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Veda is ultimate source of knowledge: United Nations

The tradition of Vedic chanting of India has been declared a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by Unesco for being "the ultimate source of knowledge and one of the world's oldest surviving cultural traditions."

In a meeting held between director-general Koichiro Matsuura and president Jaun Goytisolo at Unesco headquarters in Paris on November 8, Unesco declared, "Although Vedic texts were recorded in writing 15 centuries ago, their principal means of transmission remains oral. The outstanding value lies not only in the rich content of its oral literature but also in the unique and ingenious techniques employed by the Brahmin priests in preserving the texts intact over three and half millennia. The complex recitation technique, requiring rigorous training from childhood, is based on a specific pronunciation of each letter and specific speech combinations to ensure that the sound of each word remains unchanged.

Mr Matsuura added: "The Vedic heritage comprise a multitude of text and interpretations collected in four Vedas. The Rig Veda is an anthology of sacred hymns; musical arrangements of hymns from the Rig Veda and other sources are found in the Sama Veda; the Yajur Veda abounds in prayers and sacrificial formulas used by priests; and the Atharna Veda, attributed to the legendary sage, Atharvan, includes hymns, charms and spells. The Veda also provide an extraordinary historical panorama of Hinduism and offer insight into the early development of several fundamental artistic and scientific notions, such as the concept of zero. Although the Vedas continue to play an important role in contemporary Indian life, this ancient oral tradition now faces many difficulties owing to current economic conditions and modernisation. Experts claims that four noted schools of Vedic recitation may be in imminent danger of disappearing."

Garuda: Belur, Mysore - Hoysala Period. 13th century AD.

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The UNESCO declaration will bring international recognition to the excellence of the Vedic chanting tradition of India, which have survived for centuries encoding the wisdom contained in the Vedas through an extraordinary effort of memorization and through an elaborately worked out mnemonic methods. The purity and fail-safe technique devised for Vedic chanting in the olden days led to access to one of the ancient literatures of humanity in its entirety. The Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Culture took the initiative to put up the candidature of the Vedic chanting to UNESCO. A presentation was prepared by Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts. The Department has also prepared five year action plan to safeguard, protect, promote and disseminate oral tradition of Vedic tradition in terms of their uniqueness and distinctiveness, encourage scholars and practitioners to preserve, revitalize and promote their own branch of Vedic recitation as the custodians of their own traditions and direct the efforts primarily to making the tradition survive in its own context.

Navya Shastra (NS), a US-based global organisation of Hindu scholars, activists, priests and lay people, has taken umbrage at the clubbing of the "seminal texts of a world religion" with folk arts. "The Vedas and its chanting tradition form the fountainhead, the very epicentre, of the religious beliefs of over 800 million people." Vikram Masson, co-chairman, NS says: "Be it a farmer in Tamil Nadu or a fisherman in Bengal, some part of his spiritual worldview has been inspired by the utterances of the rishis. By closeting the Vedas with other cultural expressions, UNESCO has marginalised and diminished the most important scriptures in the Hindu tradition." Reasons Koichiro Matsuura, DG, UNESCO: "This proclamation doesn't simply recognise the value of some elements of the intangible heritage; it entails the commitment of the state to implement plans to promote and safeguard the masterpiece. "The government should have taken other measures to safeguard the Vedic tradition. It could have sought the assistance of home-grown philanthropic organizations. The Vedas, central to Indian culture for over 4,000 years, don't need outside honors to confirm their importance."  

Vedas are a symbol of India's culture and tradition and they have to be preserved for thousands and thousands of years.

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In the southern state of Kerala, Vedic chanting is very much part of the curriculum at the Brahmaswam Madham school in the town of Thirssur. Sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor of a 700-year-old temple, 25 young boys and their teachers pray to Lord Krishna. Clad in white sarongs, the boys are bare-chested, and their chanting is accompanied by ritualistic hand movements. Here the children are learning about ancient Indian scriptures and how the Vedas are considered to be the source of all human knowledge. Although Vedas were written down in ancient times, they are mostly passed on from one generation to another orally. AM Kesavan, who is 20, has spent 12 years at the school and wants to be a Vedic teacher. "Vedas are a symbol of India's culture and tradition and they have to be preserved for thousands and thousands of years," he says. "My part in it is to acquire this knowledge and pass it on to the future generations." Kesavan and his fellow students begin the day with a dip in the pond at the crack of dawn. It is followed by Suryanamaskar - the worship of the sun god. From then onwards, most of the day is devoted to learning the scriptures.

The students and teachers hope recognition by Unesco will help improve their lot and bring in the much-needed funds to repair the school. The last several decades has seen only neglect and official apathy.

(source: Veda is ultimate source of knowledge: UN - The Asian Age - November 11, 2003 and Solar Flares - outlookindia.com - December 15' 2003. For more on the Vedas, refer to chapter on Hindu Scriptures and Press Information Bureau - Government of India and UN boost for ancient Indian chants - BBC).  

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Vyasa's 'History of the Future' - By N S Rajaram 

The Bhavishya Purana – History of the Future – occupies a unique place in the ancient Indian historical tradition. It is attributed to the same Vyasa. Its origins go back to the same hoary age that saw the great conflict of the Mahabharata War. This is clear from references to the Bhavishya in literary works of that era. The Bhavishya belongs to that genre of Indian historical writings known as the Puranas. The ancient Indian historical writing is composed of two kinds of works – Purana and Itihasa. Between the two Itihasa refers to recent history and Puranas to collections of ancient chronicles. (Iti-hasa in Sanskrit means ‘as it happened’). The Mahabharata being a compilation of contemporary events by Vyasa is considered an Itihasa. The Puranas preserve ancient accounts, beginning with the Creation. Thus the Puranas include cosmology along with the chronicles of kings and dynasties. 

