It was about 3 months ago when I and my wife visited Ramagundam a place which is very much known itself not for the NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) but being the hottest place in India. And by the grace of my friend’s family I could visit a wonderful temple of lord Narasimha in a place called Dharmapuri on the banks of the river Godavari. This place was about 60 kms from Ramagundam.
It was a pleasant evening when we visited the temple. But to my astonishment the main deity was on the right most corner of the temple, this was very unusual. In almost all Hindu temples the presiding deity is installed in the centre of the area where the temple is built as per Vaastu shastra. As I was entering the temple I could see a wonderful nritya mandapam which was right in front of the sanctum standing with lot of carvings of Hindu gods but with its nose and hands ruptured. Most of the carvings found in the temple were in the same condition. While we were coming out of the temple it was 6 pm and could hear the evening prayer or the namaz that was done in a mosque which was very adjacent rather had a common wall with this temple. I had a strong feeling that most of the Hindu temples share a common wall with mosque was the outcome of Gandhiji’s “hindu-muslim bhai bhai” slogan. But the priest there explained us the history saying that the temple was a prey to the Islam brutality, during which the deity was hidden in a place by Hindus as the temple was destroyed and a mosque arose the next day. This did not worry me much, but I had started a novel called “Avarana” by Dr. S L Byrappa recently. This novel made me think more on this issue. Actually the novel also in length deals with a similar story.
In my previous article I had spoken enough on Dharma. To continue with it, Dharma is the greatest and the most valuable contribution to humanity by Bharata Varsha. On account of its antiquity and universality the very mention of that word awakens the conscience of an individual in this land. This was formulated as a solution to eternal problems the human race was confronting. If we analyze human mind, the force behind every action would be Kama (desire). Desire is something that arises if the world is seen different from what I am. Anything which is other than me myself, there we see desire. Advaita always speaks the same. When the ignorance is lost and a man sees that the I or the Self is none other than the inert element spread across and is all that is existing then they lose the very concept of desire. The natural desire of man was found to be the desire to have enjoyment of wealth i.e., material pleasure (artha) as also emotional and sexual enjoyment. The source of all evil actions of human beings was traced to the desire for material pleasure which in turn gave rise to conflict of interests among individuals.
Further, it was found that the desire (Kama) of human beings could also be influenced by the other impulses inherent in human beings such as anger (krodha), passion (moha), greed (lobha), infatuation (mada), and enmity (matsarya). These six natural impulses were considered as six internal enemies of man (arishadvarga), which if allowed to act uncontrolled, could activate him to entertain evil thoughts in the mind for fulfilling his own selfish desires and for that purpose cause injury to others. When we just look at animals they differ from humans by not being so selfish. If an elephant looks for water pond it would call all its members and enjoy it with all. A dog shares its meat with his friends, but a man, his thoughts are not known even to his wife who is a better half of him. Maitreyi the wife of great sage Yagnavalkya converses with him about human desire which is documented in the Brihadaranyaka. She says “ Navaare patyu kaamaaya patihi priyoobhavati aatmanastu kaamaaya patihi priyoo bhavati” such a wonderful explanation. She says no wife loves her husband because he is her husband but she loves him because she is being loved by him. Going like this she says “Navaare vittam kaamaaya vittaha priyoobhavati aatmanastu kaamaaya vittaha priyoo bhavati”. Man does not love even money she says. Can we believe this, the explanation says, he loves money only because it is serving his needs else money would be least valued by him. So much selfish the man is! Every civil or criminal injury caused by an individual to other individuals or society is traceable to one or more of the six enemies as put above acting alone or in combination.
The sin first takes root in the form of mental action and thereafter expresses itself in the form of verbal or bodily evil actions which inflict civil or criminal injury as the case may be on others against whom they are directed. All the civil and criminal injuries which an individual may cause to others, such as appropriating the property belonging to others or denying what is due to others, or insult, assault, theft, cheating, robbery, causing hurt, murder, rape, adultery and many more are the outcome of these six enemies.
