sanyasi: Sex and the City : Circa 1300 AD: My sojourn at Ko...

sanyasi: Sex and the City : Circa 1300 AD: My sojourn at Ko...:   Hello, A Visit to the Sun Temple at Konark, in Orissa brings in reminiscence of a past on how, life was celebrated by the elite cl...

Sex and the City : Circa 1300 AD: My sojourn at Konark:

 

Hello,

A Visit to the Sun Temple at Konark, in Orissa brings in reminiscence of a past on how, life was celebrated by the elite class consisting of Kings and Priests among the kingdoms at Kalinga. As an amateur   with a   subaltern mind-set, when I went there on 16^th June the hoary temple at Konark gave me glimpses of  lascivious life style of the elite well   depicted and preserved in the erotic sculptures set in  amorous postures .

Konark is only 65 kms from Bhupaneswar and on the coast of the Bay of Bengal near to the Major Port of Paradip. The Sun temple was built by King Narasimhadeva -1 of the Eastern Ganga dynasty of the 13^th century and is a world heritage site. It  was built in the form of a chariot of Sun God  driven by seven horses and made of black granite stone facing the eastern coast. The architecture of the temple which is in the northern style is made so scientifically that whenever the sun passes the equinox,  the rays of the sun glitters the diamond placed on the forehead of the idol. (The idol today is in National museum Delhi and the diamond is in British museum at London). The polished black sandstone is fixed in the columns with cast iron which are still not rusted in spite of the saline atmosphere here. In order to create a counterweighing balance to the iron clad structure the temple was made with magnets installed on the top.  (It is said that these magnets deflected the compasses and hence the direction of the Dutch and Portuguese ships steaming off shore during the 17^th century. Removal of the magnet by the British rulers from the super structure affected the equilibrium of it ,resulting in structural damages as seen today) It is beyond doubt that the builders of the temple in the 13^th century had a firm idea on electro magnetism, metallurgy and astronomy.

The local belief here is that the son of Krishna from Jampavati , named Samba built the temple as a tribute to Arka (sun) , for saving him from leprosy. However there is no historical proof to this. According to another legend, based on the wish of the queen of Narasimhadeva-1, the King called the master crafter, Bisa Maharana of Kalinga and instructed him to design and construct the temple in 12 years’ time with 1200 artisans.- The stones were shipped through local barges from the Andhra region and physically lifted to the site of construction which was just on the shore. It is said that the sea water during tides rose up to the sanctum sanctorum and in one of the floods the temple was destroyed, not to mention of the ruins created due to the iconoclasm of the Muslim rulers of Eastern India.-  In the last day of the 12^th year Bisa Maharana nd his artisans were unable to install  the superstructure with only a night left. The King visited the site and ordered Bisa Mahara to complete the work before sun rise or to face death. However Bisa Maharana’s  twelve year old son erected the structure at midnight and drowned in the sea the next day to give credit to his father and save him and his craft men from death .-This   legend is a testimony to the arrogance of the early Kings and Sultans who took credit and went with their names into the  annual of history at the cost of talented craftsmen of the period. A real food for thought for the subalterns.

The erotism in the sculpture gave me a feeling that the elite enjoyed a sedentary lifestyle. The devadasi system which was prevalent there, gave ample scope for sexual extravaganza as temple women married an invisible God to be only  used up by the priests and kings. The other argument which came from the locals here , was that,  after the Kalinga War fought by King Asoka , nearly one lakh and twenty thousand men died –which  was nearly the whole of the young male population - making an equally number of women with no avenues for sexual gratification, resulting in polyandry and lesbianism and other forms of sexual voyeurism. Being from a generation ,  grown up from the remnants of Victorian moralism and later Hinduism, we may find it  difficult to accept the argument that  ancient India imbibed an open sexual life, and  is likely to view  those sculptures as voyeurism or tutelages of a maniac king. Well that is an argument or a thought process, but the conclusion here is on the glorification and celebration of sexuality unlike the hypocrisy of today s generation. Within the garb of moralism we deny and negate any form of expressive physical love, be in sex education to children or display of public affection, we are always on the verge of moral policing whether it is the society or the state. It is quite ironical to conclude that this repressed society of us evolved from a free and expressive population who lived centuries ago……………………………………

ILLUSTRATION:

 

The eight spokes of the chariot wheel portrays various stages in life and the cycle of life and death. It also depicts the division of time into 360 degrees based on the ecliptic movement of the sun.

 

 

Lesbianism was widely prevalent and practiced among the temple dancers

 

 

Cast iron bars used for the construction. Preserved and not rusted even after 700 years.

 

The Temple under renovation.

 

Canine saliva was believed to be an antiseptic to treat venereal diseases by women.

 

Oral Sex was prevalent those times long before the west claiming to have taught us about it

 

Prostitute waiting for her client.

 love making in posture 69  (middle sculpture)

Proof of rampant polyandry  .

Some ancient version of ''women on top"'

Serpentine desires .

