The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their
Today
is Ganesh Chaturthi, and with everyone writing about Ganesha in some way or the other, I thought
I should do a post too, but related to something I saw on my recent visit to
Jaisalmer. Are you now confused? And wondering what connection Ganesha has to
Govardhan and that too, Jaisalmer? Well, then, first, let me show you what I am
talking about….
And
now that you have seen it, let me draw your attention to the ‘a’ in the title. I am not talking
about ‘The Govardhan Mountain’ but ‘a Govardhan’, and therein lies the
difference! This Govardhan is a stone, a sort of marker, identifying a spot –
usually water, in the desert. These markers were extensively used by the
Paliwal community in Jaisalmer, to identify special sites. It could be the
presence of water, or mark a tunnel, or a site for a temple. These stones were
usually aligned with the directions of the compass, and had the figures of
deities inscribed on them, usually, Ganesha, Vishnu, Hanuman, and another
figure, which could be Rama or Krishna.
Here are some other views of the same Govardhan I showed you before…
Its certainly Vishnu on the left. Am not sure of the one on the right |
This pair looks like Rama and Hanuman. What do you think? |
An
interesting tidbit, wouldn’t you agree? Thanks to the folks at Suryagarh for pointing them
out and telling me about them!
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