The Wonder
That Was Bharatvarsha
Written
by Dr. Seshadri Kumar, 22 February, 2015
Copyright © Dr. Seshadri Kumar. All Rights Reserved.
For other articles by Dr. Seshadri Kumar, please visit http://www.leftbrainwave.com
Disclaimer: All the opinions expressed in this article are
the opinions of Dr. Seshadri Kumar alone and should not be construed to mean
the opinions of any other person or organization, unless explicitly stated
otherwise in the article.
*********************************
No, this is not a review of the famous, wrongly-named book
by A.L. Basham, in which he used the word India instead of the more correct Bharatvarsha.
This is an attempt to educate modern Indians about the glory of their culture
by revealing new insights that have resulted from the work of tireless
researchers around the globe on the origins of civilization. And all roads of
inquiry lead only to one conclusion – that the source of all civilizational
greatness in the world is India.
For too long, India has been cast as the land of
snake-charmers, tigers, and elephants. For centuries, westerners have mocked
India for its backwardness. However, recent SCIENTIFIC discoveries have
established that India was more advanced than any other country in the world in
antiquity.
Join me as I reveal the story of hitherto unknown (or little
known) scientists, who languish in their quiet academic environs because their
momentous discoveries have not been given the credit they deserve. This article
is a humble attempt to cast light on their collective greatness and the
earth-shaking importance of the seminal work they have done.
I hope you enjoy this article as much as I did writing it.
Anything that is good in the article should not be ascribed to me – for I am
merely a messenger – it should be ascribed to the great scientists who have revealed
so much for us to learn and whose work you are going to discover through this
article.
So, without further ado, let me begin telling you about the
recent momentous discoveries that have established, once and for all, why
Bharatvarsha was the greatest civilization ever on the planet.
The IVC
and the Aryan Invasion/Migration Controversy
The Indus Valley
Civilization (IVC) is one of the oldest civilizations of mankind. Although
there have been older human settlements on the planet than the IVC, the IVC can
fairly be said to be the cradle of all civilizations because of the range and
depth of the ideas it brought forth (this will be made clear in the following).
This is the civilization to which modern India owes its existence. So it is
meaningful to look at what this civilization was all about and what it has
bequeathed us.
The IVC was first discovered in Harappa, now in Pakistan, with
later discoveries in Mohenjo-daro,
also in Pakistan, Lothal in
Gujarat in India, and various other places. While initially these discoveries
were greeted with great excitement, as it gave Indians a view of what seemed to
be their antiquity, this fond hope was soon dashed when archaeologists
investigated the artifacts in depth.
The reason was that India is largely a country of Hindus,
with significant minorities that made their homes in India due to migration and
conquest; but essentially, India was the land of the Hindus. The Hindu epics
(itihasas) such as the Mahabharata
and the Ramayana spoke of
an ancient civilization that Hindus held to be around 5000 years old. The
discovery of the IVC gave Hindus a lot of hope that this was the proof of the
ancient civilization they were looking for. Unfortunately, some key archaeological
facts went against them – or seemed to at the time.
The
Absence of the Horse
One key point of variance
was that the Hindu scriptures, right from the time of the Rig Veda, the
most ancient scripture, spoke of “Ashvas” – that were translated as “horses”
everywhere in the epics. The IVC carvings and drawings showed no evidence of
any horses, though there seemed to be some strange one-horned animals drawn in
the reliefs and tablets, in addition to identifiable buffaloes. See figure
below for an example.
This seemed to dash the hopes of the Hindus, who were hoping for confirmation
that the IVC was part of the ancient civilization mentioned in their epics.
Because of the absence of the horse in the evidence from the ruins, an
alternative theory sprung up – that the Vedic traditions did not belong to the
Harappans, but were brought to India by the Aryans,
who invaded India at the end of the Harappan period. The fact that the
horse seemed like a well-known animal in Persia helped this explanation.
Recent research, by Hefner et al. (2007) has revealed a
rather different picture. According to these researchers, who have published a
book on this topic, the image seen in the IVC seals is not a horse at all, but
a unicorn. Many mythologies talk about unicorns, but we have never seen any
evidence of unicorns – that is, until Harappa. After digging a lot in the IVC
and the BMAC (Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex) as well as in
Afghanistan and Iran, Hefner et al. found out that during the Harappan period,
unicorns were indeed quite common, and they rapidly mutated to the horse that
we know today. Hefner et al. (2007) found huge unicorn graveyards in the BMAC,
which are thought to be massive “Ashwamedha Yagna” (mistranslated today as horse
sacrifice, but in reality unicorn sacrifice) complexes. They have found several
well-preserved horns of the unicorns that prove this theory without a doubt.
