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Transcript of The samyukta saraswat vol 1no 1january 1973
FOR YOUR REQUIREMENTS
in
CROCKERY GLASSWARE
ATLAS TRADING CO. PVT. LTD.
1. ANANDI BAZAR, AHMEDNAGAR
2. AGRA ROAD, DHULIA
3. 106, BHANDARI STREET, BOMBAY 3.
Vol. I No. 1
Page No.
3
The Samyukta Saraswat
January 1973
CONTENTS
Editor-in-Chief
Prof. B. P. ADARKAR
Editorial — The Revival of
Saraswatism
Discovering the Saraswat Identity —
The Saraswats of Kashmir by Karmayogi Pt. J. L. K. Jalali
Executive Editor :
P. R. KAIKINI
Editorial and
Business Offices
4/418, Arun Chambers,
Tardeo Road, Bombay-34
Tel 371416
Printed by P. R. Kaikini
at Philpress, 28D Police Court
Lane, Fort, Bombay and Pub-
lished by him for THE ALL
INDIA SARASWAT FOUN-
DATION at 4/418, Arun
Chambers, Tardeo Road.
Bombay 34.
Tel 371416
Leadership in Kutch and
Gujarat by Dr. Janardan Pandya 11
The Settlements of the Deccan by Shri K. K. Pai and Shri M. P. Pai 14
Saraswat Youth and the AISCO by Dr. D. V. Kerkar 17
Our Sacred Crest—by D. N. Nadkarni 19
Books for your attention 29
AISCO. The Testament of Faith 38
Saraswat Social Service Institutions of Kashmir — by Karmayogi Pt. J. L. K. Jalali 41
For Saraswats, A Challenging Future by Shri A. N. Bhatt 49
Kerala Saraswats—by N. Purushothama Mallaya 53
'ITie AISCO faces the future, by Shri J. S. Rao 67
Saraswats Unite to Serve Humanity by Smt. Sila Kaikini 74
The Gita to our Rescue by Shri S. V Pikale 75
The views expressed contributors are their own, and not
necessarily shared by THE S A M Y U K T A S A R A S W A T
4 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
SAHYADRIKHANDA, edited with Marathi Translation by
Vyakaranacharya Gajananshastri Gaitonde.
326 pages, with 4 - colour jacket Rs. 25/-
Sacred, and of engrossing interest to all Saraswats.
The original story of Shree Parashuraina's settlement of Saraswats and their Kula
Deva as in Goa.
DHARMA - BODH,
by Vyakaranacharya Gajananshastri Gaitonde. . . Rs. 4 /-
Brahmanical faith and practices cogently explained in simple Marathi, with Stotras in
simple Samskrit, and information about Saraswat Kula Devatas.
LAW OF INCOME TAX IN INDIA, by S. V. Pikale, B.A., LL.B., Advocate,
Supreme Court and H. C. Banavali, M.A., LL.M., Advocate.
BY THE SAME AUTHORS— (1) Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959; (2) Central Sales
Tax Act, 1956; (3) Goa Daman Din Sales Tax Laws.
SHREE KATYAYANI
PUBLICATIONS 4/418, Arun Chambers, Tardeo Road, BOMBAY-34.
TELEPHONE : 371244
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 3
January 1973 Vol. I No. 1 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT
EDITORIAL
THE REVIVAL OF SARASWATISM
The SAMYUKTA SARASWAT is the
official mouthpiece of the All-India
Saraswat Foundation and its parent body,
the All-India Saraswat Cultural Organi-
sation. We have much pleasure in pre-
senting this first issue of our Journal so
as to coincide with the Inaugural Func-
tion of the AISCO, which is being held
on December 23, 24 and 25, 1972. In
doing so, we hope and pray that the
foundations of Saraswat revivalism,
which is the principal aim of the above
two organisations, apart from the aims
of national regeneration and international
spiritual and cultural progress, will now
be well and truly laid.
The question uppermost in the minds
of both friends and critics alike will be,
as it has been jn the past, the question
of "communalism,” viz., why, in this late
twentieth century and in a country
already affected by the communal virus,
it becomes necessary to sponsor a new
"communal” organisation. Elsewhere in
this issue, this question has been
directly as well as indirectly answered
by some of the contributors. We would
like to draw the attention of readers also
to our Avedan-Patra of January 21, 1972,
in which the aims and objects and the
future programme of the AISCO have
been succinctly and clearly outlined.
However, it may be worthwhile to attack
this central issue right at the outset and,
perhaps, once for all, so far as the entire
movement of Saraswat revivalism is con-
cerned.
First of all, we would like clearly to
state that according to our way of think-
ing, we Saraswats are human beings
first, with obligations towards other
peoples and other nations on this globe
for the maintenance of international
peace and order and promotion of univer-
sal welfare. Secondly, we are Indians and
Hindus, owing allegiance to our mother-
land and our dharma. Thirdly, and no
less important, we are Saraswats with
duties towards our community and to our
ethos, which have survived for centuries
not only the ravages of time but also
communal and religious persecutions at
the hands of alien peoples and religions.
Having made this triple system of duties
and obligations clear, we must add that
the allegiance in each of the three cate-
gories is equally sacred and important
to us and that there is no essential con-
flict between them. No doubt there may
occasionally be marginal conflict here
and there, but by and large, it has been
and it should be possible to maintain a
reasonable balance in our attitude
towards the three entities, viz., the world,
the nation and the community. In fact,
such a balance Is bound to strengthen
not only the community but by implica-
tion the nation and perhaps the world.
Moreover, in the case of India, the
real crux of the so-called Communalism
centres round the twin problems of the
Hindu-Muslim conflict and Untouchability
— both of which have been the legacies
of history. The former has nothing to do
with “community” in the proper sense of
the term but is entirely an inter-religious
matter. On the other hand, the latter is
mainly a class issue, as even Mahatma
Gandhi used to say, arising from the
4 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
professional nexus. By abolishing comm-
unities or castes, it will not be possible
to get rid of either of these twin pro-
blems of communalism which are a
festering sore in the body politic of
India. Thus, when our leaders speak of
the evils of communalism, they have the
above two evils mainly in view and their
remarks have very little relevance to
community life as such. Therefore, so
far as the Saraswat community is con-
cerned, there is no reason to have any
guilt complex: nor is there any reason
for the critics to cavil at our efforts to
elevate the community by reviving our
ethos for the good not only of our
own members but of the nation as well.
In this context, we can do no better
than draw the attention of our readers to
a recent book by Shri K. Guru Dutt, en-
titled Community and Communion, in
which the author most conclusively
proves by reference to modern research
In sociology and psychology and with
impeccable logic that “community’’ and
"caste” are not the same and that
community life does not involve any
“communalism.’’ Not only this but he
goes further and illustrates with an ex-
haustive study of the Bhanaps or Chic-
rapur Saraswats how a community by
maintaining its own individual ethos can
bring about its uplift. This is not a soli-
tary instance. There are innumerable
other small and big communities, such
as the Parsis of Western India, the
Kashmiri Saraswats, the Ayyangars, the
Nagar Brahmins, the Syrian Christians
of Kerala, the Nambudri Brahmins, the
Chettiars and Mudaliars, et al., which
have brought success and glory to them-
selves and to the nation by preserving
their respective cultures, by fostering
family life, by forming institutions o'?
mutual assistance for promoting the
health, education, employment and the
economic status of their constituents,
and above all, by strengthening their
ethical and other values of life. There
have Indeed been occasional lapses
from ideals, especially in respect of
nepotism and “casteism", but which
system or way of life is ever perfect ?
And, in any case, what are the alterna-
tives ? As Shri Guru Dutt points ou t :
“In huge modern societies, the crowd’
never breaks up it has no groups to
return to, nothing to introduce sanity
arid order and discipline into its over-
excited mind, worked by propaganda
and advertisement through the giant
mass-media. There is the pheno-
menon of human beings being reduced
to (mere automatons and) robots mano-
euvred by the commissars of totalitarian
regimes.” It is clear that in totalitarian
regimes, the human automatons have to
function within the straitjackets of edicts
issued by high authority, while in our
old-fashioned societies, community life
with its freedom, its creativeness and its
boundless group energy, is capable of
producing the most fruitful results.
A Saraswat cultural revival can be a
movement of great importance not only
to the community itself but to the nation
and perhaps to the rest of the world. In
substance, such a revival will doubtless
be a revival of Aryadharma, which has
been the basis of India’s culture and
spiritual life. From the most ancient
times, e.g., from Vedic times right up to
our own days, Saraswats have played a
most prominent part in our nation’s
affairs, in politics, in administration, in
learning, in diplomacy, in statecraft and
in warfare and military strategy. Cen-
turies ago, there was a collapse of the
Hindu Aryan civilisation after the histori-
cal drought of 12 years, which led to the
initiation of 60,000 Brahmin sages on
the banks of the river Saraswati near
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 5
Kurukshetra, by the Saraswat Muni.
Since then the Aryan civilisation was
spread in many parts of India, where-
ver the Saraswats migrated. They
brought culture, prosperity and political
stability to various regions and helped
to build the nation. Parashuram, the
greatest Saraswat of all, venerated for
ages as an Avatar, was not only a demi-
god, but a leader of men, a great and
powerful warrior, a terror to all evil-
doers, and above all, a constructive
statesman and coloniser.
The revival of Saraswatism in its
essentials, in. our view, is a necessity
today, when we find the country torn by
dissensions, demoralised in various
ways by the elements of corruption
which have crept into public life, and
weakened by internal and external
calamities. We Saraswats have done it
before and there is no reason why we
should not or cannot do It once again.
We feel that at this juncture, it is not
merely the words of the Vedas and
Vedanta, but their spirit, which is the
spirit of Aryadharma, the spirit of yajna, i.e., devotion to the higher ideal of life
and personal sacrifices for the good of
the community and the nation, which
assume great importance. Saraswatism,
born in the heart of Aryavarta, on the
banks of the river Saraswati and in the
vicinity of Kurukshetra, is indeed the
essence of the Hindu way of life, and
for centuries, we Saraswats and our
sister communities, some of whom (e.g.
the other Panchagaudas) evolved out of
our migration, throughout the land that is
India, have been the custodians of all
that is sacred to the people. We must,
therefore, revive those essentials of
Saraswatism — particularly those which
would be in tune with the modern times
and would appear to be necessary for a
social renaissance and the uplift of
moral standards. This means that we
must first do some introspection and re-
form and organise our own community
and then, secondly, spread and propa-
gate the essentials of Saraswatism
throughout India and the rest of the
world. These are two distinct steps, but
there is no doubt in our mind that we
must attend first to the former objective.
We must reiterate here what has al-
ready been said in our documentation,
including the constitution of the AISCO
and the trust deed of the Saraswat
Foundation, viz., that our movement is
cultural and not communal (in the narrow
sense of the term). We might go even
further and say that the movement is
spiritual, because it will cater for the
spirit of the nation. On the other hand,
it will not be religious (in the narrow
sense of the term again), but will strive
to inculcate those high ideals of life
which fired the imagination and permeat-
ed the life of our forefathers, the ancient
Aryans of India. There is a great danger
today of the collapse of our civilisation,
based upon Aryadharma, if the leaders
of our intelligentsia do not awaken to the
need of re-building the Aryan Hindu
culture, which seems to be on the verge
of rapid disintegration and decay, owing
to the onslaughts of debasing alien cul-
tures and mores of life and conflicting
centrifugal social forces in the country
itself. May the Saraswats take the lead
in a new movement which will emphasise
that man does not live by bread alone,
but that there are higher issues and
values of life, which bring great social
and spiritual advantages of welfare and
happiness! Let it not be said by future
historians that we Saraswats failed in
our duty to ourselves, our nation and
the world !
6 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Announcing
THE SARASWAT SANMARG SERIES of tracts and books
He who looks at the marvellous harmony in the anatomy of the universe, as well as his own, is inclined to deflate his ego and devalue his
individual interests. He seeks the path of social harmony, which is indeed the Saraswat Sanmarg.
The cultivation of this way of life is the objective of the All India Saraswat Foundation. Contemplation of the harmony is the object of the Saraswat Sanmarg series of publications.
1. OUR SACRED CREST D. N. Nadkami
An essay on the Crest of the AISCO and the All India Saraswat Foundation, as a Symbol of the Saraswat ethos Rs. 2
2. COMMUNITY AND COMMUNION: The Saraswat Experience
K. GURU DUTT
An illuminating treatise on the nature of Indian communities and their creative role in the national life.
Rs. 5
Published by
THE All INDIA SARASWAT FOUNDATION 4/4I8, Arun Chambers, Tardeo Road,
BOMBAY-34
Editorial Note
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 7
DISCOVERING THE SARASWAT IDENTITY
Consolidation of the Saraswat ethos as a
worthy prototype for the national ethos calls for
a dose study of the cultural elements common to
all the regional groups of Saraswats throughout
the country. The principal elements of the culture
of any society include language, religious beliefs
and practices, food habits, social customs,
domestic habits, attitude to wealth, level and
trend of education, mythology, and knowledge of
history, including the history of the social group
concerned. A study of Saraswat Culture involves
an evaluation of the life of each territorial group,
and then of the community as a whole, in all
these aspects.
Self-awareness of a community, implying con-
sciousness of the common identity and a fair
knowledge of the community‟s history, is thus
essential to the-development of its culture and its
ethos. In the case of the Saraswats, this is a field
in which a great deal of work awaits to be done.
As matters stand, the territorial groups have little
knowledge of one another. Even within a group,
a good deal of ignorance and misconception pre-
vails about its own history and even identity.
Among the Dakshini Saraswats, better known
as Gowd Saraswat Brahmins, there are still those
who believe that the followers of the Chitrapur
Math are a distinct and separate community.
There are others who assume that the G.S.B‟s
consist only of the followers of the four Maths
Kavle, Kashi, Gokam and Chitrapur. The fact is
that there are five G.S.B. Maths, including the
Dabholi Math of the Kudaldeshkar sect; and
there are other sects which acknowledge the
Shankaracharya of Sringeri as their Pontif.
It has been the privilege of Saraswat social-
service institutions like the G.S.B. Temples Trust,
the Saraswat Vidyarthi Sahayyak Mandali and
the Saraswat Brahman Samaj to hold these sects
and sub-sects together and to nurse the Dakshini
Saraswat identity. A study of the regional and
sectarian institutions of Saraswats thus becomes
an essential feature of the search for the Saraswat
ethos.
Taking first things first, “Samyukta Saraswat"
proposes to stimulate an understanding of the
historical background of the present territorial
groups of Saraswats. A beginning is made with
the three articles which follow, relating respective-
ly to the Saraswats of Kashmir, Gujarat and the
Deccan.
These articles, not being intended to be either
comprehensive or conclusive, are excellent open-
ing statements on subjects with plenty of scope
for development. And they all come from persons
with the authority of keen interest, deep study
and mature judgment.
It is hoped that these esteemed contributors‟
interest in the “Samyukta Saraswat” and its
mission will grow, that they will follow up their
presentation of their respective themes, and that
others with similar advantages will also follow
suit.
Attention is invited, meanwhile, to a well
authenticated history of the Saraswats of Kerala
prepared by Shri N. Purushothama Mallaya as a
paper for presentation at the Inaugural Session
of the AISCO, and to a similar paper prepared
by Pt. J. L. K. Jalali on Saraswat Institutions in
Kashmir, both of which are reproduced elsewhere
in this issue.
There has been a difference of opinion among
scholars regarding the precise location of the
original home of the Saraswats, as also the exact
period or periods of their dispersal throughout
the country. Scripture, tradition and legend are
the principal sources of such inferences as may be
reasonably drawn. While these inferences perhaps
lack the definitive quality demanded by history,
they are not by that reason any the less relevant
in a cultural evaluation. Legend and tradition re-
present a spirit and an attitude which have with-
stood the ravages of time.
Patient research in ancient and medieval inscrip-
tions and in classical literature can help to
produce a plausible outline of the cultural course
of each of the present territorial groups, up to the
advent of European influence in India. Material
for research in relation to the subsequent period
is distinctly richer.
Substantial work on the.se lines has been done
already. In regard to Dakshini Saraswats, an
enormous amount of material has been uncovered
and collected notably by Prof. A. K. Priolkar
8 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Grams CUTDIAMOND
and the late Dr. P. S. Pisurlekar, to which Shri
Vinayak Narayan Dhume of Kumbharjuva, Goa,
has recently added his quota. The task of present-
ing a connected story of fact, legend and infer-
ence, with a variety of cultural information,
mainly about Dakshini Saraswats, was first
accomplished by Mathastha Ganesh Rama-
chandra Sharma two decades ago. It has been
recently repeated by the late Shri V N. Kudva.
Much research work remains to be done, how-
ever, mainly on the lines already indicated by the
efforts of Prof. Priolkar and Dr. Pisurlekar.
The rich collection of microfilms of documents,
manuscripts and old books in the Portuguese
archives in Lisbon, gifted by Dr. Pisurlekar
to the Bombay University‟s Centre of Post-
Graduate Study at Panaji, is believed to be a
promising source of authentic strands of Dakshini
Saraswat history.
For the layman, information concerning the
historical background and at least some aspects
of the culture of Dakshini Saraswats is not so
scanty. Handy books on the subject are
(i) “Saraswat Bhooshan” (Marathi) by Pt.
Ganesh Ramchandra Sharma, published by
Popular Book Depot, Bombay; (ii) Shree Shanta-
duiga Tonple Centenary Commemoration
Volume (Marathi), issued by the Shree Shanta-
durga Seva Samiti, Bombay; (iii) “History of the
Dakshinatya Saraswats” (English) by Shri V. N.
Kudva, published by the Samyukta Gowd
Saraswat Brahman Sabha, Madras; and (iv)
“History of the Shree Mangeshi Temple"
(Marathi) by Shri V. N. Dhume, published by
Timaji Kakodkar at Margao, Goa. Information
concerning the Kula-Devatas and Gotras of
Dakshini Saraswats is given in Shri Gajanan
Shastri Gaitonde‟s “Dharma Bodh" (Marathi),
published by Shree Katyayani Publications,
Bombay; while an exquisite pen portrait of the
Chitrapur sect is drawn by Shri K. Guru Dutt in
his illuminating treatise on "Community and
Communion” (English), of which a second edi-
tion is just issued in the Saraswat Sanmarg
Series of the All India Saraswat Foundation. In-
cidentally, the four books last mentioned, which
are recent publications, are reviewed in this issue.
“Samyukta Saraswat” looks forward to readers
coming up with additions to this bibliography,
evaluation of the published material, and similar
information concerning other Saraswat groups
such as those in U.P., West Bengal, Kashmir,
Punjab. Gujarat and Cutch.
WITH BEST COMPLlMENTS FROM
KIRTILAL KALIDAS & CO.,
DIAMOND MERCHANTS & JEWELLERS.
10. DHANJI STREET, BOMBAY 3 BR.
Tel: Office 326070
Resd. 259566
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 9
Saraswat Identity — I
THE SARASWATS OF KASHMIR By
Karma Yogi J. L. K. Jalali,
President, The All State Kashmiri Pandits Conference
The Kashmiri Hindus called Kashmiri
Pandits are the Saraswat Brahmans of
Kashmir. I have before me the Census Re-
port of the Jammu and Kashmir State for
the year 1901, in which the sub-castes of
the Saraswat Brahmans of the State, parti-
cularly Jammu, have been shown as 32, and
the Kashmiri Pandit is one of them. Now
that the Saraswats of India are uniting in
one body, it is very necessary to know
which classes of Saraswats are to be found
in which part of the country, so that one
has a clear idea about the magnitude of their
numbers, their socio-economic status and
stability, their contribution to the deve-
lopment and progress of the country, apart
from their political contribution for the
attainment of the nation's independence as
also for the maintenance of solidarity of this
largest democracy in the world as the grea-
test power in South-east Asia.
Though a minority in Kashmir, the
Kashmiri Pandits are an incalculable asset
and make the State a Saraswat stronghold in
the north of the country. They claim their
descent from the great Sage Kashyapa, who
got the satisaras, the lake of the goddess
Sati (Uma), desiccated and then inhabited
by immigrants from Bharat. In course of
time, the immigrants divided themselves
into six clans (or gotras) headed by the
sfiges Dattatreya, Bharadwaja, Mudhgale,
Pathadeva. Upamanyu and Dhuma, and
with the passage of time got further sub-
divided into 133 gotras through inter-ma-
rriage and intermixture with other Brah-
mans.
Here in Kashmir a curious historical
label of religious hue is to be found among
them; and it would only amuse the reader
to know that when in the beginning of the
fourteenth century under pressure of for-
cible conversion by Sultan Sikandar, the
Iconoclast, the Kashmiri Pandits fled to the
plains of India, and were followed by hordes
of emigres under successive reigns, the
“eleven houses or families'‟ that somehow
managed to remain behind under cover,
and their descendants, came to be known as
. to distinguish them from those
who later returned after Sultan Zainulabidin
announced religious tolerance and freedom
of faith and conscience and remitted a part
tax on Hindus and were called
Bhanamasis” Apparently Bhammasis
would be those who adopted the solar
calendar; but in Kashmir both the Malmasis
and the Bhasnamasis follow the lunosolar
calendar; and this label of so-called
distinction is only in evidence at the time
the intercalary month is scheduled to fall
(every three years), and the adhikamasa is
observed at different intervals by the two.
Its presence is more marked if and when the
intercalary month falls (as this year) in
Magh or Phagan. and the two Shivratri
(Herat) festivals and two New Year‟s Days
fall at intervals of one month.
Saraswat Contribution
The Kashmiri Hindus were the dynastic
rulers of Kashmir, though non-Kashmiris
at times also occupied the throne. But from
the middle of the fourteenth century. Isla-
mic ascendancy coupled with mass prosely-
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 10
tisation reduced the three million Hindu
majority of Kashmir to much less than a
hundred thousand which fell and rose with
every ebb and flow of the political tide.
The converts to Islam, who form the majo-
rity now, are in fact the very Pandits whose
blood flows in their veins; and that is main-
ly responsible for the proverbial secularism
of Kashmir, notwithstanding the fanatic
excesses that have at times accentuated the
socio-economic insecurity of the Hindus. It
is incontrovertible that it is this Pandit who
has made Kashmir what it is now at a great
personal and social sacrifice. For example,
when the Pathan rulers of Kabul out-herod-
ed the former Muslim monarchs and gover-
nors in their tyranny, oppression and ex-
ploitation in Kashmir,' it was the Kashmiri
Pandit, Birbal Dhar, who hostaged his son,
Rajak Dhar, with Maharaja Ranjit Singh,
Lion of the Punjab, and persuaded him to
invade and occupy Kashmir to rid the
Kashmiris of the intolerable excesses of the
foreigners in the first quarter of the nine-
teenth century. After the Dogra occupation
of the Valley as a part of the State of
Jammu and Kashmir, it was the Kashmiri
Pandit who substantially contributed to the
rehabilitation of its depleted economy either
as an officer of the Government or as an
assistant in the office or in the field “settl-
ing” the mountainous frontiers of Ladakh,
Baltistan and Gilgit.
While Kashmir is known as “the Paradise
on Earth” and tourists from all parts of the
globe come and enjoy its scenic beauty, its
trout-fishing and snipe-shooting, the Kash-
miri Pandit has emblazoned its cultural fir-
mament. Despite the vicissitudes of time, he
has given the world a Philosophy of Posi-
tivism (Vishvasya Jivitam Satyam praks-
shaikatmakashcha sah) in contradistinction
to the Vedantin‟s Neti which has even
now attracted scholars and savants, seekers
and searchers from the different parts of the
world to have a taste of the Pierian Spring
of knowledge and spiritual beatitude. The
great Acharyas, Vasugupta, Somananda,
Utpala, Abhinavagupti (and now Rajanaka
Lachmanjoo Swami), the great sages and
saints, Yogini Lalleshwari, Rupa Bhawani,
the powerful Rishi Peer Swami Krishna
Kar, Mahatma Prasadji (Great Bab), the
great scholars, poets and rhetoricians,
Kaiyat, Mammat and Bana, the great Poet-
Historian Kalhana, the linguistic-magician-
author of Kalpadruma, Sahib Kaul, the
beatific Karma Yogi Paramananda and the
devotional poet Krishna Razan are some of
the ever bright luminaries whose effulgence
has flood-lit Kashmir and its people over
the centuries.
The goddess Uma has been the presiding
deity of Kashmir yaiva Uma saiva Kash-
trtira (She who is Uma is herself Kashmira),
and Shakti-worship, notwithstanding the
philosophy of Shaivism, has been the do-
minant underlying substratum on which all
other edifices have been superimposed,
sometimes improvised temporarily, some-
times enduringly. And this is still extant in
one form or another, as the several god-
desses like Sharika, Rajna, Jwala, Tripura.
Durga, Chandi, Sheetala, Kali, Hari and
others, who are worshipped by the Kash-
miris, stand as guardian angels spread out
in the Valley of Kashmir. Unfortunately the
goddess Sharada, the embodiment of wis-
dom and learning who guarded the nor-
thern frontier of the Valley, has now been
cease-fired ‟ along with the Sharadi fort
out into the so-called Azad Kashmir under
the illegal control of Pakistan. Sharada is
still with us all the same and represents our
traditional culture.
To Remember and Respect
In the politico-administrative field, in the
line of monarchical rulers, there have been
kings and queens and among them Emperor
Lalitaditya stands out as the flaming orb of
Kashmir s greatness, economic prosperity,
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 11
industrial growth, trade expansion, foreign-
state domination and suzerainty over feuda-
tories and colonial settlements. With China,
Iran, etc., he had established diplomatic
relations and his grandson, Javapida Vina-
yaditya, extended Kashmir‟s sway over the'
Gauda (Bengal) kings. Ranaditya, Pravar-
sena, Avantivarman, Shankarvarman, Meg-
havahana, Harsha, Yashaskara, Yasho-vati,
Sugandha, Didda, Kotarani and others are
some of the kings and queens whose ex-
ploits will in due course be recorded in the
pages of this journal with a view to acquain-
ting the reader with what contribution they
(and their professional experts) have made
in the building up of Kashmir and its past
in the context of Mother India. In the
Kashmir of today, no more do we find kings
and queens; but nonetheless there are minis-
ters, administrative heads, business mag-
nates, leaders of note, great scholars and
others whose social, political, economic and
cultural contribution to the State and society
cannot go unnoticed. During the pre-popular
regimes there have been great personalities
like Chaudhri Mahesh, Nand Ram, Birbai
Dhar, Tilak Munshi, and Nila Kaul Jalali
(better known as Nilanag after Maharaja
Ranbirsingh invested him with this title),
while the last of the Dogra rulers, Maharaja
Harisingh, elevated Ramchandra Kak to the
Prime Ministership of the State of Jammu
and Kashmir. In the popular regime now
there have been many important Kashmiris,
of whom the name of the author‟s cousin,
Shri Durga Prashad Dhar, ex-Minister of
Kashmir and now Chairman of the Policy
Planning Committee of the External Affairs
Ministry of the Government of India, de-
serves to be mentioned. The names of some
of the past stalwarts and pillars of the
Kashmiri community, such as Pandit
Motilal Nehru, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru,
Kailashnath Katju and others are too well-
known to need special mention. Moreover,
the jewel of India, Jawaharlal Nehru —
whose memory we treasure—and his illu-
strious daughter, Indira Priyadarshini, have
been the crowning glory of Kashmir and of
India.
Saraswat Identity — 2
LEADERSHIP IN KUTCH AND GUJARAT By
Dr. Janardan Pandya, M.A., Ph.D.
