Illusive Land of the Five Male Rivers E-Book

Dibyendu Chakraborty

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Naru, a curious Bengali by birth, was influenced by the presence of large ferocious rivers around his birthplace since childhood. It occurred to him that the rivers of his birthplace have something to say, and he needs to lend a careful ear to the message that the rivers wanted to convey.

The ‘land of the five male rivers’ has a special place in Indian tradition. The ancient Indian scripts and texts contain references to ‘the land of five male rivers’ that was considered blessed and sacred. Naru grew up by listening and reading many of such texts. Nobody could identify the concerned rivers as well as the location of that region of five male rivers. That issue always eluded the Indians.

It was the convergence of many aspects of his life that Naru could see the issue of the land of five male rivers in a new light. This book is about that illusive land of the five male rivers.

Leseprobe

Dibyendu Chakraborty

Illusive Land of the Five Male Rivers

ॐ श्री विष्णवे नम: Late Bishnu Pada Chakraborty My FatherBookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Chapter One A wonderful evening

In the dark, Naru (a young man of about 23 years) was lying alone, facing the southern sky. The location was inside a kilometre-wide river channel, on the flat, smooth bed of sand, freshly washed and cleaned by nature's own hands (maybe for Naru only). He was lying on the edge of one of the few narrow streams running through the relatively raised sand beds of that considerably wide channel.

It was about 8 o'clock at night. The area where Naru was lying inside the river channel at the centre of southern part of West Bengal, India, 8 o'clock meant night, not evening. Although the word is riverbed in English, but in the proper grammatical parlance of the local language, that river is a male one (not any river), named Dwarakeshwar.

In the source of grammar for every Indian language, Sanskrit, every noun has a gender. That river was marked as a male one by the guardians of that land at the dawn of the present phase of civilisation. The basis of that categorisation is unclear to date. Nobody knows who, when and on the basis of what invented that categorisation. Through the ages, the residents of such areas have followed diligently something that has been determined at an extremely long time ago. That place was at least thirty kilometres away from any nearby urban environment, i.e., places with paved roads, closely built houses, congregation of various types of shops at one place, etc. For a short distance, in that place, the river was flowing from north to south.

In the darkness, Naru reached the riverbed after walking about one kilometer through submerged, muddy, ploughed but yet-to-be-planted fertile paddy field. In that environment, it was impossible to find the traces of any path. Until that period, those areas of South Bengal were a free range for snakes. In that village, Naru had seen the presence of several Russell’s viper on a number of occasions. There is no antidote to the venom of that snake. Russell's viper generally avoids wet environment, but there were other deadly ones, including cobras, to fill in that void. Two days of incessant rain created that atmosphere in which Naru could not stay inside of a deserted residence with no electricity connection even after knowing all the risks involved in the way to the river.

The river channels of the South Bengal region originating from the adjoining Chota Nagpur Plateau in the western direction are generally illogically wider than the amount of water they carry in normal conditions. On the face of it, it is difficult to find any justification for the wide size of those riverbeds. Where Naru was lying, the riverbed was about one kilometre wide. A few thin streams were flowing through the different parts of that wide riverbed. The east bank of the river was about 20 feet high from the riverbed. The drop of the height was abrupt. In that direction, a small isolated village was situated about a kilometre away. Naru was staying in that village. Due to the wall-like riverbank, no sign of human settlement was visible in the east from inside the riverbed. The area between the river and the village was as fertile as the other areas lying within the radius of a few kilometres around that village. In the early 1990s, the village would become quiescent at 8 pm, with no sign of light. The west bank of the river was quite far away. The nearest village in that direction was at least three kilometers away. Towards that direction, the riverbank was also covered with the silhouettes of dense vegetations. A tiny congregation of flickering light was visible at least a few kilometres away in the northwest direction through the open space at the end of the vegetations on the riverbank. A distant light source flickers a little, that phenomenon has a scientific explanation. That day, that cluster of light might have flickered a little more because of the continuous rain of a couple of days that ended only at the beginning of that evening. The air had a feel of purity.

