Quilts of Lucinda Ward Honstain and G A Kulkarni...जी ए कुलकर्णी

Today July 10 2015 is 92nd Birth Anniversary of G A Kulkarni



Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All-Too-Human:

"The thinker or artist whose better self has fled into his works feels an almost malicious joy when he sees his body and spirit slowly broken into and destroyed by time; it is as if he were in a corner, watching a thief at work on his safe, all the while knowing that it is empty and that all his treasures have been rescued."


जी ए कुलकर्णी:

"...-ही सारी माणसे, त्यांनी आयुष्याला केलेले मायेचे स्पर्श, त्यांच्या या स्पर्शाचे लहान गोल आरसे बसवलेले वस्त्र पांघरून आपण येथपर्यंत निभावत आलो!"

('स्वामी',1973, 'पिंगळा वेळ', 1977)

Vault, Slate's history blog informed in March 2014:

"Lucinda Ward Honstain, resident of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, pieced and sewed this quilt in 1867. It depicts her view of life before, during, and right after the Civil War...In her design, Honstain juxtaposed personal and political events..."

 courtesy: International Quilt Study Center & Museum, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 
and Slate.com

Mahabharat महापीडिया....Mahapedia is NOT the Sum of Just Male Knowledge

William Dalrymple, review of Charles Allen's 'The Buddha and the Sahibs':

"...Thus we hear again the wonderful story of how Jones mastered Sanskrit, a language that he soon realised was "more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either. I am in love with the gopis, charmed with Krishna and an enthusiastic admirer of Rama. Arjun, Bhima and the warriors of the Mahabharata appear greater in my eyes than Ajax or Achilles appeared when I first read the Iliad..." 

Jenny Kleeman, New Statesman, May 26 2015:

"Wikipedia is “like a sausage”, its founder, Jimmy Wales, told a reporter in 2004. “You might like the taste of it, but you don’t necessarily want to see how it’s made.” Back then, the free online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit was an exciting new, scrappy, collaborative utopia. Now it is the most influential source of information in the world...

...Yet when it comes to how it is made, Wikipedia is a colossal failure. Only a tiny proportion of users now edit articles and the overwhelming majority of those editors are male. The most recent survey by the Wikimedia Foundation, the charity that supports but does not control Wikipedia, found that 91 per cent of the editors are More optimistic surveys have put the figure at 84 per cent – but still, Wikipedia has a huge diversity problem men.. Instead of being the egalitarian “sum of all human knowledge”, as Wales had originally hoped, the English version of Wikipedia is mostly the sum of male knowledge..."

Wendy Doniger is a very interesting writer....She captures Mahabharata's, indeed India's uniqueness thus:

"...But the Mahabharata is not the head of a brahmin philosophy accidentally stuck onto a body of non-brahmin folklore, like the heads and bodies of people in several Indian myths, or the mythical beast invoked by Woody Allen, which has the body of a lion and the head of a lion, but not the same lion. True, it was somewhat like an ancient Wikipedia, to which anyone who knew Sanskrit, or who knew someone who knew Sanskrit, could add a bit here, a bit there. But the powerful intertextuality of Hinduism ensured that anyone who added anything to the Mahabharata was well aware of the whole textual tradition behind it and fitted his or her own insight, or story, thoughtfully into the ongoing conversation. However diverse its sources, for several thousand years the tradition has regarded it as a conversation among people who know one another’s views and argue with silent partners. It is a contested text, a brilliantly orchestrated hybrid narrative with no single party line on any subject. It was contested not only within the Hindu tradition, where concepts of dharma were much debated, but also by the rising rival traditions of Buddhism and Jainism..."

(courtesy introduction to 'Mahabharata: A Modern Retelling' by Carole Satyamurti)

Mahabharata is like Wikipedia....How I love this analogy....Next time I edit a Wikipedia page, I will feel different...a part of lineage...


Now, it's impossible to know how many women  contributed to Mahapedia but

"...The text depicts women with powers and privileges they would seldom have again in Hindu literature. Women with multiple sexual partners appear with surprising frequency in the Mahabharata; the text offers us, in four consecutive generations, positive images of women who had several sexual partners (sometimes premarital) seriatim....many of the Mahabharata women are a feminist’s dream (or a sexist’s nightmare): smart, aggressive, steadfast, eloquent, tough as nails, and resilient..."