The origin of Saraswat Brahmins is
traced in Puranas, Mahabharata and in the
Rigved Bhasya of Sayanacharya. Mahama-
hopadhyaya Pandit Shri Dayaram Khatau
Sharma has given in his book “Raghuvanshi
Ratnakar or Adarsha Itihas” varied opi-
nions about the origin of Saraswat Brahmins
in ancient stories of Puranas and as stated
in Rigved Bhasya of Sayanacharya. Sayana-
charya in his book “Rigved Bhasya” has
stated as follows “In the assembly of
Brahma, Durvasa Rishi, while reciting the
Vedas, had mis-spelt some words and for
this mistake Devi Saraswati liad ridiculed
him. Durvasa Rishi had shown his anger by
saying that she had inherited human nature
and she would have to take birth in the
liuman world. Hearing this. Saraswati Devi
became grieved (vexed) and asked to be
pardoned by Durvasa Rishi. Durvasa showed
mercy to her and said that Dadhichi the son
of Charan Rishi. would accept her as his
wife and she would give birth to a son who
would be known as Saraswat Rishi and then
12 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
she would be free from human bondage and
her son, Saraswat Rishi. would establish the
Saraswat Brahmin race.”
Sanswat Brahmins resided on the bank
of the Saraswati in Punjab and were wor-
shipping Goddess Saraswati. They were
originally known as sons of Devi Saraswati
and Punjab at that time was known as
Saraswat Desh. During a drought in the
Punjab. Saraswat Rishi worshipped Sha-
kambhari Devi and saved her by restarting
the learning of the Vedas,
The Saraswat Brahmins migrated from
Punjab to Kunikshetra, Matsya, Panchal
and Kanyakubja. They established them-
selves in places north of the Vindhyachal
and they were known as Kanyakubjas,
Gauds. Uthals and Maithilis. Those who
resided in the places south of the Vindhya-
chal mountain are known as Andhraites,
Dravidians, Karnatakis, Maharashtrians and
Gurjars.
The history of Saraswat Brahmins was
traceable up to the Rajput era. Brahmins
have contributed much to the prosperity of
that era. The Afghans and the Iranians
envied the rise and prosperity of the Rajputs
and they invaded various places from Punjab
to Kashmir. During this period, Maharaja
Ramsaran Dev was ruling over Punjab and
Kashmir. In the fifth century. Ramasaran
Dev lost the battle in Punjab to the Afghans
and the Iranians and the Saraswats escorted
Rajput families safely to the area of Sindh.
The Saraswats were more numerous than
the Rajputs and they actually managed the
affairs of the State.
In Sindh the kingdom of the Rajputs was
divided into two parts, Sumra and Samavam-
sha. The Lohanas established themselves in
the kingdom of the Sumras and Saraswats
did so in the Soma kingdom of Nagarsamai-
ya. Due to conflicts between the Sumras
and Lohanas, Chachdev captured the nor-
them part of Sindh and the Saraswat
Brahmins ruled over Sindh for 75 years. From Sindh to Kutch
The Turks captured from Chachdev the Somavams kingdom of Sindh. One of Somavams came down to Kutch and with them came the Lohanas and One batch came and established itself in Kathiawad and another in Kutch.
Somavamsi Modh and Manai power from Solanki and Chawda in Kutch.
The Turks gave regional management to
the remaining Saraswats and Lohanas In
Sindh, the Lohanas were managing the local
Government till the defeat of Mir Rustom
in Samvat 1819 by the British. In Kutch
also, the Lohanas were managing the local
affairs till the Somavamsi reign of Shri
Lakhpatji of Jedeja.
The Saraswats helped Jamshri Kud Ghar-
ji to capture power in Kutch and he in
return gave them the position of purohits of
Somavamsa and till today the Saraswats are
the purohits of Kutch Jadeja.
In the seventeenth century, Rakhenagar
captured the power from the Jadejas and
established permanent rule in Kutch. He
captured Kutch with the help of the Suba
and Kalo Joshi were Dewans of the Nawab
of Ahmedabad and at that time Morvi was
given to him by the Saraswats. Rudho Joshi
at Morvi. They gave Morvi to the Hindu
kings to stop cow slaughter and harassment
from the Nawab. Rav Shri Khengarji called
brave Saraswats to Kutch and gave
Bambhadai to Kalo Joshi and Bayad to
Rudho Joshi. The Saraswats were classed
as brave and self-respecting persons. Their
services were utilised by Deshalji to have
a temple like that of Dwarkadheesh, and a
temple of Trivikramaraiji was built at
Narayansarovar.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 13
In Samvat 1900 the Saraswats were in
service as Talatis and in the revenue depart-
ments. They not only enlightened the histo-
rical place of Narayansarovar but also gave
to the region poets, literary men, pleaders
and musicians as well as advisers.
The Saraswats, 700 in number,
fought with the Sindh Army of
Godeji and gave their lives for the
preservation of Kutch; and this his-
toric event was known to every vil-
lager, and even today a monument
(Pado) to Mulji Lakhani, the leader
of brave Saraswats, stands as evi-
dence to that glorious Sacrifice at
the mouth of Jhara-Dungapur,
Kutch.
After 1819 the Saraswats and other sects
became subordinates and some of them were
serving in the kingdoms of Kutch rulers and
others became farmers and purohits.
Bombay Settlement
When the Kutch people came to know that
Bombay harbour in the south was expand-
ing, the Banias, Bhatias and Lohanas went
to Bombay and started business in cotton
and grains. Parties of Boda .Toshi and Valii
Narsi who were the chief business commu-
nities of Bombay came from Kutch, Anjar
and Sandhan.
The Saraswats started their career in the
field of learning and went to Dwarka,
Bombay and Kashi and acquired high
degree and proficiency in knowledge of
Sanskrit and other languages. In Ayurved,
Rasayan Sastra, Astrology, Yajna, etc., the
Saraswats have predominated. Pandit
Pitambarji is known to many for his noble
and pious life. Some of the Saraswats
migrated and others perferred to serve in
Kutch.
From this historical reference one can
easily understand that Saraswats have been
heroes and selfless people. They looked not-
to their own interest but to that of the pro-
vince as a whole.
In independent India the Saraswats have produced learned people, scholars, litera- teures, poets, scientists, businessmen and judges.
In the beginning of the 20th century the
Shri Kutch Deshiya Saraswati Brahman
Mahasthan was formed and educational and
social activities were started, and buildings
have been purchased by it in De Souza
Street at Vadgadi in Bombay. For free
Sanskrit education a Pathshala has been
established in that building and the Trust
of the Mahasthan has also been formed and
the Bal Gangadhar Tilak Pustakalaya from
the Madhavji Tulsidas Joshi Trust was
started for students.
In Kutch-Anjar, a Saraswat Brahmin
Boarding House has been established from
donations from Sheth Kanji Jadavji.
The Saraswats of Kutch have started also
their social, educational and religious activi-
ties at Mulund and they have constructed
their own building known as Saraswati Wadi.
It has been said that Saraswat Brahmins
have rendered social, political, religious and
educational services to the people and the
States from the Vedic age till the Peshwa
rule.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 14
Saraswat Identity — 3
THE SETTLEMENTS OF THE DECCAN By
Shri K. K. Pai and Shri M. P. Pai
It is generally agreed that Saraswats in-
liatnted Aryavartha also known as Brahma-
vartha, a piece of fertile land bounded in
the north by river Drisadvati and in the
south by river Saraswati. It is believed that
they migrated from Central Asia and it is
very likely that they came from the Polar
region when that part of the land became
unihabitable due to climatic changes. Geo-
logists are of the opinion that 10,000 years
ago, the Polar region had an equable climate
and an eternal spring was in existence there
for thousands of years.
River Saraswati
No trace of this river is to be found any-
where in India though it is recorded that the
river had its source at Plaksha Prasravana
in the Himalayas and then flowing through
Kurukhetra and the present Rajasthan region
it joined the Arabian Sea near Dwarka.
There is no such river answering this descrip-
tion, not even the bed of this river is to be
seen in the course described. However, it
is likely that the migrating Aryans must have
named several rivers on their route as
Saraswati. This name seems to have cap-
tured their imagination. Achaenenian
Emperor Darius 521-481 B.C. — in his
inscription refers to river Haraquati (Sans.
Saraswati‟) and also to river Harayu
(Sans. „Sarayu‟) in Western Afghanistan.
Haraquati is presently known as Argand-
Ab
In Rigveda there is a reference to
Saraswati, and one gets an impression that
this is a celestial river or possibly an eflul-
gent glow of light at the horizon which
battled with the fearful darkness in the Polar
region.
The sloka in Rigveda is as follows
“Utsaya Nah Saraswati Ghora Hiranya-
vartani Vratagni Vasti Sustutim 6-61-7”
It is also possible that a clan of Aryans
who performed the Saraswat Yajna and
worshipped Saraswati Devi might have
been called Saraswats, This was a Yajna of
migration and the performance of which
brought them to Bharatadesha through the
northwest frontier. The details of the Yajna
are to be found in various scriptures.
Ancestors :
Mythologically Saraswat Muni, son of
Dadhichi, has been referred to as the
Ancestor of all the Saraswats. 'The legend
tells us that these Saraswats lived in
Aryavarta happily pursuing their Vedic
studies but were unfortunately overtaken by
a severe famine and all the Saraswats
migrated from Aryavartha. Saraswati Devi
seems to have asked Saraswat Muni to stay
on the banks of the Saraswati river and
sustain life by eating fish, and when the
famine disappeared to give back the Vedas
to the survivors of the clan.
Historians agree that Bhargawa Rama
(Parashurama) son of Jamadagni and
Renuka was a Saraswat. He seems to have
waged twentyone wars to exterminate the
wicked Kshatriya kings and having given
away the land to Brahmins he left northern
India and migrated to the south. It is possi-
ble that he took the sea route from one of
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 15
the ports from Saurashtra and landed in
South India in the present Goa, It is interest-
ing to note that an island near Goa was
named by him as Revati Dweepa and a hill
as Gomantaka and another place as
Kushasthali in Goa. All these names are
also existing in Saurashtra. There are
several references to various Saraswat
Brahmins coming down south from northern
India and settling in various places starting
temples and seats of learning and it is they
who brought the vaidik form of worship to
South India. Suttanipata of Budhist canon
makes mention of a Vedic scholar, Bavari,
living in Asmaka country in Dakshinapatha.
It is stated that a number of his disciples
travelled north to meet Lord Buddha who
had by then become very famous by his
teachings. The great Apasthambha, who
lived on the banks of the Godavari in 400
B.C. and has been credited with having
written Shrauta Grahya and Dharmasutra,
was also living in South India. There is
reason to believe that these two intellectual
giants were Saraswats.
Ashoka had his edicts in South India
carved in the Brahmi lipi. If the people in
the locality were unable to read this script
he would have certainly got them written up
in the local language. This again goes to
show that the people who could read this
script were already existing in South India
posterior to Ashoka.
Outside India, in the lands adjoining to
our country, Saraswats lived in Parad,
Phallava, Sumer, Asura, Kamboja etc, and
were all following the Vedic Dharma. Their
language was very near to Sanskrit and there
was a close intercourse between the people
of our country and those people. There is
plenty of evidence to show that the king
who ruled Mecca (in those days Mukthe-
swara) was a Saraswat king and the Shiva
temple was in existence till the temple was
converted into a mosque by the followers
of Islam. This is a significant fact as time
and again people have come from middle
east and settled down in South India by sea
route whenever they found persecution there
was unbearable. One such example is the
arrival of Navayats of Bhatkal who came in
large numbers and settled down and it is
interesting to note that their language is akin
to Konkani though it differs in many ways
from the actual Kankani spoken in the
region of Bhatkal. Chitpavan Brahmins
must have also belonged to the Saraswat clan
as evidenced by their high learning and they
are also following the Vedic Dharma and
they too migrated in the distant past to South
India as they were unable to stand the per-
secution in the middle eastern countries.
Plenty of evidence has been collected by
research scholars in history to show that the
Pallava kadamba and Ganga rulers of
south India were .Saraswats It is possible
that the apabramsha of word „Ganga‟ became
Konga, from which the name Konkan must
have been derived for the coastal strip of our
country extending from Thana to Trivan-
drun
The Guru of Sri Adi Shankaracharya,
Govinda Bhagawat Padacharya and his
Guru Srimad Gowda Padacharya were un-
doubtedly Saraswats. The question whether
Shankaracharya himself was a Saraswat or
not needs a lot of research. Shankaracharja
was a worshipper of Shakti and he installed
the idol of Kamakshidevi in Kanchipura and
composed the beautiful Anandalahari and
soundaryalahari, which makes us believe
that he too must have been a Saraswat.
According to Sri N. Venkatraman. nine of
the gurus who adorned Kanchi Kamakoti
"Peetam in the past were Saraswat. The
famous Mandana Misra who became a disciple of Shankaracharya
Saraswat.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 16
Temple). In
iHere seem to have
Temples dedicated to Brahma, Vishnu and
Maheshwara. out of which two temples are
not in existence at present and the third one
is ouF of Saraswat hands.
Vijayanagara Kingdom &
Role of Saraswats :
It is very interesting to note that Chaunda.
Madhava. a Goan Saraswat who was in the
court of Vijayanagara King has played a
great role in founding and strengthening
the vijayanagara kingdqm. Chaunda
Madhava was a great scholar, administrator
and a man of character and there are several
edicts where the Vijayanagara kings have
extolled his qualities. He was the son of
Chaundabhatta and Machaladevi belonging
to the Angirasa Gotra. Subsequently,
another Goan Saraswat played a great role
in the administration the Vijayanagara
Kingdom and he happened to be the Minister
of Harihara. His name was Veera Vasantha
Madhava. Veera Vasantha‟s son,
Bachanna, ruled over Goa and Tulunad and
in Tulunad we find several edicts in
Bachanna‟s name. The Sri Subramanya
Temple at Kuke Subramanya received land
grants from Bachanna in the year Shaka
1329.
Saraswats in South Kanara :
It is commonly believed that the Saraswats
came to South Kanara District after the
Portuguese conquest of Goa but there is
plenty of evidence to show that they were
in different parts of the District of South
Kanara much before the Portuguese conquest
of Goa. The late Sri Govinda Pai was of
opinion that the famous Sri Madananteshwar
temple was in the hands of Saraswat
Brahmins in the Shaka year 1215. in the
year 1225, Bankideva II made land grants
to one Vamana Shenabhava. This means
Brahmins were in South
Kaimra District posterior to Shaka 13th
century. The people were closely associated
with the ruling dynasties of Tulunad. Alupa
kings of Tulunad were assisted by the
Saraswat brahmins in performing daily
pooja in the various temple Influence of
Saraswat form of worship is to be seen
in many of the temples. It is interesting that
out of three famous ancient Saraswat
temples of South Kanara, one is situated in
Manjeshwar (Sri Madanantheswara temple),
THesewnd in Karangalpady (Shiva temple)
gnd the third in Gollerkeri (Ganapathi
Nireshalva (Hoige Bazaar)
been three Saraswat
Saraswats in Maharashtra :
We know that many Saraswats played a
great role in the Maharashtra kingdom and
names of Pitambar Shenoy, Rama Kamati,
Sabaji Chature and Jivaji Ballal Bakshi are
all great names.
In the limited scope of this paper it is
not possible for us to dilate on this topic.
All that we would say is that one feels
very proud when one looks back to the con-
tribution made by Saraswats spread over the
country particularly in Dakshinapatha in
founding empires, in giving excellent ad-
ministration and popularising the Vaidik
form of worship. They played a great role
in the national life in those days and played
it very well indeed !
We are grateful to Sri Basti Pundahka
Shenoy for permitting us to quote freely
from his beautiful book published in
Kannada “Review of Konkani and Marathi
and Ancient History of Saraswat Brahmins”
W'e have also referred to “History of
Dakshinathya Saraswats” by the late V. N.
Kudva, I.C.S. in writing this paper.
THE SAA«YUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 17
Since the dawn of history, scholarship and
expertise in all arts and sciences have
been a charactenstic of Saraswats, votaries
of Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning.
The imparting of learning has also been a
passion of Saraswat life. Under modern
conditions, this passion has been expressing
itself in the promotion of Schools and
Colleges and the organisation of schoiar-
ship societies to render financial assistance
to needy students. There are a number of
Saraswat scholarship societies, mostly pro-
ducts of local initialive and therefore seg-
mentary in their fields of operation.
The generously motivated article given
below suggests the liberalisation of Saraswat
student assistance under the unitary control
of an All India Saraswat Educational Trust
with a nation-wide network of branch offices.
"Samyukta Saraswat” will welcome the.
views of persons actively engaged in the
conduct of scholarship societies.
SARASWAT YOUTH AND THE AISCO By
Dr. D. V. Kerkar, M.D., D.G.O., Margao, Goa
The All India Saraswat Cultural Organi-
sation has definitely taken a timely and bold
step in trying to bring together Saraswats
from the different Maths in the Deccan as
well as from different parts of India. The
success or failure of such a venture apart
from the initial success would depend upon
how the youth of our community responds
to this new programme.
Saraswats even after a very exhaustive
survey are a comparatively small community.
Gone are the days when Saraswats enjoyed
a privileged position for just being
Saraswats.
Many a young Saraswat of today basking in
the glory of the past achievements of his
community finds himself harassed at every
possible step from college admission to
securing a job „for belonging to an advanc-
ed community‟, and is often frustrated.
Poor economic resources coupled with the
middle class urge “to keep up appearances”
compel many to discontinue their education
and seek a petty white-collar job. The
future of the community will depend upon
how we look after these impressionable
angry Saraswat young men.
In a Welfare State, health and education
are primarily the responsibility of the
Government. In an economically backward
country like ours, it will be expecting too
much of the state to carry out any one of
these responsibilities fully or even adequate-
ly, The small Saraswat community could set
an example and give a lead in making up
for the inadequacy of state action. Health
and education of the community should be
looked after with community funds and
should cease to be individual liabilities.
At the moment 1 shall restrict myself to
education only. City dwellers may not be
fully aware of the problem of economic
backwardness of Saraswats in rural areas.
There are very few parents there who can
afford to give their children the best educa-
tion that the children are capable of. Edu-
cation of even young children is a burden to
quite a few, and there are those who find
education of any kind to be a luxury they
cannot afford. The need for a community
organisation to look after education, there-
fore, becomes imperative. With the availa-
bility of sincere and dedicated workers and
excellent administrative talents in the com-
munity, the proper management of such an
organisation will not be difficult. This is a
modest proposal.
18 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
It is suggested that an AH India Saraswat
Educational Trust be created within the
AISCO, with regional and divisional
branches spread over the country. This
should finance the education of any student
on a mere application and not on the basis
of certified poverty. At present there are a
few organisations which give help to “poor”
students. Given to the cult of keeping up
appearances, a very small percentage of
really deserving or needy students try to get
help from these institutions. The compul-
sion to produce an array of certificates from
different sources to prove the inability of
one‟s parents to look after the education of
their children is, to say the least, insulting
and derogatory to self-respect. This trauma
to the impressionable young people can and
should be spared. Without putting the aspi-
rant in such an embarrassing position, eco-
nomic help for education should be granted
on request alone. The reimbursement of this
help should not be insisted upon. Saraswats,
brought up in an instinctive tendency to al-
truism and honesty, will feel morally bound
to replenish the funds. I personally feel con-
fident that within a short time the resources
of the trust will increase many fold and
those helped by this trust in time of their
need will devote themselves to the progres-
sive betterment of the institution.
While taking care of the needy and the
average, the trust should encourage by
awards and scholarships the excellence in
the youth in any sphere, curricular or extra-
curricular.
All India talent competitions should be
organised every year, predominance being
given to athletics and games. Such competi-
tions held in regions and divisions will have
their logical culmination in an All-India
Meet. Similar activities will draw the
Saraswat youth together, develop iheir
talents and draw them towards the AISCO.
With the spread of education, it is
common to find a high school within a few
miles of any village. University educaUon
however is beyond the reach of many of
those who do not stay within a reasonable
distance from a college or university. The
expenses of lodging and boarding alone are
prohibitive and beyond the means of average
parents. Subsidised youth hostels near as
many educational centres as possible are the
need of the moment. The Saraswat Educa-
tional Trust should make a good beginning
in this direction.
One is justly proud of the many Saraswat
temples ; neat, clean and well maintained;
but 1 am not aware of any that is contribut-
ing substantially towards the education of
the Saraswats. Agrashalas and Dharmashalas
are being built with community funds by
the temple trustees and a lot of money is
spent over these buildings. Will it be possi-
ble to construct these Agrashalas and Dhar-
mashalas so that they can be utilised as
hostels or classrooms during the major part
of the year and thus serve the community
and the nation better ?
I entertain no doubt about the vast re-
sources needed to implement the All India
Saraswat Educational Trust scheme even on
a humble scale. Finances for such a scheme
will necessarily have to be raised from the
community. Swamijis and Saraswat temples
should give a fixed percentage of their
income to the trust. Any event or occasion
worth celebration and commemoration
should remind the members of the Saraswat
community to donate to the funds of
“AISET” Titles like „Guardian of Youth‟,
„Friend of Youth‟, „Guide of Youth‟, should
be awarded to the donors contributing large
sums to the trust. If the “AISET” concept
is accepted in principle, details can always
be worked out by those experienced in the
line. It is truly said, “It is good to give
when asked, but better still when not
asked!”
19 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Yajna in Life and Culture
The crest of the AISCO and the All India Saraswat Founda- tion symbolises the spirit of Saraswatism and indicates the Saras- wat way of life. An essay on the implications of the symbol, written by Shri D. N. Nadkarni, is published as a booklet in the Foundation’s “Saraswat Sanmarg Series” of publications, announced on page 6 of this issue. In view of the vital significance of the subject, a substantial portion of the essay is reproduced below.
OUR SACRED CREST:
(By D, N. Nadkarni)
If the All India Saraswat Cultural Organi-
sation were to do no more than popularising
its crest, it would achieve a great deal more
than reasonable optimism expects of it. The
AISCO crest, designed by the Preparatory
Committee in an evidently inspired moment,
depicts a Yajna or sacrificial fire with the
Pranava Om superimposed and bearing the
motto “May sacrifice be
attained through sacrifice.” A more felicit-
ous emblem could hardly be wished.
The crest has the negative virtue of avoid-
ing dissent as well as the positive virtue of
practical idealism. It epitomises the what
and the why of the AISCO as well as of its
ambitious creation, the All India Saraswat
Foundation.
The bewildering stresses and strains that
the country is passing through, are symptoms
of an inner crisis of faith, of a confusion in
the popular concept of the meaning and
purpose of life. At the root of the political,
economic and social upheavals is a wavering
of the spirit. The situation calls for an
appeal to the true genius of India; and that
genius is found in the inspired utterances
of the seers of the Vedas.
“Back to the Vedas” is a familiar slogan,
used in earnest as well as in derision. It is
a misleading slogan. For, the minds of the
ancient rishis are not only abreast of modern
thought but far ahead of it. It is medieval
thought that is crusted and out of date. A
revival of Vedic wisdom, a re-reading of the
Veda in the modem context, and a scrap-
ing-out of the layers of excrescence that
have
piled up on the popular mind through the
ages: that is the national need at this
moment. That is the core of the AISCO‟s
objectives, for the task may well be claimed
to be a peculiarly Saraswat privilege.
The genesis and pristine character of
Chaturvarnya, the Order of the Four Divi-
sions of Society, as recorded in the
Brihadararryaka Upanishad (I; IV; 11-15),
make it the responsibility of the Brahmanas
to guard the social structure of the nation
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 20
and to step in to correct any imbalances
that may emeige. At the present time, it is
the responsibility of all Brahmanas as a
class, of those, that is, who claim or own up
to the Brahmanical heritage, to think out,
plan and initiate measures, within the limi-
tatioos of their present condition, to set
right the loosened and shaking cultural
structure of Indian society. And, to the
extent that this process involves a modernis-
ed revival of Vedic wisdom, it is possible for
a vigorous Saraswat patriotism to claim pre-
cedence in the responsibility. Whether fact,
fable or legend, the story goes that the
Saraswats saved the Veda through a long
period of devastating famine. Opportunity
beckons to the Saraswats today to accept
that story as an allegory, and to substantiate
the allegory with their actions.
NOTHlNG SECTARIAN HERE
That is the message of the crest of the
All-India Saraswat Cultural Organisation and
of the Saraswat Foundation. A primary
virtue of the design lies in the fact that it
rises above sectarian dogma and, indeed, is
valid for all sects. The divergent theologi-
cal and metaphysical beliefs within the
Saraswat fold itself are reconciled. It is
valid to the Dwaitin as well as to the
Adwaitin, to the Vaishnavite as well as to the
Shaivite. It proclaims a universal ideal and
a universal means of attaining it. Its mes-
sage is not for Saraswats alone, but for the
nation; indeed, for all humanity.
The “Om” in the crest proclaims that
universality. The Pranava is a symbol of
Truth, of the Eternal Verity in existence.
The Gita (VIII-13) calls it “Brahman in a
single syllable” It is capsuled Reality.
The Katha Vpanishad (1-2-15) carries this
vivid description or definition of Om: “The
Goal which all the Vedas repeatedly pro-
claim, which motivates all austerities, in
pursuit of which men practise Brahmacharya,
that Goal I declare to you in brief. It is Om.”
At the mention
of
Om, therefore, the
pettiness in human thought and action
vanishes, and men‟s minds are attuned to
the sublime and the beautiful. The inscrip-
tion of this inspiring symbol in the AISCO
crest is conclusive assurance that the AISCO
is motivated by the quest for national and
universal wellbeing, and not by any paro-
chial ambition of sectarian Saraswat pro-
gress. It is no wonder, therefore, that the
very first major action of the AISCO, taken
within a few weeks of its own formation,
was the creation of the non-sectarian All
India Saraswat Foundation, dedicated to the
service of the nation and of humanity.
SYMBOL OF HARI-HARI
The substance of the crest is the repre-
sentation of Yajna. The theological signi-
ficance of Yajna is not without its interest
to the Saraswat mind.
“Yajna is Vishnu,
Protector of all that
lives, ‟ says the Maitrayani Upanishad. The
Taittiriya Samhita (1-7-4) re-affirms the
statement. Sacrifice is Vishnu or the
Supreme.
Vishnu makes His appearance when the
Yajna is complete. The reign of peace and
plenty is an expression of the Grace of
Vishnu. But the Grace of Vishnu is not
earned until the offering to Rudra is com-
plete.
The sacred flame of Yajna is Rudra. He
is the God of destruction, of the perennial
mutation of all that has name or form. He
is therefore God of evolution as well as of
revolution. The Shiva-Linga we worship
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 21
represents the flame of the sacrifcial fire,
and the base, of the Linga represents the
“Vedi” or “Havana-kunda”. The word
“linga” means „"symbol”. The Shiva-
Linga is a symbol of the sacred fire, or
Yajna.
The theological concept of Yajna is the
unison of Hari and Hara. The philosophi-
cal concept is also the same. The Grace of
Vishnu is nothing less than “happiness un-
touched by sorrow” The oblation to Rudra
is nothing less than all that the sacrificer
has and is. The one is conditional on the
other. In adopting the Yajna symbol for
its crest, the AISCO proclaims the Saraswat
ideology of self-sacrifice for the benefit of
society at large. That is Yajna. That is the
worship of Hari-Hara.
HIE NATURE OF YAJNA
Yajna is the central theme of the Vedic
way of life. The Vedic mantras have a dual
implication: ritual-cum-physical, and psy-
chological-cum-philosophical. And, though
they give the impression of a miscellany,
they converge into a logical, practical and
noble way of life. All references to the
ritual Yajna in the Vedas thus carry, and
are intended to carry, far-reaching psycho-
logical, philosophical and sociological impli-
cations. The ritual yajna is a symbol and
reminder of the philosophical concepts and
psychological disciplines which are the inner
yajna.
The spiritual and ethical significance of
the ritual yajna itself is made plain by the
Chhandogya Upanishad (III-17-4) with the
declaration that “austerity, charity, upright-
ness, nonviolence and truthfulness are the
dakshina" or gifts with which the yajna is
to be completed; in other words, that the
ritual yajna is an occasion for a renewal of
the resolve to pursue these virtues.
