Who cares when Jesus died?
March 18th 2008 15:32
Really, who cares when Jesus Christ died? This is not a rhetorical question. In fact it is very practical and literal. Not for a moment need anybody think that this is a slur on one of the greatest religious icons that the World is associated with. With the greatest of respect in mind for Jesus, this question still remains.
I am an Indian. In India, I am from Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu, I am a native of the Tanjore district. I am a Hindu. I was born a Brahmin. Under the Brahmin caste, I belong to the Iyer sect. Under the Iyer sect, I also belong to the 'Vadamal' sub sect....and so on. Now why should I care when Jesus Christ died?
But everywhere I turn, time and events are referred to in terms of BC and AD. Why is that? Did our civilizations - from the Indo-Gangetic plains, the Indus Valley, the Dravidians - not have any specific measure of time? If so, why do we now refer to BC and AD in everything that we do? When and where in our long journey through the Ages did we lose our measure? And what does that imply? Was our measure of time too complex, or even worse, wrong?
All this goes back to why could not our religion have a measure of time indigenously? A measure of its own that other cultures would love to use. Was there something like that? I wanted to find out. But what is Hinduism really if not an amalgamation of different faiths? So if there was an answer, I thought, it must be individual to each culture within our huge country.
Starting with my own culture seemed to be a good starting point. In asking elders in my family there did not seem to be too many answers. The general idea seemed to be that Tamil Brahmins believed in the Almanac a lot. Even in the almanac there appear to be different types - specific to the Veda that you follow. In our case I am told that we are followers of the Yajur Veda.
Food for thought. This is another huge way in which we are different from any other people in the world. Take the other major religions - Christianity, Islam - the followers of those religions are definitely familiar with their holy teachings and holy works. In the case of the modern Hindu or even Hindus belonging to a couple or more generations back, there is not a ready familiarity with deep religious works such as the Vedas or the Upanishads or even the Bhagwad Gita. If we look deep down in the vernacular cultures, the Tamils pride themselves for knowledge of the Thirukkural. And yes, even today you can find people proud of knowing Thirukkural and what is more, even understanding it. So to make my point here - we are different. There is no point in comparing ourselves with others and then trying to find sense. If there is any sense to be found, we must find it ourselves and what is more - within ourselves to boot.
Getting back to the measure of time in my own culture, I found out that the Yugas are the major measurement of time that we devised. And we still follow that measurement. However nobody could give me a clear answer on what a Yuga really meant. Further I found out that there are sixty named years that keep repeating in cycle which is unique to the Tamil culture - or so I am told. Hmm... this is a start but this does not even begin to answer my questions.
Last week I found some more information as to what the Vedic concept of time measurement was like. It went more or less like this. We believe that the entire universe along with everything that is in it is created by Brahma. There are distinct cycles of life and they correspond to each hundred years of Brahma's life. At the end of each hundred year cycle (of Brahma's life), the world is destroyed in a cataclysm. Then a hundred years (on the same scale) of chaos ensues. After this Brahma arises again to pave way for the next hundred year cycle and so on.
To provide a measure of what the life of Brahma would be like there were helpful scales on the following lines - A day in the life of Brahma is equivalent to 4320 million years of Earth time. Each day of Brahma was further divided into 1000 Maha Yugas or Great Ages. These Maha Yugas were further sub-divided into Yugas such as Kritha, Thwetha, Dwapara, Kaliyuga. Kaliyuga had begun on 18th February 3102 BC (there we go again with that measurement) and would last 432000 years.
Well, we have some progress but is this all that was used in Vedic times or in times prior to occupation by the East India Company to measure the passage of time? Or is there more to this? I would love to find out. Would you?
While on this I would also love to find out why it is that we seem to be the only people on the face of this earth who are so happy to discard heritage, customs and practices in favour of whatever our newest rulers impose upon us? The question, I must reiterate, is not religious or related to the Gods we worship. It is far larger in implication - societal and therefore cultural. It is true that probably no other country on this earth found itself invaded so many times, but still....can we not conserve what is ours?
