I Go West

Author: D. F. Karaka
Publisher: Thacker & Co, Bombay (2nd edition) 1941

Karaka introduced himself and his small Parsi community in Bombay in “few words” at the beginning of the book.  I have condensed those “few words” even further in this note.

I am a parsee.  We have been separated from Persia for 1200 years.  We have our prophet Zarathustra and our bible Zend Avesta.  We have a Fire Temple where we pray and a Tower of Silence where we offer our dead to the vultures.  There is nothing profound about us.  We are a race of bank clerks and commercial travelers.  When the British Raj was strong and powerful, we were staunch and loyal to it.  Now with the rising tide of Congress opinion, and the growth of the Indian National Movement, we have suddenly awakened to the fact that our duty lies to the country which twelve hundred years ago found a home for us, when we were fleeing from Persia on an attempt to rescue the Sacred Fire from the onslaught of Islam and the Arabs.

I used to feel quite proud at one time that among my somewhat distant ancestors were Rustom and Sorab.  

The routine of the day was, for men their office, followed in the evening with a visit to the Gymkhana or the club and dinner either at home or with friends.  The women spent their mornings shopping at large English stores, when they dressed with particular care, for this was regarded somewhat as a social function.  If they went to a bazaar, good cloths were seldom worn for fear of contamination.  At lunch the topic of conversation was the morning’s shopping, the gossip of the smart set, new engagements, the babies that were shortly to be born.  Then came the short afternoon siesta to make up for the strain of the morning’s hard work.  Then Tea.  Then a fantastic discussion as to the particular saree that would be worn that evening.

We were not rich, but the poverty was inconceivable.  We were far too respectable to be poor.  Promiscuity was unknown in the little world of ours.  Nobody got any further than holding hands, and we only thought of women in terms of marriage.

One sentence that meant a lot to Karaka when he was at the University in Bombay was “the youth is the sword that is fretting in its sheath …” by the nightingale of India, Sarojini Naidu. 

Some homes have been broken because of the conflict of ideals between parent and child.  But out of it come the India I know.  What Kipling wrote may have been very beautiful literature, but it is now preposterously out-of-date.  It is time one of us wrote about ourselves not in the orthodox style of a pompous Victorian monologue, but rather as a confession, not sparing our blushes.  We have reason to color in spite of our perpetually brazen complexions.

Karaka expresses his rude-awakening as he tries to mingle into the English society at Oxford. 

 

I have known what it feels like to be away from home, flung out into the world which cares little for your ancestry or the purity of the race or the unimpeachable record of your family, and where the only things that matter are your bank balance and your color.  Then I forget that I am a Parsee, or an Indian or anything else, and I realize that the most significant fact about myself is that I was born dark.

Every P. and O. liner brings more and more of those who like me stepped out of the smugness of our homes to be battered in our effort to acquire an English education.  I often wish that when we come to England for the first time we would not be so naive, so full of hope, so believing.  

Something within me has died in these seven years away from home.

He was elected to the library committee, later to the standing committee, became the secretary and eventually became the first Asian president of the Oxford Union.

This is an autobiography mixed with acute observations of the then Indian society, and radical changes that have been proposed to change Indian society in the 1930s.  He was a supporter of Gandhi, Nehru, and what the Congress stands for.  He rebelled in his own Parsi society and became a newspaper man against the wishes of his family.  

I came to know about Karaka and this book through one of the short stories of Martin Wickremasinghe (මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ) in his book “Handa Sakki Keema” (හඳ සාක්කි කීම).  It was a fascinating to read about the rise of the Congress, how people venerated the leaders of the Congress, how powerful was the Congress, and how determined Nehru was to change the orthodoxy of the Indian society.  It is hard to believe what happened since he wrote this book.  The orthodoxy is still alive and well, and the Congress has almost disappeared from Indian politics.

XuanZang—China’s Legendary Pilgrim and Translator

Author: Benjamin Brose

Publisher: Shambala 2021 

XuanZang (pronounced “ShonZung” ශොන්ෂන්) is not well known in Sri Lanka relative to another Chinese monk Fa-Hsien (FaXian).  XuanZang is more famous in the world than Fa-Hsien.  XuanZang travelled to India and over a course of sixteen years visited hundreds of Buddhist monasteries in what are known today as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India.  He spent most of his time at Nalanda in India studying Buddhist texts under Venerable Silabhadra.  

