Aurangazeb and the molestation of Rani by Kashi temple priests

B.N. Pande, working chairman of the Gandhi Darshan Samiti and former Governor of Orissa writes:

 “The story regarding demolition of Vishvanath temple is that while Aurangzeb was passing near Varanasi on his way to Bengal, the Hindu Rajas in his retinue requested that if the halt was made for a day, their Ranis may go to Varanasi, have a dip in the Ganges and pay their homage to Lord Vishwanath.  Aurangzeb readily agreed.  Army pickets were posted on the five mile route to Varanasi.  The Ranis made a journey on the Palkis.  They took their dip in the Ganges and went to the Vishwanath temple to pay their homage.  After offering Puja all the Ranis returned except one, the Maharani of Kutch.  A thorough search was made of the temple precincts but the Rani was to be found nowhere.  When Aurangzeb came to know of it, he was very much enraged.  He sent his senior officers to search for the Rani.  Ultimately, they found that the statue of Ganesh which was fixed in the wall was a moveable one.  When the statue was moved, they saw a flight of stairs that led to the basement.  To their horror, they found the missing Rani dishonored and crying, deprived of all her ornaments.  The basement was just beneath Lord Vishwanath’s seat.  The Rajas expressed their vociferous protests.  As the crime was heinous, the Rajas demanded exemplary action.  Aurangzeb ordered that as the sacred precincts have been despoiled, Lord Vishvanath may be moved to some other place, the temple be razed to the ground and the Mahant be arrested and punished.”


Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, in his famous prison diary, the book 'The Feathers and the Stones':

“There is a popular belief that Aurangazeb was a bigot in religion.  This, however, is combated by a certain school.  His bigotry is illustrated by one or two instances.  The building of a mosque over the site of the original Kasi Visveswara Temple is one such.  A like mosque in Mathura is another.  The revival of jazia is a third but of a different order.  A story is told in extenuation of the first event.  In the height of his glory, Aurangazeb like any foreign king in a country, had in his entourage a number of Hindu nobles.  They all set out one day to see the sacred temple of Benares.  Amongst them was a Ranee of Cutch.  When the party returned after visiting the Temple, the Ranee of Cutch was missing.  They searched for her in and out, East, North, West and South but no trace of her was noticeable.  At last, a more diligent search revealed a Tah Khana or an underground story of the temple which to all appearances had only two storys.  When the passage to it was found barred, they broke open the doors and found inside the pale shadow of the Ranee bereft of her jewellery.  It turned out that the Mahants were in the habit of picking out wealthy and be-jewelled pilgrims and in guiding them to see the temple, decoying them to the underground cellar and robbing them of their jewellery.  What exactly would have happened to their life one did not know.  Anyhow in this case, there was no time for mischief as the search was diligent and prompt.  On discovering the wickedness of the priests, Aurangazeb declared that such a scene of robbery could not be the House of God and ordered it to be forthwith demolished.  And the ruins were left there.  But the Ranee who was thus saved insisted on a Musjid being built on the ruin and to please her, one was subsequently built.  That is how a Musjid has come to exist by the side of the Kasi Visweswar temple which is no temple in the real sense of the term but a humble cottage in which the marble Siva Linga is housed.  Nothing is known about the Mathura Temple.  This story of the Benares Masjid was given in a rare manuscript in Lucknow which was in the possession of a respected Mulla who had read it in the Ms. and who though he promised to look it up and give the Ms. to a friend, to whom he had narrated the story, died without fulfilling his promise.  The story is little known and the prejudice, we are told, against Aurangazeb persists.”

Chanakya and Aurangazeb

Aurangazeb was not all-perfect, as every ruler was. But, as a ruler, he had been compassionate mostly and had helped the society to have a just order. He saw to it that the judges were honest and trustworthy. Mr. Arvind Kejriwal who does not have even the basic knowledge about the evils of Chaturvarna system in India and who has chosen to replace the name of Aurangazeb from the road of Delhi and to replace it with the name of Abdul Kaalm, must know that the first political terrorist of the world, Chanakya had indulged in genocide of thousands of persons, to capture political power. He was a cut-throat cannibal who used even prostitutes to finish off those who opposed chaturvarna. He created dissension among Non-Brhamins, the way the saffron brigade is doing now a days, and set one against the other, just for the easy life of Brahmins. His character had been criticised even by Banabatta of Kadambari. If the Delhi government could have the embassy enclave named after this diabolical terrorist Chanakya, as Chanakyapuri, why not the name of Aurangazeb continue, for all the good deeds done by him. The Non-Brahmins would never forget Aurangazeb for the great deed done by him in having rescued a Rani who had been molested by the Brahmin priests inside the Kashi temple, When the negative as well as positive side of Auragazeb are evaluated together, as is ought to be, he was really a good ruler.

