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The Resonance of Faith
Temple bells chime across the still
silence of the desert, the peals a clear
sound that ring for a while, resound, and
are then swallowed up into a great
nothingness. It is a sound that bathes the
dawn with an enchanted, magical beauty, that
gives definition to a life of harsh
realities: in sand and scrub, the people
have found not discomfort but faith, a force
that gives them a positive radiance, and the
mettle to create a life that is a
celebration of their energies and their
beliefs.
Every home in Rajasthan has its deities -
those from the Hindu pantheon, folk heroes,
mother goddesses, sati matas, even maharajas
who ran their kingdoms like exemplary
welfare states. Every village has its
temples - from the vermilion daubed stones
revered under the thickening trunks of
ancient trees to carved temples that
celebrate the spirit of their faith. Every
faith has its gods - whether Hindu, Islamic,
or Jain, in the nature of gurus, or as the
cosmos itself. And every one of them has a
place in Rajasthan, not only tolerant of
each other's religions, but also
participating in many of the events, or
letting faiths intermingle to create a new
vocabulary for those who believe in gods,
and the power of gods.
The warrior spirit is a result, too, of this
faith: it is the creed of the warrior to lay
down his life in the protection of his
motherland, a belief so strongly instilled
that a spouse worships her husband in the
image of god when he goes out to the
battlefield - this even when, should he be
slain, the wife would probably have to join
in the jauhar procession, jumping into a
fiery pit in a mass ritual of suicide. It
was this faith too that led them to live
with such zest, colouring their lives as
they did their clothes, with the passion
they believed the gods invested in their
days spent on earth.
The religious kaleidoscope is truly amazing:
the chanting of Jain hymns, and their
observance of strict austerities is at odds
with the Bhil zest for ritual festivities in
honour of the gods, or even the Rajput
exuberance in their faith, and in the
preparations leading up to a religious
ceremony, or the Muslim month of mourning
and fasting even in the harshest climatic
conditions. The Jains do not eat after
sundown, the Muslims share their sweet
porridge of sewaiyan with others on the
occasion of Id, and the Rajputs sacrifice
goats before their gods, and serve it as
consecrated food. Yet, between them, there
has always been a sense of harmony. The
Rajput kings not only gave permission to the
Muslims and Jain to build their religious
shrines, they also, often, gave them the
lands on which to do so.
These shrines were often, also profusely
carved and sculptured, for the people
invested their faith in creating temples and
mosques of great and abiding beauty. Such
shrines were also meeting points for the
people, not only at the time of religious
festivities, but even otherwise, and it was
therefore usual to have plantations, even
orchards, surround them. A well was
essential for providing the water required
to bathe the sanctum, but also for quenching
the thirst of travellers who would seek
shelter at temples on their journeys across
the desert.
Given the hostile climate and landscape, the
people found comfort too in the protection
of the trees and their wildlife, investing
them with spirits, so that tree felling was
not encouraged, and even the peacock,
monkey, deer and other animals were
sanctified by faith. In the case of the
Bishnois, followers of a 15th century saint,
Jambhoji, such protection became a credo,
and they became staunch conservatioists of
their environment.
For the Rajputs, their worship is also a
form of paying obeisance to their ancestors,
for they believe themselves descended from
the very gods they pray too, and have the
genealogies to prove it. At all important
temples and shrines, there are Bhats,
keepers of the family records whose duty it
is to maintain genealogies, tracing them
back not just a few generations but -
provided you have the patience - to the very
beginnings of time. Most people know the
clan's history, and are con-tent with their
more recent antecedents, but the royal
families, and those of aristocratic
background, have written records that go
back (and in great detail) to over five
hundred generations. No wonder their faith,
and their awesome ancestry, draw such
reverence. Since these histories were sung
for patron families by bards, the heroic
deeds of their past ancestors were soon
transformed into the mythic, deifying
earlier generations. No wonder the people of
Rajasthan are so affected by their pasts: it
often seems more real than even the present
they live in. |
