Women of Pride unravelled a lot of questions before proceeding to respond to them, at least in part .There was so much about the devadasis that I did not know. Often in books I read, the history of these temple dancers was cheerfully summed up in a couple of sentences. The devadasis were nityasumangali - perpetually married. They were honoured and revered, but as time went on, they began to lose their patronage. They became associated with loose women, with no morals. Consequently, the entire system of being wedded to a God was abolished. Voilà, you have a history that begins in legends and ends in the 20th century.Who were these women? If they were married to gods, how did the lineage continue? If they were 'pure' and suddenly became corrupted by changing values, what constitutes purity and what constitutes corruption? What does it mean to outlaw a caste? Is it the same as … [Read more...]
Ideas and Institutions in Medieval India
Paperback ISBN 978-81-250-5174-9 Hard cover ISBN 978-81-250-5175-6 Author: Dr. Radhika Seshan (Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Pune) Publisher: Orient BlackSwan … [Read more...]
Counterblast to Tobacco
While researching the history of the Stuarts, I discovered some delightful pieces of information.Elizabeth I did not trust tobacco - it made her sick. But she was also intrigued by it. Once, she bet Raleigh that he would be unable to tell her the weight of the smoke.Raleigh was, always, a performer. He weighed an ounce of tobacco and cheerfully smoked it. When he had finished, he weighed the ashes. The difference between the two weights was, he declared, the weight of the smoke.Laughing, Elizabeth acknowledged defeat, paid up and commented that she had often seen men turn gold into smoke, but this was the first time she'd seen a man turn smoke into gold.The rational James I disapproved of smoking too, but there's a reason why he's called the 'wisest fool of Christendom'.He published an anonymous pamphlet titled Counterblast to Tobacco, where he said that tobacco was 'loathsome … [Read more...]
Experiences on Stage III
Performing in Chidambaram is an experience that any dancer would cherish. Mythologically, it is the place where Lord Shiva came and danced the Ananda Tandava, at the request of the sages. The golden temple of Chidambaram finds its way into many traditional songs, thanks to its splendour and history.When we danced there, one of the pieces we performed was, once again, the much-loved Draupadi Vastra Haran. As usual, I was Dusshasan; this time, my teacher was Shakuni. We were on stage, in the middle of the drama when the music suddenly skipped back. Dancers on stage must never show nervousness, we knew that. The problem was that we had no idea how far back the music had skipped.That's when the real drama began. Duryodhan turns to Dusshasan and asks in dance parlance, "Where are we? What part of the music is this?"Dusshasan calmly replies, "We have a lot of … [Read more...]
Raghurajpur
If you have a day in Puri, visit Raghurajpur. You can see the Konark temple in history textbooks; you can't see the little craft village with all its passion and creativity.Raghurajpur is famous for painting on Tussar silk and for its palm-leaf engraving. Watching the process of engraving palm leaves was fascinating, as was noticing the attention to detail in each engraving. It was magical to see a splotch of ink on a palm leaf being transformed into a beautiful engraving that would last four hundred years.Even so, more appealing than all this are the artists themselves. Yes, they try and sell everything to you, but the moment you buy something very small and show them that you love their art, they open their hearts to you. They joyfully show you their masterpieces even though they know you are in absolutely no position to buy them. They truly are artists, showing you their work just … [Read more...]