- 16 hours ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00I'm two months into my tour of the world, almost halfway.
00:00:08I'm heading into one of my favourite regions, South Asia.
00:00:13I will be visiting some places I know well, and others I have longed to see for many years.
00:00:20I'm hoping the treasures I will see will help me understand more about man's relationship with his gods.
00:00:28On the way I will encounter passion, violence and lust.
00:00:32So far, I have explored the Americas, Australia and South East Asia.
00:00:36So far, I have explored the Americas, Australia and South East Asia.
00:00:48From Shanghai, I have flown to Calcutta at the start of this leg of my journey to India and Sri Lanka.
00:01:00I love Calcutta. Despite the physical decay, it is so alive spiritually.
00:01:06As I walk through the city, looking at the people, seeing its complexity of life.
00:01:12One feels in some bizarre and remote way that Calcutta holds a secret to life itself.
00:01:16I love Calcutta. Despite the physical decay, it is so alive spiritually.
00:01:22As I walk through the city, looking at the people, seeing its complexity of life.
00:01:28One feels in some bizarre and remote way that Calcutta holds a secret to life itself.
00:01:42I love Calcutta.
00:01:44I love Calcutta.
00:01:46I love Calcutta.
00:01:53According to the history books, Calcutta was created as a trading post by an English merchant called Jove Charnock in around 1690,
00:02:14and went on to become the greatest city in India,
00:02:17the jewel in the crown of the British Empire.
00:02:20But in truth, Calcutta's roots go back a lot further,
00:02:24and I'm on a quest to find the heart and soul of the city.
00:02:31Calcutta was called the City of Palaces
00:02:34because of the mighty classical piles
00:02:36occupied by rich European and Indian families.
00:02:40I'm standing in one of them now.
00:02:43In North Calcutta alone, it's said,
00:02:45there are over 1,000 of these fantastic buildings.
00:02:52This is the puja hall of this particular palace.
00:02:56This is like the chapel.
00:02:58This is where the family worshipped their gods
00:03:02in the alcoves around me.
00:03:05Although this building, like most of these palaces,
00:03:08dates from the late 18th, early 19th century,
00:03:11the religion itself, the Hindu religion,
00:03:14dates back far, far earlier than that,
00:03:16perhaps 4,000 years old,
00:03:19the oldest of the world's major religions.
00:03:22In this puja hall, my treasure should be lurking.
00:03:29But I observe the altar is bare.
00:03:36The treasure has gone.
00:03:38My treasure isn't permanent.
00:03:48Each year, it's specially created for a great festival, or puja, in October.
00:03:54At the end of the festivities, it disappears for another year.
00:03:57It's August. At this time of year, my treasure is being made.
00:04:02It's a goddess. Her name is Durga.
00:04:06She has a reputation for being very violent indeed,
00:04:12the ultimate destroyer.
00:04:14Making images for the October festival is a local industry.
00:04:20This whole street is full of Durga's in progress.
00:04:24Here's a wonderful, mighty, ten-armed Durga here,
00:04:29coated with mud.
00:04:30It's a little bit wet, actually.
00:04:32The mud's from the Hoogia sacred river,
00:04:34the tributary of the Ganges,
00:04:35and therefore has sacred power.
00:04:39Also, the mud, I'm told, used in the images,
00:04:44has to be blessed by a prostitute,
00:04:47or come from a prostitute's house.
00:04:49Why? Well, apparently because all the community of the city
00:04:54must be involved in this festival,
00:04:56from the highest to the lowest,
00:04:58and so the prostitute, regarded as the lowest,
00:05:00is engaged in the practice of making these images
00:05:04by blessing the mud.
00:05:06This Durga has her head almost finished.
00:05:10This lovely smile.
00:05:12Gosh!
00:05:13The smile of a woman made to kill is fantastic.
00:05:18Destroyer, but a destroyer of evil.
00:05:31I continue my search for Finnish Durga,
00:05:33in all her gaudy glory.
00:05:36I soon find what I'm looking for.
00:05:38This image represents the heart, the soul,
00:05:43the spirit of Kolkata.
00:05:46It may be somewhat garish,
00:05:48but I find it fascinating, moving, intriguing.
00:05:51It personifies so much what this city is about.
00:05:55She's fighting evil and she's winning.
00:05:58In her arms are hands of various weapons,
00:06:02including this trident here,
00:06:05which is plunged into the demon's heart.
00:06:08The power of female energy, female forces,
00:06:12which in Kolkata are so important,
00:06:14have been historically.
00:06:15Here it's female goddesses that are venerated.
00:06:18It's called Shakti, female energy.
00:06:20And that goes right back thousands of years.
00:06:23And she represents a great victory over evil.
00:06:34Durga is an incarnation of one of the greatest Hindu goddesses, Parvati,
00:06:38and she is a warrior born to fight evil.
00:06:41I want to meet her husband,
00:06:43one of the three main Hindu gods, Shiva.
