Bharat Mata

India is a country with numerous gods and goddesses in its religious pantheon, especially in the mainstream Hindu religion. The religion became a part of the naming of the country at a point of time when identity of the nation got associated with its religion and thus the name Hindustan, the land of Hindus. Important to mention that the name was not coined during the Independence movement, but was coined by foreigners who identified the nation with the religion of the majority during their journey to our country.

The religion and certain aspects of the national religion got an impetus during the independence movement when mythological allusions were used to boost the movement. (Read more about it in the earlier articles on the subject  Independence Movement & the Myth of Markandeya ;  This is Utkarsh Speaking: Chourasi Devonwali Gaay ). These apart, new deities were also ‘created’ for a reference point and lend credence to the movement. One of the deities which got a focus was Bharat Mata.

Prithvi was a Vedic deity which was worshipped from time immemorial and was associated with earth. Worship of earth was an age old concept well ingrained in the Indian psyche. Soon ‘earth’ was associated with ‘land’ and during the independence movement; ‘land’ became synonymous with ‘motherland’. The concept of motherland was becoming a central focus in nationalistic literature of the times. Around the late 19^th century the idea of Bharat Mata was formed in a play by the same name in a play by Kiran Chandra Bandhopadhyay in 1873. In 1882, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel Anandmath introduced a hymn ‘vande mataram’, which became the clarion call for the Independence movement. In 1905, Abanindranath Tagore, the nephew of Rabindranath Tagore drew the first painting of Bharat Mata. The painting was actually drawn as Banga Mata, a personification of an undivided Bengal which was fragmented by the British. However, this Banga Mata soon became the precursor to many more representations of Bharat Mata.

 

Bharat Mata by Abanindranath Tagore

Abanindranath Tagore’s Bharat Mata was however, quite different from the image that people had in their minds. His Bharat Mata was a beautiful young woman who was in orange coloured saree, and looked like a sadhvi (a Vaishnav nun), standing at the edge of a lotus pond. She was shown with a halo behind her head, and had four hands, giving her a divine look. In each of her hands she was holding a sacred manuscript, an akshamala, or a rosary of beads, a vastra or a piece of fabric and a bunch of rice foliage. She had a calm demeanor and was an embodiment of grace. She was a combination of both Saraswati and Lakshmi, deities who were highly revered, the former for knowledge and the latter for prosperity. Collectively, the deity seemed to imply that the motherland had gifts of shiksha, diksha, anna and vastra, i.e. knowledge, spiritualism, food and clothing.

Earlier too such goddesses were used to give boost to such movements. Shivaji was shown being blessed by Ma Bhavani (a variation of the fiery form of Mother Goddess), implying that his actions have the blessings of the goddess in his fight against the Mughals. The ideas of motherland and Bharat Mata were well accepted by Indians and soon numerous representations were made to stir the patriotic mindset of the people. Bharat Mata started being represented in more martial form, sometimes resembling Durga, with a trident and the national flag, while sometimes she was shown blessing Mahatma Gandhi and other nationalist leaders. Sometimes to rouse passions, she was even shown chained and with a sad face and a few white-skinned asuras attacking her or with whips in their hands, implying the exploitation of her wealth by the British. All this went on to give a huge impetus to the freedom movement and soon temples were opened giving the deity a sense of permanency.

 

Bharat Mata by P. S. Ramachandran Rao (1937)

In 1937, at the peak of the Independence Movement, a temple dedicated to Bharat Mata was inaugurated by Gandhiji in Benaras. Soon many such temples were being build across the country. A shloka was also uttered during the worship of the goddess, which was –

Ratnakaradhautapadam Himalyakirtitinim,
Brahmarajarsiratnamdhyam vande Bharatamataram

The above meant – “I pay my obeisance to mother Bharat, whose feet are being a washed by the ocean, who wears the mighty Himalaya as her crown, and who is exuberantly adorned with the gems of traditions set by Brahmarishis and Rajarishis.”

This personification was done for a purpose way back in the late 19^th century and the purpose has more than served its purpose in a largely illiterate milieu, but well-aware of its mythology.  While the concept of Bharat Mata has been kept alive by certain right-wing religious organization till date, it has lost its relevance in the modern times. Is the loss due to its lack of the original cause or due to a prevailing disenchantment, is a matter of debate. However, one can’t undermine the huge contribution of mythical themes in history of India’s Independence Movement.

On the eve of Independence day, here’s wishing all my readers a very happy Independence Day!

Pics courtesy - Wikipedia for painting by Abanindranath Tagore & The Hindu for the painting by  

                     PSR Rao.

Independence Movement & the Myth of Markandeya

In an earlier article, I had mentioned how Hindu mythology has played a very significant role in the Indian Independence movement (dated Aug 14, 2010). The then freedom fighters had made a very creative usage of themes from mythology to express to their fellow-Indians the plight of the country.

