Strange Gods Of India (1940s)

[Music] PA a [Music] India land of ancient Mysteries where strange gods and Mystic religions hold sway over hundreds of millions of people as our fifth chapter begins we find the thorw Expedition rolling toward the coast of Southern India the thorw motor Caravan consisted of a scout car and Camera trailer a big thir foot trailer in which Mr and Mrs thaw traveled and lived and three trucks to carry all their camping equipment and supplies and now to tell us the story we'll turn the picture over to the organizer of this unusual Expedition Mr Lawrence cople Thor thank you at this point in our trip we were headed toward the famous island of silan this island is a Crown C of Great Britain with an area of about 25,000 square miles today the population is some 6 million people but deep in the salon jungles lie mystifying ruins that tell a story of far greater population and an amazing ancient civilization that has long since vanished away at the Sea Coast we loaded our eclip board for a Crossing to the island the trip was uneventful and soon we were entering the beautiful Harbor of Columbo zon's modern Capital Columbo Ching Cross of the East for this is one of the great Crossroads of the Orient one of the busiest trading centers of the Indian Ocean here before the war you could see ships from almost every nation in the world none of them more fascinating than these strange sailing ships called bugaloos The Mysterious looking craft seem to belong to a bygone age of Adventure and romance yet they still crowd the warm Blue Waters of the Harbor and ply their trade in fish and spices with the smaller Islands to the South salon and Tropical Islands where everything is picturesque from the Rick Shaws on the streets and the lighthouse in Columbo which strangely enough is in the middle of the city to the many beautiful roads that intersect the country on this one an impressive Avenue of Royal Palms we headed toward Candi the former capital of the island we passed gigantic trees arching around almost smothered by gorgeous flowering Vines orchids by the thousands but their weight in gold others common enough to make garlands for children but all beautiful Nature's loveliest and most Exquisite parasites to drive through the island of Salon is to relax completely to its charm the Sun is bright the people are friendly and nature is in her most prolific mood one catches fascinating glimpses of native life and Industry this one is on a Tea Plantation the Hindu girls with their silver nose plugs and their richly colored garments are busy stripping the leaves from the plants the young tender leaves are used for the finer grades of tea the older coarser ones go into cheaper Brands tillon tea is famous the world over for its delicacy of flavor it is from here that the late Sir Thomas Lipton derived much of his wealth for in normal times the tea exported from this one Island alone totals more than2 200 million pounds a year we passed Groves of tall cocoa Palms where barefooted natives agile as monkeys climb the naked trunks to gather the Coconuts afterward the thick fibrous outer husks of the Coconuts are removed you'd think they would find some better and safer way to do it but using these dangerous looking spikes seems to be the accepted method and believe me these natives are experts if they weren't they wouldn't be here now splitting the nuts open takes good nerves too and a good aim after the coconut meat is dried in the sun it's called cpra and it's shipped all over the world to make coconut oil used in soap and cosmetics the natives of silon are devoutly religious here at Candi on the beautiful candy lake is the famed Temple of the tooth dedicated to the great spiritual leader Buddha according to tradition the sacred tooth of Buddha was brought from India to saland by a beautiful princess a thousand years ago the most sacred Relic in the Buddhist religion it is kept here in the temple hidden from the eyes of man enthroned on a Golden Lotus Flower hidden under seven metal shrines each one covered with Priceless gems these are the elephants belonging to the temple just now the big boys are off duty and reving in their daily bath they are used in sessions especially the important one in August when the sacred tooth is brought out to be shown to the adoring populace and here's an old pensioned movie actor that many of you have seen before he was sabu's elephant in the film Elephant Boy remember one of our most unforgettable experiences in Salon was the witnessing of a temple dance done by men who have dedicated their lives to the perfecting of these bizarre intricate steps to our Western eyes the movement are weird fantastic we can see only the Rhythm the clocklike teamwork and the picturesque costumes but to Native audiences these dances are stories of ancient times clearly told using gestures instead of words it's like a de mute sign language with a movement for every necessary thought and action this particular dance is accompanied by drums the drummers themselves taking part in the pantomine Beyond candy and the north central part of the island are the famous buried cities of zilan among them anuradapura and poan arua here shrouded in baffling mystery lie the ruins of cities which 2,000 years ago had a far greater population than New York and London have today for Endless miles Through the Jungle one comes upon