Myths, possibly; predictions, most likely : The Tribune India

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Myths, possibly; predictions, most likely

FAITH and science have often been in conflict.

Myths, possibly; predictions, most likely

The Dancing Siva or the Nataraj captures Siva in his dual role as the Lord of both destruction and creation. Courtesy: The Ashok collection



Hugh & Colleen Gantzer

FAITH and science have often been in conflict. Galelio was imprisoned for daring to say that the earth went round the sun only because it challenged people’s interpretation of the Bible. Evolution is still being disputed by those who believe that the Creator made the world the way it is today, enigmatic fossils included. But in our quest for answers are we asking the wrong questions? We know that our remarkable savants conceived the zero, thereby giving birth to mathematics and many aspects of science as we know them today. 

Geo-stationary satellites 

The zero was a concept, not an artefact: an idea not a material object. The drawings of Leonardo da Vinci prove that the concept of a helicopter and a submarine had occurred to him long before rotary-winged aircraft ever took to the skies or submersibles prowled the deep. Closer to our own time, Arthur  C. Clarke predicted the creation of geo-stationary satellites long before the first one was put into orbit. His prescience was acknowledged by NASA 

The concept of flying machines had occurred to savants in many old civilisations and had been recorded in their epics, myths and legends.The desire to emulate the birds led to the concept of human flight. Pioneering ideas deserve as much acclaim as innovations in technology. But knowledge is power. Those who have it want to protect it. Semi-religious cults and guilds often protected their expertise by cryptic symbols and codes. Poet and folklorist Robert Graves believed that the early Celtic savants, the legendary Druids, hid their knowledge in poems that were easy to remember. At one time, when it was believed that the Bible held all knowledge, the lay-people were forbidden to read the Book. Not that they would have understood it. It was written in Latin which was, virtually, a priestly language as Sanskrit was in our land. 

Encoding religious beliefs

Our thinkers went to even greater lengths to protect their knowledge. They took, quite literally, a much more creative route. They used art, particularly sculpture, to encode their concepts in a form that depicted current religious beliefs. The sanctity of the icon would ensure that its essential character would not change. The traditional idol-making families of Tamil Nadu recite poems to ensure that all proportions of their creations conform to time-honoured specifications. Such revered practices are a guarantee that the form of the images pass, unchanged, down the generations till they reach an age when their encrypted messages could be deciphered. The uniqueness of this method was that the religious value of the icon was left intact, while preserving its scientific concept.

Icon of Dasavataras

The icon of the Dasavataras is particularly graphic as a pre-emptive evolutionary image. It depicts the descent of spiritual mentors appropriate to the Age. Its spiritual message is clear: When living creatures need to be redeemed, an avatar manifests itself and restores righteousness. This promise is not exclusive to humans: It includes all living creatures and expresses the essential inclusiveness of the belief system. Beyond its religious significance, however, encrypted into this icon is a revolutionary scientific concept. It proclaims an idea which shook the scientific world when Charles Darwin propounded it at least 1000 years later. 

Sequence of the avataras

Consider the sequence of the avataras. Matsya: Life begins in the blood-warm primordial ocean. It struggles  onto the shores as Kuruma, the tortoise does. The egg-laying amphibian gives way to the mammalian boar: Varaha. Evolution advances to produce our  proto-human ancestors represented by the fearsome Narasimha. Another age, another avatara: Vamana. The first humanoid could have been the small Rama pithecus who once roamed in the Shiwaliks. Then came our true ancestors who were hunter-gatherers as Parusuram, Rama-with-the-axe was. That is where Darwin stops, but the avataras continue to describe the social evolution of man. One list of avataras features Balarama, the farmer who evolved from the hunter-gatherer. The list moves to human society grouped into self-protective kingdoms under wise monarchs like Ram. Human society grows and becomes more sophisticated, urbane and liberal: qualities held by the penultimate avatara, Krishna. Then comes the avatara-of-the-future, the centaur-like figure of Kalki. Does he represent the global human galloping unfettered across the frontiers of the world? Or does he depict the bionic man: human and vehicle fused into one? There is also an alternative avatara. Balaram does not feature in some of the lists of avataras. In such lists, Buddha becomes the ninth avatara indicating a spiritually-advanced society. From our perspective, therefore, Kalki offers varying futures as do the icons that express them.

