This image shows the logo and the letter-head of the Kalakshetra Foundation once upon a time; notice the images of Ganapati and Sanskrit verse…

…this subsequently morphed into…

..and finally to what you see below; shorn of all “non-secular” imagery…

**

And in case you are wondering why does this matter (courtesy, Radha Rajan; emphasis added)..

…(these violate) something fundamental to classicism – the essential Hinduness, particularly the bhakti that inspired classicism and inspires continuing adherence to the tenets of classicism in our Sanskrit and Tamil literature and classicism in our arts and performing arts – Carnatic Music, Bharatanatyam, Kucchipudi, Odissi, Mohiniyattam and Manipuri – bhakti or worship.

The building of our temples and the sculptures enriching them are also infused with classicism and therefore infused with bhakti. It follows therefore that if one has to understand Carnatic Music, our classical dance forms, our temples and temple architecture and sculpture, either with a sense of creativity or intellectually, the person must understand bhakti – not superficially and not as a practioner of the abrahamic faiths, but as a Hindu; the person may be an Indian or a non-Indian Hindu but he or she must be infused with bhakti and respect for bhakti to understand classicism.

I have to be worshipful if I have to express the classicism inherent in our performing arts and in our classical literature.

An irreverend mind which is incapable of worship or bhakti, can only produce sterile and soulless creations of Hindu themes. Classicism is also God-centric and does not touch upon human themes except as bhaktas. …The objective of classicism is to elevate the Hindu mind to God through bhakti.

…Bharatanatyam rooted in Bharatamuni’s natyasastra, was preserved in our temples by our devadasis. Hindus owe our devadais a great debt of gratitude that notwithstanding their difficult lives, they nurtured and preserved this great art form. And because this was nurtured by our devadasis and because this was performed in our temples, bharatanatyam and the music that gave it its soul and rhythm retained its bhakti and religious fervor even in difficult times.

…Adi Sankara realised the dangers of emphasising abstraction over worship of murtis and ascetism over sringara (the worship and celebration of the beautiful) in advaita and that is why he composed the saundarya lahiri. that is why he sang of Sarada and Annapurna and Shiva. Abstraction is breathtaking but murti worship is elevating. Abstraction is best reached through bhakti and not through the intellect.

…The Besant School started and run by George Arundale and the KFI school started by J Krishnamurti also with Theosophist roots all suffer from the same malaise – the abstraction and eventual erasing of hinduness in their thinking, the institutions they create, their writings and their speech. They are not anti-Hindu in the beginning; they are merely the abstract expression of theosophy and perhaps Buddhism and even some esoteric aspects of Hinduism. But they eventually become anti-Hindu because they partner the explicitly anti-Hindus and non-Hindus and despise those who are angered by the gradual de-hinduisation of their understanding and interpretation of Hindu arts, literature and texts.

It is this perversion which has given rise to Yoga is not Hindu, Meditation is not Hindu, Om is not Hindu, Ayurveda is not Hindu and now Bharatanatyam is not “swaroopa” Hindu but “aroopa” Hindu. It is also the beginning of Deepavali is secular, Navaratri is secular, Pongal is secular and other idiocies. They want the Hindu frills without the Hindu content.

Leela Samson when she stated that she only removed the ‘swarupa’ symbols of hinduism from Kalakshetra in the true spirit of Rukmini Devi’s theosophist spirit, was speaking the truth and the whole truth. The abstraction and diminishing of worship of Hindu Murtis began in Rukmini Devi’s mind. You see this in the children coming out of Krishnamurti schools, you see it in the composition of students learning the performing arts in kalakshetra now under Leela Samson. what Jiddu krishnamurti spoke was the essence of Vedanta and he invoked the enquiring mind so typical of the best methods of Hindu learning in our Guru-Shishya Parampara and gurukulams of our rishis but he disdained to call his thoughts or its articulation Hindu.

…Hindus must know and understand the causes for their degeneration if they have to put these people in their places.
It is not enough to wear the Mayilkann Veshti and Angavastram when you sing an ode to Leela Samson, it is not enough to wear elegant silk and diamond earrings as expressions of refined Brahminical culture when you express disdain for Brahmins and all that they represented, it is not enough to wear long thin red bindi like the Srivasihnava women simply as a fashion statement if your heart does not melt when you worship that Murti. If you cannot bring tears to my eyes when you dance or sing you have to be reborn again and again and again if you have to attain the fulness of MS Subbalakshmi or Palaghat Raghu.

