A Visit To Amaravati Poem by M D Dinesh Nair
A Visit To Amaravati
Amaravatii is serene and smelly within
She is yet like a bride with a veiled face
Shy and virtuous or timid and afraid
Away from the noisy and overstaying guests outside her chamber.
I walked along her streets,
I read the writings on her stones placid and old
And I smelt her past of glory for a while
A past of the Jainism and the Buddhism which breathed within her.
The Buddhist saga stuns us in the east and west
The power of non-violence and the precepts!
Through a stretch of road surrounded
By towering Hindu temples here lies a past glorious.
Rays of light stream through these glimpses
And the memories of tranquility are sown
A great notion can ever be crippled
Neither by time nor by events that succeeded.
I feel there is a story to be told by
The wind and the fauna here till times die
There is a profundity of the relics and things buried
Below these columns of debris and broken stupas unseen!
To the gusts of wind, I plead
Carry this pace and strides ahead
Into times we may cherish
As the Light of Asia has to beam out.
To Shiva the lord of destruction, I plead
Come out of the sanctum raised by your warriors
Who discarded peace and serenity,
Come down to greet this smiling Buddha.
Long and quick paces I made
Along the margin of rocks and plants
Past a square and the ruins of a notion great
Lives the wise man Buddha over here too.
Walking in the corridors of a museum of the relics
Dedicated to the Satavahanas and their empire
I long to smell the power of peace.
The fragments of glory can revive.
I see here the rubble and the relics,
And hear the silent cry of a dying religion and
Feel the futility of the conquest of another one which
Was later cornered by its Arabian and Roman rivals!
Lights flicker from buildings now
That were not once there centuries before
Walking with a slower pace through silent shrubs
I feel it is quiet being at Amaravathi!
Taranatha, the Buddhist monk writes:
'On the full moon of the month Caitra in the year following his enlightenment, at the great stupa of Dhanyakataka, Buddha emanated the mandala of 'The Glorious Lunar Mansions'(Kalachakra) .
That was a time the Buddha was also treated as a god though he himself never believed in the existence of any god/gods.
The region between Krishna and Godavari rivers was an important place for Buddhism from the 2nd century BCE and some ancient sculpture in low relief has been found here.The stupa was then adorned with limestone reliefs and free standing Buddha figures. During the period of the decline of Buddhism, this stupa was also neglected and it was buried under rubble.
Some of the Buddhist sculptures of Amaravati betray a Greco-Roman influence that was the direct result of the close trade and diplomatic contacts between South India and the ancient Romans. Indeed, Amaravati has itself yielded a few Roman coins.
Chinese traveller and Buddhist monk Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang) visited Amaravati in AD 640 and stayed here.He observed that there were many Viharas and some of them were deserted, which points out that Hinduism was gaining ground at that time.Xuanzang wrote a glorious account of the place, Viharas and monasteries that existed.
The Hindu kings destroyed the Buddhists stupas.
Around the year A.D 1796 Colonel Colin Mackenzie, who visited the site twice, prepared drawings and sketches of the relics in the area. Eventually, several European scholars including Sir Walter Smith, Robert Sewell, James Burgess and Alexander Rea excavated the site and unearthed many sculptures that once adorned the stupa.
In fact the Buddhism and the Jainism slowly got weakened as aggressive Hinduism began re-spreading across the region.
Amarvati reminds us of a peaceful landscape rich in culture which got ruined by the sponsors of an organised religion.
I visited Amaravati on the 15th of January 2014 to feel the past of the town.
A wonderful travelogue and the hisorical data accompanying it on Amaravati! The poem exudes a serenity as the serene locale described! Many beautiful lines in the poem like; To the gusts of wind, I plead Carry this pace and strides ahead Into times we may cherish As the Light of Asia has to beam out. I give you a10 for giving the feel of having seen this place, staying in one's private closet! !
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Delivering Poems Around The World
Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge...
4/24/2024 10:34:24 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Madam Valsa, Thank you a lot for your comments. In fact one need not like this poem and it is lying here mostly unread. I have made the correction of both the words wrongly spelt by me. Thank you