All language subtitles for Treasures.of.the.Indus.S01E03.Of.Gods.and.Men.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264 BTN

[ Soft music plays ]

♪♪

-The Indus River gave its name
to India,

and along its banks
are the sites of some

of the earliest
urban settlements on earth.

Though the subcontinent
was the birthplace of many

of the world's great religions,

excavations of these cities
have uncovered no evidence

of any organised
religious practices.

♪♪

But in the last 2,000 years,
a culture of religious tolerance

developed amongst
the many faiths of these lands.

Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism
all originated here,

and the Mughal conquerors
built their Islamic mosques

alongside Hindu temples.

♪♪

In 1582, when Europe
was in the grip

of almost continuous
religious conflict

between Christian sects,

the Mughal Emperor
Akbar the Great

exhorted his philosophers
to seek a way

for all religions in his empire
to coexist.

Even now, Hinduism
still reflects that.

It has changed and adapted
to circumstance.

Its followers welcome
and absorb customs and beliefs

from other faiths.

So today it's
the biggest faith in India

and the third-largest
in the world.

The temples constructed
to nurture this faith

are some of the greatest
architectural treasures

in India
and in this last programme,

we are in the southern
Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

This is where Hindu temple
culture reached its zenith,

and there's no better place
to understand

the story
of these remarkable buildings.

♪♪

[ Up-tempo music plays ]

♪♪

India is a country
of over a billion people,

and the Hindu majority
understand

and interpret their existence

in terms of their relationship
with the divine.

♪♪

Their faith, a complex synthesis
of many ancient beliefs,

is inseparable
from their everyday lives.

The sacred and the profane
are inextricably entwined.

♪♪

Even some of its most ardent
followers will tell you

that Hinduism is not a religion
but a cultural phenomenon.

[ Soft South Asian music plays ]

The word "Hindu" is also derived
from the mighty Indus river.

Its followers regard the world
in which we live as illusory.

The goal of life is
to break through this illusion

and discover the reality beyond.

The locus for this quest
is the temple.

♪♪

The Hindu temple is where
the divide between illusion

and reality
is at its most porous,

where the opportunity
to achieve darshan,

a vision of the divine,
is most possible.

Every community in India,
great or small,

will have its own temple,

the centre of its social
and spiritual life.

And these places have fostered

the greatest flowering
of Hindu artistic expression.

♪♪

Temples are remarkable works of
art in their own right,

but they have also been
the cradle of creativity

in sculpture, poetry,
song, and dance --

the very heart of
a vibrant culture

that is still beating
as strongly as ever.

♪♪

♪♪

Descending
from the arid Deccan plateau,

the flat and forested
landscape of southern India

is very different to the north.

This is a land apart --
ethnically

and culturally distinct,
and with a separate history.

Even the Mughal conquest
did not reach this far south.

In the 6th century, a dynasty
known as the Pallavas

came to power in southern India.

Their empire thrived on trade,
and the town of Mahabalipuram,

on the Coromandel Coast,
was their principal port.

♪♪

Fishing is now the mainstay
of this coast,

part of the modern state
of Tamil Nadu.

But in a golden age
in the 7th and 8th centuries,

the Pallava kings
turned Mahabalipuram

into an artisan laboratory
for the craft of stone carving

and it now has
World Heritage status.

♪♪

Beached like a petrified ship
to the south of the town

is one of the earliest
free-standing stone temples

in India,
the Shore Temple.

♪♪

When this temple was built,

many of the elements
of temple design

had already become standardised,

but the origins of
this architectural form

are not buildings at all.

♪♪

A few hundred yards inland
from the Shore Temple

is a shrine from the start
of the Pallava period

that helps us appreciate

why these buildings
evolved in the way they did.

Like many caves and natural
rock formations in India,

an opening
in this granite overhang

has been enlarged and shaped
over many generations

to provide a site
to worship local gods.

♪♪

These shrines could have been

as simple as a clearing
in the forest,

a source of spring water,
or, as in this case, a cave.

