RIFLE RANGE BOY: Roman

Roman Coins with Thali

I remember observing my Amma's thali chain during my childhood days. I came to realise that one could determine many things about the wearer's background by just observing the chain that a married lady dons. It would tell us if she has recently tied the knot if it is just a bright yellow string. The actual thali would be tucked inside the upper garment. After a few days of wedded bliss, as part of the festivities and a means to flaunt to relatives, the thali would be transferred to a golden chain, and the sovereignty would scream bragging rights.

The yellow string will stay put longer than it should if finances are down. If a married lady, often seen donning a golden thali chain, is suddenly downgraded to wearing yellow string, that would indicate hard times hitting the family. The family members have every right to feel embarrassed, and the outsiders have the right to form opinions. The head of the family will feel slighted for not providing enough for his dependents.

It was amusing to me to observe my Amma donning thick chains to flaunt her jewellery to her friends and relatives but desperately trying to cover her neck with the thick drape of her saree to keep snatch thieves at bay as she walked to the bus stop.

I later discovered that the pattern of the thali indicated the region from which one came from India. A Telugu person would have a different pattern than a Malayelee or one from Tamil Nadu. Even non-Hindus in the Indian diaspora have their version of Christian or Islamic thalis.

Thali, or mangalsutra, is more generic in the northern states of India. Even though it is a form of the Hindu tradition, the emphasis is on other rituals.

I was particularly curious to see Roman coins being part of the ornaments of Amma's thali chain. How did Roman iconography come to be part of Indian jewellery? When we learnt history in school, it was fragmented, compartmentalised, and never mixed. Of course, there were huge trades between Tamil Nadu and the Roman Empire. And possessing foreign goods must have been an item to flaunt around. Hence, there is a desire to thread it into the thali chain and inadvertently let it slip out occasionally to let others see and get jealous.

* Thali (Tamil; தாலி) refers to a traditional necklace or pendant worn by married symbolising their marital status. It is typically made of gold and is an integral part of Tamil wedding customs. The groom ties the thali around the bride's neck during the wedding ceremony, signifying their union.

varieties of thali

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The Darkening Age (2017)

(The Christian Destruction of the Classical World)

Author: Catherine Nixey

My cycling buddy, JT, is fondly referred to as JC (Jesus Christ). Like JC, like a magnet, JT has been drawing in cyclists and potential cyclists in droves into his fold. After viewing his pictures and accolades on social media, his friends and relatives had all converted from couch potatoes to cycling-jersey-donning cleated cyclists. And these converts look at JT as JC. His every breath is sacred, and his every word is gospel truth.

In another situation, I was invited to celebrate the passing of a relative. I also had the pleasure of listening to a sermon before the merriment. The pastor asserted that we are all weak by nature, prone to make mistakes and fall prey to temptation. He proposed his 8-step programme to his flock to emulate religiously and reinforce it weekly at their Sunday service. In not so many words, he told his congregation to go out to the world and spread the good Word.

In both cases, it appears that if the audiences are dogmatic to follow what they hear without using their faculties to sieve the chaff from the wheat, they will not be able to explore their true potential. They simply cannot be all blinkered and refuse to see beyond the rhetorics.

I think early practitioners of Abrahamic faiths are guilty of this. Some went one step further. As stated by St Augustine, "… all superstition of pagans and heathens should be annihilated is what God wants, God commands, God proclaims!"

Come to think of it, this is how jihadis think. They interpret the scriptures as they deem fit and impose their understanding of God's desire upon all.

The ruins of Palmyra

This book covers a time in human history in Europe, roughly between 385CE and 532CE, when Christian thinking slowly came to replace ancient 'pagan' philosophy. From an era when life and its purpose were questioned and re-questioned with philosophers putting in their two cents worth and scribbling on parchment, it morphed into a time when the Church determined what life is and how life should be lived. They impose their will on others, and in modern slang, "it is our way or the highway!" forcing many to immerse into the new teachings or leave for new lands. In the process, almost 99% of the knowledge is either lost or burnt. Outstanding human achievements in architecture and art were demolished, vandalised or defaced. The human anatomy became vulgar, and there was a pressing need to amputate limbs, breasts, phalli and even Hellenistic noses.

It probably started in Palmyra's Temple of Athena in Syria, circa 385 CE. The idea of a goddess symbolising wisdom and war was too much for newly converted Christians to stomach. They only saw the exaggerated display of wealth and the glorification of a pagan deity. The accentuated silhouette of their body embarrassed Christians. Years of growing conversion climaxed with the imposition of their will on the rest. It immensely helped when the Roman monarch embraced Christianity and agreed to enforce God's law on Earth.

Hypatia of Alexandria

Ancient Alexandria saw the monumental work of Euclid and Ptolemy. To the new converts, their jobs were blasphemous. If the good said that God created heaven and Earth and everything on it in six days, so be it. Who are we, the product of the Original Sin, to question? The idea of a female mathematician-philosopher, Hypatia, running around telling people about the stars and the skies was repulsive. The sight of men learning the art of calculation was not in. In the name of religion, they killed and mutilated her body in the most inhumane way. All her work and wisdom from Alexandria's Great Library, one of the cradles of the Classical World, went up in flames.

History, as the Christian victors wrote it, made us believe that the pagan world became progressively disillusioned with the traditional Gods and rituals. They started disbelieving their myths and twisted tales and willingly embraced Christianity to seek the truth. The reality is not that.

Roman public bath

Early Christians were disillusioned with the world they lived in. They were fearful of a strange hostile world possessed by demons and made it their God-given duty to destroy these demonic representations. And they viewed these temples and deities as such.

Damascius, one of Hypatia's students, saw the actions of the zealots. He returned to see 532 CE Athens, a slowly evolving city. The Romans were interested in maintaining good governance providing public amenities, and religious tolerance. The new converts had different ideas. When more people saw Christianity as their newfound belief, they increasingly saw public baths and temples as demonic playhouses. Their orgy of destruction forced conversion, destroyed public property, deprived heathens of their livelihood, and chased philosophers away. There were even snooping squads, and people were rewarded for snitching on their pagan fellow citizens. The Academy, the birthplace of classical culture, was no more. Just one per cent of Latin literature would survive the purge; countless antiquities, artworks, and ancient traditions were lost forever.