Lo and behold this child. Or should I say Child with a Capital ‘C’ ?
This little child epitomizes the eternal dance of the divine. With a leg lifted and an arm calling out to somebody for some more ‘butter’ and another arm covering his ears, it seems he is calling out to a person located far off, probably his mother who is busy churning curd to get butter but is safely located at a distance so that the child is not able to come over and usurp the churned butter.
The child is seen having a flute strapped to his waist belt. The intricacies of this copper masterpiece are so delicate that even the bulges on the child’s belly region, signifying the more than enough padding due to butter consumption, are clearly visible. The attention to detail that the sculptor had had simply amazes one beyond ones’ imagination.
The ‘Little Krishna’ that is hardly 15 cm tall is seen in the Ahobila Mutt premises, Therazhundhur.
This image was buried in the multitude of divine relics and idols that are used in everyday worship until recently when its splendor became visible to worshipers.
Nobody seems to know the origins of the little Krishna. The divine idol has been in worship since time immemorial. Upon inquiries with the 90 year old priest in the village, we come t know that it is likely tht some child-less couple could have donated the idol to the Mutt some many hundreds of years ago in anticipation of begetting a child.
The unique skill displayed in the carvings n the idol and the immaculate attention to detail on every ornament that a child used to wear during those times points to a minimum of 500 years’ lineage.
500 years is indeed a long time – half a millennial period. I was lost in thoughts n the number fi people who would have prayed to this ‘little god ‘ in anticipation of a child in the last 500 years.
The child god would have been witness to those great times of plenty during the reign of Krishna Deva Raya as also the great famines of the 18th century during the British regime. He would also have been witness to the mass exodus of people from the village in search of better opportunities elsewhere due to the great droughts of the past, the mass migration of people from other regions of the country to the village from even more drought hit villages in search of water and livelihood – all these would have happened befoer His very eyes.
He would have seen many children born as a result of His benign grace and also would have witnessed the very same children grow up in front of him. He would also have seen the children play around the Mutt’s large pillars while their parents prayed to Him. And He would have also seen the very same children grow up, age and pass on the mantle to their children in a continuous cycle of births and deaths.
Not only these.
He would also have been witness to the time when the huge temple chariot was burnt by ‘supposedly’ miscreants. And now He is also witness to the new chariot that has been built recently to fill the vacuum created 55 years ago.
One thing though has not changed, signifying the most widely known but least acknowledged fact – men might come and men might go but certain heavenly beings are the only ones that would continue to exist even after hundreds of generations are gone.
In all these years, the little Lord has not changed his posture. He has brought about all the changes to the outside world but has not changed himself. And He stands as the only witness to the events of the bygone era.
‘But why does He smile?’, one is forced to ask.
Probably He reminisces the past events that had occurred due to human avarice and pride and therefore smiles at teh humans’ continuation of such vile despite knowing from history that such vile had actually resulted in the doom of even eminently powerful people – the kings and the emperors.
Probably He sees a pattern in the current events which might have reminded Him of the past. And as He knows what has happened in the past, he probably just anticipates the same for the current and hence smiles with all-knowing silence.
The Little Krishna stands still, in eternally captivating all knowing smile, ready to be witness to the events that are likely to unfold in the future.
ஆ..பக்கங்கள் 