CONVERSION AND VERSE IN BENGAL

Four Intellectuals who embraced Christianity

 Proselytism didn't get many takers among high castes in India.Bengal the capital of British India,was not a virgin soil.People like Rajaram Mohan Roy(1772-1833),Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar(1820-1891) and Keshub Chandra Sen(1838-1884)had sown the seeds of renaissance.Hindus were taught to assimilate new ideas.Conversion had lost its charm.Christians in Bengal are just 0.6% of the population,and mostly belonging to one clan like Das and Hansde.But then,there was a reverse process.Self enquiry or an intellectual search made a few embrace Christianity.They with their moorings in the Indian culture made Indian society rich.While I am going to speak about a few men/women of letters,I remember the first printing press brought to India by William Carey to Kolkata.Indian literature flourished where the mission failed.

William Carey

William Carey(1761-1834),known as the Father of modern missions,was the first English Baptist Missionary in India.Born into a family of weavers,at 14,his father sent him to a cobbler as apprentice.Carey,who wanted to make a different kind of shoe,gave final shape to his missionary manifesto in 1792:An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens.He formed the Baptist Mission Society with Andrew Fuller,John Ryland and John Sutcliffe as charter members.He met Dr John Thomas a medical missionary who was in Kolkata,then in England and decided to accompany him to India.His mission didn't have the blessings of English East India Company.He had to leave the ship midway and  board a Danish ship.He reached Kolkata in 1793 november and John Thomas made him manage a Midnapore Indigo factory for six years.He then moved to the Serampore Danish colony where a second hand printing press was installed.From there he printed The Bible in 44 languages.His favorite quote in his sermons was from Isaiah,54:2-3:Expect great things from God;Attempt great things for God.

Krishnapal

Carey's first convert was Krishna Pal ,a sudra,in 1802.Same year,Krishnapal's daughter married a Brahmin.This proved that his Church repudiated caste distinctions.With generous contribution from the  Governor General Richard Wellesley,the Serampore College was built;Carey became Bengali Professor.He had to sever his ties with the mission he founded towards the end of his life and he lived in the campus.

Krishna Mohan Banerjee(1813-1885) became a Christian two years before Carey's death.He was never under Carey's influence.He imbibed the essence of Bengal Renaissance and attempted to rethink Hindu philosophy,religion and ethics in response to the stimulus of Christian ideas.

His conversion took Bengal by storm.He lost his job and his wife for a while.
He was born in Syampur,in the house of his maternal grandfather Ramjay Vidyabhushan,who was court pundit of Santiram Singha of Jarasanko.He was the son of Jibankrishna Banerjee and Sreemoti Devi.In 1819 he joined School Society Institution of David Hare(1775-1842) which became Hare's School later.Hare was a Scottish watchmaker with no faith commitments.Banerjee attended the Hindu College(now  Presidency University) in 1831 where his English play,The Persecuted was staged.He became a member of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio's Young Bengal group.Derozio,poet,radical thinker and Principal of Hindu College died of cholera the year Banerjee joined the college.Banerjee attended the lectures of the Scottish missionary,Alexander Duff,who came to India in 1830.He came under Duff's sway and embraced Christianity in 1832.He lost his job in Hare's School.His wife Bindhyobashini was forced to flee to her father's house.She joined him in later life.He converted her,his brother Kalicharan and Gnanendra Mohan Tagore,son of Prasannakumar Tagore.Gnanendra Mohan married Banerjee's daughter Kamalmani and became the first Asian to qualify as a Barrister in 1862.

Banerjee

Gnanendra Mohan (1826-1890) belonged to the Pathuriaghata branch of the Tagore family and his father Prasannakumar was one of the founders of the Hindu College. His classmates there included Rajnarain Bose,writer and grandfather of Aurobindo and Gobinda Chandra Dutt,father of the poetess Toru Dutt.The syllabus of Hindu College was highly secular and many students became Christians.Gnanendra was converted in 1851.He was disowned by his father and deprived of his inheritance.His share in the vast estate of his father was given to his father's nephew,Maharaja Bahadur Sir Jatindra Mohan Tagore.Gnanendra was Professor of Hindu Law in University of London and was Judge in Kolkata High Court later.

Duff

Krishna Mohan Banerjee was the first Indian to be ordained as a priest of the Anglican Church,in 1839.He made the 13 volume Bengali adaptation of Encyclopedia Britannica and wrote two remarkable books:Dialogues on the Hindu Philosophy(1861)and The Relation between Christianity and Hinduism(1881).Though he began as an apologist for Hinduism,after 1865 he began to argue Christianity was fulfilment of Hinduism.Sacrifice was the most important ritual according to vedic texts.Prajapati sacrificed himself to redeem humanity and was reborn as a mere mortal.Half man,half divine.All this,Banerjee argued,prefigured the incarnation of Jesus.Of course,there is the alternate argument from the view point of Vedanta,propounded by scholars like Vivekananda and Ranganathananda.Holgar Kresten,in his book,Jesus Lived in India,has shown that Jesus had his philosophical foundation in India,filling his missing years.Banerjee was instrumental in the conversion of Michael Madhususdan  Dutt and Lal Behari Dey to Christianity.

Michael Madhusudan Dutt

Michael Madhusudan Dutt(1824-1873)is one of the greatest poets of Bengal and father of the Bengali sonnet.He pioneered Blank Verse.Meghnad Bodh Kavya of him is a tragic epic.He,according to Aurobindo,expressed all the stormiest passions of man's soul in gigantic language.
He was the son of eminent lawyer, Rajnarayan Dutt and Jahnabi Devi of Sargordari,now in Bangladesh.From his early age on he wanted to be like an English man and converted to Christianity in 1843 at the Church of Fort William to the ire of his family.He came under the spell of his teacher in Hindu College,Captain D L Richardson who was a supporter of Thomas Babington Macaulay.Dutt adopted it.His intellectual inquiry told him that he was born in the wrong side of the planet and wrote his early works in English.He adored Lord Byron and like him was Bohemian and romantic.

To avoid persecution,he escaped to Madras.There he taught English in two schools.Worked in the Editorial section of Madras Circulator,General Chronicle,Aethenium,Daily Spectator.He was Joint Editor of Spectator and Chief Editor of Hindu Chronicle.After father's death,he became depressed and returned to Kolkata in 1856.He worked as Head clerk in Police Court and was Interpreter during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.In the 1860s  he went to Versailles where he lived in abject poverty.Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's timely intervention saved him from imprisonment and he returned home.He married twice.In Madras,Rebecca Mactavys;in Kolkata,Henrietta Sophia White.He divorced Rebecca.He had four children from Rebecca and two,Napoleon and Sharmishta from Henrietta.Tennis player,Leander Paes is his great grandson.His epitaph,a verse of his own,reads:
Stop a while traveller!
Should Mother Bengal claim thee for her son.
As a child takes repose on his mother's Elysian lap,
Even so here in the Long Home,
On the bosom of the earth,
Enjoys the sweet eternal sleep
Poet Madhusudan of the Duttas.
Lal Behari Dey(1824-1892) too was a student of Alexander Duff.Dey wrote a paper,The Falsity of Hindu Religion before his conversion in 1843.He wrote a novel,Govindasamanta which became Bengal Peasant Life in English.Charles Darwin read it and sent a letter of appreciation.Dey also wrote Folktales of Bengal and was Editor of Arunoday,Indian Reformer,Friday Review and Bengal Magazine.

