DHAULAGIRI-Witness of the Kalinga War.

DAYA RIVER

Odisha has always been one of my favourite states, as that is the state where I spent the earliest part of my childhood. My father was an Engineer who studied in Battersea Polytechnic, London on Government of British India scholarship way back in 1945. Once back in the country in 1949, he  was totally committed with zeal to work in India and develop the country which had recently become free from its foreign rule.

Nehru was the Prime Minister of India then and, he had said that Dams were the temples of modern India.

Hirakud dam project over the River Mahanadi was the project where my father was posted and so my earliest memories are of the great river flowing fast and past our house which was on the banks of the river.

As I boarded a plane from Delhi to take me to the historical city of Bhubaneswar, I closed my eyes  and lo and behold when I opened my eyes I found that I was back in time and in the year 261 B.C. I found myself wandering on the lush green land on the banks of the river Daya.

"Daya" means compassion. I wonder if the river was named Daya after the Kalinga war which took place on its banks in 261 BC.

Bhubaneswar city and its surroundings speak a lot about the 11th and 12th century A.D. but I was more interested in the second century B.C. and in Dhaulagiri the site which transformed Chand Ashok the son of Bindusara and grandson of Chandragupta Maurya into Dharma Ashok, also known as Priyadarshi Ashok. Dhaulagiri is located on the outskirts of the city.

Ashok  had become the King of Magadh after shedding the blood of all his siblings including the rightful heir to the throne Sushim, the eldest son of Bindusara. Before becoming the ruler of the Magadh empire, Ashok had won many wars and had been appointed as the Governor of Vidisha in what is now Madhya Pradesh. At that time Sushim was the Governor of Takshashila. While at Vidisha Ashok married a local Buddhist girl named Devi. After the death of Bindusara, Ashok moved to Pataliputra and ruled from 268 B.C. to 232 B.C.   

It is said that Kalinga which is now in  Odisha, was earlier ruled by the Nanda Kings, who were the rulers of Magadh from (345 B.C. to 321 B.C.)before Chandragupta Maurya( 322 B.C. to 297 B.C.). Kalinga later won its freedom and became an independent Kingdom ruled by Ananth Padmanabha.  The Magadh empire under the Mauryas was spread from present day Afghanistan in the west to present day Bangladesh in the east. It covered the entire Indian subcontinent except for some parts of present-day Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala. The capital of Magadh was at Pataliputra, and it had provincial capitals at Takshashila in the North and at Ujjain in the centre of India.  After becoming the ruler of the Magadh Empire, Ashok invaded Kalinga to conquer it.  

THE DAYA RIVER IS STILL RED.

There was a massive war on the banks of the River Daya, where women and children too died fighting  for the freedom of their land. Seeing the immense destruction and bloodshed on the banks of the river, Ashok was filled with remorse and felt utter revulsion at the outcome of the war.  He decided to change his path and become a benevolent monarch.

He became a follower of Buddha who had preached about peace and compassion almost two hundred years before the war of Kalinga. Buddha lived from 563 B.C. to 483 B.C. Ashoka decided to spread the teachings of the Buddha all over his own empire and also in the neighbouring countries. In 483 B.C. when Buddha died his relics were divided into eight portions and stupas were built over these relics. All these stupas were confined in and around the state of the present day Bihar.   Ashok opened up some Stupas, removed the relics from them and built 84000 stupas all over his empire over these relics. Ashok formulated rules for good governance and got them  carved on stone. These are called Rock edicts and stand as a testimony to the rule of Ashok and the rules for governance  that he laid down.  The language used for the inscription was Prakrit and the script used was Brahmi. Ashok also got a number of pillars erected in all those places where Buddha had himself preached. The rock edicts, stupas and pillars have stood the test of time and even after having remained in oblivion for centuries, they have enabled us to re discover the splendour and glory of the Mauryan Empire.

