Latest news with #Brahminical
New Indian Express
16 hours ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
VCs draw flak for attending Gyan Sabha conclave
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State ministers have lashed out against university vice chancellors for participating in the Gyan Sabha, which was attended by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. 'Our educational institutions have students from different communities, and it is impossible to let those spaces become preparation yards to build Hindu Rashtra,' Higher Education Minister R Bindu stated in a release. Citing that working towards the RSS agenda will saffronise and destroy the reputation of the position of vice chancellors, she said that the participating officers will have to keep their heads down before the academic society. Adding that the Sangh Parivar has turned against Kerala, she mentioned that the outfit is trying to tie the state to the Brahminical values. 'Sangh is trying to create an ideological atmosphere in universities and higher education centres that will aid them to build a religious nation- based on Manu's scriptures,' she stated. Education Minister V Sivankutty said that the governor is using his powers to and forcefully make the vice-chancellors participate in these events. 'I am disappointed to say that the governor has become the biggest spokesperson of the RSS in Kerala today,' he said. He opined that if the government representatives attended the programme without its permission, they should be removed. 'Kerala's citizens don't wish to keep the people who attend RSS programmes in these posts,' he said. Tourism Minister P A Mohammed Riyas said that the BJP is making active efforts to make universities in non-BJP-ruled states the centres for discord. LSG Minister M B Rajesh called the move 'not expected from vice chancellors', KPCC president Sunny Joseph too condemned the act.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Kerala Minister slams VCs for endorsing 'anti-knowledge' agenda
Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu on Monday strongly criticised the participation of some university Vice Chancellors in "Gyan Sabha" organised by an RSS-linked group in Kochi, calling it a "disturbing alignment" with forces seeking to undermine the state's progressive academic legacy. Kerala Minister slams VCs for endorsing 'anti-knowledge' agenda In a sharply worded statement, Minister Bindu accused the Sangh Parivar of being fundamentally opposed to modern, inclusive higher education and warned that its efforts to exert ideological control over universities must be firmly resisted. Her statement came a day after the Vice Chancellors of four universities in Kerala -- reportedly including one appointed by the Left government -- attended the national education conference 'Gyan Sabha', organised by the Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas and inaugurated by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Kochi on Sunday. "A modern higher education system that aligns with the needs of today's world is intolerable to the Sangh Parivar," Bindu alleged. "The so-called 'Gyan Sabha' is part of a larger, deeply regressive effort to turn Kerala's knowledge-driven society back towards Brahminical domination. To ignore this agenda is to deny history itself," she said. The Minister singled out certain Vice Chancellors, saying their involvement lent legitimacy to what she described as a "crude, anti-knowledge campaign" aimed at eroding academic freedom and silencing independent thought. "It may be a matter of pride for the RSS that the minds of some Vice Chancellors--who are supposed to lead knowledge creation--have been turned into stables of anti-intellectualism. But for Kerala, it is a matter of deep shame," she added. Minister Bindu warned that attempts to transform inclusive educational institutions into ideological training grounds for a Hindu Rashtra would not be tolerated. For having colluded in chaining academic freedom and independent thought to the saffron stable, these Vice Chancellors will have to hang their heads in shame before the academic community for a long time to come, she said. "The youth and the academic community will expose the Sangh Parivar's dangerous delusion that a crude army of ignorance can be built in Kerala. Enlightened by the true knowledge imparted by genuine teachers, the people of Kerala will cast into the dustbin the Sangh Parivar's schemes that treat the darkness of ignorance as something to be celebrated," Bindu said.
New Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Sangh imposing Brahminical values through universities: Minister R Bindhu
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Adding to the long-ongoing conflicts in the higher education sector, Minister R Bindu has lashed out against university vice chancellors participating in the Jnana Sabha, which was attended by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. "Our educational institutions have students from different communities, and it is impossible to let those spaces become preparation yards to build Hindu Rashtra," the minister stated in a release. Citing that working towards the dubious agenda of the RSS will saffronise and destroy the reputation of the position of vice chancellors, Bindu said that the participating officers will have to keep their heads down before the academic society. Adding that the Sangh Parivar has turned against Kerala with their hatred, she mentioned that the outfit is trying to tie the state to the Brahminical values. "Sangh is trying to create an ideological atmosphere in universities and higher education centres that will aid them to build a religious nation based on Manu's scriptures," the minister stated. Criticisms were raised from multiple corners regarding the vice chancellors attending the Jnana Sabha, organised by a Sangh organisation, Shiksha Samskriti Utthan Nyas. Vice chancellors of Kerala, Calicut, Kannur and KUFOS universities reportedly attended the conclave.
