Nurturing the Gift of Ancient Heritage

“I am convinced that the world is not a mere bog in which men and women trample themselves in the mire and die. Something magnificent is taking place here amid the cruelties and tragedies, and the supreme challenge to intelligence is that of making the noblest and best in our curious heritage prevail.” - Charles Austin Beard US Historian
Nultural 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. Often though, what is considered cultural heritage by one generation may be rejected by the next generation, only to be revived by a succeeding generation.
Physical or “tangible cultural heritage” includes buildings and historic places, monuments, artifacts, etc., that are considered worthy of preservation for the future. These include objects significant to the archaeology, architecture, science or technology of a specific culture. “Natural heritage” is also an important part of a culture, encompassing the countryside and natural environment, including flora and fauna. These kind of heritage sites often serve as an important component in a country’s tourist industry, attracting many visitors from abroad as well as locally.
The heritage that survives from the past is often unique and irreplaceable, which places the responsibility of preservation on the current generation. Smaller objects such as artworks and other cultural masterpieces are collected in museums and art galleries. Grass roots organizations and political groups have been successful in gaining the necessary support to preserve the heritage of many nations for the future.
A broader definition includes intangible aspects of a particular culture, often maintained by social customs during a specific period in history. The ways and means of behaviour in a society often, form as rules for operating in a particular cultural climate. These include social values and traditions, customs and practices, aesthetic and spiritual beliefs, artistic expression, language and other aspects of human activity. The significance of physical artifacts can be interpreted against the backdrop of socioeconomic, political, ethnic, religious and philosophical values of a particular group of people. Naturally, intangible cultural heritage is more difficult to preserve than physical objects.
There are examples of apologies by the pope for the past of the Catholic Church or of the Australian government to the aborigines.

Heritage as a term
Though it seems to represent what is ‘dead’, heritage is very much a living idea - it is about the present and the future as much as the past. An object or an activity can be considered today ‘heritage’. Heritage has become both affective and moral. But as a term representing both what should be valued and conserved publicly from the past, and as an attitude of respect to it, seems to be a late 20th century development. Many contemporary dictionaries give no prominence to this meaning or sometimes do not even record it.
The word heritage without doubt is a living term whose meaning is still developing - its definition is certainly not fixed yet. Heritage therefore as an attitude to the past is very much a product of our own historical period. As the world continues to change, both the concept itself and what it includes will continue to shift too.
Wealth of Heritage
World Heritage Department of Environment and Conservation came out with the significance of our heritage, “World Heritage sites are natural and cultural sites of universal significance to mankind. Each has been chosen for their enormous value to the people of the world and represent our greatest natural and cultural treasures.” Some of the sites include famous places known to all people, such as the Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon and our own Great Barrier Reef. World Heritage is about recognizing these sites and their universal significance. It is also about ensuring that their enormous heritage value is passed on to future generations.
Benoy K. Behl, art historian, film-maker and photographer, has done pioneering work in documenting India’s art heritage. He has taken over 30,000 photographs of Indian monuments and art objects and made 100 documentaries on art history. His exhibitions have been held in 24 countries.
Why know Heritage at all?
“It is rightly said that the nation or the society, which does not know its heritage, cannot fully comprehend its present and hence is unable to steer its future. India’s most valued and revered gift not only to Herself but also to the entire humanity is its profound and timeless heritage,” says Naganath R. Ramdasi on the importance of understanding and nurturing the cultural heritage of one’s own society.
By knowing heritage we learn to appreciate the wealth of our land. French scholar Romain Rolland expressed, “If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.”
We learn also to appreciate other people. We begin to take in whatever is good for our culture and for the rest of the world. On scientific heritage of India, Albert Einstein once remarked, “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”
While the commentaries of Max Muller and Will Durant are well known, Mark Twain said, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.” Such realization helps us to treasure our own contribution to the world at large. Thus we begin to appreciate ourselves. This helps us to move forward to the next phase in history.
Forms of Heritage
“The World’s most valued and revered gift is not only to herself but also to the entire humanity known for its profound and timeless heritage. Heritage encompasses almost every aspect of human inquiry, exploration and existence covering philosophy and religion, language and literature, metaphysics and sciences, polity and social living, habitat and architecture, dance and music, and arts and crafts,” says Ramdasi.
Summed up here are some of the most common forms of heritage.
Aboriginal heritage includes Aboriginal sites, objects and remains. Maritime heritage includes underwater sites such as shipwrecks and land sites such as lighthouses, jetties and whaling stations. Movable cultural heritage includes historical objects, which are in the country. Many movable objects are housed in museums, which have a variety of methods for recording and managing their collections. The many types of natural heritage includes wilderness, coastlines and estuaries, native vegetation and threatened species.
Heritage, above all is a confident assertion of values and attitudes rather than the intrinsic nature of a historical object.
Ways to Keep Alive Heritage
Keeping heritage alive is a herculean task. Apart from talking about them to people and visiting those heritage sites, people should have a proper understanding of them.
Above all applying them in our lives particularly those good old customs and traditions which are essential to create a harmonious self and community. The Frontline states, “One of the remarkable aspects of early Indian art is that the focus was not on individuals and there were no portraits, even of the kings who were its patrons. In fact, Chitrasutra states that eternal themes and not personalities are the fitting subject of art.”

We see a vision of the world and the roots of a culture that has survived for more than 5,000 years.


Can Heritage be Only Positive?
Does heritage have to be positive? The word has inherited some appalling events in the 20th century like genocides and natural calamities among many others. There are the lost heritages e.g. the descendants of slaves, a present people whose past heritage is somehow cut off; or the holocaust, a past heritage without a present people.
Are we responsible for the past - do we have a corporate or even individual responsibility for it? There are examples of apologies by the Popes for the past of the Catholic church or of the Australian government to the aborigines; the British government is notoriously slow in this e.g. with regard to Ireland or its role in the slave trade. All very difficult and sensitive areas and nobody comes away with ‘clean hands’.
In an article to the Frontline, Benoy K. Behl wrote, “The art of ancient India brings before us a vision of great compassion. It is a view of the world that sees a harmony in the whole of creation. It sees the same that is in each of us, in the animals, the flowers, the trees, the leaves and even in the breeze that moves the leaves. All that there is, is seen to be a reflection of the One.”
From the early river valley civilization onwards, we see the foundations of the art of one of the oldest civilizations of the world. We see a vision of the world and the roots of a culture that has survived for more than 5,000 years.
What makes it so fascinating is that this is a culture that continues to this day.
All the learning about cultural heritage is not for making one an intellectual; but, to understand oneself against the complexities of the universe and against the passing of bygone years.