Musings & Reflections

The Whistling Schoolboy!

5/13/2022

Today is the Endemic Bird Day.
Endemic birds are those that are found only within a confined geographical area and it is always a moment to cherish when you spot one of them!
Some years ago, George Mothi, my friend and a passionate bird lover took me on a day long birding sojourn in the Athirapalli region of Kerala. It was an unforgettable experience as we were lucky to see a wide range of avian beauties. As we were driving slowly in the forest, George stopped the car as he spotted some movement amongst the dense foliage.
Looking closer, I could clearly see a bird, about the size of a crow, blackish with shiny patches of blue on the forehead and shoulders. Its glossy blue plumage with iridescent sheen glinted beautifully in the light. As I watched, the bird was looking for something in the grass. It suddenly halted and….whistled! I couldn’t believe my ears as the sound was so human-like. It is no surprise then that it is often referred as a “Whistling Schoolboy!” Of all the songbirds I have heard, Malabar Whistling Thrush which is endemic to peninsular India, mostly the Western Ghats, is the most mellifluous of them all!
The great Salim Ali has commented: "Personally, I would choose as our most accomplished songster, the Greywinged Blackbird of the Himalayas. A number of its close relations, members of the thrush family including the Malabar Whistling Thrush and the Shama follow close on its heels”.
The Kadar tribes in the Anaimalai hills believe that when an elder in their community dies, he or she is reborn as a Malabar Whistling Thrush. When they enter the forest and listen to its call they know that they are not alone.
As always there is an interesting legend associated with this bird...
One day Lord Krishna was wandering along the banks of a mountain stream when he came to a lovely spot with a small waterfall. Enchanted with the beautiful ambiance, he started playing his flute. As he was playing the music, he fell asleep and the flute slipped from his fingers. It was not a restful sleep and when he awoke, he was shocked to see a ragged urchin standing ankle-deep in the pool with the sacred flute held onto his lips. Krishna was furious. “Come here, boy!” he shouted, “How dare you steal my flute and disturb my sleep! Don’t you know who I am?” The urchin replied “I did not steal your flute, lord. Had that been my intention, I would not have waited for you to wake up. It was only my love for your music that made me touch your flute. You will teach me to play, will you not? I will be your disciple.” Krishna’s anger melted away, and he was filled with compassion for the boy. He laid his hand on the boy’s mouth, saying, “Forever try to copy the song of the gods, but never succeed.” Then he touched the boy’s clothes and said, “Let the raggedness and dust disappear, and only the beautiful colours of Krishna remain.” And the boy was turned into a bird with dark blue brilliant body which we now know as the Malabar Whistling Thrush. Its melodious call continues to reverberate among beautiful, forested valleys...
Your lovely song
Bouncing off the trees
Straddling the wind
Echoes in my heart still…
Feel Free To Let The Whistling Schoolboy Know What You Think Of It... Here!

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Sculptural Heritage Of Shivaripatna

4/20/2022

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After savouring the rich architectural heritage of the Ramalingeshwara temple at Avani, we made our way to Shivaripatna. The google map guided us through agricultural lands where slushy and deeply rutted mud roads were a test for driving. The sounds of chisels working on stones greeted us as we reached the outskirts of the village.

Shivaripatna is a small village in Malur taluk of Kolar district. This nondescript hamlet is a well-known place for intricate carvings on granite. Majority of people in the village are Vishwakarmas. The Vishwakarmas, also known as Vishwabrahmins are descendants of the Hindu deity, Vishwakarma. He was considered as the divine architect and deemed to have emerged out of Samudra Manthan. According to another account, Lord Brahma had a son named Dharma and his son Vaastu married Angirasi, and from them, Vishwakarma was born. However, according to the Vishwakarma Purana, he is considered to be a Swayambhu. The legend states that he was the creator of many holy cities like Dwaraka and also crafted numerous weapons for the gods. He had five children, Manu, Maya, Tvastar, Shilpi, and Vishwajna, each one of them specializing in a particular craft. Hence the community comprises five sub-groups: blacksmiths, carpenters, bronzesmiths, stonemasons and goldsmiths.

