Kutch and Kathiawar: A tryst with history, Part VII

(Continued from)

Monday

I manage to leave Morvi by 7.45 AM and cross the city by a road, that goes through most of the clock manufacturing factories in Morvi and joins National Highway No. 8A. We stop at Tankara and have a cup of Tea in an roadside 'Dhaba' and divert to highway 22, which takes us to Jamnagar via Dhrol. After bypassing Jamnagar city itself, we hit upon highway 6, which has some of India/s largest power and refining industries like 'Essar' and off course, 'Reliance Petrolium.' This highway however becomes a narrow 2 lane road, after 'Khambaliya' town and our progress slows down considerably. Even then, we manage to reach the coastal city of ' Dwarka,' considered as the ancient abode of India's most loved folk hero and God, Shri Krishna. 

 

In India, Krishna finds a place everywhere. From ancient Indian scriptures like Mahabharata and Bhagvad-Gita, mythological stories passed from generation to generation, medieval verses written in 1200 AD by Jayadeva and known as the 'Geet Govinda,' which depicts the divine love of Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, for his consort, Radha and even in modern poetry, Krishna is always there. He is a perfect folk hero, who shows great prowess and bravery against his foes, compassion to his friends and poor, a romantic hero to his lady loves and finally a great philosopher as he gives a discourse on Indian philosophy and Indian way of life to Arjuna, a worrier Prince from Mahabharata. It is believed that this greatest Indian folk hero and king, had established his kingdom at this very place 'Dwarka,' located on India's western sea board. It is obvious that this city is a sacred place. From far corners of India, devotees throng here every day, in hundreds, to pay their obeisance to the lord. 

 

I check in a hotel, have a Gujarati vegetarian thali (full meal) for my lunch and then set off for an afternoon of sight seeing. The first stop is a Shiva temple called 'Nageshwar,' which was built by one Late Sajan Kumar, who had made his fortune by selling music cassettes and CD's. He must have spent lots of money on this temple, which is quite huge. Luckily the temple is rather plain looking and without any garish ornamentation. He has compensated for the absence of any garish ornamentation by erecting a giant statue of Shiva in human form next to the temple, very similar to a statue I have seen, also on western sea board of India, but much towards south, at Murudeshawar, in state of Karnataka. 

 

I continue further and stop at a place called 'Gopi Talao,' a little pond with small temples dotting on its southwest perimeter. It is a nice place with few ducks floating on water. The temples, all claim to be the original and principal places of a plethora of deities, whose names also sound foreign to me. We continue further on the road, pass the 'Tata Salt' factory at Mithapur and finally reach the western most tip of the Kathiawar peninsula. A port known as 'Okha' is located here. My interest however is slightly towards east, where a small jetty has been provided mainly for fishing vessels. 

 

About 5 Km east of this jetty, there is a small island known as 'Bet Dwarka.' I am told that oldest temple of Lord Krishna is located on this temple. Just near the Jetty, I find a large sized launch, getting filled with people. The boat has a very funny sitting arrangement. Along the sides, there are wooden planks to sit. Every one else just stands, where ever he can find a place. In the middle, there is a cabin. I am directed towards that. It is one of the most uncomfortable sitting arrangements I have seen any where so far. Inside the cabin the ceiling is so low that you need to squat, if you do not wish to get your head banged against one of the steel angles provided to support the roof. I sit down. In a short while, the boat gets completely full and the master of the ship appears and starts the engine. A helmsman takes charge of the helm. He has strange looking levers and handles, which probably are the gear shifting levers and accelerator levers for the diesel engine humming somewhere below. Its fun to see him operating the contraptions, but the boat gets underway. As soon as we leave, hundreds of sea gulls appear over board making a big racket. People keep feeding the birds and they keep depositing their droppings on heads and clothes of the people standing in the boat. After a slow crawling journey of 25 minutes, we touch the jetty on 'Dwarka bet.' 

 

I get down and walk towards the temple. This temple, supposed do be the oldest temple of Krishna, is quite unimpressive and almost in dilapidated condition. Some efforts are being made to restore it. However, it is definitely not worth a visit, unless you are a serious devotee of the lord. The return journey is slightly better because, the master of the boat, restricts number of passenger. I feel that the main reason for this is that the boat is leaky and taking water and he does not want to take any risks. Even then the number of passengers is not very small and sea gulls accompany us and shower their droppings on us.

