Celebrating Dalit Struggles & Pride

Ever since the advent of metro network in Delhi and surrounding regions, I have started to explore unfamiliar parts of the city and NCR. Every time I visit Delhi, I try to visit some new places. In 2019, I decided to visit the Dalit Prerna Sthal Park and Okhala Bird Sanctuary, near the eponymous metro station on the Magenta line of Delhi metro.

This post is about my adventures while trying to visit these two tourist venues located in NOIDA (UP) close to the Delhi border. I take this opportunity to also reflect on caste discriminations in India.

While independent India opted for laws against caste-based discriminations and affirmative action for persons from lower and backward castes, I thought that continuing deaths of persons asked to clean the sewers was a big blot on nation's dignity. It is only in 2023 that Government of India has decided to allocate specific funds to stop manual cleaning of sewers - I hope that efficient action will be taken on this point and make sure that no one dies due to this act anymore. 

Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal

RDPS or the National Inspiration Memorial of Dalits was commissioned in 2011 by Ms. Mayawati, a Dalit leader, who was at that time the chief-minister of UP state. The word “Dalit” literally means “Downtrodden” and denotes persons belonging to the so called “lower” castes in India, who have been marginalised and exploited for centuries by persons of other, so-called “higher” castes.

Before Mayawati, dalits have had some other famous representatives, who have left a mark in Indian history. Dr. Ambedkar, one of the most important dalit leaders during the independence struggle, is considered the father of the Indian constitution. Babu Jagjivan Ram, a dalit leader belonging to Congress party, had been a famous minister in the Indian national government for more than a couple of decades. Another dalit leader from Congress party, K. R. Narayanan, had become vice-president of India in 1992 and president in 1997.

After the independence of India in 1947, gradually Dalit population groups had also started organising themselves politically. A dalit leader, Mr. Kanshi Ram, had founded a political party called Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984 to represent their political aspirations. Mayawati, a leader of BSP, formed the state government in UP in 1995, the most populous state of India with more than 200 million population at that time. After more than a decade of coalition governments, Mayawati formed her first majority government of dalits in 2007. By becoming a symbol of Dalit power and visibility, Mayawati has represented the collective rise of dalits.

Construction of the Dalit Prerna Sthal (Dalit Inspiration Memorial) in NOIDA close to Delhi, was a way to remind the people about this transformational journey of marginalised dalit people. For this reason, many persons also call it Dalit Garv Sthal (Dalit Pride).

Reaching Dalit Pride Park

The first Delhi Metro station had opened in 2002. Since then it has grown into one of the biggest metro network in the world with more than 250 stations and covering about 350 kms. The Magenta line going to Okhala Bird Sanctuary station had opened in 2017. It connects Janakpuri in west Delhi to Botanical Garden in UP in the east, covering a little more than 38 kms with 25 stations.

Check the latest metro map to see how you can reach Okhala Bird Sanctuary metro station from your home/hotel.

My Adventures in visiting Dalit Pride Park

My first motivation for this visit was the Okhala Bird Sanctuary. It was January and I had read about thousands of migratory birds visiting the Okhala area around the river Yamuna. On the Google map I had seen that Dalit Pride Park was very close so I had decided to visit both these places.

My journey had began in Gurgaon and I had taken the magenta line from Hauz Khas, reaching Okhala Bird Sanctuary Metro Station in a little more than one hour.

Getting out of metro station I had my first encounter with the reality – the exit stairs crossed a wide and busy road, full of fast traffic, and came down to a narrow platform in the middle of the road. There were no signs about how to reach the Bird Sanctuary or the Dalit Pride Park around the Metro Station. Crossing the road to reach the sidewalk was my first dangerous adventure. There was no sidewalk and the shops occupying the area, were not able to tell me how far was the Dalit park, except to indicate the general direction.

A 20 minutes of walk, with an occasional sidewalk that was covered with garbage in places, including a bridge over a canal carrying foul smelling refuse waters, finally brought me to the gate of the Dalit Park.

My satisfaction was short-lived, as the children playing there told me that this gate was locked and to enter the park, I needed to walk to the next gate. Another 15 minutes of walk brought me to the next gate, but it was also closed. Resigned I walked to the successive gate, where a young man selling the spicy fruit-chaat explained to me that all the park gates were closed and the only gate open to public was gate number 5, another half-an-hour of walk away.

By that time, the sun was up and it had become warm. I had been walking for more than one hour and was already tired. I tried looking for an auto but after 10 minutes gave up the idea. Finally, deflated and defeated, I started my walk back to the metro station.

Along the outer wall of the Dalit Park, there were narrow openings from where I could look inside and take a few pictures. It looked green and lovely with a lot of columns in a pink stone, with elephants at the top, which are the electoral symbol of BSP. In the centre of the park there was a monument with statues of Kanshi Ram, Mayawati and other Dalit icons. Through the narrow openings, the pictures have not come out so well and all the statues looked grey or black.