How did this village have such a concentration of Vishwakarma artisans? It is said that during the period of the Ganga Dynasty a ‘shilpi’ named Basulinga Acharya was traveling and spent a night in a dharmashala in Shivarapatna. After cooking food for the night, he took some pieces of charcoal and drew an idol on the wall, which was strikingly beautiful. Next morning when the villagers saw the drawing they were astounded by his skill. The news spread like wild fire and the king got to know about this. He came to the village to meet him, offered a piece of land and asked him to stay in the place and practice the craft. The craftmanship flourished in the village thereafter!

Almost every dwelling in the village has a workshop. We slowly made our way from one workshop to another, each one a treasure trove full of exquisite sculptures. In one of the workshops we watched with awe as a middle aged person carefully worked on sculpting an idol. Aware of our interest, he took us around the place and explained the process of making the sculptures in detail. In the process we got to know that he was a Muslim and had been making idols for decades. His father was also in the same profession. He said that he had carved thousands of idols until now, many of them in worship in temples. Although Islam doesn’t propagate idol worship no one from his community questioned him and he has been accepted and continues to be a part of the Vishwakarmas in the village.

This was a truly inspiring story in these deeply polarized times and is an enduring testimony to the long cherished syncretic tradition of our country.

There has always been a syncretism of religions in India.

No couplet I know captures this more succinctly than one by Kabir that I learned as a child and have never forgotten:
Moko kahaan dhoondhate bande, Mai to tere paas me;
Na Mai Mandir, na Mai Masjid, naa Kaaba Kailash me.
(Where dost thou seek me oh devotee, for I am right beside thee;
Not in a temple, nor in a mosque, not at the Qaaba, nor on Mount Kailash, shalt thou find me)
A few glimpse of our visit at:
photos.app.goo.gl/apuMSCPHNEMinnRF7
Feel free to pen your thoughts here…

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Amidst the hallowed precints of a sacred forest

3/20/2022

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Forests are vital to life on earth. In addition to their ecological importance, forests have myriad symbolic and cultural significance. On this International Forest Day, I was recollecting one of my most memorable visit to a sacred grove in north east of India.

Sacred groves are patches of forest that rural communities protect and revere as sacrosanct. It is a reflection of ancient values of reverence for nature. Declaring a patch of forest near villages as sacred and protecting it on the grounds of religious and cultural beliefs is an age-old practice in many parts of India. Sacred groves also play a crucial role in the preservation of biological diversity. There are thousands of sacred groves in India. Sacred groves are known by different names in different regions as Than or Madaico in Assam, Matagudi, Devgudi in Chattisgarah, Dev Van in Himachal Pradesh, Jaherthan or Sarana in Jharkhand, Devarakaadu or Kans in Karnataka, Kaavu in Kerala, Devrai or Devgudi in Maharashtra, Umang Lai in Manipur, Law Kyntang in Meghalaya, Jahera or Thakuramma in Orissa, Orans in Rajasthan, Kovilkaadu in Tamil Nadu, Bugyal or Dev Van in Uttarakhand and Garamthan or Jahiristhan in West Bengal.
Some of the most magnificent sacred groves in the country are found in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, where almost every village is said to have had a grove, known locally as the law kyntangs. There are at least eighty sacred groves in Meghalaya alone. Mawphlang is probably the most well preserved among them and Ahalya and myself were keen to have a glimpse of it during our visit to the region.

After a short drive through enchanting landscapes we arrived at the small town of Mawphlang. A local guide was kind enough to accompany us. We drove past the entrance gate managed by a youngster in traditional attire after paying a small fee (the sacred grove is looked after and managed by the local community). What I saw would remain etched in my memory forever.

Rising up from the flat, barren landscape stood a vast green mass of trees. It was an incredibly beautiful sight. Outside the sacred groves there were clusters of ancient monoliths. These monoliths are stone structures that serve as respectful reminders of elders in the community who have passed away. I was informed that the vertical ones signify men, while the horizontal ones represent women.

As we entered the hallowed grounds, the light seemed to dim considerably. Inside it was dense and dark in complete contrast to the surrounding. The ground beneath was uncannily soft, with patches of green carpets of fallen leaves. Giant roots covered with thick moss spread across the ground. The majestic presence of each and every tree envelops you as you make your way in the warm, lush forest. The grove is reported to have more than four hundred different species of trees. It was truly as magical as I had imagined it. I feel sometimes that the network of the trees in the forest is much akin to neural and social networks!