Mint
5 days ago
- General
- Mint
The princess and the beheaded sisters: The forgotten Indian women gurus of Tantric Buddhism
Bibek Bhattacharya A thousand years ago, generations of Indian Buddhist women fought patriarchy and the caste system, worked miracles and inspired profound religious change. This is their story An 11th century miniature painting from Bengal depicting Bodhisattva Tara as a guru dispensing boons to a Buddhist 'siddha' community. Gift this article When Kali Puja rolls around in Bengal, people come in droves to the pandals to gape at the clay figurines of goddess Kali's frighteningly monstrous, charnel ground retinue. One figure that holds immense awed fascination is Chinnamasta, the severed-headed goddess, one of the 10 mahavidyas of Hindu Shakta tantra. When Kali Puja rolls around in Bengal, people come in droves to the pandals to gape at the clay figurines of goddess Kali's frighteningly monstrous, charnel ground retinue. One figure that holds immense awed fascination is Chinnamasta, the severed-headed goddess, one of the 10 mahavidyas of Hindu Shakta tantra. This fascination is unsurprising, because Chinnamasta stands naked on a corpse or a couple having sex, brandishing a sword in one hand, and her own severed head in the other, while two lines of spurting blood from her neck splatter into the mouths of her two attendants, women as naked as the goddess, Vairochani and Varnani. The third, central stream of blood lands in the mouth of her severed head. Chinnamasta seems to have been a popular—if minor—goddess in Bengal and some other parts of India, for a very long time. One might think that this fascination stems from the strong presence of Shakta cults (tantric groups that worship Shakti or feminine power) in these places. The real reason though, is that Chinnamasta is a tantric Buddhist Vajrayana goddess, who was at the centre of a strong cult in India in 9-10 century CE. Back then she was called Chinnamunda Vajravarahi, and her attendants Vajravairochani and Vajravarnani. Some of the great adepts of this cult were women mahasiddhas (the great awakened ones). THE MASTERS OF TANTRA The subject of the participation of women in Indian Buddhism is not very well understood by historians. While this is in part a result of a paucity of sources, we do know that Indian Buddhist communities, at various times, supported robust sanghas of nuns. This ebbed and flowed depending on the shifting political tides in South Asia, probably reaching its lowest point when Brahminical caste strictures and patriarchal norms became hegemonic around 1,000 years ago. However, what has received even less attention is the role played by Buddhist laywomen in popular Mahayana and Vajrayana cults. The Mahayana placed a great deal of importance in the direct participation of the Buddhist laity in rituals and learning, believing it to be the best way of countering Brahminical social influence. By the time its tantric cousin Vajrayana became widespread around the 8th century CE, the focus had turned firmly towards non-monastic ritual specialists among Buddhist householders. For in Vajrayana, there is no real dichotomy between nirvana and samsara, merely a difference in perception. Anyone could become a Buddha, in just one lifetime. One just needed the necessary spiritual training. Also Read | The Buddhist ateliers of ancient Magadha It is in this context that we find the rise of Buddhist tantric specialists—Vajracharyas, panditas and siddhas. Many of them were women gurus who founded transmission lineages of monks, lay specialists and later Tibetan lamas that exist to this day in Nepal and Tibet. One such woman was Lakshminkara, also known as Lakshmi or Srimatidevi. A Kashmiri princess and the sister of Indrabhuti, the king of Oddiyana (in the Swat Valley in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), Lakshminkara was no ordinary her struggles with a patriarchal society and her ultimate rejection of its strictures to pursue the life of a Vajrayana sadhaka is emblematic of the times. We cannot be entirely sure if there were one or more women gurus with that name, or exactly when she lived, but most scholars place her sometime in the 9th century CE, at a time when the popularity and political prestige of Vajrayana was at its zenith in India. Also Read | The other Kalis Her biography is maintained in quite a few histories of Indian siddhas, though most only survive in the Tibetan translations of lost Sanskrit and Apabhramsa originals. One of these is the well-known 12th century work Chaturasiti Siddha Pravritti (The Lives of the Eighty-Four Mahasiddhas) by Bihari monk Abhayadatta. The 84 mahasiddhas are the folk heroes of Vajrayana—masters of the mahamudra (the great seal of enlightenment), composers of mystical dohas(spiritual songs), writers of tantras and workers of miracles who had attained Buddhahood through intense yogic practices. They were a diverse bunch: Princes and kings, basket weavers and fishers, cowherds, wine