दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

Atul Sethi had a feature in Sunday Times of India last week- ‘True Legends?’ For many years, I faced the questions and asked too: Were Rama and Krishna just the legendary characters of the epics credited to Valmiki and Ved Vyas or historical figures?

Atul has come out with the opinions of known historians and writers on the subject. Did the events mentioned in the epics actually happen? Did the characters described in them actually exist? How much of the epics is fiction and how much history?

Some don’t believe about their historicity.

Historian K M Shrimali: ”Historically speaking, I have apprehensions about subscribing to the view that Rama was a historical figure. The scale of the event described as the Mahabharata war and its historicity is also suspect.”

R S Sharma, professor emeritus of the department of history at Patna University: ”Although Krishna plays an important role in the Mahabharata, inscriptions and sculptural pieces found in Mathura dating back to 200 BC and 300 AD do not attest to his presence. Because of this, ideas of an epic age based on the Ramayana and Mahabharata have to be discarded.”

But many others believe they are historical figures.

N S Rajaram, author of ‘Search for the Historical Krishna‘: ”There is sufficient evidence available now to suggest that Krishna was indeed a historical figure, who lived about 5000 years ago. This evidence is not just literary but also archaeological, geographical as well as astronomical.”

Pushkar Bhatnagar, author of ‘Dating the era of Lord Ram‘: ”Valmiki, who wrote the Ramayana, was a contemporary of Rama. While narrating the events of the epic, he has mentioned the position of planets in the sky at several places. Using recent planetary software, it has been possible to verify that these planetary positions actually took place precisely as specified in the Ramayana. Not just a stray event but also the entire sequence of the planetary positions as described by Valmiki at various stages of Rama’s life can be verified today as having taken place. This information is significant, since these configurations do not repeat for lakhs of years and cannot be manipulated or imagined so accurately, without the help of sophisticated software. The inference that one can draw is that someone was present there to witness the actual happening of these configurations, which got recorded in the story of Rama.”

According Rajaram, ancient authors have taken enormous pains to preserve accounts of Krishna’s life, times and philosophy. ”If we look beyond the myths accumulated over millennia, Krishna actually emerges as a human figure – a practical philosopher par excellence – who moved away from the ritualistic practices of the Vedic religion of his time to the action-oriented Sankhya philosophy, embodied in his philosophy of karma yoga – of the Bhagavad Gita, which till date remains his transcendent legacy. Contrary to popular imagination, which portrays him as a romantic hero, the image of Krishna that we get from ancient sources is that of an impeccable statesman. He was an austere and studious man, whose main concerns were political stability and ethical and religious reform.”

A number of non-sectarian, secular works like Panini’s grammar and the Chandogya Upanishad mention Krishna and provide independent support for his historicity.

Interestingly, the contemporary Buddhist works like Sutrapitaka and Lalitavistara refer Krishna as an asura. The Buddhists of the time viewed Krishna’s teachings of nishkama karma (detached action) as inimical to their own teachings, emphasising renunciation, and found it necessary to try to discredit him by referring to him as an asura.

Many geographical references like Rameshwaram, Kishkindha, Kurukshetra, Hastinapura etc connected with Rama and Krishna has survived over the centuries and still exist. How could for thousands of years, the authors kept the same locations for their story?

Rajaram puts forward his argument about the period of the epics. ”In all probability, the society described in the Mahabharata corresponded to the early Harappan period, before 3000 BC, since this period was a rich one with numerous urban centres, while the society described in the Ramayana was less urbanised and more agrarian. Most scholars today place the Mahabharata war around 3100 BC. According to Mahabharata, Arjuna’s son, Abhimanyu, killed Brihadbala, 32nd in descent from Rama. So we may tentatively place Rama 650 to 750 years before the war.”

However, Bhatnagar thinks, a period of at least 2000 years separates the two personalities. ”This is because on the basis of astronomical dating, we can now say that Rama lived during the 5th century BC, while Krishna is believed by scholars like Aryabhatta to have belonged to the 3rd century BC.”