What they all shared
was a setting

where the natural energy
of the earth

seemed to manifest itself.

This remarkable
rock architecture

is 1,400 years old,

and the men who carved it
were trying to harness

the spirit of the stone
from which it is formed.

These beams mimic
timber cross-members,

and the whole structure

was formed
in imitation of wooden temples.

The columns appear to be
holding the roof up,

but it is all made
from the living rock.

♪♪

Inside is a small,
dark womb-like chamber

where very little
natural light penetrates,

and this is regarded as the most
sacred part of the temple,

the sanctum.

On the back wall
is a carved panel

which tells us that this temple
is dedicated to Shiva,

shown here with his consort,
Parvati.

On the side wall is a panel
showing Vishnu,

reclining on
the primordial waters.

Shiva and Vishnu are two of
the principle gods of Hinduism.

As Hinduism evolved,
here in southern India,

Shiva became
the more popular deity,

while in the north,
Vishnu is more common,

but both are aspects
of the divine.

At the time these cave temples
were made,

by far the most popular faith
in India was Buddhism,

and the people
who worshipped here

would have been most surprised
to discover

they would one day
be regarded

as part of an organised
religion called Hinduism.

♪♪

The earliest animist practices
saw the spirit of the earth

and its power
manifest in all natural things.

Despite its selection
of recognisable Hindu deities,

this isolated rural shrine
in a forest clearing

has a powerful sense of mystery.

When it was first venerated
by the local villagers,

it would have
had little to do with Shiva.

The many hundreds of clay horses

gently decaying
in the undergrowth

tell us that this shrine
is dedicated to Ayyanar,

a deity who protects
rural villages

and is almost exclusively
found in Tamil Nadu.

He rides around on horseback,

fighting the demons
of the forest.

The inspiration for
this holy place

was spiritual
rather than religious --

a potent nexus
for the essence of the forest.

♪♪

A similar sense of the power
of natural forces

is evident by the shore
at Mahabalipuram.

Set back from the sea,
we find the next phase

in the development
of the Pallava stone carvers.

♪♪

A row of rocky outcrops
and boulders

allowed them to work
on a relatively modest scale

to try out some of their ideas
for rock-cut temples.

♪♪

These are the rathas,

the first free-standing
rock-cut temples

in Indian architecture,

and they are completely
without precedent.

♪♪

The rathas are not
strictly temples,

because
they were never finished,

but they functioned
as an aesthetic playground

for the Pallava kings.

They're extremely
architecturally diverse

for the 7th century,

each one trying out
different shapes and layouts

and with a rich variety
of ornamentation.

The smaller outcrops were used
to create animals

and other mythical figures.

♪♪

But this challenge seemed to be

one the Pallava craftsmen
relished,

and it was in stone that
Hindu architecture came to life.

At the four corners
of this last ratha

are figures of Shiva
and other gods,

with scripts in ancient Tamil
carved in the masonry above.

One is thought to be the king,
Narasimhavarman I,

with an inscription

that proclaims
his patronage of the site.

"Look on my works, ye mighty,
and despair."

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

♪♪

The skills developed
in the Pallava times

have not been lost.

In the back alleys of the town
today,

there are hundreds
of stone artisans

chiselling away
in ramshackle street studios,

meticulously turning stone
into devotional art.

♪♪

The granite that these
stonemasons are carving

is not found locally
and has to be transported

from a quarry
50 kilometres away.

But what Mahabalipuram
does have,

which makes it the undisputed
centre of stone carving

along this coast,
are the craftsmen.

The apprenticeship to become
a master mason here

takes a minimum of seven years,

and in that time, every aspect
of the process is covered.

The workshop even manufacture
their own chisels.

There is no doubt
that the modern carvers

have developed their own style.

Though they are depicting
the same deities,

these figures
are subtly different

from those that we see
from a thousand years ago.

