SACRED SPACE BOOK REVIEW Upanishads...
1
Surinder Koul Albeit, the writer is professionally medical doctor, who often trav- els to Arunachal Pradesh, the remotest part of the country and other places, out of her inquisitiveness and yearning to study cultural and architectural sites in the country, yet she has produced the book as an intellectual fallow for interested people to undertake further deep research about cultural heritage, sociological and environmental aspects of earlier called NEFA now lately rechristened as Arunachal Pradesh. This region Arunachal Pradesh, had remained neglected most of the time, even after Indian independence, but the Chinese aggression and their intrusion of 1962 in upper parts of NEFA brought in lime light its strategic significance and urgency of connectivity to the forefront in Indian Govt. The aborigines of this region must had lived the lives of confinement and limited contentment due to in acces- sibility, lack of communication, economic underdevelopment, road connectivity net work among various tribes settlements in stray clus- ters. Physical location of the region is falling in Outer Himalaya, Patkoi ranges and is vivisected by number of rivers and streams, emanat- ing from Higher Himalayas which in turn are tributaries of huge river Brahma- putra. Climatically, Arunachal Pradesh receives highest rain fall, which makes the region susceptible to large scale occur- rence of landslide, resulting into damag- ing of permanent road link net work and housing colonies along the foothills of mountain ridges cov- ered with alpine shrubs and conifer- ous tree line. For compiling this master piece work, the author has travelled at length to each and every corner of the state to have the first hand ground information about the ancient temples, shrines, ruins which were destroyed and annihilated under various cultural invasion, conquests and devastated by natural upheavals in North East in past centuries. Most of these crumbled age old temple struc- tures were further eroded and denudated under vagaries of nature from time to time in past centuries. In spite of cultural influx and eco- nomic depravity of the region , the influence of Hinduism might had diminished with the passage of time, but the essence of its philoso- phy must not have vanished, that is why still local people revere Hin- du Gods and Goddess and do maintain their Hindu way of prayers. Yet the author has made strenuous efforts to recast the religious significance of places, highlights of main archaeological findings with the help of local folk tales, beliefs, traditions and customs and exist- ing literature available in comprehensive manner. Book is portioned in various chapters and each subject matter has been well elucidat- ed with understandable references and related Hindu oblations, and sacerdotal rites. Description about several obliterated sculptures of images of Hindu Goddess and Gods , carved pillars, floral designs on plinth slabs, full lotus carved on circular stone slab in Malinithan temple premises are mentioned in minute details . Book also car- ries out various performances of worshipping that was prevalent in main land India among the Hindus and had been practiced by the people in Arunachal Pradesh also from ages. It has identified tem- ples precincts and ruins where worshipping of Shiva Linga, worship- ping of Durga as Malini still exist and on auspicious occasion devo- tees from the nearby states do throng these sanctified places to pay their obeisance to these Gods and Goddess. Full account through sharp photographs, of stone images of Laxmi, Lord Indira. Nandi, Kar- tikaya, Lord Surya and Lord Ganesha , three headed Lord Brahama, Goddess Saraswati, Lord Krishna and Radha, Varah with boar head and body of human, figure of Vidhadhar and well chiseled out images of favourite animals of deities on stone pillars that have been found almost around in the state in these ruins of temples complex- es are well documented. It is empirically evident that these consecrated places might have had magnificent Hindu dedicat- ed temples and places of worship in some period of time. And the ruins and stone images do corrobo- rate that the then inhabi- tants of this undulated mountainous verdant region must had been pro- fessing Saktism, Vaishnav- ism and Shaivism, all the major sects of Hinduism in Arunachal Pradesh as had been the Hindu religious doctrines in rest of Indian sub continent. The writer has given sufficient chroni- cally documentary support, of Mahabharata and Ramayan epics to relate and justify the religious history of the region with that of Hinduism and its format of worship, pattern of rituals, customs and beliefs and its philosophy, an article of faith. Since, Vedas are the common source of Hinduism in all its all varied stages, therefore the author has right- ly spelled out the proof of religious commonness of Hinduism between Arunachal Pradesh and Indian heart land. Moreover, the research work done by the author in this book does certify that people of Arunachal Pradesh were not isolated from Indian society. The book is hard bound, better printed on art paper, spread over on 135 pages, having paper cover jacket, embossed with beautiful picture of