Deities of the Kullu Valley

In different aspects of life - religion, language, food, culture and festivals - India shows a "unity in diversity".

In the Kullu Valley in Himachal Pradesh in north of India, every village and hamlet has its own deity, a devi or a devta. This photo-essay looks at some of those deities, their cultural traditions and their links with other streams of Hinduism.

FORGING INDIA'S CULTURAL-RELIGIOUS UNITY

Each community in India often has its own ideas about gods and goddesses. All these are usually grouped together under Hinduism. Apart from their own distinctive cultural-religious traditions, they usually share some aspects of religion as explained in ancient texts of Vedas and Upanishads.

Mythological stories about some local events link together villages and cities, near and far, in different corners of India. Thus, often each village temple and sacred-site around trees, rocks, caves, rivers and mountains, invariably has a mythological story about the passage of some god or goddess in that place that provides an explanation of its sacredness.

Drops of immortality nectar (amrit) fallen from Vishnu's vase, pieces of the body of Parvati strewn over different parts of India, travels of Rama and Pandavas across India described in Ramayana and Mahabharata - they all create a network of stories that builds the essential sharing of sacredness, while conserving the distinctive characteristics of each place.

Diana Eck in her wonderful book "India: a sacred geography" provides a delightful mosaic of this diversity-unity.

DEITIES OF KULLU VALLEY

It has been estimated that there are around 250 devi and devta (gods and goddesses) in the villages and hamlets of Kullu valley in Himchal Pradesh. Local persons call these deities collectively as "Tharah Kardu".

Hidamba Devi, the deity of Manali, is considered to be the most important of these deities as she is the deity of the royal family of the Kullu. The royal family of Kullu believe that Hidamba Devi had gifted the kingdom of Kullu to their ancestor Behangamani Pal. The descendants of the king had established their royal house in Jagatsukh, a small village about 10 km from Manali.

The original temple of Hidamba Devi was in Chiuni, about 90 km from the town of Mandi. A new temple of this deity has been built in Manali in 2013, that is a replica of the old Chiuni temple with intricate wood carvings.

Hidamba Devi appears as a minor character in Mahabharata, where she falls in love with Bhim, one of the Pandava brothers. Together they have a son, Ghatotkach. Both Hidamba Devi and Ghatotkach also play a role in the legendary war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas.





Mahabharata describes Hidamba (Hidambi) as belonging to a "Rakshas" clan - one of the indigenous clans that were usually considered as enemies of the Aryans.

Omchanda Handa in his book "Buddhist art and antiquities of Himachal Pradesh" (Indus books) explains that the figures of ancient Hindu ascetic-sages like Gautam rishi and Lomasa rishi were also linked to Buddhist traditions, and indigenous community traditions of clans like Nagas, Rakshasas, Yakshas, etc. These different traditions all combine together in the mythologies of the Kullu deities.

Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara in their book "Images in Asian Religions: texts and contexts" (UBC press) explain another peculiarity of the Kullu valley deities - the sacredness is not limited to the statue of the deity but is "composed of different elements assembled together" including the wooden palanquins carrying multiple metal mohras (faces) of the deity, his/her attendants and other things used to decorate the palanquins.

STORIES OF KULLU DEITIES

The blog Tharah Kardu presents a lot of information about the deities of the Kullu valley, including the mythological stories about them. Reading these stories gives an idea of the diversity of origins of these deities.

For example, god Shangchul ji originally came from a place called Basu Desh. Shangchul's journey brought him in contact with different significant symbols of Hindu mythology such as Shakti and Kamdhenu. His story involves different small towns and villages of Kullu Valley, binding them together in a unified geographical matrix, linking his story to those of other local gods and goddesses.

This story also includes episodes of discrimination and negative attitudes towards the "lower" castes and the "untouchables". For example, Shangchul had caused a flood which had washed away most of "Marechhas and Tanguls". Marechhas (lower castes) are described as "dirty persons with dirty utensils" and have a "bad way of calling their mothers", so their killing by the Shangchul are justified.

