WHY CULTURAL BUDDHISM? (MALAYALAM NOTE: SAAMSKARIKA BOUDDHAVAADATHILEKKU ENTHUKONDU?)

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

WORKSHOP ON CULTURAL BUDDHISM

19-20, MARCH, 2015.

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

19-03-2015:

10:o0 AM : PANEL DISCUSSION ON THE CONCEPT ‘CULTURAL BUDDHISM’

Prof. S. Paneer Selvam, Prof. A. Kanthamani, Prof. M. Dasan, 

Dr. P Madhu, Dr. S. Raju, Dr. Rajesh Karankal, Bhante Suniti, 

Dr. Ajay Sekher, C. P. Vijayan

12:00 Noon : NOTE PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSION: Session – 1

Prof. T. N. Ganapathi:

The Tamil Siddha and the Buddhist Traditions: A Study in Parallelism.

Dr. K. Sugathan: Narayana Guru and Buddhism.

1:00 – 2:00 PM LUNCH

2:00 PM : NOTE PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION: Session – 2

Prof: Paneer Selvam:              Iyothee Das and Tamil Boudham.

Dr. Aniruthdhan :                  Buddhist Culture of Kerala.

Dr. T. Pavithran :                   Buddhist Epigraphy in Kerala.

Sri. K. K. Kochu :                  Buddhism and Kerala History.

Rajan Nambyar :                  Kootiyattam and Buddham. (Lecture Demo)

G. Ajayan :                            Making of the film Boddhi.

6:30 PM Film Screening:     Boddhi: Directed by G. Ajayan.

At Kanakadhara Auditorium.

20-03-2015

9:30 AM :NOTE PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION: Session – 3

A.K. Ali                                      Archeology of Kalady.


Prof. C. Rajendran                      Some Aspects of Buddhist Heritage in Kerala.
  

Surya Shankar                            Narayana Guru's Buddhism.
                     

SaifuddheenKrishnakumar:       Ezhuthachan and Buddhism.


Vijaya Maitriya:                             Bikhuni Sangha.

Ramlal and Santhosh c. K.:       Buddhist culture of Maachad.

Prasanth :                                   Ezhavas and Buddhism.

Sarojini Damodaran:                 Women’s Status in Buddhism.

Abhilash :                                  Buddhism and Sakteya cult.

Surendran :                               Buddhism and subaltern culture of Kerala.

Titu Thomas :                            Christian-Buddhist Interface in Kerala.

Maddhava Das :                        Buddhism and Sankaracharya. 

11:00 AM :NOTE PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION: Session – 4.


Dr. A. P. Francis :                  Buddhist ideas in Malayalm literature.


Rajeeve. T. K. :                      Meditation as Buddhist culture.


Prof. Rajasree Narayanan:     Buddhist Elements in Other Religions.


P. K. Subrahmanyan:             Buddhist Social engagements in 

          Kerala.

Anirudh Raman :                  Buddhist Arts in Kerala.

Dr. S. Rajendu :                    Buddhism and the Traditional Opthalmology.

Kumbazha Damodaran :        Casteism within Buddhism.

Adv. Muntoor Krishnan :     Ambedkerite Buddhism.

Dr. V. Vasanthakumari :      Buddhist sources of feminist critique of Brahmanis.


Rohini:                                  Cultural Imprint of Buddhism in

                                               the Sacred Groves of Kerala.

Dr. T. Mini :                        Transition of Buddhist concept of Nirvana.


 P. J Sunny :                         The inter cultural symbiosis in Zen Buddhism. 

Dr. N. J. Francis :                Power of Ritual: Scultptured Representations from 

                                             Buddhist Amaravati.

P. D. Anithamol :                Buddhist Ethos and the Tamil Epic Manimekhalai.

Sheeja K. P. :                       Buddhism in erstwhile Kolathunadu.

1:00 – 2:00 Lunch

2:00 PM : NOTE PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION: Session – 5

Dr. Rajesh Karankal :          Return of Buddhism.

3: 00 PANEL DISCUSSION ON BUDDHIST RESEARCH AND SOCIAL 

ACTIVISM

Dr. Ajay Sekher, Prof. M. Dasan, K. G. Krishnakumar, Dr. Rajesh Karankal,

Bhante Suniti.

