नवरात्रि की पूर्व संध्या पर कन्या चिंतन

नवरात्रि की पूर्वसंध्या पर कन्या चिंतन                             मृणाल पाण्डे

बाघ हमारा राष्ट्रीय पशु है | आरक्षित श्रेणी में आता है | चूँकि उसकी खाल , हड्डी , दिल गुर्दा सबको एशियाई बाज़ारों में भारी मुनाफे पर बेचा जा सकता है पिछले सालों में लालची तस्करों ने बडी तादाद में बाघों की चोरी छुपे हत्या कर अंतर्राष्ट्रीय बाज़ारों में उनके अवशेषों की इतनी कालाबाज़ारी की, कि यह प्रजाति दुर्लभ हो चली थी | तब ‘ बाघ बचाओ ’ की बडी मुहिम छेडी गई जिससे तमाम स्कूल , टीवी चैनल और एन जी ओ  आ जुडे | तस्करों पर छापे पडे , पकड धकड की गई और मीडिया को जन चेतना जगाने वाले विज्ञापनों से पाट दिया गया | अब खबर आई है कि बाघों की तादाद लगभग हर संरक्षित वन में बढ रही है | बधाई | लेकिन लगता है कि लडकियाँ तो समाज की नज़र में जीते जी या मृत, दोनो हालतों में बोझ ही बनी हुई हैं | इसी दौरान देश में 0 से 6 साल की उम्र की बच्चियों की तादाद तेज़ी से घट गई है | क्योंकि पुष्ट प्रमाण दिखा रहे हैं कि कन्या शिशु हर राज्य में उपेक्षित - अरक्षित है, सबसे ज़्यादा अपने ही घर के भीतर | लिहाज़ा गर्भ में लिंग निर्धारण के बाद गर्भपात द्वारा , जन्म ले भी लिया तो गुपचुप सौरी में , और फिर भी न मरी तो लगातार उपेक्षा और कुपोषण से सुखा कर इतनी लडकियाँ हर साल पाँच की होते न होते मर रही हैं कि ताज़ा दस साला जनगणना के सरकारी आँकडों के अनुसार 0 से 6 साल के आयु वर्ग में वर्ष 2001 में जहाँ 1000 लडकों के पीछे 927 बच्चियाँ थीं, आज सिर्फ 914 बची हैं | कहने को देश में औरत मर्दों के बीच औसत लिंगानुपात में सामान्य सुधार हुआ है | लेकिन यह सांत्वना का विषय नहीं | पिछले दस सालों में आबादी में औरतों की तादाद बढी दिखने की असल वजह यह है कि इन बरसों में कुल आबादी भी बढी है | बच्चियों के क्रमश: लोप होने के असल आँकडे तो कुल वयस्क औरतों , मर्दों के बीच आबादी में बडे असंतुलन के रूप में तनिक आगे जाकर उजागर होंगे |

