Thursday, August 11, 2011

All around..everything

Buddhist Art From Pakistan Is to Open



July 26, 2011

Long-Delayed Show of Buddhist Art From Pakistan Is to Open

A long-planned exhibition of nearly 70 pieces of Buddhist art from Pakistan will finally open at Asia Society on Aug. 9, after political intrigue in Pakistan and a breakdown in American-Pakistani relations delayed it for six months.
Anti-Americanism, which soared in the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden, helped put the show in jeopardy, said Melissa Chiu, the director of Asia Society Museum. The death of a major advocate, Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s senior diplomat for Pakistan and a former chairman of Asia Society, also complicated matters, she said, as did problems with getting American visas for the Pakistanis chosen to accompany the objects to New York.
Shows that depend on loans from abroad are often fraught with difficulties, with museum directors jealously guarding national treasures. Exacting negotiations that stretch to the 11th hour are commonplace. But never before has the society announced a show, chosen an opening night and then been forced to postpone it.
The obstacles became so intense that at times the exhibition, devoted to the splendors of the ancient Buddhist civilization of Gandhara that flourished in northern Pakistan 2,000 years ago, almost foundered. Ms. Chiu said her argument to Pakistani authorities — that showing the antiquities in New York could help counterbalance the image of Pakistan as the world’s most dangerous place — was a tough sell.
“I persisted because this is a unique opportunity for us to show the cultural heritage of Pakistan at a time when U.S.-Pakistan relations are probably at their lowest ever,” she said.
The exhibition was of particular importance, Ms. Chiu said, because Asia Society views its role as reaching beyond the display of art to encourage a broader understanding of Asian cultures. Moreover the sculpture, architectural reliefs and works of gold and bronze in the show, which were produced from the third century B.C. to the fifth century A.D., are poorly represented in American museums. The last exhibition devoted to Gandhara art in the United States was at Asia Society in 1960.
The first sign of trouble appeared in January, a little more than a month before the scheduled March opening, when it became clear that federal authorities in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, had not informed the museums in Lahore and Karachi, where the Buddhist objects were kept, of the plan to fly them to New York, Ms. Chiu said.
Officials at the Culture Ministry were reluctant to allow the Gandhara treasures out of the country, least of all to the United States. They were particularly opposed because there had been recent exhibitions of Gandhara art in Bonn, Zurich and Paris, she said, and they did not want the objects to be outside Pakistan for another extended period so soon.
An added complication arose when a new law handed the power to make decisions on art loans to foreign countries from the central ministry to the provinces where the museums were located.
On a hurried mission to Lahore, in Punjab Province, in January, Ms. Chiu knew she needed to persuade the chief minister of the province, Shahbaz Sharif, who is not an easy figure to see on short notice. Just weeks earlier her longtime local ally in organizing the show, the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, had been killed by an extremist bodyguard. And while she was there, a C.I.A. operative, Raymond A. Davis, shot two Pakistanis on a Lahore thoroughfare, stoking anti-American sentiment in the city and across Pakistan.
With some fast networking among the Lahore elite, Ms. Chiu found a new ally in a patron of the arts, Nusrat Jamil, who opened doors to Mr. Sharif. “The meeting was confirmed at 1:30 a.m., and I saw him at his house at 9 a.m.,” Ms. Chiu said.
Mr. Sharif was supportive but said the decision was up to the board of the Lahore Museum, Ms. Chiu said. She then arranged to lobby all 10 members. They voted in favor, a victory that ensured the arrival of the star piece of the show, an intricately carved stele called “Vision of a Buddha Paradise.”
On a second visit to Pakistan in April to firm up a late-spring opening, Ms. Chiu discovered that date would have to be postponed as well. The authorities in Karachi had yet to sign the papers to release 17 objects from the National Museum of Pakistan there. As she waited for Karachi to sign off, the killing of Bin Laden on May 2 escalated the anti-American feelings in Pakistan even further, and added to the nervousness at Asia Society about whether the show would ever come to pass.
Then trouble loomed on the home front. A State Department travel advisory warning American citizens against traveling to Pakistan meant that Asia Society could not send some of its staff members to accompany the works on the flights back to New York, a typical procedure for bringing art from abroad to the museum. (Ms. Chiu could travel to Pakistan because she has an Australian passport.) Visas for the Pakistanis flying with the art were held up at the American Embassy in Islamabad, a bottleneck that was resolved in the office of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ms. Chiu said.
The packing and loading of the objects in Karachi was not simple, either. A chaotic city saddled with prolonged power shortages, Karachi had been in the midst of a spasm of ethnic killings when the German company hired by Asia Society to crate the objects began work early this month.
Members of the museum staff, too scared to use public transportation, had to be taken in hired cars from their homes to the museum to help wrap and load. A generator at the museum supplied power for lights for the packers, and the Germans used their own satellite phones to report their progress to Ms. Chiu in New York, she said.
The early August opening of the show was guaranteed only when two planes loaded with the precious cargo, one from Lahore, the other from Karachi, landed in New York last week. The chances that Americans can go to Pakistan to see Gandhara art — either in the museums or at open-air archaeological sites around Peshawarc, the northwest city where the civilization was centered — are very slim, Ms. Chiu said, making her feel all the luckier to have gotten the works here for the show’s three-month run.


