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When did the Mauryas rule?
When it comes to building a chronology of events in India’s history, a student is confused by the wide variation in dates of certain events. For example, when did Mahabharata war happen? Was it 1924 B.C or 3137 B.C? When did Adi Shankara live? Was it 8th century CE or 5th century B.C? Partly such confusion exists due to the existence of multiple methodologies that exist (Puranic genealogies, archaeological evidence etc), and they often contradict each other. Partly the confusion is due to the fact even now people don’t understand that when something is 3000 years old, it does not date to 3500 B.C.
While most of us learned that Chandragupta Maurya lived around the 3rd century B.C, there is a set of people (via DesiPundit) who believe that he lived in 1534 B.C. This means that if we choose 1924 B.C as the date for Mahabharata war, then the Mauryan empire was established just 300 later. Then what happened to Buddha? Oh well he lived just 100 years after Mahabharata.
What can help in solving this mystery is some archaeology. Specifically if we can find out when humans settled in the areas where the Mauryan empire was located, then some of these dates can be ridiculed and there is some effort in this direction in West Bengal.
The state archaeology department recently found the site, on the banks of Piyali riyal in South 24 Parganas district. “We would begin excavation in winter at Tilpi near Joynagar in South 24 Parganas which could be an early historic site of pre-Mauryan period,” West Bengal Archaeology and Museums Department director Gautam Sengupta told IANS.
“This could prove that human habitation existed in the area between 3rd century BC and 3rd century AD,” Sengupta said. The Maurya dynasty ruled India between 321 and about 240 BC. “We discovered the site recently and came across some terracotta articles, copper coins, stone beads and other artefacts. Excavation is likely to reveal more artefacts and those can be compared with our previous findings to ascertain the occupational history of the area,” he added.
“This new site is on the banks of Piyali, which is again a part of the river system of Vidyadhari, on the banks of which Chandraketugarh was discovered in the early years of last century,” he said. Chandraketugarh is located in North 24 Parganas district and its history dates back to almost 3rd century BC, even before the Maurya dynasty came up.
The archaeological significance of the Chandraketugarh area came to light in the early years of the last century when road-building activities exposed a brick structure and artefacts.From all indications Chandraketugarh was an important urban centre, most probably a port city. The new site at Tilpi could be linked to Chandraketugarh, Sengupta said.[Excavation near Kolkata to unearth pre-Mauryan history via IndiaArchaeology]
An Indus Valley skeleton
A mummified body, wearing copper bracelets, some pottery and other artefacts dating back to the Indus Valley civilisation 3,000 years ago, have been found at a village in Baghpat district where the Archaeological Survey of India is conducting an excavation. The body, caked in mud and dirt collected over the centuries, was found at Sinoli village in Baghpat district and “could belong to the Sindhu period (or the Indus Valley era) about 3,000 years ago”, archaeologist Dharamveer Sharma said on Thursday.
It was wearing copper bracelets, and was most likely reduced to a skeleton, but that could only be determined after careful examination. Sharma, who is supervising the ASI dig, said the excavation was at the initial stages and they had so far come upon intricate pots and other items of pottery dating to the period.
He said the “shape and inscriptions” on the artefacts indicated that they could belong to the Sindhu period, though tests (like radio-carbon dating) had yet to be conducted. The find was expected to be of immense historical and academic significance, he added. The first items of pottery were found by one Dharampal while he was tilling his field in Sanoli village about a year ago after which the ASI decided to excavate the area.[ASI digs out 3000-yr-old mummified body]
During an excavation long time back in the Indus Valley, archaeologists discovered the skeletal remains of thirty eight individuals in a situation suggesting violence. Some were found in a well, and some had long cuts as if made from a sword. Others were discovered in the midst of collapsed wall and broken pottery. At that time the Aryan Invasion Theory was the craze and these massacres were attributed to Aryan nomads. Sir Motimer Wheeler also quoted hymns from Rig Veda that talk about the destruction of pura and the Aryans hatred towards the Dasyus who were identified with the Harappans.
Apparently the Aryan Invasion supporters were unable to match the date for invasion with the archaeologically established chronology. Subash Kak et. al [2] suggests that Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were in decline or abandoned many centuries before the alleged invasion. (1500 B.C. to 1200 B.C.)
Anyway, couple of points about this story. (1) the age of 3000 years ago seems to be assigned without any carbon dating (2) Baghpat is near Delhi whereas the prominent Indus Valley sites were more in present day Pakistan, Rajasthan and Gujrat.
Update: Mummy found in UP, archaeologists startled: In this news, the mummy has been identified as that of a youth. The date has been moved back to 3500 B.C. Just like that, without any carbon dating, the date has been pushed back 2500 years by Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Kawkab Hameed.
Related Links: Harappans = Vedic People ?, Mehrgarh
The Pakistani Apologists
Pakistan does not run any terrorist camps. Why can’t you folks just believe it?