The cause of the confusion, therefore, has been twofold: believing that "ashva" in the Vedas referred to horses, and believing that unicorns did not exist. With the discovery of unicorn fossils, Hefner et al. have resolved this question.
The cause of the confusion, therefore, has been twofold: believing that "ashva" in the Vedas referred to horses, and believing that unicorns did not exist. With the discovery of unicorn fossils, Hefner et al. have resolved this question.
The
Saraswati Civilization
Another point of contention was the mention of the river
Saraswati as an important river in the Vedas, whereas there is no known river
in that region today. There has been much controversy recently regarding the
Saraswati river of the Vedas, which many consider mythical, and many, including
Michel Danino, consider a real river connected to the Ghaggar-Hakra basin in Pakistan/India.
However, the clinching evidence for the Saraswati river
basin surely must come from the recent work of Ali et al. (2014), who have
found what appear to be unquestionably Vedic era bows and arrows. There has
been strong speculation that the artifacts retrieved from the Ghaggar basin are,
in fact, the bow, quiver, and arrows of the famous Pandava hero, Arjuna. The
main artifact at the root of this momentous discovery is a bow about 12 feet
long, which matches the description of Arjuna’s bow Gandiva, said to be 8
cubits (12 feet) long. The quiver is surprisingly well-preserved, being made of
pure gold and carved exquisitely.
Ancient
Hindu Warfare: Astras
One of the controversial aspects of Hindu epics is the
frequent mention of “astras” – special weapons that are weaponized by chanting
of specific mantras (religious chants) and possess tremendous destructive
powers. One of these, the Brahmastra, is said to have so much power that it is
said to have the power to completely destroy the whole world.
Naturally, the scientific world has dismissed these claims
as religious gobbledygook. The general attitude towards these claims has been
that these are highly exaggerated descriptions that can only be attributed to
poetic license, and that there is no scientific basis to these claims.
New scientific
evidence has revealed that these may no longer be fairy tales. There is reason
to believe that the ancient Indians were in possession of highly advanced
weapons technology not yet fully understood by modern man. But the beginnings
of such understanding are on the horizon.
In recent papers, published after 30 years of research by
two different groups of workers at opposite sides of the globe, scientists have
learned that sound waves emitted at precise frequencies with extremely specific
cadences have the ability to highly excite the molecules of air in the local
vicinity of these chants, and thereby “hypercompress” air packets – to the
point that they can cause minute fusion reactions that can then lead to a chain
reaction – a phenomenon described as “lukewarm fusion” (as contrasted with
“hot” and “cold” fusion). The resulting fusion reactions, if properly amplified
by the right kinds of chants, according to Dagar et al. (2013) (a multifactorial
study spanning 3 generations of researchers in one family and published after
the death of the researchers) and Carreras et al. (2014) (again the result of a
40 year international collaboration and, again, published after the death of
one of the principal investigators) can lead to weapons of different
destructive potentials.
It is in this way that astras can be launched by the proper
chanting of mantras that give them awesome destructive power. The secrets of
these astras are locked away within a few highly-realized rishis, and it is
necessary for Hindus to reclaim these before the secrets are lost to humanity.
Ancient
Hindu Aviation Technology
Another recent topic of controversy, which garnered much
attention when a session was devoted to it at the Indian Science Congress of
2015 in Bangalore, is the possibility of Vedic Hindus possessing advanced
aviation technology. It was claimed during this conference that in Vedic India,
aircraft existed that could fly forwards as well as backwards with equal
facility, and easily move between planets and galaxies. Much of these
speculations have rested on two main sources. The first is the ancient epic
Ramayana, in which the hero Rama (as well as his enemy Ravana) were said to
have used flying machines called “Vimanas.” The second is a text called the
Vymanika Shastra that detailed many aspects of these vimanas. In particular,
the VS talked about these planes being fueled by vast quantities of cow and
elephant urine, among other ingredients. See figure below to see an illustration
of one of these vimanas and its fuels.