Bothi

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

:: Deccan Chronicle ePaper ::

Karunanidhi has always been passionate about monarchies and mythologies despite living in a democracy and being a selfproclaimed rationalist. He often deludes himself in believing that he is a reincarnation of Rajaraja Chola. Mr Karunanidhi, known for revivalism, promoted rituals like the crowning of political leaders with laurels and sceptres.

The one thing he probably never wanted to revive from the past was sibling rivalry. And yet, that’s what has come to haunt him. There was no recorded sibling rivalry in India’s modern political history since the Mughals, not until Mr Alagiri and his younger brother came along. The rivalry between Mr Karunanidhi’s two sons, Union minister M.K. Alagiri and DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin, is now out in the open and threatening the DMK’s future.

According to psycho-medical research, sibling rivalry is particularly intense when children are very close in age and of the same gender, or where one child is intellectually gifted.

The Alagiri-Stalin case is no different. These is not a significant age gap between the two brothers, and, on the contentious question of which one can qualify as “intellectually gifted”, most will back Mr Stalin. He has acted in stage plays and television serials, has run the marathon and is a tolerable public speaker.

As for Mr Alagiri, even his diehard supporters won’t make any tall claims about his histrionic abilities, a must in Dravidian politics. Most of Mr Al

agiri’s histrionics are confined to the four walls of the family home. Every time he frets and fumes over the importance being given to Mr Stalin, it becomes a party issue next morning.

Unlike Mr Stalin, Mr Alagiri’s stint in the DMK is chequered.

Mr Stalin began his political career by joining the party’s student movement in the mid-Seventies, while Mr Alagiri, two years his senior, had no interest in politics. Mr Stalin acted in propaganda plays and gave a boost to the youth movement.

He was arrested along with several party seniors under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (Misa) during Emergency, and suffered brutal thrashing inside the prison.

During the 13 years, through the 1980s, when the DMK was kept out of power by Indira Gandhi and MGR, Mr Stalin remained politically active. But Mr Alagiri was still nowhere on the horizon.

He had been packed off to Singapore to run a business. He could not, and so he returned.

But keeping him in Chennai was a headache for Mr Karunanidhi — an active Stalin was already being eulogised by the party’s robust youth wing.

Mr Alagiri was exiled to Madurai, ostensibly to supervise party propaganda newspaper Murasoli. The edition closed down shortly, but Mr Alagiri was stuck with Madurai where he ran a videocassette rental business. Even then he managed to antagonise several party seniors, including party general secretary Anbhazhagan who had to officially issue a “warning” that Mr Alagiri was

not a member of the DMK and that any party member doing political business with him would attract punishment.

But Mr Alagiri’s political ambitions had been aroused and he became a power centre by building a force of musclemen.