Thus, these stories, while they maintain alive the ancient traditions of the people, they also contribute to continuation of caste hierarchies and discriminations.

DUSSHERA OF KULLU

Dusshera is one of the most important festivals of the Kullu valley. Dusshera is celebrated in different ways in different parts of India. For example, in the north and west parts of India, it celebrates the victory of Rama over the Rakshas king Ravana. In the north-east it celebrates the victory of goddess Durga over the asura king Mahishasur. Kullu has its own variation of the Dusshera celebrations.

The Kullu dusshera starts on the day of Vijaydakshmi, the concluding day of dusshera celebrations in the rest of India. It's main focus is on the gathering of all the local gods and goddesses from all the villages and hamlets of Kullu valley. Villagers carry their gods-goddesses in palanquins and walk to Kullu for this event.

In Kullu, raja Maheshwar Singh, the old king, together with the head-priest of Kullu temple, participate in the daily ritual prayers, while different gods and goddesses come to pay their respects to Hidimba Devi.

The Kullu deities are also linked to a mythological story - Parvati (God Shiva's wife), was carrying the gods and goddesses in a basket; she had stopped for rest in the Kullu valley when a sudden gust of wind had scattered the different deities all over the villages of the valley.

Kullu dusshera also has the traditional theatre of Ramlila and the burning of the effigy of Ravana. Finally the celebrations are accompanied by different sport competitions and cultural programmes in which young persons from different parts of the valley take part.

CONCLUSIONS

The cultural customs, rituals and mythological stories around the deities of Kullu valley, provide a fascinating glimpse into the diversity of Hinduism in India. They also give an idea of how different groups of people and their customs were brought together in Hinduism over a period of centuries, that preserved their specificities and peculiarities, while knitting a common thread of unity through them.

The continuing relevance of ancient religious customs and mythologies today influences caste hierarchies and discriminations against the "lower" castes. How to bring about social reforms without cancelling the mythologies remains a challenge.

Most persons think of Kullu and Manali only as tourist destinations for their snow covered mountains, rafting, skiing and nature walks. However, Kullu valley also offers wonderful opportunities to understand the richness of India's cultural diversity.

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Children & Nationalism - Two Films

Recently I saw the Ukrainian film "The Guide" (Povodyr, 2014) by director Oles Sanin. It was this year's Ukrainian entry for the Oscars in the "Best foreign film" category. This film reminded me of another older film - "Ivan's Childhood" (Ivanovo Detstvo, 1962) by Russian director Ivan Tarkovsky.

Both the films revolve around a child in hostile surroundings, running to save his life. And both the films are about nationalism - "The Guide" is about Ukrainian nationalism and "Ivan's Childhood" is about Russian nationalism. This post looks at both these films.

The Guide (Povodyr)

"The Guide" is set in Ukraine in the 1920s, the period when the Soviet Union had just replaced the Russian empire. The process of creating the Soviet Union was initiated by Lenin following the Russian revolution in February 1917 and was consolidated by Stalin, following the death of Lenin in 1922.

The film follows the travails of an American boy called Peter Shamrock (Anton S. Greene) as he runs away from a Russian agent Vladimir (Oleksandr Kobzar) across Ukraine. In his bag, Peter has some documents detailing Soviet plans of unleashing repression in Ukraine. The papers were hidden there by Peter's father before being killed by the Russian agents working for Vladimir.

During his journey across Ukraine, Peter meets Ivan Kocherga (Stanislav Boklan), a blind Bondura (a music instrument) player. Ivan hides Peter as his nephew, using him as his guide. They are chased by Vladimir but every time, manage to elude the Russian agent. Ivan has his own reasons to hate the Russians - he was an Ukrainian resistance leader and was blinded and left for dead by Vladimir.

Vladimir uses torture and killings in trying to reach Peter. He kills Orysia, Ivan's companion and lover. Finally he also manages to catch Ivan. However, Peter still eludes him. Filled with rage, Vladimir decides to kill Ivan together with all the group of blind singers. Peter follows them and tries to liberate Ivan. Exploding bombs kill Ivan and Vladimir. Peter finally manages to pass the documents about the Ukrainian repression plans to a British journalist and goes back to America.