amazing evidences of a great civilization that has vanished like a strange fleeting dream ruins of bathing tanks buildings temples statues and shrines there are hundreds of these round inverted bow likee structures called dagobas each of them built to house some precious relic of Buddha or one of his disciples some are tiny 2 or 3T in height some enormous this one at panua built a years ago is 100 ft High close beside it are the ruins of a much more Ancient Temple ruthless now and with cracked walls where an ancient statue of Buddha still receives the homage of the infrequent passers by this Temple is70 ft long and the great statue now headless was originally 45 ft High nearby carved from the solid rock of a cliff is a gigantic statue of Anand who was Buddha's favorite and most loyal disciples venerated almost as much as the great leader himself sculptures of ancient times never wearied of carving likenesses of Buddha this massive reclining Buddha was never under a temple roof but was worshiped like this under the sun and the moon and the stars it is held in special reverence by the natives who say that a white man on a hunting trip once took a rifle shot at the sleeping Stone face and two days later was trampled to death by an elephant in punishment for his irreverent deed even more remarkable are the Buddhas in the caves of anura which still glisten with their original color dating back almost to the birth of Christ every traditional posture of Buddha has its own meaning and they are all depicted here reclining standing as a teacher seated in holy meditation the people of Salon today are as devout religious as they were in the days of old these natives of anura still make their offerings to Buddha at the foot of the Sacred bow tree more than 2,000 years old which was grown from a cutting of the original bow tree under which Buddha himself sat and received his Enlightenment worshippers come here from all parts of India to pray and then reverently to place flowers and fragrant Petals on the large Stone altar this spot is as holy to them as Mecca to the muhammadans or Rome home to those of the Catholic faith the tree makes it a living Shrine to Lord Buddha who lived six centuries before the beginning of our own Christian era but Buddhism is only one of the many Cults and religions in this strangely Mystic land back in South India again we stopped at Madura to visit an enormous Hindu temple sacred to the worship of Shiva the God who creates and destroys and Baki called The fish-eyed Goddess the Guardians of the Temple take no Chances with unbelievers a sign States the rules for entrance no boots shoes or hats if you want to know how many worshippers there are inside all you have to do is just count the shoes outside the huge Temple enclosure is flanked by nine of these impressive Towers called gopurams built of solid Stone they have stood for centuries the Hindu faith has separated its followers into casts or different social levels from the highest the Brahma priests to the lowest so low that they are called Untouchables their religion is a complicated Faith built around many strange deities and mythological characters and here on the inside walls of the temple are thousands of painted panels that tell the stories of Hindu mythology notice the sacred cows in this picture sacred because the Hindu god Brahma is said to have come to this earth riding on a bull even today they are so deeply revered that they may wander the streets of modern cities absolutely unmolested to injure one of these animals would be an unthinkable crime and cattle are not the only animals held in reverence by this peculiar Oriental Faith here in the garden Temple are monkeys sacred to the god Hanuman Hanuman according to Hindu mythology was the king of the monkey people in ancient times and rendered great service to the hero God drama ever since monkeys have been considered symbolical of Faithful Servants the faithful Hindus themselves may go hungry but every day the monkeys are tenderly fed and cared for by the attendants of the temple there are many holy places in India to which long pilgrimages are made and the development of cheap Railway travel has made it possible for millions of natives to visit sacred spots they might otherwise never see aboard the train all casts and religions must mingle together Buddhists mohammadans brahmins Untouchables but on the station platform there are separate drinking boo with water for musl or muhammadans on one side and water for Hindus on the other side here the attendant pours water from a mug into the cued hands of thirsty Hindu customers the lips must not touch the vessel there would be contamination I forget just who would contaminate which but anyway it would never never do one of the great pilgrimages of India is that of the James and other religious cult whose devotes come from all over the country to this Rocky Shrine for a ceremony which takes place only once every 15 years hundreds of thousands of pilgrims climb this naked Granite Hill to worship a colossal statue of Gata a saint of the Jan cult there are agred steps leading to the top and they must be ascended Barefoot a closeup of the climbing pilgrims as seen from the side is fascinating a kaleidoscope of colorful garments bare Brown feet adorned with to rings and anklets and circlets of heavy silver those too old are sick to make the Steep ENT by themselves