Odissi Chandrika

Here is a beautiful glimpse into the evolution of Odissi Dance presented by the famous danseuse Ranjana Gauhar who teaches this dance form in her institute at Delhi. I had the good fortune of watching her presentations on some occasions at Bhubaneswar.

Jhelum Paranjape

Odisha Tourism organized a 3-day Mukteswar Dance Festival from the 14^th to the 16^th January, 2014. It was organized in the precincts of Mukteswar Temple near the famous Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar. This temple was built in 970 by King Jajati Keshari. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva. The unique feature of this temple is its decorated torana archway. This is detached portal consisting of two pillars supporting an arch within a semi-circular shaped pediment. The decoration of the arch, with languorously reclining females and bands of delicate scroll work, is the most striking feature.

I attended the programme. During this, famous dancers and danseuses presented solo, duet and group Odissi dances. One important item of the programme was a solo Odissi dance by Jhelum Paranjape from Mumbai. She is a famous dancer, teacher and choreographer of Odissi dance. She had perfected her dancing skills under the tutelage of the legendary Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra. She has set up in Mumbai an institute of Odissi dance, ‘Smitalaya’, named after her friend and famous film actress Smita Patil.

Jhelum has made experiments and innovations in the traditional Odissi dance form. She presented the ancient Leelavati Sutra of Mathematics in Odissi dance.

Here is a sample of her skill in Odissi dance. 

Odissi Dance in a Pithy Form

Here is a video clip of the Odissi dance presented by the high priestess of this classical dance form, the late Sanjukta Panigrahi. The vocal music is by her husband and the famous vocalist Raghunath Panigrahi, who expired in 2012. The duo made Odissi dance and Odissi music what these are today. She was taken away very early by cancer. Her statue adorns the entrance of Rabindra Bhavan, the venue for the most dance and song programmes at Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha.

This presentation alternatively shows the dance and temple carvings on the Konark and other temples in Odisha. The various nuances of the dance bring to life the poses of carvings on these temples.

This presentation has been prepared by Films Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.

Chausathi Yogini

The 7^th Chaushathi Yogini Mahotsava was organized from the 23^rd to the 25^th December, 2013 in the precincts of the Chaushathi Yogini temple located at Hirapur in the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar. I had the good fortune of attending the Festival.

Legend has it that before fighting and killing the demon Mahishasur, Goddess Durga had fought with and had killed his associate Raktaviyya. However during the fierce fight, whenever a drop of Raktaviryya was touching the earth, another Raktaviryya was emerging from that spot. So the Goddess created 64 yoginis who sipped up each drop of such blood before it touched the ground.

There are four Chaushathi Yogini temples in India, two in Madhya Pradesh - at Khajuraho and Bhedaghat (Jabalpur)  and two in Odisha - at Ranipur-Jharial (Balangir District) and Hirapur near Bhubaneswar

The Chaushathi Yogini temple at Hirapur was built in the 9^th Century and is said to be the oldest of such temples. It is in a circular form and without a roof. Its circumference is 27.4 metres and its height is 2.4 metres. It is built with sand stone. Statues of sixty-four yoginis (female ascetics, 64 companions of Goddess Durga ) built with black granite stone have been placed as high reliefs in 64 panels carved into the walls of the surface of inside walls of the temple. These beautifully carved statues depict a high level of feminine grace and beauty. The highlight of these statues is that each statue depicts a different hair-style.  Goddess Mahamaya is the presiding deity of the temple and her statue is bigger than those of 64 yoginis whose statues are on either side of her. Statues of nine katyayanis (a form of Goddess Durga) adorn the outer side of the circular wall.

The Festival is organised by Odissi Danseuse and Guru Pratibha Panda of Bhubaneswar. In the following video-clip, she explains (in Odia) why she chose the Chaushathi Yogini temple at Hirapur as the venue. It is located in a village and very few people knew about it. After she, with support from Govt. of Odisha, started the Festival, people came to know about this ancient temple. Roads were laid, infrastructure developed and it became a tourist-spot.