The ancient Hindus attached great importance to the study of such works. The famous Indian political theorist Kautilya (300 BC) laid down the rule that the king must devote his afternoons to the study of Itihasa and Puranas – modern and ancient history. The Bhavishya is one of the most important of the Puranas of which there are 18 major and 108 minor ones. These collectively preserve the names and achievements of important men and women going back thousands of years.  

So Puranic dates, which gives 3102 BC for the Mahabharat War, were rejected as impossible for they contradicted the Biblical superstition. It would be sheer folly on our part to ignore these hoary works because of some 19^th century colonial prejudices. 

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The body of available literature from ancient India exceeds that from all other ancient civilizations combined, taken several times over. It may differ in form and style from a modern history text, but that does not mean it doesn’t exist. It would be sheer folly on our part to ignore these hoary works because of some 19^th century colonial prejudices. Ancient Greeks and Chinese scholars who visited India, spoke admiringly of the Indians’ preservation of their past. In addition to missionary zeal and political usefulness, racial prejudice current in the colonial era contributed its share to their ‘scholarship.’ Preconceived notions about the superiority of the ‘Aryans’ (a Sanskrit word meaning noble, but distorted by Europeans to mean a race) led to the invention of various spurious measures of ‘Aryan-ness’ to be used in support of their prejudice masquerading as a scientific theory.  

The scholarship of these men and women was dominating by Biblical superstitions, racial prejudices and political considerations. Until about a hundred years ago, many scholars believed in the Biblical Creation Theory according to which the world was created at 9:00 AM on 23 October 4004 BC! At last as 1800, many English language schools in British India and other parts of the world taught about the Biblical Creation. Using the genealogy given in the Genesis, this theory yields a date of 2448 BC for the Flood. Hence colonial scholars ruled out any possibility of civilization anywhere before that date. 

So Puranic dates, which gives 3102 BC for the Mahabharat War, were rejected as impossible for they contradicted the Biblical superstition.

The spiritual age that preceded the material age saw the creation of the Vedas – the oldest literature in the world. It is called the Vedic Age. Vyasa was the last great sage of the Vedic Age. He was the man who organized the spiritual knowledge contained in the Vedas. It is for this reason that he is known as Veda Vyasa or ‘arranger of the Vedas’ rather than by his actual name of Krishna-Dvaipayana - (Dark Man, the Island Born).  And this despite the fact that he is the author of the Mahabharata, probably the single greatest literary work in the world.

(source: Nostradamus and Beyond – N S Rajaram   p. 60 - 64). 

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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The Puranas, Nile and John Hanning Speke

The Puranas have a remarkable connection with one of the most important discoveries of the 19^th century. In 1858, John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) – Speke was commissioned in the British Indian Army in 1844 – made the discovery that Lake Victoria was the source of the River Nile in Africa. Speke wrote that to some Indian Pundits (Hindu scholars) the Nile was known as Nila, and also as Kaali. Nila means blue and Kaali means dark – both apt descriptions for the Nile near its source. These are mentioned in several Puranas including the Bhavishaya. 

This went against the conventional wisdom, for Lake Victoria was unknown at the time. Sir Richard Burton, the leader of the Nile expedition, had identified Lake Tangyanika as the source. Speke, however, following upon the advice of a Benares (Varansi) Pundit, insisted that the real source was a much large lake that lay to the north. Following this advice Speke went on to discover Victoria. The Pundit had also told him that the real source were twin peaks as Somagiri, ‘Soma’ in Sanskrit stands for moon and ‘giri’ means peak, and Somagiri therefore are none other than the fabled Mountains of the Moon in Central Africa! The Pundit must have known all this. He published his book Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863).

(source: Nostradamus and Beyond – N S Rajaram  p. 60 - 67). For more refer to chapter India and Egypt).

Significant also is the fact that Lieutenant Speake, when planning his discovery of the source of the Nile, secured his best information from a map reconstructed out of Puranas. (Journal, pp. 27, 77, 216; Wilford, in Asiatic Researches, III). 

It traced the course of the river, the "Great Krishna," through Cusha-dvipa, from a great lake in Chandristhan, "Country of the Moon," which it gave the correct position in relation to the Zanzibar islands. The name was from the native Unya-muezi, having the same meaning; and the map correctly mentioned another native name, Amara, applied to the district bordering Lake Victoria Nyanza.

"All our previous information," says Speake, "concerning the hydrography of these regions, originated with the ancient Hindus, who told it to the priests of the Nile; and all these busy Egyptian geographers, who disseminated their knowledge with a view to be famous for their long-sightedness, in solving the mystery which enshrouded the source of their holy river, were so many hypothetical humbugs. The Hindu traders had a firm basis to stand upon through their intercourse with the Abyssinians."

(source: Periplus of the Erythrean Sea - W.H. Schoff p. 229-230). http:/www.capitalnet.com/~jcbyers/Speke/nile-chap01.htm). 

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Indian Numerals in the Islamic World 

It was the Indians who invented zero and the place-value system, as well as the very foundations of written calculation as we know it today. These highly significant inventions date back at least as far as the fifth century CE. 

The Arabs encountered them at the beginning of the 8^th century CE, when Hajj sent out an army under Muhammad Ben al-Qasim to conquer the Indus Valley and the Punjab. But it is far more likely that the army had nothing to do with it, and that it was necessary to wait for a delegation of scholars before Indian science was transmitted to the Islamic world. This is, indeed, Ibn Khaldun’s (1332 - 1395) explanation, who says in his Prolegomena that the Arabs received science from the Indians, as well as their numerals and calculation methods, when a group of erudite Indian scholars came to the court of the caliph al-Mansur in year 156 of the Hegira (= 776 CE) Muqaddimah, translated by M. De Slane, II, p. 300).  

Ibn Khaldun’s version corresponds closely with earlier texts, especially with a tale told by the astronomer Ibn al-Adami in about 900, which is referred to by the court patron Hasan al-Qifti (1172-1288) in his Chronology of the Scholars. 

