Reclaiming lost Hindu pride, rebuilding our temples

India is a land of temples. Despite the hard selling of India’s image post independence by the Nehruvian pseudo-secular lobby as the land of the Taj Mahal, a maqbara built by Shahjahan of the Timurid dynasty that had invaded India, the truth remains that India is a country of temples.

Temples have always been an integral and important part of India’s landscape and people’s lives from ancient times. They were not only the sites for religious worship, but temples were also the centers of economy, trade, art and culture, education, and community gatherings. Temples once wielded great power, and were seen as monuments of community pride.

With the start of foreign invasions, primarily the Islamic invasions, temples invariably became targets for vandalism and destruction.

Not only were the temples sources of immense wealth, the destruction of such power centres were seen as religious-political statements by the Islamic invaders, where the brutal vandalism and desecration became a symbol of Islamic might over the non-Islamic Indic subjects. It was for this reason whenever Hindus have regained power, they have restored the destroyed temples and built new ones; and continued with their ancient traditions.

Thus, while destroyed temples are representative of Islamic superiority and might and were aimed at striking fear into the hearts of the Indics; the restored/rebuilt or the newly built temples are a symbol of resistance and a fight back, a sign of courage, quiet determination, and perseverance on the part of Hindus to remain faithful to their ancient religion and stop the spread of Islamism.

In the 17th-18th century as the Timurid/Mughal dynasty became weak, the various Indic communities started renovating and rebuilding temples across India. Once the British took over, while they did not actively destroy temples to proclaim their Christian superiority, they however did little to restore the broken down temples, and in some cases even using ruined temple parts for building bridges, railways tracks, etc.

Post independence, under the Nehruvian government, the same colonial type apathy towards Indic religious structures continued and only Somnath temple saw restoration thanks to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It was ironical that Pakistan, which was a Muslim majority nation, took up the task of renovating old mosques and constructing new ones; while under Nehru, India, a Hindu majority nation, did the same, instead of focusing on Indic temples, letting many temples be completely ruined out of sheer neglect.

It is only recently, under the current leadership of the PM Narendra Modi that new India is finally taking pride in looking to move forward with its ancient values and revive its age old traditions of science and research.

As the Prime Minister recently said in one of speeches, “The cultural splendour of a nation is so vast only when the flag of its success is fluttering on the world stage…and, to reach the pinnacle of success, it is also necessary that the nation touches its cultural excellence, and stands proudly with its identity…New India of today is moving forward with its ancient values while also reviving the tradition of science and research along with faith. Today we are standing equal to the big powers of the world in the field of astronomy… [and> India has remained immortal for thousands of years due to its spiritual confidence.”

The current projects of reclamation or renovation of temples include connecting together the 51 Shaktipeeths (Devi Temples), to laying the foundation of the much sought after Ram Temple in Ayodhya, to reclaiming the grandeur of the Kashi Vishwanath, creating the awe-inspiring Mahakaal corridor in Ujjain, rebuilding Kedarnath site (after the 2013 natural disaster), and the construction of Char Dham roads connecting the Gangotri, Kedarnath, Yamunotri, and Badrinath.

Besides these, there has also been the construction of a temple in the United Arab Emirates, and the laying of the foundation stone of the Shreenathji temple redevelopment in Bahrain. From these various temple-heritage projects it is quite clear that our PM Modi is steadfastly been working towards reconnecting Hindus with their ancient religious and cultural roots, while instilling the sense of pride in being a Hindu that had been almost destroyed by a series of brutal foreign invasions.

The recent inauguration of the renovation and expansion of the Mahakaal temple corridor is among the latest projects that call for a religious and spiritual revival of ancient India. Mahakaal (an aspect of Shiva where he has conquered Time and Death) is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas, and one of the most important Hindu teerthsthals. The original temple complex was destroyed by the Turk invader-ruler Shams-ud-din Iltutmish in the 13th century, during his raid on Ujjain.

The present structure was built by the Maratha general Ranoji Shinde in 1734, while 100 years later the marble walkways were restored by the Scindias. Thus, the Mahakal temple corridor project is a big step towards restoring Hindu pride, while maintaining the religious and civilisational continuity.

As seen in the image, the various temple projects that have been currently undertaken are undoubtedly a firm step towards regaining lost heritage and pride, there are many more such temples that still stand as raw festering wounds in the Indic mindset. One such temple is the Martand temple in Kashmir, which was commissioned by king Lalitaditya in the 8th century CE (as per Kalhana). He defeated Yashovarman, the king of Kannauj, and being a worshipper of the Surya he built this temple dedicated to Martand (an aspect of Surya) after his victory. The temple, which was destroyed by Sikandar Shah Miri (1389-1413) as per the advices of his Sufi preacher Mir Muhammad Hamadani, now stands as a grand ruined structure.

As Francis Younghusband in his book Kashmir tells us, “Of all the ruins in Kashmir the Martand ruins are both the most remarkable and the most characteristics. No temple was ever built on a finer site. It stands on an open plain, where it can be seen to full advantage. Behind it raises a range of Snowy mountains…It is one the most heavenly spots on earth…The temple of Martand is the finest example of what is known as the Kashmirian style of architecture, and was built by the most noted of the Kashmir king, Lalitaditya, who reigned between the years 699 and 736 A.D.”

Since Surya temples are rare, so the restoration of this ruined yet still beautiful temple would be another strong message against temple vandalism by Islamists, while giving solace to the much wounded Hindu spirit and pride.

Another group of temples that need the magic touch of restoration are the Barakar group of temples in the state of West Bengal. Reeling under brutal Islamic persecution from 12th century onwards, the state has seen widespread destruction of ancient and early medieval temples to such an extent that very few now remain from those times.

In fact various murtis found from different parts of West Bengal, temple illustrations in manuscripts, and mentions of temples in 2 inscriptions (ref: Akshaykumar Maitreya, ed., Gauralekhamala, 1919) show beyond any doubts that once the landscape of West Bengal was dotted with a large number of temples that were dated from the pre-Gupta to the Sena period. There are also mentions of these temples in the travel account of the famous Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who recorded seeing more than 300 temples while travelling in Bengal.

In his travel notes Xuanzang says that he saw 100 temples in Pundravardhana, 100 in Samatata, more than 50 in Tamralipta, and 50 in Karnasuvarna, which were names of the different kingdoms existing in Bengal from ancient times. Unfortunately, very little of these temples now remain, and except for few extant structures that are seen mostly in the peripheral part of south-western Bengal, structural evidences of pre-Islamic era temples in West Bengal are a sad story of ruined structures, often reduced to just the plinths, walls, or basement remains.

In fact, many of these temples have come to light only after various ancient mounds or dhipis were excavated that had preserved their remains under the ground. What remained above the ground in fairly preserved conditions were the Bhakti movement era temples that were built post 15th c. CE, and these were very different from the ancient-medieval Gupta-Pala-Sena era ones, in terms of art and architecture.

So renovating the Barakar temples, the earliest of which date from the early Pala period (8th c. CE), would go a long way in boosting the Hindu pride, and helping in preserving the Hindu cultural and religious connectivity from ancient to early medieval times with the present.

Both Kashmir and West Bengal are two states that have seen much brutal Islamic persecution and are in desperate need for the healing touch through the various temple-heritage renovation projects that the current government has undertaken.

The author is a well-known travel and heritage writer. Views expressed are personal.

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