India's stone-age tribes are dying

When does ‘modernisation’ and ‘development’ actually harm a people?

Let’s look at the Andaman Islands and their primitive tribes.

Indigenous societies such as the Wanniyala Aetto and the Jarawa have always lived in the same place for generations – the forest is their home and animals and birds their neighbours and friends. They give back to the forest what they take from it.

Unfortunately,

these societies have been marginalised

by political and economic greed, and their freedom violated.

The Wanniyala Aetto and the Jarawa and other tribes of Andaman Islands have been through an almost similar cycle of history and social exercise in rehabilitation at a very high cost.

They have survived waves of migrants and colonists but fallen prey to Government policies which looked upon them as ‘primitive’ and in dire need of ‘development’.

The development policy of the Governments meant encroaching on their traditional hunting grounds, clearing the forests to settle thousands of migrants , relocating the indigenous people to ‘settlements’, splitting communities that had always lived together, and introducing them to an alien way of life, language and religion.

Such changes have impacted their physical and mental health. Contact with non-indigenous people exposed these groups to diseases to which they had no resistance. An epidemic of measles last year wiped away ten percent of the Jarawa population. [There are only 300-400 Jarawas ].

Alcoholism, obesity, diabetes, depression, are other ailments which are now appearing among those who have been ‘relocated’ to ‘civilisation’.

Most indigenous societies are highly evolved groups, that have, over thousands of years, developed a symbiotic relationship with their environment and live in close harmony with nature. Land is sacred. The Wanniyala Aetto, who had lived in their forest abode for time immemorial, clear and cultivate small plots of land within the forest for 1 or 2 years and then let the land rest for 7 to 8 years. They gather forest produce such as honey, plants, roots and hunt for jungle fowls and fish.

Similarly, the Jarawa, who have lived in their rainforest home forever, hunt wild pigs, monitor lizards, fish and gather fruits and berries. Their lives are synchronised with their environment. More they do not need.

But we do. Our consumerist society does. We need more money. We need their prime land. We need to develop resorts and attract tourists. We need to exploit the last remaining forests. Pollute their rivers. And so these primitive tribes must go for the ‘greater good’ of the most populous democracy in the world.

Musahar Marriage

This is an Indian wedding with a difference. No fine clothes. no shehnai. no richly dressed women dancing. No boisterous joy. Just a sense of resignation. Two different weddings taking place the same day. In one house, a boy gets ready to go to another village for a bride. in another, a girl completes the pre-nuptial rituals. Both weddings were to take place at a temple in another village which would be presided over by a musahar priestess [not a pandit or a Brahmin].


The musahar community are among the poorest of the labouring classes in Bihar, India and are almost at the bottom of the caste heirarchy.

Musahar comes from two words Musa or ‘rat’ and ahar which means ‘food’. Musahar are people who eat rats as food. They are people who harvest the fields for the landowners and also subsist by gleaning grain off rat-holes. They smoke out the rats and collect the grain that field rats hoard.

It’s the wedding season at present. Lagan, it’s called. The Musahar community also follows the season.

At a village near Khagaul, we witnessed some pre-nuptial rituals as we passed by.

One was the hawa-neuta, a sort of ceremony using sprouted grain and singing by women, asking for the blessings of nature.








This was followed by a strange ritual. The girl [the bride to be] and another old lady huddled on the ground. One woman soaked mango leaves in water and beat another woman with it, chasing her so that both of them jumped over the bride-to-be.

In another house a boy was being readied for his marriage as well, here we caught the turmeric ceremony.







Unlike the upper caste rituals, this was a perfunctionary affair.


The boy sat down. His mother rubbed some turmeric on him, and so did some other women from the house.


The ceremony was over in about five minutes.

Then he was led out of the house with a sickle coated with a blob of mud, symbolic of how he was to supposed to earn his living.





They went towards an open space and the jumping ritual was repeated.

Bhumihar Brahmin Surnames and other stuff

This is in response to Puja's Query about Bhumihar surnames.

Shwetank Jain has a quesry about Bhumihars being corrupt and land-snatchers. this may be refer to the Dalit vs landowner fights in Bihar. I'll deal with this in a blog later.

