The puzzle: How was the society hundreds of years back, that built beautiful temples in India?
It was 3rd November 2008 evening at Bhubaneshwar. I'm done with my schedule and the rest of the evening was with me. I succumbed to my wishes – a darshan of Shiva Lingaraj. Dr.Prashanta Patnaik accompanied me to Sri Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneshwar. It was a Monday of Karhtik, an auspicious day for many ardent devotees. The temple is fairly crowded. We had a darshan. In every visit to an old temple I learn to appreciate the temple architecture and sculpture. and the Lingaraj temple is a treasure of it. In this visit I found stone carvings are made better visible, probably some agency has taken up a maintenance project.
Dr.Prashanta and me went around the temple watching and appreciating exquisite stone carvings, symmetry in a colossal architecture. The stability of such a huge stone structure is now still baffling. Managing construction activities of such a huge temple is a classical example of excellency in project management that should make, atleast, native business schools curious about.
Probably, to attract people to culture and heritage the forefathers have taken the help of some myths. Dr.Prashanta narrated me one of those on Lingaraj temple. The myth is woven around a a huge bull (Nandi) carved out of a large stone. The bull is adorned with ornaments carved on stone. Every curves on its body looks realistic. The enormous body is slightly tilted to its right resting on its right heap, belly, chest and the right front leg. The bull has a gracious look holding its head with beautifully decorated neck. The stone carved ornaments on its neck are partially hidden by scarfs and garlands offered by devotees. It's like customs and traditions hiding beauty of divinity. Its ears are right up and lively with minute details. People whisper their wants and wishes to bull's left ear for fulfillment. The bull is a divine giver? The left front leg is sculpted so aptly as if the bull is about to get up. At about ten feet distance there is a plant on an elevated stone platform. The plant (a peppal/bela tree variety) has been there for years but its height has been a foot only. It hardly gains in height and stem circumference. The day the bull gets up and eats the plant, is the final day for this world – the myth tells. Whatever, the myth could be but I enjoy a visit to the bull in my every visit to this temple. I salute the sculptor who has carved it out. Hundreds of years are flown, the sculptor is forgotten but his excellency is the perfection of the humanity and shines on!
My puzzle again popped up. Such an excellency the people of this land achieved hundreds of years back. What would have been society of Odisha at that time? Probably, there were prosperity around. People, sculptors, architects and the kings were rich enough to achieve this marvelous signature of their time. But then what made the society to plunge in such an abject poverty? How did the society forget the art of building such temples? Why didn't they excel further? I returned to Hyderabad only rekindling my puzzle.
“India Leaves its Footprints on Moon” adorns The Hindu newspaper's headline on 15th November '08 – a joyous movement for the country. Congratulations are showered on the architects of 'Chandrayan-1' for the excellency. And I got an answer to my puzzle.
We the footpath dwellers now privileged
For the clear view,
No roof there for us to stand in between
Us and Chandrayan!
We the jobless though bemoan
Still, will watch MIP as it's shown
Hoping the same (footpath) atleast for us on the moon!
We were the same ill-fated
That day stood behind
When the Kings built the temples for posterity.
So we kept the promise even bitten by the poverty.
But the kings distanced
Our sufferings remain unheard.
The flagged sanctum tells:
“I see the people who never failed in mission
I see the people who even hardly can make their ration.
But I hope excellency in humanity will prevail soon
For which I am still standing on!
Hrushikesha
17th November 2008.
14 comments:
Nice thoughts here. Yes indeed. Prosperity of the mind is indeed very different..
Received by email
Dear Hrushi,
Great thoughts. Humans do rise to the occasion and Indian mind is no exception. Given the opportunity Indians can excel in any field; be it science, be it architecture or literature.
All the best,
Nigam
Nigam P. Rath
Research Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Missouri- St. Louis
Excellent narration, felt as if I am seeing the NANDI(bull).
Going through the message felt the reality happening around us.
Keep posting always !!!
Regards
Maruthi
Dear Sir,
Great English wording! Good comparison of past architecture and current situation in the country.
Dear Prof. Mohanty:
Your thoughts to correlate the Bull at Lingaraj Temple, BBSR with the mythological puzzle of hidden beauty of our architectural design is incredible. The awaiting time and the patience will give appropriate answer to your puzzle while offering excellency in human life.
I enjoyed a lot during my journey to your posted article.
I do feel that we all have great responsibility to incorporate our valuable architectural thoughts for the betterment of Odisha.
Best regards
Akhil.
By email
Sir,
Keen observation....
Wonderful narration ......
I liked it.
You should consider publishing such articles in some magazine and
eventually may compile those into a book.
Manas
Received by email
Dear Professor Mohanty,
Thank you very much for the mail. The article on Linagraja Temple is
really good. The puzzle that you have in mind is still a puzzle for me.
How could such a mighty and rich race fall into such a sorry state of
afairs? History has its twists and turns. But the spirit matters. That
spirit is missing. Chandrayana-1 has a partial answer to this. In the age
of science this is nothing new. Perhaps Lingaraj Temple is a greater
marvel than Chandrayana.
