Here i present you two poems by Giants of Indian Literature Kuvempu and Tagore. Time and again progressive thinkers have questioned the Temple structure and its intentions. Its very clear that social reformers were frustrated about how priests ran the temples by advocating inequality, blind beliefs, false devotion as a result they reduced the temples to a mere set of stone walls.
Expression of both the poems are different but finally they converge at the same point.....
Poem By Tagore [ from Gitanjali]
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| Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee! He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil... |
| ದೇವರು ಸೆರೆಯಾಳ್ (by kuvempu, in 14-7-1936) | God the prisoner ( Kuvempu, simple transliteration by me) |
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| ದೇವರು ಸೆರೆಯಾಳ್, ದೇಗುಲ ಸೆರೆಮನೆ ಕಾವಲು ಪೂಜಾರಿ ನೀನಾವಾಗಲು ನನ್ನಯ ಬಳಿಯಿರೆ ಬಲು ತೊಂದರೆ ಎಂದು ಗಿರಿಶಿಖರದೊಳತಿದೂರದಿ ಕಟ್ಟಿದೆ ಗುಡಿಯನು ನಿನಗೊಂದು ಕಲ್ಲಿನ ಗೋಪುರ, ಕಲ್ಲಿನ ಗೋಡೆ ದುರ್ಗದವೊಲು ಬಲು ದುರ್ಗಮ ನೋಡೆ! ಸೆರೆಯನು ತಪ್ಪಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳದ ತೆರದಲಿ ಅರ್ಚಕ ರಕ್ಷೆಯಿದೆ; ತೆಂಗಿನ ಕಾಯೊಳೆ ತಲೆಯನು ಬಡಿಯುವ ಪೂಜೆಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷೆಯಿದೆ ಪುರಸತ್ತಾದರೆ ಕೆಲಸದೊಳಿಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇಸರ ಪರಿಹಾರಕೆ ಬಹೆನಲ್ಲಿ | God is the prisoner, temple is the prison priest is the sentry! troublesome it is, if thou near to me for ever So I Built a temple far over the hill
tower made of stone, wall made of stone
looks like an impenetrable fortressThou Cannot escape the confinement Thou receives an adorable punishment when thy head smashed with coconut to be releived of boredom shall visit there
If found leisure
in here
[ forgive me if the transliteration is poor , send your comments to srikgn@gmail.com]
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Further reading:
[ images courtesy: uploaders]