ASHOKA'S ROCK EDICT AT DHAULAGIRI

I had always wanted to visit the place that had converted  a conqueror like Ashok and made him into a peace loving and benevolent King. Kalinga and the banks of the river Daya were fascinating places and now I was in that very place where the war took place and transformed a warrior King into a  peace loving King. Ashok inscribed the history of the war and laid down rules of governance on a rock near the River Daya. 

THE PEACE PAGODA AT NIGHT

The Japanese have built a peace pagoda on a small hillock overlooking the river. There is a "sound and light programme" held at the peace pagoda every evening, narrating the history of Ashok and the Kalinga war. The river Daya, to this day is red, folklore says that the colour changed to red after this infamous Kalinga war.

There is no evidence of the exact place where the war actually took place. There are no markings and no demarcations. The banks of the river today are green and the river merrily and majestically winds its way, while people like me stand in awe looking at these green lands which one day changed the history of India.

Ashok gave us the Buddhist religion in its present form, he spread the teachings of the Buddha far and wide by sending his own son Mahindra and daughter Sanghamitra to Srilanka. They carried with them the  sapling of the original Bodhi tree under which Buddha had attained enlightenment. Ashok's teachings, rock edicts, pillars and stupas survive to this day and tell us about the history of those days. All of them have stood there for over 2300 years and are responsible for spreading the wisdom and philosophy of compassion, and peace that is the bedrock of civilisation. 

All these edicts, stupas and pillars over a period of time and revival of Hinduism had got lost. They were not maintained and so there was overgrowth of vegetation, some of the pillars were removed from their original place and used in newly built forts, in many places bricks from stupas were removed for construction work. Two pillars were brought to Delhi by Feroze Shah Tughlaq(1309-1388) and one of them can still be seen at the Feroze Shah Kotla cricket grounds in Delhi.  It was officers of the East India Company who discovered the stupas at Sarnath, Sanchi, Vaishali in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Sir William Jones who died in 1795,  Francis Buchanan, Colin Macenzie, James Princep(1799-1840), Alexander Cunningham discovered all these glorious pillars, edicts, stupas and gave back a very important part of History to us. James Princep, was responsible for deciphering the Brahmi script which was derived from the Kharoshti script. He was able to translate the writing on the Ashoka Rock edicts and therefore we know of the remorse that Ashok felt after the war of Kalinga, and also all the rules that he laid down for administration and welfare of the people as well as animals.

Present day India uses the Ashoka Chakra in the centre of its National flag. The emblem of the Government of India is the symbol of four lions facing four different directions, seated on an inverted lotus pedestal. This statue formed the  pinnacle of an Ashoka pillar found at Sarnath near Varanasi. Sarnath is the place where Buddha imparted his first sermon to five followers after he attained enlightenment. 

The river Daya and the Dhaulagiri hillock are mute witnesses to the tragedy of the war of Kalinga which gave us a benevolent and mighty Mauryan emperor known to all of us as Ashoka the Great. 

ON A BUS TO GOA.

OUR ABODE

Goa was never on my list of places to visit as I had been there many times. On her recent  annual visit to India, my daughter suggested we visit Goa, my brother recommended a journey by road as the Konkan area is amazing during the monsoon. Travel happy as we are, we quickly agreed and that started the mad, crazy idea of going by bus from Bombay to Goa.The movie by the same name had not really inspired us much!

The journey was beautiful, tedious, tiring, back troubling and yet exquisite. If one wants to  experience the beauty, culture, and cuisine of our country, then the best option available is to  travel on its road. I have to thank my brother for this wonderful experience.

KONKAN

Every turn on the road, every curve on the ghat, every little village popping up suddenly out of the green told me a different story. One cannot know India in the true sense unless one travels by road. The slow and winding road, the immense greenery wherever you look, the countryside with its waterbodies,  the sudden appearance of a gushing waterfall are nature's bounties for you, which only a road trip will show you. When one travels by air from one place to another, one only sees what we are shown, one experiences one city and then another. We see different kind of people at the two ends of the journey but  do not learn about them, we do not learn about who the people are and what their actual cuisine is, how do they eat and how do they host you in their humble hotels.