One of the objections raised to the idea of the existence of
this ancient technology is the lack of evidence. No one has, to date,
discovered the existence of even one of these ancient aircraft in any of the
archaeological ruins. It has been argued that if such aircraft existed, and in
substantial numbers, there should be at least one indicator of their past
presence – either some broken down aircraft, or some airports that housed them,
or similar supporting evidence. The complete lack of such evidence – at least
until recently – has been a weakness of the theory that ancient India possessed
advanced aviation.
However, recent discoveries by a team of biologists and
archaeologists have revealed (Herman and Allen, 2012) the existence of specific
mosses in Iraq which fossilized years ago. Examination of these fossils, which
were covered under mounds of ruins and which came to light because of incessant
bombing runs that have completely destroyed the mounds and exposed the
underlying fossils, first by American air force operations in the first and
second Gulf Wars as well as by violence by insurgents, have revealed that they
originate from a specific kind of moss that can only grow if fuelled by copious
amounts of cow and elephant urine. This leads to the only possible conclusion –
that this archaeological site in Iraq was a forward post for Vedic armies and
airforce units, which were using this vast site as a supply depot with adequate
fuel for their aircraft. With such large quantities of fuel, some leakage is inevitable,
and this leakage had clearly led to the growth of these mosses.
Hindu Inter-Continental
Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)
Archaeology continues, and will always continue, to be our
window into the past. One of the greatest mysteries of history has been the
mystery of the giant stones of
Costa Rica. These are large, perfectly spherical stones that are found in
abundance on the island of Costa Rica. There are about 300 of these stone
spheres on the island of Costa Rica, and no one knows where they came from.
They are customarily referred to as the Diquis spheres, as a reference to the
primitive pre-Columbian peoples known as the Diquis. However, it is highly unlikely
that such a primitive civilization would be capable of sculpting such a large
number of perfect spheres (see picture below), that too out of stone,
especially when no
one is able to explain how they might have been carved from the stone
without any tools.
However, there is another explanation that fits the facts
better, and which has recently been confirmed by new archaeological and
linguistic evidence.
In the Mahabharata, it is said that after the establishment
of their kingdom Indraprastha, the Pandavas conducted a magnificent Rajasuya
Yagna to commemorate their supremacy over the entire earth. Before they could
perform this sacrifice, however, the Pandavas needed to bring the entire earth
under their sway. The four Pandavas, viz., Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva,
are said to have conquered all the lands on the east, the north, the west, and
the south of Indraprastha respectively. Of course, some lands, such as America,
were well beyond the range of land-based forces. For this reason, the mighty
Pandavas used weapons of various kinds, along with their aircraft (vimanas), to
subjugate those lands that were separated from them by oceans. One such example
was the Americas. In those days, the West Indies were attached to the
continental United States, and the Pandavas utilized efficient demonstration of
force (“shock and awe”) to reduce the Americas to subjugation.
This they did by dispatching intercontinental ballistic
missiles – spheres that were discharged as projectiles from the western coast
of India to reach the Americas. In an effort to minimize loss of life and obtain
a quick surrender, Nakula opened fire with massive batteries of cannons on the
western coast of India that rained showers of perfect, spherical boulders on
the coasts of America and the modern Caribbean as a “softening” measure. Because of this, the island of Costa Rica,
which is on the eastern end of the North American continent, was bombarded by
hundreds of stone spheres.
This might seem like a fanciful fairy tale but for the
recent discovery by a team of Sanskrit scholars and explorers based at the
University of Miami, who have published the results of their study in a recent
paper. In this paper, Jagger et al. (2015) mention that they investigated 95 of
these boulders carefully, with high-powered lenses, all over their surfaces,
and discovered that many of them were engraved minutely in Sanskrit with
inscriptions such as “With Love from Indraprastha,” “Nakula Sends You His Love,”
“Bow Before the Pandavas,” and “Resistance is Futile.” Needless to say, when
Nakula arrived a few days later in his vimana, the Americans were only too
happy to avoid a repeat of the stone shower, and acquiesced immediately to whatever
terms he proposed.
This theory is supported by the mythology of the natives of
Costa Rica themselves, the Bribri. As
has been mentioned,
“In the cosmogony of the Bribri, which is shared by the
Cabecares and other American ancestral groups, the stone spheres are “Tara’s
cannon balls”. Tara or Tlatchque, the god of thunder, used a giant blowpipe to
shoot the balls at the Serkes, gods of winds and hurricanes, in order to drive
them out of these lands.”
