Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

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"And so, without further ado, here's the author of Mind Over Matter..."
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1981


"And so, without further ado, here's the author of Mind Over Matter..."

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General Claude Martin
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 8/31/20

In 1781–82 Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier, a Swiss Protestant who served in the English East India Company’s army until 1775, had had copies of the Vedas made for him at the court of Pratap Singh at Jaipur. Polier’s intermediary was a Portuguese physician, Don Pedro da Silva Leitão… Jai Singh had assembled a substantial collection of manuscripts from religious sites across India, and in the time of his successor Pratap Singh the library had contained the samhitas of all four Vedas in manuscripts dating from the last quarter of the seventeenth century…

Polier records that he had sought copies of the Veda without success in Bengal, Awadh, and on the Coromandel coast, as well as in Agra, Delhi, and Lucknow and had found that even at Banaras “nothing could be obtained but various Shasters, [which] are only Commentaries of the Baids”…

It is perhaps significant that it was in a royal library, rather than in a Brahmin pathasala, that Polier found manuscripts of the Vedas. But the same is not true of the manuscripts acquired in Banaras only fifteen years later by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, during the period (1795–97) when he was appointed as judge and magistrate at nearby Mirzapur…

I cannot conceive how it came to be ever asserted that the Brahmins were ever averse to instruct strangers; several gentlemen who have studied the language find, as I do, the greatest readiness in them to give us access to all their sciences. They do not even conceal from us the most sacred texts of their Vedas.

The several gentlemen would likely have included General Claude Martin, Sir William Jones, and Sir Robert Chambers. These were all East India Company employees who obtained Vedic manuscripts (Jones from Polier) in the last decades of the eighteenth century.

Why was it so much easier for Polier, Colebrooke, and others to obtain what it had been so difficult for the Jesuits and impossible for the Pietists?...

-- The Absent Vedas, by Will Sweetman

General Cl. Martin. 1794, published in Lucknow. After an original by Renaldi. Engraved by L. Legoux- Late pupil of F. Bartolozzi.
Born: 5 January 1735, Lyon, Kingdom of France
Died: 13 September 1800 (aged 65), Lucknow, Oudh State
Resting place: Constantia- La Martiniere Lucknow
Monuments: Farhad Baksh Kothi (Chateau de Lyon), Bibiapur Kothi, Hayat Baksh Kothi and Constantia
Occupation: Soldier
Organization: East India Company
Parents: Fleury Martin (father); Anne Vaginay (mother)

Major General Claude Martin (5 January 1735 – 13 September 1800) was an officer in the French, and later the English East India Company's army in India. He rose to the rank of Major General in the English East India Company's Bengal Army. Martin was born in Lyon, France, into a humble background, and was a self-made man who left a substantial lasting legacy in the form of his writings, buildings and the educational institutions he founded posthumously. There are now ten schools named after him, two in Lucknow, two in Calcutta and six in Lyon. The small village of Martin Purwa in India was also named after him.

Career


Fort William in Calcutta

Claude Martin was born on 5 January 1735 in the rue de la Palme, Lyons, France. He was the son of Fleury Martin (1708–1755), a casket maker, and Anne Vaginay (1702–1735), a butcher's daughter.[1] At his local parish school he excelled in mathematics and physics. After leaving school he was apprenticed to a local silk weaver.[1] Martin's family were middle class and by this time they had businesses in mustard, vinegar and brandy. His decision to go into the silk yarn business did therefore not go down well with his family.

In 1751 at the age of 16 Martin decided to seek his fortune abroad, and he signed up with the French Compagnie des Indes [The Mississippi Company].[1] His mother is reported to have said that he should not return from enlisting as a soldier until he was "in a carriage".[2]

The Mississippi Company (French: Compagnie du Mississippi; founded 1684, named the Company of the West from 1717, and the Company of the Indies from 1719) was a corporation holding a business monopoly in French colonies in North America and the West Indies. When land development and speculation in the region became frenzied and detached from economic reality, the Mississippi bubble became one of the earliest examples of an economic bubble.

In May 1716, the Scottish economist John Law, who had been appointed Controller General of Finances of France under the Duke of Orleans, created the Banque Générale Privée ("General Private Bank"). It was the first financial institution to develop the use of paper money. It was a private bank, but three quarters of the capital consisted of government bills and government-accepted notes. In August 1717, Law bought the Mississippi Company to help the French colony in Louisiana. In the same year Law conceived a joint-stock trading company called the Compagnie d'Occident (The Mississippi Company, or, literally, "Company of [the] West"). Law was named the Chief Director of this new company, which was granted a trade monopoly of the West Indies and North America by the French government.

The bank became the Banque Royale (Royal Bank) in 1718, meaning the notes were guaranteed by the king, Louis XV of France. The company absorbed the Compagnie des Indes Orientales ("Company of the East Indies"), the Compagnie de Chine ("Company of China"), and other rival trading companies and became the Compagnie Perpetuelle des Indes on 23 May 1719 with a monopoly of French commerce on all the seas. Simultaneously, the bank began issuing more notes than it could represent in coinage; this led to a currency devaluation, which was eventually followed by a bank run when the value of the new paper currency was halved.

Louis XIV's long reign and wars had nearly bankrupted the French monarchy. Rather than reduce spending, the Regency of Louis XV of France endorsed the monetary theories of Scottish financier John Law. In 1716, Law was given a charter for the Banque Royale under which the national debt was assigned to the bank in return for extraordinary privileges. The key to the Banque Royale agreement was that the national debt would be paid from revenues derived from opening the Mississippi Valley. The Bank was tied to other ventures of Law—the Company of the West and the Companies of the Indies. All were known as the Mississippi Company. The Mississippi Company had a monopoly on trade and mineral wealth. The Company boomed on paper. Law was given the title Duc d'Arkansas. Bernard de la Harpe and his party left New Orleans in 1719 to explore the Red River. In 1721, he explored the Arkansas River. At the Yazoo settlements in Mississippi he was joined by Jean Benjamin who became the scientist for the expedition.

In 1718, there were only 700 Europeans in Louisiana. The Mississippi Company arranged ships to move 800 more, who landed in Louisiana in 1718, doubling the European population. Law encouraged some German-speaking peoples, including Alsatians and Swiss, to emigrate. They give their name to the regions of the Côte des Allemands and the Lac des Allemands in Louisiana.

Prisoners were set free in Paris from September 1719 onwards, under the condition that they marry prostitutes and go with them to Louisiana. The newly married couples were chained together and taken to the port of embarkation. In May 1720, after complaints from the Mississippi Company and the concessioners about this class of French immigrants, the French government prohibited such deportations. However, there was a third shipment of prisoners in 1721.

Law exaggerated the wealth of Louisiana with an effective marketing scheme, which led to wild speculation on the shares of the company in 1719. The scheme promised success for the Mississippi Company by combining investor fervor and the wealth of its Louisiana prospects into a sustainable, joint-stock, trading company. The popularity of company shares were such that they sparked a need for more paper bank notes, and when shares generated profits the investors were paid out in paper bank notes. In 1720, the bank and company were merged and Law was appointed by Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, then Regent for Louis XV, to be Comptroller General of Finances to attract capital. Law's pioneering note-issuing bank thrived until the French government was forced to admit that the number of paper notes being issued by the Banque Royale exceeded the value of the amount of metal coinage it held.

The "bubble" burst at the end of 1720, when opponents of the financier attempted to convert their notes into specie (gold and silver) en masse, forcing the bank to stop payment on its paper notes. By the end of 1720 Philippe d'Orléans had dismissed Law from his positions. Law then fled France for Brussels, eventually moving on to Venice, where he lived off his gambling. He was buried in the church San Moisè in Venice.

-- Mississippi Company, by Wikipedia

He was posted to India where he served under Commander and Governor Joseph François Dupleix and General Thomas Arthur Lally in the Carnatic Wars against the British East India Company. When the French lost their colony of Pondichéry in 1761, he accepted service in the Bengal Army of the East India Company in 1763, ultimately rising to the rank of Major General.

He was initially employed at the then-new Fort William in Calcutta, Bengal, and afterwards on the survey of Bengal under the English Surveyor General James Rennell. In 1776, Martin was allowed to accept the appointment of Superintendent of the Arsenal for the Nawab of Awadh, Asaf-ud-Daula, at Lucknow, retaining his rank but being ultimately placed on half pay. He resided in Lucknow from 1776 until his death. It was the 'Reign of Terror' during the French Revolution which prevented him from returning "in a carriage".[2] His friend Antoine Polier gave up his wives and children, as he left India, to return France. He was stabbed in a criminal assault during the aforesaid revolution. Martin formally never gave up his nationality as a Frenchman but definitely intended to, towards the end of his life, as he sought promotions in the Bengal Army.

Claude Martin's different facets

As soldier

Martin began his career as a dragoon and remained essentially a soldier throughout his life, a fighter and a strategist which explains his extraordinary success in life in spite of tremendous odds.

Beginning with the French East India Company he was quick to realise the changing power dynamics and chose to build his army career with the British East India Company. He was recognized for his military talents and got important experience in various military encounters. His administrative acumen was also well known and it was his reputation that made Shuja-ud-daulah the Nawab of Awadh to request for his services at Lucknow.

His service at the court of Nawab Asaf-ud-Daulah together with supplementary aids to the Company during the attack on Tipu at Seringpatnam shows that his strategic skills remained intact even in his later years. He was promoted to the ranks of Colonel (in 1793) and Major General (in 1795) being an extraordinary case, since no alien soldier in the Company Army was allowed to rise above the rank of Major.

As architect and builder


Constantia before the "mutiny"

Coming from Lyon, Martin must have acquired an eye for imposing architecture from his childhood days in his beautiful home town.

His architectural skills were much in demand at Lucknow and his nearness to Nawab Asaf-ud-daula gave him a unique opportunity to participate in the making of modern Lucknow. Martin moved to Lucknow almost at the same time when Asaf-ud-daula shifted the Capital to Lucknow. Asaf-ud-daulah and Claude Martin became chief architects of the city of Lucknow. Raj Bhavan (Hindi for 'Government House') is the official residence of the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Raj Bhavan used to be called Kothi Hayat Baksh. Major General Claude Martin drew the layout of the building in 1798 after Nawab Asaf-ud-daula, the East India Company made Sadaat Ali Khan its new ruler. The new ruler liked the buildings designed by Claude Martin. The contract for the construction of Kothi was undertaken by Martin as requested by Saadar Ali Khan.

Some of the buildings of Lucknow which have Martin's distinctive touch are: Farhad Baksh, Asafi Kothi, Bibiapur, Barowen and of course the Constantia.

Most of Martin's buildings were unique and were copied extensively by other designers keeping in mind their defence against military attack.

As collector and connoisseur

While serving under the Nawab Asaf-Ud-Dowlah of Awadh, Martin acquired a massive fortune of about Rs 40,000,00.

Asaf-ud-Daula (Hindi: आसफ़ उद दौला, Urdu: آصف الدولہ‎) (b. 23 September 1748 – d. 21 September 1797) was the Nawab wazir of Oudh (a vassal of the British) ratified by Shah Alam II, from 26 January 1775 to 21 September 1797, and the son of Shuja-ud-Dowlah. His mother and grandmother were the Begums of Oudh.

Asaf-ud-Daula became nawab at the age of 26, on the death of his father, Shuja-ud-daula, on 28 January 1775. He assumed the throne with the aid of the British East India Company, outmanoeuvring his younger brother Saadat Ali who led a failed mutiny in the army. British Colonel John Parker defeated the mutineers decisively, securing Asaf-ud-Daula's succession. His first chief minister was Mukhtar-ud-Daula who was assassinated in the revolt.

The other challenge to Asaf's rule was his mother Umat-ul-Zohra (better known as Bahu Begum), who had amassed considerable control over the treasury and her own jagirs and private armed forces. She at one pointed invited the Company to intervene in her favour in the appointment of ministers against Asaf. When Shuja-ud-Daula died he left two million pounds sterling buried in the vaults of the zenana. The widow and mother of the deceased prince claimed the whole of this treasure under the terms of a will which was never produced. When Warren Hastings pressed the nawab for the payment of debt due to the Company, he obtained from his mother a loan of 26 lakh (2.6 million) rupees, for which he gave her a jagir (land) of four times the value; of subsequently obtained 30 lakh (3 million) more in return for a full acquittal, and the recognition of her jagirs without interference for life by the Company. These jagirs were afterwards confiscated on the ground of the begum's [Umat-ul-Zohra] complicity in the rising of Chait Singh, which was attested by documentary evidence. Ultimately this removed Umat-ul-Zohra as an obstacle to Asaf's reign.

In the aftermath of Saadat's revolt, Asaf sought to restructure the government particularly by appointing nobles favourable to his cause and British officers to his military. Asaf appointed Hasan Riza Khan as his chief minister. Although he had little experience in administration, his assistant Haydar Beg Khan turned out to be a valuable support. Tikayt Ray was appointed finance minister.

He was known for his generosity, particularly the offering of food and public employment in times of famine. Notably, the Bara Imambara, a mosque in Lucknow, was constructed during his reign by destitute workers seeking employment.


The Asfi mosque, located near the Imambara

A popular saying of the time of his benevolence: jisko na de maulā, usko de Asaf-ud-daulā "to whom even God does not give, Asaf-ud-Daula gives..."

Nawab Asaf-ud-Dowlah is considered the architect general of Lucknow. With the ambition to outshine the splendour of Mughal architecture, he built a number of monuments and developed the city of Lucknow into an architectural marvel....

The Nawab's sensitivity towards preserving the reputation of the upper class is demonstrated in the story of the construction of Imambara. During daytime, common citizens employed on the project would construct the building. On the night of every fourth day, the noble and upper-class people were employed in secret to demolish the structure built, an effort for which they received payment. Thus their dignity was preserved.

-- Asaf-ud-Daula, by Wikipedia

He built the palace of Constantia and his fine house of Farud Baksh, both of which he equipped with luxuries that included a library of some 4,000 volumes written in many languages and a picture gallery containing a fine collection of works of art. At his death, Claude's collection included over 650 Company style paintings of birds which were painted by Mughal-trained painters.[3] Black Stork in a Landscape, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is one of these.


Black Stork in a Landscape


Colonel Antoine Polier, a Swiss engineer and architect, Claude Martin, John Wombwell, assay master, and Johann Zoffany, the painter, surrounded by servants and Polier's art collection.

Martin's love of art can be seen not only in his acquisition of art, but also in the design of his houses, his friendship with noted artists like Renaldi, Hodges[4] and Zoffany (who included him in at least two paintings).[3] In a number of cases he used local artists to create work in the style of European artists. His walls were decorated with neo-Greek Wedgwood style decorations, his paintings were by Mughal-trained artists and the statues above his palace were mostly clever reproductions in the style of two European statues.

Later, Martin's life was mired in controversy as he had kept two wives of Colonel Polier's,[5] after Polier had departed from India. It is obvious however that he cared for his favourite mistress Boulone, and she is the subject of a painting by Zoffanyin 1795 which is still at La Martiniere Boys' School in Lucknow today.

His favourite mistress was a girl called Boulone (c.1766–1844), who was some thirty years younger than Martin. He had bought her as a young girl aged nine. Martin always claimed that they lived happily together, but Boulone must inevitably have harboured feelings of jealousy when Martin introduced younger mistresses into the household.

Renaldi is possibly the sculptor for a copper and silver medal (30 mm in diameter) issued by Nawab Asaf-uddula, which bears Martin's image and his motto. On the reverse side it says in Persian:

"Most excellent in government, Sword of the Realm, Supreme amongst Knights, General Claude Martin the Brave, Courageous in War. 1796- 1797."[6]

All the furnishings and treasures of Constantia, as well as those from Martin’s first Lucknow house, the Farhat Buksh, were auctioned on his death, as he had requested. The great chandeliers were bought for the Government House (now Raj Bhawan) in Calcutta, where they still hang, but the majority of his collection was dispersed to private buyers.

As nabob


Colonel Mordaunt's cockfight by Johann Zoffany – Claude is to the right in a shorter red jacket. Hover your mouse pointer over the individuals for identification.

During Martin's stay in Lucknow, he acquired significant wealth as part of the ruling coterie; he was in charge of the state arsenal, designed and constructed many buildings, and acquired vast tracts of land.

This favourable set of circumstances catapulted Martin into the upper crust of Lucknow and he had to conform to the social mores of a contemporary society. Given his unconventional views (as revealed in his Will) this transition must have been not too difficult. He most probably enjoyed his role as a nabob.

The will of Claude Martin

Last Will and Testament made and written by me, Claude Martin, Major General in the Honourable Company services, Bengal Establishment, having destroyed any former ones, or intended to destroy them in case I have time to do it. This present one I declare being the only good one in which faith is to be put and which I require my executors, Administrators or Assigns will put in execution and adhere to and any other will or testament existing I may have forgotten to destroy, and differing from the substances, or intentions of the several articles of this one, I declare them null and of no force value, but this present one being made and written by me in my sound senses and good health. This first day of January in the year one thousand eight hundred (or the year 1800) witness my hand and seal as under this and at the end of the page.

Claude Martin

"In the name of the Supreme Almighty God, Creator of the Universe and which exists on the Globe and respectful thanks to be admitted at the feet of this sublime unknown, unseen and Incomprehensible Omnipotent. For the happiness I have enjoyed on this Globe during the time his usual Benevolence allowed me, as also for the Inducement and time allowed me in making and writing this my last will and Testament in favour of those concerned in it in hope it will be fulfilled in its extent, wishing them every happiness possible in this and the other world. My most exalted praise and most respectful thanks be received by the Almighty Creator of all who exist for his most kind clemency to me during my life, being merciful to all, I have great hope he will pardon me the sins I have committed"

"All the women, Males and women servants, Eunuchs and others that are belonging to me, and for which I have paid for, to have them as my own property, at my Death or the soul essence of life quitting my Material body, I give them their freedom and they are free except those as hereafter mentioned which I had already disposed in favour of those undernamed having acquired, bought, brought up and educated them to be their servants and attendants during the lives of those with whom I have placed them or given said Males or Women or Eunuchs as servants attending on these Mistresses during their life time and no longer..............Having every reason to be satisfied of their services, for these reasons my sincere wishes are to give them their proper reward in this world. For all these above my only anxiety is the Idea that perhaps nobody would be so interested for their welfare as I am, after having lost me, and for the support and protection they will or may be therein need of."

"I give and bequeath the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand rupees to be placed at Interest in the most secure manner possible in the East India Company or Government papers bearing interest and that interest to be employed for the poor, first having divided this Interest in three portions or parts: one- for the relief of the poor of Lucknow of christian religion, (second)-for the poor of Calcutta- and (third) for the relief of the Poor of Chandernaggur......................

"I give and bequeath the sum of five thousand sicca Rupees to be paid Annually to the Magistrate or Supreme Court of Calcutta -- to pay the debt of some poor honest debtor detained in Jail for small sum -- and as being a soldier I would wish to prefer liberating any poor officer or other Military men detained for small debt................"

"I give and bequeath the sum of two hundred thousand sicca rupees to the Town of Calcutta to be put at Interest under the protection of Government of the Supreme Court that they may desire an Institution the most necessary for the public good of the Town of Calcutta or establishing a School to educate a certain number of Children of any sex to a certain age, to have them put in apprenticeship to some profession.............and to have them married when at age...........and a medal to be given to the most deserving or virtuous boy or girl............"

"Since the powerful Almighty creator of all the Universe of all that exist gave me the power and wisdom of thinking, I never discontinued contemplating and admiring his wisdom in the creation and Ruling the Universe, as also the several Globes, Planets, Stars and firmament, things incomprehensible to men's feeble understanding. I was born and educated to believe in the existence of God Ruler of all the World and all that exist beneficent to all of any Religion or sects they may be, being Gratefully bound to thank him for his mercifulness on me, I adored him and worshipped him as my Creator Benefactor and all omnipotent, but doubtful of the mode of worshipping Him. I did it as a child of the earth, though educated in the Roman Catholic Religion, but when my bodily feeling made one weak I resumed the prejudices I had imbibed by my education and salvation of my said Immortal Soul; I worshiped him as I had been taught in my infancy.........but, as still many doubts crowded in my mind, I never could cease enquiring of the true path of Religion and worshiping the Omnipotent Creator God and I have endeavoured to learn the religion of other nations and sects that I might be a proper judge for myself and, though I found mostly every other nations and sects as ridiculous in their ceremony as I thought the Religion I was educated in, still I found a similarity in the same principle and the substance of every Religion of Nations and sects (with which) I have been acquainted, of all possession, sound moral, and recommendation, to do all the good possible to other creatures, to worship as only God, creator of all, and to be charitable to all other creatures and to do Penances for sin............"

"When I am dead, which I suppose will happen at Lucknow, unless in the field of honour against an enemy; if at Lucknow or anywhere else, I request that my body may be salted, put in spirit or embalmed, and afterwards deposited in a leaden Coffin made of some sheet lead in my Godown and this coffin be put in another wooden one of sisson wood of thick plank of two inches thick, and this deposited in the cave of my monument or house at Luckperra, called Constantia, in that cave and in the small round room North Easterly to erect a tomb of about two feet, elevated from the floor, and to have the Coffin deposited in it and the tomb to be covered with a marble stone, and an Inscription put on it of my name Major General Claude Martin, Born at Lyons, the 5th January, 1735, arrived in India a common soldier and died at the........month in the year......and he is buried in this Tomb. Pray for his soul."

Written by me in my perfect health and sound senses, the first January, in the year of our Lord, Eighteen hundred.

signed and sealed by me

(Cl MARTIN, (L.S.)
Witness of my signature and seal signed and sealed before us, where no stamp paper is to be had.

(Sd.) D. LUMSDEN, Captain, in the Hon'ble Company
(Sd.) J. REID, Surgeon, in the Hon'ble Company
Done before me,

(Sd.) WILLIAM SCOTT,
Resident, Lucknow

He gave regular parties for the British as well as the nawabi aristocracy and participated with gusto in the social and cultural activities of Lucknow.

He had a city residence the Farhat baksh and a country palace, the Constantia. He had other properties in Lucknow, Canpore, Bhazipur and Benaras as well, from which he got a substantial income.

Keeping his last will and testament in view he was a kind master, concerned about the welfare of his staff and servants.

