Dhritarashtra of Modern Times

Ms. Kiran Bedi has compared our Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh with Dhritarashtra of Mahabharata. [Ms. Bedi tweeted – “PMO clears PM. Did Dhritarashtra in Mahabharata not support Kauravas even after they attempted to disrobe Draupadi? Indian genes/culture? Or?”]

Dhritarashtra was the blind king of Hastinapur who was put on the throne after his younger brother, Pandu, had to go to the forest to atone for his sins and his subsequent death. He was also the father of the hundred Kauravas.

Is the comparison valid? Let’s see.

• Dhritarashtra was blind and thus could not see; our PM is not blind (at least physically), but he still cannot see; else he would have done something about all the wrongs that are happening in his PM-dom.
• Dhritarashtra was blind to the aspirations of (his son) Duryodhan and despite knowing about the wrongs done by him, said nothing. Our PM was also well aware of the wrongdoings of some of his ministers (thankfully not his sons), take Raja for instance, but allowed him to continue, till the ant became an elephant, and it could not be hidden under the carpet.
• Dhritarashtra did not say anything when Draupadi was being disrobed in public in the court just as our PM is keeping mum when the country is being robbed off its pride and being abused by many known to him.
• Dhritarashtra did not have any friends who could guide him, but had many who would mislead him. PM too has no friends who can guide him, but is surrounded by allies who actually misguide him and have their way, as and when required. This lack of ‘good and true’ friends has been the bane of both Dhritarashtra and the PM.

Some differences though –

• Dhritarashtra did have some voices of sanity which used to try to dissuade him from following the wrong path, like Vidura, PM has none. There is not a single guide in his cabinet whose sane voice he can follow.
• Dhritarashtra always aspired to be the King, in spite of his disability, i.e. his blindness, but our PM is a reluctant politician, who knew well about his disability, i.e. lack of knowledge of politics, but went on to take the position of leadership. Needless to say, that both have proven to be poor leaders.

To conclude, let me tell you a small story which many might not know. 

At the end of the war of Kurukshetra and on the death of his hundred sons, Dhritarashtra asked Lord Krishna as to why was he destined for such a tragic life, of blindness and bereavement of hundred sons during his life time? Lord Krishna asked him to close his eyes and Dhritarashtra saw, that in his previous life, he was a tyrant king. Once he was passing by the sea and saw a swan surrounded by a hundred cygnets (baby swans). On a moment of sadistic pleasure, he ordered that the eyes of the swan be gorged out and all the cygnets be killed. This cruelty had led him to be blind in this birth and was made to bear the death of his hundred sons, just as he had done to the swan. Dhritarashtra realised that this was his karma and none were to be blamed for this.

Dhritarashtra’s behaviour was due to his karma, but what is the cause of your behaviour Mr. PM?

Draupadi’s Secret

According to a legend from Mahabharata, during the thirteenth year of the exile of the Pandavas, Draupadi saw a ripe jambul, roseapple, hanging from a tree. She plucked it to have it. No sooner had she done this, Krishna came from somewhere and stopped her from eating it. According to Krishna, the ripe fruit was supposed to be the fruit with which a sage was supposed to break his twelve-year fast. Not finding the fruit at its place, could earn the wrath of the sage, resulting in more trouble for the Pandavas and her. Draupadi begged of Krishna to help her out of this impending problem.

Krishna, then said that the fruit could be put back at its original place, only by someone who holds no secrets. Draupadi had only one option and to confess some guilt. Seeing no way out, Draupadi walked up her husband’s and confessed to them, that though she was a chaste woman and loved all the five husbands, there was someone else that she longed for. She always had loved and respected Karna, the arch-enemy of the Pandavas. This was a shock to all the husbands, but none said anything. Having confessed, she went and put the fruit back on the branch of the tree and all was well.

A simple story, and not mentioned in many versions, but considered to be an important episode in many folk renditions of Mahabharata and sometimes better known as ‘Jambul-akhyan’, the jambul-episode. Many well known authors and re-tellers of Mahabharat have explored this angle of Draupadi. All popular versions have mentioned that Draupadi did not love all five husbands equally (not possible for anyone to be capable of equitable love), and that she loved and longed for Arjuna more amongst all the brothers. However, it is also true, that Arjuna had never reciprocated the emotion as he was more in love with Subhadra (Krishna’s sister) than anybody else. The hidden love of Draupadi for Karna is something that has been explored by many writers. Some have even justified the romance, in the sense that the powerful and the dynamic character of Draupadi could find her match only in Karna and not in the five brothers, who were ‘incomplete’ without one another. It is said that even Karna had regretted his behaviour during the disrobing of Draupadi in the Kuru court after she was wagered and lost in the dice-game, and the behaviour was more to avenge his insult during the swayamvar of Draupadi. The undercurrent of an unexpressed romance has always been suspected in the entire Mahabharat.