The Festival was inaugurated by the present Gajapati of Puri (King of Odisha). It is appropriate to mention here that the Gajapati is referred to as the Raja of Puri and is revered as the Chalanti Pratima  (moving form) of Lord Jagannath. He performs specified rituals in the Shree Jagannath temple including the ceremonial sweeping of the Raths of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra during the Rath Yatra (car festival) with a broom of gold at Puri every year.

The highlight of the performances in the first evening was an Odissi dance-drama Dayana, by Nrutya Prativa of Bhubaneswar. It depicted an interesting and poignant story. Once, the Mayura Chandrika (peacock-plume) in the crown of Lord Jagannath fell of. The priests did not know whether it was a good or bad omen. So, the head-priest went to the Gajapati to appraise him of the happening. At that time the Gajapati was engrossed in a game of dice and,  without giving attention to what the head-priest was saying, he extended his left hand to receive what the head-priest was giving. The next moment, when he saw what was on his left palm, he was crest-fallen. He had committed a great disrespect to Lord Jagannath in receiving by his left hand what was part of the Lord’s decorations. In the culture of Odisha, the left hand is treated as inauspicious. Giving or receiving anything with the left, is treated as bad manners and disrespect to the receiver or giver.

The King was full of deep remorse and could not reconcile himself with such disrespect to the Lord. So he called his Minister and asked him to arrange for cutting off his left palm with which he had committed such sacrilege. The Minister was aghast at hearing this and beseeched the King not to ask him to do any such act. A couple of days later, the penitent King told his Minister that some devilish spirit was trying to scare him and disturbing his sleep   by thrusting his hand through the window of the royal bed-chamber. The King asked his Minister to be alert and cut off the devil’s hand as soon as the hand was thrust through the window. The obedient Minister agreed and took guard. At the dead of night the Minister indeed saw a hand being thrust through the window of the King’s bed-room. And immediately the Minister chopped off the intruding palm. The next morning, the Minister and the courtiers found that what the Minister had chopped off the previous night was the King’s left palm!

The King then ordered his severed palm to be buried. The gardener instead planted the palm in the royal garden. Within a few days, the palm grew into a plant and later, bore a stunningly beautiful flower. The flower was named Dayana.  The King was fascinated by its beauty and asked the gardener to guard it so that nobody would pluck it off. One morning, the King noticed that the flower was missing. He became very angry and ordered that the gardener be executed the next morning, for dereliction of duty. That night, Lord Jagannath appeared before the King in a dream and told him that He liked the flower and so had taken it. The next morning, the King went to the temple and found that flower was adorning  the Lord’s crown. So he withdrew his order for executing the gardener.

The dance-drama was presented in an enchanting way. It was choreographed by Guru Prativa Panda, who enacted the role of the Gajapati in it.  

The 3-day Festival had several items like Odissi, Kuchipudi and contemporary dances, flute-playing, vocal Odissi songs, Paika Dance (a martial dance of Odisha) and Dhol Mahuri (beating of drums accompanied by playing of a long musical instrument),       

  The highlight of the third evening was an enchanting Odissi dance number by the eminent danseuse and choreographer Daksha Mashruwala from Mumbai. Her early training in Bharata natyam was under Mrinalini Sarabhai. She learnt Odissi dance from the legendary Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra.

Here is a sample of  an Odissi dance number by Daksha Mashruwalla:
 

H N Y

Wishing all a VERY VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2014!

Let us celebrate the onset of the New Year with a melodious song by Sunanda Pattanaik, the renowned classical singer of Odisha. Here she sings a song by her father the Late Baintha Pattanaik, the eminent poet of Odisha,

Eleven Twelve Thirteen

Today is the 11th December, 2013, i.e., 11.12.13. This coincidence will again come only after 100 years, i.e., on 11.12. 2113!

