Straighten My Little Finger

The news of unrest among the soldiers of his army had reached the King. It was a long time since King Bharatesha and his army had left the capital city Ayodhya. They were moving from one province to another fighting wars and conquering vast areas. Being away from the capital and their families had brought much pressure on the members of the army and supporting forces. Victory after victory had developed a lot of pride among the soldiers. Initially pride was indeed acting as a catalyst in furthering fighting spirit and encouraged them to fight to their fullest potential. But the effects of war and long stay away from their families and capital was now telling on their morale. In addition to this they developed a sense of arrogance as well. "It is on our strength that the King is able to win all these wars. What can he do without us? It is time we let the King know of our strength and make him realise our feelings", they thought. What started as a mere gossip in the camp had now taken a strong shape and finally reached King's ears. 

Bharatesha was the elder son of Rishabhanatha (also known as Rushabhadeva). Rishabhanatha had two wives; Sumangala and Sunanda. Sumangala had 100 children, 99 boys and a girl. Bharatha was the eldest of the sons. The daughter was named as Brahmi and it is said that the script Brahmi is named after this daughter. Sunanda had a son and a daughter. They were named as Bahubali and Sundari respectively. In due course of time Rishabhanatha decided to renounce the world and become an ascetic. He divided his Kingdom between his sons. Bharata was made King of Ayodhya and Bahubali became King of Poudanapura (Takshashila). The other 98 brothers were also made kings of different areas. The new generation started ruling their respective kingdoms.

Bharata was now know as Bharatesha. He was a strong warrior and a good king. A chakra was born in his weapons depot. Known as Chakraratna, this divine disc gave immense power to Bharatesha. The chakraratna would move in front of the army and now Bharatesha was winning all the areas he raided and conquered them. Now he was thinking of going back to Ayodhya. At this time the unrest among the soldiers came to his notice.

A strange and surprising news spread among the soldiers and other supporting staff in the morning. Something had happened to the King Bharatesha's little finger on the hand. King's little finger had sprained and become bent. All the efforts of the King and his team of doctors could not straighten it. Strange as it appeared, it was indeed true. Everyone was wondering what to do.

The King had called a special session of the royal court. He duly arrived in the court and sat on his throne. When he upheld his hand everybody could see the crooked finger. The King announced a reward to any one who could straighten his little finger. Some came forward and tried to straighten it, but failed. A long chain was brought into the court. One end was tied to the crooked finger. The soldiers were asked to hold the chain and pull to straighten it. Some soldiers tried initially, but failed. More and more soldiers now joined. Finally entire army and all the supporting staff joined and pulled the other end of the chain. And Lo, they could not succeed in their effort.

After they all failed to do it, the king himself straightened the crooked finger. The army now knew the strength of their King and their arrogance fled away making way for awe and admiration about King Bharatesha's strength! The assigning of task of straightening of the crooked finger was his way of showing his strength to his army. 

As the King and his army reached Ayodhya, the disc stopped at the gate of the capital. It would not enter the city. His ministers told Bharatesha that he had not yet become successful in his efforts to become the unquestioned emperor since his brothers were not conquered. As they were still independent kings, Bharatesha's task was not completed. Either he had to win over his brothers in a war or they should accept him as their superior and supreme emperor. Bharatesha invited his 98 brothers to fight him. They chose to renounce the material world, surrendered their areas to Bharatesha and went in penance. Only Bahubali was left now.

Bahubali was not the one to surrender without a fight. Ministers of both sides discussed and told the two brothers to settle their war by restricting it to a duel between them. They advised to have three rounds of war; Drushtiyuddha (looking at each other), Jalayuddha (throwing water at each other) and Mallayuddha (physical fight as wrestlers). Bharatha knew he had no chance to win in a fight against Bahubali. Bharatha was 500 bow-length tall whereas Bahubali was 525 bow-length tall. The physical superiority of Bahubali would ensure his victory. It is easy for a taller one to look down on the shorter one whereas the shorter would have to struggle to look up to the other. The taller one could easily throw more water on the face of the shorter brother. The taller also had advantage in the wrestling round. Bharatesha knew his limitations. Bharatha told his brother Bahubali that he would not fight and surrender all his empire to Bahubali without a fight.