00:06:46He is represented in different forms,
00:06:48but as one I long to see,
00:06:50is a celebration of his sexual prowess of fertility.
00:06:53Shiva, the great destroyer of the great free Hindu gods,
00:07:05is represented by a lingam.
00:07:07That is a lingam.
00:07:08A lingam is an image of male reproductive power,
00:07:29of fertility.
00:07:30It's the phallus.
00:07:31But it's more than that,
00:07:33because the phallus, the lingam,
00:07:36sits on a yoni,
00:07:40which is a vulva,
00:07:41which is an image of female reproductive power.
00:07:44So it's Shakti.
00:07:45The two combined.
00:07:47Shakti is female energy,
00:07:49combined with male energy.
00:07:51So it's one image
00:07:52that has the great creative force of the universe,
00:07:55male and female power.
00:08:06It's the largest lingam amongst the biggest in India,
00:08:11I believe.
00:08:12Very old, very old.
00:08:13Very old, very big.
00:08:14Very big.
00:08:15Very big.
00:08:36Very old, very big.
00:08:41Dharuka is also the inspiration behind one of India's most compelling dances.
00:08:45Dharuka is also the inspiration behind one of India's most compelling dances.
00:08:49Dharuka is also the inspiration behind one of India's most compelling dances.
00:09:03Dharuka is also the inspiration behind one of India's most compelling dances.
00:09:08Dharuka is also the inspiration behind one of India's most compelling dances.
00:09:22Can you tell me about the dance you've just performed?
00:09:25It was showing respect and honour to the goddess, power, Shakti.
00:09:35And in the beginning part with Durga.
00:09:38But what is Durga?
00:09:39Your family comes from Calcutta.
00:09:40You were born here.
00:09:41Yes, I'm born and brought up in Calcutta.
00:09:43So Durga, to you, what does she mean?
00:09:45To me, Durga is like a mother image,
00:09:49which has enormous power,
00:09:51but that power, if you abuse,
00:09:54it can backfire on you.
00:09:56Ultimately, it's a benign and brings peace and harmony.
00:10:05All along the banks of the river Hugli,
00:10:18there are shrines to Durga and other Hindu deities.
00:10:22This is the place where the great festival will take place in October
00:10:26and the power of Durga is unleashed.
00:10:30At the end of the festival, the images of Durga are brought down to the Hugli,
00:10:37the sacred Hugli,
00:10:39and they're simply placed on the waters to drift and to sink.
00:10:45The mud from which the images have been made
00:10:50have contained the life and spirit of Durga,
00:10:54but now she's gone.
00:10:55She's left the earth and gone back to the heavens.
00:10:58It's incredible, this to me.
00:11:00Durga defines Calcutta, defines the people,
00:11:05gives them spirit and hope,
00:11:07protects them, they think,
00:11:09gives them their identity, this great goddess.
00:11:13From Calcutta, I fly south to Sri Lanka.
00:11:30I'll be returning to India later,
00:11:32but for now the mysteries of one of the world's
00:11:34most verdant and beautiful islands lie ahead.
00:11:38I've come to Sri Lanka to see a place with a sensational reputation,
00:11:57built by a man who killed his father.
00:12:00It has a history, we are told, of hedonism,
00:12:04of pleasure and of violence.
00:12:11The city of Sigiriya was created by King Kashyapa
00:12:15in the years around 470-480 AD.
00:12:19It is an amazing place, huge in scale,
00:12:23covering about 130 hectares,
00:12:25with the streets organised in the most regular way.
00:12:28But, most amazing, at the heart of the city,
00:12:32is a colossal rock which was perched,
00:12:35the fortress and palace.
00:12:37What's immediately clear from the ruins of the city
00:12:51and the remains of the irrigation system,
00:12:53is just how sophisticated Sigiriya was.
00:12:59Kashyapa was a Macbeth-type character,
00:13:02with the blood of his father on his hands,
00:13:04and with a powerful and scheming wife.
00:13:07He built his formidable palace to protect himself
00:13:10from his vengeful brother.
00:13:14This looks like the foundation of a bastion,
00:13:17built out of brick.
00:13:19Beautiful brick.
00:13:21Incredibly hard.
00:13:23This is over 1,500 years old.
00:13:26And, in terms of structure,
00:13:28as good as the day it was made.
00:13:30Incredible stuff.
00:13:34Sigiriya is portrayed as a place of sinful lust
00:13:37and orgiastic delights,
00:13:39a playboy's palace of pleasure in the clouds.
00:13:46It soon becomes clear why Sigiriya
00:13:48has a reputation for being the palace of a sensualist.
00:13:58This is called the Cave of Heavenly Maidens.
00:14:11It's more of an overhang in the cliff face,
00:14:14because they're way above ground.
00:14:17There are these beautiful women on the wall,
00:14:23painted over 1,500 years ago,
00:14:26and they're incredibly fresh in their colours
00:14:29and very lively.
00:14:32I would say realistic,
00:14:33except maybe a little bit exaggerated
00:14:36in certain departments.
