananda Coomaraswamy, “From the earliest times, Indians have thought of the learned man, not as one who has read much, but as one who has been profoundly taught.””

Authored by Kavita Krishna Meegama.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Towards Dharma-centric Polity : Universalization of Ganesha Utsava

2026-10-21T06:33:46Z

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==== Dharma, Religion and State ====
One of the founding premises of a modern secular State is that religion and politics should not mix. Though India became officially secular much after its independence, due to Nehruvian ideas dominating Indian socio-politics, “secularism” has been the guiding light of the Indian State since independence. And from a leftist, liberal and secular point of view, there really is no dilemma over the question of mixing politics and religion. They should not mix. There is no question about it.

But Indian society is going through a churn. Secularism might still be India’s official policy, but society has started to question it. We are realizing that secularism and other founding principles of the modern Indian state originate from a colonial Christian paradigm. We are attempting to regain hold over our own narrative. The indigenous Hindu is trying to imagine an alternative to a secular state, and what a dhārmika Hindu state would do with politics and dharma.

'''In a parallel awakening, Hindus are coming to realize that ‘religion’ is not the correct translation of ‘dharma’.'''

We are realizing that what we know as Hindu dharma or Sanātana dharma is a world apart from Prophetic Monotheism. If this is the case and religion is not dharma, then is it logical to keep dharma and State separate? As far as we know of Indian history, there was always a Brāhmaṇa advising the Kṣatriya on all matters of dharma, right inside the court. He was called as Rājaṛṣi, the saint who resides in court to ensure that the State is always in adherence to dharma.

From a Hindu point of view, thus, dharma and politics should not stay apart. But here is the dilemma. Even those Hindus who think that India should have institutions based on Indic Knowledge Systems and indigenous wisdom are apprehensive about mixing dharma and politics, for the fear of politics overtaking and appropriating dharma for its own purposes.

This is a valid concern, and employing dharma for politics’ sake is not the Indic way. In the Indian scheme of things, it was the saint who informed the king, rather than vice-versa. Knowledge should inform power, and not vice versa. Dharma and politics have a relation but there is a hierarchy in that relation and dharma is supreme; politics come after. Dharma should inform politics and not the other way around. Politics has to be infused by dharma. Dharma cannot and should not be manipulated and politicized.

If a society maintains this balance, then it will stay on the course of dharma. That was the Indic understanding. And for most of its history, until the Islamic invaders arrived, Indian kingdoms were run with this understanding, keeping dharma supreme.

'''The question is: was there any such attempt to reconcile the two during contemporary times? Turns out, there was one. And it was immensely successful.'''

==== Lokmanya Tilak’s Innovation ====
125 years ago, Lokmanya Tilak had an idea. He created Gaṇeśa Utsava Samitis all over Maharashtra and in other states to organize and celebrate Gaṇeśa Utsavas. Gaṇeśa pūjā was not unheard of in regions other than Maharashtra but it was not as prevalent. Tilak’s was the first such organized attempt to scale up the celebration of a Hindu festival in contemporary times.

He took this initiative in 1898 to tackle a specific problem, but with a long term goal in mind. He wanted an occasion when freedom fighters and their supporters could gather to talk, strategize and plan their course of action. Though the immediate goal of this was to gain independence, Tilak had a specific Hindu goal in mind. For gathering of freedom fighters he could have come up with any secular occasion, but he intentionally chose Gaṇapati Utsava for a reason.

He chose it to elevate the Hindu consciousness of the country. He knew that the soul of the nation was Sanātana/ Hindu. India’s rise, as Śri Aurobindo also said, was the rise of Sanātana dharma. India’s fall was the fall of Sanātana dharma. Tilak did not see any dichotomy in his nationalism and his Hinduism. For his nationalism was pegged on the raising of the Hindu consciousness.

==== Confirming an Old Tradition ====
Gaṇapati worship had been associated even before 1898 with sthāpana and visarjana, more so than other deities. By doing so, Lokmanya Tilak was not breaking a tradition, or inventing a new one, but tapping into a hoary tradition and confirming its authority. It was a very clever and deliberate move because he was listing his action in the long line of dhārmika scholars and saints who made revolutionary changes and reforms in society by invoking an aspect of the ancient Sanātana tradition.

==== Making Every Hindu a Stakeholder ====
Gaṇapati pūjā has many other socio-political benefits. It is a celebration of being Hindu. The procession to bring the Gaṇapatī home; the sthāpana and celebrations in a public place; and visarjana also happening in a public water body, make sure that the common Hindu is involved in it. It is designed to involve the wider society and not be confined to individuals.

Lokmanya Tilak created the institution of Gaṇeśa Utsava Samitis for organizing and celebrating the festival throughout the length and breadth of India in order for there to be some organized Hindu activity on ground. It made sure that there would be committees herding Hindus into celebration, even those who are not initially inclined to do so.

The sheer process of gathering charity from each and every Hindu home and then making them participate is similar to what transpired during the run up to collecting charity for the grand Śri Rāma temple at Ayodhya. The organization collecting charity made sure every Hindu home donated, even if it was just ten rupees, so that it would not be the preserve of a select few. The Gaṇeśa Utsava Samitis achieved the same. They made every Hindu a stakeholder in a public celebration of Hinduness.

Along with celebrations all kinds of sports and arts competitions are also held, to make sure every aspect of human life is involved, and everyone from the very young to the very elderly of both genders participate. While working adults become stakeholders by charity and by sevā; the aged do so by offering their wisdom, advice and direction; the young get a sense of belonging by taking part in competitive games and by displaying Hindu symbols proudly — and all this is centered around dharma. Is there a better way to create a dharma-centric society?

==== Taking Gaṇeśa Pūjā to Every Corner of Bhāratavarṣa ====
Another major achievement of Lokmanya Tilak with Gaṇeśa Utsava was that it resulted in uniting all of India in one cultural festival during those seven days of Gaṇeśa pūjā. Even those places which were not known for celebrating Gaṇeśa Utsava started doing it with fanfare after Lokmanya Tilak instituted it.

He specifically targeted great Hindu cities like Kāśī which were not known particularly for Gaṇeśa Utsava but which had great potential to pick it up and make it a big thing. And that is what happened. Gaṇeśa Utsava is big even in the north now.

The competition between the Gaṇeśa Utsava Samitis has made sure that there is a Gaṇapatī vigṛha in every street of many north Indian cities when the festival arrives. This competitive angling for public display of Hinduness has resulted in a Hindu fervor all around. The creative competition benefits Hindu dharma instead of dividing it further. It is an occasion of displaying Hindu symbols, rituals and customs to the wider world.

It creates a sense of belonging within the Hindu community and also demarcates what is Hindu and what is not by showing the others what it means to be a Hindu. In many parts of north India like western Uttar Pradesh, it is only public Hindu festivals like Gaṇeśa Utsava and Durgā Pūjā which balance the religious equation and let Hindus continue to exist as Hindu in that region. Perhaps even Lokmanya Tilak would be surprised by looking at what Gaṇeśa Utsava has become today.

On the day of Gaṇeśa visarjana, national highways are blocked with procession after procession of Gaṇapati visarjana parties. In Meerut and Muzaffarnagar in UP, and in Patna and many other cities in Bihar the sight is like this: one big vehicle carries the vigṛha of Gaṇapati while thousands of devotees follow on bikes, in cars and even on foot. While in many parts of central India, it is only men who go out in these processions; in UP they are full of girls and women of all ages. Young girls, of all classes and ages, wearing saffron suits, sarees or cholis singing bhajans to Gaṇapati and shouting generic Hindu slogans, passing through overtly Islamic neighborhoods, is a sight to be seen. They say it is the only way to survive as a Hindu in these places.

==== The Universalization of Hindu Festivals ====
The Hindu society soon realized the potential of public Hindu celebrations which are observed for a limited period of time and come yearly or periodically throughout the year. They involve everyone but not forever. The time and expenses involved are affordable by everyone. And they make everyone feel that they belong in the dhārmika culture of the country. They create a sense of community in a world which has become too individualistic.

The Gaṇeśa Utsava frenzy was soon emulated by other festivals. Durgā Pūjā was initially very famous in Bengal and some other regions of India but not as big everywhere else. But like Gaṇeśa Utsava, Durgā Pūjā has also become a big, public and open expression of Hinduness. It arrives twice every year so it has an additional benefit. While just about thirty years ago one Durgā Pandal was set up only at certain places in the city, now every street has it.

The domino effect that Lokmanya Tilak started, by competitive festival celebration, doesn’t show any sign of stopping and is increasing year by year. While Dussehra celebrations of Kullu and Mysore were historically famous due to royal Hindu patronage, more and more Hindu communities now burn Rāvaṇa effigies all over India. Ratha Yātrā of Puri has always been very famous but many other temples all over south India had also been celebrating festivals involving ratha-s. However, in the recent decades most Hindu communities in north India have also started celebrating ratha yātrā by imitating the celebrations at Puri, bringing Jagannātha to every street. The Ratha Yātrā organizers in these communities invite every member of the society to pull the ratha and their beloved Jagannātha. The ratha does a round of the entire community. Those who cannot come down and participate throw flowers from their balconies. Every Hindu is included in celebrating the lord.

'''Holi, Raksha Bandhan and Karva Chauth meanwhile are becoming more popular in the south. In short, public occasions for Hindus to gather in public celebration of Hindu festivals, gods and śubha nakṣatra-s are increasing every passing year.'''

Festivals are the last stand of a culture. The secular state seeks to relegate dharma and culture to the private chambers of a home, discouraging all public expressions of it and ultimately seeks a complete abrogation of the public display of all things that are religious or dhārmika. Three generations of secular education has created a generation of deracinated Hindus who are no longer informed of what constitutes being Hindu. It is only during these public festivities that we still feel Hindu and celebrate it. We need to encourage these occasions as much as possible.

==== Towards a Dharma-centric Polity ====
It all started in our times with the saṅkalpa of Lokmanya Tilak. But we also need to pay attention of why his saṅkalpa became so supremely successful. He sought to infuse political life with dharma and not the other way around. He did not seek to politicize dharma, but infuse politics with dharma, while not compromising on any dhārmika principle. He used politics (through Gaṇeśa Utsava Samitis) to further dharma, and not dharma to further politics like many politicians do. This is why Lokmanya Tilak became so immensely successful and all Hindus should be thankful to him by magnifying this trend manifold and in many ways.

As dharma disappears from daily personal life, and from specific regions, it is these universalized Hindu festivals which are capable of bringing dharma back again at the center. As temples become the primary vehicle of Hindu regeneration all over Bhāratavarṣa, but particularly in the south, these universalized mobile and timely festivals can become the Hindu regenerators in the north.

Though both festivals and temples are important for every region in Bhāratavarṣa, different regions can choose different catalysts for cultural regeneration. These universalized festivals bring the mārgīya and desīya together by pegging the spirit of all these celebrations to the Hindu identity and Sanātana paramparā and yet catering to regional nuances and cultural trends. If this continues, it will move Bhāratavarṣa towards a dharma-centric polity.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Hindu Family Under Siege : SC Verdict on Property Rights to Invalid Children

2026-10-21T06:33:09Z

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Recently, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court (SC) of India consisting of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra gave a verdict in the ''Revanasiddappa and Anr v. Mallikarjun and Ors'' case that pertains to Hindu Marriage Act and Hindu Succession Act. Such cases should concern any conscientious Hindu as after losing hold of much of their institutional power in the last thousand years of colonization, i.e., secular state, desecration and government control of temples, atrocity literature against Hindu community ( varṇāśrama and jāti system), etc. the institution of family is the last bastion still standing. This last fort of Hindu civilization is now under siege. Institutions preserve and systematically propagate knowledge systems. Unfortunately, this case has missed the critical scrutiny of Hindu intellectuals despite the popular perception that Hindu awareness is on the ascendency. Let us understand the case at hand before analyzing the impacts.

The above bench of SC of India under CJI DY Chandrachud “ruled that children born out of void or voidable marriages can claim a right in their parents’ ancestral property in joint Hindu families following the Mitakshara system of law.”<ref><bdi>Child of void/voidable marriage has right to parents' ancestral property in Hindu joint family: Supreme [https://www.barandbench.com/news/child-void-marriage-parents-ancestral-property-hindu-joint-family-supreme-court Court]</bdi></ref> One needs to understand a few legal terms here- void and voidable marriages under Hindu law, ancestral property, Hindu Undivided Family, Mitakshara law, and succession.

* Hindu law refers to laws governing Hindu marriage, divorce, succession and adoption.
* The Mitakshara system of law is legally followed in India except in West Bengal and Assam, where the Dayabhaga system is followed.
* Void marriages, under the Hindu Marriage Act, are those where a person marrying has a living spouse, the marriage ceremony is not conducted (legally or socially), the couple are sapindas (except in cases where local customs and usage allow it) or prohibited to be in the marriage relationship (for example siblings, except where custom and usage allows it), a partner marries when an appeal for his divorce is still pending and etc.

The void marriages mainly restrict bigamy (polygamy and polyandry) which is prohibited under the Hindu Marriage Act, and gives legal sanction to a few Hindu customs while protecting regional variations.

* Voidable marriages, under the Hindu Marriage Act, are those marriages that can be nullified by a decree of a court if a partner petitions. To understand simply, without getting to the complex legality involved, the grounds for such a nullification decree could be one of the partners was of unsound mind or suffering from a mental disorder at the time of marriage and hence incapable of consenting to marriage, impotency of a partner, being pregnant at the time of marriage by another male, etc.
* Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) - It refers to a group of people lineally descended from a common ancestor, including their wives.
* Ancestral property, as per Hindu law, refers to properties that have been inherited from forefathers beyond three generations. This means if a person inherits land or property from his grandfather (and it’s not a self-acquired property of the grandfather), it would be classified as ancestral.

As per Hindu Law, every member of the Hindu Undivided Family enjoys coparcenary rights. Simply, all persons including wives and daughters have legal rights over ancestral property by birth or marriage in HUF.

Returning to the Supreme Court’s verdict. The status quo before the verdict was

# Children born out of void or voidable marriages would have no share in ancestral property as they are legally invalid children of the Hindu Undivided Family.
# However, the Hindu Succession Act grants them an equal share in only the self-acquired properties of their invalid parents. It considers them legitimate heirs for this purpose only. This has been done through successive amendments and judicial pronouncements.

The three-judge bench, led by CJI DY Chandrachud, has opined that since invalid children are considered legitimate heirs to self-acquired property of invalid parents, they would also have a share in the ancestral property from their parents (invalid) share. But they wouldn’t have coparcenary rights, i.e., they don’t have rights on ancestral property by birth. That would have impinged upon the rights of other members of HUF, let’s say uncles, aunts, cousins, step-brothers, step-sisters, and step-father or step-mother.

It’s important to note, that the word ''children'' does not mean minors here, it just refers to biological progeny who could be majors or minors.

This sounds like a fantastic progressive liberal verdict. It gives ancestral property rights to children born from invalid marriages. For, what is the mistake of the children for being invalid legally! From a conservative perspective, the mistake, if any, lies with the biological parents for their uncontrolled desires.

But a Hindu mind is beyond the binaries of progressive liberals or conservatives. Let’s explore.

* The verdict says that invalid children from void and voidable marriages are not coparcenary in the Hindu Undivided Family. They don’t have rights over ancestral property by birth as that would have made the marriage of their invalid parents legally valid. This would have contradicted a basic provision of the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, i.e., monogamy, since coparcenary rights can only be acquired through valid marriages and births from valid marriages.

The invalid children only have rights over their invalid parent’s share. They are now legitimate heirs of invalid, a.k.a. illegitimate marriages. So much for the dignity of an individual!

* But let’s say they now have rights only on their parent’s share. After the death of their invalid parent, they will get their share from their parent’s portion. But wouldn’t that impinge upon the property share of their step-brothers and sisters? However, this contention can be set aside as they already possess legitimacy under the Hindu Succession Act.
* Now let’s say a man has a girl-child from his legitimate marriage. He also has a male child from a void marriage. Now after his death, his share of ancestral property would be divided 50-50 between both. In this scenario, aren’t we impinging upon women’s property rights?

As per the feminist narrative, daughters of Hindu families were oppressed and suppressed for millennia, and only recently did they get an equal share in their parents’ properties. But this argument doesn’t hold ground since at an overall society level (all Hindu families collectively in this case) women’s rights may not be impinged as the probability of a child being male or female is equal. But given the new woke narrative that there is no absolute concept of gender, mathematics would even fail to predict which category of rights is upheld or takes precedence objectively.

* If the state has given rights to invalid children, why shouldn’t it give rights to invalid spouses, especially invalid wives? Surely this could be done in a similar way without granting coparcenary rights. Otherwise, as stated above, granting this to invalid spouses would go against the monogamy of the Hindu law. Anyways, just granting property share would champion the feminist argument of women’s rights.

But there is a catch here - '''CONSENT'''. The two adults must have entered into a sexual union with consent even though marriage is void. There is no state of innocence here, unlike the invalid children. Assuming consent takes precedence over women’s rights, this argument of granting property rights to an invalid wife could be dismissed. In cases of deceit, there are other legal avenues, such as pursuing charges for a false promise of marriage, kidnapping, or cheating. Mind you these are criminal laws of the state and they are ideally stricter in terms of punishment and retribution. But who cares about the false cases and the corresponding undertrials, abysmally low conviction rates, and the famous Sunny Deol dialogue from the Bollywood ‘tarik pe tarik’ referring to the extremely slow judicial system of India and the backlog of cases etc.!

But we talked about the Hindu mind, and a Hindu mind is never satisfied only with outer forms. It goes to the depth of things, dispassionately. Rather than succumbing to socio-political power structures, it employs power to serve knowledge, in its purest and highest form, even in the everyday aspects of life.

The purpose of putting different counterarguments was not to show that the verdict of the SC of India under CJI DY Chandrachud was incorrect and the status quo was right. The status quo was equally concerning, if not more.

Hindu law is now caught in a cobweb of rights-based framework and bureaucratic rationality- rules and regulations. How can various rights be reconciled when they come into conflict? For this, a system should have a stable core, an all-encompassing principle that orders and harmonizes these clashes. Instead, we see new so-called progressive rights are created with mutations of critical theories- the duality of oppressed and oppressor. Men oppress women, families oppress individuals, parents oppress children, binary people oppress non-binaries, and so on. Every oppressed gets a right. To address these conflicting rights, the concept of intersectionality arises, identifying those most oppressed and affording them a broader array of rights. In the above case for the time period, the rights of innocence, read oppressed, now rests with the invalid children.

But a Hindu mind sees something else here. It observes all these as power struggles. The more institutions of the people, like family, are weakened the greater control the state has over you. The ideology of individualism is not liberating but rather a dependency on the deep state. The current hierarchies of rights and the surrounding bureaucratic legal frameworks are subject to change, fluid. They can interchange and be mobile tomorrow with freshly minted ideas of progressiveness.

For example, adultery was decriminalized by the SC of India<ref>Adultery law in India - [[wikipedia:Adultery_law_in_India|Wikipedia]]</ref> citing a man ''is not the owner of his wife''. This draws from the feminist ideology that the sexual freedom of women is a measure of women’s emancipation and society’s progressive status. Now what stops from granting coparcenary rights to an invalid wife from void marriage? What prevents the incorporation of bigamy, including polyandry and polygamy, into Hindu law? Or a stop-gap measure of having a single valid spouse and multiple invalid spouses with cris-cross of rights? In fact, if progressiveness is the yardstick then these are definitely future realities.

As stated, all these are power struggles to destroy the evolution of humans through institutions of family. You can read the previous two articles to understand the idea and institution of Hindu marriage.<ref>Marriage: Part 2 - Grihastha [https://en.alpha.ikswiki.in/index.php?title=Marriage%3A_Part_2_-_Grihastha_Ashrama Ashrama]</ref> This is not a conspiracy of a single man or institution. When power doesn’t serve its true masters- knowledge in its pure and highest form, this is inevitable. It veers off course, leading to the breakdown of societal institutions and eventually humans as well.

What happens when power is cut off from this knowledge or wisdom and serves ideologies? It loses touch with the realities of human nature and society. It becomes a utopia. While the verdict reflects a keen legal analysis, is this workable? Let’s say tomorrow a man dies with an invalid child. Do you think the valid children of the man will just hand the corresponding ancestral property share to the invalid child, amicably? This is not to say the ordinary nature of humans is either evil or pure. But definitely, men and women are not machines. Nor is the Hindu society ordered with valid and void children and families. The verdict will lead to more civil suits, and litigations in a completely dysfunctional judicial system of India and push towards more community hostilities. Who benefits? The revenue administration and the police, lawyers, and so on- from every echelon of the society.

When power lacks wisdom, it becomes disconnected from the biological, psychological, and societal realities. It creates a disintegrating society and we call this corruption and blame government officials and judicial systems, as if they fall from the sky.

Such a power inevitably leads to totalitarianism. It has scant regard for contextual intelligence. Our rights-based framework is moving towards a totalitarian system. Progressiveness is becoming an intolerant ideology.

Whereas, Hindu law is dharma-driven. Dharma, contrary to some interpretations, isn’t sectarian. It is universal in its principles and wide in its implementation. It draws its first principles from a stable core of wisdom. But most importantly, it is contextual and harmonizing. It is based on basic human realities. Therefore, it is integral. A basic primer to understanding this is the integral yoga idea of svabhāva and svadharma, a person’s true inner nature and right law of action, respectively. This integrates the highest universal principle into contextual application thus harmonizing various conflicting things in the society. Its contextual awareness doesn’t create a utopia or totalitarian system.

Sri Aurobindo says in this regard- there is “one common universal Nature, but in each grade, form, energy, genus, species, individual creature she follows out a major Idea and minor ideas and principles of constant and complex variation that found both the permanent dharma of each and its temporary dharmas.”<ref>Swabhava and Swadharma - CWSA - Essays on the Gita - The Incarnate [https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/19/swabhava-and-swadharma Word]</ref> This flexibility of the universal nature or idea to transform its principle into different contexts, for example the institution of family in our case, into ideas and variations protects from fundamentalism, utopia or totalitarianism creeping into it. The microcosm mirrors the macrocosm, meaning the individual entities reflect the broader universe, maintaining a consistent foundational idea amidst diverse implementations. Hence there is replication of a stable core, despite the multiplicity of ideas in the society.

A Hindu law from this perspective is not reactionary or conservative, even, as that would strip off its harmonizing capability. Nor is it docile. It doesn’t ignore the sins and oppressions in the society. The solution is integral to various realities of humans and society instead of what it is offered by the present state. Dharma is a wisdom embedded system. It doesn’t ask for taking away an invalid child’s rights. Nor does it formulate solutions as the current verdict does.

An ideology that believes in a blank slate of mind at birth and a verdict drawing its essence from duality of mind and matter will only look at biological parents for owning up responsibility. So, the invalid children are slated to get a share from their biological parent’s portion only. This unstable scheme of things can be turned down any day with new ‘progressive’ theories of oppression, and then the innocence of invalid child would lose its primary status in intersectionality.

A Hindu mind sees oneness in multiplicity. Therefore, Hindu society or tribal societies, had a social fatherhood concept. A child doesn’t only have a biological father but also a social father(s), ritual initiation father(s), and so on. Perhaps those principles can solve this peculiar case of modern society. It is difficult for a modern mind to fathom the depth of such complex social structures, all drawing its essence from the spiritual principle of oneness.

In conclusion, today’s Hindu law is in disarray, and its intellectuals seem lost. Hindu law is now serving different ideologies- liberalism, conservatism, Marxism, feminism, wokeism, and so on. It is being kicked like a football by the power center(s). If there is anything Hindu in the Hindu law it is at least the word ‘Hindu’. Even this word may be replaced in the near future by the so-called flag bearers of Hindutva, given their fascination towards UCC (Uniform Civil Code) that it would not only solve internal issues of Hindu laws but also external threats to Hindu society like demographic change. Would the slumber end?

Authored by Abhisek Kumar Panda.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Origins of the BANI World : Case for Dharmika Cognitive Shift

2026-10-21T06:32:21Z

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==== The Frame for Discussion ====
Much has been written about the insurmountable challenges that the tide of modernity has brought along. Today we stand at a perpetual state where both the collective and the individual are on the verge of a breakdown. Leaders in public policy call this a multi-crisis where the individual is facing an endemic of loneliness and emptiness which is in turn fuelled by a culture of constant need for stimulation, a moral sanctioning of indulgence and a complete disregard for the macro-cosmos within which we are situated.

Be it poverty, environmental crisis or an imposition of alien narratives, there are a set of structures that place human desire and will above all else and seek to displace the human mind from the tradition and cultural context that provides it the stability and freedom that it seeks. Most of us are living in an autopilot mode of mindless consumption.

As we continue to seek newer, sustainable ways of relating to ourselves and the world, even as globalization and rapid developments in artificial intelligence continue to hijack our attention spans and intellectual abilities, we must also realize that we cannot wish any of this away.

We can examine yet another shift happening simultaneously across the globe. A rising movement towards solutions of ''‘yoga’'', ‘mindfulness’, ‘meditation’, etc based in the knowledge systems of the East, and more specifically, ''Bhārata''. While this may feel like a welcome change, it is not the entire truth. The Yogic tradition for instance is anchored in an entire metaphysics of ''Sāṃkhyan'' thought and has the goal of ''samādhi'' at its core. When viewed from an alien perspective, there is an utter and total distortion of the purpose of ''yoga'' itself.

The Western civilization is limited to the realms of the body and mind by virtue of the metaphysics it draws its views from. Therefore, Indic or Hindu systems of knowledge when assimilated or ‘digested’ into Western worldviews, are shred of their profundity and sacredness which defeats the very purpose of their existence. In such a scenario, what are the possible solutions we must look at? The intent of this article is to spawn a discussion in two directions:

# The need for a conscious shift away from the adoption of a foreign lens to look at our relationship with ourselves, the world, nature and Reality; and move towards accepting and re-cognizing the indigenous worldview that belongs to ''Bhāratavarṣa.''
# The criticality of retaining and reclaiming the essence of Indian civilizational thought and why it is pregnant with solutions to challenging global concerns.

With that, let us begin with an examination of our perception of the world.

==== Perception - Making Sense of the World ====
Every moment, we are being bombarded with stimuli of all kinds - visual, auditory, tactile and so on. There are objects that have many characteristics such as shape, texture, size, distance, dimensions, etc. But do we absorb everything or is our attention selective? Why do we choose to perceive a particular piece of information over another? The answer lies in the triad of '''sensation-perception-cognition.'''

Contemporary psychology defines '''sensation''' as the detection of external stimuli through sensory organs and the transmission of this information to the brain through neural impulses, while '''perception''' is defined as a meaning-making process of processing, organizing and interpreting sensory data (Pandit, 2022). Sensory input is raw, but is an active, dynamic process involving selection, organization and interpretation of such input, often informed by our experiences of the world (Baron & Mishra, 2016). '''Cognition''' will be examined in the next section.

Multiple psychologists have studied perceptual processes as a phenomenon for survival and adaptation in a complex and ever-changing environment. Each study concludes with its own understanding of how and why we perceive. Mostly, there is an agreement that perception happens in two ways - bottom-up and top-down.

In bottom-up processing, the brain is purely dependent on the sensory data it receives and systematically processes the characteristics of the stimuli. It is more analytical and takes reality as it is, into account. Top-down processing, on the other hand, is experience-guided. We react and respond to situations based on what we have learnt and encountered in the past. Most of the time, we engage in both types of processing quite dynamically to cope with the demands of life (Pandit, 2022, pg 93). On the other hand, Gestalt principles of perception show how our brain is wired to perceive shapes and patterns from incomplete and fragmented stimuli based on learning and experiences from the past.

These principles tell us that we have an innate tendency to look at things as a whole and to stitch together stories from individual units of data.This is significant because perception and meaning-making are influenced by the cultural context within which we are situated. Cultural experiences shape the stories we tell ourselves. As Pandit (2022) puts it, different cultures may have foregrounded and backgrounded different sensations.

For instance, Indian culture has developed as a civilization that pays greater attention to the larger, holistic picture while the West focuses on objects in isolation (Nisbett & Miyamoto, 2005). Nisbett’s theory suggests that Western culture incentivizes individual thinking while Indian/Asian culture places the collective above the individual. However, Indian culture envisions to also balance the collective and the individual effectively.

Another study by D.Sinha and R.C. Mishra (1997,2000) points out how two groups, one living in forests and villages and the other living in urban cities, perceived a set of pictorial representations differently based on their own cultural experiences.

In the Western worldview, perception is given utmost importance. Cognitive neuroscience and consciousness studies in the West are only beginning to touch a fraction of what lies beyond sensory perception. In the Indic worldview however, the ''Naiyāyikas'' have specifically focused on sensory perception and the fine qualities of sensations from thousands of years ago, confirming that sensation is quite real in its own context and right (Pandit, 2022, pg 104). Not only have the ''dārśanikās'' explored the finest of sensations but also moved beyond to enter the extra-sensory realms.

Perception is context-sensitive, rich and nuanced in Indian culture. Our ability to navigate complexity comfortably and retain an understanding of multiple layers of any given domain owes itself to an ancient, unbroken cultural tradition.

In the Indic worldview, specific types of pramāṇas outline the various means of valid perception. We also focus on the idea of '''perceptual error ''(bhrama).''''' The process of refining our subjectivity through continuous sādhanā helps eliminate perceptual errors over a period of time. It forms an important part of enhancing how we interact with ourselves and the world, therefore becoming a central construct to the Hindu worldview.

==== Cognition & Cognitive Shifts - Understanding and Changing the Ways We Think ====
Cognition can be understood as a broader term and a complex process involving various aspects such as perception, reasoning, decision-making, memory, problem-solving and other higher order mental processes. Language particularly forms a crucial part of cognition. We think and reason because we have a language in which to do so, and we also share our cognition with others through the same. (Baron & Mishra, 2016, pg 234-240).

Language not only allows for higher order cognition, but it is also the fundamental block of any living civilization. Some questions to think about - in which language does one think? How does one talk to oneself? How does language shape the way one responds to life situations?

Language, as a function of culture, helps us co-create meaning '''together'''. That does not mean to say that language is the only way to cognize. Visual and auditory imagery, such as images and musical tunes are equally essential in augmenting learning processes. Indian culture especially is rich, refined and sensually diverse in all areas - linguistic, visual and auditory learning processes (Pandit, 2022, pg 104).

Going back to cognition as a broader idea, the way we cognize the world, approach problems, make decisions, etc, is profoundly impacted by what we learn and what has been handed down to us by generations before us. As the field of hermeneutics suggests, ‘there is no understanding without pre-understanding” (Rao & Paranjpe, 2016).

We develop concepts, categories and representations of the processes and structures of the world based on what we learn and how we experience the world, both internally and externally. This makes up what we call “knowledge”. '''Knowledge is an amalgamation of continuously evolving experiences and ideas of conceptual structures''' (Pandit, 2022, pg 147-148).

Piaget, a well-known cognitive psychologist, states that our ways of knowing are constantly evolving through our lives. Moreover, we tend to develop cognitive structures or schemas based on views and concepts with which we strongly align or have coherent experience (Rao & Paranjpe, 2016).
'''The conceptual architecture of each knowledge system is shaped by the quest of the context it develops in. For example, ''Yoga'' as a knowledge system arose from experiential and metaphysical yearnings and embodied experiences of the ''ṛṣis''. If we try to decouple knowledge from the cultural context it rises in, we consciously or unconsciously tamper with deeper, layered meaning that it has carried forth comprehensively for generations. We then find ourselves in a state of cognitive dissonance, trying hard to make sense of what is being taught versus the lived reality, as is the case with most of us today.'''
To further elaborate, cognitive processes do not operate in a vacuum. They are attached to emotions and actions, the personal goals and inquiries of the individual, their values and their context. It is therefore essential to take into account the individual as well as their context as a whole, when we are trying to solve problems or address underlying cognitive errors and maladaptive patterns.

At this point we must remind ourselves that lifestyle can make us prone to cognitive errors and distortions. While culturally, we are taught certain patterns to adapt and even excel, certain life experiences may cause us to enter into maladaptive ways of thinking and functioning. How can we re-pattern, then? The Dhārmika tradition provides us with adaptive mechanisms to re-cognize the world and re-view our interactions with ourselves and others.

An example of this is the idea of ''vrata'', i.e. fast, abstinence or an intentional cessation of any regular action. When we observe a ''vrata'', we encourage ourselves to take a break from specific activities in mundane life where our energies leak the most, be it at the physical level of the body or mental level with thoughts. We are then encouraged to invest that time in conscious reflection and a refocusing of cognitive resources.

Today, however due to present lifestyles and world order, our senses are being hijacked and subjected to a constant flow of information. Our attention is no longer ours. This puts us at loggerheads with the natural order of things. Moreover, one cannot be content with the superficial for long.

At this stage, we posit that ''dhārmika'' cultural and wisdom traditions have sustainable solutions to the fundamental upheavals we are facing as a society today. What we need is not another upheaval, but a transformative cognitive shift or a cognitive reappraisal.

Cognitive shift, also known as a paradigm shift or a cognitive restructuring, refers to a significant change in an individual’s underlying beliefs, perspectives, or ways of thinking. Cognitive shifts occur in the following scenarios:

# Due to a discomfort experienced between the current cognitive framework and a substantial amount of challenging evidence from alternative perspectives and frameworks.
# Exposure to alternative ideas and cultural contexts which highlight limitations and biases in present ways of thinking.
# Deeply emotional and personal or lived experiences can disrupt existing frameworks, generate an existential cognitive dissonance and prompt people to evaluate and adopt sustainable alternatives.
# Constructive debates, social dialogues and reflective discussions.

A part of us is also awakening to the reality that there is a chasm between what has percolated into our educational and political institutions and what has authentically developed as an integral part of the Indian or the ''Bhāratīya'' civilization.

In the coming sections we examine the present view of reality we subscribe to as a community; how the underlying, deeper, contrasting civilizational structures lie in dormancy; and the growing need to rediscover a metaphysics, a worldview that is time-tested, indigenous and still very much alive.

==== The Western Ontological View of Reality ====
The Western understanding of reality is shaped by the religious, philosophical and scientific traditions of the Western civilization. It reflects the conflicts the West has undergone as a society, in terms of science and religion and their perspectives on nature, knowledge and humanity. It is imperative that examine the Western views of reality because post-colonial education, political philosophy and even psychology as a discipline in India draw from these traditions, further alienating us as Bhāratīyas from our own worldviews and traditions by placing a relatively contrasting system of knowledge at the center of national governance.

According to the Western worldview, reality is nothing but matter in motion. Rene Descartes’s theory posits a fundamental dualism between the mind and the body, which posits that mind and consciousness are derivatives of the physical processes of the brain. It is anthropocentric, in that it places man at the center and topmost level of creation. This idea encourages the intent to master and eventually exploit natural forces for the benefit of mankind.

Western understanding of reality is built upon the Enlightenment metaphysics which emerged as a movement in the 17th and 18th centuries, as a challenge to pre-existing religious doctrines. Enlightenment metaphysics favored rationality, empiricism and scientific inquiry, advocating the removal of theological influences and a separation between the church and the state. Ironically, however, certain theological views continue to underpin the collective endeavors of the West even today, man’s exploitations and a complete dominion over nature being one of those.

The principles of Western metaphysics adopt a materialistic stance where the physical world is the ultimate reality and it can be understood in units of material interactions. It emphasizes on the study of nature and human behavior through empirical observation and inquiry, and discards any notion of supernatural or altered states of consciousness and the idea of a Reality beyond the physical. There is no awareness or possibility of the existence of a subtle world, as in Indic thought. Time in this civilization is linear, it is a direct shot from the past to the future which in turn encourages structures that facilitate a culture of constant accomplishments and economic/technological advancements to be achieved in this very lifetime at the cost of everything else.

The West foregrounds meaning-making based purely on human rationality and reasoning, stating that true knowledge can be attained through logical deductions and observations rather than through metaphysical practices. Because it places the human being at the center, the worldview is individualistic and emphasizes notions of independence, uniqueness, identity, self-goals, indulgence as a means for securing fulfillment. We see this in the undeterred development of technology and AI which are double-edged swords, allowing for both efficiency and mass destruction.

Nisbett et al. (2001) have noted that Western and Asian cultures differ in the ways they think. The two approaches include profoundly different social relations, views about the nature of the world and characteristic thought processes. Western thought is analytic and focuses on objects and their attributes, uses universal laws that are deterministic and linear, and implies formal logic to examine happenings around us.

It subscribes to the idea of secularism where societal progress should be based on reasoning, ethics, and individual rights and liberties rather than theological doctrines. It has only recently been accepted that we are also emotional beings with subjects such as behavioral economics and advanced neurosciences coming into existence.

The Western culture places an emphasis upon the external world for the fulfillment of human desires as opposed to the Asian or Indian view where the idea of fulfillment is internal. While Western civilization itself is a recent phenomenon, its ideas and products have become pervasive.Western culture has imposed itself upon societies which are innately self-sustaining, holistic and collectivistic, destroying the mental and social fabric of such societies eventually.

Today, we are victims of the era of social and digital media, where our attention-span and ability to experience pleasure is in submission to a select number of technocrats who control global narratives and designs. They pander to individual whims and instant gratification, and constantly create personalized products, feeding into a cycle of rampant consumerism.

Indic thought provides an enduring worldview that challenges us to evaluate this existing system, while offering a sustainable solution to the global crisis. It is time we look inwards, towards the land of Bhāratavarṣa. It is time we look inwards, towards the land of ''Bhāratavarṣa''.

==== References ====

* Baron, R. A., & Mishra, G. (2016). ''Psychology - Indian Subcontinent Edition'' (5th ed.). Pearson.
* Deshpande, M. (1979). History, change, and permanence: A classical Indian perspective. In G. Krishna (Ed.), Contributions to South Asian studies 1 (pp. 1–28). Delhi: Oxford University Press
* Mishra, R. C. (1997). Cognition and cognitive development. In J. W. Berry, P. R. Dasen, & T. S. Saraswathi (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology, Vol. 2: Basic processes and human development (pp. 147–179). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
* Mishra, R. C. (2000). Perceptual, learning and memory processes. In J. Pandey (Ed.), Psychology in India revisited – Developments in the discipline, Vol. 1: Physiological foundations and human cognition (pp. 94–150). New Delhi: Sage.
* Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I., & Norenzayan, A. (2001). Culture and systems of thought: Holistic vs. analytic cognition. Psychological Review, 108, 291–310.
* Nisbett, R. S., & Miyamoto, Y. (2005). The influence of culture: holistic versus analytic perception. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 467–473.
* Pandit, S. A. (2022). ''Introduction to Psychology''. SAGE Publications.
* Rao, K.R., & Paranjpe, A. C. (2016). ''Psychology in the Indian Tradition''. Springer.
* Triandis, H. C. (1990). Cross-cultural studies of individualism and collectivism. In J. J. Berman (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, 1989 (pp. 41–133). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press

Authored by Lakshmi Sivaraman.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Health and Wellness Sciences]]

The root of Indic Environmentalism

2026-10-21T06:31:17Z

Admin: 1 revision imported

==== What Makes Humans Unique? ====
Is it our capacity for thought and emotions? While complex thought on this planet is indeed a human phenomenon developed through social contact, nearly every animal is capable of at least certain rudimentary emotions and intelligence in line with evolution.

Is it our industrious nature and dexterous attitude? Ants, bees and termites amongst others are far more industrious than humans relatively in their own lives.

Is it because we are God’s greatest creation and lord of everything below us? Being on a tiny dust speck rotating eliptically around an ordinary star in a far flung corner of the galaxy, we should not harbour such fraudulent theories in mind.

According to Hindu darśanas, the distinguishing faculty that humans possess is the faculty of Viveka: the ability to navigate Dharma while avoiding Adharma. Beyond ordinary thought, viveka is cultivated through śikśa, and this is the ability which advances one on the path of Mokśa. Any society that trusts in the liberation theory (Mokśa) as opposed to the salvation theory (Judgement), embodies '''two''' (non-exclusive) characteristics: It acknowledges the sacred unity of all life, emanating from the Parā (Ultimate source) and returning back to it. Secondly, it does not suffer from the delusion of an eternal material Hereafter, which licenses the abuse of the Here.

The Ṛṣis of Bhārata had laid down a 4-step framework of Puruśārtha, namely: Dharma, Artha, Kāma and Mokśa, based on which all human desires were sought to be harmoniously addressed. Although this framework was not the only option around, most other paths (Astika and Nastika) returned to this sustainable Vedic path on their own in due time, which is why this path was called Sanātana.<ref>Samskriti ke Chaar Adhyay by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar</ref>

After monopolistic ideologies started gaining ground in certain parts of West Asia two millennia ago, much of the world was slowly engulfed in a state of toxic ignorance called the Dark Ages. Its indoctrinating effect was total, and even when it diluted in Europe post their Renaissance, it left its imprint in various spheres. One such imprint was the reductionist approach incorporated into science. Ruthlessly shredding an object into its base ingredients so as to learn its inner workings was the hallmark of this approach, and this method took a heavy toll on our humanity.<blockquote>The effects of imposing this model (unlimited growth) on reality as a whole, human and social, are seen in the deterioration of the environment, but this is just one sign of a reductionism which affects every aspect of human and social life. We have to accept that technological products are not neutral, for they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities along the lines dictated by the interests of certain powerful groups. Decisions which may seem purely instrumental are in reality, decisions about the kind of society we want to build.<ref>On Hinduism: Reviews and Reflections by Ram Swarup</ref></blockquote>The resulting material advancement aggravated our thirst for knowledge, but we damaged the entire ecosystem in our misdirected quest.

==== The Dhārmika Way ====
<blockquote>We know everything because we begin by knowing ourselves.<ref>McDonald, C. (2015, June 15). How many Earths do we need? BBC News; BBC News.</ref></blockquote>The word environmental first originated in the 1920s, as part of the Nature vs Nurture debate on human nature’s origins. It acquired its ecological sense in 1972 when the adverse impact of human industry on the biosphere became apparent.<ref>Etymonline. (2022). Etymonline.com</ref> It was not so that humans were oblivious to the environment before, but the heady progress heralded by untempered science created a tunnel vision of utopia, which still persists. Environmentalism then came to denote the ideology advocating for restraint in the consumption of humans, and to preserve the biosphere. Still, development was viewed as a process of economic activity in which countries move from ''“traditional civilisations“'', through a transition of industrialisation towards ''“tertiary civilisations”'' in which service sectors dominate.<ref>Stueber, H., & Wurth, S. (n.d.). Service Economy Fallacy - Competitiveness of European economies faced with growing “Asian Powers.” Retrieved January 18, 2023</ref>

The motivation of this form of environmentalism is humanism and pragmatism. However, this is also the reason that it has been unable to capture the imagination of much of the population. A consumerist lifestyle marketed by endless allurements can easily overcome the will of the masses unchecked by any tradition. The shallow understanding of the Self, that of man’s conception as just a physical existence with no past or future, inevitably leads the individual to seek out the best gratifications available. YOLO.

In Bhārat, the idea of human nature has been conceived differently. Five sheaths form the human existence: The Annamaya Kośa (Physical body), the Pranamaya Kośa (Energy body), Manomaya Kośa (Mental body), Vijnanamaya Kośa (Wisdom body) and Ānandamaya Kośa (Bliss body).<ref>Yoga Ayush Ministry, & Yoga Ayush Ministry. (2022). Yoga. Ayush.gov.in</ref> These are higher truths of the human existence available for verification by enlightened beings. Harmony in all the kośas is the requirement for one to become established in the state of bliss, and any act of mindless violence towards self or the other hinders in its attainment. Having realised this, sages helped society banish the bane of anthropocentrism from the collective consciousness since long. Furthermore, the ideation of devatās as tattvas allowed formation of sacred bonds with the rest of nature like trees, animals, rivers and rocks.

Today however, Indians have been disconnected from these knowledge systems of their ancestors. An unsustainable mode of life has been advertised as the pursuit of happiness throughout the world, and projected as the culmination of human accomplishments (brilliantly caricatured by animator Steve Cutts in his short video here). Studies suggest that Humanity could sustain itself with just 80 percent of the planet’s current resources if every person lived like an Indian<ref>McDonald, C. (2015, June 15). How many Earths do we need? BBC News; BBC News.</ref>. But increasing affluence has turned the middle class and above Indians into consumers in the pattern of the West, which is a threat for the world.

With increasing number of people moving towards ever growing cycles of consumption, the finite resources on the planet face a severe strain. The need for food flattens forests to create arable land and the need for water desiccates soil leading to desertification. The debt on finite non renewable resources generated by mass opulence in the present has been thrust on the rest of the living creatures and onto the future generations of humans. The countries on the lower index of human development face the most pertinent risks of climate change, war and famines as resources get scarce. '''To rely on science alone to rectify this problem without behavioural change is beating around the bush.'''

Dharma, based on the Dhṛ dhātu implying ‘That which sustains’, prescribes the duties and responsibilities of the creatures based on their nature and dispositions. Humans, being capable of svadharma through viveka, must account for all life impacted whenever they start a project. In India that consciousness has been kept alive through various practices such as pūjā before every endeavour, alongwith pūjā of every tool used. This may appear unnecessary and irrational to the modern mind, but advancement without secularization has been very much possible (and desirable) as evidenced by civilizations of the past.

==== The Challenge ====
<blockquote>When productive capacity grew faster than consumer demand, there was very soon an excess of this capacity and hence, there were few profitable domestic investment outlets. Foreign investment was the only answer. But, insofar as the same problem existed in every industrialized capitalist country, such foreign investment was possible only if non-capitalist countries could be “civilized”, “Christianized”, and “uplifted” — that is, if their traditional institutions could be forcefully destroyed, and the people coercively brought under the domain of the “invisible hand” of market capitalism. So, imperialism was the only answer.<ref>History of economic thought by E.K Hunt</ref></blockquote>Modernity is like the churn of the ocean which produces many things, good and bad. The technological breakthroughs and the return of individual agency have undoubtedly benefited humanity. To prohibit it from reaching the unreached sections of the society would be a crime. But the deliberate injection of it into such sections, through denigration of their traditions and proclaiming modernity as the messiah must be checked. '''A commendable instance in this is the Indian government’s treatment of the Sentinelese tribe, who are left alone on their island as a State policy.'''

To respect the boundaries of nature and allow habitat space to other creatures, while veering humans off from the self destructive path is the challenge before environmentalism. The two pronged approach of infusing viveka through śikśa and checking the many factors which promote wanton consumption are needed. A quick look at marketing, planned obsolescence and mindless scaling can help analyse the consumerist issues we face as a collective and help devise solutions for that.

Seeing the unnatural alteration of landscape around us today in the form of mining, urbanisation, industrialization etc., we must objectively analyse the benefits and drawbacks of any project with respect to Life as a whole before embarking on it. Perhaps through a framework measuring harmony with Ṛta as opposed to using only GDP as a metric. Many villages in India still retain the principle of coexistence with nature amicably. More than their conservation efforts, lessons can be learnt from them on their ethics, and such must be tried to be replicated by people in their lives. An example of balancing modernity with environmentalism maybe seen in Japan, which has seamlessly tied infrastructure with natural beauty.

