MATHIHALLI MADAN MOHAN writes from Hubli: It is three weeks since the pilgrim township of Mantralaya, the abode of Saint Raghvendraswamy Swamy on the Andhra-Karnataka border, suffered extensive devastation due to swirling waters of the river Tungabhadra.
Even as the town is inching back to normality, several questions remain unanswered.
Nobody has so far tried to explain the reason for the sudden flooding of the Tungabhadra river, which resulted in the unprecedented phenomenon of the shrine getting inundated. The water level had touched the portals of the main shrine before but never in its over-300-year recorded history had it come inside to inundate the Vrindvana and catch the township in its clutches.
Barring some areas of Mantralaya which were in a slightly elevated position, like the Venkateshwara temple and its vicinity, the entire township was submerged under 10-20 feet of water.
The flood extracted a heavy price, in terms of loss of property and physical infrastructure, modestly pegged at around Rs 50 crore. What is priceless has been the loss of the treasure trove of books including the palm leaf manuscripts some of them dating back to the time of Raghavendra Swamyji.
The silver lining was that there was no loss of human life. But several heads of cattle of the Raghavendra Swamy Mutt, including the elephant, perished in the process.
A new Mantralaya has to be built afresh says Sri Suyateendra Teertha Swamiji, the peetadhipati of the Rayara Mutt, who was among those who had a miraculous escape.
***
However, the big question remains: What caused this?
Was it a case of human failure, a freak phenomenon of nature, which went unnoticed?
Or was it a case of divine retribution of sorts?
In the days leading upto the floods, there had been no reports of heavy rains in the catchment area on the upper reaches of the Tungabhadra dam, resulting in heavy discharges from the dam. This is usually the contributory factor for the flooding of the downstream areas, affecting the monuments of Hampi including the stone mantapa of the Saint Purandaradasa, and raising the level of the river in Mantralaya, located around 150 kms away.
The discharge from the dam, remained between one lakh cusecs and 1.49 lakh cusecs for the first week October.
It did not even touch the 2 lakh cusecs mark, as had happened many times earlier.
The Tungabhadra Board, the interstate body which oversees the discharges from the dam, would normally notify in the case of heavy discharges. But no such warning had been issued since the discharges this time were considered normal or even less than normal.
Obviously something happened between the dam and the shrine to cause unexpected floods.
According to information that can now be pieced together, the villain of the piece for the Mantralaya, was not the aberration of the main river Tungabhadra but the tantrums thrown by the rivulets and stream which tattoo the area between the dam and Mantralaya.
The area is drained by rivulets like Hagari (also known as Vedavati) and streams like Hirehalla and Narihalla to name a few. All of them, without exception, went in spate adding to the misery.
Normally these are not taken seriously.
But this time all of them had assumed a quite ferocious proportion and the significance of the same was hardly taken note of. This is what extracted the heavy price Mantralaya has had to pay.
From information your reporter could gather, there had been heavy-to-very-heavy downpour in the catchment areas of Hagari on the fateful nights in both Bellary and Siruguppa taluks. This area received more than four times the normal rainfall of around 547 millimetres, the bulk coming on the first two days of October.
The rain gauge stations in Bellary taluk recorded rainfall of 522 and 892 mm on these two days, while it was 654 and 1194 mm in Siruguppa.
Hagari joins Tungabhadra near Hachcholli in Siruguppa taluk of Bellary district, on the upper reaches of Mantralaya and several of the streams flowing across Koppal and Raichur districts brought copious flows due to heavy rainfall too to the main river.
If only somebody in these areas had bothered to notice the phenomenon and alerted the governments concerned on the possible consequences it could entail, perhaps the blow in Mantralaya could have been softened and the people, including the pilgrims visiting Mantralaya, would not have been taken by surprise and it would have been possible to salvage materials lost.
But monitoring the rain gauges is a low priority all across Karnataka and Bellary was no exception.
The problems of the people in Mantralaya trapped by the sudden rise in the water level were further compounded by the slow response of the Andhra Pradesh government in arranging for rescue operations.
The Karnataka government went out of its way to rescue Suyatindrateertha swamiji, who heads one of the important seats of the dwaita philosophy. It despatched a helicopter and a minister Shobha Karandlaje, a confidante of the chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa for the purpose.
After having done that, the Karnataka did not extend helping hand to others stranded, bulk of whom belonged to Karnataka. It may be due to primarily intergovernment hassles over the territorial jurisdiction and also because of similar developments elsewhere within the state.
The signs of developing human tragedy and suffering inherent in the Mantrayalam development obviously did not catch the imagination of the media, both electronic and print, both of national and regional hues.
