Womanly Tales

The second talk at my day long event at the British Museum was by a cultural historian. Yes, this is a real profession and yes I was feeling pretty envious by now. Having just listened to a Kew scientist, I was now facing an extremely articulate cultural historian – and I wondered where I was when God was giving out these professions.
In any case the premise of the talk was about myths and those of immigrants can influence local populations and sometimes even mutate into local myths.
An example was of a museum that for the past seven years has been collecting Hindu artefacts from the river Thames. In doing so, we see the revival of the ‘Sacred Thames’ with the only exception that it was for an entirely different faith.
The speaker wasn’t too coherent with her talk but seemed to take off on the morbid impact of climate change and suggest the re-adaptation of Hindu myths as ways to awaken us from our dazed, insolent and selfish treatment of Mother Nature. She referred to the Hindu trinity – The creator married to knowledge or Saraswati, the sustainer married to wealth or Lakshmi and the destroyer married to Mother Nature or Durga. I felt quite thrilled to hear her speak the name of Durga on the eve of Navratri. She spoke about the two forms of Durga – Parvati and Kali and their contant manipulations in order to keep Earth alive and kicking. She then made the parallel to the findings of Havelock’s Gaya theory and Hindu myths that both refer to the Earth as the greatest goddess of all. Seen from space Earth pulsates like a living organism, expanding and contracting at will, Havelock is said to have documented. Note: She did end on some morbid notes brandishing us for ignoring the call of climate change that influenced my post-lunch notes – Below is an extract [Quite morbid stuff, really which is why the third talk of the day had me singing with glee - coming up in my next post]:
How do myths die?
In myself I view a person that flaunts rituals, practices or symbolism. When selecting a venue to get married, it didn’t make a difference if we married under a Peepul tree or a Banyan tree. The idea that we were associating our marriage with renunciation [banyan tree] was a tad much for my brother in law – as he tacitly put across at the right moment. Thus succinctly put, I was albeit quick to align myself with the fortuitous choice.
Who are the custodians of our myths? The stories of our past- are they just a remnants of childhood – to be shed when entering the world of adults? Since when did being an adult become such a dirty, trying chore? We look around us and there are only examples of what’s going down or away – is there any reason why happiness is so hard to find when you’re an adult?
Post script: I do really wish I can hear Devdutt speak – his knowledge on mythology is just amazing. Mithya is quite easily a daily companion, always refreshing and insightful. I do believe that human sanity can only be restored by the proper employment of myths – that we share them with our children not for their pleasure but to retain our own sanity.