♪♪

As any Bollywood filmgoer
will tell you,

the Indians love a good yarn.

This passion for storytelling
is extravagantly indulged

at Mahabalipuram's
greatest treasure,

the low-relief carving known as
The Descent of the Ganges.

Carved in the early 7th century,
at the same time as the rathas,

this exuberant panorama
is packed with life,

spilling down the faces
of two monolithic boulders,

some 43 feet high.

As far as storytelling
in stone goes,

this is pretty hard to beat,

but it's also an example
of inspired planning.

The sculptors have adapted
a natural cleft in the rock

to represent the story
of the Ganges,

whose life-giving waters are so
central to the Hindu world view.

The simple version
of the story is

that the mythical sage
Bhagiratha is entreating Shiva

to bring the celestial river
Ganga to earth.

The gods are rushing
to the banks

to see this miracle, and

all the creatures of creation
are watching in admiration,

including a family
of life-sized elephants.

It's full of beautifully
observed details

and comic allusion.

Bhagiratha is shown as a sadhu,
a holy man, balanced on one leg.

But his holiness
is somewhat undermined

when we see a pose imitated
lower down by a cat.

♪♪

For Hindus, Ganga is personified
as a goddess.

So powerful was her force,
however,

that Shiva broke her descent
by extending his matted locks,

lest she flood the earth.

Thus you see the union
of male and female forces.

[ Birds chirping ]

A more complex alternative
is that this is an episode

from the early Hindu epic tale,
The Mahabharata.

The holy man is, in fact,
a character called Arjuna,

standing on one leg as a penance
in the hope that Shiva

will grant him an invincible
weapon to destroy his enemies.

Both narratives resist
complete explanation,

with equal stubbornness.

What we are seeing here
is an early example

of the taste
for complex ornament,

and this seething mass
of deities

will eventually become
a staple of temple decoration.

♪♪

For the Pallavas,
their greatest moment

was the construction
of the Shore Temple,

a landmark not just for
their own progress as masons

but for the development
of the nascent Hindu faith.

The Shore Temple marked
a significant move

towards building
on a monumental scale.

But whether it was an
architectural masterpiece

or a simple carving
on the back wall of a cave,

at the heart of any Hindu
devotional building

is the shrine,
the small sacred space where

the devotee experiences darshan,
the presence of the divine.

♪♪

As these buildings grew in size,
it became common

to mark the presence
of the central shrine

with an
elaborately carved tower,

known as the vimana,
which stands as a marker,

very visibly proclaiming
the temple's location

to the faithful.

♪♪

Though this building is
a freestanding structure,

the way the rock is carved
harks back to the rathas.

It is not made of regular
stone blocks and mortar

but huge sections
of precisely shaped granite.

♪♪

The Shore Temple shows

just how far early Hinduism
had come by the 8th century.

By then, there was
a group of holy men,

known as the Nayanmars,
or the Hounds of Shiva.

♪♪

This pantheon of
63 mystics and philosophers,

also known as the Tamil Saints,

promoted a new kind of
devotional Hinduism.

They were devotees of Shiva,

and their teaching was beginning
to win a sizeable following.

-[ Singing in native language ]

-The hymns written by the saints
were central to their success.

The Nayanmars are said to have
sung the Buddhists out of India,

and their songs are still sung
in the temples today.

-[ Singing in native language ]

♪♪

They offered a path to salvation
that was open to all.

Their great attraction was

that a personal expression
of devotion

was the way to become
one with the divine.

Many of the rituals
associated with Hinduism today,

such as the chanting
of the names of the deities

and pilgrimages
to holy sites,

were established
by the Nayanmars.

But in a practical sense,

the goal was also
to give Hinduism a popular face.

The fantastic array of gods

meant that everyone could find
their own personal deity

and set them to work
on behalf of their soul.

But what they
were all striving towards

was a structure for Hinduism --

a way to formalise and codify
the disparate rituals,

they had adopted to give it
a unity and authority.