Transport connections to Mantralaya, both road and rail, had been cut off during the period. The rain water had submerged rain tracks in the vicinity, and road links to other parts of Andhra Pradesh and with neighbouring districts of Raichur and Bellary districts had been snapped. The only road link available was via Yemmiganur but it could not be accessed because of the continued presence of flood water.
The plight of around 3000 people caught in the quagmire was only seen to be believed. Men, women, children had taken shelter on the roof tops waiting for the assistance, which was getting elusive and not within reach. They had had a quite harrowing time and had to go without anything to eat or drink.
But none of this appeared as meat for the media.
The media’s interest was limited to the act of rescuing the swamiji by the Karnataka government and did not go beyond it. Once that was accomplished, none bothered about Mantralaya or the plight of the pilgrims and residents of the temple-town.
Even the regional papers in Karnataka failed to rise to the occasion, in arranging for proper coverage, although most of the marooned pilgrims happened to be from the State. The marooned people had to wait for the water level to recede before they could move out of Mantralaya to their destinations.
Several theories are afloat to buttress the theory that the flooding of the holy place was nothing but an act of divine retribution of sorts.
One theory is that it was the delay in the rebuilding of the temple of Manchalamma, the family deity of Raghavendra Swamy, which had been dismantled for the purpose, could be the causative factor. A second theory doing the rounds suggests the accumulated sins of omission and commission of those concerned.
Despite all that happened, it must be said there was no loss of life in Mantralaya. Some dead bodies, which were floating around are believed to be of those who had been washed away. None in Mantralaya lost his/her life, it is stated by the sources close to the Raghavendraswamy Mutt.)
Whatever maybe reason, it is clear that the Mantralaya has an arduous haul ahead to regain its lost glory. The flood it is said, has put the clock of development back by at least two decades.
Photograph: courtesy Shree Vartha
The obviously its none of the above reasons for the destruction. Its wanton senseless sand mining and decimation of environment around the banks that caused this. Its time swamis,people, patrons of mutts,govt etc start putting some thought and wake up to the real problem.
Why not add another theory?
It is the Yediyurappa’s rule that has angered the gods!! Or may be Manmohan Singh’s rule??
Easy to make theories that never need to be proven!
How will Raghavendra swami react to it? Taking more revenge on gullible people? :)
Amen.
Churumuri, you need to decide which side of the fence you belong. You cannot make fun of BJP politicians and religious figures for their faith ( superstition for the non-believers) and also have a headline that smacks of the same.
Well, the revenge of Manchalamma cannot obviously be a ‘theory’! It is just somebody’s (yours?) explanation which can never be proven. I can come up with million others like this, and the only way of verifying would be to ask the deity. :)
The temple used to have a huge collection of palm leaves manuscripts. It is a great loss to have lost them.
Prashanth, Churumuri is being sarcastic :)
Any logical person would lose his faith (rather superstition) after such an event. Our Swamiji seems to have confirmed his faith by thanking royaru, rather than thanking the life saving chopper. Some brains are beyond repair.
I heard that all of the “Moola granthas” and Palm Leave Scriptures are moved to safe before the destrcuction…I wish that’s true
there are some fools here who do not have any respect for faith of others.
Somebody who has spent all his life serving Raghavendra swami temple will obviously thank him!!
Someone out here should get his spellings of Kannada words right.!!
hope the palm leaves have been moved to a safe place, they are saving a treasure for generations.
These faith guys have made it impossible to be critical of any superstition (aka faith) without being offensive. So I no more bother if these religious nuts are offended, it does not matter what I say, they are born to be offended. There is no way I can be not offensive being critical. So hell with you!
On the contrary they can call anyone ‘a fool’, though all behaviours exhibited by them suggests the attribute to them more appropriately.
hoTTege hiTT illadidru juTTige malliGe. People have died out of floods. Lost their houses, dear ones. And all that some people bother is some ‘palm scriptures’. This is a culture based on honour and not on humanity. Hell with such a 5k+ year old ‘great culture’.
The point at issue is not whether or not Manchalamma took the revenge but our total unpreparedness to face the crisis.
Firstly how did the fact of the spare of the rivulets in the basin go unnoticed? Somebody ought to have noticed the unusual phenomenon and pondered over the possible consequences.
Secondly the media as a whole not taking the cognisance of the event. Not a single newspaper in Karnataka, chose to despatch somebody to Mantralaya to get the first hand account of the people stranded there and waiting for help.