यह भी चिंता का विषय है कि बच्चियों की तादाद जिन राज्यों ( द . दिल्ली , हरियाणा , पंजाब , जम्मू काश्मीर , दादरा नगरहवेली , नगालैण्ड , मणीपुर तथा सिक्किम ) में सबसे तेज़ी से घटी है , उनका स्तर आर्थिक , स्वास्थ्य कल्याण सुविधाओं और शैक्षिक पैमानों पर देश के सामान्य औसत से बेहतर है | यानी मात्र पिछडे राज्यों में व्यापक गरीबी और अशिक्षा के कारण उतनी बच्चियाँ नहीं मर रहीं जितनी कि खाते पीते तरक्की कर रहे राज्यों में खाते पीते लोगों के बीच | कन्या भ्रूण का पता करने की खर्चीली निजी चिकित्सा सुविधाओं की ( गैरकानूनी ) मदद लेते हुए जन्म से पहले ही गर्भपात करवा कर उनके घरों में इतने बडे पैमाने पर बच्चियों का ऐसा सफाया हो गया है कि अब पंजाब या हरियाणा सरीखे राज्यों में नवरात्रि में कन्या पूजन को आठ कन्याएं जुटाना भी कठिन है | विडंबना देखिये कि अनचाही मानते हुए भी कन्या को पूजने की पुरानी परंपरा हमारे यहाँ हर जाति धर्म के लोगों के बीच मौजूद है | बढती शिक्षा दर और परिवार तथा माता पिता का सहारा बनती जा रही कमासुत लडकियों की तादाद में भारी बढोतरी के बावजूद नवजात के आने की खबर मिलते ही परिवार जनों और पडोसियों से लेकर दाई और बधावा गाने वाले किन्नर तक सभी अपनी फीस या नेग इस आधार पर वसूल करते हैं कि लडका हुआ या लडकी ? ‘लडका’ कहते ही उल्लास छा जाता है , दाई किन्नर भरपूर नेग माँगने लगते हैं और पडोसी दावत | पर बेटी के आगमन की खबर पाने पर सकपकाई करुणामय प्रतिक्रिया होती है : चलो जी जान बच गई , कोई नहीं जी , चलो जो ऊपरवाला भेज दे | कोई न कोई यह भी कह ही देता है कि ‘हाय घर पर डिक्री आ गई बेचारों के |’ जादू मंतर, राख भभूत के बाद भी तीसरी चौथी बेटी हुई तो रोना धोना और प्रसूता की कोख को कोसना चालू |

बच्चियों की लगातार घटती आबादी कहीं इसका भी डरावना प्रमाण है कि हमारे यहाँ कानून का डर खत्म होता जा रहा है | कन्याभ्रूण की हत्या ही नहीं, आधी आबादी को गरिमा से जीने का हक देने के लिये दहेज, यौन उत्पीडन अथवा वेश्यावृत्ति निषेध कराने वाले सुधारवादी कानून अपने यहाँ आज भी कमोबेश एक किताबी कवायद ही हैं | अगर हमारे राज समाज में सच्ची आदर्शवादिता होती तो शायद सुधारवादी कानूनों का फायदा उठा कर हमारे शिक्षा संस्थान और महिला आरक्षण से लैस पंचायतें महिलाओं के महत्व को एक प्रखर राष्ट्रीय सचाई की शक्ल दे सकते थे | लेकिन जहाँ जान ही नहीं वहाँ प्रखरता कैसी ?हमारी शिक्षा और पंचायती राज इकाइयों में ( आरक्षण के बावजूद ) जान नहीं मेरी यह बात एक उलटबाँसी लग सकती है | लेकिन सच तो यह है कि हमारे राज और समाज में ताकत का असली स्रोत आज भी जाति और निजी कानूनों पर टिकी वे तमाम संस्थायें हैं जिनकी कमान पुरुषों के हाथ में है | उन खापों, जातीय पंचायतों या धार्मिक गुरुओं के दिये फतवों का वज़न हमारे लोकतांत्रिक संविधान , कानून , और निर्वाचित पंचायत पर लगातार भारी साबित होता रहता है | संसद, विधानसभा, घरों , चायखानों या टीवी के रियालिटी शोज़ में झाँकने पर हमारी सीधी मुलाकात पुराने ठिकानेदारों , सामंतों और जागीरदारों की मानसिकता से होगी | इन नये सामंतों को आज डबल रोल मिल गया है : एक तरफ नये और युवा शाइनिंग इंडिया की चमक बनाये रखना , और दूसरी तरफ यह सुनिश्चित करना कि पुराने अजर अमर सामाजिकता वाले हिंदुस्तान की परंपराओं को नारीवादी धारणाओं से खरोंच न लगे | लिहाज़ा वे अपने क्षेत्र में धर्म , गोत्र आधारित खाप पंचायतों और मुल्लाओं के हुक्म से प्रेम विवाह को दंडित कराना या कालेज की लडकियों के लिये जीन्स पहनने पर पाबंदी लगाना भी स्वीकार करते हैं , और अंतर्राष्ट्रीय महिला दिवस पर स्त्रीशक्ति का गुणगान करते हुए महिला थानों का उद्घाटन कर महिलाओं को साइकिलें , मशीनें बाँटते फोटो खिंचाते भी नज़र आते रहते हैं |

