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It All Started in Jambudvipa. Or Did It?
Why are Indians obsessed with origins? Why do we
equateoriginality with authenticity and authenticity with truth?
Andhow does this get tangled with moral policing?By Devdutt
Pattanaik
As storytellers take creative license show Shiva with a daughter
on television (Devon ke DevMahadev serial on Life OK channel),
locate Suryavanshis and handravanshis in the !ndus
valleycivili"ation (Shiva trilogy novels #y A$ish %ri&athi),
clai$ that southern 'akshasas were li#eral&eo&le at the
receiving end of northern Devas (novel Asura #y Anand eelakantan),
visuali"eanesha as a tri#al youth in the $idst of a Shudra and Arya
conflict (the Kannada novel Dhundhi
#y *angalore author +ogesh Master, who was arrested last $onth
after so$e $oral &olicing grou&s&rotested)
&eo&le are not uite sure what is the truth- %his leads
&eo&le in search of origins, for we#elieve origin is the
truth-
As !ndians we have always loved origins- .or $illennia, the
tri#es and co$$unities of !ndia haveworshi&&ed origins the
source of rivers ($ountains), the source of the sun (eastern
direction), thesource of $ilk (cow)- /e love shrines that are
swaya$#hu or self0created, #orn of natural rockwithout hu$an
intervention-
1owever, we are not co$forta#le when the origins we seek turn
out to #e an outco$e of history, orwhen the origins are located in
foreign geogra&hy, or when the origins are not si$&le and
singular
like a seed, #ut rather, co$&le2 and $ulti&le like a
river3s tri#utaries-
.or $any !ndians, 4originally !ndian3 refers to an idea that is
ti$eless, or at least five thousand yearsago- %he &hrase 4five
thousand years ago3 is an atte$&t to $ake the 4ti$eless3 sound
$ore ti$e0#ound, hence scientific5 and yet #eyond the reach of
e2as&eratingly anal, evidence0seekinghistorians-
So everything that is !ndia ca$e into #eing five thousand years
ago6 7edas, 'a$ayana,Maha#harata, as well as the 8uranas fro$ where
we get infor$ation a#out 7ishnu, Shiva, Durgaand anesha-
1istorians will &oint out that such conclusions are #ased on
s&eculation and anchored at #est #yastrono$ical data and
hagiogra&hic te2ts that cannot #e trusted- .or historians, the
!ndus valleycities ca$e first, then the 7edic hy$ns, then the
9&anishads, then the *uddha, then theMaha#harata and the
'a$ayana, then the 8uranas that tell the stories of 7ishnu, Shiva,
Durga andanesha, then the arrival of !sla$ followed #y heightened
&o&ularity of *hakti literature such as theworks of %ukara$
and %ulsidas, Akka Mahadevi and Mira#ai, and finally the rise of
:uro&ean&owers, cul$inating in the !ndian national
$ove$ent- (Only 'a$chandra uha #othered to tell usthat history
continues after andhi)-
Such linearity and &eriodicity is re;ected #y
traditionalists for who$ 1induis$ is 4sanatan dhar$a3or a ti$eless
truth where everything fro$ #hakti, to te$&le worshi& of
'a$, Krishna, Shiva, Durgaand anesha, to the ritual of yagna
referred to in the 7edic hy$ns, e2isted si$ultaneously acrossthe
!ndian su#continent, thriving even in the well &lanned #rick
cities on the #anks of the !ndus andnow0dry Saraswati, five
thousand years ago-
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/author-of-kannada-novel-dhundi-arrested/article5074797.ecehttp://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/author-of-kannada-novel-dhundi-arrested/article5074797.ece
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te2t#ooks in schools across !ndia teach !ndian children a#out
the 4Aryan invasion theory3 $aking7edic hy$ns 4foreign3, to the
outrage of 1indus-
%he !ndus valley scri&t is still not deci&hered yet
s&eculations are rife whether they were &eo&le ofthe
7edas (a theory &referred #y historians with 'ight0wing
leanings) or non07edic Dravidian&eo&le (a theory
&referred #y historians with Left0wing leanings)-
/earing the guise of science, such theories are actually
&olitical in nature- And the &olitics is a#outorigins- So
it is not sur&rising that $odern $ythological fiction revolves
around !ndus valley cities,and around invasions of Devas and the
conflict #etween Shudras and Aryas- %he success of thesenovels
reveals the latent hunger of the 4lost3 youth-
And it is not sur&rising that these stories alar$ and anger
nationalist and funda$entalist forces whofro$ ti$e to ti$e
violently overreact, $uch to the outrage of li#erals and the
delight of the $edia-.or we still yearn for the &ure 4seed3 of
our origins-
%his is rather tragic considering the characteristic feature of
!ndianC!ndic thought is its co$fort witha$#iguity as e2&ressed
so clearly in the fa$ous !ndian headshake- !t is evident even in
creation$yths of !ndian origin-
