Vidyut Chakraborty

PROLEGOMENA

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. [Voltaire]I started this piece of elucidation on the static vibrant faith of Indian literate mass who enchant old is gold. But how much old is your religion and how did it survive the catastrophe of political upheavals and when do you come to know the veracity of the legends and myths, reply comes thousands of years.The rationality expected is far from the knowledge of truth. Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs and Christians Jews, and a number of Tribes not belong to these religions, are known as Indians. Besides, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar also remained once upon a time the part of greater India. Inter national relationship with South Asian nations (Japan Indonesia Cambodia etc.), China and Persia was so ancient that antiquity needs to be ascertained.The discovery of ink and writing tools enhanced the glory of the past for keeping records of history. When these materials were made available? Prior to that all were on memorizing capacity of individuals. How much of the records were destroyed and distorted in the passage of time? These are called the reasoning before taking anything as granted. The process of questioning failed by the general intelligentsia and naturally percolated to the general mass. So even after successful achievement of coming to inference by the European scholars and Indian Pundits regarding the queries, people accept the legends and myths as true and correct history of India. This is a universal phenomenon.The truth as unearthed by the European and Indian epigraphists, numismatics and paleographists of 18th century was tried to be jotted down.

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

Julian Barnes,The Sense of an Ending

A history need documentation to support the events of past. India from Afghanistan to Indonesia, from Sri Lanka to Tibet had a few authenticity of its vast cultural, social and political affiliation which can be said as history. Had Britishers not colonized, India would have drowned in the darkness of past. Africans sailed to so many countries and colonized and became the ancestors of so many tribes, but did not keep that history of Anthropology unless the Europeans unearthed the mystery of their heredity. Prior to excavation of Harappa ( Europa) and Mohenjodaro ( Meso potamia), there was no written history of Relics, Motifs and Stupas of such vast civilization which existed from Anatolia ( Egypt) to Gujrat ( Surat). The documentation was generally cited from Megasthenes,,Fa-Hsien and Hsuan- Tsang, Al Beruni and Ibn Battuta.Megasthenese (350-290BC) was a Greek ambassador of the Seleucids to the court of Chandragupta(302-298BC) founder of the Mauryan Empire. Fa- Hsian ( Faxian(CE 337- 422) was a Chinese Buddhist monk walked on foot from china to India and visited the Buddhist sacred sites covering the present Xinjjang, Pakistan,Nepal, Bangladesh ,Sri Lanka and India between 399-412AD . Hsuan- Tsang (Xuanzang (CE 602 664) was a Chinese Buddhist monk who described the interaction betweenChinaandIndia. Ab Rayhan al- Brn ( CE 973-1048) recorded the political and military history of India and covered Indias cultural, scientific, social and religious historyin detail. Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta (CE1304 1369AD) was a Moroccan Muslim scholar and traveler. This covered nearly the whole of the known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East. After his travel he returned to Morocco and gave his account of the experience over a period of thirty years, to Ibn Juzay, which were published in theRihla(lit. "Journey").

Faxian at the ruins ofAshoka's palaceSculptures, Monuments, Painting, Inscriptions all were there but absence of heritage among the intelligentsia were meritless to read it, write it and to make it in public. All the myths and legends were virtually accepted as history and many Indians believe those stories as true and correct irrespective of what was discovered or not .

Indians believe there were Harish Chandra in Satya Yuga, Ram Chandra in Treta Yuga, Sri Krishna in Dwapar Yuga and Nothing worst than Koli (Kali ) Avatar in Koli (Kali) Yuga. Indians barring a very few rather negligible percentage believe that Satya Yuga will come back and along with Ram Rajyo ( Regime) will also come back. Further added they believe the sermon of Bhagabad Gita-For the salvation of the righteous, for the destruction of the wrong-doers and to establish righteousness, I manifest myself every yuga (eon).

Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati Bharata Abhyudhanam adhar masya tadatmanam srijamyaham Paritranaya sadhunam vinashayacha dushkritam Dharmasamstha panarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge . [ Chapter 4: Transcendental Knowledge Text 8, Bhagabad Gita ]

All such religious and pious people expect a magic power to abolish their plight and distress irrespective of their religions. Not only Indian Hindus but all the religions teach such mysterious remedy of economic recession, social injustice and political crisis even the daily family problems. For the Hindu people there were several sermons, say Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kada chana, Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani [ Chapter 2 verse 47 Bhagabad Gita ] which mean The precise philosophy is that one causes to act with dedication and the result of ones deed comes later to yield fruits to the successor. So one has to adhere to the duties not on the motive of getting good result for ones self only but for everyone. Every Hindu chants this mantra but none follow the sermon. The Hindu Business community of India does the business with an intention to make more and more profits by hook or by crook although they utter this mantra daily morning. The pious Hindu politicians do all the worst crimes and sins with an intention to come into power and daily worship deity with these verses of Gita. When confronted the truth, there comes back no one to establish righteousness (Dharma). So the prejudiced ignorant ( Agyan Timiranjasyo) followers develop some explanation quoting something utopian alibi from his own conception of religion (Dharma). Dr. Raja Ramanna, Advisor to the Ministry of defense, Government Of India, made a noteworthy comment. One can always ask the question as to why with all our background we did not have an industrial revolution earlier. Why is there so much superstition and irrationality and why is creative thinking still not so vibrant as it is in the west? Talking of superstition and irrationality one can see them everywhere, even in the advanced countries of the west. As regards creative thinking, India has been a pioneer in art and literature in the past, and there are signs that she has again become active in those fields. Dr. Ramanna (1928-2004) was a nuclear scientist, Minister of defense, Secretary of Defense Research, who was known as Father of Indian nuclear program. Regarding superstition he just avoided the causes and stuck to the prejudices on westerners negativities. Superstition is as bad as in East as in West. He bypassed the problem of pauperism, population and proper education of the mass which compelled the people subjugated by the political parties in power to believe in super natural being to solve their difficulties of life. They cannot fulfill their minimum requirements of life which is the promised target of the government. The world famous Indian personalities are not the product of Indian government, it is their individual achievement. Even Dr. Ramanna was the product of Kings College, London. The fund in making and buying the nuclear weapons by a poor country cannot be the sign of progress. Indians never bothered about the preservation of cultural history. They rather submit themselves to the political upheavals of the countries. The practice is still there. Voltaire perhaps spoke rightly If you have nothing to tell us, except that one barbarian succeeded another on the banks of the Oxus and Jaxartes, what is that to us?Prior to Empire Asoka there was no history of inscription on coins, tablets and presence of monuments. Even the manuscripts in Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit were not available for a long period of past. No Indian could read the Bahmi lipi ( scriptures) inscribed on the walls of Monuments and Temples.So they do not know what they are learning as godly advices of religious scriptures from the priests, whether the same are the original ones or the duplicate one distorted through the passage of time. There are several stories from Vedas and Vedantas (Upanishads & Puranas) comprising of Brahmans and Aranyaks which are continually preserved by the orthodox Brahmin communities kept in residence or in the temples. Here also lie many a questions, when Vedas, known as Shrutis (the texts learned through Listening, Memorising and Preaching), come into the stage of writing in Bhurjapatra, and from where the writing ink1 came.Pearl Buck quoted : If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday .It can be said the writing with ink did not start prior to 4th millennium B.C. It implies there were inscriptions on stone tablet and caves-wall and monuments. Besides there ware a lot of memorization of old sacred writings through the clans of priests.So when the written Vedas2 are coming to be in text it cannot be published