Bahubali was moved by the offer of his brother. He too decided to renounce the world and go for penance like his father and other brothers. He handed over his kingdom as well to Bharatesha and started a long tapas (penance). Even after years of strong penance he could not reach salvation. He had a feeling that he is standing in the land belonging to his brother! Bharatesha came to know of this. He went to Bahubali and told him to come out of such feeling. Many in the past have ruled this land and many more would do so in the future. This land does not belong to any one particular person. Hence it was not proper to think on these lines, he convinced his brother. Once cleared of this confusion, Bahubali attained salvation and became a model of non-violence and piousness. He reached the highest level of spiritual attainment.

Bharatesha continued to rule his kingdom and was a very popular King. Though he had 96,000 wives and many children, he did not have any attachment to the material world. He found a single white hair on his head one day. That was enough for him to change his mind towards spiritual orientation. He renounced the worldly pleasures and wealth and attained salvation thereafter.

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As per the popular folklore and other literature available, Bahubali defeated Bharata in the three rounds of war. The fight indeed took place and Bahubali emerged victorious and shattered the pride of Bharatesha. However, despite his victory, Bahubali saw the futility of war and earthly pleasures. This changed his outlook towards life. He renounced the world and became Gomateswara. 

Noted Kannada poet Ratnakaravarni (ರತ್ನಾಕರವರ್ಣಿ - रत्नाकरवर्णि) lived in Karnataka's Moodabidri town, about 35 KM from the city of Mangalore, in the 16th century. He has authored a brilliant literary work titled "Bharatesha Vaibhava" (ಭರತೇಶ ವೈಭವ - भरतेश वैभव). It extends to as many as 80 chapters and 10,000 verses! It is constructed in a meter known as "Saangatya" (ಸಾಂಗತ್ಯ सान्गत्य), which is a popular singing meter of the rural areas. He was a court poet in the period of Immadi Bhairarasa Wodeyar. He was a very proud poet. It is said that he even converted to Shaivism when he was insulted on some occasion, and returned to Jainism later on.

Ratnakaravarni has made subtle changes in the story of the two brothers, Bharata and Bahubali. Bharata appears like a villain in all other literature, but Ratnakaravarni has made him a real hero by making a few changes. The summary given above is as per the version of this great poet Ratnakaravarni. He has added some new incidents and left out some others and woven his epic work. His Bharatesha is a model who serves both worldly pleasures and spiritualism (ಯೋಗ ಮತ್ತು ಭೋಗ - योग - भोग). 15 chapters of the book is devoted exclusively towards depicting the life he led with his 96,000 wives. It is said that the youth from earlier generation used to read these portions secretly, in an era when modren films and television was not available to explain or show pleasures of married life! 

Ratnakaravarni's Bharatesha Vaibhava is translated to Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English. Mangalore University has a dedicated chair for research named after poet Ratnakaravarni. A reading of this work and listening to scholars lectures on the same is indeed a literary pleasure. 

Ratnakaravarni's "Bharatesha Vaibhava" has shades of Mahakavi Bhasa's "Pancharatram". Bhasa has made changes in his Pancharatram and there is no Kurukshetra war at all in his work! Duryodhana parts with half his kingdom to Pandavas and all live happily thereafter. Please Click Here to read about Pancharatram.

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At the time when Mahamastakaabhisheka is being celebrated for Gomateswara-Bahubali in Shravanabelagola today, remembering Ratnakaravarni and Bharatesha Vaibhava is indeed relevant and proper.

Cumulative Comprehensive Education (CCE)?

A very interesting item of news is buried in the vast volumes of print and net news during the last two days. 66,00,000 (6.6 million) students took the Uttar Pradesh Board Examinations (UP Board) for standard 10 and 12 this year. The examinations started on February 6, 2018. There are some dropouts or absentees in every examination and the number is usually less than one to two percent. By third day of this examination, more than 6,00,000 students had dropped out, making it 10 percent of dropouts. On the fourth day, the number went up to more than 10,00,000 (one million), making it more than 15%. The highest absentee rate recorded in UP itself earlier was 6%. Thus the past records was far exceeded this year.

The numbers themselves may not tell the real tale. The Board introduced many new measures this year to curb unfair practices during conduct of examination. Eduction mafia found that mass copying was tough going indeed, this year. Installation of CCTV cameras, rounds by special squads, and even inspections by the state's Deputy Chief Minister who holds the Education portfolio were among the measures to prevent mass copying and impersonation. These measures made the task of complicity by invigilators impossible. Reports indicate that the absentees were mostly those from other states who would enrol at schools in UP not for study but for having been assured of a pass in the examination! Many of them never attended classes in the school. Impersonation was one of the methods adopted for ensuring a pass in the examination. This became impossible due to installation of CCTV cameras. Sure success was no longer that sure now.