I THINK YOU WILL FIND AN INTERESTING VIEWPOINT HERE.

Bhumihar Brahmins formerly used Brahmin Surnames as they were Brahmins but they also adopted titles of Rajputs, Muslims and many others communities suggesting the source of the land grants which they came to hold.

Some scholars suggest that Bhumihar is itself a title of those Brahmins who came to hold land and political power through different periods of history in the Gangetic plain.

Some of the surnames used by these Brahmins are given below:-

Thakur: A lot of Villages in Kanti, Muzaffarpur natives have Thakur as surname.

Chaudhary: Chaudhary is also visible in Kanti, Muzaffarpur , Katihar, Purnea . Some Bengali Brahmins and Maithil Brahmins also use this title. LoksabhaMP Nikhil Chaudhary and Industrialist Sri Durga Chaudhary are from Purnia.

Sharma: A large section of Bhumihar Brahmins as any other Brahmin have Sharma as surname. Majority of Shatma are located in and around Arwal Jehanabad, Bihar. Famous nationalists and peasant leaders Pandit Karyanand Sharma and Pandit Jadunandan Sharma, Leftist Historian R S Sharma.

Tiwari

Ojha: A few villages in Chhapara and Muzaffarpur have Bhumihars with Ojhaas sirname. Sri D P Ojha , ex-DGP, Govt. of Bihar.

Mishra: Madhubani and Chhapara have surname as Mishra. Muzaffarpur based SKMCH Medical college First principal Dr B P Mishra is from Chhapra .

Singh: This is a Surname of landlords and big Bhumihar Brahmin Zamindars. Moke-village-Bihar Konch-block.

Sinha: Many Singh People converted their name to Sinha,.Manoj Sinha, ex-MP, Gazipur.

Pandey: It is s available in Sahabad and Chhapara. Raghunath Pandey was native of Chhapara.

Shahi: They are found in Muzaffarpur and some part of Deoria and Gopalganj (Saran). Hathwa Naresh has Shahi as Surname, L P Shahi (Congress leader).

Shukla: They are also found in Vaishali

Dutt: Its taken from MAHIWAL or Mohyal; Sir Ganesh Dutt Singh

Prasad

Yajee: Bhumihars are from Bakhtiyarpur.
Karjee: Gangwa, Muzaffarpur is known for KARJEE bhumihars and Pt Yamuna Karjee was from Samastipur.

Dwivedi: Sitamadhi and West Champaran Land Lords Bhumihars have Dwivedi as surname.

Upadhyay: a few villages in Rohtas/ Kaimur have Bhumihars with Upadhyay as Surname.

Rai: Almost all Bhumihars from Eastern UP have this as surname.

Khawn: KHAN / KHAWN is also a surname of Bhumihars and even Maithil Brahmins have this as Surname.

[more info? In response to your comments]

Saras’ second flight successful

Bangalore saw history made, perhaps on April 18 when after two years, the second prototype of Saras, the indigenous 14-seater multi-role light transport aircraft, made its successful maiden flight .

Wing Cdr RS Makker was the chief test pilot for today’s flight. He was joined by Wing Cdr A Malik as the co-pilot and Wing Cdr MS Ramamohan as the flight engineer.

Saras, India’s first indigenous civil aircraft, is being developed by the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) , a constituent unit of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

All the personnel belong to the Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment (ASTE) of the IAF, which is the flight testing organisation for Saras.

The first prototype of Saras made its maiden flight on 29 May, 2004 and its formal inaugural flight on 22 August, the same year. The first prototype has so far completed 106 flights.

NAL said several improvements had been made in the second prototype, the most important ones being the incorporation of two higher power engines ~ PT 6A-67A with 1,200 horsepower each in place of the PT6A-66 of 850 HP each used in the first prototype – and new propellers of larger diameter.

Iqbal and teh sardar

On an entirely different note altogether ....


A Sardarji comes up to the Pakistan border on his motorbike.


He's got two large bags over his shoulders.


The guard Iqbal stops him and says, what's in the bags?',


'Sand,' answered the Sardarji.


Iqbal says, 'We'll just see about that.Get off the bike.


Iqbal's guards take the bags and rips them apart;empty them out and find nothing in them but sand.