There were 6 schools of Buddhist scholarship in China at the time: the “Three Treatise tradition” studied second century work of Nagarjuna; “the Establishing Reality Tradition (Tattavasiddhi) attributed to Harivarman (250-350); the Abhidharma school, which studies Vasabandhu’s Abhidharmasoka Bhasya; the Nirvana school studied MahaParinirvana Suthra; the Dilun tradition studied Dasabhumika Bhashya and Avathamsaka Suthra; the Shelun tradition studied Asanga’s Mahayanasamgraha Sastra (Compendium of the great vehicle).  Most of them could not read Sanskrit and the accuracy of the Chinese versions of these Mahayana texts were in doubt.  

XuanZang spent his early years studying Asanga’s compendium of the great vehicle.  This text provided a systematic overview of the Yogacara teachings.  In Chang’an, XuanZang probably heard about the “Discourse on the Stages of the Yogic Practice” that was currently being taught at the thriving Buddhist monastery of Nalanda in northeastern India.  

On the way to India, XuanZang visited Kucha and there were several thousands of monks of Sarvastivada, one of the most prominent schools of non-mahayana mainstream Buddhism.  In Suyab (near present day Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan) people followed the teachings of the ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster.  In Bactria, XuanZang observed that the Greek language was still used for official record keeping.  (Alexander the Great had conquered Bactria in 327 BCE.)

According to Buddhist tradition, the Greek king of Bactria, Menander I (165-130 BCE) converted to Buddhism and the region remained Buddhist during the seventh century.  (This king is known as “Milinda” (මිලින්ද) in Sri Lanka.  See "The Questions of King Milinda" by T.W. Rhys Davids.) XuanZang observed hundreds of Monasteries occupied by thousands of Buddhist monks.  Passing through Bamiyan, XuanZang found several thousand monks studying the lokottaravada tradition.  In addition to the Buddha statues destroyed by Taliban, XuanZang marveled at a hundred-foot tall standing of Buddha cast in Bronze and a beautifully adorned recumbent parinirvana statue of the Buddha one thousand feet in length.  While staying in Kapisa XuanZang noted that the king staged a five day debate between Mahayana and mainstream monks.  Unfortunately, Buddhism has disappeared from Central Asia.  

Kashmir remained the preeminent center of Sravasthivadin Abhidharma studies and there were one hundred temples with five thousand monks.  Kashmir was also home to scholars of the Mahasangika tradition.  XuanZang remained in Kashmir for two years.

In XuanZang’s view, Buddhism was under siege in India.  

False sages engaged in practices delusional and disturbing.  Jain monks and nuns, the devotees of the “destroyer” god Siva and the “preserver” god Vishnu, and other ascetics all competed with Buddhist monastics for the support of the laity.  The capital city Kanyakubja, for example, had twice as many “deva” temples as did Buddhist monasteries.  Even King Harsha was most likely a devotee of Siva, the same deity venerated by the Kapalikas with their grisly necklaces made of human skulls.

The formerly thriving Buddhist center of Gandhara once had over a thousand monasteries, but they are deserted and desolate now, overgrown with weeds.  In Pataliputra, the former capital of King Ashoka, there had once been several hundred monasteries but now only two or three remained.  In Sravasti, although there were still several hundred monasteries, most were dilapidated. 

XuanZang’s first destination after leaving Nalanda was the island of Sinhale’ (Sri Lanka).  He heard there were unparalleled scholars of the “Discourse on Stages of Yogic Practice” and the works of the Sthavira, an influential tradition of early mainstream Buddhism.  When he reached the port city of Kancipura, from where he intended to sail to Sinhale’, he learned that the island’s king had recently died and the island was in the midst of a devastating famine.  Hundreds of Sinhale’ Monks were leaving to the mainland in search of food and shelter.  XuanZang questioned three such refugee monks and learned that their understanding did not surpass what he learned at Nalanda.  XuanZang abandoned his plan to visit the island.