त्रस्त महिलायें जब न्याय खोजती हैं तो उनको इन तथाकथित सशक्तीकृत स्कूलों , पंचायतों या महिला थानों में कोई आशा की किरण नहीं दिखाई देती | उनको तो जान और आबरू बचाने को , जो कई बार परम भ्रष्ट किंतु सर्वसत्तावान चक्रवर्ती हैं उनके  पैर पकड कर उनसे न्याय माँगना अधिक आश्वस्तकारक लगता है | क्या उन शिखर नायकों के निजी हस्तक्षेप के भरोसे अपने ही परिवार द्वारा डाक्टरी मदद से देश भर में मारी जा रही बेज़ुबान लडकियों को बचाया जा सकता है ? मदर टेरेसा ने एक बार कहा भी था कि अगर कुदरती रक्षक ही बच्चे को नहीं बचाना चाहते तब तो उसे कोई नहीं बचा सकता | क्या देश समाज को अपनी बेटियों की बाघों जितनी फिक्र भी नहीं होनी  चाहिये ?

नवरात्रि की पूर्व संध्या पर दिल्ली के चिडियाघर में में सफेद बाघ के मारे युवक के लिये तो सुरक्षा से लापरवाह प्रशासन द्वारा कहा जा रहा है कि वह तो विक्षिप्त था, बाघ के नरभक्षी होने का कोई प्रमाण नहीं | उधर बलात्कार बढ रहे हैं जिनको लेकर एक बहुत नामी नेताजी का कहना है कि लडकों से गलतियाँ तो होती रहती हैं |

इस नवरात्रि ‘स्त्रिया: समस्ता: सकला जगत्सु तव देवि भेदा:’ जपनेवाले लोग क्या तनिक इस पर भी ध्यान मनन करेंगे ?   

 

A Prayer to Death from Rigveda--Contd

Those of you that wish to embrace a progressive old age
Gradually, taking care to maintain your rightful place in the line
May Tvashta, the God of a comfortable life, be pleased with you
And reward you with a long life.

These good women with living spouses
May they enter now with eyes lined with butter
That shed no tears , bear no illness and are lit with beauty
Let them first take the place that is theirs since birth.

Wake up O widow, and walk towards the land of the living
You, who have lain next to a lifeless body
Of one who had held you by hand, impregnated you
And made you into a wife and an owner of lands.

Get hold of your dead spouse's bow
For your own brave leadership and effulgence
May you O Dead one, and we with our leaders
Be victorious over all our enemies.

O dead one, enter the Mother earth
So kind and limitless in her expanse
May she that is ever young and soft and gentle as a ball of wool
Protect you from chaos.

O earth, raise him, do not let him be stifled
Give him an easy passage like a winnowing tray
As a mother covers her son with her scarf
So cover him O Earth.

The earth being replaced may award him a proper place
A thousand pillars may support him there
The pillars that shall drip water light and ghee over him
And support him all along .

I now raise the earth all around you
I must not cause any hurt to the interred one
May the ancestors hold up the thousand pillars
May the god of Death create you a habitat.

Days that have yet to come
Have placed me here as feathers to some yet- to- be made arrow
I now block the flight of my yet-to-arrive words
Horse-like, by holding tight the reins.


(Concluded)






  

A Prayer to Death, from Rigveda 10.18-

Please take another road and move far away O Death
To your own path separate from that of the Gods
I see and hear you all around and pray
Please do not kill our children, our brave ones.

All of you here that have arrived and removed Death's footprints
Increasing thus the span of your lives
May you be flooded with children and riches
And be worthy of this our pure and holy fire sacrifice.

The living today are freed of the dead ones
Today our calling out to the Gods brings us real grace
We have pushed our way to the front dancing and singing
And prolonging the span of our lives.

I now create a circle of the living ones
So that none of them should be faced with an end of the line
May they all live to be a hundred years old
And crush death to nothingness with raised stones.

As the days follow, one after another
As the seasons follow each other in a similar pattern
As each elder must be followed by a younger one
In the same sequence, O Lord create their long lives .