00:14:39Very narrow wastes and large cleavage.
00:14:43There were once over 500 of these maidens
00:14:47along this cliff face,
00:14:49stretching about 150 metres and 40 metres high.
00:14:53the biggest picture gallery in the ancient world, really.
00:14:57Only, sadly, 15 survive,
00:15:00the rest having been worn away.
00:15:04But these are the few that survive
00:15:08among the great works of ancient art.
00:15:13Each one is different.
00:15:14Each one is powerful.
00:15:15Each one carries his own little message
00:15:18that all of them are cast in these longing looks,
00:15:21which, I tell you what, carry power over the centuries.
00:15:26Look at these girls too long.
00:15:28And strange things start to happen.
00:15:34Phew!
00:15:35These delightful females are Apsaras,
00:15:44the celestial maidens of Hindu theology.
00:15:48I'm coming round to the idea that King Kasyapa
00:15:50was pursuing some kind of spiritual quest.
00:15:55Halfway up the rock is something quite extraordinary.
00:15:59a pair of lions' feet, but a gigantic beast.
00:16:04There they are, with massive claws.
00:16:06There's all that remain of a huge lion rising up there.
00:16:12It had a huge open mouth.
00:16:16The jaw was the entrance to the palace.
00:16:19People coming here walked into the lion's mouth, literally.
00:16:23Siguria means lion's jaw.
00:16:26Significantly, the lion is sacred to Hindus and Buddhists.
00:16:36I'm on the top of the rock,
00:16:38and this is the site of the royal palace,
00:16:42enjoying tremendous prospects,
00:16:45a wonderful, refreshing breeze.
00:16:49Here my theory is confirmed.
00:16:52Siguria is laid out in a series of squares.
00:16:55This is divine planning used in the creation of temples
00:16:59to represent the realm of the gods.
00:17:02Kasyapa created a model of a sacred world,
00:17:05with himself at its peak.
00:17:08The pool is further evidence of the engineering skills of Siguria,
00:17:13and is not just a place where the king and his naked nymphs cavorted.
00:17:17It too is holy.
00:17:19Siguria remains an enigma.
00:17:22Is it simply an hedonistic pleasure palace,
00:17:28or a sacred complex?
00:17:30It depends on how one interprets the evidence.
00:17:32It also raises another intriguing, rather difficult subject.
00:17:38Sex and religion.
00:17:41Here we see, in those lovely celestial ladies, the Apsaras,
00:17:46the epitome of sex and religion in one form.
00:17:50They are celestial maidens that inspire, that lead to great understanding and insights.
00:17:55It's incredible.
00:17:57Beautiful they are, but they are celestial.
00:17:59The West may see them simply as titillating, but that's not the point.
00:18:03They are, of course, titillating, but it's a means to an end.
00:18:06Here, in the East, it's not really a question of sacred or profane,
00:18:11but sacred and profane.
00:18:13Sex and religion are one thing.
00:18:15Sexual energy is a great, powerful, potent force.
00:18:18The following day, I head for Polonarua.
00:18:34Polonarua is Sri Lanka's ancient capital.
00:18:58Its golden age was in the late 12th century,
00:19:00when King Parakramabahu created one of the greatest cities of the world.
00:19:18This giant Buddha was created in the 1180s,
00:19:23and he measures about 14 metres,
00:19:26carved in very hard granite out of the cliff face behind,
00:19:32with his robes wrapped around his body,
00:19:35his head reclining on a pillow.
00:19:39The moment of Nirvana.
00:19:42This is the Buddha escaping the world,
00:19:46enlightened, all desire extinguished.
00:19:51Here, another image of the Buddha.
00:19:53Strange, this one.
00:19:56Arms crossed, which is unusual.
00:19:59Eyes looking down, contemplating himself,
00:20:03as he escapes this world of torments.
00:20:07Giant Buddhas are fascinating things.
00:20:20Early on, the Buddha was represented in an abstract way,
00:20:25as a column, a wheel.
00:20:27It was a wheel, indeed, on the end of the pillow.
00:20:30Shaka.
00:20:31Then, about the 3rd, 4th century,
00:20:35it was agreed that Buddha could be worshipped as a god,
00:20:38and he was given the form of a human being to be venerated,
00:20:41to be worshipped.
00:20:42And this is where you get this characteristic representation of a Buddha,
00:20:47clothed in robes rather Roman.
00:20:49Of course, the inspiration, I suppose, was Greek and Roman gods.
00:20:55This weird body, which is both man and woman,
00:20:59combined with this incredible smile.
00:21:03And the hair is so interesting, isn't it?
00:21:05The hair, in fact, little spirals.
00:21:08Maybe it's not hair at all, but little spirals of energy.
00:21:12These giant Buddhas are so intriguing.
00:21:16Look at this great reclining figure at the moment
00:21:21of utter peace and release from earthly troubles.