I checked Chulawansa (second part of the the historical written records of Sri Lanka known as “Mahawansa”.)  According to Chulawansa, there was a continuing battle between two kings Dathopatissa I and Aggabodhi III at this time in Sinhale’.  Chulawansa recorded the events as follows:

The whole people suffering under the wars of these two kings, fell into great misery and lost money and field produce.  Dathopatissa exhausted the whole property of former kings and seized all objects of value in the three fraternities and in the relic temples.  He broke in pieces the golden images and took the gold for himself and plundered all the golden wreaths and other offerings.  In the Thuparama likewise he took away golden crowning on the cetiya which was studded with costly precious stones.  The canoes in the Mahapali Hall he left to the Damilas; and they burned down the royal palace together with the Relic Temple.

Cūlavamsa (Being the more recent part of the Mahāvamsa)—Translated by William Geiger

When XuanZang returned to China, he carried back 657 texts, 150 relics, and at least seven statues.  These texts, relics, and statues were stored in the great wild goose pagoda.  When the great wild goose pagoda was completed in 652, XuanZang hoped that it would endure long as heaven and earth.   Now 1500 years later the stupa is still there and it towered over fast food restaurants in modern Xian (former Chinese capital of the Tang dynasty Chang’an) but the palm leaf manuscripts, statues, and relics disappeared long ago.

The reigning emperor, Taizong has asked XuanZang to reside in the spacious Hongfu temple and serve the court.  He was asked to write a detailed account of all the places he had visited and all the things he had seen and heard during the years on the road.  The result, “The Record of the Western Regions”, is the most extensive detailed account of seventh-century Central Asia ever produced.

In the five years between 660 and 664 XuanZang and his team translated 670 fascicles of texts.  With the completion of the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in 663, XuanZang stopped his translation work.  At midnight, on the fifth day of the second month of 664, XuanZang died.

XuanZang’s disciples composed the biography of the Tripitaka master of the great Ci’en Monastery of the great Tang dynasty shortly after his death.  XuanZang’s disciple Huili wrote the first 5 chapters which covers XuanZang’s early life and his travels to India.  Another disciple Yanli added another 5 chapters covering XuanZang’s return to China until his death and the funeral.  

XuanZang’s translations were carried all over China, Japan and Korea.  The study and practices of XuanZang’s teachings continued in Japan by the “Hosso” sect for over thirteen hundred years.  One of Korean disciples of XuanZang, Wonchuck returned to Korea and is revered as the first patriarch of “Ximing” Branch of the “Popsong” lineage.  

XuanZang’s works were later translated into Tibetan and Turkish and much later into French, English, Russian, and German.  Stanislas Julien managed to secure a copy of the "Records of the Western Regions" from the Imperial library in Nanjing and translated it to French in 1857. 

Captain Cunningham of Bengal Engineers, was appointed director-general of the newly established Archeological Survey of India in 1861.  Armed with Julien's translation of “The Record of the Western Regions”, he began his own field work in Northern India.  Over the next several decades Cunningham and his colleagues rediscovered temples, stupas, Ashoka edicts, at Bodhgaya, Sravasthi, Kausambi, Nalanda, Taxila, and many other long forgotten sites.  (See "Buddha and the Sahibs" by Charles Allen.)

XuanZang’s physical remains were unearthed in Nanjing in 1942 by occupying Japanese troops.  Since its discovery, the bones were partitioned and fragments of the original relic now reside in China, India, Japan, and Taiwan.  Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai presented a portion of the relic to the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on January 12, 1957 at the Nalanda Maha Viharaya.  A life size statue of XuanZang now stands near the entrance of the XuanZang memorial hall at Nalanda.  

Few modern pilgrims have followed XuanZang’s footsteps. They have retraced the long and difficult route leading from China through Central Asia to India. They make the journey in part to remember what once was, the vanished Buddha statues of Bamiyan, crumbling stupas of Saranath, but also to learn something about themselves.  China Central Television network even sponsors a “XuanZang Road Business School Gobi Challenge'', where teams of MBA students race along a hundred kilometer stretch of Xuanzang’s route through the desert, paying tribute to what they describe as his commercial wisdom and pioneering spirit”.  