The real world challenges in the restoration of the dhārmika path are many, and the original factors which led to its loss through colonizations have only become more widespread and amplified with the passage of time. Therefore more than the State, it is for the people to temper their desires which arise with the accumulation of artha, and put it to use in the form of service to others. '''Living consciously is the true essence of Indic environmentalism.'''

Authored by Anshuman Panda.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Quantum Physics & The Upanishads : Discovering Interdisciplinary Dialogues

2026-10-21T06:07:02Z

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====== Introduction: Physics is Over? ======
Let us tell you a story. A story of confusion, geniuses, quantum physics, and a beautiful dialogue between the West and the East. A story that has modern-day Nobel Prize Winning scientists, and the eternality of the Upaniṣads. Ready to have your mind expanded and heart warmed? Let’s start.

William Thomson was a prominent 19th century British scientist. So prominent and influential that he became the first man of science to serve a term in the British House Of Lords. He was knighted by Queen Victoria for being one of the inventors of the transatlantic telegraph. He calculated the lowest possible temperature in the universe: -273.15°. A long and stellar list of achievements.

And yet, today he’s known for a failed prediction made in 1900: “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.”

The next century would bring the relativity of Albert Einstein, the strange findings of quantum physics, and the uncertainty principle. The prediction, for all of William Thomson’s talents, aged like milk instead of wine. Some say this quote was actually uttered by Albert Michelson – a man who was no less esteemed. In fact he was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. The point stands:
Western science, built on reason, made a shocking discovery in the 20th century that rocked it to its core. The discovery: Reality rests on a substrate of weird.

Werner Heisenberg, a German physicist and a Nobel Prize winner, wrote: “Can nature possibly be so absurd as it seemed to us in these atomic experiments?”

====== The Newest Meets the Oldest ======
Heisenberg discovered the uncertainty principle, which shows that the more precisely you measure the position of a particle, the less precisely you can measure its momentum. And vice versa. A strange case: the closer you look, the less you see. Science promises clarity, but when things get pushed to their extremes, it leaves us hanging. In his essay “The Vedantic Vision,” Schrödinger writes: “In a considerable number of cases logical thinking brings us up to a certain point and then leaves us in the lurch.”

Wait, why was Schrödinger, an Austrian physicist and another Nobel prize winner, reading the Vedānta? Because it helped him understand his strange findings in the quantum world. The western mind needed a “blood transfusion from eastern thought” – but those can be tricky. Schrödinger:“We must beware of blunders – Blood transfusions always need great precaution to prevent clotting. We don’t wish to lose the logical precision that our scientific thought has reached.” But in the Vedantic Vision he found a different yet compelling sort of logic.”

This is Schrödinger’s Vedantic Vision: “You can throw yourself flat on the ground, stretched out upon Mother Earth, with the certain conviction that you are one with her and she with you. You are as invulnerable as she is.” But how can a scientist believe that man is “invulnerable”?

We feel vulnerable as we think we’re separate from everyone and everything else. But Schrödinger says this thought is “produced by deception.” Just as the “many facets of a diamond” split the Sun into multiple images, “māyā” splits one life force into many different forms.

So much for the nature of the cosmos – let’s come down to Earth. And what’s more earthly than the emotion of love? But love too, for Schrödinger, was a mystical experience. While biologists were busy reducing everything, from motherly love to romantic lust, to a cocktail of chemicals, Schrödinger was elevating love to a quasi-religious experience in which the knots of the space-time fabric momentarily break free.

From his diary: <blockquote>“Love a girl with all your heart and kiss her on her mouth: then time will stand still & space will cease to exist.”</blockquote>Now here’s the interesting part – an ancient Indian text made a very similar point thousands of years ago. Note the striking similarity between Schrödinger’s diary entry and the following verse from Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad:
<blockquote>“In the same way as a man in the arms of a beloved woman knows nothing of the difference between the internal and external world, somebody who is immersed in the fully lucid ātman knows nothing of the difference between the internal and external world. He is in the blissful state wherein any desire is fulfilled (…) wherein there is no desire any longer.”</blockquote>

====== Consciousness: The Ultimate X Factor ======
The modern mind trusts the reality under microscopes. The ancient Hindu mind trusted the reality behind closed eyes. But what can consciousness turned on itself learn? Planck, a quantum physicist, would say: a lot. Here’s Planck on consciousness: <blockquote>“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”</blockquote>For Plank, faith was not the enemy of science. Rather, faith was integral to the health and success of science. Plank wrote that the “entrance to the gates of the temple of science” are etched with these words: “Ye must have faith.” The “pure rationalist” has no place in the scientific enterprise. Imagination, visions, and faith are “indispensable” to success in the realm of science.

Walter Moore, a 20th century biographer who wrote the “best book available today on the life and work of Schrödinger,” explains how quantum mechanics changed our picture of reality and made it more…vedāntika: <blockquote>“The unity and continuity of Vedānta are reflected in the unity and continuity of wave mechanics. In 1925, the world view of physics was a model of a great machine composed of separable interacting material particles. During the next few years, Schrödinger and Heisenberg and their followers created a universe based on superimposed inseparable waves of probability amplitudes. This new view would be entirely consistent with the vedāntika concept of All in One.”
</blockquote>

====== Conclusion ======
Dear reader, are you familiar with the Lindy Effect? Some things – most things – age in a linear fashion. The longer a human being has been around, the shorter his remaining expected lifespan. The same idea would apply to a mobile phone, a bridge, and a business. People age, processes decay, motivations disappear – and things fall apart. But the Lindy Effect has noticed that exceptions exist to this trend. For example: books. If a book has only been around for 10 years, who knows if it will be known 2000 years later? But if a book has been around for 2000 years, then we can be reasonably sure that 2000 years later people would still know about it. The older a book, the longer its remaining lifespan.

And the same could apply to ideas.
Now notice how, right at the cusp of modern science’s greatest triumph, Vedānta did not disappear like a superstition. It suddenly became more relevant than ever before – like a great and important truth. In conclusion, we submit to you: Vedānta is lindy.
Authored by Jash Dholani.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Science and Technology]]

The Mandapika Shrines of Morena

2026-10-16T08:12:18Z

Admin: 1 revision imported

The ancient Hindu temples of Morena do not date back to any one era. One can find temples from the earliest period of Hindu temple architecture in Morena till the 14th century—that is a period spanning around seven centuries.

It shows that Morena had a deep seated tradition of temple building which sustained over centuries, despite many odds. The seventh century mandapika shrines of Paroli and Indra ki Khiravali show that even in the earliest times, Morena was a great centre of temple architecture.

During the medieval ages, much of north India was laid to waste by Islamic invaders. The Hindu temple was the first casualty whenever an Islamic army attacked. Many ancient temples of Morena survived due to their remote location and due to the fact that no Islamic king could rule long enough to sponsor repeated waves of destruction.

==== Islamic Attacks against the Hindu Temple as an Institution ====
This did not mean that the attacks did not affect the institution of the Hindu temple at all. Hindus, like most other deity worshippers did not worship a desecrated murti. Therefore, the first focus of all Islamic attackers was to deface the idols by chipping away a nose, a leg, or a hand. More comprehensive destruction happened in cases where the Islamic rulers stayed for longer durations. Also, in those days, there was no dynamite to blow up the entire place up in a single shot. In most of the raids in or around Morena, disfiguring and desecrating were the only things the invaders could do.

As a result, even those temples that did survive in most of India were desecrated and hence were abandoned by Hindu worshippers. This is also the reason that most Hindu pilgrimages that survive in modern times do not have ancient buildings. They are comparatively very recent structures, some not older than a hundred years.

This accounts for the dichotomy in Hindu temples in India. The really beautiful and ancient temples are not in worship anymore. They are abandoned, lying in ruins in jungles and obscure places, off the beaten path. The temples that are famous and working are all virtually new.

==== Nature of an Islamic Invasion ====
Morena also witnessed this Islamic wave of destruction, desecration and defacing of its murtis and statues. Hence, most of these temples were abandoned by the Hindus over time.

The second reason for abandoning these temples was that they were the primary focus for any Islamic invader. When Muslim invaders attacked, they not only defaced the temples but also destroyed the villages nearby, massacred the Brahmins in the temples, and slaughtered cows inside the garbha-griha. Living near a great temple was as risky as living near a radioactive area would be now. People fled the temples in order to save themselves.

There was another reason for abandoning these temples. Hindus valued art greatly. Religious architecture in the form of the Hindu temple was an idea which not just the rulers of the country, but the populations cherished too.

Even while there was great risk in living near a great temple, many people, communities and entire villages chose to risk their lives in order to serve and save the temple. Many of these temples took decades to build. They were so alive in the memory of the local people that they could not imagine their lives without it. They looked at them not just with reverence, but with love. They cherished them as one would their child as they built it with great effort and resources.

One reason that they abandoned these temples was to save them from utter destruction. Many great temple sites were abandoned and hidden in jungles, under forest cover.

Some were covered by limestone like many Jain temples in Madhya Pradesh, including Muktagiri and the Great Kailash temple at Ellora, which used to be the original Ghrishneshwar.

In short, Hindus intentionally abandoned these sites in order to save them from total destruction. They intentionally forgot the very location of many of these sites, so that they became absolutely unapproachable for anyone, except some stray traveller.

==== Abandoned Temples of Morena ====
In Morena, one clue that this happened can be gleaned from the fact that even the local people of the region do not know these ancient temples as temples, or as ‘mandir’, the Hindi world for temple.

In case of the mandapika shrines of Paroli, Morena, they are known by the names of ‘gadhis’, or the place where something is sculpted into the stone. They generally have a bad name as it is believed that going to these places brings back luck. Some say that because they host erotic sculpture, families should not go there.

It is possible that this trend started to save these temples from destruction and later on revive them.

Many Jain temples have been revived in the modern age, during the British era and even after independence when the immediate danger of Islamic destruction waned. Khajuraho was also intentionally hidden, and despite being such a huge site, missed the eye of the Islamic invader.

==== Mandapika Shrines at Morena ====
This maybe the reason that the mandapika shrines at Paroli and Indra ki Khiravali survived.

Mandapika shrines are one of the earliest Hindu temples, some predating the Gupta temples, such as the famous one at Deogarh, with the first shikhara.

However, they even existed when the shikhara had been invented. The mandapika shrines are a common feature of Central India and persisted well into the early Kachhapaghata period in the late 10th century.

Michael Meister describes a mandapika shrine as: “a pillared pavilion, the space between pillars filled by decorated slabs of stone.”[1]

A mandapika was the most rudimentary of Hindu temples. It was a simple pillared porch which was covered on three sides by carved stone slabs. As they were the first of the temples, there was no shikhara to top them.<blockquote>“…the initial conception, at least, is that of a simple pavilion with a flat vedi platform superstructure and not a tower. This group is typified, however, not by its superstructure but by its wall structure and mode of construction – and since the type persists in Central India as late as the early Kachhapaghata period (10th century) it is not surprising to see the nagara shikhara at times imposed upon it.” [Michael Meister, Construction and Conception: Mandapika Shrines of Central India]</blockquote>Paroli has four such shrines, two of them purportedly Vishnu temples. All of them are in a very dilapidated condition. Of one temple, only the doorjamb survives. The other three also just barely survive, with only two walls intact.

Like other typical mandapika shrines, the shrines at Paroli are square in plan. The porch, or the small mandapa, is two-pillared. The bhitti, or the base is square in plan. The pillars of the wall stand on a broad stone slab. These pillars support plain lintels which form a simple roof.

The bhadra projections between the pillars have both tall and short niches which have figures of deities carved in them, sometimes in high relief, but mostly in medium and low relief.

Only the doorjamb of Temple No. 4 at Paroli survives, but the doorjamb is monumental. Its pillars have three tiers of figures of deities, and Ganga and Yamuna, along with her companions greet the devotee on left and right door jambs.

Another mandapika shrine is in the small village of Indra ki Khiravali. It is right by the side of the road. Its entrance is now blocked by thick bushes. However, one can see the three sides which have relatively survived intact, though the individual sculptures have been defaced by devout Muslims.

It is also based on a square plan and simple vedi roof with pillared porch and stone slabs in between, projecting with the bhadra niches full of Hindu deities. One can see Uma-Maheshwara in one of the bhadra niches.

There are more such temples in Suhania, Varahavali and Bhensora in the Morena district. However most of them are almost completely dilapidated. Others are so completely renovated that finding out much about their original plan and structure is hard.

The mandapika shrines of Morena prove that Hindu temples were introduced to Morena and the Chambal region from the earliest of times. The temples were small in scale and rudimentary in ground plan and structure. However, even 1400 years ago, the art of sculpture was extremely refined. The statues are creatively imagined and perfectly executed.

This shows that the Hindu temple did not just appear out of nowhere in the 4th or 5th century C.E. as claimed by some art historians. The philosophy behind Hindu architecture and sculpture was well in place even before the actual structural temples were started to be made. The aesthetic quality of the early shrines of Morena appear to support this claim.

==== NOTES AND REFERENCES ====
[1] Meister, Michael. “Construction and Conception: Mandapika Shrines of Central India” East and West. (New Series, Vol 26 – Nos. 3-4, September-December 1976).

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Morena: The Architectural Workshop of the Gurjara-Pratiharas

2026-10-16T08:12:04Z

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If there is one dynasty in north India which has left a lasting imprint on the architectural style of the region than any other, it is the Gurjara-Pratiharas.

Morena was no exception.

More than half of the great temples of Morena were built by the Gurjara-Pratiharas, or inspired by their architectural style.

==== The Great Laboratory of Naresar ====
There is a group of around 22 temples in the Naresar village in Morena district. These temples were built in the 8th century by Yashovarman and Amaraj of Kannauj. Albeit built by independent rulers, the architecture of these temples belongs to the Pratihara style, the dominant style of the region.

Hindu temple architecture witnessed great experimentation in the seventh century. The temples at Naresar exhibit the early stages of the nagara temples, with a precursory antarala, curvilinear shikhara and a square plan. The site also hosts the first example of the Valabhi shikhara in India.

Two of the earliest temples that are 1400 hundred years old have phamsana shikhara, (the pyramidal shikhara of successively decreasing pillars going up), popular in the early stages of Hindu temple architecture. They are similar to the Brahma temple at Khajuraho.[1]

Half of the temples are situated beside a lake and the other temples are approached by descending a flight of steps to a cliff overhanging the Naresar valley of Morena.

Most of these temples consist of a garbha-griha and a narrow antarala inside the doorway. Some of the temples have the peculiar plan of a pancharatha jangha and triratha shikhara.[2]

The jangha of the temples contains bhadra niches in pilasters and pediments. The doorways are the features to be marvelled at. The figures of Ganga and Yamuna along with chhatradharinis flank both sides of the door while other deities, surasundaris are on the three niches on both of the two pillars. The lintel sometimes displays the saptamatrikas and Ganesha, and sometimes other deities. The main deity of the temple is generally carved in a central udgama niche on the lintel.

Naresar is such a wonderful site of Hindu architecture that it should be on the map of every enthusiast of Hindu architecture as well as the pilgrim or the average tourist.

However, as we remarked earlier in the series, the lamentable fact is that it is almost completely lost to the outside world. It is one of the hardest temple sites in Morena to visit, despite being just five kilometres from the main road.

From the highway, one has to turn to a dusty unpaved lane, and go through fields for about two kilometres. Parking the vehicle in jungle, one has then to hike through two hills, cross the riverbed of a seasonal river, go through still more fields, then through a lake, before one stumbles upon the breathtaking site of Naresar overhanging a cliff, overlooking the Naresar valley in Morena.

And all this through dacoit-infested lands.

It is an immensely rewarding view and the temples are great works of art but except for a few courageous travellers, it is not possible to visit these sites. Unless the government builds better infrastructure, these sites will go to permanent ruin, as the mining activity in the area is already inflicting enough damage upon the temples.

==== The Bateshwar Group of Temples ====
The Bateshwar Group of Temples comprises about 44 temples spread over an area of 25 acres, built across the sloping hills at Bateshwar, Morena.

Most of the temples are dedicated to Shiva or Vishnu. They were built during 8th and 10th century C.E. by the Gurjara-Pratiharas. Most of them are built in the nagara style with a simple shikhara, no mandapa and a small precursor of antarala.

The nagara style shikhara is topped with an amalaka or two in some cases, and a pot finial at the top. The shikhara is triratha with a mesh of gavaksha arranged in a line, reaching up to the top. A minority of the temples have a simple mandapa with two pillars and no enclosing walls. The entire platform makes for a very impressive sight.

A scientific study of the temple reveals that the construction of the temples was carried on over centuries constantly, up to the 11th century A.D. It was then halted abruptly due to the Islamic invasions.

As a result, many temples are left unfinished and all of them are desecrated.

Situated in the ravines of Chambal, in the very remote areas surrounded by scrubland jungle, it still is a dangerous site to visit. Until a few years ago, the dacoits used to stay on the temple site. The area is now free of dacoits. In the midst of the temples, a stepped well is constructed, which still serves as a source of water.

The temples are constructed from the locally-quarried yellow sandstone with a reddish tinge. Juxtaposed to the red sandstone of the Jaipur region, the Chambal Valley is famous for the yellow-white and yellow-red sandstone, in which most of the monuments of the region are constructed.

Their colour lends a particular variety to their appearance, especially at the sunrise and the sunset, when the Sun’s rays fall upon them at a slanted angle.

At dawn and dusk the sunlight plays with their pristine jungle background and their yellow-reddish sandstone and produces a beautiful spectacle, most ancient in nature and divine in experience.

==== The Story of its Restoration ====
There is a curious story about how this site came to be restored.

K K Muhammad was working as the Superintending Archaeologist for ASI. He saw these temples for the first time in 2005. Then it was just a huge mound but the ASI team had begun the work of restoring the site.

However, there was a problem. No one was ready to go there since the area was infested the dacoits. In fact, the very temples were used by dacoits to camp at night.

One day, Muhammad ran into the dreaded dacoit Nirbhay Singh Gurjar. Working diplomatically, he opened rounds of talks with the dacoit, convincing him that it was his great ancestors who had built these marvellous temples. The dacoit was pacified then and agreed to let the workers of ASI and tourists come there in peace.[3] The dacoits even protected the ASI team and the tourists who visited the temple.

==== The Great Dynasty of the Gurjara-Pratiharas ====
The Gurjara-Pratiharas, also known as the Pratihara Empire, ruled much of Northern India from the mid-7th to the 11th century.

Prithviraj Raso, the imperial legend of the dynasty tells us that the dynasty descended from the ‘Agnikula’ clan of the Rajputs. The royal dynasty derived their origin from a Yagna Kunda at Mount Abu.

One branch of the dynasty was founded in Rajasthan in 550 C.E. Its founder was Harichandra who was based in Bhinmal. His line later founded the state of Marwar who later built the famous temples of Osian.

The dynasty rose in prominence by gaining a reputation for repelling the Arab Islamic invasions.

Nagabhata I (730-756) was the great ruler who founded the Gurjara dynasty, based in Avanti, or the modern day Ujjain. He ruled Gwalior and its fort on which the modern Tomara fort is built. He also ruled the regions in and around Morena.

In the famous Battle of Rajasthan (738 C.E.), he led an alliance of many regional dynasties and routed the Arabs. Islam had already set roots in Sindh and was trying to get inside mainland India, but while it became instantly victorious in Anatolia, North Africa and southern Europe, India was a tough nut to crack mainly due to the resistance given by the Gurjara-Pratiharas.[4]

The Gurjara-Pratihara rulers were great patrons of art and commissioned thousands of Hindu temples over the vast realms that they ruled. They also rebuilt the temples that were destroyed in the barbarian attacks of the Islamic invaders in early medieval era.

Nagabhatta II (800-833) checked Muslim attacks in the west again. He rebuilt the great Somnath temple in Gujarat which had been destroyed by the Islamic invaders earlier. He also conquered Kanyakubja (Kannauj) and during his reign, it became the capital of the great dynasty. During the reign of Mahendrapala I (890-910), the realm of the dynasty had grown from the border of Sindh in the west to Assam in the east.

In the tenth century, due to several reasons, the dynasty broke up into the Paramaras of Malwa, the Chandellas of Bundelkhand, the Kalachuris of Mahakoshal, the Solankis of Rajasthan and the Kachhapaghatas of Gwalior, who ruled Morena and the Chambal region.

These dynasties commissioned the next wave of Hindu temples, bigger and more beautiful than their earlier counterparts. The Kachhapaghatas built great temples in the Chambal region, which will be the subject of the next article in this series.

The historian and scholar par excellence, R. C. Majumadar, clarifying the role of the Gurjara-Pratiharas in Indian history has observed:

“The Gurjara Pratihara Empire which continued in full glory for nearly a century, was the last great empire in Northern India before the Muslim conquest. This honour is accorded to the empire of Harsha by many historians of repute, but without any real justification, for the Pratihara Empire was probably larger, certainly not less in extent, rivalled the Gupta Empire and brought political unity and its attendant blessings upon a large part of Northern India. But its chief credit lies in its successful resistance to the foreign invasions from the west, from the days of Junaid. This was frankly recognised by the Arab writers themselves.”

The primary contribution of the Gurjara-Pratiharas was to hold the Islamic attackers at bay for more than three hundred years. They saved the Hindus from staggering misery, saved countless number of temples and built thousands of others.

Without the Gurjara-Pratiharas, the entire history of India might have been wholly different. This played a great role in ensuring that India remained Hindu.

==== References ====
[1] Saxena, Pankaj. Morena: An Architectural Wonder. New Delhi: Samvad Media, 2015. p. 78-86.

[2] Willis and Maroo. The Chambal Valley: A Heritage Treasure. Delhi: Bookwelll, 2010. p. 108.

[3] Subramanian, T.S. “Restored Glory”. Frontline, Volume 27 – Issue 02. (16–29 Jan 2010)

[4] R.C. Majumdar (general editor) and A.D. Pusalker (assistant editor). The History and Culture of the Indian People. Vol. 4. The Age of Imperial Kannauj. Bombay [Mumbai], Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1951.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Kachhapaghata Wonders of Morena

2026-10-16T08:11:51Z

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Morena witnessed the last great bout of temple-building activity in the Kachhapaghata Era, lasting from late 10th century to late 12th century C.E.

The tradition of building great temples in Morena under the Gurjara-Pratiharas was preserved when the region came to be ruled by the Kachhapaghatas.

They were a regional dynasty who had accepted the vassalage of the Gurjara-Pratiharas. However, the Pratiharas were weakening in the 10th century C.E. Many regional vassals found it appropriate to declare independence. The Kachhapaghatas were one of these dynasties.

==== The Kachhapaghata Dynasty ====
The dynasty began with Kachhapaghata Lakshmana (950-975 C.E.) but it only came to real power when his successor Vajradamana (975-1000 C.E.) defeated the ruler of Kannauj, in 972 C.E.

The Sanskrit inscription at the magnificent Sahasra-Bahu temple at Gwalior attributes this victory of the Kachhapaghatas over the ruler of Kannauj.[1]

The Kachhapaghatas ruled from Gwalior. Their sister branches later ruled from Sihoniya in Morena, Dubkund in Sheopur and Narwar in Shivpuri.

Their reign in the Morena and Gwalior-Chambal region extended over more than two centuries, starting from 975 C.E. to till the end of the 12th century.

From the vantage of Indian history, they were a small kingdom, almost unknown outside their sphere of influence. However, to a student of Hindu architecture, the contribution of the Kachhapaghata is as great as that of the Hoysalas in Karnataka, or the Kakatiyas in the Telangana.

Building a great temple was a definite way to inscribe one’s name in the annals of history and hence the rulers outpaced each other in building great temples.

==== Kakanmath Shiva Temple, Sihonia ====
One of the greatest architectural wonders of Morena is the Kakanmath Shiva Temple, situated near the village of Sihonia (derived from the ancient ‘Simhapaniya’).

Built by Kirtiraja Kachhapaghata in 1015 C.E. in the style of the Khajuraho group of temples, it is a marvel to behold. It is more than 150 feet in height; and its mandapa has two stories. The temple has mukhamandapa, ardhamandapa and mahamandapa after which there are the antarala and the garbha-griha.

The temple has a very high plinth, approached by a flight of steps. Another flight of steps leads to the mukhamandapa of the temple which then leads to other mandapas.

The mahamandapa is marked by its two stories. All of these features accentuate the vertical profile of the temple, conforming to the idea of the Hindu temple as Mount Meru.

The hypostyle pillars of the mahamandapa extend around the garbha-griha of the temple, forming a partially enclosed pradakshina patha (ambulatory passage). On the three sides of the walls of the garbha-griha there are gavaksha udgama with ratha niches containing deities.

All of these beautiful sculptures, almost without exception, are in ruin, victims of the fury of the devout Muslim invaders.

Even in its ruined condition, it reflects the majesty it must have exuded before it was destroyed by the Islamic invaders.

Kakanmath was destroyed by the armies of Aibak and Illtutmish in the 13th century.

In the Mughal period too, this region suffered the rage of Islamic iconoclasm. It also suffered several setbacks during this era, but the basic structure has survived.

Another wave of iconoclastic fury swept over the region under the reign of the later Mughals, particularly Aurangzeb. During the 19th century, the Kakanmath temple fell to neglect and obscurity. It was only in the 20th century that it was reclaimed as Indian heritage.

==== Chausath Yogini Temple, Mitavli ====
Chausath Yogini Temple, Mitavli in Morena is one of the rarest of Hindu temples in India. Its plan is circular and it is dedicated to the Tantric sect of Chausath Yogini.

Most of the Hindu temples are based on a square or rectangular plan. Circular temples are very rare.

It is said that the design of Indian Parliament is inspired by this temple in Morena.

It is also a very rare temple as there are only about a dozen Chausath Yogini temples in India. A Yogini in Tantra means a practitioner of Yoga, who has controlled her desires and reached a higher stage of spiritual evolution.

The Yoginis are related to the Matrikas and are basically various manifestations of the Divine Goddess Durga. This association with various forms of Durga gave rise to the sect of Chausath (64) Yoginis over time.

The Ekateshwar Chausath Yogini temple of Morena has an outer circle of 64 subsidiary shrines of Shiva with a central shrine of the Yogini. According to an inscription, it was built by King Devapala of the Pala dynasty of Bengal in 9th century in the Pratihara style. However, some claim that it was built by the Kachhapaghata dynasty itself.

==== Shiva Temple, Padavali ====
Padavali is a small village, about two kilometres away from the great site of the Bateshwar Group of Temples.

A fort named Garhi Padavali was in use even as late as 19th century C.E. Inside the fort, there are remains of an ancient Shiva Temple, built by the Kachhapaghata dynasty in 10th century C.E. In its sculptural richness, it rivals even the Khajuraho Group of Monuments.

The Shiva temple was originally built on a high adhisthana with a mukhamandapa, ardhamandapa, mahamandapa and the garbha-griha. [120, Willis and Maroo]

The garbha-griha has now completely disappeared. It was destroyed during the ravages of the Sultanate Period, then under the Mughals. Many of the statues are defaced, as their frank expression of sexuality would have offended the devout sensibilities of the invading Muslim among other things.

This temple is one of the most ornately decorated of the temples in the region. Its pillars are exquisite and every inch of the interior is decorated. Many of the sculpted scenes are erotic in nature.

The most astonishing and the most endearing part of the mandapa is its ceiling. It is carved in exquisite detail and the carvings are pervasive. Many of the friezes depict scenes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas. “The story of Rama with Kausalya, Rama with Vishwamitra, Sugriva, the birth scenes of Krishna, events like the killing of the demon Putana, Sakata Bhanga, Dhenuka-vadha etc. are also depicted.” [120, Willis and Maroo]

Also depicted on the ceiling and pillars of the mahamandapa are the scenes of guru-shishya and surasundaris. The temple is dated at 10th century C.E. Profusely sculpted, it is one of the glories of the Morena district.

The remains of the temple were used by the Islamic invaders to build the fort. Temple remains lie scattered around everywhere in the temple precincts, yet another symbol of the destruction during the Islamic invasions in north India.

==== Temples at Ainti ====
Another 12th century Kachhapaghata temple is located in the village of Ainti, a Surya temple.

Although in the garbha-griha we can see a Shiva Lingam, the defaced statue at the lalat bimba (lintel) of the doorway depicts Surya riding through the sky in his chariot in all glory. He is flanked by the sculptures of Uma Maheshwara. This clarifies the fact that it is a Surya temple and not a Shiva Temple.

In the middle ages, it was destroyed by Islamic invaders in a brutal raid. The artists and artisans were all killed or starved to death, and some fled to safer regions. Therefore, there was no one skilled enough to reinstall a replacement idol of Surya.

A Shiva Lingam on the other hand is relatively easy to sculpt and hence the poor and simple villagers installed a Shiva Lingam to preserve the continuity of worship.

There is also a Vishnu Temple in Ainti. It is built on a pancharatha plan and is exquisitely carved with Hindu deities, animals and flower friezes and erotic sculpture. It has a large-pillared mandapa, which is still extant.

These Kachhapaghata temples of Morena are its greatest heritage. An important point to notice about the location of these temples is that all of them are now either very small villages or completely uninhabited, amidst woods.

This defies a commonly-held belief that the medieval kings must have built huge temples in the middle of forests. As the records suggest too, these places were great towns and cities in their heydays.

The repeated Islamic invasions forced the populations to abandon these cities altogether, accounting for their present isolated and remote locations.

==== Notes and References ====
[1] Willis and Maroo. The Chambal Valley: A Heritage Treasure. Delhi: Bookwelll, 2010.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Indic Vs Western Art: The Painter In The Painting - Part 2

2026-10-16T08:11:34Z

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==== ART RECEDES INTO THE EGO OF THE ARTIST ====
By the time of the Impressionists most of the creative ideas to tweak a painting had been exhausted. However, the Impressionists hit upon an amazing technique. They argued that from a distance, the vision is not clear and the objects blur into each other, giving an ‘impression’ of various objects. They argued that the artist has to create a scene as it ‘appears to the eye from a distance’ and not as it is.

The Impressionists argued that the painting should be made as it looks and thus there was no need for the boundaries to be clearly defined; there was no need to mix colors at the edges. They should be made fudgy by the artist himself. They used broad brush strokes and not well-defined boundaries in objects. These broad ‘unfinished looking’ strokes did not look very appealing from up close, but from afar they gave an impression of a complete landscape, hence the name. In this way, the artists argued, they were going for naturalism or realism in art.

Their remark on realism was predicated on the earlier religious art; particularly the chiaroscuro in which light surreptitiously and mysteriously illumined the subject of the painting. The artist did not pay attention to the source of the light. In an Impressionist painting, all this was kept in mind: the source of light, the texture of different objects seen from a distance.

In a way, the Impressionists were replicating as a scene would actually look rather than how it actually was. So even though they focused on realism, they were working upon the reality as perceived by the human eye and not as it really was.

Already the art was receding into the subjective realms of the individual artist. This subjective was not the subjective perspective which is the result of divine inspiration coming out of meditational trances, representing an aspect of the ultimate truth. This subjective was idiosyncratic and the strange of the individual ego of the artist thus concerned.

They were moving more towards the particular, even though they argued that they were coming nearer to realism. Undoubtedly they created some superb pieces. I love the soothing colors and dreamlike yet realistic landscapes that Monet created. However, Pandora’s Box of the individual artist had been open for a while now, and with every new step, the Universal was disappearing into the strange and the particular.

==== ON THE MERCY OF THE INDIVIDUAL MIND ====
After the Impressionists, the Expressionists argued that why stop at how the eye perceives it? Why not move over to how the mind perceives or imagines it? That is, they moved from the visual to the completely mental perception of art. And thus we have The Scream by Edvard Munch. Once again, Munch was an acclaimed artist, and even after all the chaos of ideas he produced some notable works. But the progress downhill continued and art kept degenerating into increasingly unrecognizable forms.

Fauvism that came after Impressionism argued that instead of the reality as perceived by either the ‘eye’ or the ‘mind’, an artist, a painter, has to completely focus on the ‘painterly qualities’ and become completely subjective, not at all caring what the reality is, looks like, or feels like. The only objective of the painter should be to experiment with his techniques and in a flamboyant manner. Henri Matisse is an example who still salvaged some remarkable portraits out of this, but it was all headed downhill.

==== HOW THE TOOLS TO CREATE GOOD ART WERE DESTROYED ====
Then came Abstract Art. Wassily Kandinsky, the grandfather of almost all modern abstract art and a massive influence on all art movements, declared that an artist has to be ‘completely free’. By which he meant that not only should the artist ‘break all boundaries’ in case of art, he should also break the boundaries in case of his craft too. Not only the ‘what’, but the ‘how’ of the art should also be changed. And thus we ended up with geometrical forms with no human or natural image in them: just haphazard semi-geometrical forms. One saving grace was that Kandinsky used soothing colors.

Then came two movements riding together: Surrealism and Dadaism. They often coincide with art installments and artists. Many artists were common in both. Together, they represent the very death of painting in the Western tradition. Salvador Dali created one immortal piece, The Persistence of Memory. That molten clock in the painting has become the stuff of legend. Except for this painting and one or two others by Dali, all else in Surrealism is a naked travesty of everything aesthetic, meaningful, and artistic.

Most of the Surrealistic paintings are nothing more than a horrible and horrifying mélange of human entrails, industrial scrap, pieces of turds, shards of the toilet, along with everything else that is ugly in the human imagination. In fact, the Surrealists went so far as to break all boundaries of the discipline of painting itself and most of their works are not called paintings, but ‘installations’ in which some part is painting-like, some is sculpture-like and some are the stuff of ugly horror movies.

The Dadaists put the last nail in the coffin by espousing nonsense and irrationality in art. They stood art on its head by embracing the ugly instead of the beautiful and the nonsensical instead of the meaningful. Hans Richter says that Dada was not art: it was ‘anti-art.’

They argued that it is the duty of the artist to keep ‘destroying stereotypes and boundaries’ and as everything that exists is stereotypical and has boundaries so everything has to be destroyed. Once in a live installation an ‘artist’ put some live goldfishes in a transparent mixer in front of a live audience and then turned on the mixer. The revolting mixture of blood and goo in the mixer was presented as art.

By this time not only was good artistic tradition destroyed: the very tools of creating good art were also destroyed. The ideology which dictated that there is no such thing as good or bad art, just art, also taught that there is no such thing as good or bad crafts, just crafts. It no longer mattered whether an ‘artist’ was skilled in his crafts, skilled in wielding his tools or not. He just needed to follow the right ideologies; follow the right artistic fashions of the Avante Garde movements of his time and he would be judged by these and these alone. Crafts no longer mattered.

==== TEACHING ‘ART’ AND NOT CRAFTS ====
A bitter result of this was seen in art schools all over the world. They stopped teaching crafts altogether. In traditional societies, all reputed artists worked as apprentices of great masters for years before they qualified to be called artists themselves. Thus an aspiring architect would just break stones for years with the hammer to fish out smaller pieces before the master actually handed him the finer chisels for sculpting. Any artist learned every step of the art that is involved in creating a final masterpiece.

This was what the traditional schools of art taught: crafts. The art they believed came from divine inspiration. What remained to be taught was how to handle the tools of the craft. In a classical reversal of roles, modern schools of art do not at all focus on teaching the crafts or tools of creating art. They consider it plebian and beneath great artists. Judging someone based on his ‘skills’ is now considered elitist and bourgeois. What is actually taught is ‘art’, or the ideology that now goes by the name of art.

By the time of the Surrealists and Dadaists, the painting had died a horrible death. And it all started with one wrong step taken in the Renaissance: to introduce the artist in the art; to introduce the painter in the painting.

Once that had been done, individual innovations trumped traditional themes; strange triumphed over the universal and the archetypal, and idiosyncratic eccentricity triumphed over meditational poise. In the search of the ever new, the strange became the goal. And the strange kept becoming uglier and uglier till it was not only unrecognizable but also deeply revolting.

The artist had completely arrived in the art. And consequently, the art was dead.

==== REFERENCES ====
1. Coomaraswamy, A. K. Introduction to Indian Art. Munshiram Manoharlal, 1947. (2017 edn.)

2. Rao, S.K. Ramachandra. Encyclopedia of Indian Iconography: Hindus-Buddhism-Jainism. Indian Book Centre, 2003.

3. Welch, Evelyn. Art in Renaissance Italy 1350-1500. OUP, Oxford, 2000.

4. Kramrisch, Stella. The Hindu Temple. Motilal Banarsidas, 2015.

5. Thomas, Denis. The Age of the Impressionists. Chancellor Press, 1992.

6. Waldberg, Patrick. Surrealism (World of Art). Thames & Hudson, 1978.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Indic Vs Western Art: The Painter In The Painting - Part 1

2026-10-16T08:11:17Z

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Painting is perhaps the oldest form of art that has been with us since the Cro-Magnon man started making rock paintings. Some of the oldest are to be found in India too at Bhimbetka. In the classical era, we find rock murals in China, in Central Asia and paintings on pottery in ancient Greece. In India, there are rock paintings in many places in the south. The era matures with the illustrious age of the Thanjavur wall paintings which were done on walls of the Great Temple. In north India, many schools came into being, including Pahari, Kangra, and Rajasthani.

Apart from painting on a dedicated surface the art of painting actually found flavor in many other utilitarian arts. The various handloom centers all over India started weaving exquisite designs, patterns, and entire stories on to the handloom saris that they created. Thus were born the saree clusters of India. In the east, there was the Madhubani in Bihar, Baluchari in Bengal, and the Pattachitra in Odisha. In the west, there was Patola in Gujarat, Pochampally in Telangana. In the south, there was Kanjivaram in Tamil Nadu. Most of these sarees obviously meant for utility also sported dharmic themes like the scenes from the famous epics.

This aspect of art is also illuminating on another difference between traditional and modern art. In traditional societies, there was no strict division between ‘Art’ and ‘Utilitarian Objects’. Both came together in articles of daily use which were both beautiful and useful. That art should be seen as separate from usefulness was not a concept known to traditional societies.

They needed objects for daily use and had an eye for the aesthetic. Thus they made the objects of daily use attractive. In a traditional society there is no division between the worker and the artist, as Coomaraswamy says:

The thing to be made, then, is always something humanly useful. No rational being works for indefinite ends. If the artist makes a table, it is to put things on; if he makes an image, it is as a support for contemplation. There is no division of fine or useless from decorative and useful arts; the table is made to give intellectual pleasure as well as to support a weight, the image gives sensual, or as some prefer to call it, aesthetic pleasure at the same time that it provides support for contemplation. There is no caste division of the artist from the workman such as we are inured to in industrial societies… (Coomaraswamy 79-80)

==== DIVINE INSPIRATION VS. ARTISTIC INNOVATION ====
One thing which is common in all these schools is that the art piece is not signed. We know these paintings by the name of the schools in which they were made, but not by the name of the artist.

The artist is missing from these marvelous pieces of art. The ideal of the Indian artist was to conform to the rules laid down by the great masters and not to create something radically new. There were some differences owing to the local medium and idiom but the goal was to conform to the standards created by the jnanis and the rishis.

The canons of Hindu Iconography laid down in the various Agamas and the Puranas dictated the symbolism of diverse mudras (hand gestures) and ayudhas (weapons) and postures. This symbolism was not something that the artists themselves devised. This symbolism was not individual and not different in every case. This does not mean that the artist only had pre-set actions to follow. There was considerable freedom for the artist to choose the symbols that he wanted his piece to portray. There is much variety in Hindu sculpture all over India, but the artist seldom invented the symbols and meanings out of individual innovation.

There was no concept of individual artistic innovation. Instead, the Sanatana ethos had a concept of divine inspiration. It was believed that artists do not create something novel out of their own talent. Instead, a fresh interpretation of the Ultimate Truth dawns upon the artist as divine inspiration during meditation. These artists/ painters would meditate for hours while creating memorable works. It was only by meditating upon the object or the deity and by losing oneself in the object of meditation, by losing the agency of the artist itself, that the most acclaimed of art, the greatest of paintings were created.

==== THE BREAK IN THE RENAISSANCE ====
It was more or less the same in all ancient civilizations including ancient China, Japan, and Greece. It was only in the Renaissance that the painter starts featuring in the painting and for the first time, we have something peculiar: named art. For the first time, we can firmly attribute paintings to their masters. Thus we know that The Last Supper was the work of Da Vinci; The Academy of Raphael; and The Entombment of Christ of Caravaggio. For the first time, we know that the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted by Michelangelo.

In contrast, do we know who painted the ceiling and the upper parapets of the Great Temple in Thanjavur? Do we know who made the later paintings in the same temple? Do we know who painted the Kailashnathar Temple in Kanchipuram?

Similarly, artists came to be known for their techniques. Chiaroscuro, the technique of contrasting use of light and dark in illuminating the subject, is known to be invented and developed by Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio, later to be taken to new heights by Rembrandt. Brunelleschi and Masaccio are credited for inventing, studying and codifying the rules for incorporating perspective in painting. Rembrandt, for the first time, shockingly makes the common man his primary subject, largely abandoning the sacred in art.

At first, when the artist enters the art, there is a frenzy of innovation resulting in a plethora of different beautiful creations. I love Caravaggio, most of Michelangelo; the northern masters like Vandyke; and the landscape painting that became popular during the Northern Renaissance and which became the only forte of the British in art. The best art strikes a balance between the universal and the particular. The universal makes it meaningful and relatable to the audience, and the particular makes it interesting and peculiar to the said artist or school of art. A piece that is only universal has no originality in it and is at best a copy. And a piece which is completely particular has nothing relatable in it and becomes an incomprehensible piece that is meaningful only to the artist.

That is why there are only a definite number of radical innovations that can keep art arresting and relatable. This number of combinations starts running out very soon, once the artist enters the art. While creativity is endless, when the artist is determined to ‘create something new’ he is not just competing with his contemporaries but also with his predecessors. In a bid to introduce something new, his predecessors too had taken out one after another of the universal elements, till very few were left. The universal and the relatable at last are reduced to zero. What is left is particular and strange. This is when art stops meaning anything to the audience and becomes a strange and ugly piece, meaningful only to the artist.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Artist In The Art

2026-10-16T08:11:02Z

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==== The Mystery of the Nameless Art ====
One of the most enduring questions about ancient Indian art is: why is the art nameless? Where is the signature on the sculpture? The name of the architect on the temple? Where is the Artist in the Art?

The mystery of the nameless artist is not confined to India. Almost every traditional society before the Renaissance did not care about the individual artist. Most of the exquisite Greek sculpture is nameless. It begs the question that how could an artist who could create such exquisite art with such great finesse and such ability to transport the audience to other realms of existence, how could such an artist remain nameless?

Neither do we know the name of the architect who designed the Parthenon in Greece, nor the name of the one who designed the Colosseum in Rome. We never read the signature of the artists who painted the earthen pots in ancient Crete. We do not know the architects who built the pyramids or the artists who painted the inside of the tombs in Luxor.

Even when the name of the artist is remembered, it is remembered not for creating something new, but for retelling the same old story, for recreating the same old theme. The story or the theme itself is never new. The primary feature of traditional art was the repetition of universal truths and archetypal stories. The artists would not claim to make something ‘novel’ or ‘original’, but instead, play on the same old themes. The artist would make ‘name’, so to say, by confirming to the traditional and not by creating something new.

The greatest playwrights of ancient Greece whose work still survives are the trio of tragedians: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. In their plays, we do not see a difference in themes or stories. The stories are all the same. The difference is in treatment, in the presentation.

And these stories are none other than the classical myths of Greece. The dramatists were just redoing the classical myths for the contemporary audience. It was believed that there was ‘nothing new under the sky’; that there ‘can be no new story’, just a fresh rendering of the universal stories and classical archetypes, in the contemporary idiom. It was believed that the ancients had created, whatever was worth creating and the only job left for the later generations to come was to measure up to mark created by the ancient masters, by the gods themselves.

Greece was not alone in this regard. In India too, the greatest playwrights like Bhasa and Kalidasa re-enacted the classical stories already told in great epics. Thus Bhasa recreates many scenes of the Mahabharata. Kalidasa does the same with Shakuntala. There too, the point of the theatre is to render home the message already devised by the great Jnanis, the great saints who had written the epics, the Puranas, and the Agamas.

There was no pretense that the ‘artist’ can create something new. Novelty, where an individual claim of finding and creating something new was not something the Indian artist was familiar with. The greatest goal of the artist was to match up to the standard of the Jnanis. There was no concept of bettering it.

Sanskrit does not even have a separate word for ‘Art’. The word ‘Kala’ more closely translates to craft, but not art. Art as a unique creation of an individual with novelty is a European concept, which became established during the Renaissance.

This is well illustrated in the story of the Ramayana. The epic starts with Sage Valmiki witnessing an emotive scene in which two krauncha birds are making love. Just then a hunter comes and the male bird is shot down. Valmiki, overcome with emotion creates a verse in a unique meter, something which is itself marvelous for metres doesn’t come so easy. And yet, the story goes, Lord Brahma instantly appears and this is what he says: “Your mind did not create this shloka metre. I produced this eloquence in you.”

He then exhorts Valmiki to write the Ramayana in this metre. The point to be noted here is that even such an original creation as the invention of a metre was attributed to the inspiration of the Supreme Consciousness, of the Divine inspiration and not to individual creativity.

The goal of classical art was to take the artist out of the art. The art was supreme and the greatest art was created when the artist completely lost his personality in art; when he became indistinguishable from it. No doubt some individuals became famous, especially in the field of theatre, but that was despite the intention, not because of it. And it is not clear whether these ‘names’ which are now made famous are actually persons or just titles conferred on various individuals.

In the field of sculpture, architecture, and painting, this feature becomes even clearer. In Indian art, we are aware of no individual names of painters, sculptors, or architects. There is the archetypal ancestor like Vishwakarma, the deity who creates all, but no individual hands are known, the hands which were so adept as to create the wonders that are still to be seen in Ellora, Kanchipuram, Khajuraho, Konark or Modhera.

The greatest art was created when the artist disappeared from the art. The Art Instinct then took over and self-created a masterpiece.

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy mused over this peculiar quality of Indian art and frequently compared it to the concept of Art in the West.

“‘Art in India’ and ‘art’ in the modern world mean two very different things. In India, it is the statement of racial experience and serves the purposes of life, like daily bread. Indian art has always been produced in response to a demand: that kind of idealism which would glorify the artist who pursues a personal ideal of beauty and strives to express himself, and suffers or perishes for lack of patronage, would appear to Indian thought far more ridiculous or pitiable than heroic. The modern world, with its glorification of personality, produces works of genius and works of mediocrity following the peculiarities of individual artists: in India, the virtue or defect of any work is the virtue or defect of the race in that age. The names and peculiarities of individual artists, even if we could recover them would not enlighten us: nothing depends upon genius or requires the knowledge of individual for its interpretation.” (Coomaraswamy i)

'''This was the norm in all great civilizations: China, Japan, Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc. Traditional Art is oblivious to the Artist.'''