“Al-Husayn Ben Muhammad Ben Hamid, known as Ibn al-Adami, tells in his Great Table, entitled Necklace of Pearls, that a person from India presented himself before the Caliph al-Mansur in the year 156 (of the Hegira = 776 CE) who was well versed in the sindhind method of calculation related to the movement of heavenly bodies, and having ways of calculating equations based on kardaja calculated in half-degrees, and what is more various techniques to determine solar and lunar eclipses, co-ascendants of ecliptic signs and other similar things. This task was given to Muhammad Ben Ibrahim al-Fazarri who thus conceived a work known by astronomers as the Great Sindhind. In the Indian language sindhind means “eternal duration”.  

Much can be learned from this. The repetition of the word sindhind is significant; it is the Arabic translation of the Sanskrit “ siddhanta, the general term for Indian astronomic treatises, which contained a complete set of instructions for calculating, for example, lunar or solar eclipses, including the trigonometric formulae for true longitude. The “sindhind” method thus stands for the set of elements contained in such treatises. As for the word kardaja, which is also frequently used, it means “sine” and derives from an Arabic deformation of the Sanskrit ardhajya (literally “semi-chord”) which Indian astronomers used, from the time of Aryabhatta, for this trigonometric function which is the basis of all calculations in the Indian siddhanta system.   

All Indian astronomers noted their numbers by using Sanskrit numerical symbols: this notation gave  them a solid base for noting numeric data and was based on a decimal place-value system using zero.

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This method is presented in the mathematician and astronomer Brahmagupta’s (628) Brahmasphutasiddanta and the astrologer Varahamihira’s (575) Panchasiddhanta. But is was explained long before these treatises in the astronomer Aryabhata’s Aryabhatiya (510). All Indian astronomers noted their numbers by using Sanskrit numerical symbols: this notation gave  them a solid base for noting numeric data and was based on a decimal place-value system using zero. In other words, when the Arabs learnt Indian astronomy, they inevitably came up against Indian numerals and calculation methods. So that the arrival of the two branches of knowledge precisely coincided. This is confirmed by Al-Biruni’s Kitab fi tahqiq I ma li’l hind (c. 1030), which tells of his 36 years stay in India.

Long before the Arabic conquest, the Persian king Khosroes Anushirwan (531- 579) sent a cultural mission to India and brought back many Indian scientists to Jundishapur. It was at Edese, Nisibe, Keneshre and Jundishapur…..that the first works in Sanskrit were discovered. During the assimilation of Indian science, the Arabs were helped by many Hindu Brahmins, who were often received at the court of Baghdad by enlightened Caliphs. They were assisted by Persians and Christians from Syria and Mesopotamia, who, being fervent admirers of Indian cultures, had gone so far as to learn Sanskrit. The Buddhists also greatly contributed, especially those converted to Islam, such as Barmak who was sent to India to study astrology, medicine and pharmacy and who, on his return to Muslim territory, translated many Sanskrit texts into Arabic.   

Abu’l Hasan al-Qifti (  ? ) Arab scholar and author of Chronology of the Scholars, speaks of  Arab admiration for Indian place-value system and methods of calculation.

“Among those parts of their sciences which came to us, the numerical calculation….it is the swiftest and most complete method of calculation, the easiest to understand and the simplest to learn; it bears witness to the Indians’ piercing intellect, fine creativity and their superior understanding and inventive genius.”

(source: The Universal History of Numbers - By Georges Ifrah   p. 511 - 589). For more refer to chapter on Hindu Culture1 and Quotes321_340).

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Indian Numerals in the Western World  - The Slow Progress of Indo-Arabic Numerals in Western Europe   

Indian inventions were not transmitted directly to Europe: Arab-Muslim scholars played an essential part as vehicles of Indian science, acting as “intermediaries” between the two worlds.”   

When the Europeans first encountered numeral systems and computational methods of Indian origin, Europeans proved so attached to their archaic customs, so extremely reluctant to engage in novel ideas, that many centuries passed before written arithmetic scored its decisive and total victory in the West. 

Renaissance arithmetic: An obscure and complex art 

“I was borne and brought up in the Countrie, and amid husbandry; I have since my predessours quit me the place and possession of the goods I enjoy, both businesse and husbandary in hand. I cannot yet cast account either with penne or Counters.” (source: The Complete Essays - By Montaigne Vol. II 1588, p. 379). 

These words were written by one of the most learned men of his day: Michel de Montaigne, born 1533, was educated by famous teachers at the College de Guyenne, in Bordeaux, traveled widely thereafter, and came to own a sumptuous library. He was a member of the parlement of Bordeaux and then mayor of that city, as well as friends of the French kings Francois II and Charles IX. And he admits without the slightest embarrassment, that he cannot “cast account” – or, in modern language do arithmetic! 

Could he have been aware of the fabulous discoveries of Indian scholars, already over a thousand years old? Almost certainly not. Cultural contact between Eastern and Western civilizations had been very limited ever since the collapse of the Roman Empire. The first operating method (counters) stands in the highly complicated tradition of Greece and Rome; the second (penne) which Montaigne would no doubt have ascribed to the Arabs, was in fact the invention of Indian scholars. But no one had thought of teaching it to him; Montaigne, like most of his contemporaries, no doubt viewed it with mistrust and suspicion. 

This situation did not alter in the conservative bureaucracies of the European nations throughout the 17^th and 18^th centuries. It is now perhaps easier to understand why skilled abacists were long regarded in Europe as magicians enjoying supernatural powers. All the same, even before the Crusades, Westerners could have made full and profitable use of the Indian computational methods which the Arabs had brought to the threshold of Europe from the 9^th century CE. But there was another, more properly ideological reason for European resistance to Indo-Arabic numerals. 

Written arithmetic using Indian numerals. European engraving, 16th century. Paris. Palais de la Decouverte.