The return journey to Dwarka is quite uneventful except in one field, we find a large flock of big birds landing and finally reach a temple known as 'Rukmini Temple.' This temple is dedicated to King Krishna's principal queen, 'Rukmini.' The temple is modest, but I find it quite interesting. From the bass and full reliefs on the sides, it is obviously not very old. Most likely to be from thirteenth or fourteenth century AD. The temple has a porch, then the main mandap with an dome or hemispherical top, which might have been added later and a sanctum or 'Garbhagriha,' somewhat recessed. The outside walls are entirely decorated with bass and full relief figures of Gods and Goddesses along with male and female figures.

Rukmini Temple

 

 Full relief carving of Vishnu on wall of Rukmini temple

I finally return to Dwarka city for the main attraction, 'Dwarkadheesh' or King of Dwarka temple of Lord Krishna. It has fairly large sized premises, consisting of a 7 storied main temple, a Shankaracharya temple and some more small temples. The wall are well covered with intricate carving. However, I did not find many human figures here. I can see mostly design patterns and some elephants carved on the walls. The temple is jam packed with devotees. I finally manage to find a spot at rear, from where I can have a look at the idol. The idol, made from black stone, is totally covered and adorned with dazzling gold ornaments starting with head gear. Obviously the temple is very wealthy. 

 Dwarkadhish temple

Plinth of an excavated temple near Dwarkadhish temple 

 

As I come out, I see on my left, ruins of an ancient temple discovered by Archaeological Survey of India in 1979-80. These ruins were found, when a two storied building adjacent to the main temple was demolished to clear some space around the main temple and is believed to be from 9^th century. The ruins have some fine engraving work done on them.

Tomorrow I travel to another great temple of India, that was destroyed number of times and re built again and again. The temple of Lord Shiva at Prabhas Pattan.

(To be concluded) 

10th February 2013 

Kutch and Kathiawar: A tryst with history, Part I

Tuesday

My flight to Bhuj from Mumbai is delayed by at least half an hour. This means that I am waiting at this terminal 1B of Mumbai's domestic airport, for almost 4 hours. Earlier I had left my home town Pune around 8.30 in the morning. For commuting to Mumbai, I had taken a state transport bus service, named as 'Shivneri.' This service is fairly punctual and extremely comfortable, and on any day, I would recommend it. The Bus had dropped me just opposite the airport terminal and I had no problems at all in reaching the airport. The waiting hall at terminal 1B, is quite huge and I kill time looking at the wares displayed in number of shops and a cafeteria, provided for the convenience of the passengers. The flight is finally announced and after some usual confusion, I manage to reach the aircraft. The aircraft is quite full and since this particular flight is designated as low cost, airline does not serve anything free, except for drinking water.

A journey to Kutch and Kathiwar can be truly said to be a tryst with history of Indian sub continent. Almost on every step, a visitor comes across, period markers on a time scale from prehistoric periods around 3500 BCE to years of India's independence struggle in twentieth century, and subsequent years of building modern industrialized India of later years. The region is blessed with such wide range of landscapes on a mega scale, that one feels amazed at the wondrous scenarios produced by mother nature.

The time is well past 5 in the evening, as our plane lands at Bhuj. The airport is quite huge and I see only one Indian air force MI 17 Helicopter standing on the tarmac. Even the arrival hall is quite large, considering the fact that only a couple of flights land here or take off from here, throughout the day. Since I had checked in very early, as expected, my bags arrive on the baggage belt after considerable delay. By the time I come out of the terminal, most of the people have already left. Very few vehicles can be seen now parked in the parking zone. Luckily, I get a taxi rather easily, which does not appear to be a good sign at all, because that means that I am going to get fleeced. In spite of that feeling, I take the taxi, because prospects of getting stranded at the airport unnerve me. The airport is just 3 KM from my hotel and I reach there within 10 minutes. My hunch, proves absolutely correct as the taxi driver claims Rs. 500 or US$ 10 for that distance from me. Reluctantly I pay the amount and walk to my room.

Later I decide to take a walk through the crowded street, which leads to the 'Hamisar lake.' This lake is the central point of this town and a short walk of about 15 minutes takes me there. To my surprise, there is almost no water in the lake. Apparently, rains have been very scanty this year and the lake has not been filled at all. The roads are crowded with unruly and undisciplined vehicular traffic. There are no footpaths and heaps of garbage lie everywhere. My first impressions of Bhuj are not exactly favourable. I return to the hotel.