The Gita uses the word yajna in the psy-
chological and sociological senses alone. No
ritual is implied. Any doubt on this issue
that may be relevant to the Third Chapter
is dissolved by the Fourth which, in ten lucid
verses (24 to 33), enumerates a variety of
psychological and social disciplines as
yajnas. For example,
“Some others offer their sense organs like
ears as oblation to the fire of discipline.”
No ritual can possibly be meant in references
of this kind.
The Vedas and the Upanishads are replete
with the concept of yajna as the Law of
Life. The Shaiapatha Brahmana (9-4-1 -11)
sums up the concept.
“All sentient beings live on yajna.” Men,
like the gods, being endowed with intelli-
gence, are called upon to adopt yajna, that
is, self-sacrifice, as a deliberate way of life.
The right life is a series of sacrifices. Indeed,
the three ritual sacrifices that the Brahmana
is expected to perform every day are a sym-
bol of the self-sacrifice that every man is
expected to perform during the three stages
of his life. Thus the Chhandogya
Upanishad (3/16/1-7) divides man‟s life
into three spans of yajna. The first 24 years
are “Pratah-Savana”, the morning sacrifice.
The next 44 years are the Mid-day Yajna.
The last 48 years are the third or Evening
Sacrifice. Thus the man who consciously
leads a life of yajna lives 116 years. “Human
life is Yajna.”
Yajna or self-sacrifice is a law of nature,
a law of life, and therefore a primary, in-
escapable Dharma. “Man was created with
Yajna.” declares the Gita (111-10):
Yajna has three aspects: self-restraint, self-
denial, and service of others. „ What is known
22 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
as Yajna is Brahmacharya (or self-restraint)
itself,” announces the Chhandogya Upa-
nishad (8-5-1):
The Gita (IV. 26-32) spells out several
examples of yajna in all three aspects :
sacrifice of the senses in the lire of self-
restraint; sacrifice of wealth in the fire of
self-denial; and the sacrifice of possessions,
including wealth and talent, in the fire of
altruistic service, ending up with the annihi-
lation of the ego in a dedication of life to
humanity.
PERVASIVENESS OF YAJNA
The idealist form of Yajna is the Brahma-
Yajna, performed in the faith that all is in
reality Brahman. Self-sacrifice, according to
the Gita (IV-24). is thus a process of Jnana
or Self-Realisation
“The sacrifice is offered to Brahman, the
oblation is Brahman, it is offered by
Brahman in the fire that is Brahman; thus
he who is fully engrossed in this act (of
sacrifice) which is Brahman, must needs
pass on to Brahman.” To know this, is
Jnana, the “Realisation of the Self”, which
is the aim of all spiritual aspiration and the
goal of all human life.
Self-denial for the universal good is also,
according to the Gita, an expression of
Bhakti. For, all those acts and things
which, in Chapter IV of the Gita, are com-
mended to be performed in the spirit of
sacrifice, are again commended in Chapter
IX to be surrendered to God as an expres-
sion of Bhakti
It is plain, therefore, that the two acts or
processes, of sacrifice and of surrender, are
spiritually identical. Yajna, then, is Bhakti.
The rationale of self-denial as a form of
sacrifice and the rationale of surrender to
God as an expression of Bhakti are the same.
God pervades all. "Brahma havih" as the
Gita puts it : all that you can offer as obla-
tion is itself Brahman. The Isha Upanishad,
in the celebrated aphorism from which it
lakes its name, says the same thing somewhat
differently: „„All this, whatever moves in
this world, is enveloped by God.”
Even as Yajna is a process of Jnana Yoga
and Bhakti Yoga, it is also a process of
Karma Yoga
“This world of men suffers bondage from
all action save that which is done for the
sake of sacrifice; therefore, O Son of Kunti,
perform all action without attachment.”
(Gita, 1II-9). Yajna, thus, is a safety mea-
sure against the chain-reaction of Karma;
which means that it is an instrument of
Karma Yoga or Anasakti Yoga. Note,
incidentally, the implication of the advice to
Arjuna. The implication is that detachment,
as a form of self-denial, is Yajna. And this
is re-affirmed in the next (Chapter (IV-23):
“Of the free soul who has shed all attach-
ment, whose mind is firmly grounded in
knowledge, who acts only for sacrifice, all
Karma is extinguished;” that is, its power of
chain-reaction is destroyed.
Yajna, then, is the ground of all the three
great Paths of Salvation: Jnana Yoga.
Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga. It is the
Dharma which ensures Moksha. Without it,
there is no Moksha. It has to be the first
concern of those concerned with man‟s ulti-
mate destiny. No wonder that Yajna was
the mainstay of life in the Vedic age.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1373 23
THE SOCIOLOGY OF YAJNA
Even so, were the insurance of Moksha
the only claim to be made for Yajna, its
use in the crest of the All India Saraswat
Cultural Organisation would have been a
measure of doubtful propriety. For, the
direct and primary concern of the AISCO
will be rather with the development of Artha
and Kama than with Moksha. The AISCO
will look for ways and means of betterment
of the economic, social and cultural con-
ditions of Saraswats and of their place in the
national life. The Saraswat Foundation will
do the same for a wider public. Their
interest in spiritual advancement will be only
incidental to that search.
Yajna will not let down the AISCO or
the Foundation. The crest is assured of
vindication. For, the sages of the Vedas
and Upanishads had discovered in Yajna a
synthesis of the three compelling and ap-
parently incongruous ambitions natural to
man, Artha and Kama and Moksha, the
urge for physical, emotional and spiritual
fulfilment.
Because yajna or self-sacrifice was the
Vedic way of Life, it was a full life, both
personally and socially. Yajna here is a
process of discipline, detachment and distri-
bution, not of renunciation. It is not basi-
cally the way of Sannyasa, except the
Sannyasa accepted as the fourth and final
“ashrama” or stage of the “shata-kratu",
the man who lives a hundred years in the
spirit of yajna; or of the one who takes to
Sannyasa from a compelling inner urge for
self-expression, the same kind of urge which
brings forth great poets or great musicians.
It is worth digressing here to point out
that the Vedic concept of Sannyasa itself
was not quite the same as that of later ages.
The Vedic Sannyasin was not an anchorite.
Not even the man of God-realisation was
expected to withdraw from the world. He
led a vigorous, active life of usefulness to
mankind. The Mundaka Upanishad which
treats of Sannyasa and, indeed, derives its
name from the Sannyasins' practice of shav-
ing the head, makes this explicit statement;
“Sporting in the Self, delighting in the Self,
a man of action all the same, such a one is
the greatest among the knowers of
Brahman.” (III-1-4)
Great seers of the Upanishads, like
Yajnavalkya, were happily married men
who earned and gave and also saved. The
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (I-IV-3) reports
Yajnavalkya‟s dictum that “the vacant part
of man is completed by the woman;” that
man and wife together make a rounded
personality
Sex was by no means taboo in the Vedic
way of life. The Gita, indeed, gives the
stamp of divine identity to the “procreative
passion: ”
Men are urged to produce wealth, not to
shun it. The Taittireeya Upanishad lays
down the “vrata” or social discipline in this
respect. “Wealth should not be disparaged;
that is social discipline do not
forbear to earn wealth; that is social disci-
pline Step up economic produc-
tivity; gather more wealth; that is social
discipline.” (The word used in the text is
“anna”, literally meaning “food” But the
word “anna” and the relevant words
”pacha” meaning cooking and “ada” mean-
ing eating are employed in Vedic literature
as well as in the Gita in the larger sense of
wealth and its use.)
In the context of worldly pleasures,
yajna consists of obedience to Dharma.
24 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
personal and social. The Gita, again, en-
nobles disciplined enjoyment, “treasures
not
averse to Dharma" are of divine origin;
In the economic context, too, yajna con-
sists of obedience to Dharma, in adopting
the Dharmic attitude to wealth and posses-
sions. It is an attitude of “anasakti” or
detachment, not of indifference or abhor-
rcnce. The first two books of the
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, especially the
celebrated Yajnavalkya-Maitreyi Dialogue,
lay the foundation of the Gandhian theory
of the Trusteeship of Wealth, to which the
Mahatma is believed to have been inspired
by the Isha aphorism, “Find your enjoy-
ment in a spirit of detachment; covet not
what ought to be another‟s”
It is a form of Voluntary Socialism.
Precepts like “Atithi-Devo-Bhava” are
derived from this concept : “Look upon
the needy as God Himself.” This voluntary
socialism of the concept of Yajna is pres-
cribed both on moral and practical grounds.
While the “gathering of wealth” is encour-
aged, hoarding and meanness are denounced:
“The lone eater is the lone sinner” (Rig
Veda X-117-6). He who uses his wealth
for himself alone leads a life of sin. That
is the moral rule of the Veda. The Gita
(III-13) confirms the rule. “Those who
cook for themselves alone, feed on sin.”
On the other hand, “those who enjoy
what remains after the performance of
sacrifice (giving to the needy) are freed from
all sins.” (Gita, III -13). The residue of
sacrifice is called “amrita” or elixir of eter-
nal life. The Marm-Smriti as well as the
Gita uses the word “amrita” in that sense.
Thus, the Gita (IV-31).
“Those who live on amrita, that is, the
residue of sacrifice, attain to eternal
Brahman.”
As wealth must be shared, so too must
knowledge and skill be shared with those
who need them. That is yajna of a high
order. The Manu-Smriti (4-28) calls it
Brahma Yajna :
At the same time, if you are capable of
building up your own knowledge and skills,
it is your duty to do so. Self-improvement is
“Swaadhyaaya Yajna” (Gita, lV-28). Indol-
ence and indifference make a man an
“ayajna”, a wrong kind of man.
Yajna thus functions in the realm of
culture, too. Virtues like humility and non-
violence are yajna, as they involve a process
of self-restraint :
“Yajna is humility.” (Yajur-Veda 13-8).
“Non-violence is Yajna.” (Shatapatha
Brahmana, 1-2-4).
As a life of yajna is commended on ethical
and cultural grounds, it is also commended
on the practical consideration of material
and social advancement. The moral law
offers the best rule of worldly achievement.
Thus, the individual who practises yajna is
better off than the one who does not:
“Those who do not perform yajna (do
not give away in the spirit of yajna) go to
ruin even if they are liberal in their spend-
ing” {R ig Veda 1-33-4)
“People who do not perform yajna are
humbled and repulsed in any competition
with people who do perform yaina.” (Rig
Veda, 1-33-5).
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 27
The Gita has the last word on the subject
(lV-31) ; “This world itself is not for the
non-sacrificer. What hope for him, then, of
a higher world ?”
A nation or a community of people lead-
ing an organised life of sacrifice will “attain
the highest good” (Gita. III-11):
CALL TO CONSCIENCE
What is the sanction, what is the urge,
behind the call to the life of yajna ?
It would be a poor yajna that is perform-
ed in blind obedience to the Veda. For, the
Veda countenances no Commandments,
execept from the Acharya to the initiated
pupil. The Vedas, the Upanishads and the
Gita inform, reveal, exhort and warn; they
do not command. Their truths are announc-
ed to the human intelligence, and it is up to
every man to accept them or to pass them
by. The human will, the most precious of
God‟s creations, is to be exercised, strength-
ened and illumined in freedom; it is not to
be weakened, bent or suppressed by subordi-
nation. The reins of man‟s destiny must be
held by his own free and healthy will.
So it is that the Gayatri Mantra, the most
sacred of all Mantras and the pass-word of
Brahmanism, asks not for the salvation of
the soul but for illumination of the intelli-
gence
“We absorb in our intellect the supreme
light-energy of the god Savitr, that he may
inspire and Stimulate our intelligence.”
The Gita confirms this primacy of the
intelligence. “Mere action, O Dhananjaya,
is far inferior to (action flowing from) the
Yoga of intelligence. (Therefore) take re-
fuge in the intelligence.” (II-49)
Openmindedness, contemplation and equ-
animiiy are cardinal conditions of this
Buddhi Yoga or recourse to the intelligence.
Gita, II -42, 44, 48). Dogmatism, bigotry
and blind obedience are un-Vedic attitudes.
Faith itself must stem from conviction, not
hang on blind belief. Uniquely among the
great religions of the world, Vedic wisdom
proclaims that primacy of the human intelli-
gence and freedom of the human will, from
which the modem ideology of Liberty and
Democracy is derived.
Any possible doubt on this score is set at
rest by Shree Krishna. That is a lesson of
the Gita which merits more attention than
it generally receives. The Divine Song took
shape, not because of Arjuna‟s “vishaada”
or depression, but in response to his insist-
ent appeal for a commandment or directive.
Right at the beginning of the soul-stirring
dialogue, Arjuna beseaches Shree Krishna:
“Tell me for certain wherein lies my good.”
(II-7)
Shree Krishna‟s response is a dissertation
on life and death and honour. That does
not satisfy Arjuna, who repeats his appeal
for a directive which he can blindly obey.
“Tell me decisively the one thing by which
I can attain to the highest good.” (III-2)
And Arjuna does not stop with a mere
appeal. Being aware of the impropriety of
blind belief in matters of the spirit, he
hastens to create that relationship between
Shree Krishna and himself which alone
would make command and obedience legiti-
mate : the Guru-Shishya relationship. “I am
Thy disciple. Direct me. who seek refuge in
Thee.” (II-7)
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 26
The point is that even so, Shree Krishna
hands out neither a directive nor a comm-
sndment. On the other hand, having led his
“beloved friend” Arjuna into “the mystery
of all mysteries” of existence, and having
given him the unprecedented privilege of a
glimpse of Cosmic Reality, the Lord yet calls
upon him to use his own judgment to decide
what is good for him :
“Thus have I explained to you the most
mysterious of all mysterious knowledge.
Ponder over it thoroughly, and then act as
you will.” (XVIII-63).
A genuine inner conviction, not formal
outward conduct, is what matters. Sacrifice
must therefore emanate from a free, healthy
and illumined intelligence. The self-sacrifice
of fools and fanatics is not Yajna. Rabble-
rousing and mass indoctrination are offences
against God who made the human intelli-
gence as man‟s instrument of approach to
the divine.
The inspiration to a life of yajna must
therefore come from a free intelligence, from
a clear understanding of Dharma or the Law
of Life, as a result of “pondering over it
thoroughly.” The Taittireeya Upanishad
makes this clear
“Sacrifice is actuated by a refined under-
standing based on sound knowledge; and so,
too, are duties.” Mahatma Gandhi called it
the “inner voice” The common, and comm-
only ill-used, name for it is Conscience.
The Life of Yajna, then, must derive its
sanction from the conscience of man; and
its driving force, as in all noble endeavour,
from Faith. And the faith, in this case, is
in the divine origin of the conscience itself.
The Yajna in the crest of the Saraswat
Cultural Organisation derives its propriety
from this call to conscience. For, what is
culture but an outward expression of an
inner grace ?
THE BADGE OF THE SARASWAT
Discipline, Detachment and Service are
the three major components of this Yajna.
All other virtues flow from this combination.
Service rendered as Yajna extends to all
living beings, and becomes an act of dedi-
cation, of surrender to God. The nature of
the individual is transformed in the process.
All trace of selfishness vanishes. Life
becomes a continuous yajna. The last linger-
ing weakness is the awareness of the yajna.
That, too, must go. The feeling, the satisfac-
tion, the exaltation of yajna must be con-
signed to the flame. That is the supreme
yajna. That is the culmination and fulfil-
ment of the life of sacrifice. Of men who
accomplish that ultimate Yajna, the Gita
(lV-25) says that “They offer Sacrifice
itself as oblation to the Fire of Brahman.”
What the Gita commends to the individual,
the Rig Veda commends to societies of men.
Accept the concept of sacrificing Sacrifice
itself, and mankind will be transformed into
a race of supermen. That is the law implicit
in creation, and it is set out plainly in the
most popular of all Rig Vedic mantras, the
Purusha Sookta :
“The gods worshipped Yajna with yajna;
and that became the primary Dharma. Those
great souls who perform such Yajna attain
to the realm of the Sadhya gods of yore.”
That is the ideal invoked by the pictorial
part of the crest of the AISCO. The inscrip-
tion set below it places the idealism on the
practical plane.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 27
“May sacrifice be attained through sacri'
fice.” The reference is not to the culmina-
tion of yajna, but to the process of progres-
sive realisation of yajna through constant
effort at self-discipline and self-sacrifice.
The quotation is from the climax of the
Rudraadkyaaya, usually known simply as
“Rudra”, the mantra now employed in the
“abhishek” of the Shiva Linga. The Rudraa-
dhyaasya is part of the Taittireeya Samhita.
It was of course a mantra for a ritual
Yajna, Even now, “Maha Rudra” and
“Ati-Rudra”, consisting of multiple repeti-
tions of the “Rudra”, are occasionally per-
formed with "havana” or the sacred fire.
The “Rudra” is a mantra of invocation and
prayer based on a recognition of the divine
in all existence and in all experience. The
context of the present quotation runs thus
It is a prayer for the “attainment”, that
is, for the perfection, of life, the vital airs,
the sense organs, the mind and the spirit,
through Yajna or self-discipline; and for the
progressive development of the self-discip-
line itself through the practice of self-discip-
line. The refinement and perfection of the
senses, the mind and the vital airs through
the yajna of self-control are also referred to
in the Gita (IV-26, 27, 29).
The prayer in the “Rudra” is for the
clarity of mind to see the path of yajna, and
for the strength of will to adhere to it. It is
also a prayer for “Krama-Mukti”, for
the progressive realisation of man's
mission on earth. “The consummation
of all right endeavour is enlightenment.”
(Gita, IV-33). “Sacrifice is inspired by an
enlightened understanding.” (Tait. Up.,
2-5-1). Therefore, every act of self-sacrifice
adds to the sacrificer‟s enlightenment which,
in turn, inspires further and larger self-
sacrifice. That is “Krama-Mukti”, a progres-
sive course of Mukti. That is also the
process asked for in the prayer to Rudra :
“May sacrifice be attained through sacrifice.”
There is humility in this approach, born
of a recognition of the need for divine inter-
vention for human progress and salvation.
It is not given to mam to reach his destiny
by his own effort alone. The Grace of God
is essential, Grace itself does not come as
a whimsical gift. It comes in response to
prayer.
It is important, here, to appreciate the
nature of prayer. Prayer is not only to be
thought, said and sung. Prayer must be
lived. Mere supplication is not prayer. The
spirit of humility which supplication im-
plies, and the spirit of the objective of the
supplication, must alike permeate the
thought and conduct of the supplicant.
Then alone is the supplication a prayer,
and win ensure divine response. Shree
Krishna has made this clear beyond doubt.
(Gita, IV-11).
“As men approach Me, in that spirit do
I respond.” It is only when heart and mind
are of one accord in guiding a man‟s life
and disciplining his conduct, that supplica-
tion becomes the soul‟s prayer and evokes
a response in kind, the Grace of God. It is
thus that the Shwetashwatara Upanishad
declares that man can realise his destiny
only by a “a combination of the power of
self-discipline and the Grace of God”
The invocation in the “Rudra" is prima-
rily for this power of self-discipline which
is an essential qualification of prayer. As
prayer evokes Grace, and Grace in turn
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 28
inspires prayer, the distinction between the
two tends to fade away. Prayer and Grace
become one. Bhakti which initiated prayer.
Karma which gave prayer its vitality, and
Jnana which is the light of Grace, are then
seen to be not only inseparable but in
reality the same.
For most of us, whose aims and ambi-
tions in life do not reach up to that denoue-
ment, it is enough to regard the "Rudra"
as an invocation to God to kindle and feed
the flame of human conscience. With divine
aid, small conscientious self-denials lead
to major ones, and the Yajna of self-
restraint and self-denial becomes the man's
compulsive prakriti or nature; so that he
works and sweats without sorrow, and is
happy with the "amrita" or remains of his
yajna, freely giving of his time and talent
and earnings for the benefit of humanity.
Such a man has no fear for his position in
society. As said earlier, he is assured of
victory in the competition inevitable in any
social order. (Rig. Veda, 1-33-5). And he
attracts the unqualified assurance given by
the Gita (III.II) to all men of yajna, “you
shall attain the supreme good.”
This law and this goal of human existence
are symbolised in the crest of the All-India
Saraswat Cultural Organisation which, in
turn, -has passed it on to the All India
Saraswat Foundation. The adoption of the
crest implies a commitment to live up to it,
to demonstrate the beneficent power of pra-
yerful sacrifice to give light and strength to
a troubled nation. How far the AISCO and
the Foundation will succeed in this objec-
tive, one does not know. The sponsors, how-
ever, may go ahead in the confidence that
their effort is immune to frustration :
A beginning made in the cause of Dharma
can never come to nought. That is the
assurance of the Gita (II-40). The seed of
sacred intentions is never destroyed. It may
take time to sprout. But some day it will
inevitably grow into a tree that gives shade
and fruit.
The crest, meanwhile, is by itself an
achievement. It embodies a faith which the
Saraswats may well be proud to be known
by. For, as the Gita asserts, the essence of
the human personality is faith; and a man
should therefore be identified by his faith,
rather than by his works. (XVII-3)
What is true of theindividual is also true
of a social group.
May the Saraswats be worthly of being
identified by their Organisation‟s Crest.
May it be given to them, in an ever increas-
ing measure, to continue their tradition of
service of their fellowmen. May it be given
to them, more and more, to feed the Flame of thereby to invoke the Grace of Vishnu to settle on this troubled land
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 29
BOOKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION
A SOURCE BOOK RECLAIMED
SAHYADRIKHANDA edited with Marathi
Translation by Gajananshastri Gaitonde. 1972.
Shree Katyayani Publications, 603, Arun Cham-
bers, Tardeo Road, Bombay 34. Pp. 326. Rs. 25/-.
This learned production by Gajanan-
shastri Gaitonde, based upon prolonged and
thorough research work, deserves to be
warmly applauded. Luckily it coincides with
the Inaugural Function of the All India
Saraswat Cultural Organisation, and we
must also congratulate our enterprising
Vice-President, Shri S. V. Pikale, for hav-
ing lent his support to its publication and
made its appearance possible.
For some obscure reasons, in which inter-
caste jealousies seem to have played some
part, the Sahyadrikhanda portion of the
Skandapurana had been suppressed and
ignored by those who were handling Sanskrit
works. It was an irony of fate or good for-
tune that a Goan Christian scholar, Dr. J.
Gerson Da Cunha, should have been the
first to bring out a scientifically reconstruct-
ed edition, in which the text was drawn
from fourteen MSS from various parts of
India, with the variae lectionis relegated to
the footnotes. Gajananshastri, who acknow-
ledges his debt to Dr. Da Cunha, goes
further and has now given us, a solid piece
of work, after a still wider research all over
India.
Sahyadrikhanda is a source document for the history of the Saraswats who were settl- ed by Parashurama, the seventh incarnation of the Hindu divinity, in the region adjoin- ing the Sahyadri mountain range; and it is also primar ly the life-story of Parashurama himself, and of his illustrious father, Jama- dagni, and mother Renuka. It is a most
thrilling chapter in the history of the Saras- wats who owe so much to Parashurama, especially during the period of migration from their northern homes to southern and western India.
The Marathi translation is beautiful and
impeccable. This is a book which every
Saraswat should possess both for the San-
skrit text and the translation. — B. P. A.
„„A GEM OF A BOOK” COMMUNITY AND COMMUNION by K.
Guru Dutt. Foreword by Shrimat Parijnanashram
Swamiji. 1972. Published by the Author.
Bangalore.
Second Edition Published by The All India
Saraswat Foundation, Arun Chambers,
Tardeo Road, Bombay 34, Price Rs. 5.00
This little book, subtitled “The Saraswat
Experience” is indeed a gem of a book. The
author, Shri K. Guru Dutt, who has had a
distinguished official career and has also de-
votedly served many causes, apart from
being a reputed author of many bocks, has
successfully attacked the problem of caste
and community and given a convincing
answer to the question whether, living with-
in a community and promoting its social and
cultural life, we incur the stigma of “comm-
unalism.” India has had a tradition of
V arnashramadharma, with its inevitable
appendages of castes and sub-castes. — a
tradition which is inherent in the Hindu way
of life and which shows no signs of any
decay of abatement. The question arises
whether this tradition is helpful or harmful
to our social and national life. It is a super-
ficial conclusion that our caste system breeds
30 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
communalism in the country. Indeed, in
India communalism is most rampant in the
sphere of the Hindu-Muslim polarisation
and in the treatment of the Untouchables.
This is what our leaders have in mind when
they condemn communalism, but it would
be illogical to conclude that we could deal
with these major aspects of communalism by
abolishing all castes or communities.
There is so much in this book with which
the reviewer agrees that perhaps it may be
as well to give a few quotations. According
to Mr. Dutt, “the convergence of much
modem thought points to the recognition
of the role of small vital human groups as
the only bridge between the two extremes”
of authoritarian collectivism and extreme
individualism. “The disintegration of the
small community in a mass-production
society is confronting the modern West with
its gravest problem that of finding a sub-
stitute.” “There is the phenomenon of
human beings being reduced to the role of
robots manoeuvred by the comm-
issars of totalitarian regimes.” “Community,
communication and culture form a closely
interlinked constellation of ideas, which
provide the key to the understanding of
human behaviour at all levels.”
In Chapter II, Mr. Dutt examines the
divergent views of Mahatma Gandhi and
Pandit Nehru about Vamashram and rightly
comes to the conclusion that Nehru‟s ideo-
logy is “seeking to establish a stranglehold
on our social and cultural life, under the
guise of a “socialistic pattern of society”
On the other hand, Gandhiji‟s attitude to-
wards Vamashram that it “defines man‟s
mission on this earth” and that it was
necessary to weed out untouchability rather
than destroy caste altogether, wins his
approval. He further endorses the Gandhian
approach to caste by saying : “I am ventur-
ing to suggest that the principle of „comm-
unity‟ is diametrically opposed to that of
„communalism‟ (casteism) which consists
in the exjrfoitation of caste sentiment ex-
clusively for economic and political ends."
The author proceeds to discuss the con-
cept of Dharma and gives us a learned
analysis of the Hindu Aryan way of life. The
argument here is so condensed and thought-
provoking that considerations of space alone
prevent us from quoting more from the
book. In the last Chapter on “The Saraswat
Outlook”, Mr. Dutt illustrates his views by
reference to the Bhanap institutions of
the Chitrapur Saraswats and their way of
life and conclusively proves that community
life can be culturally and socially beneficent
and helpful to national welfare and growth.
The Foreword by His Holiness Swami
Paraijnanashram quite rightly concludes
that the book “is a great revival of our
ancient sentiments to suit modern condi-
tions”. — B.P.A.
DAKSHINATYA SARASWATS HISTORY OF THE DAKSHINATYA SARAS-
WATS. By the late Shri V. N. Kudva, ICS.
Samyukta Gowda Saraswata Sabha, Madras.
Pp. viii + 367. Rs, 30/-,
This brilliant book written by the late Shri
V. N, Kudva, CIE, ICS and published post-
humously, nearly a decade after its produc-
tion, by the Samyukta Gowda Saraswata
Sabha of Madras, must rank as one of the
finest works on the subject of the history of
the Saraswats. It is an authentic, scholarly
and throughgoing piece of research and fills
a distinct gap in the English literarure on
the subject, comparable only to the well-
known Marathi work, Saraswat Bhushan,
written by Shri Ganesh Ramchandra Sharma,
some years ago. Although it mainly relates
to the history of the Dakshinatya (Southern)
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 31
Saraswats, however, there are some chapters
of general interest, e.g.. Chapter I on the
“Original Home of the Saraswats” and
Chapter XXI on “The Saraswats of the
North.” Moreover, every part of the book
evinces a deep study of the historical and
archaeological data as well as a balanced
view of the religious and cultural activities
of the Southern Saraswats since they left
their ancient home on the banks of the
Saraswati.
In Chapter I, relating to the original
home of the Saraswats, the author contents
himself with quoting various authorities, but
the selection of the sources of information is
skilful and the conclusions quite plausible.