He detains the Sardarji overnight and has the sand analyzed, only to discover that there is nothing but pure sand in the bags.


Iqbal releases the Sardarji, puts the sand into new bags, heaves them on to the Sardarji 's shoulders, and lets him cross the border.


A week later, the same thing happens.


Iqbal asks, 'What have you got?'


Sand,' says the Sardarji.


Iqbaldoes his thorough examination and discovers that the bags contain nothing but sand.


He gives the sand back to the Sardarji, and crosses the border on his bike.


This sequence of events is repeated every week for one year.


Finally, the Sardarji, doesn't show up and one day and the guard meets him in a 'dhaba' in Islamabad.


'Hey, Buddy,' says Iqbal, 'I know you are smuggling something. It's driving me crazy. It's all I think about...I can't sleep. Just between you and me, what are you smuggling?'


The Sardarji, sips his Lassi and says, 'motorbikes'. . . ..





Balle!! Balle!!

Bhumihar Brahmins

This series has been started in response to a request by Puja Upadhyay

In the mythological perspective, Bhumihar Brahmins identify themselves with Bhagwan Parashurama, who was a Brahmin and who is believed to have destroyed from the earth 21 times all those Kshatriyas who had failed or forgotten their duties and had become retrograde.

Pundit Yogendra Bhattacharya in his book "Hindu castes and sets" writes that Bhumihar Brahmin literally means landholder.

The descendants and associates of Parshuram are called Bhumihar brahmins in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Goud Brahmins in U.P. and Rajasthan, Chitpawan Brahmins in Maharashtra, Anavil Brahmins in Gujarat, Havyak Brahmins in Karnataka, Iyer and Iyengar Brahmins of Tamil Nadu, Namboothiri Brahmins in Kerala, Bengali Brahmins in Eastern India and Mohyals in the Punjab region. Their variants are found with different names all across the Indian sub-continent

The Bhumihar Brahmins are those Bhrahmins who held grants of land from the rulers for secular services. Whoever held a secular fief was Bhumihar. Where a Brahmin held such a tenure he was called a Bhumihar Brahmin.

The usual surnames/titles of the Bhumihar Brahmins are same as those of other Brahmins of Northern India. Many who performed ‘fighting’ roles , [evidently if you held land in the ancient and middle ages, you would have to defend it ] were considered fighters by caste few of them have Rajput surnames/titles.

1. Bhumihar Brahmins are agriculturists, a pursuit considered to be beneath the diginity of pure or orthodox Brahmins.

2. They have accepted and adopted in their chief families the secular title of Raja, Maharaja and so forth distinctions which high brahmins eschew.

3. The Bhumihar Brahmin only performs one half of the prescribed Brahmanical duties. They give alms, but do not receive them; they offer sacrifices to their idols, but do not perform the duties and offices of the priesthood; they read the scared writings, but do not teach them.

[More on this subject later]

HOLY MEN OF INDIA - THE UDASIN

SONS OF NANAK

The major sect of Udasin ascetics was originally not Shaiva -- nor even Hindu -- but belonged to the Sikh religion.

The sect was founded in the 16th century by a son of Guru Nanak -- himself the founder of Sikhism -- called Shrichandra.

The Udasin are therefore also known as Nanakputras, the 'sons of Nanak', and they revere the Grantha Saheb, the sacred book of the Sikhs.

They were excommunicated by the successor of Guru Nanak and gradually turned to Hinduism.

The picture shows Vital Das, an udasin baba, his body covered with ash.

The Udasin worship panchayatana, a combination of five deities, namely Shiva, Vishnu, the Sun, goddess Durga, and Ganesh.

Moreover they worship their founder-Guru Shrichandra.

Their philosophy is basically the monistic Vedanta as set forth by Shankara, and in other respects as well they closely resemble the Shaiva sannyasis.

Like all Shaiva sannyasis, the Udasin usually wear red or black cloth, apply ashes, have long hair in jata, and so on, but differ in details such as their woollen knitted caps and a small silver crescent ring in the right ear.

Furthermore, whenever they had to choose sides in fights with rivalling sects, they were on the side of the Shaivas

A DIIFERENT BEAT...