In 2015, Chinese Film Corporation teamed up with EROS International to produce a film XuanZang.  

For some Indians, XuanZang has risen to the level of a bodhisattva.  Anand Deepak maintains a Facebook page titled “Retracing Bodhisattva Xuanzang Project''.

Retracing Bodhisattva Xuanzang

There is a Google Arts and Culture project titled “XuanZang Memorial, Nalanda.

Arts and Culture Google Site

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Author: Anthony Doerr
Publisher: Scribner 2021

I read “All The Light We Cannot See” by the same author previously.  Many people liked that book so much.  It even won the Pulitzer prize.  It was a book about children, and this is a book about children.

I am probably one of the very few people who “did not like” All The Light We Cannot See.  Perhaps, “did not like” are not the correct words.  I “liked” the book.  I would give it 4 stars.  But, there were few places in the book I felt annoyed.  I felt that the author was not accurate with historical events.

Many people like this book too.  But I do not feel that way.  It is possible that that annoyance I felt from reading his “All the light” book was with me when I started reading this book.  I do not feel good or bad about this book.  But in the end, it feels like reading it was a waste of my time.

Annoyingly, I found more falsehood in this book as well.  I will include one such incident in this note.

He states in page 349 “… cricket players in Delhi vomiting from Chinese air pollution”.  That sounded far-fetched.  So, I checked.

It was Suranga Lakmal of Sri Lanka who vomited on the field during one of the Sri Lanka vs India test matches in Delhi due to heavily polluted air in the stadium in December 2017.  (Apparently, Mohammad Shami and Lahiru Gamage were also affected by the air pollution.) It is known that it is during the winter that pollution reaches severe levels.  One Indian newspaper reported that concentrations of the most harmful airborne pollutants in Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted capitals, hit 384—15 times the World Health Organization maximum—before returning to the levels considered just “unhealthy”.

Another Indian newspaper listed the top 8 main causes for air pollution in Delhi.  

(1) Approximately 35 million tonnes of crop are set afire in neighboring states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.  The wind carries all the pollutants and dust particles.

(2) Pollution caused by the traffic menace in Delhi.

(3) As the winter season sets in, dust particles and pollutants in the air become unable to move, resulting in smog.

(4) Overpopulation in Delhi.

(5) Investing less on public infrastructure.

(6) Large scale construction in Delhi-National Capital Region.

(7) Industrial pollution and garbage dumps.

(8) Over use of firecrackers.

Wild Rituals: 10 Lessons Animals Can Teach Us about Connection, Community, and Ourselves

Author: Caitlin O’ Connell
Publisher: Chronicle Books 2021

If you’ve ever heard of a black mamba it was probably in context of its being one of the most dangerous aggressive and largest venomous snakes in Africa.  And of those who like to collect trivia on dangerous snakes, though it’s the second largest venomous snake in the world, next to king cobra, the black mamba is seven times more venomous than the cobra and can grow up to fourteen feet.

There are plenty of deadly snakes out there in Africa that don’t strike the same fear in the heart because you’d probably have to step on them to get bitten, such as the well-camouflaged puff adder.  The puff adder is reputed to be responsible for more fatalities than any other snake in Africa—despite the fact that, even when it gets going, it moves like a caterpillar, all chubby, sluggish, and slow.

Not so the mamba, which not only has deadly venom but is also incredibly aggressive when threatened.  It can rear a third of its body up off the ground to deliver multiple bites—up to twelve in a row—when just one bite would be enough to kill twenty to forty grown men.

On top of this is the fact that they are the fastest moving snakes alive and have been clocked at twelve miles per hour.  Having previously witnessed their speed and aggression, when one of these demons found their way into camp, I knew we had to plan our mamba extraction strategy very carefully.

From “Elephant Don: The Politics of a Pachyderm Posse” by Caitlin O' Connell

Caitlin and her husband have been studying Elephants at the Mushara waterhole in the Etosha National Park in Namibia for nearly 30 years.  In this book she shares her observations of animal behavior and what we can learn from those behaviors.  

