Revision as of 10:27, 25 June 2023

Parliament House

Sengol, the golden sceptre

Pushpa Narayan, May 25, 2023: The Times of India

Jawaharlal Nehru holding ‘sengol’ presented by Kumarswamy Thambiran, deputy pontiff of the Thiruvavaduthurai ‘adheenam’
From: Pushpa Narayan, May 25, 2023: The Times of India

Chennai: PM Narendra Modi will be following in the footsteps of India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru when he receives a golden sceptre (‘sengol’ in Tamil) at the inauguration of the new Parliament building on May 28.


Marking the transfer of power in 1947, Nehru received the ‘sengol’ from the deputy pontiff of the Thiruvavaduthurai ‘adheenam’. This time, pontiffs of 20 ‘adheenams’ (nonBrahmin Shaivite mutts in Tamil Nadu) will preside over the rituals. They will hand over the ‘sengol’ to Modi at 7. 20am after a 20-minute ‘homam’ or ‘havan’. Modi will then install it on a pedestal to the right of the Speaker’s chair.


“The ‘sengol’ represents values of fair and equitable governance,” said home minister Amit Shah. “It will shine near the Lok Sabha Speaker’s podium as a national symbol of ‘amrit kaal’, an era that will witness the new India taking its rightful place in the world. ”


In 1947, the ‘sengol’ was made on the advice of C Rajagopalachari, the last Governor General of India, when Nehru asked his cabinet how the transfer of power from the British should be marked. Rajaji referred to the ancient Chola custom of the ‘rajaguru’ handing over a sceptre to the king on his coronation. Madras jeweller Vummudi Bangaru Chetty was commissioned to make the ‘sengol’ in four weeks.

On August 14, Viceroy Mountbatten handed the sceptre over to the Tamil pontiffs who purified it and handed it over to Prime Minister Nehru at his home just before he left for Parliament House to deliver the historic “tryst with destiny” speech in the intervening night of August 14-15, 1947.

For decades, the sceptre was forgotten. It lay in a dusty box at the Allahabad Museum, wrongly labelled as a golden walking stick gifted to Nehru. This time, PM Modi will carry the sceptre in the new Parliament building, ac- companied by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and the pontiffs from Tamil Nadu.

Dignitaries and the mutt heads, including Thiruvavaduthurai ‘adheenam’ Sri La Sri Ambalavana Desika Paramacharya Swamigal, will stand in the Well of the House when the Prime Minister installs the sceptre on the specially designed pedestal.

At least 31 members of the ‘adheenams’ will leave Chennai for New Delhi in two batches on chartered flights. Ahead of the ceremony on May 28, Modi will honour them at his residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.

Details

Arun Janardhanan, May 27, 2023: The Indian Express

Up until 2018, the current generation in charge of Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers, a chain of jewellery stores in Chennai, was unaware of the part the family had played in the “transition” of power as India awoke to life and freedom on August 15, 1947.

The family was responsible for creating the Sengol (sceptre) — derived from the Tamil word semmai, meaning righteousness, according to an official document — that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during a ceremony held at his residence on the eve of India’s Independence.

With the Sengol now being celebrated as a symbol signifying the transition of power, senior members of the Vummidi family, including 97-year-old Vummidi Ethiraj, will be honoured at the opening of the new Parliament on Sunday. Ethiraj’s son Vummidi Udaykumar, 63, told The Indian Express that his father will travel to Delhi on Saturday to participate in the event. On Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have the Sengol installed in the Lok Sabha, near the Speaker’s podium. It will also be on display during significant national holidays.

Historical significance

Until a piece about the Sengol appeared in a Tamil magazine in 2018, the current generation of the Vummidi family had no idea about its historical significance.

Udaykumar said, “The article included a picture of the Sengol and gave our family credit for its creation. It mentioned my grandfather’s name, Vummidi Anjalelu Chetty, who passed away in the 1960s, and described my family as a traditional family of goldsmiths.”

After reading the article, Udaykumar said he asked his father about the Sengol. In 1947, Ethiraj, then 22, was a contributing member of the family businesses. However, his father could not recall any details.

“He said he couldn’t remember what he had done at the time but had a hazy memory of working on something similar. However, one of our relatives started looking for the Sengol and began contacting various agencies before he learned that the Allahabad Museum had something similar to what we were looking for,” Udaykumar said.

At the museum, the Sengol had been labelled as Nehru’s “golden walking stick”.