Looking from outside, I did not see any visitors in the park except for a few uniformed men sitting in the shade near the locked gates, looking bored.

Back at the metro station, frustrated and tired, I half-heartedly asked persons about the way to the Okhala Bird Sanctuary. They pointed vaguely towards the bridge on the river. To reach that part, I needed to cross a wide road full of fast-moving traffic without any place for pedestrians. In the end, I thought that it was time for me to lick my wounded pride and retreat from this visit. My only consolation was that I had seen some parts of the park from the outside.

Need for Dalit Pride Parks

Caste is a huge and deeply rooted issue in Indian society. Caste related reservations in educational institutions and government jobs are sources of resentment among persons of "higher" castes. Proposed as a temporary measure at the time of India's independence, it has now grown into a multiple-headed hydra with different caste groups claiming backwardness and right to reservations.

On the other hand, in spite of the equality guaranteed by the Indian constitution, marginalisation and oppression of Dalits continues to be a serious issue in many parts of India, especially in small towns and rural areas.

Yet, there is no systematic way of promoting discussions on this theme in India. During my school years, the only mention of caste discriminations had come during discussions on Mahatma Gandhi and perhaps during the lessons on medieval bhakti poets of India. There was no lesson on how caste discriminations work systematically across our daily lives and nothing about continuing inhuman treatment of specific "lower" caste groups even today. For example, manual scavenging was declared unlawful long time ago, yet there are still places where human beings are forced to carry excreta on their heads and unprotected men are forced to go down in the gutters and manholes to clean them manually, even in the national capital. Many educated Indians growing up in big cities feel that caste discriminations was something belonging to the past because they do not believe in caste distinctions, and have no idea of its continuing terrible impact.

In such a situation, I feel that Dalit Parks can play important roles in promoting public discussions on castes and its negative impacts. For example, they can help in informing public about the reality of caste discriminations through testimonies, films, art and sculptures. They can also showcase important contributions made by dalit leaders to create positive role models. School children should be taken to these Dalit museums, to learn about India's history, its continuing social disparities and to make a vow to fight these.

To Uttar Pradesh Tourism Board

Metro is an accessible public transport that brings tourists to different parts of the city. UP Tourism Board should make an effort to make it easier for persons reaching the Okhala Bird Sanctuary Metro Station to visit the Dalit park and the bird sanctuary. It will be good if a tourism department official actually travels by Metro to understand how difficult it is for people to come out of the metro station and to visit these 2 places.  

Allowing only one gate of the park to be open and choosing that gate which is most far away from metro station for this purpose, seems not only illogical, but also against poor and middle class persons, who do not have their own cars or vehicles for travel.

The tourism board should also put relevant sign boards at the metro station to guide the interested persons. Finally, if they can also make arrangements to facilitate visits by persons with disabilities and old persons (like me), it would be wonderful.

I can guess that the reason why only one gate of the Dalit Park is kept open for public, is to sell tickets and control entry. However, if you check how much money this park is earning from the visitors and if it is a small amount, make the entry to Dalit Park free so that more persons can visit it, experience what it means to be Dalit and face caste discriminations and learn about the pernicious effects of caste-system in India.

Conclusions

I believe that visiting Dalit park and learning about discriminations and inhuman treatment of dalits in India is a great idea – similar to visits to holocaust sites and genocide museums in Europe and monuments to Black-resistance sites in the USA. Often, people and government seem embarrassed to accept that India still has caste-related discriminations. Instead, we need to openly talk about it, make it a prominent discussion point and highlight all that which has been done by national and state governments as well as, by activists to fight it. I hope that UP Tourism Board and Government of India will wake up to its importance and make it an essential part of visits for tourists coming to India.

 

 

Hiding our difficult past and the uncomfortable parts of our present reality because we feel ashamed of it, does not help us in tackling it. We need to talk about it openly, so that we can understand it better and find ways of overcoming it.

There are still many aspects of caste-related exploitation that are not well understood. For example, while oppression and exploitation of “lower” castes by “higher” castes is a big problem, I feel that hierarchies and intra-caste inequalities and discriminations among the “lower” castes is also an issue. Unless we talk about these aspects, how can we hope to transform India into an equal and progressive society?

Our Upanishads, the ancient Hindu sacred texts, say that there is the same universal consciousness in all living beings. Similar messages from all different religions of India also need to be celebrated in the dalit parks to promote a change in mentality.

Like the queer communities across the world celebrating GLBTIQ pride parades, perhaps one day all cities of India will have colourful and joyful dalit parks and dalit pride parades, where people can learn about our social history and express our pride in our identities.