00:21:30As worshippers gather round,
00:21:32the benign smile on Buddha's face takes on real meaning.
00:21:36He's beaming love and encouragement
00:21:38on those on the long road in quest of spiritual enlightenment.
00:21:43I retreat, leaving the Buddha suddenly alive to his devotees.
00:21:53My pursuit of the Buddha is not yet over.
00:21:56It takes me to the charming hill town of Kandy.
00:21:59For more than two centuries, Kandy was the capital of the island's independent Buddhist kingdom.
00:22:16Sri Lanka has the oldest continuous Buddhist history in the world,
00:22:21going back as far as the second century BC.
00:22:23At the Temple of the Tooth, in the heart of Kandy, is my next treasure.
00:22:35I've come to see the most important Buddhist relic in the world.
00:22:40An object which, for Buddhist Sri Lankans who make up the vast majority of the population here,
00:22:45is the foundation, the root, of their national identity.
00:22:48An object that is a thing of state.
00:22:52For 1700 years or so, the kings ruling here have had to possess this object.
00:22:56It's a sign of their right to rule.
00:22:58It's moved from capital to capital, throughout the land.
00:23:02And now, it's right here, above my head.
00:23:05I've come to see the shrine which contains one of Buddha's teeth.
00:23:21When the Buddha was cremated in about 540 BC, it is said that four of his teeth were extracted from the funeral pyre.
00:23:31Three of his teeth went to other worlds.
00:23:35One was kept in this world.
00:23:38And since the fourth century, AD has been in Sri Lanka.
00:23:44A thing of great power, of great national pride.
00:23:50The people have come today to worship it.
00:23:53The people are very false.
00:23:54They're very curious.
00:23:55They're two to worship it.
00:23:57The elves Beast luôn, THEY TRIGUE
00:23:59The are beautiful pictures that flock in to watch a bit.
00:24:03They they are coming together.
00:24:05On the other side of it, they
00:24:16the zeal, blue lightulanan forest Señor.
00:24:19In front of the front, they're so species alive and tall.
00:24:19well I didn't see the tooth didn't really think I would be able to only show them very very very
00:24:36rare occasions but the casket which holds it is an astonishing object it's in the form of a bell
00:24:45shaped stupa miniature magic mountain has encrusted with jewels and draped over with pearls offerings
00:24:53from kings and queens there are seven caskets one within the other we see the outer one seven
00:25:00caskets but the eighth thing being the tooth itself eight very important number eight principles of
00:25:08Buddhism correct behavior correct prayer correct meditation these are the way to achieve nirvana
00:25:15to escape the cycle of birth and rebirth to get away from this wicked world
00:25:22the importance of the relic of buddha's tooth to Buddhist Sri Lanka is revealed by a number of
00:25:44attempts have been made over the centuries to destroy it destroy the tooth and Sri Lanka is destroyed as a
00:25:51Buddhist culture the Buddhist civilization as late as 1998 the Tamil Tigers attempt to destroy the
00:25:59tooth they set a bomb outside damaged the temple the tooth survived as I leave I'm perturbed by how
00:26:09deeply rooted the tooth is in the world of politics and violence it's become a symbol for Sri Lanka's
00:26:15Buddhist Buddhist majority in his conflict the Tamil minority which is Hindu and Christian what on earth
00:26:22would Buddha the champion of tolerance and non-violence make of this I returned to India to a town on the coast of
00:26:37Kerala I love with a passion
00:26:47Cochin now known as Kochi encapsulates India's history it goes a long way to explaining why travelers from all over the globe were drawn to this magical place over the years they came here made their mark and left
00:27:04this has been a great trading port for over 2,000 years different nations different people have battled to control this port and indeed have traded here Phoenicians Egyptians
00:27:19Arabs Chinese Portuguese Dutch and the British and the commodity they were battling over
00:27:26and the commodity they were battling over was something more precious than gold
00:27:32I'm on the backwaters of Cochin Harbour and this building in front of me is a splendid example of sort of architecture there is here
00:27:47a mid 18th century warehouse built I should think during the time the Dutch were in control here I love the central gable with those little sails flanking the window that
00:27:57classical pediment and it's in buildings like this these are warehouses that my treasure was stored
00:28:27this is my treasure spice
00:28:38Cochin was at the center the crossroads of the international spice trade making it one of the most important places on earth a place worth fighting for worth dying for to possess to control
00:28:52and here we have some of the local spices of such value
00:28:59here's a ginger
00:29:01lovely
00:29:03tastes wonderful
00:29:05this warehouse smells fantastic
00:29:07this ginger here
00:29:09also of a local spice
00:29:11here we have it
00:29:14turmeric
00:29:19now these spices are so valuable because they made life not just so enjoyable
00:29:24but also in many ways possible
00:29:26they gave flavour to food
00:29:28but they also made it possible to preserve food
00:29:31so important
00:29:32preserve food
00:29:33and had resources in store
00:29:35and could do other things with one's life
00:29:36create art for example
00:29:42may I take a
00:29:43takeokay
00:29:44this lady is sorting
00:29:56pepper pepper is a great local specialty
00:29:58amazing this alone
00:30:00was more valuable than anything really
00:30:02more valuable than gold in the past
00:30:04because the quality it gave to life
00:30:06pepper
00:30:07was the great
00:30:08What's the great, the great spice.
00:30:12What's interesting is that the people coming and trading across the world,
00:30:17moving through Cochin all those centuries ago,
00:30:20bought not just money and commerce, but ideas, religion, civilization.
00:30:38What excites me most about Cochin is the rich architectural legacy
00:30:42of international traders who passed through here over the centuries.
00:30:52The town boasts a wonderful collection of buildings,
00:30:55not fancied palaces and great castles,
00:30:58but down-to-earth churches and warehouses.
00:31:03I absolutely love these palaces of commerce,
00:31:06these warehouses and offices, they're called go-downs here.
00:31:10Look at the sensational colours, this yellow ochre,
00:31:14this beautiful blue and the detail, incredible.
00:31:18This is high quality classical architecture.
00:31:21Again, dating from the Dutch period, I suppose,
00:31:24mid-18th century, late 18th century.
00:31:27Plasters, arches above the windows,
00:31:30very bold, very correct classical detailing.
00:31:36As I explore the nooks and crannies of the old town,
00:31:40I'm saddened by the amount of decay.
00:31:43But there's charm in these crumbling edifices,
00:31:46symbols of the great spice trade.
00:31:55Influences from all over the world were brought together here.
00:31:58Jewish traders arrived in the 16th century,
00:32:01and the old Jewish quarter with its charming little synagogue
00:32:04remains to this day,
00:32:06though the Jewish population has dwindled.
00:32:13This church, dedicated to St Francis,
00:32:16is the oldest place of Christian worship to be built in India.
00:32:20In India, it tells a fantastic story.
00:32:24The Portuguese came here to Cochin in 1500,
00:32:28in the person of Vasco de Gama, the great Portuguese explorer.
00:32:32He came here looking for pepper.
00:32:35On the village green next to the church,
00:32:44there's a scene unfolding which reminds me of the home counties.
00:32:48There's another product of the spice business.
00:32:50To say that cricket is a legacy of the British is true,
00:33:04but it's to diminish the game here, if one says that really.
00:33:07Here it has a life and energy of its own.
00:33:10This is the national sport.
00:33:13And just look at the energy and attack of these chaps.
00:33:17Pretty aggressive batting, pretty aggressive bowling.
00:33:24Oh, nice bat, thanks very much.
00:33:30Oh, yes, it's been years.
00:33:47There's one more intriguing legacy of Cochin's role
00:34:01as a hub of the international spice trade.
00:34:04These amazing engineered structures are fishing nets.
00:34:09Nets are lowered into the water,
00:34:11and with counterweights are brought up again.
00:34:14It happens during the day,
00:34:15and when the booms come up,
00:34:17the nets are meant to be full of fish.
00:34:19Not too many of them tonight, but that's how they work.
00:34:22Now, they're called Chinese fishing nets
00:34:25because this type of contraption occurs here in Cochin
00:34:29and in China, nowhere else in the world.
00:34:31So, it confirms a Chinese presence here in the 14th century,
00:34:36certainly in the early 15th century.
00:34:38This is a toddy made from coconut.
00:35:02Very strong and not meant to be drinking it in public.
00:35:07Here we go.
00:35:14Not bad at all, actually, for coconut.
00:35:21Where's the bottle?
00:35:32Madurai, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu,
00:35:36is one of India's most vibrant cities.
00:35:49Of the thousands of glorious Hindu temples in India,
00:35:52I've chosen the Menakshi Temple in Madurai as my treasure
00:35:55because it's so full of life.
00:36:02I'm here looking for a very special woman,
00:36:11a woman that holds the key to my treasure,
00:36:14will open the door to it.
00:36:16She is the ancient Tamil goddess Menakshi
00:36:20and somewhere here, there's an image of her
00:36:23in this great hall, now a market,
00:36:25originally part of the temple.
00:36:27And now I recognise her
00:36:28because she has a strange appearance.
00:36:30Ah, here she is.
00:36:34She must have been an ancient fertility goddess
00:36:36because she has three breasts
00:36:38and fish-shaped eyes
00:36:41and has the aroma of a fish about her.
00:36:45Well, here's the great gate to the Menakshi Temple.
00:37:06It's called the Gate of the Eight Goddesses.
00:37:09Now try and get across the road and have a look.
00:37:15The gate reveals how the fertility goddess Menakshi,
00:37:18another incarnation of poverty,
00:37:20met the god Shiva, fell in love and was transformed,
00:37:24losing a third breast and her fishy aroma.
00:37:27The Menakshi Temple goes back almost a thousand years,
00:37:36but has not been preserved in aspic.
00:37:39This technicolour paintwork is regularly refreshed
00:37:42and its larger-than-life decoration lovingly renovated.
