HINDUISM

Traditions of Ramayana

Chelvatamby Maniccavasagar

Ramayanam is not a history or Biography. It is a part of Hindu Mythology. Further, one cannot understand Hindu Dharma unless one knows Rama, Sita, Bharatha, Lukshmana, Ravana, Kumbakarnan and Hunuman.

Kambavaruthy E Jayaraj, Popular exponent of Kambaramayanam in Sri Lanka

Mythology is an integral part of religion. It is as necessary for religion and national culture as the skin and skeleton that preserve a fruit with its juice and its taste. Mythology and holy scriptives are necessary for any great cultures to rest on its spiritual foundation and function as a life giving inspiration and guide.

Professor S Pathmanathan in his article on "Sri Lanka and Ramayana" refers that the traditions of the Ramayana form an integral part of the shared cultural heritage of India and Sri Lanka.

He says that no other poetic work has influenced the thought, life and culture of the people in the ancient world as Ramayana.

Even the former Governor-General of India and author of Ramayana and Mahabharatha late Rajagopalasariyar had eloquently said that there is no literature comparable to these two epics.

These two epics have guided the lives of the people from time immemorial.

They have shown the Dharmic way of life and unity and co-operation among not only his own brothers, but also with other human beings.

That was the reason Rama when he was in the forest in search of Sita became friendly with Sukkiriva, Hanuman, Kuaan and even with Ravana's brother Vibushanan. Rama treated all of them like his own brothers. This shows the greatness and magnanimity and noble thoughts of Rama in Ramayana.

Symbol of bravery

The Characters of Ramayana became the repositors valow, virtue, spiritual insight and compassion. They exemplify the parsuit in establishing a moral order in an imperfect world. Even Bhagavad Gita says that "when there is decline in morality and spirituality the cosmic order gets disturbed." That is the reason there are valconic eruption, earthquake, floods, tsunami and various other disasters in this world.

Further, Sri Lanka had a special significance on the Ramayana traditions. Sri Lanka is the land of two principal characters - Ravana and Vibushana. Although brothers they were men of opposite ways. Ravana swayed from the path of Dharma, while his brother Vibushana was steadfast in his adherence to the principle of Dharma or righteousness.

In fact, in the prologue in poet Kamban's Ramayana, he proudly declares that he has chosen the Ramayana for his theme in order that the greatness and divinity of poetry may be demonstrated. This claim he makes good with astonishing success.

In fact, with the birth of Kamba Ramayana, the whole future of Tamil poetry was altered, and this masterpiece has been exercising the most profound impact upon the poetic sensibility of the Tamils during the last eleven centuries. Indeed, poet Kamban became one of the most potent instruments of popular education and culture; he shaped the outlook, characters and the aesthetic and religious attitudes of the people of South India.

His Ramayanam became part of the abiding national memory. He was acclaimed by all poets and scholars as "Kavi Chakravarti" or the emperor of poetry and he has passed into history as the most learned of poets. Popular exponents of Kamba Ramayana hold discourses continuously for months in India and Sri Lanka and it is a marvel that even today mammoth crowds men, women and children attend these discourses and listen with rapt attention and delight to the songs of Kamban.

Rama is seen garlanding Sita

There must be something timeless about a poet who has gripped the attention of the people over a millennium. Poet Kamban can never become out of date, because he speaks to us and to the whole world with the voice of tomorrow.

Sri Hanuman

Referring to Sri Hanuman, poet Kamban says that he represented the most cultured youth of his time and also expressed maturity, intelligence, alertness, calmness, smartness, nobility, courtesy - all bundled together. Further, Sri Hanuman is the embodiment of dedication and enthusiasm.

Sri Hanuman created confidence in Sita's mind by telling that he is the messenger of Rama. When he gave the Ring with Rama's name engraven on it, she gazed at it and was greatly delighted.

In regard to Sita, she may appear a helpless, weak, grief stricken person, but in truth. She is an embodiment and personification of strength. In Sri Lanka, an erudite scholar in Tamil language, Tamil literature and religious "Kambavaruthy" E Jeyaraj established "Kamban Kalagam" in 1980 in Jaffna and Colombo and is rendering splendid service to the Tamil speaking people particularly to the younger generation. In fact, "Kambavaruthy" Jeyaraj is a competent authority on Ramayanam, Mahabaratham and even Thirukural. He is a silver tongued orator, debater of international repute. Indeed, he is a most sought after speaker in regard to Ramayanam and his work on "Thirukkural" and "Maha Bharatham" are highly appreciated and recognized in Sri Lanka and abroad, particularly South India.

