The Union Ministry of Tourism and Culture and the Uttar Pradesh Government have decided to celebrate the 350th year of Taj Mahal. It has only one small problem — the Taj is already 350 years old.

All contemporary accounts prove that Taj is older than the 350 it is officially to turn soon. For instance, Shah Jahan

While Indians are so opposed to the liberation of Iraq by the Coalition forces as it is occupation, it was interesting to read this paragraph from Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq, which describes all the colonisation activities Indians were involved in.

The men and materials provided by the subcontinent were a crucial pillar of [Britain’s] global colonial hegemony. Post-slavery, poor Indian peasants were encouraged to uproot themselves, across the ocean and work the plantations of Trinidad and Guyana; clerks were despatched to help administer East and South Africa; Sikhs and Gurkhas were used to crush the Boxer rebellion in China and turbulence elsewhere. Later, Indian troops were used to good effect in both world wars as well as in the colonisation of the Arab world during the inter-war period. The establishment of the imperial beach-heads in those days required gunboats(naval supremacy) plus Gurkhas. In 1917 the British, with the help of colonial soldiers from India took Jerusalem and Baghdad.[Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq]

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Sikh Holy Book, Guru Granth Sahib, the Times of India has an article about the history of it.

The Adi Granth, written by Guru Arjan Dev, is the original scripture, also known as Kartarpuri Bir, and was installed at the Golden Temple on September 1, 1604. The genuineness of this master copy, scripted by Bhai Gurdas under the direct supervision of Guru Arjan Dev, had been vouched by top Sikh scholars, including Bhai Jodh Singh, after thorough scrutiny of the holy text, which bears the original signatures of Guru Arjan Dev.

The master copy of the Adi Granth was initially kept by Guru Hargobind in his house. From there it was stolen by his grandson Dhir Mal who intended to use it to further his claims on succession. Some 30 years later, followers of the Guru Teg Bahadur forcibly recovered it, but were instructed by the guru to return it. The holy book emerged from obscurity only in 1849. [Descendants of Arjan Dev have original text]

Indian Archaeologists have found the names of 670 labourers who built the Taj Mahal.
bq. The names, written mostly in Arabic and Persian, are etched on the sandstone used in the wall and other peripheral structures on the northern side of the Taj Mahal, the Asian Age newspaper reported. Some names were also written in Hindi, the report said, quoting D. Dayalan, a senior official at the Archaeological Survey of India. Dayalan and his staff also found tridents, stars, geometrical patterns and flowers carved into some of the sandstone, implying the masons and labourers were drawn from diverse religions. “Since many of them were illiterates, they denoted symbols as a mark of their identity,” Dayalan said. [“CNews”:http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2004/07/06/527091-ap.html]

 He found that the entire material universe was composed of particles or “indivisible units”. These units exhibit in endless variation the basic qualities of matter: mass, cohesion, temperature, and movement. They combine to form structures which seem to have some permanence. But actually these are all composed of miniscule _kalapas_ which are in a state of continuously arising and passing away. This is the ultimate reality of matter: a constant stream of waves or particles. This is the body which we each call “myself”

And this scientist was: Buddha.
[from Art of Living – Vipassana Meditation as taught by S N Goenka]

“Few days back”:https://varnam.org/archives/000346.html Romila Thapar in a letter to the editor to The Hindu said that all along she had maintained that there was no Aryan Invasion. I am currently reading her book Early India: From the origins to the AD 1300” Here are some exceprts

Indo-European and Indo-Aryan are language labels, but in the nineteenth century these were also incorrectly used as racial labels and this confusion persists. The correct usage should be “Indo-European-speaking people” and `Indo-Aryan-Speaking-people’, but the shortened labels, Indo-European and Indo-Aryan are commonly used. Language is a cultural label and should not be confused with race, which although also a social construct, claims that it has to do with biological descent.
Some migrated to Anatolia, others to Iran, and some among the latterm it is thought migrated to India. In the texts composed by them, such as __Avesta__ in Iran and the __Rig-Veda__ in India, they refer to themselves as __airiia__ and __arya__, hence the European term, Aryan.
There are clearly many sources of information on the beginings of Indian history. Archeological evidence is chronologically more precise, but cannot be used to identify any culture as ‘Aryan’ since archeology, in the absence of a script cannot supply information on a language. Unfortunately, the Harappan script remains undeciphered. The theory of an Aryan invasion no longer has credence.

So there you have it, right from the horse’s mouth. There was no Aryan Invasion. Aryan is a language label. Aryans composed Rig Veda.