As banker and businessman

Claude Martin was an astute businessman with a diversity of interests. He was well known for his financial skills, and it was said that he never ran after money, but made it come to him. Part of his immense fortune came from the bank he started at Lucknow.[7] He lent money to the nawab of Awadh [Asaf-ud-Daula], the largest loan being for the sum of £250,000 in 1794, which he apparently retrieved with difficulty.[1]

Martin was quick to realize the importance of indigo farming and invested in this profitable enterprise in several parts of North India. He exported indigo and cloth to Europe in exchange for Spanish dollars.[1]

Indigo planting in Bengal dated back to 1777 when Louis Bonnard, a Frenchman introduced it to the Indians. He was the first indigo planter of Bengal. He started cultivation at Taldanga and Goalpara near Chandannagar (Hooghly).With the Nawabs of Bengal under British power, indigo planting became more and more commercially profitable because of the demand for blue dye in Europe. It was introduced in large parts of Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, and Jessore (present Bangladesh). The indigo planters persuaded the peasants to plant indigo instead of food crops. They provided loans, called dadon, at a very high interest. Once a farmer took such loans he remained in debt for his whole life before passing it to his successors. The price paid by the planters was meagre, only 2.5% of the market price. The farmers could make no profit growing indigo. The farmers were totally unprotected from the indigo planters, who resorted to mortgages or destruction of their property if they were unwilling to obey them. Government rules favoured the planters. By an act in 1833, the planters were granted a free hand in oppression. Even the zamindars sided with the planters. Under this severe oppression, the farmers resorted to revolt.

The Bengali middle class supported the peasants wholeheartedly. Bengali intellectual Harish Chandra Mukherjee described the plight of the poor farmer in his newspaper The Hindu Patriot. However the articles were overshadowed by Dinabandhu Mitra, who depicted the situation in his play Nil Darpan. His play created a huge controversy which was later banned by the East India Company to control the agitation among the Indians.

The revolt was ruthlessly suppressed. Large forces of police and military, backed by the British Government and the zamindars, mercilessly slaughtered a number of peasants. British police mercilessly hanged great leader of indigo rebels Biswanath Sardar alias Bishe Dakat in Assannagar, Nadia after a show trial. Some historians opined that he was the first martyr of indigo revolt in undivided Bengal...

R.C. Majumdar in "History of Bengal" goes so far as to call it a forerunner of the non-violent passive resistance later successfully adopted by Gandhi. The revolt had a strong effect on the government, which immediately appointed the "Indigo Commission" in 1860. In the commission report, E. W. L. Tower noted that "not a chest of Indigo reached England without being stained with human blood".

-- Indigo revolt, by Wikipedia

Martin also started a cannon foundry, introduced a Dutch method of cutting diamonds, made gunpowder and coined rupees.[7]

As self-surgeon

Apart from being a self-made man, Martin was an amateur scientist and a doctor of sorts. He seems to have suffered from bladder stones in his urinary tract and in 1782, despite excruciating suffering, he successfully attempted a primitive and unorthodox form of lithotripsy (breaking the stones via a waxed-wire insertion up the urethra). Martin sent details of the operation to the Company of Surgeons in London and, notwithstanding initial scepticism among bladder surgeons, it appears to have been accepted as the first recorded operation of its kind.[1]

As hot air balloonist


First public demonstration in Annonay, France in 1783

Claude Martin's wide interests included hot air balloons and he was instrumental in introducing a montgolfier to the Nawab and aristocracy of Lucknow in 1785 less than two years after its flight in France.

Allan Sealy in his historic novel Trotter-nama[8] features this aspect of Claude Martin.

As philanthropist

Martin was a charitable person and philanthropist by heart as is reflected in the following excerpt from his last will and testament:

"I give and bequeath the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand rupees for to be placed at Interest in the most secure manner possible in the East India Company or Government papers bearing interest and that interest to be employed for the poor first having divided this Interest in three portions or parts one – for the relief of the poor of Lucknow of any religion – for the poor of Calcutta – for the relief of the Poor of Chandernaggur".

As educationist

Of all the European adventurers, Claude Martin is singular in that he left the greater part of his wealth to a variety of charities. Being almost entirely self-educated, he realised the value of formalised education and willed a major part of his fortune to the creation of three institutions of learning in Calcutta, Lucknow and in his birth town of Lyon in France which are all named La Martiniere College.

The schools all celebrate Founder's Day on 13 September, the anniversary of Martin's death.

La Martinière College is a consortium of bi-national private schools, majority of them located in India. They are officially non-denominational private schools with units of two-two branches in Indian cities of (Kolkata and Lucknow) respectively and in France, the consortium is represented by a number of three branches in Lyons.

La Martinière Schools were founded posthumously by Major General Claude Martin, in the early 19th century... His will outlined every detail of the schools, from their location to the manner of celebrating the annual Founder's Day. The seven branches function independently, but maintain close contacts and share most traditions.

La Martinière College, Lucknow was awarded a Battle Honour - 'Defense of Lucknow' for the part the staff and pupils played in the Defence of the Residency at Lucknow during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 -- the only school in the world so distinguished.

La Martiniere Calcutta and La Martinière Lucknow consist of separate girls' and boys' schools, while the three in La Martinière Lyon are co-educational. The Colleges are day schools, but Indian units have boarding facilities as well. Extra-curricular activities, including sports and community service organizations, are emphasized, and music and dance are included in the general curriculum...

The Socials at La Martinière are elegant events in the English tradition. Students from both the girls and boys sections are invited to the socials. Ceremonial uniform is worn by boys, while formal dresses are worn by girls. "The Social" is a tradition of La Martiniere and a memory of its English past.

The Socials are held in the College Hall and the girls are invited to the boys school. Socials are also held after the yearly 'Inter-Martiniere Meet' is held between the two schools at Lucknow and Kolkata.

La Martinière has always been regarded as one of the finest schools in India. Given its foundation in English tradition, it has been compared to the Public Schools of England, and has been referred to as "The Eton of the East" by William Dalrymple, in his book "The Age of Kali."

-- La Martiniere College, by Wikipedia

Claude Martin's ideas on education are reflected in the following extract from his writings:

"I have read a lot, pen in hand, often under difficult conditions, and I know the value of the first rudiments inculcated by the parson of St. Saturnin. That is why I divide my fortune in two. I want to thank all those who have been around me by making their life easier after my death. I also want to give the children of both Lyon and India, the instruction which I received with so much difficulty. I want to make it easy for young people to get access to knowledge, specially the sciences."[9]

Ironically, Claud Martin had willed part of his fortune for the education of children in India without specific mention to race and creed. However, at the turn of the Nineteenth century the attitude of British rulers in India changed to a Victorian and imperialist outlook, resulting in the formation of the school in Calcutta, after 30 years of litigation as meant for European Christians only, though permitting Catholics, Armenian Christians and those of other denominations. It was only in 1935 that native Indians were permitted to join the school.

Personal life


A painting by Johan Zoffany showing Martin's adopted children Boulone Lise and James Martin

Martin never married but, as a nabob, he had close and long relationships with several mistresses, which was the normal practice in that era. His favourite mistress was a girl called Boulone (c.1766–1844), who was some thirty years younger than Martin. He had bought her as a young girl aged nine. Martin always claimed that they lived happily together, but Boulone must inevitably have harboured feelings of jealousy when Martin introduced younger mistresses into the household. Boulone is commemorated in a small gilt-framed painting in the Blue Room of La Martinière. She is pictured next to a young boy named James Zulphikar, who was said to have been adopted by Martin. Both figures are dressed in 18th-century Indian costume, and Boulone is holding a fishing rod. Boulone is buried in a purpose-built Muslim tomb in the grounds of the College. It is here that a few rupees are given out once a month to the poor people of Lucknow, in accordance with the instructions in Martin's will.[1][10]

Martin on himself

Claude Martin has had his admirers and detractors. He was indeed a complex person. Part adventurer, part polymath, part colonial agent, part lover of Oriental life,...

Adventurer: a person who enjoys or seeks adventure; a person willing to take risks or use dishonest methods for personal gain; "a political adventurer"; a financial speculator.

-- Adventurer, by Google

but how did Claude Martin view himself?

Chandan Mitra in his book Constant Glory has this self-introspective analysis from Martin:

"I have always refused to give up the French nationality, but of which France do I belong? That of Louis XV, where I have only known misery before embarking on the L'Orient? That of philosophers, of terror bathing in blood, or that of Bonaparte whose eastern dream has just been dissipated, after leaving Tipu Sahib alone against the English? I have collaborated for his defeat and then after he lost I have been rewarded by some gold sprinkling on my uniform-a vain plaything for my vanity. By my persevarance and hard work I have accumulated a fortune from this country which is my second motherland. I have not cheated the people who have passively succumbed to the yoke of corrupt men."

Epitaph

Claude Martin died on 13 September 1800 at the Town House, Lucknow.[1] According to his last wishes, he was buried in the vault specially prepared for his remains in the basement of Constantia in Lucknow. The inscription on his tombstone reads:

Major-General Claude Martin.
Arrived in India as a common soldier
and died at Lucknow on the 13th of September,
1800, as a Major-General.
He is buried in this tomb.
Pray for his soul."[11]

Further reading

• Rosie Llewellyn-Jones. A very ingenious man: Claude Martin in early colonial India, 1993, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 241pp. ISBN 0-19-565099-9
• Rosie Llewellyn-Jones. A fatal friendship: the nawabs, the British and the city of Lucknow. Delhi; Oxford: Oxford University Press, c.1985, 284pp. ISBN 0-19-561706-1
• Rosie Llewellyn-Jones. A man of the Enlightenment in eighteenth-century India: the letters of Claude Martin, 1766–1800. New Delhi: Permanent Black in Association with The Embassy of France in India: Distributed by Orient Longman, 2003, 412pp. ISBN 81-7824-042-4
• William Chubb. The Lucknow menagerie: natural history drawings from the collection of Claude Martin (1735–1800). London: Hobhouse, 2001. ISBN 0-946630-06-2.

See also

• The will of Claude Martin
• La Martiniere College
• La Martiniere Calcutta
• La Martiniere Lucknow
• La Martiniere Lyon
• Martinians
• Martin Purwa
• Claude Martin Wade – A Colonel named after Claude Martin

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Martin, Claud". Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 794.

1. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, 'Martin, Claude (1735–1800), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [1], accessed July 2007.
2. For the Public Good in The Hindu Archived 6 May 2003 at the Wayback Machine Sunday, 26 November 2000 accessed July 2007
3. Sale of art originally owned by Claude Martin accessed July 2007
4. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones A Man of the Enlightenment in Eighteenth-century India: The Letters of Claude Martin, 1766–1800 p. 96 accessed July 2007
5. Martin, Claude (2003). A Man of the Enlightenment in 18th Century India: The Letters of Claude Martin, 1766–1800. ISBN 9788178240428. Retrieved 17 May 2007.
6. Archer, Mildred Indian and British Portraiture
7. Mesrovb Jacob Seth Armenians in India: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day : Work of Original Research p.562 Published 1992 Asian Educational Services ISBN 81-206-0812-7
8. The Trotter-Nama: A Chronicle, (New York: Knopf, 1988; London: Penguin Books, 1990; New York: Viking Penguin, 1990) ISBN 0-14-010210-8
9. Mitra, Chandan. Constant glory: La Martinière saga 1836–1986. Calcutta: Oxford University Press, 1987.
10. An article by the Lucknow historian Ms. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones in Taj magazine" accessed June 2007
11. Extract from "Quest for Kim – In search of Kipling's Great Game" by Peter Hopkirk. London: John Murray, 1996. ISBN 0-7195-5560-4. Transcribed by Tony Mooar in a posting on the India-L Rootsweb Mailing List on 23 April 1999 accessed June 2007

External links

• "The Ferenghi Quartet", by G.M. Naug. The series was completed and published by the author in February 2012. The four titles are: Seeds of Empire, Banners of the Sun, Precipice of Power and Salute to the Gods. All are narrated in the first person by a character named (and based on) Claude Martin. Details are posted on the website https://web.archive.org/web/20170923193 ... 0M.%20Naug

[admin]

Robert Chambers (English judge)
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 8/31/20

In 1781–82 Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier, a Swiss Protestant who served in the English East India Company’s army until 1775, had had copies of the Vedas made for him at the court of Pratap Singh at Jaipur. Polier’s intermediary was a Portuguese physician, Don Pedro da Silva Leitão… Jai Singh had assembled a substantial collection of manuscripts from religious sites across India, and in the time of his successor Pratap Singh the library had contained the samhitas of all four Vedas in manuscripts dating from the last quarter of the seventeenth century…

Polier records that he had sought copies of the Veda without success in Bengal, Awadh, and on the Coromandel coast, as well as in Agra, Delhi, and Lucknow and had found that even at Banaras “nothing could be obtained but various Shasters, [which] are only Commentaries of the Baids”…

It is perhaps significant that it was in a royal library, rather than in a Brahmin pathasala, that Polier found manuscripts of the Vedas. But the same is not true of the manuscripts acquired in Banaras only fifteen years later by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, during the period (1795–97) when he was appointed as judge and magistrate at nearby Mirzapur…

I cannot conceive how it came to be ever asserted that the Brahmins were ever averse to instruct strangers; several gentlemen who have studied the language find, as I do, the greatest readiness in them to give us access to all their sciences. They do not even conceal from us the most sacred texts of their Vedas.

The several gentlemen would likely have included General Claude Martin, Sir William Jones, and Sir Robert Chambers. These were all East India Company employees who obtained Vedic manuscripts (Jones from Polier) in the last decades of the eighteenth century.

Why was it so much easier for Polier, Colebrooke, and others to obtain what it had been so difficult for the Jesuits and impossible for the Pietists?...

-- The Absent Vedas, by Will Sweetman

-- Chambers's Information for the People, edited by William and Robert Chambers, Vol. 1, 1848

Robert Chambers
Puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal
In office: 22 October 1774[1] – 3 December 1783[2]
Sole Justice of the Presidency Court at Chinsurah
In office: 9 July 1781[3] – 15 November 1782[4]
Acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal
In office: 3 December 1783[5] – 25 January 1791[6]
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal
In office: 25 January 1791[7] – 25 July 1798[8]

Sir Robert Chambers (14 January 1737 – 9 May 1803) was an English jurist, Vinerian Professor of English Law, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal.

Biography

Born in January 1737 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Chambers was the son of Robert Chambers, an attorney. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle and awarded an exhibition at Lincoln College, Oxford, in May 1754. Chambers was admitted to the Middle Temple in the same year, and was called to the bar in 1761. In that year, he was also appointed to a fellowship at University College, Oxford. On 7 May 1766 he was appointed Vinerian Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford, in succession to William Blackstone. He was also appointed Principal of New Inn Hall in 1766, a post which he held until his death, despite continued absence from it.[9]

A contemporary and friend of Samuel Johnson from at least 1754 and up to Johnson's death in 1784, Chambers was provided references by Johnson in his pursuit of the Vinerian scholarship. Whether Johnson also assisted Chambers in composing his lectures,[10] as was sometimes rumoured, is not known.

In the 1770s, Johnson, who had tended to be an opponent of the government early in life, published a series of pamphlets in favour of various government policies...

The last of these pamphlets, Taxation No Tyranny (1775), was a defence of the Coercive Acts and a response to the Declaration of Rights of the First Continental Congress of America, which protested against taxation without representation. Johnson argued that in emigrating to America, colonists had "voluntarily resigned the power of voting", but they still had "virtual representation" in Parliament. In a parody of the Declaration of Rights, Johnson suggested that the Americans had no more right to govern themselves than the Cornish people, and asked "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?" If the Americans wanted to participate in Parliament, said Johnson, they could move to England and purchase an estate. Johnson denounced English supporters of American separatists as "traitors to this country", and hoped that the matter would be settled without bloodshed, but he felt confident that it would end with "English superiority and American obedience".[145]

-- Samuel Johnson, by Wikipedia

By 1773, the East India Regulating Act 1773 had been passed, establishing a supreme council (consisting of a governor-general, the first of whom was Warren Hastings, and four councillors) and judicature (consisting of a chief justice and three puisne judges) of Bengal. Chambers was appointed second judge under Sir Elijah Impey as chief justice, with a promise from the Lord Chancellor that if the Chief Justice's post became vacant, it would be offered to him. The judges departed for Calcutta in May 1774, although Chambers persuaded the Oxford authorities to allow him to retain his professorship for a further three years, in case he did not adapt to the Indian climate. His successor was therefore not appointed until 1777, when he was knighted (on 7 June).

Although Chambers was one of the judges in the notorious case of Maharaja Nandakumar,...

Maharaja Nandakumar, also called Nuncomar (1705? - died 5 August 1775), was a collector of taxes, a dewan, for various areas in what is now West Bengal. Nanda Kumar was born at Bhadrapur, which is now in Birbhum. He was India's first victim of hanging under British rule. He was appointed by the East India Company to be the collector of taxes for Burdwan, Nadia and Hoogly in 1764, following the removal of Warren Hastings from the post.

In 1773, when Warren Hastings was re-instated as governor-general of Bengal, Nandakumar brought accusations of Warren Hastings accepting bribes that were entertained by Sir Philip Francis and the other members of the Supreme Council of Bengal. However, Warren Hastings could overrule the Council's charges. Thereafter, in 1775 Warren Hastings brought charges of document forgery against the Maharaja. The Maharaja was tried under Elijah Impey, India's first Chief Justice, and friend of Warren Hastings, was found guilty, and hanged in Kolkata on 5 August 1775.

Later Hastings, along with Sir Elijah Impey, the chief justice, was impeached by the British Parliament. They were accused by Burke (and later by Macaulay) of committing judicial murder...

He held posts under Nawab of Murshidabad. After the Battle of Plassey, he was recommended to Robert Clive for appointment as their agent to collect revenues of Burdwan, Nadia and Hooghly. The title "Maharaja" was conferred on Nandakumar by Shah Alam II in 1764. He was appointed Collector of Burdwan, Nadia, and Hugli by the East India Company in 1764, in place of Warren Hastings. He learnt Vaishnavism from Radhamohana Thakura.

Maharaja Nandakumar accused Hastings of bribing him with more than one-third of a million rupees and claimed that he had proof against Hastings in the form of a letter...

Warren Hastings was then with the East India Company and happened to be a school friend of Sir Elijah Impey. Some historians are of the opinion that Maharaja Nandakumar was falsely charged with forgery and Sir Elijah Impey, the first Chief Justice of Supreme Court in Calcutta, gave judgement to hang Nandakumar. Nandakumar's hanging was called a judicial murder by certain historians. Macaulay also accused both men of conspiring to commit a judicial murder. Maharaja Nandakumar was hanged at Calcutta, near present-day Vidyasagar Setu, during Warren Hastings' rule on 5 August 1775. In those days the punishment for forgery was hanging by the Forgery Act, 1728 passed by the British Parliament in England (United Kingdom), but the law was construed for the people committing forgery in England due to the then prevailing conditions in England and there was no provision in the law that it is applicable in India too.

-- Maharaja Nandakumar, by Wikipedia

he escaped criticism, in part through his reputation for integrity. Impey, however, was eventually recalled to the United Kingdom in 1783, leaving Chambers as acting chief justice, but did not resign until 1787, and Chambers was not confirmed in the post until 1791. He served for eight years, returning to England in 1799. Despite frequent efforts to gain preferment, he appears to have acted with integrity despite the controversial administration of which he was part – and to have had a clear understanding that the laws of Georgian England were not always appropriate in the different culture and history of India.

As a result of his time in India, Chambers' health deteriorated, and in 1802 he left England again, this time for the kinder climate of the south of France. Whilst travelling, he fell ill at Paris, where he died in May 1803. He was buried in the Temple Church in London, where his monument was destroyed in 1941 during the Blitz.

In 1774, Chambers married Frances Wilton, daughter of the sculptor Joseph Wilton, who was a founder member of the Royal Academy [of Arts]. She survived him, along with four of their seven children.[11]

Chambers left no publications, though he did consolidate a valuable collection of Sanskrit manuscripts while in India. Later biographers[12] characterise him as a perfectionist, excessively conscientious and scrupulous, to the point where considerations of detail prevented him from completing much. In his legal career, his attempts to act conscientiously often had the appearance of indecisiveness and lack of conviction.

Chambers was a contributor to Hyde's Notebooks during his term on the bench of the Supreme Court of Judicature. The notebooks are a valuable primary source of information for life in late 18th century Bengal and are the only remaining source for the proceedings of the Supreme Court. Chambers continued the notebooks after Hyde's death in 1796.

The Judicial Notebooks of John Hyde and Sir Robert Chambers, 1774-1798, are a unique source of primary historical information for the early years of the Supreme Court and life in India. The court notebooks do not tell a single story but are a dense repository of legal and social action over time.

-- Hyde Reports, by Justice John Hyde and Sir Robert Chambers [and William Jones]

See also

• British East India Company
• The Literary Club

Notes

1. Curley p 194
2. Curley p 522
3. Curley p 332
4. Curley p 344
5. Curley p 522
6. Curley p 522
7. Curley p 522
8. Curley p 524
9. Bowyer, T. H. "Chambers, Sir Robert". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5078. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
10. published in part by his son in 1824 and in their entirety not until 1986: see below
11. one of whom married John Macdonald, the youngest son of Flora Macdonald, the heroine of the '45.
12. T. H. Bowyer, in Oxford DNB; H.G. Hanbury

Sources

• Hanbury, H. G., 1958. "The Vinerian Chair and Legal Education". Oxford: OUP.

References

• Chambers, R., ed. T. M. Curley, 1986. "A course of lectures on the English law ... 1767–1773". 2 vols.
• Chambers, R., ed. C. H. Chambers, 1824. "A Treatise on Estates and Tenures".
• Rosen, F., 1838. "Catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts collected by the late Sir Robert Chambers ... with a brief memoir by Lady Chambers".
• Redford, B. (ed.), 1992–94. "The letters of Samuel Johnson". 5 vols.

[admin]

Antoine Polier
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 8/31/20

In 1781–82 Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier, a Swiss Protestant who served in the English East India Company’s army until 1775, had had copies of the Vedas made for him at the court of Pratap Singh at Jaipur. Polier’s intermediary was a Portuguese physician, Don Pedro da Silva Leitão… Jai Singh had assembled a substantial collection of manuscripts from religious sites across India, and in the time of his successor Pratap Singh the library had contained the samhitas of all four Vedas in manuscripts dating from the last quarter of the seventeenth century…

Polier records that he had sought copies of the Veda without success in Bengal, Awadh, and on the Coromandel coast, as well as in Agra, Delhi, and Lucknow and had found that even at Banaras “nothing could be obtained but various Shasters, [which] are only Commentaries of the Baids”…

It is perhaps significant that it was in a royal library, rather than in a Brahmin pathasala, that Polier found manuscripts of the Vedas. But the same is not true of the manuscripts acquired in Banaras only fifteen years later by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, during the period (1795–97) when he was appointed as judge and magistrate at nearby Mirzapur…

I cannot conceive how it came to be ever asserted that the Brahmins were ever averse to instruct strangers; several gentlemen who have studied the language find, as I do, the greatest readiness in them to give us access to all their sciences. They do not even conceal from us the most sacred texts of their Vedas.

