Removing The Sheen From Buddhism

[Husky]

You know the holidays are well and truly over when the first thing you hit upon searching on certain sculptures is weirdo entertainment.



More than once, have heard the modern threats of how the extremely (Hindu) Agamic depictions of Shiva+Uma at the cave complex Elephanta are "actually" Buddhist and are "in fact" (I kid you not) "depictions of the Buddha not Shiva": frequently even declaring that the 3 out of the 5 (Panchavaktra) headed Shiva was Buddha. :Baahaahahahahaha: But I'll admit that this sudden tack to announce how the Hindu Jogeshwari Caves - which contains very Hindu sculptures of very Hindu Gods - are "actually Buddhist" was a hysterical ... turn of events.

(Jealous much?)





1. On 2 April 2011 - that's today - Wackypedia states:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jogeshwari_Caves

The Jogeshwari Caves are some of the earliest Buddhist cave temples sculptures located in the Mumbai suburb of Jogeshwari, India. The caves date back to 520 to 550 CE. The caves are located off the Western Express Highway, and are surrounded by encroachments. The caves are used as a temple by the encroachers. The caves are classified as endangered as sewage and waste enter the premises. They are also infested with bats.

The caves are accessed through a long flight of stairs into the main hall of this cavernous space. It has many pillars and a Lingam at the end. Idols of Dattatreya, Hanuman and Ganesh line the walls. There are also relics of two doormen.

Clearly the "buddhist" bit is an absurdity. Figured it was an obvious insertion. And web searching proved me right:



2. Elsewhere, there seems to be a partial copy of the relevant portion in wacky. Or maybe it's where *wacky* got the original text for this bit from (wacky was very famous among netizens of yore for its plagiarism of earlier encyclopaedias like Encarta and Brittanica: at times the plagiarism was verbatim, at other times the exact same things were re-worded.)



Anyway, this largely identical text, of an earlier date, says something quite opposite (and correct) about the identity of the Caves in question:



http://www.bharatwiki.com/index.php?titl...wari_Caves

This page was last modified 10:32, 27 July 2007.

Jogeshwari Caves



The Jogeshwari Caves are some of the earliest Hindu cave temples sculptures located in the neighbourhood of Jogeshwari (East) in northern Mumbai (Bombay), India. The caves date back to 520 to 550 AD.



They are located off the Western Express Highway, and are surrounded by encroachments. The caves are used as a temple by the encroachers. The caves are classified as endangered as sewage and waste enter the premises. They are also infested with bats.



The caves are accessed through a long flight of stairs into the main hall of this cavernous space. It has many pillars and a Lingam at the end. Idols of Dattatreya, Hanuman and Ganesh line the walls. There are also relics of two doormen.

Practically the same text. But *without* the sudden "Buddhist" insert in place of the correct original "Hindu".



3. Of course checking the history of wacky would reveal a lot more about the vandal:

As became obvious by making comparisons in Wacky's own Revision History, the crucial word was changed over at some point. Eventually the vandalisms could be narrowed down to two separate events: one in 2008 and several in 2010. People even initially intervened to correct the vandalistic absurdities. (Bear with, this is where all the enjoyable hysteria comes in



- http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=245824776



As can be seen on this page, the first specific instance of the presumably neo-Buddhist inanity happened in 17 October 2008: the "buddhist cave temples" graffiti suddenly appeared. This then resulted in the intervention, some hours later, of some wackypedian - presumably deluded into imagining that the world is somehow driven by truth rather than desperate ideology (it's a nice dream, certainly) - who restored the page to its state before the vandal's sneaky insertion: it was returned to the accurate "Hindu cave temples".



- But clearly the vandal struck again in Jan 2010:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Con...96.100.120

is the wacky entry for the same (or similar) vandal's more recent ... "special contributions".