So the natives themselves recognize that these are cannon
balls, and the god Tara/Tlatchque in their story doubtless refers to Nakula,
and the god Serkes to the native ruler of America that he drove out with his
aggressive military actions in order to make America subservient to
Indraprastha. Given the fact that Nakula came down from the sky in his vimana,
and rained stones from the sky on them, it is natural for the primitive Bribri
to think of him as a “god of thunder.”
The
Caste System as a Method for Better Organizaton of Society
One of the main criticism of Hindu society regards the Caste
System, which many modern sociologists consider to be barbaric and cruel.
However, many today defend the system as simply a means for organizing labor in
Vedic societies. While many have claimed that this is simply a defensive
posture adopted by today’s Hindus to defend the indefensible, recent
discoveries of old publications dating to the early 20th century show
that, before the contamination of western attitudes made them hostile to India,
Europe was quite welcoming of Indian ideas on social reorganization.
Two studies bear telling evidence towards this conclusion.
The first is a position paper by Todt et al. (1932) who talk in glowing terms
of the Hindu order of life and its uplifting ideas in organizing society into
more capable and less capable workers, and even talk about its incorporation in
Europe as a general way of life (modified, of course, to suit Europe suitably).
The second is a paper by Daniel Malan in 1930, in which the author praised the
Hindu social organization and interpreted it as a model for life in all
countries, specifically South Africa. It should be mentioned that Malan later
implemented his modified system to great success in South Africa as Prime
Minister in 1948.
Hindu Advances
in Medicine – Test Tube Babies
One of the most stunning scientific claims in the
Mahabharata is the mention of test tube babies. Significantly, the entire
Kaurava brothers, numbering to 100, were said to be born out of a single
embryo, which was split after it grew up and the pieces put in pots with ghee
(clarified butter) in them, and which then went on to become full-born babies
in due course. Similarly, the teacher Drona gets his name because he was born
of sperm ejaculated by his father and preserved in a pot (a pot is known in
Sanskrit as a Drona, thus giving him his name.)
While these claims have been ridiculed by western doctors
and scientists as impossible, recent archaeological evidence appears to confirm
these claims. This sensational discovery is the discovery, under 50 feet of
overgrowth, of a vast scientific laboratory that appears to have been frozen in
time due to a volcano 2500 years ago which since has turned completely dormant.
This laboratory, not far from Pune, in the Deccan Traps, was found, similar to
the ruins of Pompey, with people frozen in their actions due to their rapid
engulfment by volcanic ash.
As Steptoe et al. (2015) describe, the laboratory unearthed
shows large rows of clay pots with fetuses in them in what is clearly a process
of in-vitro fertilization. Contrary to modern medical practice, however,
embryos at various stages, all the way to full term babies, were recovered from
within the pots in the ash deposits. The findings are nothing short of
revolutionary and hold great promise for modern medical research if the secrets
of the ancient Hindus can be deciphered.
Hindu Advances
in Medicine – Plastic Surgery
The Indian Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi, recently
stated that ancient Hindus were very advanced in plastic surgery. Mr. Modi used
the example of the Hindu God Ganesha to illustrate his belief that Indians must
have been quite advanced in plastic surgery, as the mythological story of
Ganesha involves the transplantation of an elephant’s head onto a human torso.
Religious myths of any civilization always have some anchors
in that civilization’s daily experiences. There is reason, therefore, to
speculate that the Ganesha story was inspired by technologies that they were
already aware of. Recent science has confirmed that this, indeed, was the case
with the Hindus.
A recent archaeological find near Ropar in Haryana has
revealed the presence of a large number of copper plates that have been dated
to 3300 BCE. As Dali et al. (2013) explain, these copper engravings appear to
be an ancient “brochure” advertising the skills of the Royal College of
Physicians at the court of Hastinapura. The engravings are fascinating, and
show various examples of what can only be plastic surgery: dogs with sewn-on
human heads and hands, pigs with dog-heads, goats with cow-heads, tigers with
the heads of asses, and even rats with cockroach-heads. See figure below for an
example of one of these copper plates.
Soma: The
Enabler of Excellence in Hinduism
By now, it is abundantly clear to most people that ancient Hinduism
was responsible for most worthwhile things in the world. A cursory search on
the internet reveals that the entire world was Vedic once, and that
Christianity and Islam are offshoots of Hinduism. We have also learned from the
learned scholars who prowl the internet that the source of most science and
technology are the Vedas; that Newton and Leibniz stole the ideas of calculus
from Vedic rishis; that most technology that is only being discovered today had
already been discovered by the Vedic rishis, be it airplanes, cars, medicine, surgery,
nuclear weapons, etc., etc.