The several gentlemen would likely have included General Claude Martin, Sir William Jones, and Sir Robert Chambers. These were all East India Company employees who obtained Vedic manuscripts (Jones from Polier) in the last decades of the eighteenth century.

Why was it so much easier for Polier, Colebrooke, and others to obtain what it had been so difficult for the Jesuits and impossible for the Pietists?...

-- The Absent Vedas, by Will Sweetman

In the early progress of researches into Indian literature, it was doubted whether the Vedas were extant; or, if portions of them were still preserved, whether any person, however learned in other respects, might be capable of understanding their obsolete dialect. It was believed too, that, if a Brahmana really possessed the Indian scriptures, his religious prejudices would nevertheless prevent his imparting the holy knowledge to any but a regenerate Hindu. These notions, supported by popular tales, were cherished long after the Vedas had been communicated to Dara Shucoh [Shikoh], and parts of them translated into the Persian language by him, or for his use. [Extracts have also been translated into the Hindi language; but it does not appear upon what occasion this version into the vulgar dialect was made.] The doubts were not finally abandoned, until Colonel Polier obtained from Jeyepur a transcript of what purported to be a complete copy of the Vedas, and which he deposited in the British Museum. About the same time Sir Robert Chambers collected at Benares numerous fragments of the Indian scripture: General Martine [General Claude Martin]: at a later period, obtained copies of some parts of it; and Sir William Jones was successful in procuring valuable portions of the Vedas, and in translating several curious passages from one of them. [See Preface to Menu, page vi. and the Works of Sir William Jones, vol. vi.] I have been still more fortunate in collecting at Benares the text and commentary of a large portion of these celebrated books; and, without waiting to examine them more completely than has been yet practicable, I shall here attempt to give a brief explanation of what they chiefly contain.

-- Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus, by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, Esq.

Colonel Antoine-Louis Henri de Polier
Col. Polier's Nautch (Lucknow, c.1780), painted by Mihr Chand
Born: 1741m Lausanne
Died: 7 February 1795, France
Occupation: Engineer
Spouse(s): three
Children: three

Colonel Antoine-Louis Henri de Polier (1741–1795) was a Swiss adventurer,...

Adventurer: a person who enjoys or seeks adventure; a person willing to take risks or use dishonest methods for personal gain; "a political adventurer"; a financial speculator.

-- Adventurer, by Google

art collector, military engineer and soldier who made his fortune in India in the eighteenth century. He was the father of Count Adolphe de Polier.

Early life


Antoine Polier, General Claude Martin, John Wombwell, assay master, and Johann Zoffany, the painter, surrounded by servants and Polier's art collection.

Antoine-Louis was born in Lausanne[1] from a French Huguenot family who emigrated to Switzerland in the mid 16th century to escape the wars of religion. He was the youngest son of Jacques-Henri de Polier and his wife Jeanne-Françoise Moreau. He later learned Hindi and Persian.


Colonel Mordaunt's cockfight by Johann Zoffany[2]

Antoine Polier was an engineer from Lausanne who supported the military adventures of Robert Clive and later became a rich trader and loyal supporter of the British Raj administration in Calcutta. He devoted his free moments to collecting rare manuscripts in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic. Many were sent back to France to augment the growing collection in the Royal Library. France was now the center for the study of ancient Indian languages and its 'orientalism' spread to Germany in the early 1800s as Europe began to show a keen interest in early Indian-Persian-Zoroastrian origins.[1]

In India, he had two Indian wives, Jugnu and Zinat,[3] one senior and one junior and three (or possibly, four) children who were all baptized in Calcutta. He acquired a large art collection and became rich working for the Indian royalty. In 1788 he left his Indian wives with his loyal companion and fellow enlightened adventurer, Claude Martin,[3] and settled in France with an unfortunate timing as he arrived in time for the French revolution. Having purchased a chateau and taking a French wife and two children, Charles de Polier and Adolphe de Polier. He was assassinated in Avignon on February 9, 1795, in the terror that followed the French revolution.[4]

Legacy

His collection of miniatures are in Berlin.

See also

• Claude Martin

References

1. Maya Jasanoff, 'Edge of Empire: Conquest and Collecting on the Eastern Frontiers of the British Empire, 1750-1850' Fourth Estate
2. Colonel Mordaunt's Cock Match circa 1784-6, Terry Riggs, October 1997, Tate.org.uk, accessed April 2010
3. A Man of the Enlightenment in 18th Century India: The Letters of Claude Martin, 1766-1800. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
4. William Dalrymple 'Antoines Junior Bibi' Sept 27 2002 Timesonline accessed July 2007

Further reading

• A European Experience of the Mughal Orient: The I’jaz-i Arsalani (Persian Letters, 1773–1779) of Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier - Translated with an introduction by Muzaffar Alam and Seema Alavi. Pub.Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-564980-X
Jean-Marie Lafont, Indika. Essays in Indo-French Relations 1630-1976. New Delhi 2000. [An extremely useful book outlining French activities in India during Polier's time] ISBN 81-7304 278 0

[admin]

Will Sweetman
BA Hons (Lancaster) MPhil PhD (Cambridge)
Professor of Asian Religions
Room: Richardson 5S7
Tel: 64 3 479 8793
Email: [email protected]
by University of Otago, New Zealand

-- The Absent Vedas, by Will Sweetman

-- Church of the SubGenius, by Wikipedia

Will Sweetman studied Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Theology at the Universities of Lancaster and Cambridge. He has taught at universities in London and Newcastle, and held research fellowships at the Universities of Cambridge, Halle and Hamburg. Will has published three books and several articles on historical and theoretical aspects of the study of Hinduism. He is founding editor of the journal Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception and Associate Director of the New Zealand India Research Institute. Will is a member of the Heterodox Academy,...

Our Story

Mission

To improve the quality of research and education in universities by increasing open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement.

Vision

We aspire to create college classrooms and campuses that welcome diverse people with diverse viewpoints and that equip learners with the habits of heart and mind to engage that diversity in open inquiry and constructive disagreement.

We see an academy eager to welcome professors, students, and speakers who approach problems and questions from different points of view, explicitly valuing the role such diversity plays in advancing the pursuit of knowledge, discovery, growth, innovation, and the exposure of falsehoods.

Who we are

Heterodox Academy (HxA) is a nonpartisan collaborative of thousands of professors, administrators, and students committed to enhancing the quality of research and education by promoting open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in institutions of higher learning. All of our members embrace a set of norms and values, which we call “The HxA Way.”

All our members have embraced the following statement:

“I support open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in research and education.”

HxA’s members — professors, administrators, staff, and graduate students — come from a range of public and private institutions, from large research institutions to community colleges. They represented nearly every discipline, and are distributed throughout all 50 states and beyond.

What we do

“No organization in the history of American academic life has done, or is doing, more to promote the basic freedoms of viewpoint diversity we urgently need in our colleges and universities today than Heterodox Academy.”

-Robert George, Legal Scholar, Political Philosopher, & HxA Advisory Council member

In order to address society’s most intractable problems, learners must weave together the best ideas from a range of perspectives. Yet, colleges — the intended training ground for the sort of creative and integrative thinking such problem-solving requires — have become increasingly characterized by orthodoxy in what types of questions can be asked and what sort of comments can be shared in the classroom and around campus. Professors and students alike describe the toll self-censoring and threat of social censure have taken on learning, discovery, and growth. For the sake of higher ed and all the enterprises of life that await students after graduation, now is the time to dig in and fix what’s broken.

Heterodox Academy has the expertise, tools, and profile necessary to make change happen. We increase public awareness to elevate the importance of these issues on campus; develop tools that professors, administrators, and others can deploy to assess and then improve their campus and disciplinary cultures; publicly recognizing model institutions; and cultivate communities of practice among teachers, researchers, and administrators.

History

Heterodox Academy was founded in 2015 by Jonathan Haidt, Chris Martin, and Nicholas Rosenkranz, in reaction to their observations about the negative impact a lack of ideological diversity has had on the quality of research within their disciplines. What began as a website and a blog in September of 2015 — a venue for social researchers to talk about their work and the challenges facing their disciplines and institutions — soon grew into an international network of peers dedicated to advancing the values of constructive disagreement and viewpoint diversity as cornerstones of academic and intellectual life...

Heterodox Academy is comprised of nearly 4,000 members from a range of demographic backgrounds and academic disciplines, holding various institutional roles all over the United States and beyond. As would be expected from such a heterogenous network, our members hold a range of views on virtually any topic up for discussion. As an organization, we prize pluralism and we value constructive disagreement.

However, we do not promote viewpoint diversity for its own sake. Our primary goal is to improve research and teaching at colleges and universities. We recognize that institutions of higher learning are not ‘public squares’ in the traditional sense, but rather sites for the production and dissemination of knowledge. To facilitate these objectives, we embrace a particular set of norms and values, which we have taken to calling the ‘HxA Way.’ We encourage our members to embody these in all of their professional interactions.

1. Make your case with evidence.

Link to that evidence whenever possible (for online publications, on social media), or describe it when you can’t (such as in talks or conversations). Any specific statistics, quotes or novel facts should have ready citations from credible sources.

2. Be intellectually charitable.

Viewpoint diversity is not incompatible with moral or intellectual rigor – in fact it actually enhances moral and intellectual agility. However, one should always try to engage with the strongest form of a position one disagrees with (that is, ‘steel-man’ opponents rather than ‘straw-manning’ them). One should be able to describe their interlocutor’s position in a manner they would, themselves, agree with (see: ‘Ideological Turing Test’). Try to acknowledge, when possible, the ways in which the actor or idea you are criticizing may be right — be it in part or in full. Look for reasons why the beliefs others hold may be compelling, under the assumption that others are roughly as reasonable, informed and intelligent as oneself.

3. Be intellectually humble.

Take seriously the prospect that you may be wrong. Be genuinely open to changing your mind about an issue if this is what is expected of interlocutors (although the purpose of exchanges across difference need not always be to ‘convert’ someone, as explained here). Acknowledge the limitations to one’s own arguments and data as relevant.

4. Be constructive.

The objective of most intellectual exchanges should not be to “win,” but rather to have all parties come away from an encounter with a deeper understanding of our social, aesthetic and natural worlds. Try to imagine ways of integrating strong parts of an interlocutor’s positions into one’s own. Don’t just criticize, consider viable positive alternatives. Try to work out new possibilities, or practical steps that could be taken to address the problems under consideration. The corollary to this guidance is to avoid sarcasm, contempt, hostility, and snark. Generally target ideas rather than people. Do not attribute negative motives to people you disagree with as an attempt at dismissing or discrediting their views. Avoid hyperbole when describing perceived problems or (especially) one’s adversaries — for instance, do not analogize people to Stalin, Hitler/ the Nazis, Mao, the antagonists of 1984, etc.

5. Be yourself.

At Heterodox Academy, we believe that successfully changing unfortunate dynamics in any complex system or institution will require people to stand up — to leverage, and indeed stake, their social capital on holding the line, pushing back against adverse trends and leading by example. This not only has an immediate and local impact, it also helps spread awareness, provides models for others to follow and creates permission for others to stand up as well. This is why Heterodox Academy does not allow for anonymous membership; membership is a meaningful commitment precisely because it is public.

and an ordained Dudeist priest.

CERTIFICATE OF ORDINATION: THIS DOCUMENT HEREBY AFFIRMS THAT WILL SWEETMAN HAS BEEN ORDAINED BY THE CHURCH OF THE LATTER-DAY DUDE ON THIS DAY MAY 20, 2019

What is Dudeism?

While Dudeism in its official form has been organized as a religion only recently, it has existed down through the ages in one form or another. Probably the earliest form of Dudeism was the original form of Chinese Taoism, before it went all weird with magic tricks and body fluids. The originator of Taoism, Lao Tzu, basically said “smoke ’em if you got ’em” and “mellow out, man” although he said this in ancient Chinese so something may have been lost in the translation.

Down through the ages, this “rebel shrug” has fortified many successful creeds – Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism, John Lennonism and Fo’-Shizzle-my-Nizzlism.

"fo shizzle ma nizzle" is a bastardization of "fo' sheezy mah neezy" which is a bastardization of "for sure mah nigga" which is a bastdardization of "I concur with you whole heartedly my African american brother".

-- fo' shizzle my nizzle, by Urban Dictionary

The idea is this: Life is short and complicated and nobody knows what to do about it. So don’t do anything about it. Just take it easy, man. Stop worrying so much whether you’ll make it into the finals. Kick back with some friends and some oat soda and whether you roll strikes or gutters, do your best to be true to yourself and others – that is to say, abide.

Incidentally, the term “dude” is commonly agreed to refer to all genders. Most linguists contend that the diminutive “dudette” is not in keeping with the parlance of our times.



Great Dudes in History

Pillars of Dudeism, these Dudeist prophets and peacemakers have existed throughout history.
Proud we are of all of them.
_____________

Lao Tzu, Creator of Taoism

When things got screwed up in Ancient China Lao Tzu didn’t go all Mr. Miyagi and try to fix it. He got on his buffalo and took off for more copacetic pastures. But not before scribbling down a few what-have-yous that helped define Eastern philosophy ever since.

Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher

The man who wrote “you can never step into the same river twice” propagated the idea that everything was in flux, or “burning.” Consequently one should make the most of it and spark one up whenever possible. And step into the river from time to time, preferably with a cocktail and an inner tube.

Snoopy, Charlie Brown’s Dog

Always living up to the dictum, “It’s a dog’s life,” he also famously said “My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?”

Jeffrey Lebowski, The Dude

The uber-dude. Helped to bring Dudeism to the forefront of modern consciousness. If not for him, we’d still be stuck in the dude dark-ages. He’s Dude Vinci, Isaac Dudeton, and Charles Dudewin all rolled into one. Or just, His Dudeness, if you’re into that whole brevity thing.

Quincy Jones, Urban Dude/Producer/ Musician/Songwriter

Quincy Jones’ nickname was “The Dude,” and though his 70s urban cult of Dudeism is slightly different than present-day orthodox Dudeism, it still exalts the groovy over the square, the heartfelt over the phony, and the afro over the buzz-cut. At least it did until he started going bald.

Jennifer Lawrence, Angelic, yet down-to-earth-actor

Despite her endearing good looks and the undying affection of everyone on Earth, Lawrence hasn’t let stardom warp her. Deeply down to earth and often refreshingly casual, she’s also an outspoken Big Lebowski fangirl. She even played Maude in a high profile public reading of the screenplay.

The Buddha, Nepalese Sage

In keeping with the idea that the ideal Dude abandons the trappings of society and goes it his own way, there is no better candidate for Dudeism than the Buddha. Born a rich prince, he bailed on his birthright and taught that you should go with the flow. Chicks also dug him like crazy but none ever tied him down, cause Nirvana was what he was all about, man. Righteous.

Jesus Christ, Bearded prophet of the meek and early archetype of the 1960s hippie.

Jesus was born Jewish, but then converted to Dudeism after he realized that the Romans and the Pharisees were fucking fascists. Today lots of people think he’s the son of the guy who created the universe and that our life is in his hands. But probably he was just a dude who thought people should mellow out and stop getting so worked up about stuff. Sadly, few of his followers seem to actually realize that. Remember: There’s not a literal connection.

David Grayson, Alter-ego of Pulitzer-prize winning author Ray Stannard Baker

David Grayson wasn’t a real person, but no one knew that for a long time. Intellectual writer Ray Stannard Baker longed for a life out in the pastures and so wrote a series of seemingly-autobiographical books under this nom-de-dude. The series speaks of the comfort of a simple life without too much work, surrounded by nature and good friends. Baker was forced to admit the truth after the character grew in such popularity that others were claiming to be him. The dude will out. To thine own self be dude.

Jerry Garcia, Guitar canoodler extraordinaire

Roll away, the dude. Got a little carried away with the drugs, but it wasn’t because of psychic torment or weakness of character. He just liked them and maybe they made him play better. He was universally reknowned as an all-around nice guy with a live and let live attitude and appropriately-dudeish facial hair.

Joni Mitchell, Angel-voiced troubador of the unpaved

While most of the sixties rock revolution was fomented by guys, the ladies seemed to end up as notches in their frayed leather belts of free love, or dead from intemperance like Mama Cass and Janis Joplin. Not so for the quintessentially cool dudeist saint Mitchell who sang smartly about individualism while smoking and cursing like a sailor and living life on her own terms. She paints pretty good too.

Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi, Peace-loving subcontinental pacifist

Calmer than you are. Calmer than anyone ever anywhere. Gandhi was never, ever un-dude. He practically invented modern pacifism, not to mention shabby chic – he showed up to stuffy English parliament in nothing more than a ratty sheet. He also invented the sit-in, the hunger strike and the cool 1960s specs. He was the man in the white pajamas.

Walt Whitman, Turned the hobo zero into a boho hero

Never had anything approaching a permanent job. Wandered all over the place. Became a famous poet unexpectedly and accidentally, while poseur contemporaries like Emerson and Thoreau struggled to make sure everyone thought they were hip and bohemian. Was a literate friend to the common man, never really acknowledged his fame, and even though he was probably gay, adamantly refused to iron his clothes.

Julia Child, Brought fine cuisine to the common man

If not for Madame Julia, most Americans afflicted with a bad case of the munchies would only have overboiled 1950s cooking to turn to. But this huge, burly woman proved that you can be working-class and sloppy-looking and still eat good grub. She took the snobbery out of eating well – on one episode of her TV show she accidentally dropped food on the floor and then unceremoniously threw it back in the pan. Right on, Grey Poupon.

Jeff Spicoli, Quintessential Surfer Dude

Surfers are responsible for the resurgence of the term “dude” in the 1970s so it would be downright unholy to omit their pop culture patron saint, Jeff Spicoli, Sean Penn’s character in the 1980s movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” Spicoli summed up the dude ethos in this perfectly pithy riposte to another character’s suggestion that he get a job: “What for? All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I’m fine.” He also had the brilliant idea of ordering delivery pizza during history class. Though he almost failed history, he totally aced Dudeist Ethics 101. Radical!

Kurt Vonnegut, Modern day Dudeist philosopher

“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.” So wroteth one of the greatest writers of Dudeist novels ever. While few of his books really even had plots, they were so packed with witty, quotable sayings and iconoclastic, easygoing ideas to live by that it hardly mattered. In fact, the very idea that plots were a part of life was anathema to him. Consistently imploring the world to shrug rather than assert, his essential philosophy was that life on earth is totally and utterly nonsensical so just try to have as good a time as possible without blowing anything up. So it goes.

Have any suggestions for additional dudes? Please suggest them to us.Check out more Great Dudes in History at Abide University and The Dudespaper.

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The Take it Easy Manifesto
by Rev. Dwayne Eutsey, Arch Dudeship


[Uncle Sam Says:] I WANT YOU TO TAKE IT EASY

THERE’S A RELIGION for its time and place…It fits right in there, helps us abide through all the strikes and gutters, the ups and downs of the whole durned human comedy. It really ties your life together.

And the religion for our time and place is Dudeism.

Of course, nihilists and reactionaries will probably dispute that—when they’re not throwing marmots into your bathtub or coffee cups at your forehead. That’s why you need to know how to respond when someone who is un-Dude asks you what the fuck you’re talking about when you tell them about Dudeism.

Now, it’s a basic tenet of the Dudeist ethos to just say “Fuck it,” or “Yeah, well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man,” when someone micturates upon our faith. But we’re talking about unchecked theological aggression here, drawing a line in the spiritual sand, Dude. Across this line you do not—also, Dude, “faith” is not the preferred nomenclature—“worldview,” please.

So, What the Fuck am I Talking About?

Lost my train of thought there. Anyway, in defending whether Dudeism is really a religion, worldview, or what-have-you, a Dudeist must first address a very basic question: What makes a religion? Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost? Isn’t that what makes a religion? Or is it that along with a pair of testaments?


IF YOU WILL IT, DUDE, IT IS NO DREAM

Well, Dude, we just don’t know. Religion is a very complicated thing. A lotta scriptural ins, a lotta ritual outs…a lot of ecclesiastical strands to keep in your head, man. There is a lot about religion that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to us. It can be quite stupefying, in fact. But there are some basic tools that can help put you in a unique position to confirm or disconfirm whether Dudeism is a religion.

First off, it’s good to define what in God’s holy name we’re blathering about when we say the word “religion”. A wiser fellah than myself once said that “religion” has its root in the Latin word “ligo,” or “to bind together.” That’s a good place to start, I guess, because the tenets of Dudeism do indeed bind its diverse adherents together in one big round robin.

But there are other ways that can help you explain how Dudeism is a religion, and in English, too. Here are just a couple.

All Right, Let’s Get Down to Cases

The beauty of Dudeism is its simplicity. Once a religion gets too complex, everything can go wrong.

That’s why the “To What/From What/By What Means” method of identifying a religion is a great way to summarize the Dudeist ethos for your un-Dude friends.


DUDE, THE CHINAMAN IS NOT THE ISSUE HERE. ALSO, DUDE, CHINAMAN IS NOT THEPREFERRED NOMENCLATURE. ASIAN-AMERICAN, PLEASE.

For example, if you apply this method to Buddhism (a compeer of Dudeism), you can easily answer what the point of it is.

From what is Buddhism trying to liberate us? Suffering
To what state of being is Buddhism trying to bring us? Nirvana
By what means does Buddhism attempt do this? The Noble Eightfold Path.

Isn’t that fucking interesting, man? Now let’s apply it to Dudeism:

From what is Dudeism trying to liberate us? Thinking that’s too uptight.
To what state of being is Dudeism trying to bring us: Just taking it easy, man.
By what means does Dudeism attempt do this? Abiding.

Now, that’s fucking ingenious, if I understand it correctly.

If You Define It, It Is a DREEMMS

But what do Dudeists believe? Well, although you have your story and I have mine, there are certain things that bring us together and root us, like the aitz chaim he, in a shared community.

a common term used in Judaism. The expression can be found in Genesis 2:9, referring to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. It is also found in the Book of Proverbs, where it is figuratively applied to "the Torah" Proverbs 3:18, "the fruit of a righteous man" Proverbs 11:30, "a desire fulfilled" Proverbs 13:12, and "healing tongue" Proverbs 15:4.

-- Etz Chaim, by Wikipedia

To help me clarify what I’m blathering about, I’ll use the seven dimensions of religion identified by Ninian Smart (another wiser fellah than myself): Doctrinal, Ritual, Ethics, Experiential, Myth, Material, and Social…or, in the parlance of religious studies, DREEMMS).


