Emancipatory Disability Research: Disability & Sexuality

To explain the basic concepts of Emancipatory Research (ER) and especially, to explain, how it is organised, I am going to present some examples of Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR). All these examples are about disability, but I think that the basic principles would be same for conducting ER with other groups of marginalised persons.

My first example of EDR is from 2001-02 on “Disability and Sexuality” in Italy. It was carried out as part of my thesis for a master degree in disability studies from the Leeds University in UK. It was also the only time in which I directly participated in the research-exchanges and that experience made me understand how sharing experiences, ideas and views can be so empowering.

Background

The idea of conducting a research on disability and sexuality came during a conversation with a friend who had lost an arm during an accident some years ago. She told me that after losing her arm, she had become sexually invisible to the men. Though at that time, I was married for more than 2 decades and was a father of a child, I found it difficult to talk about sexuality with others. I thought that doing a research on disability and sexuality would be a good way for me to overcome my inhibitions.

Most of the research carried out about sexuality of disabled persons looks at it as a problem, as a part of their impairment. It is often seen as something pathological, to be treated, cured and controlled.

I wanted to look at sexuality from the point of view of persons with disabilities. Expressing our sexuality is our human right. I wanted to see how families and communities look at and influence the desire of expressing sexuality of persons with disabilities.

The research involved a small number of persons (21), both men and women, above 18 years of age and with different disabilities. Except for one gay person, all the remaining participants were heterosexual. The research was carried out through emails and had only one physical meeting when the participants met each other.

Research Process

The whole research was in Italian and was later translated into English. It was organised in the following steps:An announcement was placed in some disability related newsgroups to ask for volunteers for a study on disability and sexuality.

Persons responding to this announcement were sent more information about the study and were asked to provide some general information.

The main research issues were defined in collaboration with the participants (25 persons).

Then over a period of four months, these issues were discussed with the participants through individual emails. 21 persons out of the 25 who had originally agreed, actually completed this phase of the research.

A huge amount of text material of our discussions about sexuality were collected. I analysed this material and produced 16 theme reports in Italian, which were shared and discussed collectively with most of the participants (a few persons preferred to have these discussions individually instead of collectively).

On the basis of the theme reports and discussions, I prepared a summary report in Italian (later translated into English, which was used for my thesis).

Though I coordinated the whole process and asked most of the questions, the participants were free to raise questions to me, including questions related to my sexuality. Throughout the process, I tried to be honest and sincere in my answers to all the questions asked to me.

Impact of the research

At the end of the research, most of the participants expressed appreciation of how it had been learning and empowering process for them. Here are the comments of two participants:

Anna: I am reading the reports on our answers and it is getting to be very interesting. It is an “experience” in the sense of reading what others think and feel, makes me feel very close to them … first I was speaking alone and now I hear voices of others and that is very beautiful. … I have to say that reading what you have written, what we have written, it is such a strange and moving experience that I can’t describe it. Every evening when I download my mail, I am hoping to see another of these reports and then after reading them, I think about them for a long time. When I started participating in this research, I didn’t think that it would be such an involving experience. Reading your words is like looking at myself through a mirror. Alice: I have read the report in the morning and for the whole day, I kept on thinking about it. I am reflecting on things that I had never thought about before. I went some times to the disabled people’s organisation office – but it is full of persons complaining all the time. I didn’t want to go back there again. I never felt part of a group of “disabled persons”. When people earlier used to say the “world of disabled persons”, I couldn’t understand what they meant. I never thought that by having similar needs we become similar persons … reading this report, it was like a flash of light in my head. Perhaps when the non-disabled persons say “you all”, it is not so strange after all.Note: The names of the persons have been changed.

For me personally, participating in this research was a life-changing experience. Some of the things which the participants wrote to me, they had a deep effect on me. Often, I spent whole days thinking about what people had shared. It prompted me to share more honestly my own thoughts with the others.

18 years after this experience, I still remember the strong emotions provoked by this research. With one participant, I continue to be friends even today. I feel that this research helped me to become more open about my own sexuality and also to be more accepting of other persons’ diverse ideas about sexuality.

Issues Discussed During the Research

This research touched on different aspects of sexuality - from our need of intimacy and the meaning of sex in our lives, to the role of masturbation, pornography or the experiences of sexual violence. It gave me a better understanding of how we are influenced and changed by the attitudes and expectations of the people surrounding us. It provided real life examples of how different barriers intersect and reinforce each other in the lives of disabled persons.

