Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples - Episodes from Indian History

We have often heard that Hindus' is one of the few civilisations which survived the onslaught of Islam in medieval centuries. But the story of how we managed to survive had not been told so far. It is for telling us this story in her latest book "The Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples" that Prof. Meenakshi Jain deserves out heartfelt appreciation.As Dr. Koenraad Elst has remarked in his review, Prof Jain's book is a novelty in Indian historiography in the sense that this is perhaps the first attempt by a historian to study, first, the resistence put up by Hindus when their holy places came under attack and second, the ways in which Hindu society reacted to their destruction.Before telling us about the story of Hindu tenacity, Dr. Jain in her introduction demolishes the theory peddled by certain Left historians that the destruction of Hindu temples by Muslims were purely political-secular activities and had nothing to do with Islam. The Leftists also peddle a fiction that in demolishing Hindu temples, Muslim rulers were merely following the example set by the Hindu rulers earlier when the Hindu rulers had destroyed temples of rival Hindu kings. Prof Jain distinguishes between “image appropriation” and “image destruction”. What couple of examples can be cited from all of Hindu history are examples of image appropriation wherein a victorious King takes away a cherished a idol belonging to a defeated King and instates it for worship in a temple in his own kingdom. Prof Jain makes the point that this is in sharp contrast to the way in which Muslim kings treated temples/idols of defeated Hindu rajas. In almost all such cases, the temples were destroyed(mutilated where they could not be destroyed) and the idols taken away to be put inside lavatories of Muslims, or broken and thrown on streets to be trodden by the faithful or embedded beneath the steps of a mosque to be trodden upon by faithfulls for all times to come. Clearly,no sane person would think the two sorts of treatment are similar yet the Marxist historians think precisely so.The story is told geographically. Prof Jain starts her story from Multan(original Mulsthanpura), in present day Pakistan. The story of Islamic onslaught on India begins with Muhammas bin Qasim’s invasion of Sind and subsequent conquest of this area by Islamic armies. Multan is said to be the place where Bhagwan Vishnu manifested Himself in his Narasimha avatar. A temple by the name “Prahladpuri” commemorated the place where this happened. The temple was wrecked several times and mosques built in its streets.The Narasimha statue was taken to a temple in Haridwar where it is worshipped to this day! Whenever propitious conditions arose, Hindus re-built the temple, only for the temple to be demolished again. This re-built,destroyed,again re-built,again destroyed story plays out for several centuries. It is to the credit of Hindu tenacity and their resolve to never forget that the place was under worship even as late as 20th century when the partition of the country and this part having come under Islamic rule put a permanent end to the worship there. The famous Sun Temple at Multan was also demolished but the the place continued to be revered for centuries to come, certainly till 19th century. Prof Jain writes, “ With no King to protect them, for centuries they restored demolished temples and deities till not a glimmer of hope remained….”Prof Jain next tells the story of Islamic iconoclasm and Hindu tenacity in Kashmir and Delhi. It is in recounting the Hindu response in Braj(the Mathura-Vrindavan region) that Prof Jain conjures up strong images of the extent of Hindu reverence and devotion to their Gods and their memories. The region first suffered destruction at the hands of Mahmood Ghaznavi in 10th Century CE. The first demolition of Krishna Janmasthan temple occurred at his his hands. The temple was later rebuilt by Hindus only to be destroyed again by another Muslim iconoclast, Ghori. It was yet again built in propitious times by the Bundela ruler Bir Singh Deo only to be destroyed yet again by Aurangzeb. This time, the site on which the temple stood was occupied by building a mosque over it-the Idgah that still exists till date. And there you have the origins of the Krishna Janmasthan movement to reclaim the site. It is not a 1980s BJP built conspiracy theory.Temple in Vrindavan suffered similar fate. The Govindadeva temple was last destroyed by Aurangzeb. In a daring act of bravery, Hindus shifted the vigraha to Jaipur where it is worshipped till this day.The movement of ShrinathJi from Goverdhan to Nathdwara in Mewar is all too well known to the devotees of Shrinathji but perhaps not as well known to others. Prof Jain has recounted the journey in some detail. It can be summarised thus: In 1669 Aurangzeb issues general order for demolition of all Hindu temples in his region. The deity is moved to Agra where it is worshipped for around 6 months. From here, it is taken to Kota and thereupon to Kishangarh and then to Chaupasani on the Jodhpur border. From here, upon the assurances of the Rana of Mewar, it was being taken to Udaipur when the cart, nearing Udaipur, refused to move beyond a village called Sihar. It is this village which later developed into the pilgrim town of Nathdwara. The flight of Shri Nathji from Braj to Nathdwara took 2 years 4 months and 7 days!The scope of the study undertaken by Prof Jain is vast and it is not possible to summarise all in a book review. Prof Jain has detailed stories of devastation across India during the Muslim rule. There are very few Hindu sacred places which have escaped destruction. Ujjain, Varanasi, Mathura, Vrindavan, Dwarka, Somanth, Ayodhya, Trichy, Chidambaram, Kanchi, Pandharpur, Kolhapur, Puri, Kamakhya, Kashmir, Kerala, etc.-you name it-and in all probability it has suffered destruction at the hands of Muslims. Yet, how do these very places-the exact places which suffered destruction-continue to be revered by Hindus? It is for telling the story of this collective tenacity, heroic struggles, this will to hold on, this passing down of memory from one generation to another that this book needs to be read.I would summarise the following takeaways from the book:1. That Hindu survival was not a given. It is because of the supreme sacrifices of millions of our ancestors that we continue to live as Hindus.2. Hindu temples were not just destroyed by Muslim “invaders” in the sense of a Ghazni or Ghori but by almost all Muslim dynasties, almost all Muslim kings, even those whose ancestors had been living here for centuries. Iconoclasm was not some idiosyncrasy in some Muslim rulers but an inherent part of Islam.3. The practice of having a small temple at home, of bhajans, of kirtans, of leelas-owes its birth not to some “revolt against Brahmins” as secularists like to teach us but as a Hindu innovation to continue their religion when the religion could not be practiced at public places. It is to the Bhakti saints-Vallabhacharya, Tulsidas, Chaitanya, Surdas, Ramanuja and others that Hindus owe their existence.Every Hindu home should have a copy of this book and every Hindu adult should read it and it should be read to every Hindu child. Let them not take their existence for granted. A great work Prof Jain for which Hindu society owes you a debt.

