A game of dice - dayakattai

Excuse my attempts at Tamil here but i shall try to make it sound as authentic as Iyer athu tamil.

Strategy, fun and one of the few things that really brings an iyer house hold together is the amazing game of dice. Its one of the most entertaining games i have ever played, with as much noise thrown in as linguistical enhancements to one of the ancient dialects of tamil. Yes, its entertainment for the next two hours from when the family gathers to play this deadly game of strategy, slaughter, war and victory.

Post brunch, after a filling 'sapadu'(meal) at 10.30 am, the family gathers together, mainly the men folk, the kids stricktly above the age of 4 (i guess) and of course our very famous pati(post madi business and puja) while thatha, the man of the house continues to snore in his easy chair hoping for silence. Yeah, so much for a peace in the house. haha


The number of people in the game mounts up to a good number like 12 odd people and trust me there is room for all as long as we end up in an even figure. To get this count right few strong attempts are made on the daughter in laws of the house to please join in to at least roll the brass sticks if not think strategy.

There is someone assigned to every position, two adults to think of strategy with pati in the lead, one uncle to play shakuni and invariably get those unattainable daayams (number one on the brass sticks) no matter how much you bid against it. The kids of course, being all equal get to roll the dice and hope to meet the expectations of all the adults around them. There are other beliefs too that surround this traditional game. Its normally played by the women of the house hold after the father-in-law has left and interestingly wiped off before he returns. Interestingly, the women folk take to this game more often where they send all the kids to schools, hubbys to work and sit back and play after all the house hold activities are over. My house, was a slightly diluted affair to the orthodox brahmin culture. The main players were MEN.

Daayam, or the count of 'one' on the ancient brass sticks, is your ticket to enter the game. This of course is hard to get. Its a mind set that takes a toll if the game has already begun and you still have not put your daayam, to open your innings and hence participate. It can be highly frustrating for you might just never get it till about half the game is over, your team has quite learnt to live without you but you are the irritant the other team is cashing on keeping their coins bravely on the "ambalam" or passage since they are so sure you will not be able to kill them.

The concepts pretty simple. Both teams have 6 coins each - traditionally represented by almonds, kishmish, "paaku", ground nut or the like. We move to stones, buttons, and plastic "ludo" coins when we cant lay hands on the appropriate "kaay". Kaay as they are typically called since they are the raw fruit yet to ripen which will happen only when the coin exits the board after covering the long journey back home through the "kattam" - the board.

Lots could happen along the way home, for one, your kaay can simply get killed when the opponent numbering 6 people by now, aggressively looking down into the game making calculations in not just the massacre of your single "kaay", but killing a few other less fortunate "kaays" that found themselves on the "ambalam" in the course of the game. That apart the calculations end in protecting their own kaays when they safely move them to a "malai" or home along the way. Interestingly when the opponent occupies a malai, there is no room for your coin, in short its called "malai manga".

By now the perssure is mounting furiously, while the opponent gets excess points or"pandyam" by putting - eer aaru, muu anji, iru panandu, iru daayam, naalu - translates to two sixes, three fives, two twelves, two ones and one four. Now this is a phenomenal "pandyam" where you can move any kaay anywhere, and kill any one you wish and still move your kaay to a home on the way if you got lucky. Pati is behind you with strategy that never met your eyes and when you see at least three of the opponents "kaays" go back in, to start the round again, well its a loud uproar piercing the air drowning thatha's snore into the din.

But well now, they will come back, the horror of massacre hits first, then the anger, the then aggression and the opponent comes back double, killing with a bigger blow, shooting as many kaays of your way back home as they possibly can. By now, even the most bored daughter in law sits up to view the game, the kattam, half wiped out by the deft hands that just flew across moving the coins so swift, that you dont even know what just went by. Every thing settles, the game goes on, one verses one coin - now in the ripe stage of "pazham". Killing a pazham is another thrill altogether.

The pain that the opponent need to go through to take the kaay across the kattam to bring it home without having it killed and elevating it to a pazham is a joy for anybody but him. Once the pazham has reached the ripe stage and has come home, there is the last lap.

Its a murderous position called "dokkai" where its the last step to "ripe fruit", and yet it can be killed. This hurts, being killed at this stage really hurts, and its over whelming joy for the opponent who by now are raising themselves very sure that its the end of the game. getting that single daayam, can take a minute or a century, but every one, just everyone waits for it. Its the defining moment or victory or failure, the anticipation is so high that tiffin and caapi can seriously wait.

finally the last roll of the dice, and "dddddddaaaaaaaaaaaayyyaaaaaaaaaaammmm". Six guys jump up, cant belive their eyes, jump around in ecstasy while 6 others sit silent looking into each others faces. The winning team of course takes the final pazham and consume it literally - and what a fine fruit that was!!!

The joy of having that particular kishmish/ almond/groundnut is different. It tastes as good as any fruit of victory will. Nobody even considers that the kishmish has been rolling along the floor for the last one hour, No, its the most delicious fruit one could have. This is crowned with the victory dance, the grand finale - i think its only at my house - where the team gathers, old and young, tall and short, male and female, hopping on the floor holding each others shoulders!!! And what a dance that was! you dont need to be intoxicated for this, just the trill of winning dayakattai is more than enough to send you on the high!

Great ancient game. Truely worth while.

Coiled serpents on a wayside stelae

On the roads, Tamil Nadu country side: Coiled serpents on a stelae, sounds like something out of a fantasy in the middle ages. Well, not exactly, because its something you would invariably pass without taking notice of, every time you went to work.