Some of the issues raised up during our discussions were completely new to me. For example, I had no idea about specific sexual aids for persons with disabilities, cybersex, telephone sex and devotees (persons who like to have sex with a disabled person). Our discussions were sometimes about pain and frustration, at others they were laced with humour and irony.

For example, during the discussion about devotees, one of the participants wrote, "If you know someone, let me know! I am only joking, I don’t think I want a person who wants me only because I am disabled and not because I am Alice, though it would be the first time in my life that my disability is actually useful for something!"

I think that it made me aware about aspects of sexuality that otherwise I would have never understood. For example, a few years later, while talking of sexuality with a transgender woman, she said, "I don't have a real vagina, so I can't really enjoy sex."

It made me think of my discussions with the participant of this research, who was a tetraplegic, had no sensations in his body below his neck and for him sex meant licking and giving orgasm to his girlfriend. He had never said that he could not enjoy sex, rather the opposite, he craved it! For him sex was much more than genitals - it was about affection, intimacy, complicity and the joy of having a deeper human connection.

For me, it was important to understand that both the point of views expressed above, that of the transgender woman and that of the guy with tetraplegia were equally valid.

Conclusions

If you wish to learn more about this research, you can download my research thesis (PDF).

I think that my thesis captured the spirit of this research. But it had a word-limit, thus I was forced to leave out a lot of things that were insightful and significant for me. Therefore, compared to the thesis, I feel that my 16 theme reports written in Italian were more powerful. For many years, I had thought of translating into English all those theme reports and sharing them online, but I never came around to actually doing it.

Doing this research convinced me about the importance of emancipatory research in which a group of marginalised persons can gain empowerment by talking to each other and by sharing experiences and ideas with each other in a systematic way that focuses on personal as well as, collective issues such as barriers.

Ever since that first EDR conducted 18 years ago, I have been involved in facilitating a number of such researches in different parts of the world. However, after that first experience, I have never been a part of the participants, who interact with each other. I remain outside the group, helping them to reason it through, train them in how to think about issues, help them understand and analyse their reports.

*****

#emancipatoryresearch #disability #sexuality #report #thesis

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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#shoretemplemahabalipuram #mahabalipuram #shoretemple #hinduism #shaivism #shivatemple

Planning Emancipatory Research

My first 4 posts introduced some basic concepts related to emancipatory research (ER). With this 5th post, we are now going to look at more practical aspects of ER – how to plan an ER.

I believe that the ER can be a useful approach for promoting empowerment of different marginalised groups. However, all my experiences are in Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR). If you have used a similar approach for conducting research with other marginalised groups, I would love to exchange views with you. You can check the full list of my posts on emancipatory research.

Selecting the Research Themes

Identifying the research questions or the themes is fundamental for ER. The research questions should be such that they promote empowerment. ER needs to identify problems that are felt as important by the marginalised groups themselves.

For promoting empowerment, the research needs to focus on those problems in such ways so that the marginalised groups can understand the different dimensions and contributing factors of the issues. They need to ask why and understand why things happen in the way they do, and how do environment, state, society, community, families and they themselves contribute to it.

Using a human rights approach, which means focusing on peoples’ rights and how these rights are violated or not respected, is one way to stimulate people to fight for those rights and promote empowerment.

In Emancipatory Disability Research, this also means looking at issues through the social model approach focusing on the way different kinds of barriers (attitudes, resources, physical, legal, social, cultural) surrounding the persons with disabilities create and increase disablement, and limit their participation and inclusion.

Prerequisites for starting Emancipatory Research

Normally the desire for conducting ER will not come from the community of the marginalised persons – they do not understand it and how it can help them. Thus, ER has to be stimulated and supported by outsiders.

ER can only be a part of an on-going community-based programme or activities. You cannot just go as an outsider to a community and think of doing emancipatory research.

ER is conducted by the marginalised persons themselves, so if you are facilitating the ER process, be ready to give up control. Be willing to accept that people may decide to go into directions which you did not foresee or plan.

Academic researchers and other experts need to play a supporting role in ER. They must accept that they may have to sit quietly and listen (one of the most difficult things to do!). They have to give advice only when asked and they must not resent if the researchers (marginalised persons) do not accept their advice.