Note: Post originally written in 2019 and updated in 2023

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Most Beautiful Experiences

What makes some memories so special, that we can't forget them, even after decades? I was thinking about my memories of my most unforgettable evenings and wondering about what had made them so special.

In this post, I want to talk about 5 of my most unforgettable evenings and what made them special.

An Evening at the Taj Mahal, India

Talking about a beautiful evening at the Taj Mahal is a cliché, but since it was one the most incredible evenings that I had ever had, I decided to start with it. I had been to Taj in Agra a few times, the first time in 1967 on a school trip. This particular visit was in 2012, when I was in Agra for a conference. One afternoon, as I came out of a tiring meeting, I decided to walk and ended up at Taj Mahal. When I reached, the sky was already turning pink.

It was still crowded and I decided to sit down on a bench on one side, to wait for the evening. Slowly the crowd thinned and it became quieter. There was an azaan, I think from the mosque on the side of Taj or may be from outside. In that quiet, listening to that azaan and watching the silhouette of the familiar shape of the monument against the darkening sky, it was absolutely divine. It was the combination of beauty, colours and the music/sounds which made this evening so special.

The Uvs lake in Mongolia

I have also been to Mongolia many times. This particular evening was in 2008. We had travelled in a jeep from Bayan Ulgii to Uvs in the extreme west of Mongolia. In Uvs, I had one incredible afternoon in the stadium in Ulaangom where a Buddhist lama had led a special session of prayers.

One afternoon, after we finished our meetings, my friends accompanied me to Uvs lake, about 60 kms away from Ulaangom. The lake forms the border between Russia and Mongolia, which means that the mountains you can see in the image below on the other side of the lake were in Russia.

It was cloudy and windy that day. The contrast between light and dark shades of the dry grass, land, lake water and the snow covered mountains was very striking. A row of white round gers (tents) for the tourists, stood out. There were noisy seagulls and black and white lapwings. There, a few of my Mongolian friends sang polyphonic songs, which is a special Mongolian skill. The singers can simultaneously make multiple sounds, some in a wonderful bass and others, more acute.

The colours of the nature, the wind and clouds, the cries of seagulls and the polyphonic sounds of the Mongolian songs, together created something unique, which made that evening unforgettable for me. Even now, when I listen to polyphonic music from Mongolia, I remember that evening along the lake. If you have never heard a Mongolian polyphonic song, take a few minutes to listen to one on Youtube.

Pasubio Mountain, Veneto, Italy

Pasubio is the dolomite mountain of Schio, the little town in the north-east of Italy where we now live. Its highest peak is at more than 2,200 metres. From our home, a 20-25 minutes drive takes us to the mountain pass known as Pian delle Fugazze, at a little less than 1,200 metres. This was the border between Italy and Austria where the First World War battles had taken place. Hundreds of young men from different parts of Italy, but specially from all the towns of our region, had died here. At this mountain pass, visible from miles all around, is an Ossario, where bodily remains of those young men are kept.

We often go to the Ossario of Pasubio (in the image below). There are may mountain paths marked by the Italian Alpine association, where you can go for trekking. There is a hanging bridge there, about 2 km away, which makes for a nice walk. The evening at Pasubio which I remember is from a visit in 2012 evening. It was December and very cold. There had been different snowfalls, but on that day the sky was clear.

Soon after we arrived, the sky turned pink and orange, lighting up the snow with a strange glow. The moon was already out, not yet a full moon, but still glowing nicely. There was no one else at Ossario, just I and my wife. We stood there admiring the beautiful views till it turned dark. I think that it was special because we were alone and surrounded by incredible beauty.

An Evening in the Petrified Forest, New Mexico, USA

In 2018, I went on a road trip with my sister and one of her friends, in USA. We started from Santa Fe and finished our journey in Phoenix, visiting places like Grand Canyon and Sedona on the way. There is just a 2 years gap between I and my sister and I have a level of comfort with her, which is different from all other relationships. For much of our adult lives, we meet once in a while, usually with our families. Only now, with our children grown up, we can meet without our families and spend our time talking, as we used to do in our childhood.

That road-trip gave some wonderful memories, one of which was an evening spent in the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. The beautiful shades of the earth, the amazing landscapes and our constant bickering (which sometimes irritated my sister's friend), made it a wonderful evening.

Baja beach on Tapajos river in Amazon region, Brazil

I have also been to Brazil many times, most recently in 2019 when I had a wonderful visit in Rio de Janeiro. However, my special evening memory is once again from 2012. I was with my friend and colleague Deo, and we were visiting a project in Abaetetuba town in Para state in the north-east of Brazil. One evening, we went to a shack on the Baja beach on the Tapejos river, a few kilometres away. We had some beer, and while Deo chatted with some friends, I wandered alone.