•07:08, 7 January 2010 (diff | hist) Category:Caves around Mumbai ‎

•07:00, 7 January 2010 (diff | hist) Jogeshwari Caves ‎

•06:59, 7 January 2010 (diff | hist) Jogeshwari Caves ‎

•06:58, 7 January 2010 (diff | hist) Jogeshwari Caves ‎ (→Gallery)

•06:55, 7 January 2010 (diff | hist) Elephanta Caves ‎

•06:53, 7 January 2010 (diff | hist) Elephanta Caves ‎

•11:05, 4 January 2010 (diff | hist) Santacruz, Mumbai ‎ (→Vakola)

- The entry of 06:58 shows that he/she/it first struck by inserting the very grammatically...illuminating statement: "it is buddhist cave"

at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=336355902



Some vigilant wackypedian then wasted energy removing the delirious insert almost immediately (still 6:58 on the clock):

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=336355902



- Then, a minute later, at 06:59, the original Sneak :gollum: returned with a vengeance to remove all references to the vigrahas of undeniably Hindu Gods from the entry, leaving the sentence memorably (though not sensibly) unterminated with:



http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=336355982

The caves are accessed through a long flight of stairs into the main hall of this cavernous space. It has many pillars and a

Thereby having removed the remainder of the original statement: "[[Lingam]] at the end. Idols of [[Dattatreya]], [[Hanuman]] and [[Ganesh]] line the walls. There are also relics of two doormen."

(Shows ya the sheer determination to drive their will onto history if they can't even be bothered to finish a sentence properly, but would leave it hanging mid-sentence.)



- Then at 07:00, the by-now endearing Sneakums noticed that someone had removed its "it is buddhist cave" fiasco at wacky - I mean wacky fresco. So it determined to wrong the right by turning the opening statement into the version already seen suddenly inserted (then removed) in 2008:



http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=336356093



From:

The '''Jogeshwari Caves''' are some of the earliest Hindu cave temples sculptures located in the Mumbai suburb of [[Jogeshwari]], India.

The same statement became (at 7:00 of Jan 7, 2010):

The '''Jogeshwari Caves''' are some of the earliest buddhist cave temples sculptures located in the Mumbai suburb of [[Jogeshwari]], India.

And so this statement appears to have remained ever since on this wacky page, though further changes have accumulated along with all who've visited the page oblivious to the major deception perpetrated on their ignorance.



While someone fortunately restored the reference to Hindu Vigrahas later, they did not appear to have noticed the other crucial change, so they did not return the inane insert of "buddhist" to its accurate original of "Hindu".

("Amazing" how a one word change in wacky - rather like claims on all things Hindu regularly seen all over the internet, and over time parroted by Hindus themselves - credits Buddhism/etc with what Hindus built with their hands for the purpose of their religion/Gods. It's not unlikely that, in time, this too will be parroted.)





4. Oh but of course the vandal would also have tried the same on the very Hindoo Elephanta caves (it wasn't enough that the christoPortuguese used vigrahas of Hindus' Gods as target practice - fervent neoBuddhist does a similar by using wackypedia to deface history). A couple more of its "special contributions":



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Con...96.100.120

•06:55, 7 January 2010 (diff | hist) Elephanta Caves ‎

•06:53, 7 January 2010 (diff | hist) Elephanta Caves ‎

- http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=336355472

At 6:53 of Jan 2010, it got all incensed upon seeing the image of the Maheshamoorti at Elephanta captioned correctly as "The Trimurti-Sadasiva Statue" (it's 3 of the Panchavaktra heads; the remaining two would be where the extant image meets the ceiling and back wall.) So what did the vandal do upon reading such a frightful thing? It heroically removed the offending - because truthful - caption altogether.



Moreover, it further repeated its earlier-seen inimitable expression - "it is buddhist cave" - to tattoo this page on the Elephanta Hindu cave-temple complex with. What's more, the insert was plastered entirely reactively at the very top of the page, right after the heading!