This myth has dual purpose. One is that everyone has secrets which they keep to themselves. Some of them are not revealed out of fear of antagonising ones loved ones and the fear of losing them if the secret is out. Sometimes it is not revealed as it would upset the apple cart, so as to say. In this case, it did shock the five husbands, but they respected the honesty and the forthrightness of Draupadi and more so because of the cause of revealing the secret, i.e. to avoid earning the wrath of the fasting sage. The significance of a confession is well brought out and the fact that it only does well and seldom any harm.

The second purpose is that through this myth, the Pandavas also get the message that in spite of five brave husbands, they had failed their wife when she needed them the most. When Draupadi was being disrobed after she was lost in the dice-game, none of the ‘brave’ husbands could come to her rescue. It brought out the weakness amongst each one of them, and that Draupadi had a soft corner for someone who was more a man than the five of them. This was an insult which they had to bear without any malice towards their wife. Also, being the wife of five, made her that much vulnerable to such acts, than it did to their own wives, which each had taken for himself.

If Draupadi had married Karna would this have happened?

The question could well be, would Mahabharata have happened?

This is the season of Jambul’s. Go get one for yourself and eat it. If it stains your tongue, then it means you too are harbouring a secret!!!

Mangoes – Nothing 'aam' about it

Show me a man who doesn’t like mangoes and I’ll show you someone with faulty taste buds! Mangoes – the ripe, luscious, fruits which have something in them, that makes a child out of a grown-up man or a woman (lest I be accused of being sexist!). Mangoes, ripe or raw are a culinary delight. This King of fruits is an all time King of good times (no pun intended!).

There are other fruits in the market, but none hold sway on man and its kind the way mangoes do. Have you ever heard crates of bananas being sent to a daughter’s in-laws house? Have you ever brought crate-full of apples and had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner and look forward to the same for the next day too? Have you ever seen any other fruit evoking such erotica the way a certain lady squirms on your TV screen with a ripe mango? So what is it about the fruit that makes one go all out for it.

The answer lies in antiquity, like all quests lead you to!

According to a Vedic myth, Surya bai, the daughter of the Sun god was transformed into a golden lotus to avoid being troubled by an evil sorceress. The sorceress was angry when she found out that the King of the land had fallen in love with the lotus, so she burnt the flower to ashes. Love triumphed as a beautiful mango tree grew from the ashes of the flower and Surya bai stepped out of a mango which was found on the ground. The King recognised his love and the two were united.

Lord Buddha was given a whole mango grove for him to rest whenever he wanted to. Since then the mango tree was considered as a wish fulfilling tree. Mangoes are considered to be a symbol of love. The Mango leaves are considered auspicious especially in marriage rituals, which are used to assure the birth of sons. It is said that whenever there is a birth of a son, the mango tree bears new leaves. Lord Ganesh is seen carrying a ripe mango in one of his hands as a sign of attainment, the aspiration of every devotee of his. In Kalidasa’s Shankuntala, Kama, the god of love is supposed to have used the flowers of the mango tree to invoke love between Shakuntala and King Dushyant through one of his arrows. Goddess Ambika from the Jain mythology is traditionally shown as sitting under a mango tree.

This takes us to one of the most important sites of Shaivite centres of devotion, the Ekambareswar Temple at Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu. Translated literally, ‘Eka’ means one and ‘amaram’ means Mango tree, together, Ekambaram means One Mango Tree and Ekambareshwar means god of the one mango tree. The temple was built during the Pallava rule and completed by the Chola rulers. But there is mythology around the temple and one of the most important area of the premises, which has a mango tree!

It is said that once goddess Parvati was doing penance under the mango tree in the temple premises. To test her devotion, Shiva sends fire at her. Parvati took the help of Lord Vishnu, who with the help of the rays of the moon managed to cool the tree as well as Parvati. Shiva then sent the river Ganga to disturb Parvati’s penance. Parvati convinced Ganga that they were sisters and that she should not disturb her penance, to which Ganga agreed. Parvati then made a shiva-linga out of the sand and got united with Shiva. Shiva here came to be known as the Ekambareshwar or the god of the Mango tree.

