Month: December 2013

Raja Bhoja’s Vengeance

Amidst the horrific stench and screaming of dying men a battered and torn saffron flag fluttered. Over the defeated and crushed armies of the Yamini dynasty a band of warriors rode, heedless of the multitude of corpses ranged around them in the blaze of the midsummer Indian sun.

A defeat so calamitous had never been before thought of by the proud Yamini kings and their armies, also known as the Ghaznavids. Under their inspirational leadership of Mahmud of Ghazni the Central Asian Turk tribes had conquered from the borders of modern day Iraq to the doors of South Asia. There meeting determined opposition from the Hindu Shahi kings who sacrificed three generations of their kings to defend the entry to India the Ghaznavids broke through utilising their unmatched cavalry tactics which had defeated the Persians and Byzantines and were shortly to face down the Crusaders of Western Europe

The damage to the subcontinent was significant and the destruction of the ancient Hindu and Buddhist heritage of India was incalculable. The loss of population was significant due to war and pestilence and displacement of peoples.

The impact on the Indian psyche was enormous – the ancient seats of learning from Taxila to Nalanda were torn down – the seats of Buddhist learning once stretching into Central Asia in a vast circuit of Buddhist kingdoms collapsed like a house of cards. The once mighty Sassanid Empire of Persia who had defeated and humbled the Roman Empire and dragged the Emperor Valerian in chains to Ctesiphon , the custodians of Zoroastrianism were humbled and disappeared from the pages of history under the Arab Muslim onslaught. Their remnants fled to India for protection and others to the Chinese empire.

The waves of monotheism attack however did not subside. The organised and disciplined custodians of Buddha and Zoroaster were wiped from the pages of history in Persia, Central Asia and Afghanistan. It was at this juncture that the valiant Hindu Rajput clans united under the leadership of Bappa Rawal and the guidance of Guru Gorakhnath and in a vast clash of arms with the armies of the Arab Caliphate delivered to them their first great defeat at the Battle of Rajasthan in 745 CE and stopped forever the further Arab expansion into South Asia.

For 300 years this tenuous peace remained until the conversion of the Turk tribes to Islam in the last period of the first millennia Common Era which led to the infamous invasions of the subcontinent by Mahmud Ghazni. He was succeeded by his nephew Masud Salur who seeking to emulate Mahmud led a vast invasion of the Ghaznived forces into the subcontinent. Despite the success of his invasions Mahmud could not create an empire in India and Masud now sought to rectify this by leading the Ghaznavid veteran army into the north Indian plains. The proud soldiers who had marched from India to the Middle East under the banner of Islam entered India with an army of more than 100,000 men with 50,000 horses accompanied by two generals Meer Hussain Arab and Ameer Vazid Jafar in May 1031 AD

The march was joined by his uncle Salar Saifuddin, Meer Wakhtiar, Meer Sayyad Ajijuddin and Malik Bahruddin and their armies. After raiding through what is modern UP leaving a trail of plunder and rapine in their wake.

The invasion was stiffly opposed. His general, Syad Aziz-ud-din was killed by Hindus near Hardoi together with his relatives Jalaluddin Bukhari and Syed Ibrahim Bara Hazari whose graves can be found in Haryana today.

The famous Raja Bhoja who had faced down Mahmud Ghazni decades earlier and rebuilt the historic Somnath Temple after its desecration by the Muslims collected a coalition of Hindu warriors. Warriors from the disparate clans gathered under Raja Bhoja and on open plain near modern day Bharaich the coalition of Hindu clans faced up against their Islamic adversaries each side confident of victory.

The young Sultan Masur’s fame was already spread across the Ghaznivid Empire as an able soldier and general. In his ranks he boasted the famous light cavalry of the Central Asian Turkic tribes who were inspired with the zeal of their newly founded Muslim faith and eager to win victory and to finally establish their rule over Hindu dominated India or attain martyrdom and paradise as per the tenents of their faith.

The Hindu coalition was led by the Rajput Clans who emerged from the furnace of the decline of the Gupta Empire and the defeat of the Hun invasions which had devastated Europe to the early sixth century. From this crucible of endless conflict and religious turmoil rose the clans of the Rajput’s. Many traced their origin to the legendary Saint Gorakhnath and under his influence were able to repel and humiliate the Arab Caliphate in 745 AD. Their codes of conduct and bravery ushered in a new age of chivalry and honour of which the world has scarce seen.

Theses codes however were unable to cope with a new ruthless foe, Turmoil again engulfed the clans with the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni and the northern plains were lacerated with violence and bloodshed. The terminal decline of Buddhism and Zoarasterism are also dated from this time. The swift footed cavalry and speed of movement was alien to the proud Rajput Hindu warriors and their concept of honour and valour. However it was only through their reckless bravery and raw courage that the Hindu warriors were able to hold the enemy at bay.

