The origin taboo (tappu) of crossing the seas

[Vichitra Thandava]

What is the scriptural origin, support, and date of effect when this taboo came into being? 

Could you please elaborate? 

Below is a video on this from a guy but it is very superficial. Clearly Indians, including dharma rakshaka Indians had been crossing the seas west, east, and south for millenia, and even establishing temples across. 

Even Rama did, per the Ramayana. So was Kunti taken on a tour around the globe, per thr Mahabharata. 

I would greatly appreciate a discussion on this with scriptural support. 

https://youtu.be/wRvK61JiUvE?si=ux9Pja_-1mC_uino 

[Abhishek Mehta]

There is no such injunction in any dharmashastras or any dharmasutras that forbid crossing of seas in any precise way. The one that is quoted frequently is Baudhayana Dharmasutra which I SS below 

समुद्रसंयानम् is the sutra here that is one of the many पतनीयम् which is often translated as 'sea voyaging' with संयानम् referring to the 'voyaging'. But संयानम् can also means burial as can be checked from dictionaries. So it is not explicitly evident that Baudhayana Dharmasutra is referring to only 'sea voyaging'. And even if one wishes to insist on समुद्रसंयानम् to mean 'sea voyaging' then what about आकाशसंयानम् i.e. sky voyaging? Is that also forbidden? And if so, according to which Dharmasutra? And आकाशसंयानम् is a very common and in fact the most preferred means of travel in the Hindu scriptures. The existence of fragments of vaimanika shastra, reference to vimanas  and even yogic flight in our texts allude to that. In the Adiparva of the Mahabharata, Kadru and Vinita crossed oceans to reach a different land for vacationing via the skies as well.

So all-in-all, this aversion to sea voyage is a just a corruption inherited due to collective  trauma of colonization and invasion. Something that can be fixed by taking refuge of scriptures in general.

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[Vichitra Thandava]

Thank you! 

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[Hemant Dave]

Something from my notes may be helpful:

‘samudrasaṁyāna’, has been explained by Govindasvami as ‘dvīpāntaragamana’.

Gandhi ji had to do prayashchitta for crossing the sea at Nasik before he went home. This has been written at some length by him in his autobiography.

The crossing of the sea and subsequent prayashchitta seems to be a complicated issue (for a limited discussion, see Pearson 1981, chapter 6, Indian Seafarers in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 116–144; Varadrajan 1983 is unhelpful; also see, Casa 1997; Arp 2000). For while we have numerous incidents of ostracising persons for committing this ‘sin’ (Gandhi’s being one of them), we also have indubitable evidence of high-caste Hindus, including the Brahmins, not only crossing the sea but also of establishing colonies abroad and living there (cf. for example Mehta 2001; for Brahmins, ibid., p. 1741).

References:

Arp, Susmita. 2000. Kālāpāni: zum Streit über die Zulässigkeit von Seereisen im kolonialzeitlichen Indien. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.

Casa, Carlo Della. 1997. Un kalivarjya anomalo e discusso: il viaggio per mare. In Siegfried Leinhard and Irma Piovano (ed.), Lex et Litterae: Studies in Honour of Professor Oscar Botto. Torino: Orso.

Mehta, Makrand. 2001. Gujarati business communities in East African diaspora: major historical trends. EPW 36 (20): 1738–1747.

Pearson, M. N. 1981/2004. Coastal Western India: Studies from the Portuguese Records. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Co.

Varadrajan, Lotika. 1983. Indian seafaring: the precept and reality of Kalivarjya. The Great Circle 5 (1): 1–12.

With best wishes,

Hemant Dave

Hemant Dave, Ph.D. (Pune)

Professor

Department of History

Sardar Patel University

Vallabh Vidyanagar 

Gujarat – 388120

India

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them..."

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[Abhishek Mehta]

Can you share any link to the text dvīpāntaragamana which you mention here?

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[Vichitra Thandava]

Here's something still in practice today to consider.

Those privileged otherwise to be able to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the Tirumala temple today, that is, inside the so-called Kulashekara step, cannot do so if they have been overseas. This includes priests.

It might be that an honor code is practiced today, but none the less, the injunction against crossing the seas by sea or air is still in place for entry into the sanctum sanctorum. 