But, why is there not much archaeological evidence that points towards their existence? It is perhaps because systematic excavations have never been carried out, says historian Nandita Krishnan. ”Nobody believed that Homer’s Iliad was a true story till Troy was discovered after extensive archaeology. Unfortunately, the sites of the Ramayana and Mahabharata have now been built over many times and it may never be possible to excavate extensively either at Ayodhya or Mathura.”

We don’t have much of the archeological proofs of even Buddha and Mahavir era. Even the palaces of Chandra Gupta Maurya and Ashok are nonexistent today in any form. We have not kept the historical evidences of even Kalidas and Tulsidas. Perhaps, Indians are very poor in preparing, and preserving their history. After few years, we shall be saying the same for Gandhiji too.

I was uncomfortable physically after returning to Vadodara from the planned pilgrimage. But with two days in waiting to return after Holi, I made it a point to accompany Yamuna, Bibha, and Ashok to Pavagadh. They were interested in Mahakalika temple, but my attraction was to see Champaner-Pavagadh after its enlisting on World heritage list by UNESCO. I wanted to see the change after the status upgradation.

As a small brochure says, ‘ the name, Champaner, is said to be derived from the Champak tree, while some sources assign it to Champa or Champraj, a minister of Vanaraja, the Chavada ruler of Anhilwada (746-806AD). However, few Maitraka coins discovered indicate that the place was under Maitraka rulers during 470-788AD. However, Mahmood Begda, the Sultan of Gujarat defeated the last Hindu Kichhi ruler, Patai Rawal in 1484AD. Begda made Champaner as his second capital and named it “Muhammadabad” and “Sahar-I-Mukkarram”. During his reign, Champaner was a prosperous city. But after the attack of Mughal Emperor Humayun in 1534AD, the capital shifted to Ahmedabad, and Champaner gradually declined.

In 90s, I had visited the most important monument here, the Jami Masjid with some foreign visitors to Hindustan Motors new Isuzu truck plant that was coming up at Halol. But I had no idea of the Kichhi Rajput hill fortress with three lines of defence with number of gates, palaces, and storehouses.

A smooth surface 4-lane tolled road from Vadodara to Halol has replaced the old single lane pot-holed road. We went up to the entrance of the ropeway built and managed by Usha Breco of Jhavar group of Kolkata. We were late but because of Ashok and his men there, we could manage go up for visiting Mahakalika. I didn’t dare to climb the 400 stairs to reach the temple. Yamuna stayed with me. From the top of the hill, we could get a wonderful view of the Champaner.

Going through the Champaner town in the precinct of the World Heritage Fort, one gets a poor impression of the people living there. It is filthy all over. But naturally, the history can’t make people prosperous unless they endeavour. For a heritage site, a lot of effort is required to involve the people to upgrade the overall living conditions.

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We visited Grand Canyon while in US in 2005. It excited me. The nature with time has created this fascinating wonder that can keep alluring the people visiting it. I just loved to just have the wonderful views in the evening and the morning of the day.

The news of the creation of a massive glass-bottomed walkway to the edge of the Grand Canyon is a great for the tourists.

A private developer has constructed the $30 million Skywalk in hopes of luring tourists to the region. It will open to the public later this month, charging $25 per person in addition to other entry fees. I really envy those who shall get this opportunity to see the bottom from the Skywalk. Some of the engineering aspects of the project are interesting too.

“At 490,000 kg the Skywalk is about as heavy as four Boeing 757 jets stacked on top of each other. It was perched at the canyon’s edge using an elaborate system of pulleys connected to four tractor-trailers.

Underneath, hydraulic “shoes” lifted it above a cement track, rolled it across a bed of metal rods, and set it onto four steel anchors that were drilled deep into the canyon rock. Workers then welded the walkway to the anchors.

While it was pushed out, the walkway was not anchored to the canyon wall. To keep it from tipping over the side, engineers loaded the back end with a half-million pounds of steel cubes as counterweight.