The guide informed that not even a twig can be taken from the forest. Harm and misery befalls anyone who attempts to do so. It is also believed that the spirits and deities that reside in the groves protect the local population from various kinds of calamities. While showing us the wonders of the grove, he gently picked up a seed that is popularly called ‘Rudraksh’ and used in many religious ceremonies. After explaining to us its significance, he put it back where he found it. As we walked along in the dense forest, there were more megalithic stone structures. These stones are silent witnesses to numerous traditional beliefs and legends about the sacred forest, revered and preserved by local Khasi community.

I was also told that Maw means stone and phlang means grass. The Mawphlang sacred grove is believed to be the home of two guardian deities — one in the shape of a leopard (khlathapsim), believed to be the benevolent one, and the other in the form of a snake (bsein), deemed the opposite. According to local mythology, those who have seen the leopard god have led a life of prosperity, while those who have encountered the other deity, have been showered with afflictions. Wish I had a glimpse of the leopard!

Mawphlang was not merely an expression or representation of sacredness….it was sacredness itself ..

As Seneca commented eons ago, "When you enter a grove peopled with ancient trees, higher than the ordinary, and shutting out the sky with their thickly inter-twined branches, do not the stately shadows of the wood, the stillness of the place remind you that you are in the presence of a deity?”

More eloquently in the words of Lord Byron…
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore…
I love not man the less, but Nature more."

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Reflections on Sparrows...On The World Sparrow Day

3/19/2022

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I grew up with sparrows. They used to nest amidst the wooden rafters in the ceiling of our house. They were our co-tenants! Their constant chirping was a music to the ears. It was a lovely sight to see the chicks emerge from the nest and fly away after a few days. We later moved to another house which had a concrete roof and hence there was no place for the sparrows to roost. They slowly disappeared from our urban locale. I felt at home many decades later when I watched scores of them fluttering amidst the tall canopy of the Bangalore airport.

Sparrows have been around for very many years. Two jawbones of pre-domestic sparrows more than 100,000 years old, were found in a layer of sediment in a cave in Israel. The modern house sparrow started appearing in fossil records 10,000 or 20,000 years ago. With the spread of agriculture, house sparrows began to live among humans and spread across the globe. In the process they evolved in size, shape, color and behavior in different regions.

It was not smooth sailing for them though. Mao viewed sparrows as one of the four “great” pests of his regime (along with rats, mosquitoes and flies). There were several billions of them in China. Once Mao decided to kill the sparrows, he commanded people all over the country in March of 1958, to come out of their houses to bang pots and make the sparrows fly which they did. The sparrows flew until exhausted, then they died mid-air, and fell to the ground, their bodies still warm with exertion. Sparrows were also caught in nets, poisoned and killed anyway they could be, adults and eggs alike. By some estimates, a billion birds were killed.

The story of ecology is much more complex. When the sparrows were killed, crop production increased, at least initially. But with time, pests of rice and other agricultural produce increased in numbers never seen before. As a result of this and the ensuing crop failure, 35 million Chinese people died. It was then noticed that while adult tree sparrows mostly eat grains, their babies, like those of house sparrows, tend to be fed insects. In killing the sparrows, Mao and the Chinese had saved the crops from the sparrows, but seemed not to have considered the threat posed by the insects. And so Mao in 1960, ordered sparrows to be conserved!

The story of the house sparrows in India is a disheartening, gloomy one. Over the past two decades, their population is on a rapid decline in almost every city. The reasons attributed are many: rapidly changing cities are no longer a suitable habitat for the house sparrow, as the new and modern designs of infrastructure does not give any room for the sparrow to nest; pollution, pesticides and diminishing ecological resources for sustenance further compound the issue.

Sparrows finds mention in ancient Tamil literature. Kuṟuntokai which is the second of the Eight Anthologies (Ettuthokai) in the Sangam literature has some lovely poems about sparrows. This particular one describes the lament of a lady who misses her lover.

ஆம்பல் பூவின் சாம்பல் அன்ன
கூம்பிய சிறகர் மனை உறை குரீஇ
முன்றில் உணங்கல் மாந்தி, மன்றத்து
எருவின் நுண் தாது குடைவன ஆடி,
இல் இறைப் பள்ளித் தம் பிள்ளையொடு வதியும் 5
புன்கண் மாலையும் புலம்பும்
இன்று கொல் தோழி, அவர் சென்ற நாட்டே?