Thirdly the question who should have rushed to extend the helping hand? Govenrment of Karnataka or Government of Andhdra Pradesh.
For Mantralaya defacto belongs to Karnataka while dejure the Andhra has jurisidction.
The Andhra govenrment hardly bothered, while Karnatakas response was luke warm.
Are we so insensitive to react to a situation like this? The fact that there has been no loss of life should not lull us into complaceny and dismiss the serious nature of the trials and tribulations of the people?.
@Abhi
While we are very much proud to be part of 5k + old ‘great culture’, we also worry and have concerns about the people who are affected by this flood.
People from all standa have had come forward to help the affected and recovery operations are still going on…Even the Sree Mutt Stood front in the line to help protect the people, If u r not aware of.
While the Plam Scripts are “no-Sense” to you, it is a valuable asset to most of us and, whether u and likes of u like it or not….we would always worry about the likes of these treasures….
>>This is a culture based on honour and not on humanity.
Ok , let us know what did your “Humanity” based Culture people did for the rescue/relief operations…..
ಹೋಗ್ಲಿ ಬಿಡಿ, ನಾಯಿ ಬೊಗಳುದ್ರೆ ದೇವಲೋಕಕ್ಕೆ ಏನು ತೊಂದರೆ ಇಲ್ಲ ಅಲ್ವಾ….:-)
Abhi,
bittbidi, ajjige arive chinte andhre, magalige mindana chinte anthe. Lives of strangers, palm scrolls, who cares?
@abhi
the kannada spelling is rayaru n not royaru as u wrote it to be.
the question in ur case seems to be neither of humanity nor faith, u seem to write like someone who values neither faith nor knowledge. If you have contributed to the humanity aspect that u so ovividly profess to follow, kindly enlighten us about your efforts to help the flood stricken ppl(other than vociferously commenting and condemning other ppls priorities here on churumuri).
To hell with a 5k+ culture that is based on honour, a fine statement to make. But to say that expressing concern about loss of ancient scripture is illogical and arrogant! To dismiss all historical knowledge as being rubbish in the false pretext of being logical and scientific is incorrect!
If every person, logical or illogical were to lose his/her faith everytime something nasty happened, then it wouldn’t be called a faith would it? or for that matter, if it is logic to lose faith everytime something unpleasant and something devastating happens, then ppl should not believe in science and scientific thinking at all. I am sure we have had enough calamities after we have started BELIEVING and THINKING science can answer everything. SO acc. to you engineers and doctors and researchers should give up their ways of life and sit doing something else instead of figuring out how to avoid/do damage control in such situations (the solutions to calamity mgmt. are often based on statistical data which again are nothing but historically recorded data!) so in a way SCIENCE is also a faith. So following your words, the one thing that u deem logical should also be damned and scrapped!
Prajwal,
Science saved the swami’s ass, and science could have provided more succor to the masses caught in the flood – if only we had a little more scientific temper and didnt trust our lives to divine interventions and the like. Science is not a cure for all of our problems – but it is a big reason for our progress and it is our best bet for the future.
We are making progress and we will get there one day – thanks to science.
You are making a jackass of yourself by trying to make this a science vs. faith thing. Science and faith are different things (unless someone is studying faith itself).
Maybe you should stop using the computer and the internet and write write your replies on scrolls.
Prajwal and Prashanth, do not get hung upon the “spellng of a Kannada word in English”. I probably know more Kannada than any of you having studied in that medium for 10 years.
Your arguments are juvenile and does not deserve to be refuted. You need to learn the basic definition of Science before making a statement as unscientific as “SCIENCE is also a faith”.
so according to both mr’s anonymous guy and abhi if there is scientific temper devoid of religious “faith”, it is manna from whatever. i see.
can these worthies together, make a list of ten of the greatest scientists the last century produced, who were also devoid of faith?
i wud really like ppl to see this list.
mr abhi calls our culture one based on honor and not humanity. which culture can be based on dishonor? pls speak some sense i say.
if there was any culture based on humanity without honor then all you will have is mud. think about that. it is also honor that keeps us humanbeings humane.
one more observation to mr anonymous guy aka jackass killer. do you consider the invention of scrolls not scientific?
yeneno matadtare
Palahalli – what was written on the scrolls? Can you use your divine powers to recover them from the river and let us know?
Curious, Are you kidding? What I can not do is to list 10 great scientists who were believers. Can you make a list of 10 great scientists who were believers like your Swamiji is?
All you conservatives need is museums. Everything should be in a constant state of eternity. Fight for religion, fight for culture, fight for Kannada, fight for taaLe gari. Decent quality of life for people? Who cares?
