Standing from my balcony at the Club Mahindra resort in Kanatal, this is how the dawn looked.
And this is how it was at dusk
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I love summers in Europe..well, who wouldn’t ? Such crisp weather, blue skies and bright blooming flowers..But of course it poured in Amsterdam for a day but the sun returned quickly giving us this view .What about you – are you a summer or a winter person ?
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Drive barely a few kms out of Bangalore and sights like these are very familiar. Here is a flock of black headed ibis foraging for food in the paddy fields
I was participating in a twitter chat yesterday , (hastagged) #TSBC about Oscar Wilde, which took me on a nostalgic journey. It reminded me of my trip to Dublin when we saw his statue in the park and stopped by his house, while listening to stories of how he was persecuted for his sexuality. To me Oscar Wilde is not just a great writer with an amazing wit, but someone whose irreverence and personality is celebrated in his epigrams and one liners today.
It is a beautiful morning as the clouds descend close to the horizon and gather around the distant ridges of the mountains and wrap them around in their fold. On the fields below, fresh and fluffy cotton compete with the gentle clouds as women pick them up and load them into the trucks. Our car stops behind them as the overflowing cotton falls like wisps of clouds on the ground. I take a handful and feel the softness on my skin, as the men grin and watch me.
There is something special about rustic India, where almost every experience is a romance in itself. You never tire looking at herds of goats, women carrying sacks of groundnuts, a sea of yellow sun flower fields, curious men at the local tea shops, the mud roads and the many detours and of course the landscape – stark and endless, stretching out in front of you painted in various colours. The lake then calls for a halt .The lotuses shelter the birds that suddenly get active and I watch them for a while, before moving on.
I am travelling down from Yaadgiri, a small town in north Karnataka towards Kanaganahalli in Sannathi, a non descript village on the banks of the river Bheema. You will not find it in any map, let alone in the tourist map. However, my interest in the small hamlet is courtesy Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Dynasty, who had left his mark here several centuries ago. It is believed that the king sent his son Mahindra and daughter Sanghamitra as his emissaries to spread Buddhism in this region. And the remains of a Buddhist stupa was excavated here by the ASI almost two decades ago.
The story begins here with the discovery of an edict belonging to Ashoka. Kailash Rao, Associate Professor and conservation architect from Manipal University who is consulting the ASI in restoring the stupa tells me that the edict was found in the neighbouring Chandralamba temple when the roof collapsed and the old deity broke. Dr SVP Halakatti , Superintendent Archaeologist of the Dharwad Circle adds that the inscription slab was used initially as a pedestal for the deity.
I see the edict placed right at the entrance in Sannathi. Written in Brahmi script and in the Prakrit language , it speaks about religious tolerance. Looking around , I find many panels of sculptures , carved in limestone, strewn around the place. The sun’s rays fall directly on the drums and the larger than life panels are arranged circularly around .
A group of school students are walking around , trying to be disciplined even as the teachers force them to stand in a single file. I go over to the ASI board to get some information.. The Maha stupa it says was referred to as Adholoka Maha Chaitya or the Great Stupa of the Netherworlds and was dated around 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD.
It is fascinating to hear from these historians about how the story enfolded here. Professor Kailash Rao tells me that the discovery of the edict led to further inscriptions that were found in the area , which eventually got the ASI to excavate the mounds here. The site is a treasure trove and the most priceless treasure belongs to Ashoka himself and that is the first piece of carving that I see in Sannathi. I am excited as I see a broken portrait of a king with his queens gently pieced together. It lies a bit far away from the main stupa under the shelter of a tree . This am told is the very first inscribed panel of the king Ashoka , to be discovered in India. “ We wouldn’t know if there were any before, but this is the first where we saw with an inscription that says Raya Ashoka ,” says the Professor adding that this would probably help them discover more of his portraits.
I am awe struck as I see the larger than life panels. Stories and events from Buddha’s life – his birth and his first sermon, portraits of more kings and queens from the Satavahana period, vignettes from Jataka Tales, mythical creatures, ancient cities and stupas like Varanasi and Sanchi are carved in both the drum and dome panels made of limestone. Kailash rao says it was like a jig saw puzzle , putting them altogether, as more than hundred such slabs were discovered in pieces. Dr Halkatti tells me that several life size statues of Buddha were discovered, including the four that are normally placed on ayaka platforms and represent the cardinal directions.
I become a student all over again, remembering my class five text books that taught me about Hinayana and Mahayana forms of Buddhism. This stupa was built largely in the Mahayana period, where Buddha was depicted in the human form, unlike the Hinayana era, when he was symbolically shown . However, even here you can see symbolic images such as the Bodhi tree , his feet and an empty throne.