P.S. I wonder how many of you know that Leela Samson at one point headed three important bodies – all at the same time – where the appointing authority is the central government..Kalakshetra, Censor Board of India and Sangeet Natak Academy. Is it really so hard to find capable women and men for these positions?

Related Posts: Baba Ramdev goes politically correct, the missing “H-word” and the ridiculous extremes of pseudo-secularism;

Macaulayan mythology denies Bhārat through a false Aryan Invasion Theory and a false Aryan-Dravidian “racial” divide[10]; through false distinctions of “religion”[11]; a false history of caste and tribe[12]; a false claim of foreigners as our civilizers, saviours and educators[13]; and a  grotesquely false interpretation of secularism[14].

Jayasree’s research is an attempt to set the record straight…Below, excerpts from Fish signs of IVC resemble Vaastu and Jalanaadi signs of astrology:

…The entire IVC presents a different picture when seen through the eye of an Indian. The structures remind one of the Vaastu principles of construction.

First take a look at the sites excavated. They show perfect town planning and architecture.

The drainage system in accordance with the slopes is the primary issue decided in town planning and house construction even today as per Vaastu principles. The square and rectangular shaped houses are first-rate Vaastu compliant ones. This immediately reminds me of the Graama Vaastu (of townships) and the graha Vaastu (of houses) principles.

The circular structures found in the excavations are supposed to be platforms for drying crops according to the researchers. But from Vaastu point of view, circular shapes known as Vrittakaara is ideal for education. Until recently education was imparted under tree shades in our country. A circular platform was constructed around or under a big and shady tree or a banyan tree where discussions and teachings were done.

According to Vaastu texts circular platforms were also meant for commanders. The local panchayats would be held in circular platforms under the shade of a tree. The circular plots and circular constructions were also suitable for temples, educational institutions and marriage halls. Houses in circular shapes were constructed in the extension of the villages while the houses in the villages used to be square or rectangular shaped ones. The pictures available on the internet on Harappan excavations show a similarity to Vaastu guidelines.

Vaastu is a not a new concept to India. It is an Upaveda of Atharvan veda. If we say that Vedas are the oldest texts, it also means that the Vaastu-upavada was as old as Vedas. Think of a habitation, construction or architecture, there can no other guide than Vaastu sastra in this country. The architectural methods are a continuing tradition in this country, devised by two noted schools of Vaastu – of Vishwakarma and Maya. No one knows their origins. The presently available books attributed to them, Vishwakarma Prakaashika and Mayamata, are revised editions done from time to time.
The very first job of the researchers on the Harappan excavations must have been to check whether the 3-way architecture of Vaastu of this country was found in the excavations. The 3 way are about the basis of measurements (angula pramana) used for

(1) houses, buildings, mansions, palaces, temples, townships, villages, roads etc

(2) water bodies such as wells, tanks, drainages, ponds etc and

(3) figurines, idols, dolls furniture etc.

There are a number of finer calculations of determining the ‘aya’ and the pada vaastu which can be applied in the excavated sites to know whether they comply with the rules of vaastu.

Researches done by the IIT Professor R. Balasubramanian established that the measurement scale continues to be the same in this country from Harappan times till today. He did the research in the Harappan structures and also in the Iron Pillar (the Vijay Sthupi of Chandragupta Vikramadhitya dated at 912 BCE) and the Taj mahal. He found out that the measurement and the engineering tradition had been the same in all these. Earlier posts on this topic can be read here :-

Continuing civilization from Harappa to Iron pillar and Taj Mahal was built with ancient Indian engineering

This structural similarity must have formed the backdrop of any further research in the Indus Valley. Instead of going in these lines, the researchers had proceeded from a hypothetical notion of Dravidian pre-presence and a subsequent Aryan invasion and gone to establish the same by trying to fit the words from Tamil texts to derive a connection between the words and the Indus symbols. I may sound rude by this comment, but I can not help it because as a Tamilian I don’t find any connection to the words, particularly the Tamil word for Fish (meen) with the fish symbols that form nearly half of the depictions.

…It must be remembered that the so-called Indus civilization is detected all along the river Saraswathy. From scientific images it is known that this river had sunk in the sands. The civilization weaned off due to scarcity of water. During the period that the people existed in the banks of sunken Saraswathy, they must have managed by identifying more places of water sources on the basis of natural factors given above. One can not ignore the Vaastu concepts fitting with the architecture of the sites.

In this back drop, connecting it to Tamil’s culture is something far fetched. Any interpretation of Tamil’s past can not be done independently of the textual information on Tamil’s past. We will see the textual information in the upcoming posts.