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Those in the touch with education field lament about the drop in the level of education over the last several decades. A BA (Honours) degree from Madras University was considered as something special six or seven decades ago. A B.Tech or ME degree was a pride possession three decades ago. Mushrooming of educational institutions, colleges providing assured degrees, drop in invigilation and evaluation standards and introduction of multi-choice questions have all contributed their mite to drag down the standards of education. Questions that have answers in them (MCQs) were a novelty when introduced, but diluted the necessity of hard work for securing marks in the examinations. Their introduction was with the arguments that examinations were memory tests rather than testing knowledge and skills earlier. The joke today is that a student cannot answer a question asking his name unless he is given four options!

Cumulative Comprehensive Education (CCE) or sometimes referred as Continuous Comprehensive Education is now used by organisations like CBSE and State Education Boards all over the country. CCE aims at helping improve a student's performance by identifying his/her learning difficulties at regular intervals of time right from the beginning of the academic period and thereby employ suitable remedial measures for enhancing learning performance. The scheme of CCE has continuous inbuilt flexibility for schools to plans as per guidelines provided in the scheme. Formative and Summative Assessment methods are used for awarding marks and grades to students. Generally two tests before mid-term examination and two tests between mid-term and final examination are held and marks obtained in them with prescribed weightage are added to mid-term and end-term examinations.

At the outset, this method of Formative Assessment (FA) and Summative Assessment (SA) looks a good combination indeed. This method provides for continuous evaluation of a student and does justice to a student who has a bad day on the final examination day. One of the elements of CCE is recognising and encouraging specific abilities of students who do not do well in academics but do well in other co-curricular activities. Thus a student will get marks for attending classes regularly, behaving well with other students and taking part in non-academic activities even though he may lag behind in academic work. Though the objective is laudable, its impact on academic standards cannot be underestimated. A child getting more interested in music and dance than academic work will also get due weightage in the overall education evaluation. This also calls for maintenance of exhaustive records by the teachers, thereby increasing their desk work. This is one of the complaints of teachers in this system.

Cumulative assessment has another interesting feature. The system of formative assessment and weightage given to extra-curricular activities ensures that students accumulate the required marks for passing even before the final examination, thus reducing the final act as a mere formality for many of them. If memory test was the weakling in the earlier system, this methodology is a major deficiency in the cumulative assessment system. Lack of requisite skills in preparation of quality question papers and their regular leakage add to the problem of conducting worthy examinations.  

The effect of such evaluation is now returning to haunt the system in the form of difficulties in selection of teachers for the next generation. Someone who passed out of the system by getting the benefit of such evaluation has now the responsibility of teaching his students in academics while he himself did not excel in academics when he was a student. The teacher training system also suffers from teacher trainers, who are products of such evaluation standards. Persons sitting on interview boards for selection of teachers struggle to select one out of those appearing in the selection process since they are unable to find a candidate meeting the required standards. They are often confronted with candidates who are unable to demonstrate handling of a class suggested by the interviewing committee. The committee has to perforce judge them on the basis of a demonstration suggested by the candidates themselves!  

Educational institutions are also under pressure to show higher result levels to enable them to compete in the market for intake of students in the next academic year. Strict evaluation means lower pass percentages and lower popularity among the community. Easier way out is rehearsing "important questions" repeatedly before examinations. Excessive and unnecessary reliance on "student feedback" on evaluation of teachers tends to further complicate issues. Provision of grace marks lowers the bar and brings down the overall academic standards even more.

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The academic standards are fast dipping. It is generally said that each generation blames the next one for lowering standards of life in various disciplines. Even after providing for this criticism, the standards of academics is indeed dipping. We are producing graduates in various disciplines who are falling short of the expected levels. Many of them are unemployable in their respective areas of academic degrees. A lot of effort is put at the top level for opening more educational institutions of excellence. Various shades of politics in academic institutions is gathering more and more strength. Administrators are under severe pressure from various quarters. There are many challenging issues confronting those assigned with the task of strengthening academic standards. The tendency of those in authority not recognising these challenges has confounded the problem.

In this background, it is time now to make a comprehensive review of the CCE, both in its content and implementation.