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Even whilst learning was reborn in the West, the Church maintained a climate of dogmatism, of mysticism, and of submission to the holy scriptures, through doctrines of sin, hell and the salvation of the soul. Science and philosophy were under ecclesiastical control, were obliged to remain in accordance with religious dogma, and to support, not to contradict, theological teachings. Some ecclesiastical authorities thus put it about that arithmetic in the Indo-Arabic manner, precisely because it was so easy and ingenious, reeked of magic and of the diabolical: it must have come from Satan himself! It was only a short step from there to sending over-keen algorists to the stake, along with witches and heretics. And many did indeed suffer that fate at the hands of the Inquisition. 

The very etymology of the words “cipher” and “zero” provide evidence of this. When the Arabs adopted Indian numerals and the zero, they called the latter sifr, meaning “empty”, a plain translation of the Sanskrit shunya. From abstract zero to infinity was a single step which Indian scholars took early and nimbly. The most surprising thing is that amongst the Sanskrit words used to express zero, there is the term "ananta, which literally means "Infinity".

(source:  The Universal History of Numbers - By Georges Ifrah   p. 511 - 589).  For more refer to Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea: It's weird, it's counterintuitive and the Greeks hated it. Why did the Church reject the use of zero? - By Charles Seife http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Books-X!ArticleDetail-26133,00.html
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2000/03/03/seife/index.html). For more refer to chapter on Hindu Culture1 and Quotes321_340).

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On hallowed ground of Tilla Jogain - By Salman Rashid

The first time ever I trod the hallowed ground of Tilla Jogian was in October 1974. Young, callow and utterly unread, I had no idea regarding its history or how sacred that hilltop was. But even as my friend Shahid Ahmed and I wandered among the deserted ruins, there was a feeling, more than palpable, of the holiness of the site. We spoke in whispers, we walked on tiptoes. And we half expected some grizzled old guru, his snow-white beard reaching down the navel leaning on a crooked and gnarled staff to appear from somewhere and denounce us for violating the inviolable with our frivolous visit.

But no one appeared. Save for several hedgehogs in the thickets and the droves of birds singing in the tall trees we met with no one. The decrepit rest house built sometime in the 1890s had lost part of its roof. Once it was used by the Deputy Commissioner of the Jhelum district as the summer headquarter. In those pre-electricity days, the 1000 metre (3300 feet) height of Tilla Jogian above sea level meant comparatively milder summers. And so every year in May the DC moved up to the cool, pine-shaded hill to hold office and dispense justice. There he stayed until the beginning of September.

That was also the time when the monastery of Tilla Jogian thrived. Its hostels were home to acolytes of the Kunphutta (pierced ears) sect of jogis from all over India tutored by dozens of accomplished masters of the creed. That had been the way since its inception in the 1st century BC. That was when the great guru Goraknath lived and established both the sect and the monastery. History tells us of two illustrious ones among the guru's disciples: Raja Bhartari, the philosophical prince of Ujjain, who gave up the throne early in the 1st century BC to become a jogi. And in that same period, Puran the prince of Sialkot much wronged by his libidinous step-mother. Both found spiritual fulfillment in the tutelage of Guru Goraknath.

Over the years I returned again and again and saw modern Ahmed Shah Abdalis systematically doing their work: yet another floor uprooted, another samadhi destroyed, the British milestone that said 'Jhelum 25 miles' stolen, dozens of the ancient olive trees cut and burnt and more and more buildings defaced with graffiti. But what not even the most vicious vandal has been able to damage is the aura of Tilla Jogian. The tangible feel of it being a special place; a place much favoured by higher beings. And even if the hum of religious worship may never rise above the sound of wind soughing through the pine trees of Tilla Jogian; even if no jogi ever returns here to seek his own nirvana, that is one thing no vandal will be able to remove from the monastery of Guru Goraknath. 

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Established in the 1st century BC by Guru Goraknath, the founder of the sect of Kanphatta (pierced ears) jogis, the monastery thrived for two thousand years. For two thousand years followers of different persuasions resorted here to become jogis. Most names are lost, but we know that Guru Nanak spent the prescribed forty days worshipping his Lord in the quiet seclusion of Tilla Jogian. 

(source: On hallowed ground - By Salman Rashid - dawn.com and Footloose - The News International).

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Ancient Indian medicine

Medical literature of ancient India has been systematised periodically into works of singular excellence. One such work is the Caraka Samhita (a revised version of Agnivesa's earlier work), named after its author, the master physician Caraka, whose time and place are a matter of debate. 

His Samhita, a compendium of systematically arranged text and verse, is an intellectual watershed containing the collective knowledge of medicine existing down the ages from the Vedic to the post-Vedic eras. It contains the stream of Ayurvedic knowledge coming from divine origins, as tradition would have it, first propounded by Brahma and then passed on through Dakshaprajapati, the Asvins, Indra, Bharadwaja and Atreya Punarvasu to Agnivesa.

And as Ayurveda is considered an "Upa Veda" or a derivative of the Vedas, it rests heavily on the sophisticated medical contents of the Atharva Veda and the associated Garbhopanishad (the Upanishad related to human intra-uterine gestation) along with less esoteric but equally valuable inputs from folk medicine.

In keeping with Indian tradition, wherein all science is moored in philosophy and related metaphysics, Caraka draws on the Sankhya, Vaisesika and the Nyaya schools of philosophy to define terminology and concepts, to explain and elaborate the philosophy behind the principles and practice of internal medicine.  

Caraka: Miniature painted by Salomon - probably adapted from an Indian original neg. WHMM 5329 - Courtesy of The Wellcome Trustees.

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In concordance with other Ayurvedic texts (such as Susruta Samhita and Astanga Hridaya), the Caraka Samhita has 120 chapters arranged in eight Sthanas or sections: Sutra, Nidana, Vimana, Sarira, Indriya, Cikitsa, Kalpa and Siddhi. The purpose of the work very clearly was two-fold. The first was to teach and train medical students in anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and clinical medicine supported by a grounding in medical ethics. The second was to serve as a compendium of continuing medical education programmes with consensus statements evolved at medical conferences by a sifting of evidence through a process of peer review.