If you looked closer, you would notice various version of coiled serpent stelae, but one of the most prominent is that of two serpents in two and half coils facing each other, housing a shiva linga in between. Maybe they are some naga cult icons under a tree, smeared with vermillion and turmeric.

Why is there so much of importance given to these icons, what do they signify and why are they all over the place? Well, someone had pointed out to me earlier that faith cannot be compared with language since its not logical. There is nothing more logical than the school of thought the surrounds these naga cult icons. Its all about energy... of course you need to believe in it.

Its a school of thought, that the energy of Shiva stays dormant as the potential energy while the mother godess represents the active kinetic energy that flows through the passages along the spinal chord. These are typically called the Nadis, you might have heard this before... but i will keep this one short. It is believed that when the female energy, also called the kundalini energy, is awakened in the aspirant, it sits up like a two and a half coiled serpent ready to rise up the nadis, crossing each chakra or energy center along the way till it finally meets the male potential energy and unites with it. This has been represented as the soma skanda panel depicting the union of shiva and parvati resulting in the birth of soma skanda.

Soma skanda is a debatable person. He could be karthikeya or a concept without a form. The idea behind soma skanda is to depict the union of the male and female energy which results in the flow of self generated amrita or soma which sustains the aspirant, hence forth eliminating his dependency on the external world around him. This subtle concept is depicted as a family panel for the understanding of the masses.



Now coming back to the cult icons, its interesting to see that this school of thought is plastered all over the place, and we simply dont seem to take notice of it. We do have the naga cults, but they were subordinate to the cult of Shiva and had a lot to do with him. The shore temple at Mahabalipuram clearly depicts cult icons of Nagas on the outer walls, resonably eroded, but clear enough to indicate the practices during the Pallava ages. This practise definitely has not died since, its very much alive getting a fresh coat of vermillion every morning, apart from flowers from passerbys who dont even knwo what its meant to depict.

Bottom line, our culture is all around us, its under the trees, in the temples, potent schools of thought scattered all around reminding us of what our forefathers have figured out well before the white man even started to think!

All we need to do is just open our eyes!

The real Hinduism

The real Hinduism, is something of much debate. What is our culture, our real culture i mean. Culture is a good word, sounds great, everyone knows indian culture goes way back into several centuries, but sitting right here what do you or i know of it?

We were having a heated discussion on why women were being discriminated in temples, why women were not allowed into a few temples, whether the restrictions are male chauvinistic, or whether the rule is there with a scientific reason. Of course, the participants were two extremely opinionated women, including myself, and the discussion soared into the air, loud as ever drowning all the other conversations in the little room. Yes, no body would have seen two heated women like this in that room for a while.

We were mad, plain and simple, wondering why men got more privileges than us, just because they were born men, which honestly was not an accomplishment of their own! Why women are put down, seems to be a simple answer, they are just way way stronger in the head and sadly they themselves dont know it!

Anyway the conversation drifted into why we have good days and bad, does it have a logic at all. Why do we have this thing called rahu kalam, does it make sense, or is it plain superstition?

Well honestly, hinduism is a way of life, its not simple and its extremely potent which is why it has lasted all these centuries. It has depth, depth that we (a section of society) are unable to see and hence think its all bull shit. I dont understand when people say there is no logic, its all bogus. Its not, we are ignorant, period, and in our ignorance we end up making judgement when we are not even capable of it. Do you question language, No, you just simply learn it with all its idiosyncrasies, then why question faith??

Faith grows on you, through your life, gives you direction if you are strong and persistent enough to want it, just going to a temple is NOT good enough. You want answers... then go look for it, a Buddha did not get it easy, and neither did Christ. In fact they were sent through more grind than you think. Its simple, if you want to be God be ready to get stoned first. What a line!!

Coming back to us lesser mortals, since we are not planning to be Gods, but think its good enough to just get to understand Him/ Her/ It, let me assure you, its not an easy road and you are going to end up questioning it more than you think. Dismissing it off just becaue you do not get your answers in the next 20 minutes only goes to show how superficial you are and how much you are not willing to put in effort. If you want to know, you HAVE got to be passionate about it and dig dig dig till you think you get somewhere. End of the day, you are the loser if you dont get to know. NO body else suffers. SIMPLE.

I just know this much, real Hinduism is beyond your current way of life, you need to want to give yo materialism and greed, you need to want to be passionate with a single point focus, you need to want to control your emotions and not have them control you. You need to understand your emotions and appreciate them for what they are worth, they deliver the experience to you, they should NOT overwhelm you. if you get past all this, then you are somewhere near ready to take on the true nature of hinduism. The way of life, brings in routine and discipline to your otherwise haphazard life style. Its not simple, but well who said it was?

There is potency in this way of life and the only way to get it is to get your self neck deep in it. Next time you dont know something about Hinduism, probably you should accept your ignorance instead of ruling out the faith to be all bull shit. Remember this is one of the oldest religions, so what meets your eye is not the reality of it, its superficiality, the reality, is for you to find out.

The fun in a Brahmin household.

We sat back having lunch, thinking about all the good old days when we were young, living the typical orthodox lifestyle as administered back home by Pati and Thatha (grandma and grandpa), in our good old Brahmin household.

