Culture
Aravindan Neelakandan
Oct 20, 2022, 09:18 PM | Updated Oct 21, 2022, 01:06 PM IST
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The phenomenal success of the movie Kantara, cutting across the linguistic boundaries, is the celebration of that fundamental law about India - unity in diversity.
The director of the movie, Rishab Shetty, not only reiterated that statement but also emphasized the basic Hindu nature of the film's theme.
This in turn sent shock waves among 'Breaking India' (BI) forces.
The 'BI' forces have invested much in conflict and binary narratives. Here are a few such binaries: 'Brahmin versus Non-Brahmin', 'Tribal versus non-Tribal', 'Dalit versus non-Dalit', 'Aryan versus Dravidian' 'Folk Deities versus 'Brahminical' Deities'.
Kantara on the other hand has shown that the general Hindu population, along with the common Indian civilisational psyche, can feel the oneness that underlies all the extraordinarily rich diversity.
Irrespective of their language, irrespective of their own Ishta-devata, Grama-devata and Kula-Devata, the audience become Sahridhya with the Deities of a forest deep in Karnataka.
Naturally the 'BI' forces are furious and hence want to rake up a controversy where none exists. They have to invent a fault-line where even a ghost of fault-line does not exist.
So, in the case of Kantara, they have zeroed in on the term 'Bhootas'.
Produced below at some length is a typical binary-conflict-oriented model article arguing how 'Bhootas' are not Hindu!
Bhoothas are distinct from the gods of Brahminical Hinduism, with the custom predating the arrival of vedic culture. Their stories are recorded in oral narratives or paaddanas. They are often real people who fought different kinds of injustice, such as Koti and Chanayya, Tuluva warriors who fought against caste and feudal discrimination in the late 16th century. Some of the earliest bhoothas are animals like panjurli (wild boar) and pilichamundi (tiger). It is a common belief that each bhootha controls a particular aspect of life and that praying to the appropriate bhootha will help a person overcome their problems. Bhoothas and daivas are not worshipped on a daily basis like some Hindu gods. Their worship is restricted to annual ritual festivals, though daily poojas are conducted for the ritual objects, ornaments, and other paraphernalia of the bhoothas.
Already a clinical rebuttal has been written for such falsity by Ms. Harsha Bhat here.
In this article we see Bhootas from a pan-Indian perspective.
In Valmiki Ramayana:
Srimad Valmiki Ramayana speaks of the Yajna Purusha of the Vedic Yajna that Dasaratha conducted for the birth of children as 'mahat bhuutam' (1.16.14).
Varna-based Bhootas of Chilapathikaram
Chilapathikaram, the great Tamil epic-poem, speaks of four Bhootas - protecting the settlements of the four Varnas.
When Kannagi, the divinely-powered yet very human heroine of the poem ordered Agni to burn Madurai, the capital of Pandyas, the four Bhootas of the settlements of the four Varnas had to leave, i.e., withdraw their protection so that the fire could obey the order of Kannagi.
Bhootas In 'Brahminical' Temples:
Bhootas or Bhoota Ganas are part and parcel of the retinue of Shiva.
For example, in a striking panel at Kanchi Kailasanatha temple one can see the Bhoota Ganas playing at Kailasa.
The panel also shows Shiva Himself frolicking with His Bhoota Ganas disguised as a Bhoota.
Indra gets irritated at the behaviour of the Ganas and is saved in time by Brahma and others from getting burned by Shiva in the form of Bhoota Gana.
The temple was built is 1300 years old. The panel relates to the origin of Jalandhara.
In Kanyakumari district, at the southernmost end of the Indian mainland, many agricultural villages have shrines dedicated to Bhootas.
The Bhootas guard the water bodies and the Bhoota shrines with no less importance are situated well within the main temples, besides separate temples being dedicated to Bhootas.
Across India thus one can find similar organic bonds between Bhootas, Devatas and other 'main' Hindu Deities. They share features, Puranic roots, rituals and sacred space.
It takes enormous amount of cultural illiteracy to state that Bhootas are not part of Hindu Dharma.