Toru Dutt

The first  poetess in Indian English,Toru Dutt(1856-1877) was different:she didn't become a Christian  by her own will.In 1862,while she was a six year old,her father Gobinda Chandra Dutt became a Christian.He belonged to the illustrious Dutt family of Rambagan;the family of R C Dutt.Romesh Chandra Dutt (1848-1909) was the second Indian after Satyendranath Tagore to get into ICS.He was the first Indian to attain the Divisional Commisioner rank.He left ICS at 49,went to London and later bacame Dewan of Baroda.He wrote Economic History of India ,abridged Mahabaratha and Ramayana to Bengali.

Gobinda Chandra Dutt's conversion strained his relationship with his wife,Kshethtramoni Devi;She reconciled later,became Christian and translated Blood of Jesus to Bengali.
Toru was the youngest of Dutt's three children.Her brother Abju's early death was a staggering blow.Toru and sister repeatedly read Milton's Paradise Lost.Dutt took the melancholic children to a tour of Europe.They settled in France and had education there.Then Italy and  Cambridge.While at Cambridge,Toru became friends with Mary Martin,daughter of Rev John Martin of Sydney Sussex College.It became a lifelong bond.The Dutt family returned to Kolkata in 1873.Toru lived for only  21 years and her poetry,though meager,was brilliant.She translated around 100 poems from the French to form the anthology,A Sheaf Gleaned In French Fields.She retold Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan.The manuscripts of her novels,Bianca or the Young Spanish Maiden and Le Journal de Mademoiselle d' Arvers were found posthumously and published.She died of TB, among books.She spoke of her creativity in Jogadhya Uma:
Absurd maybe the tale I tell
Ill suited to the marching times,
I loved the lips from which it fell,
So let it stand among my rhymes.

R C Dutt

The Bengal renaissance made even outsiders expressive.Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922)got the Pandita title from Kolkata University in 1878.She was on a lecture tour to Bengal with brother  after the death of their parents in the 1877 famine.

Ramabai

Ramabai was born in Gangamoola,Karnataka to Anant Shastri,a Brahmin scholar and to his second wife,Lakshmi Bai.he had married her while she was just 9 and his decision the further educate her,ostracized him from his community.He and his family fled to the forest first and searched for new pastures.Ramabai at 12,memorised 18000 verses.After the death of her parents,she began giving lectures on women's education and against child marriage.Her fame reached Kolkata.After her brother's death in 1880,she married a Bengali sudra,lawyer Bipin Behari Medhvi.He died two years later.They had a daughter Mano.From there,Ramabai shifted to Bombay and then to Pune where she became famous.Since women were supposed to be treated by only women,she pressed for women's entry into medical colleges.This demand reached Queen Victoria and thus began Lady Dufferin's Women's Medical Movement.Ramabai was given a scholarship to England in 1883 to be trained as a teacher.There she became a Christian and joined the Anglican Church.It is clear from historical accounts that Queen Victoria funded a project to convert high caste Hindus to Christianity.Ramabai went to the US to seek funds for her institution in India,lectured for three years and raised $30,000.Her book,High Caste Hindu Women sold 10,000 copies.She dedicated the book to Dr Anandibai Joshi,the first Indian woman to study western medicine.On return she founded Mukti Sadan,Krupa Sadan and Sharada Sadan.She translated the Bible to Marathi.Her daughter Manorama preceded her in death.

Reference:
Pioneers of Indigenous Christianity/K Baago,1969
Pandita Ramabai:The Story of her Life/Helen S Dyer,1900
The Life and Letters of Toru Dutt/Harihar Das/OUP,1921
Extravagant Genius:Michael Madhusudan Dutt and his Oeuvre/Indian Poetry in English:Critical Essays/Ed.Z Mitra/Prentice Hall,2012
Life of Lal Behari day/Gerardine Macpherson/T & T Clark,1900

See my blog,KRUPA,BRAHMIN,CHRISTIAN AND NOVELIST

THE BOOKS I WROTE

Three books of mine have been published  sofar.Two Short story collections and a History.First collection was Ee Kadavile Muthala ,published by Current books.This book was dedicated to the writer T P Kishore,who committed suicide.

Next Collection of stories was,Valthalayile Chandran from DC Books.It had seven stories.Parakaya pravesam,Moodalmanju,Aathmakadhayile Jeevacharitram,Valthalayile Chandran,Karukarutha Aa Shndan,Chavukadal,Chilappathikaram,September11,Hirishima.This book was dedicated to the memory of Writer N Mohanan.Parakayapravesam Had won the T P Kishore memorial prize.All the stories had appeared in either Malayalam Varika or Mathrubhumi.Both the books are out of stock.

The third book,Nakshatravum Chuttikayum was published in July,2013.It is the history of the communist movement in Kerala from 1931-1964.It was serialised in Madhyamam weekly.India Today(february 12,2014) carried a detaied review of the book by NM Pearson,communist Charthrathinte Akamporul.

The first book was released by Punathil Kunjabdulla in Kozhikode.There was a reading by me.Second book was released by Sethu in Cochin.There was a reading by me.Dr P K Rajasekharan,Ummar Tharamel and Pradeepan Pambirikunnu  spoke.The third by M M Lawrence in Cochin.V D Satheesan received the book.N M Pearson spoke.

KRUPA: BRAHMIN,CHRISTIAN AND A NOVELIST

The first woman Novelist in India,wrote it in Ooty

It was in one of my regular visits to Ooty,on September 6,2013,I bought the book,Ootacamund,a History, by Frederick Price.Price wrote it at the request of Oliver Villiers Russel,the Governor of Madras,in 1908.Out of curiosity, I searched for the name, Krupabai Satthianadhan or her husband,Dr Samuel Satthianadhan.Samuel had died , in 1906,but Krupa in 1894.I searched for her name in vain.
Who is Krupa?the first Indian woman to study medicine.My interest was different:she was the first woman novelist in India to write in English.India's first feminist writer.She wrote the novel in Ooty ,started a Muslim school  there.Let us get down to brass tacks.

Krupa and Samuel(S)Satthianadhan story is one painted in letters;it is also the story of the coming together of two Hindu families converted into Christanity.Samuel's father Rev W T Satthianadhan was a first generation convert,who  was Thiruvengadam before.Krupa's father,Rev Haripunt Khisty was a Maharashtra Brahmin who got converted in the year Krupa was born,in 1861(I have seen Khisty wrongly written as Kristy;Khisty is a Maratha Brahmin surname).Her mother was Radhabai.

Samuel Satthianadhan,writer,educationist,reformer was born in 1860 to Rev William Thomas Satthianadhan and Annal Arochiam,born into the ancestors ruling Naicker family in Madurai.Thiruvengadam Satthianadhan was baptized as W T Satthianadhan in 1847 at Megananapuram  ordained in 1859,and was appointed to Tamil mission of the Church Mission Society in Madras.Dr Sundar Clarke,who was CSI Bishop of Madras,in his autobiography,Lead Us On(2005),traces the roots and finds that both the Satthianadhans and Clarkes are descendants of the first Indian to be ordained a protestant Pastor,C Arumugham born in 1698 at Cuddalore.Arumugham was the son of Chockanatha Pillai,a Cuddalore merchant,baptized in 1718 by the first Lutheran missionary in India,Bertholomaeus Ziegenbalg in Tranquebar(Tharagambadi,Nagapattinam) Lutheran Mission and christened as A Aron.Aron had four daughters and one of them married  Devasahayam Pillai.I make a digression,here.

