Episode 5: A Jumbo Rath for Calcutta
(This is a photo of Srila Prabhupada’s sister, Pishima, if you watch the video clip below yu will see her cooling the deities with a peacock fan in the opening shots of the first Calcutta Ratha-yatra in 1972. This clip is 5m:20s long.
LINK: http://www.iskconkolkata.com/kolkata-rath-yatra/previous-rath-yatras/ )
“Knowing that it was Dhrtarastra who had sent the invitation, Yudhisthira felt obliged to go. He had vowed never to refuse his elders' orders. Even though he was now emperor of the world, Dhrtarastra was a respectable superior. He said, "I have no desire to gamble, but if I am challenged I will not be able to refuse, because the ksatriya code is to always accept a challenge. Surely this world moves according to the will of supreme Providence. All-powerful fate deprives us of our reason and we move according to its dictates as if bound by a rope. I will come to Hastinapura on King Dhrtarastra's command." - Mahabharata : 1.19: The Dice Game (Translation by Krishna Dharma Prabhu)
After I arrived in Mayapur someone apparently told Jayapataka Maharaja that I had been trained by Jayananda on how to build a Rath cart. I had only been in Mayapur for about two months before he approached me with his idea to build a BIG Rath cart for a July parade in what was then still called Calcutta. Apparently the Calcutta temple had held a Ratha-yatra in the previous years starting with the first one in 1972 and they were all relatively well attended. But nobody had attempted to build a Jumbo Rath like Jayananda had pioneered in the United States and I had the opportunity to learn all about this while working with him in N.Y.
At first I was apprehensive about the task because Calcutta was NOT New York by ANY comparison. Yet it seemed like the spirit of Jayananda prabhu was again speaking to my doubts … “This was why I spent so much time sharing everything I learned about how to build a Ratha-yatra chariot with you. Now you must take what I shared and help make the Calcutta Ratha-yatra glorious.”
Yikes! While I pondered the idea I felt a wave of uncertainty. I had only been in Mayapur for about three months and I knew very little about the challenges that I would face in Calcutta. As I thought about all the things I would have to coordinate I also realized that I would have to build the entire rath without the help of power tools. The local carpenters did not use skill saws or electric drills. When they needed to drill a hole they used a bow drill, which was the same too, that Prometheus learned could draw fire from wood. It was a very primitive spool and bow like device fitted with a crude steel tip that was rotated back and forth very quickly long enough until it eventually cut a hole. When a board had to be cut length-wise, there was no table saw to rip it down, they were manually cut from top to bottom by a carpenter with a hand saw. The carpenters in India were very dexterous and would often use their feet as much as his hands to hold what want they worked on. Yep. Building a Rath cart from scratch in Calcutta would not be anything like rebuilding the carts I had left in New York.
Furthermore the irony did not escape me. This ancient festival of Ratha-yatra originated in Jagannatha Puri and now somehow at the age of 24 I was being asked to expand this extraordinary event to the city of Calcutta which was only 500km/310miles to the North of where this very grand festival originated! Who was I to attempt to do that? The people of Orissa had been building Rath carts in Puri since the days of King Indradyumna hundreds of thousands of years ago. All I did was rebuild the carts Jayananda designed in New York and I had the advantage of the fact that all the parts were labeled like a three dimensional paint by number Revell model!
As I waffled over what Jayapataka Maharaja was requesting of me, I felt an energy swell up inside like a Ksatria challenged to defend his honor. Regardless of any rational apprehensions I may have had about being in a whole different country where everything was done in awkward ways I was not familiar with… I realized that my choice had already been made when I sat with Jayananda prabhu to learn what he could teach me. I reflected again on how we would tease each other saying: “Lord Jagannatha will give you the intelligence!” Before too long I knew that my dharma was in front of me and I had to take on the project. I told Jayapataka Maharaja that I would now focus my attention on having a full scale Ratha-yatra chariot ready to go on Friday July 7th, 1978. I then set out to find a drafting table to start working on the plans.
(This is a photo of how a bow drill is used to start a fire. When the same apparatus is fitted with a flattened steel bit on the end it can cut holes in wood quite effictively. This clip runes for 1m:46s.
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETzcTwxLx3M)
For more details E-mail at : mdjagdasa@gmail.com
Comments