In Chennai, his mother, Dayalu Ammaal, was his main supporter, trouble-shooting every time she found her son floundering.

Eventually, Mr Karunanidhi had to apportion power by creating a regional secretary’s post for the southern districts which went to Mr Alagiri.

Mr Alagiri delivered at the hustings but in this region the party became notorious for the goons he nurtured. Ingenious ways of distributing money to voters were devised by Mr Alagiri’s men. The Tirumangalam bypoll in Madurai, in fact, became synonymous with “buying votes” in the national electoral lexicon. Mr Alagiri effectively demonstrated to the country that politicians don’t just receive bribes but also offer them. And that for a corrupt polity to thrive, people also must be corrupted.

With the party’s northern base shaken by Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and Vijaykanth, Mr Karunanidhi had to depend on Mr Alagiri to keep the south.

But Mr Stalin was demanding his pound of flesh and Mr Karunanidhi was forced to create a post of deputy chief minister for him. This sent a message to party cadres that Mr Stalin, and not Mr Alagiri, would be the successor. To avoid trouble, Mr Karunanidhi sent Mr Alagiri to Delhi with the lure of a Cabinet post. But Mr Alagiri, who is not comfortable talking in Hindi or English, unlike his sister Kanimozhi or nephew Dayanidhi Maran, created another dubious record — of being the most inarticulate minister Tamil Nadu had ever had at the Centre. During Question

Hour in Parliament, he would simply go missing.

But the respite Mr Karunanidhi has manoeuvred for Mr Stalin did not last. At the recent Coimbatore session of the party, Mr Stalin’s supporters made a bid to wrest power from Mr Karunanidhi, but Mr Alagiri’s team scuttled it. This was déjà vu. Once in every three years, Mr Stalin attempts to seize the throne, but is frustrated by his dear brother.

Mr Karunanidhi is the only politician in the country who encouraged factions within his family to secure his position as the party supremo. Non-family factions in the DMK were decimated even before the party came to power in 1967. Later, MGR and Vaiko, who were threats to Mr Karunanidhi, were expelled. Through the 1990s, Mr Karunanidhi did his best to groom various successors, all related to him by blood — Mr Stalin, Mr Alagiri, Ms Kanimozhi and the Marans. All non-family party leaders owe their allegiance to one faction of the family or other. Thus, during his lifetime Mr Karunanidhi managed to stay supreme with the support of all factions, and after him power will stay within his family.

But now that the party has fared badly at the hustings and is forced to lick its wounds for the next five years, the succession war has become simultaneously acute and pathetic. Pathetic because, the party is out of power and with family members embroiled in various corruption cases, it cannot afford internal bloodletting. And acute because, by the time of the next Assembly elections, Mr Karunanidhi would be 92 and the succession question would have to be settled. But, till then, Mr Karunanidhi will be sleeping with the sceptre by his bed.

GNANI SANKARAN is a Tamil writer, theatreperson and filmmaker

Monday, August 01, 2011

History of Parayars « Dalit News from Kerala

History of Parayas

Paraiyar, Parayar or Sambavar, also called as Adi-Dravida, are a social group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and in Sri Lanka (see Caste in Sri Lanka). In Tamilnadu though they have been enumerated under three different caste names, they have generally been referred to as Paraiyar. In Northern Districts of Tamilnadu they are known as Paraiyars only. In the southern districts of Tamilnadu they are known as Sambavar or Samban. However, they themselves prefer the name Adi Dravidar to Paraiyar and Sambavar.[1] The Indian census of 2001 reported the Paraiyan/Adi-Dravida population about 9 Million [2].

Adi-Dravida (the earliest Dravidians) is a modern name for the Paraiyars coined by the Government of Tamilnadu, it denotes only the Paraiyar Caste. Paraiyar/Adi-Dravida are the majority among the Scheduled Castes in Tamil Nadu. The scheduled castes are generally called ‘Adi-Dravidar’ by the Government of Tamilnadu. Paraiyan and Samban are synonymous with Adi Dravidar.[1] The term ‘Adi-Dravidar’ means Ancient Dravidians in Tamil Nadu.