ER’s goal is to generate new knowledge from the point of view of marginalised persons and promote their own empowerment. The knowledge they want to generate may not seem so important to academic researchers and experts.

ER can only happen in a process lasting different months or years. Thus, ER cannot be completed in a short time by outsiders who go in for a few weeks, collect information and leave. ER is a "slow research" that requires its own time of maturation.

Identifying Researchers

Among the marginalised group of persons, you need to think of the persons who will conduct the research. Let me give you 3 examples from the ER projects in which I was involved to see how different groups of persons may be chosen:

(1) In an ER project in rural Karnataka in India, we wanted to look at the different barriers faced by all the different groups of persons with disabilities. We identified 8 groups of disabilities for the research (vision disabilities, hearing and speech disabilities, physical disabilities, etc.). We decided to identify 1 man and 1 woman with each of those 8 kinds of disabilities. We wanted both young and old persons, educated and uneducated persons, and persons living in district towns as well as those living in villages. So, in the end, in our team of 16 selected persons we had representatives from all these groups.

(2) In an ER project in Gaza in Palestine, we wanted to look at the barriers faced by young adult women with different disabilities. They identified about 25 adult women with different disabilities who were trained as researchers. It was impossible to identify women with intellectual disabilities and with mental health conditions for the role of researchers because the community workers could not understand how these 2 groups of women could contribute anything useful. This highlighted some of common negative attitudes against certain groups among the persons who may have long experience of working in the disability sector.

(3) In an on-going ER project in Mongolia, we are looking at the barriers faced by young persons (less than 30 years) with moderate to severe disabilities who live in the capital Ulan Baatar. We selected persons from different parts of the city including from the urban peripheries where families are poorer. We worked with Independent Living Movement Mongolia and other DPO federations to identify 35 researchers. However, finding persons of less than 30 years was a challenge and, in the end, we accepted persons up to 36 years old.

Thus, based on the objectives of your research, you need to define the criteria and a strategy for selecting your researchers. Usually persons with disabilities have their leaders who can speak out confidently. The challenge for ER is to find persons who are potential leaders, who may not be very confident and who may not be able to express themselves, but ER can help them to become more empowered and future leaders.

Training the Researchers

Persons from the marginalised group who have been selected as researchers need to be trained in how to conduct the research. The training will depend upon the research themes and methodology but in my experience, it is always important for them to understand how different factors influence a situation.

For example, if in our research we are looking at why children with disabilities are not going to the school, we have to think about existing education policies, attitudes (of teachers, of other children, of families), physical accessibilities, transport, school fees, skills of the teachers, number of children in the class, and so on. Most persons have some ideas about the causes of problems and it is important for them to learn to not focus only on their own ideas, but learn to see issues from different point of views. I prefer to dedicate one day of training to making the future researchers doing different exercises about the possible causes of different problems.

The researchers also need training about general skills such as how to ask questions, listening with empathy, being respectful to people, and being aware about their own prejudices. They also need to reflect on issues of confidentiality, privacy and ethics.

They may also need some specific skills such as how to run a focus group or how to interview persons, which will depend upon the research methodology.

Finally, the researchers need to understand the diversities of their own marginalisation. For example, in Emancipatory Disability Research, persons with disabilities need to understand the diversity of ways in which barriers affect them because of their different disabilities. Some of the barriers faced by a blind person will be very different from the barriers faced a wheel-chair user, while other barriers may be similar. Thus, I feel that it is important for the researchers to be aware of their own differences, acknowledge their own negative attitudes and learn to be inclusive.

Support Staff for the Emancipatory Research

The researchers selected from the marginalised groups will need a support system to carry out the research.

The most important figure among the support staff is that of a reporter – the person who will accompany each step and document all the research process. ER is almost always a qualitative research during which people talk, share stories and experiences. The reporter has to document all these discussions. Persons with research experience and background in areas like sociology, anthropology, nursing or humanities can be good at it.

Depending upon the research methodology, the ER process may need contributions from a statistician for the analysis of any data collected during the research.

Other support staff will be needed to organise the different research activities such as the organisation of meetings, group discussions, interviews and visits to the field. For example, researchers may need accessible transport services and accessible meeting venues. They may need materials in Braille or a sign language interpreter.

EDR also requires a group of committed experts including academic researchers who agree to follow the research and support the researchers during the different phases of the process.