He approvingly quotes Pandit Govind
Narayan Mishra that the Saraswats migrat-
ed from the Punjab to Kanyakubja, to
Gauda (or the Gangetic valley), to Mithila
and to Utkal — so that the Brahmins of
the latter regions, the so called Panchagaudas,
were none else but Saraswats themselves in
their origin. The routes of Saraswat migra-
tion to these and other parts of India and
the later settlements are succinctly analysed.
Chapters II, III and IV deal with Konkan
and Goa, the dynasties which ruled over
Goa, the Portuguese conquest and the per-
secutions and the subsequent exodus of the
Saraswats from Goa. The story of the
religious persecution of the Hindus, the de-
molition of hundreds of their temples and
the destruction of the sacred Konkani litera-
ture is very well told in these chapters and in
Annexure I. Shri Kudva states (p. 342)
“In 1560, all the Brahmans were expelled
from the Portuguese territories. They were
given a month‟s time to sell their movable
and immovable properties to the Christians
and it was ordered that persons who continu-
ed to stay were liable to be punished with
life-long slavery.” Evidently, even Idi Amin
could not have learnt much from the Portu-
guese in this matter!
Part II of the book, comprising Chapters
V to IX, is mainly historical and covers the
history of the Saraswats in North Konkan,
in Maharashtra and in Belgaum, Dharwar
and Tanjore; in Kanara and Karnatak
including the Keladi Kingdom, and in-
Kerala. It shows what a prominent and dis-
tinguished part the Saraswats played in the
politics, administration and commerce of
these regions throughout the pre-British
period. This is followed by Part III with
instructive and most interesting chapters on
the religion and faith of the Saraswats, their
Kuladevatas and tutelary gods, sub-divisions,
surnames, religious Maths and temples. In
Part IV, there is a scholarly chapter on the
Konkani language. The main conclusion
that emerges is that “Konkani is a sister
and an elder sister of Marathi” (p. 220).
The final Chapter XXI, on the Northern
Saraswats, sheds considerable light on an
obscure subject. Four Appendices and three
Annextures on various interesting topics add
to the value and authority of the book.
Altogether, this work is the best single
contribution in English we have come across
on the history, religion and culture of the
southern Saraswats and deserves to be read
by all Saraswats interested in the comm-
unity‟s glorious past.
B.P.A.
Marathi
SACRED HISTORY
SHREE MANGESH DEVASTHAN—SAMAGRA
ITIHAAS, by Vinayak Narayan Shenvi Dhume;
published by Timaji Shenvi Kakodkar, Margao,
Goa; 192 pages, plus 14 pages of art plate;
price Rs. 8.00
The concept of Kula Devata or Deity of
the Clan is a unique feature of the life of
Dakshini Saraswats, more commonly known
as Gowd Saraswat Brahmins or G.S.B‟s.
32 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
There are some two-score Kula Devata
temples, most of them in Goa and a few in
Goa‟s neighbourhood, and the entire G.S.B.
population is shared between them, each
family owing allegiance to one of them. The
allegiance is traditional and unalterable. The
families and individuals thus attached to
each temple are known as the kulavis of that
temple and of the Kida Devata. Although
they are public temples for all purposes,
their management is generally in the hands of
the kulavis.
Anatomy of Faith
The Kida Devata system cuts across the
deistic and metaphysical difference within
the G.S.B. fold. Nagesh. Ramnath, Raval-
nath, Katyayani. are Shaiva deities claiming
Madhvan Vaishnav G.S.Bs. as their
kulavis. Many Advaitin Shaiva G.S.Bs., on
the other hand, have a Vaishnav deity like
Mahalakshmi or Mahalasa for their Palavi
or auxiliary Kida Devata.
Faith in the Kula Devata is not quite
the same thing as spiritual faith in God.
There is an easy familiarity in the relation-
ship which makes it possible to describe the
Kula Devta as an onmipotent and omni-
scient grandfather or grandmother. In joy,
in danger and in grief, the mind turns to the
Kula Devata. The most trivial of domestic
problems and life‟s most momentous ones are
alike referred for solution. And the kulavi
goes about life with the warm confidence
that he is under a benign and special pro-
tection.
Every Kula Devata temple has its own
technique of Kowl or prasad, that is, a
method of consulting the Deity. Employ-
ment and business deals, the son‟s education
and the daughter‟s dowry, personal health
and domestic peace — all problems that the
householder is heir to, are brought up for
guidance and aid. And the guidance, often
contrary to the dictates of obvious evidence,
invariably turns out to have been right and
beneficient Neither does the
always wait to be appealed to. Thwe are
those who gratefully acknowledge having
been warned of danger or of error, or having
been guided to the cure of an unyielding
malady, by messages conveyed m
even by more tangible methods. This
reviewer gratefully records that he has been
a beneficiary of this phenomenon of unmerit-
ed compassion. He also contritely confesses
that he is even now paying the penalty for
his foolish failure to abide by the prasad
advice on an important question.
The whole point about the Kulavi-Kula
Devata relationship is that this guidance and
these intercessions are not regarded as
miracles. They evoke gratitude and piety
and humility, but not amazement, because the
Kulavi expects them of his Kula Devata.
They are his privilege by virtue of his being
born a Kulavi, even as it is his natural duty
to worship his Kula Devata. A G.S.B.
home without a picture of the Kula Devata
is an exception, and even anglicised young
couples, when they set up their homes, find
an odd corner for such a picture.
Story of a Culture
It is curious, in these circumstances, that
there is very little literature on the histories
and the glories of these temples. Or, perhaps,
it is not so curious, after all. For, to the
G. S.B., the Kula Devata is not only a
living Presence; it is a perennial Presence.
History implies acceptance of the conditions
of time in relation to the past and, by
implication, to the future; which is some-
thing from which the pious mind instinctive-
ly recoils. As for the glories, one knows
them in one‟s life; so, what is there to learn?
And yet, if knowledge of the history of
one‟s own society is an essential ingredient
of culture, definitive histories of the Kula
Devata temples are an elementary responsi-
bility of those interested in Saraswat culture
and its promotion. All G.S.Bs. have there-
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 33
fore reason to be grateful to Shri Dhume
for having set an example with this History
of the Mangeshi temple.
It is not irrelevant to observe that Shri
Dhume is neither a writer nor a researcher
by profession or by vocation. He is a pious
man who lives a few miles away from the
Mangeshi temple and is seen in the palan-
quin procession at the temple every Monday
night almost without exception. He has also
served a few years as an office-bearer in the
Managing Committee of the temple. The
inspiration of piety alone accounts for the
arduous researches that have yeilded the
wealth of material he has collected, and the
order and lucidity with which it is presented.
Fully Informative
The outstanding feature of this book is
that it vindicates the pretentious-sounding
claim in its title, that it is a “complete
history” of the Mangeshi temple. Folklore
and legend, the Sahyadri Khand and the
Mangireesh Mahatmya, the results of re-
searches of Prof. Priyolkar and Dr. Pisur-
iekar, have been duly utilised. The author,
however, has relied substantially on the re-
searches he has himself made. He has done
the most obvious thing in examining the
temple‟s own records, with some illuminat-
ing results. He has gone through such re-
levant official records as the Portuguese left
behind them on the Liberation of Goa. He
has also had access to the reports and books
written by Jesuit Missionaries of the Six-
teenth century, on their proud achievements
in destroying Hindu temples in Goa and
converting the local heathens to “the true
path”, and to the corresponding reports of
the Portuguese civil and military authorities
which backed the Jesuit zeal.
A comprehensive story of the Mangeshi
temple has emerged from this material, and
it has been told simply and concisely. And
to that story, the author has been able to
add a great deal of other information. We
are told, for instance, not only where the
Mangeshi temple precisely was before the
Unga was shifted to escape the Jesuit attack,
but what farm lands it owned. We now know'
not only the year when the present temple
was constructed, but also the date of the
building contract, the amount of the contract
and the contractor's name. We have a full
list of the temple‟s present properties, of the
Poojas and festivals, of the temple‟s re-
tainers and their functions. The regulations
governing the temple management, includ-
ing elections to the Managing Committee,
are included. For the first time in print is
given the full technique of obtaining the
Deity‟s protection and guidance by the
process of prasad.
For the Pious
The book would be more than worth its
price only for the excellently reproduced
photographs of the Unga of Shree Mangesh,
of the various kavachas used, and of the
Upa-Devatas in the temple.
Kulavis of Mangeshi will do well to read
this book with reverent care. It will repay
others, too, to read it. For the author and
the publisher, it has been obviously a labour
of love. For, the production values including
the art plates and the five-colour jacket,
offered for Rs. 8 less trade commission, can
leave no margin of profit to the publisher
and therefore no scope for monetary re-
ward to the author. But both will earn the
gratitude of their fellow Saraswats and,
doubtless, the Grace of Shree Mangesh. — D. N. N.
Marathi
EVERYMAN‟S GUIDE TO
BRAHMANISM DHARMA-BODH, by Vyakaranacharya Gajanan-
shastri Gaitonde: published by Shree Katyayani
Publications, 603 Arun Chambers, Tardeo Road,
Bombay 34; 92 pages; price Rs. 4.00.
Whatever be the sins that history may
attribute to the Brahmins, there is no gain-
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 34
saying that Brahmanism is not merely the
corner-stone but the very foundation of
Indian culture. Therefore, if this Secular
State of ours does mean to become a class-
less state as well as a casteless state, the
wiser course would be to extend and univer-
salise Brahmanism than to eliminate the
Brahmins.
The inspiration for such a course of
national orientation can be best provided by
the Brahmins themselves. And, if the
Brahmins mean to provide that inspiration
and leadership, they can do no better than
to submit themselves to a course of intros-
pection and re-education.
This course of introspection and self-
education is necessary even without the
noble ambition of national orientation. It is
needed for the self-preservation of Brahmins
as a social and nationally useful commu-
nity. For, the struggle for economic survival
and security has bred a neglect of religion
and an indifference to rites and rituals
which are exercises in the transformation of
religious beliefs into the believer‟s way of
life.
The time has come for Brahmins to lake
a fresh look at their religious beliefs and
practices, and to make a conscious effort
at integrating them in their normal life. In
this, .the small and amazingly well-organised
Chitrapur Saraswat community has set a
convincing example. In a planned and pro-
gressive promotion of religious practices
over the last forty years, with the Chitrapur
Math as the centre of veneration as well as
of inspiration, the Chitrapur Saraswats have
demonstrated not only that the active pur-
suit of religion is not incompatible with
modernism but that it actually enriches
culture and social life and even clears the
path to real economic well-being.
A Simple Guide
In this context. Shri Gajananshastri
Gaitonde and his Publishers have rendered
a signal service, not only to Brahmins but to
Hindus generally. Dharma-Bodh is design-
ed to encourage the believing Brahmin to
become a practising Brahmin. The essen-
tials of Brahmanical beliefs are here enume-
rated and explained; and so are the essen-
tials of Brahmanical practices. Theism, the
concept of Karma and transmigration of
the soul, the significance of the Gayatri
and of Sandhya-Vandan, the rationale of
idol worship and the place of Ganapati in
the Pantheon, the samskaras or ritual dedi-
cations at the various significant stages of
life, the Brahmanical habit of humility and
perpetual self-education through observa-
tion of nature; all these are explained with
remarkable brevity, lucidity, cogency and
simplicity which make the book both easy
and interesting. The techniques of essen-
tial rituals and the text of the mantras
essential in them are also given with a
sense of selectivity which obviates the
objection that modern life leaves no time
tor religious performances.
Books on the subjects treated in
“Dharma-Bodh” are by no means lacking,
in Marathi at any rate. There are learned
treatises, with full text and translation, on
the samskaras, on pooja, on Sandhya Van-
dan. But they are generally too complete,
too literal, and therefore too abstruse to be
of practical use to the busy layman. And
even among such books there is hardly any
that holds within its covers the whole range
of subjects that Shri Gajananshastri has
managed to combine into a compact guide
to Brahmanism. It is the sign of a profound
scholar, that his erudition does not appear
on the surface and make the common
reader halt in his reading. Shri Gajanan-
shastri is such a scholar.
The Kida-Devatas
To this beautiful little hand-book of
Brahmanism, the Shastri has added an
Appendix of great interest to Dakshini
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 35
Saraswats. He has listed the Saraswat Kula
Devatas, with the present as well as pre-
Portuguese location of each temple, the
family names of the kulavis. and the
dhyana or invocatory mantra of each deity.
It is plain that this information has been
laboriously compiled with personal visits to
many of the temples. It is plain, too, that
the compilation is not altogether complete,
although the Shastri has listed as many as
39 Kula Devatas, more than twice the num-
ber in Shri Ganesh Ramachandra Sharma‟s
monumental “Saraswat Bhushan” Here is
a very generous base for definitive research.
Another valuable appendage is a choice
collection of stotras or songs of prayer.
Attention may be drawn particularly to two
stotras, both composed by Shri Gajanan-
shastri himself, one addressed to Shree
Shantadurga and the other to Shree Katya-
yani. The pious will heartily agree that four
rupees, which is the price of the book, is
not too much price for these two stotras
alone. They are inspired compositions, ex-
pressing a simple faith in felicitously sim-
ple Sanskrit which almost any educated
Hindu will understand.—D.N.N.
THE ETERNAL VERITY
A NEW CONCEPT THE TRIAD OF TIME, SPACE AND
MATTER, by Pt. J. L. K. Jalali; published by
Kala-Kendra, Srinagar; 113 pages; price Rs. 7.50.
Pt. Jalali is held in high esteem among
Kashmiri Pandits as a Karma Yogi. He is
a sound scholar in metaphysics and in
Kashmir‟s cultural history. He is author of
many books, including one in Sanskrit
verse.
The present little volume is not just
another book, and its subject is not one of
those standard topics which give endless
scope for learned disputation. We are here
presented with an altogether new and revo-
lutionary metaphysical concept; indeed, a
new Religion.
This new concept or religion did not come
to the author in a flash of inspiration or as
a Revelation. It grew on him in long years
of milling over the spiritual posers of cer-
tain events in his secular life.
Pt. Jalali proclaims that Time (Kaala)
is the ultimate verity of life and all exist-
ence, the “One-without-a-Second”; and
that space and matter are real, too. and
are auxiliary to Time.
The Vedantic theory of the unreality of
all that has “name and form” is denied.
The conceptual and terminological pattern
of Vedantic thought is. however generally
retained. The concept of Sat. Chit and
Ananda, the Vedantic approximation to the
identification of Brahman-Atman, is here
attributed to Time. The places of Purusha
and Prakriti, or Shiva and Shakti (which
is the parallel used by the author) are
given to Time and Space. The place held
by God in all theistic faiths is given to
Time. “Time is not a dead, lifeless God.
He is a living God. He is all-pervading,
all-enveloping” (p. 33). Again: “ ..what
happens in this universe or elsewhere hap-
pens by the Will of the Great KALA
(TIME)” (p. 71). The three Gunas
(Sattva, Rajas, Tamas) are accepted. Man
is allowed a free will within limits which
are indicated. It is held that nothing new
happens in life; that every event is a repeti-
tion of an old one in a new form, as the
Hydrogen Bomb being a new form, perhaps,
of Arjuna's weapons. Einstein's Theory of
Relativity is stated to be in conformity
with this concept of Time. A distinction is
made between “finite-infinity” and
“infinite-infinity''
Two clear advantages are claimed for this Religion of Time. It is a positive reli-
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 36
gion. There is none of the vexatious nega -
tive approach of the Vedanta; no “Neli,
Neti” Secondly, it lays down a clear path
of human conduct, without the confusing
conundrums that Vedanta revels in. "The
Notary of KALA has a dear cut path be-
fore Me. He has not to get himself lost
in the labyrinth of non-knowingness.
Realisation comes by following that path
in the way indicated to him”.
The prospect, indeed, is tempting. This
leviewer spent long hours trying to place
Time in his old mental temple of God.
Habits of thought die hard, and it is com-
paratively easier to learn than to unlearn.
The ideas of Brahman which is "anir-
vachaneeya” (beyond description),, and of
God who is "kaalaateeta” (beyond time),
are not easily dislodged. And the process
of unlearning is not helped by the manner
in which the new religion is here presented.
Refutation of accepted beliefs must now at
least supplement this presentation of the
Truth as the author sees it. That will be
for the benefit of us the common people,
whose beliefs stop at what their common-
place minds can grasp. Significant response
can come, meanwhile, only from the
author‟s peers, from men of pure heart and
a vigorous mind trained to that degree of
one-pointed contemplation which moulds
their judgments in the realm beyond the
rnind. Despite the author‟s rejection of nega-
tivism, the Upanishadic warning that „'the
Atman is not to be apprehended by defini-
tions nor by intellectual perception nor by
scholarship may well apply to the appre-
hension of Koala.
— D. N. N.
YAJNA, THE MODERN NEED OUR SACRED CREST By D. N Nadkarni
(The All India Saraswat Foundation, 4/418,
Arun Chambers, Tardeo Road, Bombay-34;
Rs. 2/-)
The booklet under review is the first to
be launched in the Saraswat Sanmarg Series.
It is highly appropriate that elucidation of
the rationale of the crest, adopted by the
AISCO and AISF, forms the substances of
the maiden publication in this Series. In
adopting the Yajna symbol for its crest, the
AISCO proclaims the Saraswat ideology of
self-sacrifice for the benefit of society at
large. The booklet spells out the far-reach-
ing implications of the concept of Yajna and
its immense relevance for our tangled times.
It will not do to merely hail the pictorial
Yajna symbol as the Badge of the Saraswat.
As the author rightly says (p. 29), “the
adoption of the crest implies a commitment
to live up to it, to demonstrate the benefi-
cent power of prayerful sacrifice to give
light and strength to a troubled nation.” The
sacred crest should be vindicated in action
by all who swear by it. This means that the
Saraswat fraternity, in particular, needs
first and foremost a clear grasp of the many
facets of Yajna in our life and culture, for
understanding alone paves the way to mean-
ingful action. The booklet answers this need
very well.
The author says (p. 11), “No attempt
is made here to present a thesis on Yajna.”
The arid scholar may not regard the booklet
as a thesis, but the lay reader, amply re-
warded by his reading, cannot but look up-
on it as a highly illuminating thesis on a
modest scale. Within a small compass of
thirty pages the author has summed up all
the essentials of Yajna with handy quota-
tions from the Gita, Upanishads and Vedic
hymns to buttress his point.
On page 12 we read, “If the All India
Saraswat Cultural Organisation were to do
no more than popularising its crest, it would
achieve a great deal more than reasonable
optimism expects of it.” The society
at large is becoming a bundle of
self-seekers everywhere and it is, in-
deed, high time that utmost effort is
made to highlight the Vedic ideal
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 37
from
B. M. INDUSTRIES
of Sacrifice, not in its outmoded ritual
setting, but in the modern context. The
author has fared extremely well in his wide
exploration of the symbolism of Yajna. In
Gita we reach the high watermark of the
Yajna symbolism. The author, Shri
Nadkarni, dives again and again into Gita
to come up with fresh insights into the
psychological, sociological and philosophi-
cal implications of Yajna.
Shri Nadkarni has a gift for eloquent elu-
cidation and is steeped in our Vedic lore.
The reviewer fondly hopes that the AISF
will bring forth many more booklets by him
to interpret the Vedic—and hence the
Saraswat— Ideals of Sanatana Dharma.
— V. RAJAGOPAL BHAT
Best Compliments
from
BOMBAY-34.
38 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
In January, 1972. the AISCO proclaimed formation at the present stage of
itself to the Saraswat world. The "Aave- development paper is now
dana Patra” then issued was a testament of with the added confidence from
faith. It spelt out the ideology and aims of Saraswat response during the last
the AISCO, and the imperative need for its months.
AISCO: THE TESTAMENT OF FAITH
“In our devotion to our families, in the
generosity of our charity, in our spirit
of progress, we do homage to God
Saraswat” (Rg Veda. VII—96—4).
THE All-India Saraswat Cultural Orga-
oisation (AISCO for short) was
founded in Bombay on November 19, 1971,
and is registered under the Registration of
Societies Act and the Public Trust Act.
The AISCO is more than an institution.
It is a movement of Saraswat Revivalism.
It is a national movement and a nationalist
movement.
Too long have we Saraswats forgotten our
heritage and our history. We know little of
the Saraswat prowess in the arts of war
and of peace, which has enriched the annals
of the nation. The absence of that back-
ground has made us indifferent to Saraswat
achievements of our own time.
We have forgotten that we are a nation-
wide clan, dedicated by faith and by tradi-
tion to the cause of national advancement.
We have all but abandoned our ancient
Vedic idealism of a full life of purposeful
and voluntary socialism, and are drifting to
the purposeless domain of a privileged and
alienated individualism. Even the regional
and sectarian splinter-identities assumed in
our decadence have become insupportable.
The altruistic genius characteristic of
Saraswats now only skims over the surface
of the national life.
All this needs to be changed. It must be
changed for the good of the Saraswat and
the good of the country.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 39
The Saraswat
There is need for revival of our pride in
Saraswat heroes of the past and the present;
for authentic accounts of Saraswat achieve-
ments in national defence, statesmanship,
scholarship and the arts.
There is need for stimulation of the
Saraswat ethos, so that Saraswats may
meaningfully take their due place at the
vanguard of the nation‟ cultural life.
There is need for revival of Saraswat self-
awareness, so that Saraswats of all India
may take collective responsibility for the
weak and handicapped elements among
them, wherever found.
And, to achieve these ends, there is urgent
need for clarification and dissemination of
the pristine Vedic faith of the Saraswats,
that well reasoned body of practical ethics
which alone offers a firm bridge bet-
ween the eternal verities of life and the
demands of the modem machine age.
The AISCO is an expression of a live ap-
preciation of these needs. It is a movement
designed to influence every Saraswat house-
hold from Srinagar to Madras and from
Bombay to Calcutta.
Preparations for the first few measures in
that process are already under way. They
include : —
1. An AISCO journal
Quarterly”
2. An all-India
Saraswat Cultural
Con-
vention, to be held at
an early conve-
nient date.
3. Survey of the religious and social
customs and manners of Saraswats of
different regions throughout India,
with a view to cultivation of a closer
mutual understanding.
4. Survey of the voluntary social service
institutions of Saraswats, including those of regional and sub-caste groups throughout India, with a view to dis- closure of organisational gaps in the fulfilment of the community‟s obliga- tion to the weaker elements within it.
5. Compilation of an All India Saraswat
Directory and Who‟s Who.
6. Research in the significant contributions
of Saraswats in various fields of
national life and growth.
7. Research relevant to a concise enun-
ciation of the Saraswat Faith, based on
the personal and social ethic of the
Veda interpreted in terms of modern
psychological and physical conditions,
as the ground of the Saraswat Way of
Life.
This is only the beginning of a long, ardu-
ous task and effort. It is also the beginning
of what, God willing, may well turn out to
be a new chapter of glory in the Saraswat
annals of national usefulness.
This hope is derived from a confident
expectation of a massive response from
Saraswats of all sects and regions to the
AISCO aims and ambitions.
The AISCO counts on the benign blessings
of the illustrious Swamijis of the four great
Maths; on the active co-operation of all
Saraswat institutions, large and small, reli-
gious and secular; and on the whole-hearted
association of all persons whose talents and
public spirit have earned them a position of
influence in the community. And so, the
AISCO looks forward to counting a mem-
ber in every Saraswat household throughout
the country.
Membership of the AISCO is open to
Saraswats of all sects and regions, as well
as to Saraswat institutions. A wide range of
membership is offered, as shown below : —
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1073 40
Bombay,
21st January, 1972.
Class of Membership
Founder Member
Patron
Fellow
Life Member
Ordinary Member
Fee for
Individuals
Rs. 5,000 in lump
Rs. 1,000
Rs. 500
Rs. 200
Rs. 20 per year Fee for
Institutions
Rs. 5,000 in lump
Rs. 2.000
Rs. 1.000
Rs. 500
Every member shall be entitled to a tree
copy of the “Saraswat Quarterly”; and,
through it, access to the results of researches
conducted by the AISCO. Every member,
too, shall have the privilege of being a dele-
gate at all Conventions organised by the
AISCO.
The aims and efforts of the AISCO merit
the active participation of every thinking
Saraswat. It hardly need be emphasised that
a movement of Saraswat Revivalism will
strengthen the roots and branches of all
healthy Saraswat institutions. The promo-
ters of the AISCO are not unaware of the
short-lived career of past efforts at consolida-
tion of Saraswats on a national scale. The
last such serious effort was made a little over
four decades ago. It did not last long,
because the time was not ripe for it yet. The
metamorphosis which the national social
structure is rapidly undergoing at the present
time dictates the need for the AISCO. In
another decade, it may well be too late.
The promoters of the AISCO are drawn
from all walks of life : industry, business.
administration, scholarship, fine arts, the
liberal professions, and plain clerkship.
None of them is a politician or professional
agitator. An acute awareness of the national
crisis of faith which has affected the Saraswat
way of life was alone responsible for bring-
ing them together. Their faith in the
Saraswat Dharma has spelt out the consti-
tution of the AISCO. And, in their pledge
to do all they can to place the AISCO on
the path of fulfilment, they draw their con-
fidence from the divine assurance in the
Gita,
“Here no effort undertaken is lost; no
frustration befalls. Even a little of this
righteous course spells deliverance from
great peril”.
B. P. ADARKAR
President,
AISCO.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 41
The formation of the All India Saraswat
Cultural Organisation (AISCO and the formu-
lation of its aims and objects earned a quick and
warm response of welcome from Saraswat intel-
lectuals and leaders from many parts of the
country. Among the first to extend their welcome
and offer their wholehearted co-operation was
Karma Yogi Pt. J. L. K. Jalali of Kashmir. As
thinker, author, social worker, and a natural
leader of men, Pt. Jalali is held in reverence
among Kashmiri Saraswats and is President of the
Kashmir Pandits Association.
In pursuance of the AISCO aim of promoting
communion between the various territorial groups
of Saraswats, Pt. Jalali prepared a Paper on
SARASWAT SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN
KASHMIR, for presentation at the Inaugural
function of the AISCO in Bombay on Decem-
ber 23, 24 and 25, 1912,
Although numerically a small minority, the'
Saraswats of Kashmir, styled Pandits, have a
long tradition of leadership in Kashmir's life and
culture. In general education, women's education,
health service, refugee relief, Saraswat leadership
has paved the path of progress.
Pt. Jalali has told the story of this leadership
in the service of the people, with a wealth of
significant details. The Paper is reproduced here.
SARASWAT SOCIAL
SERVICE
INSTITUTIONS OF
KASHMIR BY
Karma Yogi Pt. J. L. K. Jalali
K A L O H A M ( I A M TIME)!
I am a Kalavadin, but as a Saraswat I must
first offer my salutations to and invoke the
blessings of goddess Saraswati in the words of
Devapala, the commentator of the Grihya-Sutras
of the Kashmiri Saraswat Muni Laugakani
(I bow with full faith and devotion to the full-
bosomed young goddes Saraswati, who dispels
the darkness that sometimes envelopes the Intell-
ect, who makes one perceive the Real Truth of
this Ocean of the changing Universe, who with
her refined understanding and intelligence makes
one exert and put in right effort to acquire wealth
and prosperity). May that great Goddess of the
Saraswats be benignant and shower her choicest
blessings on this Conference and the members
v/ho have so assiduously planned, worked and
organised this Inaugural Function with the sole
desire of drawing together and consolidating a
large part of the population of our vast country
to arouse in them the sense of duty as patriotic
citizens, as fearless soldiers when inspired by
Vidura‟s inspiring exhortation
(Let no Indian mother give birth to a son who
has no anger, no courage, is not brave, and only
appeases the foe). Such sons have to fight the
enemy on the battlefield, and as honest civilians
when they have to administer the country, free
it from corruption, remove its chronic poverty,
contribute to its wealth, prosperity and economic
development, industrialize it or bring about the
green revolution to feed its teeming millions
right from Leh to Kanyakumari.
