Conversations With Pater: Chapter 1 — The 33 Crore (Koti) Hindu Gods Misinterpretation
Do Hindus have 33 crore gods?
If there was any proof that nurture trumps nature in the nature vs. nurture debate, it is the fact that I am not a completely blathering fool chuntering through life (of course, I do chunter from time to time, but that’s mostly for reactions and pageviews).
And much of that is thanks to my father’s lessons, remonstrations, and repartees over the years, as he regaled me with tales about everything – from quantum physics to ancient philosophy to epochal battles between the tennis titans (my personal favourite was a blow-by-blow description of Goran Ivanišević’s only Grandslam win, when he won as a Wimbledon wild card against Patrick Rafter).
Of course, one could argue that – and one has tried hard to argue it while explaining one’s deficiencies – that such early exposure to knowledge had turned me into a Bengal version of John the Savage from Brave New World, who could no longer imbibe lessons in a formal setting.
In fact, I’ve often tried to convince my parents — to no avail — that my poor JEE and AIEEE scores were thanks to this early encounter with knowledge that made me completely unsuitable for the rigmarole of competitive exams.
When I was in boarding school, I lived from letter to letter. Not only did they bring the familiarity of home (which was a different country at that time), but they also had a unique take on things my 9-year-old mind hadn’t considered.
Those letters would immediately transport me from my surroundings where I – a fat kid who could barely speak Hindi – stuck out like a sore thumb.
A sublime storyteller and raconteur, life didn’t give my father the means to pursue his art. He didn’t get to write as I did, and his writing was mostly for an audience of two.
The "Conversations with Pater" is a small attempt to recreate what I learned from him and will also occasionally include our WhatsApp conversations.
PS: When I mentioned my intention to write about our conversations, he wrote: “Conversations were the mode of expression in Ancient Greece, followed by the European thinkers at the end of its dark ages. In those times, ideas were offered through conversation. It was also a tradition in ancient India, where Adi Shankaracharya went all over India to argue with other pundits to establish his superior knowledge. I've told you before about the argument that Gargi had with Yajnavalkya in the court of King Janaka. Many of the Upanishads were also written in conversation mode. So, your idea of a substack called Conversations with Pater is quite apt. Only make it wider, maybe, use friend instead of Pater."
Chapter 1 — The 33 Crore (Koti) Hindu Gods Misinterpretation
Last week, I came across a brilliant Twitter thread that laments about a classic mistranslation, which is one of the most ubiquitous mendacities about Hindus – namely that we’ve 330 million (33 crore gods).
The conversation:
Me: It’s not 33 crore it’s 33 koti devta (quoting from Twitter thread).
Pater: Wonderful, I had earlier read about Rudra, Aditya, Vasu, etc in Roberto Calasso’s two books Ka and Ardor, but here, for the first time, I got them all together (the 33 gods).
Me: What does koti mean?
Pater: The common meaning is the numeric crore, but occasionally, it can mean excellence, according to the Bengali dictionary I have. Another common use of the word is manusva koti, in which case, it means a type of being or species. I think the Vedic scholars have taken koti to mean excellence or type, otherwise their count of Vedic gods to 33 won't gell. A common bong adjective is uccha-koti uccha - high, koti -type, meaning excellent.
Me: So, the 33 crore (330 million) Gods' thing is a Western delusion, a mistranslation that even Macaulayputras back home blindly believed?
Pater: Mistranslation is quite common, leading to major fiascos in most ancient religious tomes.
Earlier, I told you that the popular Jihadi notion that heaven is full of virgins is another example, the context originally refers to raisins and not virgins as it talks about milk, honey, dates, and other common dry fruits.
Another example is that of Mary as a virgin mother. From contextual interpretation, the scholars say that the phrase refers to a young mother who gave birth to her first child. Think about how these two mistranslations distorted human history. 33 crore Hindu deities haven't caused such havoc.
Me: What do the Big Three refer to? Vishnu, Brahma Shiva. Vishnu - Master of gods, Brahma - Supreme Ruler - Shiva - Prajapati?
Pater: Prajapati is Brahma, Shiva is Rudra, Vishnu, I think, is not a Vedic god. These three came later when Vedic gods were superseded by the gods of Puranas, and the concept of three supreme gods evolved. It's all very intertwined gallimaufry of Vedic text, Purana texts, tribal gods, etc.
Pater: If we deconstruct Hindu philosophy, we must keep in mind the two distinct strands – theology and ontology.
Vedic text is theology. The Upanishads are ontology.
Samkhya of Kapila is an evolutionary theory that is basically ontology.
Next came Puranas and Avatar Vad -- theology. Buddhism and Jainism developed in protest of Vedic ritualistic practices – religion sans god and led to their ontology.
The ontology of Upanishads led to Vedanta in its various division: non-dualistic, dualistic, mix of both, etc.
Ultimately, what survived is the theology of Puranas leading to the Trinity of Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu, and tales of fights between devas and asuras. Alongside came another major deity – Shakti or Durga.
By the Middle Ages, there were three major Hindu cults: Shiva, Vishnu, and Shakti. Brahma was lost to time. Shiva, some say, is borrowed from tribal culture. A popular name for Shiva is Pashupati – Lord of the Animals.
The three deities at Puri don't look like Hindu gods at all. It is said they were Buddhist deities that were morphed into Hindu gods when the Buddhist temple was conquered by Hindus.
Pater: Alongside this, they developed Yoga shastra - the discipline to train mind and body by physical exertions and meditation. Another strand was Tantric practices. And all these essences of Hinduism and Buddhism were amalgamated.
The folk culture of mysticism mixed with traditional Bhakti espoused in the Gita coupled with the ontology of Vedanta led to the Bhakti movement of the Middle Ages that was equally practiced in both north and south India.
Add to this, the Buddhist tantric practice from Tibet that is still alive among monks of Buddhist monasteries all over India. It’s all very complex. A glorious gallimaufry is an apt description of it.
(Note 1: As an example, the word Zen – which is almost always associated with Buddhism – came from the word Chan, which in turn, came from the Sanskrit word Dhyana.)
(Note 2: A glorious gallimaufry is a phrase often used by my girlfriend, who my father calls the Holy Ghost because we are in a WhatsApp group together, and he remembered that old classical line from Don Mclean’s American Pie:
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died).
Physiology i.e., how the metabolism of the human body works, forms the basis of the yoga shastra of Patanjali.
The yogic practice has also influenced tantric rituals. In Singapore, we had a Buddhist temple of Goddess Tara, a tantric deity, who is worshipped in the Hindu Shakti cult as well. It is all a huge melting pot. We can't deconstruct it all into distinct separate strands.
Pater: The Vedic gods have reappeared in various Puranic episodes. One famous example is the 8 vasus, who were cursed to be born as humans and were born as sons of Ganga when she wedded the Kuru King, Shantanu. Ganga had cast away each of the new-borns into the river Ganga. King Shantanu stopped her from casting away the last born, who lived as Bhishma, but Ganga left Shantanu as he had broken his promise - to never question her actions.
Nemo’s Observation: Ganga left her husband because he asked her to do something that she didn't want to do. This clearly shows Ganga started – quite literally – the first wave of feminism.
Dad Joke of the Day:
What do you call a conversation with your father where the old man makes no sense?
Pitter Pater.
(Edited by the Holy Ghost)