Somethings don't change at all. I have noticed brahmins, at least the older ones or the more traditional and now i relate to them very well. The typical house, with kolam in rice powder at the door step leading the way into a reasonably dark room, with barely any furniture in it! Yes, somehow we never seem to have learned the art of interior decoration. The main living room as i would call it is probably one of the darker ones too with windows split into 4, 2 kept closed, largely painted green for some strange reason :)

The living room, sounds more exotic, but has almost no furniture except two wooden chairs and yes of course the plastic chair indicating the intrusion of modernity into our otherwise ancient backward lives. The plastic chair of course being as priced as the other chairs in the room, might be right next to the grandfather chair, which is close to being inaccessible to all except of course - grandpa. He sits there, in his mundu vesti, reading the morning newspaper, with "caapi" served when ever he asks for it, be it in the morning or with tiffin... One shelf if available in this room hosts all the objects on display, no matter how incongruous they look together.

The other rooms, remain rooms, largely nameless with papers hanging out of shelves, and of course the very famous Murugan calendar with dates gaping straight at us as Murugan continues to smile the whole year around. Its interesting to see such households can accommodate 20 people easily, the bedding kept in one room, all mattresses rolled up on a wooden bed, a single bed, maybe the only bed in the entire house :) there is an art in arranging bedding, starting from the mattresses at the bottom, neatly rolled and forming a reasonably large bulk in the center of the room. above that are stacked up a set of pillows, neatly one above three below leaving vertical room for bedsheets. various colors, various sizes, various textures line up above the pillows forming a large mass, which stares you in the face when you enter the otherwise really small room!

But of course sleeping in one of those rooms, with the fan way above making noise, a slow creek with a few cobwebs hanging off it, large wooden cupboards surrounding you, which seem to contain all the priced possessions of the household, stare down at you, lying in the center of the room sleeping blissfully. And trust me, what a sleep that is, cozy in a different sort of way, you need the noise, the wood, the partial darkness and of course the dim light streaming in through the green windows.

Somewhere in the rear end of the house straight above is the clothes line, not the general usage one but one exclusively for pati and her "madi business". this is a concept, the idea being one is completely pure when they come out of bath, in wet clothes and change into this other set that hangs down from the ceiling. they should not be touched until puja is over, and trust me this untouchability is bible! you better make sure you dont touch, lest pati gets mad at you! should that happen it means your ration of "bhakshanam" for the day is almost gone to one of your luckier uncles, who would be one of her most pampered sons!

There are those days of course when pati forgets her clothes and wants you to fetch them for her while she sticks her hand out of the bathroom door. While she waits we kids quite deftly need to pick her "bady" and underskirt off the clothes line way up near the ceiling and without touching it, carry it by the help of a long stick. Invariably there are accidents, the "bady" falls to the floor and one has to drag the stick along the "bady" on the floor trying to get it back on, finally giving up in frustration and hanging it hoping no one caught us putting it back onto the end of the stick. Slowly this highly respected piece of cloth is carted to the bathroom to now impatient hands yelling at us to hurry up!! every one moves, stick to walls, leave room for the articles to find their way through the pure air in the corridors of the house to the frantic hands still waiting to receive them. :))

The bath, well an even smaller room, with all the known containers inside, largely made of steel, brass or the like, take much of the floor, which has more craters than the moon itself. water is just about everywhere, and its hard to find a dry place to keep any clothes. The clothes hanger would be a hook or nail on the wall next to a half eaten door which barely closes the room, with as many holes in it as possible, the gaps between the wood almost increasing every minute, and the bottom half eaten by erosion? The door is held up to be locked by a single hook which threatens to give way anytime, you should see the confidence with which pati goes for bath, its unthinkable. cant believe i took bath there too!!!

Well anyway, now to the most holy section of the house, a room dedicated to the gods, ancestors, saints and anyone you want to put up on the walls. This is a room to see to believe, all the gods in teak wood frames smeared with vermilion stare down at you well just about all the time! This would include all vaishnavite human incarnations, the known swamigals in town, all forms of the mother goddess, lesser gods, greater gods everyone... and if they are really orthodox, you wouldn't miss the brass idols at the bottom with a whole new range of rule sets if there is a shaligrama in the middle of it all. This is a truly blessed household.

Last but not the least is the backyard, and the kitchen, surrounded in aromatic smells of a pure healthy brahmin meal in the making. Everything is done on the floor mostly, the cooking range being the only one on a "medai" which has two sections, the pathu and non pathu which segregates the boiled food from the unboiled, the milk and milk products given special importance. there are imaginary walls here, demarcations which define what food item can be kept where, and you are doomed if you get it wrong! i largely kept away from it.

Finally fresh air by the well in the backyard, with mango trees and potted tulsi maram(plant) and clothes of all twenty people lined up to dry on the general clothes line! what a life. truly a tradition fast dying out! I miss it.

Girivalam - the journey

Girivalam, Thiruvannamallai (3 hours from Chennai), is a 14km stretch that circles the imposing hill, believed to be Lord Shiva himself. What appears to be an unassuming tar road, seems to speak volumes on life and death along its path. We started out, exploring Girivalam, more out of curiocity than with an intension of walking the entire mile.

The first trip we made was by car, at about 9.30 at night. We were told it was reasonably unsafe, though we figured it was not all that bad later. Girivalam hosts a number of way side shrines, holds the life of many sanyasas, who are either there looking for a higher truth or escaping from their reality by drowing themselves in ganja. Girivalam, has something to offer to every one who shows up there. It stays silent to all onlookers, stays peaceful to all passer-bys, holds burial grounds for deceased staunch shaivites and cremates a few other less lucky souls.

Every hill that stands across the path, against the main imposing hill, holds a temple. You would find every one here, Mother Goddess, Ganesha, Krishna, Kannappa nayanar and of course Lord Shiva himself. The stretch itself is covered by a canopy of trees, some shading Naga cult icons smeared with vermilion and turmeric, from the dreadful heat and sunlight. All over is a feeling of peace, and tranquility. In the night, the path looks different, errie for starters, when you walk past a cemetery hosting the cremation of a recently deceased man engulfed in flames, eating into the wood that was his final bed.