Tapejos is a huge river, its other shore was probably a few kilometres away. It changes with the sea tides of Atlantic ocean. The retreating high tide had left its marks on the sand. A group of children was playing football. Strips of land alternating with streams of water, created a wonderful background.

I walked to the edge of the river. A few families with children were there, including a man with a baby boy, who had parked his motorbike and was playing with the child in the water. Slowly the sun went down the sky turned yellow and orange. As I walked back to the beer shack, the man and the baby boy left on their motorbike. The river, the colours, the families chattering, it all created something magical.

Conclusions

I love writing posts like this, which give me an opportunity to revisit forgotten journeys and to remember places and persons, some of whom are no longer alive. I hope that you have also enjoyed this journey, and that it has made you remember some special moments from your own life.

Writing such posts is also about understanding ourselves and our desires. I have hundreds of beautiful pictures of sunsets. Why did I choose these five? Thinking about it, makes me understand myself - what is important for me, and what touches me deeply. I that it is a way of meditating or may be a way of more mindful-living.

Because of smart-phones, most of us have hundreds or even thousands of pictures. Try to make them count - think which pictures matter to you and why? It will help you to learn about yourself.

I think that many factors contribute to making some memories special for us - 

(1) Beauty or aesthetic pleasure is an part of it.

(2) The persons who are with me contribute to making it special.

(3) A dash of music or art can also contribute to it.

(4) Possibility of remembering it through photographs or a diary or talking about it with friends

What makes some moments of your life unforgettable for you?

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The Camels of Genghis Khan

While passing through Ulaanbataar (UB), I had seen a strange sculpture with a row of camels standing in a tiny park in the middle of the road. I wanted to look at them properly and photograph them. However, it was a busy crossing, always full of traffic and clicking a picture of those camels from a moving car was impossible. So one afternoon I decided to walk and search for those camels.

This post is about my walk through the city, searching for those camels in Ulaanbataar (UB), the capital of Mongolia.

Mongolian Hero Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan is the national hero of Mongolia. His statues adorn some of the famous landmarks of the country like the central square of UB in front of the national parliament. They can also be seen in some unlikely places like his giant face designed on the side of a hill overlooking the city. Genghis Khan had led his caravans to conquer the world.

Mongolia is the land of nomadic people with their animals including horses, sheep, goats and camels – in fact Mongolia has 10 times more animals/cattle compared to its human population. So those camels could have been a representation of a Mongolian nomad. Thus, those sculptures could be a representation of the great Khan or of a Mongolian nomad.

Old wall-paintings & The Motorbike Guy

This time, I am staying at Shangri-La hotel on Embassy road in UB. I came out of the hotel and started my walk by going towards left, to the Children’s Palace, while across the road I could see Bayangol hotel, which is one of the historical hotels of UB.

I have been to Mongolia many times for work related to a disability programme. During my first visit to Mongolia in early 1990s, I had stayed in the Bayangol hotel. At that time UB was a completely different city, as Mongolia was just coming out of decades of a communist regime under the Soviet influence. Hardly anyone spoke English, while many persons spoke Russian. There were only a few buildings in this part of UB at that time while the road was narrow and there was no traffic except for a rare car.

This whole area is now completely transformed, full of sky-scrappers. The much wider road is jam-packed with cars. In the nearby Sukhbataar square there is the new parliament building. It is a beautiful place today with wonderful ambience and colourful buildings.

As I started my walk on Embassy road, I saw some beautiful old wall-paintings along the road. Their colours had faded but I could still make out their designs, which seemed to be telling some Buddhist story regarding the killing of some demon. I hope that these can be rennovated.

My first stop was the metallic sculpture of the Motorbike Man, which looks straight out of the Mad Max films, with an alien guy driving an amazing alien looking motorbike. I loved this sculpture placed just outside the Children's Palace. It seems to be the work of an artist called Mr. Santo, born in Thailand, who uses chains, springs, rods, ball bearings, brake bands, gears, and lots of other recycled metal to create art.

Park Place City Marker

I turned left on Chinggis Road (another way of saying Genghis), which is a broad road with never-ending traffic. My next stop was to admire the metallic city-marker of Park Place, showing the distances from UB to major cities of the world, including London, Sydney, Moscow and Beijing.

I have seen similar distance markers in many cities but this was the first time to see a metallic sculpture made for this purpose.

Peace Bridge

Going further south along the Chinggis Road I reached the Peace Bridge which passes above Dund-Gol river and Narnii Road, the bypass road of UB made for avoiding the traffic of the city centre.

