LORD SIVA THE DESTROYER- A PARADOX

Trimurti is a concept well known in Hindu religion where the deity namely, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Siva are worshiped as creator, protector and destroyer of all life forms respectively. The Trimurti sculpture in Elephanta caves is an example of belief ancient India had in the Trimuthi concept.

Elephanta caves, Maharashtra 

The Trimurthi is an unique concept which can be viewed as a doctrine in the post vedic period. When there were different religious views that created a divide on basis of deity of their worship namely Shaktism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Sauram. Trimurthi concept unified people of different views together.

Commendable question that arises is what does Lord Shiva as a destroyer of life forms have to do with unification of these various views?.

The search for the answer to this question made me write this article, Lord Shiva who has been branded a destroyer of life form has been a proven unifier rather than a destroyer in ancient India.

Notice Shiva Jotirlinga in various part of India.

An interesting fact to note here is that ancient India had so many rulers and so many across many dynasties who were constantly fighting among themselves for land and power.

Ancient Indian dynastic

Lord Shiva became the unifying factor among these different dynasties and acted as a common factor of identity for various people who lived in ancient India. It was believed that Lord Shiva was the ruler of the land and its people. The King who was considered the representative of Lord Shiva. It is in this one common factor that many came together and Identified themselves as a member of one nation, though ruled by different rulers. It is also for this same reason the foreign invaders identified India as one single nation though ruled by different rulers.

Another question that shook me off is- When having temple of one deity is not common only to Shiva, then why should Lord Shiva be a unifier?. But it is only Lord Shiva our ancestors accepted as a common ruler and a destroyer of bad karma. Be it Adi Shankara or Sri Appaya Dikshita who were the most adored scholars of their times who preached that no deity is supreme and every deity is unique, went to Kedarnath and Chidambaram respectively for attaining moksha. 

Saint Manika Vasakar penned this down in Tiru Vasagam by saying "Thenaadu udaya Sivane Pootri, En naattavarkum iraivaa potri."      

Meaning of these famous lines is that "I praise the lord who is the eternal truth and I praise the lord who is ruler of every land."

It is true that immortal country like India will astonish us in every possible way, be it her culture, her religion or her people, it is only when we try to learn her we can fall in love with her. 

Thanks for reading. Jai Hind. 

Akshayaram Viswanathan

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity are the three golden words that sparked and crafted the history of the world for the past four hundred years. It is highly unjust if the three golden words are viewed just as any other word printed in a book which brings inconsequential results. Lets see the bloodshed and Holocaust crafted by these  ideas by looking back at historical facts.

Ideas of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity most commonly attributed to a liberal ideals by a vast majority of the common public and media, but the ideas have a deep rooted birth in the imperialism, nepotism. The argument though hard to digest a few historical facts quoted can help. 

Two major revolution that no middle school history books leaves uncovered are American and French revolution. French revolution followed the American uprising to the ideals of  Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. There are various attributes and motives to consider in both the revolutions.

American revolution which lasted for almost two decades  is mostly studied as a series of events from imposing of stamp taxes which imposed a special stamp for every news paper, postal cards circulated in America, passing of numerous intolerable acts by the British parliament which restricted town meetings and allowed royal governors to host British soldiers in common citizen home , Boston tea party to declaration of independence and signing Treaty of Paris. The American revolution though resulted as a revolution majorly aimed at the ending of colonial rule for their oppressive regime, the ideals of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was not actually established after crafting the Declaration of Independence(DOI). The Civil war which rose after a century, majority of the slaves supporting the British empire in the American revolution and the famous line DOI which says "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."  Declaration of Independence by itself  a clear example that gender, race discrimination and Slavery remained undefeated by American revolution and Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was not the end result of revolution. Wealthy nobles and Clergy who owned huge property ended up paying no taxes for their wealth and a powerful position in newly formed federal government and bicameral Congress that represented the senate became the ultimate beneficiary of American revolution.