He is a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional personality with vision, mission and foresight who established "Kamban Kalagam" in Jaffna and Colombo respectively for the benefit of the Tamil speaking population. In fact, his dedication, devotion, high degree of descriptive and commitment have been immensely commended by great Tamil scholars in South India, Canada and various other countries. He has been conferred with several titles and awards for his tremendous contribution he has rendered pertaining to "Ramayanam" and the books he has written and spoken.

Kambavaruthy Jeyaraj came to Colombo in 1995 and established "Kamban Kalagam" at Wellawatte, Ramakrishna garden (Kambankoddam) spending several lakhs of rupees. In fact, this building stands majestically and several restoration works have been undertaken to give a face-lift to this "Kalagam". Besides, he has even established a Temple namely "Iswariya Luckshami" in front of the Kalagam building for the benefit of the devotees.

In this "Kamba Kalagam" several men of erudition and eminence bold positions as senior president, president, secretary and treasure who really adorn the "Kalagam" and annually literary, conference, Bharatha Natya and musical recitals are held which are attended by large crowds from all communities and denominations.

Tellipalai Durga Devi Temple's miraculous deeds

Chelvatamby Maniccavasagar

The Durga Devi Temple at Tellipalai, Jaffna is a miraculous temple and its annual festival commenced last week with the flag hoisting ceremony. During the festival devotees from all parts of Jaffna Peninsula participate in large numbers to receive Durga Devi's Divine blessings.

Durga means valour and symbolically Durga depicts elimination of ignorance and deliverance from illusion. Durga Devi Temple at Tellipalai, thousands of devotees congregate daily.

Well-known Thurka Amman Kovil, Thelippalai

Although this temple has become prominent in recent years, it has an old history. It is said that about four hundred years ago, a devout devotee by the name "Kathirgamar" had gone on pilgrimage to India and worshipped at several Hindu temples in Benares, Madurai, Rameswaram etc., on his return, arriving at Kankesanturai, he had walked a few miles when he felt tired and rested by the wayside, Durga desired that to be her location. So, he installed a "Sakthi Yantra" which he had carefully brought from Benares, thereunder an illupai tree, this commenced worship, which is to become an outstanding Devi Temple.

The first Kumbabishekam (Consecration ceremony) was performed in 1829. Poojas were performed by priests from Kanchipuram and the temple was under the management of "Kathirasarpillai. In 1953, a temple Trustee Board was formed.

Daily poojas

In fact, when Selvi Thangammah Appakutty became the trustee of this temple, the poojas were conducted daily and meticulously.

She was a dedicated, devoted and highly disciplined Hindu spiritual personality with fearless and courageous mind. Further, she was responsible for the construction of "Sithirather" and "Rajagopuram" in 1978 and Kumbabishekam was performed in 1981. As President and Trustee of this temple Selvi Thangammah Appakutty had rendered tremendous religious service.

In appreciation and recognition of her religious service to Hindu religion in Sri Lanka and abroad she was conferred with the tile of "Chen Chot Cemmani" by Madurai Atheenam in 1966 and "Shivathamil Selvi" in Karainagar Elaththu Sithamparam Temple.

Embodiment of compassion

It is very often said that divinity manifests from age to age in human forms in order to re-establish Dharma (righteousness) and to guide all mankind back to the righteous path. The manifestation in the form of mother over the ages has been recorded in scriptures.

The mother is the universal embodiment of compassion. The compassion of the Divine mother Durga Devi gives us the benevolence of five elements such as earth, water, fire, wind and space to help us to lead an excellent life. Pooja is a way of showing our love and affection for the Divine which provides these resources in abundance to us.

In fact, the "Varana Purana" explains "Sakthi" in the form of Durga as symbolizing the bounds of passion, love, hatred, greed, vanity, illusion, contempt, joy and jealousy.