The Peace Bridge was built with Chinese help in 1963 and was renovated in 2012. Dund-Gol is a small river, which joins Tuul river to the south of UB. From the Peace Bridge, I could see little water in Dund Gol (literally ‘Middle River’). Fortunately, it seemed relatively free of the trash which such places usually seem to get due to neglect.

The Blue Horses and the Summer Fountain

After crossing the bridge I reached the area around the National Sports Stadium of UB, which is full of shopping areas, restaurants and other modern buildings. In front of the square facing the Nadaam Mall, there was an open space with two beautiful blue horses, made in plastic or some synthetic materials. After the Motorbike Man and Park Place City Distances indicator and these horses, I was really impressed by the quality of public art in UB. It was also good to see that local youth had not tried to deface these art works by writing on them, which is a common problem in most urban places.

The fountains next to the horses, erupted with water suddenly and in unpredictable ways. Children playing between those fountains, were having a lot of fun as it was a warm day and many of them were soaking wet. As usually happens in such situations, a couple of adolescent boys had picked another boy and forced-carried him above one of the erupting fountains, accompanied with a lot of shouting and merry-making. Families sitting around looked at them with tolerant bemusement.

Children's Park

Next to the Nadaam Mall is the only pedestrian crossing bridge over Chenggis road. With so much traffic on this road, it was a safe way for me to cross the road. On the other side, the bridge led to a children's park full of statues of zebras, deer, eagles and tigers, where families were children were visiting. It is almost like a zoo, the only difference was that instead of live animals, it has statues.

It also had a nice fountain with the Blue coloured sculpture of a woman wearing traditional Mongolian dress.

Behind the park, I saw an old building which had a mosaic of a Soviet style of wall-art from the pre-1990s period (in the image below). Most of such buildings are slowly being replaced by new constructions. I wish someone would photograph and keep a record of all such wall-arts as these represent the city history.

Genghis Khan Camel Caravan

Finally, I reached the Camel sculptures in the traffic island marking the point where the north-to-south going Chenggis road meets the east-to-west going Chenggis avenue, which goes towards the international airport. The metal sculptures are called the "Silk Road Complex monument" and are the works of an artist called Dalkh-Ochir.

In 2015 a competition was held to identify sculptures for UB and in that competition 15 sculptures were selected. These have been placed in different parts of UB, including the motorbike man mentioned above.

In the Silk Road sculptures, initially there was only one statue of a Bactrian camel. Now there are 9 Bactrian camels, one dog and a bearded man on a horse, who may represent Genghis Khan or perhaps a Mongolian nomad. According to the GoGo website, "Initially the camel monument complex was named Migration and the idea of camels facing towards the city center has a meaning of inflow of wealth."

I am glad that I had decided to make this walk to look for those camels. They looked absolutely amazing. The sculptures are huge and made with a metallic sheet, and thus can hopefully withstand the harsh Mongolian winter.

I spent some time walking around the sculptures and clicking pictures while the amused locals, waiting for the bus at the bus-stand across the road looked at me.

To Conclude

Just after the Silk Road monument complex crossing, there was the Palace and Museum of Bogd Khan, who was the first king of Mongolia after its independence from China in early twentieth century. However, I was too tired by this time and decided to leave visiting that to another day.

It was a very satisfying walk. It took me a couple of hours, but that was because I was stopping every where to look around and click pictures. If you are in a hurry, you can do it faster. The image below shows another Soviet-era wall-art from a building near the Silk Road complex crossing. I am fascinated by the history hidden in these wall-arts.

UB has some wonderful examples of good quality public art. Though I have been to UB many times, I am not much acquainted with the town except for the area around Gandam monastery. I am glad that this time I could explore a new part of the city.

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#mongoliaub #ubmongolia #ulaanbaatar #publicart #genghiskhan

Sun-Rise At The Shore Temple

Shore temple of Mahabalipuram is a magical place, especially early in the morning as the sun rises over the Bay of Bengal and illuminates the early 8th century structure.

I had reached Mahabalipuram around noon and passed the whole afternoon looking at the rock-temples at the area known as Arjun’s Penance. By the time, I reached the Shore temple, it was evening and the entrance to the temple was closed. So, I decided to stay overnight in Mahabalipuram and made the plans for getting up early on the next morning to visit it. I am so happy that I made that decision because that early morning visit was truly magical.

History of the Shore Temple

In 700 CE when Rajasimha Varman became the king of the Pallava empire with its capital in Kanchipuram, the empire was nearing the end of its power. Over the previous centuries, his ancestors had built the seafaring empire with their ships going up to Rome in the Mediterranean. In the 6-7th centuries, the Pallava kings had built a large number of sea-facing rock-temples on the granite hills of Mahabalipuram.

Rajasimha ruled for 28 years and is credited with the building of the shore temple. Two new Shiva shrines were built around an older statue of reclining Vishnu. After Rajasimha, the power of Pallava kings gradually declined and in the 9th century, the area came under the Chola empire.