In cities we clamour for the famous Malwan cuisine and  go to a posh restaurant to savour the flavour. When one is on the road then you gradually drive into the land that is Malwan. You eat what they eat with their freshly caught fish, their local green coriander leaf which is called kothmir,  and savour the freshly ground spices in the cool fresh air of Malwan. There are no air conditioned rooms with conditioned food here. Aah! One can enjoy the flavour of Malwani cuisine in the land that is called Malwan.

As our luxury air conditioned bus moved on the undulating ghats, I noticed that there were very few trucks and buses and luxury cars on the roads. Most probably goods were transported by the Konkan railway and the car passengers would perhaps prefer to take an aircraft that zooms you into your destination without showing you the natural beauty that nature has laid out for you in a transient fashion, gradually taking you from the sky scrapers of Mumbai to the eating joints of Panvel and onwards onto fields of paddy, and the famous orchards full of the Hapoos mango, popularly known as Alphonso to you and me.

Malvan is different from Malwa of Madhya Pradesh and Malwa of Punjab. Isn't it strange that there are similar sounding names of areas  in different parts of India? Malvan is pronounced as Maal-vun.

We soon arrived  at Chiplun which is the place  known as the abode of the Kokanasth or Chitpavan Brahmins. We stopped for lunch in a small eatery where the walls were full of photographs of all the famous people, mostly film stars who had eaten at the restaurant. The food was excellent, service was quick and the place was clean.

We soon left Chiplun and  took to the highway again. As the road went winding up and down, we touched a few small towns and soon enough arrived at a place named Sangameshwar which is at the confluence of two rivers Sonavi and Shastri.   Samgameshwar  is the place  where Sambhaji Raje the eldest son of Shivaji was captured by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Sambhaji Raje met with a barbaric, torturous and tragic death at the hands of the Mughals who killed him at Tulapur near Pune. Sambhaji Raje  had tried to conquer Goa in 1683 and had  almost ousted the Portuguese, but to his surprise, a Mughal army prevented the city's capture by the Marathas. In 1739 the whole territory of Bardez was attacked by the Marathas again in order to take possession of the northern Portuguese  property at Vasai, but the conquest could not be completed because of the unexpected arrival of a new viceroy from Portugal with a fleet.  

As night set in we soon entered the large and well lit city of Panjim. The bridge over the mighty Mandovi river is beautiful, and the city looks enchanting in the night. We moved further southwards and arrived at the small little town of Varca. The roads here are narrow and the houses are  like colonial Bungalows. The Portuguese who ruled over Goa from 1510 till 1961, have left a great impact upon the culture and cuisine of Goa. The houses look tranquil, in fact they look like sleepy houses which are made for rest with large verandahs, beautiful pillars, sloping tiled roofs, a garden in front and on the sides and a small gate which looks quite inviting. All those wonderful Spanish words like Siesta, hacienda, came tumbling down my memory lane.

Vasco da Gama of Lisbon, Portugal had entered the city of Calicut in 1498 and had ended the spice trade monopoly of the Ottomans. 

 Afonso Da Albuqurque a Portugese Admiral had attacked Goa in 1510, at the behest of a local chieftain  Thimayya and won the war over Adil Shah, the Muslim Ruler of Bijapur. The rule of the Portuguese  therefore began over Goa after this attack. 

I would ask you to just think of how many treacherous people we have in the History of India who have invited foreign rule into the country. There was Jaichand who betrayed Prithviraj Chauhan when Mohd Ghori invaded, Mir Jafar who betrayed Sirajudaulah when Clive invaded,  Thimmayya who invited Albuquerque in 1510, King of Taxshila who betrayed Porus in 326 BC when Alexander invaded. There are many more, but I will stop here.