Colonized in 2019? This can happen if you have been brainwashed by the Great Indian Education System.A scathing critique of Public Sector Historians and their "opinions" on Temple destruction.She meticulously points out cases of temple destruction all across India, how Indic faiths coped with the Trauma, how they held on to memory and rebuilt their temples once the Islamic threat decreased.In the South where Islamic rule was sporadic, temple histories played a great part in deciphering the large scale of iconoclasm all over India at the time; as Brahmins sought refuge for themselves and their vigraha there.A must read for all patrons of Indic Renaissance.

A must have. A very thoroughly researched work. One should have this in their library. Make sure kids read this piece of history as the same is not part of our curriculum.

The book by the brilliant and erudite scholar Meenkashi Jain is the about history of tenacious Hindu resistance to overcome all odds to revive their temple traditions and keep their sacred images safe above all. Based on primary sources it enunciates the struggle of Hindus to keep their culture, traditions and their identity alive. From preists to farmers and peasants, every section of society did their part. It also debunks the popular distortion by left leaning historians that the destruction of temples was purely economically motivated endeavour while the evidence points to the contrary. Also, the allegation of islamic invaders taking inspiration from Hindu kings for destruction of temples falls flat as the motive for conquest is polarly opposite and the actions of the victors amply speak for themselves.It is a must read book for history buffs looking to read some real history.

A heart wrenching report of the destruction of Hindus temples across the land, suppression of a culture, and the despairing attempts to save deities from desecration and destruction by the devotees.This work examines the medieval response to large-scale temple destruction and iconoclasm. While the temples were destroyed on a considerable scale, also noteworthy were the repeated endeavours to reconstruct them.'Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples' by Meenakshi Jain is a landmark work. This book is a must-have as it presents a fascinating account of India history via Hindu temples and deities.