Given below are 2 articles on what Dr Parpola has said on Dravidian connection. In the first write-up it is shown that he has agreed that his interpretation is not final. Mr Karunanidhi has misused his research for political ends.

The 2^nd article is about Mr Parpola’s admission that the habitants of IVC might have moved towards the South much before the “Aryans arrived”.

At a time when the Aryan Invasion theory is finding a natural death, this opinion from him by disconnecting Dravidian problem from the Aryans is welcome. Before embarking on when “Aryans arrived”, it is better to take a look at what underwater archeology says on civilization that existed around Gujarat 9,500 years ago. (click this link to read http://www.hermetics.org/cambay.html

*** End of Excerpts ***

Related Posts: Revising the “Aryan Invasion of India” Theory,  W’end Links: Saraswati, a 27-year war & spin doctors (outlining some of the links between Saraswati-Sindhu civilisation and the Vedic texts and references) and The Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilisation – More Distortions, More Un-Tru

…My question: what was newly created on 15August 1947? A new ‘State’ or a new ‘Nation’?…So, then, what is a ‘nation’?

I quote French thinker Ernest Renan: ‘It is not soil any more than the race which makes a nation…A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things which are really only one go to make this principle. One of these things lies in the past, the other in the present. The one is the possession in common of a rich heritage of memories, the other is actual agreement; the desire to live together, and the will to continue to make the most of the joint inheritance. Man cannot be improvised. The Nation, like the individual, is the fruit of a long past, spent in toil, sacrifice and devotion.’ (Ernest Renan: What Is a Nation, quoted in Modern Political Thought by William Ebenstein.)

In short, a nation is not a system. People are the nation. What sort of people constitute a nation? There are three major requirements. One is their sentiment about the country in which they live, the country that has been the substratum for their struggle and labour. Any piece of land is simple matter, and therefore inert; it becomes a living entity when it becomes a motherland, as adorable and sacred as one’s birth-giving mother. And, therefore, revered Bankimchandra can say ‘Vande Mataram’, which inspired the millions who fought for our Independence. True, it is a notion, but it is a valued notion, required to hold together people of different hues, perceptions, faiths and persuasions.

The second condition is a shared history. Is it a drawback that it is a millennium old? And the third is a shared value system, i.e., culture. The third requirement is the most important of all the three. We adopted a value system that appreciates plurality, tolerates differences of opinion, and values different modes of worship. These are our national values and they are enshrined in our Constitution.

Ram is one such historical personality that embodied these values. I said people are the Nation. Who are the people who fulfill these three conditions? They are Hindus; therefore, this is a Hindu nation. It has nothing to do with whether you are an idol-worshipper or not, whether you believe in the ultimate authority of the Vedas or not, whether you put a mark on your forehead or not. In pre-Independence India, the word Hindu had no notoriety attached to it.

Look at the writings of Vivekananda or Mahatma Gandhi. A nationalist paper, started 125 years ago, was named The Hindu. Hindustan was a common name for our country. It is post-Independence vote-bank politics that has showered abuses on ‘Hindu’. Let us be proud of our nation, our value-system, our name Hindu, whose cultural heritage was instrumental in determining the character of our Constitution.

As many of you would know,  Sh M G Vaidya is a leading RSS ideologue and its former spokerperson. Comments, thoughts and counter-points welcome, as always.

P.S. Interestingly, Andrew C McCarthy, writing in a very different context, makes a very similar point:

A nation is a big, bumptious thing. It needn’t agree on everything. It can even bitterly disagree on major things. But to be a nation, a People, it has to agree that it has a shared destiny: that its unique culture, core principles, and independence are worth preserving, protecting, and defending.

From “Ayodhya – Deciding Battle for the Hindu Nation“:

Nations, nation-states, religions and civilizations in their entirety have been irretrievably wiped off the face of the earth by Islam and the Church; while there is no vestige of pre-Islamic and pre-Christian religions in Rome, Greece, America and Africa, the Hindu nation, even after the combined onslaught of Islam, the Church and Nehruvian secularism, has emerged with its civilization, religion and culture intact.

…one Indian court while acknowledging that the Ramjanmabhumi belongs to Hindus, however delivered a fork-tongued judgment on September 30, 2010. Even as they allowed the Janmabhumi to be returned to the Hindus, two of the three judges, one Muslim and one Hindu handed over one-third of ownership rights to Muslims, sure proof of the persistent floundering Hindu consciousness, palpable fear of standing up to Muslim violence and our propensity to grandstand to the international community, our commitment to secularism.

