Mājuli is on the brink of vanishing. In 1900 the river island was over 1200 square kilometres in size, 100 years later it was just 400. For the past 500 years the island has been the centre of the Assamese Vishnu cult. But, of the 65 satras in which Lord Krishna has been worshipped here as the eighth avatar of Vishnu, only 20 now remain. With every passing day the Brahmaputra, the son of Brahma, is washing away more and more of Lord Krishna’s holy island – villages, fields, farms and temples. By 2020, experts estimate, the island could well be totally eroded.
Sand-grains, standing pressed together for centuries, are suddenly being rudely broken away from each other and flushed down the river – to perhaps come together again somewhere, sometime, to form a bank once more, the beginnings of a new island. Quite like Krishna, who, as the owner of his own structure and through the magical power of his own nature, resurrects himself every time the world is in disarray (4th Song of the «Bhagavad Gita»).
First Publication: 4-6-2013
Modifications: 22-6-2013