Friends, I have been asked to speak on a sub- ject which on the very face of it appears to be prosaic but, in fact, is very interesting and import- ant. One of the aims and objects of the All India
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Saraswat Cultural Organisation is to “encourage and co-ordinate the activities of social service institutions promoted or conducted by the Saraswats, whether for the benefit of all Saraswats or a section of Saraswats or of the public at largo‟‟ As such it is but proper and obligatory that I comply with the wishes of the organisation I may tell you comrades, that it is we the
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 42
Saraswats who from the time of the Rigveda have
made a remarkable contribution in all possible
fields of development towards the progress and
advancement of the people, whatever the shape
of the world or whatever the form of the govern-
ment was. If it was anarchic or monarchic in the
past, if it became despotic or absolute at times,
and if it is democratic or popular today, the
government is after all a government, and the
Artha-shastra of the great Kautilya will continue
to hold good and apply to any government or
under any form of government admonishing the
rulers or the men in power to understandwell
and follow the fourfold injunctions of
how to run the admini-
stration, how to develop the resources of the
country and exploit the means of wealth, how to
circumvent and annihilate the enemy, how to
defend one‟s hearth and home, or how to protect
the nation from the machinations of designing
and scheming Machiavellis.
“Social Service Institutions” is apparently a
limited field. But if we cover all the allied activit-
ies under it, I think it will not be beyond or out-
side the periphery of the subject. The phrase
“Social Service Institutions" tempts one to talk
of so many educational, welfare, religious, cultural
and social institutions, but my ambit is circum-
scribed by the limitations of a Pradesh (Kashmir),
which has not had the advantages of a State like
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West
Bengal, Gujarat or the Punjab. Though our con-
tacts with the Punjab have been intimate in the
past, the impact has been comparably not so
healthy and fruitful as one would have expected
it to be. Had I widened the scope of my survey
to include Northern India, it would have meant
and required personal tour to acquire first-hand
knowledge of Saraswat institutions as distinguish-
ed from non-Saraswat ones.
About Kashmir only 1 should have liked to talk of the whole State
of Jammu and Kashmir, but the information
from Jammu is not complete. In the Ladakh fron-
tier there is no private social service institution
of Saraswats. I would, however, take up Kashmir
first. If I were to count all the cultural and
religious bodies and organisations, both big and
small, it would swell this survey. So I shall deal
with only important institutions that would give
an idea of the kind of social service institutions
that we in Kashmir have been able to start, esta-
blish and organise with the limited means availa-
ble. These would comprise the educational, health
and socio-cultural institutions. which have come
into being during the present century or a little
earlier. I should have further liked to dwell on how
the Saraswats of Kashmir, your brethren in the
mountain-girt Valley in the faraway North, have
fared in the past, and how, notwithstanding the
vicissitudes of time, we have tried to preserve
the ancient Saraswat traditions for which we had
to pay dearly, so much so that about three million
of us have now been reduced to a small number
of less than a hundred thousand in Kashmir. The
sword and bayonet of proselytisation, abduction,
rape, mass killing, “sack-drowning” and “red-hot
panning” in the past and now forced migration
under economic pressure have done all that. I do
not want to go into details lest bitter memories
be revived which we had better forget in the
modem world, in the secular India of today.
Let me tell you, friends, that we are a small mi-
nority and with the Kashmiri Saraswats living
in Jammu and other parts of the country, we are
about 150,000 persons all told. At home, under
the stress and strain of the times we are putting
up a heroic fight not to be washed away by the
onrush of waters that sometimes cause cracks in
our social dykes of ancient build and make. But
now that we are an indivisible part of a bigger
whole, the byegone past will, I believe, be never
repeated.
Pioneering in Education Without digressing into history, let me come
straight to what we have done in educational and
other fields. It was in the beginning of the pre-
sent century that in order to counteract the overt
and covert activities of the missionary schools so
far as we Saraswats were concerned, the stal-
wart Kashmiri, Dayakishen Kaul, Private Secre-
tary to Maharaja Pratap Singh of Jammu &
Kashmir, persuaded Dr. Annie Besant, President
of the Theosophical Society of India, to approach
the great Brahmin and Indian leader, Pandit
Madan Mohan Malaviya of revered memory, and
ask the Banaras Hindu Educational Society to
open a Hindu High School in Srinagar. This
institution later developed into the first Hindu
College of Kashmir. Both the school and the
college were subsequently taken over by the
State and named Sri Pratap Hindu High School
and Sri Pratap Hindu College, respectively. Later
the word Hindu was dropped. It was in this
school and in this college that I had my early
education. Our college was affiliated to the Uni-
43 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
versity of the Punjab, and to take my examina-
tion in B.A. (with Honours) I had to run down
to Lahore (now in Pakistan) travelling by a one-
horse tonga stage by stage for about a week and
then board the train at Rawalpindi! The Hindu
High School had a few branches, and in one of
them (at Rainawari) I was being taught the
Nityakarmavidhi, Sandhyopasana, Snanavidhi, the
fortnightly Pakshagah, etc. The sermons given
every morning before the school bell tolled for
regular class work make me recall those boyhood
days with animation and elation; and I feel grate-
ful to those Head Pandits of the school for the
religious instruction I received then and the im-
pression their day-to-day discourses made on my
young mind. The same was the case with other
boys. It was a time when no girls went to school
and female education was taboo.
Hindu College started as an Intermediate Col-
lege. The father of our Union Plainning Minister,
Shri D. P. Dhar, was the first under-graduate.
The first four graduates produced by this college
in the year 1911—when it passed into the hands
of the Government — are no more. I still remem-
ber the grand dinner that was given by the first
Saraswat High Court Judge and Judicial Minister
of the State, Rai Bahadur Pandit Radhakrishen
Kaul Jalali, in honour of these Saraswat gra-
duates, when he commended them to the four
Ministers of the Maharaja with a personal
request to provide them with decent appoint-
ments in their respective ministries. But how they
were treated and what tribulations they had to
undergo is a matter of history which had better
be consigned to the archives of memory.
We have today another college in Kashmir which was started by the joint efforts of several Kashmiri Saraswats, 30 years ago, in which I also had a hand. For this the credit goes mainly to the late Pandit Sona Kaul Madan, who generous- ly contributed to its finances and was the Chair- man of the Managing Committee for a number of years. The College was called the Hindu Col- lege. On the demise of the Father of the Nation, it was renamed Gandhi Memorial College. It is managed by a body of Saraswats only. This in- stitution, though originally started to obviate the difficulties experienced by young Saraswat boys and girls of Kashmir in securing admission to the Government Colleges, has thrown open its portals to non-Saraswats and non-Hindus of the State and outside. At present there are over five hundred students on its rolls who receive edu-
cation in arts and sciences. A teachers‟ training department has also been added which produces trained teachers by the dozen and relieves the congestion in the Government Training Institutes. It, however, requires rehousing for which neces- sary steps are being taken. As a social service institution, it has rendered yeoman's service in the initial stages, and now with a grant-in-aid from the State Government, it is becoming self- supporting. The college is situated at Naml- chabal, Bagh Dilawar Khan, in the city of Sri- nagar. The Hindu High School at Shitalnath, the Lalded Memorial High School at Badiyar, the National High School at Karan Nagar are the other social service institutions run and managed by Saraswats. The institutions have kept their doors open for non-Saraswats also. Mention needs to be made of an institution which has now parsed into the hands of and is managed by the Saras- wats themselves. It is the Central School at Fateh Kadal, which was once the famous missionary school of the late Reverend (Canon) C. E. Tyndale Biscoe run by the Church Missionary Society of England. Canon Biscoe‟s school with its motto of “In All This Be Men” rendered such an exemplary service to the people of Kashmir that it is no exaggeration to say that such an in- stitution has no parallel in the educational his- tory of the State, let alone the mission it had in view. It produced long and short swimmers, high and long jumpers, gymnasts and athletes, rowers and paddlers, footballers and cricketers, and transformed the Kashmiri boy completely. When the Church Missionary Society wound up the school, the Central School was taken over and run by a band of devoted Saraswat workers and teachers who deserve every encouragement.
To encourage female education among Saras- wats, the veteran old leader, the late Pandit Hargopal Kaul, a lawyer by profession, was the first Saraswat who took the bold step of giving school education to his daughter, who later be- came a District Inspectress of Schools. Instead of appreciating his services to the community in this respect, doggerels and distichs were compos- ed to condemn him for this “unorthodox” step. This admirable individual effort was later follow- ed by the Women Welfare Trust, a Saraswat in- stitution, which on the one hand encouraged learning and teaching of Hindi and on the other did its best to preserve the Saraswat traditions. The Trust schools are doing very useful work, and some 1500 girls are receiving modem educa- tion in arts and science in accordance with the syllabus of the Kashmir Board of Examinations and the University.
44 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Women's Education
The first attempt to start a college for the
Saraswat girls of Kashmir was made by Pandit
Tribhuwan Nath Kaul, son of a Saraswat Con-
servator of Forests, and an Oriental College for
Women came into being wherein one of my
daughters volunteered to act as an honorary
lecturer. This college was later shifted from Tan-
kipora to Barbarshah and named Mahila Maha-
vidyalaya. Attached to the college is a school
where some six hundred girls are imparted edu-
cation-through the Hindi medium. Credit goes to
Shri Shambhunath Parimoo and his wife Shri-
mati Kamla Parimoo, who is now the Principal
of the Oriental College, for running this Saraswat
institution efficiently. Shri Shambhunath has also
organised the work of popularising the Rashtra
rthasha in Kashmir. The Kashmir Branch of the
Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Samiti of Wardha is
responsible for producing some 8000 non-Hindu
passes in different examinations of the Rashtra
Bhasha. Both the Mahila Mahavidyalaya and
the Rashtra Bhasha Branch were presided over
and looked after for a number of years by one
of my friends, Shri Jagadhar Zadoo, a scholar
of repute.
Another institution of note is the Vishvabha-
rati College for Women at Rainawari, for which
Shri Prenuiath Thussoo, a devoted selfless worker,
and a few other Saraswat friends deserve appre-
ciation. This is also a Saraswat institution and is
looked after by a well-organised Managing
Committee. The Dharmarth Trust of Dr. Karan
Singh, Union Minister for Civil Aviation &
Tourism, has provided land for this institution
on which the buildings of the College stand in
beautiful surroundings. It is a well-disciplined
institution where Saraswats and non-Saraswats are
imparted education.
Sanskrit
To promote the learning of Sanskrit, a class-
fellow of mine, the late Pandit Parmanand,
founded the Rupadevi Sharada Peetha in the
name of his daughter, and created a Trust, of
which I was a member. In the beginning there
was a very poor response notwithstanding the
remission of tuition fee, grant of scholarships
and stipends, and supply of text-books free of
charge. Consequently, it had to be run as a full-
fledged college for girls under the University of
Kashmir, and Sanskrit is taught as one of the
subjects. Now that the Government of India is
encouraging the learning of Sanskrit, the Sharada
Peetha may revive its original plan and, if cir-
cumstances favour, it may become the Sanskrit
College for Women, provided there is an appre-
ciable number of girl students interested and
willing to opt for Sanskrit. I call it a real Saraswat
social service institution, which was established
by the donor with his personal savings. Though
originally intended for Saraswat girls only, it has
opened its portals to girls of other classes and
communities also. I am glad to say that with the
financial assistance given by the Government of
India and the grant-in-aid sanctioned by the State
Government, the institution has become self-
supporting, and the Saraswat Trust is wide-
awake to the needs of the institution and is
making it financially viable.
Saraswat Unani Let me now talk of another activity in the
realm of social service, rather of service to huma-
nity. I mean the private health centres established
by Saraswats. We have two hospitals in the city
of Srinagar, one at Karan Nagar and an-
other at Barbarshah. For the former, Dr. S. N.
Peshin, F. R. C. S., deserves credit and for the
latter. Dr. Onkar Nath Thussoo. The Karan Nagar
Hospital is called the National Hospital, the Bar-
barshah one is known as Rattan Rani Hospital
founded by Dr. Thussoo in the name of his first
wife. In this hospital Dr. Thussoo and his wife
Dr. Jagat Mohini work and run it as a private
social service institution. Both the hospitals serve
Saraswats and non-Saraswats alike and render as
much free service as possible. Dr. Peshin was
for some time the Director of Health Services in
the State Government. He has built another
hospital at Dehra Dun in Uttar Pradesh, which
is solely his personal concern, and he has put his
son who is also a qualified, foreign-trained doc-
tor in charge of this hospital. The Government
has its hospitals and dispensaries in Kashmir, but
all the same such private Saraswat institutions
have proved to be very helpful to Saraswats in
times of need.
There is a Unani dispensary which is the sole
enterprise of a well-known Saraswat Hakeem
(physician). Originally a sort of clinic during
the time of his father, the present physician in
charge. Pandit Shamlal Hakeem, is an expert in
his profession, and his consultations and advice
are free, and in many cases he treats poor and
needy patients free of all charges, including
medicines. His father, Sahaj Bhat, was a physi-
cian of repute. Shamlal claims his descent from
45 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
the renowned Shri Bhat, who is credited with
having treated and cured the tolerant, unbiassed
and secular king, Sultan Rainulabidin, of a
“septic carbuncle” in the fifteenth century; and
the king in token of his gratitude wanted to
remunerate the physician by grant of land as
jagir and other presents in cash and kind, but the
great Saraswat declined, and instead asked for an
order whereby the Kashmiris who had come out
of hiding and had been interdicted to put on the
holy mark on their forehead, or perform their
sacred thread (Mekhala or Upanayana), wedding
and other ceremonies openly, or had to pay poll-
tax, would be treated as free citizens. The king
granted his request, but instead of remitting the
jazia reduced it, and henceforth the Saraswats
once again performed their sacred ceremonies,
Hawans, yajnas, etc. But they were required to
have a non-Hindu “milk-father” or “milk-
mother” accompany the bride to the bridegroom's
house, and remain with her until such time as
the bride came of age and put off the ringing
anklets to become a full-grown housewife and
change her ornament-studded cap for the round
headgear superimposed by a long piece of muslin
hanging behind from head to foot. The king
appointed Shri Bhat as his personal physician,
and then raised him to the post of Afsar-aul-
Ataba (the Minister for Health). And even now
after over five centuries, every Saraswat remem-
bers him with deep admiration and respect for
his altruism and keen sense of duty towards his
brother Saraswats who had somehow survived
the sword of Sikandar the Iconoclast and his son
who had out-done him.
Refugee Relief
When under the overall command of the Pakistan
Army, the tribesmen of the North-West Frontier
Province invaded the State in 1947, thosands of
Saraswats living in the villages of Kashmir, who
had become helpless victims of massacre, arson,
rape and plunder, were displaced and they fled to
the city of Srinagar for refuge. I have seen with
my own eyes how miserable their plight was,
and what gruesome tales they had to tell me and
my friends. Their suffering knew no bounds.
Friends like Gopalkrishen and his band of wor-
kers joined hands to look after these refugees.
The Samaj Sudhar Samiti which had been
brought into being as a social reform body was
made to organise relief on a large scale, and the
Samaj made Herculean efforts to lodge and cater
to the needs of these displaced men, women and
children, who had been reduced to destitution and
whose homes and hearths had been destroyed.
This Samiti has been converted into a trust and
is rendering good socio-cultural service. Gopi-
krishen is now a Kundalini Yoga adept (though
not following the orthodox line); and 1 wish that
he gives up the trust and devotes himself solely
to this religio-spiritual service and sets an exam-
ple in complete detachment.
The Vidhawa Rakshini Sadan, and one or two
similar bodies are the institutions of practical
social service, which look after, provide work and
other employment to dozens of Saraswat widows,
indigent families, orphan girls, and such other
poor women as stand in need of help and assis-
tance. These Saraswat institutions deserve en-
couragement and financial subsidies to enlarge
their scope of work as the number attended to
by them at present is very limited. This sort of
relief is much needed for the protection of
Saraswat families who do not always find a ready
welcome at Government welfare centres.
Culture Let us now come to institutions that render
socio-cultural service to the Saraswats of
Kashmir. The great Saraswat, Swami Shivrama-
nand Saraswati, who had his nirvana forty years
ago, was an institution by himself. 1 cannot think
of him without deep respect and reverence. At the
feet of the Gopadri Hill, better known as Shan- karacharya Hill, a name given to the hill in
honour of Adi Shankaracharya's visit to Kashmir,
is a sacred spring of Bhagvati Durga. Here he
built a Matha where he had not only instituted a
free kitchen for the public but also for Sadhus
who came from outside, stayed at Durganag, and
instructed people through spiritual discourses,
kirtans, bhajans and otherwise. It was not a religious Matha only. It was a secular social in-
stitution which, as far as I remember, helped
many a needy and indigent person. After his
nirvana, the Trust set up by him failed to im-
plement his wishes. Now it has become a prize
for political exploitation. I wish the present
trustees (the original trustees. I am told, have
all died) make the Durganag institution a social
service institution in its true sense, so that it
serves the public faithfully, especially the Saras-
wats who come from outside during summer or
at the time of the Swami Amarnath pilgrimage
in August every year With the funds already in
reserve and the rents accruing mostly from
lodgings, shops, sites, etc., and with possibilities
of extension, the Durganag Trust can become a
very useful social service institution, that would
46 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
on the one hand render socio-cultural service to
the public and, on the other, maintain the Saras-
wat traditions so as to become a spiritual centre
for the uplift of mankind, in a larger sense.
A friend of mine. Dr. Radhakrishna Kaw, has
established a socio-cultural institute called the
Sharada Peetha Research Centre at Karan
Nagar. It was started in 1958 and is since then
being maintained by Dr. Kaw with his own
money. He has now constituted a trust for it and
1 am the Chairman of its Governing Council.
Dr. Kaw wants to convert it into an Interna-
tional Indological University. The Institute is at
present rendering culturo-educational service and
running Indological classes with the help of the
staff who work without any honorarium even. The
Institute holds weekly forums, issues the Sharada
Peetha Research Series containing contributions
on cultural, historical, educational, religious and
other subjects for the benefit of scholars and
savants in the State and outside as also in
foreign countries. Foreign scholars visit this in-
stitute from time to time. Apart from Indologi-
cal studies, the Institute propagates the doctrine
of Recognition, the Pratibhijna Branch of Kashmir
Shaivism. This Institute richly deserves encour-
agement as a Saraswat social service institution.
Another great Saraswat saint, Swami Lakshman
Joo, who is reputed as a Shaiva Yogi and Shaiva
scholar and is well known in foreign countries
also, is running a Shaiva Institute where he
delivers discourses on Shaivism for the benefit
of scholars and aspirants. Scholars from foreign
lands come and are initiated into it. His institute
is located at Ishbar village, P. O. Nishatbagh,
Srinagar. There are two other Shaiva institutes.
One at Fateh Kadal named after Swami Ramji,
and another at Karan Nagar, run by the disciples
of Swami Vidyadharji. These institutions are
doing very useful work in maintaining the
Saraswat traditions of Kashmir. Shaivism as
known and taught in Kashmir is what I call the
“Philosophy of Positivism”, in contradistinction
to the Vadantic philosophy of “Neti, Ned”, and
js based on the Shaiva Sutras as revealed to the
Saraswat Shaivist, Vasugupta, which begin with
and end with the 77th Sutra
This forms the basic Trika
(Shaiva) philosophy which is prevalent in
Kashmir since the ninth century.
In addition to the above, we have some reli-
gio-cultural bodies doing much useful work in
preserving the Saraswat cultural traditions, for
example, the Ganesh Prabandhak Samiti., the
Brahman Mahamandal (which as an affiliated body
of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan of Bombay is
promoting the learning of Sanskrit among
Saraswats and others). The Brahman Parishad,
the Alakeshwari Trust (disseminating the teach-
ings of Devi Rupa Bhawani through her Vakyas),
the Chakreshwar Sanstha of Hariparvata, the
Bhawani Ashram of Pukhribal, the Nagabal Com-
mittee of Ananthas, the Kotitirtha Samiti of
Baramulla, etc. Several other temple and shrine
committees of Saraswats in different parts of the
Valley are also contributing their mite in this
behalf, by seasonal performance of Hawans, cele-
bration of religio-cultural functions and days of
great saints, religious discourses, Vyakhyanas and
the like.
Social Reform When the first rumblings of a revolt by the
Muslims of Kashmir (and then of Jammu)
against the then ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh,
shook the state in 1931, and some of the old
inhibitions and social restrictions began to crum-
ble under the weight of cracking feudalism, the
first venture of our Saraswat young men was the
formation of a Sanatan Dharma Young Men‟s
Association, This Association, apart from its
socio-cultural work, was required to render help
and relief to the victims of the communal
excesses. As a result of the social awakening in
the community, the much-needed reform in our
social customs, dress and attire of our women-
folk, way of living, celebration of marriages,
Mekhalas (Upanayans) and other religious cere-
monies, etc., was taken up by the young men in
right earnest and given a start. To keep up the
tempo, a daily paper, “The Martand”, was run
which rendered wonderful service socially, cul-
turally, educationally and politically too in
awakening the community. The paper has of
late become defunct because of the short-sighted-
ness of a friend of ours, and in its place we had
to commission The Navjivan”. This association
(now known as the Sanatan Dharma Yuvak
Sabha, of which I happen to be the President at
present) with its socio-cultural paper is by itself
a social service institution inasmuch as it is
instrumental in helping coordination, cohesion
ana co-operation within the community in and
outside Kashmir, and maintaining even under
not wholly healthy and wholesome circumstances
traditional individuality intact dyked by the
will to live and exist as a Saraswat entity. I
47 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
should have wished that “The Martand‟‟ which
was bom in my house 39 years ago had been
revived. But now that “The Navjivan” is assidu-
ously exerting itself to render necessary social
service to the community in and outside Kashmir,
it has to be maintained in proper form. It is
an Urdu daily, because the official language of
the State is Urdu. I am now thinking of starting
an English weekly, because a local English daily
cannot successfully compete with the dailies of
Delhi and the Punjab, which flood the stalls in
Srinagar and other towns in Kashmir.
In Jammu, the city of temples, as it is generally
called, a Saraswat temple, which owes its birth
to my revered mother, Svargiya Shrimati
Devamali, was constructed in the fifties, at a time
when the Hon‟ble President of this session,
Shri Shiva Nath Katju, was building his Maha-
Kajna Temple at a place a few miles from
Allahabad. Therefore, I called my temple at
Jammu Sharika Mandir in the name of the
presiding deity of Kashmir, Bhagvati Sharika, the
eighteen-armed form of Goddess Uma, the divine
Consort of Lord Shiva, who was responsible for
the desiccation of the Satisar Lake and the emer-
gence of the Valley of Kashmir from under the
water. It was, therefore, that the Nilamalpurana
has s a i d ( S h e who is
Uma is Kashmira).
This Sharika Mandir is a socio-cultural centre,
where the Saraswats of Kashmir celebrate their
social, religious and cultural functions, and hold
weekly and kirtan meetings to keep their Saraswat
traditions alive. It will interest you to know that
the Navreh (the New Year‟s Day of the Kashmiri
Saraswats), which is celebrated on the first
Navaratra of Chaitra Shukla, is a special social
and religious function. It is followed by
Zangatrai on the third day of Chaitra which is
observed as a Women‟s Day. In Kashmir, women
invariably visit their father s house on this day
and collect Zang, (mangalam) in the form of
salt, loaves, sweets and money (as alagat). Since
1927, when I happened to be the President of the
Kashmiri Pandit Sabha at Jammu, these and other
functions are being celebrated regularly, in order
to maintain the historicity of the rites and customs
as laid down in the Nilamatpurana and other
Shastras. At Jammu, our Sabha invites the
womenfolk on Zangatrai and entertains them to
tea and sweets, and when they leave give to each
married woman a packet of salt as “Zang” (good
omen). Once we had gone a step farther and
added some money also. But this had to be given
up later.
In the city of Jammu, there is a home for the
destitute at Ved Mandir, which I believe is a
Saraswat social service institution. About other
institutions I have no authentic information.
Benediction Before I close I would like to tell you that as
a Kalavadin, with a new interpretation of Time,
I have started a centre at Srinagar, and call it
Kala-Kendra which in course of time is expected
to develop into a real social service institution.
It will be a socio-cultural centre where, apart
from explaining the new concept of Time, other
cultural activities will not be taboo. Only the
grace of the Great Kala is needed, and I am sure
He will be pleased to bestow it.
Friends, I have taken much of your time.
I thank you for your patience and the attention
that you have been good enough to give to what
I have said. How to repay you ? Only by this
prayer
Let all be happy! Let all be free of all pain !
Let all see good things ! I mean all Saraswat
brothers and sisters.
May we all hear good things by our ears,
O gods ! May we all see good things with our
eyes, O sacrificers ! May we with our strong and
healthy limbs please you, and live and enjoy life
that has been ordained by the Lord !
May we live together ! May we eat and enjoy
together ! May we do such healthy acts as will
make us strong and bold ! May all that we read
and study enlighten us to know the Real Truth '
May we all learn not to hate one another ! Peace.
Peace. Peace !
48 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
May the great and lucky Saraswats grow by 18. Shri Bhawani Ashram, Pukhribal, Hariparvat,
the grace of the Great Kala united by love and Srinagar.
affection, bound to one another by bonds of 19, Shri Sharika Chakreshwar Sanstha, Hari-
mutualism ! Kaloham !! parvat, Srinagar. 20. Samaj Sudhar Samiti, Chota Bazar, Srinagar.
21. The Sanatan Dharma Yubak Sabha, Shital-
nath,
Srinagar.
22. The Rattan Rani Hospital, Barbarshah,
Srinagar.
23. The Rupadevi Sharada Peetha, Raghunath
Mandir, Srinagar. List of Social Service Institutions of 24. The Sanatan Dharma Sabha, Udhampur.
Jammu. Saraswats of Jammu & Kashmir State Kotitirtha.
1. Brahman Mahamandal. Ganesh Ghat, 25.Baramulla, Kashmir. Srinagar 26. Unani Dispensary, Chinkral
Mohalla. Srinagar. 2. Gandhi Memorial College, Namchabal,
Srinagar 27. Shaiva Institute, Ishbar village, P.O. 3. Ganah Prabandhak Samiti, Ganpatyar, Nishatbagh, Kashmir.
Srinagar. 28. The Swami Ram Shaiva Ashram. Fateh 4. Geeta Sanstha, Somyar, Habbakadai, Kadal, Srinagar.
Srinagar. Swami Vidyadhar Shaiva Ashram, 5. Hindu Dharma Sabha, Jawaharnagar, Karan Nagar, Srinagar.
Srinagar. 30. The Seva Sadan, KraIkhud, Habbakadai, 6. Hindu High School, Shitalnath, Suthoo, Srinagar.
Srinagar. The Mahatma Prasadji Trust, Jalali Nivas,
7. Kala-Kendra, Jalali Nivas, Karan Nagar , Srinagar-10. 32- The Bhagwan Gopinath Trust, Kharyar,
8. Lalded Memorial Higher Secondary School 33 Srinagar. Badiyar, Srinagar. Bhairava Nath Trust, Chhattabal,
9. Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Barbarshah, Suthoo. Srinagar. Srinagar. Umadevi S. D. Sabha, Uma Nagri,
10. National High School, Karan Nagar, Achhabal P.O., Kashmir. Srinagar-10. 35. Vidhwa Rakshini Sabha, Habbakadai,
11. National Hospital, Chota Bazar, Karan Srinagar. Nagar Road, Srinagar. Women Welfare Trust, Kralkhud, Srinagar.
12. Sanatan Dharma Sabha, P.O. Handwara, Vishwa Bharati Women‟s College, Kralyar, Kashmir. Rainawari, Srinagar.
13 Sanatan Dharma Sabha, Nagabal, Anantnag, Kashmiri Pandit Sahayak Trust, Chota Kashmir. Bazar, Srinagar.
14. Sanatan Dharma Sabha, Hanad-Chawalgam Kashmiri Pandit Sabha, Sharika Mandir,
P.O. Kulgam, Kashmir. Jammu. 15. Sanatan Dharma Sabha, Sopore, Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandit Sahayak Sabha, . Batkhuh, Amritsar. 16. Sanatan Dharma Purohit Sabha, Bawan 41
(Mattan), Anantnag, Kashmir. The Kashmiri Sabha, Kashmiri Bhavan, Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi.
