THE GLORIOUS THRONE

In 1978, when Lucinda  Lambton, a British authority on sanitation including scatology, wrote a path-breaking  book in London on toilet and named it, “ Temples of Convenience: Chambers of Delight”, not only her friends laughed at her, but also the local literary community was not amused. She remained undeterred and continued to write further on this interesting, though ignored subject. It is due to her foresight and determination that amid a plethora of books on the topic, even today her pioneering work is being referred to as the most authentic source. All the subsequent writers acknowledged his courtesy.

Scholar M.R. Malkani had in 1965  written a seminal book on sanitation habits in India, “Clean People, Unclean India” pointing out after intensive research, what sticklers we are for personal hygiene but how badly we neglected cleanliness in our public life. While that may be a fact of the essential Indian persona, activists working across the country are not content to sit and let old attitudes stink up the country (Malini Nair in The Times of India, Saturday, Sept 25, 2010). This hints at a prevalent trend in the country. We are not serious about our surrounding which today is better known as ecology. The house inside is clean and the outer portion has heaps of garbage.

It is a fact that the man was not born with toilet but it is a fact that since he put his feet on civilisational norms, he started using toilets. So this glorious throne is concomitant with civilization. Thus, tomorrow if somebody enquires how old is the toilet system, the simple and correct answer will be as old as the civilization itself. The early man was in the forest for thousands of years before coming to plains and settling. The day he had his own brick house, though not educated like us, he decided to not evacuate there because after all excreta is dirt. He started going out for defecation. The day he decided to avoid residential area, the toilet was born in the concept. Today, it is said, eating alone does not make culture, it is the combination of both. In 2012, in an international conference, a Christian father had delivered a well prepared lecture on culture. In the concluding part of the question-answer session, raising a question, I charged that his longish presentation was incomplete as it did not touch about toilet which is an essential part of human culture. To my utter surprise he boldly conceded my point and collected the names of some books from me on the subject. I must add that it was a news for others as well in the audience. As a result when I reached the dias for my presentation, the august gathering of career museologists gave a rapt attention. At the end, I made them laugh loudly when I conveyed the message of my museum to them, “Even if you may be in a rush, it is always nice to flush”.

I am sad to add here that even Indians do not know that the first wet (flush) toilet was used by the people of Harappan Settlements in 2,500 BC. The best toilet which is being used in the world today, is known as WC (water closet), which our forefathers used some 4,500 years ago. To our misfortune, it is not covered in the text books of schools and colleges. The oldest sewer of Europe was constructed in 6^th century BC in Rome and they made publicity of being the pioneer. Go to Dholavira in Gujarat and you will find underground drains (sewer) of 2,500 BC. When I tell the American and European visitors that before the Dholavira underground drain, the Roman sewer, named Cloaka Maxima is a child, they get a shock.

Turning the pages of history, we find that in the civilizations of Egypt, India, and Mesopotamia people were using wet toilets in the third millennium BC. The Egyptians had operational problems because of lack of sufficient water. They often waited for the Sept floods of the Nile to sweep away the human excreta. On the other hand the Mesopotamians did not experience such problems as they lived in the Doab of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. As against these, the Indian experiment with toilets was better. Some such flush toilets, even today can be seen in Mohenjodaro in Sindh province of modern Pakistan. Even the baths, drains and toilets of the Roman ancient cities of Hercullaneum and Pompeii, which were buried in the eruptions of the Vesuvious in 78 AD, stand no comparison with the Indian innovations. 

(Story will continue in the next blog soon. Response from blog visitors will enthuse me).