On this occasion under the skilful leadership of Raja Bhoja the Hindu army by swift movements were able to cut of the supplies of the Ghaznavids and pen them into a closely contested siege. Very soon the vast multitude of Muslim soldiers were running short on supplies and reinforcements. The close investment led Sultan Masur that he was left with only one choice –  to force a decision on the battlefield.

Therefore on the blazing midsummer Indian plains that vast horde of the Ghaznavi army marched out to meet its Hindu enemy. the battalions of Turks, many of them veterans from the campaigns of Mahmud Ghanavi and brimming with the firmly held conviction that they marched in jihad against the enemies of their faith faced off against the aged Raja and his Rajput’s.

A desperate struggle ensued. The sweeping charges of the Turks were brought to bay by the Hindus. Trained from birth to excel in arms the Rajput warriors eagerly closed with their hated foe – before the gates of ancient Ayodhya they fought for ‘the ashes of their fathers and the temples of their Gods’ . The battle contended through the morning into the afternoon, charge after counter charge with brief moments of retreat and consolidation with neither side wiling to break. The battle cries of Allah how Akbar contended with the ancient cry of Har Har Mahadev as the soldiers closed in and grappled with their weapons and bare hands as thousands of their colleagues fell dead or dying amongst them.

The fighting continued unabated into the night with temperoay paused and the cool night air was rent with the shrieks of the dead and dying. The ground piled high in gore became slippery and unstable and the close fighting in the dark lent to the horror of enemies pouring out of the unknown at any time.

The high spirits of the Turk soldiers motivated by dreams of jihad and paradise were matched against the raw courage and matchless skill of the individual Hindu warriors with their flowing hair kept under check under steel caps and helmets fought whilst adopting the dread form of the God of Destruction, Shiva himself. Their utter contempt for their own lives and desire for freedom and dharma in the ancient land of the Rishis steadily began to wear down their enemies.

As the day wore on and the Muslims becoming increasingly enclosed in an ever tightening circle of steel the Sultan led a final desperate charge for victory. Here on the open plain he was brought to bay by the Rajput warriors and slain – the enraged Hindus cut of his head and displayed it on a pike to their enemies. This was the final straw for the Muslim army and it broke and fled. But there was nowhere to flee – hundreds of miles from their bases and surrounded by hostile foes the rout turned into a massacre and history tells us that not a single Muslim soldier returned to his home.

Raja Bhoja passed into legend. The terrible, slaughter of the Ghaznavids kept further attacks at bay and the Ghazanvaids never dared to attack India again.

POSTCRIPT:

Further attacks and counter attacks from Muslim kingdoms were defeated with great slaughter eventually passing into legend and merging with the later tragic tale of Prithviraj Chauhan. The defeat of Mohamad Ghouri in the first Battle of Tarain in which with great chivalry he released the captive Sultan was followed the next year by the second Battle of Tarain in which Prthivraj was defeated has entered into folklore. The tale has been magnified to indicate that Prithviraj defeated the Sultan no less than 17 times which is clearly a falsehood. In historical terms this is a garbled reference to the numerous attacks by the Arabs and Turk Muslims on India which were defeated by a succession of Hindu warrior kings from Bappa Rawal in the Battle of Rajasthan, to the wars from the Ghaznavi period onwards:

In 1072 CE Prince Mahmud was defeated and driven away by Lakshmadeva, the Paramara ruler of Ujjain. Mahmud also tried to take Kalanjar. But the Chandellas again proved more than a match for the army of Islam. Muslim historians record only his safe return from Hindustan.

Ibrahim’s successor, Masud III (AD 1099-1115), fared no better. The armies of Islam were defeated repeatedly by Govindachandra, the Gahadavad ruler of Kanauj. Inscriptions of Hindu princes around this period speak again and again of the rout of Turushka armies. These may refer either to the failure of feeble attempts which might have still been made by the Yamini (Ghaznavid) kings to extend their dominions in India or to the extermination of isolated pockets of Muslim domination beyond the Punjab.

One of the worst defeats suffered by the Muslims was at the hands of Arnoraja, the Chauhan ruler of Ajmer (AD 1133-1151). The Muslim commander fled before the Chauhans. Muslim soldiers died of exhaustion and an equal number perished from thirst. Their bodies lay along the path of retreat and were burnt by the villagers. A Chauhan prasasti of Ajmer Museum, line 15, states: The land of Ajmer, soaked with the blood of the Turushkas, looked as if it had dressed itself in a dress of deep red colour to celebrate the victory of her lord’

[box_dark]In an added irony of history the defeated Sultan Masurs body was flung into a pit by the enraged Hindus with the corpses of his soldiers and generals. Hundreds of years later the murderous Sultan Firuz Tughlaq raised a monument to the first ‘martyr of Islam’ in India.