Ivan's Childhood (Ivanovo Detstvo, 1962)

"Ivan's Childhood" follows the journey of a boy called Ivan (Nikolai Burlyayev), through the eastern front of Germany during the second world war, running away from the German soldiers. Most of the film is about Ivan's journey in a war torn landscape. He is picked up by the Russian soldiers. Ivan has lost his family to the Germans and is seeking revenge by becoming a Russian spy.

Russian army admires Ivan's courage and would like to send him to school, away from the horrors of the war. However, Ivan still thinks only about his revenge from the Germans and goes back behind the enemy lines in his espionage mission. End credits tell that Ivan was discovered and killed by the Germans..

The Two Films

There are some obvious similarities in the themes of the two films - both are about a child running in a hostile territory to save his life. Both films are also characterized by wonderful actors.

In "Ivan's Childhood", the boy is alone in his journey. This film in black and white had marvellous photography, each scene was like a painting in chiaro-scuro with stark symbols of war and destruction in the background. At the same time, the film was almost like a documentary in its austerity, both in its emotions as well as in treatment.

In "The Guide", the boy has a companion, a blind singer. The film is in colour though the colours are muted. This film is also very well photographed. However, it is more melodramatic and emotional. Visually the film creates specific ambiances of 1920s Ukraine - like the rich world of music and artists in a city and the poor world of blind singers-beggars in the countryside. The film is riveting because of the thrill of the chase and escape - the evil Vladimir is never too far behind but Peter always manages to slip through his grip.

The basic ideology of both the films is nationalism - In "Ivan's Childhood", Russians are the good guys, so they are kind, generous and gentle, while the Germans are the bad guys, so they are depicted in all black with nothing to redeem them. In "The Guide", Ukrainians are the good guys while the Russians are the bad guys.

By posing the might of a powerful regime against the struggles of a small child, both films accentuate the good guys versus bad guys binaries.

Russia is another common factor between the two films - in one film Russians are the good guys; in the other, they are the bad guys.

"Ivan's Childhood" had a sub-plot about a young Russian soldier's love for a nurse and exploitation of that nurse by a Russian captain. "The Guide" has many sub-plots - Ukrainian musician Olha and her love for Michael, Peter's father, Vladimir's love for Olha, blind singer Ivan's love for Orysia, Peter's relationship with street children.

Both the films can be seen as propaganda films - aiming to show the cruelty of their enemies/oppressors and the nobility of their own struggles. "Ivan's Childhood" is much more linear and blatant about it, while "The Guide" is cinematically more refined with flashbacks and a thriller-like crescendo of action that culminates in big bomb explosions. Both evoke nationalistic feelings.

Both the films are worth seeing.

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Writers & Books in Art & Sculpture

I love reading and I started reading very early. There was a time when I read everything. I used to say that I will even read toilet paper if it has something written on it! I no longer try to read toilet papers, but I still read a lot. During my travels in different parts of the world, I have sometimes come across art, sculptures and monuments celebrating and remembering writers, poets, journalists and their books. This photo-essay is about those works of art that celebrate books and authors.

This photo-essay on art and sculptures about writers and their books brings together three of my passions - reading, art and photography.

About Books and Reading

If you love reading, you may have your favourite authors that you may cherish and remember even after decades. Most of my favourite authors from my childhood were from my father's collection of Hindi books - Krishen Chander, Nanak Singh, Shivani, Chatur Sen, Rangey Raghav, Muktibodh, and many more. They were not books for children, but that did not stop me from reading them!

Growing up, I discovered English books. Then, over the last decades while living in Italy, apart from Italian writers, I also discovered some Latin American and European writers. Through the images of this photoessay, I hope to make you think about your own favourite authors and books.

Let me start this photo-essay with two images of a sculpture by Italian artist Pietro Magni (above and below) that show a young woman lost in a book. This sculpture is displayed in the Brera museum in Milan and when I first saw it, I fell in love with it.

