[Advaita-l] Keeping the cow and brahmin apart

[KAMESWARARAO MULA]

Dear Members,
                            Today Hindu as an interesting article by author Sh.TM Krishna and How C. Rajagopalachari replies an interesting question and here is the Link.

‘Don’t look for the source of a river or the antecedents of a saint’. In other words, he asked Mani Iyer not to seek difficult answers. How convenient! It is the maker who plays the role of an intermediary for the artist, veiling the origins and allowing the latter to seek comfort in such a proverb.

The cow is removed from the artist’s sight. Since the killing and skinning happen beyond his circle of existence, he can act as if it does not happen. The maker stands at the threshold, keeping the cow and the brahmin apart, helping the latter maintain his ‘purity’. So, the maker is vital for the player, yet his role also keeps the maker ‘polluted’ and unequal. Once the blood is removed, the skin is cleaned and cut in shape, then dried and finally brought to the artist, it has been transformed through the labour of the makers into a resource, a lifeless ingredient. To Ravikumar, the maker, the skin itself has life; one to which no negativity is attached because it comes alive through shruti. But he either did not acknowledge, or did not see fit to speak the hard truth: that it is the maker — he, and others like him —who give the skin life after death. 

When singer, writer and activist T.M. Krishna realised that nobody spoke about mrdangam makers, he knew that he had failed them too. In his first book (The book will be launched by Rajmohan Gandhi and Thol Thirumavalavan on February 2, 2020, at Kalakshetra, Chennai), which examined caste in Karnatik music, he had not explored the world of the makers or the maker–player dynamic. The mrdangam, a two-faced drum, is the primary percussion instrument used in Karnatik music recitals and Bharatanatyam performances, he writes in his new book, Sebastian & Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers. The mrdangam’s body is a hollow, resonating chamber made from the wood of jackfruit trees, and its two tapering ends are covered with layers of cow, buffalo and goat hide.

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/keeping-the-cow-and-brahmin-apart/article30686002.ece?utm_source=taboola

SriGuru Padaravindarpana Mastu
Kameswara