Religion and
India
Walking
though the pavilion of the great Qutb Minar, or ducking low in a dark and
dinghy cave of Ellora, just to see glimpses of the past of our country, we all
must have wondered about the amount of hard work that made such everlasting
archetypal treasures not just available to man, but made to last till this
consumerist day and age. For a fellow architecture student, the mind would have
wandered to the various architectural gems within the structure and the beauty
and the symmetry of it. Most of the awe is limited to that itself; as we must
move on to admire the next old thing. My love for history broadened my vision
and made me see the same old things in a much broader perspective, engulfing
the development of India within a ten second grasp. The purpose wasn’t to decode
the mysteries of the past, unlike popular belief, but the understand people,
all the generation come and gone, and understand my ever-changing country a
little better.
One
of the most influential professors i have had the fortune of being taught by,
our beloved Apte Sir, once said something to me; after discovering my newfound
love for history, which has stuck with me till this day. He said “All that we
see today, everything that catches our attention, visually or in a thought, is
an evolution of a simple idea, created somewhere in our past. History is simply
finding the means to trace the path to its beginning. The elaborate stories
just add colour to this process, but this path of discovery is what will give
you true knowledge at the end of it. And this revelation will give you true
joy.” For all the people who know Apte Sir, obviously know that I’m
paraphrasing, and editing all the distractions of nature/plants/trees/rocks,
that might have risen during the conversation. The essence of Apte sirs words
still linger in every thought, every word i read related to history.
In
a country like ours, it is almost impossible to separate religion from every
other aspect under the sun, be it social, political, cultural or even architectural.
Constant conflict and intermingling has given numerous layers to a complex
system of faith that we now know as religion. And this story of conflict and
coalition is not a new one, but has been repeated since time immemorial with
changing characters in every new chapter. The modern age might be the most
confused and volatile generation, but definitely not the first to have lived in
these contradictions.
India
is and always has been the land of such contradictions. As an epitome of
secularism, it is a country with Hinduism as a majority, but at the same time,
has the second largest amount of Islamic people in the world. The constitution
of the country recognizes this dilemma and hence termed it secular, finding in
it a middle ground, as it always had been since the beginning and much before
the forming of nations and drafting of constitutions or even invention of the
word ‘secular’. It is so often taught in our history books that Indus valley
was the golden age of India and with the following Vedic civilisation, came the
advent of full blown Hinduism into India. The dates are proof enough to
validate the age of our religions and beliefs, with the precise dates being
marked down in the Vedas.
Is
it not important to also recognise the fact that Aryans, harbinger of the
prosperous Vedic age, were not ‘Indian’ to begin with and hence Sanskrit, our
pride and mother of all languages, has similarities to Greek, Latin and even to
the remote languages like Lithuanian?
Before
the Aryans interacted with Dravidians of the South, they worshipped Indra, god
of thunder and lightning and rain. Indra is one of the more ancient of the
Hindu gods, not commonly seen in today’s version of Hinduism. If simply paid
attention, the mere description of Indra, as the god of thunder and lightning,
matches visually to the greek god Zeus!
My
point is not to export my own religion out in India, but to open a way of
thinking in which modern world’s boundaries, do not restrict the age-old faith
and open new paths of exploration of a deeper understanding of the world. It
may be my hippie-mindset, but is it that far-fetched an idea to think of a one
state world?
Buddhism,
one of the most powerful ideals of peace and harmonious living, although
originated in India, has evolved beyond the reaches of its country of origin
and widely accepted and practised in other parts of the world. It may be due to
the simplicity of the ideals of the religion, but it had its own share of
obscurity in the middle ages, when it all but disappeared from India. Started
as an idea, it escaped the clutches of the, then corrupt, Brahmaniacal moribund
caste system of India, to pave a path for an enlightened way of living.
Although Hinduism predates Buddhism quite easily, the first architectural
remnants that India has to display are the genius of Rock cut architecture by
the Buddhist monks. Started as a simple enough idea of creating small shrines
next to famous trade routes of India, using the trade routes as connecting
element; both to different parts of india and to the varied population
irrespective of their caste, these shrines have stood in silent testimony of
time. Buddhism reached its glory due to acceptance by the merchant class, who
helped propagate the religion to lesser known parts of the world. These shrines
were small stupas, either exposed or inside rock-cut Chaitya Halls(prayer
halls) and had adjoining Viharas (rest houses for monks). The ones at Sanchi
and Ajanta and Ellora are renowned and widely studied by every student in India,
but those are not the ones I write this article for.