In the house
colored like 'ambal' flowers
sparrows with closed wings
eat the grains
spread out in the courtyard
for drying

These sparrows,
peck and play merrily
with their chicks
on the dried dung
outside the house

Watching them
On this dull evening
I feel lonely
Where have you gone
My dear one?
(An adaptive translation of mine!)

Subramanya Bharathi wrote a famous poem about sparrows being the symbol of freedom. விட்டுவிடுதலையாகிநிற்பாயிந்தச் சிட்டுகுருவியைபோலே, Stay liberated –Like this little sparrow. Renowned Hindi author, Mahadevi Verma’s story ‘Goraiya’ has wonderful descriptions of a sparrow eating grains from her hands, playing hide and seek and hopping around.

There are many different species of sparrows. While birding in the Point Reyes area near San Francisco, my attention was drawn to a small bird that fluttered down and settled itself on a leafy thicket. Soon it serenaded me with one of the most beautiful bird calls interspersed with chips and trills that I have ever heard. True to its name, it was a Song Sparrow!

Unfortunately in our urban milieu the song of the sparrows has been silenced. It’s time that we bring back the chirpy sparrows into our lives….

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Rainbow Lorikeet and the colours of nature...

3/17/2022

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Colours play an important role in the festival of Holi. They add vitality to the festival, making it one of the most vibrant of celebrations. Each of the colours is deemed to have a symbolic significance. Blue for instance is the colour of Krishna's complexion and also of the sky and the oceans.
And colours are the smiles of nature.

Birds are beautiful jewels in the sky. There are many brightly coloured birds in the world, and the most flamboyant ones are the parrots. During our birding sojourn in Australia, Ahalya and myself saw some of the most multihued parrots, prominent among them being the Rainbow Lorikeet.

Rainbow Lorikeet, definitely deserves its name! True to its name, one can see all the colour palettes of rainbow in its feathers. Its head is deep blue with a greenish-yellow nuchal collar, and the rest of the upper parts (wings, back, and tail) are green. The chest is orange/yellow in colour. The belly is deep blue, and the thighs and rump are green. Their species name, haematodus, comes from the Latin word for blood, and is a reference to the rich red found on its breast.

The colour of the feathers of birds serves various functions; thermoregulation, climatic adaptation and a fine balance between sexual signalling and camouflage. Birds need to balance being attractive to potential mates while having some kind of camouflage against potential predators. When hunted from above, the Rainbow Lorikeet blends with the foliage of the trees with its green back. It has been suggested that the colourful patches confer evolutionary advantage in courtship and mate recognition.

Rainbow lorikeets have two unique features. They possess a tongue with brush-type tissues helping them to collect nectar and pollen. The other distinctive feature is their agile legs which help them to hang upside-down and feed on bottlebrush flowers. It is a dazzling sight when flocks of them fly with the rays of the sun streaming through their gorgeous plumage!

On the occasion of Holi, in the words of Maya Angelou, let us “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”

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The Legend Of Holika Dahan

3/16/2022

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Like many Hindu festivals, Holi is also inextricably linked to many legends. One of them relates to Hiranyakashipu, his sister Holika and his son Prahlada. Hiranyakashipu, the Asura, was the son of Sage Kashyapa and Diti and was keen to avenge Vishnu for eliminating his brother Hiranyakasha.

Prahlada was an ardent devotee of Vishnu as he was able to hear the chants of Narada praising the lord, even while he was in the womb of his mother. Hiranyakashipu was incensed with Prahlada’s unwavering devotion to Vishnu and initiated various attempts to kill him. Prahlada survived all these attempts. Holika, the sister of Hiranyakashipu had a boon that she could not be hurt by fire. Hiranyakashipu placed Prahlada on the lap of Holika as she sat on a lit pyre. Undeterred by this Prahlada prayed to Vishnu and Holika perished since she did not know that her powers were only effective if she entered the fire alone.

This myth has a strong association with the festival of Holi, and even today there is a practice of forming a pyre the night before Holi and setting it alight as a symbolic burning of the demoness Holika. This is known as Holika Dahan and it is not merely a story about the triumph of good over evil. Holika symbolizes the hold of jealously, anger and pride on our behaviour and the importance of vanquishing these to rediscover the Prahlada within us.

Though there are many sculptures of Narasimha disemboweling Hiranyakashipu in Hoysala temples, depiction of Prahlada is comparatively rare. This small frieze in the 13th century Somanathapura temple near Mysore, depicts Prahlada sitting on the pyre unharmed by the fire, praying to Vishnu.

