I have wondered for sometime about how historians managed to merge the persona of the Great King Vikramaditya with that of another historical figure six centuries after his time. Sanskrit texts list King Virkramaditya to be part of the Parmar Dynasty (of Raja Bhoja fame), an off shoot of Agni Vamsa. The other king on whom historians have conferred the aura of the legendary Vikramaditya belongs to the Gupta dynasty. My wonder deepened when the results from the recent archaeological excavations at Lumbini, Nepal, concurred with Sanskrit texts that Buddha lived 200 years earlier than what historians have agreed on. Two centuries of Indian emperors are now missing, which surely must include the original Vikramaditya! Unfortunately it is not easy to stumble upon evidence about alternate history of the Indian subcontinent by googling. I came across two interesting postings related to the Shatavahana kings whose erstwhile capital is currently under the threat of being flooded by the construction of a

Continue readingWas Vikramaditya a Shatavahana king?

Indian festivals have an astronomical basis. For this reason, one can move the clock back, and study festival dates even during the pre-historic era. Besides, we know that Shiva worship was prevalent in Indus Valley civilization. We know this from clay seal artifacts from that period. When did Shivaratri, a popular festival related to Shiva occur annually? What was the season, the time of the year and the night sky configuration at that time. It is an interesting exercise to find this information. Now a days, Shivaratri occurs in late February or early March. In the month of March, the full moon falls in the Magha Nakshatra region of the sky. Nakshtras are the equal divisions through which the planets move in the sky. There are 27 Nakshatras. Shivaratri day coincides with the 13th phase of the waning moon in the month of Magha. Shivaratri is on Feb 27th in 2014 which is two months after the winter solstice. How far was Shivaratri from

Continue readingA Shivaratri 5000 years ago

Countries with Chinese population celebrate the hungry ghost festival in the month of August. The seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar is the time to honor and respect the ancestors in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and other countries. The offering to fire during the festival includes paper replicas of money, cars, houses and recently even iPads. Wall Street Journal write up on the topic describes inflation catching up even in the after world. The fortnight prior to the seventh month is also the time for remembering the ancestors as per the Indian calendars. Since the Hindu calendar starts with March-April, this period falls right before the Navarathri festival. Chinese feel proud of their seventh month traditions. But Indians are generally shy in acknowledging their fortnight of ancestor worship. Malaysia with a Muslim majority has integrated the cultural aspect of the occasion into their national celebration while secularists in India want native traditions such as the remembrance of ancestors to be taken

Continue readingAfterlife traditions & the 7th month!

Who is a Yaksha? We can understand the idea of Yaksha through an example. A century and a half ago, people across Asia ate unpolished rice. Subsequently, colonists brought rice mills to Asian countries. However, the natives continued to prefer the taste of the brown rice. They did not want to switch to white rice for a long time. This situation may have continued for longer. However the traders and the elites played their part in pushing white rice to the rest of the society.  Certainly, polished rice has a longer shelf life. It survives the severe conditions in dock yards and warehouses. Naturally, traders wanted more polished rice from the farmers. Secondly, the neo elite in any colonized country prefer western sensibilities. They therefore coined the term “dirty” for brown rice. Besides, they branded white rice as the staple of the educated. As a result, parents in the middle class began feeding only white rice to their children. These

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Are the ideas of scientists similar to the philosophy of Charvaka? Where does the idea of collective memory fit in this philosophy? TEDx decided to pull out the videos of talks of eminent modern thinkers from its YouTube channel (see quote below). This is because these talks started a heated debate among scientists about the role of consciousness in scientific approach. The following are the highlights from these speakers. A) Graham Hancock, the author of many best sellers, in his talk proposes human consciousness to be 40,000 years old. Besides he believes the consumption of potent herbs to have birthed human consciousness. B) Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist turned author, stands by a hypothesis named “morphic resonance“. Secondly, he uses this theory to demonstrate the role of collective memory in shaping the habits of life forms. We’re not censoring the talks. Instead, we’re placing them here, where they can be framed to highlight both their provocative ideas and the factual problems

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While the Chinese around the world collectively celebrate, with pride, a New Year that has a different root than the more contemporary Gregorian New Year, the linguistic groups of South Asian origin, may be found celebrating their respective traditional New Years, perhaps with some hesitation and definitely with a question mark. The attitude differences provide an interesting contrast considering the fact that the basis for all Asian New Years are lunar/solar calendars invented millennia ago. The modern Chinese society appears to have integrated a better understanding of their cultural inheritance than the modern Indian society. An objection may be that the Indian subcontinent is a collection of many linguistic groups while the Chinese society is not. Ugadi is the name for the new year of Telugu and Kannada speaking community. The Marathi speaking community claims the name Gudi Padva to be the name for the New Year day and the Sindhi community names the occasion as Cheti-Chand.  At least these

Continue readingThe New Year(s) of an ancient living tradition

Focus, relaxation, creativity and problem solving peak when the mind relaxes. Similarly meditation and sense of well being are deeper when too many thoughts do not clog the mind. All these indicate the “Peak Performance” states of a person’s brain. The brain is not a muscle but scientists find that in many ways it mimics certain nuances of muscles. One builds up strength and dexterity by training the muscles over a period of time. Repetitions are important. Similarly, the peak performance states when achieved daily trains the brain cells such that one can on-demand achieve these states.   Sound Frequency and Brain waves All human beings feel calmer listening to the sound of waves or a gentle rain fall. Different sounds contain different combinations of frequencies. Some are soothing and some are jarring. Evolution appears to have trained the human brain to settle into relaxed states with some of the gentle sounds of nature, to  an extent. When the thoughts

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