The question is: WHY? What made the Hindus of Vedic times
such geniuses and so far ahead of their time? And why are they not at the top
of the world today, if they were so advanced once upon a time? The answer, in
one word, is: SOMA. The wonder elixir that the Vedas talk about – which is
offered at every sacrifice to the Devas – was the source of the ancient Hindus’
extraordinary creativity.
Soma, as described in the Rig Veda, is a miracle plant. It
is even said to confer immortality. It is said to be the reason the king of the
Devas, Indra was able to defeat the Asura Vritra. In those days, the educated
Hindus, viz., the Brahmanas, who used to perform sacrifices regularly, often
drank soma in connection with religious rites. This gave them tremendous
creativity and gave them the ability to conceive of airplanes, cars, calculus
and other extraordinary feats of mind when other civilizations were still
shivering in the cold because they had not yet discovered fire.
This idea might have been relegated to mere idle speculation,
had it not been for the recent publication of a manuscript that is 48 years old
this year. This book, written by Morrison et al. (1967) and published this year,
purports to have rediscovered the lost Soma plant and talks about its
extraordinary properties as evidenced by direct experimentation by the authors.
The authors claim to have traveled to Central Asia in 1962 and found the lost
plant, whereby they brought it back to the USA and started experimenting with
its properties by ingesting its extract.
The results, for those who are aware of the history of blues
and rock’n’roll, are nothing short of spectacular: Jim Morrison formed the
legendary band “The Doors”; Eric Clapton, nicknamed “Slowhand,” is considered
one of the greatest blues guitarists in the history of blues and rock’n’roll; and
Jimi Hendrix is considered by many to be the most skilled electric guitarist
ever.
In this manuscript, discovered only last year in unpublished
form in Eric Clapton’s archives at his home in the UK, the three authors
discuss the miraculous increases in creativity they experienced after the
consumption of soma juice. According to the authors, they found the rare plant
with the help of an old, experienced tribal man who showed them one of the few
places in which the original Soma plant still grew. The three managed to get as
much as they could bring on the journey back.
Hendrix mentions that some of his greatest performances,
particularly the famous “Star-Spangled Banner” live version that he performed
at the Woodstock festival, owed their phenomenal creativity to the effect of
Soma, which he had ingested just a couple of hours before the performance.
Similarly, Clapton credits his incredible performances with “Cream” to the
potent effects of Soma, particularly the single “Spoonful.” Morrison discusses
how he shared Soma with guitarist Robby Krieger just a day before they collaborated
on their legendary song “Light my Fire,” which became the title of Morrison,
Clapton, and Hendrix’s manuscript.
In an interview conducted by the author just before this
article was written, Clapton mentioned that “I knew how powerful Soma was, and
I used to caution Jimi and Jim about it. But they were too carried away by its
power and how creative it made them feel. I still feel guilty that if I could
have only stopped them from taking so much of it, I could have saved them.”
What Clapton is referring to is the apparent
drug-overdose-related deaths of both Jimi Hendrix (1970) and Jim Morrison
(1971). It should be mentioned that the cause of neither death has been
conclusively established, probably because there was no test in western
medicine that could detect a Soma overdose. But with Clapton’s account, we can
now clear the mystery behind the unexplained (and unnecessary) deaths of these
two musical geniuses. After all, one has to exercise a little caution when
consuming the drink of the gods.
On being asked if he could find out where more of the
authentic Soma could be found today, Clapton said, “Well, yeah, I tried to get
more. Our stocks lasted only a small while, and while I used mine more
carefully and sparingly than Jim or Jimi, by 1978 I was out of all of it. It
did leave a permanent impact, though. I tried to go back to that place to get
more, but it had been covered by a residential complex and the field was gone.
The old tribals were nowhere to be seen. I don’t know if any Soma can be found
today.” When asked if they did not try to grow the plant in the west, Clapton
replied, “We tried. But it looks like the plant won’t grow in the western
climate. The plant died very fast.”
Conclusions
From the preceding, it should be obvious that the world owes
all its significant achievements to the civilization of the ancient Hindus.