The territory of Ayodhya, land of the Ikshvakus and far older than Srirama, was not for the judges of Allahabad High Court to divide and distribute; juxtaposed against Hindu right to the Janmabhumi in Ayodhya, the Muslim claim to the site of ‘Babur’s mosque’ is bizarre to be polite.Just as surreal and untenable would be Christian claims to Al Aqsa, Muslim claims to Bethlehem and Jewish claims to the kabah in Mecca. Our lawyers, judges and politicians who play God as a matter of right with the destiny of the Hindu nation, must travel to Rome, Greece and Egypt for a better understanding of their own responsibility to preserve the timeless Hindu religion and civilization on its territory.

At the heart of Athens stands the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This majestic temple, which was repeatedly razed to the ground in numerous wars, was ordered to be rebuilt by Antiochos IV, the king of Syria in 2nd century BC. However, Antiochos died soon thereafter and the temple was completed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 131 AD. Of the 104 columns which adorned the temple, each one standing loftily at 17 meters, only 16 remain as ruins of an ancient religion and civilization, now forever dead.

The Temple of Poseidon, the god of the seas, standing on a promontory in Sounion, the southernmost tip of the Attica peninsula, has fared no better. …Of the 42 magnificent marble columns in the temple, only 18 remain today. It is the same wretched story across Rome, Florence, Venice, Athens and Delphi. Temples to Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Poseidon, Saturn, Mars, Mercury and Venus, all made of Parian and Pentelic marble, have been reduced to rubble, to broken stones, desolate pillars and lonely columns, disfigured deities and empty prayer halls, all standing accusingly under the open sky. Of the once all-powerful Delphi Oracle, there is no sign.

The Propylaea, Parthenon, the Erectheion on the Acropolis, temples to Athena Nike and Apollo in Athens and Delphi, the Roman Forum, Caesar’s grave and the Roman Pantheon with its temples to several gods and goddesses, have been destroyed, plundered, looted, mutilated not only by Persians, Goths, Visigoths and Vandals but also by early Christians, medieval and post-medieval Popes and by Turkish Islamic hordes; and of course the accursed Lord Elgin. Now we know the etymology for ‘vandalism’.

…All of this has a bearing on the judgment on Ramjanmabhumi and its significance for this nation. The passionate desire of the people of Rome and Greece to preserve the wretched ruins, their relentless battle to reclaim the priceless items of their pre-Christian heritage now housed in museums outside their countries…is rooted in the primordial need of man and nations to root their self-identities in an illustrious past, to root national self-identity to an ancient civilization

…The Greeks and Romans today are seeking to live in a past they have rendered illegitimate and soulless. The tragedy of the people of Rome and Greece is that they want to re-connect with the same gods whom they and the religion to which they owe allegiance today, have damned as ‘pagan’ and unfit for worship. They want the body without the soul…The Romans and Greeks want their past in disconnected pieces.

Image courtesy: Vivek Joshi, via Wikimedia

The lesson that our lawyers, judges and politicians need to learn from the tragedy of Rome, Greece and Egypt is that while pre-Islamic and pre-Christian kings destroyed the temples of their enemies in wars, the same temples would be re-built again and again and yet again and the gods re-installed for worship. But that which Islam and Christianity have destroyed over 2000 years has not been rebuilt and revived. The destruction is final and the past irretrievable. And that is why reclaiming Ayodhya is an important battle in the war of the Hindu nation. Reclaiming, not just the Ramjanmabhumi but Ayodhya, will signal the beginning of the Hindu nation’s war to correct gross injustices perpetrated in the name of the Abrahamic religions.

I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.

Related Posts: Revisiting Ram Janmabhoomi – Part III and extracts from Radha Rajan’s “Eclipse of the Hindu Nation“: Introduction and excerpts from Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 6

Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully. We find it difficult, indeed, in some places impossible, to provide instruction for all who want it. At the single town of Hoogly fourteen hundred boys are learning English.

The effect of this education on the Hindoos is prodigious.

No Hindoo, who has received an English education, ever remains sincerely attached to his religion. Some continue to profess it as matter of policy;but many profess themselves pure Deists, and some embrace Christianity.

It is my firm belief that, if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence.

And this will be effected without any efforts to proselytise; without the smallest interference with religious liberty; merely by the natural operation of knowledge and reflection. I heartily rejoice in the prospect.

Image Courtesy: Wikimedia.org

From a letter written by T B Macaulay to his father in October 1836. Source:  The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay

Somewhat Related Posts: Clearing the dust off Macaulay’s “famous quote”

The idea of India and  Economic Exploitation and the Drain of Wealth during British “Raj”