Daily Times

Last week I talked about the first day of my car journey beginning in Panchgani from where Ajay Deshpande and I left for Nagpur. Next day, February 6, 2013, after paying a visit to the austere mausoleum of Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir (died 1707) we went on to visit the historic Ellora and Ajanta ‘caves’, which were once temples and monasteries. We were now several centuries back in time into what can conventionally be called the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain periods. Let me pay a compliment to the British whose sense of history was far more developed than the Muslim or Hindu rulers of the past, for these two places had been covered under dust and debris for a millennium before they were discovered and excavated.

The 34 caves at Ellora are from the 5th to 10th century AD. They were excavated out of the Charanandri hills not far from Aurangabad. The 12 Buddhist (caves 1–12), 17 Hindu (caves 13–29) and five Jain (caves 30–34) caves, are built in proximity, suggesting that religious harmony was prevalent during that period. It is testimony to the fact that the Indian subcontinent has the longest continuous history of pluralism and intellectual and spiritual diversity, albeit with disruptions from time to time during warfare and when rulers changed. Most importantly, that tradition continued during the Muslim and British period till the partition idea came up.

It was impossible to visit all the caves as we wanted to hurry on and reach the Ajanta caves too. Therefore, we followed the advice of our rickshaw driver and visited a few. As a rule, I also randomly went into two more to ensure myself that I had tried my best to get a somewhat independent exposure to the Ellora caves complex.

The Ajanta caves are some 100 kilometres away and we were keen to reach there before sunset. The nearest town is Jalgaon. The Ajanta complex is even more spectacular. It is built on a cliff or ridge and an open U-shaped valley surrounds them. The 30 caves belong to the Buddhist tradition and were built during the 2nd century BC to 480 or 650 AD. Besides sculptures, they also include paintings.

The area around was heavily forested in ancient times. After the caves ceased to be used they were covered by jungle. They were accidently rediscovered in 1819 by a British officer on a hunting party. The Ajanta caves served as monasteries and seminaries. We managed to visit only the few major ones that are considered a must for tourists while entering some more on our own as well.

To my amateur eyes the difference between the Ellora and Ajanta caves was not all that obvious; rather, there was a continuity in the style of architecture and sculpture though at Ajanta the paintings constituted a class in themselves. Sculptures in Hindu temples and caves take up themes from epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayan while in Buddhist and Jain temples and caves the story of the founders of their creed are carved in stone. The nearest to such a tradition in the West are Catholic churches. Both the Ellora and Ajanta caves have been used by Bollywood on many occasions. It was a pleasure to have seen them personally.

For me once again the connection between my own north-western plains of the Punjab and the hills to the north of it extending into Peshawar and southwards all the way to the Western Ghats became all too obvious as I went around. At Taxila, a flourishing Buddhist university once stood and I remember feeling like I was in Asia Minor when at Taxila. In the 1970s, just outside the Taxila museum where my friend Jameel Ahmed worked, one could find a row of artisans sculpturing the Buddha figure, which they tried to sell to tourists. I doubt if they are still to be found there. After the Buddha statues at Bamiyan were destroyed by the monotheistic fanatics called rhe Taliban, it seems very unlikely that such an art form with roots in the poorer sections of society survives.

Having done this once-in-a-lifetime tour of the famous caves we drove a marathon 250 kilometres on February 7, to reach Nagpur in the early hours. Next day I met Ajay’s family — wife Saee and children, Radha and Sarvesh. In the evening we had a long session on Lata and her songs. Ajay’s friends, Dr Arunabha Roy from London and Srinivas Ganti from Toronto and noted playwright Dr Mahesh Elkunchwar also joined us. He had been to Lahore and met Salima Hashmi and other Pakistani intellectuals.

Next day a public meeting had been arranged for me in the centre of town under the auspices of Jan Manch, or People’s Front. I was to speak on the Partition of India with Special Emphasis on the Punjab. It was a challenge as I knew that Nagpur was the stronghold of Hindu nationalism and the talk had been advertised in the Nagpur press. Some 500-600 people turned up. I decided to speak in Hindustani instead of English and that proved to be a wise decision. For an hour and a half I presented my findings from the Punjab book. I must say that the audience was extremely receptive and, even as I criticised communalism on all sides, and particularly critiqued the Hindu practice of pollution that alienated Muslims, everyone listened attentively.

To my very great surprise, many people wanted my autograph. My message that India and Pakistan had a destiny together and they better mend their relations was very well received. Ajay Deshpande had thus provided me a unique forum to preach my message of love and mutual respect between our people and nations.

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The writer is a PhD (Stockholm University); Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University; and Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Latest publications: Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Karachi: Oxford Unversity Press, 2013; The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First-Person Accounts (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012; New Delhi: Rupa Books, 2011). He can be reached at billumian@gmail.com