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[V Subrahmanian]

Namaste

I am not sure whether the following is in any way related to the topic being discussed in this thread. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.10 is this passage:

सा वा एषा देवतैतासां देवतानां पाप्मानं मृत्युमपहत्य यत्रासां दिशामन्तस्तद्गमयाञ्चकार तदासां पाप्मनो विन्यदधात्तस्मान्न जनमियान्नान्तमियान्नेत्पाप्मानं मृत्युमन्ववायानीति ॥ १० ॥ 

The translation by Swami Madhavananda is: 

The commentary of Shankaracharya is: Only the relevant part is given here:"

 ननु नास्ति दिशामन्तः, कथमन्तं गमितवानिति ; उच्यते — श्रौतविज्ञानवज्जनावधिनिमित्तकल्पितत्वाद्दिशां तद्विरोधिजनाध्युषित एव देशो दिशामन्तः, देशान्तोऽरण्यमिति यद्वत् ; इत्यदोषः । तत्तत्र गमयित्वा, आसां देवतानाम् , पाप्मन इति द्वितीयाबहुवचनम् , विन्यदधात् विविधं न्यग्भावेनादधात्स्थापितवती, प्राणदेवता ; प्राणात्माभिमानशून्येष्वन्त्यजनेष्विति सामर्थ्यात् ; इन्द्रियसंसर्गजो हि स इति प्राण्याश्रयतावगम्यते । तस्मात्तमन्त्यं जनम् , नेयात् न गच्छेत् सम्भाषणदर्शनादिभिर्न संसृजेत् ; तत्संसर्गे पाप्मना संसर्गः कृतः स्यात् ; पाप्माश्रयो हि सः ; तज्जननिवासं चान्तं दिगन्तशब्दवाच्यम् , नेयात् — जनशून्यमपि, जनमपि तद्देशवियुक्तम् , इत्यभिप्रायः । नेदिति परिभयार्थे निपातः ; इत्थं जनसंसर्गे, पाप्मानं मृत्युम् , अन्ववायानीति — अनु अव अयानीति अनुगच्छेयमिति ; एवं भीतो न जनमन्तं चेयादिति पूर्वेण सम्बन्धः ॥

In the gloss, Sri Anandagiri says: 

 

भवतु यथोक्तो दिशामन्तस्तथा च पाप्मसंसर्गोऽस्तु तथाऽपि किमायातमित्याशङ्क्य तस्य शिष्टैस्त्याज्यत्वमित्याह —

 

तस्मादिति ।

 

निषेधद्वयस्य तात्पर्यमाह —

 

जनशून्यमपीति ।

 

प्राणोपास्तिप्रकरणे निषेधश्रुतेस्तदुपासकेनैवायं निषेधोऽनुष्ठेयो न सर्वैरित्याशङ्क्याऽऽह —

 

नेदित्यादिना ।

 

इत्थं श्रुत्युक्तं निषेधं न चेदहं कुर्यां ततः पाप्मानमनुगच्छेयं निषेधातिक्रमादिति सर्वस्य भयं जायते न प्राणोपासकस्यैव । अतः सर्वोऽपि पापाद्भीतो नोभयं गच्छेद्वाक्यं हि प्रकरणाद्बलवदित्यर्थः ॥१०॥

The translation is given here:



  

warm regards

subrahmanian.v

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[Abhishek Mehta]

I think it's safe to say that it's a made-up practice that has no basis in the shastras. People have been making up temple restrictions, the most well-known being ban on shudras or lower caste into temples for quite some time. And gods punish shastric imprecision heavily as can be understood from the very same temple quite recently suffered with animal-based ingredients ending up into their prasadam. 

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[Vichitra Thandava]

This is more in line with the interpretations and related injunctions, of people from Vedic lands versus lands that were Vedic once that became outside its pale that are, for example, in the Manu Smriti. 

Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya (of Benaras)'s published commentary on the Manu Smriti is consistent with this interpretation. Wherein, he defined a "shudra" per the Manu Smriti as one is aware of the existence of Brahma Gyan but chooses to indulge instead only in sensory and illusory pleasures - and that such a person should not even be taught the Veda. 

When you tie this with the compensatory purification rituals for the ones who crossed the seas and returned to Vedic lands, as opposed to their outright excommunication or as outcasts or as Mlecchas, suggests that the risk is one of "pollution" and it's potential mitigation. These purification rituals perhaps became preferred to excommunication because those who may have crossed the seas when these rituals were started were perhaps well to do or had important positions in society, and where the mitigation was for the possible pollution risk as opposed to known or proven defilement, for example. 

I heard a story from a credible journalist and respected newspaper owner that the garbage handler community in Chennai, for example, were fallen Rajputs, who migrated south after they lost their lands and after enduring persecution. As is well documented, forcing people to eat beef was a definitive way to quickly "pollute", a practice followed by Christian and Islamist missionaries to this date to convert a person from the Hindu fold. 

The nature of these pollutions was not considered just physical, but karmic, which apparently can be transmitted by touch, or even in close proximity or company (sangat). The story of Adi Shankara and the untouchable at a bathing ghat is a case in point. 

The Buddhists did not seem to have had this belief. Because there was also a rejection of the Veda itself. 

In the end, these were likely societal adjustment mechanisms in a society that had lost its deterministic right to select or even participate in polity, did not have any official patronage or even the right to practice it's ways, and clearly struggled to reconcile its core knowledge (as opposed to belief) with the blind beliefs of the other in direct contradiction to that knowledge. How can any society escape the now apparent distortions that resulted? 

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