Vuelta

I know, perhaps, that other loves
Have trod this way
Where now the crab grass grows.
And as I gaze out over weeds
And rocks and thorns and brambles
There is a flame that sometimes briefly shows.

So here, I’ll slip the catch,
Draw back the bolt that bars the garden gate
For there’s a song, a heart, a thrush among the tangles.
Amidst the nettle leaves, the robin softly calls its mate
Soft through the mist the murm’ring memories flow …

Frank Krishner ,1992, Gangtok, Sikkim

Death of the Circus

The Gemini Circus was one of the most fabled of the Big Tent Businesses in India.

It was magnificent.

There were Lions and Tigers,

a panther or two, Zebras,

and Arabian horses,

and elephants

and a hippoand birds and dogs,

and monkeys, and bears

and performing SEALS

and the most amazing acts ever.
The animals were the stars of the show.

Oh, the thrill of watching the lady put her head into the lion’s mouth!!

Then Animal Rights struck.

Menaka Gandhi and her vegan brigade came to power as a tiny part of a coalition.
And naturally, she became the environment minister.
In the few months she was in power, she began murdering livelihoods.
Nobody protested because the people she targeted were politically weak and marginalised.
The snake-charmers.

The roadside monkey and bear acts.
And , then, of course, the circus.

Today the Gemini Circus is in town.

Hardly anyone goes.
Why? Because the only curiosity is a couple of scantily clad Russian ladies
Doing juggling and bicycle acts.

A couple of elephants are on show.

One plays ‘cricket’ and then there is the famous Doctor and nurse Gemini act that has somehow survived.

One and a half hours of ordinary juggling, the roadside chaps do a more exciting job.
Trapeze and Trampoline turns.
The motorcycles in the orb of death.
The kids yawn and say television is more exciting.

The ring master cracks his whip, at what?
Dogs, and a camel -- for pete’s sake!

The clowns are old and tired.
The artistes look, desperate.
The applause is very lukewarm.
And every night, the Big top goes half empty.


Where are the lions?
The Circus is dying.
Soon, the clowns may just quit as well.

The Incredible Holy Men of India

As for the Naga sadhus, their bellicose past is visible in their display of weaponry --

sticks, spears, swords and especially the trident --

but nowadays these have a mostly symbolic function.

Among the Nagas -- as this name would lead us to expect --

there are still many sadhus who walk about naked.

In other respects as well they represent the ideal image of the Sadhu as it was created thousands of years ago.

The Gorakh -nathis

The Gorakhnathis are commonly referred to as Yogis or Jogis.

Although in outlook very similar to the sannyasis,

the Jogis do not follow the Vedantic teachings of Shankara,

but adhere to the Tantric way taught by their Guru-founder Gorakhnath.

Still, they are devotees of Shiva,

albeit in his manifestation as Bhairava,

and they worship Hanuman and Dattatreya.

Bhairava...

[Once when man's wickedness overran all restraining boundaries, an infuriated Shiva transformed himself into a wrathful form known as Bhairava. Thus converted, Shiva began his rampage of destruction, killing, maiming, and ripping out hearts of humans and drinking blood, his menacing laughter thundering all around.
On behalf of humanity, Vishnu approached Bhairava and requested him to stop the slaughter. Bhairava said: "I will go on killing until my bowl is filled with enough blood to quench my thirst." It was common knowledge that Bhairava's bowl could never be filled and his thirst never quenched. His heart filled with compassion, Vishnu addressed Shiva thus: "Let me give you all the blood you need. You don't have to bleed mankind." So saying, Vishnu struck his forehead with his sword and let his blood spurt into Bhairava's bowl.Ages passed, Vishnu kept pouring his blood into the bowl, while Bhairava kept drinking it.

Bhairava finally realized that Vishnu was sacrificing himself for the sake of the world. Moved by Vishnu's generosity, he declared, "So long as you preserve the world, I will not seek to quench my thirst. But when the world becomes so corrupt that even you cannot sustain it, I will raise my trident and squeeze every drop of blood from the heart of man."]

Gorakhnath, being an incarnation of Shiva,

is worshipped as a deity by the Jogis,

and has a number of temples dedicated to him.

The Jogis are therefore often designated as 'Gorakhnathis',

or more simply 'Nath babas'.