The whole stretch has eight lingas located on it, which when visited promise good life, wealth, health, no fear of death, status and what ever else you wanted from your mundane existance, hoping for an easy and better life. Most people come to seek such blessings.

Yes you get everything, as you walk along Giri Pradakshanam. But strangely, Girivalam has more to offer, if you are willing to look for it. The answers to all our inner searches, the next step when you are at a deadend seeking your own truths and just waiting for the "calling". Girivalam calls, to seekers and all you need to do is listen. Girivalam enlightens you to a reality beyond our lives, tells us how much we have been wasting our time looking for happiness in our mundane worlds. There is no happiness in seeking wealth, there is no happiness in human ties. The air of Girivalam holds a host of truths which you will see, only if you are receptive to it.

Girivalam shows life to you as it is. It houses the sanyasa, it houses the escapist, it houses the grihasta, it houses the dead, it houses the siddhas, it houses the Gods, it houses the animals. A complete universe pulsating with every breath of yours as you walk down trying to cover a 14 km stretch. Its indeed a walk through life and beyond... depending on what you want to see....

Hinduism and its secrets

I have been studying a lot of art history and it has led me into a lot of other fields, made me ask questions, try and find answers which i must say have come to me in the strangest way ever!

for the last 6 months i have been dwelling on Lord Shiva, his forms, the places of worship, the characterestics of his temples ... well just about everything. I have noticed that just one things kept constantly coming back to me, and this was the basic yantra which defines everything, centrally the energy center for shiva. This caught my eye for a very long while and i just found myself at a dead end waiting for something to happen in reality, for me to see what all this was about. This research into Hinduism and to a certain extent "magic" if i can call it has led me to do and believe many things which are normally not expected of a city bred woman.

For one, I have realized a few things about this great society we live in, i have figured how happy they are to live in a make belief world where there are no troubles.... strange isnt it, how can you not have trouble, and why hope for a trouble free life where everything comes easy! trouble defines that circumstance that comes into your life which you certainly do not accept. Its the non acceptance(personally or socially) of it that leads it to be defined as trouble.

Second, the average man on the street is not willing to experiment more than he needs to with his faith. My father and a few other oldies in my family are not exactly sure that what am going into is the best for me. but fear rules them and i think thats what their down fall/ignnorance is all about. they will never get it. religion doesnt stop with going to a temple, you have not even scratched the iceberg of potency of faith if you think its enough to just display your so called religiousness, or know a few stories from mythology.

Thirdly, this religion has been tested by time, its lasted everything, obviously people were not dumb to just sit around carving rock all across the countryside, spreading a faith! somethings just never changed through the ages... thats what is our culture. The gods remained the same, those associated with the gods remained the same, the actions of ritual associated with the gods remained the same. look around you and you will know the next time you see a stelae with two entwined snakes carved into it, that ancient schools of thought are just a foot away from you, just silent, waiting for you to realize them...

All this starts with the complete faith and knowledge of yantras which are the stepping stone towards finding out more... of course you dont go about getting one until you are initiated.. and initiation is not an easy task. its meant for those who are mentally eligible for it. Am sure this flew above your head.. i know..lets leave it here, beyond this .. i cannot explain.

Tantrik Cults and temples

The misconception to Tantrik cults in India is that it appears to be an orgy of sorts. The other biased opinion is that sex is wrong or bad. A good question would be "Why"? Its definite that those higher up in the social ladder have had extremely biased opinions and that definitely has trickled down to the masses over time.

The actual truth of it is this. Tantra is a version of the AtharvaVeda. It prescribes various rituals to one of the many activities of man in a day - sex. Whats wrong with that and why consider it bad? Tantrik cults have prevailed across india everywhere. The khajurao and konark temples speak for it so do the temples in the south, though not as explicite.

Why is sex important, or is it the lack of it that makes people commercialize something so sacred into an element of shock or silent delight? Why dilute the potency of the act or ritual? These texts help a human being attain a higher goal through sadhana and rituals which need to be performed with the right thought and respect. It was never simple, and living in a superficial world only dilutes the entire act to a mere performance with results that are satisfactory, leaving one to just imagine what the real thing would be like. Not that i know it, but i believe there is more to it than what meets the eye.

We cannot dismiss something that we fail to understand the first time and stupidity. You need to have patience, for the subtle world is not so easy to understand. No wonder its called "Subtle".

Temples at best can depict concepts at various levels of potency and its up to the aspirant to really try and understand it. What appears as a grose act on the walls of Khajuraho, actually hides something far more potent within its sculptures and people in their limited thoughts just think it stops with sex! These are tantrik diagrams, or yantras which are best understood only be the initiated and are meant only for them. The rest of the superficial guys can quite go fly a kite!

These temples depicted a way of life, whether it is the depiction of a devotee in the act of decapitation or whether its a human sacrifice on full moon night, whether its the worship of the Mother or whether its the fear of Kali, whether its an act of copulation or whether its a sensuous kanya entising a man to enter the temple walls, it has value and that is meant to be respected, not ridiculed. The temples silently tell us through their walls, that there is a world out there beyond our senses and we are quite wasting our time if we do not attempt finding it out.