sellers, tribals, sex workers and Brahmins who had converted to Buddhism. Stories of their lives are replete with miracles and acts of profound kindness, but also trenchant critiques of the caste system and wilful breaking of taboos—from sexual to religious. By breaking every rule, they showed the ultimate meaninglessness of human laws and logic before the ultimate Buddhist truth—the void, or sunyata. But they were scholars too, writing key tantra texts, as well as commentaries on tantras, meditation and visualisation manuals, and songs in local languages in order to introduce esoteric Buddhist concepts to common people. They took disciples from all sections of society, and began transmission lineages that still exist. THE PRINCESS AND THE BEHEADED SISTERS So, who exactly was Lakshminkara? Here's a brief version of her biography, mostly based on the scholar Miranda Shaw's translation in her book Buddhist Goddesses of India. A princess from a Buddhist kingdom, Lakshmi was betrothed to Jalendra, a Hindu king of Lankapuri. When she travelled to her fiancé's kingdom, she was shocked to learn that he was fond of hunting. The sight of piles of slaughtered animals horrified her and she decided not to marry him. She gave away her dowry, stripped off her clothes and retreated to a cremation ground, vowing to give her life over to attaining enlightenment. Lakshminkara would spend seven years meditating and mastering the Buddhist tantric practices in a cave, finally attaining a heightened spiritual state. She was served upon by a large retinue of disciples and celestial spirits. Her reputation as a great siddha attracted people from across Lanka, including Jalendra, who asked her to be his guru. She refused, instead directing him to learn from one of her disciples. A statue of Vajrayogini from the 11th century CE, found in Rajgir, Bihar. Lakshminkara's personal deity was Vajrayogini, and she seemed to have focused especially on the severed-headed emanation of Vajrayogini—Chinnamunda. Of the three extant Buddhist sadhanas on Chinnamunda, two are by her. The Chinnamunda Vajravarahi Sadhana is preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist cannon, translated from the Sanskrit original by a Newari pandit from Kathmandu called Varendraruchi. The other one, called Lakshmi-sadhana, is preserved in Newari, also translated by Varendraruchi. A third Chinamunda sadhana by the siddha Sabara exists in the great Sanskrit Vajrayana meditation manual, the Sadhana-mala, which was compiled in the famous monastery of Vikramashila, near Bhagalpur, Bihar, in the 11th century. Also Read | Chasing Buddhas across Bihar The other main source of Chinnamunda's cult were also women—the mahasiddha sisters Mekhala and Kanakhala. They were from Maharashtra, and likely lived in the 10th century CE, a few decades after Lakshminkara. The story of the sisters is another stark commentary on how the tantric path allowed women to overturn the pressures of patriarchy. They were engaged to be married to two brothers when they were subjected to a sustained campaign of gossip accusing them of being women with loose morals. The joint wedding was broken off and the sisters became social outcasts. It was then that they met renowned Bengali Buddhist mahasiddha Kanhapada aka Krishnacharya. He was passing through their town with a huge entourage of disciples. Mekhala, the elder sister, told Kanakhala that rather than running away from their troubles, they should seek the freedom of the Vajrayana path. When they asked him to teach them, Kanha agreed and initiated them in the practice of Chinnamunda. The sisters undertook the practice together for the next 12 years, before travelling to Bengal to meet Kanha. When they declared that they had attained the siddhi of the Chinnamunda practice, Kanha demanded that they show their mastery by cutting off their heads. Without missing a beat, Mekhala and Kanakhala drew swords out of their mouths and beheaded themselves with a flourish. Brandishing their heads in their hands, they levitated and started dancing and singing: 'We have destroyed all distinctions between samsara and nirvana, we have united vision and action…we know no separation between self and others." A miniature painting from 11th century Bengal of the Tantric Buddhist goddess Kurukulla. Kanha hailed them as great siddhas, restored their severed heads to their bodies and authorised them to teach. According to the 17th century Tibetan historian Taranath's biography of Kanha, Mekhala and Kanakhala's performance even persuaded a local Bengali king to convert to Buddhism. Another time, the sisters came across a group of Shaiva tantric yogis who started heckling them. The sisters magically transported the yogis and their houses to a far away desert, and allowed the yogis to return only once they had apologised. Mekhala and Kanakhala's song of enlightenment survives in Tibetan translation. As does an instruction manual teaching would-be sadhakas the yoga and meditation techniques of