Shiva Linga, Parvati idols girdled in colored swath of holy cloth, a trident pitched by side, a symbolic weapon of Lord Shiva. Cost of the book is INR 995/ and is easily available at leading book- shops. The book makes an interesting reading not from cultural her- itage point of view only but also from diverse aspects of its strategic location, environment, its class of populace, border trade and com- merce and border sensitivity due to ingress and egress people. SUNDAY, AUGUST 30, 2015 (PAGE-3) BOOK REVIEW Rediscovering Hinduism in the Himalayas Explore economic potential of Thiksey Dr. Mohinder Kumar Thiksey is a big village bifurcated as Thiksey-I and Thiksey-II. This article is about Thiksay-II. Thiksey is located in Chuchot block of Leh district. It has nine mohallas (wards), of which one (Staknu) is hilly, has different topography and landscape from oth- er mohallas in plain area. Entire area below Staknu mohalla is in plains. Some area looks exotic and is littered with huge stones lying all across the surface as if they are the impact of rolling down from surrounding hills due to flashfloods caused by cloudbursts that may have visited this area over so many centuries. The village is situated at a distance of 25 km from Leh city. It appears as a prosperous village. Thiksay-II village is located on the way to famous 'Little Potala' Monastery which is a replica of Potala Palace of King of Lhasa in Tibet. The road passing through Thiksey is used to approach 'Shey Manla' where Sindhu Festival called 'Sindhu Darshan' is held every year at Shey Manla Sind- hu Ghat on banks of river Indus. This road is also on the way to Nyoma, Changthang, Kharnak Zara, Dibling, etc. tribal areas and on Leh-Manali highway. Total area of village is 438 acres, of which 131 acres (30%) is common land and used as pasture for grazing cattle owned by villagers. Total population is 1000 persons in 240 households. All households are Buddhists and Scheduled Tribes. A Panchayat Ghar is under construction and community hall is already constructed on common land. With overall literacy rate of 70%, villagers cooperate on fellow farmers' farmland in farming operations without expecting wages. Their vision of village development is to have all amenities and modern facilities like ATM, banks, stadium, shopping mall, etc. The state of physical infrastructure in Thiksey-II is mixed with good and bad features. Overall look, appearance, sanitation and drainage system of the village are impressive but in absence of streetlights, entire set of amenities appears failure. Being a tourist attraction, both domestic and foreign tourists visit this village and Potola Monastery. Early in the morning when it's still dark many of the foreign tourists go to monastery to attend prayers by Lamas. However, due to darkness often some of them become vic- tims of dog bite. It is a day-to-day difficulty but no action is so far taken for its amelioration. Other amenities are normally available, e.g. 8-10 grocery shops, one post-office, one J&K Bank branch and ATM, hotels & restaurants; but no medical shop or private doctor/clinic is available despite foreign tourists visiting everyday to this village. The village has three schools (one primary, mid- dle, high school each) and one fair price ration store. In 2005, villagers constructed 10-11 small check dams on two hills for storage of spring water, starting from November. In December and January, water gets totally frozen into ice due to extreme cold. Even dropping water dips get frozen. April onwards ice started melting without sun rays and villagers get sufficient water for irrigation. Few hills of Thiksey were locat- ed at such angle that some particular side of these hills never received sun rays throughout the year. Therefore, freezing of water into ice is easier and longer. These melting glaciers create artificial lake/ watershed, which is used for irrigation by the farmers. During flashfloods of 2010, all check dams got destroyed and are yet to be repaired. Private economic assets of households in village include four tractors, 300 cows, no goats/sheep, no BPL households, no pucca houses (all kutcha), no landless households, and normal instru- ments of cultivation (wooden ploughs, Pankha, Peespa i.e. seed sprayer, Belcha, Ginti i.e. digger, etc.). Villagers and "BPL households" approached Gram Sabha to remove from DRDC list the names of these 27 households hitherto marked as BPL, since actually they claim they are not poor/ BPL. All households in Thiksey have good source of income and livelihoods due to tourism sector developed by them on private effort basis. There are good hotel-cum-restaurants for tourists in the village. None of the households faces problem of warm clothing during winter. They wear woolen "guncha" ("nambu"), sweater, shirt, woolen "pabu" (shoes) and socks, woolen muffler (kids wear feather muffler and cap), etc. All house- holds have adequate fuel wood like cow dung cake, firewood (trees are in abundance, no need to purchase wood), and all households use LPG. Thiksay-II is one of the few exceptional villages where all households are interested in taking bank loan; 50% farm households are borrowing without using KCC mechanism; KCC coverage