Living the "real way" was never so simple, so the next time you head to the temple, ask yourself whether it stops with that, or whether you really want to know what the temple has to offer. Clarity come when you open yourself to receive it, till then... you wait.

the truth

The Nataraja:

The origin of this sculture in its prototype can be taken right back to the Indus valley civilization with the seal that depicts a three headed god. This does not mean that the other two heads belonged to Vishnu and Brahma. A good many centuries down the line depict the same concept of the Trinity in the Shiva cave at Elephanta, off the Mumbai coast. Here definitely the three heads of the Trinity depict Aghora or Bhairava to the left, the center depicts Shiva Mahadeva and the right depicts Vamadeva (Uma).



Before you come back with a contradiction the introduction of Vishnu and Brahma into the Trinity seems more like a political move to me. I may be wrong here and you are completely entitled to your opinion.

The next form of the trinity as pure shiva symbolism is Nataraja in Tandava. Oh what a beautiful sculpture. The more i realize it the more the beauty of it i see. Perfect. Here it does not remain a scultpure anymore. But shiva comes to life. The concept of the trinity, or the concept of creation, preservation and destruction is not left for Doom's Day, but its meant to be part of every activity that we do. Every act of ours is either of creation, maintenance or destruction.
Here destruction is not negative, its not that something perishes, but its the end, as in the end of a particular activity, the completion of it.

When you start something, you bring life into it. it could be as simple as starting a painting, or buying a plant. the moment you bring your interest and attention to it, the activity is created. As you go about your business of painting or watering a plant the act of maintenance continues (preservation). When the painting is over or the plant has lived its life the end is near, it ceases to "exist". its complete. (with respect to the painting, i am unable to grasp the subtle reality of "existance", i am still biased that destruction means a sad ending/death).

In every act of yours there is Shiva. In every move of yours He rules. Isnt that just beautiful. I know for a fact that i am perfect when it comes to creating some thing or destroying it for that matter. But maintenance has been a problem with me until i realized this.

The appearance of the act of maintenance is boring on the surface. But as you put your mind to it, it transforms itself. The churning of your ocean starts, there is rhythm in your activity and you grow with it. You mature with it, realizing and learning along the way the beauty of the activity itself. Thats where only you are thoroughly enlightened and excited and nobody else can share that joy with you (because they have not been there). Thats a moment when you elevate yourself, the activity ceases to remain just an activity but something much greater than that, because you grew up to understand yourself better. Its a crazy feeling.. and the fact that you can't share it with anyone simply frustrates you. I would say, dont share... just cherish the moment.

Its worth a lifetime!

Oh Shiva is great. Simply great... and i didnt see it at all....i just didnt get to see it for so long.
Thank you GOD.

P.S. The trinity explains why Aghora is called the left hand path. (refer earlier posts on aghora)

A tribute to Shiva.

Kiratarjuniya panel, Mahabalipuram:

I would wonder whether this panel is a tribute to Lord Shiva or a tribute to the beautiful verses of Bharavi's poetry on the Mahabharata. None the less, there seems to have been a beautiful merger of sculpture, architecture and poetry in this era. As you can see i am pretty overwhelmed by this whole thing.



Here stands Shiva, very clearly surrounded by ganas. The man in meditaion on one foot is either Arjuna or Bhagiratha. We have a view of all the celestials, the gandharvas, the kinnaras, so on and so forth. The reason again for this repetition is that I am seriously tending to believe that they exist, are not visible through normal eye sight but estabhish their presence from the spirit world in rather strange ways.

So much for my strange beliefs which seems to get reinforced only by ancient mythological panels and nothing else!!! somewhere i do hope am right.

Shiva the hunter

Mahabalipuram:

Few people would imagine that an entire dynasty looked at plain rock surfaces as a canvas to depict mythology, and fewer would go all out to make it a reality. Mahabalipuram, witnesses creativity and passion of the pallavas during the 8th century AD. Here standing in the middle of rock outcrops are one of the most beautiful depictions from poetry of the same era.



The Kiratarjuniya panel: known for a particular episode in the Mahabharata, this panel has attempted to depict the story by throwing hints on various aspects of it. Here in this picture is the depiction of Lord shiva as a hunter. The beauty of this panel is that lord shiva is depicted as a hunter in various activities. Its like a comic strip, just the lower half, showing one man doing various things. Interestingly he wears a moustache, not very often depicted on sculptures of this era.

The forest is most beautifully carved into the rock. celestial beings fly across, gandharvas, kinnaras adorn the skies. the sculptors have obviously tried to show all the worlds at the same time. the real world as we see it and the spirit world as we would believe to see it.

the striking element of course is that of shiva who is seen in the right corner here. he is best identified by the ganas who are seen around him and he carries the trishul. interestingly he occupies the top center of this whole panel.

The world beyond the senses.

i am currently neck deep into shaivism trying to understand if not realize its various facets. i have reached the end of the road as far as art history books are concerned, from here on the path is beginning to look different. i cannot follow cold blooded logic anymore, i need to emote. i need to start feeling it to get the complete drift.

this has raised questions, unexplained questions which are so difficult to understand because they restrict a person within the world of senses and do not let him look beyond that. strange questions like who are gandharvas, kinnaras, yakshas and yakshis. i have heard them to be some sort of spirits as aghora puts it believing in them is quite a different story.
there are other questions on why the path of circum-ambulation has been so important. its seems to be in line with the fields of energy that encircles the main garbha griha, which itself is the main store house of potent energy.
another thought is about the mention of vehicles like pushpaka vimana which can be controlled by the mind and necessarily has a charioteer. well that apart there are "divyastras" like the "pasupatastra" which can kill and destroy the whole universe. the rules of usage are precribed that it should not be "wasted" on a mere mortal as it can cause great harm, but should be used on a supernatural being privileged to handle it. it can be controlled by the mind, the eyes, as well as the bow.
well why look at people out of mythology, the lotus flower itself is believed to be a store house of energy. hence most of the energy centers along the spine in kundalini yoga are depictions of a lotus flower with varied number of petals, with the bija mantra of a particular deity embedded in them.
on a larger scale we can just wonder why the caves of elephanta (mumbai) are carved the way they are. its based on the mandala pattern of shiva, with most of his sculptures adorning its walls. Or for that matter why are there so many erotic sculptures around the temples of khajuraho? they conceal tantric diagrams of mandalas used to protect the temple, which distract the uninitiated from knowing the true value of these sculptures and delight them with raw sex instead.

