The Hindu Temple and Its Sacred Landscape by Himanshu Prabha Ray

Author:Himanshu Prabha Ray [Ray, Himanshu Prabha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798887620343
Google: Pz6kEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B0BR4FFYW5
Barnesnoble: B0BR4FFYW5
Goodreads: 67955877
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2023-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

COASTAL TEMPLES AND MARITIME LINKAGES

In the first centuries CE, Hoq cave on the northern face of the island of Socotra was known in a wide region by merchants travelling between Africa, India, West Asia, and East Asia. Socotra is a small archipelago of four islands about 250 kilometres east of the Horn of Africa, off the coasts of Yemen and Somalia in the western Indian Ocean. The largest island in the group is also called Socotra. At 132 kilometres long, Socotra Island is often described as the most isolated place on Earth, though this account does not agree with the island’s central location in the maritime networks of the early centuries of the Common Era, as is evident from archaeological excavations conducted over the years.

Explorations in the 2000-metre-deep cave in 2001 led to the discovery of 200 graffiti, drawings, and small offerings dated to the late second to fourth century CE. Of these, 192 are in the Brahmi script, one in Kharoshthi, one in Bactrian, three in Greek, one in Palmyrene Aramaic, and twenty-odd in Axumite, or ancient Ethiopian. The graffiti and inscriptions are not randomly engraved in the cave; instead, they occur in clusters at specific sites, most likely representing deliberate choice of location. In the graffiti written in the Brahmi script at site 14, for example, individuals adopt several terms to identify themselves, such as sea-captains, yavana (a term indicating ‘Greek’ or ‘foreign’ that is frequently also used in the epigraphs of the western Deccan caves), or by their place of residence, such as Barygaza or Bharuch on the west coast of India. This connection with the west coast of India continues well into the present. As documented by an Oral History Project of the University of Warwick, sailors from Kachchh in Gujarat on their way to East Africa often stop at Socotra to pay homage to Goddess Sikotar Mata, offering her ship models and seeking her blessings. The temple of Sikotar Mata, situated on the Sikotar Hill coast, is maintained by a Hindu priest and a visit to the temple is an integral part of the beliefs that the seafarers have followed for centuries as a protection against the perils of the sea.

In addition, the diversity of evidence provided by a range of archaeological and architectural sources when collated furnish fascinating vignettes for an understanding of the maritime orientation of communities settled in western India. The Dashakumaracharita, or What Ten Young Men Did, is described as a coming-of-age novel by Dandin (690–725 CE), which presents in autobiographical format stories and adventures of ten princes at the time of their reunion. It describes Valabhi as a prosperous trading centre. One of the stories in the text is set in the city of Valabhi in Saurashtra, where the chief of sea-traders lived. He possessed immense wealth like Kubera.

Dandin came from an illustrious family and his great-grandfather had migrated south from the court of the Vakatakas, in Vidarbha in central India, to the position of court poet of the Pallava rulers in seventh-century Tamilnadu.

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