Wednesday

I have planned to check out of the hotel at 7.30 AM to reach the spot near Bhuj railway station, where welcome center is supposed to have been erected by the organizers of the Rann or the desert camp, my destination for next couple of days. I find much to my resentment that the hotel room service is rather slow and it takes ages to get a cup of tea. I somehow manage to check out of the hotel only around 8 A.M. And reach the welcome center at Bhuj railway station by quarter past eight. I am all wrapped up in warm clothing as the weather is bitterly cold with biting morning breeze.

The scene at the welcome center is rather uninspiring with number of buses standing in haphazard fashion and heaps of baggage lying everywhere. I manage to enter a tent with a welcome sign and go to a counter. To my complete surprise, the staff at the counter, extremely courteous and helping, sees my papers and allots a tent to me and asks me to tag all my luggage pieces with that tent number with paper tags provided by him. He tells me to go outside, give the luggage to one of the bus attendants and get on board of the same bus. I come out and immediately I find a bus waiting for passengers. Within next 10 minutes our bus leaves for Dhordo, approximately 80 Km northwest of Bhuj. We take highway 45 going in northerly direction and pass the Bhuj airport on way. I can see number of jet fighters in their hangers with covers fully on. The landscape outside is quite unusual with patches of waste land and blackish green fields intermixed. I can even see small ponds, which I believe was the result of earlier week's rains. The fields mostly have standing crops of 'Erandi' or castor plant, Ricinus communis (Euphorbiaceae). The seeds yield castor oil, widely used in many applications such as cosmetics and lubricants. Between the field, there are large patches of wastelands with soil looking whitish because of the ground salts. Only 'Babhul' or Gum Arabic shrubs can grow here. As we proceed north, more wastelands appear on our sides with scattered fields seen only near about villages. Villages have round shaped houses with terracotta tiled conic roofs. Occasionally, I can also see some thatched roofs also of conic shape. These are known locally as 'Bhunga” and apparently can stand the earthquakes and storms rather well.

After travelling about an hour, we stop at a road side village known as 'Bhirandiyarni.” We now enter from here the 'Banni' or grasslands of Kutch. We leave the highway and turn left on a small single lane road. On both sides, there are forests of Babhul or Gum Arabic trees with grasses, which have all dried up by now. Kutch area produces large quantities of cow and buffalo milk, and I can see the reason as large number of cattle appear grazing on the grass lands. In another half an hour, bus comes to a halt. We have arrived.

The desert camp is a huge affair with hundreds of tents having all modern facilities, dining hall, recreation areas, a strip mall for shopping and an amphitheater. They even have WiFi in the tents. I go through procedural formalities like registration and receive my camp ID, food coupons and then walk leisurely to my tent. Surprisingly, my baggage has already reached my tent. I am advised to have my breakfast quickly as it is served only up to 10 AM. All the meals are served piping hot, in huge air conditioned dining halls. I have my breakfast of purely Gujarati food like Poha, Jalebi and Gathiya served with sweet spicy tea.

I have free time now, up to Lunch time. After that, we would be taken on a tour to see village craftsman’s fabric embroidery. I decide to spend my time in the shopping mall, buy a few odd things and return to my tent. 

I however end spending well over 2 hours in the strip mall, just amazed with colours and designs of the fabrics and beautiful workmanship of other artifacts. 

I return to my tent. All tents are very well equipped with two beds, a side table and a table with an air heater, water heating kettle, chairs and a modern washroom. I relax a little, have my lunch, again an all Gujarati food affair, and get ready to reach the bus parking area before 2 PM.

(To be concluded)

4 February 2013

The Surkotada Horse, Part II

(Continued from)

The discovery of the Horse's remains from 2000 BCE, by an Indian archaeologist, Mr. A.P. Sharma in 1971-72, remained neglected for next twenty years or so. A celebrated archaeologist Dr. Richard H. Meadow, in fact commented in 1987 to reject Mr. Sharma's claim altogether and I quote:

“ It is on the basis of this phalanx that one can ascertain from the published photographs that the 'horse' of Surkotada, a Harappan period site in the little Rann of Kutch, …... is likewise almost certainly a half-ass, albeit a large one.” Unquote.