Dancing Shiva

One of the most recognised icons is the so-called, Dancing Siva. The Nataraj captures Siva in his dual role as the Lord of both Destruction and Creation. His idol evokes the awe and the focused devotion of his worshippers. For non-Hindus, however, his icon takes on a different dimension. It becomes a graphic depiction of the Big Bang: that seminal moment when the entire universe began to expand out of the tiny bit of primordial substance into the ballooning cosmos we know today. Much has been written about the individual features of this icon but, in effect, it depicts a universe dancing on the imp of darkness: motion emerging from nothingness. This is what modern cosmologists believe. They have no idea of what existed before the Big Bang. Nevertheless, they speculate that there is an expanding ring of radiation around the burgeoning fringes of the expanding universe. The Nataraj is enclosed in a symbolic circle of fire depicting the present, dynamic, state of the cosmos.

Bing Bang and Big Crunch

Indic cosmology takes an even  wider view. It argues that this is the dynamic Day of Brahma. It will, inevitably, be followed by a quiescent Night of Brahma. Modern cosmologists theorise that the Big Bang will be followed by the Big Crunch, when the expansion of the universe will stop and the contraction will begin. Some cosmologists believe that this is a cyclical process but they cannot explain how the process starts all over again after the destructive compression of the Big Crunch. The reclining Vishnu hints at an explanation. In shrines where this image is worshiped as an idol, the Preserver of the Hindu trinity is depicted as sleeping on the coils of the great serpent Seshnag. From Lord Vishnu’s navel a lotus stalk emerges with a bloom at the far end. In that flower, sits Brahma, the Creator of the Trinity. While we do not view this image through the eyes of faith, we do see a clue to an answer to a vexing question asked but never answered by modern scientists. Sesha, we have been told, could also mean “remainder”. If this is correct then, perhaps, Indic savants speculated that everything was not destroyed in the Big Crunch. In that navel, the Black Hole into which the universe had been sucked, a speck remained. That tiny seed waited for the ordained moment to germinate, flower and set the universe-building process in motion again.

Captured in an image

The next step in creation has also been captured in an Indic image. In the beginning, Siva and his consort were locked in a prolonged embrace.  When, eventually, they separated, she began to dance around him. That dance created maya: the illusion of reality. Before the Big Bang, all matter is concentrated in a super-dense state. Electrons and protons, those basic building blocks of matter, lie tightly packed together. Then, as the expansion of the Big Bang begins, electrons start revolving around the proton.This whirring dance of the electrons creates the impression of solidness. That impression, that illusion, is maya and we cannot think of a warmer, more vivid, image to express this cold, scientific fact.

The laboratories of the mind

As both Einstein and Stephen Hawking have proved, all these insights into the nature of the universe do not depend on technology. Albert Einstein worked in, what he called, “the laboratories of the mind”. Hawking is bound to his wheelchair and uses a voice simulator to speak. And yet both have given the most startling insights into time, space, gravity, light and the curiously contradictory nature of fundamental particles. Interaction with fellow theoretical physicists helped them in finetuning their theories. 

Our savants had similar opportunities. In the world’s first residential university at Nalanda in Bihar, scholars from all over the known world shared their thoughts and theories. They belonged to a broad spectrum of disciplines: Buddhist,Taoist, Saivite, Vaishnavite, Jaina, Zoroastrian, Tantric and all the many sub-sects in between— indeed a stimulating environment for the birth of new ideas. Given their prevailing fear of knowledge falling into the wrong hands, these concepts would have been incorporated into complex religious icons. 

Those who want to prove that ancient Indians were aviators might consider following the Da Vinci Code example: use cryptographers and iconographers to uncover the truth.

The writers are veteran travel writers. They have extensively researched the myths and legends of the world.

In the world’s first residential university at Nalanda in Bihar, scholars from all over the known world shared thoughts and theories. They belonged to a broad spectrum of disciplines: Buddhist,Taoist,Saivite, Vaishnavite, Jaina, Zoroastrian, Tantric & the many sub-sects —what a stimulating environment!

The reclining Vishnu is depicted as sleeping on the coils of the great serpent Seshnag. Courtesy: The Ashok collection 

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