- http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=336355638

So thereafter, at 6:55 on the same day (Jan 7 2010) the little neo-Buddhist Vandal removed all of the following and replaced it with the 2 words "buddhist caves":

==Trimurti-Sadashiva Statue==

The most important sculpture is that of Trimurti Sadasiva, carved in relief at the end of the N-S axis. The image, {{convert|20|ft|m|abbr=on}} in height is of the three headed-Shiva, representing Panchamukha Shiva.<ref>Duffer's Guide to Elephanta, Mid-Day, Tinaz Nooshan, Feb 22, 2007, pg A14</ref> The right half-face shows him as a young person with sensuous lips, embodying life and its vitality. In his hand he holds something that resembles a rose bud—again with the promise of life and creativity. It is this face that is closest to that of [[Brahma]], the creator or [[Parvati|Uma]] or [[Vamadeva]], the feminine side of Shiva.<ref name="HT Cafe, Mumbai pg.31"/> The left half-face face on the side is that of a young man. It is moustached, and displays anger. This is Shiva as [[Aghora]] [[Bhairava]]<ref name="HT Cafe, Mumbai pg.31"/>, as the one whose anger can engulf the entire world in flames leaving only ashes behind. This is Shiva, the Destroyer. The central face, benign, meditative, as the preserver [[Vishnu]]. This is Shiva as the yogi—Yogeshwar—in deep meditation praying for the 'preservation' of humanity.

Actually, the Panchavaktra Shiva is also entirely Shiva containing all the 5 - including 3 "visible" - aspects of the Hindu Divine himself*, but the first two aspects can and indeed are identified with the first 2 Gods of the Trimoorti even when just Shiva is considered. Also, Vamadeva can for the same reason be identified with *Vishnu*: since Vishnu like Uma is on the left half of the body (both in ShankaraNarayana and Shiva being VishnuVallabha).

(* Just like a great many other Hindu Gods are similarly said to do, e.g. Saraswati who, being the very embodiment of the Parabrahman and the Vedam, herself assumes the roles of all 3 visible activities of the same that are usually equated with the Trimoorti, hence she IS the Trimoorti/Parabrahman: [color="#0000FF"][WRONG:][/color] "brahmAchyuta shankara prabhRutibhiH ....." etc).

[color="#0000FF"]CORRECTION:[/color] Didn't intend the line on how the Devas - including Trimoorti - worship Saraswati always, but the other one from the same source (the one starting "brahmaa viShNu shivaayai cha" - usw.)





- Anyway eventually things caught up and the Vandal's graffiti - on the *Elephanta* page (though not Jogeshwari Caves page) - were corrected:

The edit at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=337016130

was in order to "(revert succesive vandalisms together)".



Temporary defeat for neoBuddhist crusader.

But no doubt, a couple of years later, the same or another will return to try again to insert its claims back on the Elephanta page. After all, since trying repeatedly (2008, 2010) on the Jogeshwari Caves page, it has succeeded there for more than a year, since that page still says "buddhist" since Jan 2010, instead of its original accurate entry as Hindu. (Wacky is intended to be the Archive of the near future at least: future history. And clearly, wackypedia is not about truth, but about determined lobbying: those who are fired up sufficiently by their ideology decide on "truth"/"history". Wacky is an interesting experiment in the lobbyist - euphemised to "democratic" - determination of facts.)

Another thing that is practically certain is that Hindu vocalists in the near future will parrot that Elephanta caves and Yogeshwari caves are "actually Buddhist" or at least "possibly Buddhist" (the same way the similar story about Ayyappa predictably evolved from neoBuddhist and other such shady 'sources' to be parroted by Hindus years later).



As entertaining as all the above was (even if it was entirely predictable: it's what christoislamics do too - vandalising history with blatant inanity; the unfunny part is when it sticks), there's apparently more:





5. The Hindu Jogeshwari Caves suddenly turned up as "Buddhist" elsewhere on Wacky: in a listing of various famous cave temples in Bharatam -



http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=326893607



This edit history page is the one where many of these Caves are suddenly identified by religious affiliation, inserting a "Jain" qualifier for one and "Buddhist" for many others (including the very Hindu Jogeshwari Caves).