However, more supporting evidence came to light. A Harrapan port city at 'Lothal” was discovered south of Surkotada in 1955-56 itself, by another Indian Archaeologist and his team, Mr. S.R.Rao. It was a major Harappan port on Kathiawar coast with a large dock built for handling cargo and servicing ships. In further excavations at this site, Mr. S.R.Rao made significant discovery of two figurines of terracotta horses. One of the horses had a short stumpy tail, long neck and pricked ears.

The horse controversy however was sidetracked as excavating a major site, from 1991 to 94, Indian archaeologists made a huge discovery of an Harappan metropolis at Dholavira, merely 60 Km north of Suratkoda. This site revealed a huge cache of artifacts, seals and sealings and ornaments. However no evidence of presence of a horse came forthwith.

The Sukotada horse again came to limelight, twenty years later, after A.K.Sharma had discovered the horse remains at Surkotada, when an Hungerian archaeologist, Sándor Bökönyi was passing through New Delhi for a conference. He examined the bones excavated at Surkotada and later declared in the conference in unequivocal words:

“The occurrence of true horse (Equus caballus L ) was evidenced by the enamel pattern of the upper and lower cheek and teeth and by the size of and form of incisors and phalanges. Since no wild horses lived in India in post-pleistocene times, the domestic nature of the Surkotada horse is undoubtful.”

The Indian archaeologist, A.K.Sharma was vindicated and received two minutes of applause from the entire assembly. He, however felt sad that his work was appreciated by his own countrymen only after it was vindicated by someone from another continent. He comments:

“This was the saddest day for me as the thought flashed in my mind that my findings had to wait two decades for recognition, until a man from another continent came, examined the material and declared that “ Sharma was right.” When will we imbibe intellectual courage not to look across borders for approval? The historians are still worse, they feel it is an attempt on the part of the “rightists” to prove that Aryans did not come to India from outside her boundaries.”

Sándor Bökönyi, further stressed this point in his 1993 report to the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India. Bökönyi says in his report:

“Through a thorough study of the equid remains of the prehistoric settlement of Surkotada, Kutch, excavated under the direction of Dr. J. P. Joshi, I can state the following: The occurrence of true horse (Equus caballus L.) was evidenced by the enamel pattern of the upper and lower cheek and teeth and by the size and form of incisors and phalanges (toe bones). Since no wild horses lived in India in post-Pleistocene times, the domestic nature of the Surkotada horses is undoubtful. This is also supported by an inter- maxilla fragment whose incisor tooth shows clear signs of crib biting, a bad habit only existing among domestic horses which are not extensively used for war”

The Surkotada horse controversy, more or less came to an end after this and it was accepted that domesticated horse was known to Harappans from about 2000 CBE. However, the proponents of the Aryan invasion theory had another point in their argument. They said that the use of a spoked wheel in the chariots of the conquering Aryans made the chariots far superior to the solid wheels used by Harappans.

This point is very well answered by the terracotta models, recovered from many Harappan sites, which clearly establish that the Harappans were fully familiar with the spoked wheel. On the specimens found at Kalibangan and Rakhigarhi, the spokes of the wheel are shown by painted lines radiating from the central hub to the periphery, and in the case of specimens from Banawali these are executed in low relief.

It is now an accepted fact that there was no Aryan invasion of the India and Harappans were never subjected to hordes of invading armies on horseback and chariots. We must however appreciate that during pre-Harappan and early Harappan periods, no traces of an horse have been found anywhere. Similaraly, a horse does not not seem to have any cultural importance in Harappan civilization, though it might have been domesticated in mature Harappan phases. Unfortunatly, this means that the fundamental questions that puzzled the early historians, still remain unanswered.

Why did a vast civilization that had spread from Swat (presently in Pakistan) in the north to Kathiawar coast to the south and up to the Ganga basin in the east suddenly had its demise?

Why a civilization that was so advanced that as to have it's own script, built ships to trade with middle east, had perfectly planned cities, ended without leaving a legacy?

Finally, it has been known that Harappans were idol worshipers. 

They worshiped a female figurine as Goddess of fertility and also the phallic symbol in form of a Lingam. If there was no invading Aryan army, how did India changed to a Vedic culture, where there was no idol worship but Gods represented the five elements like water, wind or fire and an Horse has great symbolic importance in religious rituals.

Not all of these questions have been answered as yet, logical explanations have been found for only a few.

(To be concluded) 

 

14 January 2013