Caraka Samhita therefore is contemporary in terms of concepts of medical training and practice. It is no wonder then that the book has remained a beacon to medical practitioners down the ages. The author is one such individual, who though a modern cardiac surgeon and eminent medical administrator and academician, has been attracted intellectually to this ancient text.

(source: Ancient Indian medicine - By Uma Krishnaswamy - hindu.com. For more refer to chapter on Hindu Culture2).  For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Oath of Initiation -  Caraka Samhita

Charaka Samhita contains an Anushasana - the Atreya Anushasana (seventh century BC) - predating the famous Hippocratic Oath by two centuries. This oath bears testimony to the high level of professional ethics in ancient India.

(source: http://www.bio-ethics.com/code_samhita.htm Reich WT (ed.) Encyclopedia of Bioethics, revised edition Vol 5. Simon & Schuster MacMillan, New York, 1995). For more refer to chapter on Hindu Culture2).

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A devotee of the Goddess Ambaji flummoxes physicians 

Doctors and experts are baffled by an Indian hermit who claims not to have eaten or drunk anything for several decades - but is still in perfect health. 

Prahlad Jani, a holy man, or fakir, who is over 70 years old, has just spent 10 days under constant observation in Sterling Hospital, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. During that time, he did not consume anything and "neither did he pass urine or stool", according to the hospital's deputy superintendent, Dr Dinesh Desai. Yet he is in fine mental and physical fettle, say doctors. Most people can live without food for several weeks, with the body drawing on its fat and protein stores. But the average human can survive for only three to four days without water.

Followers of Indian holy men and ascetics have often ascribed extraordinary powers to them, but such powers are seldom subject to scientific inspection.

He grew up in Charod village in Mehsana district and wears the dress of a devotee of the goddess Ambaji - a red sari-like garment, nose ring, bangles and crimson flowers in the hair. He also wears the vermilion "tika" mark on his forehead. His followers call him "mataji" or goddess.

He says he has survived several decades without food or water because of a hole in his palate. Drops of water filter through this hole, he says, sustaining him. "He has never fallen ill and can continue to live like this," said Bhiku Prajapati, one of Mr Jani's many followers. "A hole in the palate is an abnormal phenomenon," says Dr Desai. His colleague, Dr Urman Dhruv, told the BBC a full medical report is being prepared on Mr Jani's 10 days under observation. Doctors say they cannot verify his claim to have not eaten or drunk for decades - but by observing his feat under laboratory conditions, they hope to learn more about the human body. It is likely that doctors will want to examine Mr Jani again in order to solve the medical mystery he has presented them with. 

Neurologist Sudhir Shah said it took the hospital more than a year to persuade Jani to undergo surveillance. He said he wanted the ascetic to undergo experiments at NASA, as Jani's supposed feat could come in handy for astronauts. 

(source: Fasting fakir flummoxes physicians - BBC and Doctors baffled as Indian man claims not to have eaten for 68 years - yahoo.com).

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Tourism hubs to pop up along 800-km long Saraswati ‘riverbed’

Union Minister for Tourism and Culture Jagmohan has already announced an ambitious Rs 5-crore Saraswati Heritage Project, which aims to develop the ‘‘Saraswati river belt’’ as a ‘‘cultural-tourist’’ hub with 15 circles or centres.

Earlier this year, the minister had sanctioned Rs 8 crore to the Archaeological Society of India (ASI) to search for the river, which is believed to have run dry a million years ago. Now he seems to have zeroed in on a 800-km belt, stretching from Adi Badri in Haryana (the source of the river, says the ASI) to Dholavira in Gujarat. The 15 hubs — located in far-flung archaeological sites like Kapal Mochan and Kaithal in Haryana to Baror and Juni Kuran in Rajasthan, and Narayan Sarovar in Gujarat — will showcase important discoveries made by the ASI in their Saraswati excavations over the past few months.

‘‘The ASI and other organisations have been excavating almost 1,500 sites along the banks of the Saraswati and have made some exciting discoveries of mounds and artefacts,’’ says Jagmohan. ‘‘The 15 hubs along the riverbed will be developed as a destination for both tourism and research and will have a green belt for picnics, a documentation centre and a museum.’’ The hubs will also have pavilions exhibiting models of the Saraswati basin in its cultural and topographical perspectives, and dormitories for scholars and tourists, all of which will be set in verdant gardens, with pools of water symbolizing the river.

The Saraswati Heritage Project is part of Jagmohan’s vision for tourism in India. A year ago, he initiated ‘Regeneration India’, a Rs 300-crore project to boost ‘‘cultural and spiritual tourism’’, which will largely tap the growing domestic market. The focus is on ‘‘synthesis of the spiritual and aesthetic’’ for development of mind and body, says Jagmohan, rather than focusing on ‘‘material possessions, rest and recreation alone’’.

He has just completed the development of the Kurukshetra hub, where the epic battle of the Mahabharata is said to have been fought. Says the minister: ‘‘Last year alone, domestic traffic increased by three crore. I have multiple objectives — to bring to life culturally significant monuments, towns and sacred spots, improve the surrounding area and infuse keen civic sense to make it a pleasant experience. I also want to encourage visitors to come in contact with the profound minds which created all these wonders.’’

‘‘If St Peter’s in the Vatican can attract so many million visitors, why can’t we develop our cultural centres and introduce the new generation to the profundity of ancient India?’’ he asks. 

(source: Tourism hubs to pop up along 800-km long Saraswati ‘riverbed’ - indianexpress.com). For more on Jagmohan refer to chapter on Quotes271_300).

Dholavira to get tourism hub status: Jagmohan

Commenting on Dholavira, where the Centre has already spent Rs 1.30 crore over the past one year and will spend another Rs 1 crore in the next one month, he said, “We intend to convert Dholavira into one of Gujarat’s and India’s main tourism hub. I am even planning to organise a Wold Archaeologists’ Meet in Dholavira with the sole intention of inviting archaeologists from all over the world to this site that is between 5,000 and 7,000 years old,” Jagmohan said.