Among the several festivals which are observed at this temple the Navarathri (Nine days) festival is most auspicious. Durga Devi is invoked during the first three nights, Goddess Luckshmi is on the second three days and Goddess Saraswathi during the last three days. Indeed, Tellipalai Durga Devi Amman has done several miraculous deeds to her devotees.

Creator of the universe

Furthermore, it is very often said that the creator of the universe Brahma resides in the Naval of Lord Vishnu.

Similarly in the hearts of men reside the creative urge and faith.

This is clearly evident from the manner the people of Jaffna pray to Goddess Durga Devi Amman at Tellipalai.

During the chariot festival the statue of Goddess Durgai is decorated and illuminated and taken along the streets in chariot followed by poojas, Bhajans, Archanai offered by devotees.

In the tradition of the Hindu literature the chariot is the replica of the human body. The deity in the sanctum or on the chariot reminds of the truth that the God is seated in the heart of each individual. This is the symbolic meaning of the chariot festival.

Undoubtedly, to a world lost in error and weighed down by forces of darkness, ignorance and arrogance, conflicts and contradictions, trials and tribulations, let us all worship Tellippalai Durga Devi Amman and utter her pure name and contemplate and surrender ourselves at Her Lotus Feet for the progress and success of our lives and also for the everlasting peace, eternal prosperity and racial harmony in Sri Lanka.

Arts and Aesthetics in Hindu studies

Jessica Frazier

After decades of textual fixation, the study of Hinduism has taken a 'visual turn', which is unfolding to view a much wider map than the one which earlier scholars had held in their hands.

Scholars looking for manuscripts in India have found themselves suddenly awakened to the omnipresence of performed transmissions and visual texts that speak, beyond the limitations of dialect, to all who have eyes to see. There is an increasing interest in the window that the arts, in all their forms, open onto the more pervasive, popular forms of Indian religious life, as opposed to the elitist preserves of the written text. From dance to sculpture, song to architecture, craftwork to poem, myth, or sacred history, the arts present a range of cultural artefacts in which ever-fresh provinces of the imagination are laid bare before the eye of the scholar.

Yet these arts present various problems; they require new hermeneutic sensitivity, while stirring hornets' nests of tense debate about the boundary between the 'safe' secular arts and their politically loaded religious equivalents. But their potential for expanding our understanding of Hindu cultures is vast - filling hitherto unrecognised demographic gaps in Hindu Studies, while forcing scholars to critically examine their own frameworks for interpreting arts and seek 'indigenous' modes of aesthetic appreciation. Perhaps this is because, although arts are typically seen as subsidiary and derivative modes of intellectual discourse, their proper aesthetic understanding nevertheless brings foundational questions of history, method, and metaphysics into view. The very possibilities entailed in ideas of 'object' and materiality are reconsidered, to consider 'notions of vision and visuality that are specific to South Asia'.

An increasing focus on the arts demands an increasing awareness of the workings of beauty and appeal, reality and appearance, taste and genre - in a word, aesthetics in Hindu culture. Aesthetics is too often seen as a peripheral field of theory, subsidiary to the works themselves and the ideas they convey. But without a hermeneutic key artworks will remain closed to us, or, worse, we will read and interpret them wrongly as in a distorted mirror.

Not only nineteenth century, but also modern scholars are still trying to solve 'the great difficulty of coming to terms with Hindu art'.

The arts that have taken root and voice in Hindu cultures prompt hermeneutic reflection, demanding attention to their own distinctive modes of communication. The transmission of art traditions, which tends to be characterised by more fluid and wide-ranging dynamics than textual ones, forces scholars to take greater account of compositional plurality and change.

It is no longer possible to speak in a simple way about authorial intention or about 'the text' when we recognise that multiple authors have presented multiple versions of our nebulous object of study. But whereas this was once cause to dismiss certain arts as mere folkloric accretions, or kitsch simulacra, it now promises the possibility of accessing broader movements of taste and interest in the culture. Performed arts, such as dance and oral poetry in particular, provide a counterpoint to the sanatana dharma model that still has currency within Hinduism as an eternal truth, by reminding us of that which is dynamic and collaborative in the culture, encouraging polysemy rather than curtailing it in explanatory commentary.