And to do that, they needed
to write it all down.

♪♪

Hinduism is not
a "religion of the book."

There is no central
source of authority,

like the Bible or the Koran,
to refer to,

to promulgate
the absolute word of God,

but that doesn't mean there is
any shortage of scripture.

The whole canon
of Hindu philosophy

thrives on debate
and spiritual enquiry,

much of it
delightfully contradictory.

If you tried to collect it
all together,

it would fill
a myriad libraries.

What was added to this
at the time of the Tamil Saints

was a far more rigorous set
of instructions for the devotee,

the Agamas.

The Agamas are a set of rules
to guide the Hindu devotee.

They are incredibly
wide-ranging,

offering advice
on temple construction,

on the intricacies of
the guru-disciple relationship,

on meditations
on the nature of Lord Shiva,

covering every moment of life
from waking to sleeping.

♪♪

-[ Speaking native language ]

-The Agamas
originated in Tamil Nadu

and are written
in the ancient Tamil language.

-[ Speaking native language ]

-All 8,000 bundles
are now being translated

before being photographed
and digitised,

allowing them
to be accessed online.

♪♪

♪♪

The Agamas now gave Hinduism
a formal structure

that is still a keystone
of its practice today.

In the wake of this change,
we begin to see a significant

decline in the Buddhist
presence in India.

Buddhism, a faith
that had once counted itself

as the main religion of India,
had been successfully

exported to China
and across Asia,

and was now destined
to disappear entirely

from the land
where the Buddha was born

and where he had sat
under a tree

and attained enlightenment.

Why this happened is still
a matter of fierce debate.

The two religions share
many central beliefs,

and there is some evidence
to suggest

that Hinduism simply absorbed
many adherents of Buddhism

by borrowing their ideas.

There may have been
some persecution,

but there was no major conflict,

just an increasingly rapid
acceptance

of the newly invigorated
Hindu teaching.

-[ Speaking native language ]

♪♪

-Towards the end
of the 9th century,

a new dynasty established itself
in Tamil Nadu.

From their origins on the banks
of the Kaveri River,

the Cholas quickly gained
control of Peninsular India

and spread their influence
into Sri Lanka,

ultimately becoming
the principal military,

economic, and cultural force
in southern Asia.

♪♪

Once established,
they turned their attention

to the glorification
of their new capital,

here at Thanjavur,

and they certainly left
an incredible legacy.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

The Chola dynasty produced
many notable kings.

One of the greatest
came to the throne

at the end of the 11th century.

Raja Raja Chola
was that rare combination

of empire-builder,
able administrator,

and patron of the arts,

but his most tangible legacy
today

is as a builder, and
this is his greatest triumph.

♪♪

This building was completed
in 1010,

so has not long since celebrated
its 1,000th birthday.

It was started and completed
in one continuous push

during the lifetime
of Raja Raja Chola,

and in the immediate aftermath
of the Hindu revolution

sparked by the Tamil Saints.

It's 300 years
since the Shore Temple

at Mahabalipuram was built,
but we can clearly see

that a great leap forward
has occurred.

It sheer size speaks
of a building created

for a dominant faith.

Inscriptions in ancient Tamil
tell us that Raja Raja Chola

was instructed
to build the temple in a dream,

but the real inspiration

was surely
the architecture of power.

It is, of course,
dedicated to Shiva,

and the message is clear --

Raja Raja and Lord Shiva
were two sides of the same coin.

As a work of art, it established
a distinctive Chola style,

both in design
and ornamentation,

which was to last
for the next few centuries.

The multifaceted columns and
their projecting square capitals

were widely copied.

But it was the height
of the central tower

over the shrine,
the vimana,

and its monumental gateways,
the gopurams,

that were
its greatest innovations.

-[ Singing in native language ]

-The temple gopurams
that Raja Raja built here

were more opulently embellished
with sculpture,

and on a far impressive scale,

than anything that had been
attempted before.