This does not mean that there was no recognition of the artist. The artist in his or her own life was very famous, well-recognized and extremely well-respected in his community; but he was famous not for creating something new, something ‘bearing his signature’, but for faithfully conforming to the traditional, for measuring up to the standards set by his ancestors. In Coomaraswamy’s words, he was known not for his ‘novelty’ but for his ‘vitality’, which sprung from his discipline and practice of meditation.

A modern example in traditional art is M. S. Subbulakshmi. She was immensely respected as a great legend. And her greatest pieces are the renderings of Sahsranams, Strotams, and Suprabhatams that were created by the great Jnanis. She was immensely respected, but not for creating something ‘of her own’, but for reenacting the classical and the traditional for a contemporary audience.

==== The Renaissance Introduces the Artist in the Art ====
The modern West abrogated this tradition for the first time and this started with the Renaissance itself. In the Renaissance, the artist enters the art, and thus you know a particular work by the name of the artist: Michelangelo, Raphael, Brunelleschi, Da Vinci, or Caravaggio.

As soon as the Artist enters the Art, the urge shifts from ‘reenacting the classical’ to ‘doing something new’. “In this kind of art, there is always a demand for novelty.” (Coomaraswamy 78) While the urge in the traditional society was to conform to the traditional, to the norm, the urge now was to ‘differentiate oneself from the ancestors as well as the contemporaries. At first, it resulted in a burst of creativity and Renaissance Art is wonderful.

But the introduction of the artist in the art, the introduction of ‘individual novelty’, is a slippery slope. Very soon the artists start running out of ideas to differentiate themselves from their ancestors and from their contemporaries. They start trying to become more and more strange and bizarre in a bid to become different. In a new motive, the strange becomes the new well.

By the time of the Impressionists, most of the novel ideas which could result in the creation of great art had been exhausted and by the Expressionist era, art starts ending up in dead ends. The new pieces of art are unrecognizable by the common people. The idea has become so complex, so bizarre, so strange and so opposite to all the established rules of aesthetics, that it is no longer possible to independently value and enjoy a piece of art. One has to be schooled into ‘enjoying the piece of art’.

This is a natural outcome of putting the Artist in the Art. As soon as a civilization tries it, things start going downhill and run into dead ends. And soon the Art is dead.

Art in the modern West is entire of this kind. It hinges on the individual and ‘individual novelty’. It is not known by the dominant culture, or the region or even nation. It is known only by the name of the individual. The artist is supreme in modern art. Coomaraswamy once again quips about this ‘individual artist’:

“Works of art have been thought of in two very different ways. According to the modern view the artist is a special or even abnormal kind of man, endowed with a peculiar emotional sensibility which enables him to see what we call a beauty; moved by a mysterious aesthetic urge he produces paintings, sculpture, poetry or music. These are regarded as a spectacle for the eyes or gratification for the ear; they can only be enjoyed by those who are called lovers of art and these are understood to be temperamentally related to the artist but without his technical ability.” (Coomaraswamy 78)

Indian Art stands on one end of this spectrum. It does not glorify the individual artist. Rather than investing in individual names it works for creating entire cultures with specific characteristics and it is these cultural characteristics which get reflected in the art as a collective imprint of the civilization.

The Indian artist does not search for novelty. He does not even look for beauty. He looks for truth instead. Whatever means he is working with and whatever piece he is ordered to work upon, he tries to create something which is capable of transporting the viewer to a higher plane of consciousness. The beauty is bound to be created during the course of the creation. Anything pointing towards supreme truth is bound to have an aesthetic value to it. The beauty is a byproduct, not the goal of the Indian artist.

==== Upon Introducing the Artist ====
The truth about Indian art and its namelessness have been expressed before, even though modern art critics choose not to mention it. What has not been studied so far is: what exactly happens when the artist is introduced in the art? This series of articles aims to trace the chain of events that take place once the artist is introduced in the art.

For in the modern West, starting from the High Renaissance, the Artist was introduced in the Art. What exactly happened and how it degenerated into today’s disaster of postmodern art will be explored through this series of articles.

This introduction and subsequent degeneration did not just happen in just one discipline of painting or sculpture. This was an overarching phenomenon, a civilizational change at the level of the collective consciousness of the culture, and it manifested throughout all the disciplines of art like painting, music, sculpture, architecture, literature. Not only this, the concept also changed the tradition of food fundamentally.

The subsequent series of articles will pursue one discipline at a time and will illustrate how the introduction of the artist destroyed art itself.

As a silver lining, the art without the artist is making a strange and unexpected comeback in the 21st century. The internet is facilitating it. The series will end with the article which will trace this new art without the artist.

==== REFERENCES: ====
1. Jain, Meenakshi. Rama and Ayodhya. Aryan Publishers, 2013.

2. Coomaraswamy, A. K. Introduction to Indian Art. Munshiram Manoharlal, 1947. (2017 edn.)

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Author in Literature Part 2

2026-10-16T08:10:45Z

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==== There is No New Story ====
While other disciplines of ancient art like sculpture, architecture, or painting seldom bore the name of the artist, literature is a discipline in which the creator’s name has been relatively more present. In Greece, the three greatest of the ancient playwrights – Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles – were all known by their names. The same was true about poets like Homer or Ovid.

In India the playwrights were famous by their names too, the most popular name being of course Kalidasa. About others like Bhasa no clear historical details are available. Some traditions say that there is little indication that they were persons or just honorific titles for a tradition or a sect.

In literature the artist disappeared not in name, but in content

Most of these Indian and Greet playwrights and poets did not claim to invent new stories and novel plots. They just took incidents out of the great epics or the great Puranic stories and played on a particular aspect in the contemporary idiom to enthrall their audience.

Kalidasa used the Mahabharata story as the plot of Abhijnana Shakuntalam. Similarly, Bhasa based six of his plays on the Mahabharata focusing on various different incidents of the Mahabharata, the most famous being Urubhanga where the killing of Duryodhana at the hands of Bheema is described in heart-rending detail. He also based three plays on the Ramayana. Bhavabhuti based his plays on the themes from the Ramayana too.

Post-Renaissance European literature was no different. Though playwrights were very famous by their own names, they seldom created their own stories, at least in the genre of tragedy. Most of the stories and plots of Shakespeare are picked from the classical myths. Similarly, the story of Faust is played on by various great playwrights.

Only in comedy, we see that the playwright was coming into full vogue. The comedies were considered lighter in vein, less serious, and less exalted, just like in ancient Greece and it is here that we see the imprint of the playwright slowly emerging. Though this was true of ancient Greece too and Aristophanes also created new ‘plots’ and ‘stories’ with his extremely irreverent comedies.

India had always steered clear of the very restricting division of comedy vs. tragedy that is the benchmark in Western classical literature. No true tragedies exist in Sanskrit theatre and till date Indians cannot comprehend the point of an absolute tragedy. Teaching by catharsis, the point of the Greek tragedy, is beyond the understanding of an Indian.

To come back to the point, even the pagan West understood that ‘there can be no new story under the sky’ and playwrights always played on the familiar themes to which everyone could identify with. Except for comedies there was no claim of ‘creating something new’. Only artistic expression was important. Even the comedies fed on making fun of some classical themes and rituals accepted upon by all.

It was commonly understood in India that retelling the classical story was neither plagiarism nor blind copying. Goswami Tulsidas has never been ‘condemned’ for his ‘lack of originality’. He took the classical story and not only did he tell it in the vernacular, but also added a fresh way of looking. He made the entire story more devotional. He took a story, relived it, and made it his own by meditation, my inner experience, and by divine contemplation. As Coomaraswamy says:<blockquote>“A copyright could not have been conceived where it was well understood that there can be no property in ideas, which are his who entertains them: whoever thus makes an idea his own is working originally, bringing forth from an immediate source within himself, regardless of how many times the same idea may have been expressed by others before or around him.” (Coomaraswamy 112-113)</blockquote>This was largely the trend in all traditional societies until the dawn of the modern West. The celebration of classical stories and archetypal myths came to an end in the West with the advent of a new medium – the novel.

==== The Introduction of the Author ====
By the eighteenth century, the novel emerged as a primary mode of literature in the West. And with the novel, the author is truly born. The novel, long-winding and detailed, focused not just on the heroic and the exemplary but also on the mundane and the banal. And it is precisely this focus on the mundane and the banal which made it famous.

With the proliferation of the printing press and the elevation of the secular life where literature was taken as a refined entertainment, the novel emerged as a means to entertain primarily the ladies of the higher class.

These petite women of the elite class were divested of the daily chores that the lower class was engaged in and had plenty of free time to acquire greater literary and artistic skills. Reading novels in those days was a means to do that: to gain skills and knowledge about the world.

This was not just true about Jane Austen but also about Charles Dickens. The working class seldom had the education, taste or money to indulge in such pleasures as reading a novel. And there was hardly a middle class in this era.

The Industrial Revolution was just starting. Novel reading was the exclusive realm of the elite. Unlike drama, the novel remained confined to the elite of the West.

On one hand these readers wanted to read about the life with which they were familiar with. This is why the novels of Jane Austen were that famous. On the other hand, they also wanted to know what was going on in the life of the less fortunate, the hoi polloi.

This is the reason that Charles Dickens was so famous in these circles. His stories about the seamier side of London; about the underbelly of the country, were something which entertained the elite too. It was only in later centuries that his works became more famous in the general public.

On the other side of the continent, the Russian salons of St. Petersburg would not be complete without reading or the discussion about The Captain’s Daughter or Eugene Onegin by their greatest poet Aleksandr Pushkin.

The environment was infectious. Growing up in balls and parties like this, Lev Tolstoy created some of the greatest gems: War and Peace and Anna Karenina. War and Peace are often claimed to be the greatest novel ever written if there can be such a list or comparison.

==== A Scene from War and Peace ====
These salons were mainly run by the most famous and prosperous women of the elite society of St. Petersburg. It was considered an obligation of the rich women to throw soirees, or parties of this kind where every influential personality from politics, arts, literature, and music would be invited.

In the pre-mass media, pre-mass publishing, and pre-internet era, these intellectual salons were the only places where young, poets, novelists, musicians, and artists could show off their talent. These salons made or broke artists and poets.

Getting invited to these ‘art scenes’ of the days was very important. The ladies who ran these salons may not necessarily be of great taste but they completed their social obligation in throwing off these soirees and inviting all the great artists of the day. These salons were known by the names of these ‘socialites’.

The poets, novelists, and artists visiting these balls and parties created some of the greatest works ever created analyzing human behavior in all its minutiae, both good and bad.

And even though their readership may be limited to one gender and to the elite during their times, they have given us gems which are quintessentially classical – independent of time and space. They are truly universal.

The breathtaking variety of aesthetic stories that the world had the luck to witness during the late half of the 18th and the 19th centuries is something to cherish. Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Chekhov, Turgenev, Poe, Melville, London, Twain, Proust, Flaubert, Maupassant, Saki, Akutagawa, etc. are just some of the very famous ones.

==== The Degeneration Sets In ====
Not before long, the most important stories were told. The national characters were written about. The stories were exhausted. The narratives had taken all the plausible twists that they could take. Nineteenth-century like much else in the West was the heyday of the novel.

Starting out at various times from early 18th century most of the great nations of the West: Britain, Russia, America, France, Germany, Italy, Spain etc. had exhausted themselves by the closing of the 19th century.

The early 20th century saw some great works, but the great literary flowering of the modern West was already on a decline.

V S Naipaul has remarked that much written cultures have their own problems. It is hard to find a ‘new theme’, a ‘new story’ in a culture which has produced giants like Austen and Dickens. One would do well to remember that in a classical world this would not be a problem as no author, dramatist or artist was under pressure to create ‘something new’.

The old stories had to be told in the new idiom. The universal archetypes had to be delivered in contemporary language. With the advent of the novel as the primary vehicle of literature in the 18th century, this had changed. With the focus on the banal and the mundane, the authors were after finding a new story. This led them to a race to find ever novel ways to entertain their audience.

The search soon degenerated into a search for the strange. Like in other disciplines, the good was replaced by the strange. The old stories had to be told in the new idiom. The universal archetypes had to be delivered in contemporary language. With the advent of the novel as the primary vehicle of literature in the 18th century this had changed. With the focus on the banal and the mundane, the authors were after finding a new story. This led them on a race to find ever novel ways to entertain their audience.

The search soon degenerated into a search for the strange. Like in other disciplines, the good was replaced by the strange. At first, the experiments were limited to the stories. Then the narrative style was experimented with too. At last even language was not left alone. Deconstruction is a process not stopped easily.

One reason for the crisis in literature was the advent of the cinema. The cinema had taken the wind out of both the theatre and the novel. The fast-moving plot of the cinema could hardly be matched in the theatre.

The action that could be shown in cinema was out of the question on a stage. And the emotions became subtler too. What took poets many pages to describe, for example, a great beautiful landscape, would be shown in five seconds without any words in cinema.

Thus the drama and the novel were left to do what the cinema couldn’t do. Even then they could have settled on their own if not for some postmodernist theories that started floating during the same decades.

For the 20th century saw the rise of post-modernism, post-structuralism, and deconstruction in which many universal props of the traditional novel and ancient theatre were destroyed. The post-modernists claimed that there is no objective truth and thus no good or bad.

As a result out went the hero and the heroism from the play and the novel. The deconstructionists claimed that the world is unreal and our eyes, our minds, and our senses lie to us. They also claimed that every story is a narrative presenting one point of view, none of which is correct and none of which can be conclusively proved wrong.

The traditional drama or the novel had a hero and a villain. Its author had very clear ideas about good and bad. The plot was central to the story, although not paramount. The language was refined and lofty. Uncertainty was occasional and little. There was a definite conclusion and a takeaway message.

The postmodern theories destroyed all of these conventions, breaking all of the legs on which a traditional drama or novel would stand. The result was the modern novel with no noble hero, not even a sympathetic common man, no clear idea of good or bad, no plot, no story, no chronology, and no definite conclusion or message.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Author in Literature Part 1

2026-10-16T08:10:30Z

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==== Deconstructing the Novel ====
One of the greatest ‘agents of change’, the foremost of avante garde writers of the early 20th century was James Joyce. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest literary minds ever born. Dubliners, one of his early works, is one of the most beautiful odes to a place. It is the story of a place, more than its people. It is something authors wanting to write about a place dream to achieve.

But it was James Joyce who, because of his talent and not despite of it, deconstructed the genre of the novel. Ulysses, his first such experimental work, tells the story in one day in the life of Stephen Dedalus. The story is allegorical. The plot is confusing and it takes many readings and much supplementary reading to make sense of it.

Soon the plot completely disappeared from the novel. Other writers started emulating Joyce as he was a literary giant of his age. With magical realism, all the sacred principles of good old storytelling were abandoned.

Magical realism was an understandable medium for the South Americans who built upon their experience of shamans and magical stories of the tribes. But the magical realism which seeped out to the rest of the world just destroyed the discipline.

Led by Joyce, a new technique called Stream of Consciousness was becoming very famous in the West. This style meant that the writer has to put on paper whatever came to his mind without editing, in the rawest form. He was not even allowed to organize his thoughts or even his language. For any ‘editing’ or ‘organizing’ will create a narrative which the authors dreaded like the plague.

Jacques Derrida along with Roland Barthes meanwhile was peddling that ‘writing has no meaning’, and ‘there is no inherent meaning in language’ and that ‘meaning is constructed by the reader as he goes along’.

This intellectualization of the art of storytelling resulted in the destruction of the very tools of writing, of creating literature. The degradation was quick. In Finnegans Wake, a later work of Joyce, we see that the language itself is destroyed.

Finnegans Wake is classed as a novel but it can be read forwards and backwards, from the beginning, from the middle, and starting from the last; which means that it is essentially meaningless nonsense. And I mean it literally.

Many of its pages don’t have paragraphs or proper sentences and sometimes not even words. Sometimes entire pages are filled with “..rattttttttttttttttshhhhhhhhhh…” and so. The author did not have to edit it, they said! It had to be raw they said!

The postmodernists and deconstructionists argued that not only the story, the plot, the narrative, but even language had to be deconstructed for staying true to reality, as even language is a human construct.

This is factually untrue. Language has deeper evolutionary and biological roots as proved by cognitive scientists and neurobiologists in the 21st century. But science is seldom the strong point of ideologues. As a result: not just the product, that is literature, but even the medium, that is language was also destroyed.

==== Breaking the Fourth Wall ====
In drama parallel strains were evolving. The Theatre of the Absurd had been deconstructing some of the fundamentals of the art of drama. Since they said that language is a human construct and it is impossible to convey your feelings to one another, the plays of this genre were filled with nonsequiturs where two actors would talk incoherently about inconsequential and unrelated things without making any sense.

The entire point of the play would be to convey the claimed irrationality of life, the illogic of language, and the meaninglessness of drama.

Bertolt Brecht

Some great artists like Samuel Beckett managed to wring one or two good pieces like Waiting for the Godot, but the genre in general was thoroughly deconstructed from within with the destruction of dialogue, action and plot.

Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard and Jean Genet were some of the hacks in this new industry of Theatre of the Absurd.

Bertolt Brecht the Marxist dramatist and ideologue from Germany deconstructed drama from the other end. The Fourth Wall is a convention in the drama. In any theatre, the stage has generally three walls behind and on the two sides of the artist.

The front is obviously open for the audience to see what is happening on the stage. However, the artists behave as if the audience is not present and as if there is an invisible fourth wall. They don’t notice the audience and this is called ‘maintaining the fourth wall’.

Brecht argued that the drama is unreal and the audience shouldn’t be misled to believe that it is real and hence the fundamental stage ethic of the artist – to maintain the fourth wall – has to be broken deliberately many times throughout the drama.

He said that it was necessary to make the audience realize that the drama was not real. In his plays, the actors would deliberately converse with the audience in between and remark upon what was happening in the audience. It was one step further in the deconstruction of the traditional play.

The poetry saw the same degeneration. The paucity of space here does not give full freedom to remark upon this genre here, but suffice to say that what started as individual innovation in late medieval times when Shakespeare started using blank verse profusely got degenerated in modern times into free verse. In blank verse, rhyming was abandoned in favor of rhythm, but by modern times even rhythm was abandoned.

Any notion that poetry is meant to be recited was also abandoned and just about anything started to be passed off as poetry. Any tinkering would qualify as artistic innovation. All of this started off with the belief that the individual can create art without any divine inspiration; that authors can create new stories.

The humility that goes with this traditional worldview that the artist is just a conduit for expressing the glimpses of the Ultimate Truth; and that higher truths just flow through him with divine grace was the first casualty upon the introduction of the author.

At first, it resulted in an explosion of creativity. But soon the usual avenues were exhausted and the personality of the author with all its eccentricities and idiosyncrasies started imposing too much upon his art.

The author was becoming too imposing upon literature. As a result, the postmodernist era saw revolts ‘against the author’, but ironically they made the idiosyncratic imprint of the author even more significant upon his.

Most of the modern literature has no plot, no story, no hero, no concept of good and bad, no chronology, and no coherent dialogue. They are at best, confused, and confusing parallel narratives delivered in the inebriated state of the narrator, not necessarily making sense in either time or place. The reader truly can make of them whatever he wants to.

==== The Wisdom of India ====
In India under the aegis of Sanatana Dharma, the agency of the author as a vessel and as a conduit was always recognized and thus we always hear the names of the dramatists, poets and authors but not much attention is given to their personalities. Their stories and their message are considered more important than their personality.

It was also commonly agreed upon that a piece of great art is created only with divine inspiration and not through the individual innovation of the author or the poet. This is evident in almost all epics and poems where the agency and authority of Shri Ganesha or some other deity is always invoked.

The story is also said to be only ‘heard’ by the poet from some divine sage or a primary deity. No claim of originality is made. The idea of ‘genius’ in the modern sense was missing in ancient India. What was valued was the effort to approximate most to the ideals of the Sanatana civilization. Coomaraswamy once again explains:

“For what is a masterpiece? Not as commonly supposed an individual flight of the imagination, beyond the common reach in its own time and place and rather for posterity than for ourselves; but by definition, a piece of work done by an apprentice at the close of his apprenticeship and by which he proves his right to be admitted into the full membership of a guild, or as we should now say trade union, as a master workman. The masterpiece is simply the proof of competence expected and demanded from every graduate artist…” (Coomaraswamy 98-99)

The sanctity of the language is also maintained. The Sanatana tradition has always maintained that reality is far beyond the powers of the description of any language, even Sanskrit. Even Sanskrit is said to be only the Vaikhari form of language, which has three other, deeper planes of existence.

The first arises from the primal source, from the Universal Consciousness and in this form it is inexpressible. This stage is called Para. It is then visualized as an image or a picture which is the stage of Pashyanti. It then goes to another stage called Madhyama where it is verbalized but unspoken. When it is uttered in human language it is called Vaikhari and even in this last stage it is changed and is not expressed as is thought in Madhyama.

Having maintained this, the Rishis of India recognized that even in Vaikhari it was necessary to convey the divine message in whatever form possible. And thus the Vaikhari form of language was completely mastered. Sanskrit was refined as much as a human language can be refined and the spiritual and eternal message is more easily conveyed in Sanskrit than in other languages.

The point is that that the tools of expression, that is language, were never deconstructed in India. Along with recognizing that the Ultimate Truth is inexpressible in human language, ways of reaching that Truth was indicated as much as possible in human language.

In the West, starting with Christianity, it was claimed that Ultimate Truth is expressible in human language and was expressed once and for all in the Bible. When the Bible was proved false the West went in the opposite direction. Now they started claiming that no fact can be expressed in any language, however banal or mundane the fact is.

Ever going to one extreme of the pendulum Sanatana Dharma never went to another in reaction. But the West sadly did. This in a way was a result of the Christian insistence that the Ultimate Truth can be expressed completely in human words. By doing that they took divine inspiration out of any artist’s work.

Once that had happened, revolts started coming and in the post-Renaissance world, the author started overpowering literature and gradually degenerated to the current state. At the core of this are the introduction of the author, the introduction of the individual agency, and the claim that something new can be created by sheer intellectual innovation.

==== REFERENCES ====
1. Brecht, Bertolt. Brecht on Theatre. Blooomsbury Academic, 2018.

2. Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art. Munshiram Manoharlal, 2008.

3. Figes, Orlando. Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia. Penguin UK, 2003.

4. Gupt, Bharat. Dramatic Concepts Greek and Indian: Study in Poetics and the Natyasastra. D K Printworld, 1995.

5. Naipaul, V. S. Reading, and Writing: A Personal Account. New York Review Books, 2000.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Return of Aesthetics

2026-10-16T08:10:14Z

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In the previous five articles, we saw how the introduction of the artist in the art led to its ultimate degeneration leading to modernist and postmodernist art. This happened due to the destruction of meaning and purpose in the post-Enlightenment world. The divine inspiration had already been eliminated after the Judeo-Christian conquest of Europe two centuries ago.

In this concluding article of this series, we will observe a curious phenomenon of the 21st century. The aesthetic in art is returning and in some ways the nameless artist is also making a comeback. This phenomenon is to be witnessed everywhere.

The 21st century is marked more than anything else, by the arrival of internet. It is everywhere and in everyone’s lives. No other technology or idea including terrorism has affected our lives as much as internet has. It is the meta influencer which is behind every cause and every change that is rocking our lives in this tumultuous century.

==== Breaking the Monopoly of the Art Galleries ====
With the arrival of the internet the very nature of art changed. The first great change that it brought is the breaking of the stranglehold of art galleries and the syndicate of art connoisseurs. In the 20th centuries, under the influence of modernist and postmodernist ideologies art had become so abstract, ugly and contrary to commonsense notions of aesthetics that the only place where this ‘art’ was appreciated was art galleries.

As prevailing ideologies dictated that ‘judging art’ was a plebeian act and nothing less than pure evil, there was no way for any art critic to criticize an ‘art piece’ or art installation for the ‘art installation’ had to be seen with an inner eye and according to its own logic. In layman terms this meant that the artist could create any nonsense he wanted and there was no way he could be criticized for that.

Second, it was argued that there is no inherent meaning in anything let alone art. Meaning, beauty and aesthetic value are ‘created in the act of witnessing the piece of art installation’. This meant that anything could be interpreted as great art and all interpretations or non-interpretations would be correct. In layman terms art had become meaningless pieces of nonsense.

In this case, how to decide whether a piece of art is important or not?

A syndicate of art critics and artists had been created. Wealthy businessmen wanting to launder money would open art galleries or finance art exhibitions and installations at famous museums and institutions. A very small caucus of these influential people would create an insider group which would decide what was good art and not. As the criteria of deciding good art had already all been dismantled, no one would be able to object to their selections. Neither the included could be questioned, nor could the excluded appeal. For it all depends on the inner eye of the small caucus of art critics and artists in the elite.

This has resulted in a total exile of the beautiful and the aesthetic from mainstream art. ‘Mainstream art’ is now nothing more than ideological statement or a way to launder money. But with the coming of the internet, this stranglehold of the ‘mainstream art’ on the art scene of the world changed.

==== Internet and the New Platforms of Displaying Art ====
Internet provided a platform to millions and millions of artists, photographers, painters, sculptors, singer, dancers and various other kinds of artists to display their work on a free platform to the entire world, and not care about the ‘art critics’. For the first time in about a century, ideology stopped playing a part in deciding what was good art and not. For the first time in a long time, beauty and aesthetics once again came into play and the view of the audience was taken into account.

Audience and its opinion are not considered plebeian on these channels and the more popular art is generally the one which follows at least the basics of the universal rules of aesthetics. This is obviously not a utopian scenario where the best come at the top, but at least the caucus of art critics is broken and those who are famous do follow the fundamentals of aesthetics.

With the coming of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, people had started sharing beautiful natural landscapes all around the world, displaying the magnificent beauty of Mother Gaia in all its splendor. With the coming of Instagram on the scene, this trend increased manifold. True the majority of pictures on these platforms are mostly horrible selfies, but there is no dearth of millions of breathtakingly beautiful landscapes which enthrall the audience on these platforms worldwide.

The encouraging trend on these social media platforms is the reinstatement of the aesthetic principles. With no friendly art critic and small caucus to certify the ‘artistic quality’ of a photograph or a painting on Instagram, the only option left for the artists to fall back on is: aesthetics. The photographers and the artists try to make their photographs as beautiful as possible.

They try very hard to follow all the classical rules of landscape photography in order to click a great photo of a natural beauty like the Grand Canyon; and follow all the classical rules of portraiture while clicking a beautiful portrait. As a result, while the ‘traditional photography’ which went into an ideological overdrive is producing all sorts of awkward, dark and sometimes downright ugly photos, these nameless artists on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are creating some truly beautiful and soothing pictures.

Same is true with painting. While painting as a discipline was all but destroyed as explained in the previous articles, on internet we see a return of the beautiful, the meaningful, and the comprehensible in painting. Great water color artists are producing breathtakingly wonderful portraits and landscapes which are outdoing some of the great masters in the classical age of painting.

Pen and pencil sketch artists are creating vectors which are on for free display on social media platforms and also for sale on various media platforms. Oil painting and other genres and techniques are also creating beautiful pieces of art which follow all the classical rules of painting and are still beautiful and artistic enough to stand out from the crowd.

The competition on internet is truly fierce. It is not completely a level ground, but it is possible for beautiful pieces of art following the good old principles of aesthetics to get at least considerable reach and fame. This has fostered self-discipline and rigor in the artists who develop and hone their crafts and skills as much as they can to produce good art. An additional demand of extreme regularity on these internet platforms means that rigor and discipline is even more of a feature of these artists, who know that they will lose interest of their audience if they do not produce good art regularly.

==== A Holistic View of Aesthetics ====
Coomaraswamy believed that in traditional societies like India art was not seen in separation from life. There was no art for art’s sake. This does not mean that art for utility’s sake that was the communist argument was true. Far from it. Coomaraswamy discarded that from the outset, but he also exposed the inherent falseness of art for art’s sake argument.

A culture society believed that everything that is created should be made beautiful. The function of utility and beauty were not divorced from each other. The debate which has wracked the art world of the West for the past few hundred years the debate between ‘Art for Art’s Sake and Art for Utility’s Sake’ was non-existent in India because of this approach. (Coomaraswamy 97-98)

This is making a comeback in real life but through the agency of internet. Handicrafts are making a comeback as they are able to find niche markets through the internet again. Once the market had forced them to bow down to industrial produce but now they are able to survive. The beauty aspect of everything we create, including food is now stressed, though it is sometimes taken to the extremes to the detriment of health.

In an another curious phenomenon, once again made possible because of internet, good songs are recreated by thousands of artists all over the world in what is now called ‘covers’ and released on mediums like YouTube. These are unabashed recreations of a famous song and in most of these ‘covers’ the song is faithfully reproduced and sometimes it is tweaked just a little bit without actually destroying the core of the song. The principles of melody and harmony are not violated.

It is an implicit acknowledgement of traditional principles. That the best music is replicated by various artists without any urge for ‘innovation’. The aim here is to approximate to the traditional art and not create something strange. Individuals artists do get famous through this but all they do is to recreate the classical or famous songs extremely well. In these recreations not only the modern songs are recreated but classical music, stotras, mantras, symphonies and chants are also recreated.

Similarly, individual artists with scarcely more than one or two actors and virtually no equipment are creating really interesting dramas and stories with social commentary on current affairs on one hand and universal problems on the other. These artists are ensuring that return of the story and the plot in the narrative. The traditional art with its various postmodern shenanigans had destroyed the plot and the story in drama and in much ‘artistic cinema’. But through internet this is also making a comeback. People are once again developing a holistic view of aesthetics.

In photography, videography, music and painting the return of the beautiful is quite evident. The return of the nameless artist is also getting facilitated in this age of internet. Though individual artists do get famous, but their fame owes to the replication of great art already created and not creating something new every time.

This is in no way a plea for just recreating great rat. Innovation is also the soul of the art. But overstressing innovation after the introduction of the individual artist had sent art on a tangent so out of shouting distance that all the universal principles of art had been violated. What the current trends facilitated by internet is doing is to encourage the return of the beautiful to art. The balance between universal principles and innovation is coming back.

In the field of architecture, the case is different for obvious reasons. However, traditional architecture which is region specific is now once again creating a niche market as pictures of these traditional homes and the calm and serenity that they exude are widely shared on the internet social media platforms. While the poor and the middle class have no choice but to go with the market created homes, the rich are increasingly choosing traditional architecture over modern architecture.

These are but a few trends in the modern world. Though these trends are encouraging some opposite trends are also to be seen and cannot be ignored. And while the beautiful and the aesthetic has returned to the art, and the nameless artist is also making a comeback, the return of meaning is still awaited. Not that there is no meaning in the art that is being created now but there is a lack of a spiritual core.

This core cannot be restored without the restoration of the spiritual culture that was prevalent in Sanatana Dharma led India and in the pagan-polytheistic societies of pre-Christian pre-Islamic world. It is with the restoration of the sacred that meaning will once again enter art and make it eternal once again.

==== References ====
Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art. Munshiram Manoharlal, 2008.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Musician in the Music Part 2

2026-10-16T08:09:54Z

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==== Ideology and Politics Overcome Musical Tradition ====
The trend to violate the most classical rules of music had started. Composers started creating music based on dissonance, ambiguity and atonality.

All of these new ‘techniques’ were actually considered faults in classical music. But modern composers turned them into bedrocks of their musical ‘innovations’. The results were more often than not were unpleasant and not pleasing to the ear but ‘judging music’ based on classical ideas was already a backward thing to do in the 1950s and 60s musical scene.

Just like a modern painting could not be ‘judged’ for the ‘beauty is created in the act of seeing’ and judgment was considered plebeian or downright evil, so in music, what was prized was the strangeness of a musical piece and not its ability to please the audience. Ideology had triumphed aesthetics in music too.

Once again, there is nothing wrong in innovation but in all classical theories of art there is a boundary which is never to be crossed in search for ‘innovation’. There are some universals which are never violated. Artistic freedom is never absolute and there are some universal laws and rules are always to be followed.

Drawing this boundary is necessary because once the theoretical need for creating such a boundary is lifted, the floodgates of directionless, meaningless and aimless ‘innovation’ open and soon art degenerates into something which is indistinguishable from nonsense.

When these ideas of aimless, unguided and non-directional ‘innovation’ were introduced in music they resulted in pieces which were hardly distinguishable from noise. A classical definition of pitch, one of the fundamental units of denoting music is that it should have a frequency that is clear and stable enough to distinguish it from noise.

I need not pitch in here to say that this rule was also regularly violated in ‘modern music’. Is it any wonder that what resulted was scarcely better than ‘noise’?

In music this erasure of boundaries meant that melodious and harmonious music was the farthest thing to be expected from the avant garde artists.

Musician Nikhil Rao tells us that this trend in ‘musical innovation’ degenerated to a point where composers were recording things like running bicycles, slamming doors, and other assorted screeching noises.

Barring a few exceptions who still produce good music on classical lines, classical music died a death in the 1950s and 60s with these avant garde ‘innovations’. In the words of Alex Ross:

“Within the classical composition, meanwhile, activity on the outer edges had further blurred the job description. By the early fifties, Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry were creating collages that incorporated recordings of train engines and other urban sounds; Karlheinz Stockhausen was assisting in the invention of synthesized sound; John Cage was convening ensembles of radios. By century’s end, a composer could be a performance artist, a sound artist, a laptop conceptualist, or an avant-garde d.j…” (Ross, The New Yorker)

Much of this ‘musical innovation’ resulted after the Second World War ended. The two world wars massively disturbed music in traditional Europe and even though modern music had made great headway in pre-war Europe, in post-war America, a melting pot of musicians and artists was created in which traditional imprints disappeared and innovation became more and more important.

The primary purpose of modern and postmodern music was to shock the audience and not to entertain and elevate them with classical musical principles of melody and harmony. Arnold Schoenberg, a genius, was a master of creating atonal music in which traditional boundaries were regularly broken.

Like Brecht’s dictum that the fourth wall in theatre had to be regularly broken down, many of Schoenberg’s compositions required him to come out of singing and music, and engage in plain talking for a while before going back to singing.

A favorite trope of these avant garde artists was to use classical musical instruments in unconventional ways. Breaking convention, the greatest cliché of modern life was practiced to the hilt by these modern composers. John Cage, a very influential modern American composer, would often insert erasers, screws, and nails between the strings of the piano to distort the sounds and create new if bizarre and even jarring effects.

The aim is to discomfort the audience and ‘shock them out of musical conventions’. The means, more often than not, is to deliberately create horrifying and harsh music, which can seldom be differentiated from noise. Commenting upon the neo-modernist music of Brian Ferneyhough musical historian Rutherford-Johnson says:

“The way Ferneyhough deliberately overpacks his music with information, starting and restarting it every few seconds to create a perceptual overload, thwarts the memory’s ability to create a meaningful structure… Time after time, what we have just heard is pushed into the background by what follows next.” (Rutherford-John 177)

The reader would recall the article “The Author in Literature”, where James Joyce lead the movement of ‘Stream of Consciousness’, a writing style where the author ‘does not edit’ anything that comes to his mind and keeps writing continuously without ever paying attention to meaning, chronology, plot, and even grammar, syntax or spelling. Many pages in the ‘masterpiece’ of Stream of Consciousness writing novel Finnegan’s’ Wake are filled with gibberish like ‘ratttttttttttt…shhhhhhhhhhhh…hottttttttttttttoooooooooooooooooooo…’

Similarly, in music, the idea of Chance Music was floated. In this ‘technique’ no attention was paid to any deliberate composition. All the rules of compositions were of course thrown out the window. All aspects of music including composition and performance were left to chance. The most famous piece of ‘chance music’ is the composition ‘4’33’.

Calling it composition would be a contradiction in terms for it does not involve any music at all. In its ‘performance’ the audience sat staring at a non-playing stage and the ‘sound of the hall’ or in plain words, the noise of the audience was considered a ‘multi-movement’ composition!

Then there was Electronic Music in which composers like Edgard Varese actually synthesized new sounds using electronic instruments. Great genius and mathematician Charles Babbitt created computer-based musical pieces with such precise details that it can only be played by a computer and never by a human being. Computer Music claimed to ‘liberate music’ from human follies. Believe it or not but Noise Music is also a genre in the postmodernist musical scene.

It is not a wonder that this resulted in the death of classical music. Popular music on the other hand got a great fillip during the mid-20th century. Various musical movements and trends like rock, jazz, rap, and blues replaced classical music. But these movements did not escape the destructive tendency of postmodern music either. No rules and no holds barred ‘compositions’ became the norm. It was increasingly rare to find one musician creating good music consistently.

There was no emphasis on the learning of crafts or developing skills. Music was increasingly considered an ‘attitude’ rather than a craft or an art. All one had to do was adopt clothes, habits, and attitudes of the lifestyle of musicians, whatever it was. Knowing music and learning to play instruments was considered a secondary requirement if it was considered important at all.

Ideology became the prime requirement in music too. ‘Rebelling against tradition’ became the pre-eminent requirement of movements like punk rock. Just like Dadaism, the goal here was to keep destroying the tradition whatever it was. There was no central idea, no essence in these ‘musical movements’ if we can call them that. The only idea in these ‘musical movements’ was to keep destroying the traditional idea of music.

The modern music creates some really good pieces every now and then. But it is mostly due to accident. Bad musicians sometimes hit upon good numbers. Even good musicians with artistic ability suffer, because increasingly music schools and universities discourage the learning of skill and crafts and instead pay attention towards making ideological and political statements through music.

Prophetic Monotheism and the Disappearance of the Sacred Idea of Music

One of the greatest victories of Prophetic Monotheism is that gradually over two millennia it managed to overwhelm every aspect of human culture with ideological fashions. Music did not survive this onslaught either. The effect of Prophetic Monotheism on music was subtle and indirect, but it was there. In order to understand that first we need to understand how music remained intact in India.

India too witnesses all the modern movements in music like jazz, pop, rap, rock, etc. But in classical music, traditions which are millennia old still continue. Most of the classical music in India still follows most of the universal guidelines that were given in first the Natyashastra and then various other musical masterpieces like Sangeet Ratnakara.

What kept Indian Classical Music composed and together as a tradition was its continued focus on the spiritual goal in all musical compositions. No matter the direction from which Indian classical music is approached the divine never disappears completely from it.

This is truer about Carnatic music which became the refuge of Indian classical music and this tradition continued almost untouched till modern times.

Hindustani music in the north received some inputs during the Mughal era, but the influence was mainly in the modification of some musical instruments and not so much in the approach of music which is mostly full of bhakti and jnana.

It is the spiritual core which was eliminated in Western classical music once Christianity triumphed over Europe. At first, music remained melodious and harmonious if not meaningful in the sense of uplifting and leading towards the ultimate truth, but by the time of the Enlightenment degeneration was setting in and in the post-war West it altogether degenerated into noise.

The original reason behind the disappearance of the spiritual core was the imposition of Christianity over Europe and the destruction of the pagan culture. Once the divine disappeared from music, the pagan trends continued in the service of the church for some millennia but gradually and continuously lost their purpose.

In the Orthodox Church in the east, singing and chanting was retained and as a result they still retain an imprint of their own and despite the Christian theology this branch of church music still retains some spiritual core.

In the west, music was successively de-spiritualized. By the time of the Protestantism music was almost completely banished in favor of prayers. As a result, there was an explosion of beautiful and creative music in the secular domain which originally produced great masters whose symphonies are still as fresh as ever.

But with this secularization of music and the disappearance of the divine from the music resulted in a trend which we are now all familiar with. The introduction of the individual musician and the removal of the divine in the music led to a search for the ever new and the ever strange and the ‘classical music’ went down a path which ended in recording screeching noises of doors, of running bicycles, and creating ‘multi-movement’ music where audience’s chatter was considered live music.

==== References ====
Orenstein, Arbie. Ravel: Man and Musician. Mineola. US Dover, 1991.

Ross, Alex. “The Sounds of the Music in the Twenty-First Century”. The New Yorker. August 27, 2018 Issue.

Rutherford-John, Tim. Music after the Fall – Modern Composition and Culture since 1989. University of California Press, 2017. p. 177.

Tommasini, Anthony. “The Art of Setting the Sense on Edge”. The New Yorker. May 30, 2014.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Musician in the Music Part 1

2026-10-16T08:09:31Z

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==== The Traditional Artist ====
Music is most universally popular of all arts and yet one of the most difficult to master. In music too, the ideas that have been discussed in ‘The Artist in the Art’ series have led to a general degradation. Before we go into the trends that took western music to its present situation let us discuss just one brief situation with Indian music.

Music is an art form in India in which the entire tradition continues even today, though in a much reduced capacity. But it is still vibrant to produce great artists like M. S. Subbulakshmi.

She is one of the most famous artists of her time. But she is not famous for creating her own songs, her own stotras, or her own symphonies. Rather she is famous for rendering in her magical voice, some of the greatest of stotras, sahasranams, and suprabhatams that were created by the great rishis of ancient India.

As an artist, she was much respected and her fame was international. And yet she was not famous for ‘patenting’ some technique of her own, or for creating a music album which ‘discovered something new under the sky’. She excelled in rendering the great creations of her ancestors.

The same is true about other artists too. Pandit Jasraj lends his magical voice to the traditional Ragas, but does not violate them. He creates new bhajans and new songs, but not new ragas. Kishori Amonikar is most famous for rendering the symphonies of Meerabai in her magical voice.

In the north there are individual imprints on musical creations but these imprints too are known by the name of the tradition of the particular gharana of music, rather than certain individuals. Even in these innovations the basic rules of music laid down in the Natyashastra and other great musical texts of the middle ages are not violated. The traditional idea of music is confirmed in all the ‘new creations’.

This does not mean that the artist did not have creative freedom and he could only create music in the strict confines of canonical rules. Dr. Bharat Gupt, one of the foremost authorities on music, drama, and fine arts in contemporary India says that the shastras in India provide a formula or a template to create art. It is upon the artist to innovate and create particular pieces of art based on these formulas or templates.

These templates are based upon the fundamental rules of aesthetics as given by Bharat Muni in the Natyashastra. Thus contrary to some modern opinions, classical art does not restrict an artist from innovation or creativity but provides a template based on some universal rules of aesthetics but leaving ample room for innovation.

That being said the artistic ethos of India fostered a climate where striving up to the standards of the ancients was considered an ideal. There was much artistic creativity on individual level, but the artist himself was encouraged to meditate and lose himself in the Supreme Consciousness and it was believed that real music and real innovation came from the inspiration of the Divine, from the touch of the Supreme Consciousness in various states of meditation. Individual innovation devoid of divine inspiration was considered incapable of touching the heights necessary to create great music.

==== Dissonance and the Inversion of Classical Ideas ====
India was not alone in believing that individual innovation has to be blessed with divine inspiration to create great art. This was the case with all ancient traditions all over the world: in the East in China or Japan, or in the West in Greece and Rome.

In the case of music, it was sometime during the Enlightenment that this idea was abandoned and personal innovation started overpowering divine inspiration.

Though the break with the traditional idea of creating music had been done in the Enlightenment it was in the early 20th century that radical developments were made which ‘rebelled’ against the traditional idea of music.

Igor Stravinsky is considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, credited with many new inventions and remaining at the forefront of the avant garde movements in music that had become common in the early 20th century. (Tommasini)

In music, like in everything else, ideology had come to pervade by the early 20th century. In the beginning of the 20th century, Stravinsky, like many of his colleagues, was experimenting with new techniques and new inspirations for creating an entirely different kind of music.

The days of the Narodnik Movement were not completely a matter of the past. The movement had exhorted the students of cities to go to the villages of Mother Russia to discover new themes and get inspired by the folk culture.

In music, this theme persisted longer than other areas. Stravinsky studied folk music for some time and around 1913 he came up with one of the most revolutionary pieces in western music – The Rite of Spring. It was a ballet and orchestral concert work which was claimed to be based upon folk music.

In this ballet, he experimented with various technicalities of musical wizardry, including tonality, metre, and stress, but the most revolutionary and shocking of all was his use of dissonance.

Dissonance, as the word suggests, is a lack of harmony among musical notes. It is something which the composers, at least before Stravinsky, usually shied away from. Music had to have consonance which means harmony among musical notes, so the different instruments flow together to create a melodious harmony.

Stravinsky stood this idea on its head. What Bertolt Brecht did in drama, he did in music. He refused to go by the core practices of his discipline. Like Wassily Kandinsky in painting, he did not just want to experiment in art, but also with the crafts of music. He wanted the musician to be ‘completely free’, even of all musical discipline.

Consonance was considered the basic discipline in music. If your music wasn’t consonant, then it wasn’t considered imperfect and faulty. Stravinsky violated that basic rule and gave the idea of ‘dissonance in music’.

The result was, as expected, horrible. The audience first described the resulting ballet as nothing more than a ‘screeching riot’. And it was a natural reaction. However, like all things ideologically fashionable, the public abhorrence of the Rite of Spring was considered as a proof of artistic greatness by all the avant garde musicians and artists of the age, particularly in France and gradually the idea of ‘dissonance’ picked up.

It was the intellectual climate of Europe at the time, in which different disciplines of arts, literature, music, painting, and architecture were in the process of self-destruction. They were experimenting with the very crafts of the discipline, in a bid to search something new.

And after a while, this search led them to deconstruct what had been created by the ancestors. Stravinsky’s dissonance was a result of this urge. Music caught on to this urge later on, but with Stravinsky, this urge for degradation just exploded.

Stravinsky was followed by Bela Bartok and Maurice Ravel. Bartok’s singular contribution was to break down the diatonic system of harmony in music. For three hundred years, musical composers before Bartok had used the diatonic system which according to a broad agreement created harmony in music. But since the goal in music was now to deconstruct harmony, Bartok disavowed the use of diatonic harmony in his music.

Maurice Ravel created various great and truly beautiful pieces but flowing with the fashion of his age he played with various traditional concepts. In most musical pieces in the preceding three hundred years, the convention was to develop a piece until it reaches a climax. Ravel instead created pieces which replaced development with repetition.

At the start of the 20th century a group of avant garde artists was created called Les Apaches or ‘The Hooligans’. By self-expression its members were ‘artistic outcasts’. One of its star members was Claude Debussy. He was a musical genius who loved to play with traditional ideas. In Ravel’s own words Debussy’s “genius was obviously one of great individuality, creating its own laws, constantly in evolution, expressing itself freely…” (Orenstein 33)

The point to note here is that he was appreciated more for his ‘creation of his own laws’ than good pieces of music. ‘Innovation’, no matter how strange or unpleasant to the ear it was, had started to be prized more than the actual quality of music.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Chef In The Food Part 2

2026-10-16T08:09:13Z

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==== Revisiting the Ancient Dilemma: What to Eat? ====
For millennia, ever since the onset of culture, man has had no problem in thinking of what to eat for dinner. The menu was pretty fixed given the things available in a certain season and region. It was considered a mark of culture not having to think about what to eat for dinner. It signaled prosperity. For only, the very poor or the very deficient had to think about what to eat. The prosperous always had the familiar fare on their plates.