The next image in this collection is from the Innocenti building in Florence that hosts the UNICEF office and shows a boy sitting on a paper boat. I think that it wonderfully illustrates the capacity of a good book to transport you to far away lands of imagination.

The next image is of an unusual tower made of hundred white coloured books by the Italian sculptor Lorenzo Perroni, who specializes in sculptures of white coloured books. I clicked this picture during the visit of a group of American astronauts to the Sala Borsa hall in Bologna. So you can see the astronauts in the lower right corner, with people sitting on the ground in front of them and the white columns of books towards the left.

The next part of this photo-essay is divided according to countries where the pictures were taken.

America (USA)

There are two images from the Central Park in New York. The first one has a statue of Robert Burns, also known as Robbie Burns. He is considered to be the national poet of Scotland. According to the Wikipaedia, "He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature".

The second image is of a sculpture showing two characters of one of the most famous and enduring love stories of the world - Romeo and Juliet - by the British playwright William Shakespeare.

Austria

The next image is from Vienna and shows the writer and playwright Ferdinand Raimund (1790-1836) near the opera building. He is credited with a number of important books and plays in German. Bitten by a dog and afraid of a painful death due to rabies, because no treatment existed for this disease at that time, he committed suicide at the age of 46 years.

Belgium

The next three images are from Brussels, the capital of Belgium. The first one shows two lovers at the lake - they are Thyl and Nele, the characters of a book by the Belgian writer Charles De Coster. De Coster is considered to be the father of Belgian writing. This monument is the opera of the sculptor Charles Samuel, a fan of De Coster. The monument also has many other characters from De Coster's books on its sides - a cat, a cooking pot, a spinning rod.

The next image shows two of the principle characters (Captain Haddock and Tintin) from the iconic comic books about the adventures of a boy called Tintin. These comics were written and illustrated by the Belgian author and artist called Hergé (his real name was "Georges Remi"). Tintin is considered to be one of the most popular European comic books and these have been translated into different languages.

The third image from Brussels shows a statue of Charles Buls (also known as Karel Buls) placed in the Agoraplein square, close to the Grand Place square. According to Wikipaedia, "He was a Belgian politician and mayor of the City of Brussels. Buls was an accomplished and prolific author, not merely on educational and artistic issues but also publishing accounts of his travels abroad. Buls became Mayor of Brussels in 1881. However, along with these reforms, his most lasting achievement was the result of his opposition to the grandiose architectural schemes of King Leopold II, and the resulting preservation of old parts of Brussels. "

Brazil

The next five images are from Brazil.

The first one has the bust of famous Lebanese writer Khalil Gibran in the city of Goiania. He was 12 years old when his family emigrated from Lebanon to USA. He died at 48 years and wrote in both Arabic and English. His most well known book is "The Prophet".

Many of the words of Khalil Gibran have been quoted infinite number of times and will be familiar to readers across the world. For example, you must have heard these - "If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were." Another of his quotes that I like, says - "I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers." You can check many other quotes from Gibran at Goodreads.

The next image is from Pelorihno, the old city on the hill in front of the port of Salvador do Bahia, where the well known Brazilian writer Jorge Amado lived. His house in Pelorinhno hosts a museum and shops around sell his souvenirs including his paintings showing him with a pipe in his mouth.

The next two images are from the medical college in Pelorihno, showing two ancient Greek philosophers, writers and scientists - Hippocrates and Galen.

The last image from Brazil shows the house of Cora Coralina, an Afro-Brazilian slave during Portuguese occupation, in the historic city of Goias Velho. The house is located next to the river Rio Vermelho and there is a statue of Cora standing at the window, looking over the river. Cora was a poet, who wrote about the degradation of slavery and her poems inspired hundreds of other Afro-Brazilians to seek a life of dignity.