Right from Manu, Chanakya, Yagnavalkya and many others people who preached civilization have always stressed on Dharma and the methods to eradicate these six enemies. Epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata, have shown sufficient instances where people were victimized with these six enemies and the way they got ruined. Great composers have also said about the evils that would cause, because of these six elements. Most of their compositions have a clear prayer to keep them off these enemies. One of the recent composers Mysore Vasudevacharya in a song requests Narayana (the protector) to keep him off from these six enemies so that he can become a true devotee “ee vela naa aaru shatrulanu neeve paaradhroli nija bhaktu jesi”. This means that there was and is a constant struggle to exterminate these six enemies. As a part of samskara, Dharma was given to all children as an antigen with their birth. Normal people were advised with Samanya Dharma and kings and the royal families with Raja Dharma. More than samanya dharma, raja dharma was important so that the entire kingdom under an able king would enjoy its authenticity. As a part of raja dharma the kings would be thought of samanya dharma, respect for womanhood, equality, gratitude, compassion, sacrifice, service and many more. To inculcate the desire to absolutely to obey Raja dharma was part of the education of the princes, who were to succeed to the throne. The king was required to conform to the rule of Raja Dharma and act only in the interests of the people and not according to his likes or dislikes. He was directed not to act randomly or impulsively. What was good for the people was to be regarded good for him irrespective of any disadvantage or inconvenience caused to him.
The more important aspect relating to assumption of office as king at the coronation ceremony was, it was regarded as 'Samskara' for the commencement of selfless discharge of duty as a king during his entire tenure of office and not assumption of power. Apart from the specific provision of the Raja Dharma, it has been the fundamental practice to pray individually as well as collectively for the well being of all. This is evident from the following popular Sanskrit verse:
“Sarve janah sukhinobhavantu, sarve santu niramayaa”
“Sarve bhadrani pashyantu maa kaschidkahbhagbhavet”
Let all be happy, let all be free from diseases, let all see auspicious things and let nobody suffer from grief. Apart from this in all schools as prayer it was thought “Lokaa samastaha sukhinoo bhavantu”. Let everybody be happy on this earth. So much was laid as a foundation to our people. Universal happiness and brotherliness was the key behind all this. With all these the kings were governing their counties having raja dharma as the constitution. As sanatana dharma says, the protection of poor, educated, women and temples were followed by the kings. The temples were given a special place in the society. It was a place where the presiding deity of the kingdom would sit and enjoy the glory as the king did, it was the place where every one were allowed right from the king to a scavenger to offer their prayers, it was a place which was given with ample costly ornaments by the rich and flowers from the poor. Irrespective of their status what ever they offer would touch the deity. It was a matter of pride in constructing these temples, most of the remaining temples we see these days speaks the past glory. Again, even temples took an active role in propagating Dharma.
India before the Islam invasion was a zone of peace. There were plenty of wars fought by Hindu princes. But in all their wars, the Hindus had observed some time-honored conventions sanctioned by the Sastras. The learned and the Bhikshus were never molested. The cows were never killed. The temples were never touched. The chastity of women was never violated. The non-combatants were never killed or captured. A human habitation was never attacked unless it was a fort. The civil population was never plundered. War loot was an unknown item in the calculations of conquerors. The military classes, who clashed, mostly in open spaces, had a code of conduct. Sacrifice of reputation for victory or material gain was deemed as worse than death.
Islamic imperialism came with a different code. It required its warriors to fall upon the helpless civil population after a decisive victory had been won on the battlefield. It required them to sack and burn down villages and towns after the defenders had died fighting or had fled. The cows, the brahmins, and the bhikshus invited their special attention in mass murders of non-combatants. The temples were their special targets for the rich wealth it had. Those whom they did not kill, they captured and sold as slaves. They looted even from the bodies of the dead; this was a measure of the success of a military mission. And they did all this as Jihads (holy wars) and ghazls (kafir-killers) in the service of Allah and his Last Prophet.
Hindus found it very hard to understand the psychology of these new invaders. For the first time in their history, the conquering army burnt villages, devastated the land, plundered people's wealth, took learned and children and women of all classes captive. It was very painful for them to see their gods being destroyed, the temples being ransacked, the treasury being looted and the place of glory and divinity brought down.
