On Sunday October 25, my co-worker Melvene and I visited Dakshina Chitra, an interactive museum devoted to the cultures of the four states that make up South India: Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Dakshina Chitra means "picture of the south."
(Map credit: http://www.indiatourinfo.com/south-india.htm)The museum is made up of several structures that are either heritage buildings moved to the site, or new construction that reflects architectural styles and techniques from the different South Indian states.
A doll house displays items one might find inside a traditional South Indian home, including baskets, pottery and metal items for cooking.
Dakshina Chitra promotes traditional craft industries in the region by inviting practitioners to the museum to create, demonstrate, teach and sell their work. A number of craftspeople invite visitors to try making something themselves. Melvene tried her hand at basket weaving.
I tried pottery, with a little professional help.
We also visited a silk weaver.
A maker of glass ornaments created an elephant for Melvene.
The museum houses numerous works of art from the region, both old and new. This detail of the goddess Lakshmi is part of a larger mural depicting facets of Hindu mythology. Marine images are central to the work and reflect the importance of the sea to the largely coastal state of Kerala.
This antique wooden temple chariot would have been been brought out for parades during special festivals. A sculpture of a deity would be placed under the dome, and the chariot would be decorated. This tradition continues in India and elsewhere, including Toronto.
The terra cotta figures below date from 1992, and were created for the Ayyanar Shrine at Dakshina Chitra. The museum's website explains: "Ayyanar is a popular village guardian deity who lives on the outskirts of the village in a thickly wooded sacred grove. His role is to protect the village from evil with the help of his associate Karuppusamy, who rides a tiger and is also worshipped."
The museum pays special attention to children, providing areas and activities specifically for them. The sign in the playground below states "The place is for kids alone." Of course, I couldn't resist a photo.
Diwali, also known as Deepavali, or the festival of lights, marks a very important time in the Indian year. It is celebrated over 5 days, with the 3rd and main day at the end of the last month of the Indian lunar calendar, which is October 17 this year. It is a joyous occasion, reflecting beliefs and customs that vary by religion and region. The excitement in India at this time of year reminds me of Christmas back home.
What follows is a mere sample, by no means complete, of some of the richness of Diwali traditions.
Light is a central motif. Families may light earthen oil lamps and place them in their windows. Families in some regions decorate their homes with electric lights. The lighting of firecrackers is also a popular tradition.
In Canada, fireworks displays are usually organized affairs, conducted under the official auspices of some government or group, and generally lasting about 20 - 30 minutes. On Victoria Day or Canada Day, neighbors may put together a small show for children. In Chennai, it's far more decentralized, spontaneous, extravagant and fun. Families and friends buy large numbers of firecrackers and fireworks and set them off throughout the city.
The excitement starts in the morning. I walked through the residential area of Triplicane at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning. Delighted children were setting off crackers everywhere, under the watchful eyes of their parents. The crackers lit in the morning were chosen for their ability to create deafening noise, rather than their visual appeal. The blasts reverberated constantly through the narrow streets of the neighborhood.
I returned to Triplicane later that evening with my co-worker Melvene and my camera. Crackers went off non-stop. Children lit them in front of their homes or family businesses, with help from their parents and older brothers and sisters. Young people set them off in the middle of the road and vehicles would drive through the explosions, like special effects one would see in action movies. From the rooftop restaurant of our hotel, we saw fireworks light up the whole skyline continuously all evening long.
People also visited temples to offer prayers.
The streets were filled with people out enjoying the evening. Several people stopped to wish us a happy Diwali.
For Hindus, Diwali has several meanings.
Worship of Lakshmi is an important part of Diwali. Lakshmi is a goddess of prosperity and learning. Homes will be spotlessly cleaned and lamps lit to welcome Lakshmi inside, bringing good fortune. At the hotel where I stay, the finance department created this shrine to Lakshmi. She is in the centre, depicted on a lotus, the flower with which she is associated. In front of Lakshmi is an offering of flowers, fresh fruit, coconut and incense.