In the flat landscape
of Tamil Nadu,

these mighty stone doorways
dominated the view,

dramatically announcing
the presence

of this colossal building.

So we're entering through
the great stone gopuram

of Raja Raja.
-Yeah.

-Dr. Nagaswamy was formerly
the Director

of the Archaeological Survey
of India

and took a particular interest
in this building.

He probably knows more
about its construction

than Raja Raja Chola ever did,
starting with

the very first marker peg
the builders set in the earth.

-When the sun rises,
the shadow will be thrown

on the western side.
That will be marked.

And then on the same day,
when the sun sets,

they draw the central line --
exact central line.

-The central axis is the basis
of the sacred geometry

of the temple.
Along this line,

the location of
the main shrine is determined.

And this point directly below
the finial on the central tower,

the vimana,
becomes the focus

from which the entire complex
is plotted.

[ Birds chirping ]

[ Indistinct conversations ]

-Now in this plan,

you see the central vimana,
or the main tower...

-And the inner sanctum.

-Now this is exactly in the
centre of this outer square.

-Sure.

-This outer square, which
we call the back square,

is the original cosmic diagram
on which it is laid out...

-Yeah.
-...and then that is doubled.

-In many ways, Raja Raja Chola
was only doing

what had been done before,
on a monumental scale.

The vimana is only a few feet
shorter than Westminster Abbey.

But Raja Raja couldn't just
do as he pleased here.

He was bound by the rules
laid down in the Agamas.

-They prescribe

that you must first
prepare the measuring scale.

-So, what are the measurements
of this based on?

-The central finger of
the builder Raja Raja Chola.

-I imagine it would take

quite a few multiples
of Raja Raja's middle finger

to reach 216 feet
to the top of the vimana here,

but he seemed to have his finger
in every aspect of the temple.

-This inscription, which says
that the King Raja Raja

covered the entire tall vimana
at the back with gold.

Tower is called Maha Meru.
-Maha Meru.

-"Maha Meru" means "the golden
mountain beyond the Himalayas,"

which is a mythical mountain.
-Sure.

-But that was the place
where Shiva is said to reside.

-Yep.
Shiva's mountain abode.

-Yeah.

-The inscriptions are
extraordinarily comprehensive.

Just like the Tamil Saints
who preceded him,

Raja Raja
was codifying Hinduism,

recording the operational
practices of his temple.

-Every detail,
who is responsible,

how much money he was given,
for what purpose.

And then he says, at the end,
that so long as the sun

and the moon lasts,
this gift must be protected.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

-The rules on temple-building
which are laid down

in the Agamas
were followed by Raja Raja Chola

when he came
to build his temple.

But though he was a man
of refined aesthetic taste,

he was also
an able administrator.

Raja Raja created a multilayered
system of government

in which the temple
was the central authority

and the largest employer,
with a vast permanent workforce

that included priests
and ceremonial officers,

financiers, maintenance teams,
cooks, and kitchen staff,

but also
the most talented youngsters

in the arts of poetry,
singing, and dance.

♪♪

But beyond its function
as a community centre,

workplace, and school,

the primary purpose
of a temple is spiritual,

and right at its centre
is the shrine of the main deity,

where the devotees
come to receive darshan.

♪♪

This is the route of
circumambulation,

and it leads us to a powerful
image at the heart of Hinduism.

♪♪

We move from profane
to sacred space

as we approach
the central shrine.

In this most potent place

is kept a phallic symbol,
the lingam.

The lingam is
a smooth column of stone

rising out of a circular base
that represents the female.

It represents
the presence of Shiva,

and to gaze on it
is to receive darshan.

The room where it is kept
is the direct descendant

of the recess
in the back of the cave

that we saw
back in Mahabalipuram.

The Nayanmars' concept of
supreme personal devotion

to a god like Shiva,
meant that you travelled

together on your journey
through life.

But even with Shiva's guidance,

where your journey led you
was largely up to you.