For the many of you who think it was people like Romila Thapar who maintained the Aryan Invasion Theory, here is some news: She was “against it”:http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/22/stories/2004032201661001.htm all the time.
bq. If he had read anything on the debate among historians concerning the Aryan theory, he would have known that for the last 30 years I, together with other historians, have been refuting the concept of an Aryan race or a Dravidian race. I have stated categorically in “A History of India,” Vol. I, published in 1966, that Aryan is a linguistic term. I discussed this in greater detail in my presidential address to the Ancient Indian History Section of the Indian History Congress in Varanasi in 1968, where I argued that Aryan is a linguistic label and not a racial category. And just for the record, since I am frequently misquoted on this by some people, I argued further that although I did not accept the notion of an Aryan invasion, I did support the idea of a graduated migration of Aryan-speaking peoples from the Indo-Iranian borderlands into north-western India. This resulted in an interface of various cultures and this interface needs to be explored � and many of us have done so, as would be apparent from our other publications on the subject. [via “The Hindu”:http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/22/stories/2004032201661001.htm]
Updates:
Subramanian Swamy – “Swamy’s reply”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=330223
Sandeep – “The High Priestess Speaks Again!”:http://sandeep.vesana.com/mt/archives/000008.html#more

India had trade relations with many foreign nations from ancient times. Assyrians and Babylonians have been known to import spices and perfumes from Kerala from as far back as 3000 BC. Sreedhara Menon in his book “A Survey of Kerala History”:http://www.puzha.com/e-arcade/dcb/cgi-bin/book-detail.cgi?code=2445 writes that “Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt”:http://www.artsales.com/ARTistory/Ancient_Ships/08_hatsheput_expedition.html sent five ships through Red Sea to find the perfumes required to preserve the bodies of dead kings.
Now Archeologists from UCLA and the University of Delaware have unearthed the most extensive remains to date from sea trade between India and Egypt
bq. Among the buried ruins of buildings that date back to Roman rule, the team discovered vast quantities of teak, a wood indigenous to India and today’s Myanmar, but not capable of growing in Egypt, Africa or Europe. Researchers believe the teak, which dates to the first century, came to the desert port as hulls of shipping vessels. When the ships became worn out or damaged beyond repair, Berenike residents recycled the wood for building materials, the researchers said. The team also found materials consistent with ship-patching activities, including copper nails and metal sheeting.
bq. In addition to this evidence of seafaring activities between India and
Egypt, the archaeologists uncovered the largest array of ancient Indian goods ever found along the Red Sea, including the largest single cache of black pepper from antiquity – 16 pounds – ever excavated in the former Roman Empire. The team dates these peppercorns, which were grown only in South India during antiquity, to the first century. Peppercorns of the same vintage have been excavated as far away as Germany.
bq. In a dump that dates back to Roman times, the team also found Indian coconuts and batik cloth from the first century, as well as an array of exotic gems, including sapphires and glass beads that appear to come from Sri Lanka, and carnelian beads that appear to come from India. [via “Popular Science”:http://popular-science.net/history/india_egypt_trade_route.html]

You might remember the picture of the two Buddhas of Bamiyan which was destroyed by the Taliban. It seems there is a “third reclining Buddha”:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_17-9-2003_pg4_14.
bq. After five weeks of excavations in the famed valley of the Buddhas in central Afghanistan, the team of archaeologists say they have found evidence which could cast light on the whereabouts of the �reclining Buddha� mentioned by ancient travellers to the region.
bq. According to French-Afghan archaeologist Zemaryali Tarzi, his team has confirmed �100 percent� the existence of a monastery at the foot of immense sandstone cliffs which until March 2001 sheltered two enormous ancient Buddhas which were destroyed by the Taliban to a chorus of international outrage.

bq. Instead of debating and harping on the fictitious Aryan invasion of the Indian subcontinent, that was purely a myth perpetrated by British and foreign scholars for vested interests, the present crop of scholars and historians should rewrite history and portray India’s grand cultural past in the light of huge evidences on Harappan civilisation
This was “the opinion”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=316646 of Michel Danino, an Indologist who is studying the Saraswati civilization. Among the questions that remain unaswered are the chronological sequence between the vedic culture and the Saraswati river culture.
bq. That means if Rig Veda pre-dated the Indus civilisation, how come we do not have any literary samples or evidence of dialects of the Indus people, whereas Vedic hymns or mantras are still being preserved intact to this day? Or did Vedic age run at the same time with Indus-Sarasvathi in some other parts of the Indian continent, may be in Himalayan ranges?
There are lot of archaeological excavations happening along the path of the Saraswati river. “Adi Badri”:https://varnam.org/archives/000195.html and the “Kutch”:https://varnam.org/archives/000171.html have given us lot of new evidence.
Update: “Major anthropology find reported in India”:http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20030908-025602-5658r.htm (via “Shanti”:http://www.madhoo.com/archives/002854.php#002854)