before the invention of Indian ink. There are four Vedas: The Rik-Veda, the Yaju- Veda, the Sam veda and the Atharba Veda. Each Veda has been sub-classified into four major text types- the Samhitas( mantras and benedictions), the Aranyaks ( texts on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices and symbolism), the Brahmans( commentaries on rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices), and the Upanishads ( texts discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge). Some scholars add fifth category theUpasanas(practice of the Vedic texts or worship). No inscriptions of Vedas were discovered as it was Shruti only.V. Raghavan , Ex Professor of Sanskrit of Madras University, in his Search Preservation and Publication of Manuscript wrote : When did script and writing arise and whether writing was known to the Vedic Rishis are questions which have been discussed by many. The general view is that writing, such as is seen in Ashokas edicts, was current in India only about 800B.C. The material on which we have the earliest writing, the edicts of Asoka, is the rock; the stone continued to be used for royal inscriptions all through Indian history and we even have a few poems and plays engraved on rocks. Inscribed seals ( Pusta from which came Pustaka, the book) and pottery and burnt Asvamedha bricks bearing names have been thrown up by excavation. Leather, cotton-cloth, and silk (Pata) were also occasionally used.The common word for writing material is patra refers to the leaf of the tree. The trees used were Birch or Bhurja whose inside bark was peeled and dried or its leaves are dried for use in writing known as Bhurja- Patra . There were Palm Leaves ( Tal Patra) also used for writing. The two circular or other blank holes in the palm leaves were used for running thread that bound palm leaves together, from which the name probably Granth, the treatise ( Granthana means putting together in a thread) came. But Tamil Language was called Granth in those days. The confusion arises if Indian ink was and Bhurja- Patra and Tal Patra were possibly invented prior to Asoka Regime, then where those written manuscripts( Punthi) vanished? Rock edicts of Asoka Regime were first uncovered by Alexander Cunningham in November 1861. Cunningham wrote Reports ( 23 volumes) read out bilingual inscription on early coins ( Greco Brahmi and Greco Kharosti) and followed by the numismatist, epigraphists and palaeographists like James Princep, Lassen, Norris, Buhler, Konow and many others.The punthis were not in sight. The punthis were sincerely copied and sacredly preserved by the Gurus of Sanskrit schools (Tols) and their disciples also. Preservation was a difficult task due to rains and worms. There were thefts of punthis and plagiarism too. Punthis were found by a task force formed by the British Government in Europe, Middle East, Pakistan, China, Nepal and Far estern countries like Japan and Indonesia. Theodore Aufrecht compiled Catalogus Catalogum of the Pali, Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts taken up to 1903 which was taken for revised edition in 1935 and the first volume of New Catalogus Catalogum was published in 1949. Haraprasad Sashtri of Calcutta University, wrote Catalogue of Palm leaf and select Paper Manuscripts belonging to Durbar Library(Nepal 1905).D C Sircar, Former Government Epigraphist of India , observed : The study of Indian inscriptions practically started on the 15th January, 1784, by the British and other European scholars, administrators and Missionaries for an enquiry into the history and antiquities, Arts, Sciences and literatures of asis in general and India in particular. At that time no Indian pundit was able to read the ancient Brahmi and Kharosti writings although the most learned among them could read manuscripts copied a few centuries earlier.N R Banerjee, Superintendent of the Excavation, ASI ,Delhi, remarked: At this time the mantle Sir William Jones had fallen on the able shoulder of James Princep who solved the mysteries of Brahmi and Kharosti inscriptions,identified Piyadassi of Brahmi inscriptions with Asoka and thereby established the contemporaneity of the Greek kings of the west with Asoka. Pundit mobility and scholar migration in particular formed cultural integration with India and outer countries. As foreign scholars used to come in India so Indian pundits also migrated to Tibet, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Persia and Greece. Difference was that The foreigners changed the Indian names, in some cases real identity problem persisted, but Indian did not change the names of the foreigners.To the Greeks, Bindusara was known as Amitrochates, perhaps the Greek translation of the Sanskrit Amitraghata, the destroyer of the foes. His father , Chandragupta was known to the Greeks as Sandrocottus. Chandragarbha of Bikrampur Dacca, became Dipankar