 Notice: Wikipedia volumes are standing at the back

 Artist: Farley Katz, The New Yorker, June 2012

The Satavahanas and Marilyn Monroe: The Body Is Meant To Be Seen

"...'A safflower!' they shouted,
Pointing to the nail-mark
On her breast, and laughed
When she tried to brush it." 145

('The Absent Traveller: Prakrit Love Poetry from the Gathasaptasati of Satavahana Hala' by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra)
 
"…स्तन हे मातृत्वाचे प्रतीक असल्यामुळे त्यांच्या विवस्त्र प्रदर्शनात शिष्टाचाराचा भंग होत नाही असा प्राचीन शिल्पकारांचा संकेत होता (Altekar: Dress and Ornaments of Hindu Women : Journal of the Benares Hindu University: Vol II: No 3: p 408)..."

('हाल सातवाहनाची  गाथा सप्तशती' संपादक: स आ जोगळेकर, 1956)

डॉ. मधुकर केशव ढवळीकर:
 "…उच्चकुलीन स्त्रिया बहुधा उत्तरीय वापरत, परंतु सर्वसाधारण स्त्रियांचा शरीराचा वरचा भाग अनावृत्त असे…"
(सातवाहनकालातील संपन्न गृहपती, 'महाराष्ट्राची कुळकथा', 2011)

दुर्गा  भागवत, 'वनकथा ', निसर्गोत्सव , 1996:
 "… मग  मी मुलांना  दिलेला  खाऊ  त्यांनी  खाल्ला . मग बायका जमा झाल्या . साऱ्यांची कमरेपोतरची  शरीरे अनावृत्त . पण ती अनावृत्त  स्तनमंडळे  खरेच फार सुरेख होती . लहानसर पण अतिशय बांधेसूद . एकीने मला विचारले, "तुम्ही चोळी कशाला घालता?" हा प्रश्नच अनपेक्षित होता . मी गोंधळले . मग त्या साऱ्या जणी हसल्या . त्यातील एक प्रौढा  माझ्या जवळ आली . निःसंकोच पणे  माझ्या छातीवरून हात फिरवीत ती म्हणाली, "पाहा, असं  होतं . आमची छाती कशी घट्ट आहे नि हिची  पाहा कशी कापसासारखी!" मग ती मला म्हणाली , "बघ बाई , तुमची सीता  पण वनात  आली. तिनं आमच्यासारखी  सुरेख 'दुध' (स्तन ) हवी होती ना? चोळी टाकली. तिची वक्षःस्थळं भरदार झाली. आवडली आमच्या रावणाला. पळवली तिला. मग दुसरी म्हणाली , "खरं च  की ते, चोळी घातली  की छाती खचते …"
  
For me year 2015 has been that of Gaha Sattasai- I am reading it for the first time in both Marathi and English- and hence of Satavahanas.

Fresco of woman with flower offerings, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, circa 5 CE

I saw the following image on Facebook in February 2015 and I felt how Ms. Monroe would have enjoyed her stay when the Satavahanas ruled.

Imagine her in the fresco above!

picture courtesy: FB page dedicated to Ms. Monroe

Poor Horse Didn't Cause Violence: Ashvamedha

I often read about horse of Ashvamedha in my childhood. My idea of it was close to the picture below. "The hose was then let loose and the army followed it."

But it was confusing...surely the empire building did not depend on the random horse movements.

Karen Armstrong in her latest book clarifies it:

"...A stabled horse will always make straight for home, however, so the army was in fact driving the horse into territory that the king was intent on conquering. Thus in India, as in any agrarian civilization, violence was woven into the texture of aristocratic life..."

('Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence', 2014)

So the poor horse was not really free to roam but was being driven  "into territory that the king was intent on conquering".

A load was lifted off my mind.

It's also important to add that sanitized versions of stories I read did not mention the horse slaughter ritual at the end.

courtesy: Amar Chitra Katha title 'The Sons of Rama'

पिवळीच मी पाकोळी की....Blue Mormon Gets the Recognition

There is no butterfly in classical Indian literature, claims the late Durga Bhagwat ( दुर्गा भागवत) in her book 'Nisargotsav'  (“पिवळीच मी पाकोळी की”/ निसर्गोत्सव, 1996).