On this special occasion, i wish everyone all happiness and bliss.

I spent the day today by attending a seminar organised by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), of which i am a life-member. The subject of the seminar was 'Potential World Heritage Sites in Odisha'. At present, the ancient Konark temple of is the only World Heritage Site in Odisha, recognised as such by UNESCO. The process of recognising Bhitarakanika, the natural nesting place for Olive Ridley turtles as a Natural Heritage is in an advanced stage. In addition to ancient architetures, old natural sites also are given the status of World Heritage Sites. At Bhitarakanika, millions of Olive Ridley turtles come out from the sea in winter, lay eggs, bury these in the sand and go back to the sea. The eggs hatch in about a month and it is great sight watch the tiny baby-turtles  crawling to the sea.

Padma Vibhushan Dr. Sitakanta Mohapatra, who has been conferred with the Jnanapitha Award delivered the key-note address. This was followed by talks and visual presentations on various heritage sites in Odisha by experts of Archeological Survey of India and other experts in the field. 

POST SCRIPT
14.12,2013

Ben Oliver of U S of A and his childhood heart-beat Dolly had married on 09.10.11; their first child, a boy, was born - naturally, not by medical manipulation - on 11.12.13!

And in our own India (Jaharkhand), one Shyam Kumar Jain, 55, has got his own funeral rites performed on 11.12.13. He had earlier celebrated the completion of10,000 days of his married life. He says that one must perform all one's functions, including funeral rites, during one's life time. He, his wife, his mother, his daughter and his relatives participated in the funeral rites. Only his son was away at Bangalore. So, presumably, there was no mukhagni. And there was no mourning. All present, were served a simple meal.

 

How Banks 'Create' Money

One of my elective subjects in the Degree Course in the College was Economics. One of the papers in Economics was Money and Banking. My most favourite chapter in this paper was ‘How Banks Create Money’. This heading caught my fancy at the first glance.

During my long stint in my Bank, i also created some money.

Now, what is money?

Money is a matter of functions four:
A medium, a measure, a standard and a store.

It is a medium of exchange, a measure of value, a standard of deferred payments and a store of value. It is a medium of exchange of goods and services, a measure of the value of these. It is also a standard of deferred payments. Besides being a basis of current transactions, money is also the basis of deferred payments. Accounts of deferred payments are maintained in terms of money and neither the creditors nor the debtors lose. Money is a store of value in that people can store surplus purchasing power and use it when they need. Purchasing power saved in the form of money is secure and the risk of it being destroyed is almost not there. 

A bank can be called a ‘money-shop’. In a textile shop, textile goods are bought and sold. The owner purchases the items and sells these to her/his customers. One can say that in the same way ‘money’ is bought and sold in a Bank. The actual term for what is bought and sold in a Bank is ‘credit’.  The concept of Banking is based on trust. The English word ’credit’ is derived from the Latin word creditus which means trust. A bank accepts deposits from one set of its customers and gives loans to another set of customers. The relationship between a Bank and its customers is that of creditor and debtor. A depositor is the creditor and the Bank is the debtor. In case loans, the bank is the creditor and the customer is the debtor.

For purchasing something, one has to pay money, usually currency notes. Currency notes are nothing but promises by the central bank of a country to pay the bearer, the amount mentioned in the note. In India, currency notes carry the words, “I promise to pay the bearer a sum of … “. Below this, is the signature of Governor of Reserve Bank of India.  (By the way, years ago, the wordings were ‘I promise to pay the bearer on demand a sum of …’. I do not know why the words ‘on demand’ were discontinued. Does it mean that if one goes to R B I, tenders a currency note and asks for the amount mentioned in it, can R B I say, “Come after 5 days?”) 

One can also purchase an item by giving a promise. A bank account is like a promise. A depositor has the promise of the bank that it will pay the depositor a certain amount. We purchase things or repay our debts by exchanging the promise of the Governor of Reserve Bank of India (currency notes) or the promise of our banks ( by issuing cheques).