JUST TAKE IT EASY, MAN! THE TAKE IT EASY MANIFESTO

Doctrinal (the systematic formulation of religious teachings in an intellectually coherent form): Like Zen, Dudeism isn’t into the whole doctrinal thing; we prefer direct experience of takin’er easy, and often contemplate two indiscernible Coens to achieve that modest task.

Perhaps the closest Dudeists come to having a systematic formulation of our religious teachings is: “Sometimes you eat the bear, and, well, sometimes the bear, he eats you.” Is that some sort of Eastern thing? Far from it, Dude.

Ritual (forms and orders of ceremonies): Dudeists are also not into the whole ritual thing, but there are some things we do for recreation that bring us together, like bowling, driving around, the occasional acid flashback, listening to Creedence. Some Dudeists are shomer shabbas, and that’s cool.

a person who observes the mitzvot (commandments) associated with Judaism's Shabbat, or Sabbath, which begins at dusk on Friday and ends after sunset on Saturday.

-- Shomer Shabbat, by Wikipedia

Ethics (rules about human behavior): Although this isn’t ‘Nam, there aren’t many behavioral rules in Dudeism, either. However, we do recognize that we may enter a world of pain whenever we go over the line and we are forever cognizant of what can happen when we fuck a stranger in the ass.

Experiential (the core defining personal experience): Abiding and takin’er easy.

Myth (the stories that work on several levels and offer a fairly complete and systematic interpretation of the universe and humanity’s place in it): The Big Lebowski is our founding myth; just as the Christian Gospels, based on the Jesus of history, provide a portrait of the mythical Christ of faith who “died for all us sinners,” the film, based on the Dude of history (Jeff Dowd), presents the mythical Dude of film (Jeff Bridges) who “takes it easy for all us sinners.”

Material (ordinary objects or places that symbolize or manifest the sacred or supernatural): That rug really tied the room together, did it not?

Social (a system shared and attitudes practiced by a group. Often rules for identifying community membership and participation): Racially we’re pretty cool and open to pretty much everyone…pacifists, veterans, surfers, fucking lady friends, vaginal artists, video artists with cleft assholes, dancing landlords, doctors who are good men and thorough, enigmatic strangers, brother shamuses…And proud we are of all of them.

Those we consider very un-Dude include: Rug-pissers, brats, nihilists, Nazis, human paraquats, pederasts, pornographers, fucking fascists, reactionaries, and angry cab drivers. Friends like these, huh, Gary?


I CAN HAS IT EASY?

Aw, Hell. I Done Innerduced Dudeism Enough


LIFE IS A CYCLE. SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO GET OFF. GRANE JACKSON'S FOUNTAIN STREET THEATRE THIS TUESDAY (NOTES WELCOME)

Although Dudeists may lack three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax, we do share the great spiritual insights espoused by many great Dudes throughout the ages. As our Dudely Lama once wrapped it all up for us:

“Life is short and complicated and nobody knows what to do about it. So don’t do anything about it. Just take it easy, man. Stop worrying so much whether you’ll make it into the finals. Kick back with some friends and some oat soda and whether you roll strikes or gutters, do your best to be true to yourself and others – that is to say, abide.”

Knowing that, now you can die with a smile on your face without feelin’ like the Good Lord gypped you. And that’s what Dudeism’s all about.

See ya later on down the trail.

Arch Dudeship Dwayne Eutsey is currently founding a Dudeist monastery for Irish monks: The Brotherhood Shamus

The Brotherhood Shamus: A Monastery for Private Investigations
by Rev. Dwayne Eutsey



Say what you will about the tenets of the Brother Shamus Monastic Order…at least it’s an ethos.

St. Da Fino’s Virtual Shrine of Our Special Lady is Dudeism’s first contemplative order consisting of Brother Shamuses (and special ladies) devoted to following their innermost Dude.

What is a Brother Shamus?

Like our blessed patron St. Da Fino, who set out on his quest to crack the Knudsen Conundrum, Brother Shamuses (not to be confused with Irish monks) endeavor to explore life’s most vexing mysteries.

At St. Da Fino’s Virtual Shrine of Our Special Lady, Brother Shamuses join together to dig the Dude’s work and contemplate Dudeism’s enduring questions posed by the Dudester himself, such as:

•“Who the fuck are you, man?”

•“Why the fuck *are* you following the Dude?”

•“How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm once they seen Karl Hungus?”

As everyone knows, there are no easy answers to these questions, and pondering them alone can sometimes cause a darkness to warsh over you, darker’n a black steer’s tookus on a moonless prairie night, as a wiser feller than myself once rambled.


Click HERE to pray!

Why Become a Brother Shamus?

It is in the dark night of our most private snoopings that we unexpectedly encounter the Dude. Like St. Da Fino on the night of his epiphany, we must answer the Dude’s call to “get out of that fucking car, man”—or, in the parlance of our times, to let go of the ego’s steering wheel—before we can ever come face to face with our deepest Dudeness.

Unless you’re adhering to a pretty strict drug regimen, though, you need compeers to help keep your mind limber enough to abide with the Dude.

Becoming a Brother Shamus through St. Da Fino’s Virtual Shrine of Our Special Lady provides you with a supportive community that pools its resources, trades information, shares professional courtesies, has some burgers, some beers, a few laughs…and what have you.

How can you become a Brother Shamus?

1. Heed first the Dude’s call to “get out of that fucking car, man.”
2. Confess that you are indeed a dick.
3. Intend to do no harm.
4. Follow the Dude’s admonition to fuck off, but without begrudging the Dude.

Once you have taken these teachings to heart, you may consider yourself a Brother Shamus. Fabulous stuff, man.

If you like, you may now make a prayer to “St. Dafino’s Virtual Shrine of Our Special Lady”. She is a good shrine, and thurrah.


THE PASSION OF THE JESUS. YOU GOT A DATE ASH WEDNESDAY, BABY

Also, please visit our Facebook Group.

Dwayne can be reached at [email protected]

Teaching

Every year Will teaches the section on Hinduism in an introductory paper (RELS102). He also teaches papers directly connected with his research interests: religion in the south of India (RELS212/312), and interactions between Asian religions and the West (RELS220/320). His other teaching includes a paper on the culture of the body in Asian religions (RELS209/309), and another on World Christianity (RELS205/305). All of these papers are also offered by distance learning.

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Against Invention: A richer history for ‘Hinduism’
by The Religious Studies Project
February 19, 2018

In this interview Associate Professor Will Sweetman talks to Thomas White about the idea that ‘Hinduism’ and many of the other terms we use to classify religions—including the term religion itself—are modern inventions, emerging out of nineteenth-century inter-cultural contact and European colonialism. Will argues against this critique, and to make his case he draws on historical sources that discuss ‘Hinduism’ both outside of the anglophone ...

In 1781–82 Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier, a Swiss Protestant who served in the English East India Company’s army until 1775, had had copies of the Vedas made for him at the court of Pratap Singh at Jaipur. 122 Polier’s intermediary was a Portuguese physician, Don Pedro da Silva Leitão. A doctor named Pedro da Silva Leitão had been present at the court of Jai Singh in 1728 and played a part in the negotiations with the Portuguese regarding the exchange of scientific knowledge, personnel, and equipment. He was long-lived, but Polier’s friend may rather have been one of his descendants. Jai Singh had assembled a substantial collection of manuscripts from religious sites across India, and in the time of his successor Pratap Singh the library had contained the saṃhitās of all four Vedas in manuscripts dating from the last quarter of the seventeenth century. 123

Although Polier records that he had sought copies of the Veda without success in Bengal, Awadh, and on the Coromandel coast, as well as in Agra, Delhi, and Lucknow and had found that even at Banaras “nothing could be obtained but various Shasters, w.ch are only Commentaries of the Baids,” he connects this not with the reluctance of the Brahmins but rather, like Bernier, with “the persecution the Hindous suffered throughout India” under Aurangzeb, noting that Jaipur had been spared because of the services rendered to the Mughal Emperor by Jai Singh.

By this it may be seen how little a dependence is to be placed in the assertions of those who have represented the Brehmans as very averse to the communication of the principles of their Religion—their Mysteries, and holy books.—In truth, I have always found those who were really men of science and knowledge, very ready to impart and communicate, what they knew to whoever would receive it and listen to them with a view of information, and not merely for the purpose of turning into ridicule, whatever was not perfectly consonant to our European Ideas, tenets and even prejudices—some of w.ch I much fear are thought by the Indians to be full as deserving of ridicule as any they have.—At the same time it must be owned, that all the Hindous,— the Brehmans only excepted, are forbidden by their Religion from studying and learning the Baids—the K’hatrys alone being permitted to hear them read and expounded: This being the case, it will naturally be asked—how came an European who is not even of the same faith, to be favoured with what is denied even to a Hindou?—To this the Brehmans readily reply—That being now in the Cal Jog or fourth age, in w.ch Religion is reduced to nought, it matters not who sees or studies them in these days of wickedness. 124

It is perhaps significant that it was in a royal library, rather than in a Brahmin pathasala, that Polier found manuscripts of the Vedas. 125 But the same is not true of the manuscripts acquired in Banaras only fifteen years later by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, during the period (1795–97) when he was appointed as judge and magistrate at nearby Mirzapur: “A working scholar, he sought manuscripts that ‘had been much used & studied in preference to ornamented & splendid copies imperfectly corrected.’” 126 Moreover, in a letter to his father in February 1797 Colebrooke echoed Polier’s sentiments:

I cannot conceive how it came to be ever asserted that the Brahmins were ever averse to instruct strangers; several gentlemen who have studied the language find, as I do, the greatest readiness in them to give us access to all their sciences. They do not even conceal from us the most sacred texts of their Vedas. 127

The several gentlemen would likely have included General Claude Martin, Sir William Jones, and Sir Robert Chambers. These were all East India Company employees who obtained Vedic manuscripts (Jones from Polier) in the last decades of the eighteenth century.

Why was it so much easier for Polier, Colebrooke, and others to obtain what it had been so difficult for the Jesuits and impossible for the Pietists? There are several differences in the context that might have played a part. Some are geographical: Were Brahmins in the south much more reluctant to transmit the Vedas than those in the north? Or was oral transmission more dominant—and therefore physical copies harder to come by—in the south? Others are historical, political, and economic: Is the lack of resistance encountered by Polier and Colebrooke to be explained by the significant shift in power dynamics as the English East India Company was transformed from a trading company to a territorial power? Anquetil Duperron was offered Vedas he could not afford; Le Gac was restrained by the mission’s parlous finances; but the same did not apply to the wealthy men like Martin and Polier. Finally, there are religious considerations: Did it matter—as Polier suggests—that the East India Company men were not in India to convert Hindus to Christianity?

The difficulty the Jesuits experienced in obtaining copies of the Vedas is often exaggerated. Although Bouchet had reported in 1711 that he had been unable to obtain copies of the Vedas, the reluctance of Le Gac to respond to a request for the Vedas in 1726 from his fellow Jesuit Souciet indicates that in the period after Nobili the Jesuits in India did not regard this as a priority. Le Gac did not mention Brahmin secrecy in his responses to Souciet in 1726 and 1727, but rather the likely cost and doubtful utility of obtaining manuscripts or translations of the Vedas. His attitude changed only in 1728, with the intervention of Bignon and Le Noir. From that point, it took only two years for Calmette to obtain the Ṛg and Yajur Veda saṃhitās. Despite Calmette’s statement about no European having been able to unearth this text “since India has been known,” the evidence suggests rather that no European other than Nobili had seriously sought to obtain the Vedas. The “false” Vedas obtained by the Pietists two years after Calmette—and by Gargam and Pons six years before—are explicable by the flexibility of the term Veda; we do not need to postulate either duplicity or secrecy on the part of those who transmitted these texts.

The question of the availability of the texts in manuscript form touches on the hotly debated issue of the oral transmission of the Vedas. That there was a powerful presumption against writing down Hindu texts, and the Vedas in particular, is not controversial. “One who reads from a written text” (likhita-pāṭhaka) is included among a list of the six worst types of those who recite the Vedas. 128 Nevertheless, in a survey of Vedic manuscripts, mostly of southern provenance, from c. 1650–1850, Cezary Galewicz notes the paradox of a copyist who cites this very verse in the colophon of a manuscript of 1787 containing the fourth aṣṭaka of the Ṛgveda saṃhitā. 129 Of course, the fact that manuscripts of the Vedas existed by this period does not mean that all Brahmins who knew the Vedas would have had them also in manuscript form, still less that they would have been willing to sell or to transcribe them for Europeans. We do not have to fall into what Johannes Bronkhorst calls “the brahmanical trap” 130—imagining that the Vedas were never written down—in order to accept that the brahminical prejudice against writing down the Vedas would have meant that it was far less likely that European scholars would come across manuscripts of the Vedas than manuscripts of other texts. 131 But the Vedas did exist in manuscript, and Calmette’s “hidden Christians” found there were also Brahmins prepared to part with, or to produce, manuscripts—even if they thought they were doing so only for other Brahmins.

Europeans were first able to acquire Hindu texts, in the 1540s and 1550s, because of Portuguese control in Goa. The extension of the English East India Company’s territorial and military might in the later part of the eighteenth century would have changed the nature of interactions between Europeans and Indians elsewhere. 132 Colebrooke’s experience in Mirzapur is perhaps the clearest instance of the effect of a shift in power dynamics, but Polier’s success at the court of Pratap Singh in 1781—not yet within the direct ambit of British power—seems to owe more to the character of the court. Since the time of Jai Singh in the 1720s, the court at Jaipur had been involved in the exchange—partly mediated by Jesuits—of materials of scientific and scholarly interest with the Portuguese court. In 1734 Jai Singh invited Jean-François Pons and Claude Boudier, French Jesuits stationed in Bengal, to Jaipur. 133 Pons was also engaged in collecting manuscripts for Bignon, and had their trip not been cut short by illness it seems likely he would have preceded Polier in gaining access Jai Singh’s collection of Sanskrit manuscripts.

-- The Absent Vedas, by Will Sweetman

[admin]

Church of the SubGenius
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 8/31/20

-- Maybe Logic: The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson, by Robert Anton Wilson

Jehovah 1, the primary deity of the Church of the SubGenius.

-- J.R. "Bob" Dobbs

The Church of the SubGenius is a parody religion[1] that satirizes better-known belief systems. It teaches a complex philosophy that focuses on J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, purportedly a salesman from the 1950s, who is revered as a prophet by the Church. SubGenius leaders have developed detailed narratives about Dobbs and his relationship to various gods and conspiracies. Their central deity, Jehovah 1, is accompanied by other gods drawn from ancient myth and popular fiction. SubGenius literature describes a grand conspiracy that seeks to brainwash the world and oppress Dobbs's followers. In its narratives, the Church presents a blend of cultural references in an elaborate remix of the sources.

Ivan Stang, who co-founded the Church in the 1970s, serves as its leader and publicist. He has imitated actions of other religious leaders, using the tactic of culture jamming in an attempt to undermine better-known faiths. Church leaders instruct their followers to avoid mainstream commercialism and the belief in absolute truths. The group holds that the quality of "Slack" is of utmost importance, but it is never clearly defined. The number of followers is unknown, although the Church's message has been welcomed by college students and artists in the United States. The group is often compared to Discordianism. Journalists often consider the Church an elaborate joke, but some academics have defended it as a real system of deeply held beliefs.[2][3]

Discordianism is a paradigm based upon the book Principia Discordia, written by Greg Hill with Kerry Wendell Thornley in 1963, the two working under the pseudonyms Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst. According to self-proclaimed "crackpot historian" Adam Gorightly, Discordianism was founded as a parody religion. Many outside observers still regard Discordianism as a parody religion, although some of its adherents may utilize it as a legitimate religion or as a metaphor for a governing philosophy.

The Principia Discordia, if read literally, encourages the worship of the Greek goddess Eris, known in Latin as Discordia, the goddess of disorder, or archetypes and ideals associated with her. Depending on the version of Discordianism, Eris might be considered the goddess exclusively of disorder or the goddess of disorder and chaos. Both views are supported by the Principia Discordia. The Principia Discordia holds three core principles: the Aneristic (order), the Eristic (disorder), and the notion that both are mere illusions. Due to these principles, a Discordian believes there is no distinction between order and disorder, since they are both man-made conceptual divisions of the pure element of chaos. An argument presented by the text is that it is only by rejecting these principles that you can truly perceive reality as it is, chaos.

It is difficult to estimate the number of Discordians because they are not required to hold Discordianism as their only belief system, and because, by nature of the system itself, there is an encouragement to form schisms and cabals.

-- Discordianism, by Wikipedia

Origins

The Church of the SubGenius was founded by Ivan Stang (born Douglas St Clair Smith) and Philo Drummond (born Steve Wilcox)[4] as the SubGenius Foundation.[5] Dr. X (born Monte Dhooge) was also present at the group's inception.[6] The organization's first recorded activity was the publication of a photocopied document, Sub Genius Pamphlet #1, disseminated in Dallas, Texas in 1979. The document announced the impending end of the world and the possible deaths of its readers.[5] It criticized Christian conceptions of God and New Age perceptions of spirituality.[7]

Church leaders maintain that a man named J. R. "Bob" Dobbs founded the group in 1953.[5] SubGenius members constructed an elaborate account of Dobbs's life, which commentators describe as fictional.[8] They assert that he telepathically contacted Drummond in 1972, before meeting him in person the next year, and that Drummond persuaded Stang to join shortly afterward.[9] Stang has called himself Dobbs's "sacred scribe" and a "professional maven of weirdness".[10][11]

Beliefs

Deities

The Church of the SubGenius's ostensible beliefs defy categorization or a simple narrative, often striking outsiders as bizarre and convoluted.[10] The group has an intricate mythology involving gods, aliens, and mutants, which observers usually consider satire of other religions.[5] Its primary deity, generally known as Jehovah 1,[2] is an extraterrestrial who contacted Dobbs in the 1950s. Various accounts state that the encounter occurred while Dobbs was building a television or watching late-night television.[12][13] Jehovah 1 gave him supernatural knowledge of the past and future, in addition to incredible power.[12] Dobbs then posed deep questions to the alien, receiving mysterious answers.[14] Some of their discussion centered on a powerful conspiracy, to which the Church attributes command of the world.[2]

Jehovah 1 and his spouse Eris, regarded by the Church as "relatively evil", are classified as "rebel gods".[15] SubGenius leaders note that Jehovah 1 is wrathful, a quality expressed by his "stark fist of removal".[9] The Church teaches that they are part of the Elder Gods, who are committed to human pain, but that Jehovah 1 is "relatively good" in comparison. Yog-Sothoth, a character from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, is the Elder Gods' leader. In her 2010 study of the Church of the SubGenius, religious scholar Carole Cusack of the University of Sydney states that Lovecraft's work is a "model for the Church of the SubGenius's approach to scripture", in that aspects of his fiction were treated as real by some within paganism, just as the Church appropriates aspects of popular culture in its spirituality.[16]

J. R. "Bob" Dobbs

Main article: J. R. "Bob" Dobbs


Fictional character Ward Cleaver (right), to whom Dobbs' appearance is often compared.

SubGenius leaders teach that Dobbs's nature is ineffable and consequently stylize his name with quotation marks.[17][18] They call him a "World Avatar"[9] and hold that he has died and been reborn many times.[10] The Church's primary symbol is an icon of his face in which he smokes a pipe.[2] Stang has said the image was taken from Yellow Pages clip art,[17] and it has been likened to Ward Cleaver,[10] Mark Trail,[13] or a 1950s-era salesman.[2] The Church's canon contains references to aspects of United States culture in that decade;[19] religious scholar Danielle Kirby of RMIT University argues that this type of reference "simultaneously critiques and subverts" the American dream.[20]

In the Church's mythology, Jehovah 1 intended Dobbs to lead a powerful conspiracy and brainwash individuals to make them work for a living. Dobbs refused; instead, he infiltrated the group and organized a counter-movement. Church leaders teach that he was a very intelligent child and, as he grew older, studied several religious traditions, including Sufism, Rosicrucianism, and the Fourth Way.[21] Another key event in his life occurred when he traveled to Tibet, where he learned vital truths about topics including Yetis; the Church teaches that SubGenius members are descended from them. The only relative of Dobbs the Church identifies is his mother, Jane McBride Dobbs—Church leaders cite his lack of resemblance to his mother's husband as the reason for not revealing his father.[21] Dobbs is married to a woman named Connie; SubGenius leaders identify the couple as archetypes of the genders in a belief that resembles Hindu doctrines about Shiva and Parvati.[12] Church literature has variously described Dobbs's occupation as "drilling equipment" or fluoride sales,[9][13] and accounts of his life generally emphasize his good fortune rather than intelligence.[19] SubGenius leaders believe he is capable of time travel, and that this results in occasional changes to doctrine (the "Sacred Doctrine of Erasability"). Consequently, members attempt to follow Dobbs by eschewing unchangeable plans.[19]

Conspiracy and "Slack"

The Church of the SubGenius's literature incorporates many aspects of conspiracy theories,[22] teaching that there is a grand conspiracy at the root of all lesser ones.[17] It says that there are many UFOs, most of which are used by the conspiracy leaders to monitor humans, though a few contain extraterrestrials. In the Church's view, this conspiracy uses a façade of empowering messages but manipulates people so that they become indoctrinated into its service.[9] The Church calls these individuals "pinks" and states that they are blissfully unaware of the organization's power and control.[23] SubGenius leaders teach that most cultural and religious mores are the conspiracy's propaganda.[19] They maintain that their followers, but not the pinks, are capable of developing an imagination; the Church teaches that Dobbs has empowered its members to see through these illusions. Owing to their descent from Yetis, the Church's followers have a capacity for deep understanding that the pinks lack.[9] Cultural studies scholar Solomon Davidoff states that the Church develops a "satiric commentary" on religion, morality, and conspiracies.[22]

SubGenius members believe that those in the service of the conspiracy seek to bar them from "Slack",[22] a quality promoted by the Church. Its teachings center on "Slack"[5] (always capitalized),[18] which is never concisely defined, though Dobbs is said to embody it.[2][24] Church members seek to acquire Slack and believe it will allow them the free, comfortable life (without hard work or responsibility) they claim as an entitlement.[12][25] Sex and the avoidance of work are taught as two key ways to gain Slack.[18] Davidoff believes that Slack is "the ability to effortlessly achieve your goals".[22] Cusack states that the Church's description of Slack as ineffable recalls the way that Tao is described,[9] and Kirby calls Slack a "unique magical system".[26]

Members


R. Crumb, a cartoonist who helped publicize the Church.

The Church of the SubGenius's founders were based in Dallas when they distributed their first document. The SubGenius Foundation moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1999.[5] In 2009, Stang claimed the Church had 40,000 members, but the actual number may have been much lower.[27] As of 2012, becoming a minister in the Church consists of paying a $35 fee;[28] Stang has estimated that there are 10,000 ministers[13][29][30] and that the Church's annual income has reached $100,000.[7] In October 2017, The Church moved to Glen Rose, Texas.

