The-Polyester-Prince

eligious school known as Shaivism (from the god of creativity and destruction,
Shiva) had preached that the world was unreal and an impersonal abstract essence
was the absolute reality and truth. The Jain and Buddhist religions, which had sprung
from Hinduism, also preached privation, renunciation and destruction of the self.
Vallabhacharya saw a personal god who created and sustained life, for whom living
life to the full was a form of devotion. His school became known as Vaishnavism, as
the focus of devotion was the god Vishnu’s playful avatar (incarnation) Krishna, perhaps
the most widely adored and human face of the divine among Hindus.
In his classic text on the Vaishnavas of Gujarat, the scholar N. A. Thoothi pointed out
that this naturally appealed to the people of a land richly endowed with opportunity
like the central parts of Gujarat. It was a philosophy that justified their way of life
and gave a divine purpose to their roles as providers and family members. It also
fitted the rising social status of the Banias in Gujarat, overriding the formal varna
hierarchy.
As Vaishnavism grows, the Varnas decline. We have noticed, for example, how the
Vanias [Banias] have reached a social status as high as that of the Brahmins
themselves. This upsetting of the balance of the Varnas has been greatly due to
economic causes. The merchant and the financier and the capitalist have, by sheer
force of wealth and power, for a while become dictators over all, even over the
priestly class. A justification of their way of living, a theory of life and a pathway
suited and helpful to the living of a life engrossed in work and duty as a man,
husband, father, citizen and so on, a hope that such a mode of life as they live is
acceptable to the highest deity - the Gujaratis naturally sought for all these.
Ambani’s particular caste is called the Modh Bania, from their original home in the
town of Modasa north of Ahmedabad before a migration many centuries ago to
Saurashstra. The Modh are one of three Bania castes in this part of Gujarat, who
might eat meals together but who would each marry within their own caste. They are
strict vegetarians, and only the men take alcohol. Their practice of Hinduism follows
the Vaishnavite path. But the main object of their pilgrimages, on marriage or the
start of a new business venture, is a black-faced idol with a diamond in his chin
located in a temple at Nathdwara, a small town in the barren hills behind the lake
city of Udaipur in Rajasthan. This idol represents Srinath, an avatar or incarnation of
Lord Krishna, and was brought to Nathdwara from Mathura (Krishna’s birthplace) by
a holy man to escape the depredations of the fierce anti-Hindu Mughal emperor
Aurangzeb. For reasons that are not clear, Srinath has become the familiar god of
the Modh and other Banias. Portraits based on the Nathdwara idol are often seen in
the offices of Bania businessmen.
In later years, Ambani and his family made frequent visits to the temple of Srinath,
flying into Udaipur airport in his company’s executive jet and driving straight up to
Nathdwara. In 1994, Ambani built a large ashram (pilgrim’s rest-house) in
Nathdwara for the use of visitors. The three-storey building, faced in a pink granite,
is dedicated to the memory of his parents.
If the Modh Bania practise piety in the temple, and abstemious ways in their homes
they are known as fiercely competitive and canny traders in the marketplace, with no
communications about taking advantage of opportunities for profit. A saying in
Gujarat goes: ‘apale hojo kadh, pan angane na hojo Modh’s meaning: ‘It is better to
have a leucoderma [a disfiguring skin pigment disorder] on your forehead than a
Modh as guest in your house.’ Like other Bania castes of the region, the Modh Bania