17. Sharada Peetha Research Centre, 200 Karan 42. The Kashmiri Nagar. Srinagar-10 Delhi. Association, New
49 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Saraswats „„are eminently suited to play a major
role in shaping the history of this land", says
Shri A. N. Bhat, voicing the universal response
of Saraswat intelligentsia to the formation and
the aims of the AISCO. Shri Bhat‟s brief and
eloquent paper, reproduced below, was prepared
for the symposium on AISCO organisation, as
part of the Inaugural Function of the AISCO.
FOR SARASWATS, A CHALLENGING FUTURE By
Shri A. N. BHAT, Bombay
When a man is hurled through time and
fate plays an undefinable game on him,
rarely does he remain unaffected. The
human entity called the Saraswat is an
exception. He is such a rare specimen of
Indian invincibility. The Saraswat '„voyage”
through the length and breadth of this land
seems to be over. His tribe has moved
across India for long. He stands today face
to face with his long-lost brother from east,
west, north and south. Perhaps, Saraswats
will be the last of the Indian communities
to stand up and reaffirm their identity.
In an age when space is annihilated, when
identification through communities and
castes is getting ready to evaporate, the cult
of nationalism is getting out-dated, and even
when the world itself is shrinking, the idea
of regrouping in terms of clannish identity
is held up to ridicule. But there in man is
his psyche, based on a sense of belonging,
founded on the principle of the herd instinct,
built on his tribal existence of yore. If he
is divorced from one group, he relates him-
self to another. It is a necessary corollary
to successful and normal social existence.
The Saraswats are not regrouping them-
selves for chauvinistic or aggressive purposes.
Throughout their history, they have never
imposed themselves on others and they have
never been a thorn in the flesh of their neigh-
bours. They have never trodden on others‟
toes. They have carried across the country
the message of Indian culture more by
example of their community-living than has
been, done by any other group. They have
made no demands and founded no empires
in the past. They have carved no niches for
themselves. Nor do the Saraswats today lay
claim to river waters or village boundaries.
They are not going to agitate for steel plants
or fertiliser factories, for special privileges
or reserved seats or cabinet posts. They
have accepted life as it has come to them.
They do so even now. Here, then, is an
example for all other communities to emu-
late. It is more blessed to GIVE than to
take, to SERVE than be served. This pre-
cept is lived by the Saraswats through the
millennia.
The mantle of Brahminism settles lightly
on the Saraswats. In this they differ a great
deal from others. Their migratory habits
have given them a liberal outlook. Their
culture has co-mingled with numerous
other patterns of life in the country. The
Saraswat heritage is an amalgam of the
cultural spectrum of India. They are dis-
tinguished by their total culture of Indian
inheritance. Their outlook is alien to the
crass cussedness of caste hegemony.
At a time when caste is anathema, why
should there be another attempt to reorga-
nise one more group? This objection is
superficial. Man cannot live except in a
group. Let it be noted that the much-
maligned caste still flourishes in countries
far removed from the shores of India. Caste
is but a classification of labour, a division
of duties and responsibilities and an accept-
50 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
and of social commitments, although in its
degenerated form it can never be approved.
Surprisingly, such a pattern is practised in
the so-called classless societies. In the com-
munist society the party boss, the army
brass, the power-wielding bureaucrats form
the higher echelons of the social structure.
The proletariat remains the proletariat—the
shudra of the communist societies. The caste
IS more entrenched in capitadist societies
where the aristocratic gentry holds the
holier-than thou and touch-me-not attitudes.
This does not mean that our caste system is
justified in its present day corrupt form.
There is already much-needed rethinking on
the subject.
The Saraswats by their liberal outlook can
choose to play an important role in modern
India. They can act as a cohesive and link-
ing force between the Brahmin and non-
Brahmin sections. Their regrouping must
become a decisive force for national unity
and integration. Nature has endowed the
Saraswats with an abundance of talent.
Their charisma covers a lough and hard
core. These qualities are invaluable in
assuming a pivotal role for rebuilding our
nation.
That the Saraswats have survived the
vicissitudes of their kaleidoscopic history is
no doubt a point of merit to concede. But,
this point alone cannot be made a matter for
acclaim. The aboriginal too has survived
and he too can flourish his identity. The
Saraswats have carried on their shoulders,
throughout their sojourn, our ancient heri-
tage. Added to this, they have refinement
in their character and talent up their sleeves.
They are therefore, eminently suited to play
a major role in shaping the history of this
land. Let the Saraswats hitch their wagon
to a star. Let there be an aim in their
crowded life. Let this be the burden of
their future song.
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Trade and Temples have been the twin passions
of the Saraswats of that part of India's western
coast which is now known as Kerala. Wherever
they settled, a temple came up for the people's
use, and the local harbour flourished or a new
harbour was built.
Saraswats had settled in Kerala long before
their exodus from Goa in the fifteenth century
because of Muslim persecution and in the
sixteenth century because of Portuguese repression.
They specialised in local trade and in inter-
regional commerce, often to the point of mono-
poly, and they were leaders in overseas trade.
It was natural that they should be trade agents,
treasurers and financial advisers to local kings.
it was natural, too, that they should hold impor-
tant administrative positions.
In a paper prepared for the Inaugural Session
of the AISCO, the story of the Saraswats of
Kerala has been succinctly told with ample
authentication by Shri N. Purushothama Mallaya,
scholar, educationist and acknowledged leader of
Kerala Saraswats. Starting with legendary history,
the narrative ends with an appeal to Saraswats
of all India to give the Kerala Saraswats a help-
ing hand in their struggle to retain their cultural
links with their linguistic identity.
Shri Mallaya‟s paper is reproduced here as a
valuable contribution in the Search for Saraswat
Identity referred to at page 7 of this issue.
KERALA SARASWATS : Their contribution in the economic, cultural, religious, political, admini -
strative, educational and literary fields in Kerala History
By
N. Purushothama Mallava
Early History
Gowd Saraswat Brahmins or Konkanis,
as they are called by Keralites, are Aryans
in origin who lived on the banks of the now
extinct river Saraswati of the Punjab. As
they lived to the north of the Vindhyas,
they were distinguished by the appellation
of “Gowd”, meaning those belonging to the
Northern sect of Brahmins. Being eminent
scholars well-versed in Vedic lore, their
services were often requisitioned for per-
forming Yajnas by famous kings of yore.
They had established Gurukulas in Arya-
varta to teach and train the young. The
Brahmins of Bharat were divided into two
groups those to the North of the Vindhyas
being known as “Pancha Gowdas”, while
those to the South as “Pancha Dravidas”.
Saraswats, therefore, belong to the Pancha
Gowd group. Hence the name Gowd Saras-
wats. Migration
The spread of the cults of Mahavira and
Gautama Buddha in the sixth century B.C.,
and the terrible famine that prevailed in
about 297 B. C. for 12 years in Northern
India, brought about the piecemeal migra-
tion of Saraswats from the banks of the
Saraswati to other parts of India. Of course,
there is an account in the Shatapatha
Brahmana to say that the Saraswats left
their homes on the banks of the Saraswati
and migrated to the east and settled there.
Historians have recorded their migration
to Trihotrapur. the modern Tirhut division
of Bihar, where they spread Aryan culture
amongst the common people. Further, re-
ferences to this community are to be found
in the Bhagavata Puranu, the
Bhavishyottara
Purna and in the Shalya Parva in Maha-
tharata. They inhabited many parts of
54 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Punjab, Kashmir, Sind, Rajputana and also
Saurashtra.
Their further migration from Bihar to
Gomantak is recorded in the „‟Sahyadri
Khand" of Skanda Purana (Uttaradha
1-47/48).
Legend
According to this, Sri Parashurama
brought the Gowd Saraswat Brahmins be-
longing to ten gotras from Trihotrapur and
established them in a place called Kushas-
thali in Goa which formed a portion of
land created by him. According to tradition,
Konkan, Tuluva and Kerala are the crea-
tions of Parashurama. It has been stated
that after the annihilation of the Kshatriyas
and in expiation of this sin as well as that
of matricide committed by Him at the bid-
ding of His father, Sri Parashurama went
on a pilgrimage to all tirtha kshetras and
got absolved of it. He summoned all the
great Rishis to perform Yajna. Saraswats
also participated in this Yajna. The Saras-
wats settled themselves in two western pro-
vinces of Goa, 66 settlements of 10 Gothras,
called „Sasasti‟ (the present Salcete) and
30 settlements called „Tiswadi‟, now known
as the de Goa. As a result they came to
be known later as Shannavikars or settlers
in 96 villages which name, in common
parlance, became Shannavaits and ultimate-
ly Shenvis as they are still called in Maha-
rashtra.
Derivation Konkani
As Goa formed part of Konkan Desh, the
name “Konkani” was applied to their
language and also to the people who settled
there. It is a fusion of two varieties of
Prakrits, the Paisachi Prakrit of Punjab and
Kashmir, and the Magadhi Prakrit of the
Aryans of North Bihar.
Origin of the Math
The Shree Gowdapadacharya Math at
Keloshigram (Goa) is the seat of one of the
religious heads of the Saraswat Brahmin
community. Its beginning can be traced
back to the great savapt of Sanskrit learn-
ing and philosophy, Shrimad Bhagawad-
Pujyapada Gowdapadacharya, author of the
celebrated Karika based on the mystical
lore of Mandukyopanishad. It will be re-
membered that Shrimad Adi Shankara-
charya took discipleship under Shree
Govinda Bhagawat-Pujyapada who had
come to Goudadesha and who in turn was
a disciple of Shree Gowdapadacharya. The
other disciple of Shree Govinda Padacharya,
Srimat Vivarananda Saraswati, was the first
Swamiji to consecrate the institution of the
Shree Gowdapadacharya Math at Keloshi-
gram in Goa. It was consecrated in or about
the year 810 A.D.
Gods
From the nature of Kuladevatas worship-
ped by Gowd Saraswats on their arrival in
Goa, it appears that they made no diffe-
rence between Vishnu and Shiva. The com-
munity at present consists of two sects,
Shaivites and Vaishnavites. The former are
under the spiritual jurisdiction of their Guru
whose chief monastery is at Kaivalya Math
or the Gowdapadacharya Math at Kavale
in Goa. The Shaivites are mostly found in
Bombay, Ratnagiri, Savantwadi, North
Kanara, Baroda, Indore, Gwalior. They
follow the adwalta school of Vedanta philo-
sophy.
The Gowd Saraswats of South Kanara and
Kerala follow the “Dwaita” philosophy
expounded by Shree Madhvacharya and
look upon Vishnu as the highest deity.
There are two Maths for Vaishnavites,
known as Gokarna Math with headquarters
at Partakali in Goa, and Kashi Math
Samsthan with headquarters at Banaras.
All questions social, religious and spiritual
affecting the Gowd Saraswats are settled by
their respective Gurus whose decisions are
final. The Vaishnava Saraswats of South
55 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Kanara and Kerala belong to Kashi Math
Samsthan.
Origin of Kashi Math
“The Kashi Math Samsthan was establish-
ed before the month of Magha of Plava in
the Shaka era 1463, i.e., before the month
of January 1542 A.D. From the available
records in the Kashi Math it is possible to
trace the direct successors to the gadi of the
Kashi Math to Shrimad Yadavendra
Tirtha Shripada Vader. He hailed from
Cochin and was a Gowd Saraswat Brahmin
by birth. There is a copper plate record
given by Shrimad Surendra Tirtha Swamier
of Kumbakonam Math to Shrimad
Yadavendra Tirtha Shripad Vader of the
Samsthan and that was in the month of
Magha in the Shaka era 1463. There is also
a rayasam relating to the matter of the
copper plate given by the same Swamier to
his lay disciples.” (Desksha Smritimalika,
Venkateswara Temple, Mulki, South
Kanara, English section, p. 2).
The discovery of copper plate No. 8,
(one plate broken into two parts written in
Kannada language in Devanagari script)
preserved in the State Archives, Emakulam,
shows that the Swamiji of Kashi Math
Samsthan was recognised by Shrimad
Satyadisha Tirtha of Uttarradi Math as
equal in rank to that of the Uttaradi Math
and given permission to use all the para-
phernalia used in that Math. The plate
refers to Kashi Math Swamiji as “Moola
Samsthanadhipati” of the Madhvacharya
lineage. The copper plate bears the saka
era of 1603 (1681 A.D.). It was issued to
Shrimad Raghavendra Tirtha, the disciple
of Shrimad Upendra Tirtha of Kashi Math.
Occupations
It has to be mentioned that the Gowd
Saraswats were not merely of the priestly
class. Although religion was the touch-
stone of their character and culture, they
had embarked upon other ventures for their
livelihood as they were new settlers in
changing environments. They identified
themselves with the local population, deve-
loped trade, took active part in the admini-
stration of the estates of the rulers of
adjacent states and principalities. Though
strictly this was forbidden to Brahmins,
Manu has permitted them to take to trade
and other avocations if necessity of liveli-
hood compelled them to do so without being
deprived of their Brahminhood. But where-
ver they were, they built temples and
maths to serve small groups of their com-
munity. Such groups came to be known
as Daijtm or group of ten. Such temples
gradually developed into socio-religious
institutions of the community which had the
admiration of the rulers of the various
States who contributed land and other faci-
lities to the community to conduct their
peaceful avocation which not only helped
the settlers with much needed relief but
also enabled the original inhabitants lo bene-
fit from new and adaptable neighbours. Surnames
In the early days all men were called
„Pai‟ for father, and women „Mai‟ for
mother, out of respect. The name of Shenoi
{Shano means learned) came to be associat-
ed with Saraswats of Kushasthali and
Kelosi who were mostly accountants,
teachers or Government employees.
Kamaths were agriculturists, landholders;
Kuduvas grain collectors; Nayaks military
officers; Bhandary, a guardian of treasury;
Keni or Kim a person in charge of treasury;
Mahale or Mallaya a person in charge of
a Mahal or subtaluk; Prabhu the chieftain
of a village. Bhats were those who perform-
ed the duties of priests from among the
Daijans previously referred to. But what-
ever the surnames, all Saraswat Brahmins
were "sharmas" while declaring their names
in religious rites, ablutions, etc.
56 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Subsequent History
The Saraswats had, of course, their share
of travails of history over the centuries. In
1294 A.D. in the wake of Allaudin‟s con-
quest of the Deccan, temples and houses
were pillaged and plundered. It was a cen-
tury later that the stout-hearted Saraswat
Brahmin, Madhav Mantri, joined hands with
the Vijayanagar Ruler, Sri Hari Hara II,
and ousted the Muslims from Goa.
The presiding deity of Vijayanagar kings
was Shri Venkateshwara. So the worship of
Shree Venkatachalapathy found itself cur-
rent among the Saraswats of Kerala and
South Kanara. In 1470 A.D., Bhamini
Sultan, Mohamed Shah III, carried plunder
and destruction into Goa, Forty years later,
the Portuguese supplanted the Sultan of
Bijapur who was then holding sway, and
they, in their turn, lost no time in calling
upon the Saraswat Brahmins to embrace
Christianity. A letter of the King of
Portugal Joao III to the Viceroy Joao de
Castro says: “We command you to dis-
cover by diligent officers all the idols and to
demolish and break them up in pieces where
they are found, proclaiming severe punish-
ments against anyone who shall dare to
work, cast, make in sculpture, engrave,
paint or bring to light any figure of an idol
in metal, brass, wood, plaster or any other
material, or bring them from other places;
and against those who publicly or privately
celebrate any of their sports, keep by them
any heathenish frankincense or assist and
hide the Brahmins, the sworn enemies of
the Christian profession. It is our plea-
sure that you punish them with that severity
of the law without admitting any appeal or
dispensation in the least.” (Sardar K. M.
Panikkar Malabar and the Portuguese,
pp. 186-87). The official figures show that
in all 280 temples of Bardez and 300 tem-
ples of Salcette were destroyed. Of course,
the Portuguese built churches in many
places where the temples stood.
As a result of a decree issued in 1559 A.D.
by King Joao III of Portugal threatening
expulsion of non-believers in Christianity,
especially Brahmins from Sasashti (Goa),
12,000 Saraswat families fled from the
Salcette District of Goa. About 4,000 went
north-east to settle down in Maharashtra
and Indore, and others went south to settle
in Karwar and South Kanara. (Rayasapatra
of H. H, Upendra Tirtha Swami of Kashi
Math. 1657 A.D. Record kept in Thirumala
Devaswom Temple at Cochin).
The Saraswat Brahmins who settled down
in Lotli, Bardes and Pedne in Goa (these
villages also later came under Portuguese
rule) and those who settled down in
Bhalavali in a village at Rajapur in the
district of Ratnagiri and Kudal in Savant-
wadi in Maharashtra and also those who
settled down in Mangalore and Cochin
forgot one another. They even ceased to
interdine and intermarry. This state of things
gave rise to many sub-sect among Saraswats,
namely, Pednekars, Kudaldeshkars and
Shanaipaikis, but in fact the members of
these sub-sect are all one.
Settlement in Kerala
The last of those who were expelled by
the Portuguese from Goa landed in Calicut
but were promptly driven out by the
Zamorin. And so they went to Cochin and
Travancore. This happened some time in
1560 A.D.
Fortunately, the Raja of Cochin at that
time, Keshava Rama Varma (1565-1601),
was the most celebrated King of Cochin in
Portuguese period. He gave the Konkanies
(Gowda Saraswat Brahmins) a rent-free site
in Mattancherry to build (1599) the now
famous Thirumala Devaswom Temple (A.
Sreedhara Menon: A Survey of Kerala
History, p. 290). But it was Vira Kerala
Varma (1624-1637) who gave the
Konkanies certain rights and privileges to be
57 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
enjoyed by them. The Thitooram which was
issued to this effect by the Raja inscribed
in a copper plate was issued in the year 286
of the Puduvaippu era i.e. 1627 A.D. (Cop-
per Plate Numbered 6, State Archives,
Emakulam.) There are pieces of evidence
to prove that stray members of the commu-
nity had their settlement in Cochin since the
early part of 13th century A.D. The Diwan
of Cochin in his letter addressed to
W. Cullen, British Resident of the then
States of Travancore and Cochin, states :
“The traditions that exist regarding the first
immigration of the Conkanis into Cochin
state that owing to certain religious disputes
they were obliged to leave their native
country Conkan with their idols in 1294
A.D'.and Travelling southward they came to
the territory of His Highness the Raja of
Cochin. having obtained grants of land and
assured promises of protection from His
Highness, they settled in Cochin and formed
themselves—into a community which they
named "the Conkanastha Mahajanam”
(Diwan's Diary, Vol. 144;/1858 dated 6-3-
State Archives, Ernakulam). The
them the Kudumb- Saraswats ies (field labourers by profession). 'Konkani-
sonar‟ or Daivajna Brahmans (goldsmiths),
„Vaniks‟ (mercantile community) and so on.
Again in the year 307 of the Pudu-
vaippu era, i.e. in 1648 A.D.. the Raja of
Cochin, Vira Kerala Varma, the Palluruthy
adoptee (1646-55), gave the community
under a “Thitooram” the civil and crimi-
nal powers to be exercised by (hem withm
a well-defined boundary called „ Sanketam”
they called their place of setdemant
“Gosripuram”, which is the derivation of
the word Goapuri. The then ruler of
Cochin Incorporated the word „Gosripura‟
in the third stanza of the Old Cochin
National Anthem „Gosriparipavana Bhoo-
vithu”.. But the community, as per Royal
Writ (Thitooram), enjoyed special rights
and privileges over other communities with-
in the “Sankelam”. Again, there still re-
ihains a plot of land in Cochin called
'"Sastiparamba” to commemorate the fact
that the Saraswats of Cochin belonged ori-
ginally "to Sasashti (Salcette). In „Sasti-
paramba‟ there is an old temple of Damo
dari, a „Kuladevata‟. After their settlement
in Cochin the Saraswats became supreme
fn trade and commerce. Sardar K. M.'
Panikkar writes in his Malabar and the
Dutch (p. 7): “The Moorish trading com-
munity was practically non-existent ia
Cochin and in its stead there had grown up
the “Canarenes”, a Hindu community from
Konkan Districts who worked as-the, agents
of the Portuguese. The Canarenes — or as
"we now call them the Konkanies—were
wholly dependent on their European mas-
ters, so that when the Portuguese went
away from Cochin they became equally
serviceable to the Dutch.” No doubt, their
influence during the Dutch period and the
early period of the British is evident from
the letter of Mr. W. Cullen, the British
Resident, to Mr. T. Pycroft, Chief Secre-
tary to Government, Fort St. George,
Madras, wherein it is stated “Every Euro-
pean house of business, .in the Company‟s
town of Cochin has these Conkanies in
their employment and they are their Chief
Managers and they have therefore great
influence.” Report submitted by W. Cullen,
M. General Resident to the Chief Secretary
to Government. Fort St. George, dated
20th Oct. 1856).
The Dutch had settled at the full tide of
Konkani predominance. They had ceded
to them the right of collecting income from
Mattancherry and Chellayi. to collect
farms and customs of Amaravati and to
conduct the affairs of Matlancherry and
Chellayi and of Konkani temples. It was
also stipulated that the Raja shall impose
no new demand on the Konkanies. that
they shall have full liberty to complain to
the Dutch Governor, if aggrieved, and
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 68
6
that the Raja shall not inteifere in any
matters of the temple without the know-
ledge and consent of the Company. Again,
an extract from „Travancore Archaeologi-
cal Series" No. IV & V. 1910 Edition, men-
tions the following facts regarding Konka-
nies made out of Paliyam plates of the
322nd year of the Pudu-Vaipu Era (22-3-
1663) in connection with the treaty made
with the Dutch East India Company by the
Raja of Cochin:
“The representatives of the Konkani Maha-
janam requested the ancestors of the Raja of
Cochin to take them (Konkanis) under their pro-
tection and also build for them a temple. There-
upon, a plot of land was given to them for the
latter purpose and also arrangements made for
the conduct of the festivals in the temple built
by them. The Raja now binds himself to pro-
tect these subjects as in old times. As in times
of his misfortunes these subjects amply helped
him with money, he promises further that in the
matter of protection and punishment the Kon-
kanis shall be treated just in the same manner
as the other Brahmanas.
“When the Konkanis first came to the Cochin
territory, they requested that they should be
protected by the kings of Cochin just as they
were by the kings of Kadamalayalam. In com-
pliance with this request, they were then
exempted from the succession fee. But then it
was the custom that when a Konkani died with-
out heirs, his property was taken charge of
jointly by the Raja's officers and the representa-
tives of the Konkanis and divided into two equal
parts, one of which went into the royal treasury
and the other to the temple of Tirumaladeva.
This custom shall be observed in future also."
(Travancore Archaeological Series, No. IV & V
(1910'ed.) T. A. Gopinath Rao.)
In Commerce
The role of the Saraswats in the com-
mercial field of Kerala deserves mention.
It is to be noted that most of the business
of Cochin and Travancore (Purakad)
passed through their hands.
Cannanore the commercial town of
North Malabar owed much to the Saras-
wats for its commercial development. The
actions of Muslim pirates inhabiting the
Cannanore coast brought about a situation
wherein the people had to die of starvation.
The people of Arakkal Raja earnestly
requested Babani Shenoy who happened to
ply his rice-loaded country craft in the seas
of Cannanore to sell their rice to Arakkal
Raja. He (Shenoy) did so and made
friends with the Raja who persuaded and
helped Shenoy to open „Pandikasalas‟ in
Cannanore. The Raja gave 5 acres of free-
hold land as a gift with a condition that he
should distribute it amongst his business
friends and community as a residential
colony.
The trade between Konkanis and Euro-
pean powers figured prominently in the
papers of the Malabar Council. Prof. A.
Das Gupta in his Malabar in Asian Trade
writes: “Baba Prabhu-the.-fore-
most among the merchants. _had— almost
monopolised the company‟s commodities.
The commanders of Malabar had treated
him gently, even when his payments were
not prompt. He was believed to have
enough political influence to bring about a
war between the Zamorin and the Dutch.”
Along with the Konkanis, the Jews, long
settled in Malabar, had quietly followed
their trade. The Rahabi family established
close business links with the dominating
family of the Prabhus. It was in 1695 that
David Rahabi, father of Ezechiel Rahabi,
first appeared before the Malabar Council
as the attorney of the great Baba Prabhu
to settle Baba‟s outstanding accounts with
the Dutch. A letter written to Baba by the
Malabar Council on 22nd March 1694 be-
gins “Your Honour‟s esteemed letter...,”
This quite typical of the letters written
to Baba Prabhu. Ezechiel‟s father David
Rahabi who had been a very good friend
of the Prabhus had left young Ezechiel in
charge of the Prabhus who had initiated
the young Jew to the “mysteries of busi-
59 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
ness”. It was found that there had been
partnership between Calaga Prabhu and
Ezechid Rahabi which started in 1752 and
for several years they appeared to have
undertaken several ventures together. But
unfortunately for Prabhu he was indebted
to Ezechiel and at the close of the year
1770 Ezechiel took over a warehouse of
Prabhu as part payment of the debt with-
out consulting Prabhu about it. But the
Governor requested Rahabi to return the
keys of the warehouse to Calaga Prabhu.
On his refusal, the Governor became furi-
ous and turning to Ezechiel said “You give
these keys to Prabhu this day as T ordered
or I shall know what to do with you”
it bid, p. 117). The keys were returned
and the Rahabis kept away from the dis-
puted warehouse till the Governor was gone
and Ezechiel was dead. But on 11th Novem-
ber, 1771 a sensational law suit began bet-
ween the three sons and heirs of Ezechiel
Rahabi and Calaga Prabhu‟ Mention was
there in the law suit of the names of the
Konkanis who were described as prominent
merchants of Cochin and who were exami-
ned as witnesses on the Rahabi‟s side and
they are, Baba Saraf, Aloe Saraf, Bikoe
Kienie and Rama Sinaij. Calaga then
entered into correspondence with the gene-
rals of Hyder Ali with the aim of humilia-
ting the King of Cochin and the Jewish
people of the town. The correspondence
was detected in the nick of time. “Had I
been late by a couple of hours”, wrote
Adriaan Moens to Batavia, “he would have
fled and joined Hyder‟s generals” In the
end, says Prof. A. Das Gupta, “Calaga
Prabhu-along with his eldest son Chorda
Prabhu was exiled to the Cape of Good
Hope. Thus the last known man of this
great Konkani family. whom Meons had
occasion to call a “restless spirit”, was one
first Indians to settle in _____________ South
Africa (I bid, p. 119).
Again Mr. T I. Poonen writes the
whole of the retail trade down to that in
the smallest articles was in their (Konka-
nis‟) hands” (A Survey of the Rise of
Dutch Power in Malabar, by T. I, Poonen,
p. 259). In the preface to the translation
of Grandhavari of Cochin published in
1916 mention is made of the Konkanis. It
says, “The Konkanis were for one thing
rich, and possessed so remarkable an apti-
tude for mercantile business that they
almost enjoyed the monopoly of all retail
trade in Cochin. They also rendered sub-
stantial services to the Dutch in furthering
their commercial activities and were often
employed as their chief agents or brokers.
For this reason their interests were jealous-
ly watched and safeguarded by the Dutch
who exercised civil and criminal jurisdic-
tion over the Konkani subjects” The Bata-
vian Diary of 1678 contains excerpts from
the long correspondence between two
groups of Saraswat merchants; of the two
groups of merchants one was headed by
Poilcar Naik and Baba Pattar, and the
other by Parimbala Naik and Waman Naik.
These two groups between them mono-
polised the entire trade on the west coast.
The „Mamorie‟ underlines the ascendancy
of the Konkanis in the trade of Malabar.