Contents

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[edit] History

The Paraiyars enjoyed a privileged position in the society of the Sangam period. They were traditionally farmers and weavers. One sub-group of Paraiyars, "Valluvan", were renowned as magicians and Astrologers. They were employed as advisers to kings.

Mr. Clayton states that he knows of no legend or popular belief among the Paraiyans, indicating that they believe themselves to have come from any other part of the country than that where they now find themselves. There is, however, some evidence that the race has had a long past, and one in which they had independence, and possibly great importance in the peninsula[3].

Mr. Stuart mentions that the Valluvans were priests to the Pallava kings before the introduction of the Brahmans, and even for some time after it.[4]

He quotes an unpublished Vatteluttu inscription, believed to be of the ninth century, in which it is noted that "Sri Valluvam Puvanavan,the Uvacchan(or temple ministrant),will employ six men daily, and do the temple service." The inference is that the Valluvan was a man of recognised priestly rank, and of great influence. The prefix Sri is a notable honorific. By itself this inscription would prove little, but the whole legendary history of the greatest of all Tamil poets,Tiruvalluvar, "the holy Valluvan," confirms all that can be deduced from it. [5]

There are certain privileges possessed by Paraiyans, which they could never have gained for themselves from orthodox Hinduism. They seem to be survivals of a past, in which Paraiyans held a much higher position than they do now. It is noted by Mr. M. J. Walhouse that "in the great festival of Siva at Trivalur in Tanjore the headman of the Paraiyars is mounted on the elephant with the god, and carries his chauri (yak-tail fly fan). In Madras, at the annual festival of Egatta, the goddess of the Black, f now George, Town, when a tali is tied round the neck of the idol in the name of the entire community, a Paraiyan is chosen to represent the bridegroom.[6]

The facts, taken together, seem to show that the Paraiyan priests (Valluvans), and therefore the Paraiyans as a race, are very ancient, that ten centuries ago they were a respectable community, and that many were weavers.The privileges they enjoy are relics of an exceedingly long association with the land. If the account of the colonisation of Tondeimandalam by Vellalans in the eighth century A.D. is historic, then it is possible that at that time the Paraiyans lost the land, and that their degradation as a race began.[7]

[edit] Caste sub-divisions

At the census, 1891, 348 sub-divisions were returned, of which the following were strongest in point of numbers : Amma found chiefly in Tanjore and Madura; Katti in Salem and Trichinopoly; Kizhakkatti (eastern)in Salem; Koliyan(weavers)in Chingleput,Tanjore and Trichinopoly; Konga in Salem; Korava in Coimbatore; Kottai (fort) in South Arcot; Morasu (drum) in Salem ; Mottai in Madura ;Pacchai(green) in Coimbatore; Samban in South Arcot; Sangidum (sanku, conch, or chank shell) in Coimbatore; Sozhia (natives of the Sozha or Chola country) in Tanjore and Madura; Tangalan in North and South Arcot, Chingleput, Salem, and Trichinopoly; and Valangamattu in South Arcot. The members of the various sub-divisions do not intermarry. [8]

[edit] Valangai (or)Right-hand caste faction

Paraiyars belong to the Right-hand caste faction[9](or) the Valangai was made up of castes with an agricultural basis while the Idangai was made of metal workers, weavers, etc. i.e. castes involved in manufacturing.[10]Valangai which was better organized, politically, than the Idangai.[11],and has most of the agriculture based higher castes. The Paraiyas are its chief support, as a proof of which they glory in the title ‘Valangai-Mougattar’, or friends of the Right-hand.[12]

[edit] Paraiyar and Brahmin connection

All the Paraiyars have Y-chromosome haplogroup, Haplogroup G,specifically Haplogroup G2a3b1 (Y-DNA). This shows the Paraiyar males are Caucasians. This Haplogroup G2a3b1 is also found in 10% of Iyer and 13% of Iyengar Brahmins.[13][14]. The Aryan Brahmins have Haplogroup R1a & Haplogroup R2[13][15].