is 85%. Financial inclusion through credit is 100%. Villagers are interested in bank loans under dairy/ DEDS and other schemes, transport (taxi loan), housing, consumption loan, etc. since farm loan requirements are already met by the banks (mainly J&K Bank). Three persons from Staknu mohalla (ward) of Thiksey village died in flashfloods of 2010 due to cloudburst; their dead bodies were not yet found. Other loss of property and economic assets was reported as under: fertile top soil on 900 kanals (113 acres) of agricultural land was washed away; 70 livestock got washed away; 6000 trees fell down and washed away; 15 houses got part- ly damaged; road length of 10 km was destroyed; three bridges on long Staknu nallah were destroyed; 13 water head works were destroyed; 11 foot bridges were destroyed; village had 25 commercial cum privatel water mills (runtuk) on nallah, all of which were destroyed and washed away even as no sign of existence of these water mills was left (each water mill cost Rs.2.00 lakh of invest- ment). Entire landline phone infrastructure (poles, wires) in village was also destroyed. Families of three dead persons received compensation of Rs.2.00 lakh each from government. Out of 113 acres, land reclaimed with the help of government assistance under MNREGA was 78 acres. Balance 35 acres land was not provided any assistance. Government did not provide compensa- tion for the loss of livestock. Out of 15 damaged houses, 13 got compensation from government. Link road is yet to be reconstruct- ed. Water head works, water mills, bridges, foot bridges, phone lines, etc. are also yet to be reconstructed. Villagers depend on government assistance for creation of these public and private assets. Insects ("chha") destroyed barley and wheat crops of villagers and caused economic loss each year. Villagers, partic- ularly farmers, are yet to find any extension service of any sort from the agencies concerned (KVK; Agriculture Office, Leh). Villagers lived in severe cold conditions due to heavy snowfall every year. Good local food and nutritious diet is the best defense mechanism of these people against cold. They would eat "thupa" of different varieties using homemade cheese, pea, meat, dry vegetables, cashew, almonds, with black pepper, garlic and onion for tadka (fry); some villagers used turmer- ic and red chilly but others did not. They would also cook "momos" by preparing flat dough of wheat flour, filled it with mut- ton and chopped onion like North Indians prepared samosa but Laddakhi momos (like Jammu momos) were mostly pre- pared in steam (instead of oil fried), and they ate it with mutton soup. Some villagers prepared "skyusar" with wheat flour and spices; it was slightly dry and cooking style was different from thupa, and eaten with potatoes and salad. These local foods rich in protein and energy kept them fit and healthy in winter. Personal problems and difficulties of villagers are reported as pertaining to mental depression in the aftermath of cloudburst and flashfloods in 2010. Now gradually people have overtaken their depressive tendencies that emerged due to shocking and dreadful calamity of cloudburst which created havoc in those awesome 15-20 minutes. Otherwise all Laddakhis, including Bud- dhists of this village, are by nature calm, quite, contented, satisfied, and always without mental tension. Whatever little financial relief is received by them, they are satisfied with it. General approach to coping with adversities by villagers in Thiksey-II are, for example, collective approach (e.g. taking deputation of villagers in procession to DDC office led by Sarpanch to submit memo- randum of demands), expect government assistance, and efforts by individual households -all three methods were used by vil- lagers in this order. Sometimes nothing worked or materialized. Then religious teachings came to their support to induce calm- ness. Thiksey has good economic potential. In non-farm sector, there is good scope of food processing, particularly vegetable pro- cessing (potato, pea and all other types of vegetables) at small scale. Villagers are polit- ical and demand full Union Territory (UT) status for Laddakh region. Until then they wished (though not practicable) that annual "Darbar shift" of State Administration should also include three months shift to Leh. This wish overlooked two aspects: (i) cost; and (ii) extreme winter (more cold) in Laddakh in winter as compared to Kashmir valley. Villagers demand Engineering College, Medical College and University for Laddakh region as they find it difficult to send their wards to Jammu, Srinagar, Chandigarh, etc. for high- er education, particularly in view of poor road connectivity and costly air traffic fare. Over 3000 Laddakhi students are studying in cities outside Laddakh. Thicksey-II being a progressive, prosperous and forward looking village considered itself representative of the political, cultural and educational aspirations of the people of Laddakh, particularly Leh district. Streetlights are urgently required since village has famous Potola monastery where foreign tourists visited in large number. Ear- ly in the morning or before dawn when it was still dark, they visited monastery for the