Unfortunately, much of this knowledge has been lost and is only now being
rediscovered. The question remains: how can India regain her lost glory? How
can we reach the heights attained by our ancient Hindu ancestors?
The answer doubtless lies in Soma. The Modi government must
make the rediscovery of Soma its prime agenda for the next 10 years. The quest
for the true Soma must commence immediately and PM Modi must use all his
goodwill with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, China, and the Central Asian
republics to send teams of Vedic scholars and biologists to locate and bring
back to India the original soma plant.
Once it is obtained, Soma must be grown in a large-scale way
so that every family of four in India gets at least 2 litres of Soma every day.
This will ensure that Indians today become as intelligent and creative as they
were in Vedic days, and with these enhanced nutritional supplements we will soon
surpass the Westerners and the Chinese in development. (Of course it will mean
that some farmland will have to be diverted from growing crops like rice and
wheat to Soma, but a little hunger is a small price to pay for national
greatness.) At that point it will be easy to reconstruct the lost secrets of
the Vymanika Shastra and other scientific classics of Hindu rishis. The Soma
juice might even make us so spiritually aware that telepathic conferences with
great Rishis can be carried out on a routine basis so that we can update our
knowledge with the knowledge of the eternals.
Once we are on this path, nothing can stop Bharatvarsha.
Jai Shri Ram!
REFERENCES
Ali, M., Frazier, J., Liston, S., and Foreman, G., “Gandiva
of Haraxvati: The Right Hook That Deals the Knockout Punch to the Aryan
Invasion and Migration Theories,” Pingu Books, 2014.
Carreras, J., Domingo, P., and Paruppurotti, L. “Effect of
Sound Vibrations on Molecule Hypercompression Leading to Lukewarm Fusion,”
Musings of the Royal Italian Gelato Society, 2014 (17), pp. 233-304.
Dagar, M.N., Dagar, A.N., Dagar, Z.N., and Dagar, F.N.,
“Effect of Musical Chanting on Localized Air Pressurization and
Hypercompression Due to ‘Udhak Gamaks’ in Dhrupad Singing,” International
Journal of Dhrupad Physics, 2013 (3), pp. 1473-1553.
Dali, S.D.F.J., Duchamp, H.R.M., Tanguy, R.G.Y., Magritte,
R.F.G., and Radnitzky, E., “Heads, Torsos, Hands and Legs: The Infinite
Juxtapositions of Biology as Seen in the Copper Plates of the Royal College of
Physicians in Hastinapura in 3300 BCE,” Journal of Near-Impossible Archaeology,
2014 (9), 1323-1692.
Todt, F., Frank, H., Frank, W., Heydrich, R., Mengele, J., and
Himmler, H., “Learning from the Ancient Aryans – Master and Slave Races,”
Annalen Sociopathophysik, 1932 (1), pp. 1-473. (in German)
Hefner, H., Guccione, R., and Flynt, L., “Single Horniness:
The Mystery of the Indian Unicorn of Harappa Revealed,” Sharper Collins, 2007.
Herman, P-W, and Allen, W., “Following the Pee Trail –
Archaeological Evidence for the Use of Cow’s and Elephant’s Urine as Fuel for
Ancient Indian Aircraft,” Biology, Oleo and Paleobiology, 2014 (2), pp. 223-309.
Jagger, M.P., Richards, K., Wood, R.D., Perks, W.G., Watts,
C.R., and Zimmerman, R.A., “Like a Falling Stone: The Conquest of America by
the Pandavas Using Ballistic Missiles,” Archaeo-Linguistic Ruminations, 2015
(1), 22-251.
Malan, D.F., “Understanding the Genius of the Hindu
Organization of Society and Its Possible Application to South Africa,” Journal
of Race Relations in the African Continent, 1930 (3), pp. 32-97.
Morrison, J.D., Clapton, E.P., and Hendrix, J.M., “Lighting
My Fire: The Effect of the Ancient Indian Plant Soma on Musical Creativity,”
Eastern Spirit Books, 2015.
Steptoe, P., Edwards, R., and Mukhopadhyay, S., “In-Vitro
Fertilization in Ancient India: The Archaeological Discovery of the Largest and
Most Complex In-Vitro Fertilization Laboratory in the World,” Journal of Fanciful
Archaeology, 2015 (1), 1900-1947.