COLLABORATIVE ART SHOW ON CULTURAL BUDDHISM, 

FROM 16-21, MARCH, 2015.

At Kerala Lalithakala Art Gallery, SSUS Campus, Kalady.

RESPONSES set -14

103. S. Raju:

‘Cultural Buddhism’ can be viewed as a phrase, caption, concept, usage, category etc. In this sense it goes beyond religious Buddhism in terms of capturing ‘Buddhism(s) as it is now’.  Moreover, it is inclusive of religious Buddhism as well. Therefore you will have to pay attention to religion and religious institution as well. ‘Culture’ includes religion as well. Yet let me say that it is one thing to talk about religion and it is yet another thing to talk about religious institution. This implies that at the same time I can be a Christian/Sikh/ Muslim and yet be a Buddhist too. If we omit the institution of Buddhism or if we omit Buddhist religion, then what is remaining will be your focus. But then, the questions and answers, if any, will be tantamount to partial recognition.   

Is it possible to talk about culture of Buddhism? Shift in the prefix matters a lot. Culture of Buddhism is more inclusive than Cultural Buddhism; I think. Buddhism is not a Monolith; as you will agree. There can be strands of several other cultural traits within the Culture of Buddhism.  

What about Buddhist Culture? In this case what qualifies Culture is Buddhism. Since No culture is homogenous/singular/monolith, Buddhism will be one among others influencing Culture. 

.....

104. Aargo Spier:

Raju S says in subject Raju makes a lot of sense. Cultural Buddhism can be viewed as belonging to different and many categories having the same (but also not the same) semantic categorical values. And too - it comes out of culture and it creates culture. The question worth asking here may be the following one - what is the motor driving it? Is it Buddhism (and/or Religious Buddhism) or is the force behind it merely the thought that it can be treated as a category? What does one actually deal with when one deals with Cultural Buddhism? With something that exhibits the qualities needed for categorization or just the thought that one deals with something that can be categorized?   

.........

105. C. P. Vijayan:

Very much true.
There are strands of thought in ourselves, passed on from generations
to generations.
Some of these resound in ourselves when we come across a certain
place, person or an experience ! There are experiences which make us
feel as if 'we have already been through' These thought processes made
every thinker wonder as to how and why these happen or how precisely
these get transferred from generations.
Some called it a stream of consciousness / wave length / atma / atman
or whatever term they deemed suitable.
Might be, 'the software' we carry in ourselves somehow got 'corrupt'
somewhere on the line and we still grope in the dark for answers and
don't know for how long more!
Migratory birds could still navigate thousands of miles over vast
stretches of oceans to reach their destinations with pin point
precision and the whales navigate deep oceans using their own sonars,
almost all of the other plant and animal species appear capable of
fending themselves admirably.
Wouldn't it be foolish to presume that similar faculties are
altogether missing in the human beings.
Herein comes the thoughts of Buddhist/Confucian/Tao and myriad other
schools which tried to learn from the surroundings the art of
migration, search for food, hunting skills , child rearing ,
medication, art craft or whatever.
It is perhaps a wishful thinking that all  these 'learning through
generations' do remain 'hidden' in ourselves but we are incapable of
using it for our well being.
Ahimsa assumes colossal importance in all the others such as
/meditation /yoga / celibacy/dharma/ etc..etc.
It would again be a wishful thinking that there existed a landlocked
'paradise' where everyone were equals and some Maveli used to be the
King who would relinquish the kingdom at old age to lead a saintly
life of recluse etc.
Why not us try to reinvent ourselves?

..........