The depiction of Bharat Mata, a personification of Mother Goddess, in chains has been a recurring theme in many a poster or old movies. With a budding printing industry, owned by the Indians, patriotic themes were transformed into images which were more evocative, expressive and communicative.

I would like to take one such instance which is supposed to have had a huge impact on people in those days, and that is the myth of Markandeya. According to this myth, Rishi Mrikandu and his wife Marudmati were devotees of Lord Shiva but didn’t have any children. They worshipped Lord Shiva and sought the boon of a son. Shiva gave them a choice of an intelligent son with a short span of life or a not-so-intelligent son with a long life. The Rishi opted for the first option and soon they were blessed with a son, who was named Markandeya, who was destined to die on his sixteenth birthday.

A Painting by Raja Ravi Verma

When Markandeya learnt about his impending death, he created a powerful mantra which is known as the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra, an incantation which could win over death. On his sixteenth year, Markandeya embraced the shiva-linga and uttered the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra non-stop. When the messengers of Yama, the god of death, came to take him they were unable to take him due to the power of the Mantra. This made Yama himself come to take Markandeya’s life. In his anger he threw the death-noose at Markandeya, which unfortunately fell on the shiva-linga. This angered Lord Shiva to no end and he rose from the linga to rebuke Yama. After a battle between Shiva and Yama, in which Yama lost, Markandeya was made immortal. Shiva is thus also known as Kalantaka or one who ends death. Since then it is also said that the continuous utterance of the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra, keeps death away.

In the adjoining picture, we can see the same myth being used for a different purpose. A close scrutiny of the picture shows Bharat Mata in place of Markandeya who is seeking divine intervention from the evils unleashed by the British (who replace Yama here and are thus compared with death). From the shiva-linga emerges Gandhiji who was seen as a saviour in those days. Gandhiji is shown with four hands, and each hand has aspects associated with him, his charkha, the spindle and his most important weapon, his writings, which are shown in the form of a newspaper. The four hands and the crescent moon on his forehead lend him a divinity due to the enormous task he had undertaken, that of eliminating the British from India. Another significant change is that Yama’s bull gives way to a cow in the second picture, which is again a sacred animal for the Hindus and a British sitting on it would have raised the passions of an ordinary Indian adequately.

Such imagery was perceived as a necessity in the pre-Independence days, as many were not educated enough to read the articles written by the stalwarts of the Freedom movement. Also, many of the writings were either not printed and if printed, were soon banned. Further, in India everybody is well aware of their myths and any association with such myths always has an easy recall and an immediate understanding. Such deification might not go down well in modern India, but way back then; such instances were not seen as an act of sycophancy, but sheer need to communicate with the masses which was largely illiterate.

This is one of the best examples of how mythology served such an important function in our Independence movement, especially at the grass-root levels. India was a land of many languages and writing and translating articles in many languages to all sets of people was a herculean task when information dissemination was not a simple activity as it is today. In such a scenario, a single picture could do what thousand words couldn’t.

With this, here’s wishing all my readers a very happy Independence Day!!

Happy Independence Day!

Here’s wishing a very happy Independence Day to all my fellow Indians!

On this day of Independence, we bow our head in reverence to all who laid down their lives for us to enjoy this independence. But true to my blog, can we overlook the role that mythology has played in the Freedom movement? Before some of my readers think that I am taking this mythology-thing a bit too far, let me explain.

Indian myths have played a very important role in inspiring people during the freedom movement. It started way back in 1881, by Swami Dayanand Saraswati with his Cow Movement after he wrote his book Gokarunanidhi. This was done to impress upon the British to ban cow slaughter. During this movement, for the first time, printed images of a sacred cow, encompassing all gods and goddesses on its body, being about to be butchered by a demon, was released.

The movement soon gathered support and spread across the nation and in 1893; the country saw its first communal riots!

The success of this and with the printing industry making good usage of the religious iconography gave birth to the concept of Bharat Mata. Images of Ashtabhuja-devi (Mother goddess with eight hands) started to be used as Mother Nation. This gave rise to a number of mythical images getting interpolated with that of prominent freedom fighters of the day. Images of the goddess in chains and in tatters were used to invoke the patriotic sentiments with a religious zeal across the country.

The culmination of this came with Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel, Anand Math. In this, the protagonist, Mohendra sees the goddess Kali as Bharat Mata. In her dishevelled nakedness, he sees the state of India under the foreign rule. To quote from Sri Aurobindo’s translation of Anand Math in 1909, “….today the whole country is a burial ground, therefore is the Mother garlanded with skulls. Her own god, she tramples under her feet. Alas my Mother!”

Finally, the famous “Vande Mataram” (Hail Motherland), which became the anthem during the freedom movement. As Sri Aurobindo said, that through Bankim Chandra the nation got the religion of patriotism, which united the country across caste and community and despite ideological differences.

See the all pervasive nature of Mythology?