WAY TO THE FOREST

WOODEN THATCHED HOUSE RENDERED IN STONE.

Jainism and Buddhism which have a deep respect for life, seem to have evolved out of the primal cultures of the forest peoples. The very term ‘Palli’ which is applied to the sacred place, goes back to the early tribal republics of the South. It was this primal faith system that was displaced by the Brahmanic religion that was associated with the three Lords of the Adiyar creation story, who came to visit the king Mavalli (Maha balli), and stole from him the land. These three kings, or Lords, who appear again in the legend of the Vani tribe, have been associated with a Trinitarian figure which later came to be understood as the three deities of the Brahmanic tradition: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. It is significant that this ancient shrine of Peri-Velliyamba is now being converted into a temple dedicated to Shiva.

SHRINE BASED ON TRIBAL DWELLING

When we first visited this shrine in the forest around fifteen years ago, there was no enclosing wall around the temple, as it has now been constructed. All that was here in a clearing in the forest, was a kind of mound, probably what was left over of an earth fort that had been built by the Vani, with a surrounding deep ditch, to protect the settlement from elephants, and other dangerous denizens of the forest. But now a process of sanskritization associated with a Hindu rightist ideology, is appropriating these ancient holy places that originally had their roots in tribal, or Buddhist culture. The same process can be noted in the pilgrimage centre of Ayappan further south in Kerala.

JAINA SHRINE IN THE FOREST

When we visited this part of Wyanad a couple of years ago, we saw a couple of Jaina temples that are lying in ruins not far from here. This shows that Jainism was quite widespread in this region bordering on Karnataka, where also the Hoysala dynasty had close links to Jainism that dominated the religious traditions of the South.

THE HONEY GATHERERS

Sitting in the enclosed space which has been constructed around the old Jaina shrine, Jane and I reflected on the forest. I was sketching, but Jane wrote down her thoughts:

I can gather a fragment

And put it in my bag.

A stick or stone or seed.

I can pick, carry, shift and shunt

Things from there to here.

I can make a decoration

And arrange the shapes and colours

But I can’t hold the forest

Even in my mind.

PATTERNS AND MEANING

Patterns are not simply decorative, though they do appeal to our sense of order. There is a symmetry underlying every pattern.

Writing emerged out of patterns. The discursive flowing quality of pattern making has been related to the way the mind flows from one thought to the next, and language is also a flow of sounds.

PATTERNS of THOUGHT

We think through images. That is the importance of the imagination for human consciousness. Even words are dependent on embedded images which we call metaphors. These metaphors draw on profound symbols that are archetypal, and can be seen to underly all cultures, and all languages.