Reincarnation is a central tenet
of all the religions

that originate in India,

and your behaviour
during this life

will determine
how you return in the next.

♪♪

In pursuit
of that supreme challenge,

we can see how the form of this
remarkable building evolved,

channelling worshippers
towards the central shrine

and the presence of the divine.

It's a long way
from a forest clearing.

By the time it was finished,
the basic precepts

of Hindu worship
were set in stone,

but though this building was

the peak of
Chola artistic achievement,

their lasting legacy
was not in granite at all.

[ Hammering on metal ]

It was in bronze
that the Chola craftsmen

established
their artistic heritage,

creating beautiful works
of sculpture

that are still being replicated
today.

Just like the stone masons
in Mahabalipuram,

the main subjects for
the bronze sculptures made here

are likenesses
of the Hindu deities.

♪♪

Like the stone Shiva lingam
in the temple shrine,

this is another
manifestation of Shiva.

Known as the Nataraja,
this is an avatar,

originally a Hindu word
for an incarnation of the deity

when they descend to the earth.

In this form,
Shiva is the cosmic dancer,

creating the universe

while stamping down
the dwarf of ignorance.

These bronze deities
are made in every size,

from the largest temple figures

to the smallest domestic gods
for a bedroom shrine.

The material allows
for a fluidity of movement,

softer expressions and gestures,

communicating messages
of benevolence and forgiveness.

And the more beautiful
and refined the bronze god is,

the more likely
the spirit of the real deity is

to inhabit the sculpture.

♪♪

For centuries, the stone gods
in the temple shrines

were a fixed and
immovable presence,

drawing the faithful to darshan.

But the advent of
portable bronze figures

meant that the deities
could leave their shrines.

♪♪

This is Madurai,

one of the great
temple cities of southern India.

The figure on the palanquin
is, once again, Shiva.

He is being taken on
an excursion around the temple,

and this ceremony shows us
how devotional practices

changed in the period
after the Tamil Saints.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

The bronze statue of Shiva

is hidden from our view,
behind the curtains,

but for the priests
carrying him,

he is very real.

He is being taken

to spend the night
with his consort, Parvati,

known here by the name of
one of her avatars, Meenakshi,

and the tryst will take place
in her shrine.

These golden footprints
represent Shiva

descending from his palanquin
to enter Meenakshi's shrine.

The local legend tells us

that Shiva and Meenakshi
were married in Madurai

in a ceremony
performed by Vishnu,

and after a long and happy life
together

as rulers of the town,
they assumed divine form

and she became the deity
of this temple.

♪♪

There may seem to be an element
of mystical pantomime here,

but their mortal followers
are being shown an activity

that they can relate
to their own lives.

Shiva and Meenakshi consummate
their marriage anew each night.

And at dawn, Shiva slips away,
back to his own shrine.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

♪♪

Madurai is in the deep south
of Tamil Nadu.

It's over 2,500 years old

and was mentioned
by Greek travellers

when the paint was still wet
on the Parthenon.

The sprawling complex
of halls and courtyards

that make up
its labyrinthine temple

cover an area
the size of 25 football pitches,

and it has no less
than 14 gopurams.

♪♪

The other very visible feature

is the colourful riot
of sculpture on the towers.

These plaster figures proclaim
to the faithful

just what an army of deities

are working away
on behalf of their soul.

But the lurid choice of colours
is a fairly recent addition.

♪♪

The custodians of the temple,
the priestly class

who manage the building
and its day-to-day affairs,

are Brahmins - the top rung
of the Indian caste system.

At the opposite end of the
spectrum are "untouchables,"

not considered worthy
to enter the temple shrine,

but they, too, need
an opportunity

to experience darshan.

♪♪

For them and
for those who simply feel

they can navigate life
without the guiding hand

of a Brahmin priest,
there are alternatives.

In a corner of
the main temple courtyard,

genuinely accessible to all,

there is a small shrine
to Ganesh,

the remover of obstacles,
which is extremely busy.

