THE CRYPTOS

Picture taken from a comedy television animated series called "The Beatles"

There are cryptos everywhere, in all facets of life say economy, family, religion, politics, and so on. A crypto refers to a person who adheres or belongs secretly to a party, sect, or other group. The portrayal of something non identical to what he actually is refers to a cryptic person who is mysterious or obscure. It has become a trend now to stay neutral or to remain secular when it comes to things like religion. But in reality, they might have a veil to the personalities to which they refuse and decline to exhibit to the society just to have a “status” of not being one among the crowd to either avoid stereotypes or maltreated designations. Many aim to achieve “casteless humanism” but secretly do not adhere to what they show the world as the liberals, secularists, rationalists, atheists, radicals and so on.

Recently there are so many critical analysis in the social media that are being discussed in order to boost popularity and viral views over the well renowned kings and ancient systems that were considered to be one of the best and an appreciated work worldwide. It has even become a trend to oppose a universal belief or system just to show that it is cool to be an opponent rather than to be the one adhering to it. Some believe they are the true adherents and striving for “casteless humanism” and indulge in falsifying and manipulating the actual facts of the history.

The trend has been laid by gimcrack politicians, actors and the so called activists who do such things through their speeches or press meets or through their social accounts to which numerous people either support or undermine to it. Tilting to just one side will always be problematic because the other side will be off-balanced without surmising the unbiased epilogue. Of course there are prejudices on the basis of caste, creed, race, language, and religion and is not reprobated but that cannot be the source to defame the actual history and the achievements of a particular renowned and a celebrated personality in history under the aegis of freedom of speech/ expression.

This blog here mainly focuses and is based on the remarks of Pa Ranjith on Raja Raja Chozhan and the Devadasis. His allegations are given in the video link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTHMHIErM3k

So he mainly touched the topics from the reign of the great Raja Raja Chozhan, a Chola emperor and an intelligent administrator during the medieval period who built the Tanjai periya kovil at the Chola capital Tanjavur. The temple is a part of the UNESCO world heritage site and is known as the "Great Living Chola temples". 

In this video, Pa Ranjith has made points on the Devadasi system in relation to Raja Raja chozhan which is explained in an excerpt from an article by Dr. V. Bharathi Harishankar and Dr. M. Priyamvadha submitted to the National Commission for Women, New Delhi. The extracted information with regard to this is given below.

The rule of the Chola Kings between the ninth and twelfth centuries was the heyday for devadasis. “The devadasi, at the height of her glory, linked temple to court and balanced patronage with personal independence. Wellversed in the arts, she was considered a jewel of both court and temple alike. Both these institutions mutually cared for her rather lavish economic needs. Even in her marginalized social position, she was unique in that she epitomized the freedom of the plural woman outside of caste and not defined in the biological role of a Madonna. The devadasi tradition continued into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,” but lost its vigour (Meduri, 1988). 

“In Tanjore temple inscriptions of 1499 A.D, it is mentioned that there were 400 devadasis. These 400 devadasis were looked after by the king. They were given separate houses, land by the king. Their houses were built throughout four ‘veedhis’ (streets) starting from the temple. All the details of these 400 devadasis were written in stone pillars inside the temple. Their names before dedication as devadasis and the place which they belonged to were engraved in the pillar. These devadasis enjoyed a high social status.  A Devadasi named “Muthukanamma” who was dedicated at a very young age is still dancing before the deity during Thiruvizha. 

450 devadasis in Brihadeswara temple and 500 devadasis in Dorti Somnath temple were present. They lived in free quarters around the temple and were given tax-free land out of the temple endowment, in medieval times, about 4,000 temples in Gujarat are reported to have about 20,000 devadasis. In southern India the Devadasi system continued unabated until 19th century but in northern India the destruction of temples by Muslim invaders led to a decline of the institution” (Nag, 2001).  

The arrival of the colonial British and the Reformist Movement, sounded the death knell for the Devadasi and a drastic transformation of the art form. Private vs public, home vs world, women vs men – this strong dichotomy is deeply entrenched with reference to the Devadasi system. This dichotomy is very evident in the social reformist discourse on Devadasi system. “The artistic achievements of devadasi women – their prowess as musicians and dancers – were overshadowed, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, by the stigma of prostitution.” (Weidman, 2005). When years passed, servants of God become servants of kings and patrons. 

Henceforth this is one of the paradigm for the molds created by those appearing to create a ruckus in the society. Never should you discriminate anybody or defame somebody by alleging at anytime. Just like an ant to an elephant has its own good and the shortcomings, a human being also commits mistakes or grant deeds and cannot be perfect always and does have his own shortcomings. But ultimately the good has to be seen in everything. As Herman Melville says, it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. Never feel ashamed of your identity. Bringing something out of nothing is all that matters in life. 

Reference: 

http://ncwapps.nic.in/pdfReports/Exploitation_of_Women_as_Devadasis_and_its_Associated_Evils_Report.pdf