How trustworthy are the changes, though? (Obviously *not* in the case of the Jogeshwari caves.)



Now to click on the editor's IP at this revision history page of wacky, to find out how honest they are.



http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=326893607



Wow. Way too many edits. Pass. But looking at their topics of interest, it clearly reveals it's an Indian. And clearly an anti-Hindu. And clearly convinced it is a Buddhist and definitely on a mission. So my "neoBuddhist" suspicion/accusation was right.





6. Oh but this next topic in its list of intervening edits is interesting: "Religion in Japan".



Indeed, it is more than interesting, as the following is this latest neo-Buddhist's little contribution to the wacky page on this topic - straying far from his interest in Buddhist topics (or topics which he insinuates "Buddhism" into):



On 29 Jan 2010, this neoBuddhist - same or different from the one seen in items 1 to 4 - removed the entire section on Hinduism in the page "Religion in Japan". The revision history:



http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?titl...=340633159



The next bit is what the vandal excised:

-

===Hinduism=== -

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:KRINSHA jAPAN.jpg|190px|right|thumb|[[ISKCON]] Mandir in Tokyo, Japan {{deletable image-caption}}]] --> -

{{Main| Hinduism in Japan}} -

[[Hinduism]] is a small minority religion in Japan. Hinduism and other Indian related beliefs (including Buddhism) spread to Japan from [[China]] and [[Korea]] during the 6th century. In the 19th century Hindu numbers increased with immigrants seeking to participate in the [[textile]] importing and exporting industry.

<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



And owing to the vandal's heroic efforts, the current version of the page no longer contains the above bit. (Not that it says anything informative.) It must have hit him really hard that Japan knows Hindu religion for *at least* as long as it's heard of Buddhism.



Well, at least only the Hindus - sorry, the Unnameables (since they may not be allowed to exist by name) - got crushed this time (as opposed to Taoists or Shintos).

Still, someone should tell these ungrateful grabbing hands that many (or as others write: most every) ancient Indian Buddhist Temple was built due to the patronage of *Hindu* (not Buddhist) rulers*. And not just commissioned - planned and paid for - by Hindus in such cases, but often built by appointed *Hindu* artisans - Hindus who came from a long line of artists/architects - with the internal Temple imagery equally frequently constructed by Hindus also. (Moreover, these Hindus had to *invent* "Buddhist" art: and to do so, they invariably based this off Hindu specifications of how *Hindu* Gods are to be depicted, which is their area of expertise. Facial features, postures, mudras, specs on dimensions/proportions, every such established feature was transferred into the early Hindu-made "Buddhist" art. **)



* IIRC, the Ajanta caves were also famously commissioned by Hindu rule to be built for Buddhist monks to dwell in.

** In this context: You can still see lineages of *Hindu* Tamizh artists sculpting and drawing/painting Buddha as a sign of goodwill to the religion of Buddhism. Though for the most part - some 99% of their work, and definitely all their chosen work - is to paint exclusively Hindu Gods: absolutely *all* of the Hindu Gods familiar to them (Nakshatra Devatas, Swara Devatas, you name it - all of them lovingly, exquisitely depicted, true to Divine Nature). And in order to respectfully depict Buddhism's Buddha, the current crop of Hindu artists of TN too continue to rely on their traditional Hindu way of depicting Hindu divinity - since that is what they're trained in - and extrapolate from there to create images of Buddha. In this case, though the subject matter is Buddhist, it's actually Hindu - not Buddhist, and not "Indian" - art they end up producing.)





Had something public to post on Japan, will do it next time. (Don't worry, I didn't write it and it is a very diplomatically-phrased piece - it is in fact far too kind in its happy and light treatment of history - and it doesn't go into details at all. It also gets at least one thing wrong.)