The legend is that,Devasahayam Pillai(1712-1752) was the son of Vasudevan Namboodiri of Kayamkulam,who was the priest in the Adikesava Perumal temple,Thiruvattar in Travancore.Born as Neelakanta Pillai in an affluent Nair family of Nattalam in Kanyakumari district,he was an official of Marthanda Varma.He came under the spell of the Dutch Naval Commander of Travancore,Eustachius De Lannoy and was baptized as Lazar,and his Nair wife Bargavi, as Gnanapoo Ammal. From Bishop Clarke's account we have to assume that Devasahayam Pillai had another wife.The Latin Church which has beatified him,believes he was killed by the King for conversion,which is in the realm of paradox. No records of conversion or execution exist.In Europe,at the time of Neelakanta Pillai,the Catholics and Protestants were in a belligerent mood,and the protestant De Lannoy would have never allowed Pillai to receive baptism from the Catholics.De Lannoy had a protestant church in Udayagiri.The claim of Devasahayam Pillai's execution has no basis, for two reasons:Dr Clarke's account states he lived;the Raja who kept a Christian De Lannoy in service would have never executed a person close to him.
Devasahayam Pillai's daughter,Muthammal,according to Clarke's account,married John Devasahayam who was ordained in 1896 as the first Indian Anglican priest.John Devasahayam's daughter Annal married Rev W T Satthianadhan,who many felt,should have been the first Anglican Bishop.But Rev Satthianadhan established a different precedent.He was made Presbyter of Chintadripet Church.He renamed it Zion Church and remained there for 30 years and his son in law,Rev William Devapriyam Clarke succeeded him.Rev W D Clarke's son Samuel Thomas Satthianadhan Clarke served the church during 1921-1944.Bishop Clarke was his son.
Annal's father John was from a Vaishnavite family in Mayavaram.Annal married her father's curate,W T Satthianathan (Thiruvengadam).Hewas born C.1830 in Sinthapathurai,Tirunelveli,in a Vaishnavite Naidu family.He came under missionary influence in CMS School,Palayamkottai;his family fixed his marriage,but he fled on the night before the wedding,at 14.

 Satthianadhan,Annal,Son Samuel

Krupa's father Haripunt after conversion,joined the American Board Mission Society in their native Ahmed Nagar.He died early;Krupa's brother Bhasker who took over,too died early.The Church made arrangements for her to go to England in 1877,but could not make it because of ill health.She traveled alone from Bombay to Madras to reach W T Satthianadhan's home,where he became her mentor.Though she joined Madras Medical College and was first ranker initially,she had to drop out because of failing health.
Samuel Satthianadhan who studied in Anglican High School,Veperi joined Corpus Christi College,Cambridge in 1878 and returned to Madras in 1883.Thus began the courtship.They got married the same year.Samuel who started as Head Master in Ooty became Head Master of Rajahmundry High School after three years.Later he became a  Lecturer in Kumbakonam Govt Arts College and a Professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy in the Presidency College,Madras.
Krupabai started writing in Ooty where Samuel got his first job as  Headmaster in Breeks Memorial School. Her first published article was A Visit to the Todas in South India Observer ,the story of an interaction with the aborigins,Todas.She began writing her first novel, the autobiographical,Saguna: Story of a Christian Life in 1886;it was serialised in the Madras Christian College Magazine,1887-1888.She co authored a paper on the conversion of  W T Satthianadhan with her husband,The Story of a Conversion in 1891.The second novel,Kamala:Story of a Hindu Life followed in 1894.Miscellaneous writings was published in 1896.She finished the manuscript of Kamala in a hospital bed in Madras.She was diagnosed with TB;she had lost her only child.She died in 1894,at 33.Kamala has more than an echo of the novel,Middle March by George Elliot.Krupa admired her.
Though a Christian,she has not used her novels to preach any religion.She condemned decadent customs.In one of her visits to Pune she had seen Pandita Ramabai(1858-1922),a Brahmin converted to Christianity,who was running a home for widows.It  left an everlasting impression on her.Krupa recollects in Miscellaneous Writings:
How much fuller,brighter and healthier the life of our girls would be if they could only throw off the trammels of superstition and prejudice and breath the healthy atmosphere of innocent enjoyment and culture!Pandita Ramabai's work is national in its effects,for the widows she is training are sure to take lead in the emancipation of the women of India.
Both her heroines,Saguna and Kamala live life on their own terms.Both have internalized the conflicts.But finally they seek truth in their own faiths.Kamala walks out on her husband but ends up in renunciation.Saguna is critical of native Christian women:
She knew that the native Christian community was very small,and that there was no society to speak of neither long skirts nor short skirts.Her mother wore a soree.But she attended an English school,and her thoughts were influenced by those with whom she mixed.And who knows what the rising Christian community may not aspire to in future?Nothing is so startling as the unconscious imitation of English customs and manners by the people of India.
Thus,her new woman is the quintessential Indian woman.

Ramabai

After Krupa's death, Samuel married a Telugu Brahmin woman,Kamala          Krishnamma. She,daughter of Oruganti Sivarama Krishnamma, was 13 years younger than him.She agreed to conversion on the condition that she will become a graduate.Kamala graduated from Presidency College in 1898,the first South Indian woman graduate.Then she bacame the first Indian woman to do an MA.She started the first Indian women's magazine,Indian Ladies Magazine.So she also becomes the first Indian woman Editor.After Samuel's sudden death of a heart attack in Tokyo,Kamala didn't turn to Samuel's family for help,her daughter Padmini Sen Gupta reminisces.She became Sanskrit tutor to a Rani to bring up her two young children.Padmini  authored the biographies of Pandita Ramabai and Toru Dutt,the Bengali poetess who died at just 21. I have never come across so many firsts in a single article.Thus,Samuel Satthianadhan becomes the first Indian male feminist!

Reference:
1.The Satthianadhan Family Album/Eunice Dsouza/Sahitya Academy,2005
2.The Portrait of an Indian Woman/Padmini Sengupta/YMCA Publishing House,Kolkata,1956
3.Krupabai Satthianadhan:The Portrait of an Indian Lady/Subhendu Mund/The Ravenshaw 4.Journal of English Studies 6:Summer 1996
5.Stories of Indian Christian Life/Samuel Satthianadhan & Kamala Ratnam 6.Satthianadhan/Srinivasa Varadachari & Co,Madras,1896
7.Caste,Culture and Conversion from the Perspective of an Indian Christian Family based in Madras 1863-1906/Eleanor Jackson/University of Derby/1999
8.Lead Us On/Bishop Dr Sundar Clarke/2005

THE EGG AND THE TEXT:THE TRAVAILS OF WENDY DONIGER

Proscription of books is undemocratic
On november 12,2003,Wendy Doniger was delivering a lecture in London,chaired by William Dalrymple.A gathering of around 200 people .In an unguarded moment,a man threw an egg at her.It missed the target.Next day a mail from a woman took objection to a passage cited by Wendy from Valmiki Ramayana.In Ramayana,Wendy had said,Sita,wife of Rama has accused her brother in law,Lakshmana of wanting her for himself.The sexual thrust of Wendy's paper was unwarranted,owner of the mail,objected.
Wendy's book,The Hindus:An Alternative History has been withdrawn from the Indian market by the publisher,Penguin India.This follows an out of court settlement the publisher had with a  Delhi outfit,Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samithi.They had gone to Court,alleging distortion of history and denigration of Hindu sentiments.It is an unknown outfit of an 84 year old retired head master,Dinanath Batra.In a case under IPC 295 A,it is a conviction of three years in prison,if religious sentiments are hurt.