Some Gorakhnathis are known as Kanphata.

This names refers to the huge earrings

which are one of their distinctive marks,

and to their unique practice of having the cartilage of their ears split

for the insertion of the earrings.

It is said that the practice of splitting the ears originated with Gorakhnath and that the designation Kanphata ( or ‘split-eared’) was a term of disrespect applied to these Yogis by Musalmans.

In the initiation ceremony,

a special Guru splits the central hollows of both ears with a two-edged Bhairavi knife.

The slits are plugged with neem-wood sticks ;

and after the wounds have healed, large rings (mudra) are inserted.

These are a symbol of the Yogi’s faith.

Some explain that in splitting the ear a nari (mystic channel) in the cartilage is cut,

thus assisting in the acquirement of yogic power.

The Yogi, wearing the mudra, becomes immortal.

[PICTURE]

Pagal Mauni Baba belongs to the Aghori section of the Gorakhnathis. As his name reveals, this baba is 'mad, divinely intoxicated' (pagal) and 'non-speaking' (mauni).

[pix by Adolphus, except representations of Hindu Gods]

Shiva and his holy men

Shiva is the god of Destruction as well as Creation,




which in a perpetual cyclical movement follow one another.





His body is covered with ashes, symbolic of death and regeneration.





Shiva is always naked, which symbolizes his primal condition, his non-attachment to the world.



His body shows feminine characteristics, like soft rounded contours and no beard, which is symbolic of his transcendence of opposites, the primal unity of polarities.

The Ganges springs from his long hair, his jata, as a fountain, splashing in the Himalayan mountains in the distance.




The crescent -- the new moon,



'Shiva's moon' -- on his forehead,



the cobra around his neck,



the white bull Nandi,




the river Ganges, and the full moon form a symbolic cluster which indicates Shiva's function as a fertility deity, a moon god.



On his forehead are three horizontal lines, painted with ashes, representing the three main gods, the three 'worlds', etc.


Around his neck is a garland of 108 beads, the 108 elements of material creation, and in his hand a rosary of 50 beads, the 50 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet.





The two large rings through his ears


are indicative of his extra-sensory perception.





He is seated on a tiger skin, a symbol of power,


showing his mastery over the animal world.


Shiva is often shown sitting in the cremation ground (shmashana), which symbolizes the correct attitude of a yogi to life.


Shamshana is the end of the pysical phase of life.

This is a prerequisite for every new creation.




The Holy Men


In appearance sadhus try to resemble the gods as they are known through ancient myths and popular legends, especially Shiva;


for sadhus he is the Master of Yogis.



Following his example, quite a few sadhus walk about naked,

symbolising their renunciation of the world of mortals,

and rub their body with ashes of their holy fires,

symbolic of death and rebirth.

Many sadhus wear extremely long hair [jata] again in emulation of Lord Shiva,

whose long strands of hair are regarded as the 'seat' of his supernatural powers.

One large and prominent Shaiva sect consists of the 'warrior ascetics',
or Nagas (the 'naked'),
who have existed since the prehistoric past.


Though sadhus in general can de characterized as peace-loving,

the Nagas used to be extremely militant,

fighting with rivalling sects,

the Muslims and later even the British.

They were excellent fighters for they had no fear of death.

Traces of this 'macho' attitude are still discernible today.





The photo [courtesy Adolphus]


High up in the icy Himalayas, but naked all the same,


Bhola Giri Naga baba blows the serpentine horn,


called nagphani, that is, 'cobra-hood',


producing one piercing note.


This instrument is related to the cobra (naga),


the intimate companion of Lord Shiva,


always coiled around his neck





The Naga sect is subdivided into Akharas, i.e. 'regiments', like an army.

[tomorrow: Akharas]

Extreme Devotion -the cult of Shiva 1

Incredible India: on the one hand you have these ascetics who represent the highest and most revered forms of spirituality, and on the other you have a peculiar Hindu narrow, middle class, out-dated British slave mentality of 'shame' when it comes to outlook on sex, sexuality and the human body.

"When the ghosts read the writing on the skulls Shiva wears around his neck, they know, 'This one is Brahma, this one isVishnu, this one is Indra, this is death,' as they play happilywith them, Shiva smiles, he laughs, our god--Basava, vacana no.537 translated in A.K. Ramanujan.