4 Shrines of the Shore Temple

The Shore Temple is composed of 4 distinct shrines – an eastern facing Kshatriya Simheshwar temple dedicated to Shiva; a western facing Rajasimheshwar temple also dedicated to Shiva; a partially open shrine surrounding the older statue of reclining Vishnu between the first two temples; and, an open-air step-well Shiva shrine to the north.

When I visited it, the eastern sea-facing Shiva temple was closed for repairs. Even the shrine to the reclining Vishnu was closed.

I could only visit the smaller west-facing shrine which has a central bass-relief panel depicting a family portrait of Shiva, with his consort Parvati and baby Ganesh between them, while their two older sons, Kartikeya and Skand stand behind.

On the north, the fourth shrine is located at a lower level with the steps going down. It has a hole where once there was Nandi’s platform, and then a Shivalinga, while Nandi’s statue lies close to the back wall. Since it was an open-air shrine, so probably they had made it at a lower level, to provide shelter from the wind.

Temple Complex

Entrance to the Shore temple is on the west where the ticket office is located about 200 metres away. The temple is located on a land jutting into the sea and the surrounding area has been landscaped.

As you walk towards the temple, you come across two stone platforms. Usually, in the temples, there is one platform with the animal representing the vehicle of the principal deity. Perhaps, the two platforms in front of the Shore Temple indicated that the temple had two main deities (Shiva and Vishnu), though now both the platforms have lost their statues.

Behind the two front platforms was the platform of the flag pole and a tiny Gopuram with steps going down towards the temple.

The outer wall of the temple complex was lined with a row of sitting Nandi bulls. After a corridor, there was an inner wall which had bass-relief panels showing Hindu mythological stories.

There was another Nandi placed above the entrance to the west-facing shrine. Thus, the whole complex very clearly underlines its affiliation to Shaivism.

Narsimha Stautes in the Shore Temple

The whole area also had many statues of another animal – the Narsimha lion, that looked like a sabre-toothed tiger. The image below shows a Narsimha niche with an Apsara on his right shoulder placed facing the sea, probably used for keeping a lamp as a light-house for the sea boats. Narsimha statues clearly represent the king during whose reign this temple complex was built. Thus, I wonder, if the Apsara could have been a representation of his queen or may be a family deity?

The image below is another representation of the Narsimha on the temple walls. There are many of these. I am not sure if there are other examples of Hindu temples where the king’s symbol is shown in such a prominent manner and so consistently.

The sea air with its humidity has affected everything in the Shore temple complex. Thus, most of the sculptures have lost their details.

Sunrise at the Shore Temple

When I reached the Shore Temple, it was still dark and there was no one else. Going around in the morning stillness was almost like a meditation. After about 20 minutes a few other persons came. On the other hand, the beach to the south of the temple, was already full of pilgrims in their red clothes, taking bath and selfies in the morning sea, with a few tourists clicking their pictures.

As I walked around, slowly the darkness receded and a sleepy baby sun peeked from behind the dark clouds on the horizon. To see the sun come out slowly and climb up in the sky till it was shining behind the shikhar of the temple, like a naughty boy playing with a mirror, was a moment of pure bliss.

Youth Follies

The first time, I had been to Mahabalipuram was in 1977. At that time, I had only visited the Pancha Ratha area. At that time, from the Pancha Ratha, you could walk towards the Shore Temple along the sea because there were no protecting walls or other buildings between the two. However, then I had thought that the shore temple was just an old ruin and not worth a walk.

This time, older and wiser, I spent the whole morning at the shore temple. It was an amazing visit and I will cherish the memory of this visit.

To Conclude - Sabrimala Judgement

Let me conclude this post with something completely different. The image below has a group of Sabrimala pilgrims at the smaller Shiva shrine of the Shore temple in Mahabalipuram.

A few days ago the Supreme Court in India has made a judgement about the entry of women of child-bearing age to the Sabrimala temple. I am not a religious minded person, I have never been to Sabrimala and I have no plans of going there, as my interest is more in spirituality. However, I feel that SC’s decision is a mistake.

I believe that parliaments and courts have a role in ensuring that our religions do not violate the fundamental human rights. If some practices are systematic, then we should look at them critically. However, I don't think that special rules for one individual temple violate the human rights of faithful, it is not a systematic discrimination. Such differences are a part of the richness and diversity of Hinduism, common in the way the religious faiths are lived in India, especially for the Indic religions. Insisting on eliminating that diversity of temple practices and promoting uniformity of the religious practices is a loss for humanity and it means accepting the views of fundamentalists who ask for narrow definitions of the religious practices.