 

I was tired and resting after an ecstatic journey over a landscape of 13^th century eastern India

Changing Electoral landscape

The exit of Nitish Kumar from the BJP after a successful electoral alliance of 17 years is a turning point in the Indian political scenario. When the BJP emerged as a political party capable enough to counter the congress, it was the regional parties which sided either with the congress or the BJP, creating a bipolar political balance in the name of UPA and NDA. Since then we have been seeing the rule of these power blocks for more than a decade.

The current development is likely to result in the formation of a third front of regional satraps leading to a tri polar electoral battle in the coming Lok sabha election. On one side this runs the risk of no group getting an absolute majority resulting in a weak government and governance. On the other side it is an opportunity for the people to select a single party. India’s political landscape is now filled left right and centre and this elections are going to be a watershed elections paving way to new experiments in democracy . Lot of debates on secularism, nationalism, corruption and regionalism. Which issue is going to tilt votes is yet to be seen

''Modi'' fication' of the BJP

The “Modi”’fication of the Bharatiya Janata Party has finally began. Narendra Modi after being first inducted into the Poll Panel is now expected to be its chief campaigning for the BJP for the 2014 general election. The BJP national executive currently under session at Panaji is likely to make a declaration to this effect.

Narendra Modi and the modification of BJP has been a case of intense speculation since a year which attained momentum after the successful Gujarat assembly polls and lately after the sweep of the BJP in the Gujarat and after the change in the President ship of BJP from Nitin Gadkari to Rajnath Singh.

On one side it is an acknowledged fact that the BJP is in a major stage of leadership transition. It is similar to the transition of the BJP which we witnessed in the early 90s when L K Advani started the Rathyatra which resulted in the emergence of BJP as a national political party in India. In all such transition there is always a state of dissent and the resultant media speculation. If you recollect the 90s, when the baton was moving towards Mr Advani, there was speculation of an hard-line Advani camp and the Vajpayee camp. While the moderate Vajpayee camp disapproved of the hardliner’s Babari masjid campaign, the rest is history. The hard-liners  won the election under  Advani’s leadership, and BJP became the principal opposition party. Subsequently after the formation of the NDA, when the BJP came to power, the “ hardliner” Advani humbly paved way for the soft and acceptable leader AB Vajpayee to become the Prime Minister.

Today when a similar transition is being witnessed, will Mr Modi show the same audacity and humility to pave way for the veteran leader Mr Advani to be the Prime minister and he occupy the home minister’’s role? Well that is yet to be seen. However there is much debate on who should be the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. Today in a media managed election campaign when Modi is at the helm of BJPs election needs’, an analysis is necessary, especially for my overseas readers, of what makes or unmakes Modi as far as far as the Prime Minister ship is concerned . As a general secretary and spokesman of BJP,  Modi in the early 90s was sent to his home state of Gujarat to counter the severe infighting, corruption and nepotism within the then BJP in Gujarat epitomized by the vagaries   of two leaders viz Keshubhai Patel and Shankar Singh waghela. The state of Gujarat was also traumatized after the killer quake of 2001 . There was enormous caste anarchy with the Patel community ruling the roast. It is into such a socially and politically turbulent atmosphere that Modi was sent. His background as an RSS pracharak in Gujarat had given him a strong insight of the social fabric and its sensitivities. Three months into his position, Gujarat saw the worst communal violence of the time predominantly a retaliation of the Hindu fundamentalists against the incidence of the Muslim radical’s attack on a train killing nearly 57 Hindu men and women. The uncontrolled and unabated violence left nearly 2000 people killed. The involvement of the BJP cadre led by local leaders , and the inability of Mr Modi to quell the violence – making Vajpayee warn him of following Raj Dharma or Statecraft – indeed resulted in the “”monstor-ification “’ of him as a fascist iconoclast and inimical to the essence of secularism and national unity. Well whether he followed Raj dharma or not is not the purview of this article, but since then Modi ruled Gujarat with a single point agenda of development of the economy and bringing up the Gujarati asmita or pride. His successful re -election and the development in investment and infrastructure thereafter and most importantly the connect of the common people with him increased his popularity as we stand today.

However this achievement does make him a PM candidate. Yes as well as No. The reason he is clamoured as a future PM is primarily due to the leadership crunch faced by a nation. He is a man who has proved to be a leader and thought about the nation and his State beyond his self Interest. He is astutely principled, non – corrupt and a strict disciplinarian. Moreover he is accessible to the common man sans his security needs. The nation requires a PM who is decisive and tough and a strong implementer unlike the current PM. While this makes him eligible what lacks in him is the pan national acceptability, shrouded image of a hardliner Hindu radical, above all inexperience in national level administration and statecraft. This can happen if he follows his mentor LK Advani, by winning an election and abdicating the desire to be a PM, and instead be a Home minister paving way for the nationally acclaimed patriarch LK Advani to be the PM only to be accepted later as a national leader later in life. What happens is yet to be seen, but wishing Narendrabhai all the best

Sanyasi