Introduction



It was told to me by my elders that in the days of old, there was one warrior unlike any other. When he plunged into battle, twin swords in hand, he defied all the restrictions of shape. He moved like wind, and power radiated from his every step. As he set the field ablaze, his elaborate garments would blend into a colourless swirl. Then, his form temporarily melted into nothingness.

Eyeing him from the battlements, his comrades would exclaim with joy at his invincibility. "Beheroopia!" they cried, for that is what their master had wisely named him.

Beheroopia, in times now past, meant one without set form.

Beheroopia is the spirit of India; and India takes a million forms, each a story of infinite elegance and grace. Every work of graffiti etched into crumbling walls is a window; and every folk song is a voice, calling for ears.

Since booming industrialization and standardization have overtaken modern India, however, neglect and indifference has rapidly driven that spirit of 'beheroopia' into the realm of the forgotten. It's painful to watch this exploitation our peerless past for a uniform future, as if one cannot exist with the other.

I am a historian and story teller in training, and this is only a celebration of that great pursuit of beauty. I share what the universe sees fit to have me stumble against; art, music, literature or a story worthy to re-tell.

Now, as was done by the bards in ancient times, I apologize to any who my words might offend.

(Special thanks to Indian Miniature Paintings for the Image)



Saturday, December 27, 2014

Syncretism=The Spirit of India



Below is a sculpture depicting Zeus as the Vajrapani (wielder of thunder), a Buddhist deity, which guards over Siddhartha Guatama Buddha and his monks as they pursue enlightenment. This was found in Gandhara, which in ancient times was a Greek kingdom and colony in the Indian subcontinent.


Zeus as the Vajrapani, Buddha's guardian


The common image of the Buddha as a curly-haired, robed and youthful figure was imagined by the Indo-Greeks, who modeled the previously un-depicted figure as one of their own gods. As Bodh-dharma (or Buddhism as some might understand it) along with Vaishnav-dharma (Vishnu-devotion) became extremely popular among the Greeks, their own mythology fused with their new-found Indian beliefs in a manner that they did not abandon their Hellenic ways and yet adopted the customs of the land they now called home.

The Buddha depicted as a Greek deity


Greek coins depicting the Vaishnav deities Baladeva (wielding the plough) and Vasudev-Krisna (wielding the wheel)

This kind of syncretism is the spirit of India itself. Unsurprisingly, it is found throughout the history of the land from the very oldest of times to the even the present day. Beheroopia will every now and again be presenting all sorts of examples of this syncretism from various eras in history and between several cultures.




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