The Muslims aimed to totally destroy the Superstructure associated with the Hindu period. The term Superstructure which the Muslims aimed at destroying included a wide spectrum of aspects of social life including Indian religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism), language (Sanskrit), universities (like Nalanda), traditions of learning (ashramas, gurukulas), architectural symbols (temples, stupas), etc. The policy during the 700 years of Muslim occupation of India was to totally replace the superstructure of the Hindu period with a typical Muslim one. Of all the Muslim rulers who ruled vast territories of India from 712 to 1857 AD, probably no one has received as much condemnation from Western and Hindu writers as Aurangzeb. He has been castigated as a religious Muslim who was anti-Hindu. Amongst the famous temples he destroyed were the Kashi Vishvanath, one of the most sacred places of Hinduism, Krishna's birth temple in Mathura, the rebuilt Somnath temple on the coast of Gujarat, the Vishnu temple, overlooking Benares that was replaced with the Alamgir mosque (Alamgir is another name of Aurangzeb), and the temple in Ayodhya. South still had the Hindu dynasties hear and there struggling for the protection of this culture. But no less it was the Bhamani’s and Tipu Sultan who adopted the policy of Islamizing south. The name Tipu associating it with such atrocities would be a little tough for some to digest. Even I was reluctant on believing this until I read the true evidences available. Also the text books and the recent time historians always class Tipu to be the tiger and the champion of Mysore. I remember the serial “The Sword of Tipu Sultan” being played in television, propagating the superficial qualities of Tipu. Until I completed Aavarana I was also of the impression that Tipu was the true tiger of Mysore. My first doubt on this was sown in my mind about 5 years ago when I had visited a temple called Belegiri Ranganatha, which is on a hill top belonging to the Mysore region. The priest told us that the actual deity was Venkateswara but the name was changed to Ranganatha because of the fear they faced from Tipu. I was unable to understand this till recent days. Because I remember reading that Tipu had given a huge property to the Sringeri Shankar mutt to which I have my highest regards.
But the fact was different. True history poles apart. According to the official report of Col. Fullerton of the British forces stationed in Mangalore, worst type of brutalities on learned were committed by Tipu Sultan in 1783 during his siege of Palghat Fort. It was not only against the learned who were thus put in a state of terror of forcible conversion, but against all sections of Hindus.
Tipu Sultan had committed a variety of atrocities against the Hindus in Kerala. Most of the men and women were hanged in Calicut. First mothers were hanged with children tied to the necks of their mothers. Tipu Sultan tied the naked Hindus who were against conversion to the legs of elephants and made the elephants move about till the bodies of the helpless victims were torn to pieces. Temples were ordered to be burnt, desecrated and destroyed. Hindu women were forced to marry Muhammadans and similarly their men were forced to marry Muhammadan women. The Mysore Gazetteer says that the ravaging army of Tipu Sultan had destroyed more than 8000 temples in South India. The temples of Malabar and Cochin principalities had to bear the impact of booty and destruction.
All vaishnavaite shrines named their deity’s as Ranganatha so that he would spare the gods named ranganatha, since Sri Rangapattanam was his head quarters. The region much affected was the Malabar region of Kerala. Some of the other famous temples looted and desecrated were as follows: Triprangot, Thrichembaram, Thirunavaya, Thiruvannoor, Calicut Thali, Hemambika Temple, Parambatali, Venkitangu, Pemmayanadu, Tiruvanjikulam, Terumanam, Vadakhumnnathan Temple of Trichur, Belur Siva Temple, Shri Veliyanattukava, Varakkal, Puthu, Govindapuram, Keraladhiswara, Trikkandiyur, Sukapuram, Maranehei Temple of Aaalvancheiri Tambrakkal, Vengara Temple of Aranadu, Tikulam, Ramanathakra, Azhinjalam Indiannur, Mannur Narayan Kanniar and Vadukunda Siva Temple of Madai.
In the case of Guruvayoor Temple, the idol was shifted to Ambalapuzha Sri Krishna Temple in Travancore State before the army of Tipu Sultan reached there. However, the idol was brought back and ceremoniously installed after the withdrawal of Tipu from Malabar towards the end of 1790. The Guruvayoor Temple was destroyed only partly. There were some Hindu rulers who had to pay very heavy duty to keep the shrines untouched by the Tipu’s army. As many as forty town names were changed to Islamic in Karnataka.
There are many evidences available in which Tipu has communicated with the Arabs, explaining his victory over Hindus, his courage in converting many to Islam and in one of the letters he had even requested the Arabs to help him in acquiring the whole of India and making it an Islam country.
If such a character is presented in the recent text books of students and on the official network of Doordarshan as preaching patriotism, nationalism, high principles of Hindu religion, and human welfare, that is not only a national shame but also embarrassment to the country which has always preached Dharma as it primary message. Historical truth should not be allowed to be suppressed or distorted, in order to project somebody as a national hero. Today it is Tipu Sultan; tomorrow it will be Aurangzeb or Nadir Shah.
