Preserving culture and heritage through generations

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Cultural heritage includes tangible culture, i.e. - buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts. It also includes intangible culture traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts intangible culture, i.e. - folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge, and natural heritage, i.e. - culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity. Whatever shape they take, these things form part of a heritage, and this heritage requires active effort on our part in order to safeguard it. They are significant because they create a certain emotion within us, or because they make us feel as though we belong to something - a country … a tradition … a way of life, but also due to their possible economic value. The best way to preserve our cultural heritage, whatever it may be, is to share it with others.

The importance of preserving heritage, tradition and race, cultural heritage and natural history of a nation has a very high value and is unique. It is an identity that can be introduced to the planet. Cultural heritage affirms our identity as a people because it creates an inclusive framework for the preservation of cultural heritage including cultural sites, old buildings, monuments, shrines, and landmarks that have cultural significance and historical value. Culture and its heritage reflect and shape values, beliefs, and aspirations, thereby defining characteristics of nationals. It is important to preserve our cultural heritage, because it helps us to preserve ancient bond with our society as a social entity.

The importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next. The social and economic value of this transmission of knowledge is relevant for mainstreaming of socio-cultural entities within state,

How can we preserve heritage, tradition and culture in culturally diverse societies?

While fragile, intangible cultural heritage is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization. An understanding of the intangible cultural heritage of different region helps with intercultural dialogue, and encourages mutual respect for other ways of life. There is a risk that certain elements of intangible cultural heritage could die out or disappear without making appropriate effort, hence, we need to ponder over the method to safeguard and manage a heritage that is constantly changing & create some almost perfect replica of ‘living ancient sanatana culture’ without freezing or trivializing today’s life style. Safeguarding them is about the transfer of knowledge, skills and meaning. In other words, safeguarding need to focus on the processes involved in transmitting, or communicating intangible cultural heritage from generation to generation, by creating & showcasing perfect replica of our ancient living, with careful attention on our assets to be preserved, i.e. – education pattern, ancient syllabus, dance performance, songs, music instruments or crafts

To preserve tangible culture, we need to showcase our logically rich architecture, having great equilibrium with nature and species created by the nature, logically rich landscaping, which has been suggested by ‘Kautilya in Arthshastra’, Centers of education, treatment, worship, physical fitness etcetera, while to preserve natural heritage, we need to follow ancient literatures, such as – ‘manusmriti’, which mentions about the optimum use of the resources of the nature. This is yet another way to maintain the ecosystem. Certain trees are considered to be sacred and they are worshiped. They are not to be cut. In ‘padma purana’ and ‘karma purana’, it is mentioned that the trees like, ‘peepal’, ‘bel’, ‘ber’, ‘neem’ etc, are the abode of god and they are not to be cut. This is nothing but a way of conserving the vegetation. Planting of trees and plants like ‘tulsi’ in every household are considered to be religious act, though it’s a standard of living practice to preserve herbs with medicinal value.

‘Sanatana’ considers the nature as “the body of god”. Thus different aspects of nature, i.e. ‘plants-tulsi’, ‘trees-peeple’, ‘birds-garuda’ and ‘animals-lion’ are worshiped. Thus the nature has been directly interconnected with religion and religion had a direct effect on the conservation and protection of environment.

Govind Gram:

‘Govind Gram’ shall be a well researched flawlessly structured tiny ancient village equipped with every part of self-evident extraordinary ingredients of our tangible, intangible & natural cultural heritage. Proposed ‘Govind Gram’ shall be an existing testimonial of ancient vaidik ‘Vaastu-Shilp’ other than a combination of various ideas of ancient visionaries, like Kautilya. Vedic principals of planning a temple city in India are usually based on the directions received in following four Vedas:
Rigveda
Samveda
Atharvveda
Yajurveda

In some brahmanical texts, the city is also seen as a place, to be avoided (apastamb- Dharmasutra – I,32,21), as a quest for liberation of soul is impossible in a city. Yhe ‘Bauddhayana’ declares that “It’s impossible for one to obtain salvation, who lives in a town, covered with dust (II, 3, 6,33).

Very few places in the world have technically developed itself as described in ‘Bauddhayana’. Proposed ‘Govind Gram’ shall not have any source of generating in and around the village boundary. We will make arrangement of “ropeway” for commuting from ‘Govind Gram’ to nearest city to keep environment of the village undamaged in cource of allowing people to obtain salvation before ‘Lord Jagannath’.