To Conclude

Planning an ER requires committed research professionals who are willing to put themselves in supporting roles and give space to marginalised persons to think about and understand their own issues.

A perfect ER in which a group of marginalised persons completely controls all aspects of the research is an ideal – it is very difficult to achieve but we need to strive for it by constantly questioning ourselves and forcing ourselves to keeping quiet and listening, instead of intervening.

In my next posts, I will share information about my experiences in different ER initiatives.

*****

#planningemancipatoryresearch #disabilityresearch #emancipatoryresearch #edr 

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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#rocktemplesofindia #rockcutting #ancienttemples #hinduism #india #mahabalipuram

Amazing Rock-Temples of Mahabalipuram Part 2

This second post on the amazing rock-temples of Mahabalipuram from 6-8th century CE is about the ancient ruins in the south-east part of the area known as Arjuna’s Penance. The first part of this post had described the history and rock-cutting techniques of rock-temples in India and presented some monuments from the north-west part of “Arjun’s Penance Monument Park”.

This part presents the monuments from the remaining part of the park starting with the incredible sculptures of Arjun's Penance.

Arjun’s Penance

As you come out of the park-exit in front of Ganesha’s rath, on your right you can see the most beautiful sculptures of Mahabalipuram – this is the famous Arjun’s Penance.

This rich bass-relief of birds, animals, gods, kings and ascetics sculpted on the granite surface, is among the most wonderful art in the world. It is composed of two rock surfaces with a narrow gully in the centre, which is cleverly used to depict the Hindu story about the descent of river Ganges on the earth. During the rainy season, I could imagine the rain water cascading down in that funnel, making the myth come alive in a 3-D spectacle. This amazing work of art faces West Raja street in Mahabalipuram.

The sculptures are spread-out like a wide-screen cinema screen with gods, ascetic sages, kings and queens along with playful birds and animals, depicted in rows, mostly looking towards Ganga’s descent with wonder and reverence. Many of them show their right palms, a sign of benediction, towards the visitors.

Near the top, to the left of Ganga’s descent is the figure of a man with his hands raised up and ribs sticking out, standing on one foot. Some people believe that this figure is of Bhagirath, who according to the Puranic Stories of Hinduism, had done a Tapasya (penance) to bring Ganges to earth.

However, many believe that this figure is that of Arjun, (one of the 5 Pandav-brothers from Mahabharat), doing tapasya to get a boon from Shiva, who is shown standing next to him on his right. I really loved this group of sculptures, it is both majestic and joyful. It has been made in loving details such as the two elephants with many baby elephants on the right side and the two ducks near the penancing Arjun.

Terminology Used for Arjun's Penance

I am not sure if “Penance” is the right word to translate “Tapasya”, which means doing worship while giving suffering to the body (for example, by standing or sitting in a difficult pose for a long time without eating or drinking).

Tapasya was used by people in the Hindu, Buddh and Jain stories to force the God to grant them boons such as special powers or weapons. For example, there are many Buddhist tales about monks closing themselves in small spaces for months to do Tapasya and gain special powers.

On the other hand, the word “Penance” is linked to Catholicism, it means expiation for some sin, which is not how Arjuana or Bhagirath approach their worship. In Hinduism, I think that the word "penance" can be used for doing reparations (by organising yagna, doing charity) after a wrong act, such as killing someone by mistake. However, since everywhere in Mahabalipuram the words "Arjun's Penance" have been used, so I have used that same term in this post, even if I disagree with it.

Krishna Mandapam

Next to the Arjun’s Penance if you walk towards the south, you come across another rock-temple. It is dedicated to Krishna and it also has lovely bass-reliefs related to the pastoral life in Mathura-Vrindavan in north of India.

On one side, it has Krishna holding the Govardhan mountain with his hand while saving the people of Vrindavan from the wrath of the rain god Indra.

It also has a man milking a cow who is licking her calf and other joyful scenes showing dancing couples.

These sculptures depicting life in Mathura and Vrindavan in the north of India are a symbol of essential cultural unity of India even if the different parts of the country were under different empires and kingdoms. Therefore, though we may think of unification of India as a modern nation state only in 1947, we can also think of a civlisational unity of India which goes back to some millenniums.

Trials for Making Arjun’s Penance

As you walk further to the south, you come across another granite surface covered in rough bass-relief sculptures. These are somewhat similar to the sculptures of Arjun’s Penance, though are more roughly carved. This is supposed to be the model where the design of Arjun’s Penance was first tested before their actual execution.

Or, it is possible that initially they wanted to make this sculpture in this location, but the artists were not happy and looked around till they found a more suitable location.

Mahishasur Mardini Temple

Going further along this road, you pass the light house and then come to southern entrance to the Monument park, with rock-cut stairs leading up to the Mahishasur Mardini rock-temple.

The rocky platform in front of the temple has some beautiful boulders, some of them cut and then left unfinished.

Inside, this temple has two finely made bass-relief sculptures - on the left, there is Vishnu lying on the serpent Sheshnaag.

On the right, there is goddess Durga killing the bull-headed demon king Mahishasur, giving name to this temple.

Just across from the temple, you have a nice view of the light house and its entrance.

On the rocks above the older Mahishasur Mardini temple, there is another temple – Onkeleshwar temple. It is built with rock blocks, and seems to be a later construction, probably from the time when the Shore temple was built.

Conclusions

This description of temples and monuments in the Arjun’s Penance Monument Park is incomplete. There are many more structures from the Pallava period in this area (including water tanks and monolithic temples) that I have ignored in my descriptions.

Though it is a world Heritage site of UNESCO, I didn’t find a lot of information about the monuments in the area. I tried to check if there were thesis or specialist papers about Mahabalipuram but didn’t find much. I think that every temple and building of this area merits many a thesis. For example, I would have liked to know more about the epigraphs and strange signs chiselled on some rocks, such as the one shown in the image below (which looks like a compass drawing of an architect).

Apart from the Arjun's Penance area, there are many other important sacred monuments in Mahabalipuram, like the wonderful shore temple and the monolithic temples of Pancha Ratha. It is an amazing place to visit.

To read about some other monuments including Krishna's Butter Ball and to learn about history of rock-temples in India, do check the first part of this post. 

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#rockartofindia #rocktemples #mahabalipuram #arjunapenance #hinduism #ancienttemples

Exiled in Spinalonga

The book “The Island” by Victoria Hislop is a story about 4 generations of a family from Plaka (Crete, Greece), marked by love, betrayal and leprosy. It is also about the world of Spinalonga, where persons with leprosy in Greece were exiled for about five decades during the first half of the 20th century.

Isolation of Persons with Leprosy

From prehistoric times, communities across the world had banished persons with leprosy to the outskirts. In early 20th century, developments in microbiology had convinced the doctors that isolation of persons with leprosy was necessary to prevent the passage of infection to others.

Islands were a natural choice for their isolation. Countries had made laws that asked for compulsory shifting of persons diagnosed with leprosy to the designated isolated areas. Thus, children were taken away from their parents, mothers and fathers were taken away from their children, and forced to live in such isolated places. If women in these places became pregnant, they were forced to undergo abortions and if they had babies, these were taken away and given for adoption. These laws were scrapped only around 1960-70s, as new medicines to treat leprosy had become available.

Last year, I had visited the Nagashima island in Japan (image below), which was also used for the isolation of persons with leprosy. There I had heard about Spinalonga island in Greece, for the first time.

The Island by Victoria Hislop

During the three decades of my work with AIFO, I had heard many stories from persons with leprosy about their lost families. Thus, when I had started reading “The Island”, I already had some ideas about what I was going to find in the book.

"The Island" is the story of Eleni, a primary school teacher, her husband, Giorgis, a boatman and their two daughters Anna and Maria, who live in Plaka on the island of Crete. Giorgis supplements his income by carrying supplies to the leprosy-island of Spinalonga.

In 1939, Eleni and one of her students, Dimitri, are diagnosed with leprosy, and are forced to leave their families and shift to Spinalonga. After a few years, Eleni dies. Her daughters grow up with Giorgis. Anna marries Andreas, son of a rich land-owner. Maria is planning to get married to Andreas’ cousin when she is diagnosed with leprosy and forced to shift to Spinalonga.

It is the time of discovering new medicines for treating leprosy and a few years later, the persons are no longer forced to live in Spinalonga because the disease can be cured. Maria returns home and marries a doctor whom she had met in Spinalonga. Anna has a baby girl, Sofia, but has problems in her marriage, and a tragedy waiting for her.

The story is told in flashback with Alexis, Sofia’s daughter who has come to Plaka to learn about her mother’s family.