Arun Kumar, a member of the family’s marketing team, was sent to the Allahabad Museum. “At the museum, he was allowed to examine the Sengol closely. Based on the picture we already had from the magazine, Kumar was able to confirm that there were some Tamil letters on the Sengol. We verified that it was the same as what my father and grandfather made when India gained freedom,” said Udaykumar.

He added that the family wanted specifics of the Sengol to create a replica “to maintain at our home… That was the whole purpose of this search”. Around the same time, an R S S ideologue who is also a family friend became interested in the Sengol.

“S Gurumurthy’s Thuglak (a Tamil magazine) also published a piece on the Sengol around the same time. He began a parallel investigation to learn more about Sengol’s past. He was the one who contacted the Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam,” Udaykumar said.

The Adheenam, a Hindu mutt in Tamil Nadu, had commissioned Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers to create the Sengol, according to a Government of India website. To a query, a top source at the mutt said it was being run by Guru Mahasannidhanam Sri La Sri Ambalavana Desika Swami, the twentieth seer, at the time.

Special gesture

“We do not have the precise details on commissioning it or the cost incurred in its making, except to say that it was a special gift and a gesture we sent from Tamil Nadu during Independence, like similar gestures shown by states and kingdoms across India,” the source added.

According to the Vummidi family, as quoted on the government website, the Adheenam gave it the task of designing the Sengol. Made of gold-plated silver, about 10 gold craftspersons worked on it for 10-15 days, added the website.

After they managed to confirm that the Sengol was in Allahabad and Kumar returned with more information and pictures, Udaykumar said his father was able to recall a few more details.

“We sat with him once again. He remembered a little more after seeing Nandi (the divine bull) perched atop the Sengol. He said there were confusions about Nandi’s proportions and that they travelled all the way to Kumbakonam for references on Nandi before settling on the final design. He remembered that they used a design sent by the Adheenam for the Sengol,” Udaykumar said.

According to Ethiraj, said Udaykumar, the surmounted Nandi denotes stability and justice. Motifs like wheat and rice grains, indicating the prosperity of agriculture, and Goddess Lakshmi, representing wealth, were carved on the remaining parts of the Sengol. “My father said it was a symbolic statement — that the person who holds the Sengol will also possess all of these things,” he said.

He added that neither his father, nor documents with the family and the Adheenam had proof or information regarding the cost or material used in the creation of the Sengol.

“We don’t have this information. My father has no recollection of these specifics either. Our home, workshop and showroom were all located at the same location back then — on Govindappa Street in Sowcarpet. More than 25 people worked for us. My uncle was barely 12 years old at the time. So he was unable to recall any details. The only thing my family remembers is that before the Sengol was sent to Delhi, people came to see it,” Udaykumar said.

The sceptre is mentioned in an article on India’s independence in Time Magazine’s issue dated August 25, 1947. Under the subheading, ‘Blessing with Ashes’, the article states that even an agnostic like Nehru, as he was about to become India’s first Prime Minister, “fell into the religious spirit”.

The article, titled ‘INDIA: Oh Lovely Dawn’, vividly described how Sanyasis “from Tamil Nadu visited Nehru’s house on the eve of independence” and “sprinkled Nehru with holy water from Tanjore and drew a streak in sacred ash across Nehru’s forehead”. It added that the seer from Tamil Nadu gave Nehru the golden sceptre — described in the article as the “scepter of gold, five feet long, two inches thick” — after wrapping him in the pithambaram “(cloth of God), a costly silk fabric with patterns of golden thread”. Additionally, the article said he gave Nehru some cooked rice that had just been flown to Delhi after being offered that very morning to the dancing god Nataraja in south India.

Lack of documentary evidence

According to a document released by the government, when Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, asked Nehru if there was a ceremony that should be followed to symbolise the transfer of power from the British to the newly independent nation, the soon-to-be Prime Minister consulted C Rajagopalachari, the last Governor-General, who suggested a Chola dynasty tradition — where the transfer of power from one king to the other was sanctified and blessed by high priests.

“The symbol (for the transfer of power) used was the handover of the ‘Sengol’ from one King to his successor,” says the document.
 On Friday, Congress communications head tweeted there was no documented evidence of Lord Mountbatten, Rajagopalchari and Nehru describing the ‘Sengol’ as a symbol of the transfer of power by the British to India.

The government hit back, with Amit Shah asking why the party “hates Indian traditions and culture so much”.