00:37:45These South Indian temples are worlds within worlds,
00:37:53cities within cities.
00:37:55Temples are conceived as a series of concentric courts
00:37:58and the more one penetrates the centre of the temple,
00:38:01of course, the holier it gets.
00:38:03This is on the outer courts.
00:38:04And from the start, this was, I said, organised as a place
00:38:09for pilgrims to come to have shops,
00:38:11to have their kitchens, to have their lodgings.
00:38:13And that tradition survives.
00:38:16From the market area you step into the Thousand Column Hall,
00:38:21the sensual heart of the temple.
00:38:23Gosh, just look at this fantastic female.
00:38:30She's a Darcy and also her and her sisterhood
00:38:34that the Thousand Column Hall was built.
00:38:38These girls were recruited by the Brahmins
00:38:40to work here as dancing girls
00:38:43to entertain the king and the nobles,
00:38:45to raise money for the temple.
00:38:48And these girls would perform sacred dances,
00:38:50also dances that were, no doubt, highly provocative.
00:39:09This is a good one.
00:39:10This is Shiva naked in the guise of a beggar.
00:39:14This whole column is a story about him as a beggar
00:39:18going with the wives of the Sadhus,
00:39:22the poor holy men, enthralling them.
00:39:25This is a holy man's wife,
00:39:28in love, indeed in lust, with Shiva.
00:39:32And a spectacular woman here.
00:39:37Another of the Sadhus' wives,
00:39:40her trousers completely down,
00:39:42and her, gosh, her maidenhood exposed.
00:39:48Oh, a whole one.
00:39:50Oh, why not?
00:39:51And, oh, there's some incense too, please.
00:39:54So here's my puja kit,
00:39:56and also there's some beetle now to chew on, I think.
00:40:00OK, how much is that? 100 rupees?
00:40:06The main purpose of the temple, of course,
00:40:08is to worship the gods.
00:40:10So I'm going to do just that,
00:40:12and make an offering, or puja,
00:40:14to one of my favourite Hindu deities.
00:40:17This is where my true journey begins.
00:40:19I'm now getting towards the heart of the temple,
00:40:31the holiest part,
00:40:32and here's the tank in front of me.
00:40:34The tank containing sacred water.
00:40:37Water that is capable of purifying the darkest sin.
00:40:44The people are gathered here in large numbers today
00:40:48for weddings.
00:40:49It's a great wedding day.
00:40:51In front of the great Goporums,
00:40:54loaded with imagery.
00:40:57Celestial beings, divinities, animals,
00:41:00fierce-looking guardians.
00:41:02The whole of the Hindu world, really,
00:41:04represented on that great pyramid structure.
00:41:16An incredible sense of expectation in the air is marriage.
00:41:24I'm going to make my offering to Ganesh,
00:41:37the overcomer of obstacles.
00:41:39The lovely elephant-headed god,
00:41:42the son of Menakshi and Shiva.
00:41:47A wedding party leaving Ganesh.
00:41:49Overcomer of obstacles indeed.
00:41:51Yes, indeed.
00:41:54Dan.
00:42:00The money?
00:42:01The money?
00:42:02How much, sorry?
00:42:03Five.
00:42:04Five?
00:42:05Five.
00:42:08Ganesh, the provider of wealth.
00:42:10I don't know where he gets it from now.
00:42:11From me.
00:42:12That's a lot of money.
00:42:15This is my poetry going on now.
00:42:18So there we are, Lord Ganesh.
00:42:20One of the great Hindu gods, most loved.
00:42:30Okay.
00:42:31Okay, thank you.
00:42:33Good afternoon.
00:42:34It's all surprisingly moving.
00:42:35Fine enough, it's my birthday today.
00:42:38And I love elephants.
00:42:39Sometimes I think I am an elephant.
00:42:41And so to have this puja for Ganesh on this particular day, an auspicious day, well for marriages anyway, is strange the way the gods work.
00:42:52It's actually lovely.
00:42:53This is the scene of one of the great annual events related to the temple at Madurai.
00:43:07I'm about four kilometers from the great temple itself.
00:43:08The atmosphere here is very lively.
00:43:09Food being sold.
00:43:10Lovely temple elephants over there.
00:43:11Lovely, lovely, lovely.
00:43:12Now it's very, very, very, very good luck to meet and have a relationship with a temple elephant.
00:43:20I'll try and have a relationship.
00:43:21Will you get a hat off?
00:43:22Will you get a blessing?
00:43:23Stand here.
00:43:24He's going to give me a blessing.
00:43:25Oh my goodness.
00:43:26I'm getting blessed by the elephants.
00:43:27Thank you very much.
00:43:30So charming.
00:43:31He gave me a kiss on my head.
00:43:32It was very, very, very good luck to meet and have a relationship with a temple elephant.
00:43:36I'll try and have a relationship.
00:43:37Will you get a hat off?
00:43:38Will you get a blessing?