The Skywalk extends about 70 feet over the rim and about 4,000 feet over the canyon floor. It is designed to withstand 160 kph winds and has shock absorbers to keep the walkway from wobbling.”

I don’t know if the Skywalk is an encroachment on the natural creations at Grand Canyon, but it will certainly provide the visitors another attraction to visit it.

The Story of Mariam Ram

Edward Luce in his recently published bestseller ‘In Spite of the Gods’ has this story.

“Mariam Ram is the wife of N. Ram, the editor and owner of ‘The Hindu’. Her company TNQ typesets, formats, stylises and edits some of the world’s most complex scientific journals and other, non-scientific, academic publications. Mariam began from scratch in 1998 with fifteen employees, now she has more than six hundred. In 2005 TNQ produced 300,000 pages; her target is a million pages a year. Apart from some of the university publishers in the United States, which still tend to keep their editing in-house, Mariam and her competitors are hovering up the academic-journal work that used to be done on site in Europe and elsewhere. TNQ edits at about three dollars a page, compared to the going rate of at least ten dollars in Europe. Mariam’s company requires its employees too have at least a post-graduate degree in their respective subject field. About a tenth of her employees have Ph.D.s. Publications such as Cell, Tetrahydron, Semantics Today, Medieval History and Polymer sit on the shelves of the company’s office in Chennai.
The business model looks robust, and India still seems to be in the relatively early stages of offshoring revolution in services.

Wherever possible, Mariam hires women- about half of her workforce is female- and she favours people from lower castes and other minorities. Most were in their mid-twenties, and majority were the first women in their families to have formal jobs.”

And the story of Lal Muni Devi is on the web. She has become famous by now with a very good coverage in media. It convinces me that land or no land, if a skill is imparted and there is a will to work hard for improving the living condition, one can do that today easily.

The Story of Lal Muni Devi

Lal Muni Devi the poor, uneducated woman from Azad Nagar village in Patna district used her dank, thatched house to grow mushrooms. A photograph of Lal Muni and the story of her achievement have been put on the website of CIMMYT, a well-known Mexican institute engaged in research for improvement of maize and wheat crop.

Lal Muni Devi finds mention as an inspirational farmer among 25 from seven Asian countries. Till four years back, Lal Muni used to work for other farmers as a daily labourer. Then instructors from Indian Institute for Agricultural Research (ICAR) brought together 25 women from the village and taught them how to grow mushrooms. Lal Muni says what made her happy was that she did not need any land to grow mushrooms, a plant she had never even heard of till the ICRA training. It also helped that market was easily available in nearby Patna city.

The Story of ladies behind Lijjat Papads

The story of the entrepreneurs behind the hot and crispy ‘Lijjat’ papads roasted or fried in many Indian kitchens every night is another such that requires to be emulated to take the millions of the families out of poverty?

It all started on a bright sunny day on the terrace of one of the chawls of Girgaum, Mumbai in 1959, when seven middle-aged Gujarati housewives gathered, to roll out ‘papads’ for their families. ‘Jashwantiben Popat, Parvatiben Thobani, Navalben Kundaliya, Bhanuben Tanna, Labhuben Gokani, Jayaben Vithlani and Ujamben Lakhani decided to use their skills to start a business on a borrowed capital of merely Rs 80.’
In 1966, the Shri Mahila Gruh Udyog was born that has grown into an organisation for women, of women and by women with 42,000 members across India rolling out papads, khakhras, rotis, and other products. Its annual turnover today is Rs 350 crore that includes exports worth Rs 15 crore to the UK, US, Middle East, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Holland, Japan and Australia. Lijjat products include spices, ‘wadi’, detergent powder, cakes and other bakery goods prepared in 69 branches across India.

The unique management system has become the subject matter of the case study at the best management school of the world. It has many laurels in its kitty: the Economic Times ‘Businesswomen of the year 2001-02’ and ‘Best Brand Equity Award’; and ‘Best village industries award’.