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UNMASKED REFLECTIONS...

12/30/2021

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At a stage in life which is often described as Vanaprastha, I was not willingly retreating into the forest, but was largely confined at home over the past two years. It has been a difficult, trying, sometimes fascinating, mostly exhausting year. How does one capture in few words the most significant facet of the year? For me the most obvious symbol of this time has been the "mask”.

The metaphor of wearing mask is not new. As psychologists inform us, we all wear social masks. We put it on, go out and put out our best image. We wear different masks as situations demand and most of lives is spent on putting on and taking off masks! Often we wear the masks to protect our vulnerable inner selves.

With the advent of the Covid we became aware as to how physically vulnerable we can be and masks made inroads into our everyday lives in tangible ways.

But mask wearing is not new. They have been with us for aeons The earliest well documented masks were from the arid Judean Desert in the Middle East which were found in caves near the Dead Sea about 9,000 years ago. They are the earliest preserved masks that we currently know of. It is possible that they were funerary masks.

During the Black Death when plague ravaged Europe, doctors wore a mask with a bird-like beak to protect them from being infected by the deadly disease. It was believed that the disease spread by miasma, a noxious form of ‘bad air.’ To battle this threat, the long beak was packed with dried flowers, herbs and spices providing a sweet fragrance. A French doctor named Charles de Lorme is credited with the design of this mask. He designed the bird mask to be worn with a large waxen coat as a form of head-to-toe protection, modelled on a soldier’s armour. It was perhaps the first PPE to be used during pandemics! It’s even possible that the cumbersome beak helped to create a small amount of “social distancing!”

The discovery in 1861 of the presence of bacteria in the air by Louis Pasteur made people aware of the dangers of breathing in harmful pathogens. This led doctors to prescribe cotton masks to limit contagion during epidemics.

During the Manchurian plague epidemic in 1910-11 in China, it was Wu Lien - a Cambridge educated doctor who emphasized the important role of masks as a ‘prophylactic apparatus’ that could be worn by all to protect themselves from the plague. In the same decade as the Manchurian epidemic, over 40 million people around the world lost their lives to the Spanish flu of 1918. This number is greater than the total casualties from World War I. The same outbreak, when it reached India, arrived as the Bombay fever and took 17 million lives, 40% of the total deaths worldwide. The practice of covering one’s face with scarves and veils with the intention to ward off disease originated during this period.

Over the past two years we have been striving to protecting ourselves from an unseen virus that can be present anywhere and masks have played an important role in this. We make sure that we wear one when we venture out into the world and heave a sigh of relief on taking it off once we reach the safe confines of our homes.

Beyond every mask there is a story…

As I take off the mask in the sanctuary of home, the task has been to creatively engage with the physical isolation. During this year we also had the first-hand experience of being quarantined! Our house help tested positive during a routine testing and as primary contacts we were confined to the home for two weeks. Quarantine has its origins from the Italian word quarantena, a shorthand for quaranta giorni, meaning “forty days.” It has biblical connotations referring to Christ’s forty days in the desert, the forty days of Christian Lent, the forty days of rain that compelled Noah to build his ark, even the forty days that Moses spent waiting atop Mount Sinai for the Ten Commandments. The religious significance of the period for quarantine was not simply coincidental: it was chosen to encourage those undergoing quarantine to look on it as a period of purification to be spent in devotion.

Beyond the brief period of quarantine, we have been mostly confined to home and I spent time reading, writing blog posts and mostly listening to music.

The books I liked the most are ( it is a long list…just mentioning five of them!):
1)The Overstory by Richard Powers. It is a brilliant and passionate book about humans and their relationship to trees and the natural environment.
2)Midnight Borders: A peoples history of modern India by Suchitra Vijayan: A brilliant account of a 9,000-mile seven year journey among the people living along the many borders of India.
3)Mrs Bridges by Evan Connel: An artful portrayal of suburban life in US.
4)Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker: A poignant story of a mid-century American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia written with compassion and insight.
5)The Awakened Brain by Lisa Miller: An engrossing exploration into the neuroscience of spirituality.
But the book that left a lasting impression on me is Nandini Murali’s “Left Behind.” It is an extraordinary, inspirational account of a suicide survivor written with sensitivity and compassion.