On Dholavira, Jagmohan said excavations so far have revealed that this was a mature, urban civilisation with excellent drainage and town planning. “If it is proven that the Saraswati river existed along the several sites between Haryana and Gujarat, there this belt, including Dholavira, will be the greatest excavation undertaken anytime in the world,” the minister said. About Somnath, the minister said the Central government will undertake improvement of infrastructure and other facilities around the temple, including the sea front. Similarly, the Union government will spend around Rs 3 crore on promoting the Sun Temple at Modera in Patan district.

(source: Dholavira to get tourism hub status: Jagmohan - Business Standard). For more refer to chapter on Aryan Invasion Theory).

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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A huge 1,000-year temple Shiva Temple surfaces in Southern Tamilnadu

It was an excavation that revealed an ancient Hindu temple. But, oddly, the excavation was not intended to be one. Village Kottamadaikadu in Kayalpattinam block of Thuthukkudi district in Tamilnadu is situated on the sea shore of Bay of Bengal. A major industrial unit, M/s Dharangadhara Chemical Works (DCW) manufacturing Caustic Soda, was the pride of the village, providing job opportunities to locals. But it rendered itself an eyesore to the people when it sought to dump its acid slurry on a 5 acre plot on the beach, which is bound to end up as a threat to the eco system, especially the sub soil water table feeding a population of one lakh in the surrounding villages. When DCW men dug up a one square kilometre trench to dump the slurry, idols of deities and remains of 1,000-year temple belonging to the early Chola period surfaced, reported Kadhiravan, a Tamil daily published from Tirunelveli on May 3, 2003.

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The idols included that of Lord Nataraja, Uma and Durga. They were made of Panchaloha. That is, their value in the antique market would be more than Rs. 10 lakhs as per the estimate of a schoolmaster of the village who has studied archaeology.

These idols as well as a few pooja utensils, found during the second round of digging in June were reportedly handed over to the Tehsildar at Tiruchendur by the Company officials. But the villagers, some of whom are eyewitnesses to the presence of a six-foot stone idol of kali at the dug up site, questeioned the mysterious disappearance of the same. Later it was found lying in a lake inside a forest nearby. The tehsildar retrieved it and kept it under his custody.

(source: A huge 1,000-year temple Shiva Temple surfaces in Southern Tamilnadu).

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Beatification Boon: Asia Firmly on Catholic Roadmap - By Balbir Punj

The controversy over her sainthood apart, it is amusing to note the manner in which the beatification of Mother Teresa of Kolkata was received in the supposedly secular media in India. Newspapers and television channels vied with each other to report the spectacle at the Vatican.  

In contrast, when an NDA minister, Sanjay Paswan espouses tantra as being part of Indian spiritual tradition, he is lampooned and dismissed as an obscurantist. One cannot help observe the irony of Pope John Paul II worn down by Parkinson's disease beatifying Mother Teresa for the miracle cure she performed when she herself needed sophisticated medical attention in her lifetime. While she was alive, Mother Teresa did not perform any supernatural acts, least of all miracles of healing. She only prayed to God for them.  

The media and secularists don't even bother to examine why the Vatican is determined to elevate her to sainthood so quickly after her death. Few have cared to find out why Mother Teresa was nominated by three American Conservative and controversial senators Pete Domenici, Mark O Hatfield, and Hubert Humphrey for the Nobel peace prize. Most Indian were thrilled with the fairytale of a white Slavic nun from remote Albania giving up a comfortable life in Europe to nurse the children of a lesser God in Motijheel slum of Kolkata.

The Church usually beatifies its servants for their efforts in popularising Christianity. It is customary for the Vatican to set up an inquiry committee to scrutinise claims in support of beatification. It traditionally included an office called advocatus diaboli (or Devil's Advocate) whose purpose was to test the veracity of any extraordinary claims. Pope John Paul II abolished this office altogether in order to create instant saints. Ironically, the Vatican committee did not even deem it necessary to interview the doctor who treated Monica Besra. Her physician, Dr Ranjan Mustafi, has made it clear that Monica never suffered from any cancerous tumour and that her tubercular cyst was cured by a course of prescribed medicine.  

Sant Goswami Tulsidas (1532-1623).

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In the Indian tradition, people and posterity decide who is a saint or who is not. It is not for any institution to certify a person's spiritual status. This is probably due to the decentralised and diffused nature of Hinduism. Kabir, Ramdas, Tulsidas, Mirabai are saints by the people's verdict, not by the act of any institution.  

(source: Beatification Boon: Asia Firmly on Catholic Roadmap - By Balbir Punj - timesofindia.com).  

The saint business - By Rajeev Srinivasan

It requires only a slight change in perspective to understand the whole rationale behind the M Teresa sainthood circus, which will culminate in a major song and dance on October 19^th. That perspective is: the Vatican is the world's oldest, largest and richest multinational corporation. And perhaps the most rapacious. Microsoft, eat your heart out! The current Pope understands this basic fact. His is clearly a keen business brain. He also believes more is better, for he has manufactured more saints in his tenure than all his many predecessors put together! 

And finally, to our heroine M Teresa. Now MT, it appears, was an ordinary, garden variety missionary godwoman prone to uttering pious homilies. The good citizens of Calcutta welcomed her when she showed up there and announced her intention to do 'good works,' whatever that meant. MT toiled in well-deserved obscurity for years until she got a huge lucky break. Malcolm Muggeridge, a British newspaperman who got religion in his old age, stumbled upon her and induced the BBC to do a feature on her. The rest, as they say, is history.

(source: The saint business  - By Rajeev Srinivasan - rediff.com).

Mother Teresa and Bhopal Tragedy

At the end of 1984, one of the worst ever industrial disasters hit the Indian town of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh state: 2,500 people were killed almost instantly by a poisonous-gas leaked from a pesticide factory owned by a subsidiary of Union Carbide. Thousands were choked by the toxic fumes and many had their health permanently damaged. State officials in Bhopal said there were no contingency plan to evacuate people from the city during the operation to neutralize stock of the deadly methyl isocyanate gas remaining in the underground storage tank which had leaked. Mother Teresa took an early plane to Bhopal and, greeted at the airports by large crowds of angry relatives of the gassed victims, advised them, ‘Forgive, forgive.’

