Gauri Lankesh originally wrote this report which was published in the web portal Bangalore Mirror on February 29, 2016.

Gauri Lankesh originally wrote this report which was published in the web portal Bangalore Mirror on February 29, 2016.

 A Daitya or a great benevolent Dravidian ruler, who protected his people from the marauding-killing Aryans.

 Mahishasur is the name of such a personality, who easily attracts people towards himself.  Mysore is named after him.  Although Hindu myths portray him as a demon, justifying his killing by Chamundi, folklore tells a completely different story.  Even B.  R.  Revolutionary thinkers like Ambedkar and Jyoti Rao Phule also see Mahishasura as a great benevolent Dravidian ruler who protected his people from the marauding-killing Aryans (Suras).

 Historian Vijay Mahesh says that the word ‘Mahi’ means a person who ‘establishes peace in the world’.  Like the kings of most countries, Mahishasura was not only a learned and powerful king, but he also had 177 wise advisors.  His kingdom was rich in natural resources.  There was no place for destructive religious rituals like Homa or Yagya in his kingdom.  No one could arbitrarily kill animals indiscriminately for food, pleasure or religious ritual.  The biggest thing was that in his kingdom no one was allowed to live a useless life.  No tree could be cut arbitrarily in his kingdom.  He had appointed a lot of people to stop the trees from being cut.

 Vijay claims that the people of Mahishasura were experts in metal casting techniques.

Similar opinion was expressed by another historian M.L.  Shendaj reveals, she says that “Historian Vincent A. Smith says in his history book that tools were used in India during the Copper Age and in the historical Bronze Age.  During the time of Mahishasura, people from all over the country used to come to his kingdom to buy weapons.  These weapons were made of very high quality metals.  According to folklore, Mahishasura knew the medicinal properties of various plants and trees and he personally used them for the health of his people.

 Why and how was such a good and illustrious king turned into a villain?  In this context, writer and researcher of subaltern culture Yogesh Master says that “to understand this, one has to understand the conflict between the cultures of Suras and Asuras”.  He says that “As everyone knows that the Asuras had a very large number of buffaloes in the kingdom of Mahisha.  Chamundi of the Aryans belonged to the culture whose basic wealth was cows.  When these two cultures clashed, Mahishasura was defeated and his people were driven away from the region”.

Karnataka was not only ruled by Mahishasura, but there were many other Asura rulers in this state.  Explaining this, Vijay says that “In 1926, the University of Mysore published a booklet for the Indian Economic Conference, in which it was said that there were many strongholds of the Asura chieftains in the state of Karnataka.  For example, Guhasur ruled from his capital Harihar.  Hidimbasura ruled over Chitradurga and its surrounding areas.  Bakasura was the king of Ramanagara.  Everyone knows that Mahishasura was the king of Mysore.  All these facts show that before the arrival of the Aryans, this beyond area was ruled by the indigenous Asuras.  The Aryans captured their kingdom”.

 Ambedkar has also strongly refuted the portrayal in Brahmanical myths that Asuras were demons.  Baba Saheb Ambedkar emphasizes in one of his essays that “It is completely wrong to portray the demons in Mahabharata and Ramayana in such a way that they were not members of human society.  “Asuras were members of human society”.

Ambedkar ridicules the Brahmins for presenting their gods as a bunch of pathetic cowards.  They say that all the Hindu myths tell us that the demons were not killed by Vishnu or Shiva, but by the goddesses.  If Durga (or Chamundi in Karnataka context) killed Mahishasura, Kali killed Narakasura.  Whereas the demon brothers Shumbha and Nishumba were killed at the hands of Durga.  Vanasura was killed by Kanyakumari.  Another demon Raktabeej was killed by Goddess Shakti.  Dr. Ambedkar says with disdain that “It seems that God could not protect himself from the hands of demons, so he sent his wives to save himself”.

 After all, what was the reason that the Suras (gods) always sent their women to kill the Asura kings.  Explaining the reasons for this, Vijay explains that “The gods knew very well that the demon king would never take up his weapons against women.  Most of these women have murdered the demon kings in a fraudulent manner.  To hide their shame, the story of these killer wives of Gods having ten hands, amazing weapons etc. was created.

Moving away from these stories, which are good for drama but seem impossible, we can see the truth of how the Brahminist class distorted the history of the indigenous people.  Their aim in distorting history in this way was to fulfill their selfish interests.

 Not only in Bengal or Jharkhand, but there are some communities living around Mysore too, who blame Chamundi for the murder of their great liberal king.  Some of them pray for the soul of Mahishasura during Dussehra.  As Srinivas, the chief priest of the Chamundeshwari temple, told me, “Some people from Tamil Nadu come twice a year and worship the idol of Mahishasura”.

 For the last two years Asur has become an issue of anger in the entire country.  If the tribal people of West Bengal are holding massive meetings to discuss Asur culture, festivals around the Asur theme are being organized on the campuses of various universities in the country.  Last year, students of Osmania University and Kakatiya University had celebrated ‘Narkasur Day’.

Since the Mahishasur Utsav of JNU students was given such nationwide popularity by the (then) Human Resources Minister, I am not going into its details.

 How to explain the increasing attraction of people towards Mahishasura and other demons?  Should we get rid of it by just saying that a myth is not history, even folklore cannot be a document of our past.  Vijay explains it accurately and says that “Manuwadis distorted the rich cultural history of Bahujans as per their wish.  We will have to dust off this history, expose the mythological lies and tell the truth to our people and our children.  This is the only path on which we can become claimants of our true history.  The increasing attraction of people towards Mahishasura and other demons shows that this is what is actually happening.

 Jai Native!!