Roman Emperors

 

Dictators and emperors have been some of the most cruel and craziest individuals in human history. Modern ones like Idi Amin, Hitler or Pol Pot have got drunk with power and committed terribly heinous acts. In ancient times, some of the Roman generals and emperors were extraordinary in lives of debauchery, violence and plain madness so much so that they defy imagination.

Julius Caesar(pic on top):

He was strictly the first among equals of the First Triumvirate that ruled Rome. Some of his  acts include:

- He was against luxury and he sent inspectors to dining rooms to catch people eating illegal fine dishes.

- His public spectacles involved armies of infantry, cavalry and elephants fighting. The wild beast hunting parties went on for five days.

- His sexual escapades were numerous and had no rules. He was referred to as 'every woman's husband and every man's wife.'

- As a consul, he stole gold and replaced them with bronze.

Nero:

The infamous Nero (pictured above) fiddled while Rome burnt and his acts defy cross all limits.

- At night he would attack people going back from dinner, kill them with a knife and drop them into sewers without any reason whatsoever.

- He took a fancy to a boy Sporus, castrated him and married him. He was passionately fond of his mother Agrippina too. Subsequently, he also tried to murder her by various means and finally sicceeded in doing so.

-He once got disgusted by the old-fashioned buildings in a part of the city and set fire to them which lasted for a week. While the fire was raging, he sang ' The Fall of Troy'.

Caligula:

He was the third Roman emperor, ruled for less than 4 years and was insane, to say the least.

- He made his high officials run on foot beside his chariot for great distances in their togas.

- He had a wild animal retinue and once decide to feed them the meat of prisoners and watched it standing in the colonnade.

-He had sexual relations with hostages, his sisters and wives of all his nobles as he fancied.

- He had a cruel face and even after that, practised in front of a mirror to make his expressions more fearful.

Marcus Aurelius, much later, was the wise and thoughtful one.

 

Budget Journeys

 

Sir C.D. Deshmukh (pic above), the first Indian Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1843, was the finance minister from 1950 to 1956 and presented the annual statement of receipts and expenditures of the Union Government, called the budget in 1951-52, effectively the first year after India became a republic.  

A quick comparison of this budget with the latest one shows how much changes in 70 to 75 years.

The revenue receipts in 1951-52(FY 52) were expected to be 370 cr INR and the expenditure 375 cr with a deficit of 5cr.

Cut to estimates for 2023-24 (FY 24). The revenue receipts are INR 26.3 lac cr. A jump of 7108 times. But expenditures have increased even more relatively. The total expenditure budgeted is INR 45 lac cr i.e. 12,000 times.

Inflation and growth - both have played their parts.

Amongst other interesting items, the Government in FY 52 was planning to import 2 million tonnes of wheat from the USA, the balance of payments was positive at 66 cr INR.

The number of taxpayers was however not insubstantial in the context then. Against a population of 45 cr, we had 6 to 7 lac income taxpayers. 

In FY 19, we had 6.7 cr taxpayers (including companies and firms) with about one lac of individuals reporting more than 1 cr income.

The defence used to have a very high proportion of expenditure earlier. Out of 375 cr in FY 52, defence accounted for 180 cr. In FY 24, it is expected to be 5.96 lac cr ( 3311 times of FY 52) out of the total of 45 lac cr.

Propaganda for Kings

 Krishnadevaraya was a powerful king who ruled in Vijaynagara in modern Andhra Pradesh from 1509 to 1529. He ruled over a vast kingdom that included an area encompassing Bengal to Karnataka. 

Allasani Peddana was a great Telugu poet and fancied himself as 'Andhrakavitapitamaha' or the Creator of Telugu poetry. He was in Krishnadevaraya's court. 

We get disturbed by propaganda and exaggerated hero worship when we see it with political leaders. In te age of democracy and equality it seems so baffling. We treat mere men as Gods. This probably has a genesis in the way in a feudal society we treated our kings. They were arbiters of justice, commanders of the army, divine inheritors who lived in the fanciest of palaces. They also had poets eulogising them to the skies.

Peddana's classic 'The Story of Manu' begins with a encomiums to the glory and prowess of the king. Some of it will embarrass even our most praise-hungry modern leaders.