These worshippers are allowed
to touch the deity,

to make their own offerings,

and to conduct
their own personal rituals.

But by doing so, they remain

very much part
of Hindu practices.

♪♪

Familiar religious images are
now emerging from the temples

and becoming part
of mainstream Indian life --

a process that began
with the advent

of cheap colour printing
in the late 19th century.

The painter Raja Ravi Varma
became hugely popular

by portraying the deities
in a contemporary Western style,

using oil paint.

♪♪

The performance artist
Pushpamala has re-created

his familiar image
of the goddess Lakshmi,

casting herself as the deity.

-Lakshmi, of course, is
the goddess of wealth,

but Ravi Varma also created

this kind of fair-skinned,
aristocratic ideal Indian woman.

-Mm.

Pushpamala has also made work
based on a series of photographs

taken by British ethnographers
in the 19th century

that sought to categorise
the races of India.

These images,
being regarded as scientific,

are not concerned to disguise

the darker skin
of their subjects.

-In fact,
the Andamanese Islander picture

comes from a very famous study,

and they were doing it
in all the colonies.

And that was, in a sense,
to control and understand,

so that was to kind of really,
you know,

get a grasp on the world,

which was rapidly
sort of expanding.

-In fact, the term "Hindu"
only came into widespread use

during the British Raj,

and these religious and ethnic
classifications

certainly contributed

to the rigidity
of the Indian caste system.

But once these
religious stratifications

had been formulated,

they became a welcome badge
for those they labelled.

The temple is still the focus

for the religious life
of Hindu communities,

but the younger generation
are growing up in a country

where their government now wears
this religious badge,

and religion is more present
in everyday culture than ever.

♪♪

The intensely expressive
sculptures

that cover the temple gopurams

are appearing
in an unlikely new guise.

The Hindu legends are now
being retold in comic art,

and graphic novels
based on these ancient stories

are becoming hugely popular.

But for a group of young
comic book enthusiasts,

working in a small apartment,
these home-grown efforts

retelling the familiar stories
of Shiva

need a bit of updating.

Here's their take

on the marriage
of Shiva and Meenakshi

that inspired the night ceremony
in Madurai.

But the scene
has now become a mash-up

of Gotham City and Middle Earth.

-I used to read comics,
you know, Superman, Batman.

I love the graphics
in those comics.

Then, I read a few comics
from Indian publishing houses.

The stories were good,
but the graphics were

a little bit obsolete,
basically.

I mean, I used to see Marvel,
and then I see how much --

and I see the difference.

So I said, "Why not bring
these three together,

where I have graphics
which are universal,

and bring in stories
which touch our Hindu legends

and bring in the art
of narration from Tolkien

and make graphic novels
with these three elements?"

-Although the style
of the graphics

and the narration are new,
for a true Hindu,

there is very little room
for innovation

when it comes to the stories.

-It doesn't make any sense
to deviate,

because if the story is there,
existed,

a lot of people,
especially the young ones

or the youth of today
or the "Y" generation,

whatever you may call it,
in our country and abroad,

don't know much about the story.

And the story itself
is so interesting,

why do you want to deviate
and rock the boat?

-As keen as these guys are

on sticking
to the authentic stories,

they have some interesting ideas
about Hinduism.

-Hindu was never a religion,
I believe.

This is my personal view.
It is a culture.

It was a way of living.

All of the answers
are there in the past.

You know, children from all ages

look at the graphic novel
and get attracted.

"Wow.
This is such appealing art.

I love it.
It's so awesome. It's so cool."

Okay, then he starts to read.

And in that whole process,

he understands the story.

That's where we come in.

♪♪

-However adroit Hinduism is

at adapting itself
to the modern world,

Hindu philosophy is
still difficult to reconcile

with Western notions
of religious experience.

One of the most fundamental
disconnects

between Eastern
and Western thought

is represented
by Shiva Nataraja,

and his ring of fire.