‘Atharv Veda’ named layout of a city as “Sthapatya Veda”, micro & macro Street layouts as “Smriti Shaastra”, treaties on architectural panning, construction & design, matters relating to site selection, site planning & orientation, quality of soil & water resources, panting of trees & groves as “Vaastu Shastra”, environmental science as “Arth Shastra”. Usually, a traditional city designed according to the principals of sacred-geometry was based on cosmological theories.

A traditional “Nagar/ City” according to above mentioned principals was one, where the sacred & secular mingle. These cities normally get divided in to the following parts:

Temple: Te link between the cosmic & the human – Mentioned in “Yajurveda Hymns”
Cultural Center: Festive & Ritual Activities
Educational Center: Pathshala
Social Center: For Public Meetings & Social Gatherings
Mathas: Monastic Center of Education & Pilgrim Rest House

Based upon above principle, ‘Govind Gram’, which not a typical city, but combination of a traditional village and contemporary structure, along with the arrangements of global standard for people, who desire to witness our ancient culture, shall have following spheres within and besides the village campus:

Jagannath Mandir
Gaushala
Gurukul
Ayurvedic Research Centre & Hospital
Yoga & Naturopathy Activity & Research Centre

Above mentioned structure to make arrangements of global standard for people, who desire to witness our ancient culture, shall be known as ‘Govind Atithi Vatika’. ‘Goind Atithi Vatika’ shall have following constituents:

‘Cottages made of Mud, Bamboo & Wood’ equipped with ultra modern facilities of Global Standard
‘Boat Houses’ in adjacent lake equipped with ultra modern facilities of Global Slandered
‘Tribal Cuisine Restaurant’ with facility to get ‘Various Oriya Cuisine’

“Agatara” is the proposed shape for the 40 Hectare heritage village, which shall showcase Indian traditional way of living to the tourists of various parts of world other than carrying welfare activities, educating & generating opportunity of employment for the tribal natives of the surrounding and creation of a centre for learning about ancient culture, values, shastras over & above sustainable revenue generation model of heritage tourism.

Based upon our ancient guidelines, ‘Temple of Lord Jagannath’ shall be in the middle of the village surrounded by gaushala, gurukul, yoga training centre & ayurvedic research cum treatment centre. For commuting without creating pollution in & around proposed village we will link village with nearest commuting point or city with ropeway. The ropeway travel shall reduce span of travelling as well to the uttermost, hence this will also be helpful for travelers to save their time & enjoy scenic beauty of the locate, which includes mountains, jungle & lake.

Why organic raw milk from desi cows?

Unfortunately the milk we consume today can contain hormones, steroids, urea and chemicals. The reason being buffaloes and cows are reared by a good majority to extract the maximum quantity of milk. Dairies collect milk from farmers and pay them for the amount of fat and not for the quality of protein in the milk. No tests are conducted at a vast majority of milk collection centers for adulteration. Desi cows which produce high quality milk are no one's fancy and the exotic HF, Jersey and buffaloes have taken over. Milk contains 2 main types of beta-casein protein, A2 and A1. Majority of milk that is available in the market is A1 type or a mix of A1 and A2 type milk.

Originally, India was a A2 type milk producing country as our native cow breeds produce only A2 milk. The imported breeds like Holstein Friesian (HF), Jersey etc produce mainly A1 type milk. A1 milk is associated with diabetes, coronary heart disease, autism, schizophrenia and other health related issues.

Hydroponics

The quality of milk is directly proportional to the quality of fodder. Hydroponics technology in simpler terms provide right temperature, water, humidity, sunlight to the seeds in a soil free environment which is free from insects, bacterial and fungal growth.

The germinated fodder obtained is highly nutritious and rich in protein, carbohydrates, fiber and fat.

Ethical Milking

‘Lok Hith’ believes in ethical milking, i.e. - milk from two teats for the calf and milk from the other two for mankind.

At proposed ‘Gaushala’, male calves will not be sent to abattoirs and neither abandoned on roads. Based on the pedigree a male calf becomes a bull or is raised as a bullock. ‘Lok Hith’ will use bull power to carry out all farm activities. Tractors will have no place in our ecosystem.

The ultimate goal in ancient education system was the overall development of student. There is a notion that the ancient education system focuses only on the religious duties, warfare, moral, social, psychological and political knowledge as well as development, but the continuous researches have put various other positive aspects of ancient Indian education system, mainly the scientific approach of Vedas and other ancient literature written in Sanskrit, which a noticeable number of people want to learn & spread across the world for welfare of people and environment. ‘Lok Hith’ desires to create a means for many to get connected with our ancient pattern of education, learn & go for further research to help our nation & world to become a better place for living.