Czech Republic

The next image of this photo-essay is from Prague and shows the statue of a women writer - Bozena Nemcova (real name "Barbora Panklova). Writer of fairy tales and legends, she is best known for her novel Babicka (Grandmother), an autobiographical book about her childhood with her grandmother.

India

The next four images are from India. The first image has the iconic figure of Basvanna from Basavkalyan in Karnataka, who is known for his Vachana-sahitya. According to Wikipaedia, "He spread social awareness through his poetry, popularly known as Vachanaas. Basavanna used Ishtalinga, an image of the Śiva Liṅga, to eradicate untouchability, to establish equality among all human beings and as a means to attain spiritual enlightenment. These were rational and progressive social thoughts in the twelfth century."

The next two images are from the Hindi Bhawan in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and present two important personalities from the world of Hindi literature - national poet of India, Maithili Sharan Gupt and the iconic writer Munshi Prem Chand.

The fourth image from India shows Nobel laureate poet, writer, playwright and freedom fighter, Rabindra Nath Tagore.

Italy

The images of writers from Italy are more numerous than all the other countries in this photo-essay. This may be because I have travelled widely in Italy. Perhaps, this has also to do with greater willingness in Italy to honour artists and writers in the public spaces.

The first three images are from the gardens of Villa Borghese park in Rome. The first image shows the Ukrainian born Russian writer and playwright Nikolai Gogol. In her book "The Namesake", Jhumpa Lahiri had paid homage to Gogol by giving his name to her hero.

The next image has the Peruvian writer Garcilaso de la Vega known as The Inca, from Villa Borghese gardens of Rome. He wrote about the Spanish colonizers of Peru. The son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noblewoman, he is recognized primarily for his contributions to Inca history, culture, and society.

The third image from Villa Borghese gardens of Rome has a writer from a tiny eastern European country called Montenegro - Petar Petrovic Njegos, who was a nobleman and a poet. As the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro, he is credited with modernization of his country.

The fourth image is also from Rome, from the ruins of Traiano's baths near the Colosseum, and shows the statue of Italian journalist and writer Alfredo Oriani.

The next image is from Santa Croce square in Florence and shows the most well known Italian poet Dante Alighieri, famous for his epic poem "Divine Comedy".

The next four images are from a garden near Cavour square, close to the Brera museum of art in Milan. This garden has many statues of writers, journalists, philosophers and scientists.

The first of these images shows the well known Italian journalist and newspaper editor Indro Montanelli, writing on his old typewriter. He is shown as a young man, his severe face is focused on his writing. It is a remarkable piece of art.

The next images have 3 Italian writers - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Gaetano Negri and  the playwrite Giuseppe Giacosa from the Cavour square park in Milan.

The next image is from the city of Vicenza and it shows the writer, editor and publisher Neri Pozza. The sculpture is close to the bridge on the river Bacchiglione, just behind the famous Basilica built by Andrea Palladio. Neri Pozza is one of the reputed contemporary publishing houses in Italy, who have published the Italian translations of different Indian authors including Alka Saraogi and Anita Nair.

The last image of this photo-essay shows the statue of Irish writer James Joyce and is from the city of Trieste. Joyce is shown walking, crossing a bridge in the centre of the city. Joyce had lived in Trieste for many years. He is famous for his books like Ulysses and Finnegan's wake.

Conclusions

I have loved putting together this photo-essay, even though identifying the pictures for this post took me hours of going through my vast picture archives. It was frustrating that from many countries, I could not find any image related to a book or a writer or a journalist. For example, I could not find any such image from my image archives of UK or Switzerland. No country of Africa is represented in this photo-essay for the same reason.

Many countries do not put statues of writers in prominent public spaces, probably because often writers speak against their governments! Also because compared to national leaders, military persons and freedom fighters, for many countries writers and artists are not considered important enough to be remembered through art and sculpture. Finding images of art related to women writers is even more difficult - for this essay I could find only two of them.

I hope that you will enjoy going through these images and perhaps share with me your experiences of finding the statues of your favourite authors during your travels! I would love to hear about any art works related to writers and/or their books, especially from countries not represented in this post.

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