At the end of the prolonged session of torrential downpour, a large number of torn clouds, which were accumulated in the eastern sky, were visible over the silhouettes of the vegetations on the eastern bank of that river. The sky straight above the riverbed was almost clear. The colour of the sky was not the regular light blue, but dark cobalt blue. The moon was behind a piece of thick chunk of cloud of dark slate colour in the middle of the sky. The light from the moon could not come down through the layer of that cloud. White light shone through the edges of that cloud. There was another piece of cloud, located a little to the east, hanging at a relatively lower altitude. Beams of bright moonlight fell on that cloud creating another bottom-dark disc of radiating white light. A magically illuminated atmosphere was created. Two slate-coloured top-illuminated sources of soft white light were hanging in the visible pristine cobalt blue sky over a generally dark land surface. The water level of that characteristically dry river was slightly swollen due to prolonged rains of a couple of days at the onset of the monsoon.

For Naru, the faint gurgling sound of the flowing stream a few feet away from his ears was in perfect harmony with the very quiet environment. Intermittently, small piles of sand on the edge of the stream were crashing down into the stream of water on Naru’s side, creating some kind of mumbled sound of falling.

That universe comprised of mesmerising nature, Naru, horizon-wide loneliness, a faint whisper of an unhindered flow of air through the river channel and near ubiquitous silence. Suddenly, a very faint discontinuous trail of the sound of Sanai (one kind of clarinet) could be heard from the direction of that small but glittering light cluster that was seen in the northwest direction. The discontinuity of that sound was due to the distance of the source as well as the wind-flow from the opposite direction. That very faint trail of sound was there with Naru for the rest of the session that he was there inside the river channel. Surely, someone was getting married. Clarinet music is the signature of a marriage ceremony in Bengal (almost without any exception). Several electric lights were installed in one place for that occasion only. A small step was being taken towards the continuity of the journey of the human civilization with the course of time.

That exotic ambience was perfect to take Naru’s mind on a transcendental journey. Taking a cue from the world famous song by Paul Robeson, it occurred to his mind that the "Ol' Man River" was trying to convey something through the ages. Naru would try to figure out the message if life gave him a chance.

It appeared in Naru’s mind that what more a person may need in a basic human life? Relying on the existence of the rivers, ever-flowing streams and fertile soil, people have survived in those areas for thousands of years. If one person thinks so, many other people may have a fair chance of thinking in the same way. If a person can spend a lifetime in such a place, amidst such environment, it should feel good. Naru carefully preserved that instance in his mind for the rest of his life.

A question that appeared in mind was, personally, is he physically equipped to lead a farming life? His internal framework gave the judgment, no. Another question occurred—is it possible to adapt to the eventless rural environment by ignoring the call of the seemingly bright and eventful wide unknown world that calls his just graduated young mind? Again his internal framework gave the judgment, no. He must see the unseen, unknown world. That decision-making process works in every mind, probably in a similar manner.

Life has given Naru the opportunity to get close encounters with various rivers. He feels a kind of infallible attraction in the world inside of the tract of a river. There inhabits an amazing whole world inside the tract of every river.

Later, after spending long times at various interesting places in different parts of India, similar questions did appear in his mind again and again. Are those the places where he wanted to settle down? The answer was always ‘no’. Although his family did not own a house at the time of his birth, the world around his birthplace, where he spent his childhood and adolescence, became his own world. The abundance of water, greenery along with good living condition that was present in his birthplace could not be found anywhere else where he happened to be. Unless being absolutely compelled, it was beyond any question to leave that world forever. Spending his childhood and adolescence days in the residential complex of a newly built university, Naru gets attracted to any vast campus wherever he sees it. However, to get a chance of living in those places is neither voluntary nor permanent. And above all, he could not earn one.  

Naru feels that sense of belongingness arises out of many conditions; upbringing is only one of them.

