Ancient Indians – Satya Samhita

Sita Devi dried her saree here (Lepakshi). This is the tree to which Lava and Kusa tied the Aswamedha horse (Nepal).. This is the chariot rut left behind when Krishna rescued Rukmini (Amaravati). This is where Ravana set down Siva’s atmalingam (Gokarna).

The white colonials dismissed all our ancient history as recorded in puranas as mythology while accepting their own mythology as recorded in the bible puranam as history.

Our historians tell us not to give importance to sthala puranas and our devout are sometimes confused. Were Lava and Kusa born in Bithoor or Amritsar or Nepal? How can Rama‘s coronotaion have happened in Ayodhya and in Salem?

Basis of Sthala Puranas :

1. Remembered Places : In madanapalli there is a little house in which Ravindranath Tagore translated the Jana Gana Mana into english in his own handwriting. That place is remembered by the people who live in that house. I was given a xerox copy of this english translation by a prof. in madanapalli. Similarly places where Gandhiji sat and rested, where Ragahavendra swamy entered samadhi in mantralaya, where Rajiv Gandhi rested on Mount Harriet in the Andamans and so on.  Where today we have photographs, and where colonials planted flags on mountains they climbed etc, there was a tradition of establishing (pratishtha) and worshipping a sivalingam in places where one had been and it would end up with one’s name. Thus we have Rameswaram, Bhimeswaram.. and so on. If there were people to continue worship at that place and later it came to the attention of someone powerful, they would build prakaras (temple surroundings) around it. Remembered Places are the best.
2. Worked Out Places : Our gurus and acharyas (in all religions all over the world) spend their life studying scriptures and understanding them. On their travels they correlate them with the places and people that they have read about, based on clues in the texts and the geography of the place they visit. Sometimes they have places dug up and they find evidence of what they are looking for, sometimes they make a fresh pratishta in such a place. For eg many of the Vaishnava places in the south have been identified as such by Sri Ramanujacharya. Since he enjoyed the patronage of some powerful kings, at some point in his life, they built the prakaras around the pratishtas made or found by him. Mt. Sinai in Egypt is an example of a similar worked-out sthala – the place where Moses received the ten commandments.
3. Supported by archaeology : The ashmounds etc at Kupgal found by the Bellary Archaeological project, lend support to the idea of Bellary as Kishkinda, an ancient deccan civilization. In places like India where the civilization is continuous and bits of archaeological evidence are either reused in modern constructions or mine away and shipped to China as raw material for construction, evidence is hard to find.

What I do :

I give points to the well-preserved sanskrit puranas and itihasas and sift out the astronomical, philosophical, moral and any other content. I try to look only at the geographical content. I look for sthala puranas, archaeological findings as well as local legends, preserved by other castes in other languages that form a self-consistent set. Then I see whether it makes logical sense. I don’t take things too literally. I generally discount physical miracles and look for physical explanations that could have become wonderful legends.  Then I form a picture in my head and think, “This is what happened!”

To answer a disconnected question that comes up a lot of late, I believe that spiritual practices can give us mystical experiences of divinity and a feeling of Bhagavat Sakshaat Kara. I believe that Paramatma answers prayers and looks after us. But I don’t believe in turning water into wine or petrol with a finger twirl! If I achieve any of the siddhis listed by Patanjali’s Yoga Sastra.. you will be the first to know!

Another disconnected thing I must say for my own sake as well as that of any descendants of mine who might read this at some point in time : The Rama I invoke when I pray is clearly the paramatma, that is my name for Him/That. The Rama I search for on the ground in Ayodhya and Kishkinda is the finest man (purushottama) of the Tretha Yuga. I immensely love them both and cannot always distinguish between them. So if you show me a place where He is said to have walked on this earth, I will bow and touch that dust to my siras (head). Purushottama or Paramatma, Human or Divine, Human and Divine, worthy of my highest regard and love.

Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula