One Great Scot!

A cleit which was used for drying and storage. Photo: Sharadha Bain

Sharadha Bain details an extraordinary voyage made by a lone man from St. Kilda.

A thriving colony of 2,00,000 Leach’s petrels make their home amid the wild cliffs and barren fields of the islands of St. Kilda, the most remote outpost of Scotland and Britain in the Atlantic. The largest colony in Europe, they lay claim to being one of the main inhabitants of these islands, deserted of human presence bar the staff of the National Trust for Scotland, the conservation charity which is the custodian of St. Kilda, and technicians who run a radar station located there.

With their sleek black feathers and rounded beaks, the birds on St. Kilda are part of the same family as the three-million-strong flock on Baccalieu Island off Newfoundland. The storm petrel’s travels between the dramatic blue-grey sea stacks of St. Kilda and the rolling shores of Canada echo the shared ancestral ties that link many Canadians and Scots. Nearly five million Canadians today claim Scottish ancestry, their lives built on epic voyages made by brave and often desperate men and women leaving behind all that they had ever known in search of a new world and new possibilities. One of the most extraordinary of these voyages was made by a lone man from St. Kilda — Donald John Gillies. This is his story.

Men on either side of the street forming the St. Kilda Parliament in the village on the island of Hirta, St Kilda.

Challenges

Unlike other communities from the Highlands and the Hebridean islands, emigration from St. Kilda was slow and reluctant. In 1852, an ill-fated expedition to Australia saw only 18 of its 36 members survive, the others perishing by infectious diseases during the voyage or soon upon arrival. It revealed in heartbreaking fashion how low the immune resistance of the isolated colony was. There were no other attempts to migrate from St. Kilda for a very long time.

It wasn’t until World War I brought the outside world to St. Kilda that the siren call of modern life began drawing people away. Unlike other communities, the St. Kildans didn’t venture far — most went to the nearby towns and cities of Oban, Glasgow and Inverness. Only Donald John Gillies crossed the Atlantic. He was born in 1906 and spent the first 24 years of his life in a two-room stone cottage with his parents. His descriptions of the simplicity of island life are poignant. He narrates how boating accidents regularly killed island men because none of them could swim. The harvesting of seabirds, a vital part of the diet on the islands, was also fraught with danger. Ropes could snap, men lost their footing on the slippery rocks, a moment’s inattention on the cliffs proved deadly. Mail only arrived in the summer and they were isolated from the world for the rest of the year.

During the war years, the island had 16 visitors from the outside world who painted vivid tales of life elsewhere. Given the contrast with their own harsh life, the population began ebbing away. In 1924, it was also Donald John’s time to leave. “As I looked around, I discovered that all my school chums and playmates had left for various places on the mainland and St. Kilda looked to me as a desolate place without any future. I was just left practically alone. When the ferry arrived on her last trip for the season, I made up my mind that I would leave that day.” His parents gave him all the cash they had in the house — a grand figure of four pounds sterling. The ferry from St. Kilda to Glasgow cost him one pound. He spoke only Gaelic and had never been off the island before. Six years later, in August 1930, the final five remaining families on St. Kilda left the island. A Bible remained in each of their homes, left open at the Book of Exodus. All manner of new experiences awaited Donald John on arrival in Glasgow. “I saw my first car and wondered what the dickens it was — four wheels coming towards me.”

Poignant remains of human habitation. Photo: Sharadha Bain

A cousin met him off the ferry in Glasgow and he initially stayed with an uncle and aunt. He entered Bible Training College. He also began learning English. A chance meeting in 1926 with a visiting minister from Canada inspired him to fill in an application to become a student of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. A year later, he sailed from Glasgow, arriving in Quebec with no money or ticket to get to his destination. By a stroke of good fortune, he met an Anglican clergyman on the dock who heard his tale with great sympathy and helped him reach the Presbyterian church in the city. The minister there supplied him with a ticket and also stocked his purse with $20. Rev. Donald John Gillies steadily built a new life in Canada from these poignant beginnings. The years that followed were rich with service and travel. The church was filled to capacity when he preached his final sermon.

Rev. Donald John Gillies returned to St. Kilda in 1980 at the invitation of the National Trust for Scotland. A ceremony was held to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Evacuation of the Island, and the church was rededicated. At the service, he spoke from his heart: “We live in a time when much of what is old and cherished is being questioned and doubted, but it seems to me that there are a few matters which should be beyond dispute — the value of the great Scottish virtues of honesty, pride, self-reliance, independence of spirit, deep religious sense, of love and of education — surely these are all beyond doubt. I am proud of the National Trust for Scotland, of the marvellous efforts they are putting forward in the restoration of abandoned places of great religious and historic life.”

Rev. Donald John Gillies died peacefully at his home in Vancouver in 1994 at the age of 94.

St. Kilda

Today, St. Kilda has dual UNESCO World Heritage status — a rare honour bestowed for both natural and cultural significance.

St. Kilda’s islands of Hirta, Dun, Soay and Boreray possess the highest sea cliffs and stacks in Britain. These are home to the world’s largest colony of gannets, just one of 17 species of seabird that come to St. Kilda every spring and summer to breed.

Under the sea, there is a wealth of marine life. These include jewel anemones, jellyfish of many different types, long-clawed squat lobster, basking sharks, and minke and killer whales. We have evidence that people first arrived at St. Kilda in the Neolithic age. They stayed — although the population never rose above 200. The most striking man-made features are the cleits — conical drystone structures in which crops, sea-birds, eggs and peat would be stored. Hirta alone has more than 1,400 of them. What also remains is a necklace of 19 century dwellings, once occupied by families such as the Gillies’, and now silent memorials to a lost community.

The barren islands.

The author is a part of the communications team for the National Trust of Scotland, an independent conservation charity that has been the custodian of St. Kilda since 1957.

--------------------------------

Published in The Hindu

Dated: 8th Sept. 2012

By Sharadha Bain

Based on the life of Lord Krishna

The scenic beauty of the Kangra Valley makes exquisite settings for the painted tableaux.

The Guler painting, ‘The divine flautist’ showing gopis attending on Lord Krishna

Buddhism had practically disappeared from India, its place of origin, by the eighth century A.D. Its associated art too declined, leaving an artistic bridge to be spanned.

The Vaishnava revival of the 11 and 12 centuries brought about by Ramanuja and saint poets like Jayadeva of Bengal gradually established Krishna as the supreme deity, the approachable glorious Vishnu. Jayadeva’s Gita Govindam, the song of the divine cowherd, echoed the poet’s deep spirituality, with Krishna as the human soul attached to earthly pleasures, and Radha the wise divine.

The enchanted gopis were the five senses – smell, touch, sight, taste and hearing. Krishna’a return to Radha was the surrender of the repentant, to God. Guru Gobind Singh [1675-1708] was not just a soldier—he was a poet-scholar, well-versed in Persian, Hindi and Sanskrit, who wrote on the legends of Rama and Krishna. He also had 52 bards in his permanent employ. Kesavadas, a Brahmin from Orcha, Bundelkhand, was the court poet of Indrajit Shah of Orcha. His ‘Baramasa [12 months] and Rasikapriya [in 1591] are both immortal works: the latter details various emotions and legends of the Krishna theme.

The portrait 'Melody of Spring’ shows Krishna singing and dancing along the river, with devoted gopis providing the percussion. Even the dhol is covered in floral painted fabric

The Mughal connection

Art closely followed poetry and literature, making for a truly divine combination, and the scenic beauty of the Kangra Valley made exquisite settings for the painted tableaux. These paintings were first influenced by the Mughals, their occupation of the Punjab and Himachal showing in the Islamic influence on painted beards and clothes. With Sikh ascendancy and royal patronage, the later Kangra paintings showed longer beards, and a Punjabi style of apparel.

The delicacy of the Kangra and Pahari paintings were heavily based on the weight of the Krishna theme—its legends brought out vividly by the painter’s brush. Exotic symbolism was re-enacted by the imaginative painter. The beauty of the female, the hilly landscape, the Beas river valley, its rivulets and streams, terraced fields along the low hills of the Dhauladhar range and trees such as the peepal, mango and plantain brought Krishna alive — living his delightful life, as one of the denizens of the village. All local events had the divine couple of Radha and Krishna as central characters, as the hero and heroine.

The portraits shows Krishna and his mates happily spraying maidens with the red coloured water

In the Guler painting, ‘The divine flautist’ Krishna stands on a large lotus flower, playing the flute. He is surrounded by gopis, whose only interest is Krishna, while a couple of cowherds appear to be looking, a little furtively, at the divine scene. One gopi is offering betel leaf to the lord, another waves the chauri, yet another is fanning the lord, while another is tugging at his upper cloth or uttariya, to gain his attention.

Cows and calves are nearby, ever attached to Krishna and even the fish in the Yamuna are up in the water, attracted by the magic of his flute. Gods and gandharvas rain flowers from the sky, enchanted by the earthly Muralikrishna. The ‘Melody of Spring’ shows Krishna growing up happy and carefree in Brindavan, safe from Kamsa. He sings and dances along the river, with devoted gopis providing the percussion. Even the dhol is covered in floral painted fabric, the pastoral scene a simple floral delight.