Moreover, it was considered that thinking about what to eat and what not to eat is also the mark of the uncivilized man. For a cultural society has already tried most of the permutations and combinations in a given region and time and thus the question of what to eat has already been settled. A cultural man who has the experience and benefit of a great culture behind him does not have to think about what to eat. The influential tradition that guides him also informs him about food. Michael Pollan describes this very well in The Omnivore’s Dilemma:<blockquote>“The human omnivore has, in addition to his sense and memory, the incalculable advantage of a culture, which stores the experience and accumulated wisdom of countless human tasters before us. I don’t need to experiment with the mushroom now called, rather helpfully, the “death cap”… Our culture codifies the rules of wise eating in an elaborate structure of taboos, rituals, recipes, manners, and culinary traditions that keep us from having to reenact the omnivore’s dilemma at every meal.” (The Omnivore’s Dilemma 4)</blockquote>Pollan calls the predicament of a modern diner with the ‘omnivore’s dilemma’ because biologically man is one of the few creatures who can digest a wide variety of foods. Most of mammals cannot eat just anything even if everything was available for they won’t be able to digest it. Man, unlike most mammals can digest a wide variety of foods and with the agency of cooking, just about anything.

That is why while evolving on the plains of Africa, he faced the question of ‘what to eat’. The onset of culture settled this question for him by fixing what to eat and what not to eat in a given time and place. Modern America in the 1920s once again set the clock to the prehistoric hunter-gatherer times as far as ‘what to eat’ question is considered.

When the women were encouraged to stop cooking in the 1920s in America and restaurants opened for the common public and for pleasure eating and not just for necessary eating. Michael Pollan attests to the fact that feminists were employed to campaign for abandoning cooking at home, as it encouraged the food and restaurant industry. (Cooked 131) For the first time after the onset of culture, the man had once again put his mind to the dilemma of what to eat for dinner: Mexican or Chinese? Organic or Regular? Vegan or Lacto-Vegetarian? Pollan again:<blockquote>“One way to think about America’s national eating disorder is as the return, with an almost atavistic vengeance, of the omnivore’s dilemma. The cornucopia of the American supermarket has thrown us back on a bewildering food landscape where we once again have to worry that some of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. (Perhaps not as quickly as a poisonous mushroom, but just as surely.)” (The Omnivore’s Dilemma 4-5)</blockquote>

==== The ‘Chef’ in the Food ====
Just like all Art in the West, the Food also went the way of the strange and the individual, as the rest of the Art forms did. Food started deteriorating as soon as the Chef entered the Food.

The chefs were ever encouraged to do something ‘new’ in order to stand out, in order to create ‘signature dishes’ which no one else could and which they could patent and prevent others from making. Very soon, this search for the ‘new’ turned into a search for something ‘strange’.

As a result, most of the dishes that the Masterchefs and the Michelin Star Chefs create are so strange they are only as useful in a home kitchen as the fashion show clothes are useful in a daily wardrobe. Most of these chefs pride themselves on creating dishes which are ‘pieces of art’. And this has come to mean how difficult the dish is to prepare. It was not that earlier all dishes were easy to make. But difficulty existed in a dish because it was necessary because the said ingredient had to process to a degree to be edible or palatable.

In the new world of experimental food, the difficulty is introduced for difficulty’s sake, so that the chefs are admired for their troubles, and other chefs can’t easily copy the dish by looking at it. Ingredients are processed so much so that they are no longer recognizable. Finished products are used as ingredients. Technical and commercial machinery is used to give food a certain ‘look’.

Blowtorches, gelatin, and nitrogen capsules are now regular ingredients and processes of cooking. Nitrogen cooking is a thing now. People make ice cream in one minute with nitrogen. Instant mousse is available. A new word is introduced, ‘plating’. Food has become what it looks rather than what it means for the body. As one contestant at a Masterchef competition says: “You eat with your eyes!”

The chefs, in order to stand out, create ever new and ever strange dishes, in order to create ‘signature dishes’ named on them and patented in their name.

As a consequence, food has become more of an intellectual idea. And like every intellectual idea, it is given to deterioration. People, who go to the restaurant and pay exorbitant prices for some dishes, are actually eating an ‘idea’, and not a dish.

They pay money for how it ‘looks’. Taste is important too, but after a while, all the important taste buds of the modern man has already been excited, he just does not feel excited about taste and taste only. He has to be excited about how the food ‘looks’ too. The modern man is coming nearer and nearer to ‘eating an idea’ and idea alone.

In a traditional society, healthy food was very easy to make because the goal was to approximate the norm and not to deviate from it. It is entirely possible to settle on healthy and tasty food if you don’t have to worry about throwing up ‘new dishes’ all the time.

In modern society, healthy food is increasingly hard to make as the goal is to deviate from the norm and not to approximate to it. In traditional cooking, even one foreign ingredient can throw the entire health balance of a dish completely awry. That is why, in modern cooking where the premium is on the ‘new’ and the ‘novel’, it is increasingly hard to whip out dishes which are both ‘novel’ and ‘healthy’.

This further pushes the food into becoming an ‘art’. It means that innovation is more in ‘how it looks’ than ‘how it tastes’. And we know that healthy had long gone down the drain.

The Chef has arrived in the Food. And the Food is consequently dead as the ‘food and medicine’ whole. It is now an ‘idea’, an ‘art form’, and like all other modern art forms, it is strange and strange only and that is its defining virtue and quality.

==== References ====
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011.

Pollan, Michael. Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. The Penguin Press, 2013.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Chef In The Food Part 1

2026-10-16T08:08:57Z

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While all else has been ‘deconstructed’ in the ‘post-modernist era’, food is one of the two things that have survived modernist deconstruction, the other being sex. Consequently, one would think that food escaped the ‘Artist in the Art’ trajectory. But this is not so. Food suffered from the same introduction of the artist and the destruction of food culture.

==== The Dharma of Food ====
The goal of a cook in a traditional culture, where cooking has not been commercialized and optimized to the restaurant experience yet, is to approximate to the norm. Such a cook wants to cook the dish as close to the traditional way as possible. This cook is not necessarily a professional cook. Though there are obviously professional cooks available, most of the eating and cooking are done at home and thus half of the population will have done regular cooking at some period of time in their lives. Whether the fancy French word ‘chef’ applies to them is a different question altogether.

At home, it was mostly women who cooked. Though a lot of men knew how to cook, it was the women who cooked on a regular basis at home. My grandmother cooked a wide variety of dishes, but neither did she claim to ‘invent’ any new dish, nor did she gloat in how her food was ‘different’. Instead, she always held her own grandmother to be the norm. All her life, she tried cooking food as her ‘grandmother’ would, as it would be cooked in a traditional Kayastha family.

The goal, to reiterate once again, was to approximate to the norm, and not deviate from it. The best cooking was that in which the cook almost disappeared from the dish, and the dish became exactly as everyone expected it to be.

And this norm to which everyone aspired to, was neither completely artificial like it is in modern times, where ‘chefs’ invent entire cuisines and dishes, nor completely spontaneous. For Ayurvedic instructions guided the local cuisines all over India. People cooked with whatever was available locally, including spices and other ingredients, but the general ‘dos’ and ‘donts’ of Ayurveda always applied.

This meant that people were free to choose ingredients and the processes to cook them but they did it according to some universal rules which were dictated by the Ayurveda. The ingredients were of course dictated by whatever was available locally and seasonally. The exotic rarely entered the cuisine except in some fruits and some rare items like asafetida.

This was a mirroring of how Dharma also governed in India. Local deities, local practices were encouraged rather than suppressed. But they were infused with an underlying meaning of the high civilization of the Vedas, keeping them tied in an invisible but ever-present thread of Sanatana culture and civilization. The food was the same. Ayurveda was the Dharma of Food.

==== Introduction of the Individual Cook ====
Until about the end of the last millennium, this was the case with most of the Indian cities, except some parts of the metros. Food had not been commercialized in India to a large extent. There were dhabas at the roadside which made standard fare for the travelers and for the drivers. Eating at these places was considered not a delicacy but a necessary risk that had to be taken to have the required nourishment.

Then there were dharmashalas with all the temples and Gurudwaras across the country. The cooks at these dharmashalas came from a very strict Ayurvedic culture who cooked Sattvik food with all the purity and sanctity demanded of the person who was cooking.

The dharmic sense of responsibility that the cooks at these temples cooked made sure the food at these places was as hygienic and healthy as it is at home. History is not aware of any pandemics breaking out of Hindu temples or Gurudwaras.

Then there were commercial cooks who cooked for big gatherings like marriages and bhandaras etc. Even there, the menu, in any given region, was almost fixed. There were no new dishes! No ‘signature dish’ of the cook. The best cook in any society was just good at cooking the regional and the ethnic food better than his rivals.

This does not mean that there were no regional differences or all the cooks cooked basically the same food. Not at all. Cooks were famous, both commercial and domestic, for having a ‘distinct flavor in their hand’. My grandmother was an especially good cook, who cooked in small batches in shapes and concepts which were all miniature. One could identify her food from the look, the smell, and the flavor. But this flavor was praised more and more for being as true to the ‘original’ as possible. True, there were differences, but what was awarded was gravitation towards the mean, and not the other way round.

And then, somewhere around 2000, fine dine restaurants started spreading in India. For the first time, people ate outside, not because they had to, but because they wanted to. This was a strange concept, a new idea, hitherto unknown to a traditional civilization. Why would someone ‘want’ to eat outside if they didn’t ‘have to’?

This is what brought the fundamental change in cooking. It brought the cook in the food, and the cook became ‘chef’. The individual agency had been introduced in food too.

==== Commercializing Food and Cooking ====
But let us rewind here and take a look at Europe and the West. In the West the commercialization of food started happening in the 1920s when feminism picked ground, women stopped cooking in droves, and started eating outside to ‘save time’ or ‘effort’ started becoming acceptable. This was the watershed moment when the commercialization of food started happening. Restaurants started appearing which catered to entire families and a ‘food culture’, meaning eating out in public for pleasure started.

And once this happened, the chef entered the food. Until then, the ‘competition’ in food was the mild friendly jealousy between neighboring women. The criteria were subjective and no matter how bad a home cook made a dish, she or he was not going to lose his ‘customers’ (family members) to the neighbor next door.

But now, the competition was serious and commercial. Restaurants and chefs competed with each other for attracting customers. Yes, food had become an industry and those eating food in the restaurant were ‘customers’. In this competition, the chefs wanted to ‘stand out’ rather than approximate to the norm. What would differentiate them from other restaurants and chefs if the dishes were all the same and up to the ‘norm’?

Search for the New and the Strange in Food Starts

Like in all fields of art, the search for novelty had begun in food too and the entire food culture started unraveling from there. Before this invention of ‘eating out’ in America in the 1920s, the West too had a stable food culture, even if it was not as good as Ayurveda recommends. After the commercialization of food, the ‘chefs’ started looking for the novel and the strange in food.

In order to stand out, they had to do something new. Chefs started whipping out ‘new dishes’ every other day. Throwing all traditional common sense of food out the window, they just started mixing different ingredients and different tastes together to create new ‘flavors’, new ‘textures’ and new ‘experiences’. Food, which had been a matter of bhakti and crafts until yesterday, had become a matter of Art for Art’s sake.

For why would someone go outside to eat the same food which everyone in her home could cook? Why would you eat the dish that your grandmother had been feeding you all your childhood? Even if you did once, why would you come back?

The restaurants then went on a spiral inventing ever new dishes which threw all traditional wisdom in food to the wind. Same dishes were tweaked a bit here and a bit there and new exotic and unpronounceable names were given to them to give them an aura of novel majesty. To ‘try’ all the dishes in a given restaurant became a quest for ordinary Americans. And the quest, just like in a video game, would never be completed. For in the ever-escalating mutual evolution of the chef and the customers, the chefs whipped out new dishes much faster than the individual customers could try them.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Aesthetics Vs. Meaning Part V: The Architect in Architecture

2026-10-16T08:08:38Z

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==== Global Movements in Architecture ====
With the arrival of the colonial age, global movements also started arising. Many claim Baroque to be a first truly global movement, but its transplantation on other continents like South and North America was merely the work of the colonial masters.

It was the Eclecticism of the 19th century that truly declared the directionless character of modern architecture. Proud proclamation of the incorporation of whatever elements that struck the fancy of the particular architect, the loss of meaning in architecture could not have so evident. Eclecticism did not just incorporate different idioms of different cultures; it also incorporated the new building materials. The organic nature of curved lines and figures was abandoned in favor of straight lines and geometrical figures. Ornamentation was also not favored.

Art Nouveau was another international movement that was self-conscious of bringing something ‘new’ to architectural history. The urge to create something new was becoming the primary urge in architecture. However, Art Nouveau was also a reaction to the eclecticism of the 19th century and brought back curved lines and natural decoration in architecture.

But it can be safely said that there was only one great architect, one great artist, Antoni Gaudi who practiced this organicism in architecture completely. We know Art Nouveau through Gaudi’s work which uses aedicules and fractals in the building. Structural components play a function as well as embellish the building. But Gaudi was one architect who never became a tradition and seldom could any other artist pursue what he started.

This was inevitable. Once the meaning in architecture is lost and once the sense of the sacred is gone and once the national, racial and regional characteristics are also stripped away one by one, any accidental arrival upon the meaningful way of creating architecture is bound to be buried into sands once the artist who rediscovered it is dead. The same happened with Gaudi. His line is rarely followed in modern architecture.

Modernism arrives with full force in the Expressionist school of architecture where ‘stories and experiences of the World Wars’ are ‘incorporated into the body of architecture’. Architecture, which was a sacred means of communication in ancient times, becomes an ideological tool in modern times. The personal story of the individual architect becomes more important than architecture itself.

The arrival of Art Deco means that for the first time reinforced concrete along with glass and steel architecture is not only accepted as an industrial era necessity but also celebrated as a tool of ‘new aesthetics’. We are supposed to believe that reinforced concrete can be beautiful.

It, however, retains the need for ornamentation or decoration and is vainly decorative like the Chrysler Building or the Empire State Building in New York. Architecture has not been brutalized completely yet.

By the 1940s, even this ornamentation and decoration is abandoned in favor of straight lines, flat surfaces, and the inhuman cubist blocks and chunks of naked concrete. This was called the International Style of Architecture. For something to be truly international, all regional characteristics have to be stripped away. What remains is the rigidity and brutality of industrial-era architecture. Architects like Le Corbusier ‘celebrate concrete’ in all its naked brutality. His buildings look like solid blocks of concrete, with nothing organic relieving the inhumanity of the structure.

Ever since the arrival of Art Nouveau the style had become the primary marker of difference and distinction with meaning and symbolism long having been lost. Various movements like Critical Regionalism, Postmodernism, and Deconstructivism are more ideas than buildings. They are the result of the idiosyncrasies of individual minds. Postmodernist and deconstructivist ideas that destroyed painting, poetry, drama, and literature also destroyed architecture to great extent.

Deconstructivist buildings look like nothing more than a heap of unorganized junk thrown away, or pieces of a previously coherent structure strewn all over without care. In some words, these buildings convey ‘controlled chaos’. In other words, they are the result of the architect’s whim and result of his confused and deconstructed mind.

Brutalist architecture does not even attempt to hide what it does. It does not just expose the brutal aspects of architecture to the public eye but reinforces them. It reinforces ideas of concrete building materials and exposed structural elements. Thus bricks are not plastered over; concrete is not painted over. Geometrical shapes are all you can see in the patterns and the colors are also sepia or monochrome with hardly any different colors relieving the scene.

The Soviet Union with its ‘art for utility’s sake’ argument favored this kind of architecture. Many of these buildings still pay testimony to that past. A lot of socialist countries like India also built many buildings in this vein.

==== The Aura of the Individual Architect ====
In the modern era, particularly in the late 19th century and in the 20th century, architects became law in themselves. There was no longer any spiritual tradition in place to guide them. There was no particular meaning that they wanted to convey. Architecture like much else became a matter of individual whim and fantasy.

Whatever the architect fancied in his whim started taking shape in the form of his building. Since there were no spiritual traditions to guide them in meaning; no cultural glue to bind different architects in one architectural idiom; and no more defining national or regional characteristics to bring their creations together, every architect became an island in himself and started creating strange buildings.

Some of the most iconic buildings of modern times are often no more than the representation of the idiosyncrasy of the architect that built it. In a traditional society, such idiosyncratic elements would be negligible and more often than not condemned.

In a Hindu temple, these are minimal. For example in some temples like the Ramappa Temple in Warangal, we see more importance given to the Naga Kanyas which adorn the area beneath the cornice. But this is an exception and in most cases idiosyncrasies are condemned and the artist is recommended to conform to the philosophical principles of his culture and civilization, trying to create a piece of architecture that conveyed Hindu philosophy most potently.

But in modern architecture idiosyncrasies were celebrated and even required as a necessity. Ayn Rand, building upon this intellectual climate, made a whimsical, introvert, anti-social and idiosyncratic architect as her hero. Atlas Shrugged is the Bible of many modern architects, not for its instruction on architecture, which is negligible, but for its celebration of whimsicality and idiosyncrasy.

As the art of photography developed and aerial photography became a thing with panoramic shots becoming more common than before, the architects began to see their buildings from a distance, gradually becoming more and more conscious of how ‘they looked’ from afar. Architects in a traditional school were also concerned about how their creations looked, but never exclusively so. Like in a Mughal tomb or a Renaissance Palace, in modern architecture the building often became what it looked.

The discipline of photography reverse impacted the individual architects who started to think exclusively in terms of how their buildings looked from afar. Frank Gehry created buildings that often look like different colored tin shards thrown together like the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California. Sometimes they seem to defy gravity as the Dancing House of Prague. Sometimes they look horribly like a particular object, like the Day Complex Venice, California which looks exactly like binoculars. Sometimes it is all glass and steel rims like the IAC Building, New York.

Norman Foster’s now-iconic building in London called The Gerkin looks exactly like the Gherkin. That much is an achievement, but why does it look like a gherkin, if one asks, then there is no answer. Renzo Piano’s building, The Shard looks exactly like a shard but why does it look like once again goes unanswered. Rem Koolhas made the Television Headquarters in Beijing look like a Mobius Strip for no evident purpose.

On the other hand, there is a very specific and definite reason why a Latina Nagara shikhara in the Hindu temple looks like that.

If Le Corbusier’s buildings looked like brutal blocks of concrete, then those who revolted against such architecture, like Oscar Niemeyer, purposefully introduced curves in their buildings even where they have no structural or functional place like at Oscar Niemeyer Museum at Curitiba, Brazil.

Zaha Hadid who was hailed as the ‘queen of the curve’ for ‘liberating architectural geometry’ in her works curved everything for just the sake of it. Why rigid geometrical designs of cubes and rectangles were introduced in architecture and what was the need for another movement to go to the other extreme of curves is a question students of architecture schools are too afraid to ask.

==== Strange is the New ‘Beautiful’ ====
Lev Tolstoy in the iconic first sentence of Anna Karenina says: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Similarly, there are only a certain number of ways in which a meaningful and functional building can be created, but infinite ways in which meaningless inanities arising out of individual whims, personal idiosyncrasies and ideological fashions can give rise to a building. These buildings and these architects are prized for their ‘different’ take and meaningless ‘innovation’. The search for difference becomes the search for strange.

Just like a Mughal tomb or a Persian cenotaph, the modern building is built purely for the aesthetic effect. There is no meaning in all these buildings. Though the architects claim the highest of meanings for these buildings there is no objective criterion by which they can be judged. They ‘have to be looked with the architect’s eye’ which simply means that the building does not give itself to any traditional symbolism or meaning and has its own logic which is better not questioned, for ‘true art cannot be judged’.

These buildings are what they look like: just beautiful pieces of architecture. Their material aspect cannot be more emphasized. There is a certain voyeurism about them. The looks are so highly prized that every other function takes second or no priority.

The beauty of the Hindu temple or the pagan temple in Greece lies in its wonderful quality of using the most concrete of mediums to convey the most abstract and most spiritual ideas. The architects of the Hindu temple in India created canons of iconography, sculpture, and architecture which made sure that the highest of truths were conveyed through a concrete medium like architecture.

In modern architecture, this spiritual communication breaks down completely. For a medium to be called communicative, just like a language, a huge number of people have to agree upon shared symbols and common metaphors. In a traditional piece of architecture, this is exactly so. Everyone in ancient India who visited a temple knew what a certain Hasta Mudra meant to convey, and what the Nataraja pose meant to convey. In modern architecture, nobody apart from the architect himself can truly ‘understand’ what he means to say, which is another way of saying that there is no meaning in modern architecture anymore.

And while the Humayun’s Tomb or the Florence Cathedral is doubtlessly and wonderfully beautiful, the modern building does not even fulfill our aesthetic desire. With the help of the University System, art critics, humanities professors, and architecture schools the very definition of aesthetics has been stood on its head. Strange is the new Beautiful. And Ugly can be strange too. Until it is strange, nobody cares. Even ugly is accepted in the name of ‘innovation’.

A beautiful building now is something that is completely strange and completely whimsical based on whims and fantasies and idiosyncrasies of the individual architect. The only criterion to judge is the criterion invented by the very same architect who created the building. Such a system of criticism is fool proof of any criticism. For if there is no objective criterion to judge a building the only criterion left to judge is the criterion of the architect.

In a classic case of inverting the meaning, the modern architecture has managed to call ugly as beautiful, and in a system where objective criticism of art and architecture is no longer possible, where no spiritual system exists anymore to impart meaning to the building, and where no ethnic, cultural or national culture exists to guide the style of the architect, every building is a beautiful building, no matter how ugly it looks to us, and no matter how impractical it is for use.

And it all happened with two momentous changes in the Western tradition of architecture:

The elimination of the sense of sacred and the obliteration of the spiritual meaning from architecture by Christianity.

The introduction of the individual architect, who devoid of the urge to dedicate buildings in the service of spiritual meaning and to the agency of the cosmic architect, started on the search for the ever new and ever strange, without giving any thought to the meaning of architecture.

==== References ====
Sekules, Veronica. Medieval Art – Oxford History of Art. Oxford University Press, 2001.

Nixey, Catherine. The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World. Pan Macmillan, 2018.

Seznec, Jean. The Survival of the Pagan Gods – The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in Renaissance Humanism and Art. Princeton University Press, 1995.

Murray, Peter. The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance – World of Art Series. Thames & Hudson. 1969.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[index.php?title=Category:Art and Culture]]

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Aesthetics Vs. Meaning Part III: The Architect in Architecture

2026-10-16T08:08:23Z

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In the last article, we saw how the Hindu temple is pulsating with meaning and speaks the language of spiritual symbolism through every structural part of its architecture. We also saw how Islamic architecture in India, despite being aesthetically exquisite, failed to convey higher truths of life and existence to its visitors.

We studied how Christianity destroyed the spiritual foundation of sacred architecture in Europe. In the second part, we will see how the loss of meaning and the introduction of the architect in architecture led to the degeneration of the architectural tradition in the West.

==== The Exile of the Sacred in Post-Pagan Europe ====
Though Hindu architecture took the sacred meaning to its height in its construction techniques, other architectural idioms all over the world were not devoid of spiritual meaning either. All pagan architecture like the ancient Greek buildings or the Chinese pagodas and the Shinto temples in Japan pulsated with meaning.

Most pagan architecture like Hindu temple architecture was unnamed and did not mention the name of the architect. In Hindu architecture, the architect is completely absent from his creation. Instead, the cosmic architect, Lord Vishwakarma, is attributed with every creation. The archetypal architect, the divine agency, the devata, and the supreme principle replace the individual genius of the personal architect.

This foregoing of all individuality in favor of the divine principle and the divine doer is impossible if the meaning of creation is not spiritually elevating. When the Hindu architect abandoned the name in favor of divine bliss, he did that for he knew that his creation would transport millions during his time and till eternity to the higher planes of consciousness. Such an ennobling goal and such a deep meaning transcended his individual ego.

When Christianity invaded Europe and destroyed paganism throughout the Greek and Roman cultural spheres, something was irrevocably lost. When the Christian fanatics burned pagan philosophers, destroyed pagan temples in Athens and Rome, and myriad other cities all throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, they did not just destroy physical structures but managed to destroy a complete knowledge system. (Nixey xxxiv)

When they destroyed the sculpture of Zeus in Athens and Jupiter in Rome, they destroyed the ancient ways of knowing. When they destroyed the Parthenon in Athens or the Temple of Diana in Rome, they did not just destroy structures, but entire schools of symbols, symbols which were capable of transferring the greatest of truths in the simplest of ways.

When Christianity started raising its own monuments on the ruins of pagan temples, the sacred was exiled from architecture. The church was a religious building, but not a sacred one. It was meant for prayers and for communion. The purpose was social, political, and religious but scarcely spiritual.

In a pagan temple, deepest of spiritual mysteries were discussed; mystical experiences were had with consciousness enhancing drugs. People could meditate there and contemplate on the divine. The church, on the other hand, was very much an instrument of power and spoke in that language.

==== The Symbolism of Gothic Architecture ====
The symbolism did not disappear instantly. The early churches were quite simple affairs but by the middle ages, complex culture of church building had developed in Europe, particularly in the form of Gothic architecture which spoke in terms of symbols and incorporated symbolic devices through structural components of the architecture. Though the overt symbolism was Christian, the spirit of meaningful architecture was thoroughly pagan.

Through its sky-scraping pinnacles and spires, the Gothic cathedral tried to speak a heavenly language. Using stained glass in a way in which it has neither before nor after been used like this, the Gothic church sculpted natural light into meaningful stories. The play of light and darkness was used upon the visitor for the sake of impression and power but also for the sake of telling a story.

The façade was not just used to impress with its scale and height but also through its symbolism. In the 13th century Reims Cathedral in France, the façade is sculpted all over. “Approaching the principal west façade of the cathedral of Reims, where decorative carving extends from the ground to the summit the viewer’s eye is drawn upwards to the scene of the Coronation of the Virgin in the gable above the central west door…” (Sekules 90)

From the outside symbolic sculpture and architecture told the story to the visitor. As the visitor entered inside the stained glass windows led the way in telling the story through their beautiful play of light, color, and darkness. The invention of the historiated capitals meant that every pillar, (and there were a huge number of pillars in a Gothic building) would tell a story.

The particular style of building in Gothic architecture ensured that in all aisles there was a possibility of creating small chapels of the Virgin Mary and other Angels, thus providing small cubicles like private spaces. This kind of building was capable of more than prayer and congregation. That Christianity lacked a spiritual core is a reason this architecture never evolved to arrive upon the meaning that the Hindu architecture conveys.

==== The Loss of Meaning ====
These tools of conveying meaning which had been lingering on in the motifs of Gothic Architecture in medieval Europe disappeared soon after the Renaissance took root and neo-paganism started guiding the Renaissance architects. In sculpture and painting, pagan themes experienced a major revival during the High Renaissance, but this revival did not touch the spirit of paganism but only overtly took its themes and used its mythology as the subject matter of the artist.

Passed through the Christian sieve, the paganism that seeped through to the Renaissance artists was devoid of its meaning and soul. The form made through the ages, the spirit was lost in translation. In architecture, this effect was more severe, as the very means of conveying meaning which pagan cultures of ancient Greece and Rome had incorporated inside them were completely lost and more so in the urgency to reincorporate the science and technology of ancient Greece.

The discussions that went on in the creation of Brunelleschi’s Dome or the Oculus at the Pantheon did not figure symbolism anymore. The discussions were technical and scientific: how big a dome can be without the support of the flying buttresses? Or how could they distribute the weight of the dome? How to bring more natural light into the building? (Murray 24)

All of these were great advances in building techniques and really brought about welcome changes in European Architecture and then later all over the world. They once again built upon Vitruvius and other Roman and Greek architects of antiquity. They relearned the pagan techniques of building, but only those which were functionally useful for them.

The spiritual meaning which had managed to linger on in the medieval architecture went missing in Renaissance architecture and the pagan meaning of the ancient Greek temple was never transferred. Put through first the Christian sieve, and then the rationalist and humanist sieve of the Renaissance, the spiritual meaning and the spiritual techniques of the building were gradually lost upon the Renaissance architects.

==== The Individual Architect Arrives ====
Just like in painting, the individual architect was gradually becoming important. Even in the medieval ages, we find the architect surreptitiously signing himself into the building at various places throughout Europe, like in the Monreale Cathedral in Palermo, Sicily. The loss of spiritual core during the Holocaust of paganism perpetrated by Christianity and the gradual loss of meaningful architecture during the Middle Ages meant that the architects could no longer remain anonymous.

The church was increasingly becoming a power statement. Richer kings built higher churches. The impression of the scale was gradually winning over the impression of meaning. It was only a matter of time before the architect who actually built a piece of the building would start feeling to be as important as the patron who commissioned it. It is significant that even in the medieval ages, it was Italy which led Europe in having the most number of signed buildings, as Sekules says:<blockquote>“A greater number of examples of such praise for identified sculptors has survived in Italy than elsewhere in Europe.” (Sekules 53)</blockquote>In the High Renaissance, we get great names of architects such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Brunelleschi. Particular buildings are attributed to them and their genius. Florence Cathedral and its famous Dome, now known as Brunelleschi’s Dome made the fortunes and fames of many of these famous architects. Once the symbols were out and the meaning was gone all that remained was aesthetic and technical innovations and individuals who make them could not help but be proud of them.

The architecture was still more of a collaborative art than other arts. Many architects worked on the same building and it was impossible for any architect to put his ideas on the ground without the patronage of a great king or a nobleman. Thus the ethnic and the regional character were still important after the High Renaissance had passed. But what characterized these ‘schools of architecture’ and these movements, were their peculiar and ‘strange innovations’.

In Baroque, the façade remained simple and the innovations of the Renaissance were enhanced and used to the full but what characterizes it is the profuse interior decoration. The great age of soirees, balls, and parties that were immortalized by Lev Tolstoy and Jane Austen later was just starting. And the grand halls in which these balls and parties took place were more often than not Baroque and Rococo.

More than ever, the social life of Europe was receding inside the closed rooms and huge and high ceilinged halls. It was imperative that ‘interior designing’ became more important and a ballroom became more decorated on the inside than the outside.

Every inch of the interior is full of painting, terracotta sculpture, and gilding. The gold color is used everywhere. Showing off was the norm of the day. But what characterizes Baroque and Rococo the most is their obsession with staircases. An architecture movement that had a profusely decorated interior was forced to invent pedestals to watch and admire the fine work that covered every inch of the walls.

In many of the balls discussed above, the hosts and the important dignitaries would often descend from a magnificent staircase to the admiration of the audience in the hall.

What is characteristic of Baroque and Rococo is that the search for spiritual meaning is almost abandoned. Ostentation and ornamentation for its own sake is the norm. A natural reaction occurs in the neoclassical movement which strips the ornamentation a little too much. We can clearly see that by the 18th and 19th centuries, movements were rising and falling rigorously on the Western architectural scene, but their direction seems to be random. The search for meaning is lost and it is movement specific idiosyncrasies that characterize them.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Aesthetics Vs. Meaning Part II: The Importance of Hindu Architecture

2026-10-16T08:08:07Z

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==== The Aedicule in the Hindu Temple ====
In order to understand that we need to first understand the meaning of the term aedicule, this is frequently used about the Hindu temple. In the context of the Hindu temple, the term aedicule refers to the miniature shrine or a mini replica of the entire temple, temple shikhara or vimana, which is to be found most prominently on its shikhara and outer walls of the garbha-griha.

It is found in all three major varieties of Nagara, Vesara, and Dravida and is so profusely used in some architectural styles such as that of the Kalyani Chalukyas and Hoysalas of Karnataka that Gerard Foekema calls the very style as ‘architecture decorated by architecture’.

Kalleshvara Temple, Hire Hadagalli, Karnataka – Architecture decorated by Architecture

The aedicule is so universally present that it overwhelms the visitor, forcing him to constantly keep shifting his attention from one miniature shrine to another, making it hard for him to distinguish where one aedicule ends and another begins. It is this feature which led James Fergusson to observe that “everywhere…in India, architectural decoration is made up of small models of large buildings.” (Ferguson 285) Adam Hardy who considers the idiom of aedicule as the fundamental concept behind Indian architectural thinking, says:<blockquote>“…it was some time after my first trip to India that it gradually became clear to me that aedicules are not just ornaments, but the basic units from which most Indian temple architecture is composed. Temple design is conceived as containing numerous smaller temples or shrines, arranged hierarchically at various scales, embedded within the whole or within one another. Once this simple concept is understood, other things fall into place.” (Hardy 10)</blockquote>The Hindu philosophy imagines macrocosm in microcosm, and this thinking is reflected in all art in India. It is also the basic idea behind the idiom of the aedicule. The entire temple is reflected in its parts. Sometimes the aedicules are themselves made up of smaller aedicules and this series continues up to the point where architecture allows it to. It conveys the idea of an endlessly regressing series of aedicules, something like the fractal geometry.

As the temple is a representation of the universe, hence the entire universe is reflected again and again in the smallest parts of the temple. The idiom of aedicule is most prominently used in the shikhara of the temple. In some styles, like the Shekhari mode of the Nagara style, the shikhara is made of its smaller versions, called urushringas (half shikharas). These urushringas crowd together and rise to meet at the top beneath the amalaka.

==== Hindu Temple as Mount Meru ====
The Hindu temple architecture elevates the devotee to higher planes of consciousness by using spiritual symbols. In one symbolism, the Hindu temple is built and perceived in the image of Mount Meru, the sacred mountain.

Mount Meru represents ultimate knowledge and climbing it symbolizes attaining self-realization.

As a devotee enters a Hindu temple, such as the Kandariya Mahadev temple of Khajuraho, and as he proceeds through the various parts of the temple, from mukh mandapam, to mandapam, to mahamandapam, and then finally to garbha-griha, he symbolically climbs the Mount Meru, leaving the world, its multiplicity and ignorance behind and proceeds towards the pinnacle of knowledge, that is self-realization; he proceeds to have darshan of the deity in the garbha-griha, where he realizes his oneness with the deity or the Supreme consciousness.

This process is mirrored in the symbolism. The outermost walls of the temple are full of every kind of sculpture but as one goes inside the sculpture becomes more divine in nature and gradually disappears in the garbha-griha except the main deity.

The garbha-griha is so named because it is literally the womb of the temple. It is the geometrical centre of the temple site, with its centre, the brahmasthana, occupied by the primary deity. It is called the womb because, under the deity, the ‘seed’ of the temple is inseminated in a kalasha (pitcher) and buried. It is directly above this that the image of the deity is installed.

==== Hindu Temple as a Fire Altar ====
The temple vimana is imagined as the fire of a fire altar, of a Yajna vedi or Vedic fire altar. The shape of the vimana which tapers, recedes, and coalesces into one point at the top with many of half-vimanas, or half-shikharas or miniature aedicular vimanas decorating the ascent of the vimana resembles the sacrificial fire of a fire altar. (Rao 74)

==== The Temple as the Divine Tree ====
The symbolism of the seed is taken further. This seed is believed to have sprouted upwards in the form of the temple vimana and branching out in various shoots, leaves, and branches, it again coalesces at the top in one kalash, bearing fruit which again contains the seed from which it came, and thus directly above this, outside the temple, over the vimana, another kalash is installed which has the same ‘seed’ which is deposited in the kalash underground. Here the temple vimana is imagined as a tree. As S. K. Ramachandra Rao puts it:<blockquote>“The spot where the ‘womb’ is hidden would be the seat of the icon. The icon represents the sap of the temple-tree, the four walls would indicate the spreading branches all around. The roof resting over the wall is technically called ‘row of doves’ (kapota-pali or simply kapota), after the birds that perch on tree-tops. The sanctum is thus a neat model of the growing tree.” (Rao 74)</blockquote>The seed in the underground holds the seed of supreme consciousness. When this consciousness sprouts, it takes the form of the deity in the garbha-griha. On the other hand, the consciousness from above also descends and meets the consciousness that is rising from below. The ascent of individual consciousness is complemented by the descent of the universal consciousness. It is a symbolic way of showing the individual consciousness rising up to meet the universal or supreme consciousness.

This ascent and descent are taking on the vertical axis of the temple, in the garbha-griha and in the vimana that tops it. The devotee that stands in the mandapam, in front of the deity lies on the horizontal axis of the temple. It is his active desire, his deep faith which lets him partake in the divine ascent and divine descent that is taking place in the garbha-griha.

Through the authority of the shastras; the agency of the temple as a Yantra to bring about desired goals; through the worship offered by the priest on the behalf of the devotee; and through divine grace, the devotee partakes in the ascent of consciousness. Deeply meditated upon, the ascent of the consciousness in the garbha-griha becomes his own ascent.<blockquote>“The shrine thus demonstrates the constellation of the human and the divine currents; matter moves up and the spirit flows down. The devotee that stands in front of the icon is expected to partake in this transaction. The emanations that proceed from the icon must be picked up by the faith in his heart. Devotion is the transformer. The rituals conducted within the shrine involve these ideas and attempt to facilitate transformation along the horizontal axis of icon-devotee. The devotee represents active matter and the icon passive spirit. The two are brought together in the creative act of worship.” (Rao 80)</blockquote>This is why darshan holds such importance for a Hindu devotee visiting a temple. More than prayers, more than signing devotional hymns, it is the act of darshan which is central to a temple visit and which transforms the individual consciousness of the devotee having darshan to higher levels.

The symbolism of the temple vimana as the tree is also understood by its etymology. The very Sanskrit word ‘vimana’ has two connotations: “that which is without comparison” and “that which brings about fruit”. Hence the word ‘vimana’ means the one which bears fruit.

==== Hindu Temple is all about Meaning ====
To come back to the point where we started, the Hindu temple is not just a monument. It is a living institution but even more than that it has a meaning and a goal. Through its imagery and play with sculpture and architecture, it elevates the devotees to higher planes of consciousness.

It is not just there to be seen and to be impressed with. It is not just a geometrical marvel. It is not just a photographer’s delight. It is more than the perspective that it offers. It is more than the faith that it commands. It speaks in the language of symbols. It aims to transcend the concrete.

It aims to carry the devotee towards truth through its brilliant imagery and potent symbols. The Hindu temple is not silent. It speaks. The Hindu temple is not passive. It acts. The Hindu temple is not just a place. It is a process: the process of self-realization.

The Hindu temple is all about meaning. It is a device which means to decipher the deepest secrets of life and existence to its devotees, through the most elaborate system of sculptural and architectural symbols.

This is where it differs from both the church and the mosque. But the philosophy behind the Hindu temple is also very different from the modern concept of architecture which will be pursued in the third part of this article.

==== REFERENCES ====
Fergusson, James. A History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. London: John Murray, 1876.

Hardy, Adam. The Temple Architecture of India. Chicester: John Wiley & Sons, 2007.

Ramachandra Rao, S. K. The Vastu-Silpa-Kosha: Encyclopaedia of Hindu Temple Architecture and Vastu. New Delhi: Divine Books, 2012. Vol. I.

Coomaraswamy, Ananda. K. The Transformation of Nature in Art. Munshiram Manoharlal, 2014.

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art. Munshiram Manoharlal, 2008.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[index.php?title=Category:Art and Culture]]

Aesthetics Vs. Meaning Part I: The Importance of Hindu Architecture

2026-10-16T08:07:52Z

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==== The Perspective Heaven ====
Any student of architecture with reasonable skills in photography knows by instinct upon entering the precincts of an Islamic monument like the Taj Mahal, Agra, or the Bibi Ka Maqbara, Aurangabad that he has landed into perspective heaven.

The perspective here is easily coaxed out of almost any angle. Point the camera in the right direction and the perspective lines are ready-made. The beautiful gardens with many layers of fountains, water passages, shrub lines, and footpaths straddle throughout the monument.

The parallel and perpendicular lines that run across the precincts provide the third dimension to the photograph by creating depth in space. The geometrical designs crisscross in perfect symmetry in and around the monument framing it in a ready-made perspective from many angles.

Most of the Islamic monuments in India and abroad, much like their Renaissance counterparts were built from this aesthetic perspective. They were created to dazzle and impress the visitor with grandeur and power. They were built for beauty and beauty alone. Aesthetics is what drove them. Much thought went into creating them so that they would look perfect from every angle.

This is not just true of the Indo-Saracenic or the Mughal monuments in India. Taj Mahal is not the only one with the beautiful perspective lines. Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi, Buland Darwaza in Sikri, the tombs of the Barid Shahi Kings at Bidar, and the Bibi ka Maqbara in Aurangabad are all built on the concept of perfect geometrical symmetry built to please the eye.

And this is where the Hindu temple differs from them.

==== In Search of Meaning ====
Of course, the Hindu temple is also built to please the eye. There is no art in India which violates the basic principles of aesthetics. Indian craftsmen were always well-versed in the universal principles which went into creating a piece of art that pleased the senses.

But this is not where they stopped. Beauty or aesthetics was the means, but it was not the goal of Indian art. The goal of Indian art was to transcend the beautiful, transcend what merely looked good to the eye. The goal of Indian art was to transport the viewer to the higher planes of consciousness. Coomaraswamy says:<blockquote>‘Just as Professor Masson-Oursel has pointed out, ‘Indian art is aiming at something quite other than the copying of Nature. What we assume, quite superficially, to be the inspiration of art for art’s sake, really proceeds from religious scholasticism that implies a traditional classification of types established by convention. If here or there a relief or painting exhibits some feature drawn from life, it is only accidentally that the artist has, in spite of himself, transcribed something from actual Nature: and this is certainly, from the indigenous point of view, the least meritorious part of his work.’ Those who wish to study the ‘development’ of Indian art must emancipate themselves entirely for the innate European tendency to use a supposedly greater or less degree of the observation of Nature as a measuring rod by which to trace stylistic sequences or recognize aesthetic merit. Indian art can only be studied as showing at different times a greater or less degree of consciousness, greater or less energy; the criteria are degrees of vitality, unity, grace, and the like, never of illusion. (Transformation of Nature… 117)</blockquote>He makes it clear that aesthetics is incidental to Indian art; it is never its primary goal. The primary goal is to guide the devotee towards the Ultimate Truth.

The Hindu temple is most certainly beautiful. Anyone who has ever laid his eyes upon the majesty that is the Kailashnath, Ellora; or looked upon the stupendous achievement that is the Brihadeeswar, Thanjavur; mused about the sheer will power and beauty personified that is the Kandariya Mahadeva, Khajuraho; or wondered about the caves of Elephanta, will swear that there is seldom anything in the Hindu temple that is not beautiful.

But the Hindu temple does not stop there. Beauty is a side product, but not the end goal of the Hindu temple.

One will find perspective lines in the Hindu temple too. Not as many and not as readily available to the camera as they do in an Islamic monument, but they are available. They are not the entire point thought. Ritual symbolism is always more important to Hindu architecture than symmetry. And thus you will find the temple pond always on the Ishana Kona of any temple which is absolutely not mirrored on the Agneya or the Nairittya side.

Symmetry is not the point here. Similarly, the Hindu temple grows organically, and different parts of the temple mirror different needs and symbolize different meanings.

So the perspective lines do exist in the Hindu temple but as soon as you approach the structure your eyes start deciphering structures within the structure, temples within temples, rathas within rathas, gavaksha within gavaksha, shikharas upon shikharas, motifs decorated with miniature motifs.

There is action everywhere. You become mesmerized with a war scene and just then your eye flits to another scene nearby in which a couple is in an amorous embrace. Then your eye catches the beauty and the relaxed poise of the Vishnu in tribhanga just nearby.

Once again your eye flits across and you see a Shiva Dakshinamurthy. In between, there are swans, elephants, horses, makaras, and other animals. There are doorways within doorways. Monoliths with a thousand individual sculptures carved in it. Look away and you discern a Puranic story being portrayed, an aspect of Rama’s or Krishna’s life portrayed.

You soon become overwhelmed. The Hindu temple is all action and yet it leads towards ultimate inaction inside the garbha-griha. But the outer walls are all action. It is designed to not let your eyes rest at one place. It is designed to make the disciple view the samsara in all its ephemeral avataras; to realize that all that is worldly will disappear and is impermanent.

The Hindu temple is not passive. It actively tells stories. It imparts meaning to every part of its structure; it tells stories and teaches deep truths with every figure of its sculptures.

There is no icon, no niche, no part of the Hindu temple which does not exude meaning and this meaning always leads to the realization of the Ultimate Truth, represented in its fullest by the deity in the garbha-griha.

While a mosque or a tomb is nothing more than beautiful, with its beauty lying in its social use and its historical details, the Hindu temple lends itself to many purposes, but most of all it readily and passionately lends itself to meaning, meaning which is not directionless but which guides the devotee towards the Ultimate Truth.

The intention of the creators of these great temples was never missed upon the audience that visited them. The rules that governed the concept and creation of the temple also went to condition the mind and the behavior of the devotee too.

Everyone who visited the temple had a certain expectation from it, and this expectation was neither aesthetic nor intellectual. The devotee came to the temple for having ‘darshana’ of the deity, for finding meaning in life and in the temple, as Coomaraswamy once again stresses:<blockquote>“…whereas we make an aesthetic emotion the first and final end of art, medieval man was moved far more by the meaning that illuminated the forms than by these forms themselves…” (Christian and Oriental… 111)</blockquote>The meaning is not just confined to the sculpture that adorns its walls or to the vigraha in the garbha-griha. The structural parts of the architecture also convey meaning. There is nothing purely decorative in the Hindu temple. Every piece of sculpture and every structure of the building conveys some meaning, tells some story. To a Hindu architect the adjective ‘decorative’ sounds pejorative, as Coomaraswamy explains:<blockquote>“The product was not called “art”, but an “artifact,” a thing “made by art”; the art remains in the artist. Nor was there any distinction of “fine” from “applied” or “pure” form “decorative” art. All art was for “good use” and “adapted to condition”. Art could be applied either too noble or to common uses but was no more or less art in the one case than in the other. Our use of the word “decorative” would have been abusive as if we spoke of a mere millinery or upholstery: for all the words purporting decoration in many languages, referred originally not to anything that could be added to an already finished and effective product merely to please the eye or ear, but to the completion of anything with whatever might be necessary to its functioning, whether with respect to the mind or the body: a sword, for example, would “ornament” a knight, as virtue “ornaments” the soul or knowledge the mind.” (Christian and Oriental… 111-112)</blockquote>The meaning in a Hindu temple exudes from the plan of the elevation, from the material that is used in the walls, and which is used to fashion the vigraha. The meaning is there in the Utsava Murti of the temple, but also in the rituals that are being followed. The meaning is in how the deity is worshipped; how the priests worship; and how the devotee has darshan.

The Hindu temple is beautiful, but it also transcends beauty. The Hindu temple is aesthetic, but it goes beyond it. The Hindu temple is a representation of the cosmos, but its meaning goes beyond even the cosmos and leads towards the timeless and the eternal; the Ultimate Consciousness.

The goal of the Hindu temple is not to impress its visitor by its architectural magnitude or even by its sculptural beauty. Its goal is to elevate the consciousness of the devotee, to transport him to higher planes of consciousness. The Hindu temple, like all other Hindu sciences, is a means to reach higher stages of consciousness. It is a means for self-realization.