The original stupa, says Dr Halkatti would have probably been built during the Ashokan period as some pottery shards were discovered here as well. I learn that during his time, stupas were normally built as earthern domes. Some parts of the Ashokan stupa are still intact , while the architecture of the later Satavahana period stands out distinctly. The Professor explains that the stupa is the missing link connecting all the other stupas especially with respect to the iconography .
There is more to this ancient site than just Ashoka. Professor Kailash Rao says that there were several discoveries here that would also take you down to prehistoric times. Besides the stupa, bangles, beads, pottery, bricks, tiles, stone heads, earthen vessels were found here.
The conservation of the stupa is in progress and pains have been taken to restore it as scientifically as possible . The challenge says the Professor is to maintain a balance between recreating it and still retain the authenticity. Empirical evidence has been collected to understand the way the stupa would have originally been created. “ And now we have drafted a conservation policy which we will discuss with scholars, conservationists and historians ,” says Dr Halakatti. In the meanwhile , a shelter has been proposed to protect these carvings from nature with a multi media panel that will explain the Jataka tales .
Even as the historians decide on policies and documentation , I stand here and gaze at the peaceful face of a Buddha statue lying in the rubble, smiling at me. I wonder how many more Buddhas are lying under our earth in various parts of our country waiting to be discovered.
This article was published in Deccan Herald in Spectrum .
I was in Amsterdam a few months ago, lost looking at the canals . We went on a ferry that took us on some of the canals that were less frequented and it was quite a day, looking at the fluffy clouds and listening to the stories. We often asked ourselves which city looked more beautiful with the waterways – Venice or Amsterdam ..what do you think should be the answer ? Here is a picture of Venice – what do you guys think ?
We were in an idyllic little town called Kanatal nestled somewhere in the hills, in Uttarkhand, content to gaze at the glistening white peaks that peeped through the deodar trees. Conversations around travel filled the air as several destinations were discussed and tossed around . However I was in no mood to leave my little balcony that opened into the vast expanse of the mountains. There was something about Kanatal that makes you want to look at these peaks endlessly . But then I was beckoned and off I went, a reluctant traveller to explore the Queen of the Hills, Mussoorie.
The winding roads took us through verdant paths as the peaks continued to give us company until the clouds veiled them. We stopped by for tea and walked through a little market and watched some men play cards on the streets. Time did stop by for them. The journey took us into a little town called Landour , often referred to as Upper Mussoorie, which had a distinct European feel. And that is where we discovered a century old institution, lost somewhere amidst the trees, courtesy my fellow traveller and travel blogger, Mariellen Ward from Canada.
We stopped by a little church and followed a board that took us inside the Landour Language School. There was pin drop silence. A couple of classes were on, where every student had a private tutor. Mariellen, who was fascinated by India and everything Indian was keen on learning Hindi and we followed her as she went around meeting people.
On a little board was a time table with names of students and tutors . We met a few tutors, some of them were third generation teachers. Students here came from all over the world to learn several ndian languages. I was fascinated to hear that Urdu was the most sought after language besides Hindi , while Sanskrit , Punjabi and Telugu were taught here as well. The school boasted of more than hundred students at one time and the demand for Indian languages seemed to be increasing. The teachers told us that while some of the students were interested in Indian literature, some of them were missionaries, while others purely wanted to pick up language skills.
We met Rebecca from Sweden who was fascinated by Urdu and had been learning the language here .” I love Urdu poetry..i am now reading Ghalib, “ she said and talked about her many visits to India. The entire locality of Landour welcomed their foreign guests who lived here for months to learn an Indian language.
Antara from the school told us that the British used to learn Hindi in this school during the colonial era. It explained the evolution of Landour today - from a British cantonment to a literary , artistic and a cultural hub .
We were sipping tea in the “fifth shop” in “Chaar Dukaan” - a popular locality in Landour. Mars chocolates were stacked with Maggi noodles while homemade jams and cheeses were sold as well.Everything in Landour was reminiscent of the Raj era. The markets had a quaint ring to them. The names of manors and mansions were taken out of literary novels. The eeriness of the cemetery was more pronounced as the fluffy watch dogs glared at us. And the silence, the quaintness, the slow pace of life , the beautiful scenery - they all seemed to be a slice of life from a Ruskin Bond’s novel . The only difference being, it was for real here. Everything in Landour seemed to be perfect, but for the fact that we really missed the man himself as we looked for him in cafes and book -stores . As we left, the bells seemed to ring, signally perhaps the end of day . We took that as a cue and continued on our journey to Mussoorie.
This story was published in my column, The Inside Story in The Hindu and on the Club Mahindra Blog, Clay. Club Mahindra had invited me along with a few travel bloggers to CONCLAY – an un-conference of bloggers in Kanatal.