After travelling to that village in the south of West Bengal for a few months, in one evening when Naru returned to his own address in the nearby district town for the last time along the path by the river that was covered with lateritic pebbles. His closest companion of that village from the same age as Naru was sitting alone on the bank of that river facing the setting sun. He also had a wish to leave the village in the hope of seeing the bigger world.

The boy had a strong physique. The tall body had skin-wrapped thick bones. Naru had seen that kind of physical structure at many places of his home district.

The river on the bed of which Naru experienced a dream is in reality known as a male river to the indigenous people. It occurred to his mind that there is a 'land of five male rivers' in the Indian subcontinent. In popular belief that region is known as Punjab, presently divided between two countries. Naru read a poem by Asia’s first Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore where he described Punjab as the land of five rivers. If life gives him a chance, he would try to find out the relationship between the naming of Punjab and the existence of five male rivers there. For that to happen, he needed to survive first. That was the time when he was in dire need to start earning. Actually, he went to that village in search of an avenue towards that end only, which did not materialise.

It was shortly after that period when Naru left his home and also the home state to dive into the whirlpool of work life.

Chapter Two Myth of the land of five male rivers

 Arjun, the protagonist of the Indian epic Mahabharat, was leaving Dwarka, believed to be on the eastern shores of the present-day Arabian Sea in India, to Hastinapur that was believed to be situated in northern India, leading a group of survivors from the clan of Sri Krishna, the human incarnation of the part of Lord Vishnu. As Arjun was advancing towards the east, the sea was following him from the west and was engulfing the city of Dwarka.

It was several years after the end of the Mahabharat war in Kurukshetra. The divine powers of Sri Krishna disappeared one by one. The Sudarshan Chakra (disc), a divine weapon of Lord Vishnu, returned to its heavenly origin. The divine chariot disappeared across the sea. The bright society of his kingdom was on constant decline. The strength of the kingdom waned due to internal strife; the masculine population got reduced greatly in number because of infighting of the clan members.  The cycle of time for the city of Dwarka as well as Sri Krishna was approaching the full cycle. All sorts of ominous signs were being seen. Sri Krishna sensed that the last stage of his earthly presence was imminent.

Shortly afterwards, sending word to Hastinapur instructing Arjun to reach Dwarka and take the rest of the people of Sri Krishna’s clan to his own shelter, Sri Krishna left his worldly body. He ascended to the heavens by adorning the sky of the earth.

Balaram, the elder brother of Lord Krishna, was the human incarnation of the primordial serpent Sheshnag or Anantanag or Vasuki, an inseparable companion of Lord Vishnu. After escaping from the earthly body of Balaram, that primordial serpent Sheshnag disappeared into the sea.

Arjun arrived in Dwarka at the last will of Lord Krishna to take the remaining people of Dwarka to Hastinapur. Lord Krishna informed the rest of the population that as soon as Arjun left, Dwarka would sink into the sea. As Arjun was crossing different areas of Dwarka with the rest of its people, those areas were being engulfed by the sea. Arjun, bereaved by the demise of his near and dear ones, was on his way to Hastinapur in the mere discharge of his duties.

The epic have it that after a few days of journey, their convoy arrived at a country rich in cattle and rice. In that area, the bandits attacked Arjun's convoy and kidnapped a large number of women. Arjun could not invoke any of the divine weapons (which once gave him the power to conquer the world) that he had obtained after long prayers and worships of divine powers. The cycle was ending; Arjun, like Sri Krishna, understood the signal.

In the Maushal Parva (episode) of the Mahabharat, that region inhabited by bandits has been described as the land of the Panchanad (the land where a set of five male rivers flow).

The Mahabharat is like an enigma. After reading some parts of the epic, which seem completely fictional, there appear a few parts which are full of references that can still be verified in the present time. Until the present day, the people of India identify a particular geographical region as Dwarka. In recent times, submerged sections of an ancient human inhabitation have been found in that area under the sea. That is not any proof but, nevertheless, a strong indication.