Wendy & her book

Wendy is a U S based Indologist(born 1940),teaching history of religions in University of Chicago Divinity School.Born to non observant Jewish parents,she graduated in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Radcliffe college in 1962.From Harvard,she took PhD with the dissertation,Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva.She got D Phil in Oriental Studies from Oxford.The thesis wasThe Origin of Heresy in Hindu Mythology.Her books include,Hindu Myths:A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit.She has translated 108 hymns from the Rigveda.
Disagreement to Wendy began a few years ago.Rajiv Malhotra,in a critique of her, objected to using psycho analytical concepts to interpret non-western subjects.She is not a psycho analyst,but a Philologist.
What is the objection to her book on Hinduism?In the Conclusion of the book,Wendy endorses most Hindus embodied truly tolerant Pluralism.The Bhakthi movement included women and dalits.Then she cautions:"we must curb  optimism by recalling the violence embedded in many forms of Bhakthi,and by noting that it was in the name of bhakthi to Ram that the militant Hindu nationalists tore down the Babri mosque.We must look before we leap into history,look at the present and imagine a better future."
I need not elaborate.
In the long preface,Wendy has elaborated how different the book is from other books on Hinduism.She has used the term,Alternative,to describe how much the marginalised sections of the Hindu society,the women and the oppressed have contributed to Hinduism.She claims,she has not tried to reverse or misrepresent the hierarchies.In the olden ages,Sankrit texts were vetted by male Brahmins.There were Brahmins who whispered into the ears of the kings;but there were dirt poor brahmins who begged for their daily bread.There were creative thinkers among them.There were non Sanskrit sources in the vernacular,Prakrit.There are moments that forged bridges between factions;there was mixing of classes.
Wendy ,in her book has focussed on actions;Nonviolence,Vegetarianism,the tension between the householder task and renunciation.The addiction and control of sensuality.She feels,this focus gives continuity in the midst of the flux.It is a narrative of religion within the narrative of the history.As a Linga,set in Yoni.Like a Hindu statue on a Plinth.In Hinduism,she says,each idea was a reaction.Hinduism is context sensitive;it responds immediately,not only in economic and political contexts,but inside Budhism or Islam.It represents Kings as Gods and Gods as Kings.It seldom drew a sharp line between the secular and religious power.

A K Ramanujan

Wendy thinks her book is not about maps and chaps.It rests on the shoulders of pygmies as well as giants.The history of Hinduism,to her mind,abounds in periods of creative assimilation,interaction and in violent outbursts of violent intolerence.In the ambivalent attitude to non violence,she infers,Hindus are no different from the rest.Poet and folklorist A K Ramanujan has said that he was troubled by this dualism in his father.His father was holding together astrology and astronomy in his brain at the same time.He never cared about this double vision.There is a dark shape visible on the moon.The Euro-Americans see the face of a man.Jews a man,but Cain.Others a woman,a moose(Eurasian Elk),buffalo or frog.But Hindus see a rabbit;in the 1930's some saw the figure of Gandhi.Budhists say Budha was a rabbit in one of his earlier births,who vowed to give flesh to any beggar,inorder to protect him from having to break the moral law by taking animal life.Indra,the Hindu king of Gods,took the form of a Brahmin and went to the rabbit.The rabbit offered himself.It shook its body thrice for insects to escape death and   jumped into the magical  fire conjured up by Indra.Indra,impressed by the action of the Rabbit,painted the rabbit on the moon!
Ludwig Wittgenstein,the Austrian-British philosopher said that in the image of duck-rabbit,it was rather a smug rabbit  or a droopy duck;but it could not be both at once!But,Wendy feels, a non Hindu should strive to see both rabbit and man.Wittgenstein,in his Philosophical Investigations,used the image to describe two types of seeing:seeing that;seeing as.Remember the Mirror/Reflection simile in Indian philosophy.

Wittgenstein's rabbit

After delineating her premise thus,in the preface,Wendy takes on the RSS and BJP:The Hindus are diverse in their attitude to diversity.Some are proud;some have anxiety.The right wing Hindu nationalists or fundamentalists have anxiety.They are against Muslims,Christians and the wrong Hindus.This book is so alternative to the narrative of Hindu history that they may tell.
I NEED NOT ELABORATE.
She goes on to say,in Indian history,individuals have turned the tide of tolerance or violence even against the current of the Zeitgeist.Ashoka,Akbar and Gandhi did it for tolerance;Aurangazeb,Brigadier Reginald Dyer and MS GOLVALKAR turned the tide towards intolerance.
I NEED NOT ELABORATE.
Wendy Doniger,as we have seen,has taken the man-rabbit image as central to her book and played on the theme af ambivalence.She quotes E M Forster who said,Every Indian hole has atleast two exits.The example:Manu argues for and against meat in the same chapter in Manusmrithi.She refers to A K Ramanujan retelling the Jamadagni/Renuka myth.In Sanskrit she is Renuka.But in Tamil she is both Mariamma(brahmin) and Ellamma(pariah).The brahmin ascetic,Jamadagni,father of Parasurama,cursed his wife to death.At the moment of her execution,she embraced a pariah woman,Ellamma,for sympathy.In the fray,both lost their heads.Later when he pardoned,the heads of the women got transposed.Mariamma had  Brahmin head and pariah body;Ellamma had Pariah head and Brahmin body.To Mariamma goats and cocks(not buffalo)were sacrificed;To Ellamma,only buffaloes.Here we see emancipation of the lower castes during the Bhakthi movement in South India.Wendy has mentioned this movement and ofcourse,Adi Sankara's crocodile,serpent and the rope.She has closed doors on the marginalised sections that appear in classical Sanskrit:for instance,the Jabala satyakama story.
I feel that both Wendy Doniger and the Hindu fundamentalists have missed the point.You may have by now seen the fact that there is an overemphasis on dualism,dwaita  in  her book,Hinduism:An Alternative History.Hence her oratory on the ambivalence.It was the practice of the Upanishad Gurus to place the contradictions before the pupil.Then the pupil was asked to select the right path himself.The Guru is only a tool or a medium.It can't be assessed as diverse attitudes to diversity.She it seems,has failed to understand the philosophy of Maya.Philology fails at the doorsteps of philosophy.
It is clear from the two stories she has mentioned in the book that she is ignorant of Advaita.In his 1939 novel,Finnegans Wake,Irish writer James Joyce has punned that Hindoo(the earlier British spelling for Hindu)is infact two Irish men,Hin-nessy and Doo-ley.Harvard Professor,Roman Jakobson notoriously objected to the Russian Novelist Vladimir Nabokov's bid for Chairmanship of the Russian Literature Department.Jakobson said:"I do respect very much the elephant.But would you give him the Chair of zoology?".
It meant that a Zoologist won't ask the questions on zoology(I studied zoology;I never asked questions;I was interested only in Genetics!).When Wendy quotes it,it means Hindus won't ask the right questions on Hinduism and she is the right person to ask .I have no objection to her mention of Lakshmana's sexual preference in Valmiki Ramayana.In India,people have not generally read Valmiki Ramayana,they usually read Ramacharitamanas,Kambaramayana or Aadyatma Ramayana.In all this Rama is God.But in Valmiki Ramayana,he is a man,hapless at times.I have admired Lakshmana questioning his dad,Dasaratha when Rama was exiled to the forest.Rama tells his dad that he is driven by lust at the embrace of Kaikeyi,mother of Bharatha.Lakshmana was more positive to Sita than Rama.So it is possible to work a love triangle.When one sees such human stories of lust and despair,one should also not forget the fragrance of democracy in Valmiki Ramayana.When Bharatha meets brother Rama in the forest,Rama asks:Are you not honouring the Carvakas still?.
It is a wonderful moment in  world literature.Carvakas had administered India for almost 900 years;they had preached Lokayata,the materialistic,atheist philosphy.The Marxism ancient India had developed.They were enemies of Rama.But Rama is reminding Bharatha that he should honour enemies.It is a democratic principle. The original Ramayana has such deep references,even environmental.Since Wendy has not gone deep,She fails to mention wonderful Indian books like Hinduism by K M Sen or Argumentative Indian by his son,Amartya Sen.She has fortunately mentioned D D Kosambi ,the Marxist historian who asked historians to ask not who was king,but who among the people who had a plough.Ofcourse,Balarama had a plough.Janaka got Sita when the earth was ploughed!Infact,No other historian has written the alternative history as Kosambi did.He was a Mathematician and a Sanskrit scholar too.