If it was a common practice for all temples of the Sabrimala sect, even then, within the wide variety of Hindu religious practices, I feel that this diversity would be valuable to maintain. Only if it was a common practice in all Hindu temples, then it would be a systematic exclusion, which would need to be challenged.

I hope that the SC judgement about Sabrimala temple will become an opportunity for people to reflect on the richness of our cultural and social diversities of Hinduism and Indic religions and find meaningful ways to safeguard this heritage for the future. If we cancel our diversities of practices, then we lead to a monoculture of faith, which are contrary to the idea of Hinduism, even if fundamentalists would like to have such a world.

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Amazing Rock-Temples of Mahabalipuram (Part 1)

Mahabalipuram on the south-eastern coast of India is a city with some of the most amazing temples cut into granite rocks. Its name (Mahabali or the strong man + Puram or city) refers to the ancient Hindu legend of Bali and his son Banasur.

This first part of the post explains the history of rock-cutting for construction in India and some rock-temples located in the park around the area surrounding the rock-sculptures known as Arjuna’s Penance. Part 2 of this post looks specifically at Arjuna's Penance itself.

History of Rock-Temples in India

Humans had inhabited natural rock-caves since prehistoric times. With their primitive tools they had started creating niches in those rocks. For example, in Bhimbetaka caves near Bhopal in central India, you can see some of these pre-historic man-made rock niches called "cupules" (image below).

Since finding natural caves in rocky areas was not always easy, the next step was man-made caves in the rocks. In India, the earliest man-made caves are from around 2nd century BC, made by Buddhist monks (many of them include many Hindu deities as well), such as those in Ajanta (Aurangabad) and Kanheri (Mumbai) in central-west India. These caves were used as habitations and temples (Kanheri caves in the image below).

Over the next centuries, the idea of cutting rocks to create temples spread across central and south India. 5th to 8th century CE was the golden period of rock temples in India. In this period, a number of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist rock-temples were built in different parts of India – Rashtrakutas and Yadavs built Elephanta and Ellora (Maharashtra), Jain monks built Udaygiri (Madhya Pradesh), Chalukyas built Badami (Karnataka) and Pallavas built Mahabalipuram (Tamilnadu).

Building rock-temples required a lot of resources - to pay the skilled artisans who knew how to cut and mould the rocks over a period of years. Thus, each area of rock temples mentioned above, had a rich empire around it during 5-8th centuries CE. While there must have been some exchange of knowledge and skills between the artisans working in different parts of India, generations of artisans must have grown up and spent all their lives working the rocks in each of these places. Each of them developed their own specific styles. The rock-temples of Mahabalipuram are in what is called the Pallava style.

Process of Rock-Cutting Used in Mahabalipuram

Cutting the boulder must have been a long and hard work, requiring a knowledge about veins and planes of the rocks so that artisans knew where exactly to cut it. There are many other unfinished cut rocks in this area where you can see the process of cutting a rock and making rock-temples. For example, the image below shows that steps were cut in the rock and 3 niches were marked for making of statues, but the work was left unfinished.

Similar unfinished rocks show how they cut such a smooth surface on the huge granite boulders. They first made holes in a line on the rock surface as you can see in the image below.

The next image shows a cut boulder with markings on the upper edge showing the places where holes were made.

However, the holes do not seem to be very deep. So how did making holes in a line, divided the boulder in two parts with smooth surfaces? Did they have one deeper hole where they pushed in an iron rod to act as a lever? Did they use water in some way to force the separation?

Do you have any ideas how they did it - If so, please share them in the comments below.

Kinds of Rock-temples in Mahabalipuram

In Mahabalipuram there are four kinds of rock-temples:

(1) Open-air Bass-relief temples: Figures were sculpted on the rock surface.

(2) Temples in rock-caves: Caves were cut in the rock and then inside those caves, statues of deity in bass-relief or full sculptures were placed.

(3) Monolith temples: Big rocky boulders were taken and cut from the top-to-bottom, creating temples. In Mahabalipuram these are called “Rathas” (chariots).

(4) Built temples: Blocks of rocks were cut and then places one over another to create the temple.

Mammallapuram - Mahabalipuram: Myths & History

The original name of the town comes from the mythical king Bali, who was a very strong and powerful king. The legend says that Bali’s son was Banasur, who had imprisoned Anirudha, who was Krishna’s nephew and in love with Banasur’s daughter. Banasur was killed by Krishna. The town is also linked with the five Pandava brothers from “Mahabharat” and thus, different temples of the town are dedicated to them.

The rock temples of Mahabalipuram were built by the Pallava kings, who had their capital in Kanchipuram, 70 km away to the west, and who used Mahabalipuram as their port to export spices and silks as far as the Mediterranean and Romans.