morning-'pooja' (worship), and at that time street dogs posed menacing threat to commuters on the road or in street corners; therefore, tourists hesitated or could not go to monastery for morning 'pooja'. If street lights are provided, dog-threats would be reduced. Village has one water collection cham- ber of 15000 gallons for supply of safe drinking water. One more chamber for storage capacity of 5000 gallons is needed in Stanknu mohalla (ward) due to increased population, and chambers getting destroyed due to cloudburst and floods in 2010. Villagers demand soil testing facility for farmers. They apprehend superstitiously that their crop gets damaged each year because of some unknown insects in water from river Indus getting into their soil and reaching crops! This example indicated non-scientific approach to farming due to absence of extension services to the villagers though Thiksey is otherwise so developed culturally, religiously and aesthetically. Thiksey by its look gives impression of a developed Punjab village; economic potential of this village can be tapped if public and private investment in agriculture is facilitated through agri-extension services. (Author works for NABARD. Views expressed are personal) Feedback:[email protected] VILLAGE WEEKLY R C Kotwal Upanishads means the inner or mystic teaching. The term "Upanishad" is derived from Upa(Near) , ni ( down) and shad (to sit) i.e sitting down near. Groups of pupils sit near the teacher to learn from him the secret doctrine. The Upan- ishads are sometimes referred to as Vedanta, variously inter- preted to mean the last chapters of the Vedas or the object, the highest purpose of the Veda. The concepts of Brahman (ultimate Reality) and Atman (soul-self) are central ideas in all the Upanishads and "Know your Atman" their thematic focus. Shri Adi Shankara explains in his commentary on the Katha that it means "Knowledge of the self" or "Knowledge of Brahma".1 The authors of most Upanishads are unknown. Various theories have suggested different names. Scholars are also uncertain about the exact centuries in which Upanishads were composed. The general area of the composition of the early Upanishads was Northern India, on the east of lower Ganga region, on the north by the Himalayan Hills and on the south by the Vindhya mountain range. This region cov- ers Bihar, Nepal, UP, Uttarakhand, HP, Haryana, Eastern Rajasthan and M.P. of present day India. The exact numbers of the Upanishads are not clearly known. Scholars differ on the total number of Upanishads as well as what constitutes an Upanishad. Some of the Upan- ishads are very ancient, but some are of recent origin. The original Upanishads are the end portions of the four Vedas, and thereby came to be identified with "Vedanta" which literally means the end of the Vedas. They dealt with the philosophical aspects of the Vedas and were taught in ancient India to highly qualified and selected individuals. The Upanishadic texts are part of the Shruti literature and are considered to be divine in origin. They are associated with several ancient seers. Some of these lived at least twenty generations before Lord Krishna and probable date of the Mahabharata war. Prominent among these were Yaganavalkya, Uddalaka, Aruni, Shandilya, Aitareya, Pippla- pada and Sanatkumara. Today there are estimated 200-250 Upanishads, some well known and some least known. The Bhagvat Gita is also known as an Upanishads because it contains the essence of many of the Upanishads. I have listed 108 Upanishads as per the list contained in the Muktiupainshad. I have arrange them in four categories according to a particular Veda, to which each of them belong. Out of 108, Upanishads only 10 have been commented upon by sever- al archarayas like Adi Shankaracharya. These are Ishavasya, Kena, Katha, Aithreya, Brihadaranyaka, Prash- na, Mandukya, Taittireya, Chandogya and Mundaka. These have been popularized by Swami Vivekananda and others. They all deal with highest degree of philosophy and meta- physics. There are Upanishads which even tells us how to worship a particular god. But majority of them deal with meth- ods of Yoga and Renunciation (Sanyasa). Basically Upanishads have been written thousands of years back. Some say 4000 BC or so on forth. In western world also many scholars, writers have examined and stud- ied Upanishads and have accepted the level of wisdom, spir- ituality and Moksha concept by great Hindu sages thousands of years ago. The first introduction of Upanishads to the west- ern world was through a translation into Persian made in 17th century. More than a century late a known French scholar, Anquetill Duperron brought a copy of manuscript from Per- sia to France and translated it into French and Latin simple, universal." The first English translation was made by a learned Hin- du, Raja Ram Mohan roy (1775-1833). Basically Upanishads contains the essence of Vedic teachings and have an uni- versal approach. Study of Upanishads gives us insight into the extra ordinary religious thoughts given by great sages. (The author is Superintendent of Police S K Police Academy Udhampur) Upanishads Source of Spirituality SACRED SPACE
Transcript of SACRED SPACE BOOK REVIEW Upanishads...