Today, in many fields,

India is leading
global technological progress.

So, how does it reconcile
scientific advances

with ancient myths and legends?

Victorian Christianity
was severely tested

by the theories of scientists
like Charles Darwin,

and many evangelical Christians
still cannot accept

the scientific truth
of evolution.

Hinduism, it seems,
has no such issues.

Outside the CERN particle
research centre in Geneva,

a Shiva Nataraja, donated
by the Indian Government,

celebrates the involvement
of many Indian tech companies

in the project.

Whether you call it
the Large Hadron Collider

or Shiva Nataraja,

the fact that the origins
of the universe

lie in a ring of cosmic energy

is just confirmation of
something Hindus already knew.

♪♪

-I can be a Hindu

without having to subscribe
to a particular god,

to a particular book,

or to a particular
religious practice,

which means that I can be
completely independent,

I can have my own view
of the world,

I can have my own view
of the universe,

and I can accommodate different
views from different systems

and synthesise them in my mind.

♪♪

-For a Hindu, the black water,

the Indus river
or the Indian Ocean,

mark the boundaries
of their homeland.

In the days before mass travel,

to cross the black water
and leave India

was to cease to be a Hindu,

and the rise
of Hindu nationalism

has reinforced the idea

that to be Indian
is to be Hindu,

and vice versa.

But Hindu nationalism
is directly at odds

with its inclusive tradition.

And as India emerges
as a major economic force

at the forefront
of globalisation,

the role of Hinduism
in its society

is becoming incendiary.

[ Fireworks crackling ]

This is the festival
of Karthigai,

deep in the Tamil heartlands
of southern India.

It celebrates a story
from the Hindu scriptures,

which casts Lord Shiva
in a very favorable light.

♪♪

The central story tells how,

in a moment of
celestial competitiveness,

Shiva appeared
to Vishnu and Brahma

as an endless flame of light

and challenged them
to find his head and his feet.

To cut a long story short --
and it is a long story --

they fail,
and Shiva remains supreme.

Like so many other elements
of Hinduism,

this festival offers the devotee
a bewildering array of choices.

The basic tale has become
freighted with other cargo,

competing traditions that
obscure the central meaning

with excess baggage.

In one tradition, the oil lamps
ward off evil forces

and bring prosperity and joy.

In another, the relationship
of brothers and sisters

is remembered,
and siblings exchange gifts.

Yet another tale is
the alignment of six stars

at this point in the year,
said to represent

the six faces of Murugan,
the Hindu god of war.

♪♪

The complexity that results

from this amalgamation
of myth and celebration

makes it impossible
to give a simple answer

to the question,
"What is this festival for?"

Quite simply,

though it can mean something
different to each person,

everyone can enjoy it together.

And in this simple fact,
you have

the secret
to Hinduism's success.

♪♪

The temples are as busy
as they have ever been.

And as their traditions
spill out

into mainstream Indian life
once more,

their devotees
are still seeking answers

to questions that are eternal.

♪♪

The many different religions

that have vied for the souls of
the faithful over the centuries

have left a rich legacy
in these lands.

The haunting relics of
the Buddhist culture

are now just ruins,

but their beautiful
devotional art

reminds us of their
remarkable achievements.

♪♪

The great mosques and mausoleums
of the Mughal conquest

are architectural masterpieces,
venerated around the world,

and the skill of their painters
and their musical heritage

are as cherished today
as they have always been.

5,000 years ago, when the first
great urban settlements

grew up on the banks
of the Indus River,

the citizens had to devise ways
of living together

in some of
the world's first cities,

and they face
similar problems now.

But as we know,
in the Hindu worldview,

time is cyclical, not linear.

The cities of these lands today

have to find new strategies
to support vast populations,

but they have a genius for
coping with immense challenges.

And as they strive
towards solutions,

it is perhaps some comfort
to know

that they have been here before.

In the West, time marches on,

but here, what goes around
comes around.

[ South Asian music plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