 The Portuguese rulers  encouraged the local people to change their faith and also encouraged their soldiers to marry local women. The culture of the place therefore changed with the passage of time.

PRIVATE BEACH

Coming back to my journey, let me tell you that the Varca beach is clean and there is almost no crowd there. Going to Goa in the monsoon has its own advantage. This is not tourist season so one has more peace and quiet and cleanliness. Swimming is not allowed on the beach, but then one can go for a long walk listening to the soothing swish of the waves as they keep coming with force and receding without a whimper. The sand is white and the shells are plenty. Crabs keep running in and out of their holes. 

SAND CASTLES

A little girl sits with her mother building sand castles. It is delightful to watch her concentration in building a castle which will soon wash away with the waves which are threatening to come higher and higher on the beach.

The evening at the local shack restaurant on the beach was a great evening with fun, live music, dance and great food.

An evening at the Colva beach was quite disastrous, as the beach was full of people. There was no sand to be seen, the noise of the people was much more than the roar of the waves, there was coffee and ice cream and all the looks of city civilisation all around. 

It was really fantastic that we were stationed on the Varca beach with more solitude.

Goa in the newer beaches towards the south of Panjim is fantastic.

BOAT ASHORE.

On the next morning as I reached the beach from a private exit, I was excited to see large fishing boats on the beach. There were atleast twenty men in and around each boat. This was a fishing boat where small fish were caught right at the start of the beach. 

DIFFERENT FISH IN DIFFERENT BASKETS

There were men who segregated the fish according to their different types. They were all put in neat baskets which were then hung on two bamboo sticks. Four men carried the bamboos with the baskets of fish to the waiting transport.

FISH AHOY!

The days job done, fish off to their final destination, ten men folded the nets neatly and pulled the boat back onto the sea shore.

A little away in the sea I saw even larger boats with their fishing nets behind them. They were in the deeper sea and perhaps would haul bigger fish. Their nets were blue and the boat moved on, it was not stationery. 

BEACH OF SHELLS

As I walked on the beach leaving footsteps on sand, I thought of the beauty of nature and the bounty of nature. Lovely fish caught daily, food for some and a means of earning for the others, there is a never ending supply of fish. I wish we, who visit these beautiful places would take care of nature as nature takes care of us. We humans with our plastic bottles and cans litter away happily without a thought of learning from nature.

In this visit I did not visit the relics of St. Francis Xavier, nor did I see Bom Jesu. I did not do the expected touristy stuff. I just lapped up the sea, the cuisine, the lovely happy atmosphere and freedom of Goa, I just imbibed the spirit of Goa.

I did attend a great rejuvenating short course on managing and controlling my thoughts and in turn my life. This course organised by USP at Goa has surely cleared a few cobwebs in my mind and taught me a lot of life skills.  As someone from my group said to me,"I like you...you are so Phunny". I assume she meant I was full of life and fun, and not funny as we know it.

Yes a bus ride from Bombay to Goa is a "must" to know your Western Ghats, Konkan, Malwan and the beautiful area that once belonged to the great warrior king Shivaji. 

The Konkani language is very different from Marathi or Goanese. I had always been fascinated by Konkani as many of  the nuns that I grew up with in my childhood had mostly belonged to Mangalore and spoke Konkanese.

NINE YARDS MINI SPLENDOUR

The traditional dress of the Goan fisherman has long since disappeared, they all now wear shorts and a vest. The women have remained traditional and wear their nine yard sarees going only upto their knees. That for you is the amalgamation of the West's short dresses and the traditional nine yards saree. Very practical indeed.

AMAZING POOL

Goa celebrates "Liberation Day" on 19 December every year, which is also a state holiday.This was the day India liberated Goa from the Portuguese rule.  

Goa was magical, the food was exquisite, the ambience of the place was amazing. Long walks by the coconut trees and flowering shrubs, cool sea breeze and the music of the Arabian Sea is something which I will not forget in a hurry. 

Go, go, Goa. Go for Goa.