Friday, May 01, 2009

Short Trek to Bagwada

By HARPREET KAUR

Ever traveled a fare distance out of Mumbai, and come across ruins spread across small hills or in villages with oddly familiar and historical names. Well, there are many such places all over India, all having links to the glorious past. One such place is Bagwada – the name may not sound familiar but it used to be called Arjungad.

This is a small station on the Western Railway grid, a mere 20 minutes before Valsad. All slow trains will stop along and you can get off for a day of short trek and exploration at this village.

The village stands close to the rail tracks while the fort of Bagwada is atop the only hill in the village. A small fort for a small hi1l, the hill is barren in the summers but during the rains it is covered in green. But in summer you will find it covered in dry grass nd a mere ten-minute climb up the hill.

Also called Shri Kshetra or Arjungad, for this is where Krishna is said to have kidnapped Rukmani and Arjun kidnapped Subhadra. But it is popularly known as Bagwada.

Arabs came in the seventh century and Mahmud of Ghazani made inroads into the country through his raids up to Bagwada. Hindu power was weakening, with king Bimbisara of Mahim attacking Daman, Tarapur, Surat and other places in Gujarat. In the meantime Kumarpal Solanki had made Navasari a battlefield and killed Mallikarjun the Silhara king near Valsad.

In the thirteenth century the Koli and Warli chiefs came over to rule the place. One was from the Deccan with Mahadeo Kolis and established his rule over 22 forts in this area. They were left alone to rule throughout the seventeenth century. These forts were taken over by Mahmud Begada only after the tribal started troubling and looting the people around.

Shivaji visited this fort and had asked Chimnaji Appa to develop it. It was under the Marathas till the Portuguese rulers took over. They mounted attacks from this fort on the fort of Vasai. Secret passages inside the fort are said to have connected it to the fort of Pali, Indragad, Karambeli and Parnera.

The climb from the north side takes ten minutes to reach the bastions. Completely in ruins the fort entrance is on the north east side. A rectangular fort, it has six bastions and is in ruins. The south wall is broken and near it is a small tank which has a drinkable water here, close by runs the Kolak River flowing to the south of the fort now just a stream. The fort has a Mahalaxmi temple; its statue is now in a new temple in the village below. There are two small caves in the fort and also a tunnel and where does it lead no one can say. Not much to see here except the fort walls, bastions and a view of the village and river from the fort. It must have been a good viewpoint for the guardians and soldiers of the fort. There are more temples in the village with a few of them having a short history connected to them.

A quiet way to spend a couple of hours, you do not need equipment but a good pair of shoes to climb the short hill and enjoy the picnic lunch or tea that you have brought along.

How to get There:

By road: From Pardi on the National Highway from Mumbai, go towards the Bagwada railway station and close by is the hill with the fort.

By rail: get into any slow train traveling to Valsad or Surat but get off at the Bagwada station that comes before Valsad. The hill and fort are just hop skip and jump from the station and can be seen clearly.

En-chanting world

Chanting, everyone is familiar with that. You, me and everyone chants or prays sometime in a day. The sound of chanting is an eternal part of the universe. Plain words and yet not so plain, that seem to echo throughout the universe and the human soul.

Chanting speaks to the soul and soothes the mind that is in search of god. The melody of the chant is its strength and that it more to the soul and heart than the regular music. This is not just a song that is chanted across the world by monks for the monks in their seminaries. These songs flow from solitude, silence and meditation of god.

Gregorian chants are a mystical form of music that touches the deepest recesses of the soul. The heart opens up to receive the glory of god allowing the listener to feel the eternal peace and quietness.

It holds your breath; it reverberates through your mind, heart, soul and body. It is a very peaceful experience. For the monks it was an exercise to get close to the almighty. You may understand the words or not, a friend once told me, ‘they can create magic around you.’

They can still an agitated mind, echo through the body, mind and soul relaxing you completely forcing you to contemplate. Chanting in fact creates an energy field around you which is pure and clean, a piece of peace on earth which no one can touch. The chants seem to slide into you from the top of your head to the toes of your feet sending a powerful message through every molecule of your body, charging it as the message moves along. These chants are sung with no or bare minimum of music which I prefer but many modern singers choose to accompany it with Celtic, folk, or rock music of different types to suit their taste.

Chant is the oldest form of singing and was first developed in the 8th century. Learnt through viva and in Latin language, perfection is only reached through several years of experience. Singing chants is an important part of the seminary life; it filled with the monks with renewed energy to go on with the life that they had chosen.

It became an important part of the daily church service according to the Rule set down by St. Benedict. Only small groups and soloists sang the chants. The chants were organized and codified in the 12th-13th centuries in Frankish lands. It was imposed and made compulsory by Gregory I [590-604 AD] and Charlemagne, King of Franks [768-814 AD].

The most famous canters are the Benedict monks. They are said to have encounters with gods, which has had a supernatural effect and is added on only by the monks. Gregorian chanting is regarded as a channel to the human souls. As one individual has said listening to the chants is like ‘listening to the angels (said to be a gift from them). The chants reflect the angelic songs.’

There is a popular belief that hooded monks intone the chants in dingy corridors which are not so. A regular church service also holds a session of chanting. The music is ethereal, pleasing to the ear and eyes. The deep voices of men intone the words so well it is as if they are breathing it. The object of using the chant is to worship and time in fact does not matter - one line takes a whole of four minutes to sing. Gregorian chant follows a simple melody. Done in unison it produces a rich harmonious field and when it is performed in the cathedral, the architecture enhances the harmonious field.

Sound is known to heal and many ancient civilizations have used music, chanting, intoning, and instruments like drums, bells, singing bowls, gongs, whistles, and prayer to cure and as remedies. Mastering the music regulates the heart and mind. According to Kay Gardener (1990) there are nine elements of healing in music:-

1. Drone – the constant tone is a simple melody
2. Repetition – short phrases repeated over and over again
3. Harmonics – long sustained tones – balance the emotional, mental and spiritual from of the aura
4. Rhythm – duplicates the pulse in the body
5. Harmony – the various keys, major and minor bring on the feeling of sadness, joy, soothing and triumph – which bring the diseased organ back into harmony with the others
6. Melody – mind is engaged by melody which takes the attention away from the day to day afflictions one faces
7. Instrumental colors – each instrument has its own voice – overtones and wave forms that penetrate the various parts of the body
8. Form – the musical piece determines where the journey will take the listener.
9. Intention – a musician must recognize the power within and its effect. What is the intention to heal or harm.

According to a study conducted by Dr. Alfred Tomatis a French MD in 1950s in auditory neurophysiology. On his behest the monks were forced to give up chanting for a year or so which resulted in many falling sick, becoming completely listless and not responding to even normal prayers. Diet change did not work nor did lifestyle change until Dr Tomatis told them to begin the chanting again. The chants stimulated the brain, charging it with energy created by the voice and the limited intoning of the vowels.

Listening to Gregorian chants forces the body to breathe more deeply, center itself, creating a balance of the mind and body. The magnetic rhythm enchants the listener massaging the body inside out. Sound is not only created by the mouth but also with the bones and skin.