Most SubGenius members are male,[14] and, according to Stang, many are social outcasts.[11] He maintains that those who do not fit into society will ultimately triumph over those who do.[7] The Church has experienced success "converting" college students,[10] particularly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[31] It has also gained popularity in several American cities, including San Francisco, Little Rock, and Cleveland.[11][32] A few Church members have voiced concerns and/or amusement about new members who took the Church too seriously, fearing that they acted like serious cult followers, the very concept the SubGenius parodies.[13] Stang has expressed concern that the Church's doctrines could exacerbate preexisting psychoses of mentally ill devotees, although he believes that the Church genuinely helps many adherents.[11]

Notable associates of the Church include Mark Mothersbaugh,[18] Mojo Nixon,[18] Paul Mavrides,[11] Paul Reubens,[33] members of Negativland,[18] David Byrne, and R. Crumb.[34] Crumb provided early publicity for the church by reprinting Sub Genius Pamphlet #1 in his comics anthology Weirdo.[7] References to the Church are present in several works of art,[35] including the Internet-based collaborative fiction Ong's Hat, the comic book The Middleman, the band Sublime's album 40oz. to Freedom, and the television program Pee-wee's Playhouse.[36][37][38]

Instructions

Church leaders have issued specific instructions to their followers;[39] Robert Latham of the University of California, Riverside, calls their ideology "anarcholibertarian".[40] Five specific commands particularly embody the group's values:

• Shun regular employment and stop working. This encapsulates the Church's view that to repent is to "SLACK OFF",[39] as opposed to working for a living.[20] SubGenius leaders say it is permissible for members to collect public assistance in lieu of maintaining employment.[39]
• Purchase products sold by the Church, which its leaders say Dobbs founded to gain wealth.[41] Unlike most religious groups, the Church proudly admits it is for-profit (presumably mocking religious groups that seem to have ulterior financial motives).[18] Cusack sees the instruction to buy as an ironic parody of the "greed is good" mentality of the 1980s,[39] and Kirby notes that although the group emphasizes "the consumption of popular cultural artefacts", this consumption is "simultaneously de-emphasized by the processes of remix".[42]
• Rebel against "law and order". Specifically, the Church condemns security cameras and encourages computer hacking. Cusack notes that this instruction recalls Robert Anton Wilson's critique of law and order.
• Rid the world of everyone who did not descend from Yetis.[39] SubGenius leaders teach that Dobbs hopes to rid the Earth of 90% of humanity, making the Earth "clear".[41] The group praises drug abuse and abortion as effective methods of culling unneeded individuals.
• Exploit fear, specifically that of people who are part of the conspiracy. Church leaders teach conspiracy members fear SubGenius devotees.[39]

Events

Devivals


Klaatu, a character from the 1951 American science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still, who is celebrated by the Church of the SubGenius.

Local groups of members of the Church of the SubGenius are known as "clenches". They host periodic events known as "devivals", which include sermons, music, and other art forms.[5] The term is used by both the Church of the Subgenius and Discordianism[citation needed] for a gathering or festival of followers. The name is a pun on Christian revivals.[43]

At devivals, leaders take comical names and give angry rants.[23] Many take place at bars or similar venues.[27] Cusack compares the style of the services to Pentecostal revivalism;[23] David Giffels of the Akron Beacon Journal calls them "campy preaching sessions".[11] Cusack posits that these events are examples of Peter Lamborn Wilson's concept of Temporary Autonomous Zones, spaces in which the ordinary constraints of social control are suspended.[44] On one occasion, the presence of a Church leader's wife at a SubGenius meeting that included public nudity and a goat costume contributed to her losing custody of her children in a court case. But the publicity surrounding the event was a boon to the Church's recruitment efforts.[45]

The Church also celebrates several holidays in honor of characters from fiction and popular culture, such as Monty Python, Dracula, and Klaatu.[46] The Association for Consciousness Exploration and pagan groups have occasionally assisted the Church in its events.[18][27] Some SubGenius members put little emphasis on meetings, citing the Church's focus on individualism, though the Book of the SubGenius discusses community.[47]

SubGenius devivals are not regularly scheduled, but are recorded on the SubGenius website.[48] Devivals have been held in multiple U.S. states, as well as China, the Netherlands, and Germany. The Church has also held Devivals at non-SubGenius events, such as Burning Man and the Starwood Festival.[49]


Rev. Ivan Stang of the Church of the SubGenius at The Cyclone of Slack

The Cyclone of Slack[50][51] was a devival in Portland, Oregon, in October 2009 put on by the Church of the Subgenius[52] and the organizers of Esozone.[citation needed] One of its more bizarre moments was when the alcohol and fire-and-brimstone sermon-fueled crowd in front of the stage began to sit down in twos and threes when the Duke of Uke began to play his ukulele.[53]

The "Go Fuck Yourself" devival was held in Astoria, New York, in October 2010 by the Church of the Subgenius at the Wonderland Collective.[54]

X-Day

In early SubGenius literature, July 5, 1998, was introduced as a significant date, later becoming known as "X-Day".[39] The Church held that Dobbs identified the date's significance in the 1950s,[30] claiming that the world was to experience a massive change on that date when Xists, beings from Planet X, would arrive on Earth.[29] SubGenius leaders said their paying members would be transported onto spaceships for union with goddesses as the world was destroyed,[55] though a few posited that they would be sent to a joyful hell.[11] In anticipation of the event, X-Day "drills" were held in 1996 and 1997.[56]

In July 1998, the Church held a large devival at a "clothing-optional" campground in Sherman, New York,[29][31] attended by about 400 members.[30] The event was ostensibly to celebrate the coming of aliens. When their appearance was not detected using the technology available at the time, Stang speculated that they might arrive in 8661, an inversion of 1998;[29] this has been interpreted as a satire of the way that religious groups have revised prophecies after their failures.[55] Some critics have dismissed the event as a prank or "performance art".[29] Another theory is that The Conspiracy has lied about what year the present year actually is (just as they have lied about everything else), so that the liberation date would seem to pass without fulfillment and cause followers to lose faith. As a precaution, SubGenius members continue to gather for X-Day every July 5. At these events, the non-appearance of the aliens is celebrated.[26][57] Cusack calls the productions carnivalesque[57] or an echo of ancient Greek satyr plays.[29]

Publishing

Online

The Church of the SubGenius established a website in May 1993,[58] and its members were very active on Usenet in the 1990s.[10]

Print

Although it has gained a significant online presence, it was successful before the advent of Internet communities.[59] The Church was a pioneer in the religious use of zines;[60] Cusack notes that its use of the medium can be seen as a rejection of the alienation of labor practices.[61]

The SubGenius Foundation has published several official teachings, as well as non-doctrinal works by Stang.[5] The Book of the SubGenius, which discusses Slack at length, was published by Simon & Schuster and sold 30,000 copies in its first five years in print.[32][62] Kirby calls it a "call to arms for the forces of absurdity".[26] Its juxtaposition, visual style, and content mirror the group as a whole.[63] It draws themes from fiction as well as established and new religions, parodying a number of topics, including the Church of the SubGenius itself.[26]

A number of SubGenius members have written stories to build their mythology, which have been compiled and published.[61] Their core texts are disordered, presented in the style of a collage.[64] Kirby notes that the group's texts are a bricolage of cultural artifacts remixed into a new creation.[20][63] In this process, Kirby argues, they interweave and juxtapose a variety of concepts, which she calls a "web of references".[20]

Video

The group has also been promoted by a video Stang produced in 1992.[5][26]

Radio

The Church of the SubGenius hosts several radio shows throughout the world, including broadcasters in Atlanta, Ohio, Maryland, and California. Several radio stations in the United States and two in Canada broadcast The Hour of Slack, the Church’s most popular audio production.[65]

Podcast

The Hour of Slack can also be heard in podcast form.[66][67]

Analysis and commentary

Comparative religion

The Church's teachings are often perceived as satirizing Christianity and Scientology,[2] earning them a reputation as a parody religion.[5] Church leaders have said that Dobbs met L. Ron Hubbard, and SubGenius narratives echo extraterrestrial themes found in Scientology.[68] Cusack notes Jehovah 1 bears noticeable similarities to Xenu, a powerful alien found in some Scientologist writings.[41] The Church's rhetoric has also been seen as a satirical imitation of the televangelism of the 1980s.[34] Cusack sees the Church's faux commercialism as culture jamming targeting prosperity theology,[46] calling it "a strikingly original innovation in contemporary religion".[35] Religious scholar Thomas Alberts of the University of London views the Church as attempting to "subvert the idea of authenticity in religion" by mirroring other religions to create a sense of both similarity and alterity.[69]

Cusack compares the Church of the SubGenius to the Ranters, a radical 17th-century pantheist movement in England that made statements that shocked many hearers, attacking traditional notions of religious orthodoxy and political authority. In her view, this demonstrates that the Church of the SubGenius has "legitimate pedigree in the history of Western religion".[70] The American journalist Michael Muhammad Knight likens the Church to the Moorish Orthodox Church of America, a 20th-century American syncretic religious movement, citing their shared emphasis on freedom.[38]

There are a number of similarities between the Church of the SubGenius and Discordianism. Eris, the goddess of chaos worshiped by adherents of the latter, is believed by members of the Church of the SubGenius to be Jehovah 1's wife and an ally to humans. Like Discordianism, the Church of the SubGenius rejects absolute truth and embraces contradictions and paradoxes.[19] Religious scholar David Chidester of the University of Cape Town views the Church as a "Discordian offshoot",[71] and Kirby sees it as "a child of the Discordians".[64] Both groups were heavily influenced by the writings of Robert Anton Wilson, whom SubGenius members call "Pope Bob".[19][72] Kirby states that the two groups have elements of bricolage and absurdity in common, but the Church of the SubGenius more explicitly remixes pop culture.[26]

Categorization

Scholars often have difficulty defining the Church.[73] Most commentators have placed the Church in the category of "joke religions", which is usually seen as pejorative. Kirby sees this categorization as partially accurate because irony is an essential aspect of the faith.[3] Other terms used to describe the Church include "faux cult",[34] "[postmodern] cult",[10] "satirical pseudoreligion",[62] "sophisticated joke religion",[73] "anti-religion religion",[30] and "high parody of cultdom".[13] Members of the Church, however, have consistently maintained that they practice a religion.[57] Stang has described the group as both "satire and a real stupid religion", and contends that it is more honest about its nature than are other religions.[45]

Cusack states that the Church "must be accorded the status of a functional equivalent of religion, at the very least, if not 'authentic' religion".[2] She sees it as "arguably a legitimate path to liberation", citing its culture jamming and activism against commercialism.[2] Kirby posits that the Church is a religion masquerading as a joke, rather than the reverse: in her view, it is a spiritual manifestation of a cultural shift toward irony.[3] Alberts believes there is broad agreement that the Church is fundamentally a different type of group than religions that date to antiquity; he prefers to use the term "fake religion" to describe it. He sees it, along with Discordianism, as part of a group of "popular movements that look and feel like religion, but whose apparent excess, irreverence and arbitrariness seem to mock religion".[74] Knight characterizes the Church as "at once a postmodern spoof of religion and a viable system in its own right".[38]

Appraisal

Kirby argues that the Church forms a counterpart to Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality, arguing, "they create, rather than consume, popular culture in the practice of their spirituality".[75] She calls their remixing of popular culture sources an "explicitly creative process",[20] maintaining that it prompts the reader to adopt some of the group's views by forcing "the individual to reconsider normative methods of approaching the content".[20] She states that the group attempts to "strip references of their original meaning without necessarily losing their status as icons".[20]

Kirby also sees the Church's goal as deconstructing "normative modes of thought and behavior" in American culture;[59] she believes that it attempts to fight culturally ingrained thought patterns by shocking people.[26] She argues that traditional approaches to religion cast seriousness as a measure of devotion, an approach she believes has failed in contemporary society. She feels that irony is a common value that most religions have ignored. By embracing the quality, she maintains, the Church of the SubGenius offers a more accessible worldview than many groups.[3]

Literature scholar Paul Mann of Pomona College is critical of the Church of the SubGenius. He notes that the Church purports to present the truth through absurdity and faults it for insufficiently examining the concept of truth itself.[76] In addition, he believes that the group undermines its attempts to take a radical perspective with its "hysterical, literal, fantastic embrace" of criticism.[77]

Anarchist writer Bob Black, a former member, has criticized the Church, alleging that it has become conformist and submissive to authority. He believes that although it initially served to satirize cults, it later took on some of their aspects. In 1992, allegations of cultlike behavior also appeared in the newspaper Bedfordshire on Sunday after a spate of SubGenius-themed vandalism struck the English town of Bedford.[18]

Publications

Books

• SubGenius Foundation (1987). Book of the SubGenius. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-63810-8.
• Ivan Stang (1988). High Weirdness by Mail. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-64260-0.
• Ivan Stang (1990). Three-fisted tales of "Bob": Short Stories in the SubGenius Mythos. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-67190-7.
• Ivan Stang; SubGenius Foundation (1994). Revelation X: the "Bob" Apocryphon: Appointed to be Read in Churches. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-77006-8.
• Ivan Stang (2006). The SubGenius Psychlopaedia of Slack: The Bobliographon. Running Press. ISBN 978-1-56025-939-8.
• Dave DeLuca (2017). Neighborworld. SubGenius Foundation. ASIN B075W2QD9V.

Videos

• Stang, Ivan; Holland, Cordt; Robins, Hal (2006) [1991]. Arise!: the SubGenius Video (DVD-R). SubGenius Moving Pictures. OCLC 388112825.

See also

• Religion portal
• Comedy portal
• Science portal
• Bokononism
• Dinkoism
• Discordianism
• Dudeism
• Flying Spaghetti Monster
• Intelligent falling
• Invisible Pink Unicorn
• Missionary Church of Kopimism

Notes

1. Solomon, Dan (2 November 2017). "The Church of the SubGenius Finally Plays It Straight". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 19 May 2019. Dan Solomon: The SubGenius has been a put-on for so long. What's it like to drop that mask and tell the story in a real way now? Ivan Stang: It's fun for me. I've been keeping a straight face for thirty-five years. Your face gets tired. I really would not drop character for a long, long time.
2. Cusack 2010, p. 84.
3. Kirby 2012, p. 43.
4. Chryssides 2012, p. 95.
5. Cusack 2010, p. 83.
6. Shea 2006.
7. Niesel 2000.
8. Kinsella 2011, p. 67.
9. Cusack 2010, p. 86.
10. Batz 1995.
11. Giffels 1995.
12. Cusack 2010, p. 85.
13. Rea 1985.
14. Cusack 2010, p. 102.
15. Cusack 2010, pp. 86 & 101.
16. Cusack 2010, p. 101.
17. Hart 1992.
18. Leiby 1994.
19. Cusack 2010, p. 88.
20. Kirby 2012, p. 50.
21. Cusack 2010, pp. 84–6.
22. Davidoff 2003, p. 170.
23. Cusack 2010, p. 93.
24. Duncombe 2005, p. 222.
25. Duncombe 2005, p. 226.
26. Kirby 2012, p. 49.
27. Cusack 2010, p. 106.
28. SubGenius.com Sales.
29. Cusack 2010, p. 90.
30. Scoblionkov 1998.
31. Yuen 1998.
32. Ashbrook 1988.
33. Cusack 2010, p. 94.
34. Callahan 1996.
35. Cusack 2010, p. 111.
36. Kinsella 2011, p. 64–7.
37. Lloyd 2008.
38. Knight 2012, p. 96.
39. Cusack 2010, p. 89.
40. Latham 2002, p. 94.
41. Cusack 2010, p. 87.
42. Kirby 2012, p. 52.
43. Cusack, Carole M. (2010), "The Church of the SubGenius: Science Fiction Mythos, Culture Jamming and the Sacredness of Slack", Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith, Ashgate Publishing, p. 95, ISBN 978-0-7546-6780-3
44. Cusack 2010, p. 97.
45. Cusack 2010, p. 107.
46. Cusack 2010, p. 104.
47. Cusack 2010, pp. 98–9.
48. "Reports on Great Devivals of yore".
49. "SubSite - Past Events". http://www.subgenius.com. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
50. "Salvation - $10". 2009-10-22. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
51. "Cyclone of Slack". Retrieved 2010-02-27.
52. "Hour of Slack #1232 - Portland Cyclone of Slack Devival 1 - 59:08". Retrieved 2010-02-27.
53. "Duke of Uke calms the Devival with the healing power of the ukulele". Retrieved 2010-02-27.
54. "SUBGENIUS DEVIVAL IN ASTORIA".
55. Gunn & Beard 2000, p. 269.
56. SubGenius.com Devivals.
57. Cusack 2010, p. 98.
58. Ciolek 2003, p. 800.
59. Kirby 2012, p. 44.
60. Kinsella 2011, p. 64.
61. Cusack 2010, p. 100.
62. Stein 1993, p. 179.
63. Kirby 2012, p. 51.
64. Kirby 2012, p. 48.
65. "SubSite - Radio". http://www.subgenius.com. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
66. "SubSite - Radio". http://www.subgenius.com. Retrieved 2018-09-28.
67. "hourofslack.libsyn.com". Retrieved 2018-09-28.
68. Cusack 2010, p. 105.
69. Alberts 2008, p. 127.
70. Cusack 2010, pp. 106–7.
71. Chidester 2005, p. 198.
72. The Daily Telegraph, "Robert Anton Wilson".
73. Cusack 2010, p. 109.
74. Alberts 2008, p. 126.
75. Kirby 2012, pp. 42–3.
76. Mann 1999, p. 156.
77. Mann 1999, p. 158.

References

Books

• Chidester, David (2005), Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-24280-7
• Chryssides, George (2012), Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 978-0-81086-194-7
• Ciolek, T. Matthew (2003), "Online Religion", in Hossein Bidgoli (ed.), The Internet Encyclopedia, 2, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-471-22204-0
• Cusack, Carole M. (2010), "The Church of the SubGenius: Science Fiction Mythos, Culture Jamming and the Sacredness of Slack", Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7546-6780-3
• Davidoff, Solomon (2003), Peter Knight (ed.), Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 978-1-57607-812-9
• Duncombe, Stephen (2005), "Sabotage, Slack and the Zinester Search for Non-Alienated Labour", in Bell, David; Hollows, Joanne (eds.), Ordinary Lifestyles, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-0-335-22420-3
• Kinsella, Michael (2011), Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong's Hat, University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 978-1-60473-983-1
• Kirby, Danielle (2012), "Occultural Bricolage and Popular Culture: Remix and Art in Discordianism, the Church of the SubGenius, the Temple of Psychick Youth", in Adam Possamai (ed.), Handbook of Hyper-real Religions, BRILL, ISBN 978-90-04-21881-9
• Knight, Michael Muhammad (2012), William S. Burroughs vs. The Qur'an, Soft Skull Press, ISBN 978-1-59376-415-9
• Latham, Robert (2002), Consuming Youth: Vampires, Cyborgs, and the Culture of Consumption, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-46891-4
• Mann, Paul (1999), "Stupid Undergrounds", Masocriticism, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-4032-2
Journals
• Alberts, Thomas (2008), "Virtually Real: Fake Religions and Problems of Authenticity in Religion", Culture and Religion, 9 (5): 125–39, doi:10.1080/14755610802211510
• Gunn, Joshua; Beard, David (2000), "On the Apocalyptic Sublime", Southern Communication Journal, 65 (4): 269–86, doi:10.1080/10417940009373176
• Stein, Jean (1993), "Slacking toward Bethlehem", Grand Street (44): 176–88, JSTOR 25007625
Magazines
• Callahan, Maureen (March 4, 1996), "Slacking Off", New York, retrieved August 19, 2012
• Scoblionkov, Deborah (July 6, 1998), "Armageddon Ends Badly", Wired, retrieved August 28, 2012
• Shea, Mike (November 2006), "Douglass St. Clair Smith", Texas Monthly, retrieved August 5, 2013

Newspapers

• "Robert Anton Wilson", The Daily Telegraph, January 13, 2007, retrieved October 27, 2012
• Ashbrook, Tom (July 17, 1988), "'Saving' Souls Irreverently", The Boston Globe, archived from the original on May 17, 2013, retrieved August 19, 2012 (subscription required)
• Batz, Bob (February 17, 1995), "In 'Bob' they Trust", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved August 19, 2012 (subscription required)
• Giffels, David (August 2, 1995), "Eschew Normalcy Rev. Stang and his Church of SubGenius Prefer Satire to Sacredness", Akron Beacon Journal, retrieved August 19, 2012 (subscription required)
• Hart, Hugh (September 16, 1992), "Behind Every SubGenius Conspiracy Is An Ordinary Bob", The Chicago Tribune, retrieved August 20, 2012
• Leiby, Richard (February 8, 1995), "Holy Smoke, It's Bob!", The Washington Post, retrieved August 19, 2012 (subscription required)
• Lloyd, Robert (June 16, 2008), "Comic-Book Antics", Los Angeles Times, retrieved August 20, 2012 (subscription required)
• Niesel, Jeff (April 6, 2000), "Slack Is Back", Cleveland Scene, retrieved October 28, 2012
• Rea, Steven (May 4, 1985), "The 'Weirdest Supercult' Prepares to Gather the Flock to the Church of the SubGenius", The Philadelphia Inquirer, retrieved August 19, 2012 (subscription required)
• Yuen, Laura (July 5, 1998), "Apocalypse, nah", The Boston Globe, archived from the original on May 17, 2013, retrieved August 28, 2012 (subscription required)

Websites

• "Reports on Great Devivals of Yore", SubGenius.com, Hall of Mindless Fun, Church of the SubGenius, retrieved October 27, 2012
• "Salvation/Membership/Ordainment", SubGenius.com, Official Outreach Sales, Church of the SubGenius, retrieved October 27, 2012

External links

• Official website
• Burning ‘Bob’: Cacophony, Burning Man, and the Church of the SubGenius 2013 interview with Church founders Drummond and Stang, archived from the original May 22, 2014.
• Carleton, Lee (2014), Doctoral Dissertation "Rhetorical Ripples: The Church of the SubGenius, Kenneth Burke & Comic, Symbolic Tinkering"

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Pratap Singh of Jaipur
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/1/20


Pratap Singh of Jaipur, Maharaja Sawai
Reign 1778 – 1803
Predecessor: Prithvi Singh II
Successor: Jagat Singh II
Born: 2 December 1764, Jaipur
Died: 1 August 1803 (aged 38)
Spouse: Rathorji Maharani
Issue: Jagat Singh II; Rani Anand Kunwar; Suraj Kunwar
Father: Madho Singh I
Mother: Maharani Maji

Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh (2 December 1764 – 1 August 1803) was a Kachwaha ruler of Jaipur from 1778 to 1803. He was born on December 1764 and succeeded his father Madho Singh I. He was a grandson of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, founder of Jaipur. He is known for constructing the Hawa Mahal.

