Upon nearer inspection, it seems that sanatana dharma could, at greatest, be one of many small tributaries of the huge and perpetually self-renewing waters of the mighty cultural stream of the Hindu faith in India. When that is identified, not simply the Party spokespersons, however mates who pleasure themselves on their fashionable pondering, will develop agitated. They declare that the time period “sanatana” comes from Sanskrit, the language of our ancestors, and when appended to dharma, it might probably solely denote the Hindu faith: An unchanging and disciplined stream for which the proper parameters and rituals had been created centuries in the past by our Smritis and Puranas and Dharmashastras. Only a “nastik Lefty”, they are saying, would consider in any other case!

There isn’t a lot level in telling them that the Sanskrit time period “nastik” doesn’t translate to “irreligious non-believer”, however a heretic who questions all institutionalised knowledge about God. Rewind to the Seventh-century Sanskrit treatise by one Kulluk Bhatt on the Manusmriti. The time period “nastik”, Bhatt explains, is used to explain those that don’t consider in an afterlife as per the Vedas and Upanishads. They could subsequently be thought-about ved bahya, these standing past the pale of the Vedas. And not all ved bahyas are unacceptable. Among the appropriate non-believers, Bhatt lists 4 branches of Buddhism, the Charvakas, followers of Kapil’s Sankhya and Jaimini’s Mimamsa philosophies, and final however not the least, the Digambar sect of the Jains. Thus, there are two classes of astiks: The pure astiks, who consider within the Vedas and Smritis, and those that query vedic knowledge however are acceptable as having a degree. In time, the astiks, within the method of the Janata Party, have introduced forth their very own teams of dissenters over issues starting from sure philosophical interpretations to meals taboos, every day rituals and the centrality of sure gods.

Then, within the Eighth century got here the nice Vedic scholar Shankaracharya. He propounded the summary philosophy of Advaita for ascetics like himself however he had one other mission, particularly driving out the Buddhists who had lengthy dominated the scene and cornered state patronage. So, for the laity, he mixed the Shaivite and Vaishnavite pantheons and laid down the norms of Panchayatana Puja (worship of gods in each camps). He created the Badrinath Dham and restored Kedarnath as a holy centre of Sanatana Hindu Dharma and laid down the fundamentals for a Brahmin priest-led ritualistic sample of worship.

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Post Shankaracharya, Sanatana Dharma continued to evolve and diversify. The tales of those evolutionary adjustments come to us largely by means of varied literary sources. But in all this crafting of narratives and counter-narratives, the precise historical past of the continual co-mingling of religions and languages and rituals within the Subcontinent acquired omitted or was forgotten.

On the occasional studying of students from different nations within the Subcontinent, we could likelihood upon a quip just like the one by Sri Lankan scholar Gamini Salgado, the primary non-white professor of English in England, writing about Buddhism in Sri Lanka: “Buddhism has no god of its own, so through the centuries we have borrowed a few from Hinduism, because it is difficult for men to live without doing homage to the gods, even if they don’t believe in them…” And to assume Hindus could have fortunately borrowed the cave structure for the Udayagiri caves from the Buddhists’ Ajanta and Ellora caves, the place the first-ever statue of Ganesh sits! By the best way, Ganesha is initially a Yaksha deity carefully related to Shiva. Then there have been the Yavanas, the Ionian Greeks. One of the Hindus’ earliest temples in Besnagar stands subsequent to the Greek Heliodorous pillar devoted to Vasudeva. Our historical past actually hides many little jokes!

In the historical past of assembly, clashing and quiet co-mingling of religions in India lies the seeds of our syncretic Dharma. In the Shatapatha Brahmana (Eighth-Sixth century BCE), we discover the story of 1 Videgha Madhava, an Aryan priest, arriving on the banks of the river Ganges, and being made to attend for permission to set foot in Kashi, the Adi Deva’s “Avimukta Kshetra” (his endlessly habitat). The priest and his disciples had been permitted to cross the river by the residents of Kashi solely after the newcomers accepted Shiva because the supreme god. Thus, the Aryan religion, its pantheon of gods and its rituals first stepped into Kashi, one of many seven holiest cities and the recognised seat of syncretic Hinduism. One could make certain that they assumed the acquainted pilgrims’ pose, strolling behind the Shaivites with lowered eyes, bowing to Shiva’s ganas — the Yakshas, Nagas, and even the spirits that roam the cremation grounds and stood guard over Shiva’s metropolis.

Today’s peddlers of Hindutva appear trapped in spectacles made for the visible media: Bhakts crowding for maha aartis on the banks of rivers and mountain valleys that they’ve polluted and killed. When political leaders go overseas, the Indian diaspora seems in giant numbers: Men in fake Indian gear and ladies in silk saris dance the standard dances to the beat of drums, waving the flag of a land they’ve chosen to forsake. A number of hours later, one sees them in tuxedos taking selfies with the Great Visitor from the Motherland, after which sitting in TV studios and speaking about commerce and cash.

As the pillow liquidates the borders between truth and fiction, the final thought earlier than the oblivion of sleep is: Should one take into account writing in regards to the reminiscences of the anxieties and the bittersweet convergences and displacements quick disappearing within the mists of time? Or attempt to dig out our syncretic hidden histories with India’s linguistic archaeological instruments? That could but assist substantiate and restore the primaeval variety of India’s soul.

The author is a contract journalist and former chairperson, Prasar Bharati