In a note on the Paraiyans of the Trichinopoly district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes as follows.[16]

They have a very exalted account of their lineage, saying that they are descended from the Brahman priest SalaSambavan, who was employed in a Siva temple to worship the god with offerings of beef, but who incurred the anger of the god by one day concealing a portion of the meat, to give it to his pregnant wife, and was therefore turned into a Paraiyan. The god appointed his brother to do duty instead of him, and the Paraiyans say that Brahman priests are their cousins. For this reason they wear a sacred thread at their marriages and funerals.At the festival of the village goddesses, they repeat an extravagant praise of their caste, which runs as follows.

‘The Paraiyans were the first creation, the first who wore
the sacred thread, the uppermost in the social scale, the
differentiators of castes, the winners of laurels. They
have been seated on the white elephant, the Vira
Sambavans who beat the victorious drum.’

It is a curious fact that, at the feast of the village goddess, a Paraiyan is honoured by being invested with a sacred thread for the occasion by the pujari (priest) of the temple, by having a turmeric thread tied to his wrists, and being allowed to head the procession. This, the Paraiyans say, is owing to their exalted origin.

From Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. VI. EdgarThurston and Rangachari, K. 1909.(Page.81,82.) [17]

Mr. Stuart mentions that the Valluvans(Paraiya priests) were priests to the Pallava kings before the introduction of the Brahmans, and even for some time after it.

The following- extract is taken from a note on the Paraiyans of Travancore by Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar.[16]

In the Keralolpathi, they are classed as one of the sixteen hill tribes. Concerning their origin the following tradition is current. They were originally Brahmans, but, on certain coparceners partitioning the common inheritance, the carcase of a cow, which was one of the articles to be partitioned, was burnt as being useless. A drop of oil fell from the burning animal on to one of the parties, and he licked it up with his tongue. For this act he was cast out of society, and his descendants, under the name of Paraiyas, became cow-eaters.

Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. VI. EdgarThurston and Rangachari, K. 1909.(Page.88,89.) [18]

The facts, taken together, seem to show that the Paraiyan priests (Valluvans), and therefore the Paraiyans as a race, are very ancient, that ten centuries ago they were a respectable community, and that many were weavers. The privileges they enjoy are relics of an exceedingly long association with the land. The institution of the paracheri points to original independence,and even to possession of much of the land. If the account of the colonisation of Tondeimandalam by Vellalans in the eighth century A.D. is historic, then it is possible that at that time the Paraiyans lost the land, and that their degradation as a race began.

Abbe J.A. Dubois writes:[19]

In very early days how ever the separation between the Parayas and others do not appear to have been so marked as at present. Though relegated to the lower grade in the social scale Parayas were not then placed absolutely outside and beyond the line of demarcation between them and the Sudras being almost imperceptible and they are even today considered to be direct descendants of the better class of agricultural labourers. The Tamil Vellalas and the Vockalikas (Vockaliyar) do not disdain to call them their children.

From the above genetic connection and other quoted evidence it is clear that once Paraiyars were a race who were Buddhists.[original research?] The Aryan Brahmins converted some of them as Brahmins, the rest who are staunch and radical Buddhists were punished to bemcome as Outcastes or Untouchable low castes.[improper synthesis?]

[edit] Paraiyars in politics

These people forms the majority in south India but their vote bank was misused by others due to lack of leadership partially and the rest. But nowadays they are united.The leading parties are trying to catch their vote bank. In Tamil Nadu these people are enjoying the greatest respect from the political parties. D.M.K (dravida munetra kazhagam), Viduthalai chiruthaigal, Communist party of India and major political parties are favouring these people.