There must be many more known and unknown stories of the individual’s or group’s enterprises to get inspiration. I wish, the school started telling these stories to the younger generations. With limited job creations by the organized sector, these initiatives can only bring engagement and prosperity to millions.

I request my readers to contribute the stories known to them through the comments.

Somnath- Fascinating History>r this place to get rid of the curse of his father-in-law that made him suffer from leprosy. But more horrifying were

In my school days, I had read the famous novel- ‘Jai Somnath’ written by Shri KM Munsi. The story of the loot of Somnath by Mahmood Gaznavi was also in the school history. It left a lasting impression on my mind somewhere. I had a desire to see the temple reconstructed because of the initiative of Sardar Patel, the Iron man of the country. It materialized during this visit to Gujarat.

From Dwarka, we reached straight into the premises of Somnath via Porbandar. Unlike all other Hindu pilgrimage, The Somnath Temple is a modern one without the pandas. Its location right on the seashore adds to its grandeur. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed. After attending the evening aarati, while we were going around the temple we saw the platform created out of the remnants of the old temples that were destructed. It reminds the past. I came to know from the light and sound programme later, that the first temple, as per mythology and Skand Puraan was constructed by God Moon who worshipped Lord Shiva somewhere nea the stories of the various destructions that the temple underwent. The first one was by Mahamood Gazanvi 1026 AD. Why couldn’t he get satisfied by the huge booty of the loot of the time and spared the temple? Every time the temple got destructed and the Shivalinga damaged, the people of the country rebuilt it. Alluding Khijli destroyed Somnath again in 1298AD. Mahmood Tughlak again enacted the destruction. Jaffer Khan did the destruction next time. Mahmood Begda destroyed Somnath again in 1490 AD. Aurangzeb also issued the order to demolish Somnath in 1704 AD, but unfortunately died before his orders could be executed. What a sad story of a shrine that may not be having another parallel!

Somnath appears to me a memorial of the endevours of the people, who believed in reconstructing it after destruction everytime by some evil minds. It is also a reminder of India that became weak because of fragmentation. Somnath also tells the nation to remain united and strong to safeguard our cultural heritage.
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HABITS DIE HARD
India has more billionaires than Japan

From Dwarka, we drove to Somnath. Earlier we had a plan to have a night halt at Porbandar- the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. But when we found that except for the ancestral house of Gandhiji, we drop the idea and decided to have the stop over in Somnath.

Mahatma’s great grandfather, Shri Harjeevanji Raidas Gandhi, had purchased the house, where Mahatma Gandhi was born from a local lady about 200 years ago. Kirti Mandir has been built as a memorial keeping the old house intact. While going through the small plain empty rooms in the house, one gets a nostalgic feeling. Nothing of those days is there, unlike you see in the houses of Western celebrities such as William Shakespeare at Stanford-on-Avon that I visited in 1982. But the very thought that the great Fakir spent his childhood in these rooms is exciting. It was the great effort of Shri Nanjibhai Kalidas Mehta and his wife that Kirti Mandir could be built. The property was bought from the members of the Gandhi family who were living in that house at that time. And even Gandhiji sold and registered the property to Shri Nanjibhai. We moved in and out many times. I was trying to evaluate if this was the best that the nation could have done for the place that it is. In the lane outside, it is just the typical of a small town in the region.

The memorial is a national heritage. I wish Indian government had set up a monument suited to the stature of the greatest human being and leader that the country and the world has produced in the last few centuries.

While in Porbandar we also visited the temple named after Sudama, the famous friend of Krishna. Perhaps the temple appeared to me as the anti-climax of the golden palace of Sudama that was built by Viswakarma on the instruction of Lord Krishna overnight, while Sudama was enjoying the hospitality of his friend in his palace in Dwarka.