The most quoted person in the book is A K Ramanujan.An Essay of him,Three Hundred Ramayanas;Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation was withdrawn by the University of Delhi from the B A History syllabus in November,2011.The essay originally appeared in  Paula Richman's Many Ramayanas.His contribution in translating medieval Sanskrit poetry and retelling ancient stories is tremendous.Michael Witzel'sThe Origins of the World's Mythologies(2012)was also withdrawn from Indian market.The book,Shivaji:The Hindu King in Islamic India (2004)by James Laine had the same fate.Laine had doubts about Shivaji's paternity.Salman Rushdie's novel,Satanic Verses (1988) is banned in several countries including his native India.

A BRAIN IN CHAOS:THE DEATH OF SWATI THIRUNAL

Swati Thirunal had a fight with his friend Vadivelu, towards the end

I was always interested in the 'mysterious' death of Swati Thirunal. So, when a source told me that Dr K Rajasekaran Nair presented a paper on Swati Thirunal in a seminar conducted by the Neurological Society of India in Kolkata, I became inquisitive. It was December. The 150th death anniversary of Swati Thirunal was coming closer. I called Dr Nair. Since I don't keep a diary, here is the incident from his book, Manassinte Bandangalum Saidhilyangalum (The Mind: Affinities and Aberrations-2008):

It was when the dailies were contemplating what to do on the 150th death anniversary of Swati Thirunal, Ramachandran of Manorama got wind of me. Ramachandran came on the night of December 23 and took notes from the paper I presented. I thought they may carry a small bit somewhere on the inside pages. But I was taken aback when I saw the daily of that Christmas (1996 December 25). This story, on the front page, is spread over three columns on the right top. And a Wonderful headline: "Swati gets relief from History's Discordant Notes". It was an array of phone calls then.

Swati Thirunal died on December 27,1846. His condition began deteriorating on Christmas. Dr Nair's paper saw light of the day on Christmas. Some new facts on death have emerged since. Dr Nair's father, Sooranad Kunjan Pillai was a well-known scholar and recipient of the first Ezhuthachan prize instituted by the Government of Kerala. I had met him a couple of times in his Karamana house. He was the biographer of Swati Thirunal.

Fight with Cullen

Swati Thirunal ascended the gadi when he was barely 16 years old and reigned for 18 years. Travancore had come fully under the yoke of the British Raj. The transition created a feeling of humiliation and servitude. The change was intolerable for Swati Thirunal. His own top officials were corrupt. It is well known that the  Resident, General William Cullen and Swati Thirunal were not on talking terms and the broken relationship took a toll on Swati Thirunal's health. Cullen who was then a Colonel with the Madras Artillery Regiment was made Resident of Travancore and Cochin in 1840. During the 18-year rule of Swati Thirunal, Cullen was there for only six years. Their relationship was cordial initially, but there was a communication problem. Cullen's hearing was a little impaired and the Raja had to speak loud. For the frail Raja, this was a strain on his lungs. So, Swati Thirunal tried to avoid the meetings. This communication gap was exploited by an official, Krishna Rao, who was a protege of Cullen. Cullen brought Rao along with him and asked Swati Thirunal to give him a job. He was made Deputy Peshkar. Rao played on Cullen; Cullen objected to every action of Dewan Subba Rao, who was also Swati Thirunal's tutor. Cullen assumed authority and the Residency became the centre of intrigues.

Dewan had to resign and Krishna Rao was promoted as Head Dewan Peshkar, who became Acting Dewan. With Cullen's reports, the Madras Government concluded that Swati Thirunal is weak. Swati Thirunal called his father Raja Raja Varma Koil Thampuran and Elaya Raja Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma for a meeting and showed them a letter relinquishing Travancore's ties with the British. His father, Elaya Raja and aunt Paravati Bai pleaded with him not to send the letter to Madras. Parvati Bai, who was Regent was a mother figure to Raja; his mother Lakshmi Bai had died early, at age 23. Raja Raja Varma had eloped with family members, from Parappanad in Malabar to Changanachery during the siege of Malabar by Tipu Sultan. They stayed in the Neerazhi palace in Changanachery; Queen Lakshmi Bai, his wife, built the Lakshipuram palace for his family members, later. He was a poet and translator and had equal felicity in English and Sanskrit.

General Cullen

Against the wishes of Cullen and Krishna Rao, who was ambitious to become the Dewan, Swati Thirunal recalled former Dewan  Venkata Rao, popularly known as Reddy Rao, who had retired 20 years back, to be the new Dewan, in 1843.

Though Madras approved this, Cullen objected to the subsequent appointment of Palace Peshkar, Kochusankara Pillai. After six months, to add to Cullen's animosity, Swati Thirunal dismissed Krishna Rao and sent him to Kollam, thus alienating him from Cullen. Cullen then insisted on removing former Dewan Subba Rao from Travancore. He went back to Thanjavur. Though Swati Thirunal became successful in recalling him, this incident made him depressive. He was attached to his tutor. After this, Swati Thirunal devoted most of his time to religion, prayers and ablutions. He gifted large sums of money to the Padmanabha Swamy temple, and in one instance, one lakh Surat rupees. From several bags, he poured them into several silver vessels in front of the idol. It took an hour. A total of Rs 34,00,000 which was surplus in the treasury was spent by the Raja in vows and ceremonies. Treasury became empty. The old Travancore historians, who extol the virtues of Swati Thirunal are silent on this. Maybe you get a peep into the mystery of the treasure of the temple.