"...क्रौंचवध पाहून ज्याचा शोक श्लोकत्व पावला, त्या वाल्मिकीला फुलपाखरू दिसले नाही, मग इतरांना तरी कसे दिसावे?...आणि व्यासाचे उच्छिष्ट खाणारे आम्ही? व्यासाची प्रज्ञा तर घालवून बसलोच, पण आमची प्रतिभाही आटली… मानवी अंतरंग असो किंवा बाह्य सृष्टी असो, प्रकृतीचे आकलन, व तेही सूक्ष्म असल्याशिवाय,  कल्पना उंचावत नाहीत,  भावना संयत होत नाहीत. विभूषित होत नाहीत. आणि म्हणूनच फुलपाखरांचा अभाव हा भारतीय साहित्याच्या अनेक अभांवाचा प्रातिनिधिक अभाव आहे असे मला वाटते… "

She asks if some one like sage Valmiki, who was inspired to write the Ramayana as he watched the killing of a male krouncha bird out of a pair, never 'saw' a butterfly, how can others see it?

But luckily, the government of Maharashtra has seen one.

"...Maharashtra has become the first State in the country to have a ‘State butterfly.’ The BJP-led government has declared the Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor) as the State butterfly. The decision was taken at a meeting of the State Wildlife Board in Mumbai on Monday.

The Blue Mormon is a large, swallowtail butterfly found primarily in Sri Lanka and India, mainly restricted to the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, South India and coastal belts. It may occasionally be spotted in the Maharashtrian mainland between Vidarbha and Western Maharashtra..."

 (The Hindu, June 23 2015)

 Courtesy: The Hindu

p.s Durgabai finally found the butterfly in a folksong. This is how she describes her pleasure:

 courtesy: Dilip Prakashan (दिलीप प्रकाशन) and the current copyright holders of the late Durgabai's work

When In Doubt: Blame the Boy

Today June 21 2015 is Father's Day

courtesy: FB page and copyright owner of The Simpsons

प्रिसन छगन?...Another Defence Mechanism for Mr. Bhujbal

लोकसत्ता, June 17 2015:

"'सदन'भुजबळ!: छापासत्रात डोळे दिपविणारी मालमत्ता समोर:
महात्मा फुले यांचे नाव घेत सामाजिक समतेचा लढा देणारे 'समाजसेवक', राष्ट्रवादी काँग्रेसचे बिनीचे नेते आणि राज्याचे माजी उपमुख्यमंत्री छगन भुजबळ यांच्याविरुद्धच्या चौकशीची चक्रे मंगळवारी अधिक वेगाने फिरू लागली. भुजबळ आणि कुटुंबियांच्या मुंबई, ठाणे, पुणे, नाशिक, लोणावळा येथील विविध मालमत्तांची लाचलुचपत प्रतिबंधक विभागाने झडती सुरू केली आणि एकेकाळी फूल बाजारात फुले विकणाऱ्या भुजबळ यांच्या कुटुंबाची राजकारणात शिरल्यानंतरची आश्चर्यचकित करणारी भरभराट महाराष्ट्रासमोर अधिकृतपणे उघड झाली. मंगळवारी दिवसभर चाललेल्या या छाप्यांनंतर भुजबळ यांच्या मालमत्तेचा तपशील लाचलुचपत प्रतिबंधक विभागानेच उघड केला. आलिशान महाल, बंगले, इमारती, सदनिका, विस्तीर्ण भूखंड, ऐतिहासिक मोलाच्या प्राचीन वस्तू असा डोळे दिपविणारा खजिना या तपासात उघड झाला..."

लोकसत्ता, June 18 2015:

"...तूर्त तात्पर्य हे की एका भुजबळांवर कारवाई झाली म्हणून इतके सारे बाहेर आले. पण म्हणून ते एकमेव असे आहेत वा होते असे नाही. त्यांच्यावर कारवाई करणे हे सर्वासाठीच सोयीचे असल्याने ती होत आहे. यावरून, आता अशी कारवाई सर्वावरच होईल इतका आशावाद बाळगणे भाबडेपणाचे ठरेल. तशी ती होणे गरजेचे आहे, हे मान्य. पण तसे होत नाही तोपर्यंत भुजबळांच्या जमीनजुमल्याकडे आणि संपत्तीकडे पाहात छगन सदन तेजोमय..असेच म्हणत बसावे लागेल."

लोकसत्ता, June 19 2015:

"...या सरकारकडून कधी जेलमध्ये टाकले जाते याची आम्हीही वाट पाहात आहोत, अशी संतप्त प्रतिक्रिया राष्ट्रवादी काँग्रेसचे अध्यक्ष शरद पवार यांनी गुरुवारी व्यक्त केली..."