Surinder KoulAlbeit, the writer is professionally medical doctor, who often trav-
els to Arunachal Pradesh, the remotest part of the country and otherplaces, out of her inquisitiveness and yearning to study cultural andarchitectural sites in the country, yet she has produced the book asan intellectual fallow for interested people to undertake further deepresearch about cultural heritage, sociological and environmentalaspects of earlier called NEFA now lately rechristened as ArunachalPradesh. This region Arunachal Pradesh, had remained neglectedmost of the time, even after Indian independence, but the Chineseaggression and their intrusion of 1962 in upper parts of NEFAbroughtin lime light its strategic significance and urgency of connectivity tothe forefront in Indian Govt. The aborigines of this region must hadlived the lives of confinement and limited contentment due to in acces-sibility, lack of communication, economic underdevelopment, roadconnectivity net work among various tribes settlements in stray clus-ters. Physical location of the region is falling in Outer Himalaya, Patkoiranges and is vivisected by number of rivers and streams, emanat-ing from HigherHimalayas which inturn are tributaries ofhuge river Brahma-putra. Climatically,Arunachal Pradeshreceives highest rainfall, which makes theregion susceptible tolarge scale occur-rence of landslide,resulting into damag-ing of permanentroad link net work andhousing coloniesalong the foothills ofmountain ridges cov-ered with alpineshrubs and conifer-ous tree line.
For compilingthis master piecework, the author hastravelled at length to each and every corner of the state to have thefirst hand ground information about the ancient temples, shrines,ruins which were destroyed and annihilated under various culturalinvasion, conquests and devastated by natural upheavals in NorthEast in past centuries. Most of these crumbled age old temple struc-tures were further eroded and denudated under vagaries of naturefrom time to time in past centuries. In spite of cultural influx and eco-nomic depravity of the region , the influence of Hinduism might haddiminished with the passage of time, but the essence of its philoso-phy must not have vanished, that is why still local people revere Hin-du Gods and Goddess and do maintain their Hindu way of prayers.
Yet the author has made strenuous efforts to recast the religioussignificance of places, highlights of main archaeological findings withthe help of local folk tales, beliefs, traditions and customs and exist-ing literature available in comprehensive manner. Book is portionedin various chapters and each subject matter has been well elucidat-ed with understandable references and related Hindu oblations, and
sacerdotal rites. Description about several obliterated sculptures ofimages of Hindu Goddess and Gods , carved pillars, floral designson plinth slabs, full lotus carved on circular stone slab in Malinithantemple premises are mentioned in minute details . Book also car-ries out various performances of worshipping that was prevalent inmain land India among the Hindus and had been practiced by thepeople in Arunachal Pradesh also from ages. It has identified tem-ples precincts and ruins where worshipping of Shiva Linga, worship-ping of Durga as Malini still exist and on auspicious occasion devo-tees from the nearby states do throng these sanctified places to paytheir obeisance to these Gods and Goddess. Full account throughsharp photographs, of stone images of Laxmi, Lord Indira. Nandi, Kar-tikaya, Lord Surya and Lord Ganesha , three headed Lord Brahama,Goddess Saraswati, Lord Krishna and Radha, Varah with boarhead and body of human, figure of Vidhadhar and well chiseled outimages of favourite animals of deities on stone pillars that have beenfound almost around in the state in these ruins of temples complex-es are well documented.
It is empirically evidentthat these consecratedplaces might have hadmagnificent Hindu dedicat-ed temples and places ofworship in some period oftime. And the ruins andstone images do corrobo-rate that the then inhabi-tants of this undulatedmountainous verdantregion must had been pro-fessing Saktism, Vaishnav-ism and Shaivism, all themajor sects of Hinduism inArunachal Pradesh as hadbeen the Hindu religiousdoctrines in rest of Indiansub continent. The writerhas given sufficient chroni-cally documentary support,of Mahabharata andRamayan epics to relate
and justify the religious history of the region with that of Hinduism andits format of worship, pattern of rituals, customs and beliefs and itsphilosophy, an article of faith. Since, Vedas are the common sourceof Hinduism in all its all varied stages, therefore the author has right-ly spelled out the proof of religious commonness of Hinduism betweenArunachal Pradesh and Indian heart land. Moreover, the researchwork done by the author in this book does certify that people ofArunachal Pradesh were not isolated from Indian society.