'Driving the flock’ shows little Krishna, setting off to graze the cows, along with Balarama, his brother, who is shown packing laddus in his waistcloth

Delightful portrayal

‘Driving the flock’ is just too delightful a portrayal of the Krishna theme. Yashoda’s cherished pet, the little Krishna, is off to graze the cows, along with Balarama, his brother. Yashoda gives a stick to Krishna, to drive the herd. Balarama is shown as a chubby and happy boy. His priorities are clear, depicted by the many laddus being wrapped in his waistcloth, ready for feasting later, in the woods. A lady holds a plateful of laddus- simple joyful treats.

The portrait showing herds of cows enjoying the music played by Krishna on his flute

‘Feast in the forest’ shows a gang of boys sitting down to lunch in a clearing—the leaf plates and ‘donnais’ are filled with delicacies. The rich and the poor are enjoying the repast together—Krishna, the provider and the protector of all.

'Krishna's Magic Flute' shows the pacified Radha meeting Krishna in a garden of tamaala trees, with atimukta creepers flowering freely. Krishna has spread His blanket on the ground and they sit on it, with Krishna devotedly braiding Radha’s hair

Holi, the festival of colour, has long projected joy. Krishna and his mates happily spray maidens with the red coloured water, refilling their sprayers from pots carried by some others of the gang. Singing and dancing is part of the revelry.

'The magic flue of Krishna,' shows the engrossed twosome seen sitting down on a branch of the bauhinia, under a mango tree near a plantain grove

‘Krishna’s magic flute’ shows him alone, playing just for his love of music, and for other beings. A pair of cranes, cows in all shades, trees, flowers, the forked lightning and other cowherds—all get transfixed in sheer ecstasy. The river too seems to leave its course, taking a bend towards Krishna and his melody. The tinkling bells of the cows and their taut tails all show rapt reaction to the ethereal flute.

The engrossed twosome wander among the glades by the river, sit down on a branch of the bauhinia, under a mango tree near a plantain grove. In the Gita Govindam, Jayadeva narrates the separation and reconciliation of Radha and Krishna, as a pastoral drama. Radha sits alone by a tree, while Krishna dances with gopis, afar. A gopi brings Radha news of Krishna – “There he is, the sky-coloured figure, anointed with sandal, enrobed in gold, wearing a garland of wild flowers and forest leaves. See how the curls of His tresses fall on His temple, as He goes hand in hand with 100 brides.”

The pacified Radha meets Krishna in a garden of tamaala trees, with atimukta creepers flowering freely. Krishna has spread His blanket on the ground and they sit on it, with Krishna devotedly braiding Radha’s hair. She has eyes only for Him, while the birds, lotus blooms, peacocks and dark clouds create the perfect romantic setting.

(to be concluded)

-------------------------

Published in The Hindu

Dated: 6th Sept. 2012

By Rupa Gopal

Ancient Buddha idol, monastery unearthed in Jajpur

An ancient statue of Gautama Buddha and remains of a Budhha Vihar (monastery) have been unearthed from Kesharaipur-Hatikhol village in the vicinity of world famous Lalitgiri Buddhist site in Odisha's Jajpur district. Workers came across the articles while digging the land for a drain there three days ago, said noted Buddhist researcher Harischandra Prusty.

A meditating Buddha idol, made probably during post Gupta period, and earthen items like bowls, spout jars and broken potteries were found from the spot. "The unearthed stone image is called Bhurisapta Padmapani, an incarnation of Lord Buddha. The idol is made of Khondolite stone and its height and width is 3 feet 2 inches and 2 feet 1 inch respectively. While one of its hands is seen in blessings giving posture, another hand holds a lotus. Both the wrists bear bungles and armlets in the arms," said Prusty.

In addition to the Buddha image, a monastery has been discovered on the foot of Kesharaipur-Hatikhol hill. "The monastery is 30 x 30 metres size. There are four rooms each measuring 10 feet x 9 feet each. It is made of good size stones. The Buddhist monastery has been probably built in the eighth century under the patronage and propagation of a king of the Bhaumakara dynasty that flourished between eighth and the 11th century in the state," said Prusty.

"If proper excavation work is carried out, many historical findings may come out, he said. District Collector Anil Kumar Samal said the district administration would follow up necessary excavation and conservation works. The digging work was stopped after the discovery, he said.

---------------------

Published in The Indian Express

Dated: Sept. 6th, 2012