Making a case for Dust

David Shulman rightly gauged the popular mood among his sprightly audience, that had assembled under the Banyan tree at Kalakshetra, to listen to the memorial lecture under the aegis of Prakrit foundation titled ' Visions of Dust - a bottom up View of the south Indian universe', and clarified that he was going to make a case for the Dust and the dynamics that go with by drawing refrences from across the Indian literary-scape and asked the audience to be patient until he had made out his case. And convince he very well did. 

Prof Shulman had through this lecture demonstrated to the Chennai audience a novel way of looking at the many threads that link the literary classics of Indian languages. In doing so he gave us all a feeler of the immense treasures that lie in store for those who are willing to explore the classics with an open mind. Though Prof Shulman could draw the ire of critics for what could be construed as contrived reading, there is no denying the fact he left his audience in awe of the richness that our classic have in store and the sheer range of his scholarship.

Professor Shulman took us throughh three dimensions of Dust as dealt in our literature, namely - the dynamics of Dust, the romantic Dust and finally 'the mind dust'.

He drew largely from Kambaramayan to substantiate the dynamics of Dust.

while searching for the exact lines Prof Sulman had quoted in his speech, i could not resist posting here the so many other poems in Kamban that now appear very relevant.

புழுதியால் விண்ணும் மண்ணுலகாயிற்று எனல்

895.	நோக்கிய திசைகள் எல்லாம்

தன்னையே நோக்கிச் செல்ல,

வீக்கிய கழல்கால் வேந்தர்

விரிந்த கை மலர்கள் கூம்பத்,

தாக்கிய களிறும் தேரும்

புரவியும் படைஞர் தாளும்

ஆக்கிய தூளி, விண்ணும் மண் உலகு

ஆக்கப், போனான்.

Though, i am unable to cite the exact lines that Shulman quoted in his talk, referring to the dust that forms from the crushing of the agglomerate of the musk of elephant, froth from horse' mouth etc. And the dust formed from the 'sunnam' powder people adorn and the grains from the rub off the jewelery worn by the mob that has gathered to see Dasaratha being received by Janaka and the pollen shed from the flowers adorned by the princes in the assembly. and finally from the Ramayana reference to the dust that raises from the land to the sky through the hole Trivikrama has caused by his step measuring the skies.

In all these references from Ramayana, Shulman introduced Dust as something that keepes reviving, very dynamic, all pervading, and of various hues and forms.

Next, he moved on to build the case for 'Romantic dust'. Here he introduced ' gorajas' as the fine particles that cloud the path way of light. Thamayanthi points these particles out to Nala in an excited state in the morning after their first night together, as described by Sri HArsha in his Naishadha Charita.

He cited Dandin's Dasakumara Charitha wherein the veil of Dust, created by the fierce action in the war field is described as the 'Yavanika', through which the Apsaras of the heavens vie to choose their partner in the brave souls that have fallen in the war field below.

And quoted from Asvaghosa's Saundarnanda, the poem that describes the life of Buddha's brother, Nanda,  who is literally dragged from samsara to ashrama, and who struggles with the dust that keeps reminding him of his wife Sundari. 

Moving on to his final theme of 'Mind dust', he cited the episode of missing the elephant and reading its foot prints in dust that occurs in Sakunthala; and the description of the dust in the hooves of the racing horses, as the accumulation of the minds of all the people holding to the hooves to understand hyper velocity. He elucidated on Hanuman the grammarian and cited how Hanuman recognises Rama, when the dust off Rama's feet turns in to Gold on Hanuman. 

He concluded by quoting in length from Bana's Kadambari and reading out from a beautiful translation by Gwendolyn Layne which variously describes dust as, ' earth herself rising to the heavens to beg for mercy', ' the mist that wipes out enemies', ' a delicate veil hiding the goddess of all three worlds.' , ' generated out of space itself' 'a cool mudhut', ' blinding blackness' and ,' dust is time, the end of time'.

Shulman defnitely made and won his case for the Dust and summarised how the Indian context treated dust with fertility and positivity unlike the western / mediteranian concept of dust as waste. 

Initially, Hoshang merchant, the poet, introduced us to the brief but phenomenal life of his sister and explained the context of instituting this memorial lecture. He read out a colourful and moving poem that was an ode to a life well lived and the sibling love.