New Light on the Early History of Tamil Nadu - Prof. V.T. Chellam

A scholarly book, very important for every scholar on Tamil History (1981 Edition):

Imphal Free Press Editorial on migration !

The following is the Editorial from the newspaper Imphal Free Press published on 08.08.2015, on the issue of large scale migration of people from one state to another within India. A well-reasoned, objective and thought-provoking Editorial, the essence of which applies to all the States in the  South India too.

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Room for naturalisation

One of the most magnanimous gifts that a society blessed with a sense of confident and of security is generosity of spirit. Peace would prevail in such a society too. From all indices, Manipur at one point in its history seemed such a society. One of these indices is the demographic makeup of Manipur. The place does not have a homogenous population, but all owe allegiance to their common homeland. But to go away from the larger canvas of the whole state, even amongst any single community, for instance the majority Meiteis, as we had suggested before in these same columns, if a genome study were to be done, it would be discovered how varied the ancestry of this same ethnic group are. Even during recorded historical time, we know this has been the case, and the kings have always encouraged naturalisation and assimilation of settlers, and within a few generations they would be indigenised. In King Khagemba’s time the story of the Pangal (Muslim) invasion from East Bengal in 1606 is well known. The defeated Muslim army was allowed to settle, take local wives and given Meitei surnames to ultimately indigenise. The leniency of course had also to do with the new agricultural and fishing skills the Pangals brought in, falling in the broad pattern of the general outlook of Zomia in matters of skill acquisition that Yale professor, James Scott picturized. Similarly, in the early 18th century, the Brahmins missionaries (Bamon) also were absorbed into the Meitei society. Predetermined by its geography, the Imphal valley would have been a melting pot of ethnicities. The Meiteis themselves, as we know, were formed by the assimilation of seven ethnicities (clans). But the assimilation process did not end there. We also know how many Meitei surnames are distant relations of different hill tribes too. And no doubt about it the society is all the richer for this.

If immigration is controlled and regulated to the extent the society can absorb without detriment to itself, there should be no objection to it. And as we also again already observed in an earlier editorial, those campaigning for the introduction of a regulatory mechanism should keep this in mind, and classify immigrants into two broad categories. In the first category are those who would end up as colonisers becoming the masters of the place’s resources and displacing the original populations. In the other would be those who would assimilate and be part of the collective milieu of the place, unreservedly placing their loyalties to the place of their settlement. The pleas of the local Telis and local Nepalis etc, must therefore not fall on deaf ears. We can also look at how societies which have had similar policy outlooks progressed phenomenally. The story of Singapore which completed half a century of independence earlier this year, is a case in point. Its founder president, Lee Kwan Yew, actively encouraged immigrants, especially those who were skilled, to be assimilated into the Singapore society, and undertook social engineering projects to ensure peaceful, productive co-existence. This generosity of spirit, as Singapore has demonstrated, is not just a matter of ethics and morality, but also of prudent visionary economics and politics. The other case would be America of the 20th Century, and the immigration policy of the time. We are not of course talking of the White colonisation of the earlier centuries and the genocide of the Native Americans. In fact, there have been volumes written how the 20th Century is considered the American century precisely because of its immigration policy. Behind a good majority of the business and scientific innovations of the century that America boast of today, including the Atom bomb, were naturalised immigrants.

The ILP or an equivalent is necessary, but there must be qualifications. It must not be about shutting all doors and windows, but of regulation to ensure the indigenous societies can accommodate settlers to their benefit. It is a fine line that must be drawn, and provided the existential logic behind such a line is well argued out, there is no reason why the state as well as the Union governments would not agree to the proposal. What the society must also be wary of is that it cannot always be swimming against the tides of the time, and therefore must be resilient enough to adopt and flow with the epochal currents. In a discussion, a Naga gentleman many in Manipur are familiar with, Niketu Iralu, who has been places, including New Zealand to study the issues of indigenous peoples, said there is only one pure blooded Maori left in this world today and he met him. But the Maori identity is still alive and vibrant, and no one dares tell those calling themselves Maoris today, be they blue eyed or fair skinned, they are not Maori. Identity is also about believing in being owned by an identity, and not just about genes.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

8-Aug-2015 / IFP Editorials

http://ifp.co.in/page/items/27848/room-for-naturalisation