Apart from a million other defense mechanisms available to some one like Mr. Bhujbal in India's democracy- 'heart attack' to 'he is not me' (तो मी नव्हेच)- here is one more:

Artist: Paul Noth, The New Yorker, June 2015

If Indeed Napoleon Never Set a Foot in 'Waterloo'....

Today June 18 2015 is 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo.

Bernard Coppens, a Belgian historian and former Waterloo resident: 

"Napoleon never set a foot in Waterloo—it’s a fact.”

We are observing 100th anniversary of World War I (1914-1918) since last year and the most relevant word that comes to mind while doing so is slaughter.

200 years ago on that Sunday too thousands of men were slaughtered.  Lest we forget, thousands of horses too died.

Most of the Battle of Waterloo took place a few miles south of real Waterloo, in Braine-l’Alleud and Plancenoit. The battle got its name because the victor, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, penned his official report from his Waterloo headquarters.

I have also been curious about how and when the news of the battle reached shores of India.

How did, if at all, the Maratha's, themselves a dying (if not already dead) empire, learn about it? After all  Wellesley had earlier won a decisive victory over the Maratha Confederacy at the Battle of Assaye in 1803.

One of the most interesting commentary, I have read, on the battle has come from Andrew Roberts in '
Smithsonian Magazine':

"...If Napoleon had remained emperor of France for the six years remaining in his natural life, European civilization would have benefited inestimably. The reactionary Holy Alliance of Russia, Prussia and Austria would not have been able to crush liberal constitutionalist movements in Spain, Greece, Eastern Europe and elsewhere; pressure to join France in abolishing slavery in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean would have grown; the benefits of meritocracy over feudalism would have had time to become more widely appreciated; Jews would not have been forced back into their ghettos in the Papal States and made to wear the yellow star again; encouragement of the arts and sciences would have been better understood and copied; and the plans to rebuild Paris would have been implemented, making it the most gorgeous city in the world.

Napoleon deserved to lose Waterloo, and Wellington to win it, but the essential point in this bicentenary year is that the epic battle did not need to be fought—and the world would have been better off if it hadn’t been."

'The Field of Waterloo', 1818

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 

courtesy: The New York Review of Books & Tate Britain

Jenny Uglow writes about it:

"But his great painting, The Field of Waterloo, of 1818, shows a scene of slaughter rather than triumph. Here the exuberance of all the satirical prints and dashing military watercolors is forgotten. Instead the opposing nations mingle and the divisions of rank vanish, as the women hunt by the light of a flaming torch, to find those they love among the tangled bodies."

That Robin Out There

The Guardian reported on June 10 2015 that "Robin wins vote for UK's national bird".

Picture courtesy: Lisa Geoghegan/Alamy and The Guardian

"Despite being a seemingly friendly bird, the robin is hugely territorial and very defensive of its territory and I presume that reflects us as an island nation that we will stand our ground,,,The robin is known for being openly aggressive towards birds it competes with for territory and food, and can kill them on occasion..." (David Lindo)

No wonder the seemingly simple task in the picture below is not that easy. Notice the number of people engaged, four, in driving it away and two are rushing with a ladder!

Artist: Peter Arno, The New Yorker, 5 April 1930

(This is the second time the cartoon above appears on this blog. For its first usage, dated December 13 2006, read this.)

Aesop's The Fox and The Lion: 21st Century Version

This is what Aesop wrote many centuries ago:

"A fox who had never seen a lion one day met one, and was so terrified at the sight of him that he was ready to die with fear. After a time he met him again, and was still rather frightened, but not nearly so much as he had been when he met him first. But when he saw him for the third time he was so far from being afraid that he went up to him and began to talk to him as if he had known him all his life."

 This classic story is accompanied by the following pictures in 'Aesop's Fables (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)', 2003:

Artist: Arthur Rachham

Now, see this picture from the story in Daily Mail dated May 17 2015:

 "Fantastic Mr Fox leaves pride of lions licking their wounds after game reserve battle - and even bites one lioness on the nose!"

Picture courtesy: Graham Dyer,  Barcroft Media,  Daily Mail

Fox can't stand in style,  like in the picture in the middle, because its spine and legs are injured by by a member of the pride. But it's standing its ground alright.