Quote:With the discovery of so much wealth in the Padmanabha temple in Kerala, it is important that this does not go into the hands of the politicians of various hues and what is the temple property remains part of the temple itself. It may cost a fortune to protect this treasure, but it can be met from within, and need not be a burden on the state budget. Many countries do so to preserve their heritage by keeping them open for public viewing and charging a fee to meet the cost. Godââ¬â¢s Own Country would only be adding to its tourist attraction by providing public access to this treasure trove for a fee.:GRRR:
The writer is a BJP MP.
Of course he'd be a BJP MP.
There is something profoundly wrong with every Indian vocalist I've ever seen writing in English trying to "defend" - what is it again - our "culture"? "civilisation"? "heritage"?
This matter concerns Hindu Temples. And this Kovil - as all other ancient Hindu ones - belong exclusively to the Hindus devoted to their Gods.
Hindu Kovils and kshetras - like Ramarsethu - are NOT "Indian" heritage.
They're not "heritage" at all: to Hindus (I mean exclusively ancestral/native Hindus not foreign "converts") - who are the only ones that are concerned here - the ancient Kovils are abodes of their Gods who have manifested there. This is a living religion.
It's NOT a museum.
It's NOT some Indian's "history", "culture" or any "artistic/architectural" marvel. It's not the "heritage", "civilisation" or "achievements" of some population. <- That's for people for whom all this is dead. They look at the Nataraja vigraham and see pretty, even impressive "art" and hold it up as "our" (define "our") "artistic abilities".
While I agree these things are beautiful (beyond beautiful) - though what Hindus see when they look at their Gods is of course profoundly different from what deheathenised and non-Hindus see - but they are not "architecture/art" to Hindus.
There are insane websites out there by *Tamizh* 'Hindu' persons - of all things - (angelsk-speaking of course) blogging on Tamizh Hindu Kovils as if these are "architectural treasures". Oh No. NO. That is not what (any Hindu) Kovils are.
Moreover, discussions on art and architecture - as all discussions on civilisation, culture, not to mention "public access" and "tourism" and "heritage" - issue an open invitation to all Indians (and all aliens) to join in. Not just the alienated "cultural Hindus" for whom all this is no more than a matter of pride/achievement (as in: not their living religion, but their heirloom instead <- can a heathen be more dead/deheathenised than that), but it also invites Indian christians to dialogue: they think they have a right to speak or participate or read discussions on Hindu Kovils when these same Hindu matters are re-framed as "art and architecture" by foolish Tamizh "Hindu" blogs devoted to this very topic. Which is why Tamizh christians actively seek to take part in said blogs. And who invited them? The very people who turned Hindu Kovils and their moorties, paintings and sculptures into "mere art/architecture".
I will make no effort to explain myself, I merely state it categorically:
Hindu Kovils belong exclusively to the Hindus devoted to their Hindu Gods. Because Hindu Kovils belong to the Hindu Gods presiding there. It's something the de-heathenised will never know: all they are able to see is "architecture/art", they are incapable of viewing/experiencing it the way Hindus have always done thus far. (And so they are therefore incapable of seeing in ancient Kovils what there is to be seen. "Things" which traditional Hindus can still see - after all, this is Hindu religion, right, and it concerns ancient Hindu temples.)
Hindu Kovils expressly do NOT belong to:
- tourists of any stripe. Special mention to aliens. Not invited.
- they do not belong to "converts" (aliens). Not invited.
- being Hindu Kovils to the Hindu Gods, they do not concern other Indic religions let alone terrorist religions like christianism/islam.
- being Living Hindu Religion and not "quaint heirlooms", they do not belong to the deheathenised and deheathenising. I.e. they do not concern the cultural Hindus for whom all this is so much "culture" and a matter of mere pride ("oh look at the pretty 'architecture' and 'sculping capabilities'/'artistic abilities' of our ancestors - it's all just amaaaazing"). Cultural Hindus jettisoned themselves when they self-deheathenised, when they ceased to be able to view these things the way their ancestors - who *made* all this and for a Hindu purpose - viewed them.
It is NOT their "civilisation" - which is a possessive term - it is the Living Religion of others whose religion it STILL is. It is the religion of Hindus, their lifeblood. Kovils belong to those Hindus whose lifeblood it is, who retain their ancestral attachment to their ancestral Gods and to said Gods' abodes and manifestations. Hindus go to their Kovils to see their Gods - it is a very deeply Hindu (and involving) religious practice. That is the sole purpose of Hindu Kovils. That's why you can see Hindus go to not only distant pilgrimages, but can also see them visit their local and ancestral temples over and over and over again: they don't experience a "been there done that" attitude exclusive to the native tourists. They are going for a very different reason.