At first look, it seems surprising that something as concrete as architecture can transport someone to sublime heights of philosophy, but the Hindu temple does just that. And it has developed special techniques to achieve that.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Temple and the Teertha

2026-10-16T08:07:26Z

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What remains after an Islamic invader destroys a temple? What remains after the vigraha of the primary devata is destroyed or taken away and the temple is also destroyed? Does the sanctity of the place disappear with one such attack? Or is there something greater to a teertha than a temple?

A large part of our country no longer boasts of ancient temples. Starting from the plains of the Punjab and Haryana and continuing through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal, and then extending into Bangladesh is a zone of ruins where very few temples from the pre-Mughal times survive.

A few isolated ones like the one at Nibiyakheda and Bhitargaon in Uttar Pradesh survived because they were completely covered by silt. Some others like the Mundeshwari Devi in Bihar and the brick temples in Purulia, West Bengal survive in greatly ruined conditions preserving just a shell of their former structure. But even these are rarities in this belt.

The greatest centers of the heartland of our civilization are devoid of ancient structures. Mathura can boast of no temple older than a few hundred years. The case of Ayodhya is known to everyone. The case of Kashi is even more shocking.

Despite boasting literally thousands upon thousands of sacred temples, not one predates the Maratha rebuilding of the sacred city. Similarly, Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is also an ancient place, mentioned in the Ramayana but devoid of any ancient structure.

Chitrakoot is so central to the Ramayana the story of Shri Rama cannot be imagined apart from it.

Chitrakoot is where Shri Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita spent most of their Vanavasa. They lived there for more than eleven years. It is here that Shri Rama came to know about the death of his father, King Dasharatha.

It is here that the famous episode of the Ramayana ‘Rama-Bharat Milaap’ happened. Shri Rama performed the shraddha ceremony for his father here too.

The place is spoken of greatly in the Valmiki Ramayana and is said to be the sacred center where some of the greatest sages of India came to do tapas.

The place is also spoken of very highly in the Mahabharata in the ‘Ramopakhyan section’. Rama speaks of the place in bewitching terms himself. The place is also mentioned in the Adhyatma Ramayana. Raghuvamsha also does not fail to extol its virtues.

Not only this, Goswami Tulsidas made this place famous when he penned Shri Ramacharitmanas. He speaks glowingly of the place and has a special bond with it which becomes evident in his other works too like the Vinaya Patrika. It is the holiest of the cities. And still, there is not a single ancient structure left standing here. Not even the ruins survive.

The first time I went to Chitrakoot I was a little disappointed. I was mostly used to visit places with great architectural heritage.

I never neglected the spiritual element of a temple, but having extensively traveled in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala I had become used to living institutions which were also magnificent structures.

In Chitrakoot, this was not so, like so many other places in the north. There was not a single architectural piece in Chitrakoot which was more than 200 years old.

It felt bad to visit a place that I otherwise felt culturally connected with but which was so completely stripped of any architectural heritage. The ancient structures had so completely disappeared during the medieval era by Islamic invasions in the Middle Ages that not even the ruins had survived.

Yet, as I looked around I realized it hardly mattered to the devotees. If anything, they were even more enthusiastic. The devotees doing the theKamadgiriparikrama were doing it in every shade of devotion.

Most were walking barefoot like us but some were doing it by measuring every inch of the land by completely prostrating themselves, getting up, and doing it all over again continuously through the pathway.

Some were walking deliberately on hot stones even though the shade was available. Some were carrying their old parents on their shoulders.

We were not alone and I am not talking about human beings. The monkeys, as is inevitable in any teertha in this part of North India, were everywhere. They would snatch away anything they could with absolute authority and would stare back at us as if we were the ones doing something wrong.

We asked the shopkeeper from whom we bought Prasada to offer to the temples: “भैय्या, बन्दर तो नहीं छीन लेंगे यह सब? (Brother, will the monkeys not snatch it all)” He replied nonchalantly:<blockquote>“उनका काम ही है छिनाना तो छिनायेंगे ही |

(Their job is to snatch it only)”</blockquote>There are various points of interest in Chitrakoot: Ramghat along the Mandakini river at the center of the town is famous because Shri Rama lived here. For a Ram bhakta, the place still vibrates with his presence.

Raghav Ghat is famous as the Ghat where Shri Rama performed the Pinda Daana ritual for his father King Dasharatha. Sita Ki Rasoi is an eternal presence with every place associated with Rama and it is here too.

Reading the Ramcharitmanas is one thing. The devotee at Chitrakoot lives the entire life of Shri Rama that was spent here every second that he spends in this blessed place.

Raghav Ghat is also famous for the legend of Goswami Tulsidas, the Jnani saint who told the story of Shri Rama in a vernacular, making it instantly accessible to millions more, making it a matter of importance for every household.

It was here that Goswami Tulsidas had Darshana of Shri Rama. Layers upon layers of sacred stories continue to sanctify the place as more saints become famous for doing tapas at the teertha. Meaning is loaded upon meaning.

Stories are ensconced within stories. It seems impossible but over the ages, the place acquires more layers of sanctity.

Like Vrindavan is most famous for the Govardhan Parikrama, Chitrakoot is most famous for the Kamadgiri Parikrama. The entire route is littered with places commemorating every little episode of Shri Rama for the period that he lived here.

Not a single aspect is overlooked. The structures are diminutive, puny even but the stories are grand, as grand as they are in Vijayanagar, Hampi, or in Rameshwaram.

I was constantly put off by the ‘recent’ structures but consistently amazed by how little it affected the devotees. The priests claimed at every place that the ‘temples were ancient’. They were most obviously not. But all the other devotees that came there were not bothered by the ‘false claims’ of the priests. For them, the age of the structure hardly mattered.

They would throw themselves at every relic of their beloved Shri Rama. For what can be better than touching the very same place where Shri Rama once stood on a stone and left the imprint of his feet?

What can be more fortunate than doing a parikrama of the ‘sphaticshila’ on which Lord Shri Rama rested whenever he got tired, by the banks of the Mandakini river? And who except a haughty ‘scholar’ will try to really judge the age of the ‘sphatikshila’ and whether it is really sphatik or not.

Around the Kamadgiri parikrama, would sit vendors selling the ‘Kanda Mool’ fruit, the same stem of a wild tree which Shri Rama ate. Did he? Or did he not? Who cares!

For the devotee the entire place pulsated with meaning, the whole kshetra was sacred. He didn’t bother whether the architecture was ancient or not. He didn’t bother whether the places mentioned were actually the places where Shri Rama and Sita sat, ate, or did their activities.

For them, it was enough that a significant number of other Hindus believed in what they believed. For them ‘maanyata’ (what is generally believed) was enough. Itihasa seemed secondary or even non-consequential. And the shraddha, the bhakti, kept the kshetra alive.

While there is not a single architectural structure that is ancient or even medieval in Chitrakoot, it hardly matters to the devotees. The entire kshetra is sacred with every speck of it reflecting the times and environs of Shri Rama.

With or without the structure, the legend of Shri Rama continues here. Chitrakoot itself, the entire town, is a great Dham, a great teertha.The panchkroshiparikrama around Kamadgiriencompasses the entire area into a sacred center and converts the entire kshetra into a teerthasthala.

What the Islamic invaders did to most parts of India and what they did to Chitrakoot was to destroy its physical structures. They destroyed the temples. They even killed the people who inhabited the land at that time.

What they couldn’t destroy was the teertha itself. For as soon as they left the Hindus would come back and rebuild the temples.

When the attacks continued and the society became impoverished so much so that even this rebuilding became impossible, the Hindus still continued with their worship of the Chitrakoot teertha unfazed.

Structure or no structure, the place remained holy. Temple or no temple, no one could change the fact that Shri Rama lived and breathed here.

The temple is primarily a structure and it can be destroyed. The teertha, on the other hand, is the inner sanctity of the entire place and thus cannot be destroyed until its devotees are all dead or converted, or abandon their shraddha for the kshetra. And the devotees did not. Against all odds, they continued to keep the place as sacred as ever.

While the temple was destroyed, the teertha could not be. While the temple was dissolved in the sands of time, the teertha was kept alive by the devotees. And they did it by constant pilgrimage, constant teerthayatra, incessant parikrama/ pradakshina of the sacred mountain at Chitrakoot, the Kamadgiri.

They kept it alive by not just believing but ‘knowing’ that the particular ‘sphatikshila’ was where Prabhu Shri Rama sat, and the particular imprint of the foot was where he rested his feet.

It was not a matter of belief for them. It was a matter of ‘knowing’. They ‘knew’ that Shri Rama lived here with Mother Sita. They knew that Shri Rama made this place sacred with his divine presence. They kept it alive by celebrating Ramnavmi and various other festivals here.

They kept it alive by not forgetting Chitrakoot as one of the most important places in the story of Shri Rama. They kept it alive by making it permanently pulsating in the collective memory of the Hindu consciousness.

This was not just true of the locals. Devotees from the entire Bharatvarsha kept streaming in every festival, and every teertha yatra cycle, and the glory of the place and the legend grew even more.

And as long as this collective Hindu memory of their teerthas remains alive, we will build our temples again, even according to the Agamas, and we will reclaim even the structures and the majesty.

Until the teertha is alive, the temple can always be rebuilt, and for that, we should be thankful to our ancestors, who, against all odds, kept the bhakti and the shraddha alive.

Time has come now to reclaim even the structure, to rebuilt even grand structures and we shall not be behind in it. But what is most important to remember, is that the temple can always be rebuilt until the teertha remains alive.

As the NavRatras start, we have to keep this in mind. For the Shakti Peethas across the country bind our nation together like nothing else. It is not symbolic. To see our teerthas ‘symbolically’ is to see our culture at one remove.

The entire country is actually pulsating with the Divine Energy of the Great Goddess in various different forms and incarnations.

Durga, the Divine Goddess flows through the veins of Bharatvarsha as its prana, just like Shri Rama enlivens Chitrakoot. And that shall keep Bharatvarsha alive. That shall keep the fight alive. That shall reclaim what was lost to us.

Teertha Sthalas are the epicenters of Bharatvarsha. And Teertha Yatras are the veins through which the blood of the divine prana flows. As long as the Teertha Yatras continue, we shall continue to claim the lands that belong to Sanatana Dharma.

And we shall reclaim even those lands that now seem completely lost to us. For there is a reason that Katas Raj Shakti Peetha is still alive. There is a reason that Dhakeshwari is still a teertha.

What gives you hope?

Every Nava Ratras, every little corner of Bharatvarsha starts pulsating with the energy of the Divine Goddess. Near my home in Gwalior, the highway turns to a pilgrimage, Ratangadki Mata in Datia district next door.

The pilgrimage is little known outside the small geographical region. And yet in Nav Ratras millions flock to the small temple.

Taking aerial shots would actually show the scale of the teertha yatra to the goddess at Ratangarh. And there are thousands of places like these. Almost every little taluka of every district boasts of them.

Until these teertha yatras continue we shall keep up the fight, keep up the hope.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

The Water that Became Ghee

2026-10-16T08:07:09Z

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One of the most common legends about the sacred centers of India that we all grew up listening to is the legend of the water that turned into ghee. The sacred pulse of India is never out of sight. A great temple, a sacred centre is never far away. This is as true about north India where there is hardly any ancient temple left, as it is about south India.

Almost every district and region in India have at least one such great centre. In north India, it is often called a Dham, which attracts millions of crowds on the festivals and thousands every day. When a great festival arrives, the activity becomes intense at these places. And no such festival can be complete without the grand feast, or ‘bhandara’ as it is called in North India.

The amount of food that is cooked and served in these bhandaras can put some of the greatest catering services in the world to shame. What is served in these bhandaras is prasada, not just-food. Entire villages pour in for getting this prasada. “प्रासादी पाना है”… As they would often say about the bhandara. It is not just-food.

Having prasada in a bhandara is more than the act of eating. It becomes an act of divine partaking in a cosmic event. The gods come to bless the place, the food, and the entire event. It is only natural that legends would be attached to these events. One of these legends is about the water that became ghee.

One such sacred centre is the Karah Dham of Morena, and it is one of the first that I became conscious of 25 kilometers from Gwalior, on the Agra-Bombay Highway, also known mundanely as NH 3, a quiet state highway branch left. About five kilometers ahead on this wavy road is the Karah Dham, or the Dham of Patia Wale Baba.

It was made famous by many saints who did tapas there, most famously by Patia Wale Baba, who lived during the first half of the 20th century. He sat on a ‘patia’, a slab of stone, for many years doing tapas and that is how he became famous as ‘Patia Wale Baba’.

After him, a great lineage of gurus started which continues till today. The place boasts of a great kshetra, a sacred center with tens of temples of all primary gods and goddesses of India. As most people would not be able to visit the Char Dhams across India these local centers of devotion would often substitute them.

Although devotees visited these Dhams throughout the year, on certain occasions like the day like anniversaries of saints and great festivals like Nava Ratras, grand feasts would be organized. And to get prasada in these bhandaras everyone in the nearby regions would visit.

The atmosphere was electric. The devotees would sing to the glory of Patia Wale Baba (and not those who donated for the event) and how everything went about peacefully and satisfactorily without any mishap.

My father was a great devotee who would tell and retell every little aspect of the Dham to me again and again and again. One legend he would take particular care to tell with much panache and style. It was the legend of the water that became ghee.

Once during the Baba barsi (anniversary), scores of years ago, a great crisis struck the organizers of the bhandara. Of course, my father was not an eye witness. He had heard it from someone else. These stories were always retold, and no one could pinpoint their exact origin.

This is the core character of the katha pravachan parampara of India. The stories are not created. They exist. They always are. The devotee gets to tap into their magic, their grace.

There is no historical time where one can locate them firmly and no particular space which can be said to be their origin. They exist from times immemorial. That is why they are always retold, never told fresh.

So on that fateful Barsi, the organizers ran out of the ghee needed to cook the pooris. There were still hundreds of people to feed. The organizers and the cooks ran in panic to Patia Wale Baba. He listened to their problem calmly and told them not to panic.

With a calm voice and firm conviction, he told them to pull out some water from the well. Some of the bhaktas dithered as to why was he telling them to pull out water when they needed ghee. But doubt seldom has many places in these stories.

Various devotees ran to the sacred well of the teertha and dipped their buckets into it. When they started pulling them they were surprised to find them heavy and when the buckets came in sight they were pleasantly shocked to find that they had actually pulled out the ghee and not water from the well.

Was the well actually throwing up ghee? Looking into it all they could see was water but as they pulled that water with their buckets it would turn magically into ghee.

Patia Wale Baba said that they could pull as much ghee as they needed from the well, but only as much and not a gram more. And when the bhandara is done and enough ghee is donated to the Dham later on they should actually put the ghee back in the well which would again turn into water.

This is what the bhaktas did and such was the glory of Karah Dham. Is there any other place which has a miraculous story like this? So would my father say. I was a kid who wasn’t yet addled on rationalism either in school or through books. Of course, I believed what he said.

But when I grew up and started going around to various sacred places across the country I found that the same story was repeated in almost all local sacred centers. The story was almost literally the same with just different names. And every devotee at every such place was convinced that it was the special grace of their Dham which had enabled such a miracle.

These stories are repeated almost in a pattern all across India but this article is not about that. It is about another very important aspect of the Hindu psyche. There are three important instructions that the guru gives in this story which are the point of this article.

The first important instruction that the guru gives them is that they will get what is necessary; that the universe will provide them what is required and what is necessary to accomplish a task as sacred like organizing a bhandara.

So the first great feeling that this story conveys is the feeling of comfort in the knowledge that the universe has a way of throwing up just what is required and just when it is required.

The second part of the instruction of the guru is that they should take only as much as is required and not a gram more. The sense to hoard things, to accrue them for the future is highly resented here. Not to worry about the future, not to hoard more than what is immediately necessary is a necessary corollary of having faith in the workings of the universe.

Even more importantly it tells us that the grace of the guru and the sacred instruction cannot be used for personal gain. Only in the times of great public and selfless crises like the one of the running of out the ghee with hungry mouths to feed, can the grace of the guru be used to tweak the universe and its rules a little, to achieve what is required.

Nature, the first order, the order of the universe cannot and should not be tweaked more than what is extremely and absolutely necessary for survival.

The third most important instruction that the guru gives is that they should return the ghee back to the well or the pond when they have enough of it, and when they can afford to do so. The underlying instruction here is that there is no free lunch in the universe. The universe cannot be cheated by magic, even for an emergency.

The magic summoned by bhakti and the grace of the guru provides a loan in time and space to the devotees, a loan which has to be paid back when it is possible to do so. If this is not done, then the grace of the guru does not work again. The universe, once cheated, doesn’t yield again. Nature once betrayed, doesn’t comply again to the particular demand of the individual.

On the surface, this is just a superstitious story of ignorant primitives, who did not have the benefit of rational logic and scientific temper.

To an ‘educated modern mind,’ this seems like the ignorant stories of terrified primitive men who did not have the tools to know about the secrets of the universe and thus relied on concocted myths and imagined magic.

But I am not interested in deciding whether rational science is true or whether faith or shraddha is true.

I am trying to point towards the implication of the loss of this ‘primitive worldview’ and the imbibing of ‘rational logic’ and ‘scientific temper’.

A civilization which rejects ‘superstitious’ worldviews, like the one conveyed through this story, works on rational logic. The modern civilization which came out of Industrial Revolution technology and Enlightenment worldview worked on rationality and empiricism. ‘Primitive’ stories like these had no place in a rational civilization.

It is interesting to note that the modern fairytale of unlimited economic progress was also created by this ‘rational civilization’. That it is impossible to keep growing limitlessly and eternally on a limited planet with limited resources is something even a fifth standard student can understand.

Why an entire civilization fails to understand it defies any rationality or logic, the same values on which this civilization stands. The paradox couldn’t be more complete, especially when you look at the ‘primitive’ civilization with ‘superstitious’ values.

This ‘superstitious’ civilization which celebrated stories of water becoming ghee subconsciously recognized that there is no free lunch in the universe. You cannot exploit Nature endlessly without consequences.

The ‘primitive’ devotees operating on shraddha and dharma alone, instinctively understood through these stories that you have to take from Nature only as much as you need.

And that if sometimes you extract more than usual or more than the usual cycles of Nature allows, then you have to give it back what you took. The principle of reciprocity was inherent in this story. The value of responsibility was the operating principle. The notion of limited resources was the starting point.

Today we recognize these principles with scientific terminology and ecological jargon. The scientific knowledge which often needs billions of dollars of research, the manpower of hundreds of thousands of people, and educating agencies which once again need billions of dollars and years of faulty implementations were effortlessly, costlessly, and informally disbursed through these stories which were discarded in one sweep as ‘superstitious’ and ‘primitive’ when we chose to adopt the civilizational standpoint which operated on rationality and logic.

The contrast is very clear. The takeaway is palpably obvious. Sanatana Dharma invented mechanisms of dispersing necessary wisdom essential for living a sustainable life through the means of stories, centered around the sacred centers which revolved around the institution of the temple and the occasion of the festival.

To destroy this civilization completely by refusing to acknowledge its wisdom and to adopt a ‘scientific’ and ‘rational’ civilization and worldview is not only to destroy culture but also to destroy Nature. Generations of scientists and decades of ‘scientific temper’ find it hard to teach the masses what the simple ‘superstitious’ story of the water that became ghee could.

Dharmic and traditional societies had a wonderful and decentralized way of teaching worldviews and lifestyles which were necessary not just for their own survival but also for a harmonious co-existence with Nature. These stories are often called superstitious myths by scholars but often taken as eternal truths by the devotees.

That our rationalistic civilization can no longer incorporate these ‘myths’ in a logical worldview is obvious by the loss of ecological and social common sense. And its results are too obvious, not just in the collapse of a healthy society but also in the collapse of eco-systems the world over.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Symbolism of Temples Part I: Do Hindus Understand their Sacred Symbols?

2026-10-16T08:06:54Z

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==== Do Hindus understand the symbolism of temple sculpture and architecture? ====
Many will argue that today this is largely not so. The symbols lie unrecognized by many devotees. The rituals continue without connecting meaning to symbols.

In general, the appreciation of both sculpture and architecture is going down because the faculties of appreciating them are disappearing.

The reasons are too well known. The cultural disconnect that modern education and socio-political system imposes upon our generations makes sure that they are made unfamiliar with their own rituals, symbolism, and Sanskrit language.

As a result, what was a daily routine for our grandfathers is something now only laboriously learned by us, if we ever will so.

But was this the case in the past too? Did Hindus visit the temple without understanding its symbolism and meaning? Or were they able to partake in the divine meaning that exuded from myriad symbols that proliferated throughout the various parts of the temple?

Did our architects and sculptors create masterpieces whose meaning was lost upon the majority? Were they singing to the wall? Were they building for themselves? Or was there a common collective consciousness which easily partook the meaning that the vigraha imparted and that the sculptor intended?

The Hindus at large did understand the meaning of the symbols that were displayed in the Hindu temple. There are various indicators that lead us to that conclusion.

==== A Shared Vocabulary ====
The first common ground that the devotee had with the creators of art, sculpture, and architecture in India was the shared symbolism and common metaphors that pervaded not only all the disciplines of art but also the disciplines of philosophy and sciences.

The metaphors that the Indian sculptor applied while creating a sculpture, were shared across various disciplines. The same metaphors that are common in Hindu darshana carry over seamlessly into Hindu iconography.

The stories that the devotees would listen to and narrate in their daily lives were the ones represented on the temple walls. The mantras that the devotees daily recited were the ones that invoked the exact same attributes of the gods depicted on the temple walls and in the garbha-griha.

The darshana with which he was familiar through the various epics, stories, kathas, mantras, daily worship, and the general art of storytelling was the darshana which dictated the hand of the sculptor too.

The Indian artist did not focus on individual creativity. For him, the greatest achievement was the moment when the individual disappeared altogether and became one with the cosmic consciousness upon which he was meditating.

It was when he reached that stage of undifferentiated unity with the supreme consciousness that the best of art was created. It was only when he disappeared completely that he could express himself most powerfully and most universally.<blockquote>“The artist’s preoccupation was with the “symbol” through which states of being could be suggested or recreated. Subjective personal experience played little or no part, and artistic creation began only when the artist had attained, in his own intuitive mind, the state of calm termed as equilibrium (hrdaya visranti). Having conquered all personal suffering and pain and attained this state of complete detached emotion, he presented through age-old symbols the spectrum of life only to re-create a similar state of being in the reader or spectator, a state in which the latter could experience, however transitorily, the pure bliss (Ananda) of art.” (Vatsyayan 14)</blockquote>The metaphors of art that went into the creation of a shared vocabulary in iconography also dictated other disciplines of art, like natya and nritta. The Karanas are first expounded upon in the Natyashastra and this is the lakshana grantha, the fundamental scripture, from which dance, music, and also iconography spring from among many other disciplines.<blockquote>“All the special features of this architecture, its starting point of unity in conception, its crowded abundance of mass and design of significant sculpture, ornament, and detail, and its return to the oneness are “the necessary units of this immense epic poem of the Infinite”. Without going into the technique of architecture which lays down the method by which this infinite multiplicity can fill the ultimate oneness, it is enough for our purpose here to be fully aware of the tremendous unity of purpose and design which Indian architecture symbolizes.” (Vatsyayan 21)</blockquote>Kapila Vatsyayan asserts that far from being meaningless Indian architecture is completely meaningful. Not only that there is an organic dimension to its modules which makes it a meaningful complete. Kapila Vatsyayan and again and again stresses that it is meditation which connects all these arts:<blockquote>“Just as Indian architecture reveals the unity through infinite multiplicity, Indian sculpture embodies the spirit and soul of the cosmic Infinite in the form and body of the particular, the impersonal individual which in turn suggests the cosmic and the Infinite.” (Vatsyayan 22)</blockquote>

==== The Source of the Shared Vocabulary ====
This shared vocabulary arises from the Yogic chittabhumis, the yogic planes of consciousness which were privy to anyone who meditated under the guidance of a guru. Individuals meditating for attaining self-enlightenment stumbled across the sacred metaphors which were so potent that they could pervade through various disciplines and create a shared vocabulary.

Meditation was a routine for those rishis who created the scriptures, for those artists who created the vigrahas, for the architects who designed the temples, for the priests who carried on the rituals, for the devotees who visited the temple for darshana of the deity.

The thread of consciousness running through Hindu darshana enlivened every one of these disciplines, institutions, and individuals.

In India, those who write the darshana granthas, do not engage in speculation to arrive upon ‘theories’. The fundamental philosophical questions are not subject to his individuality, to his individual whims and fantasies, as explained above by Kapila Vatsyayan. He literally sees the truth during meditation.

That is why it is called darshana. What the great rishi, sage, or philosopher does is essentially the same act that takes place when a devotee has darshana of the deity in the garbha-griha of a temple. Across various disciplines, individuals, and institutions the thread of consciousness runs to unite it in a shared vocabulary.

Not everyone meditated enough to directly grasp the meaning of all these symbols but those who wrote the shastras, those who sculpted great vigrahas, and those who built great temples had direct experience of these yogic chitta bhumis.

These pioneers and rishis popularized these concepts in society through various means in various disciplines. The abstract and esoteric notions were carried through very popular means like katha-pravachan parampara in which stories of great heroes became carriers of abstract ideas.

The highest of meanings were conveyed through the commonest of rituals, creating a shared vocabulary that enabled even the common man to understand the meaning and symbolism of complex vigrahas of a great deity.

Since all arts and sciences were geared towards the same ultimate goal, it was hard to miss the symbolism even for the common man. No matter what the station of a person was, he recognized in one way or the other, the underlying oneness of all creation, all existence, under the manifestation of multiplicity.

Art in dharmic culture rises in Yogic chitta bhoomis. No external influence or individual innovation is necessary for the inspiration of art. The inspiration of dharmic art is always divine. The individual initiative is limited to the conviction of getting down to meditate. Art in such a society is born in the minds of the Yogi.

Even if all concrete signs of art are obliterated by enemies of dharma, they are not completely destroyed, for their origin lies in dhyana, in sadhana, in yogic chitta bhumis.

These yogic chitta bhumis are available to not just the artist who sculpts the vigraha of Vishnu, not only to the architect who designed the temple but to any practitioner of yoga who is initiated into a meditational discipline by a great guru. The understanding of the artistic impulse was thus available to the common man too.

This made for a shared plane of existence where symbolism was understood by a large number of individuals including the devotees and not just the artists.

Something which can be rediscovered by the artist can be rediscovered by the devotee too and is regularly discovered in states of consciousness.

The shared vocabulary that pervaded various disciplines of art also pervaded darshana or Hindu sciences too and most importantly they all had their origins in the yogic chitta bhumis, in the yogic states of consciousness which were available to the common man, to the non-artist too.

Not everyone meditated or struck upon states of consciousness conducive to great art, but sufficient individuals in the society did and their experiences had a readymade vocabulary and social customs and rituals to make them popular across all sections of society.

'''That is the beauty of the Hindu arts.'''

This is the reason that the Hindu devotee could understand the meaning of the vigrahas that he saw, the devaalaya that he visited, and the chitrabhasa (painting) that he saw. All Indian arts shared a vocabulary with common metaphors.

All Indian disciplines originated in yogic chitta bhumis which were accessible to anyone who meditated. This is what created the connection between the artist and the devotee.

==== Reference ====
Vatsyayan, Kapila. The Metaphors of Indian Arts. D. K. Printworld, 2015.

Authored by Pankjad Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[index.php?title=Category:Art and Culture]]

Symbolism Of Temples Part II: The Shared Vocabulary Of Indian Arts

2026-10-16T08:06:28Z

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==== The Universal Metaphors ====
Indian arts are not isolated disciplines. They are connected to each other with a shared vocabulary and universal metaphors which pervade all of these disciplines. It is the all-pervasiveness of these metaphors which connects Indian art with the connoisseur; which connects the sculpture and the architect with the devotee.

One such metaphor is bija, or the cosmic seed coupled with the symbolism of hiranyagarbha, or the cosmic womb. These metaphors are used not just in Hindu iconography but also in sculpture, architecture, painting, and dance, etc.

The temple in Hindu iconography is symbolized as a sacred tree. A tree comes out of a seed. Under the main vigraha in the garbha-griha, hidden underground, is a kalasha which houses navagrahas, collectively signifying the seed of the deity, the temple, and the divine consciousness. Similarly, there is another bija inside another kalasha, at the top of the temple shikhara, above the amalaka.

Just as one tree grows from below, symbolizing the rise of consciousness, another tree, symbolizing the coming down of the cosmic consciousness descends from above and the branches of the two trees meet in between.

This seed, or bija, is the most important symbol in the Hindu temple. It contains nothing and yet contains the possibility of everything. It is equated with Brahman of Vedanta and shunya of Buddhism. Bija is not the only metaphor that is shared across disciplines or art and philosophy. There are many.

The bija in a temple gives birth to the temple and the deity. The bija in a tree gives birth to a tree. The cosmic bija gives birth to the universe. The bija in language gives birth to the mantra. Thus, we clearly see the parallel development of bija into different entities and forms in different disciplines, but the word bija remains the same across all disciplines. The shared vocabulary across disciplines becomes too clear.

The meaning and symbolism of the bija is explained in not just the Shilpa Shastras or the Vastu Shastras but also in the Vedas and the Tantra Agamas. Just like the entire universe springs froth from Hiranyagarbha, the entire temple springs forth from the bija inside the kalasha, the entire grantha spills forth from the bija mantras.

Bija is the principle of the centrality of the unmanifest. It is the one which becomes many. In Nature, a tree springs forth from a bija, a seed, which first becomes a sapling, then a plant, then a tree which then bears fruit which contains the seed, the bija. The cycle comes full circle.

Similarly, the cosmic seed is a bindu, with is nothing and has no dimensions but which nevertheless contains the potentiality of everything. It gives birth to the infinite number of individualities in the universe but is then reflected in each and every one of them.

“Bija thus is the first metaphor of denoting organic growth, the process of the unfolding from the one to many. It alludes to undifferentiation and differentiation while being an integral whole. Also, it provides the basis of a system of coding and encapsulating.” (Vatsyayan 61)

Just like the symbolism of bija extends to various disciplines, the concept of Purusha also extends to various disciplines. While architecture has Vastu Purusha, music has Sangeet Purusha, the drama has Natya Purusha, the sculpture has Silpa Panjara and the Rig Veda itself speaks of the Purusha.

The Dharmashastras also expand on the metaphor of Purusha. Thus we see the same shared vocabulary germinating growth in various disciplines of philosophy and art.

Another unique symbol in Indic culture is the Nabhi which extends the metaphor of the bija. It is the place from where expansion happens, creation takes place. The nabhi of a mother is the place which connects the child to the mother with the umbilical cord. In mythology, it is the nabhi of Vishnu from where Brahma is born and who gives birth to the rest of the creation.

In a Vedic Yajna, the Yajna vedi is the nabhi, from where the divine consciousness arises. Similarly, the garbha-griha, the seat of the main vigraha is recognized as the nabhi of the Vastu Purusha in temple symbolism. The symbolism carries on in Tantra too and is also very potent in most temples.

In iconography and iconometry it is the nabhi which decides the center of the composition. The position of head, neck, shoulders, arms, and feet are judged with the nabhi as the center. The same is the case with dance. In music too, voice produced from the nabhi is accorded the highest pedestal.

==== Sculpture and the Shared Vocabulary ====
The most fundamental way in which the Hindu sculpture differs from the other significant pagan traditions is iconography. Hindu iconography does not just stop at the level of realism. Transcending Nature and naturalism in art, Hindu iconography developed an entire grammar of symbols and meanings using various gestures of hands, poses of body, and using the various opportunities that multiple hands and the ayudhas provide.

Hindu iconography developed such an elaborate system of meanings and symbols that meaning became primary in any Hindu sculpture, even overtaking aesthetics. For it is very hard to identify a deity by its facial expressions. You have to identify the ayudhas that they hold, the poses that they take, and the kind of ornaments or mukutas (headgears) that they adorn. The focus here is not realistically identifying the facial features of Shiva or Vishnu.

The focus of Hindu iconography was to impart meaning to every piece of sculpture, to develop a shared dictionary of meaning which would make a sculpture immediately meaningful to a devotee who shares the same cultural sphere.

But was the devotee aware of this iconography? Yes, he was. The most common point of contact between the devotee and the meaning of the sculpture and other arts were the mantras that were part of any worship or temple going.

Any worship, any ritual in a Hindu home or a temple is not complete without the recitation of sacred mantras. Many of these mantras directly invoke the gods, explaining upon their sacred aspects and physical attributes. The attributes of the devatas, both physical and psychical are extolled in these mantras. The story of their appearance is told. Their conquests over demons of ignorance are recited. The benefits of meditating upon them are told. The mantras, strotams, and stutis cover everything.

Even if one does not understand the Sanskrit language very well, the continuous recitation over a period of time gradually leads to a stage where the mantra starts to open its secrets to the one who is reciting them, gradually revealing layers of meaning. This was how the devotees came in contact with the meaning of art.

==== The Sacred Meaning of Architecture ====
How does the Hindu temple become meaningful? Meaning is not emergent in Hindu architecture. It is inherent. The temple is built in a way which imparts meaning to it from the beginning. It represents the entire cosmos.

This is not just reflected in the rituals associated with the temple but also in its architecture. The Hindu darshana imagines macrocosm in microcosm (Yathapinde, tatha brahmande), and this thinking is reflected in all art in India. It is also the basic idea behind the idiom of the aedicule in temple architecture.

In the context of the Hindu temple, the term aedicule refers to the miniature shrine or a mini replica of the entire temple, temple shikhara, or vimana, which is to be found most prominently on its shikhara and outer walls of the garbha-griha.

It is found in all three major varieties of Temple architecture – Nagara, Vesara, and Dravida and is so profusely used in some architectural styles such as that of the Kalyani Chalukyas and Hoysalas of Karnataka that Gerard Foekema calls the very style as ‘architecture decorated by architecture’.

==== Temple architecture – Nagara, Vesara, and Dravida ====
James Fergusson observed “everywhere…in India, the architectural decoration is made up of small models of large buildings.” (Ferguson 285) Adam Hardy who considers the idiom of aedicule as the fundamental concept behind Indian architectural thinking, says: “…it was sometime after my first trip to India that it gradually became clear to me that aedicules are not just ornaments, but the basic units from which most Indian temple architecture is composed.

Temple design is conceived as containing numerous smaller temples or shrines, arranged hierarchically at various scales, embedded within the whole or within one another. Once this simple concept is understood, other things fall into place.” (Hardy 10)

The entire temple is reflected in its parts. Sometimes the aedicules are themselves made up of smaller aedicules and this series continues up to the point where architecture allows it to. It conveys the idea of an endlessly regressing series of aedicules, something like the fractal geometry. Is there a better way to reflect Indra’s net? Is there a better way to reflect a macrocosm into a microcosm?

As the temple is a representation of the universe, the entire universe is reflected again and again in the smallest parts of the temple. As the devotee witnesses, the repetition of the same motifs all over the temple a sense emerges that the macrocosm is reflected in the microcosm. The temple architecture is not just about repetition and the various mundane and serious activities of daily life are also reflected in sculpture all around the temple.

The temple does not just house the deity. The temple itself is a deity. Those who study the Agamas are familiar with the Vastupurusha. The Vastupursha is mapped on the profile in two different ways. One of them matches the elevation of the temple and another, the profile. And the terminology that is used to denote the parts of the temple makes it possible for the devotees to intuitively grasp the temple as a Purusha.

The shikhara is self evident. A temple shikhara is made to look like a mountain shikhara. The part beneath the amalaka is called greeva, or the neck. The outer walls of the garbha-griha are called the jangha, signifying yet another body part of the Purusha. The Purusha that overlaps the elevation of the temple also proceeds in the same manner.

==== Illustration of various parts of the temple ====
The elevation of the temple unmistakably signifies a mountain and the stories of that same mountain are again and again repeated in the myths that are told and retold by the devotees all over the sacred land. In the shekhari and latina style of Nagara idiom, the temple shikhara is made up of various small shikharas, giving the impression of the various urushringas, or small mountaintops that jut about around a real mountain.

The symbolism and meaning of Indian arts are quite evident in its iconography, in the names of its various modules and parts, in the mantras that are recited, and the rituals that are enacted in the temple. The temple is the center of virtually all Indian arts and thus the rituals that went into the temple going illumined the symbolism and meaning behind the complex iconography related to sculpture, dance, music, etc.

==== Reference ====

# Vatsyayan, Kapila. The Metaphors of Indian Arts. D. K. Printworld, 2015.
# Fergusson, James. History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2001.
# Hardy, Adam. The Temple Architecture of India. John Wiley & Sons, 2007.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Symbolism of Temples Part III – Pradakshina and Kshetram

2026-10-16T08:06:14Z

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==== Pradakshina and Kshetram – The Sacred Sense of Space ====
The most potent means of imparting meaning to rituals and symbols is pradakshina or the ritual of circumambulation. The Agamas which dictate how a temple should be built, how worship should be offered in the temple, how a priest shall behave and conduct affairs, also speak upon the conduct of the devotee. There are very clear instructions on how to visit a temple and what to do upon visiting a temple. Every Agama Shastra has elaborate chapters on the behavior or ‘charya’ of the devotee. And our rishis would not be writing entire padas in the Agamas if they were not meant to be widespread or not to be known by the devotees.

The charya that dictated the conduct upon visiting a temple included rituals which made sure that the devotee beheld every part of the temple completely, along with intuitively grasping its full meaning. And the most potent means of making sure that the devotees grasped the full meaning of the divine architects was the tradition of doing pradakshina.

Doing many pradakshinas around the temple, the devotee would pass through every important part of the kshetram and stop at regular intervals, performing necessary rituals and soaking in the importance of every constituent that comprised a kshetram. If there is one single ritual that is associated with almost all Hindu temples apart from having darshana itself, it is the tradition of pradakshina.

No matter the location, sampradaya or affiliation of a temple, pradakshina is an inherent feature of temple going. Some temples are built with a pradakshina patha included inside the temple called sandhara, but that does not mean that other temples do not necessitate pradakshina. In nirandhara temples, the pradakshina is done on open ground. There is hardly any temple which does not have the tradition or provision of pradakshina.

The devotee while going around the temple chants mantras specific to pradakshina. These mantras immerse his body and mind more completely into the ethos of the temple. They cleanse him of all other thoughts but those pertaining to the kshetram and the deity. One popular mantra is:<blockquote>“यानि कानि च पापानि जन्मांतर कृतानि च|

तानी तानी विनश्यन्ति प्रदक्षिणे पदे पदे||”

“O Lord! Whatever sins I have committed all my lives (including previous lives), please destroy them at every step I take around you.”</blockquote>When a devotee goes around the temple chanting this, he takes the samkalpa that he is cleansing himself of all sin, of all bad deeds that he knowingly and unknowingly committed in all his lives. Karma is not destroyed with this samkalpa, but the heart is prepared to visit the kshetram in its true spirit.

The word differs in different regions of the country. In most temples of the south, where Sanskrit is still the primary language of rituals, pradakshina is the most common word. In the north, almost no one knows the word pradakshina. The word they are most familiar with is parikrama. However, in most rural areas even this is different and the region in and around Gwalior where I come from, ‘parikamma’, the local word is most popular. However, the tradition is universal. Temple going is meaningless without pradakshina or parikrama.

Every Hindu temple is built in the imitation of the cosmos, the entire universe or the entire world. The scale does not matter, but the architectural idiom of the temple makes sure that the entire cosmos is reflected in the temple. And the most important purpose of pradakshina is to understand the macrocosmos through gazing upon or going around its reflection in the microcosmos, that is the temple.

This purpose of pradakshina is made clear through various Pauranic stories, the most famous being the story of the competition between Kartikeya and Ganesha. The two brothers get into a competition of who goes around the entire universe faster. Kartikeya, being the smarter, more agile and more supple one, immediately abounds on the pradakshina of the universe on his quick vahana, the peacock. He thinks that Ganesha has no hope of doing it faster than him, being plumper and slower than him and also having a mushaka as a vahana. But Ganesha thinks of a clever solution. He does 108 pradakshinas of Shiva and Parvati, his mother and father who represent the entire universe to him.

Apart from stressing the importance of pitras and the immediate family that this story tells, it stresses a very important point. It tells us that the objective way of knowing the universe by discovering and analyzing its every single part is not the only way to know about it. The story tells us that the macrocosmos with its unimaginable vastness is actually reflected in every constituent of its own, completely. And analyzing and knowing one of its part completely is akin to knowing the universe in its entirety. It is also an endorsement of the subjective way of knowing, stressing the impossibility of doing so objectively.

This sentiment did not emerge late in the ‘Puranic era’, whatever that means. It has been present ever since Sanatana culture took shape. The Vedas give the metaphor of Indra’s net, in which the entire cosmos is reflected in every single constituent of the cosmos. There is a universal interdependence of the constituents and a co-arising of all its constituent parts. Knowing one deeply makes sure you know it all.

Coming back to the temple, the temple as we discussed represents the entire cosmos no matter how small it is. Thus doing a pradakshina of the temple was an act of knowing the universe, the cosmos, the creation, in its entirety. Going around a temple, doing the sacred rounds was not just a simple ritual. It was an act of knowing, similar to the act of darshana of the Divine Consciousness in the garbha-griha.

In the Tamil Nadu temples there are as many pradakshinapathas as there are concentric squares. Though it is not enforced and a modern devotee can enter one gopuram and go straight through the other inner gopurams to arrive at the inner sanctum directly, but generally the devotees don’t do this. They go around the many prakaras and many pradakshinapathas encircling the garbha-griha and the sacred center many times, gradually honing in at the garbha-griha and finally arriving at the darshana of the dhruva bera or the primary vigraha.

Many devotees first have the darshana of the primary deity and then go around the pradakshinapathas. In either case, there are various smaller teerthas, within the great temple itself which the devotee visits. All of these teerthas are spun together in the temple legend, creating an organic whole. They do not just represent the evolutionary history of the temple structure, but weave the different structures into an organic whole. The devotee without being conscious about the process gets acquainted with the legend of the temple.

There is another great role that the tradition of pradakshina performs. It is the act of pradakshina which decides the limits of a sacred kshetram. Pradakshina is the boundary, kshetram is the influence area, the garbha-griha of the main temple is the core. And this metaphor of pradakshina and kshetram is repeated on many levels, not just at the level of a temple.

Most sacred cities of India themselves are sacred kshetrams. For example, Kashi is a sacred kshetra in itself. It is not just enough to go around in a pradakshina in the individual temples that dot the entire landscape of the sacred city, but people do a panchkroshi parikrama around the entire town as the town itself is a sacred kshetra.

The circumference and the area of the kshetra to do a pradakshina around keeps increasing. Thus, people go around the Govardhan mountain in Vrindavan, for the entire mountain is sacred. Similarly the Agni Kshetram of Thiruvannamalai has an 18 km pradakshina around it. Then there are pradakshinas of rivers. The Narmada parikrama is famous in which devotees go around the entire length of the river, visiting numerous teerthas on its banks.

Entire regions become sacred kshetrams by dotting the landscape with various temples that represent the larger kshetram. For example, Tamil Nadu is spun into a network of many sacred kshetrams. One of them is the circuit of the sacred Kartikeya temples. These temples are found across the length and breadth of the state. People go on pilgrimage of all of these temples in one go, thus going around the sacred Kartikeya kshetram and in one sense entire kshetram of Tamil Nadu. Similarly there are the Pancha Mahabhoota Sthalams, the five most sacred Shiva kshetrams in Tamil region. There are 108 Divya Desams, the most sacred of the Vishnu temples mentioned in various Puranas.

Similarly the pradakshina of Char Dhams across the country encompass the entire sacred landscape of Bharatvarsha. Similarly, the 51 Shakti Peethas also cover the entire landscape in yet another circuit. So do the Jyotirlingas and various other such pilgrimage circuits. The ritual is the same, that of pradakshina and the kshetram. The boundary and the body. The core and the periphery woven together in an organic whole.

Pradakshina is a way to make the meaning of the temple and the teertha more easily available to the devotee, to present the entire kshetram in its entirety to him, to make its significance and meaning more immediate to him, and to make the entire experience more holistic. The tradition of pradakshina created the sacred sense of space, sacralizing the very geography of India.

Hindus in general did understand the meaning and symbolism of their deities, their sculptures, their temples and their art forms. Various means were devised to make sure that they understood this symbolism. A shared vocabulary familiarized symbols across the boundaries of disciplines. Rituals like chanting mantras, doing pradakshina and practices like meditation made it possible for the common man to partake in the meaning that the Hindu art intended. Of course some may not have understood it, but in general, the meaning of the vigraha, the meaning of Hindu arts was not lost upon the common man.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Yayati Prashna: Why there can be no Technological Solutions to Cultural Problems

2026-10-16T08:05:58Z

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A few hundred years ago, during the Industrial Revolution, a pipedream was sold to humanity: that unlimited economic progress is possible for humankind, with limited resources, on one planet. A fifth standard student can easily understand that this is theoretically impossible, let alone practically possible. And yet the dream was sold to a certain section of humanity: what became known later as the West, or Western Europe and the USA. Initially it led to economic, military and political dominance of Europe which resulted in an unprecedented age of colonialism. With the advent of the USA on the scene and after the World War II that dream was exported to the entire world. The pipedream of ‘unlimited growth with limited resources’ was then sold to the almost every country and society on earth, almost going hand in hand with democracy and adult franchise.

The story arc of this development was obviously not as smooth as seems by the description above. In limited sense and in parts, individuals objected to this pipedream and some contrary evidences were also produced. But there were enough individuals and institutions to buy the argument that ‘unlimited growth’ can go on. Plus, the advent of democracy increasingly incentivized short-term thinking. As a result, short-term goals leading to long-term disasters became the norm and very few objected to it any longer.

The limits to growth were for the first time seriously addressed in 1960s and 1970s. Rachel Carson with her phenomenal book Silent Spring inaugurated an entire era by herself, the era of environmentalism. In 1972, the Club of Rome published Limits to Growth, a document which illustrated that the dream of ‘unlimited growth’ cannot be realized.

When these concerns were raised and irrefutable scientific evidence was marshalled to prove that human activity was contributing to ecological destruction, statesmen and politicians responded by promising breakthroughs backed by technology and science. They claimed that the ‘problem’ that the ecologists see is only a technological hitch, which can be overcome if enough scientists put their efforts to the problem. A series of ‘bottlenecks’ to growth were crossed by reinventing existing technology. New reserves of oil and natural gas were discovered. Alternative means of energy were explored. More efficient ways of consuming energy were discovered.

The game was mostly about finding more energy and more sources of energy. But it is important to make one fundamental distinction here: all of these technological breakthroughs surpassed the bottlenecks of growth for sure, but they did not diminish or eliminate the effects of human activity on environment. In fact, every new breakthrough in technology exacerbated human imprint on environment.