00:43:39Stand here.
00:43:40He's going to give me a blessing.
00:43:41Oh my goodness.
00:43:42I'm getting blessed by the elephants.
00:43:47Thank you very much.
00:43:50It's so charming.
00:43:54He gave me a kiss on my head with his truth.
00:44:03A procession will wind its way slowly back to the Menakshi Temple in the centre of Madurai.
00:44:17And there goes Shiva.
00:44:24The image has been prudient and in worship.
00:44:26The coconut has been offered to him.
00:44:33And this is Menakshi coming up, bringing up the rear.
00:44:36It's 11 o'clock at night.
00:44:45It's all hauntingly quiet in the temple.
00:44:59But the day is not yet over.
00:45:02Well, I'm going now to see Menakshi put to bed.
00:45:08Put to bed with her husband Shiva.
00:45:10This happens every night.
00:45:12The image has been brought back and she's been bathed, dressed and put into her bedchamber.
00:45:22And every night, her husband Shiva, in the form of a pair of feet, is brought to her.
00:45:31And they are put to bed together as husband and wife, through here.
00:45:37Only Hindus allowed in that entrance, fair enough.
00:45:50Ah, the Sajin.
00:45:53And the Brahmins are going off and are clearly going to wake Shiva up.
00:46:06Making enough noise.
00:46:08So, getting a bit tense, waiting for Shiva.
00:46:14Will he show?
00:46:20Oh no, something's happening.
00:46:23Oh, there it is inside.
00:46:25This box is the Lingam Shiva.
00:46:44So, in there we have Shiva's Lingam.
00:46:49It's a phallus, really.
00:46:50It's very, very tempting to take a peek.
00:46:52But, I know if I do, I will be in serious trouble.
00:47:07Well, that was a bit quick and sweet.
00:47:09I mean, what happened is the priests came out and they anointed them, printed them.
00:47:13And that obviously made the feet become alive, I suppose.
00:47:15Husband and wife have gone to bed.
00:47:21Goodbye.
00:47:23My heart is full and my head is spinning.
00:47:26What a way to spend my birthday.
00:47:37There's only one way to travel around India.
00:47:39By train.
00:47:43All of life is found in Indian railway stations.
00:47:50It's a far cry from the bullet train in Japan.
00:47:53But I know which I prefer.
00:47:56Ooh.
00:47:58How do you do? How do you do?
00:47:59And how do you do?
00:48:01Lovely trains these, aren't they?
00:48:02Very comfortable trains.
00:48:04Lovely trains.
00:48:05You like trains?
00:48:06I love trains.
00:48:07You like trains?
00:48:08I love trains.
00:48:09There we go.
00:48:11KDA!
00:48:24Once on theabilir.
00:48:25Amongst stores.
00:48:26Two memories.
00:48:27Two memories catch upcell.
00:48:28One memories catch up or two memories.
00:48:29What happened?
00:48:30Jayapur is a city I've longed to visit for many years.
00:48:44It may seem hectic and chaotic, but it's one of India's great planned cities.
00:48:49It was laid out in the early 18th century on a gridiron plan,
00:48:54with long boulevards and busy crossroads.
00:49:07I've come to Jayapur in North India to find my treasure in this dazzling cosmic city,
00:49:15this city of the sun.
00:49:17Jayapur is a visionary city, a celestial city, the creation of one man, Jay Singh.
00:49:36He built here a diagram of the universe.
00:49:41The heart is Jay Singh's own palace.
00:49:45Jay Singh's palace is spectacular and among the finest in India.
00:50:00But it's not my treasure.
00:50:02It's not my treasure.
00:50:05Within its walls lies something which intrigues me much more,
00:50:08something which reflects Jay Singh's true passion, the cosmos.
00:50:17The observatory was started in 1728 and really is an amazing and astonishing creation.
00:50:24What these instruments do, of course, is read the heavenly bodies,
00:50:28the movement of the sun and the planets.
00:50:30This is a master instrument of the observatory.
00:50:44Invented, it's said, by Jay Singh himself.
00:50:47It's a map of the heavens.
00:50:50We have the North Pole, the equator.
00:50:55Suspended on the wire here is an image of the sun,
00:51:00casting a shadow on the planets below.
00:51:04And I see marked the signs of the zodiac.
00:51:07So it's also for casting horoscopes,
00:51:13astronomy, astrology in one.
00:51:20I'm surrounded by 12 instruments, each facing a different constellation.
00:51:31These relate to the zodiac.
00:51:34And they are for the accurate telling, casting of horoscopes.
00:51:41This one is Virgo, my star sign.
00:51:46There's nothing else like this in the world.
00:51:48This is the only machine of this accuracy anywhere.
00:51:53Here it is in Jaipur, amazing.
00:51:55This is an astrologer's dream, isn't it?
00:51:59This is the largest sundial in the world.
00:52:18That great ramp, rising at 27 degrees,
00:52:23casts a shadow on this calibrated quadrant
00:52:26that tells the time to within an accuracy of two seconds.