“A sacred Sengol was given to Pandit Nehru by a holy Saivite Mutt from Tamil Nadu to symbolize India’s freedom but it was banished to a museum as a ‘walking stick’,” Shah tweeted. Srila Sri Ambalavana Desika Paramacharya Swamigal, the leader of the Thiruvaduthurai Aadheenam, admitted to the lack of documentary evidence to arrive at a specific conclusion either way.

“These are all the stories we have heard from old people… What we know is that a Sengol was presented by the Aadheenam to Nehru when India got Independence.”

The book, Freedom at Midnight, authored by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, mentions how Tamil seers handed over the Sengol to Nehru on the eve of Independence. The book vividly details their procession in a 1937-model Ford taxi through Delhi on the evening of August 14, which “came to a stop in front of a simple bungalow at 17 York Road,” Nehru’s residence between 1946 and 1948, before moving to Teen Murti House. The 17 York Road is now called Motilal Nehru Marg.

“As once Hindu holy men had conferred upon ancient India’s kings their symbols of power, so the sannyasin had come to York Road to bestow their antique emblems of authority on the man who was about to assume the leadership of a modern Indian nation,” says the book about Tamil seers meeting with Nehru at his residence.

The book also captures the moment when seers placed their sceptre in Nehru’s arms: “To the man who had never ceased to proclaim the horror the word ‘religion’ inspired in him, their rite was a tiresome manifestation of all he deplored in his nation. Yet he submitted to it with almost cheerful humility. It was almost as if that proud rationalist had instinctively understood that in the awesome tasks awaiting him no possible source of aid, not even the occult that he so scornfully dismissed, was to be totally ignored.”

Indian arts and crafts

Shiny Varghese, June 1, 2023: The Indian Express

The Samrasta installation is an amalgam of carved wooden printing blocks acquired from textile printers across the country and metal crafts from different areas, including tribal belts. (Photo- Dastakari Haat Samiti)
From: Shiny Varghese, June 1, 2023: The Indian Express

In the gallery, Kafeel’s metal-on-wood tree of life inlay work and his father’s block are part of the installation ‘Samrasta (diversity)’. (Photo- Dastakari Haat Samiti)
From: Shiny Varghese, June 1, 2023: The Indian Express

Block-carver Arshad Kafeel would never have imagined that his father’s wooden block of red sheesham would find a space in the new Parliament building. (Photo- Dastakari Haat Samiti)
From: Shiny Varghese, June 1, 2023: The Indian Express

Karigars at work on the installation. (Credit- Dastakari Haat Samiti)
From: Shiny Varghese, June 1, 2023: The Indian Express

Parv is a kavad installation that represents 10 Indian festivals through folk art, including Patachitra, Kalighat style, and papier-mâché tradition. (Photo- Dastakari Haat Samiti)
From: Shiny Varghese, June 1, 2023: The Indian Express

The journey continues to Varanasi, where the ‘Yatra’ installation stretches eight feet across the wall. (Photo- Dastakari Haat Samiti)
From: Shiny Varghese, June 1, 2023: The Indian Express

The Yatra artwork is a handwoven textile, almost 8 feet in length, that traces the ghats of Varanasi and showcases its weaving heritage in pure gold and silver zari. (Photo- Dastakari Haat Samiti)
From: Shiny Varghese, June 1, 2023: The Indian Express

The Aastha installation is a collection of terracotta and ceramic pottery moulded from the clay of 36 states and union territories. (Photo- Dastakari Haat Samiti)
From: Shiny Varghese, June 1, 2023: The Indian Express

While ‘Aastha’ could have gone down the road of prayer beads and symbols, Jaitly looked at soil as a metaphor for faith. (Photo- Dastakari Haat Samiti)
From: Shiny Varghese, June 1, 2023: The Indian Express

From a wooden block of red sheesham used by a family of block-print artisans in UP to an eight-foot-long representation of Varanasi made in pure silk, Parliament's Shilp Gallery is home to rare installations

How does one tell stories of a centuries-old journey? Of dye-stained hands and nimble fingers that speak of seasons, birth and life? How does one talk about faith through the nation’s soil? The answers to these have found their way into the Shilp Gallery of the new Parliament – home to eight rare installations by 300-odd workers and one of three such galleries dedicated to the arts.

While the Shilp Gallery, entry to which is from the old Lok Sabha side, is completed, the Sangeet gallery for the dance and music traditions of India and the Sthapatya gallery, dedicated to the country’s architectural heritage, are works in progress.