to be honest our forefathers were not playing the fool. the temple of chidambaram was not constructed for fun but based on the energy center of one of the chakras known in kundalini yoga. hinduism is a way a life. it needs to be understood and passionately. its beyond the limits of the senses and therefore can only be experienced and cannot be explained. its subtle and complex and it requires deep intellect to get the hang of it.
the west will never get it right, because they are blinded by their senses. they believe in that which exists, that which can be touched, smelt, tasted, seen, or heard. within this limited scope the west has managed to prove certain things, the rest has largely been left to imagination.

there is a lot to learn here, and until we have the drive, we aint going to get anywhere near it. nothing comes easy, nothing can be spoon fed. thats the whole reason why we have lasted this long. i really wonder what kind of free world they are talking about. every thing has a meaning, every ritual has a purpose. maybe we are not half as interested to know what we are fully capable of.

Its called the Trimurti cave

Mahabalipuram, Trimurti cave, Tamil Nadu:

Its a cave i have been missing for a while, and a long while at that. 7 years is a long time, to miss something which is so close to home!!! How could i miss it is all i ask myself right now!

but the feeling of discovering something new is great, specially when everything is so known in this little town. And a quaint little town it is. This cave is hidden, one needs to walk a little and hunt around and get there. Its hidden among rock caves, and its a complete beauty when its found!

this cave, dedicated to the trinity, has a few interesting features. it has three shrines, each dedicated to shiva, vishnu and brahma respectively. all three have flying ganas, a very shaivite symbolism. vishnu stands in samabhanga pose, stiff backed, hand resting on his hip. shiva looks half clad, brahma, well he didnt look himself.

there are three seperate entrances to each shallow shrine into the cave, the center one seems to be dedicated to shiva, though the corner one looked like they had sculpted him in the background. to be honest am still guessing here. but the interesting element is that this cave having been so well hidden that the shiva linga in the central cave still stands.

its a beautiful linga. black and clearly carved into three parts. The upper part is the "shiva bhaga" which is circular and depicts the linga in true style. The second part (lower) called the vishnu bhaga, is octagonal and the lowest half which is inserted into the yoni pitha is the brahma bhaga which is square, fitting perfectly into a square cavity in the stone floor.
the facade of this cave has a line of haras, in true dravida style of architecture. Among the dwarapalas who guard the entrances, there is a beautiful sculpture of the mother goddess, Mahishasuramardhini which looks more like an after thought to me.

a completely perfect cave... untouched by time.

Importance to Vishnu in Kiratarjuniya Panel

Kiratarjuniya Panel, Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu, India:

Beauty of this sculptural panel is that it is the depiction of the poetry of Bharavi, a poet during the Pallava period. The beauty of this panel is that it depicts poetry through a scultors eye. He describes a dramatic scene from the Mahabharata where arjuna does severe penance to aquire various weapons for war, from the Gods. This is one such story where Shiva tests Arjuna's devotion by being a hunter opponent who kills a wild boar at the same time as arjuna strikes it as well. Here Shiva, disguised as a hunter comes to Arjuna who is going through severe penance to aquire the "pasupatastra". Interesting name that denotes the pasupata cult of shaivism.



Thats the story. Now lets look at its reference with respect to the panel, and in relation to Vishnu. Through out vishnu's vahana Garuda, has been replaced by a boar, the Varaha incarnate. Yet in this panel there seems to be no reference to a boar, that was supposed to kill arjuna and definitely was not supposed to be Varaha.

Secondly, in the profound drama taking place across this panel, which strongly represents shaivism, there seem to be hints of Vaishnavite flavour in select areas. This picture displays Vishnu in true form, in Samabhanga pose( stiff, back straight, hand resting on hip) in a strong brahmin environment where, there is depicted a sage who is shown as a scribe here, with a few other headless disciples listening to his possible discourse. The ambience of a village or a gurukul has been most beautifully brought out.

This seems to be located near a river, which is brought to life every time it rains at mahabalipuram (a rarity around Chennai these days). Next to him are a series of sages taking a bath and worshipping the sun god. It is interesting to note that in the middle of this theatrical event, Vishnu has gathered a special place as the deity in a shrine, at the bottom of this panel. This is probably the only place where he is represented in this form.

Vishnu on ananta - Mahabalipuram

Cave shrines at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu:
Deviating from Shiva, Vishnu is depicted in a limited set of forms across Mahabalipuram. Well to think that shiva's somaskanda panel is all we get to see apart from Kiratarjuniya panel, vishnu cult definitely had more to show for it!

Yet its interesting to note that garuda, Vishnu's vahana is not seen anywhere. Here, Vishnu reclining on ananta is one of the most exploited concepts at Mahabalipuram. In this particular panel, he is seen reclining with Madhu and Kaitaba, two demons on the mode of silent attack .



A very relaxed Vishnu is sculpted lying on ananta, five hooded with attendants. Brahma is not there but is replaced by flying celetials. The beauty of these panels is that its represented not just in art but in dance as well. These stories have been depicted in art, dance and literature. All the forms of expression for a concept, whose subtle meaning still remains a question! What aspect of the subtle reality were they trying to tell us, its something i still fail to realize.