In later times the monument became a shrine under the tutelage of Sufi preachers and in modern times incredulous and unwitting Hindus pay their respects to the shrine of a deceased ‘baba’ not knowing the history and background of the monument. That Sultan Masur came to India to murder and butcher the population or convert them to Islam was lost on the later generations of accommodating Hindu population.

[/box_dark]

The long and bloody history and struggle for survival of Hinduism has led to a growing awareness and confidence in our history and the facts of the great victories of Raja Bhoja are another reminder of the countless sacrifices made in the long and steady awakening and flowering of Hinduism under the challenge of relentless hatred and genocidal attack.

(14592)

The Renaissance man

Subhash Kak is Regents Professor of Computer Science at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. He has written six books of verse in English and Hindi and another 14 on a wide variety of subjects, including history of science and art. He was the anchor of Raga Unveiled, a four-hour documentary on Hindustani music. His books of poetry are The Conductor of the Dead, The London Bridge (Writers Workshop, Kolkata), The Secrets of Ishbar (Vitasta), The Chinar Garden (Blue Sparrow), Eka Taal Ek Darpana (Raka Prakashan), and Mitti Ka Anuraag (Alakananda). Excerpts from an interview:

You have been described as a Renaissance man. As an India scholar, what period in Indian History would be comparable with the term?

I think the term “Renaissance” is most apt for the last 200 years of Indian history, the period of its engagement with Europe, and a period of grave danger to its very existence. To serve as a profitable colony of Britain, India had to be mastered and refashioned in the image of Europe. The British Empire set in motion forces that destroyed most traditional institutions, but these forces also compelled Indians to question themselves and go back to the essential roots of her culture.

The destruction of Indian institutions took place as much by neglect as by design. Until the late 18th century, India was as prosperous as Europe. But after the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century (by which time Britain controlled Indian banking and other institutions), British factories were able to produce goods with which old methods of production could not compete. This suited Britain because India became the destination for its goods and since no comparable investments were made in Indian factories, India slipped further and further behind Britain. In the 200 years of British rule, Indian share of world economy dropped from 25 per cent to about two per cent, leading to unprecedented impoverishment of the country. The spread of misery was slow and relentless so that new generations did not even associate it with the British Raj, which was thanked for bringing the railways and telegraph to the country.

Mathematics, Cryptography, Indic Studies, mythology, neural networks, astronomy, poetry… how do the many meet?

Many years ago the British novelist C.P. Snow spoke of two cultures — the sciences and the humanities — which have their own mutually incomprehensible languages. Personally, I don’t agree. I think the creative impulse is the same in all fields. Each of these subjects is a collection of stories, with its own vocabulary and standards of style. Once one has mastered these elements, one is creative if one is able to see familiar things in new ways. And as far as aesthetics is concerned, there is a marvellous 1000-year-old Indian theory of it called dhvani, according to which the best way to communicate new insights is through hint, example and suggestion.

I am curious to know where you have found an overlap between Science and Vedic Religion/Philosophy.

The essence of the Vedas is a narrative on who the experiencing self is. Ordinary science informs us of the relationships between objects and also their transformations. But the Vedas say that this ordinary science leaves out the self who observes these objects. The Vedas speak of two kinds of sciences: the lower (rational and linguistic), and higher (transcendental).

What sparked your interest in Indic Studies?

I think it was triggered by an essay by a Western linguist who claimed that Panini’s 2400-year old grammar of Sanskrit had anticipated the abstract form of the modern computer. In his autobiography, the great physicist Erwin Schrödinger, one of the creators of quantum mechanics, credited the Upanishads with the key idea of quantum mechanics, that reality at the deepest level is a superposition of mutually exclusive attributes.

When I was young, my father had spoken to me about Panini but I did not pay any attention. When I began a systematic study of Indian texts, the journey took me to not only to mathematics and astronomy but also to texts on art and architecture, philosophy and Puranic encyclopedias, music and literature. India, given its very ancient history, has had many cycles of decay and renaissance. The later flowerings had their unique insights and accomplishments. For example, Rajendra Chola and his successors created some of the greatest wonders of art and architecture in India and Southeast Asia at about the same time as the great Vaishnava acharyas wrote their philosophical texts. The period of the Vijayanagara Empire was coeval with Kerala’s great achievement in mathematics and astronomy.

Your view is that the Indian way is harmony and the perception of spirit or consciousness preceding material reality. How do you understand the present reality of Indian society as it is now?

As at any other time, India is precariously balanced between the horrific and the sublime. Many Indians have become “mimic men,” to use one of V.S. Naipaul’s memorable phrases. There is uncritical copying of West and excess, but on the other hand, there is increasing spiritual yearning.

In some sense, your most popular work is the book you co-authored with David Frawley. How did it come about?