In the gallery, Kafeel’s metal-on-wood tree of life inlay work and his father’s block are part of the installation ‘Samrasta (diversity)’. “Hum ne kabhi nahi socha ki hamara kaam ek din Sansad mein hoga. Ek karigar akele nahi pahunch pata (I had never imagined that our work would be in Parliament one day. One worker wouldn’t have been able to make it on his own),” says the 50-year-old.

From using traditional forms of storytelling such as the kavad to showcase the festivals of India, or calligraphy to present the different scripts of India through poems, sayings and shloka, to block art such as Kafeel’s, the gallery is a rich layering of India’s numerous crafts.

“It was exciting to have craft given such an important place. It was a way to showcase all that we have as a country,” says Jaya Jaitly, president-founder, Dastkari Haat Samiti, who has brought together eight installations under themes that were given by the Ministry of Culture. These include — Gyan (knowledge), Prakriti (nature), Aastha (faith), Ullas (happiness), Parv (celebration), Swavlamban (self-reliance) and Yatra (journey).

Jaitly, who has been travelling for four decades across the country, working with different handicraft groups and artisans, brings her creative expertise to this gallery. On her team were over 300 craftspeople, and the Delhi-based design firm Abaxial, helmed by principal architect Suparna Bhalla.

The ‘Prakriti’ installation by Mathura-based Manoj Kumar Verma, a fourth-generation Sanjhi artist, is themed on the harmony among man, nature, bird and beast and goes beyond an art form that was once only seen in temples.

“Wherever we go, we absorb everything we see – trees, plants, birds and when we sit with our art, they all come alive. I must confess what I see, what I think and finally what emerges on paper is very different, the hand moves differently,” says the 52-year-old. In the fine filigree work, one finds a tiger lurking, and mango, peepal and kadam trees, peacocks, even a procession.

The journey continues to Varanasi, where the ‘Yatra’ installation stretches eight feet across the wall. Handwoven in pure satin silk with pure silver and gold zari, the silhouette of the riverfront of one of India’s oldest cities comes alive. The journey, from the left of the piece, begins at Ganga Mahal Ghat, an extension of Assi Ghat, and moves to Raj Ghat. The artisans first photographed each of the ghats before drawing the blueprint for the loom.

“It is the single largest weave of its kind ever,” says Bhalla, of the work that took over 42,000 jacquard punch cards to be woven into a single piece. “You can match the skyline with what’s on the ground, they have replicated every building, including a tilted temple, on the woven fabric. To me, that signifies the imperfections that something handmade allows. Craft is about accepting us with all our flaws and that is the beauty of this. Likewise, in the ‘Samrasta’ installation, we asked artisans from different parts of the country to give us blocks they used. We didn’t want new blocks, pristine polished ones. It had to tell the story of their fathers and their grandfathers, their mothers, their families. The point of wood itself has to do with age and civilisation. We wanted that legacy and heritage represented. Its patterns such as these that make our country,” says Bhalla.

Jaitly affirms, “The idea was that the old building blocks make a new India.”

While ‘Aastha’ could have gone down the road of prayer beads and symbols, Jaitly looked at soil as a metaphor for faith. “When students return from their studies abroad, they apply the desh ki mitti on their foreheads. It’s a way of saying that the soil of one’s country is what we should have faith in. So we got mitti from every state. Some states don’t have pottery as a traditional craft, so army officers, civil aviation officers, friends send us soil from river beds,” she says. There’s soil from Andaman jail, riverbeds in Meghalaya, sands of Daman and Diu, even a teapot from a Ladakh potter’s family, halfway up a hill.

Ajrakhpur artisan Juned Ismail Khatri’s craft is 10 generations old. “My ancestors worked with natural dyes and over the years, chemicals came into the market. It’s only during my grandfather’s time that we went back to natural dye. Prepared over a 20-step process, each ajrakh fabric is unique, based on how the climate works on the dye. Our installation is called ‘Swavalamban’, which means self-reliance or resilience. What better way to show this idea than through the khadi we print on and the patterns we make,” he says.

What was most rewarding about working on this project? “To have guards and labourers on the construction site come up to see the work. They would look for a representation of their own region in the installations and tell us, “Yeh tho hamare yahan ka hai (this is from our place),” says Bhalla.