The Aghora sub-sect of Shaivites represents one of the most extreme and demanding paths among sadhus.

Aghora is another name for the god Shiva and literally means "Not Terrible."

By challenging all sense of dark and light, good and bad, proper and improper, aghori sadhus believe the inherent Divine nature of the universe will be revealed.

Therefore, these sadhus put themselves through many tests; spend most of their time around the cremation grounds, drink and eat from a human skull, demonstrate their transcendence of pain and non-attachment by hoisting bricks by their penis and sometimes, consume decomposed human flesh or their own excrement.

This picture shows an Ahgori sadhu drinking from a skull.

Aghora

At the Left Hand of GodGhora is darkness, the darkness of ignorance.

Aghora means light, the absence of darkness.

Under the Tree of Knowledge is an Aghori,

a follower of the path of Aghora.

He has gone beyond ignorance

thanks to the Flame of Knowledge

which billows from the funeral pyre.

The funeral pyre is the ultimate reality, a continual reminder that everyone has to die.

Knowledge of the ultimate reality of Death has taken the Aghori beyond the Eight Snares of Existence: lust, anger, greed, delusion, envy, shame, disgust and fear which bind all beings.

The Aghori plays with a human skull,

astonished by the uselessness of limited existence,

knowing the whole world to be within him though he is not in the world.

His spiritual practices have awakened within him the power of Kundalini, which takes the form of the goddess dancing on the funeral pyre: Smashan Tara.

He is bewildered to think that all is within him, not external to him; that he sees it not with the physical eyes but with the sense of perception. The Flame of Knowledge is that which preserves life, the Eternal Flame, the Supreme Ego, the Motherhood of God which creates the whole Maya of the universe and thanks only to Whose grace the Aghori has become immortal.

[Come back tomorrow for more]

CORPSE EATING HOLY MEN

I am a dog-eating, beer guzzling, backpacking North East Indian of very mixed ancestry.

Shocked?

Why?
Because I dine on canines stuffed with rice and country wine?

Well, what would you say if I introduce you to some other Indians.

These guys drink out of skulls.
They even roast decayed human corpses.
They are not averse to pulling on Charas and hashish and marijuana.

Talk about golden showers on hard core gay porno sites?
Well, these chaps actually eat their own faeces…

And, by the way, they walk around as naked as the day they were born.
Letting it all hang out.

Should they be arrested?
You crazy?

No policeman or politician will dare lay a hand on them.

Will decent Hindu Middleclass people drive them out?
Preposterous!

Hindus will be proud if one of them touches lays his feet on their head.

Welcome to the world of the Naga Sadhu
The naked ascetic
Also called the AGHORI

Come back here tomorrow for more….

Why Can't Indians respect Naga Culture?

One of the main reasons for Naga insurgency is the lack of respect that Indians have for the non-Brahman cultures.

The Nagas and other North eastern tribes are considered to be ‘outsiders’.

Indians call Nagas 'dog-eaters'.

When your culture and your language isn’t accepted by the mainstream, then how can you have any sympathy for it?

Here’s something about the Naga homeland. It’s sketchy.

Nagaland is a land of festivals.

All the tribes celebrate their distinct seasonal festivals with a pageantry of colour and a feast of music. Each tribe regards its festivals sacrosanct and participation in celebration is compulsory. They celebrate their distinct seasonal festivals with a pageantry of colour and music.

Most of these festivals revolve round agriculture, it being the main focus of Naga society.

Over 85 percent population of Nagaland is directly dependent on agriculture and lives in the numerous villages peppered around Nagaland, most situated on high hill tops or slopes overlooking verdant valleys watered by countless streams.

Naga society and culture is deeply rooted in nature and its preservation. Even the agricultural systems are finely attuned to natural rhythms.

Although some religious and spiritual sentiments are inter-woven with secular rites and rituals, the pre-dominant theme of the festivals in Nagaland is an offering of prayers to a Supreme Being, which has different names in different Naga dialects.

At these festivals, the spirit of Gods are propitiated with sacrifices by the village Shaman for a bountiful harvest either before the sowing or on the eve of harvest.