R. Radhakrishnan's Blog, page 14

Snapshots from History: Unknown tales from Indian Independence. The revolt of the saints.

As a child, I watched the movie Anand Math many times. The movie made years before I was born, touched a chord in many of us. And of course, the song Vande Matram sung by Lata and composed by Hemant Kumar is an evergreen hit. It still raises goosebumps when I hear it.

The movie was based on a Bengali novel written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and the song is part of the novel. Most of us enjoy the movie and the book but never give a thought to the events on which the story is based. Many o...

Bhakti: Soyrabai, a poet of the underprivileged.

Everyone has heard of Chokhamela, at least in Maharashtra, the devotee of Vittal who was denied entry into the Pandharpur temple because of his caste and whose bones kept saying Vittala Vittala even after he died. He was buried at the footsteps of the temple and is a much-revered saint today.

Lesser known is his wife Soyrabai who was also a devotee of Vittal and a poet in her own right. They lived in the thirteenth century near Pandharpur.

The Bhakti movement is supposed to be egalitaria...

Bhakti: Andal, Saint, poet, consort of Vishnu.

Bronze idol of Andal.

The Nayanars were the chosen of Shiva. They sang the praises of Lord Shiva.

The Alwars were the chosen of Lord Vishnu. They sang the songs of Vishnu and spread the Bhakti cult in Vaishnav tradition far and wide.

There are 12 Alwars as per tradition in Tamil Nadu. Andal is the only woman Alwar among them and is one of the most beloved among all the poet saints of Tamil Nadu.

She is considered an incarnation of Bhudevi, a personification of Earth and an aspect of...

Bhakti : Chandakeshvara Nayanar

In many Shiva temples in the south, you will find people clapping or snapping their fingers in front of a figure depicted in deep meditation. The person is shown sitting in a meditative pose looking toward the main temple. He also carries an Axe!

A saint in deep meditation who carries an axe and why do people clap in front of him? This is his story.

Chandesha was born in a brahmin family in a rural household. As a young boy, he would wander the fields around. To give him some responsibili...

Bhakti: The story of Kannappa Nayanar.

In Bhakti there is no formality. There are no rituals, no go-between. There is just you and your devotion to your God. This touched a chord among the people and Bhakti became a mass movement. The story of Kannapa Nayanar illustrates this the best.

This is my version of it.

Before the war, in the Mahabharata, Arjuna went to the Himalayas seeking divine weapons. There he was fortunate to meet Lord Shiva, and get his blessings and the divine weapon Pashupata from Shiva.

Arjuna had met...

The Bhakti Movement: The search for Spirituality, the story of Namdev and the Shivling.

Hinduism or Sanatan Dharma is thousands of years old. It has faced many ups and downs and constantly faced challenges. Many other ancient faiths vanished over this long period.

Hinduism survived and survives as it keeps changing and assimilating.

Temples became political statements and were not just places of worship. Temples spoke about the power of the ruler and became places of social contact.

People are not divided by caste, the main difference is being rich or poor. The rich ...

Snapshots from History: A forgotten people. Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka.

History tells us about the glory of rulers and the wisdom of leaders. It talks about the rise of civilisations, and the fall of empires but history is also about the pain of the common people. Most of the time this pain is swept under the carpet ir lost in the shine of the rulers.

I went to Nelliyampathy, in the Palakkad district of Kerala, and stayed inside the forest range in an isolated bungalow.

We were on a jeep safari in the late evening on a forest path. It was getting dark and...

Mythological Multiverse, Ravana and Mahabali.

Multiverse is the flavour of the day and Marvel’s Multiverse movies are all the rage. But the multiverse is not a new idea, it existed in Indian Mythology for ages. There are many stories where characters from one epic land in another. There are multiple worlds and many versions. Reincarnation itself is somewhat of a multiverse idea.

There is a little-known story about Mahabali and Ravana which is an example of this. My retelling of the story goes like this.

Ravana was at the height of his...

The bungalow in the forest

When I was a child the forest was a fantasy fairyland. In urban Mumbai, my vision of a forest was built on what I read, mostly a romanticised version in the Phantom and Tarzan comics.

A jungle was a fun place where you had adventures and yet all modern conveniences.

Later visits and safaris only reinforced this idea. In Gir, we would stay at a resort in Junagadh with a swimming pool and 24 hours room service. The forest visit would be in a carefully curated jeep safari. The same was true ...

Karna and Indra

I walked to meet the dawn

Golden rays on my brow

The war on the horizon

The brothers five in my sight

Years of slights, humiliation

Time now to pay in full.

My bow was stringed 

Arrows sharp and straight

The day had come 

Retribution!

The Sun spoke in my mind

Retribution and revenge  

Come around in circles

But I was firm for a fight.

An old man on the steps

Asking for alms in my way

My armour and earrings

He wanted my life ...