In
my travels, I came across the Pandav Leni caves adjoining the nh17, enroute to
Goa and noticed that apart from the sign that marked it as a protected monument
there was no literature even stating the name of the caves. Intrigued, I walked
the crisp and strenuous climb to reach the caves, and was transported to
another world or peace and serenity. It might have been my love for history, or
the fact that i knew they were Buddhist remains I had stumbled upon, or even
realising and re-living the peace and tranquillity that had once emanated from
this holy place, when my thoughts were disturbed by the chatter of an agitated
passer-by saying “Pahad mein khadde hain, aur kuch nahi. Upar chadd ke time
waste hua!(They are just holes in the mountain and nothing else. I wasted my
time climbing up these steps.)”
Apart
from the lack of data (and apparently intelligence as well), there was nothing
that man could appreciate in that remote road-side cave. He later explained his
frustration to me that he went up expecting a temple as he had heard the word
‘Pandav’ being associated with the caves and expected it to be related to the
tale of Mahabharata. After coming home I researched and found the following;
‘The Caves were called Pundru which in Pali
Language means ‘yellow ochre colour’. This is because the caves were the
residence of Buddhist monks who wore “the chivara or the yellow robes”. Later
on, the word Pundru changed to Pandav Caves( as per Ancient Monuments Act 26
May 1909). Decades later people started calling it Pandav Caves – a misnomer
which is used for every cave in India.’ (Wikipedia – Pandav Leni)
The
last line of the explanation behind the name says it all. Over-imposed religion
is one of the oldest problems that Indians have faced. Wars have been fought,
blood has been spilled and religious structures have been defaced. Since the
raid of Somnath temple by Mahmud of Gazni all the way till the Babri Masjid
related events, violent religious claims have affected India numerous times.
The Buddhist caves of Ajanta and Ellora have an extension of Hindu Shaivite
Temples in their front yard built centuries later. The Buddhist caves of Karli
have stone lingams carved into what once stood as a resting place for monks. Creation
of the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque (first mosque of India, inside the Qutb Complex)
was facilitated by the dismantling of twenty seven different Hindu and Jain
Temples that used to exist during reign of Prithviraj Chauhan. Some of these
changes date back centuries ago while some were comparatively recent. There
will always be that group of extreme religious fundamentalists, for whom along
with religion, comes an agenda, instead of faith.
This
work of mine is not pessimistic and I would not like to steer it in that
direction as well. It is due to this intermingling of religion that we owe some
of the treasures of our country. Indo-Saracenic architecture which gave us gems
like the Ajmer Moqsue (Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra), which is a product of Islamic
overseers with the talent of Hindu Master Builders and Craftsmen. Every Islamic
structure in India has since the advent of the first Islamic invaders (the
Sarasens) has been created as an amalgam using the best of the resources and
religious influences available, irrespective of the religious belief of the
workers involved in its construction. Even if we keep architecture aside,
contrary to popular belief, Islam was bought to the country by Sufi saints and
not by the violent invaders like Mohammed Ghori. These Sufi saints, remained in
anonymity and spread the word of Islam in different parts of the large Indian
Subcontinent, whose tombs are still intact and worshipped in different decrepit
streets of cities like Peshawar, Lahore and Delhi. Perhaps if the advent of the
religion was understood in a much more positive light with the work of the Sufi
saints, people would lose their negative perception against religions which
have been recently inculcated due to unfortunate events. These holy men had
founded their way to this country and preached to an enlightened crowd with the
words of the Quran, long before the invaders marched in with their swords and
preached the word of fear and destruction.
History
has witnessed the advent of a medley of people of all religions, races, colours
and creed, each with its own belief system, each with their own religion. Such
strange encounters have either resulted in war or given birth to a new age or
learning and acceptance. Our past is our witness, strange as it may seem, these
new cultures were accepted and we lived as a prosperous state. We were India
Shining. Our present is an example of the other extreme. Having learnt nothing
from our past, with no encounter left on this planet to be deemed strange or
new, with all religions studied extensively, the only thing we fail to do is
understand it.
I
take the aid of History to have a clearer understanding of both my own religion
as well as my country, as neither can ever live in exclusivity from each other.
You may find your own.