Gurukul system

‘Gurukul’ was a type of education system in ancient India with ‘shishya-students' or 'disciples' living near or with the guru, in the same house. The ‘guru-shishya’ tradition is a sacred one in Hinduism and appears in other religious groups in India, such as Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

A gurukul is a traditional school in India with ‘shishya’ living near their guru, often in the same dwelling, as a sort of family. ... The name comes from the Sanskrit word ‘Guru’, means “teacher,” and ‘Kul’, means “domain.” It translates as “domain or family of the ‘guru’.” An ashram, for example, is known as a ‘Gurukul’.

The education system of ancient period has unique characteristic and qualities which were not found in the ancient education system of any other country in the world. Gurukul (ashram) was a type of school in ancient India, residential in nature, with pupils living in proximity to the guru.

Ayurveda signifies knowledge of what promotes life as well as that which injures it. By definition, it transcends the practice of medicine, but popularly it is identified with India's traditional system of medicine which has been in vogue since the Buddhist period and continues to serve 70% of India's rural population. Research in Ayurveda has been dominated by studies on medicinal plants and the development of herbal drugs, which has a large market growing at 15% per year. However, basic research which employs modern biology, immunology, and chemistry to investigate the concepts, procedures and products has received little attention. This gap calls out for correction lest the absence of basic studies according to modern scientific protocols should lead to ‘Ayurveda’ being regarded as a form of "herbal therapy" as was done by the’Walton Committee’ in the UK.

Concepts of body constitution, digestive process of food in the gut and substrates in tissues, rejuvenation, body adaptation to seasons and taste as a chemical indicator are examples of the rich collection of cues that ‘Ayurveda’ provides for the modern investigator.

Specific objectives :

Development of a basic understanding of the concepts, procedures and products of ‘Ayurveda’ in terms of modern sciences such as Molecular biology, Immunology and Chemistry.
To Promote Human resource development in ‘Ayurvedic-Biology’.
To promote collaborative research with national institutions who are active in pursuing research activities on traditional medicine and may have shared interest in ‘Ayurvedic-Biology’.

Methods: An open parallel-arm randomized controlled study was conducted at BLDE University’s Shri B.M.Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, India on elderly male individuals with Grade-I hypertension (n=57, age 60-80 years). Study (Yoga) group was assigned for yoga intervention and control group for walking for one hour in the morning for six days in a week for three months under the supervision of yoga instructor and physical training instructor respectively. Serum malondialdehyde (MDA) as an indicator of oxidative stress and antioxidants such as serum superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH) and vitamin C levels were estimated.

Results: Yoga practice for three months has significantly reduced serum MDA level (p<0.001), and enhanced antioxidants level such as SOD activity (p=0.007), serum GSH (p=0.002) and vitamin C (p=0.002). In the control group, we observed a significant increase in serum MDA level (p=0.04) and reduction in serum vitamin C level (p=0.015) with no significant difference in the SOD activity and GSH level.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that yoga is an effective means to reduce oxidative stress and to improve antioxidant defense in elderly hypertensive individuals.

Proposed activities:

Other than opening a centre for practicing yoga on a regular basis ‘Lok Hith’ proposes to undertake various activities relating to practice & promotion of scientific knowledge of Yoga & Naturopathy for the benefit of researchers and common public either directly or in collaboration with other organizations. Brief description of these activities is given below:

Practice & Promotion of Scientific Knowledge of Yoga & Naturopathy:

‘Lok Hith’ actively participates in therapeutic potential and treatment modalities of ‘Yoga & Naturopathy’ in the ‘Arogya’ and other ‘Health Fairs’ organized by the ‘Ministry of AYUSH’ all over the country for creating awareness and propagation of these traditional time tested health care systems. Hence, our team is well aware & equipped to offer the facility of practicing & performing ‘Yoga & Naturopathy’ in proposed ‘Govind Gram’. The purpose of including ‘Naturopathy’ & ‘Research’ is offering healthcare facility to the residents of ‘Kandhmal District’ and tourists as well as providing facility of research activities for further advancement. Facilities, with ‘Govind Gram’ will offer are:

Ideal infrastructure for performing yoga
Quality study materials & best possible instructors to assist practitioners
Complimentary distributions of IEC materials.
Sale of publications and CDs for tourists.
Naturopathy labs & Doctors
Availability of Labs & other facilities for researchers.