(Memorie of the "Secunde" Vosburge,
dated 11th April 1680, of Hauge Record
719.) The names of the various merchants
he mentions are almost all Konkanis. In
the supply of pepper to the Dutch mer-
chants, there was mention of a Konkani
Merchant Derwa Naik of Cochin besides
Fzechiel Rahabi. Also in an old given by
the Raja of Cochin to the Dutch Comman-
deur on May 18th, 1666 there was reference
to one Wittula Naik who was controlling
the daily expenses of the Raja on behalf of
the Dutch. The vessels from Cutch and
Porbandar employed the Konkani merchant
Naga Prabhu as their agent at Cochin.
Of course, the Konkani merchants mono-
polized trade in cloth too, and they had
consistently cornered all available “fanams”
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 68
6
—coins. “Anyone who wished to buy from
the company lost 6.30 percent in dealing
with Konkani Shroff”. At the progress of
the season only grey-haired Konkanis or
'Banias' were considered as persons “who
could tell which way the demand was like-
ly to jump”.
The dyeing industry in Kerala was also
brought by Baba Prabhu. The dyers were
first brought from Tuticorin. In 1766,
Govinda Pai appeared as the envoy of
Hyder Ali to search for the treasures of
the fugitive Zamorin in the Kingdom of
Cochin. Naranna Prabhu served as an
envoy from the Malabar Council to Cali-
cut in 1784 and it was he who saw on his
way the pepper vines and sandal trees be-
ing cut down by Tippu Sultan as the latter
thought that it was these commodities that
made the Europeans to wage war on him.
The role played by the Saraswats in
Purakad (Porka) calls for special mention.
Perumbala Naik became the foremost of
the businessmen at that port. He had to
leave Porka for Trivandrum owing to some
ill-treatment received by him from the
King of Porka. But the King regretted his
actions and Perumbala Naik returned to
Porka after 4 years and plunged into big
business. His plan to construct a big har-
bour in 1732 at Porka alarmed the Dutch.
Another merchant who deserves mention is
Govinda Pai who had extensive inter-
national trade before the fall of Porka. He
succeeded Poko Moessa as the local ragia-
dore and greatly annoyed Commandeur de
Jang with his intrigues.
Further, it was the Thirumala Devaswom
that helped the Raja of Cochin by granting
him a loan for the restoration of the
Cochin territory devastated by Tippu Sul-
tan in the year 1790 A.D. The abstract of
the letter, I series No. 377/1, State Archi-
ves, Ernakulam, reads “His Highness
(Raja of Cochin) requests Dutch Gover-
nor‟s sanction for the issue of a loan from
Thirumala Devaswom for the restoration
of the country devastated by Tippu.”
Persecution
The year 1791 was marked by the terri-
ble persecution of the Konkanis at the
hands of Raja Rama Varma, known in
Cochin History as Saktan Thampuran.
Shortly after ascending the gadi the Raja
demanded a contribution of jaggery from
the Konkanis. On refusal, the Raja arrest-
ed a number of Konkani merchants and
ordered them to pay customs to the King
thereby violating the agreement which the
Dutch had made in the year 1772.
Letters were exchanged between the
Raja of Cochin and the Dutch Governor,
an abstract from which reads thus. “Owing
to H. H.‟s oppression of the Konkanis and
imprisonment of the T.D. authorities, the
Dutch have determined to station a military
detachment at Chellayi to protect them,
and insists on recall of H.H.‟s guard
stationed there and warns of the serious
consequences of the conduct of H.H.
(No. LXVI/1 State Archives, Ernakulam
dated 17-7-1771.) I series No. 379/5, State
Archives, Ernakulam, dated 26-7-1771 is a
reply communicating the conditions propo-
sed in negotiation with the Valiah Sarvadhi
Kariakar and two Sarvadhi Kariakars de-
puted by H. H., namely that the Dutch
will recall their detachment leaving only a
small guard near the temple site, provided
H. H. will not subject the Konkanis for
any new demand and summon them to
palace. I series No. 379/14—14-9-1771 is
a reply to H.H.‟s letter. The Dutch Coun-
cil informs the Raja that the Council will
not order the recall of Dutch detachments
unless H. H. gives a written assurance that
the Konkanis will not be molested by new
demands. I series No. 379/15 dated
16-9-1771 is a letter of warning given by
the Dutch to the Raja of Cochin. It states.
61 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
“H. H. will be held responsible for the loss
of Thirumala Devaswom by H.H.‟s injunc-
tion not to allow gathering of crops on
Devaswom Kanam fields, the Trustees be-
ing unable to appear before H. H. in the
present time”. But in disregard of the
warning, on 12th October 1791 the leading
merchants of the Konkani community were
massacred including Deweresa Kini Again,
the Raja caused three of the overseers of
Temple Thirumala Devaswom to be put to
death because they would not surrender to
him any part of the treasure belonging to
it, and also plundered the shops and car-
ried away the merchants‟ property. The
Dutch on seeing the Raja‟s atrocities sent
an army and attacked the King‟s Palace at
Mattancherry but were repulsed. Letter I,
Series No. 379/19, of the Dutch dated
15-10-1791 (State Archives, Emakulam)
“explains why guns were discharged against
Cochin Palace, viz, protection of the Kon-
kani subjects who, frightened by devastation
in Devaswom shops by H. H.‟s men, left
the country in ships for personal security,
some of these having been persuaded and
given shelter in Cochin Fort.” The Raja
plundered the temple of Thirumala belong-
ing to the community. Prof. Das Gupta
writes, “The loot was calculated at over
Rs. 1,60,000 from the temple alone.”
(Malabar in Asian Trade, p. 121).
The story that Sakthan Thampuran, Raja
of Cochin, demanded the head of Devaresa
Kini to be shown as “Kani” to him is re-
lated by Saastri Poy in his account given
later. He says that on that day the Sam-
bradi Menon (Secretary) of King of Cochin
came to the Pandyasala of Devaresa Kini
and said that for the money due to him,
pepper could be given in payment. He
then, apparently to speak very privately to
him. took him to a room in the Pandyasala.
"When engaged in conversation two or
three country boats sailed up and stopped
to the north of the godown. First stepped
out “Balia Gammaan” or captain of the
infantry, and a number of men with swords
drawn. The former entered the room where
Deveresa was talking with the Menon.
Menon pinned Devaresa down while two
men murdered him. The rest of the men
who were in the main hall murdered the
Konkanis whom they could catch hold of.
The head of Devaresa Kini was severed and
that severed head of Kini was exhibited
to the Raja as a first thing (Kani) the next
morning. “Among the murdered included
Krishen, Goga Kamath, Manuku Shenov
and the son of Ranga Pai. Of the remain-
mg, Saastra Pai, Morthu Patter were
wounded but Baboden fortunately escaped.”
(Ibid). The Thirumal Deity
Prof. Das Gupta further adds: “The
King of Travancore was exceedingly angry
to hear of the massacre. Both Dewersa and
Nagendra the son of Ranga Rov. were his
agents and between them took care of a
great deal of his money. He urged the
Dutch to take vengeance and, then, to pay
him a proper compensation. In fact he
went so far as to offer assistance. But the
English (Mr. Powney the English Com-
pany‟s agent) intervened, and the King of
Travancore had to withdraw from the dis-
pute. A face-saving compromise for the
Dutch was reached but the sense of older
security did not return.” It was not till the
English power was firmly established in
Cochin, says the Grandavari of Cochin,
“that the Konkanis and Christians became
finally free from molestations”
The persecuted Konkanis then fled.—to
Thuravoor and Alleppey in Travancore and
printed their grievances to the Raja
through Dewan Kesava Das who assured
them that he would bring about their return
to and stay at Cochin as before and in the
interim allowed them to stay at Alleppey.
At Alleppey they installed their God‟s im-
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 68
6
age, Thirumala Devar, which they took
care to preserve on the banks of the Allep-
pey canal.
Sakthan Thampuran then made vain at-
tempts to bring back Thirumala Deity
from Alleppey to Cochin. In reply to The-
tooram from the Raja of Cochin (16-7-1968
M.E./1792, State Archives, Ernakulam)
Dewan Chembaga Raman Kesavan of
Travancore states, “I dare say their (Saras-
wats‟) fears will be removed if your High-
ness, as I advised your Highness whilst at
Cochin, would send a Teetooram on the
subject to the Adhikaries, Mahajanams
and Sanyasi of the Therumala Devaru. The
Thetooram which your Highness may be
pleased to send them should be so written
as to assure them of your Highness‟s pro-
tection and dispel all further doubts from
their minds.” In reply to another Thetooram
from the Raja of Cochin, the Dewan of Tra-
vancore further writes (dated 13-8-968 M.E.
1792), “ ____ I will send for the Konkanies
and inform them of the contents of your
Highness‟s Thetooram and will endeavour to
persuade them to appear before your High-
ness”
The Raja also made attempts to get back
the Thirumala Deity through the Dutch
Government functioning at Cochin. In his
letter (No, 378/74, I series, dated 26-11-
970/1794 A.D., State Archives, Ernakulam),
the Raja of Cochin “requests the Commo-
dore to order that the Thirumala Devaswom
Fund kept as a deposit in the Secretariat
should be made over to Palliat Menon
(Prime Minister of Cochin) who will re-
ceive on behalf of Devaswom to make
arrangements for the proper conducting of
the temple ceremonies before the celebra-
tion of „Choroonoo‟ (ceremony of giving
the new-born child prince of Cochin to eat
for the first time with preliminary oblations
to fire”). The Raja further stated in his
letter that on consulting astrologers it
was found that the Cochin Royal family had
incurred the severest displeasure of the
Cochin Thirumala Deity.
After the death of Sakthan Thampuran.
Raja Kerala Varma who succeeded him
took keen interest in the image and wished
to get it back to Cochin. He even address-
ed a letter to Col. Munro 991 ME (1816 A.
D.) wherein he stated that “As the rheu-
matic and Hermein disease which we have
been suffering from, has grown more serious
now and since no visible cure has been
effected notwithstanding that several phy-
sicians have treated the disease and as, on
consulting astrologers, it turns out that we
have incurred the severest displeasure of the
Cochin Thirumala Deity and that the
disease will be cured if the Thirumala Deity
is returned to Cochin, consecration effected
and the poojas commenced. ” (State
Achives, Ernakulam). The Raja therefore
requested Col. Munro to use his good offices
for restoration of the image in question to
Cochin; but the request was turned down
by the then Resident as a result of the
urgent representation of the Travancore offi-
cers that the “presence of the Image was
considered to be intimately connected with
the prosperity of the Port of Alleppey,”
(Minutes of Consultation, dated 19-8-1858
(Political Department) by T, Pycroft,
Chief Secretary, Madras.)
It was only after the settlement of the
Cochin Konkanies at Alleppey that the
place began to develop into a centre of com-
merce. The Konkanies built „Pandikasalas‟
and started doing extensive business. It was
during the Prime Ministership of Dewan
Kesava Das who recommended the case of
Konkanies to the Raja of Travancore for
their stay at Alleppey, that the new Port
of Alleppey came into being with better
harbour facilities. The desperate Konkanies
of Cochin planned the recovery of the image
by hook or by crook. Ultimately, the image
63 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
was clandestinely brought back to Cochin
on the midnight of 8th February 1853. The
object was laudable, and it being 1853 there
was no risk of a head being lost. Since it
was found that the Raja of Cochin had his
hand in the robbery, the Maharaja of
Travancore put in a lengthy complaint with
the Governor of Fort. St. George through
the Resident, Trivandrum, for the restitu-
tion of the image in question, and the whole
matter was referred to the Hon. Court
of Directors, Madras, and a long-drawn-out
suit ensued between the two States of
Cochin and Travancore. The Konkanis of
Cochin got through all ordeals and finally
the idol was duly reinstated in the Cochin
temple itself. The Raja of Cochin then gave
them back all the properties and most of
the jewellery confiscated by his predecessor,
and the Konkanis started to re-build a
magnificent temple for the Thirumala Deity
in its present place in 1853 and completed
the work by 1881 A. D. This historical
image of Shri Venkateswara, according to
tradition belonged to the ruler of Vijaya-
nagar during the prosperous days of that
kingdom in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The temple today has one of the biggest
bells in India.
Role in Local Administration
The Saraswats also played an important
role in the administration of many local self-
Government bodies in Kerala. The chair-
manship of many Municipal Councils in
Kerala, namely, Tellicherry, erstwhile Mat-
tancherry Municipal Council, Alwaye,
Shertallai, Vaikom, etc., were held by Sa-
raswats. The first Mayorship of the Calicut
Corporation and the Deputy Mayorship of
Cochin Corporation were held by Saraswats.
Presidentship of Tripunittura and Eloor
Panchayats are even today held by Sara-
swats. The first woman Chairman of the
Municipal Council in India was a Saraswat
lady. Smt. Lalitha Prabhu. She was Chair-
man of the Tellicherry Municipal Council.
Adherence to Religion
One of the most important features of.
the community is their adherence to their
religion and the preservation of their reli-
gious worship by building not only chapels
for the Kuladevatas but also by the establi-
shment of big temples to cater to the needs
Of the larger community in important towns
"where they settled. The temples at Cochin,
Tripunitura, Alleppey, Purakad, Kayam-
kulam, Quilon, Turavoor, Kottayam,
Sherthalai, Emakulam, Kamakodam, Cran-
ganore, Cherai, Chenamangalam, North
Pravur, Tellicherry, Cannanore, Kasaragod,
Manjeshwar, Kumbala and Ullal and many
other belong to the Saraswat community.
Mention has to be made of the Anantes-
war temple at Manjeshwar dating from the
time of Madhvacharya who is known to
have visited it in or about 1293 A D The
present temple car was rebuilt in 1834 A. D.
it rises to a height of 71 ft.
A shrine of more than ordinary interest
which deserves mention is that of Udyanes-
wara which enshrines a Shiva Linga. Origi-
nally it belonged to the famous Namboodiri
temple in Mathilagam. It was destroyed by
the Dutch, The huge Linga was transported
by the Dutch to Cochin as they found it con-
venient to moor their ships in the outer seas.
At a later date the local Gowd Saraswats,
who recognised it as a Siva Linga, acquired
it from the British East India Company
and installed it with due solemnity and
piety in the vicinity of Cochin Thimmala
Devaswom. Another temple which is worth
mentioning is the Sree Venkatachalapathi
Devaswom at Parur which was destroyed by
Tippu Sultan in 1790. It was renovated in
1888 A.D. by the community with the help
of Sri Mulam Thirunal, the Maharaja of
T ravancore.
The Saraswats of Kerala have not discard-
ed their faith in their original deities. Shiva
and Shakti. whose shrines abound in many
places near their homes. Such temples con-
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 68
6
tain the images of Shanta-Durga, Damodar.
Nagesh, Mahalakshmi, Mhalasa, Santeri,
Kamakshi, Ramanath. according to the res-
pective gotms to which the Saraswats belong.
Other famous temples contain the idols of
Veougopala, Varaha, Vithoba, Narasimha,
vShree Rama, Dhanwantari, Narayana
Dever, Hanuman, Ganapati, etc.
Politics and Administration
It would appear from an agreement bet-
ween the Raja of Cochin and the Dutch on
3rd May 1681 that a Saraswat was the
Raja‟s Treasurer, Again, the Zamorin of
Calicut, Bharani Thirunal had a minister
called Bavan Pattar, The role of one Babha
in the political affairs of Kerala also calls
for notice, Perimbala, a Saraswat Brahmin
of Cochin, in his letters to the Governor-
General Rijckl of Van Goems of Dutch
India, says inter alia “ Your Excellency
ought to know that Babha and the King of
Calicoilam are both at war with seven Kings,
namely, the Queen of Travancore, the King
of Martinga, the King of Betimmeny, the
King of Porca, the King of Tekkankur, the
King of Berkenkur ‟ It was during the reign
of Marthanda Varma, the King of Tranvan-
core, that the settlement of lands, both wet
and dry, was effected. The classification of
lands under the main heads of Devaswom,
Brahmaswom, Danas, and Pandaravaka
was introduced by Mallan Sankaran, (A.
Sreedhara Menon, A Survey of Kerala His-
tory. p. 282).
Some Personalities to Remember
Two groups of merchants, one under
Policar Naik and Bava Pattar and the other
under Pariintrala Naik and Waman Naik,
between them monopolised the entire retail
trade on the West Coast. They also built
Panikasalas in Cochin and Purakad. Janar-
dana Pai owned a fleet of seven merchant-
ships and carried on extensive export trade
from the port of Purakad. The late Sri R. S,
Hari Shenov traded in timber, silk, dia-
monds. opium, etc., and earned for himself
fortune and fame throughout Cochin, Tra-
vancore and Malabar. He was a journalist
as well, and established Gosri Vilasom
Press” and edited a Malayalam paper call-
ed “Kerala Nandini”. He also started indus-
trial and agricultural concerns by founding
the “Kerala Karakousala Company” to co-
ordinate the production for export of coir.
He also floated the Mundathumkara Krishi
Vanibha Company which helped many un-
employed to earn a livelihood. He also rais-
ed farms to improve the cattle wealth of
Cochin by importing Karachi and Nellore
breeds of cattle.
Shri Manjeshwar Govinda Pai, on whom
the former Government of Madras conferr-
ed the title of Poet Laureate along with Shri
Vallathol Narayana Menon, has contributed
substantially to Kannada literature. As an
astronomer, mathematician, scholar, poet,
philosopher, dramatist, linguist and writer,
the services of Shri Govinda Pai are inestim-
able. He has been acclaimed by the entire
Kannada country as the patriarch of
Kannada literature, Sahitya Kushala Sesha-
giri Prabhu of revered memory earned un-
dying fame as a Malayalam grammarian and
a renowned Sanskrit scholar. Dr, N. V.
Mallaya earned a name as a research scholar
for writing a thesis on Temple Architecture
with special reference to Tantrasamuchchaya
and Hindu Iconography. Shri A. D. Hari
Sarma is almost a household name in Kerala
for his works in Malayalam. He has been
acclaimed by the Keralites as the Father of
the Samasta Kerala Sahitya Parishad a liter-
ary organisation founded in Kerala for the
promotion of the Malayalam language,
Thuravoor Shri Madhava Pai earned fame
in Kerala as one of the foremost among
those who brought the Library Movement
to Kerala, Smt, Ammulakka Shenoi and Shri
Narasimha Pai contributed mudi to Konkani
literature while Kamalambal of Ambala-
puzha composed the Ramayana in Konkani
in the „Ovi‟ style.
65 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
'This is what Mr. John Leyden (1775 —
1811), a British traveller, who travelled in
Kerala immediately after the fall of Tippu
Sultan, says with regard to Konkanis and
their language in Kerala; “The Konpani
Brahmins are considered as a distinct class
from the proper Maharashtra Brahmins and
these two classes affect to treat each other
mutually with contempt. The Kongani
character diflEers considerably from the
Maharathi; and Bhagavadam, Linga Purana,
Ramayana, Bharatha and other works are
translated into this language and written in
its appropriate character and the Brahmins
of this class profess to be in possession of
many other translations from Sanskrit as
well as of various original works among
which are the Vira-Bhadra-Charita and
Fafasu-Rama-Charita.” (John Leyden, Plan
for Investigating the languages, literatures.
Antiquities and History of the Deccan, 1807
- MS in British Museum).
Of Ayurvedic physicians the more pro-
minent were Ranga Bhat, Appu Bhat and
Vinayak Pandit. They gave testimonials of
efficiency in Konkani in Nagari script to no
less a man than the famous Commandeur
Henrick Van Rheeds, who published Hortus
Indicus Malabaricus in Amsterdam in 1678
in twelve volumes with profuse illustrations.
This is what Van Rheede in his passage on
„A discussion among Konkani Brahmins in
Kerala” (Between 1671 — 1674) says (Tr.
by Jose Pereira, Research Associate Ameri-
can Academy, Banaras from the original
Latin of Henricus Van Rheede Van Diaken-
stein Johannes Caserius and Amoldus Syen,
Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, Amsterdam,
(1679-1703) 12 vols):
“I often attended the most delightful entertain-
ment, which was of Brahmins (Pagan philoso-
phers) disputing among themselves and arguing
on the basis of arguments they had drawn from
the opinions, rules and harmonies of their tradi-
tion, and from the books of those of their ance-
stors who had excelled in learning. They would
argue, and each of them would defend his own
views most strongly, but with incredible modesty
-- of a sort one would wish to find in the most
cultivated of pagan philosophers — without any
bitterness, mental excitement and wi.hout the
neglect of the mutual respect due among those
holding divergent opinions. They follow their
ancient tradition and the first creators of the arts
with the miOst devout reverence, referring to the
latter their own opinions and received experiences,
v/hich they subject to do their authority. And in
what concerns medicine and botany, their teach-
ing is contained in verses, any first verse of which
begins with the proper name of a plant, and then
goes on most accurately to set forth its species,
properties, accidents, forms, paris, place, time,
medicinal qualities, use and other things of the
kind. All this is done with such skill that if any-
one mentions the name of a plant, a Brahmin can
tell you offhand all it has or can be said of it.
And though this method of teaching, which re-
quires a firm memory, seems to be the more diffi-
cult one, yet they impress these verses on the
memories of their young children, in between
their play and toys — as they say the memory
has greater vigour then; these verses are after-
wards most faithfully retained in the memories
of docile youth and of mature age. The invention
ol the first of these arts — say medicine or botany
— is held to be so ancient, as the authors of (he
books affirm, that with the most constant asser-
veration they assert that it was in existence before
the past four thousand years.
Education
Around the Saraswat temples grew Veda
Pathasalas and Sanskrit schools, Primary
and High Schools. There is a medical college
too at Alleppey founded by the Alleppey
T, D. Temple.
The Veda Pathasala maintained by the
Cochin Thirumala Devaswom is the oldest
standing Pathasala in Kerala. It was estab-
lished in 1877 A.D. Rigveda and its Shak-
hala Shakha are specialised in at this
institution.
Kerala is the southernmost reach of the
Saraswat exodus in India. It is their mother
tongue. Konkani. that makes them feel that
they are one with iheir brethren in the
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 68
6
With Best Compliments
from
COLLINS & CO BOMBAY-34
north. Their mother tongue helped them to
preserve their identity and culture. They have
played an important role in the emotional
integration of India. According to Mr. Frank
F. Conlon. Research Associate, Department
of History. University of Minnessota,
U.S.A., “They have traditionally been
practitioners of the art of „coming-to terms ;
of being able to assess the opportunities of
their changing environment, and then make
proper adjustments. They are one of those
communities in India that have served as a
„hinge‟ between West and East, North and
South, old and new. And it is that tradition
of „coming-to terms‟ which seems still worthy
of emulation these days, in a world where
the only thing that seems to be constant, is
the change.”
The Mother Tongue
In view of the changed circumstances of
the country, the community residing in
Kerala thought it fit to form an organisation
for the promotion and development of their
mother longue, Konkani, which binds them
together with that of the Saraswats of
Mysore and Maharashtra; else it was feared
that their identity would be lost for poste-
rity, as a result of the continuous infiltra-
tion of Malayalam, the regional language of
the State, into the body of the Konkani langu-
age, resulting in gradually adopting Mala-
yalam as their mother tongue. The persistent
efforts of the Konkani Bhasha Prachar
Sabha resulted in the Kerala Government
introducing Konkani as on additionai langu-
age in the primary schools. The community
has been recognised in Kerala as a linguistic
minority, and the State issued circulars to
all departments of the Secretariat to give
due representation to Konkani-speaking
people in the various District and high level.
Advisory Committees formed in the State.
The Centre has also agreed to give financial
assistance for the promotion of Konkani.
The Corporation of Cochin gave the
Konkani Bhasha Prachar Sabha 11 cents of
land in the heart of the City of Cochin for
building a “Bhavan” for the Konkani
language. The Sabha will soon be construct-
ing a three-storeyed building costing Rs.
450,000. It will become a meeting place for
all irrespective of regions. It is therefore the
duty of each and every Saraswat to contri-
bute liberally towards the Building Fund,
The consecration of the site, Bhoomipooja,
was performed by H, H, Srimad Sudheendra
Tirtha Swami of Kasi Math Samsthan, on
the 4th April, 1971.
It is thus to be noted that the Saraswats,
a miscroscopic community in Kerala, after
passing through several vicissitudes, have
been able to live with honour and credit for
several centuries, serving as a model to
others in various fields of activity, building
and maintaining, at great sacrifice, shrines in
many places in Kerala which gave them
shelter from Portuguese barbarism. They
have become a community that counts.
67 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Fee for
institutio
ns
Rs. 5000
in lump
Rs. 2000
Rs. 1000
Rs. 500
Rs —
Founder-Member
Patron
Fellow
Life Member
Ordinary Member
Inauguration implies active functioning there-
after. There is no more preparation period for
the AISCO. Activity must spread in two direc-
tions simultaneously: towards achivement of the
aims, and towards completion of the constitu-
tional structure. The two are parallel directions.
The AISCO constitution provides for a grass-root
organisation intended to stimulate communication
between the Managing Committee and the Saras-
wat population.
No one is more keenly alive to the problems
involved in this dual development than Shri J. S.
Rao, the dedicated and indefatigable Secretary
of the AISCO, who has been at the heart of the
whole movement since its inception. It is therefore
natural that his should be the principal paper on
the subject for presentation at the Inaugural
Function. From that paper, which deals compie-
hensively with the origin, development and pro-
spects of the AISCO concept, only extracts
concerning the constitutional structure and future
development are reproduced here.
It is to be hoped that the subject will attract
wide attention, and that suggestions as well as
offers of participation will come up in generous
measure.
THE AISCO FACES THE FUTURE By
J. S. RAO, Bombay.
Organisational Set-up
The organisational set-up of the AISCO
is discussed under the heads of Membership,
President, Managing Committee, and
Governing Council below.
Membership (Articles 6, 7, 8).
(i) The membership is open to every
Saraswat Brahmin without distinction of
sect or region. It is also open to Saraswat
institutions. An institution for eligibility is
defined to include a firm, society or other
organisation whose membership consists
wholly or mainly of Saraswat Brahmins or
any of their sects or sub-sects. An institu-
tional member shall have the right to
nominate one representative who shall be a
Saraswat to act for it and participate in the
activities of the Organisation, and will have
the right to change the nominee from time
to time if necessary. Hie institutional mem-
bership is essentially envisaged as a scheme
for co-operation and co-ordination of activi-
ties of all Saraswat institutions in the country
by promoting a sort of federation of such
institutions. Members of the AISCO are en-
titled to receive free a copy of its official
journal as also the privilege to attend All
India Saraswat Cultural Conventions or
conferences convened by it.
Following categories of membershipare provided for in the constitution
Fee for individiuals
Rs. 5000/- in lump
Rs. 1000/-
Rs. 500/-
Rs. 200/-
Rs, 20/-
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 68
6
President : (Article 9)
The President of AISCO will be elected
by the members for a term of three years.
His dection will be governed by rules fram-
ed by the Managing Committee in this behalf.
A vacancy in the post of President
shall be filled by nomination by the Manag-
ing Committee from amongst the Vice-
Presidents.
The President shall have wide powers
including that of nominating 18 members to
the Governing Council and six members
to the Managing Committee.; to fill any
casual vacancy in the Governing Council or
in the Managing Committee; to preside at
meetings of the Governing Council and of
the Managing Committee; to decide all elec-
tion disputes and to exercise in any emer-
gency any or all of the powers of the Manag-
ing Committee, and to report such action
to the Managing Committee or the Govern-
ing Council within thirty days. The Presi-
dent may also direct in his discretion the
Secretaries to convene a meeting of the
Managing Committee or of the Governing
Council at any time.
Managing Committee (Articles 11, 12, 13)
The Management of the affairs of the
AISCO shall vest in the Managing Com-
mittee, which will hold office for three years.
The Managing Committee shall consist of
thirty members, namely, the President,
twenty-three members elected by the Govern-
ing Council and six members nominated by
the newly-elected President. Members of the
Governing Council shall alone be eligible
for election or nomination the President.