A sparkling building

Salient features of the 2023 building

May 29, 2023: The Times of India

The Constitution Hall of new Parliament has a touch of modernity as it also houses a Foucault's Pendulum to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. The pendulum hangs from a large skylight from the triangular roof of the Constitution Hall and signifies the idea of India with that of the universe
From: May 29, 2023: The Times of India

Statues at the six entry-exit points or dwars in the new Parliament building have been inspired by ancient sculptures. While the two elephants made of stone at Gaj Dwar, which the Prime Minister used to enter the building for inauguration, has been inspired by statues at Madhukeshwara temple at Banavasi in Karnataka dating back to 9th century CE, the Ashwa Dwar has got two statues of horses inspired by the sculptures at Sun temple in Odisha of 13th century CE. 
The statues at three other dwars — Shardula, Hamsa and Makara — are inspired by sculptures from Gujri Mahal at Gwalior, Vijay Vithala temple at Hampi and Hoysaleswara temple in Karnataka.


The remaining Garuda dwar dons the statues of mount (vahana) of Vishnu have been inspired by 18th century CE Nayaka period sculpture of Tamil Nadu. 


Epitome of India’s diversity


The PM highlighted how the new building has accommodated the vast diversity of the country. The interior of the Rajya Sabha is based on the national flower lotus. National tree, banyan, is also there on the premises of the Parliament. Granite and sandstone brought from Rajasthan have been used. The wood work are from Maharashtra. The artisans of Bhadohi in UP have hand woven the carpets. In a way, we will see the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat’ in every particle of this building, the PM said. 


Chits & letters keep Shah busy


Home minister Amit Shah was a busy man even while seated inside the Lok Sabha Hall of the new Parliament building for the inaugural function. Sharing the seat with Nitin Gadkari, Shah was seen receiving chits and letters frequently and twice he was helped by Gadkari to take the epistles being carried by the security staff. 


Harivansh scores a hat-trick


Deputy chairman of the RS Harivansh, seated along with PM Modi and Speaker Om Birla on the dais, was a busy man. Other than receiving the PM along with Birla, he spoke thrice. . . apart from his own speech, he also read the messages of President Droupadi Murmu and VP Jagdeep Dhankhar. A former journo, Harivansh was best at modulations as he could be seen assertive when he read references about why PM has rightly inaugurated the new building as the Prez and the VP had mentioned in their messages. 


Pendulum shows ties with universe


One of the biggest attractions in the new building is Foucault’s Pendulum, which hangs from a large skylight in the triangular roof of the Constitution Hall and signifies the relation of India with that of the universe. The pendulum and its relative rotation is proof of the rotation of the earth around its axis. At the latitude of the Parliament, it takes 49 hours, 59 minutes and 18 seconds for the pendulum to complete one rotation, as per the details displayed at the installation. It has been designed and installed by the National Council of Science Museums. 



 PM’s gracious welcome to Gowda


Special references to the presence of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda were made during the inaugural ceremony. Even the PM was seen gracious to him when he went to the different rows to greet the attendees. While Deve Gowda himself was there, so was AP CM Jagan and Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh. Naveen Patnaik, however, had deputed his party leaders Sambit Patra and Bhratruhari Mehtab, who were present at the function. 


Yogi obliges ‘fans’ with selfies


Prime Minister Modi was the centre of attraction and received a thunderous welcome on arrival for the inauguration ceremony. However, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath was seen surrounded by lawmakers for selfies, group photos and a few touching his feet to seek his blessings. Seated in the front row, as were the other chief ministers, a composed Yogi obliged them all and was also seen sharing lighter moments with a few of them, one being BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi. 


Easy entry, but exit for vehicles tough


Contrary to apprehensions regarding traffic restrictions, movement of labelled vehicles was smooth and one could reach easily up to the entrance gate, which still is the same that of the old building. However, post ceremony, most of the MPs and ministers had long waits for their respective cars


IT-savvy, but rich in culture too


Making the new Parliament building technology -savvy even for visitors, the government has put QR codes at all gates, galleries and installations, enabling people to get the details on their phone in seconds. There are three sections for exhibitions on the ground floor — Sangeet Dirgha (Indian classical music and instruments), Sthapatya Dirgha (rich heritage of Indian architecture), which exhibits the achitecture of Unesco and Archeological Surbey of India monuments, and crafts from across India made by 400 artisans (Shilpa Dirgha). In the central foyer, a massive 75-ft long artwork ‘Manthan’ is on display and there is a ‘People’s Wall’ displaying the folk art painting from across the country.