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By Geeta Doctor
In the present age of ecological uncertainty, a gentler approach to the Ayodhya debate needs to be considered. It could be called Design Ahimsa. In the face of multiple assaults on the earth’s resources, Design Ahimsa is a way to look at Ayodhya that would be uniquely Indian, both in its architectural concepts and a historical one. At the same time, by not referencing the conflicting agendas that have sabotaged so many attempts to resolve the highly partisan viewpoints associated with Ayodhya, it could lead to a creative assimilation of all that is best in Indic artistic ethos.
In invoking the spirit of ahimsa, non-violence, Design Ahimsa would include the purity that we associate when confronted with the sacred in so many of our famous monuments. By the ubiquitous marketing of different faiths and beliefs through charismatic indoctrination, we lose stillness of mind when confronted with the un-seeable in the din of rituals. In the age of uncertainty, we need so desperately to belong, that we no longer seek silence or simplicity, but the thronging clamour of the mob.
So also, the idea of Ayodhya has gone through several transformations in its history. In the references made in the Ramayana it was represented as the abode of the victorious. For those of us who revere it as the sacred birthplace of Prince Rama, Ayodhya can only be a place of worship. There are other Ayodhyas in countries like Thailand and Indonesia. They have been built to install the insignia of power; or to be appropriated in the form of funerary monuments. At other times, Ayodhya was believed to have been a prosperous metropolis known as Saketa. We hear that both the Buddha and Mahavira came here to spread their message. There were also emissaries, scholars and conquerors from Greece, Tibet and China. In one account, the area was filled with marvellous marble mansions and lakes filled with lotus flowers.
Design Ahimsa envisages an Ayodhya that is a complex mosaic in the form of linked waterways together with carved doorways. At every period of Indian architectural history there have been examples of intricate reservoirs of water, of deep stepped wells, of long flowing channels of rippling water. In theory they pay homage to the Goddess of Fertility.
Whether the geometric beauty of the water tank at Hampi, the pond of Nectar at the Golden temple of Amritsar, the stepped wells of the Jains, the gardens of the Moghuls, or the many representations of sacred groves of the Buddha, there is a harmony that is the essence of Design Ahimsa.
Finally, a word on Sacred Doorways. The Japanese Shinto temples call them Torii. These are made of two carved pieces of wood resting on two upright posts. They are meant to lead you from the ordinary to the sacred. Only gods can walk through the central path. Others stick to the sides. What’s extraordinary is how similar they are to the famous Toranas or doorways at Sanchi carved in stone with incidents from the life of the Buddha. There is such a profusion of doorway architecture that it would be difficult to choose examples from the Thanjavur-Jaisalmer-Sanchi-Agra and all the many splendoured examples that we have.
By creating a doorway to the past and to the future the idea of Ayodhya could once again be a source of renewal of the human spirit.
DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author’s own.
Thank you
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/gentler-approach-design-ahimsa-at-ayodhya/
In the present age of ecological uncertainty, a gentler approach to the Ayodhya debate needs to be considered. It could be called Design Ahimsa. In the face of multiple assaults on the earth’s resources, Design Ahimsa is a way to look at Ayodhya that would be uniquely Indian, both in its architectural concepts and a historical one. At the same time, by not referencing the conflicting agendas that have sabotaged so many attempts to resolve the highly partisan viewpoints associated with Ayodhya, it could lead to a creative assimilation of all that is best in Indic artistic ethos.
In invoking the spirit of ahimsa, non-violence, Design Ahimsa would include the purity that we associate when confronted with the sacred in so many of our famous monuments. By the ubiquitous marketing of different faiths and beliefs through charismatic indoctrination, we lose stillness of mind when confronted with the un-seeable in the din of rituals. In the age of uncertainty, we need so desperately to belong, that we no longer seek silence or simplicity, but the thronging clamour of the mob.
So also, the idea of Ayodhya has gone through several transformations in its history. In the references made in the Ramayana it was represented as the abode of the victorious. For those of us who revere it as the sacred birthplace of Prince Rama, Ayodhya can only be a place of worship. There are other Ayodhyas in countries like Thailand and Indonesia. They have been built to install the insignia of power; or to be appropriated in the form of funerary monuments. At other times, Ayodhya was believed to have been a prosperous metropolis known as Saketa. We hear that both the Buddha and Mahavira came here to spread their message. There were also emissaries, scholars and conquerors from Greece, Tibet and China. In one account, the area was filled with marvellous marble mansions and lakes filled with lotus flowers.
Design Ahimsa envisages an Ayodhya that is a complex mosaic in the form of linked waterways together with carved doorways. At every period of Indian architectural history there have been examples of intricate reservoirs of water, of deep stepped wells, of long flowing channels of rippling water. In theory they pay homage to the Goddess of Fertility.
Whether the geometric beauty of the water tank at Hampi, the pond of Nectar at the Golden temple of Amritsar, the stepped wells of the Jains, the gardens of the Moghuls, or the many representations of sacred groves of the Buddha, there is a harmony that is the essence of Design Ahimsa.
Finally, a word on Sacred Doorways. The Japanese Shinto temples call them Torii. These are made of two carved pieces of wood resting on two upright posts. They are meant to lead you from the ordinary to the sacred. Only gods can walk through the central path. Others stick to the sides. What’s extraordinary is how similar they are to the famous Toranas or doorways at Sanchi carved in stone with incidents from the life of the Buddha. There is such a profusion of doorway architecture that it would be difficult to choose examples from the Thanjavur-Jaisalmer-Sanchi-Agra and all the many splendoured examples that we have.
By creating a doorway to the past and to the future the idea of Ayodhya could once again be a source of renewal of the human spirit.
DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author’s own.
Thank you
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/gentler-approach-design-ahimsa-at-ayodhya/