Prior
to 1998, single-most iconic symbol of rural and untouched
Afghanistan, was a pair of giant Buddha statues that stood in their
hillside niches near a beautiful rustic place, Bamiyan. An ancient
traveller mentions that if heaven is to be ever found on Earth, it
would be in Bamiyan only. The distant snow covered peaks from north
and south, surrounding grayish-brownish mountain ranges with razor
cut vertical cliffs from all sides and right in the middle a
refreshing green river basin, which itself is at an height of 8000
feet, is how Bamiyan can be described. It is said that whenever
anyone entered the Bamiyan valley, his mind automatically felt
detached from the problems of his world. This probably was the
reason, why Buddhist monks were attracted to Bamiyan in the first
place. No one precisely knows, when the Bamiyan Buddhas were carved
out of the hillside. The archeologists now believe with the
application of new carbon dating method that smaller image of the two
was carved out in 507 CE and larger image was carved in 554 CE.
With
the advent of Islam, any kind of idol worshiping was forbidden and
Islamist armies saw it as their principal duty, to destroy or at
least deface any idols that they came across. Bamiyan Buddhas however
were saved from this destruction, probably by their sheer size and
aura. In 1272, great conqueror Genghis Khan carried out total ruin
and destruction of Bamiyan. However his soldiers were too scared of
touching the Buddha images and these were saved. In the fifteenth
century, then Amir of Afghanistan, Babur loved the beauty of Bamiyan
and in fact made efforts to bring back old glory to Bamiyan.
The
first serious attempts to destroy Bamiyan Buddhas were made by much
hated Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. When he came to power in Delhi, he
tried to disfigure Bamiyan Buddhas. Luckily again, his soldiers were
not able to achieve much, except for slight disfigurement of the
Buddha faces. What Aurangzeb could not do was finally done by Taliban
in March 2001, when they planted powerful mines near the Buddha
images and both the images were destroyed and big heaps of crushed
stone and loose earth was all that remained of Bamiyan Buddhas. But
that is another story.
Aurangzeb
in his zeal to carry out tenets of Islam, caused much destruction of
other Hindu temples including Krishna's birth temple in Mathura; the
rebuilt Somnath temple on the coast of Gujarat; the KashiVishwanath
temple in Benares; and the Treta-ka-Thakur temple in Ayodhya.
In all
these historic disfigurements of idols, there is an underlying fact
that they were essentially disfigured because of some misguided
believers or religious zealots, who refused to accept in their
perverted minds, even mere existence at all, of any other religions
of the world. Similarly, what would you call the misguided persons
trying to disfigure statues that might be symbolic of another era,
but which they find mentally unacceptable? According to me, their
thinking processes are probably same, though in one case it is the
religious fanaticism and in other case it is fanaticism related to
some other causes.
During
the British rule of 150 years in India, British rulers thought it fit
to erect statues of Queen Victoria at many places around the
country, prime example of which can be said to be Kolkata's Victoria
Memorial. For the British, after all, she was the Empress of India.
Indians naturally considered these statues as symbols of imperialism
and political slavery. After independence, there was wide spread
demands to remove these symbols of British rule. I do not see
anything wrong in this demand. The various Government all over India,
justifiably responded to these demands and shifted many statues to
Museums all over the country. In the similar fashion, statues of
Queen Victoria, originally erected in towns like Aligarh and Badaun
in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and made from eight metals,
known as 'ashtadhatu' were shifted to the museum in the city of
Mathura. Mathura museum is famous for its possession of the only
statue available anywhere (without a head) of Kushan king Kanishka,
who ruled north western parts of Indian sub continent in second
century CE. This museum was known previously as The Curzon Museum of
Archaeology in British times. It was founded by F S Growse in 1874
when he was the collector of the district. The present building,
housing the museum was opened in 1930. Mathura museum was already in
possesion of a couple of Queen Victoria statues and when three more
were added to its collection, museum sent two of the statues in its
possession, to Government museum in Lucknow city, again in the state
of Uttar Pradesh. The Victoria statues are at least 200 years old.
Last
week, on 8th
August 2014, three misguided youth armed with hammers entered the
museum premises. Since the museum does not allow any tools being
taken inside, they threw hammers over the museum wall in the
courtyard to avoid being caught and then purchased tickets to enter
the museum premises. Once inside, they picked up the hamers and
straight went to the spot where the Victoria statues are placed for
public view and tried to damage them. According to the museum
authorities, the trio broke the nose and fingers of the statues.
They also damaged two others statues placed elsewhere in the
premises.
After
they managed to cause the damage, the two of the vandals were
overpowered by the museum guards while the third managed to slip
away. The duo nabbed were handed over to the Mathura police. The
miscreants claimed to be part of a group called 'Swadeshi Sanstha',
say that they want to damage all things which are a symbol of British
Raj.
Local
people including archaeologists are blaming the museum staff for the
carelessness, apathy and mismanagement. They say that that the
museum authorities have always been careless in managing statues and
artifacts. As I have said earlier, I do not see much difference in
the mental processes of Mathura vandals and armies of yesteryear bent
upon damaging or defacing idols. They are simply incapable of
understanding that by damaging symbols of a bygone era, history can
not be changed. Only thing they achieve is destruction of their own
heritage.
12th
August 2014
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