A depiction of the myth at the temple premises

The Mango tree at the temple premises

The tree in the premises is said to be the same tree under which Parvati performed her penance. The tree is sacred and unique in the fact that the four branches of the tree represent the four Vedas and it is said that the tree bears four different kinds of mangoes in four different seasons. (What is not mentioned however is that it is highly possible that someone in the days of yore had probably done some intelligent tree-grafting, which has survived till date – but then followers of faith do not see eye-to-eye with the doubting-Thomases of the modern world!).

Mangoes have not been a topic of discussion just in mythology and religion. The uniqueness of the fruit is supposed to have first travelled outside India, during the travels of the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang who is considered to be amongst the first to take the tales of the fruit outside India. Later the Portuguese took the fruit out to other parts of the world. There are numerous Indian folk-tales which have the eating of the mango associated with miraculous child-birth and seduction. There are legends about the royal courtesan in the kingdom of the Vaishalis, who came to be known as Amrapali since she was found under a mango tree. (But then that is a story from history and we will not discuss that here at the moment).

To conclude on a doubting note; according to many scholars, the story of Adam and Eve took birth in the tropical zones which are not conducive for the growth of apples and pears. What could be highly probable, keeping in mind the tropical weather, was that the fruit could be either the papaya or a mango; papaya being highly improbable as a fruit of seduction (!), could it have been the mango, which hasn’t quite lost that charm even now?

Ratha-Yatra – In India and Abroad – Part 2 Egypt

In the last post, we read about the Ratha-yatra in Nepal. Today we will read about a similar yatra in Egypt. But prior to that, we will briefly read about the Puri Ratha-yatra to better understand the concept.

Puri Ratha Yatra

In the Puri Ratha-yatra, idols of Lord Jagannath (Krishna as the lord of the universe), his brother Balarama and their sister, Subhadra are taken out in three huge and magnificent chariots pulled by thousands across the town of Puri. The yatra begins from the Jagannatha Temple and is taken to about 2kms away to the Gundicha Temple. The Lords rest at the Gundicha Temple for a week and then the same procession comes back to the Jagannath Temple in what is known as the Ulta-ratha-yatra, i.e. the reverse procession. There is celebration over these seven days and the procession marks joyous cheering all along the route.

Reference of the Ratha-yatra can be found in the Vedic texts thousands of years ago, though the present Jagannath Temple came into existence much later. The story of Lord Jagannath is mentioned in the Puranas too, carrying on the tradition of the yatra right from the Vedic times. In the earlier days, the King of Puri had a very important role to play and even today the descendants of the royal family are called in for the ritual sweeping of the chariot before the yatra begins. Without delving too much on this, let me focus on a similar yatra in another continent altogether.

Ancient Egypt used to host a famous festival called the Opet Festival. The Opet Festival was celebrated in the Thebes during the second month of Akhet, i.e. the season of the Inundation which in today’s times would be in the month of August/September. At this time the Nile would overflow and all the crops would be under the much needed water and there would not be much work for the then Egyptians. Initially the festival lasted for a week and later it became a two-week festival.   

Opet Festival

The most important aspect of the festival was the towing away of the Theban triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu southward on their barques both by boats and by men along the shoreline amid much fanfare and celebrations. The procession would start from Karnak and end about 2 miles away in Luxor and would stop midway for the priests to rest as well offer prayers till they reached the final destination. The Pharaoh would preside over the rituals prior to the procession and would return along with the deities.

For the ancient Egyptians this was both a fertility ritual as well as a renewal of the Pharaoh’s right to rule. The timing of the festival during the Inundation signifies its association with the fertility rituals. Similar rituals were performed with the Pharaoh which established his ties with the deity Amun. The Egyptians had a belief that over the course of the year, both the deities and his representative on earth, i.e. the Pharaoh, would grow tired thus diminishing their powers. The rituals performed during the festival would ensure that the power of the universe would return to the deity and his representative!

Many scholars have dated the Opet Festival to a much later period than the Puri Ratha-yatra whose origins can be traced to the Vedic times. The opening up of the Silk-route and the intermingling of cultures and the great similarities between the Indians and the Egyptians, both cultural and mythological, gives rise to the theory that the idea of the Opet Festival is based on the Indian Ratha-yatra. The similarities are a many –

• In both the processions, there is a triad. In the Opet, it was the triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu while in the Puri yatra it is the triad of Jagannath (or Krishna), Subhadra and Balarama.