The women of the home may also use rice powder to draw a kolam or rangoli on the front doorstep, as an offering to Lakshmi. I took this photo of a kolam at Kalakshetra, one of the schools for bharatanatyam dance in Chennai.
Kolams may also be made with coloured rice powder, grains or flower petals. The hotel had someone create this kolam out of different coloured grains. It was on display until a toddler could no longer resist getting into it with both hands!
On Friday the 16th, my co-worker Melvene and I were invited down into the basement of the hotel where we were to be judges of a kolam competition for hotel staff. It felt really good to be welcomed into their celebrations. I found all of the kolams so beautiful, I gave everyone perfect scores.
The winner was the peacock on the tree branch, created by the Security Team.
Diwali is also a celebration of the return of Rama, the 7th incarnation of Vishnu, also known as Prince Ram of Kosala, his wife Sita and his brother Lakshman to the kingdom's capital city of Ayodhya, following a 14 year exile. Residents lit lamps to guide them home.
In some regions, Diwali also a commemorates one of the exploits of Krishna, the 8th incarnation of Vishnu. Residents of Vrindavana (or Gokul, in some stories), on the advice of Krishna, changed their allegiance from Indra, a god of rain, to Goverdhan, god of the hill and forest of the area. Indra took vengeance with torrential rains. Krishna lifted Goverdhan hill with his hand, providing an enormous umbrella-like shelter to the people and their cattle until Indra ended the rains. Goverdhan translates as a compound of "cows" and "nourishment" - offerings of food on this day remind one to be thankful for the bounty of the earth. These photos I took at Mahabalipuram depict Krishna holding up the hill, and a cow with her calf safely underneath.
In Bengal, Diwali is an occasion to worship Kali, the destroyer of evil. Her purpose was to kill demons who had been causing havoc in the universe. Kali slaughtered the demons, made a garland of their skulls and wore it around her neck. Caught up in the excitement of it all, she continued on an indiscriminate killing spree. The gods tried to stop what they had set in motion, with no effect, until Shiva threw himself in front of her. As Kali stepped on him she suddenly realized what she was doing and ended the spree, an event that has since been celebrated on Diwali. (Photo credit: http://www.galacticdiplomacy.com/GD-Vis-Comm-Expand-Con-4.htm)
Diwali also celebrates the annual return of King Bali. Bali was great, just and faithful, but the gods feared that his superlative acts of devotion could earn him powers that would make him invincible. They appealed to Vishnu, who disguised himself as a diminutive person and visited Bali. He asked the generous king for land that he could cover in three steps. When Bali granted his wish, Vishnu grew to enormous size. His first step covered the whole earth. His second step covered the heavens. When he asked the king where he could take his third step, Bali offered his head, and Vishnu took that opportunity to push him down into the underworld. The gods were pleased, but the people of Bali's kingdom mourned their loss. Vishnu took pity on them, and allowed Bali to return to his kingdom one day each year, the second day of Diwali. This photo is a bharatanatyam interpretation of the story, at the point when Vishnu steps on King Bali's head and pushes him into the underworld. (Photo credit: http://natyarasa.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/the-final-product-2/)
Jains celebrate Diwali as the day that Mahavira attained Nirvana. For Jains, Mahavira was the 24th and last Thithankar, a holy person who attains enlightenment through asceticism and then becomes a spiritual teacher. He is believed to have lived from 599 to 527 BCE. (Photo credit http://thenagain.info/webchron/India/Mahavira.html)
On Diwali, Sikhs mark the release of Guru Hargobind Sahib from the Gwalior Fort prison in 1612. He is the sixth of the ten gurus of the Sikh religion. The emperor Jahangir imprisoned him in 1609, fearful of the Guru's potential military power. Following his release from prison, Guru Sahib arrived home in the city of Amritsar on Diwali. Residents of the city lit lamps and rejoiced in his return, as a celebration of religious freedom. (Photo credit of Gwalior Fort http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01014/monument1_1014583c.jpg)
Diwali is a time to strengthen family relations. On the third day of Diwali, wives may perform an aarti, or prayer ritual, for the welfare of their husbands. Husbands in turn give their wives a special and important gift. On the fifth day of Diwali, sisters may invite their brothers to their homes and perform a similar aarti, and give them sweets. Brothers in turn give their sisters gifts and acknowledge their traditional role as the protectors of their sisters. On the second or fifth day of Diwali, families may perform tarpana, a ritual offering to ancestors.