History says a "complaint added to Raja's uneasiness". Maybe the complaint was against the extravaganza. He resorted to fasts and abstained from food. He denied audience to all including family members and personal physician Dr Colin Peterson. The Raja referred to Cullen as Sweta, Pandaram or Vellan. His dislike for Europeans distanced Dr Peterson completely from him. Peterson was a relative of Cullen, according to Robin Jeffrey, the Kerala scholar. It was with great difficulty, at the interference of his aunt, Lord Hay, the visiting son of the Governor of Madras, Marquis de Tweedle, was given an audience.

Illustrated London(1952)/Victoria's letter to Cullen for Raja

Against the wishes of Cullen, Dewan Reddy Rao appointed his two sons in his own office. It became an issue in Fort St George and they were removed. 

In 1845, the Dewan went on a circuit to the northern districts while the Resident was in Bolghatty Palace, in Cochin. At Paravoor, he received gifts from Anantha Raman Iyen, who was the son of the late Dewan of Cochin, Nunjappiah. Some of his settlements there, including a case against a Tehsildar, were suspicious. Both Cullen and the Raja received complaints and Reddy Rao was asked to resign. Sreenivasa Rao was made Head of Dewan Peshkar. The treasury was empty and Swati Thirunal went to Kollam to recover health. At the end of the year, there were huge losses due to a storm and floods; Raja's father died. From then on, Swati Thirunal led a secluded, sedentary life. He loved solitude. The physician, Dr Peterson had no information on the illness; Elaya Raja was the medical attendant. He was afraid to enter the Raja's chamber. Swati Thirunal was unable to walk a few paces.

Rajaraja Varma, with Son, Swati

One day Swati Thirunal called Elaya Raja and told him to take back Krishna Rao to the Travancore service. Sreenivasa Rao is weak, he said. Let us give Krishna Rao a try, and assuage Cullen's raw feelings, he said. Krishna Rao was called and given the appointment letter as Dewan Peshkar."From this day, you are my man, not Cullen's", Swati Thirunal smiled, and Rao wept. The Raja asked him to assist Sreenivasa Rao well. It was December 10,1846. The last appointment was made by Swati Thirunal.

On the morning of Christmas, Swati Thirunal didn't go to the bathroom. When he didn't stir out of his bed, it struck alarm bells. No one dared to venture into his chamber. When alerted, his aunt Parvathi Bai and his brother-in-law went to Kuthiramalika. They and the Ilaya Raja waited outside the door. Around 11 AM, he got up heard his aunt's voice and tried to walk. He scolded the attendant who tried to help him. His legs failed to support him and Swati Thirunal held on to the wall with one of his hands."Mother, have you had your breakfast?", he asked his aunt. He said he slept a little longer.

The next day too, he didn't go to the bathroom. He had ablutions in the adjoining room. He had a light meal at 11 AM and went to bed. He was sinking. The doctor was not allowed inside. Elaya Raja asked Krishna Rao to alert Cullen. Ilaya Raja went to the palace more than 10 times. Around 10 Pm, Swati Thirunal ordered liquid food, sipped it a little and went to his last sleep. At three in the morning(December 27), the attendant saw him motionless.

Achuthsankar

Holloway's ointment

Dr Achutsankar S Nair, a bioinformatics expert who sings Carnatic music brilliantly, and Catherine Logan have jointly published a paper, Colin Peterson and his Medical Report of Travancore (1842). Catherine is related to Peterson(1815-1863). We have seen Peterson was never allowed inside the Raja's chamber. In the paper, they said:

"In 1846, a few months before Swati Thirunal's demise, it is known from several advertisements that appeared in the London Times that Colin Peterson administered a drug marketed by Holloway on Swati Thirunal. For instance, The Times, London dated 8 December 1846 (Tuesday) on page 8 carried the following, classified as an advertisement:

The Raja of Travancore and Holloway's ointment-On the 11th of July 1846, Professor Holloway was honoured with an order for six of the largest pot of Holloway's ointment from no less a personage than his Royal Highness the Raja, or reigning sovereign King of Travancore through the eminent firm of Messrs J Cockburn and Co, East India merchants, No 15, New Broad Street, London. The ointment, it appears, is for the personal use of the Raja, and will be employed under the superintendence of his private physician. Holloway's ointment is sold all over India, being a certain cure for ulcers, wounds, sores....of 28 years standing and may be obtained of the proprietor...London and of every medical vendor.

Holloway

Achutsankar, further in an article, The Demise of Swati Thirunal: New Facts, said: "Holloway's ointment is known to have been created by Thomas Holloway, who termed it a 'cure anything' ointment and made him rich. It is also today known that Holloway's medicines contained aloe, myrrh and saffron, which are unlikely to cure anything in the modern view. However, the diseases claimed to be cured are pointers to the medical conditions of Swati Thirunal and require further research by medical practitioners".

ointment pot

True. There is a theory that Cullen may have administered Holloway's ointment on the King with the help of Krishna Rao and the King's Physician. And that they may have poisoned him.Very unlikely. Swati Thirunal, who was suspicious of Cullen would have certainly taken precautions. It is evident from the fact that no European was allowed inside his chamber. Only Lord Hay was allowed. The Raja had refused to take medicines, even from the local vaidyars. Krishna Rao was allowed only once inside the chamber and was made happy just before the Raja's death.

Epilepsy

Dr Rajasekharan Nair had written an article on the disease of Swati Thirunal in Malayalam. It was devoid of medical language and I think it didn't contain the details his paper had. Dr Nair had done a retrospective diagnosis of Swati Thirunal's disease, considering symptoms and found that it was a normal death due to TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY. He had definitely rejected the prayopavesam theory, death by fasting. Raja was having food, though scarce. The immediate cause of death, according to Dr Nair's inference, is the blockage of the circulation of blood to the Cerebellum, characterised by Swati Thirunal's inability to walk.

Dr Rajasekaran Nair

Temporal lobe epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition manifested by recurrent seizures which originate in the temporal lobe of the human brain. The seizures involve sensory changes, like, smelling an unusual odour that is not there and disturbance of memory. Epilepsies fall into two main categories: partial and general.60% of all adult cases are partial. There are two types of temporal lobe epilepsies: Medial(MTLE) and Lateral(LTLE).MTLE is the common one. It arises in the inner aspect of the lobe, whereas LTLE arises in the neocortex or outer surface. The symptoms are, De ja Vu(a feeling of familiarity), Jamis Vu(feeling of unfamiliarity), amnesia, producing abnormal sounds(auditory), abnormal taste(gustatory), smell which is not physically present(olfactory), visual, sensory sensations, fear and anger. In the last stages, it impairs consciousness: motionless staring, automatic movements of hands or mouth and unreal speech.

The causes of the disease are encephalitis, meningitis, stroke and tumour. There are genetic syndromes. But it is not the result of mental health disorders. Human herpes virus has been seen in the affected area. The disease is said to be chronic when it is seen for more than three months; it is characterised by the high prevalence of depression. Now we move on to the celebrated neuroscientist, Vilayanur S Ramachandran, who wrote the great book, Phantoms in the Brain. He is the Director, of the Centre for Brain and Cognition, in San Diego, US. He is the grandson of Sir Alladi Krishna Swamy Iyer.