This is the elephant in the room, which nobody still wants to acknowledge except a few scientists like James Lovelock. While we keep finding technological solutions to bottlenecks in growth, there is still no solution to the problem of ecological degradation. With every new technological leap, the ecological problem deepens. With every scientific breakthrough, the environmental status worsens. The problem of sustainability is as it is, or is turning worse. Humanity is going round and round in circles.

The new technological breakthrough provides respite or solution to the bottleneck problem only for a little while. With every new breakthrough human complacency increases. Human behaviour very rapidly expands to exploit the leeway that the new technology provides and very soon the new boundaries are bursting at seams just like the old only a little while ago.

This has happened with green revolutions, with electricity consumption, and in general, in our energy needs all over the world. New technology brings new products making more efficient use of energy giving leeway to the users. But the users expand their needs and increase their population and needs rapidly to exploit the leeway provided by the technology and soon the same problem presents itself down the path in a more severe avatar. The train of ecological collapse, instead of halting, picks up more speed with every such technological ‘breakthrough’.

Coming back to the problem of ecology. James Lovelock now assesses that the scale of human intervention on earth is so big that Gaia may just tip over and become a dead planet if we do not stop our path to ‘economic growth’ and ‘unlimited progress and development’.

But very few are actually worried about the elephant in the room. We are secure in our comforts and luxuries and do not want this dream to end. Only a few scientists like James Lovelock and Fritjof Capra along with a few evolutionary biologists dare to speak the truth.

Fritjof Capra broke ranks from his fellow scientists and illustrating the theoretical limits to growth and unlimited progress, for the first time, gave a radically different ethic to the West which can be summed up in these lines: “What we need is not more energy, but less energy.”

This represents the entire dilemma of the current globalized civilization and also represents the kind of solution that is necessary.

We are trying to find a technological solution to a cultural problem. Not only are we not going to find a solution, we are going to make the problem much worse if we continue on the same path.

Sanatana Dharma, however, has a solution to this problem. Sustainability is at the core of any Dharmic worldview. The very word ‘dharma’ means ‘that which sustains’. Bharatvarsha being a Dharmic civilization realizes that the problem of ecological degradation or the problem of sustainability is a cultural problem. Hindu scriptures have woven the sense of sustainability, through rituals, in the daily lives of Hindus. Thus, trees are not to be disturbed during the night; and certain things are to be consumed only on certain days during the year. It is a virtue to spend only as is extremely necessary.

All of these injunctions lead to a life with sustainability as an ingrained value both in personal and public life. But the Hindu Dharma does not just stop there. Hindu scriptures and mythology also warn us about what happens when Dharmic values are ignored, when rituals that encourage sustainability are discarded, and when the dharmic value system of restraint is ignored.

Yayati is a very important character in the Mahabharata. He is one of the most illustrious ancestors of the Pandavas and the Kauravas, the central characters of the epic. King Yayati, despite every virtue, does not want to accept his fate. He commits adultery with Sharmishtha, the maid of his wife Devyani. Shukracharya, the father of Devyani, then curses Yayati to lose the power of his youth. This is devastating for the great king of course, but is a consequence of his own wrong actions.

But he is not willing to accept his fate, or the outcome of his own actions. Shukracharya, being the guru of the asuras, offers him a technological solution, a technical way out. He tells him that though the effect of his curse cannot be without fruit and he cannot have his own youth back, he can still demand the power of youth from one of his sons and if they are willing to do so, he can still enjoy youth, although borrowed from his own sons.

He asks all his sons to give up their power of youth for him and to exchange their youth for his old age. Every son of his denies to do this except the youngest, Puru, who agrees. Yayati, blinded by his unsatiated desire for experiencing the pleasures of youth, cruelly takes the youth of his son Puru.

The story does not end here of course. What happens later is very interesting. Though the episode is depicted in the Mahabharata too, it is more deeply elaborated in the Bhagavatha Purana. Yayati enjoys the sensual pleasures for the stipulated thousand years. He indulges in all and every kind of pleasure that senses can provide and yet he is not satiated. Even after a thousand years of pleasure making he is not fulfilled or satisfied. It is then that he utilizes the utter futility of such an endeavour:<blockquote>“Know this for certain… not all the food, wealth and women of the world can appease the lust of a single man of uncontrolled senses. Craving for sense-pleasures is not removed but aggravated by indulgence even as ghee poured into fire increases it….One who aspires to peace and happiness should instantly renounce craving and seek instead that which neither grows old, nor ceases – no matter how old the body may become.” (Srimad Bhagavatam Book 9:8 p. 229)</blockquote>The technological solution that was provided to him by the asura guru, Shukracharya, utterly fails in finding a lasting solution to the cultural problem that he faced. What Yayati needed was control over his body and senses, achieved through sadhana. What he needed was less and not more youth. He needed less and not more indulgence. What Yayati faced was a cultural problem to which he sought a technological solution. No wonder, he failed.

The world today faces the same problem. Human society and global civilization today stands at the same juncture. Human psyche today faces the same Yayati Prashna.
The dream of unlimited economic growth that humankind desires today is the same dream of eternal youth that Yayati desired in the Mahabharata. And just like we seek technological solutions to a cultural problem, so did Yayati. Just like we are destroying the future of our children and grandchildren, borrowing more and more resources from the future, so did Yayati destroy the youth of his son by borrowing it from him. And just like Yayati ended up being even more unsatisfied and more unsatiated by his wrongful and adharmic desire of eternal youth, so is humankind bound to fail in its bid to achieve unlimited economic growth, or be satisfied by just economic growth.
Like Yayati realized at last and like Fritjof Capra says, what we need is not more energy but less energy. Yes. Nothing can be truer. What we need is not more progress and more development. What we need is less progress and less development. What we need is to find ways to roll back our imprint on Nature, even if we have to give up some or many of our comforts and luxuries. We need to find a cultural solution to a cultural problem. And instead we are digging the same old hole of progress and development deeper.

What we hope today is that just like Yayati realized his mistake, humankind will too. What we hope today is that we too come out successfully by asking the Yayati Prashna to ourselves.

==== Notes and References: ====
Venkatesananda, Swami. The Concise Srimad Bhagavatam. State University of New York. 1989.

(Image credit: microeconomicinsights.org)

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Did Brahmins Monopolize Knowledge in Ancient India? Part 2

2026-10-16T08:05:40Z

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==== The Fluid Category of the Pancham Veda ====
The Ayurveda is also called the fifth Veda. It is an entire science, an entire discipline. And yet it is called the fifth Veda for it is a life science and instructs not just on medicine or food, but on the entire lifestyle and thus qualifies to be a text akin to the Vedas in its orientation towards pure knowledge. It also shows that the very idea of Pancham Veda was kept fluid, to convey the sense that though the Vedas were to be respected highly, it was not impossible to attain the highest form of knowledge outside the Vedas.

The idea of the fifth Veda militates against the notion of Brahmins monopolizing knowledge. If they wanted to do so, why would they create so many fifth Vedas to break that same monopoly on knowledge? Most of the Ayurvedacharyas were Brahmins and so were the creators of most other texts.

==== The Hindu Temple ====
If the evidence above given was not enough then the example of the Hindu temple shall throw some more light on the issue. The very existence and birth of the Hindu temple as an institution was to take the knowledge of the Vedas to those who are not directly capable of performing the Yajna.

The Hindu temple is built in the image of a Yajna vedi. The temple vimana is imagined as the fire of a fire altar, of a Yajna vedi. The shape of the vimana which tapers, recedes and coalesces into one point at the top with many of half-vimanas, or half-shikharas or miniature aedicular vimanas decorating the ascent of the vimana resembles the sacrificial fire of a fire altar. (Rao 74) The Hindu temple is, in fact, an evolution of the Vedic fire altar, the Yajna Vedi, in which the Yajnas were performed. Stella Kramrisch says:<blockquote>“The Sulva-sutras contained in the Kalpa-sutras, represent the rules and give proportionate measurement for laying out and piling up the Vedic altar. On them basically rests the building of the Hindu temple.”

(Kramrisch 11)</blockquote>The priests who performed the Yajnas invoked the deity through mantras and imagined His personified form in the Yajna fire. That is why the Vedas are the origins of all Hindu iconography of the later Puranas and Agamas, even though in Vedic times there were not many stone temples or permanent temples. Dr. R. Nagaswamy traces the roots of Hindu iconography directly to the Vedas in his seminal work Vedic Roots of Hindu Iconography.

The deity who was invoked and imagined in the Vedic fire took a permanent form in the temple in the form the temple deity and the entire temple structure was imagined as the Yajna Vedi. A temple priest was appointed who maintained the ritual cleanliness, necessary to maintain the divine presence. And he would offer worship on behalf of the devotee and thus anyone who wished, could participate in the divine process.

The entire institution of the Hindu temple existed to take the knowledge and the deities of the Vedas to those who are not in direct contact with them. Why would the Brahmins prevent the Shudras and others to establish contact with the devatas while performing Yajna and then create temples to bring those same deities to them on the other hand?

Thus the Dharmashastras do prevent the Shudras from taking part in the Yajna and sometimes even from listening to it, but on the other hand they do not prevent them from taking part in the Hindu temple, which is nothing but a Yajna Vedi in a permanent form, and just another form of the Vedic Yajna. So not only are the Shudras not prevented from taking part in the Hindu temple, but also it is imperative to note that in many states, more than 50% of the temples are managed by non-Brahmins with a considerable number of them being run by Shudras in which even the priests are Shudras. Why would a ‘Brahmin elite’ allow such a thing to happen if they wanted to exclude the Shudras permanently from the Vedic knowledge or any other kind of knowledge?

Yes, not every form of knowledge was for everyone. This is why adhikari bheda was practiced but this principle excluded all varnas and all jatis from one or the other kind of knowledge. This was because means of creating knowledge was a technical business and required a very difficult lifestyle. That is why to let anyone do it would destroy the entire system of creating and disseminating knowledge. But knowledge in total was not prohibited for any community. Only the purity of means of knowledge was protected.

==== The Concept of the Utsava Murti and Ratha Yatra ====
Every temple has a dhruva bera, or primary icon of the presiding deity in the garbha-griha or sanctum sanctorum. This dhruva bera is built of stone or metal and is fixed permanently in the garbha-griha in most cases and never comes out once it is consecrated there. Apart from that, there is also an Utsava Murti in the temple. This utsava murti is a portable icon of the presiding deity, usually of metal, which can be taken out on a procession.

Over time in the history of the Hindu temple, it so happened that some communities for one reason or the other were excluded from entering the temple for not following the charya (lifestyle) that was recommended for the devotees. There was no one community which was permanently excluded, but at different times and different places one or the other community was excluded in some temples.

But at least once (more than once in most temples) a year, the utsava murti of every temple is taken out on a procession across the whole town, and during this time everyone can have darshana of the deity. The concept of the utsava murti makes sure that even those who are excluded from visiting the temple due to some reason can have darshana of the deity at least once every year, without following any charya.

I know of no other system which simultaneously elevates individuals and communities by exhorting them to follow a better value system and also makes sure that even those who cannot follow any recommended charya are not completely excluded from the Hindu temple or from taking part in bhakti. I know of no other system which simultaneously elevates and then universally includes everyone in its fold.

Once again, why would the Brahmins create an entire institution for taking the deities of the Vedas, and the temple to everyone, if they wanted to monopolize any kind of knowledge, religiosity or spirituality? Why would they create so many vehicles of disseminating that same knowledge?

The adhikhara of performing Yajnas was of course limited. This was not only because performing Yajna was a technical job, which it was but also to perform Yajnas and to communicate with the devatas, which the Vedas are all about, was something which required a completely different lifestyle which could not be done on the side, or partially. Only someone who was born in an environment conducive to such a lifestyle and who would be schooled in that lifestyle would be able to bear it. That is why Yajnas were not something for everyone, though their benefits were invoked for everyone, not only for the human beings, but also all creatures and even inanimate objects.

To conclude, the Brahmins did not have the monopoly of knowledge; they had monopoly of ‘means of creating knowledge’ in some place, like the performance of Yajna. The dissemination of the same knowledge was not at all prohibited and in fact encouraged by various institutions and mechanisms.

==== REFERENCES ====

# Kramrisch, Stella. The Hindu Temple. Vol. I. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1946. (2015 ed.).
# Ghosh, Manmohan (ed.) The Natyashastra. I-IV, Varanasi: Chaukhamba Prakashan, 2012.
# Ramachandra Rao, S. K. The Vastu-Silpa-Kosha: Encyclopaedia of Hindu Temple Architecture and Vastu. New Delhi: Divine Books, 2012. Vol. I.

Featured Image Credits: dtnext

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Did Brahmins Monopolize Knowledge in Ancient India? Part 1

2026-10-16T08:05:22Z

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One of the most common charges against the Hindu society is that the Brahmins monopolized knowledge and hence powered themselves in ancient India. They claim that only the Brahmins and Kshatriyas were allowed to perform Vedic Yajna while the Shudras and in most cases the Vaishyas were prevented from gaining any knowledge or power.

Anyone who is not addled with colonial, racist and anti-Hindu propaganda will realize that this is not true in most ways, but a case of a lie which when repeated a thousand times becomes a truth as they say. That is why it is imperative to interrogate this charge a little.

==== Modern Education should not be confused with the Vedas ====
An important point to understand is that when it is said that the Shudras were prohibited from ‘studying,’ people in modern times immediately imagine that they were prevented from every kind of education, including all kinds of vocational training. This is plainly wrong. Most of the fine art forms, be it music, dance, architecture, sculpture etc. employed not just non-Brahmins but also a huge number of Shudras. This type of education was not prohibited to anyone. But in absence of modern institutions and modern means of communication and transportation, families and extended clans were the best universities to learn any craft. This is why hereditary transfer of knowledge was considered the most efficient and in most parts the only means for mass education.

So when the issue of ‘prevention of knowledge in ancient India’ comes up, kindly differentiate between the Vedic knowledge and the education related to all other sciences, crafts and engineering. Most of the engineers and managers today would be considered Shudras in ancient India and they were always allowed to practice their crafts as much as they wanted.

We should keep this in mind while talking about ‘prohibition of knowledge in ancient India’. The prohibition was regarding the Vedas, and only about its practice in performing Yajna. All other subjects were freely studied by all other jatis and varnas. Shri Dharampal’s work in modern India when the British arrived in India proves this point beyond any doubt.

==== The Natyashastra ====
Monopolies are a common feature of the modern world, where giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google etc. are trying to kill every other competitor in the world, including the smallest of vendors in the streets of countries like India. An essential feature of any monopoly is that those who create these monopolies make sure that their monopoly is not broken at any cost. They kill all means which bring free access to the service that they seek to provide.

Let us translate this principle into ancient Indian scenario for our purpose. And let us consider the charge against Brahmins to be true for a moment, the charge that they had created a monopoly of language. It then logically follows that the Brahmins would resist any means of dissemination of knowledge in any form.

The Natyashastra is a text which dispels this monopolist charge on the Brahmins completely. It is a text which expounds not just on the art of drama, but also on bhavas, mudras and is a foundational text on music, dance, iconography and many other disciplines which derive from these basics. The stated goal of the Natyashastra is to take the knowledge of the Vedas to everyone. Here:<blockquote>“As the Vedas are not to be listened to by those born as Sudras, be pleased to create another Veda which will belong to all the Varnas.”

(The Natyashastra – Chapter 1: Verse 12)”</blockquote>The Natyashastra is called the fifth Veda, and the Veda which was created to take the knowledge of the Vedas to those who are not able to partake the knowledge directly through performing Yajnas.

A society in which Brahmins wanted to manipulate knowledge and preserve it for them and them only, why would such a society think of an instrument like the Natyashastra which is virtually an instrument of ending all monopoly on knowledge? In fact it is the Brahmins who devised these ways to take the knowledge to the masses. The Natyashastra was created by the Brahmins and so are most other texts.

Doesn’t it sit odd with the assertion that Brahmins meant to monopolize masses? Why would they create a monopoly on one hand and then create means to break it on the other?

To make a modern corollary, let us imagine that a Big Pharma company patents a cancer drug and then goes on internet and releases the entire process and all the ingredients used to create the drug. Sounds absurd? That is how the charge of Brahmins creating monopoly of knowledge sounds when seen in the light of texts like the Natyashastra. The existence of the Natyashastra directly and conclusively contradicts this.

==== The Itihasas ====
There are many texts which claim to be Pancham Veda, or the fifth Veda in India. The Mahabharata is an Itihasa text, and it is also claimed as a Pancham Veda. The purpose of the Itihasas too is to take the knowledge of the Vedas to those who are not able to perform the Yajna themselves. The Ramayana is also said to contain all the knowledge of the Vedas in a capsule form and it is written in a form of story which can be conveyed to the masses.

If this were not enough, then both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were adapted for reenacting through various mediums such as stage play, poetry or songs sung by roaming bards. There was absolutely no bar on who these actors were. No one was bothered about the jati or varna of the roaming bard. If anything, they were most probably not Brahmins. They sang and talked about these great epics in the manner that pleased them, and in the language of their liking, making any sort of monopoly absolutely impossible.

Additionally, there are hundreds of authorized or recognized Ramayanas and many versions of various episodes of the Mahabharata. If the Hindu culture were an intolerant culture like Christianity, which was really monopolistic, then it would have convened a council of priests and declared all except one version of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata to be wrong and heretical. The fact that multiple versions of these great epics were allowed reflects the anti-monopolistic character of the Indic knowledge system.

The field of arts generally employed all varnas and jatis. Most of the dancers, singers, musicians and even sculptors and architects working in the temples were not Brahmins, but in fact belonged to all jatis, and most of them were Shudras.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Dharmic Circuits: The Temple, The Grove And The Lake Part 2

2026-10-16T08:05:01Z

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==== The Destruction of the Sacred Groves ====
These sacred groves started disappearing as soon as the cultural ecosystem embedded in dharma necessary to sustain it became outlawed by the Indian State. In fact the destruction of these sacred kshetras had started much earlier. First there were the Islamic invaders and then came the British with various laws freezing temple lands. And the most damage was done post-independence with the Tenants Act which made the temple dependents living on land all around the temple as its legal owners.

The complex web of social relations which incorporated all sections of the society and yet kept the divine goal in sight was destroyed with this act. The sacred groves either became government property directly or were declared as deeds in the name of the people occupying the land. With its roots in Nature and society cut brutally by anti-dharmic laws, the Beautiful Tree of the Temple Ecosystem withered.

With modern and secular sense of life increasingly redefining our ways of living in the 21st century, our dharmic circuits are slowly disappearing – as the village lakes are becoming a dumping ground of waste in many villages in the country so are the Devavana gradually disappearing with the wood being cut for monetary benefit and buildings constructed in their place. But why is this change taking place? Is there something inherently anti-ecological in the modern and secular way of living?

The answer to this would be yes. There is something inherently anti-ecological in the modern/secular way of living and this is a legacy of Judeo-Christian worldview which dictated the Enlightenment process resulting in the modern secular institutions including democracy that we currently are adopting on a global scale.

According to the Judeo-Christian worldview, Culture is the tool of man to mould Nature for his own needs. This is a patently Prophetic Monotheistic interpretation of culture, where man is given the dominion of Earth and where he becomes the master of Nature and all other living beings. There is eternal struggle between man and Nature. Culture is actually a tool to help man win this battle and make a conquest of Nature. In this understanding of Culture, it is always pitted against Nature.

==== Nature-Culture Continuum vs. Nature-Culture Conflict ====
This is not how culture is understood in a dharmic society like Bharatvarsha. The word for culture is ‘samskriti’ संस्कृति, while the word for Nature is प्रकृति. Samskriti is the refinement and elevation of Prakruti. Culture is an elevation of Nature.

In the Judeo-Christian paradigm, Nature is pitted against Culture in an eternal struggle. In Bharatvarsha, Culture goes in harmony with Nature and even improves on it, not by destroying it, but by observing its physical rules while spiritually transcending it. Dharma, the carrier of Samskriti, overseas the balance of Culture and Nature and keeps them in harmony and not conflict.

This paradigm is seen in various disciplines and dimensions. For example, while the language of the Vedas and the language of the cultural elite in Bharat was Sanskrit, the language of common people was Prakrit. The word Prakrit simply means, ‘that which is natural’ and referred to the common language/s which came naturally to people. Sanskrit was the language of the gods, language of the ultimate knowledge, and language of the high culture, and that is why it was called ‘Sanskrit’, which means ‘that language which has been refined and made perfect.’

In the West, classical languages like Latin or Roman have always been in conflict with the vernacular languages while in Bharat no such struggle has historically been witnessed. Similarly, the vernacular culture is pitted against the national culture in the West, while in Bharat the Margiya/national culture does not oppose but enriches and elevates the Desiya culture. The same is true about the Loka and the Shastra. While the scriptures in the West have declared the folk literature as evil and base, in Bharat, Sanskrit literature has enriched the folk literature and has been enriched by it in return.

Coming back to the topic of Nature-Culture harmony, it is becoming glaringly evident in the past few decades, that the culture of modern West is inherently unsustainable vis-à-vis its relation with Nature. The collapse of the ecosystems and the general degradation of ecology all around is the greatest testimony to that – but this was not always so.

In pre-Christian Europe there too prevailed a Nature-Culture continuum under the pagan traditions and the pagan ethics that prevailed. Pagan mythology and way of life constantly instituted a sense of awe and respect for Nature in its denizens. That there are consequences of disturbing the cosmic order was also clear to them by various myths, stories and rituals. Man was important, but at best, a small player in the cosmic order of things. He was not the proprietor of either the Earth or the Universe.

With the wholesale adoption of the Judeo-Christian culture in Europe, this sense evaporated almost overnight. The Nature-Culture continuum which existed naturally in Europe during the pre-Christian pagan era was broken. The Continuum was replaced with the Conflict.

Culture became the enemy of Nature in which Nature was seen just as a hostile force which had to be conquered by divine power and grace. The respect and awe for Nature was replaced by a sense that Nature exists for the use of man and man is the proprietor of everything natural.

While Europe came out of the Dark Ages, going through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, some Judeo-Christian ideas were carried as it is and became central to the idea of the West. While pagan art and science was revived during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, mythology and religion were not – and without pagan mythology, the respect for Nature could not be generated. The Nature-Culture continuum could not be revived.

A scientific critique from within the Western civilization, of the Conflict paradigm emerged in the 1950s and 60s when environmental science became mainstream. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson was published in 1968 and for the first time made us aware of the mass extinctions caused by chemicals that human beings are using since the industrial revolution. In 1972, the Club of Rome published The Limits to Growth, making the very obvious point that unlimited growth cannot be sustained on limited resources.

In 1979, scientist James Lovelock came out with his Gaia hypothesis, in Gaia, reviving an old pagan idea that Earth itself is a living system, and that if human beings tinker too much with it, it will simply wipe us out. If this was not tragic enough, in his follow up books Revenge of the Gaia and The Vanishing Face of Gaia, Lovelock now believes that the scale of intervention that human beings have made in Mother Nature, we are actually capable of destroying Earth as a living system and turn it into another dead planet like Mars. Many other authors like Tim Flannery in The Weather Makers and Elizabeth Kolbert in The Sixth Extinction warned us how deeply modern civilization is destroying the delicate balance of Nature.

Meanwhile with the evolution of genetics and modern biology, the need for a Nature-Culture continuum was emerging strongly. Edward O. Wilson who actually coined and popularized the phrase ‘Nature-Culture continuum’ proved through his work in epigenetics that Culture is not just human ‘invention’, but actually a continuum of the natural order that prevails on its own in the world. In human life, it is instituted with human laws and ethics and enforced with human institutions. However, the urge to create such a culture is encoded within us in heritable phenotypes. (Wilson 2)

Culture as against the prevailing assumption of humanities in the West, is not ‘arbitrary’ and nor a ‘human invention’. It is a fundamental urge and fundamentally necessary to maintain order. Any study of biology according to this view is incomplete if it does not take in context human society. Edward Wilson thus coined a new term and discipline called ‘socio-biology’ which has the Nature-Culture continuum at its heart.

That the current economic, social and political paradigm of the West is not conducive to Nature-Culture continuum is very well clear with the environmental studies. That it is absolutely crucial to reinstate Nature-Culture paradigm was made clear by socio-biology. The dharmic idea of संस्कृति and प्रकृति is much closer to the ideas that are emerging in some scientific disciplines like socio-biology and various ecological disciplines.

The internal ethos of modern global culture is not sustainable either. While modern societies have become materially very prosperous, most other institutions which uphold culture like family, religion and nation are either destroyed or on their way to destruction. In this paradigm of Nature-Culture Conflict, progress is the sole criterion of human happiness and development with no thought about inner human development.

Loren Eiseley, one of the greatest scientists and philosophers to come out of the West in the last century, also claimed that while Nature was the First Order, Culture was the Second Order, and what ‘modern culture’ has done is to break both the orders, hence the chaos and the destruction all around. He also thought that modern global culture has no provision of ‘inner human development.’

“The western scientific achievement, great though it is, has not concerned itself enough with the creation of better human beings, nor with self-discipline. It has concentrated instead upon things, and assumed that the good life would follow. Therefore it hungers for infinity. Outward in that infinity lies the Garden the sixteenth-century voyagers did not find. We no longer call it the Garden. We are sophisticated men. We call it, vaguely, “progress,” because that word in itself implies the endless movement of pursuit. We have abandoned the past without realizing that without the past the pursued future has no meaning, that it leads, as Morris has anticipated, to the world of artless, dehumanized man.” (Eiseley 130)

The Bhartiya idea of culture not only takes care of creating better human beings but also takes care of Nature and sees culture as not in a conflict, but in a continuum of Nature. The dharmic way of culture is not destructive of Nature. The dharmic way of culture actually protects Nature. This becomes evident in the Hindu temple, the epicenter of all dharmic institutions in Bharatvarsha. The Hindu temple is a protector of Hindu culture as well as Nature.

At Khajjiar Nag temple, it all comes together: the great temple, the sacred grove and the sacred lake. Sadly, even here, the temple is now completely surrounded by ugly hotels and restaurants and you can no longer get a clear shot of it from the front and hardly from the back. The lake used to fill the entire pan earlier but now is just a sorry remnant of its former glory. Let us hope that progress and development do not ruin this great sacred grove. Let us hope that the Indic idea of Culture with its Continuum Paradigm with nature becomes primary. Let us hope and work for a day when all Hindu temples exist in this trinity – the Temple, the Lake and the Sacred Grove.

==== Notes and References ====

# Eiseley, Loren. The Firmament of Time. Bison Books, 1999.
# Handa, O. C. Ancient Monuments of Himachal Pradesh. Museum of Kangra Art Publications. 2010.
# Krishna, Nanditha. Hinduism and Nature. Penguin. 2017.
# Malhotra, Kailash C, Yogesh Gokhale, Sudipto Chatterjee, Sanjiv Srivastava. Sacred Groves in India. Aryan Books International. 2007.
# Wilson, Edward O. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Harvard University Press. 2000.

Image Credit: themanali

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Dharmic Circuits: The Temple, The Grove And The Lake Part 1

2026-10-16T08:04:46Z

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==== The Wonder that is Sringeri ====
Shri Sringeri Sharada Peetham, located in the foothills of the Western Ghats in the Chikamagaluru district of Karnataka, seems to be straight out of a fairy tale. It is like a portal to another world; a world of flowing rivers, great temples, running deer, roaming elephants, students in white studying Vedic disciplines, teachers taking classes under the shade of a grove, right beside the sinuous watercourse.

One of the greatest seats of learning in Bharat, Dakshinamnaya Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham, also takes care of the cultural heritage of Karnataka and other states nearby by appointing priests and caretakers, and giving them livelihood from its own coffers. It runs many schools and other institutes besides housing many children, teaching them Sanskrit and many other classical subjects. Furthermore, the Matha holds the ancient Sharada Jagadamba temple too, with the current structure dating back to 11th century.

The divine experience starts as soon as one approaches the precincts of the great Matha. From many miles around, one notices the abundance of thick forests and pristine ecosystem. As one approaches the majestic temple gopuram, one has to deposit the footwear at the counter outside the temple. Inside the temple you can only go barefoot.

Besides, the Sharada temple is a visually spectacular temple called the Vidyashankara temple, one of the first temples built by the Vijayanagar Empire in 14th century. The Matha had a great role in supporting the Vijayanagar Empire intellectually and spiritually. The fourteenth century temple has all the Vishnu avataras sculpted on the outside of the temple in huge reliefs.

Just beyond the temple, flows the river Tunga in majestic grace. Across the river is the Shri Shankaracharya Niwas. There are groves of various trees all around, including the supari (areca nut) groves. The bridge over the river Tunga is a footover bridge which is a private property of the Matha and one cannot wear footwear here as well. When it rains, the entire environs of the Matha become so ethereal that you no longer remember that you are in this world and in this century.

This continues for miles on end as the Sringeri Sharada Peetham owns vast areas of land around the temple precincts. This has prevented the ugly and unlimited encroachment of modern buildings and also the encroachment of evangelical and Islamic groups which are becoming rampant in that region.

==== The Sacred Trinity ====
The place has three integral components: a great temple, a sacred grove, and a water body, which in this case is a flowing river. This is not an exception but a norm. Since in modern times, so many temples exist without a sacred grove of trees, it might seem like an exception. A temple never existed without a sacred grove and a water body. There was always a lake, a pond, a river, a well, or an ocean beach alongside it.

The Hindu Temple never existed without a sacred grove. Just like the sacred pond, the sacred garden and the sacred inner precincts, the sacred grove was also an inseparable part of the temple complex. Sanatana Dharma does not just stop at worshiping Nature and extends its worship to divine beings on higher planes of consciousness, mirroring realities on other planes of existence, but this does not mean that it neglects Nature or goes against it.

In Prophetic Monotheistic religions, Nature was a problem to be surmounted, an enemy of man to be defeated. In Sanatana Dharma, Nature is an aspect of reality, one manifestation of the Divine. There is no conquest of Nature. Nature is appeased at best, and flows in harmony with those who walk the path of Self-Realization.

The Garbha-Griha, where the deity, the Supreme Consciousness resides is always dark, illuminated only by the light of the diyas kindled by the priest and illuminating the aspects of the deity, plunging all else in complete darkness. This is to aid the chitta to become quiet, and to witness, to have darshana of the Divine, the Supreme in unmitigated and unflinching attention. In the Garbha-Griha everything else subsides, only the Supreme Consciousness prevails and when the devotee has darshana of the deity, the two become one with the devotee witnessing his True Self in the Deity.

Outside the Garbha-Griha the world starts stirring up. It comes back to Dvaita. Thus, the Antarala is where the priest appears, officiating the Divine Transaction between the Devotee and the Deity. As we proceed outwards towards the various Mandapams, the world starts appearing in all its complexity. Hence the area surrounding the Hindu Temple always used to be a Sacred Grove, which aided the devotees in creating equilibrium while pursuing various disciplines of study.

Nature in full bloom and glory makes the journey of a devotee easier. It is only in Sanatana Dharma that we see a seamless transition between paying attention to the world and paying attention to the ultimate goal.

This ecosystem is not something which evolved later on in the Hindu tradition. In fact it has always been at the core of the temple building tradition in Bharat. This is evident from the tribal and hilly regions of Bharatvarsha which also blend many Desiya traditions, local gods and goddesses and temple traditions with the Margiya tradition of temple building prevalent all across the country.

==== The Khajji Nag Temple ====
Himachal Pradesh is one such place where the most ancient local traditions go beautifully together with Agamic injunctions in the temples that continue to be living institutions. Even in these places, the trinity of a great temple, a sacred grove and a great lake is seen in many places. All along this region, the Naga devatas are worshiped profusely. There is no important region in Himachal which does not have a Naga temple. These temples proliferate everywhere but are particularly found in thick groves and jungles.

Khajjiar in Chamba district is famous for such a Naga temple. Today tourists know it for its picturesque beauty, dense forests and paragliding and other sports. It is known as the ‘Mini Switzerland’ in the tourist annals. Most people visiting Khajjiar seldom know about its spiritual and cultural importance.

Khajjiar is one of the most ancient spiritual centers of Chamba district as well as Himachal Pradesh. At its heart is the Nag Temple of Khajjiar. This temple is built in the Himalayan pent-roof style and not just the roof, but the entire building is made of wood. Wooden beams as old as 800 years are still holding this great temple aloft. The wooden temple has a sloping pent roof covered with slates. The temple was completed in 1200 CE; however the temple site is much older than that. (Handa 58)

No place in the land of Bharatvarsha remains unconsecrated with its sacred legends. The entire hilly landscape of Himachal Pradesh is wedded with the various legends of the Mahabharata and particularly with the stories related to the Pandavas. The Pandavas are ubiquitous in Himachal Pradesh. Almost every important sacred center has at least some legend of the Pandavas associated with it.

The Khajji Nag Temple is also deeply associated with the legend of the Pandavas. It is said that the Pandavas hid here while being on Agyaatvaasa – the year when they were in hiding. In order to hide well, they became the gatekeepers of this temple and hence even today you can see the carved wooden icons of the five Pandavas at the doors and pillars of the Khajji Nag Temple.

What is most breathtaking is that the temple exists alongside a great natural spot – the Khajjiar Lake. Right in front of the temple is a great depression with a flat disc around – something rare in the mountain ranges. This lake is considered quite ancient and very sacred. The myth of the Nag temple is conjoined with the lake and the building of the temple is attributed to the discovery of the sacred lake and the residing of the Naga Devata inside the lake. All around the lake there are deodar forests on the hills with the snow-laden mountains always lurking in the background with its perpetually snow-covered peaks.

==== How Hindu Culture Protected Nature ====
Three aspects come together here: A Great Temple, a Sacred Lake and a Sacred Grove – and these three are connected with legends and great myths. It is a great way of acknowledging that the surrounding ecosystem will be protected and the natural order will be conserved. The temple houses the same deity which hides in the lake. The temple, a manmade building, a cultural artifact, is nothing but a continuation of its natural ancestor. A dharmic culture is a gatekeeper of natural order among many other things.

Hindu temples never existed without sacred groves of trees around them and never without the sacred pond. A temple could never do without a sacred pond or water body which would not only take care of the needs of the deity but also of the community living around as well. And the sacred grove would make it a perfect place for meditation and self-discovery. The act of darshana of course took place in the garbha-griha, but the surroundings were intricately aligned to the ultimate goal of darshana.

In this way, the Hindu temple as an institution protected sacred groves all across our country. In fact in many places it is now only the temples which are protecting sacred groves on their private property. As soon as their boundary ends, one can see the ecological destruction. Inside the boundaries, the ecosystem remains intact. The ecosystem of the Hindu temple is not just culturally connected with humans but also encompasses Nature within its ambit. It is both a natural and a cultural ecosystem, literally speaking.

Thousands of these sacred groves still survive, and most of them are around a Hindu temple. (Malhotra vii) The temple may be made of stones, wood or even an open air temple with just some icons placed in the open or under a tree, but all of these groves are considered to be extremely sacred and divine and are worshipped as deities or dwelling places of deities. In many places these sacred groves are simply called ‘Devavana’, or a ‘Grove of Deities’. Every village in Bharat used to have one.

These sacred groves around temples were present all over the Bharatvarsha. In Kashmir they are called dev bani, in Uttarakhand dev bhoomi or bugyal, in Bihar as sarnas, in Bengal as hari than, sabitri than etc., in Manipur as umanglai, in Mizoram as ngawpui, in Meghalaya as law lyngdoh, in Rajasthan as vani, in Madhya Pradesh as deogudi, in Chhattisgarh as matagudi, devgudi etc., in Maharashtra and Karnataka as devrayi, in Goa as devran, in Andhra and Telangana as pavitra vana, in Odisha as thakurnam or jahera, in Karnataka as devarkadu/devarkan, in Kerala as kaavu, in Tamil Nadu as kovil thoppu or kovil kaadu. (Krishna 41-50)

This is hardly an exhaustive list of the various names. The tradition is prevalent all across Bharatvarsha and almost always around the Hindu temple.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Dharmic Circuits: The Tale of Many Kailashas

2026-10-16T08:04:28Z

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For the Armenians, the greatest collective pain is to stand in their national capital Yerevan and look at their most sacred symbol, Mount Ararat. It is indeed sad because Armenia is a Christian country and Mount Ararat lies just across its national border in Turkey, a Muslim country which is guilty of committing a number of genocides of Armenians over the centuries. Mount Ararat, the sacred center – the very core of their religious, national and cultural consciousness is under the control of their enemy and there seems to be no respite.

Hindus are not exactly unaware of this pain. Their most sacred mountain, Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva, now lies in Tibet, occupied by China. Mount Kailash holds the most sacred of places in Hindu hearts. Along with being the abode of Shiva it is also the earthly representation of the mythical Mount Meru. It is from here that most sacred rivers of Bharat originate. And it lies across the border in China.

A Hindu is also sad that Kailash is not in Bharat and he too wants to get it back. But of note is the fact that unlike an Armenian, he is not without any respite. He has the recourse of recreating Mount Kailash within the boundaries of Bharat. He has the power of recreating sacred geography. And this feature is not something new since it has been interwoven into the very cultural fabric of Bharat.

The Monotheists destroy sacred centers of pagans wherever they go. All that the likes of Malik Kafur, Ibrahim Lodhi, Muhammad Tughlaq etc. left behind them, was a trail of death and destruction. On the other hand, the pagan polytheists create and recreate sacred geography wherever their cultural might extends. The Hindus were masters of this. That is why their sacred symbols were recreated not just in Bharat but wherever Hindu cultural influence extended.

This fact is not lost on any practicing Hindu but it becomes all too evident on a pilgrimage, a teertha yatra. It is the teerthas, the pilgrimages of Bharat, which have culturally bounded the entire nation in a shared cultural consciousness. The teerthas are the sacred centers of this land and the Yatras connecting these sacred kshetras are the spiritual and cultural highways, weaving the rainbow of dharma in Bharat. The teerthas are everywhere. No corner of the sacred land of Bharatvarsha exists without a sacred kshetra. They consecrate every corner of Bharatvarsha leaving no piece of land non-sacred. The sacredness, like the Brahma, is all pervasive.

==== Temples of Himachal ====
Himachal Pradesh has a special place in the sacred landscape of Bharat. Though it has all kinds of temples, it is primarily a land of Shiva and Shakti. While it sports various Shakti Peethas strewn all across its hilly terrain, the very mountains are the abodes of Lord Shiva. (Nagar 1) The mountains, icy cold and forever laden with snow are the favourite haunts of Shiva.

It was on a temple trail through the mountains of Himachal that I found myself striking up a conversation about Mount Kailash with my driver. We were going from Chamba to Bharmaur, the ancient capital of the Chamba region. The Ravi River valley around Chamba is one of the most exquisite valleys of the Himalayas – so near to the Ganga Jamuna Doab and yet so secluded. The Shivalik hills completely sequestered it from the mainland Punjab. One has to climb through the tough mountains to climb down into the Chamba valley which is surrounded by the Shivaliks in the West, the Dhauladhars in the South, the Mani Mahesh range in the East and more mountain ranges in the North.

Its seclusion certainly makes it hard to visit, but it has also saved it from various medieval and modern ills. Due to its inaccessibility it remained relatively safe from Islamic invasions, as compared to Kangra, its cousin to the south of it. Even in modern times, the pollution from the plains of Punjab can’t reach the Chamba valley so easily, making for the bluer skies and cleaner air.

The road to Bharmaur is tough. We were on it for more than a couple of hours and the ancient city, lost as if in the middle ages was nearing mile by mile. We were negotiating one hairpin bend after another, clearing one cliff after other. It is a gut wrenching ride and your heart literally stops at the many turns, but as soon as you make the turn and the vista of snow laden mountains opens in front of you, you forget everything else.

Before one such turn, my usually reticent driver suddenly brightened up and said that after this turn, we will have the first darshana of Mount Kailash. Kailash? Really? I was taken aback a little. I knew we were far away from civilization, deep into the mountains, alongside the Valley of Ravi River, but had we come so deep into the mountains that the Mount Kailash was visible here, all the way from Tibet? I knew the thought was ridiculous, but I still asked, was this the original Kailash?

My driver looked at me with great puzzlement at the utterance of the word ‘original’ and not without a ‘sigh’ which common Hindus generally give while conversing with a university de-educated person. What do you mean original? What other kind of Kailash is there? Kailash is Kailash and it was the one that we were going to have darshan of just moments later. And we did. It was the most ethereal of moments. A snow laden peak with its entire range emerged from the heavens just after we took the turn.

It was the Mani Mahesh Kailash. Though the greatest of all Kailash mountains lies now in China occupied Tibet, there are many Kailashas in Bharat, and at least four in the hill states of Himachal and Uttarakhand: Mani Mahesh Kailash in Chamba district, Shrikhand Kailash in Kullu district, Kinnaur Kailash in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh and Adi Kailash in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand.

For the locals none of these is a lesser Kailash. Every single one of them is the Kailash. For a devotee the sacredness does not decrease but increases with the replication of this sacred geography, with the repetition of the same sacred mountain at different places. And the legends weave them all together. All of them are the original Kailashas in some time and place and thus equal importance is imparted to each and every one of them.

All of them are special, for the legend dictates that Lord Shiva resides in all of them. Every local legend describes its own Kailash, its own teertha, being at the centre of a great myth. The Adi Kailash of Uttarakhand is considered the most ancient one. The Mani Mahesh Kailash is considered by the locals to be the actual abode of Lord Shiva while the villagers of Saho village, living around the Chandrashekhar temple believe that it is from here that Shiva embarked upon his journey and finally settled down in Mani Mahesh Kailash.

==== A Circular View of Time ====
While Mount Kailash is at the center of an international circuit of Hindus, the sacred circuit repeats itself many times at many smaller levels. The legends that are true at a bigger level mutate and reappear slightly differently but markedly similar in meaning and purpose at every level, like fractals. The same sacred web of meaning and myth is recreated at many levels.

The Hindu view of time is not just linear. In one lifetime and in daily chores, the linear time has relevance and the common man obviously knows the past from present and future. But his larger sense of time, encompassing long time spans and great civilizations, is circular.

Things, events and even individuals come back on each other in great loops of time, in ever repeating, ever different yet universal themes of myths and meaning. That a beginning can follow an end doesn’t bother a Hindu too much. He takes it in his stride. This view of time is woven in his rituals, his mythology and his scriptures. The Mahabharata starts in many ways at the end, or long after its end, and then the story loops back on itself many times.

A culture with this circular view of time has not much use of chronology. He is scarcely bothered with what came before and what came after. Meaning is far more important to him than chronology or provenance. And to such a devotee the concept of ‘original teertha’ and its copies doesn’t strike too much. For him, every teertha is original. Every kshetra is sacred.

==== No Concept of One True Kshetra ====
This does not mean that he sees all space and time in an undifferentiated sacredness. This would negate all concepts of sacred kshetras. But there is no concept of ‘One True Kshetra’, like there is no concept of One True God, One True Book or One True Belief. That sacred can attain many avataras, that time can repeat, and that kshetras and sacred centers can repeat and recreate themselves is a sense so central to the Hindu consciousness that no devotee is even conscious about it. For him the fact that divinity can repeat itself at various places and times is as natural as the belief in the universal presence of air and other elements.

For a devout Hindu to consider one Kailash to be original and other to be copies would necessitate a belief in only a linear view of time, because the concept of originality is wedded to the linear view of time. If time can repeat on itself in Yugas, the very words ‘original’ and ‘copies’ lose all meaning. For a devout Hindu like this, time becomes circular, space repeats itself in sacred circuits, and teerthas reappear like fractals at every receding circle of geography.

The Mani Mahesh Kailash fulfills all the requirements of a Kailash. It is perpetually laden with snow. It belongs to a range which is well nigh impassable. It has a sacred lake at its feet which is the center of a great pilgrimage circuit across the great Chamba region. People from all the state and the entire district gather here during the sacred month of Mani Mahesh Yatra.

==== Linear View of Time and Chronologies of Influence ====
The thoughts of ‘original’ and ‘copies’ are the result of a university education addled with a linear view of time and chronologies of influence. For a Hindu with a circular view of time, and with a different hermeneutics than history, the Kailash that is nearest to him, that is most closely wedded to the cultural setting of his birth, is the original Kailash. He believes in this with full knowledge that other Kailashas also exist. For him sacredness is not exclusive and it can repeat not just in different gods and divinities but also in the same name at different places and times.

==== Recreation of Sacred Kshetras ====
Kailash is not the only sacred teertha that is recreated. This is not the place to mention them all but a few names will illustrate the view point. For example, there are many Gangas. Godavari is Dakshin Ganga, but so is Kaveri. Even sacred ponds like the temple tank of the Brihadeeswar Temple, Gangaikondacholapuram is also considered Ganga. Across the seas, in the south-east Asia, the Mekong, the tenth largest river of the world (larger than Ganga), is literally Maa Ganga (Me + Kong).

Ayodhya is an eternal city. The capital city of Thailand until just a few centuries ago was Ayutthaya. Mathura is recreated in deep south, in Madurai. Kashi is recreated in Kanchipuram. Not only the teerthas or the sacred mountains and rivers are recreated, but also the entire circuits are recreated like the Char Dhams. There are the Char Dhams sanctified by Adi Shankara: Badrinath, Dwaraka, Rameshwaram and Puri. But Uttarakhand has its own Char Dhams: Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath. Kedarnath is not one. There are five Kedar temples in Uttarakhand itself called Panch Kedar.

The concept of Char Dhams is repeated on ever smaller scales in ever smaller circuits but with the same sacredness. Morena district in the northernmost parts of Madhya Pradesh has its own local Char Dhams: Bairare, Ishwara, Shyam Dev Baba and Dev Van. These four local teerthas are great centers for the people of Morena and the Chambal Valley. Great gatherings occur on many festivals at these temples various times across the year and for those who visit them for darshana, these Dhams are no less than the great Char Dhams.

In this spirit, a Hindu looks on across the border with wistfulness in the direction of the great Mount Kailash but not without absolute dismay. He, of course wants that Mount Kailash should also be included in Bharat’s national boundaries at some point of time in future, but in the meanwhile he has the recourse of the many Kailashas that are still a part of the sacred geography of Bharat, four of which lie in the state of Himachal Pradesh itself.

Explore Dharmic Circuits.

==== Notes and References ====
Nagar, Shanti Lal. The Temples of Himachal Pradesh. Aditya Prakashan. 1990.

Image Credit: trekkinginindia

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Dharmic Circuits: Sacred Pathways – Part 2

2026-10-16T08:04:08Z

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==== Chandrashekhar Temple and the Largest Shiva Linga of Himachal ====
In a remote village Saho, nesting in the secluded valley of the Sal River, in the hills of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, lies the Chandrashekhar Temple. The present structure is attributed by Laxman Thakur to be one thousand years old, but the core and the Shiva Linga is older. (Thakur 66) The village is 18 kilometers from the Chamba town and is completely surrounded by high hills. The village is situated on a fortunate semi-plateau that opens up for a few kilometers between the high hills. As a result, the view is spectacular. Wherever you look, there are layers upon layers of mountains, but a few square kilometers of open meadow-like region offers itself for farming and other human activities. While the river flows much below, the village of Saho sits comfortably amidst the mountains with a fairy tale like ambience of flowing fields and open meadows overlooked by snow-capped peaks in the background.