@AG
Nowhere in my post am I questioning the fact that “science” saved the swami’s life. Nor am i contesting that it could have/can/will provide solutions to many of our problems. Nor have I made it a science vs. faith thing.
All I did say is
1. discrediting all ancient knowledge is incorrect!
2. If every logical/illogical person were to lose faith everytime there was a disaster/calamity, then ppl. would have given up Science. In that sense Science IS A FAITH!
to put it in abhi’s perspective, if he knows more kannada just because he studied in kannada medium, I can speak about science because i work with it day in and day out, literall! I am in the field of materials research.
So if for example everyone working in material research gave up their belief in science being able to deliver new better materials just because some of the materials failed, then we wouldn’t have the recent advances in biotechnology or nanotechnology or space. If ppl researchers gave up on science everytime an engine blade came off in an aircraft engine, ppl wouldn’t jet around the planet to attend conferences/meetings/ nor would they have such quick ways of goods transport which aids in the economic growth of a country/community.
Also to prove my point that SCIENCE is driven by faith, a majority of the scientific principles used today were proposed by beleivers and philosophers who had FAITH that they can eeffectively explain something. If ppl. in science did not have FAITH in their work, e. g. if Copernicus (as we are discussing mordern science) did not have FAITH in his work, he would nvr have the thought to go against convention to say earth is not the centre of the universe. If scientists did not have faith, they would not go against convention and we might still have been following the old definition of heat being a fluid and not a form of energy.
Theories are proven to be wrong everyday and new threories are proposed everyday. But the driving force behind this temperament is the FAITH that something can be explained(if at all) and always in a better and simpler way. So yes, there is NO SCIENCE WITHOUT FAITH!
after this elucidation, i have no interest in contesting abhi’s “science is faith is unscientific” comment!
p.s.
Continuun mechanics today describes things on the macro scale/real scale by assuming one can homogenise things, i.e. one can leave out the finer details.
Micro mechanics and nano mechanics hold it as true that things cannot be homogenised and have to be understood and explained from the micro/nano scale.
I have seen my fair share of scientists working on both lines of thought, i.e. some BELIEVE that they can EXPLAIN things without going into the micro scale. Others BELIEVE and are STRUGGLING to find methods of bringing their observations on the micro level as a reason for macro level occurences.
The two lines of thought have each had their share of successes and failures. Yet both lines of thought continue, despite failures from both lines. If this does not qualify as FAITH, i wonder what does!
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/faith
faith
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another’s ability.
2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
We are talking of 2 and 3. I thought that was obvious in the context. I have heard there are lot of “scientists” in institutions like IISc who are as indoctrinated as anyone else. (MetaEmpiricus can shed some light, if you are around) They are deemed to be scientists because of government funding that does not warrant any results. I don’t know if you are one such.
BTW, ranDOMly CAPItalising wHat yOu tyPE dOEs nOt make aNY smaRTer.
aiyyo! aiyayyo!!
one scientist mr anonymous guys avru cannot decipher his own post and now asks me what was written on the scrolls? was he discussing subject matter on scrolls when he said this?
“Maybe you should stop using the computer and the internet and write write your replies on scrolls.”
our other self important scientist is happy to fudge the question of scientists who also had faith. now he asks if 10 top scientists believed like swamiji believes :))
on top of it all this gentalman accuses us of fighting when he is the one who started the fight by being abusive. enappa idu? yenta scientific mindgalu heegella unscientific agi argument madadre hege? ah?
prajwal avre, matter bahala simple agide. no need to fall into potholes made by our churumuri scientists. just call them back and ask them to fix the holes. dats all my dear. dats all.
@abhi
Random capitalisations were not made, only words on which i intended emphasis were capitalised. I am fairly sure I have capitalised entire words and not parts of different words.
And I never did claim I am smarter cos of my capitalisations. If i have read the posts correctly I believe it was you who made such claims of being more well versed in kannada as you have studies a decade in Kannada syllabus.
Prajwal and curious, you seem to have made me the subject of discussion. Clearly shows who feels self important. Anyway, I am not interested in proving my knowledge in Kannada to you. Just wanted to get you on track from your “spelling mistake of Kannada in English” attack.
Rayaru said he will live through the literatures for a minimum of 300 years, it is been almost 450 years now. No wonder, the manuscripts are perished. Everything that happens, happens for the good.
Some old scrolls of very little practical value got lost. A swami’s hide was saved from the flood by a helicopter. Nothing else here. Time to move on. Agree curious/palahalli?
Waste of time reading all the comments. Better stop this privilege.