Chitrakar - Painter, Illustrator, Writer

Shiva Consciousness – 2 

The internet provides us some important clues to the unrecorded history of India. Forget the history; these clues fully establish the continuance of a creative link between our Heritage, Tradition and Accomplishments. We learn from the internet that Indians gave up a gregarious life in the jungles around 29,000 B.C.; and began a social life in groups dwelling in the caves. This was a qualitative change – an important breakthrough that led to family and social considerations.

Indians’ travel from cave life to cave painting, or rather the transition to pictorial language happened in or around 15,000 B.C., was the second clue. These two clues are good enough to say that the Indians invented a Ghata (घट), achieved mastery over drawing, Form Creation, Paint Creation; and finally the pictorial language development. Needless to say, these accomplishments must have ‘led’ to corresponding growth in Intellectual, Social and Family spheres that necessitated some retrospection that triggered the Reassessment of the Ghata as the cause of SPACE STUDY or SPACE WORSHIP, or as it is called in modern parlance, DESIGN.

The internet tells us that agriculture started in India around 8000 B.C. this clue helps us proximate to around 13000 B.C. when we reassessed Ghata as Adishakti (आदिशक्ती) or a symbol of Design-based Creativity. The consciousness of man’s inner creative and welfare-causing light, SHIVA was a sequel of Adishakti, which in turn gave rise to the concept of PARVATI (पार्वती). Parvati meant man’s desire, capacity and high taste to reach a mountain-like height of creativity. It was the union of Shiva-Parvati concepts that led to the idea of GANAPATI (गणपती) – the Designer, Order Creator and the System Maker (सुखकर्ता, दुखःहर्ता आणि विघ्नहर्ता). Thus Ganapati meant the most superior one among the virtuous men. The virtuous men meant people that were qualified to support a meritocracy. These qualified men were called Ganas (गण) from the society (जनता). The creative Path of Shiva Consciousness was indeed becoming interesting.