The temple is built in the Himachali pahadi architectural style with pent-roof and wooden beams. The walls of the garbha-griha are built of stone but the roof is wooden. Three sides have the customary rathas housing Ganesha, Parvati and Kartikeya. The temple is a very old one with its core going back to at least 1200 years old. The Shiva Linga is huge and one of the largest in the hill temples of India and the largest in Himachal.

The temple has a legend which binds it directly to the Mani Mahesh Kailash. It is said that once a great saint lived in this village near the river Sal. Early every morning he would take a dip in the holy waters of the River Sal. One day when he woke up he realized that someone else had taken a bath in the sacred waters of the river before him. So the next day, he hid himself before dawn to see who was bathing in the river even before him.

To his utter surprise, he saw three children bathing in the waters. He revealed himself and tried to catch them but could get hold of only one child. This child was none other than Lord Shiva himself. He was called Chandrashekhar in that form. The other two children called Chandragupta and Mani Mahesh were also Shiva in different forms. The child then appeared after a brief disappearace in the form of a Shiva Linga where the Chandrashekhar temple stands today.

The other two forms of Shiva are also associated with temples at different sites. Chandragupta went to Chamba town and was worshipped there in what is now the Chandragupta temple in the Lakshmi Narayan temple complex in the center of the town. The other child Mahesh went to Bharmaur where one can still find the Mani Mahesh temple at the great temple site.

To a ‘rational mind’ accustomed to linear view of time and material explanation of every aspect of the world, this might seem as just a story. But this great myth actually binds all the sacred geography of the Chamba district in one sutra, in one thread. Chamba is at the center of the Chamba district but Saho lies north of it.

The temple legend connects it directly to the Mani Mahesh Kailash, the most sacred center of the region. Various other sacred temples are connected in one cultural consciousness through these legends which manifest themselves in teerthas which in turn get their sanctity from these legends. The extremely remote temple of the Shakti Temple, Chhatrari is a place where the Great Goddess, Parvati, resides. (Handa 48) The myths, the legends, the deities – all appear and reappear in this way on the sacred geography of India. In this way, through the rainbow of myths and legends, a great cultural unit is born and the spirit of Sanatana Dharma lives on through these yatras.

Every year, the Chandrashekhar temple celebrates various festivals, two of which are celebrated with much gusto. One of them is of course Shivaratri when a great fair is held and thousands upon thousands of devotees come to this extremely remote village of the Himalayas to have darshana of Lord Shiva in the form of this huge Shiva Linga.

==== The Mani Mahesh Yatra ====
The other festival coincides with the Mani Mahesh Yatra which is undertaken every year around August/September or in the month of Bhadon. A great festival is celebrated at the Chandrashekhar village in Saho village before the Yatra, or as it is called Jatra in Himachal. People congregate with bhajans and discourses and meditation sessions that are held at the temple for about a week.

Then the Jatra proceeds towards Mani Mahesh. Thousands of devotees proceed on foot and some on vehicles from the temple. As they move along towards Bharmaur, the last great town before the Mani Mahesh lake, the Jatra keeps swelling with more and more devotees. Thousands of devotees join them in Chamba where various other temples also simultaneously initiate this jatra and as the procession proceeds towards Mani Mahesh Lake, more and more temples and jatras join this procession. After Hadsar a few kilometers from Bharmaur, all motorable roads end and the pilgrims have to necessarily proceed on foot, for thirteen more kilometers.

The teerthas provide goals to the devotees. The legends provide meaning. The story that can be verbally told in a few minutes is being told by these Hindu pilgrims every year in a span of many days and weeks, as they trudge along the mountain highway from every corner of the region to the Mani Mahesh Lake. After reaching here, the story ends in a meaningful conclusion, only to start again the next year, continuing the divine dance of teerthas and the jatras.

==== Bharmaur: An Impossible Capital ====
The Mani Mahesh Jatra is the sacred lifeline of this region and this has been so for hundreds and perhaps even thousands of years. This is why the ancient kings of Chamba chose Bharmaur as their capital. The Chaurasi temple at Bharmaur is also an important center of pilgrimage. Bharmaur is also connected to the legend that binds the Chandrashekhar temple at Saho with the Mani Mahesh pilgrim route. It seems inconceivable that around 1200 years ago someone built a capital at this extremely remote and inaccessible place, right at the foothills of the Great Mani Kailash peak.

Bharmaur is hard to reach even today. It is at a great height and the road ends a few kilometers from here. The Mani Mahesh Lake is the source of the Mani Mahesh Ganga, once again the sacred geography repeating itself everywhere. The lake is the end point of the sacred Mani Mahesh Jatra.

In many ways, Bharmaur is the end of the line, the last post of civilization and yet it is here that our ancestors decided to build a capital, right at the feet of Lord Shiva, even though it was a very difficult place to live and to reach. Not only that, they also built eighty four temples at Bharmaur by clearing a great area at the edge of the valley. Two of the greatest of these temples are built in complete Nagari idiom and the largest of all is called the Mani Mahesh temple.

How great must have been their shraddha and how great their devotion and conviction to do this! What is unbelievable is that our ancestors kept the flame of bhakti alive even in these remotest of locations. Because of teerthas and jatras, the flame of Hindu dharma is still alive. The teerthas are still alive and wherever there are teerthas there is great flowering of art, architecture, sculpture, music, dance, and all other art forms and sciences. Culture remains alive where dharma remains alive, and teerthas and jatras keep dharma alive. Mani Mahesh Jatra with its various temples and legends is a testimony to this marvelous creation of Sanatana Dharma.

Explore Dharmic Circuits.

==== Notes and References ====
Handa, O. C. Ancient Monuments of Himachal Pradesh. Museum of Kangra Art Publications. 2010.

Thakur, Laxman S. The Architectural Heritage of Himachal Pradesh: Origin and Development of Temple Styles. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 1996.

Image Credit: hindu-blog

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.

Dharmic Circuits: Sacred Pathways – Part 1

2026-10-16T08:03:52Z

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==== Kshetra, Desha and Yatra ====
The Hindu sense of space is sacred. It has a center and a periphery. The centre has multiple locations. They are the Teertha Kshetras of India. The periphery coincides with the boundaries of the cultural space of Bharatvarsha and the phenomenon which connects these multiple centers to Bharata’s peripheries is the process of Teertha Yatra.

Teertha Yatra is literally the sutra which binds Bharatvarsha together. It is the underlying thread of unity in the Hindu society. Dharma is what sustains Bharatvarsha and teertha yatras are the threads of unity which bind all these different kshetras together. There are millions of these kshetras, even after so much destruction and the varieties among them is bewildering.

Yet there is an undercurrent of unity in them. The prana of Sanatana dharma flows through these sacred kshetrams keeping them alive and the teertha yatras perform the role of the nadis (veings) which take the prana to every nook and corner of this sacred land.

==== Life as a Journey ====
The teertha yatras also aligns with the nature of the Hindu society. A Hindu is an inveterate traveler. In spite of innumerable hurdles, every Hindu tries to undertake some sort of a teertha yatra at least once in his lifetime. Old age doesn’t deter him, financial worries don’t discourage him, the dangers of journey ahead don’t discourage him. He just goes with the flow and travels.

In a way, a Hindu is always prepared to travel for life itself is a journey for him. He has been transmigrating through various lives in various bodies, times and places since eternity and this life is just a passing station. He takes utmost care of it, but also knows of its ephemeral nature. To keep traveling until the final destination of moksha arrives is the goal of this seemingly endless journey. Therefore in some sense when living life according to dharma, the entire life becomes a teertha yatra and all of us are nothing but teertha yatris.

Teertha yatra is a journey – service towards this spiritual goal. The ultimate goal of all these arduous journeys fraught with all the dangers is to take a turn inwards; to look for one’s own real self; to search for moksha or liberation. The role of the sacred kshetras is to enhance this search. These teerthas make this inner journey easier. It is because the great rishis and devatas have made this place very powerful through meditation. The divine energy that resides in these sacred teerthas makes the inner journey of the teertha yatri easier. The word teertha literally means a ‘ford’, that place in a river which is comparatively easier to cross.

==== Sacred Geography ====
In this way, entire Bharatvarsha is strewn across with these sacred kshetras. On any given day, during any time of the year some divine yatra is being undertaken. If one were to plot a live map of these paths of teertha yatris, then entire India would be lit up with lines criss-crossing every nook and corner of this great land, a map denser than that of modern roadways. For many, teertha pathas (pilgrimage trails) are nothing more than treks in a jungle. Long before the British and then independent Indian engineers reached into the interiors of India, the rishis and teertha yatris of India had mapped the entire sacred land of Bharatvarsha in this way.

This is palpably evident when talking to any common practicing Hindu. Those with no sense of geography, those who have never looked up a single map of India closely have the entire chart of the sacred teerthas of India stored in their memory. They carry this map of the real India – the sacred Bharatvarsha, right in their minds, complete with the nodes, the entry points, the destinations and the entire pathways of these sacred journeys.

Even without the privilege of any formal education, the idea of India is not only conveyed to them but also propagated to them. Entire India lights up in their minds when the sacred teerthas are mentioned and the best part is they have not learned this in any classroom. This is all without any state investment in mass education. This is a part of their culture that they grow up with. Regardless of their status in literacy, they are highly educated as far as the cultural knowledge of the sacred kshetras go.

The Sacred Circuits of Chamba

These sacred routes or teertha yatras do not just exist at the national level. The sacred circuits are repeated at ever smaller levels. This re-occurrence of the same fractal patterns is practiced down to the level of areas as small as a modern district. In the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, the story of the teerthas and yatras plays beautifully every year.

The most sacred teertha of this district is the Mani Mahesh Kailash – the mountain which is considered to be the sacred abode of Lord Shiva by the inhabitants of this region. The mountain peak is forever laden with snow and is a part of the range which is impassable even today. At the feet of the Kailash is the Mani Mahesh Lake which is the center of attraction for all Hindu pilgrims. It is in this lake that all the devotees take a sacred dip and have darshana of Shri Mani Mahesh Kailash. The lake affords a spectacular darshana of the mountain.

This is how it goes with the Hindus and snow-covered sacred peaks: Mountains are not to climb and conquer, but to revere and have darshana of, and lakes are the places to go to. It is as if the mountain itself is the deity in the garbha-griha, and the lake is the confluence of the mandapa and the antarala, the farthest place where humans go to and where they have the darshana of bhagwan.

There are three main routes to Mani Mahesh Lake. Many pilgrims from Lahaul-Spiti come through the Kugti pass, others from the Jalsi pass. However, the most famous route is the one that goes through Chamba and traverses almost the entire length and breadth of the Chamba valley and the modern district of Chamba.

All roads stop a little further from Bharmaur, the ancient capital of the Chamba kings. The peak of Mani Mahesh remains unclimbed so far by any human being and is thus a ‘virgin peak’ in the mountain climbing lingo. Mani Mahesh Kailash is the final destination of so many devotees in many senses of the word.

The mountain attracts pilgrims from every small nook and corner of the district, and also the wider Bharatvarsha. Every Hindu in Himachal has at his heart’s desire to undertake the journey to Mani Mahesh Kailash at least once in his lifetime. This sacred mountain behaves as a cultural magnet, a spiritual center which attracts pilgrims from every ancient temple in the district of Chamba and various other districts nearby. At the center of the spiritual life of a large mountainous range, Mani Mahesh Kailash links various other pilgrimages all across the state and even farther.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena.
Published by IndicaToday.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Pāṇinian Grammar: Part 2 - Pāṇini’s Problem

2026-10-16T08:03:09Z

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Pāṇini was facing the same problem as a fruit vendor. There is a phenomenon called Sandhi in Saṃskṛta wherein final sounds of a word change so as to accommodate well with the beginning sound of the word that follows it. For example, no language in this world tolerates two vowels coming together at word boundaries - they avoid it by some or the other means.

Example: a book (OK in English) but a egg (not OK in English). Why? Because there is a succession of two vowels “a-e” in the phrase a egg! English avoids this vowel-vowel hiatus by inserting a consonant in between - it chooses N - and hence we have an egg! So, the addition of “N” to change “a” to “an” is actually a sandhi in English. Both “a” and “an” are exactly the same as far as meaning is concerned - indefinite articles. Just that “an” is a Sandhi adjusted form to avoid a vowel-vowel hiatus when the word following the article also begins with a vowel. Saṃskṛta speakers were very conscious of these sound changes happening at boundaries since their language flourished in a purely oral culture and hence minutely noted these changes. Saṃskṛta however follows a different strategy to avoid a vowel-vowel hiatus. When the vowel that ends the first word is इ/उ/ ऋ/ऌ (i/u/ṛ/ḷ), then instead of inserting a consonant, the initial vowel itself converts into its appropriate semi-vowel consonant य्/व्/र्/ल् (y/v/r/l). These transformations are:

* इ => य् (i=>y)
* उ => व् (u=>v)
* ऋ => र् (ṛ=>r)
* ऌ => ल् (ḷ=>l)

Examples:

* प्रति + उषा = प्रत्युषा
* सु + आगतम् = स्वागतम्
* मातृ + अंशः = मात्रंशः
* prati + uṣā = pratyuṣā
* su + āgatam = svāgatam
* mātṛ + aṃśaḥ = mātraṃśaḥ

So Pāṇini wanted to actually say that<blockquote>If an (इ/उ/ ऋ/ऌ i/u/ṛ/ḷ) is followed by any other vowel, then replace (इ/उ/ ऋ/ऌ i/u/ṛ/ḷ) by (य्/व्/र्/ल् y/v/r/l)” respectively.</blockquote>Pāṇini could not afford to say this in so many words - he was not writing a book but rather composing orally transmittable texts. He had 4000 sutras (lines of code) and he wanted each line to be as compressed and brief as possible. So to compress them, Pāṇini uses two strategies:

# Creating an efficiently arranged list of sounds to call upon easily (reminds you of the fruit basket problem?!)
# Hijacking the normal meaning of small endings in his language and using them to convey algorithmic transformations of sounds (sounds like the auxiliary verb problem?!!)

Note that Pāṇini not only had to call the group of sounds like (i,u,ṛ,ḷ) and (y,v,r,l) but also dozens of other groups of sounds for other sandhis and other purposes as well. So this is exactly the fruit vendor problem and what he did was exactly what we had said there also - create a well ordered list so that the required groups of sounds to be called, fall consecutively and hence can be summoned by just saying the initial and final sound (with the implicit understanding that sounds in between are also included).

Pāṇini did arrange the sounds of Saṃskṛta in such a list, and it is called the Śivasūtras because he believed that these sounds originated from the drum of Lord Shiva. The list is:

* अ इ उ ण् | a i u ṇ
* ऋ ऌ क् | ṛ ḷ k
* ए ओ ङ् | e o ṅ
* ऐ औ च् | ai au c
* ह य व र ट् | ha ya va ra ṭ
* ल ण् | la ṇ
* ञ म ङ ण न म् | ña ma ṅa ṇa na m
* झ भ ञ् | jha bha ñ
* घ ढ ध ष् | gha ḍha dha ṣ
* ज ब ग ड द श् | ja ba ga ḍa da ś
* ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् | kha pha cha ṭha tha ca ṭa ta v
* क प य् | ka pa y
* श ष स र् | śa ṣa sa r
* ह ल् | ha l

This is the list that Pāṇini created and credited to Lord Śiva. There is only one difference between this and the fruit list. The last sound in each line which are pure consonant sounds (with no inherent vowel attached) together are called “mute letters” and are not a part of the list and hence excluded in any enumeration. Only letters with the inherent vowel “a” are part of the list (black letters). Why would Pāṇini add these mute bolded letters anyway? Wait till the next article in the series: Pāṇini is a genius. Everything he does has amazing foresight and reason behind it.

How efficient is this ordering of letters in the Śivasūtras for the groups of sounds that Pāṇini wants to refer to? For the collection of letters he wants to refer to, this ordering is the most optimal, as per the analysis done by the mathematician Wiebke Petersen in his paper here.

Now, seeing this list, for the Sandhi rule we saw earlier, recalling it: “If an (इ/उ/ ऋ/ऌ i/u/ṛ/ḷ) is followed by any other vowel, then replace (इ/उ/ ऋ/ऌ i/u/ṛ/ḷ) by (य्/व्/र्/ल् y/v/r/l)” respectively”.

Now, hence we need to call three sets of sounds for this Sandhi rule:

# First set - the four vowels (इ/उ/ ऋ/ऌ i/u/ṛ/ḷ) that precede
# Second set - the set of all vowels that can follow
# Third set - the four consonants (इ/उ/ ऋ/ऌ i/u/ṛ/ḷ) that are going to replace the vowels in 1.

Seeing the list above, the three sets can be called as:

# इक् ik (set of all sounds in the list from इ to क् excluding the red letters)
# अच् ac (set of all sounds in the list from अ to च् excluding the red letters)
# यण् yaṇ (set of all sounds in the list from य to ण् excluding the red letters)

If you collect the sounds as directed above from the list (Śivasūtras), you will end up with the exact set of sounds that you want for the rule in the same order! So, the rule can now be compressed somewhat as: “When an इक् ik letter is followed by an अच् ac letter, replace the इक् ik letter by its corresponding यण् yaṇ letter”

But Pāṇini is not happy with this level of compression - he wants to further compress the conditional statements and the replacement rule also. For that, we need to take a slightly congruent detour of Saṃskṛta case endings. For words ending in consonants, we have the following meanings associated with endings. Eg. The words जागत् jagat and मरुत् marut mean “world” and “wind” respectively. In the normal Saṃskṛta language, the following endings change the meaning as follows:

* जागत् | jagat = the world
* जगतः | jagataḥ = of the world
* जगति | jagati = in/on/at the world?
* मरुत् | marut = the wind
* मरुतः | marutaḥ = of the wind
* मरुति | maruti = in/on/at the wind

So, we see that in normal language, for words ending in consonant, the ending aḥ conveys the meaning of of and the ending i conveys a sense of location as conveyed by a preposition like in/on/at. But these prepositions are the meanings of the ending in the unhiijacked Saṃskṛta language in normal usage! Oh my god - what Pāṇini does now would be unbelievable! He will now hijack these case endings and use it for his special operations in the sūtras!

What Pāṇini does here is this. He indirectly declares something like: “Grammarians, forget what the endings aḥ, i mean in our normal Saṃskṛta language. As far as my sūtras are concerned, they will stand for these operations:

# aḥ => this will stand for the group of sounds that precede and need to be replaced.
# i => this will stand for the group of sounds that follow.
# no ending => this will stand for the group of sounds that replace the first set of sounds.

Pāṇini hijacks the normal Saṃskṛta language (at least some part of it - the case endings) for his coding purposes - in computer jargon - this is called metalanguage! Pāṇini is essentially creating a metalanguage out of a natural language (Saṃskṛta) for his coding purpose!!!! Isn’t this genius!

In case of auxiliary verbs, a word gets hijacked within the natural language itself to convey certain other abstract grammatical purposes - Pāṇini now hijacks some case endings of the language - strips them of their normal meaning - and encodes them with a new instructional meaning as far as the context of his sutras are concerned!!

So, in this elegant meta-language and the well-ordered list of sounds in the Śivasūtras, this rule can be summarized elegantly as: इकः यण् अचि | ikaḥ yaṇ aci

* Literal meaning of the Sutra: Of IK, in AC, yan (does not make any sense)
* Actual meaning in the meta-language of the sutra: Whenever an IK sound is followed by an AC sound, replace the IK sound by its corresponding YAṆ sound

(Actually the sutra reads इको यण् अचि iko yaṇ aci due to Sandhi of the visarga sound : ḥ but let’s not bother with such minutiae now). So we see how an elaborate set of Sandhi rules has been so efficiently compressed to a very small statement “ik aḥ yaṇ ac i” using efficient lists and meta-language. This meta-language will be useful throughout the language because Saṃskṛta is a left-changing language predominantly - that is when two sounds meet, mostly it is the first sound that gets replaced while the second sound stays put. So, this meta language of aḥ denoting both the first sound and the sound that needs to be replaced is useful across all operations concerning the Saṃskṛta language.

Thus far, we have seen two important concepts in advanced mathematics and computer science used in Pāṇinian grammar. In the next sections, we will see what those bolded/underlined letters are doing in the Śivasūtras and also more sophisticated metalanguage. Gradually, we will see other concepts.

Authored by Rama Seshan Chandra Sekaran.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Pāṇinian Grammar, Part 1 - Introduction to Optimal Ordering and Meta-Language

2026-10-16T08:02:47Z

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This series of articles is dedicated to Pāṇinian grammar of the Saṃskṛta language, as presented in his treatise “Aṣṭādhyāyi”. In trying to characterize the grammar of the Sanskrit language spoken in his day, Pāṇini Maharṣi manufactures legitimate and only legitimate words of the Sanskrit language, by designing a set of 4000 rules in a highly compressed language of the “sūtra” that operates on the sounds, verb roots, prefixes and suffixes, to generate all the words of Sanskrit language.

In this process, Pānini uses techniques from modern computing (especially the theory of formal languages that are used in analysis and compiler design for programming languages) and anticipates them even though it would be 2500 years from his time when the first actual computer would be invented. Techniques like optimal ordering of data, information compression, metalanguage, metarules, use of non-terminal symbols, light before heavy are all used in this masterpiece.

To study the Aṣṭādhyāyi, it is essential to know the Saṃskṛta language, as that is the language for which the grammar is designed. However in this series, my aim is to introduce how Pānini uses these techniques in his treatise for people who don’t have any knowledge of the Saṃskṛta language, or formal language theory in computer science. I also present the rich developments in the philosophy of language that Pānini’s work inspired in his successors and compare it with Western philosophies of language like that of Russell, Wittgenstein, de Saussure, etc.

Language was an important concern in ancient Indian philosophy, especially for the Āstika schools, as they believed that the efficacy of the Vedic rituals directly depended on the sounds of the chanted mantras. They wanted to justify how this efficacy is brought about, and in the process, they had to analyze how the sounds of a language relate to meaning and ultimately reality itself. By the end of this series, you will have a deep appreciation of the importance, depth and scope of Aṣtādhyāyi and the Indian views on language.

==== A Fruit Market ====
Let’s imagine that you are in a fruit market, wanting to buy a bunch of fruits. You see a list of fruits that is available there as follows:

* Mango
* Apple
* Orange
* Pineapple
* Strawberry
* Jackfruit
* Guava
* Pomegranate
* Litchi
* Lemon
* Blueberry

Luckily, let’s say that the fruits that you want to buy are:

* Pineapple
* Strawberry
* Jackfruit
* Guava
* Pomegranate

Now, you see that the fruits that you want are all together in the list - the list is shown here again with the fruits you want in bold.

* Mango
* Apple
* Orange
* Pineapple
* Strawberry
* Jackfruit
* Guava
* Pomegranate
* Litchi
* Lemon
* Blueberry

One way of saying what you want from the vendor is to name the fruits that you want sequentially. But now you realize that the list is displayed and the vendor can see it clearly. So, instead of saying “I want pineapple, strawberry, jackfruit, guava and pomegranate,” you can save some time and her short term memory by saying that “In that list displayed, I want the fruits from pineapple to pomegranate.” This not only saves little time but the vendor can also get relieved of her short term memory - she can just remember the initial fruit (pineapple) and the final fruit (pomegranate) in the list and she can use the list as reference and pack all the fruits in between.

“So what?” - you might ask. But imagine instead of some dozen fruits, you are a computer scientist and are dealing with an array (a fancy name for “list” in computer programming) with 10,000 entries. And you want to pick up a hundred of them for doing some operation. And it happens that those hundred elements fall in a nice order and are one by one in the array by luck. Then, as a computer programmer, obviously you would code in such a way that you ask the computer to pick up using the “from here to here” style rather than saying all the numbers of all the entries. In this case, this would save immense computing power.

Now, suppose that in the same fruit shop, next time you want the following:

* Mango
* Orange
* Guava
* Lemon

These fruits are shown bolded in the entire list below:

* Mango
* Apple
* Orange
* Pineapple
* Strawberry
* Jackfruit
* Guava
* Pomegranate
* Litchi
* Lemon
* Blueberry

Note that this time you are not so lucky. You can’t simply say to the vendor that you want fruits from mango to lemon. It will include so many unnecessary fruits that you do not want. The poor vendor has to remember your requirements individually, and pick up and hand it over to you. You can extrapolate this scenario to the computer programming example.

Now suppose the list of fruits in the shop was reordered as follows:

NEW LIST:

* Apple
* Pineapple
* Strawberry
* Jackfruit
* Pomegranate
* Guava
* Mango
* Orange
* Lemon
* Litchi
* Blueberry

Now let’s consider both of your orders:

Order first time: Pineapple, Strawberry, Jackfruit, Guava, Pomegranate.

Order second time: Mango, Orange, Guava, Lemon.

Now, with this new list, you can make both the orders in the initial-final way because both of the list of fruits fall sequentially one below the other in the list. Let me bold the fruits in the first order and underline the fruits in the second order in the new list (so the repeated fruit in both orders - guava - will be both bold and underline). It is shown below:

NEW LIST:

* Apple
* Pineapple
* Strawberry
* Jackfruit
* Pomegranate
* Guava
* Mango
* Orange
* Lemon
* Litchi
* Blueberry

Now you can make both orders as follows in this new list:

Previous order - From Pineapple to Guava in the new list.

Present order - From guava to lemon in the new list.

So, you see how the appropriate ordering of entries in a list matters a lot. If the fruit shop owner is clever, he will perform a statistical analysis and collect the most frequently ordered sets of fruits and rearrange the list of fruits in such a way that as many frequently ordered sets of fruits can be done so by the initial-final way. A computer programmer analogously will write a code to reorder the elements of an array such that as many frequently called upon entries can be called in the initial-final way to save his future programming time.

==== When Words Do Double Role Playing ====
What is the meaning of the English word “have”?

You might say - it is obvious and simple right - the word “have” means “to possess” something. For example, consider the following sentences:

* I have this book.
* They have a beautiful voice.
* I have two children.

Our group of restaurants have bulk orders on Sundays. Even dictionaries tell only this meaning. Check any dictionary. But consider these sentences.

* I have written this book.
* I have finished my homework.
* They have stolen my car.

In these sentences above, the word “have” occurs. But they don’t convey any meaning of possession there - right? When I say “They have stolen my car” , I am not implying that “they” own the “car” - the sentence itself says it is clearly my car! So, what is happening to the word “have” in these usages?

A native English speaker wouldn’t even be aware of this and still continue to use the language appropriately from his instincts. But an adult learner who learns English would go crazy confused seeing these pairs of sentences - he would be clueless.

Since you have studied (or were forced to study) grammar at school, you realize that the word have in a sentence like “They have stolen my car” does not have its literal meaning “to possess”. Instead, it combines with the following verb ”have stolen” and conveys the idea of a “present perfect tense” - an action that has been completed very recently from the present. So, the word “have” here loses its literal meaning and instead conveys an abstract grammatical information with the succeeding verb. It informs us that the verb following it is of a present perfect tense - an action that has just been recently completed (i.e. the car has just been stolen by them).

If you had paid even more attention to your high school grammar class, you would recall that the word “have” is now acting as an auxiliary verb. An auxiliary verb is a word that was originally a verb (Eg. I have this book) but has lost its literal meaning and is now acting in communion with another verb to convey an abstract grammatical information about the verb that follows it (Eg. They have stolen the car).

English has other auxiliaries too. Take the word “do”. I do this (normal verb that signifies action). But in a sentence like - I do read books everyday - The word “do” has lost its literal meaning and has now combined with another verb “read” to convey an emphatic meaning for the verb that follows. The difference between the sentences “I read books everyday” and “I do read books everyday” is that the latter sentence is more emphatic.

Consider the word “will” that can be used as a noun with concrete meaning as in - Where there is a will, there is a way. Here, “will” is a normal noun that means “desire” or “intent”. But in the sentence - “I will read that book”, the word “will” has lost its literal concrete meaning, has combined with the verb that follows it, and conveys an abstract grammatical information that the verb is in the future tense.

Such a phenomena in which a word loses its concrete meaning (referring to a thing or an action) and instead is hijacked to convey an abstract grammatical information (like present perfect tense / emphatic / future tense) is called in linguistics as grammaticalization. You might think that this grammaticalization exists only in English, but it abounds in all languages - just that we are not trained to explicitly recognise this phenomenon, and we do so only when we try to learn another language as an adult logically.

Let me give some examples from Hindi.

Consider the following verb root रह (rah). This has a concrete meaning which is “to remain, to stay”. Consider the following sentences where it is used in this concrete sense.

मैं अपने घर में रहता हूँ (mein apne ghar men rahtā hūn) (Meaning: I stay/remain in my house)

आपका छात्रावास में रहना अत्यवश्यक है (āpkā chātrāvās men rahnā atyavashyak hai) (Meaning: You staying in the hostel is very important)

But this verb does indeed get hijacked and loses its concrete meaning in sentences like - मैं हिंदी सीख रहा हूँ (main hindī sīkh rahā hūn). If you literally translate this sentence into English, it would be “I remained learn Hindi” which is absurd. Instead if you are a native Hindi speaker, you know that this sentence above instinctively means “I am learning Hindi”. In other words, the verb root रह (rah) has lost its concrete meaning and now conveys the grammatical information of continuous tense (an action that is in the process).

The difference between “मैं हिंदी सीखता हूँ” and “मैं हिंदी सीख रहा हूँ” is that मैं हिंदी सीखता हूँ = I learn Hindi; मैं हिंदी सीख रहा हूँ = I am learning Hindi (in the process). So, the root रह has lost its original meaning of “stay/remain” and is now hijacked by the language to convey the grammatical information of the continuous tense.

Another verb that famously gets hijacked is the verb root “जा”. As a concrete verb, it means “to go” as in sentences like -

मैं हर दिन विद्यालय जाता हूँ (mein har din vidyālay jātā hūn) (Meaning: I go to school everyday)

But this verb gets hijacked a lot of time to convey the grammatical meaning of passive voice. Examples:

शतरंज लड़कों द्वारा खेला जाता है (shatranj laṛkōn dvārā khēlā jātā hai) (Meaning: Chess is played by the boys)

Here, the word jātā has completely lost any meaning of going. It simply conveys the grammatical information of passive voice. The difference between “लड़के शतरंज खेलते हैं” (the boys play chess) and “शतरंज लड़कों द्वारा खेला जाता है” (chess is played by the boys) is that the latter sentence with जाता transforms the sentence from active voice to passive voice. There is no connotation of any motion or going in the latter sentence. Auxiliary verbs abound in Hindi - much more than in English. As an exercise, try to recognise more.

So, now you are used to a word meaning two different things - a concrete meaning in one situation and an abstract grammatical meaning in another situation. As a native speaker of a language, your neurons are wired by exposure in childhood to seamlessly tell in sub-second time, what meaning is intended, given the syntax.

When I learnt Hindi, during the initial stages, these double meanings of the verbs “rah” and “jā” confused me a lot until I picked up a grammar book.

You might ask, “What does this fruit market concept and and double role-playing words have to do with Pāṇinian grammar and Saṃskṛta?” Well, Pāṇini had to write a grammar for the Saṃskṛta language of his day and place (he was based in Shalatula, close to modern day Lahore in Pakistan). Many people have written many grammar books for their languages, but Pāṇini’s work is not a grammar book like that of Wren & Martin. His is actually a code - kind of like a computer program. He wanted to design a machine that would take as its input - his verb roots, prefixes and suffixes - and based on his rules - combine them and create legitimate words of the Saṃskṛta language. In other words, he wanted to automatize and imagine word formation in Saṃskṛta as a factory process. The raw materials that he gives to the factory are verb roots, prefixes and suffixes. The factory process control algorithm he uses are the sūtras of his work called the Aṣṭhādhyāyī. If it was a computer, the algorithm could be stored in a ROM. But Pāṇini’s code was supposed to be stored in the minds of people and transmitted orally across generations - it was to be stored in actual memories of the people. But you know human memory is limited and tends to forget, and hence he needed to write a code for his algorithm (in sūtra format) in a highly compressed language so that it could be memorized in a brain in reasonable time. So, he had to do severe information compression for his algorithms while coding them down as sūtras. This is where the fruit market example and contextual based hijacking of words comes into play, which we will see in the next part of the series.

Authored by Rama Seshan Chandra Sekaran.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

The Bangla Dream, Part 6 - Governing Gaul and the Deserved Defeat

2026-10-16T08:02:30Z

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The broth prepared using the ingredients of the Brahmo Dream, the Fabian Dream and শুদ্ধ, brings us to the Legacy Elite of today. This is not to say that they were only influenced by these three sources or impulses. There were obviously many more variables, sometimes even going in opposite directions to the ones I’ve mentioned. But I do think that in the battle for the hearts of the Legacy Elite, these three Dreams have won out, at the cost of other Dreams like the fair and gracious one offered by Sri Aurobindo.

The amazing thing is, that most of these Elites are not consciously aware about the existence (or history) of their own Dreams. These Dreams function more as impulses, instincts, directions of thought, or pathos-based reactions to contemporary events. '''The average শুদ্ধ Hindu knows that the Partition of India was done on religious lines, but accepting this fact would make them feel what they have defined as “hatred”'''. They do not want to think of themselves as “hateful” people and so they willingly put on the শুদ্ধ blindfold. They are trying to convince themselves, as much as they are trying to convince us. But ideals, no matter how irrational, especially when they “feel” right, have a very sticky quality to them, especially for the young and the restless. So the শুদ্ধ Hindu will continue to exist for at least a few generations, till the embers of these Old Dreams truly die out.

As of today, the Indian Legacy Elite is staring down the barrel of defeat. The obvious contradictions in their views have led them to be decimated in the sphere of mainstream Indian electoral politics. '''They are in a ten-year-long exile now, but to their credit, they do not lack the will to fight'''. What we now observe is that as the “concern” in the West about “what is going in India” increases, the Indian Legacy Elite is finding that it can actually fail upwards.

Because the Indian Legacy Elite did go through one final transformation. In the 1990s-2010s period, the Indian Legacy Elite, in many ways, gave up on many Red aspects of its nearly one-hundred-fifty-year long Dream, to merge with the dominant worldwide Dream of the time: '''American (global) liberalism'''. Ideologically, it was not a very distant trip from Fabianism to Americanism, but it was a trip nonetheless. In this new equation, facilitated by the rise of American mass culture, mass media, and a growth in communication technology, the Indian Legacy Elite took up a role similar to that of the Governors of a Roman Province (like Gaul) during the Republic era.

Their job was to “manage” the province (India) on the behalf of the Republic (the global liberal regime), reporting on the behavior of the natives and making sure that the governed populace stays within the confines of ideological discipline. A great recent example of this attitude can be seen in two essays published in the “The Return of Civilizations” edition of Noema Magazine. As my friend Priyank Chauhan recently pointed out to me in a conversation, '''it is a truly damning indictment of the Indian Legacy elite that the two articles written by Indians in this series about the “return of civilizations” both refused to accept India as a civilizational entity in the first place'''. This is obviously in sharp contrast to the Chinese writers, who eagerly embraced their civilizational identity. If there was ever a perfect analogy for the difference in the two countries’ trajectories in the last fifty years…

Shashi Tharoor’s piece is exactly what you would expect from a Fabian elite that now function as frontier consulates of the American liberal regime. The only thing they know how to do is to make appeals to the ideals of the Empire: liberalism. '''In doing so, the Legacy Elite plays its hand:''' it shows us that it places liberalism as an ideal above the ideal of Indian civilization itself. As does Pallavi Aiyer’s piece titled Purity vs. Plurality in India. The Indian Legacy Elite deserves its ideological defeat.

Does the Indian Legacy Elite really expect the natives to believe that in a civilization-sized country, with a memory of at least 4,000 years, and a population of a billion and a half people, there is not even one, new, unique idea that can be shared with the world? '''Not even one?''' If we are not a civilization, then was John Strachey not justified in saying that “the first and most important thing to learn about India is that there is not, and never was, an India”?

Perhaps Malcolm Muggeridge was right: the last true Englishman is, and will be, an Indian. '''He will speak in the Queen’s English, and tell the western media that they (the west) are no longer liberal enough!''' This Brahmo, Fabian, শুদ্ধ Indian will fight for the Dream that he has internalized, even as he loses his control over the Province of India in the face of an unimpressed native revolt.

As we all know, this revolt of the natives, in the form of the emergent, chaotic, unorganized and reactive forces of Hindutva, has routed the Legacy Elite in the electoral field. '''In the minds of a lot of Indian people, this Dream is now dead'''. The only ones still holding out, as they always do in any intellectual tradition, are the Priests. In its creaking old forts like university professorships and editorial boards, the Legacy Elite looks like it is in the final stretch of its fight - like the last stand of the Druids before the complete Roman conquest of England.

In his recent book-launch event for “Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom”, Sanjeev Sanyal mentioned that when he went to Penguin Publishing to publish his first ever book, every instance of the word “Hinduism”, was canceled out and replaced with “Brahminism”. '''It is in petty forts like these that the Legacy Dream continues to function to this day'''. They still undergo their daily praxis, fighting small battles to defend their Old Dreams. '''Defending these forts is their final stand'''. And one cannot help but admire their commitment, even if it is a commitment to someone else’s Dreams.

Perhaps it should be unsurprising that the Legacy Indian elite Dreams decayed, and eventually fell to the emergent forces of Hindutva. At its core, these Dreams were nothing but a shallow mimicry of the Dreams of other peoples and other Elites. '''These Dreams actually meant something to the Elite of the places they came from'''. They represented the economic, social and intellectual journey of a particular group of people. But in India, they were simply the consequence of the historical thumb of colonialism. They were imposed top-down on a particular set of English-educated Indians, who were swept away by the most seductive ideas of their time, and adopted the Dreams as their own: Nehru was a communist in the 1920s not because communism represented the emergent voice of the Indian people, but because most of the world’s elite was communist in the 1920s and 30s. Could Dreams built on successive acts of mimicry really have been expected to never lose their vitality?

Not only this, these Dreams lacked any sense of belonging to this nation, this civilization. '''They were never organic or emergent:''' economically, ideologically or spiritually. And the surface-level impact of these Dreams was such that even among the class where they had a hold, the Elite themselves, they eventually became nothing more than a means to personal ends. '''The goal of the members of the Indian Legacy Elite since the 1990s has essentially been to “graduate” from India and become a part of the western liberal elite'''. Should it really be surprising then, that they adopted the ideology of western elite power (progressivism)? Or that the natives of the outer provinces would not eventually see through the ruse? It could be the benefit of hindsight, but to me, this defeat of the Old Dreams has been dialectically inevitable since the first day of English-education in British India.

However, we also know that Hindutva as it exists today is too shallow to actually serve as a replacement Dream. It is too reactive, too negative, too oppositional and too confrontational. Hindutva has focused Hindu society’s energies towards only building Śatrubodha. It is not completely without use, because it offers an avenue for organization and discussion, a basic minimum platform of sorts. '''But it lacks direction. It has no normative Dream to show, even to its willing audience'''. It has very little to offer us in our Svayaṃbodha.

It has also noticeably still not captured the Legacy Indian elite, despite a decade of nearly unchallenged political power. And it will not do so until it can show them a New Dream. '''A Dream that has a tangible and positive vision for the future''', a Dream that deprograms the cynical and ideological Legacy Elite and shows them a new possibility for the country: one built on Indic ideas, Indic impulses, and Indic Dreams. '''Is that really too much to ask for?'''

This, in many ways, is the goal of this movement that we call the Dharmic movement. It is not a humble goal, but in my opinion, goals and Dreams need to be maximalist. They need to break through the horizon of the current conditioning and bring about a complete paradigm shift. If they don’t, they will be swallowed up by the existing hegemonic Dream.

On that note of humility, I will end this part of my series. I hope you will join me in the final part, where I will make my small attempt to think through what this New Dream could look like!

Authored by Samyak Dixit.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Kalaripayattu

2026-10-16T08:01:48Z

Admin: 1 revision imported

Kalaripayaṭṭu is an ancient martial art that originated in India and, a part of the enormous corpus of India’s cultural traditions. Like Yoga, it is a complete discipline that combines physical and mental training, self-discipline, with the art of body massage and traditional Āyurvaidika medicine. Phillip Zarrilli describes kalari as a ”mode of cultural praxis through which bodies, knowledges, powers, agency and selves/identities have been and are repositioned through practice.”

==== Origins of Kalaripayaṭṭu ====
Paraśurāma, the warrior incarnation of Viṣṇu, is said to have thrown his paraśu or battle-axe out into the sea from Gokarṇa to Kanyakumari, on the coast of Mangalore. As the axe sank, a strip of land rose up out of the waters, that became Kerala, also called Paraśurāmakṣetram or Bhārgavakṣetram. After pulling Kerala out of the ocean, Paraśurāma taught the martial art to 21 disciples so that they may maintain peace in the land. There exist palm leaf manuscripts in the possession of ancient families that have learnt and preserved Kalaripayaṭṭu for generations that attest to the fact that Paraśurāma was their first guru. The word kalari presumably comes from the Sanskrit term khalūrikā, which refers to a military training ground, or possibly from the Tamil word kalam meaning ‘arena or area for drama, gladiatorial, or gymnastic exhibitions’, and the root of the Malayalam ‘payattu’ is Tamil payil, ‘to train or practise’. Ancient palm leaf manuscripts often specify the size, placement and orientation of the kalari. References to many of the sword and shield techniques, archery, weaponry etc. employed by Kalaripayaṭṭu are found in texts such as the Agni Purāṇa and the Nāṭya Śāstra from circa 14th century.

Kalaripayaṭṭu styles that were practiced in the old Travancore region of Southern Kerala and the adjacent districts of Kanyakumari were also continued to be practiced by non-Nair castes such as the Nadars and Sambavars. The Southern styles decidedly purport a more Tamil origin, and differ from Northern ones — they trace their foundations to Sage Agastya rather than Paraśurāma, practice in open spaces than in special roofed pits, and their masters are known as asans. They also incorporate more of the “vital spots” techniques, called varma ati or chinna ati, tracing the tradition to the 108 vital spots identified by Sage Agastya in his text Varma Oti Murivu Cara Cuttiram and Agastyamuni’s student Bhogar’s Varmaśāstram, written in Tamil. The medicinal treatment that is linked with is identified as Dravidian Siddha medicine rather than Āyurveda. A considerable mixing of styles and arts has occurred in the past few decades, and a number of masters frequently mix both southern and northern techniques.

==== Transmission through Guru-Śiṣya Paramparā ====
Student instruction begins at the age of eight with a ritual initiation ceremony conducted at the gurukula by the master of the kalari, called the Gurukkal. The Gurukkal is venerated as the living representative of the Gods in the entire lineage of gurus in the kalari tradition, starting with Paraśurāma. While the number of Gods varies depending on the tradition of the family and of the Gurukkal, the kalari falls under the protection of its guardian deity Bhagvatī, the Goddess Durgā; or Bhadrakāḷi, or Paradevathai, identified as a blend of Śiva and Śakti.

Practicing the martial art, especially at advanced levels with combat weapons was an exclusive right granted to certain sections of society that were specifically designated to serve the ruler with utmost loyalty. From the 11th-12th century, this right and duty was the exclusive right and domain of the Nairs, however, a few Brahmin sub-castes as well as a few others, such as one subgroup of the Illavas called the Tiyyas along with some Christians and Muslims were conferred this right and duty of training in arms and to fight duels to the death.

==== The Nairs ====
The Nairs are a warrior class indigenous to Kerala, whose military accomplishments brought them great privilege, fame and standing in society. They roamed about armed with a dagger and sword that never left their side, following a rigorous disciplined life; they fought on foot and were skilled in archery and the use of a spear. Young Nair boys and even girls would train from an early age in military knowledge, and the art of Kalari was important as the code of conduct and honor. Early medieval Kerala was made of a number of smaller kingdoms, and each was equipped with several thousand Nair warriors. Kalaripayaṭṭu, therefore, was not only central to the heritage of the Nair caste but even integral to the fabric of society, being widely known and practised.

Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese writer from the 16th century, described the life of a Nair, their dedication to the craft and their relationships with their Gurukkal and their sworn loyalty to their king.<blockquote>“For the Nair, combat is a personal affair. Even though there may be a thousand men engaged in a battle, the Nair will avenge his king. He advances alone to meet his opponents, strong in his own science of combat, confident in his own ability to handle his weapons. The Nair are agile and highly skilled, fearless and disdainful of pain.”</blockquote>

==== Principles of Kalaripayaṭṭu ====
The art and tradition has, through its rigor and moral rectitude, maintained a pristine purity of thought, transmission of tradition and philosophy for centuries. Kalaripayaṭṭu is a living testimony of the code of conduct and sense of honor for the warrior practitioners.. In fact, it was their belief that once a sword was drawn, it must not be put back without being stained in blood. Its ten principles, rooted in its motto ‘nitya thozhil abhyāsam’ or ‘practice makes perfection’, which are cultivated in its practitioners, have been enumerated by the masters of Kalaripayaṭṭu as follows:

# Acadakkam — discipline
# Gurutvam — respect for the Guru
# Krithyaniṣṭha — regularity in ones practice
# Śaktiyulla śarīram manasu — strength of body and mind
# Kṣama — patience
# Vinayam — humility
# Manusvatvam — humanity
# Pāramparya Bahumānam — respect for tradition
# Ātmābhimānam, Dhīratā — self-esteem and courage
# Śānti — peace

The dark walls of the kalari, the scent of burning myrrh, the chanting of mantras and the ritual and spiritual atmosphere that is created play an important role in the formation of the character and the attitude of the student towards life. Kalari, therefore, is not a practice reducible to its set of “virtuosic body-techniques”; but rather, exists as a “set of potentialities of self, power, and agency inherent in che complex set of practices, discourses and representations through which a practitioner’s experience of practice is historically and contextually negotiated”. (Zarrilli, 1998)

==== Meditation and Spiritual Practice ====
India’s martial arts developed within a highly philosophical and religious setting, and are therefore closely linked with such beliefs. Cultivating ekāgratā, the ideal phycological, physical and respiratory state of the ideal martial arts practitioner is said to take place when the “whole body becomes an eye” — meyya kannakuka — alluding to the concept of intuitive development of the mental state of ekāgratā or the sole focus of concentration (such as that exhibited by Arjuna in the Mahābhārata), with which an adept warrior is able to sense his entire environment at all times. Cultivating ekāgratā means to cultivate one’s deeper nature, and their recognition of their sense of self. As stated in the Agni Purāṇa, “He who has steadied his eye’s vision — both mental and physical — can vanquish even Yama, the god of death; vanquishing Yama means first of all vanquishing oneself.” The development of this advanced mental state along with physical hyper-awareness and sensibility is achieved only through continuous and disciplined practice of yoga, meditation, and prāṇāyāma, and not simply engaging with the art on a purely physical plane. The nature of the breath, and the ability to control breathing is linked with the quality of life, and with longevity. As Philip Zarrilli puts it,<blockquote>“the practitioner’s ‘self’ is reconstituted through long-term practice to achieve agency, power and a type of behaviour which can be deployed personally, socially, even cosmologically.”</blockquote>

==== Mudra and Mantra ====
The use of mudras to evoke certain stances and states of mind while on the battlefield are seen in the practice of Kalaripayaṭṭu. The Nairs would combine the use of mudras with the chanting of certain mantras, while mentally concentrating on a particular nerve plexus or a psychic centre to produce what can only be called mystical or superhuman effects. The capacity to do this is cultivated through a meditative practice over years and even decades.