Some of my blog posts during this year:
www.profraguram.com/musings--reflections/through-the-looking-glass-with-apologies-to-lewis-carroll
https://www.profraguram.com/musings--reflections/balpandia-silent-sentinel
https://www.profraguram.com/musings--reflections/wayfaring-with-a-wilted-leaf
https://www.profraguram.com/musings--reflections/a-unique-depiction-of-garuda
https://www.profraguram.com/musings--reflections/the-mango-tree-and-bodisattva
https://www.profraguram.com/musings--reflections/bewitching-murals-of-bodinayakanur

This year also marked my 70th birthday. As Mark Twain commented on his 70th birthday, "It is the time of life when you arrive at a new and awful dignity; when you may throw aside the decent reserves which have oppressed you for a generation and stand unafraid and unabashed upon your seven-terraced summit and look down and teach--unrebuked." I resolved to take his advice seriously!

We had a small pooja at Bhoganandeeswara temple near to Bangalore, which both Ahalya and myself like immensely. Glimpses are at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/DjoP6coFEevY14X47.

There was a small blip at the end of the year when Ahalya had to undergo a surgery. Fortunately, everything turned out well and she is back on her feet. We are forever grateful and deeply cherish the support and assistance from all our close friends.

What remained concealed for long time and was then revealed in this tumultuous and agonizing year was the gross inequality in health care. It also unmasked the collusion of religion and body politics. Both religion and politics are so good at masking and unmasking realities!
Fervently hoping that the hold of the virus will loosen in the new year and we can meet each other without the masks!

We spent the past year
Shielded by masks
Alone in our dreams
Waiting for the numbers to subside
Waiting to shake hands, touch, embrace
We are waiting…

Look forward to your reminiscences about this post and that of the year too!

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Through The Looking Glass (with apologies to Lewis Carroll!)

10/25/2021

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Over the past year, thanks to the invasion of the virus, I have been spending much of my time at home, working on the computer including consultations with clients and keeping myself busy with reading and writing. We live in a high rise apartment complex and all the flats have huge glass windows. As I write this, sitting beside the window, a bank of clouds appears on the horizon, inching slowly across the sky, finally slipping across and blocking out the fading light of the sun. The lights come on inside the apartments and the windows illuminated by it, create a fascinating collage of colors much like a cubist painting. In that unfolding canvas I sense the palpating life around.

The wonder of the window is not in itself but in the view it offers. Gazing out of my window, my thoughts are adrift on the breeze, that gently caresses the nodding flowers and rustling leaves. I can sit by an open window for hours and hear only bird songs, and the rustle of leaves. There is always something beyond the window.

I find myself fascinated by windows. They come in varied sizes and styles and are ubiquitous aspects of every building that makes up our cities and everyday life. They allow us to engage visually with the world from the comforts of our homes while protecting us from the elements. The window is to look outside but it is also to look within. When the window is open, light comes in which can metaphorically illuminate the darkness in the inner recesses of our souls. They are harbors from which the self sails away into unknown expanses and are important intermediaries between the inner and outer world. As Rumi commented, there is a window from one heart to another heart.

This intimate relation between the window, seeing, and perception has become part of everyday language: the eyes are often considered as windows to the soul. The notion of seeing is already implied in the term window itself, which derives from the Middle English vindauga, eye of the wind. The history of glass windows is quite interesting. Glassmaking was very much an Eastern skill, and glass-making traditions were well established in many countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, Palestine and Syria. Islamic glassmakers didn’t have any great presence in the West until the capture of Constantinople in 1204 by the Crusaders on their 4th Crusade. This resulted in an influx of fleeing Byzantine glassmakers into Venice bringing with them skills and techniques that were totally new to Europe. By the end of the century, Venetian glassmakers had adapted many of these imported processes, alongside their own, to produce relatively large and transparent glass, referred to as Venetian windows.

Windows have lent themselves to artistic expression in multiple ways. Artists have used windows as a framing device to direct our gaze to a particular scene or subject, letting us understand the beauty they saw in a particular scene. Open Window, Collioure is one such example where Matisse beckons us towards the window which looks out onto the idyllic scene of a small fishing port. The bold color palette, reflects the liberation and serenity the artist felt while staying on the Mediterranean coast, a place which soothed his depression with its vitality and vivid colors. “The atmosphere of the landscape and my room are one and the same," said the artist. Vermeer used the play of light streaming through the window in many of his paintings to convey radiance and hope. In Girl Reading A Letter At An Open Window, ethereal light courses through the open windows, lending the picture a transcendent, spiritual glow. With the versatility of their appearances in works of art, it would not be an overstatement to say that the windows in art are windows to the world.