But failure of the President to fill any such
vacancies, however, shall not affect the status,
decisions or actions of the Conmiittee. It
shall elect from its own members eight
Vice-Presidents, three Secretaries and two
Treasurers. Its meetings shall be called by
the Secretaries on their own initiative or
when so asked by the President. Ten days‟
clear notice shall be given of a meeting of
the Managing Committee. The President,
however, may ask for an urgent meeting to
be convened at shorter notice. The quorum
for a meeting of the Managing Committee
shall be twelve. In the absence of a quorum,
the meeting will be adjourned to a later date
when business shall proceed without the need
for a quorum. The Managing Committee
shall meet at least once in two calendar
months. The President shall preside at ali
meetings of the Managing Committee. In
his absence, any one of the Vice-Presidents
elected by the members present shall
preside. In their absence, the members pre-
sent shall elect one of them to preside. FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES
The functions, powers and duties of the
Managing Committee will be to take all due
steps and measures as may be conducive
to or authorised by or necessary for the
implementation of the aims and objects of
the AISCO as set out or implied in Article 5,
to prepare on the dose each year a Report
on all policies and activities along with
audited statements of accounts relating to
that year, to submit the to the Governing
Council and to present them to all members;
to frame Rules governing the triennial elec-
tion of the President as laid down in
clause (b) of Article 9; to map out zones
and organise zonal committees of members
for the for the propagation and pursuit of the aims
and objects and for elections to the Govern-
ing Council as laid down in Clause (d) of
Article 10, and to frame appropriate Rules
for these purposes; to make all rules framed
by it and any amendment of them known to
all members; to fill any casual vacancy of
the post of President as provided for in
Clause (c) of Article 9; to maintain a Roll
of Members; to appoint sub-committees or
Special Committees for study and advice on
any subject or subjects or for the implemen-
tation of any decisions; to conduct or cause
to be conducted by a suitable agency a perio-
69 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
dical publication as the official journal of the
AISCO, as provided for in Clause (k) of
Article 5 and to furnish a copy of each issue
to every member free of cost; to fulfil all
statutory obligations, including the filing of
returns with appropriate authorities; to bank,
invest, spend and/or donate moneys in
accordance with the provisions of the Con-
stitution and generally to conduct the
management of the AISCO with due care
and efficiency.
However, notwithstanding anything con-
tained in the above provisions of the con-
stitution, the first Managing Committee was
constituted by nomination which shall hold
office until relieved by a Managing Com-
mittee formed under the relevant provisions
of Articles 9, 10 and 11. The first Manag-
ing Committee shall take expeditious steps
including the framing of the relevant Rules
for the election of the President and for the
formation of the Governing Council of the
Managing Committee as provided for in
Articles 9, 11, 12, and 20; and it shall see
to it that these steps are completed within
thirty-six months from the date of the adop-
tion of this constitution. The first Managing
Committee shall appoint auditors annually
for the first three years of the AISCO. The
provisions of Clause (c) of Article 11 shall
not apply to the President‟s nomination to
fill any casual vacancy in the first Manag-
ing Committee.
Governing Council (Article 10).
Subject to the specific provisions of the
articles of the Constitution all general and
residuary powers of the AISCO shall vest in
the Governing Council. The Governing
Council shall hold office for three years and
shall consist of one hundred and fifty mem-
bers, consisting of the President, elected
under Article 9, one hundred and thirty-
one members elected by members of the
AISCO and eighteen members nominated by
the newly-elected President.
The election of one hundred and thirty-
one members to the Governing Council shall
be governed by rules made in that behalf by
the Managing Committee on the basis of
zones mapped out for the purpose. Any
member may, however, stand for election
from any zone. Casual vacancies in the
Governing Council shall be filled by the
President by nomination. The President‟s
failure to fill any such vacancies shall not,
however, affect the competence or vitiate the
decisions of the Council.
The Governing Council shall meet at least
once in every official year, and at any other
times that the Managing Committee or the
President may decide. The meetings of the
Council shall generally be held in Bombay,
but the Managing Committee may choose any
other venue for any meeting of the (Council.
Thirty clear days‟ notice of a meeting of the
Governing Council shall be given to its
members specifying the place, date, time and
agenda of the meeting. The President shall
preside at all meetings of the Governing
Council. In his absence the members present
shall elect a Chairman for the meeting from
amongst the Vice-Presidents. Thirty-five
members shall form a quorum for a meeting
of the Governing Council. In the absence of
a quorum the meeting shall be adjourned to
a later date when business shall be conduct-
ted without the need for a quorum. The
Secretaries of the Managing Committee
shall be the Secretaries of the Governing
Council. It shall be the function and duty
of the Governing Council to receive and
consider the Annual Report and audited
statements of accounts presented by the
Managing Committee; to consider the polic-
ies and activities of the Managing Comm-
ittee, and to make recommendations, to
appoint auditors; and to decide on such
other matters as may be placed before it by
the Managing Committee or the President,
or by a member of the Council.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 70
MAJOR ISSUES — FUTURE
SET-UP
Membership
Should our organisation confine its acti-
vities to the membership of the AISCO or
should it be an organisation in the service
of the entire community ? Even if all social
service institutions, temples and business
firms and the members of the community
may not join as active members on its rolls,
it is in the fitness of things to allow and
provide for some participation and feeling
of involvement in its activities to the entire
community. If our organisation is in earnest
in solving the various problems facing the
community, it ought to co-operate and co-
ordinate its activities with all the existing
organisations and institutions of the commu-
nity, including these which may not be on
its rolls.
This may be done by having a new cate-
gory of membership, i.e.. Primary Member-
ship, which does not involve any big finan-
cial contribution, but prescribes only a
nominal fee of Rs. 1/- per annum. These
primary members may not enjoy all the
benefits, such as the right to have a free
copy of the official journal and of participa-
tion in the election of the members to the
Governing Council and other related mat-
ters. But they will have a say in the deter-
mination of the policies and programmes of
the AISCO. Their participation can be en-
sured at the all India level by convening
All-India Saraswat Cultural Conventions
periodically, say once in every three years,
wherein open sessions can be organised as
a forum for all Primary Members. The re-
solutions and decisions of these sessions
would be implemented by the AISCO.
The participation of the Primary Mem-
bers will also be ensured to a greater extent
and in a more active manner at the district
and local levels by permitting them to parti-
cipate in these meetings. In fact, all Saras-
wat institutions and temple representatives
should have representation even on the
Executive Committees of the District Units
of the AISCO. This may be ensured by
amendments to the constitution of AISCO
or alternatively, by incorporating appro-
priate provisions in the rules and regula-
tions of the district units which are to be
drawn up by the Managing Committee of
the AISCO. This will lay the foundations
of the AISCO at the grass-root level, give
a sense of belonging and participation to
the Primary Members who will form its
backbone and source of strength. It is possi-
ble to convene periodically open sessions of
the AISCO which they can attend and where
they may deliberate on matters of common
interest. They will thus represent the demo-
cratic element in our organisation in the
broadest terminology.
Should non-Saraswats, who are interested
in our cause, including institutions, be per-
mitted to have some sort of participation in
our activities ? Already, the definition of
the membership clause has clarified that a
person married to a Saraswat is a Saraswat
as also a person one of whose parents is a
Saraswat. Suppose there are outsiders who
would like to be associated with our cause
and take part in our activities. Should we
have a constitutional bar against their entry
or should we permit them to come in freely?
I think it is possible to devise a scheme
more or less akin to the Primary Member-
ship as a worthwhile proposition.
The Managing Committee
The Managing Committee to be effective
should normally consist of up to 13 active
members including the President.
However, a larger Committee may be
necessary, consisting of, say, up to 30 mem-
bers, to ensure proper representation to
every region and sect. It may be advisable
71 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
to nominate a Vice-President and a member
from the four Regional Committees on the
Managing Committee who would be very
active in organisational work in their region.
However, in this set-up, it may be necessary
to form a compact Steering Committee con-
sisting of not more than 7 active members,
who are based at the HQ to carry out the
decisions of the Managing Committee on a
day-to-day basis and to take quick decisions
during the intervening period between meet-
ings of the Managing Committee. The Pre-
sident and a few other active members of
the Managing Committee at the HQ alone
should be included in the Steering Com-
mittee, Necessary rules and regulations may
be framed regarding the scope and functions
of the Steering Committee,
Regional Committees / Local Units
In order to make the AISCO a truly re-
presentative, democratic body in every sense
of the term, it has been proposed to set up
district units wherein all areas having con-
centrations of Saraswats will be represented.
There will be four regions corresponding to
the four directions. Northern, Eastern,
Southern and Western, The units of each
region will together form a Regional Com-
mittee, These four Regional Committees
will form part of the Central Governing
Council by having proportional representa-
tion on it. These points have been included
in the constitution of the AISCO,
The various questions, that may arise
concerning the relationship between the
units, the Regional Committees and the
Governing Council at the apex are sought
to be tackled as and when they crop up.
Likewise, the limits of operation of each
unit of the Regional Committee will have
to be decided on the principle of organisa-
tional convenience and need not correspond
necessarily to the geographical, political or
linguistic boundaries. All this will be neces-
sary since the activities of the AISCO are
to be organised on an all India basis and the
volume of work at the HQ for co-ordination
and integration is likely to be enormous. Centralisation vs Decentralisation
As a first alternative, we may consider a
decentralised set-up, with the four Regional
Committees functioning autonomously in
the North, East, South and West, together
with their respective district units under
them. The second is to have a centralised
set-up, with the four Regional Committees
operating at the headquarters exercising
supervision through the Managing Com-
mittee and co-ordinating their work. The
aim will be to progressively delegate powers
and functions at the district level as this
becomes feasible as they gain in experience.
5, Unitary Vs. Federal Structure
At least in the initial stages, a unitary
set-up appears desirable until a new philo-
sophy of governance and consolidation
gains acceptance. The endeavour will be to
assist the various smaller organisations to
develop competence to tackle their financial
and organisational problems at their own
level. As and when a system of proper
central control and performance evaluation
norms are developed, delegation of powers
to the Regional Committees may be con-
sidered.
District Units and Central Headquarters The sine qua non of any efficient organisa-
tion is to ensure that its aims and ideals
permeate to the lower levels and win accep-
tance among the mass of the community
from the village level upwards. This will also
help to analyse the problems facing them
and to pass them on to the Headquarters for
advice and guidance as a first step in their
solution. Depending on the degree of popu-
lation concentration, an AISCO district
need not necessarily correspond to the geo-
graphical or political boundaries.
72 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
The sole criterion will be facility of
communication. Care may have to be taken
to sec that homogeneous units are constitut-
ed, having due regard, as far as may be, to
their language, customs, etc., so that their
functioning may be effective. One of ihe
important responsibilities of the Central
Committee will be to promote active parti-
cipation and cooperation among the various
sects and sub-sects in a given area, so that
the pyramidal system functions satisfactorily.
Thus, for example, the cooperation of the
Kashmiri Pandits Association and its mem-
bers may be more readily forthcoming, if
sought through the Association‟s good offices.
The AISCO‟s work can thus be better co-
ordinated and integrated at the national
level if the Association is granted full auto-
nomy rather than the heterogeneous district
units. Similarly, the cooperation of the
Chitrapur Saraswats will be more fruitful if
enlisted through their local sabhas and other
organisations.
7. District Units — Some Suggestions
(a) All social service institutions, tem-
ples, cultural organisations or groups should
be enrolled as members of the district unit.
(b) Every district unit should organise
periodical meetings, conferences, seminars
and symposia to sustain a close bond with
these institutions and promote understanding,
collaboration and coordination among them.
To make these functions more meaningful
and practically useful, the Regional Com-
mittee members should try and attend them.
(c) A district unit will be free to adopt
as official language the language spoken in
their area or English for purposes corres-
pondence, etc., with the HQ.
PERIODIC REPORTS
(d) A district unit should, as far as possi-
ble, bring all members of the Saraswat com-
munity within its fold and permit each vil-
lege or group of villages to elect one repre-
sentative on the district unit. This repre-
sentative should submit a monthly report of
the work and activities of the residents in
his area to the district unit, which in turn
should send a consolidated report to its
Regional Committee. The latter should
forward a general report on the work in its
region every month (in duplicate). The
Central Committee will then compile a
monthly or quarterly newsletter for publica-
tion in the AISCO Supplement to “The
Samyukta Saraswat”, the quarterly journal
published by the All-India Saraswat Foun-
dation in January, April, July and October
every year.
Until a proper set of rules is drawn up to
regulate the work and duties of district units,
the AISCO should go ahead with the forma-
tion of ad hoc district committees some of
which may later constitute the district units,
depending on their record of work.
(e) Members should be enrolled at the
district unit. Proper accounts should be
maintained and monies should be remitted
to the AISCO. Bank accounts may be open-
ed by each district unit. Also a proper
record should be kept of all expenses incur-
led in connection with promotional and such
other activities. The AISCO may in the
initial stages sanction certain funds to the
district units, later on these latter will be
expected to run their activities on a certain
percentage of funds raised by them in the
form of membership fees, donations, contri-
butions, etc. This may be done by holding
periodically cultural gatherings, annual day
functions, etc.
ORGANISATIONAL MATTERS
(f) As far as possible, major correspond-
ence and queries regarding organisational
matters such as issue of receipts for pay-
ments made, enrolment of membership, pre-
paration of various lists and other routine
queries about the people and requirements,
and other activities involving purely local
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1073 73
issues where their solution is within the
capacity and purview of the district units
should be entrusted entirely to the district
units only. It is sufficient if the H.Q. calls
for periodic summary reports from district
units in this respect. Even the queries
coming directly to the Central agency should
be forwarded to the district unit for follow
up action. Such a delegation of the work
to the district units will leave greater scope
for the H.Q. to deal with more important
work such as issue of proper directions, eva-
luation of the work of district units, and their
coordination and integration, as also provi-
sion of certain activities and expert infornia-
jtion and the studies necessary for the proper
functioning of such district units. This will
also give greater incentive to the district
units to work harder,
(g) Copies of “The Samyukta Saraswat”
and circulars may be distributed with advan-
tage by the district units. Aptive association
of members with the official journal will turn
the latter into a forum where all problems
and ideas may be posed and discussed fruit-
fully. That will make for a sense of parti-
cipation. This will be sought to be promoted
at the proper time by having language sup-
plements to the journal with the eventual
possibility of a journal in a regional language.
Alternatively, we may have special issue of
the journal, focussing attention on certain
problems or regions.
NEED FOR MASS CONTACT
(h) The distribution agency can be turn-
ed into a first-rate means of personal or mass
contact, if copies of the journal and other
literature are distributed in person by going
from door to door, as is the case with “The
Chitrapur Sunbeam”, the official organ of
the Chitrapur Math, through their local
sabhas. Incidentally, a lot of money will be
saved on postage and stationery. It will
make the district unit feel more useful and
responsible and will infuse more life in its
members and eventually lead to the establish-
ment of an intimate rapport between the
units and members of the community.
Each district unit will have a representa-
tive on the Governing Council besides being
represented on the Regional Committee. The
Governing Council should have also repre-
sentatives of social service, cultural and lite-
rary organisations. The President has, ac-
cordingly, been vested with powers to nomi-
nate 18 members on the Governing Council
to represent these interests. Social service
institutions, including temples and dharmic
bodies which form a separate category, are
also entitled to become institutional mem-
bers. As these are responsible for a major
portion of the community‟s cultural activi-
ties and represent the best traditions of the
community, a sizeable number of elected
seats should be reserved for them, say 25
to 50 per cent. This will ensure greater co-
operation from these bodies whom the
AISCO too will be able to assist in every
way. Even here the accent will be on the
democratic element of delegaton of functions
and powers.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 747474
By Smt. SITA KAIKINI, Bombay.
vity illumines the annals of our history and
shows the stuff of which we are made.
Coming to the present times, the first All
India Saraswat Conference was held at
Santa Cruz, a Bombay suburb, way back in
1926, and the late Pt. Motilal Nehru presid-
ed. My husband, then a mere lad of 14,
was one of the volunteers. Other names in
the Saraswat galaxy are too numerous to
recount, but I may list only such luminaries
as Madan Mohan Malaviya, Lala Lajpat
Rai, Jawaharlal Nehru, Tej Bahadur Sapru
and Kailash Nath Katju. Today we have
Smt. Indira Gandhi at the helm of national
affairs. She has shown once again the stuff
of which we Saraswats are made — both in
SARASWATS ; Unite to Serve Humanity
A lot is heard these days
of Saraswats
and the philosophy of Saraswatism. The
Saraswats are an ancient clan spread far
and wide whose origins are lost in the mists
of antiquity. It is well known that they are
descended from a sage Saraswat by name,
who lived on the banks of the Saraswati
liver which flowed through Kashmir. The
sage was a reputed repository of Vedic lore
and of all that was worthy of preservation
for posterity. The way he preserved this
lore and saved the race of Saraswats is too
well known to need repetition.
The world of today is a strange conglo-
meration of diverse elements. Look where
you will and you will see racial arrogance,
economic power, material affluence, ever-
increasing greed, military might and atomic
means of wholesale decimation. The things
that truly matter, the articles we value, the
things of the spirit — nobility, charily,
kindness, truth, beauty, goodness, renne-
ment — that constitute true culture are no
longer valued or cared for, the things that
endure when all is said and done. It is
Mammon that rules the roost.
At such a historic moment of universal
crisis of the human spirit, the men behind
the AISCO have done well to decide to
revive the spirit of Saraswatism that has
stood for the very best in human thought,
word and action in times bygone, in the be-
lief and hope that they can make some con-
tribution to the task of ultimately saving
humanity from fortuitcus, avoidable self-
destruction and save man from himself.
We Saraswats have great things to our
credit. In the Rajasthan region, there was
even a royal dynasty that ruled a modest
kingdom, well and wisely. In Kashmir, the
quiet heroism of a Saraswat prime minister
who made the supreme sacrifice of his life
to rescue his liege and monarch from capti-
peace and in war. The whole world has
applauded her genius, her imagination, her
grit, her indomitable courage and resource-
fulness. In her cabinet and inner circle there
arc a number of notable Saraswats who are
serving the country loyally and wholeheart-
edly.
Our movement is intended to arrest the
current drift towards purposelessness and
canalise the energies of all Saraswats along
the fruitful channels of national regenera-
tion, so that our country may once again
gain her supreme position in culture and
civilization, as once she did when people in
the West moved about in skins and barks
of trees,
I have confidence in the Saraswat genius
that it can “set the Thames on fire” only if
it organises itself better and applies the
shoulder to the wheel.
Let all Saraswats, wherever they live, in
India or abroad, rally round the banner of
the AISCO and march hand in hand for the
greater glory of man, thereby realising
Mahatma Gandhi‟s dream of all men being
brothers and Wendell Wilkies dream of
One World.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1873 75
Shri S. V. Pikale counts among those who
have made an outstanding and distinctive contri-
bution to the promotion of the AISCO and the
organisation of its activities. Despite the exacting
demands of a successful practice as tax counsellor,
he is actively connected with numerous institu-
tions of public benefit — temples. Maths, school.
colleges, charitable trusts, the Servants of India
Society, and now the AISCO and the All India
Saraswat foundation.
No good cause, no public institution in diffi-
culty, looks to him in vain. Neither are there
half-measures in his cooperation. Even before the
AISCO was formed, he solved the Preparatory
Committee‟s primary difficulty by giving it a
furnished office without cost or rent. It still re-
mains the AISCO‟s as well as the Foundation‟s
office, and is free of rent. The AISCO has free'
access to the services of his office staff. He con-
ducted an intensive tour of Goa and the Kanara
Districts at his own expense, to propagate the
cause of the AISCO.
What is the urge, what is the secret, of this
way of life, a life of continuous strain and sacri-
fice? Shri Pikale provides the answer, characteris-
tically without an evident trace of autobio-
graphical reflection.
THE GITA TO OUR RESCUE By
S. V. PIKALE, Bombay.
Man is not a mere creature thrown up by
nature in the process of an evolutionary
gamble. He has a special purpose, a special
mission and a unique role to play in this
world. Man is essentially divine. The aim
of all human life is to achieve perfection and
this perfection is the outward manifestation
of his inner goodness and strength. The
Bhagavadgita is a spiritual storehouse for all
mankind. With repetitive reading and
thinking, it altogether gives a new dimen-
sion to life and existence. The Gita gives us
not only profound insights that are valid for
all time and for all religious life, but it con-
tains the classical presentation of the real
values of life and one‟s duties towards the
world. The Gita does not call upon us to
solve the meaning of life but to find out the
DEED demanded of us and to work, and so,
by action, to master the riddle of life.
The Gita bases its message of action on
a philosophy of life. It does not advocate
a fanatical devotion to the practical to the
abandonment of the dignity of thought. Its
philosophy of the practical is derived from
its philosophy of the spirit. Ethical action
is derived from metaphysical realisation. The
essential purpose of the Gita is to show us
a way out of bondage.
Kurukshetra was the Dharmakshetra —
the place where the ideals of real Dharma
were propounded. It is stated that the entire
Gita, i.e., all the 700 verses may not have
been propounded on the battlefield. Lord
Krishna only narrated to Arjuna the neces-
sity of doing one‟s duty and forget the con-
sequences. The real author of the Bhagvad-
gita is Lord Vyas. Lord Krishna uttered
it in a trance. It is stated that after the
Kurukshetra war Arjuna requested Shree
Krishna to repeat the Gita, as he had
forgotten the same. Shree Krishna replied
that He could not do so because at Kuru-
kshetra He had a particular Yogasamadhi
which prompted Him to declare the true
faith for all mankind. The Gita is the em-
bodiment of all the Vedas and the
Upanishads. The vedic science of spiritual
self-discovery is the life-saver for humanity
sliding down to destruction. Man has today
lost his hold on truth, morality, peace and
love. The Gita is the message of love. It is
the message of the rightful path of existence.
It is the path that leads man to calmness.
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 76
composure, humility, purity, virtue, courage, and tender piety. These are the essential
conviction and on abandonment of the self features of Hindu life and thought and the
and selfishness. Bhagvadgita is the organic unity of the same.
The method adopted is not of denial of
The teachings of the Gita are not present- self but penetration into the self. The
ed as a metaphysical system thought out by eighteen chapters of Gita show that all
an individual thinker or a school of thinkers, diverse paths of worship and prayers are
It is set forth as a tradition which has emerg- towards the same end.
ed from the religious life of mankind.
Swami Vivekananda has said that the Hindu The Gita is a part of the Bhismaparva of
Dharma has the power of assimilation, the the Mahabharata. Historically it dates back
power to appreciate and adopt what is good to the Fifth Century B.C. The Gita has
in other religions. The Swami by his forth- been recognised for centuries as an orthodox
right expositions proved to the world that scripture of the Hindu religion possessing
the Dharma was the most ancient and equal authority with the Upanishads and
that the essential healthy features of all the Brahma Sutra. The Upanishads contain
other religions of the world were found in different interpretations about the nature of
the Gita and the Upanishads. The Gita and the Absolute. The Brahma Sutra is stated
the Upanishads were not Brahmanical can- to be terse and obscure. The Gita gives a
nons aimed at Vamashram but the basic rational and consistent view,
factors governing life and existence.
The Gita has also been stated to be the
The Gita does not at any place preach any basis of the Budhist religion. The Bhagvda-
distinction between man and man. Nobody gita is a way of life and therefore it con-
is superior and nobody is inferior; every- tains practically all the values of piety,
body goes according to the Karma he does charity, duty and one‟s dharma.
in this world.
The Avatar of Lord Krishna was a full
The Gita is both Bramhavidya and incarnation with all the 16 facets of glory.
Yogashastra. It is a science of reality and In the Avtar of Rama, out of 16, the three
the art of union with reality. Purity of mind brothers had one each; and Parashurama the
and purity of heart is the cleansing of mind contemporary of Shri Rama had one, until
of all distractions and the purging of the Shri Rama met him at his Swayamvara at
heart from all corruption. Janaka‟s palace and overpowered him and
drew within himself the fraction of the divine
The period of Kurukshetra war was a power that he had. The other incarnations
confusing period in the annals of Hindu were for the suppression of evil. The
Religion. The cultural conflicts between the Avtars of Rama and Krishna were for the
Aryas and the Non-Aryas were raising their restoration of Dharma and fostering virtuous
heads. It was necessary to bring a synthesis living. Man is an amalgam of humanity,
of the conflicting and confusing elements animality and divinity. It is a tragedy that
and mtegrate the same into a comprehensive he cannot get rid of animality. In Ramayana
unity free and large, subtle and „profound, we have the Yoga Vashistha; in Krishna-
TheGita has integrated the vedic cult of yana we have the
sacrifice, the Upanishad teachings of trans-
cendent Brahman, the Bhagavata theism. There are many commentaries on the
samkhya dualism, yoga meditation and love Gita, the famous among them being Lord
77 THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973
Shankaracharya in the 8th Century. By far
the most important commentary on the Gita
is that of Lord Jnaneshwar of Alandi in
Maharashtra. Lord Jnaneshwar at the age
of 16, in coloquial Marathi or Konkani as
understood by the general masses at the time,
described the stages for the progress of man
from a mere animal to a supreme being,
including the incarnated Avatar. Lord
Jnaneshwar took Samadhi at the age of 21.
His famous words were that if one has
accomplished what is to be accomplished,
there is no purpose in living further in this
world.
Jnaneshwar stated that the Oita gave him
the full meaning of life. All the impurities
of mind and heart were cleaned and
Jnaneshwar found perfection and oneness
with God, When he found this perfection his
bliss was unbounded and it is at the moment
of this bliss that he took his Samadhi at
Alandi near Poona.
God is never born in the ordinary sense.
The processes of birth and incarnation which
imply limitation do not apply to him. When
the Lord is said to manifest Himself at a
proper time at a particular occasion, it only
means that it takes place with reference to
the finite being. The subjective and
objective processes of the world are only
the expressions of the higher and lower
natures of the supreme. Yet, in whatever
is glorious, beautiful and strong, God‟s pre-
sence becomes more manifest.
The author of the Gita mentions Lord
Krishna of history as one of many forms
along with his disciple Arjuna. The
Avatar is the demonstration of man‟s spiri-
tual resources and latent divinity, it is not
so much a fraction of divine majesty in the
limits of human frame as the exaltation of
human nature to the level of God by its
union with the divine. The theory of
Avatar is an eloquent expression of the
spiritual world. As God is looked upon as
saviour of man. He must manifest Himself
whenever the forces of evil threaten to
destroy human values.
Today we find ourselves surrounded by
the destructive forces of viciousness and vice
on all sides. The materialistic cult and a
belief in one‟s own superiority have reduced
us to a state of despair, and today man is
groping in the dark with no light to illu-
mine the future. It is in such moments of
such despair that the Bhagvadgita comes to
our rescue and restores in us the confidence
and strength required.
Volumes after volumes have been written
on the interpretations of the Bhagvadgita.
Lokmanya Tilak wrote a treatise of 1400
pages only on Karmayoga Sastra. Acharya
Vinoba Bhave considers the Gita as a mother
and his Gita is a famous poem dealing with
the glories of the teachings of the
Bhagavadgita. Mahatma Gandhi stated that
by religion he did not mean a formal reli-
gion. According to Gandhiji, religion is that
religion which underlies all religions and
brings us face to face with our Maker. The
Bhagvadgita does bring us face to face with
God,
"God is truth and life; God is morality:
God is fearlessness. God is the source of
light and life, yet He is out and beyond all
these. God is consciousness. He is even the
atheism of the atheist. He transcends speech
and reason. He is personal God to those
who need His personal presence. He is
almighty to those who need His touch. He is
simple to those who have faith. He is all
things to ail men. He is in us and yet above
and beyond us.”
I would like to end this article with a
famous quotation from the Gita:
"God‟s light dwells in the self and no-
where else. It shines alike in every living
being and one can see it with one s mind
steadied.‟
THE SAMYUKTA SARASWAT, JANUARY 1973 78
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