visualising the deity Chinnamunda, and through this practice, experiencing the mahasukha (the Great Bliss). A HIDDEN TRADITION Lakshminkara, Mekhala and Kanakhala are but three women in a long list of named and unnamed Indian female masters of Vajrayana. These include the gurus of famous male siddhas like Sarahapada, who was taught by an unnamed tribal arrow-maker, who later became his consort. Then there was the 11th century Niguma, an important teacher in the lineage of the tantric Buddha Chakrasamvara. Others, like the housewife guru Manibhadra, or Vajravati, a Kashmiri Brahmin who rejected prejudice to learn from a siddha from a caste of basket weavers, serve as paradigmatic figures in the radical ideology of equality that underpins Vajrayana. All of them lived at a time when Buddhism was in its final, most socially radical phase in India. Squeezed between the oppressive political power of a resurgent Hinduism and weaponised caste rules, and the ever-present threat of violent military campaigns, the lives of the tantric siddhas became exemplary beacons of a life rooted in love, compassion, self-liberation, and a community of proud outcastes. Also Read | How the Kanheri Caves tell us a secret history of Mumbai Although now entirely forgotten in India, these siddhas were popular enough that many were imported into Hindu siddha traditions like that of the Shaivaite Natha-yogis. The lives and songs of other Buddhist masters were to be adopted by radical anti-caste Hindu groups like the Sahajiya Vaishnavas and later the Bauls. Goddesses like Chinnamunda Vajravarahi, whose entire tradition revolves around fiercely independent women, were absorbed by Hindu tantric traditions as Chinnamasta, in turn making these traditions more popular and humanistic in outlook. This secret revolution from within may well constitute the greatest victory of India's Buddhist women masters. Topics You May Be Interested In
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
V S Achuthanandan, the lone flame of integrity that refused to be extinguished
He was no grand ideologue like EMS Namboodiripad nor the beloved mass leader that A K Gopalan was. He couldn't set crowds alight with homespun humour like E K Nayanar. Yet, one could well argue whether even these iconic communist leaders commanded the universal love and reverence that V S Achuthanandan eventually did, not just within his party, but far beyond its ideological fold. The most poetic twist in his story is perhaps this: The cult-hero status he attained came not in the fervent prime of his life, but in its twilight. Critics once dismissed him as a sectarian Stalinist, gauche and rigid. But history had other plans. VS was unique in another, profoundly symbolic way. For a movement that long championed the cause of the oppressed, it took over half a century after Independence to produce a chief minister who was a true working-class hero from an oppressed caste. That it was Achuthanandan who broke this 'glass ceiling' made his ascent more remarkable in a movement, once derisively referred to as led by 'Brahminical communists'. His political baptism was in the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising — still etched in the communist imagination as a moment of revolutionary martyrdom. A legislator from the early 1960s, CPM's state secretary through the turbulent 1980s, politburo member from 1985 and opposition leader twice — his career was long, but not luminous for most of that time. The turning point came in his 70s — an age by which most political careers dim, even in India's gerontocratic corridors of power. What made him a people's hero wasn't charisma or oratory skills, but his moral clarity and unyielding integrity. At a time when values like accountability and probity seemed to be vanishing from public life, VS stood out as a lone warrior. He fought relentlessly — often against his own party — for justice, be it in matters of corruption, environmental degradation, atrocities against women or global trade injustices. He was among the first in Indian politics to seamlessly blend the global and the local, the macro and the micro. People watched in wonder as the ageing comrade climbed hills, walked in rain, and stood firm in protest, while others in power lounged in comfort. When his party faltered, he carried forward struggles into the courts and onto the streets, often forcing action against the mighty. Not just his comrades but even outsiders rose in protest when his party leadership tried to humiliate him. He was not untouched by power struggles, nor were his motives always altruistic. But few could dispute the moral force he embodied. Even when outmaneuvered by his rivals, he remained, in the eyes of many, the conscience of Kerala's Left — a lone flame that refused to be extinguished. For many, his lingering final years in a coma became a haunting reflection of the values he had so steadfastly defended — now abandoned, forgotten and left to fade in a world that had moved on.