==== Kalaripayaṭṭu and Āyurveda ====
The blend of martial arts with medicine is a unique trait of Kalaripayaṭṭu. The Gurukkal is trained in a special form of treatment, called kalaricikitsa, based in Āyurveda and perfected through being passed on through generations of Gurukkals. The Gurukkals specialize in the treatment of orthopaedic and nervous disorders, and in the preparations of herbs and medicines. In India, Āyurvaidika treatment takes into account astrological considerations, invocations of the Gods, along with physical medications. It is a system that is not solely based in empiricism, but rather, intimately connected with the metaphysical, cosmological, and philosophical foundations of the civilization itself. A human being is considered as a whole, his mind, body and spirit seen inseparable and therefore treated as one. All prescriptions regarding nutrition, food habits, methods of cleansing and purifying the body, control of respiration and the heart rate — prāṇāyama, yogāsanas are drawn from Āyurveda, Yoga sūtras and even haṭha yoga texts.

==== The Art of Massage ====
Kalaripayaṭṭu has its own unique system of massage using the feet, called Uzhichil. The masseuse holds ropes attached to the ceiling and uses them to control the pressure of his feet on the body of the person stretched out on the floor beneath. This method is used for the more agile athletes, and those that are frailer such as children, women and the elderly are subject to massage using the hands. The depth and strength of the massage are tailored based on the fighter’s needs. The practitioner is expected to follow certain lifestyle restrictions while undergoing massage treatments: rest, a bland diet, sexual abstinence and staying away from cold and heat. The art of massage (and combat) is also linked with the ancient Āyurvaidika knowledge of pressure points, or marman as pointed out by Suśruta in his treatise, Marma Sūtras.

==== Kalaripayaṭṭu as a Complex System ====
Kalaripayaṭṭu can be imagined as a complex, tiered system in which all of its arenas of operation do not occur in isolation, but are rather, interlinked to form an entire institution in itself. The four arenas, according to Zarrilli are:

# the literal arena: including the kalari itself where training takes place;
# the social arena: including the Saṅgham (the governing body which oversees the running of the kalari), the common lineage or style of practice to which the kalari belongs, and formal associations;
# the arenas of cultural production: which generate representations of the martial arts; including in media, traditional cultural performances during including calendrical or seasonal festivals — where the contribution of kalari to arts such as Kathakali or Velakali, the transposition of Kalaripayaṭṭu into dance forms, is brought to the fore;
# the arena of experience and self-transformation: the crucible of the individual’s experience where embodied practice helps shape a self, as well as creates an own style and interpretation of the body-in-practice.

==== Decline and Resurrection ====
At the end of the 17th century Kalaripayaṭṭu was declared illegal by the British, and remained banned till India’s independence in 1947, due to an encounter of a British Captain with a kalari warrior, and his subsequent, presumably embarrassing, defeat. It remained alive only through the dogged and secret transmission of its practice and traditions by its masters. The investment of such an extraordinary amount of time, energy, and resources by a society in order to preserve this system that aimed to create cultural specialists of such embodied practices speaks to the true importance of the personal, social, ritual and/or cosmological realities that are created, enacted and perpetuated. (Zarrilli, 1998)

Kalaripayaṭṭu is an inextricable part of Kerala’s cultural and mytho-historical landscape, as a rich and vibrant part of Kerala’s, and by extension, India’s, cultural, spiritual, and educational heritage. Kalaripayaṭṭu is regarded as the fount of martial arts across Asia, as the oldest of the extant ones, which influenced other martial traditions of China and Japan. It is time that Kalaripayaṭṭu is given the recognition it deserves on a global scale, the same attention that others such as karate, kung fu, judo, tai chi etc. have received, given its “elder brotherly” status to all Asian martial arts. Kalaripayaṭṭu almost fell into oblivion, but is now being revived and is going through a renaissance thanks to widespread interest and the efforts of a few masters.

Kalaripayaṭṭu must be elevated, both as a traditional psychophysiological discipline and a ‘scientific’ system of physical culture, whose practice cultivates untold mental, physical and spiritual benefits — and not just as a fighting skill with practical benefits. In the coming decades, one of the agendas within Indic revivalism must be to exalt Kalari to the status it deserves, as an art, science, and a marker of the fierce martial tradition — a form of kṣatriyatā that formerly pervaded the Indian soil and would be indispensable to our civilisation once again in this age.

==== Endnotes: ====

# Zarrilli, P. B. (1998). When the body becomes all eyes: paradigms, discourses, and practices of power in Kalarippayattu, a South Indian martial art. India: Oxford University Press.
# Denaud, P. (2009). Kalaripayat: The Martial Arts Tradition of India. United States: Inner Traditions/Bear.

Authored by Sai Priya Chodavarapu.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Health and Wellness Sciences]][[Category:Health and Wellness Sciences]]

The Global Soil Health Crisis - Implications and Solutions

2026-10-16T08:01:32Z

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Agricultural soils are in peril. Evidence increasingly indicates that the threat of soil degradation, propelled by erratic rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, and agricultural mismanagement, is imminent. It is imperative for society to explore avenues to mitigate soil degradation crises, which is a formidable challenge with far-reaching implications for environmental sustainability, human health, and nutrition. Soil, the earth’s living epidermis, plays an integral role in the global ecosystem. According to the United Nations to Combat Desertification report, an estimated 24 billion tons of the world’s fertile soil is lost annually to erosion. The gradual decline in soil quality has a ripple effect on productive farmlands, especially on dry-land agriculture, and is projected to continue as climate change intensifies. The relentless exploitation of soil resources, exacerbated by inadequate management practices, has precipitated a crisis of unprecedented scale. This essay delineates the multifaceted nature of the global soil health crisis, elucidating its adverse environmental effects as well as its impact on human health and nutrition; and posits some preliminary solutions to mitigate this dire predicament.

==== Adverse Environmental Effects ====
Soil organic carbon (SOC), one of Earth’s most important natural resources, is a key indicator of soil health. Research during the last three decades has provided many insights into the importance of SOC to soil’s physical properties and functions of an ecosystem such as climate regulation, water retention, climate change and carbon cycling, and crop yield and productivity. The degradation of soil quality globally portends severe environmental ramifications. One of the most pernicious effects is the diminution of biodiversity. Soil is a teeming microcosm, home to a quarter of the planet’s biodiversity. The erosion of soil health decimates this micro-biodiversity, disrupting ecosystems and the services they provide. Furthermore, unhealthy soil exacerbates climate change. Soils are the second-largest carbon sink after the oceans: their degradation releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, intensifying the greenhouse effect and global warming.

Erosion, another significant consequence of soil degradation, leads to the loss of fertile topsoil, which not only diminishes agricultural productivity but also contributes to the siltation of waterways, affecting aquatic ecosystems and potable water supplies. Additionally, the depletion of soil organic matter, a critical component of healthy soil, impairs its water retention capacity, exacerbating the vulnerability of landscapes to both drought and flooding. Such environmental degradation precipitates a vicious cycle of decreased agricultural productivity, increased reliance on chemical inputs, and further soil health deterioration.

==== Effect on Human Health and Nutrition ====
Soil is alive, and it is a dynamic resource. The nutritional content of crops is inextricably linked to soil quality. Nutrient-depleted soils yield crops with diminished nutritional value, exacerbating the global burden of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Additionally, soil contamination with heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants poses direct health risks. The degradation of soil health undermines food security and quality, making populations more susceptible to food shortages and price volatility. The resultant socio-economic stress contributes to broader public health crises, compounding the challenges faced by already vulnerable communities.

==== Solutions to Mitigate the Soil Health Crisis ====
Addressing the global soil health crisis necessitates a multifaceted approach, incorporating sustainable land management practices, policy interventions, and technological innovations. One pivotal strategy is the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices. These include crop rotation, cover cropping, reduced tillage, and the integration of livestock. Such practices enhance soil biodiversity, improve soil structure, and increase organic matter content, thereby revitalizing soil health.

Furthermore, the restoration of degraded lands through reforestation and the establishment of agroforestry systems can sequester carbon, mitigate erosion, and restore ecosystem services. Biochar application, another innovative solution, involves the addition of charred organic matter to soil, improving its fertility and carbon sequestration capacity while reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.

Policy interventions play a critical role in soil conservation. Governments can incentivize sustainable farming practices such as natural, organic farming, through subsidies and support. Farmer education to help increase awareness of local/traditional farming practices and incentivising the transition can be a helpful intervention that can be carried out by NGOs and state bodies alike. Moreover, implementing stringent regulations on the use of harmful pesticides and fertilizers - especially through combating the lobbying efforts and market domination by Big Agro - coupled with the promotion of natural alternatives, can help begin to address soil contamination.

This is where agricultural interventions such as those facilitated by SOUL Society for Organic living can play a huge role. SOUL disrupts the vicious agrochemical market through a two-pronged approach to natural farming. One aspect is farmer training, incentivisation and education, and the other is product interventions. The manufacture of biofertilizer, “biological” pest control (like organic dung-based fungicides, botanical insecticide, biological nematicides, etc.), and culture kits to enhance plant growth and resilience offers an alternative to toxic chemicals that kill beneficial organisms and upset the soil’s microbiome. They harness the power of plant extracts, beneficial nitrogen-fixing bacteria, phosphate-solubilizing fungi and other microorganisms, and offer a natural and sustainable alternative to chemical fertilizers. The combined and holistic approach to natural farming needs proper state impetus in order to be scaled up to the level of competing with Big Agro giants whose products and methods pose a threat to soil and human health.

==== Conclusion ====
The global soil health crisis presents a formidable challenge, with profound implications for environmental integrity, human health, and global food security. It is a crisis that demands immediate and concerted action, not just by farmers and agriculturalists, but by the public and governments alike. By embracing sustainable agricultural practices, advancing policy initiatives, and fostering international cooperation, it is possible to mitigate the adverse effects of soil degradation.
The health of our soil is inextricably linked to the health of our planet and its inhabitants.
Therefore, safeguarding soil health is not merely an agricultural imperative but a global priority that requires the collective effort of governments, communities, and individuals alike. In the stewardship of soil lies the key to a sustainable future, underscoring the imperative to act with urgency and resolve to avert the looming ecological and humanitarian crisis.

==== References ====

* Gebremedhin, Maheteme, Mark S. Coyne, and Karamat R. Sistani. 2022. “How Much Margin Is Left for Degrading Agricultural Soils? The Coming Soil Crises” Soil Systems 6, no. 1: 22. https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems6010022
* Guardian News and Media. (2020, December 4). Global soils underpin life but future looks “bleak”, warns UN Report. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/04/global-soils-underpin-life-but-future-looks-bleak-warns-un-report
* Jackson, F. (2023, December 7). Soil: The bridge between Global Environmental Challenges. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/feliciajackson/2023/12/05/soil-the-bridge-between-global-environmental-challenges/?sh=25a5b1c83bd8
* Timmis, K. and Ramos, J.L., 2021. The soil crisis: the need to treat as a global health problem and the pivotal role of microbes in prophylaxis and therapy. Microbial Biotechnology, 14(3), pp.769-797.

Authored by Sai Priya Chodavarapu.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Health and Wellness Sciences]]

Big Agro and the Seed Monopoly

2026-10-16T08:00:37Z

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The intersection of agriculture, economy, and the environment has never been more critical or contentious than it is in the era of big agro and seed monopolies. As the world’s population continues to grow, so does the demand for food, pushing the agricultural sector to find more efficient, higher-yielding methods of production. However, this drive for efficiency has led to a concentration of power in the hands of a few multinational corporations that control a significant portion of the seed market. This essay examines the implications of this concentration of power for the environment, soil health, farmers, and the quality of agricultural produce.

==== Big Six to Big Four ====
Following the chemical and industrial revolution, the agricultural sector has seen a dramatic shift towards consolidation, with a handful of companies now controlling the global market for seeds and agricultural chemicals. This consolidation has been driven by several factors, including the development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the patenting of seed varieties, and the vertical integration of supply chains, creating oligopolies. The Big Six have now consolidated as the Big Four: Corteva Agriscience split from DowDuPont, and Chemchina was acquired by Syngenta for $43 billion. Monsanto is now part of Bayer, whose seed divisions (including the Stoneville, Nunhems, FiberMax, Credenz and InVigor brands) were sold to BASF (a European multinational chemical company) for $7 billion to satisfy antitrust regulators in 2018. These multinational companies seem to be associated with everything that is diabolical about modern agriculture.

In 2016 it was announced that Bayer, which generates $10.2 billion of its $51.8 billion revenue from seed and agrochemical revenues, acquired Monsanto, which generates all of its $13.5 billion revenue from seed and agrochemicals, in a $63 billion merger. The merger was essentially a move that successfully disassociates the negative press and pushback worldwide from the Monsanto name, while continuing business as usual under a different head. The Big Four, allocate substantial financial resources towards lobbying efforts, securing governmental backing for their nefarious activities such as lobbying and agrochemical pollution. In 2016, Dow invested $200,000 in agricultural lobbying, whereas Syngenta expended $940,000. This consolidation and formation of more entrenched oligopolies is also a cultural and economic issue. It undermines the values of food producers and consumers globally. These oligopolies bulldoze the many communities that champion principles of empowering individuals, supporting small enterprises, and upholding the freedom to engage in farming and self-sustenance without reliance on the products of industrial agriculture or the dominance of merely four major corporations.

==== Environmental Impact ====
One of the most significant concerns with the dominance of big agro is its impact on the environment. The model of industrial agriculture promoted by these companies relies heavily on monoculture (cultivation of only a single type of crop in a given area), which can increase short-term yields, but also have the net effect of soil depletion, reducing biodiversity, soil depletion, making ecosystems vulnerable to pests and diseases, increased consumption of water, and an increased application of chemical pesticides, weedicides and fertilizers. These chemicals further contaminate water supplies, harm non-target species, and contribute to the decline of pollinators like bees and butterflies.

==== Adverse effects of GMO seeds ====
Seed varieties cannot be patented in India; however, this does not stop foreign companies from dominating the market with patented seed varieties. It is a misconception that genetically modified organism (GMO) seeds greatly impact yield, and it is alarmist to assume that there would be food scarcity if developing nations attempted to reduce their dependence on GMO varieties. Apart from their adverse effects on our health, they also adversely impact indigenous farming traditions and local genetic biodiversity of plants. GMO seeds often require farming methods that are incompatible with indigenous knowledge and techniques honed over generations. This shift not only undermines cultural heritage but also displaces small-scale farmers who cannot afford the high costs associated with GMO seeds and the requisite chemical inputs. Furthermore, the widespread adoption of GMO seeds exacerbates the loss of genetic biodiversity, as these engineered varieties supplant a multitude of local species that have been naturally selected for their resilience to local pests, diseases, and climatic conditions. The loss of such genetic diversity diminishes the resilience of food systems, making them more vulnerable to pests, diseases, and the impacts of climate change, thereby threatening food security and sovereignty especially in developing nations. Moreover, market dominance also de-incentivizes companies to innovate, with their priority instead being the farming of emerging markets for seeds and the expansion of profit margins.

==== Impact on Soil ====
Soil is the foundation of the food chain in terrestrial ecosystems, and its health is crucial for the sustainability of agriculture. However, the agricultural practices promoted by seed monopolies have often prioritized short-term gains over long-term soil health. The heavy use of chemical inputs and the focus on monocultures have led to soil erosion, reduced biodiversity, and decreased fertility. These practices disrupt soil structure and reduce the population of beneficial microorganisms, which play a critical role in organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling. Furthermore, the patenting of genetically modified seeds has led to a reduction in seed diversity. Farmers, under contract with these large corporations, are often restricted to planting patented seeds, which can further exacerbate soil degradation. Diverse cropping systems, including crop rotations and intercropping, are essential for maintaining soil health, but such practices are not always compatible with the business models of seed monopolies.

==== Impact on Farmers ====
The control of the seed market by a few corporations has profound implications for farmers around the world. One of the most immediate effects is the increased cost of inputs, coupled with less choice and higher prices. As these companies have consolidated their control over the market, they have been able to raise the prices of seeds and chemicals, squeezing farmers’ margins and making it increasingly difficult for smallholders to compete. The use of patented seeds restricts farmers’ traditional practices of saving and exchanging seeds, forcing them to purchase new seeds each season. This not only increases dependency on a few multinational corporations but also erodes agricultural biodiversity in the marketplace and the landscape, which is vital for food security and resilience against pests, diseases, and changing climate conditions. Farmers also face legal challenges from these corporations, which have been known to sue for alleged patent infringements (such as [https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1S21E8/ PepsiCo’s lawsuit against four Gujarati farmers in 2019 for growing a patented variety of potato]), further entrenching their power and influence over the agricultural sector. These practices have led to increased farmer indebtedness in some regions, contributing to social and economic distress in rural communities.

==== Impact on Quality of Agricultural Produce ====
The dominance of seed monopolies and the agricultural practices they promote can also affect the quality of agricultural produce. The focus on high-yielding, genetically uniform crops can lead to a reduction in the nutritional quality of food. Studies have shown that fruits and vegetables today may contain fewer vitamins and minerals than those grown in past decades, partly due to the selection for varieties that prioritize yield over nutritional content. Furthermore, the heavy use of chemical inputs in industrial agriculture can lead to residue accumulation in food, raising concerns about long-term health effects. While regulatory bodies set limits for pesticide residues, the cumulative effect of multiple chemicals and their potential for interaction raise questions about the adequacy of current safety assessments.

==== Countering the Effects of Big Agro, One Farmer at a Time ====
SOUL Society for Organic Living, started by Tarachand Belji, has created a method to enable the easy adoption of organic/natural farming practices, improving soil health and fertility and ensuring quality produce. The organization caters to the end-to-end management of organic farming practices by providing organic agricultural input products and education, advice and training to farmers. Small-scale resistance movements such as these prove that Bhārata, which has its own indigenous knowledge systems and experience when it comes to agriculture, need not be reliant on the products or techniques advocated by big agro chemical companies, multilateral organizations and global lobby groups in order to successfully produce a high yield of high quality produce. Moreover, the practices reduce dependency on patented seed varieties and inorganic chemicals, decreasing the burden on the state, which subsidizes these inputs for farmers. Through its focus on farmer support, education and awareness, and their able hand-holding of farmers through the transition period, SOUL’s methods and callback to ancient Indian wisdom have been catching on and have the potential to mount a significant response to the global agrochemical nexus.

==== Conclusion ====
The consolidation of the seed industry and the rise of big agro have profound implications for the environment, soil health, farmers, and the quality of agricultural produce. While these companies have contributed to increases in agricultural productivity, the long-term sustainability of their practices is increasingly questioned. Addressing these challenges will require a concerted effort from policy makers, governments, the private sector, and civil society to promote more sustainable agricultural practices, protect biodiversity, and ensure that the benefits of agricultural innovation are widely shared. As the world continues to grapple with ecological degradation and reduced human health and nutrition, rethinking the current trajectory of industrial agriculture is not just desirable but necessary.

==== References ====

* Prb. (2022, January 5). https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~prb/the-big-six-to-the-big-four-the-rise-of-the-seed-and-agrochemical-oligopoly/. Policy Review @ Berkeley.

* [https://philhoward.net/2018/12/31/global-seed-industry-changes-since-2013/ Global Seed Industry Changes Since 2013]

* Hubbard, K. kiki. (2021, January 14). [https://civileats.com/2019/01/11/the-sobering-details-behind-the-latest-seed-monopoly-chart/ The sobering details behind the latest seed Monopoly Chart.]

* [https://soullyf.com/learn-from-us.html SOUL Society for Organic Living]

Authored by Sai Priya Chodavarapu.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Health and Wellness Sciences]]

T. S. Eliot’s Conception of Culture

2026-10-16T08:00:22Z

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<blockquote>“..to understand the culture is to understand the people.. </blockquote>T. S. Eliot, arguably one of the finest poets of English literature, in his Notes Towards the Definition of Culture attempts to define the term, discuss its significance in society and its relationship with religion. Eliot’s essays are known for their attempt to draw connections between poetry, society, culture and art. Though Eliot’s approach is from the point of view of the Western civilization and specifically Christianity, there is much to be garnered from a sociological perspective that generally holds good for most cultures across the world and parallels that we might draw regarding our own.

==== Background ====
Eliot was raised in picturesque New England, with his roots in an extreme form of Protestant rationalism known as Unitarianism, which likely did not appeal to him as a child. However, as his ideology gradually leaned more and more traditionalist, he converted to high Anglican Christianity later in life and began to write on increasingly religious themes. In the preface to The Sacred Wood, Eliot insists that his mind had not changed per se, but rather, went through “an expansion or development of interests.” Writing in the decades after the World War, the themes in his later works such as The Waste Land (1922) and Four Quartets (1935-1942), illumined the social ills that plagued society, and criticized the modern attitude towards God and religion. He spoke of Christian society, and lamented the loss of culture and the perils of its decay. During his Harvard days, he came in contact with a whole cohort of writers and engrossed himself in the study of orientalism and philosophy alongside them, such as Irving Babbitt who impressed upon him an interest in Buddhism; George Santayana, who shared ideas of naturalism and disillusion and introduced him to Dante, and Josiah Royce, a post-Kantian monist through whom he came in contact with the works of F. H. Bradley.

It was around this time that Eliot began an exploration of “the relation of poetry to the spiritual and social life”, since he had already embarked upon and succeeded in defining poetry in his earlier essays. Notes Towards the Definition of Culture begins with Eliot spending considerable time in critically reevaluating Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy, and redefining the lexicon Arnold had laid out. In his first chapter, Eliot explains that culture develops through the interaction of and tensions between the individual and the society, and therefore the culture of the individual must be viewed against the backdrop of that of the whole of society, as it cannot be isolated or abstracted from that of the entire society. He disagrees with Arnold’s assertion that religion is secondary and only that which supplies the ethical framework for the larger, more valuable, culture, and instead states that the development, refinement and preservation of culture does not happen in silo, outside of a religious framework, but rather, the two are interlinked — culture in itself is lived religion, an incarnation of religion. In the words of Eliot, religion-<blockquote>“gives an apparent meaning to life, provides the frame-work for a culture and protects the mass of humanity from boredom and despair”. Thus, “..Faith can, and must find room for many degrees of intellectual, imaginative and emotional receptivity..”</blockquote>He then traces the misconception that the two are distinct to historical origins, specifically the penetration of the Greco-Roman “culture” by the rise of Christianity. The trajectory of the Western world thenceforth meant that the religious origins of the earlier, declining civilization were forgotten in the throes of time. This is the reason that he believes that in the absence of religious foundation, culture is amenable to decline, that a culture cannot sustain itself without a religious basis.

==== A Class System ====
Though culture is generally the concern of only a small minority (often the high class which is most responsible for its production and custody), it is for the benefit and disposal of and subject to influence by all its members, and should be regarded as property of the whole of society — as any culture in the possession of few tends to deprecate. Eliot draws from Dr. Mannheim’s Man and Society to discuss the natural tendency of this culture-creating high class or “elite” to reorganize when class distinctions dissolve and society reorders itself based on qualifications other than birth — when aristocratic societies transform into mass-societies. The idea of a classless society does not entice Eliot as much as it does other philosophers and sociologists, and he draws a distinction between domination, having negative connotations, and governance, in which the ablest minds find the most expression in the workings of society. If examined in light of its limited purpose, the culture-creating class might necessarily be a good thing, and forcibly removing the dominant class might result in instability, its function never really wholly taken over by any other group.
Thus, the culture of such a class must not be disregarded as being superfluous to society as a whole, but instead as an aspect of society, valuable in itself and as enriching of the lower levels as it is of the higher. After all, most craftsmen and artisans during the Middle Ages were not men of noble rank, au contraire.
Cultural cohesion, then, arises not from strict demarcation of the diverse cultures of groups but by the participation, mutual appreciation, overlapping of and shared interests. Drawing from the state of Western society, he remarks that “progress of civilization” may result in the further specialization of culture groups and the dissolution of classes, so that “religious thought and practice, philosophy and art, all tend to become isolated areas cultivated by groups in no communication with each other” — in which case, overall cultural disintegration is inevitable. In a hypothetical situation wherein the elite class is formed by plucking certain children out of their cradles and conferring upon them a uniform, democratic, yet thorough education, Eliot imagines that such a class would bond solely with each other through professional interest, and lack the social cohesion and continuity that undergirds such a group, were it to evolve organically. This is not so much a defense of an aristocratic or unequal society, but the recognition of their essential function — their role in the formation of a society with a continuous gradation of cultural levels, creating a more conscious and specialized culture.

He contends that “artistic sensibility is impoverished by its divorce from the religious sensibility and the religious by its separation from the artistic;” and society itself is impoverished by a loss of culture.
To me this is reflected in many ideals of Indian culture, such as reflected in the typical conception of Indian art as a subsidiary and derivative mode of religious, intellectual and philosophical discourse, its aesthetic comprehension being central to its metaphysical existence, and even, the fulfillment of the loftier aims of puruṣārtha.

==== Family as the Epicenter ====
Eliot probably drew from his own experiences and childhood when he said that<blockquote>“(t)he primary channel of transmission of culture is the family: no man wholly escapes from the kind, or wholly surpasses the degree, of culture which he acquired from his early environment.” There is a certain undeniable finality to his statement: “by far the most important channel of transmission of culture remains the family: and when family life fails to play its part, we must expect our culture to deteriorate.”</blockquote>While not the only channel, family is central, and supplemented by other conduits of tradition wherein not only skills, but an entire way of life is passed on through the generations. The essence of his argument is that the highest levels of culture have been gained only by small groups of people—either familial or social or regional groups—who have been able to perfect their traditions over long periods of time. In the modern world, where vibrantly religious lives and livelihoods have been replaced by the secular and mundane, parents have increasingly infinitesimal roles to play in the lives of their children, with their duty of cultural transmission outsourced to the State or to private entities. What results is a rapid and obvious withering of societal morality and the disappearance of cultural markers.

==== Transmission of Culture ====
While education is indeed the vehicle for the transmission of culture, Eliot wonders whether education alone can ensure it — as neither can education be limited to what can be taught, nor can everything worth preserving be taught in the first place. A discussion of the role of language naturally ensues.<blockquote>“..for the transmission of culture — a peculiar way of thinking, feeling, and behaving — and for its maintenance, there is no safeguard more reliable than a language. And to survive for this purpose it must continue to be a literary language – not necessarily a scientific language but certainly a poetic one: otherwise the spread of education will extinguish it.”</blockquote>A chord of poignance strikes, particularly close to home in light of the slow and excruciating death that Indian regional languages are inevitably spiralling into, when he goes on to say, “the literature written in that language will not, of course, make any direct impact upon the world at large; but if it is no longer cultivated, the people to whom it belongs will tend to lose their racial character.”

==== “Unity” is Overrated ====
“Fortunate the man who, at the right moment, meets the right friend; fortunate also the man who at the right moment meets the right enemy.” Eliot convincingly puts forth the argument that a healthy amount of friction should exist in society, and that from the point of view of the survival of culture, such varying animosities and loyalties between individuals and groups, class and region is actually a positive.
“A nation which has gradations of class seems to me, other things being equal, likely to be more tolerant and pacific than one which is not so organized.” Eliot also acknowledges that “either religious unity or religious division may coincide with cultural efflorescence or cultural decay.”
In the evolution of civilizations, a greater and greater distinction between religious and non-religious activities was drawn, until they began to contrast, and even oppose each other.<blockquote>“The sort of identity of religion and culture which we observe amongst peoples of very low development cannot recur.. For the more conscious becomes the belief, so the more conscious becomes the unbelief: indifference, doubt and scepticism appear, and the endeavor to adapt the tents of religion to what people in each age find easiest to believe.”</blockquote>

==== Culture as an Instrument of Policy ====
<blockquote>“Any local ‘cultural revival’ which leaves the political and economic framework unaffected would hardly be more than an artificially sustained antiquarianism what is wanted is not to restore a vanished, or revive a vanishing culture under modern conditions which make it impossible, but to grow a contemporary culture from the old roots.”</blockquote>Eliot makes a cheeky comment that culture attracts the attention of politicians, not necessarily because they are men of culture, but because culture is a socially desirable instrument of policy that the State makes its business to promote. While the sciences are judged for their utility, valued for making life less laborious, culture is overlooked, and often left to individual choice, and the arts no longer receive patronage on a large scale. But culture impacts governance in substantial ways. Colonial powers were aware of the necessity of observing cultural differences, and today, culture-consciousness feeds movements such as communism, nationalism, etc. by emphasizing separateness.

==== Conclusion ====
“A people is judged by history according to its contribution to the culture of other peoples flourishing at the same time and according to its contribution to the cultures which arise afterwards.” Culture and religion are those which the individual and society collectively strive towards, and not merely something they possess. They are not frivolous constructs or impediments to a ‘spiritual’ way of life, but rather, prescribe a whole way of life for a people and confer meaning to trivial pursuits —one cannot afford to remain indifferent.

The question of what culture really is underlies the problem of almost every relation — the relation of countries with each other, the relation between communities and castes; the relation between the country and its colony, the colonist with the native. Without a significant understanding of what culture entails, navigating these perplexing and complex relationships and devising policy, crafting theories or formulating educational frameworks tends to be fraught with contradictions and fallacies. We risk a deterioration of the culture that adds zest, a flavor to life, what Eliot says “makes life worth living” and entire civilizations worth having existed.

Eliot’s work distilled ideas that perhaps take little effort to understand once verbalized, but are quite challenging to articulate — with an ease that only a seasoned poet, writer, philosopher and intellectual might possess. This je ne sais quoi I allude to is best captured in the following lines taken from the book:<blockquote>“Culture can never be wholly conscious — there is always more to it than we are conscious of; and it cannot be planned because it is also the unconscious background of all our planning.”</blockquote>Authored by Sai Priya Chodavarapu.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Art and Culture]]

Multan: Shifting Demographics, a Tale of Colonial Legacy and Partition Tragedy

2026-10-16T08:00:03Z

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The article discusses the impact of partition on Multan's Hindu, Sikh, and Jain communities, highlighting forced conversions, economic deprivation, and the loss of cultural heritage. It also explores the diaspora of Multani speakers in India and the cultural remnants of Multan in Indian society, such as Multani Miṭṭī. The narrative underscores the need to preserve the memory of Multan's cultural and religious history, including the desire to rebuild temples lost during partition. The previous part can be accessed here.

During the colonial period, Multan's economic potential was underutilized, leading to high unemployment and low wages. Communal tensions escalated in the 1920s, causing many Hindus to leave, shifting the demographics towards a Muslim majority. This, coupled with political developments and violence, set the stage for Multan's inclusion in Pakistan after independence, resulting in the forced relocation of Hindu, Jain, and Sikh minorities.

==== The ruins of Dharma post-Partition ====
Those Hindus who stayed back in Multan were forced to convert, barred from employment, and deprived of the right to cremation. The remaining Hindus live in slums and adopt Muslim-sounding names to hide their identity. There is a banyan tree in a narrow street where the Hindus keep the mūrtis and worship them. (Muhammad Hassan Miraj. (2013, October 30). [https://www.dawn.com/news/1060010 The famous Four - Part IV]. Dawn)

To trace the whereabouts of the Hindus who left Multan, one must examine where the Sāraikī language is spoken in India. Sāraikī is the language of Multan and the surrounding southern Punjab region, now a part of Pakistan, and has a distinctive vocabulary and grammar that sets it apart from other regional languages like Urdu and Punjabi. There are several dialects of Sāraikī spoken in different parts of India, with the Multanī dialect possessing unique vocabulary and pronunciation patterns specific to the region. According to the 2001 Indian census, Sāraikī is spoken in urban areas throughout Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh by over 68,000 people. In Delhi in particular, they have settled in a sublocality called Multanī Dhanda in Pahārganj where they serve a unique cuisine famously known as Multanī Moth Kachori. Many speakers of the Multani dialect achieving success in fields like medicine, engineering, fashion design, and IT. Some, such as Gautam Gambhir and Milkha Singh, have even achieved glory in sports. While some have assimilated into speaking Punjabi or Hindi, many in the Multanī diaspora still consider Sāraikī to be an integral part of their cultural heritage and a distinct aspect of their identity. The trauma of the violence of Partition continues to affect the entire community after generations.

One of the stories that best encapsulates the tragedy of Partition of India is that of Milkha Singh. Born and raised in a small village in Multan district, he witnessed the brutal murder of his parents and seven siblings. His father’s dying words, “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”, exhorting his son to run for his life, became a haunting memory that stayed with him for the rest of his life. Fleeing for his life, Milkha Singh arrived in India as an orphan and struggled to survive, resorting to petty crimes and odd jobs. Despite the trauma and hardship he had endured, Milkha Singh discovered his athletic abilities while serving in the Indian army. With dedication and hard work, he became one of India’s most celebrated athletes, earning the nickname “The Flying Sikh” for his record-breaking achievements in track and field. Through his perseverance and success, Milkha Singh became a symbol of hope and resilience for millions of people who had also suffered during the Partition. But his success on the track could not erase the pain and trauma of his past. In interviews, Milkha Singh often spoke about the emotional scars he carried from the Partition, and how his father’s dying words had haunted him for years. His story is a poignant reminder of the lasting impact of the Partition on the lives of millions of people who were forced to leave their homes and loved ones behind.

Another story of Partition told among the Jain community of Jaipur is that of the Jains from Multan. The community, then living in Multan, was worried about their mūrtis and jinavāṇī since they couldn’t travel through the bus or train routes to India due to the ongoing riots. Eventually, they managed to hire a private plane from Bombay to carry their 85 mūrtis, household items, and people to safety in India. However, the plane was overloaded and the pilot refused to fly it. He suggested taking only a few mūrtis since they all looked alike. But the women in the plane were adamant about taking all the mūrtis and jinavāṇī and refused to leave them behind. Finally, they removed all the household items, but the plane was still overloaded. The pilot gave the community an ultimatum - either the people or the mūrtis. The community decided they would stay behind so that the mūrtis and jinavāṇī could be taken to safety. In the end, the pilot decided to take the risk of taking both, while leaving behind their belongings. During the flight, the women took a pledge to not eat or drink anything until the plane reached Jodhpur, and chanted the Namōkāra mantra. The plane miraculously landed safely at Jodhpur airport, despite being overloaded. The pilot, who was a Sikh, was amazed by the experience and asked to see the mūrtis. The Jain community asked him to leave non-vegetarian food and drinks before he could view the mūrtis, which he obliged. The idols and jinavāṇī are now located at the Adarsh Nagar, Multan Jain Temple in Jaipur, and people can visit them. This story highlights the traumatic experiences of the Jain community during the Partition, where they had to leave behind their homes and belongings and risk their lives to save their mūrtis and jinavāṇī. The fear, uncertainty, and loss they experienced during this time left a lasting impact on their lives.

The departure of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains from Multan had a significant impact on the city’s demographics and cultural landscape. Many of the city’s Hindu temples, shrines, and other religious and cultural sites were abandoned, destroyed, or repurposed for other uses, and it has become a predominantly Muslim city. Multan is currently the fifth largest city in Pakistan, with a population of over 1.8 million people according to the 2017 Census, but it has lost most of its Dhārmika heritage.

At the time of independence in 1947, Multan was a neglected area. The remnants of the Old Fort lay in ruins, surrounded by overgrown bushes and ditches that hinted at its destruction. Most roads were unpaved, and the sewer system was so inadequate it barely functioned. The departure of the Hindu community also had an impact on the city’s economy, as many of the Hindu merchants, traders, and businessmen who played an important role in the city’s commercial and economic life left with their families.

Through the centuries, many Hindu temples and shrines had been destroyed, leaving little evidence of the city’s Hindu past. Indian history is abundant with such instances of cities, palaces, forts, temples, and dynasties that were once highly regarded and well-known and have been forgotten today. A number of temples are still located in Multan’s mohallās, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings, and now function as residential spaces. It is only upon careful inspection that their true identity becomes apparent.

A Muslim mob destroyed the Prahlādpurī Temple in Multan, which had been built in honor of Prahlāda and dedicated to Narasimha, in 1992. Many Hindus believe Prahlāda personally constructed the first temple in honor of Vishnu’s Narsimha Avatar. This was after Vishnu appeared from a pillar to kill Hiranyakashipu and reward Prahlāda’s faithfulness. The pillar was built into the temple, and it is thought that this is where the Holīka Dahan festival had its start. Yet, in contrast to how enthusiastically Hindus celebrate Holī across the border, the temple where the custom is said to have started has forgotten about it. The temple and the city have undergone a more radical change due to Partition than in a millennium of being occupied by various invaders. As a consequence, the tale of Prahlāda is no longer told in the temple, and there remain only ruins. The Evacuee Trust Property Board is the owner of the location. The Narasimha pillar is still standing, and it is thought that the Narasimha deity had long since been transported to a shrine in Haridwar after being removed for safety. (Jain, M. (2019). Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples: Episodes from Indian History. Aryan Books International.) By 2006, squatters had occupied the site’s lower levels, and waste disposal there was a regular occurrence. Despite the Supreme Court of Pakistan issuing an order urging its restoration, efforts to rebuild the temple have not yet been successful.

Sūraj Kuṇḍ, or the Sun Pool, was another Multan location with a long history of Sun God worship. It was connected to the veneration of the Sun and Narasimha. There were two annual fairs: one in the winter and one in the summer. Some remnants of Hindu culture can still be found in Multan today. Some Hindu-era structures have been preserved and some local residents continue to practice Hindu customs and rituals, although they may have evolved over time. For instance, the local spring festival, known as the Urs, has Hindu roots and is celebrated with great enthusiasm by the community.

To sum it up, the Dhārmika history of Multan is a rich and intriguing aspect of the city’s background. Despite the obstacles faced by the Hindu community over the centuries, their heritage continues to persist and remains an integral part of Multan’s cultural legacy.

==== Our memory, our myopia ====
Multan lives on in India’s cultural memory through Multanī Miṭṭī, or the clay of Multan, which is a type of clay that has been used as a traditional purifier and cleanser in India for centuries. It is called Multanī Miṭṭī due to its origin in Multan. This clay is known for its remarkable ability to purify and cleanse, and even today, it is still widely used in rural parts of India. It is believed to have powerful detoxifying and cleansing properties and is thought to be especially effective for washing hair. This is why it is still a popular alternative to shampoo in rural areas, where commercially produced shampoo is often not readily available. The legends surrounding Multanī Miṭṭī give it a special significance, and it is still thought of as a sacred purifier by many. In addition to its use as a purifier and cleanser, Multanī Miṭṭī is also widely used in skin care treatments, such as masks and scrubs. It is particularly beneficial for those with sensitive or problematic skin.

Indian history is filled with stories of cities, monuments, forts, temples, and dynasties that have long been forgotten. And the grand Sun Temple in Multan probably is the most egregious of our tendency to forget our own past. Perhaps it is tougher for us because no physical trace of this temple survives today . Nevertheless, its memory lives on in the form of recordings in ancient literature, as well as in the collective memory of the Indian subcontinent. As a student of Indian history, one may wish to visit Multan for educational, recreational, or spiritual purposes, yet unfortunately, this may not be possible for most Indians. Multan may be out of reach physically, but it is still connected to the rest of India through its presence in history books, in the realms of Purāṇa and its rightful place in the Great Song of our civilization.

We must keep this memory alive until the day we get an opportunity to locate and rebuild the Multan Sun Temple and the Prahlādpurī Temple again. These are two of the most important landmarks of this civilization. These temples were once a symbol of Hindu culture and devotion, and their destruction has had a lasting impact on the Hindu community. Rebuilding the temples would not only restore cherished cultural landmarks, but also help to preserve Hindu heritage and history for future generations. Just as the bonfire on the night before Holī symbolizes the victory of Dharma over Adharma, similarly Dharma must rise again in Multan.

One of the stories of Dharma that echo through the history of Multan is that of a Dharma Guru named Mul Chand. Mul Chand was a highly revered figure in ancient Multan, known for his deep devotion and spiritual wisdom. He lived a simple life, dedicating himself to serving the local Hindu community and spreading the teachings of his faith. One day, a wealthy merchant came to visit Mul Chand, seeking guidance on how to attain inner peace and happiness. Mul Chand listened patiently to the merchant’s concerns and then took him on a walk through the city’s bustling bazaars. As they walked, Mul Chand pointed out the different sights and sounds of the city, from the bustling crowds to the vendors selling their wares. He showed the merchant how even the most mundane activities of everyday life could be sources of joy and fulfillment. The merchant was struck by Mul Chand’s wisdom and realized that true happiness could not be found in material wealth, but in the simple things in life. He thanked Mul Chand for his guidance and went on to live a life filled with contentment and peace. This highlights the importance of Dharma in ancient Multan and the deep spiritual wisdom that was present in the city.

Authored by Deepak Srinivasan.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

Ecological Foundations: Self Realization in Indian Philosophy

2026-10-16T07:59:46Z

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An exploration on how the concept of self-realization employed in modern environmental philosophy has its roots in Indian Philosophy.

Chaos theory suggests that “if a butterfly flutters its wings in some corner of the world, then it can lead to a hurricane in the other corner of the world”. To simplify we can say that even a minute or a small change can prove to be irrevocably obvious for a certain event in the larger scale of reference. Apparently, this is true when we talk about environmental issues of the current time. To exemplify, over consumption of water at some places, may lead to absolute water shortage in others. This also signifies that the environmental crisis is a global crisis. The solution for such a perpetual crisis shall begin to resolve from self, which can then be extended to local and then at the global level. If we relate ourselves to the butterfly effect, it would mean that every little thing we do, has an effect on the universe. Hence, the responsibility of saving earth from a catastrophe lies on each and every individual. But responsibilities come with a self-realization that can not be imposed. Deep Ecology is a one such movement which argues for self-realization and further stresses that the self should be understood as deeply connected with and as a part of nature not disassociated with it. The term Deep Ecology was coined by a Norwegian Philosopher, Arne Naess. He was in fact the first to put the question of self-realization at the center of environmental philosophy. His philosophy of life aimed for ecological wisdom and harmony, and stressed on the concept of self-realization i.e., extension of oneself and realization of oneself in everything. This particularly reminds us of his connection with Indian Philosophy as he himself confirms about his attraction to the sense of self found in the Hindu Advaita Vedanta. Naess gave eight tenets for his deep ecological perspective, which are as follows:

Both human and non-human life have intrinsic and inherent value in themselves. These values are independent of the usefulness of the non-human world for human purposes.

Richness and diversity of life forms contribute to the realization of these values.

Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity, except for satisfying vital needs.

The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantially smaller human population. The flourishing of non-human life also requires a smaller population.

Present human interference with the non-human world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening.

Policies that affect basic, economic, technological and ideological structures must therefore be changed. The resulting state of affairs must be deeply different from the present one.

The ideological change will be mainly that of appreciating life quality rather than increasingly adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. There will be a profound awareness of the difference between bigness and greatness.

Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly for trying to implement the necessary changes.

Although, Naess draws his sense of self-realization from various sources like, Eric Fromm, Sigmund Freud, William James, Baruch Spinoza, Mohandas Gandhi and J.S. Mill, this article focuses on the idea of self-realization which can be traced in the Vedāntic texts such as the Upaniṣads, which is analogous to Naess’ idea of Deep Ecology. Also, it becomes important to note that the eight foundational principles mentioned by Naess do not completely align with the Indian philosophical aspects. It will therefore discuss a selective tenet out of eight, the reflection of which could be traced in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad.

The Upaniṣads describe to us our life, our spirit, which was the same yesterday, is the same to-day and will be the same forever, and speaks heavily on the idea of Self.

The Fourth Brāhmaṇa of the second chapter in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad mentions the very famous conversation of Yājñavalkya and Maitreyī on the absolute Self. As Yājñavalkya was renouncing the stage of being a householder, a gṛhastha and entering that of the vānaprastha, he was supposed to make a materialistic settlement between Maitreyī (his second wife) and Kātyāyanī (his first wife). During this Maitreyī asks Yājñavalkya - <blockquote>“yan nu ma iyam, bhagoh, sarvā pṛthivī vittena pūrṇā syāt, kathaṁ tenāmṛtā syām iti” </blockquote>Which means, “If, indeed, Venerable Sir, this whole earth filled with wealth were mine, would I be immortal through that?” This intriguing question was brilliantly answered by Yājñavalkya where he explicates the meaning of Self and says - <blockquote>“ātmā va are draṣṭavyaḥ śrotavyo mantavyo nididhyāsitavyah: maitreyi ātmano vā are darśanena śravaṇena matyā vijn̄ānenedaṁ sarvaṁ viditam”. </blockquote>The appropriate translation of it is: “O Maitreyī, it is the Self that should be seen, heard of, reflected on and meditated upon. Verily, by the seeing of, by the hearing of, by the thinking of, by the understanding of Self, all is known.”

Through this conversation one can deduce that Yājñavalkya refers to knowing Self as “ātmā jñāna” which holds profound influence in Indian Philosophy. Rooted in Indian spiritual tradition, ātmā jñāna emphasizes the journey of understanding one’s true nature and realizing the interconnectedness of all living beings.

Radhakrishnan in his The Principal Upaniṣads also provides a commentary at the end of the conversation which mentions the idea that all objects of the world, earthly possessions, romantic delights, everything that we do, provides opportunities for the realization of the Self.

This is reflective of the second tenet of Naess’ Deep Ecology where he says that richness and diversity of life forms contribute to the realization of these values. In the context of Deep Ecology, self-realization encompasses the awareness of one’s interconnectedness with nature but also the recognition of inherent value and rights of all living entities. Indian Philosophy, with its emphasis on self-realization and the unity of all life, provides a profound framework for understanding and embracing the core principles of Deep Ecology. It promotes a holistic worldview where humans are not separate from nature, rather they are an integral part of the intricate web of life, fostering a deep sense of responsibility and reverence for the natural world.

==== References: ====
Sen, Prabal Kumar, editor. The Relevance of Indian Philosophy to Contemporary Western Philosophy. Ramakrishna Mission Institute, 2022.

Radhakrishnan, S. The Principal Upaniṣads. 36th ed., Harper Collins, 2022.

Callicott, Biard J. “Notes on Self-Realization: An Ecological Approach to Being in the World.” Worldviews, vol. 21, no. 3, 2017, pp. 235-250. Brill, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26552290

Authored by Neha Sharma.
Published by Brhat.[[Category:Social Sciences]]