106. P. Madhu:

Identifying religious denominations by its assumed founder & tracing a monolith of religion culture specific to that founder is ahistorical, anachronistic & unfounded. That tendency comes from ego-logical questions such as: ‘who’ created the universe? ‘Who’ created islam? Who is the founder of Jainism? Who found Buddhism & why? Who opposed Buddhism & why? Who are atheist? Who are true theists… etc. … that habit has later degenerated into ‘intellectual property right’ of the founder- a backdoor mechanism for corporates own & manipulate ‘knowledge’. These questions are absurd & hence answers, consequences & cultures flowing from them are absurd. Not just the claim of ‘buddhism’ ascribed to Buddha as author is wrong- it is equally wrong to make Jesus as the author of Christianity or Mohammed as the author of Islam. Such ascriptions limit argumentative movements and freeze them into structures & patterns- From them we have ill-informed evangelists & terror of fanaticism and identification of heroes and choosing villains. Thus it becomes a cool ground for modern identity politics to anachronistically interpret the past taking it out of context. Let’s not do it. I welcome challenging any such claims rather than precipitating or freezing them into well defined ideals & identities presumably extracted in their ‘pure’ form from the quagmires of complexities of its ethological conditioning. Such an exercise is simplistic, wrong, methodologically flawed- I agree it has a big demand in academic & political market. Should academics of philosophy & social science play for the gallery of politics? Should academics be treated as something cooked for other’s consumption- a kind of customer satisfaction? Instead really really serious people- damn serious about method, methodology, philosophy and tend to be maximum true to the ethological contexts-with ability to deal the complexities – if join together and do an enquiry- that will be different. I would suggest such a serious enquiry of serious learning- I am sure I am not qualified or ready to take such a huge challenge. I won’t take this challenge either. I just caution that this issue needs more seriousness and methodological astuteness than what I witness in responses. 

.........

107. Ajay Sekher:

Centering and foregrounding Culture with a Capital "C" could be a conservative and regressive act in contemporary times. Rather than focusing on and hegemonizing an upper case "Culture" it would be more realistic, democratic and egalitarian to talk about various little cultures enlivened by little buddhisms of various sorts in their local manifestations and myriad hues in diverse varieties and polyphony. Such a mosaic and hybrid scramble of little buddhisms and little cultures of buddhisms exist and survive in contemporary popular and folk cultures in disguised and repressed ways as well.  It would be academically interesting and illuminating to unravel these little traditions and covert manifestations of small buddhisms or little cultures of buddhisms in our regions, everyday life and immediate contexts as in family names and place names, as in the most intimate addresses and words that we use, as in the utterances of initiation, as in art, architecture and visual cultures. There is no escape from the materiality, history and lived realities of cultures that form a whole way of life in real social and historical junctures and geographies. The critical and theoretical perspectives of cultural studies and cultural materialism could also be useful in this pursuance of little cultures of local buddhisms in its diversity.
......

108. P. K. Sasidharan:

We have already come to discuss an important problem related to the viability or methodological status of the idea of ‘cultural Buddhism’. Sometimes, it has been criticized for making to be a new form of Buddhism, undermining the relevance of Religious Buddhism. Though that much is not intended for the time being, it seems to be a matter worthy of exploring in detail. As of now, it has been brought in as an analytic tool for looking at all sort of expressions related to Buddhist ideas, in history and present.

………..

109. Argo Spier:

….“It (Cultural Buddhism) has been brought in as an analytic tool for looking at all sort of expressions related to Buddhist ideas, in history and present”.

The expression ‘cultural Buddhism’ itself relates to Buddhism. So does the statement quoted above. This poses the following question- Is it feasible to use something that relates to Buddhist ideas to analyze Buddhist ideas? In a previous post I played with the idea of ‘the method is the message’ and therefore also the ‘meaning’, suggesting that being busy with Cultural Buddhism merely is Cultural Buddhism. It still seems viable to me, yet… the whole of a ‘tool’, is this right way to approach to Cultural Buddhism? The very idea to use Cultural Buddhism as a tool (say, we take the idea of a tool for instance) that relates to Buddhism, seems to be curling into itself. We will then be using the ideas of a tool to analyze the idea of a tool!

………….

110. T. N. Ganapathy:

THE TAMIL SIDDHA AND THE BUDDHIST TRADITIONS:

A STUDY IN PARALLELISM

In this paper, an attempt is made to find out and study the parallel view points of both the Tamil Siddha tradition and the Buddhist tradition. By using the term “parallelism”, it is suggested that there has been no known intraction between the two traditions and neither has influenced the other. This parallel study is an unexplored field hitherto and the author of this paper is conscious of the fact that he is treading on a slippery ground.