 

Ironically, throughout the revolution France was under Monarch rule and a major ally of  American forces against colonial British empire which itself was a monarch in the first place. Funding the American revolution to counter global hegemony of British colonial empire by Louis XVI  lead to his own assassination.

The consequence of French revolution lies only in the aftermath of it, after the failed attempt of Louis XVI family to Netherlands and his assassination. Tennis court oath for the formation of new constitution by the third estate, formation of new national assembly to over throw the regime, Storming of Baseline in search of weapon lead to fear and tension among peasants on one side and an angry mob using gherao technique to take revenge on their land lords and fulfilling their personal desires.

 

Decade long revolution resulted in creating the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen propagated by its famous line  "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.", but the very same line even allowed that social discrimination can be founded for general good. Revolution also resulted in creating political vacuum which only resulted in much bigger blood shed and dictatorship.

Rise of Maximilien Robespierre to the committee of public safety started a reign of terror, any enemy to the revolution was guillotined off their head leading to the rough estimated victim count of forty thousand of which more than eighty percent of them belonging to Third Estate . Noble classes joined  National assembly which sold its land and announced church officials as state officials, this further offended poor peasants who were supposed to be reason for revolution in the first place.

Condition further worsened  when ruling convention feared against Robesphierre uprising and executed him, this further lead to another political vacuum filled by Napoleon Bonaparte who was originally an army general and whose main goal was to conquer and win Britain and Russia leading to more dictatorial rule. Napoleon is known for nepotism and favoritism by crowning his own family members in his conquered lands.

 

Ideals of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity has a long history drenched in blood shed and a bad holocaust. Though the patriarchal, dynastic and dictatorial condition still existed in both the places even after the revolution, it kept its mark on many posterity which paved way and fueled momentum in the society for evolving into a global consortium cherishing the true ideals of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.    

   

Akshayaram Viswanathan

MUST READ TALE OF MAHISMATI EMPIRE

We are living in a land filled with mystical, mythological and historical  stories, Vikramaditya and Vedhal, Tenaliraman, Akbar and Birbal the list is endless, setting these stories aside we also have astonishing ithi-hasas (which translates to thus happen in Sanskrit) like Ramayana, Mahabharata originally written by Sage Valmiki and Sage Vyasa respectively, some may argue here that Mahabarat was technically written by Lord Vinayak.

Our land is an Immortal land for a reason, the ancient cultures of the Central, South and North Americans, Celts, Nordics, Mesopotamian s and many others are largely extinct.But ancient Indian culture stubbornly refuses to die despite of repetitive violent and intellectual attacks though there may be many reasons attributed by many eminent scholars, the sole lies in engineering our culture, ithi-hasa and puranas to mend with evolution.

Tales of Lord Rama or Lord Krishna are being told not by one, but many. which is a unique feature to the majority population of our land, for instance there is not one author for Ramayana, the original Ramayana written by Sage Valmiki, was again written by Tulasidas ji in 16th century, penned by Poet Kambar in Tamil language by 12th century, the personification of  Sita is different in all three texts. Keeping in mind the time difference of these authors the characteristic feature differs.

The craze for Bahubali film can be attributed to the craze of the 1980s Ramyana television series that changed the communal and political mind set of the country. India built by left liberal mindset changed communally, politically into center right. Demolition of disputed structure made the pink lotus to blossom ,reason for the political party founded by Syama Prasad ji rolling into power can be majorly attributed to the 1980s Ramayana serial which had a dynamic impact on Indian viewers.

The Bahubali tale too had an impact of Indian viewers which is evident by the numbers generated by the film. The tale of Mahismati penned by Annand Nelakandan is a prequel to the Bahubali series has a same ingredients compared to Ramayana of 1980s.

Annand Nelakandan understood the the essence of ithi hasa of our land and have further mended it to the present day generation. Various characters and ideas are engineered to  leave the readers contemplated, characters like Skandasa is very much relatable to present prime minister Modi.