Chapter Three Reality of the land of five male rivers

A distinct region, having its own unique identity, where five significant and influential rivers of male character flow and the combined effect of those rivers affect that land notably in terms of human life may correctly be called the land of five male rivers.

After a long period of mere survival under a generally hostile environment, when attempts were made to reorganize the ancient texts of Sanskrit and some other Indian languages in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some words and terms had to be accepted in the formats as they reached the hands of the present people, in the absence of any practicable or realistic explanations. ‘Panchanader desh’ literally meaning ‘the land where a set of five male rivers flow’, was one such term.

The mentioning of the ‘land of the five male rivers’ has been found many times in ancient Indian literature such as the Ramayan and the Mahabharat. In absolute faith, generation after generation, over millennia the Indians have memorized those compositions. As a result, even if the superstructure has been distorted in some cases, the original messages of those creations have remained intact. No amount of apathy and the existence of a hostile environment for a very long duration could erase those texts from public memory completely. In many cases, the proper institutional interpretation of many sayings of those literatures was lost, only the sets of words have remained. When the effort was initiated to rearrange the old Indian literature, present people wanted to verify all the old sayings in the light of the current knowledge base.

The influence of the Europeans especially that of the British, was immense in interpreting such literature in the context of the available knowledge base of the present world. The Indian intelligentsia lost many of the perspectives. To the Indians of that time, everything that India had did originate beyond the west and northwest part of the Indian subcontinent.

Nothing in the Indian subcontinent could be believed to be its own creation by the new guardians of this land. No doubt, the influence of the outside world was there on India. People all over the world have always extended their influence far beyond their place of origin. There must have been that kind of outside influence in ancient India as well. However, when the British tried to bring the country under a system, hardly any Indian could make a significant contribution in the field of ancient literature except for the narration of some of the traditions, which have been held in faith. Various local scholars brought forward their own explanations of different texts, which were scattered, in fragments all over.

Assuming the role similar to an arbitrator, the Europeans tried to provide an acceptable interpretation of the ancient Indian literature and the concerned geography, history, etc. As a result of that influence, the word Punjab is mentioned next to the word Panchanad (five male rivers) within parenthesis as an explanation in the most authentic and extraordinary English translation of the Mahabharat by an Indian prodigy. The word Punjab must not have been mentioned in any Indian language version of the Mahabharat. That is almost impossible to happen. If the word Punjab had existed at the time of the Mahabharat, it would have been mentioned in that epic, and there would have been no need to explain the word within parentheses. That mention of the word Punjab is the testimony of the influence of the outsiders, especially from the western direction.

The British thoroughly discovered India. The situation was such that the Indian-made wondrous Kailash temple at Ellora had to be 'discovered' by the British and presented to the Indians. The British also had to discover the prehistoric place of Tailakampi or Telkupi on the western margin of Bengal Basin, although that region has been inhabited by humans continuously since time immemorial. There are thousands of such examples. They (the British) must have informed the Indian pundits who were on the job of giving acceptable shapes to various old Indian literatures that there are five major rivers flowing in Punjab region. They (the British) were not supposed to have been aware of any difference between a female river and a male river.

In the present-day India, the Punjab region is commonly referred to as the “land of the five male rivers”.

The description of that land (Punjab) appeared time and again in Naru's text books of school days. Just as the geography books contained description of the rivers, agricultural produces, etc. of that region, so the history books described the successive invasions into India that happened through that region over millennia. Moreover, the history books had mentioning of the Indus Valley Civilization. It was said that that civilisation was one of the admirable civilisations of the ancient world. Two places in the Indus Valley Civilization, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, had special mentioning in those books. Those descriptions did not have any impact on Naru’s tender mind. It seemed that the authorities had a greater intention of informing about the glorious past of the country than to create a good factual mental sketch of those places. The absence of maps or diagrams with long phrases of textual descriptions left the young mind as clueless as the origin and destiny of the Indus Valley Civilization itself. A vague idea was created in the tender mind.

From the picture below, it is clear that considering or without considering the Indus, there are more than five influential rivers in the Punjab region.