The Sultan and the Mermaid Queen by Paul Sochaczewski

Author:Paul Sochaczewski
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9789814260756
Publisher: Editions Didier Millet Pte Ltd
Published: 2011-06-05T14:00:00+00:00

The origin of most sacred groves is lost in time. I asked Vithal Rajan, chairman of the central Indian Deccan Development Society and formerly director of education and ethics for WWF International, how they might have started. “You find sacred places everywhere,” he explained. “Stonehenge, the Aboriginal songlines. They’re the meeting place of culture and nature.”

I am what I think. My grown-up western mind insists on asking “why?” Life would be so much simpler if I simply accepted the inexplicable. When I was a boy I believed in gardens filled with unicorns and sprites and goblins. I knew these special places existed – I saw them in my picture books. But as a boring adult I have to balance my Rousseau-like vision of gardens of innocence hidden, Brigadoon-like beyond the next hill, with a nagging Cartesian drive to understand. I’m not entirely happy with this schizophrenic approach, but, well, there it is. My left-brained side sought out Madhav Gadgil, of the Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, and V.D. Vartak, of the Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science, Poona, who are the acknowledged experts on Indian sacred groves, and who have catalogued more than 400 sacred groves in Maharastra state alone.

Mr. Gadgil and Mr. Vartak believe that sacred groves had their origins “in the hunting‑gathering stage of society, where they served to create the proper setting for cult rites, including human sacrifices.” They see a parallel between Indian sacred groves and the way in which ancient Greeks worshiped the goddess Diana and her forests.

Mr. Gadgil and Mr. Vartak also acknowledge secular reasons for establishing sacred groves, such as the preservation of a valuable plant which was relatively rare in the locality. They point out that a sacred grove of the water deities, Sati Asara, at Bombilgani (Srivardhan Taluka, Kolaba district, Maharashtra), harboured a solitary, but thriving specimen of the liana known as gaidhari (Entada phaseoloides Merr.), used in treating cattle for snakebite. This was the only specimen of this species within a radius of 40 kilometers, and people came from considerable distances to this grove to ask the priest for a piece of the medicinal bark.

The role of sacred groves and water conservation has an unusual vehicle throughout the Hindu and Buddhist world – the naga. The naga is based on the king cobra, and symbolizes water; it guards the life-energy stored in springs, wells and ponds.

A signboard outside the Pambhumekkad Mana temple, 50 kilometers east of Cochin, India, announces that this is a place of nagas, and the family of priests in residence obtains their religious power from serpents which flourish in an adjoining sacred grove.

“Garudas, like cosmic eagles, are the enemies of the nagas, but they don’t dare enter the compound,” advises Mr. J. Jathavedan, a quick-to-smile 22-year-old priest. He excuses himself to greet an elderly woman in a white sari who has come to the door. He pours a bit of oil into her palms. She drinks it and offers a few crumpled rupees.

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