Shiva - the enticer

He sits there silent, stone cold, like nothing ever bothers him. He is passive silent distant and truely unapproachable. His potency spreads like wild fire to all those who seek him, yet he sits there... silent unattainable.

to awaken him is tough, to tell him i have come is tough, to ask him to shower his attention on me is tough... to give up my ego is tough. How then do i ask him to look at me? how then do i ask him about life.. how then do i ask him to explain what brought me here... when he just sits there silent... shut.

i wait, wait and wait... while life just goes by... i patiently wait dreaming of him all the time. I wait just hoping somewhere he will notice me... i wait to just have him explain "me" to me. yet he sits there silent....

i give up, engulfed in anger, desperation.. dont you hear me... he doesnt budge... he tests me. i look for him around me, i try to figure him out. yet stone cold is all i see. where is your emotion, dont you have a heart. i have given up all to get here and you dont even take a glance? no... i should wait and watch... wait .. just wait .. thats all there is to it. I feel the chilling breeze, in my breath, i feel the chill in my throat. i feel the freshness in the air when i fix my mind on him.

there is no pleasure nor pain, there is no sign of life.. just calm, simple calm on his face. i dont know what to expect...yet i feel the heat rise. whats in his mind, whats in that world, that resembles a thousand petalled lotus? what is that energy which i know exists.. but i fail to just see it within my limited self.

i feel the heat in my eyes, i hear every beat of me heart. i can see the madness in every rising emotion as it rebels within my being... the noise inside me is hard to control, the fleeting emotions too hard to bear, while all lies silent outside... silent calm and cold. what is this that controls me, what is this that attracts. what is this makes me crave for it when i just cant seem to get.

is this something i imagine, is this something that really exists, what ever it is... i rather not question for i simply fail to understand it... i feel like him, i behave like him, i try to be him... yet incomplete... yet frustrating... where is the essence of him. all i want is a drop of him, a drop to bathe me in his being. as i sit and chop my human being, in sheer anger and frustration. as i shred it to pieces to look for him within... as i cry in pain and kill while i cant seem to find my answer.... i stop to hear the rhytm within myself...the rythm of of creation within myself.... shiva awakens within me.... and draws me to himself. the power uncontrolled, burns my aching body, his essence flows over and dissolves me within... i cease to exist anymore... i cease to think... i cease to be...

Shiva - the unattainable

Shiva, is self taught, raw, unadutrated truth, too hard to digest, too hard to comprehend, too hard to accept in our pathetic lives. he is the maverick, who casts his spell on those who are capable of taking it. he is potent, undigestable, at the same time loving in his own way.

to love shiva is to love none other. to want him is to give up all social rules and obligations, to attain him is to die a human. he is a spark that cannot be explained, yet vast and enveloping you at the same time. he is power, he is fear, he is truth, he is death. he is my madness within which lies dormant waiting to pour forth...

he is within me silent as ever, yet i feel his presence withing my walls. he empowers me to take on any problem... to live with it like that is life. he makes me accept the outlandish, he makes me give up myself. he is my breath, he makes me quiver, reveals to me a person i have never known. i have looked for him everywhere, they say he would come and teach me the way i can learn. i see him every where now beyond this mundane world i live, stuck in its own ignorance... i rise. its not simple, me heart aches, it pains...while it tells me to leave everything behind, leave every one behind.

from here on i tread alone, a road less travelled, a road feared, a road unknown. a road silent, a road throbbing with passion, a road unexplained, a road left to experience, a road dangerous, the mortal killer, oh lift me from this misery called life.. take me away from it... far far away...to an unknown world where i know nothing, i take birth to breath teh fresh potent air of love, of devotion.. of shiva...i sink, and yet in a sweet voice he says come.. i will take care of you.

he leaves me in tears.. he melts my heart, for him nothing else seems to matter no more. i awaken in his arms like a baby, where all i learn and see.. is his beauty...those eyes.. they are feared, respected, left alone. now he is with me...

Vimana - a mysterious word in itself.

I have had a lot of people coming up with interesting comments on the Vimana. Here are a few view points! These are not discoveries made by these individuals, but ideas that have quite taken their fascination.

Mr. Joshi, a retired civil engineer doing his own research, a very interesting personality with unique ideas and experiences to narrate, is of the opinion that the pyramidal structure had a very close relation to the pyramids in egypt as well as those in Gautamala peninsula of the Mayas, conceptually, as its believed that there is a point in the center of the pyramid that holds mysteries of keeping anything lasting longer within its interiors.
Taking his view further, its indeed true that in the large pramid at giza, the kings chamber is exactly one third the distance from the bottom. This spot offers exceptional energies that increase the immortality curve for anything thats is perishable within its space(a mummy probably in this case as the egyptians are known to enbalm their dead). How does this apply to a vimana (dravida style down south in india, nagara style in north india or angkhor wat in cambodia) is anyones guess.

Srinivasan, a cartoonist, a coleague and a good friend of mine is of the opinion that vimanas are mainly vehicles or 'viman', which suits the temples as most of them were "chariots of the Gods". The pushpaka vimana(ravana abducted sita using this vehicle) has quite intrigued him, as a machine that has been described to be used to fly across the sky to transport devas and other divinities, and strictly has a charioteer. The science of this is of course lost maybe, but it does throw a lot of light on the Rathas as a vehicle. At ellora of course, there is a depiction of a chariot with sita while ravana fights jatayu.