Characters and dialogues are powerful that it may leave an impact until the next book in the trio series arrives, the personification of the protagonist character Sivagami in an invincible trait sets the entire tale interesting and involving. Kattapa's loyalty to Mahismati empire reasoned in the book, gives an added honor badge to the author.

Some strong dialogues spoken by characters that left me perplexed.

"Enemy is not the one to hate, but enmity and cause of it" 

"Eyes should either have fire or fear, but the sight to see all that God holds dear"

"it is easy to find fault, protest and rebel, but it is difficult to change things inch by inch by being part of system"

Overall the tale of Sivagami and Mahismati is a very good read, a modern day mythology and a future ithi hasa.

Many thanks to SS. Rajamouli ji for making modern day Valmiki penning down a future ithi hasa for many many  posterity. 

Akshayaram Viswanathan

Knowing India's Sakthi

-Akshayaram Viswanathan

September 30, 1983, Swami Vivekananda in an interview to Boston Evening Transcript quoted that "the day India started neglecting their women, the downfall of the nation started". It fills my heart with a mixed feeling of extreme emotions in writing this topic, Proud to belong to a nation and religion which thought the world gender equality and power of women, Sad seeing history taking it course in an unpleasant manner and witnessing the plight of 48.14% of my nation biggest power.  

Bharat is a holy homeland for the religion which has three million forms of gods in which more than half of them are portrayed as matha(Mother) or Sakthi(Power). Portraying women as a symbol of power or mother found in numerous instances in the sacred land of ours. "Bharat Matha Ki Jai" is a holy mantra which gives extreme courage and hopes in fighting evil to our jawans and a sense of pride to our fellow citizens.

Let's look at one instance which each one of us needs to know to understand the power of a woman in this sacred land of ours.

The 20th century marked the golden era for the freedom movement not just in Bharat, but around the globe. India is the largest country that was set independent in the previous century with the birth of a new country named Pakistan. This may seem irrelevant in this context, but it is not. The very thought of freedom was from a Sakthi(Women).

Velu Nachiyar was the first person to fight the British in a battle and win them, Nachiyar a queen of Ramanathapuram who lost her husband, father, and her crown in a battle against British spent almost eight years in exile forming an alliance and sketching her attack against the British at the right time. Nachiyar's army was the woman's army, the army of Nachiyar's also had a separate suicide squad for carrying out a suicidal attack against the British.

Nachiyar's own daughter, Udaiyaal who lead the army from the front lost her life to British in Nachiyar's second big encounter against British, the second encounter cost heavily for Nachiyar's leaving her daughter and trustworthy fighters to god's hands.

With help of Gopala Nayakar and HyderAli Nachiyar did her third successful third encounter against British in 1780 which resulted in Nachiyar being a first ever person to fight British back in the colonial era and have her power re-installed to herself.

Nachiyar proved and defined woman to the British and western world who considered and called the woman as "weaker sex".

  

Nachiyar's courage in the 18th century travelled all the way to north India and made Mangal Pandey and Jhansi rani to fight British in the revolt of 1857. If it is not for the courage and determination of this great lady of Tamil Nadu, there would have been no story of Marudu brothers, Verra Pandiyan, Kapalotiya Chidambaram Pillai in Tamil Nadu.

Velu Nachiyar is a stunning example of a woman who explained the ideal womanhood of India is motherhood— marvellous, unselfish, all suffering, ever-forgiving mother. It is sad that this story of the great lady which should be the inspirational story of every woman is largely forgotten in our holy land.  

India is considered sacred only because of her holiness, it is the duty of every citizen of this holy land to respect and maintain the holiness, woman in this generation needs to understand her glorious past and have pride in her ancestors of this land. It is from woman holiness is born and woman needs to know the power of her holiness.


Akshayaram Viswanathan