The first temples of Mahabalipuram were built under king Mahendra Varman (580-629 CE). His son Narsimha Varman 1st, was a strong wrestler (Malla) and gave another name to this place – Mahamallapuram or Mammallapuram. His son Mahendra Varman 2nd, who ruled only for 3 years (668-670 CE), has his name inscribed in Adivaraha temple, where the town’s name Mahabalipuram is also mentioned.

The Ganesha Ratha temple was built under Parmeshwara Varman (670-690 CE) while Rajasimha (690-728 CE) was responsible for the shore temple.

Arjun’s Penance Monument Park

The main rock temples of Mahabalipuram are located in three areas, of which two areas are next to the sea – the shore temple and a group of five temples known as “Pancha Rathas”. This post does not touch those monuments.

The third area is a little away from the sea, where a granite hill is surrounded by a grassy land and this is known as the Arjun’s Penance area. Apart from the 1,500 years old temples, it also includes a light-house built in late 19th century under the British. It is very rich in monuments. This post is about some of the monuments of this area.

Trimurti Temple & the Round Water Tank

I entered this park from its north entrance, towards the Mahabalipuram bus-stand side. The first temple I saw was the Trimurti temple, which is a rock-cave temple with bass-relief statues of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

The sculptures of this temple are not very finally chiselled. At the same time, while Vishnu’s statue was recognisable, those of Shiva and Brahma did not have the distinctive features that we normally associate with their iconography. For example, the image below shows the Shiva sculpture from Trimurti temple – it is only the lingam in the foreground that identifies it as Shiva.

Outside the rock-temple, there is a circular water-tank cut into granite. It does not have steps for going inside, so it was not built as a usual temple-pond for the pilgrims. While cutting the rocks, a lot of water is needed to cool the surface. So, I wonder if they had created the circular tank to store water for the artisans, both for drinking and for rock-cutting? It is too well made in a perfect circle, to be used just for storage, so its purpose could have been two-fold – storing water while constructions were going on and then to remain there as a symbol of beauty in front of the temple.

Krishna’s Butter Ball

Between the Trimurti temple and the rest of the park, there are some huge granite boulders and the starting of a ridge that goes up towards the hill. As I walked on this ridge, I came across “Krishna’s butter ball”, a huge round boulder with its top surface cut smooth, that seems to be resting precariously on the rocks.

It is the most popular tourist spot in the park, with people vying to get their selfies all around the boulder.

When I saw it, I asked myself if there was a story behind this boulder? Was it cut and then left in that place deliberately because it was visually striking? Or was it a work in progress which was left incomplete because of some external event like some war or lack of funds?

Ganesh’s Rath

This is a monolithic temple chiselled out from a single big boulder like a sculptor sculpts a statue. It is located a little to the south on the grass-land below Krishna's Butter Ball, along a rocky path that leads up to another granite hill.

It looks like the wooden temples on the chariots used for the annual functions in the temples when deities are taken out in processions. Perhaps that is why such temples are called “Rath” (chariot).

Since the sculptors start with these constructions from the top, their top parts are much more elaborate compared to the bottoms.

Rayar Gopuram

The path going uphill from Ganesh’s rath leads to other constructions on the top, with a raised platform and pillars, including an entrance gate, which could have been somewhat like a Gopuram, that became popular in the temple architecture some centuries later.

Other Rock Temples

As I walked around this area, I saw different rock-temples. Some of these had inscriptions, such as the one in Adivaraha temple in the image below, which I was told, includes the word Mahabalipuram. It would have been nice to have some boards outside showing the translations of the inscriptions.

The area has many epigraphs whose meanings are not clear and it is likely that some of those were used by the temple-planners and builders as their annotations.

The sculptures at the top of this hill are older and more finely made. For example, look at the image below showing the Vamana story when Vishnu assumed giant form and in three steps covered the whole universe, from one of the temples. This story is based in Mahabalipuram because in the myth, Vishnu had come as a Vamana to the Asura king Bali and tricked him into donating his empire. I loved this sculpture – it has Vishnu in the vamana form at the bottom and also in the giant form with his left leg raised up to an impossible yogic angle reaching out to the universe around him.

I also suspect that the 3 figures shown sitting at his feet include the king and some other important persons of that period – probably the king is the one sitting close to the right leg of Vishnu. However, it does not show the mythical king Bali.

Conclusions

This first post about Mahabalipuram shows the richness of iconographies and rock-cut sculptures from 1,500 years ago. If you are interested in art, history and archaeology, you can spend hours in each of the temples described above and discover new things.

The area known as Arjun’s Penance Monument Park has a large number of monuments - too many for one post! In this post I have limited myself to the northern and western parts of this area. The eastern and southern parts of this area, including the beautiful rock sculpture known as Arjuna's Penance  will be the subject of my next post.

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