While Buddhism is a systematic exposition of its tenets, there is an absence of system in the thoughts of the Tamil Siddhas. The Tamil Siddhas are not system builders. Their philosophy cannot be made to fit into any “ism” or “ology”, for it lacks a constant doctrinal referent. One can discern certain common characteristics among the Tamil Siddhas which make them distinct from any school of philosophy. To them sectarian affiliation is irrelevant; they have no sacred city, no monastic organization, no religious instruments. They are indifferent to formal religion. Teir philosophy is enlightenment as distinct from doctrine; their technique is to jolt people out of their intellectual ruts and their conventional, barren morality. They are the untethered, non-conformist, spiritual aspirants, yearning for a direct and natural approach to, and a more intense experience of the truth. They rely on the individual’s efforts for the attainment of liberation. Their characterstic attitude is: come and find out for yourself. As Siva Vakkiyar, a Tamil Siddha says, their experience is a case of attaining wisdom not through teaching or preaching. …

……What the philosophy of the Tamil Siddhas will be suggested by comparing it with the Buddhist tradition. By “philosophy” I mean the thought-content of the Siddhas and not their philosophical system. While Buddhism is a philosophical system, the thought-content of the Tamil Siddhas is not a system. Even as the Dhammapadaa speaks of the arhat, we can also say of the Tamil Siddhas that their track is as difficult to know as that of the birds in the sky. …. It is said that when a Baul of Bengal was asked why the Bauls had not left any philosophical system for the use of posterity, he rep0lied: Do the boats that sail on the river leave any mark? The same would have been a reply by a Tamil Siddha. It is worth to remember Kabir’s ver4se in this connection:

Rubies do not fill store-rooms

Hamsa birds do not fly in lines

Linons are not found in flocks

And saints do not walk in troops.

The basic philosophy of Buddhism is written in a systematic, classical language, either in Pali or Prakrit or Sanskrit, based on the rules of grammar and syntax. But the philosophy of Tamil Sidddhas is a poet’s philosophy and not a philosop0her’s philosophy. It does not have the flora and the fauna of the philosophical categories and an epistemology. ….

…in Tamil nadu the Siddhas and the Buddhists were identified with the alchemist. In describing the spiritual techniques both freely use metaphors taken from old alchemical writings. For both of them, alchemy is a code of or outer cover for something more profound and it is a sort of protection against unwary intruders in their spiritual sadhana. In Tamil language since the alchemist truns brass into gold, he is called a pithalai adagakkaran. The term also means-trcikster in
Tamil. As the Siddha and the Buddhist are compared to spiritual alchemists (because they turn the physical body into a divine body), both got the unsavoury epitht that they are tricksters not to be depended upon, i.e. a pitthalattakkaran.

.........

111. C. P. Vijayan

Let us find out how much of Buddha is hidden in us despite all the
other bulldozing we have had over a few generations.We do know what is
right and wrong, what is good and bad but accustomed ways and crated
greed and unshod ego make us do things to the contrary

........

112. P. Madhu:

Let’s not be taken for a ride by any ‘cultures’ or ‘civilizational’ tendencies. That is by objection to ‘Buddhist culture’ or “hindu… whatsoever… cultures”—or claims like contributions of Christianity, islam… etc.

All cultures are later stereotyping- a kind of hegemonizing (homogenizing)- a kind of counter event of regularizing & regulating.  Let’s not assume a top down flow of knowledge… from Buddha, jesus, nanak, mohemmed or even from God.

Let us be sensitive to counter-cultural sprouts ordinarily come up and later appropriated by this or that ism. For instance- aadinath of nath tradition is a hill wanderer- siddhas are mostly forest nomads, wisdom of Krishna is pastoral, wisdom of Matsyendranath is from fishing life,  wisdom of Ramakrishna is from unorthodox Kali worship- atypical of brahmanical cultures, Jesus’s learning is from ordinary life & Mohammed’s from isolated trekking and  being in the state of rejection from the cultural… beggars, vagabonds, street nomads are greatest contributors of most pristine claims of the late colonial construct – “Hinduism”.  Most of the misdom comes from unusual quarters that hardly matters to the later emergent hierarchies… then wisdom is attributed to twilight beings.. snake man (patanjali) parrot humanoid (sukar), monkey-humanoid (hanuman), prince given up kingdom (Buddha, mahavir)… it comes from unusual ways of life- there are gurus from prostitution,… great wisdoms from martial art…

The bottom up events of sprouts of wisdom--- coming from liminal twilight existence is hegemonized  , pattered and later made top down… it is later monotheosized and imposed as ‘normal’ order--- there comes culture… Let’s be less obsessed with cultures, masters… etc… culture stereotypes everyday life and makes learning impossible from it.