I think rhe 3rd author on the 2nd ref is misspelt:-)
ReplyDeleteReally? I just double-checked the paper - that's how they spell it! :-)
DeleteBTW, congratulations on making it this far! And thanks for the comment. Look forward to more reactions from you!
not pavarotti?
DeleteWell, it USED to be Pavarotti, until he met a renowned Indian numerologist, who convinced him to change it to Paruppurotti in order to lengthen his singing career.
DeleteAnd that's the reason Pavarotti's farewell tour took forever.
You have discussed Indian advances in warfare but I am surprised to see you have omitted to mention the excellent paper by Barcza, G., Konstantinopolsky, A., Boleslavsky, I., Bronstein, D. and King, I.D., "Hypermodern approaches to attack and defence", Indian Defence Review, 2012.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Ganesh. Thank you for your comment.
DeleteYou refer to an area I could not address for lack of space: Chaturanga Warfare, which originated in Vedic times. There is evidence of Chaturanga warfare in the Indus Valley Civilization. Chaturanga was essentially wargames simulation in order to train the armies of the Vedic kingdoms. Generals were required to master all the intricacies of Chaturanga so that they could take lightning-fast decisions on the battlefield. Chaturanga was therefore an active component of warfare, even though it was more on the instructional side. For more details, please see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess
The paper you refer to by Barcza et al. (2012) simply rehashes many of the strategies used by Mahadeva (ca. 1970 BCE), Sharangadeva (ca. 1850 BCE) and Mimamsapurusha (ca. 1700 BCE) and repackages their strategies under the name of hypermodern attack and defense theory.
Unfortunately, when the Arabs learned the war games from the Indians, they did not learn many of the nuances, because of which they learned only the basics of the game because they did not know Sanskrit. Since then, the west has had to relearn, through practice and experience, what Vedic rishis knew 5000 years ago.
Because Indians have let go of their precious Sanskrit heritage, they are unaware of how deep the ancient Rishis had gone into the theory of Chaturanga. Furthermore, with the loss of Soma, modern Indians are unable to think of those variations that came so easily to our ancestors. As I mentioned in the article, this deficit in Chaturanga (today called Chess by the west) is another pressing reason for us to rediscover Soma, grow it in a widespread fashion, and supply every Indian with copious amounts of.
Ganesh, since you have taken the trouble to ask this very pertinent question on Chaturanga, I thought it my duty to help you along a bit more.
DeleteThe research paper you mention was authored by a Hungarian grandmaster who was born in the early 20th century. There was an ancient chess tradition in Hungary that dates to the time Vedic kings ruled most of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. In fact, it was in Hungary that the great Chaturanga master, Somanatha, lived, and compiled his master treatise of defensive strategies in Chaturanga (in Sanskrit, of course), titled "Chaturanga Kavacha Neeti," in 1600 BCE. This book has survived through the centuries, and Soviet and Eastern European chess masters were aware of its contents - and it is from this book that Barcza learned the rudiments of hypermodern defenses like the Sicilian. It is available in a limited English publication, nowadays seen only in second-hand bookstores if you are lucky. IIRC, the publication year was 1931, and the publisher was Occidental Shortman. I hope this is helpful.
Jingoistic article of a Hindu Athiest !
ReplyDeleteA Modi avatar ?
PuneWhistleBlower..
A true masterpiece! Earns its rightful place amongst other tomes of 'academic' excellence!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amit! :-)
DeleteHome trade is likewise the most ideal approach to guarantee your pets are getting dealt with also, while you are away from home. Was kostet eine Entrümpelung
ReplyDeleteJust admiring your work and wondering how you managed this blog so well. It’s so remarkable that I can't afford to not go through this valuable information whenever I surf the internet! Anonymous Live
ReplyDeleteAn expert home inspector investigates a home from the establishment to the rafters. Saskatoon home inspector
ReplyDeleteThe relies on PVC windows are the second most basic part to bomb beside the coated unit in the window. If not splashed the buildup and dampness during the time will start to rust the pivot. Zenit ramen en deuren
ReplyDeleteThe basic answer is there is no mystery and the main stunt is purchasing a modern quality reason made glass cleaner that is none smear.
ReplyDeleteKeep all entryways, windows and the carport entryway bolted, even while you are home. home invasion
ReplyDeleteWindow tints will shield your floor coverings and touchy furniture from sun harm. Notwithstanding the staining of floor coverings and couches, the sun may prompt the distorting of your wooden furnishings. reflective window tint
ReplyDelete