Buddhist Gems 77

[Dharmadeva]

Now let us discuss Digha. Previously Digha was known as "Diirghaka" --
diirgha means "long" and ka means "land" -- then it became "Diirgha'"
and today it is "Digha". Ramnagar, a town near Digha, was named after
Ramnarayan Hata, the last maharaja of Midnapore district. Ka'nthi then
became the district headquarters. The British moved their headquarters
to Ka'nthi after a large storm engulfed Ramnagar, but they changed the
name Ka'nthi to Contai as there was another district headquarters with
a similar sounding name. The area around Digha used to be
predominantly Buddhist.

The beach at Digha is the broadest in the world. Throughout Digha
district along the seashore, there should be large-scale afforestation
of samudric jhau trees to check oceanic storms. If these storms are
checked, many types of plants can be grown successfully. Coconut grows
especially well. If you travel by car about five kilometres west of
Digha, there are dense forests along the coast. However, there is no
stone retaining walls on the beach to stop the encroachment of sea.
Approximately every seven years large storms come and wash away the
trees, which is why many of the trees do not get a chance to grow very
tall. If the trees are not replanted along the beach and no retaining
walls are constructed, there will be much erosion and the intensity of
the storms will not be checked.

P R Sarkar
10 February 1989, Calcutta
PROUTIST ECONOMICS
SOME DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMMES FOR BENGAL

---

Shiva was born about seven thousand years ago -- about eight thousand
years after the beginning of the composition of the Rgveda, that is,
during the last part of the Rgvedic Age and the first part of the
Yajurvedic Age. The civilization we see in the age of the Rgveda may
be considered as pre-Shiva, and the civilization we find in the days
of the Yajurveda as post-Shiva. From what we observe in the early and
medieval periods of the Rgveda, we can conclude that a well-regulated
social order was not yet evolved. Social life was not at all
systematized. The matriarchal social system was in decline, giving way
to the patriarchal system. Under the patriarchal social system, the
patrilineal order and the patriarchal system function side by side.
But in those days no fixed tradition had evolved. For instance, the
matrilineal order persisted until the days of Buddha and Mahavir Jain
-- about 2500 years ago. At the time of Shiva, the matriarchal system
was not very popular, but the matrilineal order was in full force. The
existence of the patriarchal system naturally presupposes the
existence of the patrilineal order, and to evolve a patrilineal order,
the fathers must be identified in the society.

This is how the patrilineal order evolved: Each community used to live
on a hill, and that hill was named after the head-man, or the
patriarch, of the hill. The days of the matriarch were already past,
and in those days, the patriarchs were the heads of the groups. In
Sanskrit, a hill is called a gotra. A particular community of people
used to live on a hill, and a particular rs'i [sage] used to be the
acknowledged father or leader of that community, just as the
gotrama'ta', the clan-mother, had been in the matriarchal age. For
instance, there was a rs'i named Mahars'i Ka'shyapa living on one
hill; naturally that hill was named after him. Another rs'i, say
Mahars'i Bharadva'ja, might be living on another hill; that hill would
be named after him. This is how the system of determining one's gotra
[clan] evolved. In each case, a particular sage or patriarch was the
head of a gotra; this is how the patriarchal system functioned. The
matriarchal system had already ended, but the matrilineal order
persisted after that, until the time of Buddha, as I have said
earlier.

Shrii Shrii Anandamurti
SHIVA -- BOTH SEVERE AND TENDER
DISCOURSE 2
NAMAH SHIVA'YA SHANTA'YA

18 April 1982, Calcutta