In Ahmedabad, on the last leg of the tour we went to Sabarmati Asharma, the place from where Mahatma Gandhi led his Dandi March for salt making. We would have returned after going through the exhibition hall that has been built without seeing the house where Gandhi and Baa lived, but for the timely appearance of the gentleman in Khadi in the photograph. His great grandfather, as he claimed, trained Mahatma in operating the spinning wheel for Khadi. Three of his family members accompanied Gandhi in Dandi March. He has participated in two of the marches to Dandi. It is nice to hear the stories and ponder over how the sacrifices of some could bring the independence of this country. It is more exciting when you are standing in the courtyard of the place where Gandhi lived for many years and led the national movement. And then you start thinking of all great men of the country and also of the world, who had visited this place during the time Gandhi lived here and thereafter too to pay homage to the great son that the mother earth produces very rarely.

Here again, I wonder why the nation can’t perform better in making this place worth Gandhi’s stature.

While visiting Dwarka, we heard two clearly different mythological stories that are the two aspects of the regional economy. Each story is unique in itself. All the priests and pandas in Dwarka talk of the curse of Durbasha Muni resulting in the infertility of the land in the region and the resulting poverty of the farmers. They give this story and ask for all sorts of charity from the pilgrims of different categories to help the people, particularly the Brahmins of the region. The higher the charity in cash or kinds, the better will be the gain. It is just the clear exploitation of the poor believers from all parts of the vast country. However, I assume the land has gone infertile because of the salinity of the seawater that floods the region regularly. It requires a specialised R&D initiative from agricultural scientists to help the farmers to plant the right types of plants, trees, and to have special breeds of animals including cows and buffaloes.

I heard the other story too from the police officer accompanying us in ‘Bhent Dwarka’. According to him, Krishna himself came to attend the marriage of the daughter of his devotee Narshi Mehta. When the in-laws of the daughter wished for some dowry, Krishna did a miracle and gold rained from the heaven for an hour. All present could collect the gold as much as they wanted. Though it may not appear to be so from the overall appearance, every womenfolk in the region owns gold worth more than 3-4 lakh at home. Gujaratis in general are pretty rich. Gujaratis have been migrating to all parts of the world from ages. Today, Gujaratis control the majority of hospitality industry in US and the diamond business of Antwerp, Belgium. Migrant Gujaratis have also contributed to tranform the regional economy through their charity and philanthropic work of building schools, hospitals, and other religious institutions.

For ages, the region has been the nerve center of Hindu cultural history. Surprisingly, I was told, 75% of the Bhent Dwarka island population is Muslim. Most of the shopkeepers serving the gods and goddesses of the temples by making their dresses and other utilities are also Muslims.

While returning from Bhent Dwarka, we visited Rukamini Temple. Rukamini was one of the main queens of Krishna. Rukamini had to spend some times living alone away from Krishna because of the curse of Durbasha. The temple is having a lot of vacant land around it. If some individual or institution takes entrepreneurial initiative, the place can easily be transformed into a wonderful tourist destination. Why can’t the BJP-run government do it? Is its love of Hindutva is limited to Ayodhya temple? Perhaps they too wish to decide their all action plans as secular, however necessary it may be for the people or the economy of the region. As I hear Modi has changed the Gujarat in more than one way. However, there is no perceptible change in the conditions of these places of religious importance. His government must take lessons from Tirupati and Vaishno Devi. An imaginative investment in religious tourism can create employment and bring prosperity to the region. And I am sure he will not relish the crowd of the beggars near all these places. I am giving below one that we saw at RukaminiTemple.

Main Dwarka temple is elegant and a showpiece of architecture too. Its location on seashore further adds to its scenic beauty. It could have attracted all the affluent Hindus from far and near for religious tourism. But encroachment right up to the boundary of the temple conceals the temple to great extent. Perhaps, it can no more be possible. However, the government, the temple trust, or local bodies must do some serious work using some consultants to make the place attractive. Dwarka can earn a lot of revenues from tourism.
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Read ‘the season for business marriages in India’