Janhavi's blog: July 2016

Friday, 29 July 2016

Trending: Indian Mythology

The current trend in India is to read, write, see and make Indian mythological stories or historical epics preferably in fiction. Year 2015 was marked by a Mahabharata based movie “Bahubali”. The movie was widely appreciated all over the globe and also has a sequel planned next year. A movie on “Mohenjo-Daro” will soon be released. Apart from Cinema, there are lots of television serials broadcasting mythology based serials… “Sia ke Ram”, “Devon ke dev Mahadev”, “Mahabharat”, “Ramayan”, “Krishna”, “Ganesh” and many more… In my childhood too, watching Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan and B. R Chopra’s Mahabhart was like a ritual every Sunday. It won’t be an exaggeration if I say that every kid born in 80s or 90s has seen one of these mythological serials in childhood. But these days its slightly different.. There is fiction… there is animation... in short, old story in a new package…

This trend is also visible in literature. The age old Geeta (as it is J) or Ramayan or Mahbharat is outdated.. The new mythology books are mythological “Fictions” and are extremely popular. The people who used to read Sydney Sheldon or John Grisham or even Chetan Bhagat have now shifted to Amish Tripathi, Devdutt Pattanaik and other writers who present or propagate mythological characters; most likely in Fiction. I myself, not being a vivid reader, have enjoyed reading a series on Shiva, books on Ram, Karna, Draupadi, even less popular characters like Vishwamitra and Parshu Ram, in last couple of years. This is so much popular that Mythological fiction is soon becoming a seperate genre in itself.

Wondering why suddenly people are so interested in mythology? What made this shift? Here is my take on it…

Whether we admit it or not, most of us believe in God. Being atheist is out of fashion anyway. No doubt, we are totally impressed with what science has done and what science can do, but we also know that the biggest scientists from West took clues from scriptures or were interested in our scriptures and our culture.

When we get to know that globally respected personalities like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg visited Indian temples when they had a low tide in life, we feel pleasantly surprised... it gives some of us a feeling not less than an achievement. As a cherry on top, archaeologists found some monuments which lead us a step further in substantiating that the stories like Ramayana and Mahabharata are not just stories or poems.

Worldwide acceptance of Yoga and Ayurveda is like a celebration here. Whether we practice Yoga daily or not; we definitely celebrate International yoga day and take pride in its global celebration. In addition to Yoga and Ayurveda, Indian vedas also contain immense knowledge and philosophy of life.

In short, the clash between “science or god” has more or less ended with the outcome of “science AND god”. The end result is glorification of Indian traditions and culture. This encourages us to go back, discover and celebrate the treasure of our forefathers i.e. scriptures and mythological tales.

With this, those of us who enjoyed Sundays watching Ramayana and Mahabharata in childhood feel like reliving those fond memories… and authors timed the rising inquisitiveness perfectly.. with conviction... some try to understand, explore and discover new things from it… some read it only to get entertained.. whereas some try to understand divine philosophy of life… The Indian mythology is anyway filled with lot of drama, adventure, suspense, philosophy, romance and fun… twist in the talesis surely entertaining… maybe that’s why this new trend…

What’s your view?… do comment…

Monday, 11 July 2016

Swastika and India

I have grown up seeing "Swastika" - “an auspicious symbol” as they call, on the doors, shops, entrances, holy books and at most of the places of worship and rituals in India. It is an easy to draw and probably the first design I would have drawn as a child. Remembering that, today I was teaching the same to my son… One big standing line.. one sleeping line.. and… I was unsure…… should I teach him this?… is this still respected in the rest of the world or does it mean fascism in some parts of the world…This is the symbol used by the most hated men in the world war II and represented slaughter and destruction.…..

Nah…. The need is to depart the negative reputation of swastika and revive its ancient glory..

“Swastika” is a Sanskrit word derived from "Swasti" and means symbol of “Swa+Asti” = “wellbeing” / “Good existence” / “Good work / Prosperity”

Swastika is a hindu ritual word and an important symbol and has been in use since early vedic period. The reference is found in various indian scriptures like Rig ved, Atharva Ved, Yajur Ved, Ganesh puran, Lakshmi Tantra etc and is widely used as an auspicious symbol. In Hindu culture most of the rituals start with “Swasti” and end with “Swasti” emphasizing let everything be good. Even in Jainism and Buddhism, swastika has been used as an important symbol. In Buddhism, the swastika is a symbol of good fortune, prosperity, abundance and eternity. It is directly related to Buddha and can be found carved on statues on the soles of his feet and on his heart. It is said that it contains Buddha’s mind.

Different Swastika Patterns

Swastika drawn on head in Upanayan ritual

Swastika drawn on books during Lakshmi Pujan

But use of swastika is not limited to Indian or Asian culture. The traces of ancient use of the symbol has been found in Europe. The irony is the oldest monument with Swastika was found in Ukraine and has been radio carbon-dated to 15,000 years ago. It is considered that in the Bronze age the swastika found its way in Eurpoe and was used widely in Europe.

Monument found in Ukrain

In Nordic myths Odin is represented passing through space as a whirling disk or swastika looking down through all the worlds.

In Ancient Greece, Pythagoras used swastika to symbolize the link between heaven and earth with right arm pointing to heaven and left arm pointing to earth.

The most fascinating fact I found was that, by the beginning of 20^th century there was a huge fad for the swastika and it was enthusiastically adopted in the West as an architectural motif, on advertising and product design. (Source: www.bbc.com and The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption).

Swastika used by American Military during World War I

Coca-cola used Swastika in advertising

What does Swastika denote?

Common beliefs denote that swastika is symbolic to prosperity and anything good. In different cultures / geographies swastika is used differently:

1. It is considered as a symbol of sun,

2. It was used as a variation of cross,

3. A symbol of Bird or Fertility

4. A Cresent moon

5. A movement of time

6. A Galaxy

7. Link between heaven and earth or

8. Life of life

It is important to note that until the symbol was adopted by Hitler, it was a popular one and did not represent any negative sentiment. Maybe it was used by Hitler to counter the feeling of vulnerability and the stigma of youth. Or because it had ancient Aryan/Indian origins, to represent a long Germanic/Aryan history.. Again the symbol used by him was slightly different from the traditional symbol used in India.

As the truth remains: India has been the only country where the word and the symbol has been used uninterruptedly for years and years and its the Indian culture where the same has been originated.

Let us depart from the negative sentiments around the most powerful symbol of ancient India and celebrate the sign of life and good-luck.