V S Ramachandran

V S Ramachandran's research has found that patients affected with TLE showed enhanced responses to religious words, diminished responses to sexually charged words and normal responses to neutral words. It means the medial temporal lobe is involved in religion, images and symbols. I am not a scientist, but I think the key to Swati Thirunal's disease lies here. Hence I emphasised religiosity in Swati Thirunal's actions when I quoted from history. His religious activity was excessive. A lot of religious leaders of yore have been found afflicted with TLE.J E Bryant's book, Genius and Epilespsy(1952) lists more than 20 mystical and great personalities. Famous neuropsychiatric, Peter Fenwick has questioned the trend of reverse diagnosis about religious leaders. Suffice it to say that Ramachandran's findings support Dr Nair, though it is not specific to Swati Thirunal.

Swati Thirunal was a writer and musician who became excessively religious towards the end. His eccentricities have been detailed. All of the kin were afraid of him because of his actions. The religious figures who were epileptic include Ezekiel, Paul the Tarsus, Saint Birgitta, Joan of Arc, Saint Catherine of Jenoa, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Catherine of Ricci, Saint Marguerite Marie, Saint Therese de Lisieux. Excessive religiosity and hypergraphia or excessive writing are part of a disorder called Geschwind Syndrome.

Several celebrities, Socrates, Julius Caesar, Elizabeth Munroe (wife of James Munroe, 5th President of the US), Napoleon I etc have been found epileptic in retrospective diagnosis.
Musicians afflicted include Jimmy Reed, Neel Young, Lil Wayne, Lindsey Buckingham, Chris Knox, Ian Curtis, Richard Jobson, Susan Boyle, Edith Bowman, Peter Jeffries, Vusi Mahlasela, Hikari de, Mike Nolan, Adam Horowitz, Mike Skinner, Geoff Rickley, Prince and Lauren Pitford.Among writers, Dostoevsky, Karen Armstrong, and Stephen Knight. Edgar Allan Poe, Tolstoy, Lewis Carrol, Alfred Nobel, Tchaikovsky, Roosevelt, Truman Capote, Richard Burton etc had one or more seizures. Alexander, Da Vinci, Martin Luther, Louis XIII, Moliere, William, JonathanSwift, Samuel Jonson, Rousseau, Byron, Shelley, Dickens, Kierkegaard, Flaubert, Maupassant, Van Gogh and Graham Greene had similar symptoms.

Among political leaders, Lenin is a famous case. So, Swati Thirunal is in good company. Some suspect that Swati Thirunal had some venereal disease and Holloway's ointment has something to do with it; people affected with TLE are known for sexual dysfunction. Swati Thirunal was not impotent before he became ill; he had a son from Narayani-Anantha Padmanabhan Thampi. The Travancore historians, out of devotion to the dynasty, were very antagonistic towards Cullen. Swati Thirunal's successor Uthradam Thirunal had no quarrel with him; in fact, Cullen became his protector. Cochin had no problem with him. Let history speak for itself. While delivering a speech, on Swati Thirunal's relations with Cullen, on February 5, 2013, Dr Robin Jeffrey said Cullen loved Travancore and did his best to protect it from Dalhousie's doctrine of lapse annexation. It was with the contribution of Cullen and Krishna Rao, the museum was started in Thiruvananthapuram. Cullen retired in 1860 and settled in Travancore. On the way to Nilgiris, he got a fever in Kollam and died in Alapuzha on october1,1862. He was cremated in CSI Church there.

Vadivelu

The neurologist and the historian have missed the crux while unravelling the mystery of Swati Thirunal's death. A year ago before his death, the Raja got estranged from his asthana vidwan Vadivelu whom he had nurtured. The reason for the estrangement is still a mystery; T Lakshmana Pillai (1864-1950) has stated that Sarasijanabha, the famous keerthanam ascribed to Swati Thirunal was a fact written by Vadivelu. Vadivelu was drawing more than double the salary of the Magistrate. The estranged Vadivelu moved from Aryasala where Swati Thirunal had built a house for him, to Haripad. The court musicians interfered and they were reconciled. When Vadivelu praised the Raja in a Varnam in a performance after reconciliation, Swati Thirunal admonished him and told him to praise HIM. The very next day, Vadivelu changed the line in the verse: it is the Adathala Varnam, in Natta, Sammugamu. Vadivelu died a few months before the Raja, in 1845.No doubt, it hastened Swati Thirunal's death.

I never knew how to finish this-so I called Dr Nair, a friend of the legendary Oliver Sachs, now. He told me, as President of the Neurological Society of India, he was the first to invite V S Ramachandran for a talk in 1999. I do remember film actor Murali telling me that he invited Ramachandran to Thiruvananthapuram, after reading Phantoms in the Brain. Dr Nair told me he chaired the NSI session, and a neurologist at Apollo Hospital, a classmate of Ramachandran, who has his name in Vathapi Ganapathim Bhaje discouraged him. He told Dr Nair that Ramachandran is an eccentric! Eccentricity is tolerable; not mediocrity. It was the problem with Swati Thirunal. 

Reference:
1. History of Travancore/P Shangunni Menon
2.Swati Thirunal/Sooranad Kunjan Pillai
3.Colin Peterson and his Medical Report of Travancore(1842)/Achuth Sankar S Nair & Catherine Logan
4.Manassinte Bandangalum Saidhilyangalum/Dr K Rajasekharan Nair
5.Rogangalum Sargatmakathayum/Dr K Rajasekharan Nair
6. The Demise of Swati Thirunal/New Facts/Achuth Sankar S Nair
7. Genius and Epilepsy/J E Bryant
8. Demystifying Swati Thirunal/V Sriram

© Ramachandran 

See my blogs, MASTERS IN MASTER BEDROOMS & VIOLIN COMES TO CHENNAI




 

MIRROR AND CAMPHOR:JNANESWAR AND THE OUTCASTES

Amritanubhava is his masterpiece

Every new day brings you surprises,though you think that your life is under your control.
Once you are out of your home,you are not even sure of whom you will meet or what is going to happen to you.So,I avoid morning and evening walks.There are trucks on the NH which go to the Willingdon Island.My neighbor breathed his last under a truck while crossing to buy masala dosas from the hotel just opposite.Though Shakespeare has said,life is a tale told by an idiot,full of sound and fury signifying nothing,I was enamored by a single line in the Jnaneswari by Sant Jnaneswar:Life is death in disguise.Swami Ranganathananda quotes an English poet repeatedly in his discourses:Beating of the heart is the bugle of the funeral which began at the time of birth.He has not named the poet.Maybe John Donne.

The surprise is,I found there is another book by Jnaneswar:Amritanubhava-Ambrosial Experience.I got it from the bookshop in the sprawling Sreeramakrishna Ashram in Mylapore.My daughter was sitting in an examination hall in Thiruvanmiyur.My wife and myself decided to spent the next three hours in serendipity.
 Serendipity is a word coined by Horace Walpole in 1754,for an unexpected discovery.I first encountered this word in a book by Gay Talese.We went to the Sri Anantha Padmanabhaswamy temple in Adyar, Ashtalakshmi temple in Basant Nagar and then I asked the auto driver to straight away go to Mylapore.I also bought the english translation of Tirumular's Tirumanthiram from the Ashram.

John Higgins

Great literature has flowed from outcastes or people from the lower rungs of society.Jnaneswar was an outcaste from Brahmins;Kambar was son of a widow and Kankadasa,who composed Krishna Nee Begane Baro(listen to John Higgins singing it)in front of the Udupi Sreekrishna temple was from the low warrior caste and the brahmin fundamentalists didn't allow him to enter the temple.The legend has it that he prayed from outside and the wall of the temple broke giving him darshan.So in Udupi,we see Sreekrishna through a window! Higgins was also restrained from entering the temple;Like Kanakadsa,he sang it from outside.But there was no opening of another window.