The Puri Triad

The Opet Triad

Amun

Krishna

• Amun has been depicted as a blue hued god with feathers in his headdress, similar to the depictions of Lord Krishna
• The Pharaoh has an important role to play in the Opet Festival similar to the importance of the King of Puri in the olden times

The Opet festival lives on in the present day Egypt in a different form, when a procession of a Muslim saint is carried out in a model boat.

The idea is not to establish the ‘supremacy’ of concepts, but just to highlight the fact that the world then was more open to cross-cultural concepts, be it philosophical or mythological and religious. People were not so rigid then and cultural assimilation was a norm. Modern times have undergone a sea change where rigidity and deep rooted faith and belief system has taken precedence in our day to day life. I go back to the introduction of the series where I said that the world was one; man broke it into pieces!

Ratha-Yatra – In India and Abroad – Part 1 Nepal

Recently I came across some interesting events which makes me wonder if the world was one and man broke it up into different countries. Similarities in festivals across borders have always been fascinating and here I will write about one such festival which has strong resemblance to one of our festivals, i.e. the Rath-yatra of Lord Jagannath, Puri, in Odisha.

Nepal is known for its picturesque beauty and is a Hindu nation, so it is not uncommon to find Hindu gods and goddesses and temples in that country. The famous Pashupatinath Temple and a few Shakti-peeths are well known pilgrimages which have their own myths. Nepal is also a Buddhist centre of pilgrimage and there are numerous centres for the Buddhist belief. However, what has drawn my attention is a recent chariot-festival in the country which is known as Rato Machhindranath Yatra which is an important festival for both Hindus as well as Buddhists of Nepal.

Rato Machhindranath, “Rato” means red and “Machhindra” means fish which is derived from “machhindra” or “matsendra” and finally “nath” meaning god. Rato Machhindranath is a red coloured deity and is a god of rain in Nepal and is worshipped just before the monsoon starts. Nepal is an agricultural country and farming being the mainstay of close to 80% of the local population, lends credence to the significance of rain. The deity is worshipped to ensure a good monsoon and prevent a drought.

An interesting myth is associated with the deity. According to a legend, Gorakhnath, a renowned disciple of the deity visited the valley, and was upset at the lack of importance given to him. He then caused a drought by taking away all the rain-making snakes with him. The troubled Nepalese then prayed and begged of the deity to save them. The deity was in Assam, India, at that time, and on hearing the pleas, came to Nepal in the form of a bee. On learning that his deity was in Nepal, Gorakhnath had to release all the snakes to pay his tribute thus causing rain and also learning a lesson of humility in the process.

Rato Machindranath Yatra

The high point of the festival is the building of a huge three-storied chariot where a replica of the deity is housed and pulled by hundreds of believers. The chariot is taken all over the city of Patan in Nepal and the journey lasts for a few weeks which are earmarked for celebration. The journey is accompanied with beats of the traditional drums and cymbals. This aspect of the festival is common to the famous Ratha-yatra of Puri, Odisha.

In the earlier days, the King of Nepal used to flag off the yatra, again a similarity to the Puri-yatra, where even today the descendants of the erstwhile royal family sweep the ratha, i.e. the chariot before the beginning of the journey.

One of the important rituals of the Rato Machhindranath Yatra is the pouring of water on the deity. Four priests with silver jars stand in four directions with the deity in the centre. At the signal of the chief priest all four priests lift their jars and pour water on the deity. The priest who manages to pour water first, would enable good monsoon and better crops in the said direction!

Rato Machhindranath is worshipped by both the Hindus and Buddhists. The Buddhists consider him to be their Avalokiteshwara or Lokeshwara, the Bodhissatva of compassion or Bunga Deo, i.e. the god of agricultural prosperity. The Hindus consider him to be a form of Lord Vishnu (reference of Matsya avatar of Lord Vishnu). A popular version considers him to be a god who was brought in from Assam by a local farmer to ensure good monsoon in Nepal.

The Nepalese are also worshippers of the Naga’s, i.e. the snake-gods. The reference of rain-making snakes in the earlier myth shows how well every section of religious beliefs has been weaved into this festival. The locals believe that during the festival and the rituals, the Nagas, rain-making snakes observe the entire proceedings from the clouds.

Next we will read about another Ratha-yatra which used to take place continents away from ours.

Keep reading….