We are now in the thick of the Olympian spirit; the games have started, and our modern age is celebrating the athletic ideal just as the Greeks did 3,000 years ago. But there are a few notable differences: Back then, women were not allowed to even watch the games; now, not just are women watching and participating, but this is the first Olympiad where every participating country has at least one female participant. Not just do the hard-line Arab nations have women representing their teams, the US team actually has more female than male athletes. Now, this progress may not be fast enough for our tiny life-spans, but it does seem to herald a gradual and inevitable gender shift that is altering millennia of male dominance. Worldwide, height differences between men and women have continued to decrease, and the performance differences stemming from this gap are also eroding.
But more significant is the slow revival of the ideal of perfectibility of the body, especially in India. It is significant not because it is new, but because the ideal is re-appearing on our horizons after a gap of more than two thousand years.
“The Perfection of the body, as great a perfection as we can bring about by the means at our disposal, must be the ultimate aim of physical culture. Perfection is the true aim of all culture, the spiritual and psychic, the mental, the vital and it must be the aim of our physical culture also. If our seeking is for a total perfection of the being, the physical part of it cannot be left aside; for the body is the material basis, the body is the instrument which we have to use.”
Ancient India placed a great emphasis on physical perfectibility, athletics and sports, declaring very simply, yet profoundly:
Sarīram khalu dharmasādhanam
- that the body is the means of fulfilment of dharma, and therefore its utmost perfectibility has to be attempted. The yoga of the body - āsanas, the martial arts of judo, karate and kung-fu have all come from India. Many of the present-day Olympic disciplines are variants of the games involving speed and strength, and were common to ancient India and Greece. There are records from these times of competitive archery, wrestling, running, chariot-racing and swimming.
Since the time of Buddha (6th BC) and Shankara (8th AD), the idea of illusionism and world-negation have had a huge impact on Indian life, and even more so on the outlook toward material things. One of the consequences of this world-view has been a near complete rejection of the body. In a sharp turn from pre-Buddhistic Hinduism, the development and training of the human body was seen as largely inconsequential. What was once a flooding river became a seasonal tributary. The decline of physical culture had set in, and was cemented further under Mughal and British rule, during which India largely went into a mode of self-preservation.
However, I am glad to see that the last decade in India has seen a remarkable turnaround. Everywhere I look – in movies, in pop culture – there is now an idealized human body, perfected with training & perseverance. Gyms and sports facilities are on a rise, even in the so-called ‘Tier-III’ cities; Yoga and its modern derivatives too are gaining popularity. If we ignore the last two generations and look only at the present – we can see clearly an increasing trend of an aspiration for a beautiful, supple and strong body.
It is in this context that Greece holds a special place in the world’s history. No civilisation had given the physical ideal and culture a more rounded place in life than the Greeks did. Their emphasis on beauty, on strength can be felt everywhere, and we could see it amply even in their ancient ruins. Archaia Olympia in Greece is one such place. This grand venue of the Greek Olympiads was buried under the mud for 1400 years.
The Temple of Hera, where the Olympic torch is lit.
We visited the site on a hot summer day this June and we could not help but wonder (while quenching our non-stop thirst!) what it may have been like in 776 B.C, when the games officially started.
The site of the ancient Gymnasium in Olympia
For centuries, it was almost as if the Greeks counted time in 4-year increments, and revered their best athletes as Gods. Amidst the remains and the vast open fields around, we imagined what it must have meant to 40,000+ visitors who slept under the stars for days together just to be a part of the festivities.
The entrance to the Olympic Stadium. Hear the echoes of athletes bursting through here three millennia ago.
Further reading and references:
Greece’s official site for Olympia has this very beautiful video giving us the story of the Ancient Olympics..(5m 38s) (http://www.olympia-greece.org/video.html). Separately, I came across this wonderful account of the games which would be of interest to curious readers – an essay titled ‘Ancient Olympics’ by Kireet Joshi. [ex Advisor and Special Secretary to the Government of India on Education ('76), and Vice-Chair to UNESCO on Education (’83-87), and more importantly – a great scholar]. He acknowledges his essay as being inspired by the classic accounts ‘The Greeks’ by H.D.F Kitto and from ‘The Greek Way’, by Edith Hamilton.
- Uday Arya
(Uday has been a lover of Sri Aurobindo's poetry ever since he can remember. He currently lives and works in Paris, and writes periodically at aryaputr.wordpress.com)
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