We are mostly colonized. Colonized means colonized by some sort of monotheism that Freud exposes in Moses & Monotheism… all that we are glorifying as ‘Buddhist’ culture or criticizing as ‘hindu’ culture are flowing from the archetype of civilizing process that is exposed by Freud. However, there are deeper archetypes counter-cultures silenced beneath… I’m more interested in counter-cultures- plenty of them… not in cultures and grand sources of those cultures… the  ethology  consisting humans still can teach us away from the normality of cultures & their hegemonic violence. 

.....

113. C. P. Vijayan:

 To my mind, the method of treatment suggested by Mr.Pouran is short
term only and after a while the system once would recoil once again
and go back to the earlier position.
What has invaded once culture can not be shed off that easily.
We are not what we are, as we appear outwardly.
Even our own thoughts are not just our own.The more we delve deep into
Bio Chemistry and Bio Technology, what we come to slowly realize is
that we are just a link in a chain and changes can not happen in the
mindsets of a society that rapidly.
If what Mr.Pouran says is true, then, capitalism ought to have
vanished from the Soviet nations, Eastern Europe and perhaps China by
now . Sadly, we know the opposite has happened.
Democratic governance, the system of Sangha (collective thinking and
decision making) does work wonders in the psyche of a person as it it
is synonymous with the  inherent tendency of an individual to remain
within the group and not to be isolated.
Strands of thoughts can be had from folklore, customs and traditions a well.
Rather than miniaturizing the ethos in to a particular religion, it
would do a sea of good if we search for our lost ideals - be it of a
Buddhist origin, Jainist or simply tribal.

RESPONSES set - 13

97. Athena:

I see in the small post [by P. A. Pauran], the same fight the Muslims are having against the modern world. How is this compatible with Buddhism and accepting change? How can anyone be sure globalization is not our fate? How we judge right and wrong? Are the conditions of poverty and ignorance right? Yes, those who join a monastery maybe education in Buddhist knowledge, but what of the peasants working the fields? Does Buddhist equality mean an equal education for everyone, and of what things are they educated?

...........

98. K. Sugathan:

Non-caste Hindus of Kerala – Are they really Hndus?

Hiduism was recognised as a religion only in the nineteenth century. When the British Government conducted census, they classified Indians into different religions. Those not belonging to Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism and Judaism were grouped under Hiduism. Here the word Hindu means Indian, as in the terms Hindu Ocean and Hindu Trade. Brahmins, Kshathriyas, Vaisyas and Soodras were called Caste Hindus and the Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and those without any religion were called non-caste Hindus.

The communities labelled as castes, namely, Ezhavas, Theeyas, Pulayas, Parayas, Dheevaras, Thattans, Kollans etc. existed in Kerala before the introduction of Hinduism here and hence they are not castes which occur only in Hinduism. The caste system as well as the word jaathi were imported by Hindus into Kerala. In Hinduism there are four main castes called varnas and the fifth or panchama castes formed by people born of intermarriages and prostitution among the four varnas. Panchama caste names were not attached to children of intermarriages among the Hindus in Kerala.

Avarnas of Kerala are not panchamas. They are non-Hindus.

Narayana Guru once asked who are these avarnas? They are created neither by God nor humans. They must be considered as self-born celestial beings, he gave the answer also. Guru could not label the avarnas as Hindus.

I was born in a coastal village in Central Kerala where 98-99 per centage belonged to avarna communities. I do not believe that any of their forefathers ever joined Hinduism. Parents and grandparents of people of my generation never went to Hindu temples. They did not follow any Hindu rituals like pooja or homam. They did not have a Hindu priest for their religious functions. In stead of a priest they had only a parikarmi who was their barber also. These parikarmis had no high position like that of a brahmin. There used to be no place for idols or pictures of Gods in their houses. The name Hindu mentioned in the SSLC book of these avarnas was probably in the sense of Indian. Now the meaning of the word Hindu is Brahminism or Vedic religion.

The avarnas had their own culture. Their moral code, knowledge of Ayurveda, Astrology, Sanskrit language etc were given to them by Buddhism.

Narayana Guru has said it correctly. There is no religion by the name Hinduism. It is the common name for all the Indian religions like Vedic religion, Puranic religion, sankhyam, vaiseshikam, meemamsa, dvaitham advaitham, visishtadvaitham, saivam, saktheyam and vaishnavism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

........