As I had mentioned earlier, a window is a portal, allowing one’s thoughts to roam around freely. One of the best narrative to illustrate this in English literature is Forster’s A Room With A View. As the name implies the story essentially revolves around a window and the view it offers. The book outlines the aspirations of the main protagonist, Lucy Honeychurch as she struggles between strict, old-fashioned Victorian values and newer, more liberal mores. A trip to Italy opens her sheltered eyes to ideas and people unlike those she has known growing up in the Victorian countryside. In Florence, she is given a room that looks into the courtyard rather than out over the river Arno. She is quite unhappy with it. Sensing her discontent, Mr. Emerson, a fellow guest, generously offers to exchange it with another one that offers a view of the river. The Florentine window provides her with beautiful vistas of the landscape outside. Lucy’s desire for a room with a view is a metaphor for her longing to connect with Italy and the new experiences the country offers. The window opening out into Florentine symbolizes Lucy’s openness to a new world, which is starkly different from the repressive Victorian mores that she is accustomed to.

The Covid virus has heightened our vulnerabilities. Our lived worlds have adapted and changed according to the waxing and waning of the virus. We have been told to isolate ourselves to prevent the infection from outside. As we shut the door and feel secure, the windows offer us an opportunity to engage with the world beyond our four walls, visually and emotionally.

As I lose myself observing the world outside, there is no distinction between me and the space around me. I absorb the sounds and sights that envelop me as I look outside the window. In the words of my favorite poet, Billy Collins…
The birds are in their trees,
and the poets are at their windows.
Which window it hardly seems to matter
though many have a favorite,
for there is always something to see-
a bird grasping a thin branch…

Look forward to your reflections…comments…

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Avani

10/10/2021

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It had rained heavily the previous night. Lightning and thunder kept us awake for most of the night. Undeterred, we woke up early the next day and headed towards Avani in Kolar district. There was an unusually heavy fog for most of the distance. Fortunately as we reached the outskirts of the town, the sun peeped through the clouds and the sky cleared up.

The first sight of the temple at Avani can be deceptive. There is no towering gopuram at the entrance and it is comparatively small in size. But once you enter, you are overwhelmed with its sheer beauty.

Sri Ramalingeshwara temple is steeped in antiquity and enveloped in mythology. The temple was built in 10th century, when the Nolamba dynasty was in power. The Nolambas ruled from the 8th to the 12th centuries C.E, over an area called Nolambavadi which extended over south-east Karnataka and parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Hemavati was the capital of the Nolambas. They built many spectacular temples but unfortunately very few history books mention about them. They flourished under Rashtrakuta tutelage, but after their collapse they were overrun by the Ganga King Marasimha, who called himself Nolambakulantaka after vanquishing the Nolamba royalty.

The walled courtyard resembles the Bhoganandeeshwara temple complex at the foot of the Nandi Hills, which was also built by the Nolamba kings. Inside the temple precincts, there are shrines named after Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna as also for Vali and Sugriva. Each of these shrines has a Shivlinga. The Ramalingeshwara, Lakshmanalingeshwara and Shatrughanlingeshwara shrines stand adjacent to each other. The Ramalingeshwara is the central one and is also the main temple which is still in worship. The Bharatalingeshwara shrine lies on the other side of the temple premises.

We started with the Ramalingeshwara shrine. The exquisitely decorated linga lit by a few oil lamps in the dark garbhagriha had an ethereal impact enhanced by the sonorous voice of the priest chanting the mantras. He briefly outlined the sthalapurana of the place and the significance associated with it. It was nice to know that his son was learning the vedas and after completing BA in Sanskrit would continue the legacy of the family. After spending some time in his company we started exploring other shrines in the complex.

The shrines of Lakshmanalingesvara and Bharatalingeshwara are the most ornate. The ceiling of both of them have superbly carved figures of Uma Mahesvara surrounded by the Ashta Dikpalakas, divine guardians of eight directions of the universe. Each one of them is depicted on their vahanas: Indra on elephant, Agni on goat, Yama on buffalo, Nirurti on horse, Varuna on crocodile, Vayu on deer, Kubera on Man, Isana on bull. The pillars have intricate relief sculptures. The entrance to both these shrines have elaborately carved doorways. The outer walls of the shrines are decorated with delicate carvings and graceful sculptures of various Hindu gods. The Chola and Vijayanagara rulers have added various elements to the original Nolamba structure. In one corner of the temple, the figure of a boar, the emblem of the Vijayanagara empire, is carved on the wall!