Biography

He was the younger son of Madho Singh I. Sawai Pratap Singh became the Maharaja at the age of 14 after the death of his brother Prithvi Singh. He ruled from 1778 to 1803. HIs 25-year rule witnessed many spectacular achievements and strategic failures. Being constantly goaded by the Marathas and the Mughuls, he had to face repeated threats and a heave drainage of funds.

He is known as the great ruler for his devotion to Lord Krishna. The fountains behind the Govind Dev temple are credited to him, his poetic talent and patronage of Arts and Crafts. Sawai Pratap Singh was the only king after Sawai Jai Singh who had a literary taste. During his time, the art of paintings reached to its peak. Mughal Empire was almost in shambles and the artists were fleeting to Delhi. Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh gave them patronage and they came and settled in Jaipur. It was these artists who made such good painting that Jaipur school of paintings became world-famous.


The Hawa Mahal was constructed by Pratap Singh.

The finest example of his connoisseurship is the unique monument of Hawa Mahal the palace of the Winds and few rooms of City Palace, which he got constructed. A large number of scholarly works were produced during his time. He himself was a good poet and wrote poems in Brijbhasha and Dhundhari under the pen name of Brijnidhi.

See also

• House of Kachwaha
• Hawa Mahal

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Jai Singh II
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/1/20

By this time, other manuscripts of the Vedas had been obtained in India. In 1781–82 Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier, a Swiss Protestant who served in the English East India Company’s army until 1775, had had copies of the Vedas made for him at the court of Pratap Singh at Jaipur. Polier’s intermediary was a Portuguese physician, Don Pedro da Silva Leitão. A doctor named Pedro da Silva Leitão had been present at the court of Jai Singh in 1728 and played a part in the negotiations with the Portuguese regarding the exchange of scientific knowledge, personnel, and equipment. He was long-lived, but Polier’s friend may rather have been one of his descendants. Jai Singh had assembled a substantial collection of manuscripts from religious sites across India, and in the time of his successor Pratap Singh the library had contained the saṃhitās of all four Vedas in manuscripts dating from the last quarter of the seventeenth century….

Polier records that he had sought copies of the Veda without success in Bengal, Awadh, and on the Coromandel coast, as well as in Agra, Delhi, and Lucknow and had found that even at Banaras “nothing could be obtained but various Shasters, w.ch are only Commentaries of the Baids”…

--The Absent Vedas, by Will Sweetman

Jai Singh II, Maharajah Sawai
Reign: 1699–1743
Predecessor: Bishan Singh
Successor: Ishvari Singh
Born: Vijay Singh, 3 November 1688, Amer, India
Died: 21 September 1743 (aged 54)
Spouse: Ranawat; Surya Kumari; Gendi
Issue: Kunwar Shiv Singh (d. 1724); Kunwar Ishwari Singh; Kunwar Madho Singh
Father: Bishan Singh
Mother: Indar Kanwar of Kharwa[1]
Religion: Hinduism

Jai Singh II (3 November 1688 – 21 September 1743) was the Hindu Rajput ruler of the kingdom of Amber, he later founded the fortified city of Jaipur and made it his capital. He was born at Amber, the capital of the Kachwahas. He became ruler of Amber at the age of 11 after his father Maharaja Bishan Singh died on 31 December 1699.[2]

Initially, Jai Singh served as a Mughal vassal. He was given title of Sawai by the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb in the year 1699, who had summoned him to Delhi, impressed by his wit.[3] On 21 April 1721, the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah bestowed upon him the title of Saramad-i-Rajaha-i-Hind and on 2 June 1723, the emperor further bestowed him the titles of Raj Rajeshvar, Shri shantanu ji and Maharaja Sawai (which he personally sought from the Mughal emperor by means of various officials and gifts).[4] "Sawai" means one and a quarter times superior to his contemporaries.[5]

In the later part of his life, Jai Singh broke free from the Mughal hegemony, and to assert his sovereignty, performed the Ashvamedha sacrifice, an ancient rite that had been abandoned for several centuries.[6][7] He moved his kingdom's capital from Amber to the newly-established city of Jaipur in 1727, and performed two Ashvamedha sacrifices, once in 1734, and again in 1741.[8]

The Ashvamedha (Sanskrit: अश्वमेध aśvamedha) is a horse sacrifice ritual followed by the Śrauta tradition of Vedic religion. It was used by ancient Indian kings to prove their imperial sovereignty: a horse accompanied by the king's warriors would be released to wander for a period of one year. In the territory traversed by the horse, any rival could dispute the king's authority by challenging the warriors accompanying it. After one year, if no enemy had managed to kill or capture the horse, the animal would be guided back to the king's capital. It would be then sacrificed, and the king would be declared as an undisputed sovereign.

The best-known text describing the sacrifice is the Ashvamedhika Parva (Sanskrit: अश्वमेध पर्व), or the "Book of Horse Sacrifice," the fourteenth of eighteen books of the Indian epic poem Mahabharata. Krishna and Vyasa advise King Yudhishthira to perform the sacrifice, which is described at great length. The book traditionally comprises 2 sections and 96 chapters. The critical edition has one sub-book and 92 chapters.

The ritual is recorded as being held by many ancient rulers, but apparently only by two in the last thousand years. The most recent ritual was in 1741, the second one held by Maharajah Jai Singh II of Jaipur. The original Vedic religion had evidently included many animal sacrifices, as had the various folk religions of India. Brahminical Hinduism had evolved opposing animal sacrifices, which have not been the norm in most forms of Hinduism for many centuries. The great prestige and political role of the Ashvamedha perhaps kept it alive for longer.

The Ashvamedha could only be conducted by a powerful victorious king (rājā). Its object was the acquisition of power and glory, the sovereignty over neighbouring provinces, seeking progeny and general prosperity of the kingdom. It was enormously expensive, requiring the participation of hundreds of individuals, many with specialized skills, and hundreds of animals, and involving many precisely prescribed rituals at every stage.

The horse to be sacrificed must be a white stallion with black spots. The preparations included the construction of a special "sacrificial house" and a fire altar. Before the horse began its travels, at a moment chosen by astrologers, there was a ceremony and small sacrifice in the house, after which the king had to spend the night with the queen, but avoiding sex.

The next day the horse was consecrated with more rituals, tethered to a post, and addressed as a god. It was sprinkled with water, and the Adhvaryu, the priest and the sacrificer whispered mantras into its ear. A black dog was killed, then passed under the horse, and dragged to the river from which the water sprinkled on the horse had come. The horse was then set loose towards the north-east, to roam around wherever it chose, for the period of one year, or half a year, according to some commentators. The horse was associated with the Sun, and its yearly course. If the horse wandered into neighbouring provinces hostile to the sacrificer, they were to be subjugated. The wandering horse was attended by a herd of a hundred geldings [castrated horse, or donkey or mule], and one or four hundred young kshatriya men, sons of princes or high court officials, charged with guarding the horse from all dangers and inconvenience, but never impeding or driving it. During the absence of the horse, an uninterrupted series of ceremonies was performed in the sacrificer's home.

After the return of the horse, more ceremonies were performed for a month before the main sacrifice. The king was ritually purified, and the horse was yoked to a gilded chariot, together with three other horses, and Rigveda (RV) 1.6.1,2 (YajurVeda (YV) VSM 23.5,6) was recited. The horse was then driven into water and bathed. After this, it was anointed with ghee by the chief queen and two other royal consorts. The chief queen anointed the fore-quarters, and the others the barrel and the hind-quarters. They also embellished the horse's head, neck, and tail with golden ornaments. After this, the horse, a hornless he-goat, and a wild ox (go-mrga, Bos gaurus) were bound to sacrificial stakes near the fire, and seventeen other animals were attached to the horse. A great number of animals, both tame and wild, were tied to other stakes, according to one commentator, 609 in total. The sacrificer offered the horse the remains of the night's oblation of grain. The horse was then suffocated to death.

The chief queen ritually called on the king's fellow wives for pity. The queens walked around the dead horse reciting mantras. The chief queen then had to spend a night with the dead horse.

On the next morning, the priests raised the queen from the place. One priest cut the horse along the "knife-paths" while other priests started reciting the verses of Vedas, seeking healing and regeneration for the horse.

The Laws of Manu refer to the Ashvamedha (V.53): "The man who offers a horse-sacrifice every day for a hundred years, and the man who does not eat meat, the two of them reap the same fruit of good deeds."...

In the Arya Samaj reform movement of Dayananda Sarasvati, the Ashvamedha is considered an allegory or a ritual to get connected to the "inner Sun" (Prana) According to Dayananda, no horse was actually to be slaughtered in the ritual as per the Yajurveda. Following Dayananda, the Arya Samaj disputes the very existence of the pre-Vedantic ritual; thus Swami Satya Prakash Saraswati claims that

the word in the sense of the Horse Sacrifice does not occur in the Samhitas [...] In the terms of cosmic analogy, ashva s the Sun. In respect to the adhyatma paksha, the Prajapati-Agni, or the Purusha, the Creator, is the Ashva; He is the same as the Varuna, the Most Supreme. The word medha stands for homage; it later on became synonymous with oblations in rituology, since oblations are offered, dedicated to the one whom we pay homage. The word deteriorated further when it came to mean 'slaughter' or 'sacrifice'.

He argues that the animals listed as sacrificial victims are just as symbolic as the list of human victims listed in the Purushamedha. (which is generally accepted as a purely symbolic sacrifice already in Rigvedic times).

All World Gayatri Pariwar since 1991 has organized performances of a "modern version" of the Ashvamedha where a statue is used in place of a real horse, according to Hinduism Today with a million participants in Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh on April 16 to 20, 1994. Such modern performances are sattvika Yajnas where the animal is worshipped without killing it, the religious motivation being prayer for overcoming enemies, the facilitation of child welfare and development, and clearance of debt, entirely within the allegorical interpretation of the ritual, and with no actual sacrifice of any animal.

The earliest recorded criticism of the ritual comes from the Cārvāka, an atheistic school of Indian philosophy that assumed various forms of philosophical skepticism and religious indifference. A quotation of the Cārvāka from Madhavacharya's Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha states: "The three authors of the Vedas were buffoons, knaves, and demons. All the well-known formulae of the pandits, jarphari, turphari, etc. and all the obscene rites for the queen commanded in Aswamedha, these were invented by buffoons, and so all the various kinds of presents to the priests, while the eating of flesh was similarly commanded by night-prowling demons."

According to some writers, ashvamedha is a forbidden rite for Kaliyuga, the current age.

This part of the ritual offended the Dalit reformer and framer of the Indian constitution B. R. Ambedkar and is frequently mentioned in his writings as an example of the perceived degradation of Brahmanical culture.

While others such has Manohar L. Varadpande, praised the ritual as "social occasions of great magnitude". Rick F. Talbott writes that "Mircea Eliade treated the Ashvamedha as a rite having a cosmogonic structure which both regenerated the entire cosmos and reestablished every social order during its performance."

-- Ashvamedha, by Wikipedia

Jai Singh had a great interest in mathematics, architecture and astronomy. He commissioned the Jantar Mantar observatories at multiple places in India, including his capital Jaipur.[9]

The situation on his accession

When Sawai Jai Singh acceded to the ancestral throne at Amber, he had barely enough resources to pay for the support of 1000 cavalry—this abysmal situation had arisen in the past 96 years, coinciding with the reign of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The Jaipur kings had always preferred diplomacy to arms in their dealings with the Mughals, since their kingdom was located so close to the Mughal power centers of Delhi and Agra. Under Aurangzeb, successive Kachawaha Rajas from the time of Ramsingh I were actually deprived of their rank and pay despite years of close alliance with the Emperors of Delhi. Two of their chiefs, Jai Singh I and Kunwar Kishan Singh, died in mysterious circumstances while campaigning in the Deccan.

Six months after his accession, Jai was ordered by Aurangzeb to serve in his ruinous Deccan Wars. But there was a delay of about one year in his responding to the call. One of the reason for this was that he was ordered to recruit a large force, in excess of the contingent required by his mansab. He also had to conclude his marriage with the daughter of Udit Singh, the nephew of Raja Uttam Ram Gaur of Sheopur in March, 1701. Jai Singh reached Burhanpur on 3 August 1701 but he could not proceed further due to heavy rains. On 13 September 1701 an additional cut in his rank (by 500) and pay was made.[10] His feat of arms at the siege of Khelna (1702) was rewarded by the mere restoration of his earlier rank and the title of Sawai (Sawai-meaning one and a quarter, i.e. more capable than one man). When Aurangzeb's grandson Bidar Bakht deputed Sawai Jai Singh to govern the province of Malwa (1704), Aurangzeb angrily revoked this appointment as jaiz nist (invalid or opposed to Islam).

Dealings with the later Mughals

The death of Aurangzeb (1707) at first only increased Jai Singh's troubles. His patrons Bidar Bakht and his father Azam were on the losing side in the Mughal war of succession—the victorious Bahadur Shah continued Aurangzeb's hostile and bigoted policy towards the Rajputs by attempting to occupy their lands. Sawai Jai Singh formed an alliance with the Rajput states of Mewar (matrimonially) and Marwar, which were done to form an alliance against Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah I. Aurangzeb's rule of excluding Rajputs from the administration was now abandoned by the later–Mughals and Bahadur Shah appointed Jai Singh to govern the important provinces of Agra and Malwa. In Agra he came into conflict with the sturdy Jat peasantry.

Attack on Sardar Churaman

While Aurangzeb was sinking deeper into the morass of his Deccan Wars, the Jats overthrew the Mughal administration in Agra province. Sawai Raja Jai Singh received large funds from the Mughal courts and with the support of Bhim Singh Hada, of Kotah, Gaj Raj Singh of Narwar, and Budh Singh Hada of Bundi, besieged the fort of Thun in 1716. Churaman's nephew Thakur Badan Singh came over to Jai Singh and provided him with vital information on the weak points of Thun. After its conquest Jai Singh captured and demolished other smaller forts and dispersed the Jat confederacies for a short period.

Sawai Jai Singh and the Marathas

The Kachwaha ruler was appointed to govern Malwa three times between 1714 and 1737. In Jai Singh's first viceroyalty (subahdar) of Malwa (1714–1717), isolated Maratha war-bands that entered the province from the south (Deccan) were constantly defeated and repulsed by Jai Singh. In 1728, Peshwa Baji Rao defeated the Nizam of Hyderabad, part of the Mughal Deccan (treaty of Sheogaon, February 1728). With an agreement from Baji Rao to spare the Nizam's own domains, the Nizam allowed the Marathas a free passage through Berar and Khandesh, the gateway into Hindustan. The Marathas were then able to plant a permanent camp beyond the southern frontier of Malwa. Following the victory of the Peshwa’s brother, Chimaji Appa, over the governor of Malwa Girdhar Bahadur on 29 November 1728, the Marathas were able to convulse much of the country beyond the Southern borders of the Narmada.

Upon Sawai Jai Singh's second appointment to Malwa (1729–1730), as a far-sighted statesmen, Jai Singh was able to perceive a complete change in the political situation, during the twelve years which had passed since his first viceroyalty there. Imperial power had by then been crippled by the rebellion of the Nizam of Hyderabad as well as the ability of Peshwa Baji Rao to stabilize the internal situation of the Marathas, which resulted in their occupation of Gujarat and an immense increase of their forces. Nonetheless, in the name of the friendship between their royal ancestors, Sawai Jai Singh II, was able to appeal to Shahu to restore to the imperialist, the great fortress of Mandu which the Marathas had occupied a few weeks earlier (order date 19 March 1730). By May, Jai Singh was recalled back to Rajputana to attend more pressing matters, which thus resulted in his two years disassociation from Malwa.

In 1732, Jai Singh was for the last time, appointed Subahdar of Malwa (1732–1737), during which time he advocated Muhammad Shah, to compromise with the Marathas under Shahu, whom greatly remembered the kindness and relationship between the late Mirza Raja (Jai Singh I) and his own grandfather, Shivaji. For this sensible advice, coupled with anti-Jai Singh rhetoric at the Mughal court at Delhi, as well as Muhammad Shah's inability to assert his own will, Jai Singh was removed from his post while the Mughals decided on war. In this regard, Sawai Jai Singh II was practically the last subahdar of Malwa, as Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, who replaced him in 1737, met with most discomfiting failure at the hands of the Peshwa, resulting with the ceding of the whole of Malwa to the Marathas (Treaty of Duraha, Saturday 7 January 1738).

Exploiting the weakening of the Mughal state, the Persian raider Nadir Shah defeated the Mughals at Karnal (13 February 1739) and finally sacked Delhi (11 March, same year). Through this period of turmoil Jai Singh remained in his own state—but he was not idle. Foreseeing the troubled time ahead, Sawai Jai Singh II, initiated a program of extensive fortification within the thikanas under Jaipur, to this date, most of the later fortifications abound the former Jaipur state, are attributed to the reign of Sawai Jai Singh II.

Sawai Jai Singh’s armed forces and his ambitions in Rajputana

Jai Singh increased the size of his ancestral kingdom by annexing lands from the Mughals and rebel chieftains—sometimes by paying money and sometimes through war. The most substantial acquisition was of Shekhawati, which also gave Jai Singh the most able recruits for his fast expanding army.[11]

According to an estimate by Jadunath Sarkar; Jai Singh's regular army did not exceed 40,000 men, which would have cost about 60 lakhs a year, but his strength lay in the large number of artillery and copious supply of munitions which he was careful to maintain and his rule of arming his foot with matchlocks instead of the traditional Rajput sword and shield - He had the wisdom to recognize early the change which firearms had introduced in Indian warfare and to prepare for himself for the new war by raising the fire-power of his army to the maximum, he thus anticipated the success of later Indian rulers like Mirza Najaf Khan, Mahadji Sindhia and Tipu Sultan. Sawai Jai Singh's experimental weapon, the Jaivana which he created prior to the shift of his capital to Jaipur, remains the largest wheeled cannon in the world. In 1732, Sawai Jai Singh, as governor of Malwa undertook, to maintain 30,000 soldiers, in equal proportions of horsemen and foot-musketeers. These did not include his contingents in the Subahs of Agra and Ajmer and in his own dominions and fort garrisons.

The armed strength of Jai Singh had always made him, the most formidable ruler in Northern India and all the other Rajas looked up to him for protection and the promotion of their interests at the Imperial court. The fast-spreading Maratha dominion and their raids into the north had caused alarm among the Rajput chiefs—Jai Singh called a conference of Rajput rulers at Hurda (1734) to deal with this peril but nothing came of this meeting. In 1736 Peshwa Baji Rao imposed tribute on the Kingdom of Mewar. To thwart further Maratha domination Sawai Jai Singh planned a local hegemony, to form under the leadership of Jaipur, a political union in Rajputana. He first annexed Bundi and Rampura in the Malwa plateau, made a matrimonial alliance with Mewar, and intervened in the affairs of the Rathors of Bikaner and Jodhpur. These half-successful attempts only stiffened the backs of the other Rajput clans who turned to the very same Marathas for aid, and consequently hastened their domination over Rajasthan. Jai Singh's ambitions in Rajputana failed after the Battle of Gangwana, Gangwana was the last battle fought by Jai Singh as he could never recover from the shock and died two years later in 1743. Madho Singh later avenged his father by poisoning Bhakt Singh. (Jai Singh was cremated at the Royal Crematorium at Gaitore in the north of Jaipur) he was succeeded by his less capable son Ishwari Singh.[12]

Contributions to society, culture, and science

Sawai Jai Singh was the first Hindu ruler in centuries to perform the ancient Vedic ceremonies like the Ashwamedha (1716)[13] sacrifices — and the Vajapeya (1734) on both occasions vast amounts were distributed in charity. Being initiated in the Nimbarka Sampradaya of the Vaishnava religion, he also promoted Sanskrit learning and initiated reforms in Hindu society like the abolition of Sati and curbing the wasteful expenditures in Rajput weddings. It was at Jai Singh's insistence that the hated jaziya tax, imposed on the Hindu population by Aurangzeb (1679), was finally abolished by the Emperor Muhammad Shah in 1720. In 1728 Jai Singh prevailed on him to also withdraw the pilgrimage tax on Hindus at Gaya.

In 1719, he was witness to a noisy discussion in the court of Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah. The heated debate regarded how to make astronomical calculations to determine an auspicious date when the emperor could start a journey. This discussion led Jai Singh to think that the nation needed to be educated on the subject of astronomy. It is surprising that in the midst of local wars, foreign invasions, and consequent turmoil, Sawai Jai Singh found time and energy to build astronomical observatories.


The observatory built by Sawai Jai Singh in Delhi

Five observatories were built at Delhi, Mathura (in his Agra province), Benares, Ujjain (capital of his Malwa province), and his own capital of Jaipur. His astronomical observations were remarkably accurate. He drew up a set of tables, entitled Zij Muhammadshahi, to enable people to make astronomical observations. He had Euclid's "Elements of Geometry" translated into Sanskrit as also several works on trigonometry, and Napier's work on the construction and use of logarithms.[14] Relying primarily on Indian astronomy, these buildings were used to accurately predict eclipses and other astronomical events. The observational techniques and instruments used in his observatories were also superior to those used by the European Jesuit astronomers he invited to his observatories.[15][16] Termed as the Jantar Mantar they consisted of the Ram Yantra (a cylindrical building with an open top and a pillar in its center), the Jai Prakash (a concave hemisphere), the Samrat Yantra (a huge equinoctial dial), the Digamsha Yantra (a pillar surrounded by two circular walls), and the Narivalaya Yantra (a cylindrical dial).