The book is hard bound, better printed on art paper, spread overon 135 pages, having paper cover jacket, embossed with beautifulpicture of Shiva Linga, Parvati idols girdled in colored swath of holycloth, a trident pitched by side, a symbolic weapon of Lord Shiva.Cost of the book is INR 995/ and is easily available at leading book-shops. The book makes an interesting reading not from cultural her-itage point of view only but also from diverse aspects of its strategiclocation, environment, its class of populace, border trade and com-merce and border sensitivity due to ingress and egress people.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 30, 2015 (PAGE-3)
BOOK REVIEW
Rediscovering Hinduism in the Himalayas
Explore economic potential of ThikseyDr. Mohinder Kumar
Thiksey is a big village bifurcated as Thiksey-I and Thiksey-II. This article is about Thiksay-II. Thiksey is located in Chuchotblock of Leh district. It has nine mohallas (wards), of which one (Staknu) is hilly, has different topography and landscape from oth-er mohallas in plain area. Entire area below Staknu mohalla is in plains. Some area looks exotic and is littered with huge stoneslying all across the surface as if they are the impact of rolling down from surrounding hills due to flashfloods caused by cloudburststhat may have visited this area over so many centuries.
The village is situated at a distance of 25 km from Leh city. It appears as a prosperous village. Thiksay-II village is located onthe way to famous 'Little Potala' Monastery which is a replica of Potala Palace of King of Lhasa in Tibet. The road passing throughThiksey is used to approach 'Shey Manla' where Sindhu Festival called 'Sindhu Darshan' is held every year at Shey Manla Sind-hu Ghat on banks of river Indus. This road is also on the way to Nyoma, Changthang, Kharnak Zara, Dibling, etc. tribal areas andon Leh-Manali highway.
Total area of village is 438 acres, of which 131 acres (30%) is common land and used as pasture for grazing cattle owned byvillagers. Total population is 1000 persons in 240 households. All households are Buddhists and Scheduled Tribes. A PanchayatGhar is under construction and community hall is already constructed on common land.
With overall literacy rate of 70%, villagers cooperate on fellow farmers' farmland in farming operations without expecting wages.Their vision of village development is to have all amenities and modern facilities like ATM, banks, stadium, shopping mall, etc.
The state of physical infrastructure in Thiksey-II is mixed with good and bad features. Overall look, appearance, sanitation anddrainage system of the village are impressive but in absence of streetlights, entire set of amenities appears failure. Being a touristattraction, both domestic and foreign tourists visit this village and Potola Monastery. Early in the morning when it's still dark manyof the foreign tourists go to monastery to attend prayers by Lamas. However, due to darkness often some of them become vic-tims of dog bite. It is a day-to-day difficulty but no action is so far taken for its amelioration. Other amenities are normally available,
e.g. 8-10 grocery shops, one post-office, one J&K Bank branch and ATM, hotels & restaurants; but no medical shop or privatedoctor/clinic is available despite foreign tourists visiting everyday to this village. The village has three schools (one primary, mid-dle, high school each) and one fair price ration store.
In 2005, villagers constructed 10-11 small check dams on two hills for storage of spring water, starting from November.In December and January, water gets totally frozen into ice due to extreme cold. Even dropping water dips get frozen. Aprilonwards ice started melting without sun rays and villagers get sufficient water for irrigation. Few hills of Thiksey were locat-ed at such angle that some particular side of these hills never received sun rays throughout the year. Therefore, freezingof water into ice is easier and longer. These melting glaciers create artificial lake/watershed, which is used for irrigation by the farmers. During flashfloods of 2010,all check dams got destroyed and are yet to be repaired.
Private economic assets of households in village include four tractors, 300cows, no goats/sheep, no BPL households, no pucca houses (all kutcha), no landless households, and normal instru-ments of cultivation (wooden ploughs, Pankha, Peespa i.e. seed sprayer, Belcha, Ginti i.e. digger, etc.). Villagers and"BPL households" approached Gram Sabha to remove from DRDC list the names of these 27 households hitherto markedas BPL, since actually they claim they are not poor/ BPL. All households in Thiksey have good source of income andlivelihoods due to tourism sector developed by them on private effort basis. There are good hotel-cum-restaurants fortourists in the village.
None of the households faces problem of warm clothing during winter. They wear woolen "guncha" ("nambu"),sweater, shirt, woolen "pabu" (shoes) and socks, woolen muffler (kids wear feather muffler and cap), etc. All house-holds have adequate fuel wood like cow dung cake, firewood (trees are in abundance, no need to purchase wood), andall households use LPG.
Thiksay-II is one of the few exceptional villages where all households are interested in taking bank loan; 50% farm householdsare borrowing without using KCC mechanism; KCC coverage is 85%. Financial inclusion through credit is 100%. Villagers areinterested in bank loans under dairy/ DEDS and other schemes, transport (taxi loan), housing, consumption loan, etc. since farmloan requirements are already met by the banks (mainly J&K Bank).
