Indian Writing

5.1 cm x 7.6 cm, 2B graphite & Not-2B eraser ;P

February 2016

From photos I took

"Indian Writing" would be a nice companion piece for "Steady Hand" (see Feb. 20 post).

The first two items are from photos I took at a heritage village, DakshinaChitra, on the Coromandel Coast of Tamil Nadu, South India:

~  an old writing tool (made of wood & metal, looks like a combination switchblade & hoof pick)

~  an old "book" of bamboo slats, bundled in its mid-section with a silk cord and sandwiched between two boards of elaborately carved wood

I don't know which language is written in the book.  I do know that some ancient Indian languages  - including Tamil -  were originally written on palm leaves.  Tamil, one of the most common languages of South India, is one of the oldest languages on the planet, yet it's still spoken by about eighty million people around the globe!

The writing tool was mounted to the wall on a plastic plate.  It was held open with fishing line (you can see its straight lines in the drawing) wrapped around a plastic knob (lower right corner of the mounting).  One thing I like about Indian museums I've visited is their resourcefulness in building displays.

The book was resting on a small plastic shelf, but I drew it as resting atop a stone.  A stone I saw somewhere else.

~  The stone is part of Kailasanatha Temple in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu.  This temple was built in the 8th Century CE.  Nearly every surface of it has elaborate carvings of images & of script.  Yet none of it is guarded by "cinema rope" or anything.  Most of its outer sanctum & fifty-eight smaller shrines are exposed to the weather & to people.  A behemoth, ancient work of art, left unprotected because it is still a living temple.  It contains a symbolic passage for circumambulating.  If you want to know the meaning, you will have to either visit or ask me ;)  If you think circumambulating is silly, quaint, or atavistic, you should get yourself over to the labyrinth at St Andrews Church on 24th St W (Billings, Montana) & just try it!  You will surely discover something.

I was thrilled out of my gourd when our guide pointed to this stone  - and other parts of the temple -  and told us that the script carved into it is in Pali.  Oh what a thrill!  Why is this so arresting?

1) Pali is the language of the Theravada Buddhist canon, the first known documentation (1st Century BCE) of the historical Buddha's oral teachings.  The Buddha wanted people to transmit his teachings in their own tongues instead of using Sanskrit, the language of scholars & of the priestly class.  Truly a man of the people.  The joy of seeing Pali was akin to the joy I would feel at seeing Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus the Christ in a time when scholars & clerics used Greek & Hebrew.

2)  Pali had non-aspirated consonants, so it would have sounded very, very soft to the ears.  You can hear 14 seconds' worth here:  http://www.omniglot.com/soundfiles/smp_pali.mp3.  One thing that always strikes me about so many Dravidian people is the extraordinary softness in their speech and movements.  It's contagious.  I soften there.  On the last trip it started the moment I stepped out of the airport & smelled burning Water Buffalo dung / cow dung.  South Indians say "Slowly" quite often, a gentle reminder similar to Costa Ricans' "Tranquilo", but I have seen some running... in bare feet... on stone.  The day after I first ran & danced barefoot on marble, my heels were so painfully bruised I could hardly walk.  I never had that problem again because I've adopted that wonderful Dravidian softness... at least while I'm there.

Above the book at DakshinaChitra was a sign whose words & font I copied in this drawing.  I found it interesting that the sign was in English, one of a handful of linguae francae in India (with 23 official national languages).  I also get a kick out of the juxtaposition of "Please Do Not Touch The Exhibits" & all the historical objects & places that don't make this request.  I question reliance on our decent upbringing ;P

MAY YOU BE AWARE OF YOUR CONNECTION WITH ANCESTORS

MAY YOU RELAX INTO SOFTNESS IN YOUR BODY & HEART