The Bad Effects of the Puranic Era of Rarh

Shashanka, a king of Ráŕh, was an orthodox Shaivite.

Everyone in Ráŕh were adherents of Shaivism at that time.

King Shashanka could not tolerate the Buddhists at all.

He obliterated a number of Buddha idols in Magadh [on the west of Ráŕh].

In food matters, the people of Ráŕh, being influenced by Shaivism, were sentient.

They adopted the Shaivite ideology in all spheres of their life.

In the vratakathá [verses recited during the domestic worship of a deity] of Ráŕh, only the glory of Shiva is preached.

The Carak, Gájan and Bolán festivals of Ráŕh are all completely Shiva-centric.

Even Rabindranath, a poet of the modern age, has referred to the worship of omnipresent Shiva in his poems:

Chili ámár putul kheláy prabháte shivapújár beláy Tore ámi bheḿgechi ár gaŕechi, Tui ámár t́hákurer sane chili pújár siḿhásane Tár-i pújáy tomár pújá karechi.

[You were there in the play of my childhood dolls, You were there in my morning worship of Shiva. I have broken and rebuilt your image again and again. You are seated on the altar with my deity; When I do His worship, I worship You as well.]

Even innumerable rural folk-rhymes prevalent in Ráŕh are paeans to Shiva.

A liberal Shaeva [Shaivite] ideology permeated every existential vibration, every cell of the bone and marrow of Ráŕh.

This is why the women of Ráŕh always enjoyed more liberty than those of other countries.

They had absolute freedom to move anywhere – in the markets and fairs, in the villages and towns. They still enjoy the same amount of liberty today.

In the past, men and women shared equally in the hard work of the fields and farms. They continue to do so today.

Even on the battlefield women stood beside their men and actively fought in wars. There were no artificial social restrictions.

Even Bagri [Samatat] and Barendrabhumi(1) did not allow women as much freedom as Ráŕh, what to speak of Vauṋga-D́abák.

Moreover, there were numerous restrictions based on caste.

Shankaracharya [8th century from Karnataka Southwest India] came to Ráŕh only [not the rest of Bengal].

Hence many Buddhists and Jains of Ráŕh embraced Puranic Dharma.

D́abák [Ladakh in northern India] was marshy land.

• So neither Shankaracharya nor his disciples with leadership qualities visited there much.
• So its people remained Buddhists and later embraced Islam on a large scale.

Muslims are scarce in modern-day Ráŕh, except for some in eastern Ráŕh.

Hindus and Muslims are almost equally numerous in Bagri.

But in D́abák Muslims are in great number. The reason is this [Ladakh was marshy].

The history of Ráŕh is not the history of Ráŕh alone, it is the history of Bagri, D́abák [Ladakh], Barendra and Orissa also.

Wherever the people of Ráŕh have settled down, they have mingled and become one with the local people.

So there is a close link between the people of Ráŕh and the people of Orissa.

Severe caste discrimination arose in Ráŕh due to the influence of the Paoráńika Dharma propounded by Shankaracharya.

• This evil created fatal rents in the otherwise well-knit social fabric of Ráŕh.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu [18 February 1486 – 14 June 1534] (Vishwambhar Mishra):

• had outstanding wisdom
• rescued Ráŕh from Puranic dharma
• formed a new Vaishnavite group with people who not socially recognized by the high-caste Hindus.

The people of this Vaishnavite group are still spread in many places throughout Ráŕh.

Mahaprabhu’s historic contribution still permeates every atom of the soil of Ráŕh.

So no one can lose caste so easily today.(2)

1981, Kolkata

Footnotes

(1) Barendra. See footnote on “Gaoŕiiya” in “Outstanding Personalities of Ráŕh”. –Trans.

(2) If someone becomes de-recognized by the higher castes, that person now has another group to go to, and this in turn discourages the higher castes from de-recognizing in the first place. –Trans.