archive: Culture ancient and secular
Culture ancient and secular
K. Venkatasubramaniam
The Organiser
May 9, 1999
Title: Culture ancient and secular
Author: K. Venkatasubramaniam
Publication: The Organiser
Date: May 9, 1999
Before assuming office as the first Vice-Chancellor of the Pondicherry
Central University in 1985 I went to the Kanchi Math to seek the
blessings of the Paramacharya. My cousin, a retired major in the army,
accompanied Me. Shri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi blessed me and
advised me to spread "True Indian Culture." He also defined Indian
culture in his inimitable way.
There are four main cradles of civilisation, from which elements of
culture have spread to other parts of the world. These are moving from
cast to west, China, the Indian Subcontinent. the "Fertile Crescent,"
and the Mediterranean, especially Greece and Italy. Of these four
areas India deserves a larger share of the credit because, on a
minimal assessment it has affected the religious life of most of Asia
and has provided very important elements in the culture of the whole
of South-East Asia, as well as extending her influence, directly and
indirectly, to other parts of the world.
The West believes that European learning and science and technology
have not shaken the East. The -wisdom of the East,- retained over the
millennia, it was thought, has preserved eternal verities which the
Western civilisation had almost forgotten. On the other hand, "The
East" was not ready to take on the modem world without the guidance of
the western countries.
These ideas were no doubt held in good faith by many well-informed
People of earlier generations, and there may have been a grain of
truth in them. But them is no reason to believe that the rate of
change in India in earlier times was any slower than that of other
parts of the world. It was only from the 16th century onwards. when a
combination of factors led to increasingly rapid technological and
scientific advances in Europe, that the myth of the changelessness of
Asia began to appear.
In fact, India has always been y changing. The civilisation of the
Guptas was different from that of the Mauryas, and that of the
Medieval-times was different again. The entry of Muslims altered
conditions considerably, and the blossoming of the Muslim civilisation
under the four great Mughals. ushered in many more changes. The
religious spirit of India for all her "ancient wisdom," has changed
greatly over the centuries. Between the time of the early Greek
philosophers and that of St Thomas Aquinas, Buddhism developed into a
great religious movement changing its outlook almost completely. It
got absorbed in Hinduism from which it had emerged, but only after
Buddhist missionaries had spread their message throughout half of
Asia.
The Athenian Acropolis was at least 500 years old before the first
surviving stone Hindu temple was built. Some of the most popular gods
of Hinduism, for instance Ganesa and Hanuman are not attested until
well after the time of Christ. Certain other features of Hinduism
also, for instance the cult of the divine Rama and the complex and
difficult system of physical training known as hatha yoga, came
centuries after Christianity.
Yet the older strata of India's cultural life go beyond anything .we
have in the West. The Rig Veda was composed long before the Iliad, and
there is hardly anything in the Old Testament in its present form,
which is as old even as the latest Rig Vedic hymns. Some practices and
beliefs of popular Hinduism, for instance the cults of the bull and
the pipal tree, are as old as the Harappa culture, and probably even
older. In fact every generation. in India for over 4,000 years. has
bequeathed something for posterity.
No land on earth has such a long cultural continuity as India. Though
there were more ancient civilisations, notably in Egypt and Iraq,
these were virtually forgotten by the inhabitants of those. lands, and
were overlaid by new intrusive cultures , until nobody remembered the
"Book of the Dead" or the "Epic of Gilgamesh."
On the other hand, in India, the people still repeat in their daily
prayers Vedic hymns composed over 3,000 years ago, and tradition
recalls heroic chieftains and the great battles fought by them at
about the same time. In respect of the length of continuous tradition,
China comes second to India and Greece makes a poor third.
Islam brought about fresh cultural influences. The Sultanate period
(1192-1526) saw the introduction of new styles of architecture. New
schools of miniature painting, both Muslim and Hindu, emerged. Sufi
teachers disseminated the doctrines of Islam and helped make the
religious climate of northern India favourable for the spread of
popular devotional Hinduism from the South. Paper was introduced.
slowly replacing plamleaf and birch-bark. Urdu came to be accepted as
the lingua franca of northern India, and poets compose in the spoken
languages instead of the classical Sanskrit.