A depositor has the right to withdraw her/his money at any time but the banker knows that all the depositors will not withdraw their money at the same time. This phenomenon is the fundamental feature of banking. Banks make use of this situation, use the depositors’ money to lend it out to entrepreneurs who need capital. Depositors are people who have money which they do not plan to spend immediately and who not wish to engage in industry or business. Borrowers are people who are entrepreneurs but have no money to use as capital. Indeed, entrepreneurs find that it is more profitable to borrow and invest in enterprises than to invest their own money in these. 

In simple terms, when a depositor comes for withdrawing his/her money with a bank, there would always be other depositors for depositing and some borrowers who come for repaying. So banking is basically iska topi, uska shar.

Currency notes are debt instruments of the central bank of a country. Deposit accounts are debts of commercial banks. Loan accounts are debts of the borrowers of a bank. Banks work by trading debts for debts. 

A bank cannot lend all the money that it receives as deposits. There is a requirement of ‘Cash Reserve’. Every country’s law requires that banks have to keep a specified percentage (called Cash Reserve Ratio or CRR) of deposits, with the central bank of the country. Reserve Bank of India, set up under Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, is the central bank of India. (Central Bank of India is not the central bank of India; it is one of the commercial banks like say, State Bank of India or Axis Bank.) Bank of England and Federal Reserve Bank are the central banks of U K and U S A respectively.

In addition to CRR, banks in India have to keep aside a certain percentage of their deposits as Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR). As required under Banking Regulation Act, 1949, banks have to keep certain funds as ‘liquid assets’ in the form of cash at the Branches, Government Bonds etc. The purpose is to ensure that a bank should always have some liquid assets – cash and cash-equivalents which can be easily converted into cash – to meet its liabilities to its depositors.  The percentages of CRR and SLR are decided by the Reserve Bank of India. Funds in CRR and SLR are not available for lending. CRR and SLR are meant to ensure that a bank does not lend away all the money it collects as deposits.

Now how do banks create money? As a simplistic example, let us assume that the total deposit of a Bank A is Rs. 100 (deposited by Customer M) and it has to keep a total of 10% as CRR and SLR. Thus, equivalent of 90% of the deposits is available for lending. The bank lends Rs. 90 to Customer N. To meet his obligations, customer N issues a cheque for this amount to Customer P who deposits this cheque with Bank B. Bank B keeps Rs 9 (10% of Rs 90) as CRR and SLR and lends the remaining Rs. 81 to Customer C. Customer C deposits this amount of Rs. 81 in a bank, which lends keeps Rs. 8.1 and lends the remaining Rs. 72.90.    This process goes on till the funds remaining in the banking system becomes, equal to the total of CRR and SLR.

If we calculate at this stage, the funds in the banking system, with a deposit of Rs. 100, becomes Rs 343.90 (100 + 90 + 81 + 72.90= 343.90). Thus one can say that banks have created an additional amount of Rs. 243.90!       

This appears like jugglery! The whole system works on trust and credit. If the bulk of the borrowers fail to honour their commitments (promises), the system will start collapsing. But such a situation is highly unlikely and may happen only rarely. A few borrowers do default or fail to repay and banks have no alternative to write these off. This amount is comparatively low and goes to reduce the profit of the banks.

However, the preceding example is an over-simplified way of what actually happens.

Now, the original question: What is money?

If i go to Reserve Bank of India with a currency-note for Rs. 100, ask them to redeem the promise of their Governor and pay me the sum mentioned, what will they give? Money is an abstract concept. To say correctly, 'money' cannot be  seen or touched; money is purchasing power, a concept developed in society to facilitate exchange of value. It replaced the barter system which was an inconvenient and clumsy system of exchange.

TAIL PIECE:

It is easier to make money than to manage it!