Research, Script and Narration by Namit Arora;
Producer: The Wire;
Director: Natasha Badhwar;
Camera: Ajmal Jami;
Video Editor: Anam Sheikh.
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The story of India is one of profound and continuous change. It has been shaped by the dynamic of migration, conflict, mixing, coexistence, and cooperation. In this ten-part web series, Namit Arora tells the story of Indians and our civilization by exploring some of our greatest historical sites, most of which were lost to memory and were dug out by archaeologists. He will also focus on ancient and medieval foreign travellers whose idiosyncratic accounts conceal surprising insights about us Indians. All along, Arora surveys India’s long and exciting churn of cultural ideas, beliefs, and values-some that still shape us today, and others that have been lost forever. The series mostly mirrors-and often extends-the contents of his book, Indians: A Brief History of a Civilization. Bibliography appears below.
EPISODE 10: THE FAITHS OF VARANASI
Varanasi, or Banaras, is among the world's oldest living cities. Its archaeological finds go back to the 9th century BCE. Emerging in history as Kashi, Varanasi became an early centre of learning. The Buddha preached his first sermon here, which effectively launched Buddhism. The city has an impressive history of religious pluralism and still hosts Brahminical Hinduism, various major and minor faiths and sects of old India, shrines to sundry matas and folk gods, and many flavours of Islam: Shia, Sunni, Sufi, Ahmadiyya. Located on the left bank of the Ganga, it’s the city of Shiva, of seekers and pilgrims, Pirs and Aghoris, death and instant moksha. Muslims form 30% of its people and most of its weaving industry; their Hindu ancestors made Varanasi famous for textiles even in ancient times.
Foreigners like Xuanzang, Alberuni and Bernier left accounts of Varanasi. How do scholars today view religious conversions and temple desecrations in the city under Muslim rulers? In these centuries, popular religion-including Bhakti and Sufism-thrived in Varanasi with locals like Tulsidas, Kabir and Ravidas. It was Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas, composed in the 1570s during Akbar’s rule, that turbo-charged Rama’s career as a god in north India. The city then also became a major centre of Indo-Persian culture, co-created by Hindus and Muslims at both elite and commoner levels. Arora will close with a few words on its present.
PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY / FURTHER READING
Asher, Catherine B., Cynthia Talbot; India before Europe; CUP, 2006
Asher, Frederick M; Sarnath: A Critical History of the Place Where Buddhism Began; 2020
Bernier, Francois; Travels in the Mogul Empire: AD 1656-68; Translated by Archibald Constable; 2nd Ed. by Vincent. A Smith.
Chaudhuri, Devdan; 'How did Lord Rama become a Hindu god?' dailyo.com, 18 Apr 2018
Doniger, Wendy; The Hindus: An Alternative History; Penguin, 2009
Doron, Assa; Life on the Ganga: Boatmen and the Ritual Economy of Banaras; CUP India, 2013
Eaton, Richard M.; India in the Persianate Age 1000-1765; Allen Lane, 2019
Eaton, Richard M.; Temple Descecration and Indo-Muslim States; Journal of Islamic Studies 11:3 (2000) pp. 283-319 © Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies 2000
Eck, Diana L; Banaras: City of Light; Knopf Doubleday, 1982
Freitag, Sandria B. (Editor); Culture and Power in Banaras: Community, Performance, and Environment; 1800-1980, UC Press, 1989
Jha, Mithilesh Kumar; Language, Politics and Public Sphere in North India; OUP India, 2017
Kabir (Translated by Linda Hess & Shukdeo Singh); The Bijak of Kabir; OUP, 2002
Mehta, Bhanu Shanker; Unseen Banaras; Pilgrims Pub, 2013
Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna; Songs of Kabir; NRYB, 2011
Pathak, Ajai K et al; 'The Genetic Ancestry of Modern Indus Valley Populations from Northwest India'; AJHG Journal, Vol 103, Issue 6, P918-929, Dec 06, 2018
Parry, Jonathan P.; Death in Banaras; CUP, 1994
Sen, Sudipta; Ganga: The Many Pasts of a River; Gurgaon, Viking, 2019
Sherring, MA; Benares: The Sacred City of the Hindus (1868); Pilgrims Pub, 2016
Singh, Rana P.B.; Cultural Landscapes and the Lifeworld; Indica, 2004
Sinha, Arun; 'Will Buddhists seek to reclaim monuments destroyed to build Hindu temples?'; National Herald, 9 July 2022
Thapar, Romila; Noorani, AG; Menon, Sadanand, On Nationalism, Aleph, 2016
Ticku, Rohit; Shrivastava, Anand; Iyer, Sriya; 'Holy Wars? Temple Desecrations in Medieval India'; SSRN Electronic Journal, Jan 2017.
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30 сен 2024