The arts also represent a vast reserve of new materials and new voices that are helping Hindu Studies to expand well beyond the older preserve of the textual manuscript. At one time the Western academy of scholarship was ill equipped to even 'see' the Indian arts, determined as it is by the parameters of the Greco-Hellenic tradition of aesthetics, and fixed as it was on scriptural doctrine as the mark of religion. But today archaeology, art history, and the innovative primary sourcing of historians such as Sumathi Ramaswami show us a larger range of sources for understanding Hinduism, and a wider range of cultural creators with whom to engage.

Instead of the Sanskrit-writing Brahmin male, we are able to speak in Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, or Bengali to craftsmen, poet mystics, professional bards, dancers and singers, and even occasionally women. We see this, for example, when Mirabai's songs give a rare voice to the demographic of the female devotee of whom we hear so much in bhakti literature, yet from whom we usually hear so little.

In some (but not all cases) the arts can also be a safe voice of the voiceless, critiquing those who are taken too seriously such as hypocritical brahmins, ascetics, or sages. In many cases the text is a complex one, as when the Bhagavata Pura?a recommends as a model for brahmin males, the spirituality of those women who would have had no hand in its composition. Satire provides its own incisive map of the tensions that existed in different sections of society.

The visual arts represent a way to read the structures of power that are deployed throughout the culture, through visual domination of the public sphere, and the way in which images subtly teach us how and what to see.

In particular, the awakening to what modern media such as poster art and film have to tell us seems to offer what so many scholars desire: a key to the contemporary Hindu cultural consciousness in an era in which there is relatively little systematic philosophy or theology to study. Modern theological reflection even can be found in 'God-posters' and Bollywood plots, raising questions about the way in which concrete modes of production and consumption affect the mirror that the popular imagination holds up to society.

The arts challenge scholars to map the complexity of Hindu interactions - of peoples and practices, across regions, arts and styles, and with diverse theological principles often eclectically appropriated, with successful effect as a synthesising concern. Epic poetry relies upon performance recitation, which may combine with possession rituals, interwoven with temple devotion, in which poetic liturgy is incorporated, instilling reverence for local saints who are also, of course, poor poets, through whom we are reminded of the importance of patronage and power in the royal classes who effectively governed the culture. In her quest to produce a worthy translation of the Gitagovinda, Barbara Stoler Miller wrote 'I have heard and recorded the songs of the poem in different musical versions in Orissa, Bengal, Bihar, Madras, Mysore, and Kerala, as well as Nepal'.

Her journey required that she attend intimate recitals in private homes, nightly worship in the Jagannatha Temple, Orissi dance performances, palm-leaf manuscript collections, a spring fair in Bengal, and both North and South Indian flute lessons. Her story of rough and ready research in which it is necessary to follow leads into unexpected places and skill sets increasingly reflects the kind of mobile, interdisciplinary experience of scholars in Hindu Studies.

The arts are also the key to important strands of Hindu theological thought, although recognising this requires us to overcome a certain secularist prejudice against 'religious' arts that exists within the academy. For centuries the arts, particularly the literary and performed arts, have been a focus of Indophilia, recognised are one of the great boons of Indian culture to the world, opening up a palette of rich sensory experiences in every media, from architecture to music, food to dance. Yet the relation between Indian arts and Hindu religion has been a site of small battles and a larger war over the boundaries of the 'religious' in Indian culture.

Some have excised the religious element of arts that participate in Hindu ideas and practice, in the attempt to claim more territory for the supposed 'safe-haven' of secularity. In other contexts both the Hindu Gitagovinda and the Muslim Layla-Majnu could be appreciated throughout a religiously mixed population as long as sectarian affiliations were suppressed. This divide has been sustained even at the theoretical level of aesthetics: De considers the 'poetics' of Bharata and Mamma?a at great length, but dismisses the theories of the aesthetic theorists who were also theologians as mere 'erotics'.

This poetics-erotics axis becomes one more expression of the artificial yet politically loaded divide between secular and religious - this despite the move to recognise that Hinduism should be as much defined as a culture as a doctrine.

'Today this dichotomy takes on still-more problematic associations with either the religious nationalism that continues to fight for the Indian electorate or the fervently secular nationalist 'aesthetics of autonomy'.

- Oxford Journal of Hindu Studies