are carried in sedan chairs but most of the pilgrims come on foot tens of thousands of them even mothers with their tiny children climb the long tedious Hill for the sake of worshiping at the foot of this great statue to symbolize the deepness of goat's meditation his complete Detachment from the world his statue shows the vines of the Jungle growing unheated around his arms and legs at the foot of the enormous statue dwarfed to insignificance the pilgrims crowd around the priest with offerings of milk and honey and rice and each one pours a libation of oil into the sacred fire each Pilgrim brings whatever he or she can afford perhaps a crystal flas Sandalwood oil or or perhaps only a Garland of freshly plucked wild flowers for 2 weeks an endless stream of worshippers clusters around the great Stone feet of the idol black with the fires of centuries and then the priests will climb the high scaffolding to anoint the face which gazes over the countryside with a calmness of Perpetual meditation here in the state of myor we were invited to be guests of His Highness the Maharaja we were given the use of the luxurious sted guest house while our Caravan was parked outside the Maharaja was going to pay us a personal visit and our Caravan was put in apple pie order for his inspection after more than 20,000 miles of travel with a complete lubrication job every Thousand Miles our trailer and trucks were in perfect condition our Hindu boys were very proud of their ability to follow exactly the verified esto lubrication chart which we had for each vehicle and to use all of the dozen or so different kinds of lubricants specified for proper lubrication of all the parts they did as careful a job as our regular so dealer back home in America after His Highness the Maharaja of myor had visited us in our guest house he inspected our Caravan with Keen interest it is with the deepest regret that I speak of him in the past tense where the maharaj's death was announced shortly after our visit His Highness was one of the richest men in the world a progressive and modern ruler yet he was a quiet saintly man so devout in his religion that when he visited England he took with him for bathing and drinking holy water from the river Ganges it is no wonder that he was particularly interested in our electrical equipment for electricity was his hobby he asked us questions about the big trailer's motor compartment our lighting and air conditioning plants that would have kept an electrical engineer busy answering I had a feeling that he could have taken it apart and put it together again it was hard to believe that this simple mannered kindly gentleman was at once an Undisputed ruler of millions a scholarly Mystic who spent hours in meditation in a room specially designed for that purpose in his Palace and at the same time a great Public Utilities magnet during his Reign he built the Great Krishna Raja Sagar Dam which we see here the dam more than a mile and a half long impounds one of the largest artificial lakes in the world world and from it the surrounding country has been irrigated in what was once a desert waste there are now such beautiful gardens as this and many hundreds of square miles of land have been opened up for agriculture we can appreciate what this wealth of water means when we take a moment to see how irrigation was accomplished before here water is being raised from the Earth by the most primitive pumping method one could imagine the weight of these native Boys in their precarious seesaw serving to lift a few precious gallons at a time with modern Irrigation in my thousands of new Acres can be put into productive crops and the Maharaja has produced not only irrigation with his Dam but enormous hydroelectric power as well the Palace of His Highness is impressive enough in the daytime but at night it is a spectacle long to be remembered as the sun sets lights bloom in every window and as deeper night descends the entire facade flares into a brilliant silhouette outlined by countless numbers of electric light bulbs the effect is spectacular a bit overwhelming if you start counting up what the monthly bill would be in our own country but when you're a Maharaja with your own power company there is no monthly bill of all the sacred spots in India none is so sacred as benari which lies on the holy Ganges River said to have sprung from the ground where the footstep of Brahma first touched the Earth drifting along the banks of the river we see sacred cattle by the hundreds and as we near the Heart of the City temples and palaces crowd each other like eager jostling pilgrims Pavilions and shrines and rivercraft bewilder and Dazzle the eye a million pilgrims come each year and thereby acquire much religious Merit the very smell of the river is sacred but not to ocidental nostrils and if you should die while visiting here don't give the matter a thought your soul will go straight to paradise you'll be one of the very elite the many flights of steps leading down to the water's edge are called guts some are especially for bathing While others are devoted to the Grim business of burning the bodies of the dead here at the foot of one of the bathing guts pilgrims are busy washing their bodies and dunking their clothes and at the same time losing their sins in the turgid flow for regard less of the way the stream looks to you and me it is believed by Hindus