Or do we always need to care when Jesus Christ died?
I am an Indian. In India, I am from Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu, I am a native of the Tanjore district. I am a Hindu. I was born a Brahmin. Under the Brahmin caste, I belong to the Iyer sect. Under the Iyer sect, I also belong to the 'Vadamal' sub sect....and so on. Now why should I care when Jesus Christ died?
But everywhere I turn, time and events are referred to in terms of BC and AD. Why is that? Did our civilizations - from the Indo-Gangetic plains, the Indus Valley, the Dravidians - not have any specific measure of time? If so, why do we now refer to BC and AD in everything that we do? When and where in our long journey through the Ages did we lose our measure? And what does that imply? Was our measure of time too complex, or even worse, wrong?
All this goes back to why could not our religion have a measure of time indigenously? A measure of its own that other cultures would love to use. Was there something like that? I wanted to find out. But what is Hinduism really if not an amalgamation of different faiths? So if there was an answer, I thought, it must be individual to each culture within our huge country.
Starting with my own culture seemed to be a good starting point. In asking elders in my family there did not seem to be too many answers. The general idea seemed to be that Tamil Brahmins believed in the Almanac a lot. Even in the almanac there appear to be different types - specific to the Veda that you follow. In our case I am told that we are followers of the Yajur Veda.
Food for thought. This is another huge way in which we are different from any other people in the world. Take the other major religions - Christianity, Islam - the followers of those religions are definitely familiar with their holy teachings and holy works. In the case of the modern Hindu or even Hindus belonging to a couple or more generations back, there is not a ready familiarity with deep religious works such as the Vedas or the Upanishads or even the Bhagwad Gita. If we look deep down in the vernacular cultures, the Tamils pride themselves for knowledge of the Thirukkural. And yes, even today you can find people proud of knowing Thirukkural and what is more, even understanding it. So to make my point here - we are different. There is no point in comparing ourselves with others and then trying to find sense. If there is any sense to be found, we must find it ourselves and what is more - within ourselves to boot.
Getting back to the measure of time in my own culture, I found out that the Yugas are the major measurement of time that we devised. And we still follow that measurement. However nobody could give me a clear answer on what a Yuga really meant. Further I found out that there are sixty named years that keep repeating in cycle which is unique to the Tamil culture - or so I am told. Hmm... this is a start but this does not even begin to answer my questions.
Last week I found some more information as to what the Vedic concept of time measurement was like. It went more or less like this. We believe that the entire universe along with everything that is in it is created by Brahma. There are distinct cycles of life and they correspond to each hundred years of Brahma's life. At the end of each hundred year cycle (of Brahma's life), the world is destroyed in a cataclysm. Then a hundred years (on the same scale) of chaos ensues. After this Brahma arises again to pave way for the next hundred year cycle and so on.
To provide a measure of what the life of Brahma would be like there were helpful scales on the following lines - A day in the life of Brahma is equivalent to 4320 million years of Earth time. Each day of Brahma was further divided into 1000 Maha Yugas or Great Ages. These Maha Yugas were further sub-divided into Yugas such as Kritha, Thwetha, Dwapara, Kaliyuga. Kaliyuga had begun on 18th February 3102 BC (there we go again with that measurement) and would last 432000 years.
Well, we have some progress but is this all that was used in Vedic times or in times prior to occupation by the East India Company to measure the passage of time? Or is there more to this? I would love to find out. Would you?
While on this I would also love to find out why it is that we seem to be the only people on the face of this earth who are so happy to discard heritage, customs and practices in favour of whatever our newest rulers impose upon us? The question, I must reiterate, is not religious or related to the Gods we worship. It is far larger in implication - societal and therefore cultural. It is true that probably no other country on this earth found itself invaded so many times, but still....can we not conserve what is ours?
Or do we always need to care when Jesus Christ died?
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