Srijnan, and was named in Tibet as Atish. Chandragarbhas house was known as Nastik Punditer Vita ( the house of an atheist scholar) for along time. He was totally forgotten in history except cited in some Buddhist scriptures. One scholar diplomat Sarat Chandra Das (1849-1917) of Chittagong ( now in Bangladesh) visited Tibet ,the forbidden country, in the later part of 19th century as an envoy of British Indian Government . Despite all adversities he was successful to collect material buried in ancient manuscripts which was published with the title Indian Pundits in the Land of Snows by Asian Society, Calcutta, in 1893, and also the Travel Account of Tibet by British Geographical Society, London. A forgotten chapter on Tibets glorious history and pioneering work done by the Buddhists saints of Bengal particularly Dipankar Srijnan was brought into limelight for the first time. Greek Historians apart from Megasthese also contributed a lot to find out the History of India from the time of Alexander. They are Strabo ( 64BC -19AD), Pliny the Elder(Natural History published in 75 AD),Plutarch (45-125AD, Chapters 57-125 of Lives), Justine 2AD Epitome), Arrian ( 130AD Anabasis), Diodorus(36BC), Nearchus, Eratosthenes( 276-195BC).Indian Works are related to Maurya Empire were on Hindu side-Kautilyas Arthasastra, Khemendras Brihatkathamanjari, Visakhaduttas Mudrarakshasa, Somdevas Kathasaritsagar, on Jain sides-Hemachandras Parisistaparvan,Bhaadrabahus Kalpasutra andon Buddhist side- Dipa vamsa, Mahavamsa and Mahabodhi vamsa. Jones, Princep, HP Sashtri figured out the existence of manuscript (Punthi) in Bikaner Palace(10000), Tanjore Sarasvati Mahal(13000), Raghunath Temple of Jammu(4500),Ahmadabad(60000), Nambudri Family of Cochin(5000), European Union( 50000) out of which UK (30000),USA ( 6000), Japan( 500), Nepal( 30000), Dacca(5000), Lahore (6000) and several thousands in Calcutta & Banaras university apart from Math and Monasteries. The things could have been gone astray. But in 1651, Abraham Roger and Ernst Haxledon wrote a book named Open door to the Hidden Heathendom on Brahmnical literature. They were not so successful in earning popularity but aroused interest among the European to the hidden treasure of Hindu and Buddhist and Jain scriptures. Then onwards Sanskrit grammars and Translation of Gita Mahabharata and Ramayana and Kalidas, Barahmihir continued. Halhed (1751-1830) wrote Bridge over the ocean of Disputes (Vivadarnavasetu) and A code of Gentoo laws on ordination of Pundits on Hindu law translated from Sanskrit to Persian then to English. First direct translation of Bhagavat Gita was done by Charles Wilkins in 1785, he translated episodes of Mahabharata ( 1787) and wrote Sanskrit Grammar(1808). The William Jones translated Abhijnanam Shakuntalam (1789), Ritu Samhara (1791-92), Manu Smriti (1794). Horace Hayman Wilson, Schlegel Brothers (Augustus and Frederick), Franz Bopp, Rudolph Roth, Max Muller , Weber, Colebrook and so on others. To contrast the Europeans endeavour and also to defend the righteousness of Hindu Scriptures the Indian scholars came into foray. Bhau Daji, Pundit Bhagwanlal Indraji, Kashinath Trambak Telang, Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, Manmatha Nath Dutt , Michael Madhu Sudan Dutt and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay contributed a large variety and dimensions of Puranas. Rajendra Lal Mitra contributed Report on Sanskrit Manuscripts (1871-74), Romesh Chandra Dutt wrote A History of Civilisation in Ancient India based on Sanskrit Literature (3 Vol umes). Michael M S Dutt and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay were two great eminent literary icons of Bengal who practically set the Bengali language and literature to an international standard. Dutt wrote a sub epic , Meghnad badh Kabya, extracting the theme of Ramayana in a different dimension which is not still dared to be written by any Indian Laureate. Michael made Ravana and Indrajit( Meghnad) the real heroes of Ramayana and tarnish the glory of Ram and Lakshman. Bankim in his Chaitanya Charit rearticulated the character of Sri Krishna as a leadership personality of the epic and not as a God and not as a womanizer.William Jones(1746-94) along with Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Nathaniel Halhed founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 and started a journal named Asiatick Researches. Jones suggested thatSanskrit,GreekandLatin languages had a common root, and that indeed they may all be further related, in turn, toGothicand theCeltic languages, as well as toPersian. This is in parlance with the proto language proposition published by Van Boxhornhad in 1653, a proposal for a proto language for some European languages. It was a tree model statement of similarity and a hypothesis that the similarity results from descent from a common language..