A small hill, strewn with boulders forms an interesting backdrop to this ancient temple. It is believed that Sita retreated to this hill after her trial by fire and gave birth to Lava and Kusha who grew up in the hermitage of Valmiki. Avani means earth and Sita is also referred to as Avanisuta, daughter of earth. There is a temple devoted to Sita and Parvathi on top of the hill as also various caves. One of them is believed to be the ashram of Valmiki. The mud there is reported to have medicinal properties and people take it, mix it with water and drink it to cure illnesses.

The village of Avani attained prominence due to the legends associated with it. It is said to be the site of Uttara Ramayana. When Rama performed the Ashwamedha Yagna, the ceremonial horses were left to wander freely. When the horses reached Avani, Lava and Kusha challenged the authority of Rama, not realizing that he was their father. Rama sent his brothers Bharata, Shatrugna and Lakshmana all of whom were defeated in the battle. Then Rama himself went and fought against Lava and Kusha till Valmiki told him that they were his sons and aborted the battle. The shivalingas, which are named after them, were installed by Rama and his brothers to beg forgiveness from Lord Shiva for fighting with Lava and Kusha.

It is quite amazing to note how stories from the Ramayana are woven into the collective memory of people across India and through their association with temples like the one at Avani.

The temple at Avani is sheer poetry in stone. Every verse of it has been carefully and lovingly crafted by talented artisans who unfortunately remain unnamed. Faces, forms, textures and designs come alive through their chisels.

Timeless sculptures
Tell tales
From ancient stones
You can become part of them
If you melt into them…

Glimpses At: photos.app.goo.gl/B2HHxHVLSCV3B9q8A

Feel free to post your comments here!

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Ashtadikpalakas

10/10/2021

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Often when we visit temples, we head straight to the sanctum sanctorum to have a darshan of the main deity. In our hurry, we fail to notice myriad intricate sculptures carved into the pillars and the ceiling.
For example, images of ashtadikpalakas can be seen in many temples on the ceiling of the central pavilion (Māhamandapa) facing the main deity.

One of the best preserved friezes of these images is at the temple at Avani, Kolar district. There are superbly carved figures of Uma Mahesvara surrounded by the Ashta Dikpalakas, divine guardians of eight directions of the universe. Each one of them is depicted on their vahanas: Indra on elephant, Agni on goat, Yama on buffalo, Nirurti on horse, Varuna on crocodile, Vayu on deer, Kubera on Man, Isana on bull. Ashta means eight, “dik” means quarters or directions and ”pālas“ means rulers. As their collective name suggests, they rule the eight quarters or the eight directions of the universe and act as their chief guardian spirit.

When we make an atma-pradakshina (revolving around one self) in front of God, we are not only saluting the self with in, the God in front, but also these divinities that are around us in all directions. As guardians of the sky, Ashtadikpalakas watch over us from eight different directions and keep an eye on all our activities as we enter the temple!

It is also interesting to note that there are no goddesses among them, just as there are none in the navagrahas too!

Horoscopes continue to play a major role in arranged marriages in India. Number eight plays a crucial role in that too! Marital compatibility in horoscopes is assessed on eight parameters. Each of the parameters gives a certain amount of marks, adding up to 36 marks. If the couple has at least 18 marks, it is considered safe to proceed!

The number eight also figures when we offer Saashtaanga Namaskaaram. Sa means with, Ashta means eight and Anga means limbs, Namaskara means prostration. Saashtaanga Namaskaara means, reverential prostration performed with eight limbs (Ashta-Anga) viz. two hands, two legs, two arms, chest and forehead touching the ground as a mark of respect, obeisance and total surrender to the deity.

Of course, God is everywhere and in every direction. In whatever direction you proceed or offer your prayers, you will ultimately find Him. There is a famous story of a saint stretching his feet in the direction where there was a god’s statue. When people objected to it, he asked them to show the direction where God was not present, emphasizing the omnipresence of God.

If you look carefully, symbol for infinity is like an 8 on its side!

Glimpses At: photos.app.goo.gl/XjFtWxE7xFfYknMy5

Feel free to post your comments here!

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