I feel ashamed when I read our own people speak about these atrocities as Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, in the first congress session in 1948 said “(The Muslims had) enriched our culture, strengthened our administration, and brought near distant parts of the country... It (the Muslim Period) touched deeply the social life and the literature of the land”.
I do not hate Muslims or their religion; I hate my own people who burry the true values that are preached in our religion and glorify illegal facts and brutalities. In the name of secularism and concern to minorities, all the political parties have lost the true morals preached in the raja dharma and have gone to streets stimulating atrocities. To support them is the media. Which always have a special sustaining force to minorities and boost them out of proportion. I don’t understand the very motto of Doordarshan “Satyam Shivam Sundarm”. When Asatya has covered their thoughts and ideas, where is the place for truth?
One should not blame the media, which is always busy in covering news like Andhra actor Chiranjeev’s daughter elopement, Abhishek’s mehendi raat and what not foolish things. These news channels spend the entire day transmitting such unworthy reports. Where do they have time to open up facts hidden, or to show the true carnage that happened in the past? A person with a good vocabulary and a Marxist in approach cannot become a news correspondent. He should have the true knowledge of the history and should go in a direction to predict future with visualizing the present also with a clear intension to protect truth irrespective of caste creed and religion. Other wise this will be similar to Mrs. Sonia speaking about the mahatma in US. People like Karan Thaper, Bhrka Dutt, Rajdeep and many more fall in the above mentioned category. They feel that exploring the communal acts that the sangha parivar is doing today as their biggest achievement, but have forgotten what ISI or Al-Kaida is doing in this country. Media is happy with a pond fish rather than targeting a dangerous shark that may gallop the peaceful existence. Forget the past even in recent days they dare not to interview a prophet. I see so many programs and articles targeting the Hindus whether normal people or spiritual people, why is it not with Islam if India was a secular country. When force or media can enter temples and holy places of Hindus why not mosques or Madrasas. When massacres happened in Hyderabad or Mumbai why was there no much criticism over the culprits and the religion to which they belong. Is that the Hindus are open to everything or is that indirectly telling Islam to be a narrow religion. If media runs in this fashion and with these people, the public would lose interest on these channels very soon. Already these channels have become the pets of big political parties. A channel which should uphold the public’s opinion has become an advertising agent of the political parties. What a shame when an advertisement comes up in these channels saying “vote congress” the best party India has ever seen. Where is the place for the true outlook? Media should play a foremost role in showing facts and condemning atrocities but still try to establish harmony between religions. History is always a lesson which would guide us to proceed further with no such repetition and preaches us the required care that we need to take.
Harmony between religions cannot be brought by changing history or making the children learn wrong things or by covering the true data. When they get to know this later the impact could be more. Rather if the children truly understand the history they grow matured enough to see synchronization in co-existing. This country has always preached truth and ethics, so the children born here will never have an attitude to disrupt a mosque or a church. The roots of this religion are so strong that time and again there is someone who is regenerating these principles and refreshing us with its beauty. Harmony is what we have preached and would follow. An individual who would propagate universal brotherhood would never defy other religions. Hence you see very rare instances where Hindus have lost patience and revolted back. Hats off to the patience and tolerance the Hindus show in this country even after being treated so badly by the invaders. This shows the true samskara what I was talking about in beginning that is given to the children. All these are not an outcome of morphed history, because most of the people still know the true facts that have happened. Other wise India could have not been a peaceful place sheltering so many Muslims. I would like to quote a Sanskrit verse of Shankara which preaches that the Self or the substance I is more than these material thoughts and has no barriers like religion and caste
“aham nirvikalpa nirakaara roopo
Vibhutvaca sarvatra sarvendriyanam
Na casangata naiva muktir na meya
Chidanandroopaha shivoham shivoham”
Thought free am I, formless my only form, I am the vitality behind all sense organs of everyone, neither have I attachments to anything, nor am I free from everything, I am the all inclusive, I am true myself. All that we see today as materialistic world is nothing but our imagination, the only thing sustaining would be the truth. Truth should be the mantra that is practiced and truth should be something that we breathe. All that we do should follow the path of true, only then we are out of this false world. Truth remains even hidden or morphed. Open up the true facts to people only then my article Anaavarana would have more meaning.
Historical References:
1) Historical sketches of Col. Wilks
2) Histories of Kerala by K.P Padbhanabha Menon and Sardar K.M. Panicker
3) Tipu as known in Kerala by Ravi Varma