Jantar Mantar in Varanasi

The Samrat Yantra is a huge sundial. It can be used to estimate the local time, to locate the Pole Star, and to measure the declination of celestial objects. The Rama Yantra can be used to measure the altitude and azimuth of celestial objects. The Shanku Yantra can be used to measure the latitude of the place.[14]

Jai Singh's greatest achievement was the construction of Jaipur city (known originally as Jainagara[citation needed] (in Sanskrit, as the 'city of victory' and later as the 'pink city' by the British by the early 20th century), the planned city, later became the capital as the Indian state of Rajasthan. Construction of the new capital began as early as 1725 although it was in 1727 that the foundation stone was ceremonially laid, and by 1733 Jaipur officially replaced Amber as the capital of the Kachawahas. Built on the ancient Hindu grid pattern, found in the archaeological ruins of 3000 BCE, it was designed by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya who was educated in the ancient Sanskrit manuals (silpa-sutras) on city-planning and architecture. Merchants from all over India settled down in the relative safety of this rich city, protected by thick walls, and a garrison of 17,000 supported by adequate artillery. A Sanskrit epic by the name 'Ishvar Vilas Mahakavya' written by Kavikalanidhi Devarshi Shrikrishna Bhatt gives a good historical description of various important events of that era, including the construction of Jaipur city.[17]

Jai Singh also translated works by people like John Napier. For these multiple achievements, Sawai Jai Singh II is remembered as the most enlightened king of 18th-century India even to this date. These days Jai Singh's observatories at Jaipur, Varanasi, and Ujjain are functional. Only the one at Delhi is not functional and the one at Mathura disappeared a long time ago. [18]

See also

• House of Kachwaha
• List of Rajputs

References

1. Harnath Singh, Jaipur and its Environs (1970), p.9
2. Andrew Topsfield (2000). Court Painting in Rajasthan. Marg. p. 50. ISBN 978-81-85026-47-3.
3. Sarkar, Jadunath (1984, reprint 1994) A History of Jaipur, New Delhi: Orient Longman, ISBN 81-250-0333-9, p.171
4. Sarkar, Jadunath (1984, reprint 1994) A History of Jaipur, New Delhi: Orient Longman, ISBN 81-250-0333-9, p.171
5. Prahlad Singh; Kalyan Dutt Sharma (1978). Stone observatories in India, erected by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur. Bharata Manisha. p. 57.
6. Ajay Verghese (2016). The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India. Stanford University Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-8047-9817-4.
7. Yamini Narayanan (2014). Religion, Heritage and the Sustainable City: Hinduism and urbanisation in Jaipur. Routledge. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-135-01269-4.
8. Catherine B Asher (2008). "Excavating Communalism: Kachhwaha Rajadharma and Mughal Sovereignty". In Rajat Datta (ed.). Rethinking a Millennium: Perspectives on Indian History from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Century : Essays for Harbans Mukhia. Aakar Books. p. 232. ISBN 978-81-89833-36-7.
9. Virendra Nath Sharma (1995). Sawai Jai Singh and His Astronomy. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. pp. 2, 98. ISBN 978-81-208-1256-7.
10. Sarkar, Jadunath (1984, reprint 1994) A History of Jaipur, New Delhi: Orient Longman, ISBN 81-250-0333-9, p.157
11. "Military History & Fiction: Shekhawati". web.archive.org. 20 October 2006. Retrieved 20 August2020.
12. Vir Vinod, Rajasthan Through the Ages By R.K. Gupta, S.R. Bakshi pg.156
13. Bowker, John, The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, New York, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 103
14. Umasankar Mitra (1995). "Astronomical Observatories of Maharaja Jai Singh" (PDF). School Science. NCERT. 23 (4): 45–48.
15. Sharma, Virendra Nath (1995), Sawai Jai Singh and His Astronomy, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., pp. 8–9, ISBN 81-208-1256-5
16. Baber, Zaheer (1996), The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization, and Colonial Rule in India, State University of New York Press, pp. 82–90, ISBN 0-7914-2919-9
17. ‘Īśvara Vilāsa Mahākāvya’, Ed. Bhatt Mathuranath Shastri, Jagdish Sanskrit Pustakalaya, Jaipur, 2006
18. Sharma, Virendra Nath (1995), Sawai Jai Singh and His Astronomy, Motilal Banarasidass, ISBN 81-208-1256-5

Bibliography

1. Bhatnagar, V. S. (1974) Life and Times of Sawai Jai Singh, 1688-1743, Delhi: Impex India
2. Sarkar, Jadunath (1984, reprint 1994) A History of Jaipur, New Delhi: Orient Longman, ISBN 81-250-0333-9
3. Jyoti J. (2001) Royal Jaipur, Roli Books, ISBN 81-7436-166-9
4. Tillotson G, (2006) Jaipur Nama, Penguin books
5. Schwarz, Michiel (1980) Observatoria : De astronomische instrumenten van Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in New Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain en Benares, Amsterdam: Westland/Utrecht Hypothekbank
6. Sharma, Virendra Nath (1995, revised edition 2016) Sawai Jai Singh and his Astronomy, Delhi: Motilal Barnasidass Publishers

External links

• Genealogy of the rulers of Jaipur

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Ashvamedha [Ashummeed Jugg] [Aswamedha horse sacrifice]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/1/20

Explanation of the Ashummeed Jugg.

The Ashummeed Jugg does not merely consist in the Performance of that Ceremony which is open to the Inspection of the World, namely, in bringing a Horse and sacrificing him; but Ashummeed is to be taken in a mystic Signification, as implying, that the Sacrificer must look upon himself to be typified in that Horse, such as he shall be described, because the religious Duty of the Ashummeed Jugg comprehends all those other religious Duties, to the Performance of which all the Wise and Holy direct all their Actions, and by which all the sincere Prosessors of every different Faith aim at Perfection: The mystic Signification thereof is as follows: The Head of that unblemished Horse is the Symbol of the Morning; his Eyes are the Sun; his Breath the Wind; his wide-opening Mouth is the Bishwaner, or that innate Warmth which invigorates all the World; his Body typifies one entire Year; his Back Paradise; his Belly the Plains; his Hoof this Earth; his Sides the four Quarters of the Heavens; the Bones thereof the intermediate Spaces between the four Quarters; the Rest of his Limbs represent all distinct Matter; the Places where those Limbs meet, or his Joints, imply the Months and Halves of the Months, which are called Peche (or Fortnights;) his Feet signify Night and Day; and Night and Day are of four Kinds: 1st. The Night and Day of Brihma; 2d. The Night and Day of Angels; 3d, The Night and Day of the World of the Spirits of deceased Ancestors; 4th. The Night and Day of Mortals: These four Kinds are typified in his four Feet. The Rest of his Bones are the Constellations of the fixed Stars, which are the twenty-eight Stages of the Moon's Course, called the Lunar Year; his Flesh is the Clouds; his Food the Sand; his Tendons the Rivers; his Spleen and Liver the Mountains; the Hair of his Body the Vegetables, and his long Hair the Trees; the Forepart of his Body typifies the first Half of the Day, and the hinder Part the latter Half; his Yawning is the Flash of the Lightning, and his turning himself is the Thunder of the Cloud; his Urine represents the Rain; and his mental Reflection is his only Speech. The golden Vessels which are prepared before the Horse is let loose are the Light of the Day, and the Place where those Vessels are kept is a Type of the Ocean of the East; the silver Vessels which are prepared after the Horse is let loose are the Light of the Night, and the Place where those Vessels are kept is a Type of the Ocean of the West: These two Sorts of Vessels are always before and after the Horse. — The Arabian Horse, which on Account of his Swiftness is called Hy, is the Performer of the Journies of Angels; the Tajee, which is of the Race of Persian Horses, is the Performer of the Journies of the Kundherps (or  good Spirits;) the Wazba, which is of the Race of the deformed Tazee Horses, is the Performer of the Journies of the Jins (or Demons;) and the Ashoo, which is of the Race of Turkish Horses, is the Performer of the Journies of Mankind: This one Horse, which performs these several Services, on Account of his four different Sorts of Riders, obtains the four different Appellations: The Place where this Horse remains is the great Ocean, which signifies the great Spirit of Perm-Atma, or the universal Soul, which proceeds also from that Perm-Atma, and is comprehended in the same Perm-Atma. The Intent of this Sacrifice is, that a Man should consider himself to be in the Place of that Horse, and look upon all these Articles as typified in himself; and, conceiving the Atma (or divine Soul) to be an Ocean, should let all Thought of Self be absorbed in that Atma."

This is the very Acme and Enthusiasm of Allegory, and wonderfully displays the picturesque Powers of Fancy in an Asiatic Genius. But it would not have been inserted at Length in this Place, if the Circumstance of letting loose the Horse had not seemed to bear a great Resemblance to the Ceremonies of the Scape-Goat; and perhaps the known Intention of this latter may plead for the like hidden Meaning in the former.

-- A Code of Gentoo Laws, Or, Ordinations of the Pundits, From a Persian Translation, Made From the Original, Written in the Shanscrit Language, by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed

A somewhat droll and almost dramatic feast is the chase of the demon of ill-luck, evidently a relic of a former demonist cult. It is called "Chongju Sewang," and is held at Lhasa on the twenty-ninth and thirtieth days of the second month, though it sometimes lasts about a week. It starts after divine service. A priest represents a Grand Lama, and one of the multitude is masqueraded as the ghost-king. For a week previously he sits in the market-place with face painted half black and half white, and a coat of skin is put on his arm and he is called "King of the Years'" (? head). He helps himself to what he wants, and goes about shaking a black yak's tail over the heads of the people, who thus transfer to him their ill-luck.

This latter person then goes towards the priest in the neighbourhood of the cloister of La-brang and ridicules him, saying: "What we perceive through the five sources (the five senses) is no illusion. All you teach is untrue," etc., etc. The acting Grand Lama contradicts this; but both dispute for some time with one another; and ultimately agree to settle the contest by dice; the Lama consents to change places with the scape-goat if the dice should so decide. The Lama has a dice with six on all six sides and throws six-up three times, while the ghost-king has a dice which throws only one.

When the dice of the priest throws six six times in succession and that of the scape-goat throws only ones, this latter individual, or "Lojon" as he is called, is terrified and flees away upon a white horse, which, with a white dog, a white bird, salt, etc., he has been provided with by government. He is pursued with screams and blank shots as far as the mountains of Chetang, where he has to remain as an outcast for several months in a narrow haunt, which, however, has been previously provided for him with provisions.

We are told that, while en route to Chetang, he is detained for seven days in the great chamber of horrors at Sam-yas monastery filled with the monstrous images of devils and skins of huge serpents and wild animals, all calculated to excite feelings of terror. During his seven days' stay he exercises despotic authority over Sam-yas, and the same during the first seven days of his stay at Chetang. Both Lama and laity give him much alms, as he is believed to sacrifice himself for the welfare of the country. It is said that in former times the man who performed this duty died at Chetang in the course of the year from terror at the awful images he was associated with; but the present scape-goat survives and returns to re-enact his part the following year. From Chetang, where he stays for seven days, he goes to Lho-ka, where he remains for several months.

-- The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism With Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology, and in its Relation to Indian Buddhism, by Laurence Austine Waddell

Ashwamedha yagna of Yudhisthira

The Ashvamedha (Sanskrit: अश्वमेध aśvamedha) is a horse sacrifice ritual followed by the Śrauta tradition of Vedic religion. It was used by ancient Indian kings to prove their imperial sovereignty: a horse accompanied by the king's warriors would be released to wander for a period of one year. In the territory traversed by the horse, any rival could dispute the king's authority by challenging the warriors accompanying it. After one year, if no enemy had managed to kill or capture the horse, the animal would be guided back to the king's capital. It would be then sacrificed, and the king would be declared as an undisputed sovereign.

The best-known text describing the sacrifice is the Ashvamedhika Parva (Sanskrit: अश्वमेध पर्व), or the "Book of Horse Sacrifice," the fourteenth of eighteen books of the Indian epic poem Mahabharata. Krishna and Vyasa advise King Yudhishthira to perform the sacrifice, which is described at great length. The book traditionally comprises 2 sections and 96 chapters.[1][2] The critical edition has one sub-book and 92 chapters.[3][4]

The ritual is recorded as being held by many ancient rulers, but apparently only by two in the last thousand years. The most recent ritual was in 1741, the second one held by Maharajah Jai Singh II of Jaipur. The original Vedic religion had evidently included many animal sacrifices, as had the various folk religions of India. Brahminical Hinduism had evolved opposing animal sacrifices, which have not been the norm in most forms of Hinduism for many centuries. The great prestige and political role of the Ashvamedha perhaps kept it alive for longer.

The sacrifice


A 19th-century painting, depicting the preparation of army to follow the sacrificial horse. Probably from a picture story depicting Lakshmisa's Jaimini Bharata

The Ashvamedha could only be conducted by a powerful victorious king (rājā).[5][6] Its object was the acquisition of power and glory, the sovereignty over neighbouring provinces, seeking progeny and general prosperity of the kingdom.[7] It was enormously expensive, requiring the participation of hundreds of individuals, many with specialized skills, and hundreds of animals, and involving many precisely prescribed rituals at every stage.[8]

The horse to be sacrificed must be a white stallion with black spots. The preparations included the construction of a special "sacrificial house" and a fire altar. Before the horse began its travels, at a moment chosen by astrologers, there was a ceremony and small sacrifice in the house, after which the king had to spend the night with the queen, but avoiding sex.[9]

The next day the horse was consecrated with more rituals, tethered to a post, and addressed as a god. It was sprinkled with water, and the Adhvaryu, the priest and the sacrificer whispered mantras into its ear. A black dog was killed, then passed under the horse, and dragged to the river from which the water sprinkled on the horse had come. The horse was then set loose towards the north-east, to roam around wherever it chose, for the period of one year,[10] or half a year, according to some commentators. The horse was associated with the Sun, and its yearly course.[11] If the horse wandered into neighbouring provinces hostile to the sacrificer, they were to be subjugated. The wandering horse was attended by a herd of a hundred geldings, and one or four hundred young kshatriya men, sons of princes or high court officials, charged with guarding the horse from all dangers and inconvenience, but never impeding or driving it.[10] During the absence of the horse, an uninterrupted series of ceremonies was performed in the sacrificer's home.

After the return of the horse, more ceremonies were performed for a month before the main sacrifice. The king was ritually purified, and the horse was yoked to a gilded chariot, together with three other horses, and Rigveda (RV) 1.6.1,2 (YajurVeda (YV) VSM 23.5,6) was recited. The horse was then driven into water and bathed. After this, it was anointed with ghee by the chief queen and two other royal consorts. The chief queen anointed the fore-quarters, and the others the barrel and the hind-quarters. They also embellished the horse's head, neck, and tail with golden ornaments. After this, the horse, a hornless he-goat, and a wild ox (go-mrga, Bos gaurus) were bound to sacrificial stakes near the fire, and seventeen other animals were attached to the horse. A great number of animals, both tame and wild, were tied to other stakes, according to one commentator, 609 in total. The sacrificer offered the horse the remains of the night's oblation of grain. The horse was then suffocated to death.[10]

The chief queen ritually called on the king's fellow wives for pity. The queens walked around the dead horse reciting mantras. The chief queen then had to spend a night with the dead horse.[12]

On the next morning, the priests raised the queen from the place. One priest cut the horse along the "knife-paths" while other priests started reciting the verses of Vedas, seeking healing and regeneration for the horse.[13]

The Laws of Manu refer to the Ashvamedha (V.53): "The man who offers a horse-sacrifice every day for a hundred years, and the man who does not eat meat, the two of them reap the same fruit of good deeds."[14]

On Gupta coins

One type of the gold coins of the Gupta Empire kings Samudragupta (reigned c. 350-370 CE) and Kumaragupta (reigned c. 415-455 CE) commemorates their Ashvamedha sacrifices. The obverse shows the horse anointed and decorated for sacrifice, standing in front of a Yūpa sacrificial post, and is inscribed "The king of kings who has performed the Vajimedha sacrifice wins heaven after protecting the earth". The reverse shows a standing figure of the queen, holding a fan and a towel, and is inscribed "Powerful enough to perform the Ashvamedha sacrifice".[15]


Samudragupta, Ashvamedha horse; The queen, reverse of last


Samudragupta


Kumaragupta

Similar sacrifices elsewhere

Main article: Horse sacrifice

Many Indo-European branches show evidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggests that they derive from a Proto-Indo-European ritual. Most appear to be funerary practices associated with burial, but for some other cultures there is tentative evidence for rituals associated with kingship. The Ashvamedha is the clearest evidence preserved, but vestiges from Latin and Celtic traditions allow the reconstruction of a few common attributes.

A similar ritual is found in Celtic tradition in which the king in Ireland conducted a rite of symbolic marriage with a sacrificed horse.[12] The October Horse Roman horse sacrifice was an annual event, and apparently the only time horses were sacrificed, rather than cattle or smaller animals.[16]

Horse sacrifices were performed among the ancient Germans, Armenians, Iranians,[17] Chinese, Greeks,[18] among others.

List of performers

Sanskrit epics and Puranas mention numerous legendary performances of the horse sacrifice.[19] For example, according to the Mahabharata, Emperor Bharata performed a hundred Ashvamedha ceremonies on the banks of Yamuna, three hundred on the banks of Saraswati and four hundred on the banks of the Ganga. He again performed a thousand Ashvamedha on different locations and a hundred Rajasuya.[20] Following the vast empires ruled by the Gupta and Chalukya dynasties, the practice of the sacrifice diminished remarkably.[5]

The historical performers of Ashvamedha include:

Monarch / Reign / Dynasty / Source

Pushyamitra Shunga / 185-149 BCE / Shunga / Ayodhya inscription of Dhanadeva and Malavikagnimitra of Kalidasa[21]
Sarvatata / 1st century BCE / Gajayana / Ghosundi and Hathibada inscriptions.[21] Some scholars believe Sarvatata to be a Kanva king, but there is no definitive evidence for this.[22]
Devimitra / 1st century BCE / Unknown / Musanagar inscription[21]
Satakarni I / 1st or 2nd century CE / Satavahana / Nanaghat inscription mentions his second Ashvamedha[23][21]
Vasishthiputra Chamtamula / 3rd century CE / Andhra Ikshvaku / Records of his son and grandson[24]
Shilavarman / 3rd century CE / Varshaganya J/ agatpur inscriptions mention his fourth Ashvamedha[21]
Pravarasena I / c. 270 – c. 330 CE / Vakataka / Inscriptions of his descendants state that he performed four Ashvamedha sacrifices[25]
Bhavanaga / 305-320 CE / Nagas of Padmavati / The inscriptions of Vakataka relatives of the Nagas credit them with 10 horse-sacrifices, although they do not name these kings.[21][24]
Vijaya-devavarman / 300-350 CE / Shalankayana / Ellore inscription[25][26]
Shivaskanda Varman / 4th century CE / Pallava / Hirahadagalli inscription[25]
Kumaravishnu / 4th century CE / Pallava / Omgodu inscription of his great-grandson[25]
Samudragupta / c. 335/350-375 CE / Gupta / Coins of the king and records of his descendants[25][27]
Kumaragupta I / 414 – 455 CE / Gupta / [28]
Madhava Varman / 440-460 CE / Vishnukundina / [24]
Dharasena / 5th century CE / Traikutaka / [26]
Krishnavarman / 5th century CE / Kadamba / [26]
Narayanavarman / 494–518 CE / Varman Legend of Bhaskaravarman's seals[29]
Bhutivarman / 518–542 CE / Varman / Barganga inscription[29]
Pulakeshin I / 543–566 CE / Chalukyas of Vatapi / [30]
Sthitavarman / 565–585 CE / Varman / [31]
Pulakeshin II / 610–642 CE /Chalukyas of Vatapi / [24]
Madhavaraja II (alias Madhavavarman or Sainyabhita) / c. 620-670 CE / Shailodbhava / Inscriptions[32][29]
Simhavarman (possibly Narasimhavarman I) / 630-668 CE / Pallava / The Sivanvayal pillar inscription states that he performed ten Ashvamedhas[25]
Adityasena / 655-680 CE / Later Gupta / Vaidyanatha temple (Deoghar) inscription[29]
Madhyamaraja I (alias Ayashobhita II) / c. 670-700 CE / Shailodbhava / Inscriptions;[33] one interpretation of the inscriptions suggests that he merely participated in the Ashvamedha performed by his father Madhavaraja II[29]
Dharmaraja (alias Manabhita) / c. 726-727 CE / Shailodbhava / Inscriptions; one interpretation of the inscriptions suggests that he merely participated in the Ashvamedha performed by his grandfather Madhavaraja II[29]
Rajadhiraja Chola / 1044–1052 CE / Chola / [34]
Jai Singh II / 1734 and 1741 CE / Kachwahas of Jaipur / Ishvaravilasa Kavya by Krishna-bhatta, a participant in Jai Singh's Ashvamedha ceremony and a court poet of his son Ishvar Singh[35][36]

The Dhanadeva-Ayodhya inscription, 1st century BCE, mentions two Ashvamedha rituals by Pushyamitra in the city of Ayodhya.[37]

The Udayendiram inscription of the 8th century Pallava king Nandivarman II (alias Pallavamalla) states that his general Udayachandra defeated the Nishada ruler Prithvivyaghra, who, "desiring to become very powerful, was running after the horse of the Ashvamedha". The inscription does not clarify which king initiated this Ashvamedha campaign. Historian N. Venkataramanayya theorized that Prithvivyaghra was a feudatory ruler, who unsuccessfully tried to challenge Nandivarman's Ashvamedha campaign. However, historian Dineshchandra Sircar notes that no other inscriptions of Nandivarman or his descendants mention his performance of Ashvamedha; therefore, it is more likely that the Ashvamedha campaign was initiated by Prithvivyaghra (or his overlord), and Nandivarman's general foiled it.[38]

In Hindu revivalism


The horse Shyamakarna on the bank of Lake Dudumbhi, illustrating Jaimini's commentary on Ashvamedha, 19th century, Maharashtra

In the Arya Samaj reform movement of Dayananda Sarasvati, the Ashvamedha is considered an allegory or a ritual to get connected to the "inner Sun" (Prana)[11][39] According to Dayananda, no horse was actually to be slaughtered in the ritual as per the Yajurveda. Following Dayananda, the Arya Samaj disputes the very existence of the pre-Vedantic ritual; thus Swami Satya Prakash Saraswati claims that

the word in the sense of the Horse Sacrifice does not occur in the Samhitas [...] In the terms of cosmic analogy, ashva s the Sun. In respect to the adhyatma paksha, the Prajapati-Agni, or the Purusha, the Creator, is the Ashva; He is the same as the Varuna, the Most Supreme. The word medha stands for homage; it later on became synonymous with oblations in rituology, since oblations are offered, dedicated to the one whom we pay homage. The word deteriorated further when it came to mean 'slaughter' or 'sacrifice'.[40]

He argues that the animals listed as sacrificial victims are just as symbolic as the list of human victims listed in the Purushamedha.[40] (which is generally accepted as a purely symbolic sacrifice already in Rigvedic times).

All World Gayatri Pariwar since 1991 has organized performances of a "modern version" of the Ashvamedha where a statue is used in place of a real horse, according to Hinduism Today with a million participants in Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh on April 16 to 20, 1994.[41] Such modern performances are sattvika Yajnas where the animal is worshipped without killing it,[42] the religious motivation being prayer for overcoming enemies, the facilitation of child welfare and development, and clearance of debt,[43] entirely within the allegorical interpretation of the ritual, and with no actual sacrifice of any animal.