On the face of it, a strange injunction. How did she know there was anything to forgive? Had anybody asked for forgiveness? What are the duties of the poor to the rich in such a situation? And who is authorized to recommend, or to dispense, forgiveness? In the absence of any answer to the questions, Mother Teresa's flying visit to Bhopal read like a hasty exercise in damage control, the expedient containment of righteous secular indignation.

Blessed Bluffs?
West Bengal Government snubs Teresa celebrations

Few government officials in this leftist stronghold are taking part. "Our party cadres will soon launch campaigns against the so-called miracles of self-professed godmen," said Anil Biswas, secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

"There is no rationality behind miracles," he said. Health Minister Surya Kanta Mishra said the government did not agree with the Vatican's conclusion that Monica Besra was cured by the power of the late nun. "We believe that the tribal woman Monica Besras stomach tumour was cured by prolonged medication in two hospitals, not by any miracle. Doctors, who treated her at the hospitals, have already supported our claim," Mishra told AFP. "We are ready to accept the works of Mother Teresa, but not the miracle theory," he said. Critics, who accused her of failing to address core reasons for Kolkata's poverty such as income inequality and limited reproductive-health options for poor women.

In her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, she called abortion the "greatest destroyer of peace". Accordingly, many advocates of the family planning and pro-choice movements were critical of her views and influence. In 1975 she supported Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s suspension of democracy in India. She also supported Gandhi's son, Sanjay Gandhi, in his highly unpopular population control campaign, which involved forcible sterilization. 

(source: Mother Teresa: Beyond the Image - By Anne Sebba p 112 - 113. and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice - By Christopher Hitchens p. 86 - 89 and  West Bengal Govt snubs Teresa celebrations - sify.comFor more on Mother Teresa refer to Mother Teresa, The Final Verdict - By Aroup Chatterjee.  A saint vs a patriot - By Arvind Lavakare, http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Mother-Theresa, Saint of the Rich and chapter on Conversion). For more refer to The War against Hinduism - By Stephen Knapp and to Joshua Project: Bringing Definition to the Unfinished Task- Country India - http://www.joshuaproject.net/countries.php?rog3=IN).

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Shalom in Pushkar 

It was a curious sight on a chilly November morning. A couple of Israeli Hassidic Jews, clad in the black hats and coats worn by the members of their orthodox order, were striding down the streets of the holy town of Pushkar in Rajasthan. 

“We Israelis love Pushkar. There is so much peace here. There’s a big problem with terrorism back home,” he said in broken English. 

It wasn’t hard to fathom why the two like Pushkar so much. The stillness of the lake, the beautiful sunset, the serene surroundings, the coloured lights adorning the buildings on the banks made for a wonderful experience. The easy-going locals are also friendly to tourists. The tourists benefit the local economy and the authorities are only too happy to welcome the droves.

Walking down the streets of Pushkar, it’s difficult to miss the Hebrew signboards that greet you from shops. Most of the tourists are ordinary Israeli backpackers travelling on shoestring budgets. They are here for the same reason as Eli. “I’ve just finished my conscription period in the army. It’s so different here from the turmoil and stress back home,” says Avishay, who’s in Pushkar with his girlfriend. “I’ve spent three long years in the Israeli army while my girlfriend has spent two years. Israel is tiny unlike India and even women have to fight for us to survive,” he adds. . Pushkar as a destination has become popular by word of mouth in Israel. The number of tourists is increasing every year,” he points out. But he also has a grouse. “We come here throughout the year. But during the Pushkar fair, prices go up and we get a raw deal. We know that American and European tourists are important but...,” he trails off.

The expensive hotels in Pushkar are mostly occupied by wealthy American and European tourists. The Israelis often have to cram up in dingy rooms. “There are five of us staying in a single room in a guest house and it costs us Rs 350. We don’t have as much of money as others,” grins Naor.

The terror and fear that so many Israelis seem keen on forgetting cast its shadow over the Pushkar fair last year when there was a serious terrorist threat. Then district authorities based in Ajmer even had to station commandos here. Although the threat has receded this year, it’s a grim reminder for the Naors and the Elis that Pushkar and Jerusalem exist in the same world.

(source: Shalom in Pushkar  - hindustantimes.com - 11/12/03)..

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U.S. adopts Indian Catamaran technology

Washington May 28 2003: The United States adopted ancient Indian catamaran-making technology to construct fast ships which were used with dramatic effect in the Iraq war, says a media report.

Among the equipment the Americans used to win the Iraq war were 100-feet catamaran ships to ferry tanks and ammunition from Qatar to Kuwait.

The ships, built with technology adapted from ancient Tamil methods to make catamarans, can travel over 2,500 kms in less than 48 hours, twice the speed of the regular cargo ships, and carry enough equipment to support about 5,000 soldiers, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Having a shallow draft, the boats can unload in rudimentary ports, allowing troops to land closer to the fight. — PTI

(source: U.S. adopts Indian Catamaran technology - hindu.com and tribune.com). For more refer to chapter on War in Ancient India, Pacific and  Seafaring in Ancient India).

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Hindu-Sikh relations - By Khushwant Singh

Guru Nanak (1469-1539) born of Hindu parents, (his father Kalu Mehta was a Revenue official and Vedi (bedi) Khatri by caste) proclaimed his faith around 1500 AD in one God who was Nirankar (without bodily manifestations) and a caste-free society. Those who accepted his creed described themselves as Sikhs or his disciples. They remained a part of the Hindu social system. Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, declared: “We are neither Hindus nor Muslims.” Nevertheless, in the Adi Granth he compiled around 1600 AD a little over 11,000 names of God that appear over 95 per cent are of Hindu origin: Hari, Rama, Gopal, Govind, Madhav, Vithal and others. Some like Allah, Rab, Malik are Muslim. The exclusively Sikh word for God, Wahguru, appears only 16 times. 

