The Hagia Sophia of India
Ayodhya is back in the news with a big bang
to drown Rafael jets, the sound and fury of CBI’s in- house war, the unreserved
voice of RBI against the government and the shouting and screaming in
Sabarimala of traditionalists with their belief in unwritten laws that defy the
written order of the highest law making body under our Constitution. Lord Ram
is constantly invoked with offers of building his statue taller than that of
Sardar Patel( hopefully the divine Maryada Purush Ram should not be upset at
this motley comparison between him and a human, however tall the latter may be)
and re-naming Lucknow airport as Lord Ram airport, equating Him with celebrity
humans. Lord Ram may even feel irked
that he had to stand out in the open and not inside the sanctum sanctorum of a
temple because logistics will not permit the temple to be raised to a height
beyond 182 metres(597 feet). It is impossible to divine how Lord Ram will
react to stand outside the place of his birth and not inside where he had been
feted and fondled as Ram lalla.
But
our politicians in their fanatic worship of Ram do not pause to wonder what the
recipient of their largesse will say to this outward display of their reverence
for him. But then all these orchestrations are not so much an outpouring of
their feelings as they are to woo the millions of Ram worshippers in a run up
to the national elections. The impatience not to wait for the Supreme Court’s
verdict on the disputed site and the fear if it goes against the ownership claims
of Hindu zealots to the place of Ram’s birth, have given vent to hysterical
pronouncements that come what may, work on Ram mandir shall be started on that
disputed site before the elections.
Irrespective of whether one is a Hindu or
not, Lord Ram stands as an ethical ideal for all men and women to follow in
every walk of life as a family person, as
a fair and just ruler, as an individual who exemplifies the Maryada Purusha in every
aspect. No one can deny a temple for Lord Ram even if s/he is not a Hindu. The dispute has arisen because a Masjid had
also spring up at the same site. The solution to this dispute has been eluding with
no prospect of ever finding an acceptable one that satisfies both the Hindus
and the Muslims.
One of my friends who had returned from a visit to Istanbul showed me pictures and described the monumental marvel of The Hagia Sophia, one of the most important Byzantine structures ever built. It has historical significance as it marks the culmination of the Christian era with the fall of the Roman empire at the hands of the Ottoman empire and stands as a monument to a mosaic architecture by the addition of the Islamic structures like the mihrab (a niche in the wall indicating the direction toward Mecca, for prayer), minbarr (pulpit), and four minarets. This architectural wonder has housed two different religious groups
The Sultan did not destroy the Christian mosaics and their frescoes and over them added Islamic designs and calligraphy. Many were later uncovered, documented and restored . It remained a mosque until 1931 when it was closed to the public for four years. Thw founder of Modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal AtuterkIt who banned many of the Islamic customs and westernized the nation secularized the cathedral and the mosque and turned it into a museum in 1935.
It just flashed on my mind why in Ayodhya the
two seligous structures cannot co exist
in the same site. The temple can be built on top of the masjid (which needs repairs and reconstruction after it was
brought down nearly 20 years ago) and
there can be two roads one elevated and the other down below each one leading
to the masjid and the temple. We have brilliant architects and engineers who
can make this an architectural marvel housing both the religious groups. The
Islamic sentiments and their use of masjid as a place for worship, for study
and discussions about Islam can be preserved
while Ram Mandir can be constructed at the place believed to be Ram’s place of
birth. If we can build Sardar Patel’s statue as the tallest world statue, we
can make Ayodhya a unique model of religious
co existence. All we need is a statesman-like approach that is true to secularism
as enjoined by our Constitution while true to the Hindu pluralism that has no theological proscriptions in accepting other religions as
the core perception of divinity is inherent in all faiths.. Hinduism emphasizes that everyone
actually worships the same God by different names and different ways.. India
has many thousands of years of historical acceptance of multi-cultural pluralism
as evident from the many religions that have been a part of its adherence to
religious diversity. India is a unique nation where Hinduism, Islam,
Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism have been practiced by people who
profess to one or other faiths.. As the world’s largest democracy, India has a
unique opportunity to showcase its multifaceted heritage of religious diversity
through a well designed masjid mandir marvel.. Let our architects ad engineers
from both religious orders sit together and plan, draw and design two
structures in the site that is now foolishly being disputed. If the Hagia
Sophia stands for an amalgamation of Byzantine and Ottoman cultures, India can have
its own version of the Hagia Sophia, a mandir-masjid
monument to its religious pluraiism.
No comments:
Post a Comment