00:52:31What's amazing about this great instrument
00:52:33is that no one's quite sure how it was designed and constructed
00:52:37with such accuracy nearly 280 years ago.
00:52:41I love these structures because they have a powerful abstract sculptural quality.
00:53:00They're utilitarian, functional in purpose, yet they have an overwhelming beauty.
00:53:09It could be a factor in one very unique line in the world.
00:53:12So, primeiro, this could help put in the upperests of the number
00:53:14of people.
00:53:16They've pitched stuff up for more than two years ago,
00:53:18but not their hurdles will not multiply.
00:53:20They've novoed this through both lines of Hair skilled mediocre krypsis andرت
00:53:24I'm living the dream of many.
00:53:42I've come to see one of the world's great buildings, a building dedicated to love.
00:53:47I've come to see it at sunrise.
00:53:54There's no building more romantic or more tragic than the Taj Mahal.
00:54:02On June 17th, 1631, Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, died while
00:54:11giving birth to her 14th child.
00:54:15So in response to the death of his wife, Shah Jahan created one of the most famous buildings
00:54:22in the world, the Taj Mahal, a vision of perfection, of paradise on earth.
00:54:34The emotional power of the Taj Mahal comes not just from its ruthless symmetry and its dazzling
00:54:56white material, but also from the purity and simplicity, really, of its forms.
00:55:04In line with Islamic thinking, it is not loaded with images of living beings, banned in the
00:55:10Quran, but by simple abstract decoration, lettering.
00:55:15In this sense, very much less ornamentation gives more emotional power.
00:55:23At the moment, the authorities in India regard the Taj Mahal as a key target for terrorists.
00:55:33So a lot of restrictions apply here at the moment.
00:55:36One of those, bizarrely, is that no video cameras are allowed to go beyond this point.
00:55:42So from here on, the crews stay behind and I go it alone.
00:55:59As you approach nearer the Taj Mahal, its scale, its craftsmanship become almost overwhelming.
00:56:10It took 20,000 people 20 years to complete this great structure and its white marble is inlaid
00:56:19with 28 different sources of precious and semi-precious stones, but this isn't a palace or a mosque.
00:56:29It's a mausoleum.
00:56:31It's a monument to grief.
00:56:41At this level, and so near, I can see just how exquisite and subtle the Taj Mahal is.
00:56:50The inlaid is amazing, like a jewel box, and the white marble is carved.
00:56:57The surface is modelled in architectural detail.
00:57:13The great surprise, being inside the Taj Mahal is like being inside a living being.
00:57:20It moans and it groans.
00:57:24There's no question about it.
00:57:27As a monument to grief, to heartbreak.
00:57:32As an expression of agony and pain that lost all that was precious in this world and longing for the next.
00:57:41The Taj Mahal has no equal, it's unsurpassed.
00:57:47There's a twist in the story of the Taj Mahal.
00:57:56It's in the nearby Red Fort where the final tragic episode of Shah Jahan's life was played out.
00:58:02It's here where the myth of the Taj was born, where it enters the world of legend.
00:58:11Shah Jahan, the great emperor, became ill. He suffered a stroke.
00:58:17And this provoked a ruthless, vicious struggle for power among his four sons.
00:58:26They fought, they battled.
00:58:28And Orangzeb, the most skilful, the most vicious, I suppose, of the four sons prevailed.
00:58:37He killed his three brothers in battle by treachery.
00:58:44And when he had his father, Shah Jahan, in his power, he imprisoned him here in the fort.
00:58:52So, for Shah Jahan, his great empire had been reduced to the area of this courtyard.
00:59:01And he would stand where I'm standing now, contemplating the view, looking at the great mausoleum over there.
00:59:11This is a spectacular view, but it could have been more spectacular still.
00:59:17It is said that Shah Jahan, if he hadn't lost control of his empire, would have built himself a mausoleum opposite that of his wife.
00:59:26But his one would have been clad in black marble to match the white marble of the Taj Mahal.
00:59:41The story of the black Taj is an invention of the 18th century, but one that reflects, reinforces the fancy surrounding a building dedicated to love and to what could have been.
01:00:03My journey through India is almost over.
01:00:06It's flown by and I wish I could stay longer, but there's no better place for it to end than here.
01:00:14A poem, a prayer in white marble.
01:00:18For many, the Taj Mahal is the image of India.
01:00:23But it has a perfection that perhaps belongs in the world of dreams.
01:00:29For me, India is the raw, savage, hot beauty of Calcutta.
01:00:38A place that is full of passion, full of life in a way that's larger than life.
01:00:46That is where my heart dwells and what inspires me when I come to this wonderful land.
01:00:53A beloved NFL
01:01:10JAN significantly
01:01:13If you wait to see in the next zone, close your feet behind it or touch me.
01:01:18That is how...
Recommended
1:01:38
|
Up next
59:16
59:04
18:35
45:12
48:25
Be the first to comment