(Translated from the original, Next, 5 remaining verses from the same poem)   

The decline of Brahminism and rise of Hindi and its dialects

Many flag bearers of Brahminism are inclined to believe that it has always been Indian majority's world view since times immemorial. It is not true. Brahmins were always in a minority but had created an exclusive access to Sanskrit which they described as Dev Bhasha , the language of Gods and gradually codified all forms of knowledge (from holy Vedic Mantras to the basic rules of grammar, jurisprudence( Nyaya) and mathematics) in this language . In time they come to exercise a clout far greater than their numbers by becoming the final arbiters of tradition including spiritual temporal matters. They realized that the brunt of worldly pressures is faced by kings who must often break the laws that they preach. So they withdrew from direct rule ( except in a few cases like the Shungas) and ruled by proxy as advisors to the king the Rajguru.
Intelligence however, can not be circumscribed so easily. So by 4th century before the Christian calendar the authority of Brahmins was being challenged by sects like Jainism and Buddhism . Mahavir and Buddha , both high born Kshatriyas, deconstructed the caste system that gave the Brahmins and Kshatriyas the ultimate authority . With the Mauryas, kings from the middle castes grabbed power and these non Vedic religions were proclaimed as state religions, with the full force of the state machinery behind them .
Leaders of both Buddhism and Jainism while denouncing the ritualistic Vedic religion, also renounced Sanskrit and chose to address the masses in common peoples' language Pali or Prakrit. This helped the growth and hybridisation of various dialects . This process shaped the first prototype of Hindi or Khadi Boli that drew its basic structure from the dialects of the western part of north India inclusive of UP Haryana and parts of Punjab. This language was hybridised further and carried to the entire northern region by the peripatetic wandering Sadhus belonging to the Nath and Siddha sects. Watching his followers use uncouth language against other sects, Guru Gorakhnath, one of the chief leaders of the Nath sect, proclaimed that his disciples must observe celibacy in life and use civil language . A man, he says, who uses bad language and is slack in observing celibacy is the lowest form of life, he said.
By the 11th and 12th centuries the local dialects created intimate linkages with the Persian and Arabic spoken by Muslim invaders' armies that camped in western north India at Agra, Delhi and the Kurukshetra regions, and thus a new peoples' language was born called the language of the Bazaar. This was the prototype for what Nehru dubbed as Hindustani. Written in Nagri script it was Hindi, in the Persian script it got to be known as Urdu.
To date fluent Hindi or Urdu speakers do not know which language is which. Their symbiotic relationship became strained only around the 1940s when Urdu was dubbed a Muslim language and Hindi that of the Hindus. Encouraged by political power seekers, Hindi and Urdu began to distance themselves from their common parents : the dialects Brij, Awadhi, Punjabi, Magahi and Bhijpuri. Urdu began mining for words in Persian and Hindi in Sanskrit.
As their people centric gaze dimmed both Urdu and Hindi became Sarkari languages: hard to understand, unmusical and limited to Sarkari offices and ponderous tracts.
     

Camus on terrorism

In 1957, addressing a rowdy gathering of Algerian students demonstrating against colonisation and demanding democracy, the writer Albert Camus somethings that are still relevant from Kiev to Kashmir. He said:
"You are in favor of democracy in Algeria, so please be democratic now and let me speak. Let me finish my sentences because the meaning of a sentence is not clear till it ends.
"I have often condemned terrorism. I must also condemn the blind terrorism that can be seen in the streets of Algiers for example, that which might strike my mother or family. I believe in justice but I will defend my mother before justice.
"Life may be shaped by ideology but it is lived exclusively by men and women."