Panjurli Appropriation?
Now let us look at the instance of Panjurli - the Bhoota that plays the crucial role in the film.
According to 'one social media writer':
But most significantly, equating panjurli daiva with Vishnu/Varaha is a blunder - an attempt at appropriating folk traditions of Tulunadu. I wish the Tuluvas would get more offended by this rather than memes etc (sic).”
So the movie becomes an 'attempt at appropriating folk traditions of Tulunadu.'
Again in her brilliant article, Harsha Bhat has brought out the Saivaite-oriented tradition of the genesis of Panjurli and the subsequent descent to earth to bring righteousness and well being of all.
Arthur Coke Burnell (1840-1882), a British civil servant and a scholar of Hindu family of languages had recorded the origin traditions of many Bhootas including Panjurli.
This account was written at least 150 years before Kantara hit the screens. This version recorded by A.C.Burnell clearly shows a typical Puranic format in which the boar form emanates from Narayana Himself.
Now a colonised mind may ask if this is not another proof for the process of early appropriation by 'Brahminical Hinduism' of a 'non-Aryan folk deity'?
Despite naming the paper on Panjurli as the 'Devil Worship' in a display of characteristic Christian judgementalism, Burnell had honestly recorded the content of the narration of the Panjurli origin.
Here Narayana states:
The people of the world commit sin and then blame me. They do not see their own sins, but blame me in vain. ... Besides this, they make distinctions and say, that man is of that caste, this man is of this caste ; he is of a low caste, I am of a high caste. I must not touch him : it is a great sin for me to touch him. ... All such heinous sins they commit. And yet I have not commanded them to do such things . I have not commanded them to observe caste distinctions. ... To me caste is nothing. Wherever righteousness, faith, truth , peace and a quiet mind are found, there I hold communion.The Origin of the Bhuta Panjurli: The Devil Worship of the Tuluva - from the papers of Late A.C.Burnell, The Indian Antiquary, Vol. XXVL-1897 pp.47-53
So much for 'Brahminical appropriation' to suppress tribal communities through casteism! Incidentally one can see this passage resonate with the verse of Bhagavad Gita (15:16) where Sri Krishna calls the one who considers himself high born as of Asuric nature.
As far as Varaha is concerned, it comes right from the Harappan days and there is a remarkable continuity found in the depiction of the symbol.
Varaha is the third incarnation of Maha Vishnu. Varaha symbolizes the Vedic Yajna.
The famous sculpture of Varaha embodying in His form all the Gods, Goddesses, Bhootas, Devas etc. at Khajuraho shows the central place of this primordial boar form in Hindu Dharma.
Shiva comes as mother boar to feed the piglets in a remarkable Puranic episode.
Varahi is one of the Sapta-Matas worshipped throughout India.
So Panjurli is very much an integral part of the Hindu universe. It is not appropriation but the celebration of an integral organic part of Hindu Dharma.
The Problem and the solution - the Ganesha Model:
The problem with those who see the invoking of Varaha in the context of Panjurli as 'appropriation' suffer from the colonised Indological-Marxist bias or ideological vested interest arising out of mental-colonialism.
Kantara is quite the formidable first step in overcoming this colonialism-inflicted wound.
The Hindu worldview provides an alternative way to look at our society and culture, traditions and their diversity.
The traditional iconography of Ganesha provides a clear understanding of this model.
The head of Ganesha is that of an animal. Yet it is His head that incorporates in it Pranava-Swarupa.
The four hands as well as the chest combines the Divine Daiva features in an anthropomorphic form.
The shortened legs are typical of Bhootas in Hindu iconography. They are the Bhoota features.
All these divergent features merge organically and form a seamless whole - which in turn gives those who meditate upon this form earthly success and spiritual liberation.
For Hindu culture the multiplicity and variant forms are not sources of conflict but symbols of diversity in the context of integral unity. A social science based on this understanding of Hindu civilisation and values is what India requires.
The success of Kantara shows its expectant relevance. The untruthful criticisms of Kantara show the need for a Hindu values-based social science.
Aravindan is a contributing editor at Swarajya.