In the same way deheathenised/cultural Hindus have no business/right to keep preying on the still-heathen by trying to intermarry with them (it's that word "Hindu" that keeps duping poor Hindu parents into selling off their kids to seriously deheathenised who also call themselves Hindu - with as result that their next generations are all cultural Hindus at best (propagating/spreading the mutation of deheathenisation), seculars more generally, and even anti-Hindus all too often),
in that same way, the deheathenised have no claim and no connection to Hindu Kovils. Because these things are not "inheritance" (if you're not a *heathen* anymore, heathenism doesn't concern you anymore. The way Greek Temples don't belong to just any "Greeks" but to Hellenes and Hellenes alone). Living Hindus to whom Hindu Kovils and their moorties still mean what these meant to their ancestors are not extinct yet. And even when they do become extinct, the Kovils will never become "heritage" as if these are but dead things: because the Hindu Gods - who own them - do not ever die. Hindu Kovils forever belong exclusively to Hindus. I.e. the argument still stands if in a 100 or even 50 years time every Hindu-origin person becomes deheathenised and even if it then continues to call itself a Hindu. (Even if the word "Hindu" itself is open to interpretation and application as many insist, the *particular* meaning I allude to in using it is NOT.)
Kovils and their moolamoorties, vigrahas and other sculptures cease to concern such persons at the point of their loss of ability to properly view them, i.e. to view them as the ancient Hindus did (whose religion this was, and who built their Temples etc).
For once, I'd like to NOT have to be the one to say all this.
Can the countless Balbir Punj-es out there be told to BE QUIET instead of them forever offering the worst possible "suggestions" (well-intentioned threats) such as opening Kovils up as "tourist" centres for "public access" to raise money to protect "heritage" or whatever.
Maybe they mean kindly, but if they were to Shut Up altogether I am sure they couldn't do more damage than they do now by offering to sell off others' living religion by their thoughtless words.
And tourism of all things? Tourism? Since when did Hindus invite "tourists" to their temples? Tourists don't belong in Hindu Kovils: I don't care how curious people from wherever are to see "what's inside a Hindoo Temple" - Kovils are not there for the purpose of satisfying their curiosity.
What is this new trend of inviting unHindu/desanctifying presences over to "please come sightseeing". Hindu Kovils are not for sightseeing, they're not tourist attractions. No Hindu goes to a temple for "sightseeing" and they certainly wouldn't want tourists anywhere near our sacred sites and Kovils.
I still can't believe I had to say all this: to a Hindu audience in response to a piece by a Hindu. Surely you people must realise how *dire* your circumstances are as a population when your most potent enemy are the "brilliant ideas" of your *home team*.
Anyone else try this sort of thing again and all non-Tamizhs can permanently consider themselves desdecardos vis-a-vis Tamizh Hindu Kovils. (The gangreen has to be stopped somewhere.)
If people want to defend Hindu matters, then do it correctly or not at all. So far, all attempts have only resulted in more harm, which includes more people entertaining=adopting bad/unheathen views/suggestions.
As concerns the motives for Punj's terrible suggestion:
The concerned Kovils' wealth was never threatened before - not by Hindus: Hindus don't loot their ancestral Kovils. The only protection necessary, therefore, is Shoot On Sight orders: any looting that happens points the fingers to only non-Hindus. Which includes anyone suggesting to use the Kovil's treasure trove for (predictably a very general 'Indian') "poverty alleviation" as Kerala's and Nepal's anti-Hindu christogovts have been suggesting. Hindu temples already look after Hindus: providing far more than merely mass free meals daily and conducting mass marriages - as their Hindu beneficiaries know personally. Moreover Hindu Temples' treasure - even if Temple-going Hindus ever decide to resort to it in times of need - specifically do not concern the 'poor' of other religions. Too bad for them. How does Temple wealth concern them. They already get crores of Hindus' tax money and free or subsidised access to everything in society (deliberatedly at the expense of Hindus of course; see precursor of the christian parasitism in Rome), not to mention them receiving more crores from alien missionary and jihadi organisations.
Hindu Kovils in Bharatam should be permanently off-limits for all aliens and all those of other religions. With no exceptions.