Brahmins, Sanskrit and the rise of Peoples' Languages--5

There was a long spell of some five centuries when Brahminism took a bad beating at the hand of Buddhists and Jains who logically deconstructed the caste system, Sanskrit as the language of the ruling classes and Vedic Sanatan Dharma as the state religion . Later, as the appeal of these rebel religions declined among the common householders who were unwilling to enter monasteries and lead a life of austere renunciation, Shankaracharya in the 8th Century re- established the Vedic Sanatan Dharma among the common folk . To guide them in their daily lives about performing Vedicrituals the Dharmshastras were written and were explained to the laity by Brahmins who made a cool income by acting as the linguistic go betweens.
Problem arose . What should be the State language ? Sanskrit or the dialects ? The newly rejuvenated Brahmin priests once again managed to reinstal Sanskrit in place of Prakrit . But soon it became obvious that temporal power had shifted from the Sanskrit - medium educated Kshatriya clans to many new kings who belonged to previously marginalised or officially unrecognised caste groups and had , therefore, none to very little knowledge of Sanskrit.
Thus began the rise of the various dialects in the north, known as Apbhransh (those fallen ones in use) . Poets writing peans of praise for their ever hungry for publicity patrons like Chand Bardai ( the writer of Prithviraj Rasso, a long poem in praise of Prithviraj) rose in eminence and were rewarded with bags of gold.
What of Sanskrit ? one may ask. Well Sanskrit now became the repository of scriptures and treatises on ritualistic observance of Dharma. Commentaries and commentaries on commentaries began to be written . With this Sanskrit ceased to be the carrier of creative thought and popular writing. Handled almost exclusively by the Brahmins, it barred women and all out castes (Ved Bahya) groups . Thus its appeal and warmth were reduced considerably and deliberate or otherwise, misinterpretation of religious vows and doctrines grew.   

The Pants of Uttarakhand--4

Around 10th C one Jaydev Pant of Bhardwaj Gotra (Madhyandin branch of Vedic scholarship), came up to Uttrakhand from Konkan, on a pilgrimage with his family that included his wife's brother Dinkar Rao (of Parashar Gotra). The Chand kings who ruled the area, offered them two villages ( Rikhadi and Uprada) should they choose to stay back and help him run the state and start Vedic schools for the gen next. It seems the Pant family found the offer good enough to stay back and be included in the king's Durbar.
Thus the Pants of Uttrakhand . Most of whom belong to Bhardwaj Gotra . They were basically Vaishnavites and strict vegetarians.
Opinions differ as to whether Jaydev was a Chitpavan Brahmin or a Sarswat one, since he gave up his identifying tag and retained only the suffix Pant that literally means a minister.
In time, the Bhardwaj Gotriya clan of Dinkar Rao seems to have atrophied.
However, four recognised branches of Jaydev's clan came up and prospered . These were all sired by his 4 sons. Of these Shrinath Pant's clan became Rajgurus, Sharm's offspring (sic) became royal doctors (Rajvaidya), Nathu Pant became a Minister( portfolio unknown) and Bhavdas Pant was appointed  as the head of the army. In time, given their military orientations, Bhavdas's family took royal pardon and began eating meat .
In 1565 when the king shifted his capital to the new town of Almora, the Pants moved with him.
The various Pant clans of Almora can be identified by their belonging to some villages where their family deities ( Kul Devi)'s shrines are located. The villages are :
Uprada, Jajyut, Chitai, Kalsail, Barset, Khantoli , Mana, Khoont.
Sharm Pant and his sons were ultra liberals in their thinking, and when the royals expelled the clan of Upreti Brahmins from the Durbar under allegations of seditious behaviour, Sharm Pant's clan challenged the order and were also expelled. For their rare show of obstinacy ( Hath), they also came to be known as Hathwal ( the Obstinate) Pants. Thereafter the Hathwals often referred to the Loyalist Pants as Besharm (shameless)Pant .
Thus were clans created, uncreated and thumbed their long noses at each other!   

The Great Brahmin Diaspora--3

A 12^th century metal plate announcing a grant of land by King Govind Chandra to one Gunchandra Brahmin shows, that by now the Brahmins, settled in prosperous and safe principalities, were acquring multiple identities . They were getting to be identified along with their Gotra and Pravar, also by the name of the specific village they belonged to. Thus Shri Gunchandra, the reipient of the King's bounty,  is referred to as the grandson of one Bhatt Brahmin Gangu, son of Rilhe Bhatt who were denizens of Kawad village. This trend of identifying Brahmins by the areas they had settled in with the help of kings that sought to court intellectual excellence, continues all through the following centuries. Thus subsequent works refer to Nagar (urban?) Brahmins who had settled in Gujarat, Raut Brahmins who perhaps were once upon a time members of some ruling clan ( Rajputra). 

