As people who know me know, every now and I then I dust off my saffron robes, sit in the Padmasan and start pontificating on the wisdom of the sages of yore. It is true that I do it even without any active encouragement but, if I can find someone who encourages me, my enthusiasm is boundless.
Alka Narula is my major source of encouragement in this area. This time, I have written a guest post for her - a lesser known tale from the Mahabharat (known only to people like me who delve in detail into the epics OR people who patiently sat through all of Ramanand Sagar's serials based on epics.)
The tale of the Rishi Uttang is a surprising exposition of what our epics really had to say about caste discrimination. You can read it here - The Tale of Uttang Rishi
I posted a comment yesterday, but it might have disappeared because my connection just went dead as soon as I hit "publish." I like this post, Suresh because once again it highlights the necessity to really deepen our study of these marvels of our ancient literature if we really want to chart out a better future for our collective life. Any meaningful transformation of the minds and hearts can happen only when the core of our collective being stays rooted in our timeless tradition. If we take away the rooted-ness we merely float around between this or that 'reformist' agenda, without getting anywhere really. Thanks for this post!
ReplyDeleteTrue, Beloo! I am also generally vexed with the fact that Indians tend to concentrate on what they see as negatives and vilify the entire culture of India. Epics are true to their times - and, thus, the incidents in the epics will have elements that people can use to sanctify certain ills that continue to date. The religion, itself, does not sanctify those ills and such portions of the literature which oppose the ills are conveniently forgotten/ignored.
DeleteNice one, Suresh. Think I have not heard this one before. I already commented once. Somehow it seems to have disappeared.
ReplyDeleteRamanand Sagar - in his version of the Mahabharat - did portray this tale. Since it is not a part of the main story, it does not get much prominence normally
DeleteI read the story but somehow forgot about it. It seems so relevant even now...
ReplyDeleteMost tales in our epics are timeless
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