In the early 1990s our family was on a driving tour through the Western states and we were surprised to hear of Hanuman temple run by Americans in Taos in New Mexico. We visited the place next day; it was like an ashram and met many idealistic young people there. There, somebody told us of David and his work in the Vedas. When I returned to Baton Rouge, Louisiana I wrote to him and soon we established a fruitful dialogue. I had discovered a long-lost astronomy of the Vedic period, which had important implications for the understanding of the earliest history of India, and I thought it would be good for us to write a popular book on the subject. David then recruited Georg Feuerstein (who sadly died last year), one of the world’s foremost scholars of yoga, to join as a co-author.

In your essay ‘Rituals, Masks and Sacrifice’, you state that word-bound religions do not encourage mythology.

Mythology is coded narrative used to describe paradoxical and transcendent aspects of reality. Word-bound religions do not admit to such paradoxes. While they speak of transcendence, it only occurs on the Day of Judgment. Knowledge is the goal of life according to the Indian religions; in word-bound religions, living within religious laws is central for which there is reward as everlasting life in paradise.

Reading through the poems in The Secrets of Ishbar, I was overwhelmed by the sense that your poems seek beauty or intuitively grasp beauty.

Beauty takes us to a space that is ineffable, a place of secrets. Sometimes when explaining beauty we speak of symmetry as an element, but there is much to it that is beyond form and words. There is a saying in Sanskrit that looking fresh and new each time is the sign of beauty. We cannot define beauty but we recognise it from signs. The challenge for the poet is to capture the dhvani of beauty. This idea of dhvani was developed by Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta who argued that behind each word and phrase are associations and evocations that one must pause on to arrive at the sentiment or rasa of the poem. That is why the best writings can be read at so many different levels.

Do you see yourself as a Kashmiri poet in particular?

Kashmir has had a great and old tradition of mystical poetry, much of it in the style of bhakti poetry where one speaks of the separation from Krishna or the unnamed beloved. The intertwining of romantic love with mystical yearning is sometimes called lol, a hallmark of Kashmiri poetry. But Kashmiri creativity also finds expression in simple, iconic forms, and contemplative music. Historians believe that the meditative discipline of dhyāna went from Kashmir to China (where it was called chan) and eventually becoming Zen in Japan. I mention this as I am an admirer of Zen poetry and haiku. So it is hard to say if my work belongs to the Kashmiri canon. I think my sensibility has an austere edge and I have sought simplicity.

Your poems tend to peak in the closing lines. What is your personal prosody and perception of form versus content in a poem?

To the extent that a poem is a thing, it has to have a form where the pieces fit together. This is what I try to do in the closing lines of the poem by bringing the elements that are seemingly in opposition and tie them together.

Is exile a necessary condition of poetry?

Yes, exile is necessary for poetry. Exile provides distance and you see places in ways that you never suspected when you were around them. Familiarity throws a curtain over things and exile, with its accompanying suffering, is essential for one to be able to really see. For me and many other Kashmiris, it has been a physical exile from the valley of our forefathers but, for other poets, it may not be a physical exile but a separation and a tearing apart.

What is particularly American and particularly Indian in your poetry?

I believe we live in the global village and it is very difficult to separate different cultural influences in any individual. I am sure my American life has shaped me in a thousand different ways that gets reflected in my writings. On the other hand, my Indian modes of thought (samskaras) are very deep.

Poets that inspire you…

I have found inspiration from poets of diverse cultures in English translations and in originals in Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri, and Sanskrit. Some names that pop up are Lalla, Hafiz, Rumi, Mirabai, Ghalib, Yeats, Eliot, Cummings, Neruda.

What is the place of philosophy in poetry, if it holds one?

The structure that we give to our works is informed by a philosophy of which we may not be consciously aware. In my view, the purpose of poetry is to communicate deep truths that are not accessible to ordinary narrative. Poetry is a powerful vehicle of dhvani as is music.

Does the scientist in you restrict the poet in you or enrich it?

The scientist in me enriches my poetry. If the poet must find a unique voice, mine is different from most others because my experience has not only literature but also a big dose of science in it.

I want to touch specifically upon the Prajna Sutras because I think you’ve achieved something quite out of the ordinary in that collection. As a contemporary Indian poet you bring philosophy back to the realm of poetry and the notion of poetry as revealed literature. Comment.

I agree that the Prajna Sutras are special for they go to the heart of the poetic impulse and they do so in a way that is uniquely Indian. Indian writing is often shallow not only because it is imitative but because it plays on the stereotypes familiar to the Western reader for it is written for that audience. Indian writing will become world class only when it finds its own dhvani.

The sutras are paradoxical in the sense they state the insufficiency of language to state reality; it can only be suggested. Is poetry inadequate in the final analysis as it operates through language mostly as a medium?

Poetry will be limited in its linguistic content but, unlike other literature, it has the capacity to evoke rasa, and take the reader to the place of mystery.

Source

(2651)