[edit] Paraiyars in tamil movement

File:Gal india south 01.jpg

Tamil saint thiruvalluvar wrote thirukkural the holy book of Tamil people called as ‘the Tamil veda’, ‘mupuri nool’. Tamil saint auvaiyar made many contributions such as ‘aathichudi’, ‘naladiyar’, ‘konrai vendan’ etc. Divan rettamalai srinivasan started a newspaper ‘paraiyan’, which fought against British rule. The five great epics of Tamil literature (silapathigaram, manimegalai, seevega sinthamani, valayapathi, kundalagesi) mostly based on buddhism principles. The saint ‘illango’ is also a Buddhist. These are the evidences that Buddhists (paraiyars) are the original inhabitants of Tamil Nadu.

[edit] Etymology and origin

The late Bishop Robert Caldwell derived the name Paraiyar from the Tamil word Parai a drum, as certain Paraiyars act as drummers at marriages, funerals, village festivals, and on occasions when Government or commercial announcements are proclaimed.[20] Mr. H. A. Stuart, however, seems to question this derivation, remarking ( Madras Census Report, 1891) that "it is only one section of Paraiyars that act as drummers Nor is the occupation confined to the Paraiyars. It seems in the highest degree improbable that a large, and at one time powerful, community should owe its name to an occasional occupation, which one of its divisions shares with other castes.[21] ‘The word Paraiyar is not found in Divakaram, a Tamil Dictionary of the eleventh century A.D., and the word Pulaiyar was then used to denote this section of population, as it is still in Malayalam to this day’."[22] In the legend of the Saivite saint Nandan is, in the prose version of the Periya Puranam called a Pulayan, though a native of Cholamandalam, which was a distinctly Tamil kingdom.[22] The Madras Census Report 1891 estimated over two million members of Paraiyar or Pariah caste. In the Census Report, 1901, Mr. Francis mentions an inscription of the chola king Raja Raja, dated about the eleventh century A.D., in which the Paraiyar caste is called by its name.[23] It had then two sub-divisions, the Nesavu or weavers, and Ulavu or ploughmen. The caste had even then its own hamlets, wells and burning-grounds.[24]

The community is classified as a depressed community until recent times. The economic and educational privileges have been denied to them for centuries. However, there is considerable evidence to suggest that their position must have been reasonably higher in older times. Some scholars presume that Paraiyars must have been followers of Buddhism who lost their status in society during the revival of the Agamic cults.[25][26][27]Thiruvalluvar[23][28][29] , the Tamil author of the Thirukkural, the Tamil poet Auvaiyar[23][28][29][30], and the architect of the classical city of Hastinapur[29][30] had all been "Paraiyars".[27]

The following is a description of "Paraiyars" originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 802 of the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911.

Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 ,Volume V20,Page 802.[31]

PARIAH, a name long adopted in European usage for the outcastes of India. Strictly speaking the Paraiyans are the agricultural labourer caste of the Tamil country in Madras.

The majority are ploughmen, formerly adscripti glebae, but some of them are weavers, and no less than 350 subdivisions have been distinguished. The name can be traced back to inscriptions of the 11th century, and the "Pariah poet," Tiruvalluvar, author of the Tamil poem, the Kurral, probably lived at about that time.

The accepted derivation of the word is from the Tamil. parai, the large drum of which the Paraiyans are the hereditary beaters at festivals, &c. In 1901 the total number of Paraiyans. in all India was 24 millions, almost confined to the south of Madras. In the Telugu country their place is taken by the Malas, in the Kanarese country by the Holeyas and in the Deccan by the Mahars.

Some of their privileges and duties seem to show that they represent the original owners of the land, subjected by a conquering race. The Pariahs supplied a notable proportion of Clive’s sepoys, and are still enlisted in the Madras sappers and miners. They have always acted as domestic servants to Europeans. That they are not deficient in intelligence is proved by the high position which some of them, when converted to Christianity, have occupied in the professions.

In modern official usage the outcastes generally are termed Panchamas in Madras, and special efforts are made for their education.See Caldwell, Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages (PP. 54 0 -554), and the Madras Census Reports for 1891 and 1901.

As per anthropological research done by Edgar Thurston, the Paraiyars had an average cephalic index of 74[32] and an average nasal index of 80.[33]

List of Paraiyars

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