Comments

The Island is a well-written family saga with strong women characters. For me, its most interesting parts were the descriptions of the life in Spinalonga, including the stories about testing of new medicines for curing leprosy.

Clearly the author had done a huge amount of research to present a well-balanced picture about the situation of leprosy in the early 20th century Greece. Its strong point is that the book is never didactic, and the aspects about leprosy are well woven in the story. While talking about loss and exile, it also tells about love, friendship and solidarity.

Conclusions

The Island was a very successful book. It was converted into a 26 parts Greek-TV serial. Since then Hislop has written a few other books, which have also been successful. At the same time, she has become an ambassador for LEPRA, the British association working for the fight against leprosy.

This book brought the attention of Greek authorities about the unique history of Spinalonga, which is trying to become a UNESCO World Site of Humanity’s Heritage.

I have heard many heart-breaking stories of lost families and lost children during my travels in the old leprosy sites, though there were also some stories of hope and reunions. Though in most countries, the laws regarding forced isolation were changed during the 1970-80s, persons who had lived away from their families for decades, had often continued to live in their old leprosy centres, because those prisons had become their homes where they had forged new bonds of kinship with their fellow companions.

Earlier this year, while travelling in India, I had met Chait Singh who had been forced to leave his village and live an ashram, because he had leprosy. While telling me about his village, his eyes had filled with tears. This post is dedicated to him and to all those persons who continue to be exiled because of continuing prejudices and stigma against leprosy.

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#leprosy #spinalonga #historyofleprosy #historyofmedicine #bookreview #victoriahislop 

Indian Understandings of God

Probably no one can tell when and where did the prehistoric progenitors of humans first thought of God. However, by early historical period, all the human civilizations had some concepts of God. Those civilisations were very different from each other, but the concepts of God they developed were similar. However, around 4 thousand years ago, ancient Indians developed an additional concept of God that was slightly different from the other common concepts. This post is about the evolution of the God-concepts in ancient Indian religions (Indic religions) including Hinuism, Jainism and Buddhism.

Before talking about India, lets first take a look at how different civilisations thought of God.

From the “Sacred Nature” to the “Gods Governing the Nature”

Around the world, the first concepts of God were of deities represented by and governing specific aspects of nature. This way of imaging the God still exists in many communities. It considers as sacred the objects of the natural world. Plants, trees, stones, mountains are seen as manifestations of God and worshipped. The image below has sacred trees (India), trees under which people may place a statue or a stone and worship it as a symbol of God.

Other people imagined God as human-like beings with supernatural powers who controlled specific aspects of the nature. Thus, they had a god for the rain and another for the sea, a god for the war and another for love. From the Amerindians to Romans, Egyptians and Persians, every culture had their pantheon of gods and their stories of creation. The word Pantheon comes from a building in ancient Rome which had all the different Roman deities to which they worshipped. The image below has some of the Indian gods in a temple in Bangalore.

The one God

The ideas of one God arose in the Middle-East, among the Jews, Christians and Muslims, though we had a brief glimpse of this idea during the reign of Akhneton, the Egyptian Pharoah, many centuries earlier. Each of these religions linked it with a specific prophet, and each group claimed that their path to God was the only true one.

This God was imagined as a “benevolent father” – who was merciful and loving, but he asked to be worshipped regularly and properly. He also laid down a set of rules for his followers, including rules about dressing, eating, praying and resting. If you did not follow his norms, he could also punish. He did not like and thus refused to tolerate that people follow other “false gods” and prescribed different roles for men and women.

These concepts led to the birth of the three organised religions that are also known as the Abrahamic religions - Jewish, Christianity and Islam. Among these, Christianity and Islam became actively proselytising, going out to convert persons of other religions, because they felt that it was their sacred duty to save the souls of others who were on a wrong path and were going to finish in hell.

James A. Michener in his 1965 book “The Source” has beautifully described the evolution of the concept of one God in the middle east, leading to Jewish religion, Christianity and Islam.

Evolution of the God concepts in ancient India

What about the Indians? How was the evolution of the God-concept in India? Ancient Indians had many different ideas about God – considering nature as sacred, having a set of divine human-like beings with special powers and having a father-like God. However, they also went a step further and thought of God as “Parmatma” or the “Universal Consciousness” that underlies every particle of the universe.