99. Athena:

The Mongols were egalitarian and sheltered and fed everyone. They lived in a harsh climate and knew the failure to take of each other could mean death. It is my understanding people with these values in the region of Tibet became Buddhist. Becoming Buddhist put the focus on temples and a study of time and space, rather than on being warriors.

Genghis Khan thought people in cities were very immoral with their personal wealth at one end of spectrum and extreme poverty at the other. Christianity and Islam stood against this disparity, but city conditions make them so. Always in rural areas there tends to be poverty and cooperation regardless of which religion dominates.

I think many things play into how we are on how we reason through things. City life verses rural life is one of them.


.........

100. K. Sugathan:

Narayanaguru was a Buddhist

When a Srilankan businessman asked Narayanaguru what was his religion, he said, he was a Buddhist, because like Lord Buddha he too was an advaithi.

To convince the Srilankan, he quoted the slokam from Amaram -

“ Shadhabhijno, dasabalodvayavaadi vinaayakah ”.

Scholars describe three phases of Advaitham. First is the Dharmic Advaitham of Lord Buddha, second the Vaijnanik advaitham of Sri Sankara and the third is the Prayogika advaitham of Narayanaguru. Guru was known as the second Buddha and Srisankara as the Buddha in disguise.

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101. SAIFFUDDEENKRISHNAKUMAR:


THUNJATH EZHUTHACHAN AND BUDDHISM.

We try to argue here that Ezhuthachan was living and writing within in a cultural space characterised by Buddhist culture. His neighbourhood areas were strongly Buddhist. Still the place names of surrounding places of Ezhuthachan"s native village, like Thiroor, Parappanangadi, Putthan theruvu Putthanathani, seems to carry some remnant of 'Puttha' (Buddha).

In his poetry, Ezhuthachan used many Buddha imagery. What we nowadays attribute to Vishnu is the same Alankaras which once attributed to Buddha. Ezhuthachan was always using Buddha postures for creating mythology of lord Vishnu. Ezhuthachan's aim was to promote Bakthi.By the promotion of Bakthi he wanted to resist Yukthivada (rationalism). Blind belief was the outcome.

If yukthi (reason) is undermined it is easier to promote Brahmanism. Once Brahmanism prevailed caste will rule society. It will promote superstitions disbelief and worship of Brahmins.

The main portion of Ezhuthachan poetry promotes cruelty, justifying murder making Himsa a method of worship. No wonder after Buddhism perished in Kerala, all the god icons were transformed to deities with weapons.

So we could take The Ramacharitham, the anonymous Tamil mixed Malayalam Kavyam, as the first reaction against Buddhist and Jain faith in Kerala. When ever Ramacharithams and Krishnacharithams began to evolve in Malayalam literature the BUddhism and Jainism began to fade.

The unknown author of Ramacharitham the Kannassans After them Ezhuthachan are the main literary figures seriously wounded Buddhist faith.

There is a fanciful belief that These Ramayanas were written to provoke general public against foreign attackers. The fact is that Keralites never won any decisive victories after these so called veera (heroic) literature. It is a historic fact that after Kannassans and Ezhuthachan The Europeans colonised Kerala. Actually these literature promoted Brahman monarchy and divided people into different castes and creeds made lawlessness and anarchy as common law.

While Buddhism united people. Promoted foreign trade and developed agriculture. The name Puttha echoing almost all old trade centeres in Kerala. g almost all old trade centeres in Kerala.

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102. K. Sugathan:

Narayanaguru was not a Hindu and

his Sangham was not a Hindu Sanyasi Sangham.

Narayana Guru used to give the saffron robe and new names to his disciples. He was once asked whether he would admit a Buddhist in his order of ascetics, he said he had no objection to take ascetics belonging to any religion in his group. In 1916, he declared that he had given up caste and religion. When a European was admitted to his Sangham he was asked to change neithrr his European dress nor his European name.

A member of the Sreenarayana Dharma Sangham attended a meeting of Hindu sanyasis in the year 1988. The secretary of the Sangham issued a memo to the sanyasi asking explanation for violating rules. Members of the sanyasisangham of the Guru do not belong to any particular religion and they are expected to follow the principle “ One in kind, One in faith and One in God” and to avoid sectarian views.

The sanyasi apologised and escaped from desciplinary action.