By the 13^th century Brahmin clans were being identified by the specific branches of learning they specialised in. Thus Dwivedi, also referred to as Dube (signifying those who have studied 2 Vedas), Dikshit( those who have taken religious vows, Deeksha), Trivedi ( those who have studied 3 Vedas), Chaturvedi, also referred to as Chaube, ( those who have studied4 Vedas), Misra ( those who have studied miscellaneous subjects), Shukla or Sukul( those who have specialized in Shukla Samhitas),  are all identified by their specific educational qualifications. 

This is also the period when the word ‘Pandit’ is began to be used for the first time ( in a Daan Patra given by the Gahrwal king Jaichandra), as an honorofic prefix for Brahmin names. The word comes from Sanskrit Pragya ( meaning intelligence).

Kalhan’s ‘Raj Tarangini’ (12^th century) that gives a comprehensive list of the clans that ruled over Kashmir, also lists 10 major areas where Brahmins lived in India during his life time. Vindhya mountain being the generally accepted divider of northern plains from the south, Kalhana uses it as the marker.

Five of the areas Kalhana  lists, are in the north of the Vindhya mountains, and another 5 in the south . The verse runs:

सारस्वता: कान्यकुब्जा: गौडा: उत्कल मैथिला:,पंचगौडा: इति ख्याता: विंद्यस्योत्तरवासिन:|

कर्णाटकाश्च तैलंगा; द्राविडा: महाराष्ट्रका:, गुर्जराश्चेति पंचैव द्राविडा: विंध्यदक्षिणे ||

(To the north of the Vindhyas live Brahmins that reside near the river Sarasvati (Sarasvtah in Punjab), others live in Kanykubj ( present day Kannauj) area. Three areas in the north east where Brahmins live are : Gauda ( Bengal), Utkal (Odisha) and Mithila ( Kashi, Kosala and northern Bihar). These are called Panch (5) Gaudas.

To the south of the Vindhyas Brahmins live in 5 regions: Karnataka, Tailanga(Telangana), Dravida (Tamilnadu and Kerala), Maharashtra, and Gujarat. These are known as (another) Panch Dravid ( southern) Gaudas.

  

The Great Brahminical Diaspora--2

Govind Chandra , the Gahadwal king who ruled the Kashi Janpad wanted to encourage Sanskrit and make Kashi the intellectual capital of the northern plains. One small problem was that Vedic learning had been allowed into this Nagari only after Videgh Madhav, the priest bringing it to eastern side of the Ganges, had agreed to accept Kashi as the Avimukt Kshetra ( a non abandonable area ) of Shiva,  and Lord Shiva as the Chief among the pantheon of all gods. Even after that many of the Shaivaite--Maheshwar sects had been stubbornly opposed to Vedic learning, Jainism and Islam in that order. And the Nath branch of Shaivism had also firml;y denounced the caste system.
Inclusivity comes naturally to the Indian mind .
The Smart tradition of the Vedas, developed by canny minds who could sense the need to change with the changing times, now came to the rescue . The proponents of the liberal non sectarian Smart doctrine propounded the ritualistic pattern of worship for the laity, of a group of five major gods : Shiv ( as Ardha Nareeshwar , who automatically embraces his consort Shakti) , Vishnu, Lakshmi, Ganesh and Surya ( the Chief among the Grahas). The inclusive Smart tradition became so popular that many Shaivite Maheshwars who frequented only the Shiva temples , also began following the well crafted Smart Paddhati (way) of worshipping all the 5 gods within their homes.
The doctrine of live and let live peacefully negotiated what could otherwise have been a bloody and headlong sectarian clash between hard core Vedic wisdom oriented groups and Shiva's sworn acolytes. Inclusive Kashi now happily became a Sanskrit and dialect loving Maheshwar cum Smart city and variety won over sectarianism.
Next: The 5 northern and 5 southern Brahminical sects according to Kalhan.