Another unique Indian feature was that all these different ways of conceptualising God co-existed. One idea about God did not replace the other ideas, instead Indians sought explanations that could justify each way and look at them as “different paths” to reach the same eternal truth. This was necessary because geographically Indian subcontinent is a huge landmass, for most of its history sub-divided into kingdoms, that changed boundaries and alliances across the centuries. Thus religious ideas were not marked for their differences, but rather, they sought explanations which helped them to be perceived under one over-arching umbrella.

The first Vedas, the earliest texts of Indians about the divine, were written around 2000 BCE, that means around 4000 years ago. These books presented all these different concepts of the God. This colourful mosaic of belief systems, sometimes contradictory, constitutes Hinduism and its other Indic religions, including Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism (though individuals who have learned to see the world under the lens of monotheistic religions, tend to focus more on differences and try to separate each sub-group and divide them into sects and separate religions).

Examples from Vedas to illustrate different ways of conceptualising God in the Indic Religions

Vedas use different words for God such as, Ishwar (Lord of the desires), Parmatma (ultimate soul) and Brahman (universal consciousness).

(1) The first example is a shloka (verse) from Atharv-veda (11-7-21):

It says: “Red earth, sand, stones, medicinal plants, creepers, blades of grass, clouds, lightening and rain, they are all interconnected and are all based in the God.”

While considering everything in the universe to be interconnected, it also explains the sacredness of nature. A couple of years ago, while on a walk in Guwahati in the north-east of India, I had met a Sadhu Nobin baba, who had talked to me about the calming of mind till you could feel the energy coming out of some points of the rocks. For him, that energy coming out from the earrth and rocks and which he could perceive, was the God (Nobin baba in the image below).

(2) The second example is a shloka from Rig-Veda (1-164-46):

It says: “Some call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna or Agni, for some he is a bird with beautiful wings; Agni, Yama or Vayu, all represent the same truth called by different names.”

This shloka explains how the different divinities worshipped by people are all expressions of the same God.

(3) The next example, also a shloka from Rig-Veda (10-82-3), describes the God as a father-figure, closer to the concept of God in the Abrahamic religions:

It says: “God is our father, he gives birth to us and controls us. He knows this and all the other worlds. All the different gods are part of him, all the worlds go to him with their questions.”

Thus in this verse, God is a father. However, instead of saying that other gods are false, as in monotheistic religions, here there is an explicit acceptance of praying to other gods, since they are all understood to be the expression of the same God.

(4) The last example is a shloka from Yajur-veda and is about God as universal consciousness:

It says: “Searching for the truth, the sage went all around this and other worlds, went in all directions and even to the land of gods. He found that everywhere there was the same all-pervading truth. After knowing this, he became part of that truth and then understood that he had always been a part of that truth.”

This way of describing God as an all-pervading presence in both animate and inanimate world is the unique feature of the ancient Indian thought. It denotes the presence of God in all its creatures and thus becomes the logic for respecting life and nature in all its forms. It is a call for recognising the dignity and equality of all human beings.

The concept of Universal Consciousness and India’s Social Realities

I love the concept of universal consciousness, that everything in the world is interconnected and expression of the same God. However, I also wonder, why in spite of such an inclusive thinking, did India develop a social reality marked by caste hierarchies that exploited and oppressed millions of persons?

Through the centuries, there were many social reformers in India, from Buddha to poet-saints such as Basvanna, Meera, Kabir, Rahim and Nanak to social reformers like Mahatma Gandhi, who promoted equality of all human beings, but they did not manage to demolish this system. Why?

Perhaps one of the answers to this question lies in the words of a 15th poet-saint Kabir who had written that: It is not by reading of books that one gains knowledge; only when you learn love, you become knowledgeable. Our communities have this age-old knowledge, but perhaps it is seen as an abstract concept and not as the living truth? Or, perhaps for most persons, the abstract concept of God as an all pervading consciousness is too difficult to understand and follow, and they feel more secure in thinking of God as a specific deity or a father-figure who can help them or punish them?

I want to conclude this post with a picture from Kannur in Kerala in the south of India, in which a person from a "lower caste" gets ready to welcome the God (Theyyam) in his body. For the few days of the temple festival, his caste will not matter and everyone in the community will bow before him, looking at him as the manifestation of God on earth.

Our challenge is how to change our thinking so that we can first see the God in all the persons and all the God's creatures, big and small.

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#god #prophets #religions #hinduism #india #veda #sacredbooksofhinduism