" For one rich in such qualities,

for an expert rider adept at handling any sort of horse,

for one who is quiet at heart,

whose brilliant fame turned all space white,

whose sword is like a snake filling its belly with the life breaths

of enemies trembling the darkness caused by dust

kicked up by his horses' hooves in one continuous charge,

for Karma reborn, a paragon of the art of giving,

for one who is loyal to good people,

for the lover of lady poetry,

for one whose fame rolls like waves to the end of space,

makes the sun redundant,

who captured the son of the Kalinga king 

in less than half a minute,

whose mind, with all its thoughts and words, rests at the feet

of Lord Venkatesvara, the ultimate source of kindness."   

Art and Human Beings

 

Art plays an important role in modern human societies. Mona Lisa's face may be amongst the most recognised faces in the world. The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo Daro ( pic above) is in one small piece brings a vivid representation of that civilisation for us. The Nataraja is the iconic distillation of the glory of Southern India.

The cave paintings in France and Spain (image below) show us how evolved humans were in art even in the ice age. Initially, the people refused to accept that it could be from that era. But as it was proved that the paintings of horses, bison and mammoths were done by the primitive people it became clear that even in basic, pre-historic conditions art came naturally to humans and it may have allowed them to connect to a superior state of being as it does now.

Through art, we can fuse reality and imagination in a way that can outlast us. It connects us to a cosmic sense of existence that makes our mundane lives more acceptable.

Modern education in India with its emphasis on STEM, science-based disciplines and almost complete discarding of art from the curricula, and including literature too; produces graduates bereft of a sense of grandeur and universal spirit. It does not help that the broader society at best engages with commercial movies as the highest form of art. There are hardly any patrons or even artists or literary figures that can infuse the spirit of art in society. All this adds to a mechanistic, transactional life. Time we addressed this.

China and India - Two tales

 China and India are two veritable giants in the world. Long history, ancient civilisations. Not to forget they are neighbours who are into skirmishes off and on. They fought a war in 1962. Another one was recently in 2020. China banned the last Indian reporter from being in the country this week. There is always an undercurrent of hostility between these two nations.

Two incidents are amongst the most defining in their history.

The first one is a glorious, inspiring one. In the 7th century, under the Tang dynasty, China had postal systems, road networks and a flourishing open culture. Since that time, Xuanzang is one of the most respected figures in Chinese history. In 629 AD, he crossed the Himalayas into India to learn more about Buddhism. He spent seventeen years travelling to Peshwar, Patna, Kanchi, Bodh Gaya, Bengal, Malwa and Gujarat amongst other places. He spent two years in monasteries in Kashmir trying to understand Buddhist philosophies. He also spent two years studying at the University in Nalanda.  Sixteen years after he had left, in 645 AD, he went back to China laden with books, statues and other cultural artefacts. He was considered wise and evolved. When he went back, he was given a rapturous welcome by the people and the emperor asked him to be his Prime Minister. He decided to continue as a monk. His influence triggered a great intermingling of Indian, Buddhist and Chinese cultures with hundreds of monks travelling across these countries. China became a centre of Buddhism too with Indian influences and two great civilisations drew from each other.

Another significant interaction between India and China was around opium almost 1000 years later.  East India Company had established itself in India in 1757 and over time it started smuggling opium from Bengal into China. This had its own bad effects. Opium addiction had grown tremendously in the population. Estimates put the number of addicts at 12 million and the annual trade of opium at 30,000 chests of 170 pounds each. 

To curb this menace, the emperor appointed a commissioner Lin Zexu. In 1839, he set about his task vigorously, arresting traders, seizing almost 1 million kilograms of opium and destroying it. The British then decided to attack the Chinese forces with an army from India consisting mostly of Indian sepoys. Eventually, the Chinese lost, conceding several important concessions including rights to Hong Kong. This has been always a sore wound in the Chinese mind.

Thus Buddhism and opium, both from India, in fact from the Eastern part of India, played a significant role in Chinese history and the relationship between these giants. 

Another Life

 More than seven years and the bug to reflect and write bites me again. A new world and it is a new world every five years. Post Covid, work from home has been normalised, more nationalist and right-wing politics, the rising influence of apps and the web and the emerging possibilities and threats of AI. China is clearly the second pole, climate change and decarbonisation are getting centre stage and in India a rising tide of Hinduisation of the society. A lot to chew on, amid this rapid pace of change in the world.