The Granth Sahib is compiled. It contains the works not just of the Gurus but also of Jaidev, Nam Dev, Trilochan, Parmanand, Sadhna, Beni, Ramanand, Dhanna, Pipa, Kabir, Ravidas, Mira, Surdas – Hindu poets and seers, Sufi bhakatas, each from a different part of the country. The Granth, a scholar reminds us, invokes the name of Krishna ten thousand times, of Rama two thousand four hundred times. It invokes Parabrahma 550 times, Omkar 400 times. It invokes the authority of the Vedas, Puranas, Smritis about 350 times. The names of the Nirguna Absolute – Jagdish, Nirankar, Niranjan, Atma, Paramatma, Parmeshwar, Antaryami, Kartar – are invoked twenty six hundred times. Those of Saguna deity – Gobind, Murari, Madhav, Saligram, Vishnu, Sarangpani, Mukund, Thakur, Damodar, Vasudev, Mohan, Banwari, Madhusudan, Keshav, Chaturbhuj, etc, - are invoked two thousand times. 

The rapture of the Gurus in describing Rama and Krishna, their reverence for Yashodha and Krishna, for Krishna and Radha, their repeated affirmations that in this day and age, in this Kaliyuga, the unfailing, indeed the only panacea, is to chant the name of Rama – what does all this mean? The description of the formless, attributeless Absolute is explicitly derived from the Vedas, Upanishads and the Gita; the legends of the Puranas – of Krishna and Sudama, of Prahlad and Hiranyakashyap – are recounted to what do these facts testify? 

Guru Tegh Bahadur is executed explicitly for his defence of the Hindus of Kashmir, he is executed in the company of his Hindu devotees. Guru Gobind Singh composes a paen to Rama – Ramavatara – and another to Krishna – Krishnavatara. He declares as his aspiration: 

Sakal jagat mein khalsa panth gaaje
Jage dharma Hindu, sakal bhand bhaje 

Let the path of the pure prevail all over the world
Let the Hindu dharma dawn and all delusion disappear. 

He declares as his goal: 

Dharam vedamaryaada jag mein chalaaun
Gaughaat kaa dosh jag se mitaaun 

May I spread dharma and prestige of the Veda in the world.
And erase from it the sin of cow-slaughter.

(source: A Secular Agenda: For saving our country, For welding it - By Arun Shourie p. 3 - 11).

Guru Gobind Singh invoked the names of Shiva, Sri and Chandi - Maharaja Ranjit Singh went to Hardwar to bathe in the Ganga and expressed the wish that on his death the diamond and Koh-i-Noor should be gifted to the temple of Jagannath at Puri. 

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Guru Gobind Singh, the last Sikh Guru who founded the Khalsa Panth in 1699 AD, invoked the names of Shiva, Sri and Chandi.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh also had Brahmins perform havans, regarded cows as sacred, punished cow-killing with death, went to Hardwar to bathe in the Ganga and expressed the wish that on his death the diamond and Koh-i-Noor should be gifted to the temple of Jagannath at Puri. Till then relations between the Hindus and the Sikhs were of naunh-maas — as the nail to the flesh out of which it grows. Inter-marriages between Hindus and Sikhs of same castes were common. Many Hindu families brought up their eldest sons as Khalsas, whom they regarded as Kesha Dhaaree Hindus (Hindus who did not cut their hair or beards). (For more on Ranjit Singh refer to chapter on European Imperialism).

Seeds of Hindu-Sikh separatism were sown by the British after they annexed Punjab in 1839 AD. They made reservations for Khalsa Sikhs in the Army, Civil Services and legislatures. Thus an economic incentive was given to Khalsa separateness. The feeling was eagerly nurtured by leaders of both communities. The lead was taken by Swami Dayanand Saraswati of the Arya Samaj. He visited Punjab and in his intemperate speeches described Guru Nanak as a semi-literate imposter (Dambhi). Sikhs picked up the gauntlet and made Swamiji or mahasha a synonym for a bigoted Hindu. Sikh separatism was boosted by the Singh Sabha movement started in the 1880s. It found expression in a booklet by Sikh scholar Bhai Kahan Singh of Nabha entitled “Hum Hindu Naheen Hain” — we are not Hindus. Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs started treading different paths. The Hindus opened DAV and Sanatan Dharm schools and colleges. The Sikhs opened Khalsa schools and colleges. They closed ranks to face Muslim dominance and later against the demand for Pakistan. Though Muslims conceded that Sikhs were Ahl-e-Kitaab (people of the Book) as were the Jews and the Christians, they regarded them too close to the Hindus to be accommodated in Pakistan. When Partition came, Punjabi Muslims drove both Hindus and Sikhs out of their country.

With the affluence that came with the Green Revolution, the younger generation of Sikhs in increasing numbers began to give up the Khalsa tradition of keeping their beards and hair unshorn. They became clean-shaven (mona) Sikhs. The dividing line between the two communities became blurred because a mona Sikh was no different from a Hindu believing in Sikhism, no different from millions of Punjabi and Sindhi Hindus who revered Granth Sahib and frequented gurdwaras.

(source: Hindu-Sikh relations - By Khushwant Singh - tribuneindia.com).

Bharat Gupta, associate professor at Delhi University writes: "...in the 19th century Sikh separateness was redefined by the earlier British historians first and the Indians later. Sikhism was made to appear as a new religion, Anti Vedic, and a mixture of Indic-Islamic tenets, not based on philosophical tenets but on things like dress and food and architecture of Gurdwaaras and supposed rejection of caste. In this fabrication, the Khalsa has been fore grounded, almost equated with all Sikhism, and the Naamdhaaris, Nirankaaris, and such denominations of the Sikh tradition have been ignored, even persecuted"

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Japji Sahib is Based on the Upanishads - says Khuswant Singh