to be Crystal Pure and possessed of miraculous cative Powers day and night the smoke from the burning guts drifts along the Riverbanks the sight of shrouded bodies being carried down to the waiting funeral PES is strange and unpleasant to Western eyes and the smell of the smoke is heavy and accurate but this is the long for ending of a devout hindu's Life cremation on the banks of of the Ganges and the ashes thrown into its Waters Paradise is certain for those whose bodies are so disposed of in life these people may have starved or gone heavily into death for the sake of this blessed privilege and don't look now but just around the corner there is a very queer looking guy this is the one I meant he's alive not a statue and he isn't posing for his picture picture he's just a holy man working hard at his job fakers or fakers if you like they call these weird human beings who believe that immortality can be attained by taking various attitudes or subjecting their bodies to torture this aspirin for immortality has covered his body with ashes then he stands on one foot arms uised stares at the Sun and mutters prayers weird inhuman torture it seems to us yet these holy men men are highly respected and are never in want of food or money most of them are believed to possess powers of healing or prophecy and many acquire a large following of disciples some roam through the country begging arms preaching or meditating others spend their lives here on the banks of the Ganges like this one whose way of attaining perfection is to stand all day and look into the unclouded face of the sun until he is blind as a stone there are other fuers who are frankly sh this one lifts a recumbent man from The Ground by his hair and after this exercise as giv him a good appetite he makes a hearty meal on glass tumblers and electric light bulbs perhaps there's some trick to it but it's still a mystery how the human body can stand it you might call it a light meal anyway now we know where old electric light bulbs go when they die most familiar of all are the fakers whose specialty is with snakes these deadly cobras are supposed to be Charmed by the sound of the flute but they don't look soothed to me these look good and sore if they could reach far enough they'd do plenty of damage but a cobra can't jump and he can strike only as far as that curve in his spine and the fakers keep just far enough away but dangerous as the Cobra is he always meets his match in that sly little animal the [ __ ] we witnessed an encounter between these two arch enemies and it ended so fast our cameras almost missed it the battle went something like this in this corner ladies and gentlemen king cobra most dangerous reptile in India in this corner fly [ __ ] afraid of no snake that live and there's the Bell king cobra advances into the ring he looks in good fighting form Sim mongus looks him up and down king cobra strikes but slim Mose is too fast for him SL Mose comes out of his Corner again he's working cautiously he closes in he Springs and the fight is over in exactly 15 seconds of the first round fly mongus is the champion of India in the northern part of India there are very few Hindus instead we find mostly Muhammad this is true in Delhi capital of British India for example here on Friday the muhammadan day we visited the great Mosque of Jami Majid it is a combination of red sandstone and white marble and distinctive in effect its main door was opened in ancient for the sulan and today only for the British to this come thousand Believers every week to kneel in prayer while the high sing song voiced the mui the proclamation that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 ad and until the age of 40 was a rather conservative Merchant suddenly he had a vision of the Angel religion on absolute submission to God and a blind belief in faith kismi whatever happens the will of Allah today Prophet waves over a large part of the world's inhabitants hundreds of millions of people are devout Muslims in this vast throng of people there are no women the Muslim religion almost ignores their existence and yet in this land of strange contrasts we find the most beautiful Monument ever built in memory of a woman you know the building I mean of course the Taj Mahal climax of loveliness tomb of that most beloved of woman mumtaz Mahal the adored wife of the great emperor sha Jahan her name means light of the palace and the beauty of light has indeed been captured in the delicacy of white marble facades and domes and slender minet springing upward like lilybuds to build the Taj Mahal Exquisite marble and rare stones were brought from far off countries and 20,000 Artisans labored here for more than 20 years to make it perfect it's charm is mirrored in long deep lagoons surrounded by Orange and Cypress trees writers of all the world have penned their praises of the Taj Mahal and as we close our picture with this most beautiful of all the beautiful sites in India let us leave it with the tribute of a poet to the woman who inspired its building the of the palace no man save her Lord knew whether her smile was as soft as the Dawn and no man will know for mumas Mahal close wrapped in her Legend of beauty is gone but beauty is potent a seed that endures hot blasting winds and fierce drowning rains the light of the palace is lost in the dark but the spell of her beauty forever remains [Music]