Reception

The earliest recorded criticism of the ritual comes from the Cārvāka, an atheistic school of Indian philosophy that assumed various forms of philosophical skepticism and religious indifference. A quotation of the Cārvāka from Madhavacharya's Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha states: "The three authors of the Vedas were buffoons, knaves, and demons. All the well-known formulae of the pandits, jarphari, turphari, etc. and all the obscene rites for the queen commanded in Aswamedha, these were invented by buffoons, and so all the various kinds of presents to the priests, while the eating of flesh was similarly commanded by night-prowling demons."[44]

Charvaka (Sanskrit: चार्वाक; IAST: Cārvāka), also known as Lokāyata, is an ancient school of Indian materialism. Charvaka holds direct perception, empiricism, and conditional inference as proper sources of knowledge, embraces philosophical skepticism and rejects ritualism, and supernaturalism. It was a very popular belief system in India before the emergence of Jain and Buddhist tradition.

Brihaspati is traditionally referred to as the founder of Charvaka or Lokāyata philosophy, although some scholars dispute this. During the Hindu reformation period in the 600 BCE, when Buddhism and Jainism arose, the philosophy was well documented and opposed by the new religions.[10] Much of the primary literature of Charvaka, the Barhaspatya sutras, were lost either due to waning popularity or other unknown reasons. Its teachings have been compiled from historic secondary literature such as those found in the shastras, sutras, and the Indian epic poetry as well as in the dialogues of Gautama Buddha and from Jain literature. However, there is text that may belong to the Charvaka tradition, written by the skeptic philosopher Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa, known as the Tattvôpaplava-siṁha, that provides information about this school, albeit unorthodox.

One of the widely studied principles of Charvaka philosophy was its rejection of inference as a means to establish valid, universal knowledge, and metaphysical truths. In other words, the Charvaka epistemology states that whenever one infers a truth from a set of observations or truths, one must acknowledge doubt; inferred knowledge is conditional.

Charvaka is categorized as a heterodox school of Indian philosophy. It is considered an example of atheistic schools in the Hindu tradition...

In 8th century CE Jaina literature, Saddarsanasamuccaya by Haribhadra,Lokayata is stated to be the Hindu school where there is "no God, no samsara (rebirth), no karma, no duty, no fruits of merit, no sin."

The Buddhist Sanskrit work Divyavadana (ca. 200–350 CE) mentions Lokayata, where it is listed among subjects of study, and with the sense of "technical logical science". Shantarakshita and Adi Shankara use the word lokayata to mean materialism, with the latter using the term Lokāyata, not Charvaka...

The tenets of the Charvaka atheistic doctrines can be traced to the relatively later composed layers of the Rigveda, while substantial discussions on the Charvaka is found in post-Vedic literature. The primary literature of Charvaka, such as the Brhaspati Sutra is missing or lost. Its theories and development has been compiled from historic secondary literature such as those found in the shastras (such as the Arthashastra), sutras and the epics (the Mahabharata and Ramayana) of Hinduism as well as from the dialogues of Gautama Buddha and Jain literature.

Substantial discussions about the Charvaka doctrines are found in texts during 600 BCE because of emergence of competing philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism. Bhattacharya posits that Charvaka may have been one of several atheistic, materialist schools that existed in ancient India during the 600 BCE...

The earliest Charvaka scholar in India whose texts still survive is Ajita Kesakambali. Although materialist schools existed before Charvaka, it was the only school which systematised materialist philosophy by setting them down in the form of aphorisms in the 6th century BCE. There was a base text, a collection sūtras or aphorisms and several commentaries were written to explicate the aphorisms. This should be seen in the wider context of the oral tradition of Indian philosophy. It was in the 600 BCE onwards, with the emergent popularity of Buddhism that ancient schools started codifying and writing down the details of their philosophy.

E. W. Hopkins, in his The Ethics of India (1924) claims that Charvaka philosophy predated Jainism and Buddhism, mentioning "the old Cārvāka or materialist of the 6th century BC". Rhys Davids assumes that lokāyata in ca. 500 BC came to mean "skepticism" in general without yet being organised as a philosophical school. This proves that it had already existed for centuries and had become a generic term by 600 BCE. Its methodology of skepticism is included in the Ramayana, Ayodhya kanda, chapter 108, where Jabāli tries to persuade Rāma to accept the kingdom by using nāstika arguments (Rāma refutes him in chapter 109):[44]

O, the highly wise! Arrive at a conclusion, therefore, that there is nothing beyond this Universe. Give precedence to that which meets the eye and turn your back on what is beyond our knowledge. (2.108.17)...

Charvaka was a living philosophy up to the 12th century in India's historical timeline, after which this system seems to have disappeared without leaving any trace...

The Charvaka epistemology holds perception as the primary and proper source of knowledge, while inference is held as prone to being either right or wrong and therefore conditional or invalid. Perceptions are of two types, for Charvaka, external and internal. External perception is described as that arising from the interaction of five senses and worldly objects, while internal perception is described by this school as that of inner sense, the mind. Inference is described as deriving a new conclusion and truth from one or more observations and previous truths. To Charvakas, inference is useful but prone to error, as inferred truths can never be without doubt.[48] Inference is good and helpful, it is the validity of inference that is suspect – sometimes in certain cases and often in others. To the Charvakas there were no reliable means by which the efficacy of inference as a means of knowledge could be established.

Charvaka's epistemological argument can be explained with the example of fire and smoke. Kamal states that when there is smoke (middle term), one's tendency may be to leap to the conclusion that it must be caused by fire (major term in logic). While this is often true, it need not be universally true, everywhere or all the times, stated the Charvaka scholars. Smoke can have other causes. In Charvaka epistemology, as long as the relation between two phenomena, or observation and truth, has not been proven as unconditional, it is an uncertain truth. In this Indian philosophy such a method of reasoning, that is jumping to conclusions or inference, is prone to flaw. Charvakas further state that full knowledge is reached when we know all observations, all premises and all conditions. But the absence of conditions, state Charvakas, can not be established beyond doubt by perception, as some conditions may be hidden or escape our ability to observe. They acknowledge that every person relies on inference in daily life, but to them if we act uncritically, we err. While our inferences sometimes are true and lead to successful action, it is also a fact that sometimes inference is wrong and leads to error.Truth then, state Charvaka, is not an unfailing character of inference, truth is merely an accident of inference, and one that is separable. We must be skeptics, question what we know by inference, question our epistemology.

This epistemological proposition of Charvakas was influential among various schools of in Indian philosophies, by demonstrating a new way of thinking and re-evaluation of past doctrines. Hindu, Buddhist and Jain scholars extensively deployed Charvaka insights on inference in rational re-examination of their own theories...

Since none of the means of knowing were found to be worthy to establish the invariable connection between middle term and predicate, Charvakas concluded that the inference could not be used to ascertain metaphysical truths. Thus, to Charvakas, the step which the mind takes from the knowledge of something to infer the knowledge of something else could be accounted for by its being based on a former perception or by its being in error. Cases where inference was justified by the result were seen only to be mere coincidences.

Therefore, Charvakas denied metaphysical concepts like reincarnation, an extracorporeal soul, the efficacy of religious rites, other worlds (heaven and hell), fate and accumulation of merit or demerit through the performance of certain actions. Charvakas also rejected the use of supernatural causes to describe natural phenomena. To them all natural phenomena was produced spontaneously from the inherent nature of things.

The fire is hot, the water cold, refreshing cool the breeze of morn;
By whom came this variety ? from their own nature was it born.

The Charvaka did not believe in karma, rebirth or an afterlife. To them, all attributes that represented a person, such as thinness, fatness etc., resided in the body. The Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha states the Charvaka position as follows,

There is no other world other than this;
There is no heaven and no hell;
The realm of Shiva and like regions,
are fabricated by stupid imposters.

— Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha, Verse 8

Charvaka believed that there was nothing wrong with sensual pleasure. Since it is impossible to have pleasure without pain, Charvaka thought that wisdom lay in enjoying pleasure and avoiding pain as far as possible. Unlike many of the Indian philosophies of the time, Charvaka did not believe in austerities or rejecting pleasure out of fear of pain and held such reasoning to be foolish.

The Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha states the Charvaka position on pleasure and hedonism as follows,

The enjoyment of heaven lies in eating delicious food, keeping company of young women, using fine clothes, perfumes, garlands, sandal paste... while moksha is death which is cessation of life-breath... the wise therefore ought not to take pains on account of moksha.

A fool wears himself out by penances and fasts. Chastity and other such ordinances are laid down by clever weaklings.

— Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha, Verses 9-12

Charvakas rejected many of the standard religious conceptions of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Ajivakas, such as an afterlife, reincarnation, samsara, karma and religious rites. They were critical of the Vedas, as well as Buddhist scriptures.

The Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha with commentaries by Madhavacharya describes the Charvakas as critical of the Vedas, materialists without morals and ethics. To Charvakas, the text states, the Vedas suffered from several faults – errors in transmission across generations, untruth, self-contradiction and tautology. The Charvakas pointed out the disagreements, debates and mutual rejection by karmakanda Vedic priests and jñānakanda Vedic priests, as proof that either one of them is wrong or both are wrong, as both cannot be right.

Charvakas, according to Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha verses 10 and 11, declared the Vedas to be incoherent rhapsodies whose only usefulness was to provide livelihood to priests. They also held the belief that Vedas were invented by man, and had no divine authority.

Charvakas rejected the need for ethics or morals, and suggested that "while life remains, let a man live happily, let him feed on ghee even though he runs in debt".

The Jain scholar Haribhadra, in the last section of his text Saddarsanasamuccaya, includes Charvaka in his list of six darśanas of Indian traditions, along with Buddhism, Nyaya-Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Jainism and Jaiminiya. Haribhadra notes that Charvakas assert that there is nothing beyond the senses, consciousness is an emergent property, and that it is foolish to seek what cannot be seen.

The accuracy of these views, attributed to Charvakas, has been contested by scholars...

There was no continuity in the Charvaka tradition after the 12th century. Whatever is written on Charvaka post this is based on second-hand knowledge, learned from preceptors to disciples and no independent works on Charvaka philosophy can be found.[43] Chatterjee and Datta explain that our understanding of Charvaka philosophy is fragmentary, based largely on criticism of its ideas by other schools, and that it is not a living tradition:

"Though materialism in some form or other has always been present in India, and occasional references are found in the Vedas, the Buddhistic literature, the Epics, as well as in the later philosophical works we do not find any systematic work on materialism, nor any organised school of followers as the other philosophical schools possess. But almost every work of the other schools states, for refutation, the materialistic views. Our knowledge of Indian materialism is chiefly based on these...."

Buddhists, Jains, Advaita Vedantins and Nyāya philosophers considered the Charvakas as one of their opponents and tried to refute their views. These refutations are indirect sources of Charvaka philosophy. The arguments and reasoning approach Charvakas deployed were significant that they continued to be referred to, even after all the authentic Charvaka/Lokāyata texts had been lost. However, the representation of the Charvaka thought in these works is not always firmly grounded in first-hand knowledge of Charvaka texts and should be viewed critically.

-- Charvaka, by Wikipedia

According to some writers, ashvamedha is a forbidden rite for Kaliyuga, the current age.[45][46]

This part of the ritual offended the Dalit reformer and framer of the Indian constitution B. R. Ambedkar and is frequently mentioned in his writings as an example of the perceived degradation of Brahmanical culture.[47]

While others such has Manohar L. Varadpande, praised the ritual as "social occasions of great magnitude".[48] Rick F. Talbott writes that "Mircea Eliade treated the Ashvamedha as a rite having a cosmogonic structure which both regenerated the entire cosmos and reestablished every social order during its performance."[49]

See also

• Ashva, horse in Vedic culture
• October Horse in Roman religion
• Cruelty to animals

Footnotes

1. Ganguli, K.M. (1883-1896) "Aswamedha Parva" in The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (12 Volumes). Calcutta
2. Dutt, M.N. (1905) The Mahabharata (Volume 14): Ashwamedha Parva. Calcutta: Elysium Press
3. van Buitenen, J.A.B. (1973) The Mahabharata: Book 1: The Book of the Beginning. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, p 478
4. Debroy, B. (2010) The Mahabharata, Volume 1. Gurgaon: Penguin Books India, pp xxiii - xxvi
5. Mansingh, Surjit. Historical Dictionary of India. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 68.
6. Rick F. Talbott 2005, p. 111.
7. Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam (ed.). India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 72.
8. Glucklich, 111-114
9. Glucklich, 111-112
10. Glucklich, 112
11. Roshen Dalal 2010, p. 399.
12. Thomas V. Gamkrelidze; Vjaceslav V. Ivanov (1995). Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and Proto-Culture. Part I: The Text. Part II: Bibliography, Indexes. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 402–403.
13. Rick F. Talbott 2005, p. 123.
14. The Laws of Manu, translated by Wendy Doniger with Brian K. Smith, p.104. Penguin Books, London, 1991
15. Glucklich, 111
16. Thomas V. Gamkrelidze; Vjaceslav V. Ivanov (1995). Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and Proto-Culture. Part I: The Text. Part II: Bibliography, Indexes. Walter de Gruyter. p. 70.
17. Rick F. Talbott 2005, p. 142.
18. Roshen Dalal 2010, p. 44.
19. David M. Knipe 2015, p. 234.
20. K M Ganguly 1896, pp. 130–131.
21. Dineshchandra Sircar 1971, p. 175.
22. Dinesh Chandra Shukla (1978). Early history of Rajasthan. Bharatiya Vidya Prakashan. p. 30.
23. David M. Knipe 2015, p. 8.
24. Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya 2007, p. 203.
25. Dineshchandra Sircar 1971, p. 176.
26. Upinder Singh 2008, p. 510.
27. David M. Knipe 2015, p. 9.
28. Ashvini Agrawal 1989, p. 139.
29. Dineshchandra Sircar 1971, p. 179.
30. David M. Knipe 2015, p. 10.
31. Karl J. Schmidt (20 May 2015). An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History. Taylor & Francis. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-317-47680-1.
32. Snigdha Tripathy 1997, p. 67.
33. Snigdha Tripathy 1997, pp. 74-75.
34. Rama Shankar Tripathi (1942). History of Ancient India. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 466. ISBN 978-81-208-0018-2.
35. P. K. Gode (1953). "Some contemporary Evidence regarding the aśvamedha Sacrifice performed by Sevai Jayasing of Amber (1699-1744 A. D.)". Studies in Indian Literary History. 2. Singhi Jain Shastra Sikshapith. pp. 288–291. OCLC 2499291.
36. Catherine B Asher (2008). "Rethinking a Millennium: Perspectives on Indian History from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Century : Essays for Harbans Mukhia". In Rajat Datta (ed.). Excavating Communalism: Kachhwaha Rajadharma and Mughal Sovereignty. Aakar Books. p. 232. ISBN 978-81-89833-36-7.
37. Ayodhya Revisited by Kunal Kishore p.24
38. Dineshchandra Sircar 1962, p. 263.
39. as a bahuvrihi, saptāśva "having seven horses" is another name of the Sun, referring to the horses of his chariot.; akhandjyoti.orgArchived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine glosses 'ashva' as "the symbol of mobility, valour and strength" and 'medha' as "the symbol of supreme wisdom and intelligence", yielding a meaning of 'ashvamedha' of "the combination of the valour and strength and illumined power of intellect"
40. The Critical and Cultural Study of the Shatapatha Brahmana by Swami Satya Prakash Saraswati, p. 415; 476
41. Hinduism Today, June 1994 ArchivedDecember 13, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
42. "Ashwamedha Yagam in city". Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. The Hindu. Oct 13, 2005. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
43. Ashwamedhayagnam.org ArchivedSeptember 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
44. Madhavacarya, Sarvadarsana-sangraha, English translation by E. B. Cowell and A. E. Gough, 1904 quoted in Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (ed.), Carvaka/Lokayata: An Anthology of Source Materials and Some Recent Studies (New Delhi: Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 1990)
45. Rosen, Steven. Holy Cow: The Hare Krishna Contribution to Vegetarianism and Animal Rights. Lantern Books. p. 212.
46. The Vedas: With Illustrative Extracts. Book Tree. p. 62. horse sacrifice was prohibited in the Kali Yuga
47. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches. p. 1376.
48. "History of Indian Theatre, Volume 1" by Manohar Laxman Varadpande, p.46
49. "Sacred Sacrifice: Ritual Paradigms in Vedic Religion and Early Christianity" by Rick F. Talbott, p. 133

References

• Ashvini Agrawal (1989). Rise and Fall of the Imperial Guptas. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0592-7.
• Charles Drekmeier (1962). Kingship and Community in Early India. Stanford University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-8047-0114-3.
• David M. Knipe (2015). Vedic Voices: Intimate Narratives of a Living Andhra Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Dineshchandra Sircar (1962). Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (ed.). The History and Culture of the Indian People: The classical age. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
• Dineshchandra Sircar (1971). Studies in the Religious Life of Ancient and Medieval India. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-2790-5.
• Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya (2007). Class and Religion in Ancient India. Anthem. ISBN 978-1-84331-332-8.
• K M Ganguly (1896). The Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa. Sacred Texts.
• Glucklich, Ariel (2007). The Strides of Vishnu: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195314052.
• Rick F. Talbott (2005). Sacred Sacrifice: Ritual Paradigms in Vedic Religion and Early Christianity. Wipf and Stock. ISBN 978-1-59752-340-0.
• Roshen Dalal (2010). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin Books India. ISBN 9780143414216.
• Snigdha Tripathy (1997). Inscriptions of Orissa. I - Circa 5th-8th centuries A.D. Indian Council of Historical Research and Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-1077-8.
• Stephanie Jamison (1996). Sacrificed Wife / Sacrificer's Wife. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Upinder Singh (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India. Pearson Education India. ISBN 9788131711200.

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Indigo revolt
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/1/20


A [Bikaner dye] factory in Bengal, 1867

The Indigo revolt (or Nil bidroha) was a peasant movement and subsequent uprising of indigo farmers against the indigo planters that arose in Chaugacha village of Nadia in Bengal in 1859.

Causes leading to revolt

Indigo planting in Bengal dated back to 1777 when Louis Bonnard, a Frenchman introduced it to the Indians. He was the first indigo planter of Bengal. He started cultivation at Taldanga and Goalpara near Chandannagar (Hooghly).[1]With the Nawabs of Bengal under British power, indigo planting became more and more commercially profitable because of the demand for blue dye in Europe. It was introduced in large parts of Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, and Jessore (present Bangladesh). The indigo planters persuaded the peasants to plant indigo instead of food crops. They provided loans, called dadon, at a very high interest. Once a farmer took such loans he remained in debt for his whole life before passing it to his successors. The price paid by the planters was meagre, only 2.5% of the market price. The farmers could make no profit growing indigo. The farmers were totally unprotected from the indigo planters, who resorted to mortgages or destruction of their property if they were unwilling to obey them. Government rules favoured the planters. By an act in 1833, the planters were granted a free hand in oppression. Even the zamindars sided with the planters. Under this severe oppression, the farmers resorted to revolt.

The Bengali middle class supported the peasants wholeheartedly. Bengali intellectual Harish Chandra Mukherjee described the plight of the poor farmer in his newspaper The Hindu Patriot. However the articles were overshadowed by Dinabandhu Mitra, who depicted the situation in his play Nil Darpan.His play created a huge controversy which was later banned by the East India Company to control the agitation among the Indians.

The revolt

The revolt started from the villages of - Gobindapur and Chaugacha[2] in Krishnanagar, Nadia district, where Bishnucharan Biswas and Digambar Biswas first led the rebellion against the planters in Bengal ,1859. It spread rapidly in Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Pabna, Khulna, and Narail. Some indigo planters were given a public trial and executed. The indigo depots were burned down. Many planters fled to avoid being caught. The zamindars were also targets of the rebellious peasants.


Mongolganj Indigo Kuthi in North 24 Parganas

The revolt was ruthlessly suppressed. Large forces of police and military, backed by the British Government and the zamindars, mercilessly slaughtered a number of peasants. British police mercilessly hanged great leader of indigo rebels Biswanath Sardar alias Bishe Dakat in Assannagar, Nadia after a show trial. Some historians opined that he was the first martyr of indigo revolt in undivided Bengal. In spite of this, the revolt was fairly popular, involving almost the whole of Bengal. The Biswas brothers of Nadia, Kader Molla of Pabna, and Rafique Mondal of Malda were popular leaders. Even some of the zamindars supported the revolt, the most important of whom was Ramratan Mullick of Narail.[3]

The effect on the British rulers in India

The historian Jogesh Chandra Bagal describes the revolt as a non-violent revolution and gives this as a reason why the indigo revolt was a success compared to the Sepoy Revolt. R.C. Majumdar in "History of Bengal"[4] goes so far as to call it a forerunner of the non-violent passive resistance later successfully adopted by Gandhi. The revolt had a strong effect on the government, which immediately appointed the "Indigo Commission" in 1860.[5] In the commission report, E. W. L. Tower noted that "not a chest of Indigo reached England without being stained with human blood".[6]

Finally, the British government formed the Indigo Commission in 1860 due to Nawab Abdul Latif’s initiative with the goal of putting an end to the repressions of indigo planters(by creating the Indigo Act 1862).

Cultural effects

Dinabandhu Mitra's 1860 play Nil Darpan is based on the revolt (was published from Dhaka). It was translated into English by Michael Madhusudan Dutta and published by Rev. James Long. It attracted much attention in England, where the people were stunned at the savagery of their countrymen. The British Government sent Rev. Long to a mock trial and punished him with imprisonment and fine. Kaliprasanna Sinha paid the fine of Rs 1000 for him.

The play was the first play to be staged commercially in the National Theatre in Kolkata.

More About History

• Sepoy Revolt
• History of Bengal
• Indigo plant
• Indigo rebellion

References

1. Chaudhuri, Kalyan (2016). Madhyamik History And Environment. 56, Surya Sen Street, Kolkata-700009: Oriental Book Company Pvt. Ltd. p. 54.
2. Bhattacharya, Subhas (July 1977). "The Indigo Revolt of Bengal". Social Scientist. 5 (60): 17. JSTOR 3516809.
3. Bhattacharya, Subhas (July 1977). "The Indigo Revolt of Bengal". Social Scientist. 5 (60). JSTOR 3516809.
4. Majumdar, R. C. The Government in 1860 enacted the Indigo Act, according to which no planter could be forced to cultivate indigo against his will. The History of Bengal ISBN 81-7646-237-3
5. Bhattacharya, Subhas (July 1977). "The Indigo Revolt of Bengal". Social Scientist. 5 (60): 14. JSTOR 3516809.
6. The Calcutta Review. University of Calcutta. 1861-01-01. p. 291.