Three persons from Staknu mohalla (ward) of Thiksey village died in flashfloods of 2010 due to cloudburst; their dead bodieswere not yet found. Other loss of property and economic assets was reported as under: fertile top soil on 900 kanals (113 acres)of agricultural land was washed away; 70 livestock got washed away; 6000 trees fell down and washed away; 15 houses got part-ly damaged; road length of 10 km was destroyed; three bridges on long Staknu nallah were destroyed; 13 water head works were
destroyed; 11 foot bridges were destroyed; village had 25 commercial cum privatel water mills (runtuk) on nallah, all of which weredestroyed and washed away even as no sign of existence of these water mills was left (each water mill cost Rs.2.00 lakh of invest-ment). Entire landline phone infrastructure (poles, wires) in village was also destroyed. Families of three dead persons receivedcompensation of Rs.2.00 lakh each from government. Out of 113 acres, land reclaimed with the help of government assistanceunder MNREGA was 78 acres. Balance 35 acres land was not provided any assistance. Government did not provide compensa-tion for the loss of livestock. Out of 15 damaged houses, 13 got compensation from government. Link road is yet to be reconstruct-ed. Water head works, water mills, bridges, foot bridges, phone lines, etc. are also yet to be reconstructed. Villagers depend ongovernment assistance for creation of these public and private assets.
Insects ("chha") destroyed barley and wheat crops of villagers and caused economic loss each year. Villagers, partic-ularly farmers, are yet to find any extension service of any sort from the agencies concerned (KVK; Agriculture Office, Leh).Villagers lived in severe cold conditions due to heavy snowfall every year. Good local food and nutritious diet is the bestdefense mechanism of these people against cold. They would eat "thupa" of different varieties using homemade cheese,pea, meat, dry vegetables, cashew, almonds, with black pepper, garlic and onion for tadka (fry); some villagers used turmer-ic and red chilly but others did not. They would also cook "momos" by preparing flat dough of wheat flour, filled it with mut-ton and chopped onion like North Indians prepared samosa but Laddakhi momos (like Jammu momos) were mostly pre-pared in steam (instead of oil fried), and they ate it with mutton soup. Some villagers prepared "skyusar" with wheat flourand spices; it was slightly dry and cooking style was different from thupa, and eaten with potatoes and salad. These localfoods rich in protein and energy kept them fit and healthy in winter.
Personal problems and difficulties of villagers are reported as pertaining to mental depression in the aftermath of cloudburstand flashfloods in 2010. Now gradually people have overtaken their depressive tendencies that emerged due to shocking anddreadful calamity of cloudburst which created havoc in those awesome 15-20 minutes. Otherwise all Laddakhis, including Bud-
dhists of this village, are by nature calm, quite, contented, satisfied, and always without mental tension. Whatever little financialrelief is received by them, they are satisfied with it. General approach to coping with adversities by villagers in Thiksey-II are, forexample, collective approach (e.g. taking deputation of villagers in procession to DDC office led by Sarpanch to submit memo-randum of demands), expect government assistance, and efforts by individual households -all three methods were used by vil-lagers in this order. Sometimes nothing worked or materialized. Then religious teachings came to their support to induce calm-ness.
Thiksey has good economic potential. In non-farm sector, there is good scope of food processing, particularly vegetable pro-cessing (potato, pea and all other types of vegetables) at small scale. Villagers are polit-ical and demand full Union Territory (UT) status for Laddakh region. Until then they wished(though not practicable) that annual "Darbar shift" of State Administration should alsoinclude three months shift to Leh. This wish overlooked two aspects: (i) cost; and (ii)
extreme winter (more cold) in Laddakh in winter as compared to Kashmir valley. Villagers demand Engineering College, MedicalCollege and University for Laddakh region as they find it difficult to send their wards to Jammu, Srinagar, Chandigarh, etc. for high-er education, particularly in view of poor road connectivity and costly air traffic fare. Over 3000 Laddakhi students are studying incities outside Laddakh. Thicksey-II being a progressive, prosperous and forward looking village considered itself representative ofthe political, cultural and educational aspirations of the people of Laddakh, particularly Leh district.