The third opinion on the vimana is that it is a part of a larger structure that represents the human body, starting from the stupi (head) , the gala (neck) the vimana (body) ending in the kapota(roof) , the bhiti (walls) housing the garbha griha(womb house), the mandapas (legs), and finally the gajastambha as the feet. It depicts the human body seated with legs outstretched.

What ever the vimana ultimately meant, it reached the pinnacle of expression in the temple of tanjore and gangaikondacholapuram in the south and that of khandriya mahadeva in the north, at khajuraho. Its depiction raises serious question on what a vimana was viewed to be. Was it a pyramidal structure that defined the path to heaven for the human soul to rise, was it a pyramidal structure that preserved perishable material for longer within its walls or was it a Chariot that flew across the sky transporting celestial beings.Was it a representation of mount kailasa with all its minor vimanas tapering towards the highest pinnacle or was it a representation of the human body being the personification of the atman within?

Honestly, i wouldnt know! Please let me know what you think!

Dharmaraja Ratha - A shiva iconographic catalogue

The Dharmaraja ratha being the largest of the rathas, has been dedicated to shiva. It has a stone ladder which reaches up to the first floor where sculptures are carved into various niches of the ground floor as well as the first two upper storeys, offering a catalogue of pallava iconography, in a three storeyed vimana. The dharmaraja ratha is unfinished, but the first storey has been hollowed out and is empty. The figures in the niches of the dharmaraja ratha are in perfect early pallava style of sculpture. There are shallow porticos on three sides of the ratha and an equally shallow porch projects from the west.

The dharmaraja ratha is an Anarpita vimana ie. the haras are not attached to the Haramyas, thus leaving a circumambulatory passage behind. This permitted niches with sculptures on the haramya wall, figures of shiva decorate all the three talas, which were meant to have sanctuaries. The aditala was intended to consist of a sanctuary surrounded by a pradakshina patha, with closed walls only at the four corners. The aditala has eight scupltural panels. Two figures of shiva, each with four arms face west. Brahma and harihara face north. Shiva ardhanarishwara and skanda as Gurumurthi face east. Four armed shiva and royal figures face south.

Madhya tala of the unfinished sanctuary with its shallow portico occupy the center of the western side. Flanked by pairs of dwarapalas and shiva kankalamurti other sculptures include, shiva vinadhara, four armed shiva with a atandu, shiva with chandesa, gangadhara, vishnu leaning on garuda and vrishabhantika(vrishabhavana ).

Interestingly, the dharmaraja ratha also lays the architectural foundation of possibilities for the designs of the Kailashnatha temple at Kanchi as well as the Vaikunta Perumal temple. These temples lead to the upper floors, which in later temples is lavishly painted and left in the dark inner passages around the sanctum.

Dharmaraja Ratha - true beauty in dravida style

Gigantic with respect to all the other rathas found here, the dharmaraja ratha is a chariot of the Lord Shiva. A larger version of the Arjuna ratha, it displays all the aspects of true dravida style. A pyramidal structure with 3 tiers before the shikhara appears, here also called the stupi.



There are various interpretations to this stupi. One is that it represents the peak of Mount Meru, the other is that its has been influenced by the buddhist stupa, which is actually a mound for the dead (a sort of ancestral worship where the ancestors were the various gurus in the buddhist sangha and not exactly blood relations). The largest of its kind can be seen on a 10 ton rock atop the brihadeshwara temple in Tanjore.

The haras contain smaller rooflets called karnakutas(corners) and shalakutas (broader in center). One can walk along the first floor through a flight of steps. The next best temple to really show the true characterestics of dravida architecture under the pallavas is at kailashanatha temple at kanchipuram, where entry into the top floors is from the back of the temple. This ratha is obviously incomplete. yet there are hints of squarting lions supporting pillars. This temple is rich in iconography as it displays shiva in various roles around the main body of the temple. It has to be noted here that pallava sculpture compare to their neighbours was very simplified puerly becuase of the hardness of the rock like granite. Its in the later periods that they manage to handle the stone far better. This also indicates the adventurous move into stone from wood.

Nakula sahadeva ratha - Temple for Indra

Indra is a deity very closely associated with Buddhism, the edicts of Ashoka were carved on pillars which took their idea from his staff. The story of Indra goes way back to pre aryan beliefs of water cosmology. The edicts were engraved on pillars which laid the foundation for later styles of pillar architecture.



The buddhist chaityas were the first to display such maturity in style, where the symbolic pot containing the tree of life was actually enhanced into pillars, still retaining its original form and sybolism. Of course along the way this changes but traces of it are seen in this ratha right here at mahabalipuram.

Whats interesting about this ratha is that it takes its idea from a remote chaitya in besra, where the chaitya griha and the vihara have been incorporated into the one single building. Yet when a chaitya griha is removed from the live rock and reproduced as a structural temple, or carved out of monolithic rock, what appears finally is the nakula sahadeva ratha. The barrel vaulted roof from the outside now appears like "gajaprshta" or elephant back side which is very clear in this picture. Hence its also clear with the monolithic rock elephant carved next to it, that the cave has been dedicated to Indra. Whats stands out most is the prominent arch window at the entrance of the ratha, depicting the altar inside, though the real altar is not carved into the rock as its rather small. The pillars of this ratha though are more inclined towards pallava style than towards the old buddhist tradition of pot based pillars. Two lines of haras crown the super structure indicating a merger of two architectural traditions - buddhist and dravida.

It might also be of great interest that the first cave at ajanta actually depicts a small dravida temple from mahabalipuram on its walls, indicating a healthy exchange of ideas between the two regions.