Kanakadasa

Jnaneswar (1275-1296) was a Maharashtrian hindu saint,philosopher and yogi connected with the Nath tradition.Both Bavartha Deepika(Jnaneswari) and Amrithanubhava written by him are masterpieces of Marathi literature.One of the first original philosophers in Marathi,he was born before the Muslim invasion,during the Yadava kings,who nurtured art and literature.He was the second of four children of Vithal Pant Kulkarni and Rukmini from Apegaon  near Paithan on the banks of Godavari.Vithal knew vedas.He married Rukmini,daughter of Sidhopant Kulkarni from Alandi,30 kilometres from Pune.Kulkarnis are traditional revenue officials.
On a pilgrimage to Kashi,Vithal met Ramananda Swami and asked him for an intiation into sanyasa.After doing it,the Swami who went to Alandi
found Vithal had lied that he was a brahmachari and asked him to go back to his family.
Vithal,who broke from asceticism was excommunicated by brahmins.

Jnaneswar

The couple had four children,Nivrithi,Jnandev,Sopan and Mukta.The family went on a pilgrimage to Thryambakeshwar near Nashik.There in a whirlwind,Nivrithi disappeared,found his Guru Gahini Nath in a cave and became his disciple.When the time was ripe to do upanayana (sacred thread ceremony) Vithalnath went to the brahmins and begged to take them back.They refused and ordered the couple to jump  into the waters at Prayag were Ganga and Yamuna embrace eachother.Even after their suicide the brahmins remained adamant. They asked the children to go to Paithan,the spiritual centre ,and apologise to the brahmin leaders there.They appeared before the religious court.The scholars ridiculed Jnaneswar.When the trial was on,an ass passed by.When asked,legend says,Jnaneswar made the ass to  recite vedas!He proved the Almighty resides everywhere,has no caste or creed.The brahmin verdict was they wont take the children back because they are superiors.
Nivrithinath,elder brother who initiated Jnaneswar,instructed him to go to Nevasa,Ahmed Nagar .He gave discourses in the Adimaya temple and completed the commentary of Bhagavat Gita,Bhavartha Deepika.He was just15.Amritanubhava followed.Then,Jnaneswar with Namdev and other saints went on a pilgrimage.The fame of Jnanadev spread everywhere and hat yogi Changdev tested Jnaneswar by sending a blank note to him.Jnaneswar laughed and wrote 65 verses,the quintessence of vedanta,on it.This is called Changdev Pasashti.Another legend:Changdev rode on the back of a tiger with a cobra as whip and came to Jnaneswar again.The siblings were sitting on a masonry wall.When Changdev arrived,Jnaneswar made the wall to  move up!Whipping up of animal instincts through knowledge.

jnaneswar

Changdev and moving wall

After the pilgrimage,Jnaneswar came back to Pandharpur and decided to end his mission.He travelled to Alindi and entered into permanent samadhi in the Sideswara temple.It was october 15,thursday,1296,Krishnapakha trayodasi day.He was  21.After seven months,the three other siblings bid farewell to the world.On the day of his samadi,every year there is a procession carrying his footwear on a palanquin,from Alandi to Pandharpur.It is a 228 kilometres walk for 18 days.Three lakh devotees join the march.They worship the saint who founded the Bhakthi movement.

procession from Alandi

Amritanubhava,is too heavy for a 15 year old.So he says:"The world of words which can talk about us has yet to come into existence".It is very difficult for words to convey correctly the experience of enlightenement .Individual merges with the absolute and there is no use for the legion of words.As soon as the words issue forth before their meanings follow in  their wake,they disappear like the picture of a fish drawn on the water surface.But though difficult,Jnaneswar described his ambrosial experience.It deals with Illusion,knowledge and reality.The entire world of movea
bles and immovables is the creation of the Supreme for himself to enjoy;the difference which is experienced as the seer and the object of seeing is not real.Even his seeing is not real because when he sees he sees not and when he does not see,he sees.The speech transcends the silence of silence.

Amritanubhava is a text of 800 verses.In it he has repeated the simile of mirror and reflection 25 times and the illustration of camphor 10 times.Reflection in the form of the universe is caused by one's face alone and it makes one realize one's own face in its place;similarly the colour,lustre and fragrance of camphor are all aspects of camphor only.You know the simile of Serpent and the rope of Adi Sankara-it is the same.It is a misreading of the rope as serpent.Maya.If you know Sankara,you are very close to Jnaneswar.The two books of him are Marathi epics.I have not seen such sublime poetry in any literature in the world.I quoted Shakespeare;You may read the Song of Myself in Walt Whitman's epic,Leaves of Grass:
My respiration and inspiration
The beating of my heart
The passing of blood and air
Through my lungs....
Same heart beat. It reverberates through the sublime to the Absolute.

Reference:
Amritanubhava/Translation by Ramachandra Keshav Bhagwat
Jnaneswari/Translation by M P Chandrasekharan Pillai
Leaves of Grass/Walt Whitman

View my blog,EGG AND TEXT:THE TRAVAILS OF WENDY DONIGER

THE DUET:HINDI EMBRACES MALAYALAM

HINDI MUSIC DIRECTORS IN MALAYALAM

Three music directors who enriched Malayalam movies,literally lived in the streets,in their formative years.Two of them were from the Hindi music world:Naushad and Bombay Ravi.The third one,the legendary M S Baburaj,or Babukka was a street singer in Kozhikode.Pather Panchali means Song of the Road,isn't it?

Naushad,who was born in Lucknow and repaired harmoniums,had run away to Mumbai in 1937.He slept on the footpath in front of the Broadway Theater.
Bombay Ravi ,born in Delhi as Ravishankar Sharma was an electrician.He lived in Mumbai streets;slept in Malad railway station.They  made palaces in the air,with sound waves.

In the beginning,it was the duo Shankar Jaikishan.They did music for the 1952 Malayalam movie,Desabhakthan.Two songs,Sahayamare Bale and Oh Chinthayil En were sung by P A Periyanayaki;Radha Jayalakshmi was given the song,Oh Athimodamarnna.Lyrics were by Abhaya Dev.No song is available today.Hailing from Panrutti,Periyanayaki made her foray into films at age 
10 in C V Raman's Urvashiyin Kadhai.She attracted attention in T R Raghunath's Prabhavati.Her big moment came  when Meiyappan of AVM studios sent for her for Srivalli.She had sung for him in Balayogini in 1937.She was influential in Tamil industry as actress and singer as well as the close relative of the dance duo,Sayee-Subbulakshmi,singer Padma and the sound engineer in AVM,V S Raghavan.Padma was Sayee's mother in law.Nayaki had entrusted Subbulakshmi and Sayee to dance director,Muthuswamy Pillai.
 

Periyanayaki

In the duo,Shankar was a South Indian,born in Hyderabad.Jaikishan was from Vansda,Gujarat.Their famous song,Man mohana Bade Jhoote from the hindi film Seema was resung by Madhuri in the movie,Charam(1983).Another gem of them in Aawara(1951),sung by Mukesh was re sung by Mohanlal  in Vishnulokam(1991).It was clunky but endearing.
MOVIE:VISHNULOKAM/AAVARA HUM/MOHANLAL