Streetlights are urgently required since village has famous Potola monastery where foreign tourists visited in large number. Ear-ly in the morning or before dawn when it was still dark, they visited monastery for the morning-'pooja' (worship), and at that timestreet dogs posed menacing threat to commuters on the road or in street corners; therefore, tourists hesitated or could not go tomonastery for morning 'pooja'. If street lights are provided, dog-threats would be reduced. Village has one water collection cham-ber of 15000 gallons for supply of safe drinking water. One more chamber for storage capacity of 5000 gallons is needed in Stanknumohalla (ward) due to increased population, and chambers getting destroyed due to cloudburst and floods in 2010. Villagersdemand soil testing facility for farmers. They apprehend superstitiously that their crop gets damaged each year because of someunknown insects in water from river Indus getting into their soil and reaching crops! This example indicated non-scientific approachto farming due to absence of extension services to the villagers though Thiksey is otherwise so developed culturally, religiouslyand aesthetically. Thiksey by its look gives impression of a developed Punjab village; economic potential of this village can betapped if public and private investment in agriculture is facilitated through agri-extension services.
(Author works for NABARD. Views expressed are personal)Feedback:[email protected]
VILLAGE WEEKLY
R C KotwalUpanishads means the inner or mystic teaching. The term
"Upanishad" is derived from Upa(Near) , ni ( down) and shad(to sit) i.e sitting down near. Groups of pupils sit near theteacher to learn from him the secret doctrine. The Upan-ishads are sometimes referred to as Vedanta, variously inter-preted to mean the last chapters of the Vedas or the object,the highest purpose of the Veda. The concepts of Brahman(ultimate Reality) and Atman (soul-self) are central ideas inall the Upanishads and "Know your Atman" their thematicfocus. Shri Adi Shankara explains in his commentary on theKatha that it means "Knowledge of the self" or "Knowledge
of Brahma".1 The authors of most Upanishads are unknown. Various
theories have suggested different names. Scholars are alsouncertain about the exact centuries in which Upanishadswere composed. The general area of the composition of theearly Upanishads was Northern India, on the east of lowerGanga region, on the north by the Himalayan Hills and onthe south by the Vindhya mountain range. This region cov-ers Bihar, Nepal, UP, Uttarakhand, HP, Haryana, Eastern
Rajasthan and M.P. of present day India.The exact numbers of the Upanishads are not clearly
known. Scholars differ on the total number of Upanishads aswell as what constitutes an Upanishad. Some of the Upan-ishads are very ancient, but some are of recent origin.
The original Upanishads are the end portions of the fourVedas, and thereby came to be identified with "Vedanta"which literally means the end of the Vedas. They dealt withthe philosophical aspects of the Vedas and were taught inancient India to highly qualified and selected individuals. TheUpanishadic texts are part of the Shruti literature and areconsidered to be divine in origin. They are associated withseveral ancient seers. Some of these lived at least twentygenerations before Lord Krishna and probable date of theMahabharata war. Prominent among these wereYaganavalkya, Uddalaka, Aruni, Shandilya, Aitareya, Pippla-pada and Sanatkumara.
Today there are estimated 200-250 Upanishads, somewell known and some least known. The Bhagvat Gita is alsoknown as an Upanishads because it contains the essenceof many of the Upanishads. I have listed 108 Upanishads asper the list contained in the Muktiupainshad. I have arrangethem in four categories according to a particular Veda, towhich each of them belong. Out of 108,Upanishads only 10 have been commented upon by sever-al archarayas like Adi Shankaracharya. These areIshavasya, Kena, Katha, Aithreya, Brihadaranyaka, Prash-na, Mandukya, Taittireya, Chandogya and Mundaka. Thesehave been popularized by Swami Vivekananda and others.They all deal with highest degree of philosophy and meta-physics. There are Upanishads which even tells us how toworship a particular god. But majority of them deal with meth-ods of Yoga and Renunciation (Sanyasa).
Basically Upanishads have been written thousands ofyears back. Some say 4000 BC or so on forth. In westernworld also many scholars, writers have examined and stud-ied Upanishads and have accepted the level of wisdom, spir-ituality and Moksha concept by great Hindu sages thousandsof years ago. The first introduction of Upanishads to the west-ern world was through a translation into Persian made in 17thcentury. More than a century late a known French scholar,Anquetill Duperron brought a copy of manuscript from Per-sia to France and translated it into French and Latin simple,universal."
The first English translation was made by a learned Hin-du, Raja Ram Mohan roy (1775-1833). Basically Upanishadscontains the essence of Vedic teachings and have an uni-versal approach. Study of Upanishads gives us insight intothe extra ordinary religious thoughts given by great sages.
(The author is Superintendent of Police S K Police Academy Udhampur)
Upanishads
Source of SpiritualitySACRED SPACE