The great days of the Mughal Empire (1526-1707) witnessed the
perfection of the schools of Muslim architecture and miniature
painting. Europeans established trading stations at various ports, and
through them. especially the Portuguese, new crop varieties were
introduced. Sikhism was just born and when the period concluded it had
emerged as a martial brotherhood to play an important part in the
colourful political life of the following century.
The 18th century saw the break-up of the Mughal Empire and the steady
expansion of the power of the East India Company. It was a time of
general cultural decline in India, but the genius; of the land was
still at work. Urdu became the vehicle of great poetry at the decadent
courts of Delhi and Lucknow. At. the end of the century in the
Himalayan foot-hills, there worked painters in the courts of local
maharajas, who produced works of unprecedented beauty and sensitivity.
In the 19th century, the subcontinent was exposed to the full force of
western influence, and innovations are too numerous to list.
This survey of the history of cultural changes in India is sufficient
to show that, as long as civilisation has existed, the country has.
never been stagnant. On the other hand, it has steadily developed
through the ages. The country has enjoyed over 4,000 years of
civilisation and every period of history has left something to the
present day.
The Paramacharya concluded that Indian culture was an amalgam of many
things. Whether we like it or not, we cannot brush aside the Vedic
age, the Vedas, Puranas and the Upanishads which Max Mueller said were
part of the global culture. Western scholars state that the ancient
Indian civilisation, which is only Hindu civilisation, existed beyond
four to five thousand years. The foundation of today's Indian culture
is Hindu culture and on that foundation all other religions have
raised superstructures.
India is a secular state. That means the people have to respect all
faiths. That does not mean there should be opposition to Saraswati
Vandana or Gurbani or the Bible. By agitations, political battles may
be won but the national war will be lost.
We should cease to see Rama, Krishna, Siva and Saraswati as Hindu
gods. They have become part of the Indian culture. Indian civilisation
includes temples, the Taj Mahal or the Born Jesus Cathedral of Goa and
the Golden Temple. The Meenakshi Temple is part of the Indian
heritage. The Golden temple is a national shrine.
The Constitution has shown the way. Many may not know that the
original document of the Indian Constitution contains beautiful
sketches of Sri Rama, Lord Krishna and Sri Nataraja.
The 22 illustrations in the original edition of the Constitution are:
Mohenjedaro period depicting the decorations and seals during that
period a scene from the Vedic Ashram (Gurukul), a scene from Ramayana
(conquest of Lanka and recovery of Sita by Rama), a scene from the
Mahabharata (the Gitopadesa), a scene from the Buddha's life, a scene
from the Gupta period a glimpse of the Chandragupta Maurya's court,
sculptures of Orissa, image of Nataraja, Bhagiratha's penance and the
descent of the Ganga at Mahabalipuram, a portrait of Akbar and Moghul
architecture, portraits of Shivaji, Guru Gobind Singh, Tipu Sultan,
Lakshmibai, Mahatma Gandhi (Dandi march and his tour of riot-affected
areas) Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and scenes from the Himalayas,
desert and ocean. It was thus proclaimed to the world that Rama,
Krishna, Siva and Guru Gobind Singh were national figures. The very
fact that Dr Ambedkar allowed these illustrations in a purely secular
Constitution is a sure indication that the deities could never be
labelled. These illustrations were accepted by the Consambly
consisting of Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs.
Today people fight and quarrel because they confuse secularism and our
ancient cultural heritage. These two are 1&c the convex and the
concave of one circle.
When Shri R. Venkataraman, former President of India, gave away the
Kanchi Acharya Man of the Year Award to Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on
behalf of the Centenarian Trust, Dr Kalam said that he considered the
"Acharya's Award more sacred than even the Bharat Ratna." This is
secularism of the highest order.
It is apt to conclude with the words of Sri Aurobindo: "India of the
ages is not dead nor has she spoken her last creative word; she lives
and has still something to do for herself and the human people. And
that which must seek now to awake is not an anglicised oriental people
docile pupil of the West and doomed to repeat the cycle of the
accident's success and failure but still the ancient immemorable
Shakti recovering her deepest self, lifting her head higher towards
the supreme source of light and strength and turning to discover the
complete meaning and a vaster form of the dharrna."
(The writer is former Vice-Chancellor Central University, Pondicherry)
Courtesy: The Hindu 2-2-99
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