Art show on CULTURAL BUDDHISM

P a d a:

The Feet and the Ground Beneath

Visual Voyages in Cultural Buddhism

16 to 21 March 2015

(A collaborative art show in connection with the Workshop on Cultural Buddhism organized by the Department of Philosophy, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady on 19^th and 20^th March 2015)

Kerala Lalitakala Akademi Art Gallery

Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit Campus, Kalady, Ernakulam Dist, Kerala 683574.

Featuring the works of artists:

John Varghese, Akhil K Chandran, Sajo Joseph, Shyam A, Arun Ravi, Madhu V, Pratheesh C V, Jyothilal T G, Dr Shaju Nellai, Johnson Veloor, Jayan A K, Satheesh K K, Kavitha Balakrishnan, T Murali, Unnikrishnan Paravur, Anirudh Raman, Saju Thuruthil, Ajith Paravur, Bipin Balachandran, Seethal C P, Jayin K G, Ajithan Puthumana, Prasad K P, Prakashan K S, Nishad M P Suresh K. Nair, and Dr Ajay Sekher

{page 2}

Theme Note: Towards a New Ethical Aesthetics and Compassion

The visual arts in India and Kerala have evolved from the ancient roots of the egalitarian and aesthetic legacies of Buddhism and its various cultural manifestations across various regions in native hues and textures. The rootedness of Indian art and architecture in the Ajanta and Kalinga schools of Buddhist aesthetics is dexterously inscribed deep in to our cultural history and social formations as the historic rock edicts of Asoka on ethics and the welfare state. The place name Kalady itself signify the footprint or Sri Pada of the compassionate one that was revered as a sacred cultural symbol all over Asia. The Workshop on Cultural Buddhism is exploring the plural and polyphonic legacies of this indigenous enlightenment tradition in its micro cultural subtleties. As part of this philosophical and cultural enquiry artists from various parts of Kerala have joined hands to exhibit their paintings and sculpture/installations in this group show titled Pada. It signifies the Sri Pada of the Buddha primarily, and also invokes the place name Kalady. It represents the feet of knowledge, the body politic, poetry and other material manifestations and foundations of culture, society and the micro locations of rootedness in the visual cultural chronotopes.

Artists from various walks of life and various regions of Kerala are presenting their works in this collaborative group art show that forms a contemporary visual cultural unison. The works in general depict Buddhist themes and motifs in covert and overt ways. The imagery and symbolic treatment of the themes and contexts are largely drawn from the rudimentary Buddhist cultures with its regional and indigenous flavours in myriad visual representations. It forms an artistic sojourn and visual voyage with and in cultural Buddhism or various little materializations of buddhisms in vernacular and minor accents. Some of the works are directly depicting the enlightened one and creating a new aesthetics of ethics, compassion and Maitri. Some other works are exploring the sub narrative and deconstructive possibilities of Buddhist visual cultures in allegorical and self critical ways.

The group art show as a whole represents and renews the visual culture of the contemporary art practice and provides a serious critique of contemporary culture and some of the cultural Nationalist formations and violent consolidations in the present. It could be contextualized as a cultural resistance and a polyphonic visual critique of totalitarian desires and genocidal violence growing in our society that are eating away the secular and pluralistic social dynamism of Kerala and its democratic renaissance culture that effectively countered the hegemonic ideology of feudal patriarchy, caste and Varna barbarism. The works and the show as a concerted cultural act tries to recover the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of indigenous traditions of egalitarianism, enlightenment and compassion that are deeply rooted in our soil as in the place names and the people at the bottom.

All those who are interested in visual culture and its resisting power and all those who believe in the liberating aesthetics of change and deliverance are welcome to this artistic and creative venture with a contemporary cutting edge and critical perspective on the present, past and future. It is part of the people’s inevitable life struggle for survival and the defence of the ethical, political and the aesthetic. The aesthetics that is inseparable from the materiality of cultures and politics, an inherent and organic aesthetics that is linked to the inevitable life struggles and lived realities of the people; art that is firmly rooted in the ground beneath our feet. Let us hope that we can survive these hard times as a people through the power and potential of human imagination and creativity, the power to dream and make anew, brave new worlds in near future. Related discussions are expected in the workshop as well. For further details on the workshop visit: www.bouddhayaanam.blogspot.com

POSTER - ART SHOW ON CULTURAL BUDDHISM

ART SHOW ON CULTURAL BUDDHISM