Sonntag, November 08, 2009

dasavatharam Tamil Movie and the history of india

recently i came across trough a friend in the indian grossary store from who i buy always puja samagri to hand me over a new Tamil movie by the name "dasavatharam" on VCD. At home i started to watch the movie, and i liked the movie - even with all this interchanging of facts, mythology and fiction. The story goes like this:"in the ancient time before the mleccha muslim invasion started in india, around the 12th century AD, great rivalry between shaivas and Vaishnavas reached his peak in replacing Govindaraj Swamy from Chidambaram Temple into the indian ocean near by. A great hero "Nambi Narayana" (played by the actor Kamal Hassan) trying to prevent this sacrilege, but is tied on the big Govindaraj Mula Vigraha and trown inside the ocean and killed ordered by the Kulotunga chola king. Later the movie turns to the modern day where CIA, Karunanidhi (the president of tamil nadu Goverment and a strong atheist, who gave his son the name "Stalin"!!!) and some mafia gang is trying to fight over lost biochemical weapon material... The actor slips into 10 different roles therefore the movie is called "Dasavatara".
He becomes:
a Spy- Matsya
Scientist- Kurma
An Outcast- Varaha
Karate Fighter- Narasimha
Dwarf- Vamana
Brahmin- Parasu Rama
Dark Man- Rama
Robber- Krishna
Philosopher- Buddha
Unknown- Kalki

and finally he plays even the ex president of USA, Bush in such a strange mask, that one is laughing his tits off.
But lets come to the point why im writing all this: Of course historians and in the Vaishnava literature we find traces of enmity and rivalry between those two sections of vedic dharma - shaivas and Vaishnavas - and it is also a fact that in the time of the cholas one very cruel King by the name Kulothunga chola harassed the vaishnava community, trying to kill the great acarya Sri Ramanujacarya, to establish that Lord Shiva is the only Deity what is Supreme. Nowadays scholars of different schools have not really traced which of the Kings of the Chola empire by the name "Kulothunga" could be the fanatic marauder. There are at least 3 kings with the same name, and Kulothunga the first and second fall into the time of Sri Ramanuja. But both contributed with large amount of wealth to built temples of Lord Vishnu or support their seva ongoing. So who was this Kulothunga Chola, which some historians decribe as "Krimikantha chola", who died from a curse with a troat full of worms ? May we will never know the full story. But one facts stands, in the controversy over the Govindaraj Swamy temple inside the Nataraja Chidambaram Temple, that both shrines are coexisting for more then 700 years under the same roof now. Coming back to the movie, showing this part of history of ancient india in such strange light of fiction, bollywood glamour and mixing it with mythology is a bold act. Also showing demons like Bush and Karunanidhi as the saviours of mankind and godlovers - is really stange. But the most thing what hit me when i saw the movie, was why they did not make the story around the looting the destroying of temples in the muslim invasion times? That of course could be proofed by historical facts, but it would ignite the wraths of the muslim community in india... and an actor of atheist political supporter of dravida kalakam would not play such act. But out of fear history has to be re written ? - just to please one community in the world? There are several books covering this subject but has been very much neglected over the mainstream of history tellers. I got few very interesting stories which i will share with you in the next few blogs and i hope you stay tuned...