The proto-languages stand at the branch points, or nodes: 15, 6, 20 and 7. The leaf languages, or end points, are 2, 5, 9 and 31. The root language is 15. The links between nodes indicate descent or genetic descent. All the languages in the tree are related.

Arthur Schopenhauerreferred to one of Sir William Jones's publications in 1 ofThe World as Will and Representation(1819). Schopenhauer was trying to support the doctrine that "everything that exists for knowledge, and hence the whole of this world, is only object in relation to the subject, perception of the perceiver, in a word, representation." He quoted Jones's original English:... how early this basic truth was recognized by the sages of India, since it appears as the fundamental tenet of theVedntaphilosophy ascribed toVyasa, is proved by Sir William Jones in the last of his essays: "On the Philosophy of the Asiatics" (Asiatic Researches, vol. IV, p. 164): "The fundamental tenet of the Vednta school consisted not in denying the existence of matter, that is solidity, impenetrability, and extended figure (to deny which would be lunacy), but in correcting the popular notion of it, and in contending that it has no essence independent of mental perception; that existence and perceptibility are convertible terms."Edgar Allaan Poe's short storyBerenicestarts with a motto, the first half of a poem, by Ibn Zaiat:Dicebant mihi sodales si sepulchrum amicae visitarem, curas meas aliquantulum fore levatas.It was taken from the works of William Jones, and here is the missing part (from Complete Works, Vol. 2, London, 1799):Dixi autem, an ideo aliud praeter hoc pectus habet sepulchrum? My companions said to me, if I would visit the grave of my friend, I might somewhat alleviate my worries. I answered "could she be buried elsewhere than in my heart?Warren Hasting and Curzon both Viceroys took initiative in archeological survey of India. In 1865 AD Hasting designated Alexander Cunningham as the Archeological Surveyor of India. From 1861 to 1865, Cunningham succeeded in covering a vast area from Gaya to Indus, from Kalsi to Narmada, being obsessed with the account of the travelogue of Chinese Buddhist monks. In his own words- I have identified the sites and most famous places of ancient places of ancient India, such as the rocks of Aornos, the city of Taksasila, and the fortress of Sangala, all connected with the history of Alexander the Great. In India I have found the celebrated cities of sankisa, Seavasti and Kausambi, all intimately connected with the history of Buddha. Among other discoveries I may mention the great stupa of Bharhut on which most of the principal events of Buddhas Life were sculptured and inscribed. I have found three dated inscriptions of King Asoka and my assistants have brought to light a new pillar of Asoka, a new text of his rock edicts in Bactrian characters, in which we find the whole of twelfth edict. I have traced the Gupta style of architecture in the temples of the Gupta kings at Tigowa, Bilsar, Bhitargaon, Kuthera and deogarh and I have discovered new inscription of this powerful dynasty at Eran, Udaygiri and other places.Curzon established Archeological Survey of India and appointed John Huber Marshall its head (1902-28). In 1904 Ancient Monuments Preservation act VII of 1904 was passed. Among the principal excavation carried out under John Marshall were Charsadda(1902-04), Sarnath(1904-28), Kasia(1904-12), basar(1903-1914), Bhita ( 1909-12),Pataliputra (1912-27),Taksasila(1913-14), Harappa( 1926-31) and Mahenjo daro(1921-23).Monuments of India are seldom renovated or reconstructed, but whenever portions are rebuilt it is necessary to preserve the monument in consonance with the style and technique of the extant portion. For doing so conservator must understand the monument as a whole, its architectural style, the period, the nature of the building materials, the structural aspects and the reason of decay- observed by Rakhaldas Sengupta , Former Director( Conservation) Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi. The religious practice of preservation was maintained by the priests and the shrine authorities. Whenever there was war and battle, Indians generally were defeated. After the defeat of Porus, the emperor Chandragupta was the first king who defeated the Greek King Seleucus and married his daughter Helen in 305 BC and expanded his empire from Persia to eastern border of Himalaya. His grand son Asoka was the second Indian empire in history who furthered the empire to Sri Lanka and Indo China and Japan. Thereafter no victory and the invaders destroyed so many valuable antiquities. Buddhists and Jains were heavily affected along with the Hindus, it continued till the Moghul period. The British took different views and the pride of India was saved and protected.After Independence the process of preservation became worse. The land sharks find the soft target of these historic places or the places were just disdained due to want of fund and lackadaisical attitude of Bureaucracy. Even the places of tourist attraction earning revenue for maintenance were under ruining condition. International Council of Monuments and Sites formulated an outline principle for preservation and safeguarding the historical monuments and evidences which stipulates the aesthetic and historic value of a monument without alteration of its antiquity. A long time passed again when the artifacts were destroyed by stupid people knowingly in the name of development and unknowingly by the illiterate rustic people. Some intelligent people engaged them selves in stealing and selling the antiques to the traders of historic artifacts.India Government is receiving fund from UNESCO for world heritage centre only and is least bothered about the site of historical interest. The people are illiterate enough to take care of their places, they also work for the smugglers of the artifacts and for the land sharks. They are less interested in history and science of their own place although they tour to the other provinces of the country and to the foreign countries to visit the places of historical interest. So the quote of Aldous Huxley is craves importance. That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.