 |
| স্বৰান্জলী |
Amish Tripathi, a well known writer of Indian Mythology, had galvanized me a lot. His first book of the Shiva Trilogy- The Immortals Of Meluha was much archetypal and stirring, which unfolded the great Mythological character Mahadev or the Neelkanth.It is a book about the story of the man whom legends turned into God. Through my entire safari through the book I noticed the civilization of the Meluhan tribes. Suryavanshis as they were called, the system of livelihood and laws, the high-tech arms and ammunition that they used during a war, the intelligent scientist belonging to Brahmin caste etc really electrified me upto a great extent. Well in this piece of writing I want to share my perceive about the two very enthralling system of laws described in this book – the Maika and Vikarma system. And the interesting part is that the God of the Gods, Mahadev was amused being known about the system. He too was against it – the way he judged it, the way he disliked it, is clearly delineated.
Shiva, being a Tibetan tribal Warrior, was brought to the city of Meluha, a place beyond the hills by their Army Captain Nandi. Meluhans believed that their savior had arrived who would perhaps Destroy the Evils. Accepting the offer of Nandi, they started their journey to Meluha. During the journey, Shiva happened to find about this two captivated system. Nandi happened to narrate it to Shiva, who was being curious cat then. As mentioned by Amish, Nandi narrated that the two systems were very lavishly abided by the citizens of Meluha, also called the Suryavanshis or the Meluhans.
Firsty, I read about the miserable Vikarma people of Meluha. I found out that a woman or a man would be addressed as a Vikarma, if and only if, she/he had experienced a second-rated deed in his/her previous life. I was astounded learning this. Many questions arouse like, “Why are they this superstitious to declare a person Vikarma considering their past life??”, “Why would they be punished thus unless they had committed some terrible sin in their previous life?” I still ponder that in 1900 B.C. , though the civilization was way too exceptional in regards to lifestyle and war, but they were very illiberal to follow such rules and regulations of the LAW.
According to Vikarma Law, since people are punished in this birth for the sins of their previous birth; they have to live that life out with dignity and tolerate their present suffering with grace. This is the only way they can wipe their karma clean of the sins of their previous birth.Vikaram men have their own order of penance and women have their own order. There are many rules that the Vikarma women have to follow. They have to pray for forgiveness every month to Lord Agni , the purifying Fire God, through a specially mandated puja. They are not allowed to marry since they may contaminate others with their bad fate.They are not allowed to touch any person who is not related to them. For instance, if a woman gives birth to a still-born child,she would be addressed as one. Or if a man suddenly contracts an incurable disease and gets paralyzed he too would be declared a Vikarma. At this, Shiva didn’t agree to the baloney law and commented, “It sounds like a rather unfair law to me.”According to me, such ridiculous laws doesn’t make a community more HEFTY but FEEBLE!!
Secondly, the law of Maika. This system revealed that the best society is one where a person’s caste is decided purely by his abilities and karma.Not by any other factor.All chidren that are born in Meluha are compulsorily adopted by the empire. Maika was built in the south of Meluha which was a great hospital city. Only pregnant women are allowed to travel there for delivery. Nobody else is allowed. Not even their parents and husbands. Once a child is born, he or she is kept in Maika for a few weeks while the mother travels back to her own city. The child is then put into the Meluha Gurukul, a massive school created by the empire close to Maika.Every single child receives the benefit of the same education system.So every child, regardless of being a Brahmin or Shudra would get exactly the same treatment at the Gurukul. Well, according to me, this was against the discrimination of caste. I have a positive review here. But later on, as the children enters the age of adolescence, they are all given the Somras i.e. a holy water.At the age of fifteen, when they’ve received adulthood, all the children take a comprehensive examination.The results of this examination decides which varna or caste the child is allocated to- Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra.And then the children were given one more year’s caste-specification training. When children turn sixteen they were allocated to applicant parents for their caste.For instance, if some Brahmin parents have applied to adopt a child,one randomly chooses student from Maika, who has won the Brahmin caste in the examination.Then the child grows up with these adopted parents as their own child.
At this, I have both a positive and a negative remark. Positively, it vividly reveals that each person is given a position in society based only on his own abilities. I enthusiastically announce it efficient and fair. BUT, when it comes to the feelings and emotions of the mothers,not too many mothers would be happy with this.I am in no good to imagine a woman willingly giving up her own child as soon as he is born with no chance of encountering him ever again.
The two menacingly bleak system or law had debilitate me much. And I hope that such customs or laws shouldn’t be followed, if anyone still does.Thousand hundred years back, Shiva too was blown up when he came to know about it. In this book, Amish also mentions later that Warrior Shiva prohibits that law for ever – till the time of his existence-after his marriage with Sati (daughter of Daksha and beloved of Neelkanth).This book is genuinely a phenomenal one describing about Neelkanth’s emergence, portraying the characters of GODS as fellow HUMAN BEINGS with flesh and blood!!
0 Comments