Caitlin notices that humans share 50 percent of the genes with a banana, 61 percent with a fruit fly, 85 percent with a mouse, and 98 percent with a chimpanzee.  Many of the genes we share with a banana are called “housekeeping” genes, which are necessary for breathing, repair, and replication.  

Recent genetic findings point to all current life on Earth evolving from a single-celled organism that originated approximately 3.5 billion years ago.  This organism is identified as LULA (Last Universal Common Ancestor).  It took 3 billion years to evolve multicellular organisms from single-celled organisms, and Humans and bananas shared a common ancestor less than a billion years ago.

Their studies have shown that many animals experience a lot of the same emotions we do.  Young male elephants chew food for older elephants that do not have teeth anymore.  Chimpanzees enact a ritual dance at the onset of rain.  A strange ritual called “accumulative rock throwing” by chimpanzees accumulates rocks in front of specific trees.   Jane Goodall suggests that these Chimpanzee displays may be precursors of religious rituals.  Stone accumulation shrines at sacred trees are known among indigenous West African peoples, and ritual sites such as these are thought to have led to the foundation of religion.

Performing all steps of a ritual in a specific sequence requires complete focus and engaging in such rituals can relieve stress, decrease anxiety, and improve cognition.  In addition, repeating rituals can be critical for learning and long-term memory.  

This book focuses on greeting rituals, group rituals, courtship, gifting, spoken rituals, unspoken rituals, play, grieving and healing, renewal, and migration.  Caitlin claims that reconnection with the rituals that have held our ancestors—all living beings—together across time will bring us more peace and fulfillment.

Let me list a few interesting findings before ending this note.

(1) Both male and female hyenas present their erect genitalia during a greeting ceremony.

(2) For male elephants, the purposeful act of placing a trunk in a dominant male’s mouth is akin to the prime minister kissing the queen’s ring in England.

(3) In a study of fire walkers in the Mauritian Hindi community, the fire walkers reported greater happiness after having endured the ritualistic suffering.  I remember watching and enjoying such a fire walk at the flats in front of the Borella Cemetery when I was little.  One of my uncles boasted that he can walk and not run on the fire walk and that was why we went.  We had a great time watching people running, bailing out half way through, and chickening out without stepping one foot on the fire walk.  Caitlin says: “Witnessing a ritual can be equally as powerful performing it.”

(4) Flamingoes secrete the pink substance from the preening gland near the tail.  This labour intensive application of “makeup” only lasts a few days.  The color needs to be reapplied every few days.

(5) The gestation time for an elephant is almost two years, and a calf nursers for another two years, and a mature female only comes into estrus once every four to six years.

(6) Killer whales benefit by sharing a carcass of a seal because multiple whales feeding on the seal will keep it afloat for longer than if a single individual were feeding on it.

Let me finish this note with a teaser from the book.

... Almost every culture and musical genre—from classical, rock, R&B, jazz, and country to opera—uses yodeling.  The song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” incorporates yodeling that you may not realize is there.  Even Adele uses a form of yodeling in her songs.

This is another great book by Caitlin.

The Last Thing He Told Me

Author: Laura Dave
Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2021

It is a detective story, sort of.  Hannah’s husband Owen works as the chief technical officer at an upcoming Tech company disappears without trace one day.  He sent a note to Hannah with a kid from his 16 year daughter’s high school asking her to “protect his daughter.”  Hannah is a successful wood carver and Bailey is her husband’s only daughter form his first marriage.  The relationship between Bailey and her step mother was not cordial.  

Soon a US Martial and two FBI agents showed up at her house.  The tech firm her husband worked was accused of defrauding its shareholders.  The CEO of the tech firm is in custody and the incident is all over the news.

Hannah decided to find out what is going on with Owen.  Hannah and Bailey formed an uneasy  partnership in this common cause.  

This book reminds me of “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins. The story evolved very nicely for about three quarters of the book.  I think Laura rushed the last quarter of the story.  Had she maintained the same pace, then this could have been a very good book.  I still rate it as a 4 star book.