The sharing of food is an essential part of Diwali, and there are several recipes that are special for this time of year. Family members, friends and co-workers exchange sweets.
At the office earlier in the week, we celebrated by decorating our cubicles along the theme of a Diwali shopping mall, with "stores" selling different items for Diwali, like sweets, firecrackers and fabric for new clothing. Tinsel garlands and other decorations added to the colour. Co-workers also drew some beautiful kolams with flower petals, which gave off a very pleasant scent. Many dressed in traditional Indian clothing, and staff held a "pageant" to highlight the occasion.
This is the first time I've celebrated Diwali. It was a great time to be in India, and wonderful to be welcomed into people's celebrations.
I just found out that Blogger automatically creates an album of all the photos I post on my blog. So if all this blah, blah, blah starts to go on for too long, you can just go to http://picasaweb.google.com/WayneLepine/WayneLepine#.
I attended a dance recital yesterday at Kalakshetra, a school in Chennai for Bharatanatyam, one of the classical dance forms of India.
Kalakshetra can be translated as "temple of art." Bharatanatyam performances tell stories with religious themes. Morning classes at Kalakshetra begin with prayers. Visitors to Koothambalam, the main performance space, must remove their footwear before entering, as they would before entering a temple.The Kalakshetra campus occupies 100 acres of treed land in the Thiruvanmiyur district of Chennai, and forms a quiet oasis in this busy part of town. Koothambalam is uniquely integrated into the green natural environment that surrounds it, and is worth a visit for itself. This description from their website describes it better than I could: "Built of timber, with slatted walls and a tiled roof, the boundaries between the outdoors and indoors are muted. 'There should be regular communication between the world outside and the world inside,' said [architect] Appukuttan Nair and he built accordingly. The breeze blows softly through the trees which surround the theatre, and as the natural light outside fades, the stage lights rise to images of great beauty. In the rainy season, the sublime music that soars to the high rafters is complemented by the sound of raindrops on the leaves outside. " While I was there, I could hear birds outside the walls, and a bat would fly across the stage, but it disrupted neither performers nor audience.Ms. Nidhi Misra danced the first half and male dancer S. Jayachandran danced the second half. I found their performances beautiful. Like western ballet, bharatanatyam requires incredible grace, strength, agility, flexibility, precision and subtlety; dancers study full time for many years to learn their art. Masters of either form have this ability to engage themselves fully in the dance. One senses their energy, even when they are standing perfectly still, like a bow drawn by an archer.As with Western ballet performances, audience members do not take photos or video of the performance. I arrived just shortly before the performance, so I didn't get many pictures of the campus either. However, the blog India Outside My Window has some great photos. Unfortunately, there was no program for the recital, so I don't have photos of the performers, or biographical information. However, this video by dancer Nikolina Nikoleski provides a good idea of what I experienced. I also enjoyed another video by Rama Vaidyanathan. Some things to look for include the hand gestures, facial expressions and eye movements, which are specific to this form of dance. Also, notice the bells around the ankles; the dancer uses them to contribute to the musical experience of the performance. This is one of the entrances to the auditorium, with a statue of the the school's founder Rukmini Devi in the foreground.
This short video gives a great introduction to her vision of what she was working to create. You can also view a multi-part British documentary from 1984 on the history of Kalakshetra.