With regards,
Sincerely,
R.C.Pradhan
Professor, Philosophy
University of Hyderabad
Dear Sir,
Your thoughts are really wonderful. It is truly amazing that you can see the corresponding relationship between the living conditions of now and then.
Everyone looking at those exquisite constructions is intuitively given to the assumption that the bygone days are a golden age... But after reading your article, they will certainly be disillusioned(i guess).
If everyone of us give one thread, the poor person will have a shirt ! Only by lifting the weakest, poorest among us, we can lift the country.
In the middle class families the gifted son of a family is always the poorest - usually a writer or artist with no sense for speculation - and in a family of peasants, where the average comfort is just over penury, the gifted son sinks also, and is soon a tramp on the roadside.
Problem with the world now is a problem of scarcity in the midst of plenty ... of people starving while there are unused resources ... people having skills which are not being used and government investing millions on things that does not provide bread to the poor man.
poverty is restriction and it is the greatest injustice that can befall to a man. Poverty is like punishment for a crime that was not committed.
May Indian be freed from all poverty. Millions of our Indians are starving...May God Bless India.
Thank you sir,
your student,
sagar
Dear Sir,
What an excellent comparison of the past and present situations. Does these myths about the culture and heritage will carry in the future generations too?
Regards,
Satya Reddy
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I had gone through your puzzle and concerns .There is a saying "Service to Mankind is service to God" .Though constructing a temple or performing space research is a challenge and a remarkable achievements, the utmost duty of the civilised society is the upliftment of the poor people .If we look into our own state Orissa ,there are two main issues .One is poverty and another is lack of elementary education .
In my opinion, creativity is affluency independent.I have read Biography of many great people who have excelled and established themselve in great poverty.
Swabhaba Kabi Gangadhar Meher's education was limited to class 5th .The real architects of Lingaraj Mandir were putting their effort as per the strict commands of the king .I have read from history regarding their misery .The story is same for Konark Mandir.Many great architects were punished to death by the king due to minor errors .
It is actually difficult for me to give an exact answer to your qury .Whatever came to mind ,I just expressed few lines.
Yours Truly,
Prof. Jyotiranjan Hota,ICFAI Business School,
Excellent comparison. It was the autocracy of the King due to which the beautiful temples have been constructed. These days there is a huge disparity among different people. It is very difficult to find the exact answer to the query. Whatever I feel I am trying to answer. I divide democracy in to three different categories i) full democracy ii) Partial democracy iii) democracy
We live in a society which one is in the first category. To construct the same temple again our system has to change. This dirty politics has changed the mind of the people. It has made every body idle. Whatever I have expressed it may not be any relevance.
Amiya
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Dear Prof Mohanty
Its surprise that i could able to see a different Mohanty sab. The
language and the description is very nice and the topics are very
touchy.Keep it up and good luck.
Regards
Narasimhulu
Professor, univ. of Hyderabad
Dear Hrushi,
Superb commentary about the bull at the Lingaraj temple! Reading through your lines, my memory spun back to our days at the BC Roy Hall. I do remember that you used to observe a lot on otherwise ‘apparently’ trivial things. It’s great to find that your thoughts, over the years have been translated to sharp narrations. Feel happy, to read through your lines. I feel that had we remained ancient, then the Kings would have made Indian roads as straight as possible. For that matter, we do not keep it (roads or for that matter anything) straight and simple (KISS). Agreed, our satellite is in the lunar orbit, but on our part of the planet Earth, after more than sixty years of independence, we could not connect our rivers. We are really great.
Anyway, great reading for me. Keep it up.
Biswajit
Biswajit Mishra
Professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics
IIT Kharagpur
Dear Sir,
Good narration of the Nandi,its ears, sculpted ornaments around it's neck.
Reminds me of the Great Big Nandi of the Great Thanjavur Temple.
That nandi is so big that no one can reach its ears to ask for favours. Otherwise, the narration equavally fits that nandi too. That saved my time.
Finally coming to your puzzle.
POVERTY.
Still exixts in India on a larger scale.
Those were the days the kings were rich and the people were equally happy without poverty.
You said your answer to the puzzle is CHANDRAYAAN-1. But, sir it puzzled me.
Were you telling the success of the chandrayaan-1 tells that the country is rich enough to afford such projects.
OR
Were you telling that the reason for the powerty is also the chandrayaan-1, where we spent crores of rupees, and neglected the proverty driven.
The question is WAS CHANDRAYAAN-1 necessary (I mean spending so many crores on that project)?
We could have built lives of many people with that kind of money.
My conclusion:
Yes. Chandrayaan-1 is as important as effort to be put on removing the poverty.
Chandrayaan-1 is important to tell other nations that, YES, we too can achive things and that we are self sufficient.
Also the eradication of POVERTY is equally important for us. Which is still not taken care of very seriously by action.
C.K. Rajendran.
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