That’s what the Pakistani spokesman had to say recently after getting fed up with constant Indian allegation. While Indians can have a hearty laugh at this denial, the sad part is many world leaders take his word for it. This is like the case with George Bush and Rafael Palmeiro. Palmeiro pointed his fingers at the Senate Committee and said that he did not take drugs. Later testing found that he had. But Bush said, I believe what Palmeiro says. Every speech by Bush and Blair contains the word FATWAT which overrides everything illegal that Pakistan does.
But people who have been to terrorist camps disagree. A brief filed by prosecutors against two residents of Lodi, California, contains the admission that one of the accused, Hamid Hayat attended training camps in Pakistan in 2000, 2003 and 2004, all during the time Musharraf was in power.
The apologists for Pakistan exist not only the administration, but at various other levels. The New York Times ran an op-ed suggesting that Pakistani madrassas do not train people to be terrorists and hence should not be considered a threat to United States. But even that oil-for-food scandal ridden United Nations thinks otherwise.
Several speakers at the recently-concluded 57th session of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights sought a ban on madrassas run by religio-political parties in Pakistan, describing them as “nurseries of death and destruction”. The session was held in Geneva. The madrassas and the terrorist infrastructure continues to thrive in Pakistan despite public statements of the ruling military establishment, the speakers pointed out.
They stressed that “unless these were dismantled and sustained international pressure brought upon the state, which sustains and nurtures this evil, the world would continue to suffer the threats of global terrorism”.
All this is done under the direct supervision of Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) and the most radical groups within the Muttahida Majlis Amai (MMA). The madrassas run by JEI have been the “production units” of jihadis for over three decades, the glaring examples being terrorist outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen.
A number of speakers also pointed out that there was a direct link between al-Qaeda and JEI. They also noted that most of the Taliban were trained in madrassas run by JEI and other religio-political parties. Mullah Umar was himself a student of one such madrassa run directly by these religio-political parties, yet another speaker told the UN session.
[Pak madrassas groom terrorists]
Another set of apologists exist in the think-tanks and universities, who look at Musharraf with sympathy. Their opinion is that Musharraf is a poor guy trying to do his best and he has lot of constraints and we should understand those. A sample of this can be heard in this KQED Forum discussion on Afghanistan, where two Indian callers phoned in and blamed Musharraf for creating trouble in it’s neighbors on the east and west and immediately the experts presented the sympathy angle.
These experts portray as if Musharraf has to appease various segments in Pakistani politics like the head of a coalition Govt. There would have been some logic to this angle if the ruler was Nawaz Sharif or Benazir Bhutto since everyone knows that civilian rulers are just the front-ends and nothing happens in Pakistan without the blessing of the Army. Now when an Army General himself is in power and that too one who took a bold “U” turn in his Taliban policy, and his sympathizers are parroting the difficulty angle, they don’t look like experts anymore.
Thanks Microsoft
Each day comes with the announcement of an exciting new product due to the war like competition between Yahoo! and Google. It was only few days back that I deleted Google Desktop and installed Yahoo! Desktop Search. But today, Google has come up with a new version of their search tool and I knew I had to get it.
After resisting the initial impulse, I browsed over to the Google webpage and read a bit. Still not convinced I was about to leave and then I saw the screenshots, which are like rain songs in Indian movies. They tantalize, but don’t reveal much. But that was enough for me to download Google Desktop. Then I was frantically configuring the Sidebar to read random feeds and display photos from various sources. Then I configured a few stocks and installed a few plugins.
I also configured Sidebar to show weather in the city I am in and so I get weather via a plugin on my browser, a widget on Konfabulator and now on Sidebar. All of them agree that it is going to be cloudy. I also turned around in my chair, looked out through the window and verified it. I have TODO lists on Konfabulator and Google Sidebar each holding various pieces of things to do. Action item number one is to merge all of them.
According to those ever helpful analysts, the Sidebar is Google’s aggressive move against Yahoo! and Microsoft and it’s true. The Sidebar aggressively pushed all my Windows applications to the left and occupied some valuable real estate on the right side. I had to select Auto Hide to reclaim the space back.
It was only few days back that I installed Konfabulator from Yahoo! after seeing the screenshots of some cool widgets. It displays weather with some stunning graphics, and shows alarm clocks in various ways, all of which I don’t need. But this is the closest to a Mac, that my Windows machine can get. But Sidebar can also display clocks. There was this old adage that all software would expand until it can read mail. Now it expands to display alarm clocks.
After the new install Google Desktop started indexing my data and it was slow. Since I had to search for something (the txt file which is my TODO list), I started Yahoo Desktop Search and it started indexing again. Google was indexing too and both of them reached my email held by Thunderbird almost at the same time. Since Thunderbird was not designed for a threesome, it thew up some expletives in hex and quit.
When I thought I could take a break from configuring various desktop searches and slick widgets, there is news that Google is going to release a communication tool. In this crazy widget eat widget world Microsoft has thankfully stayed away. Instead of burdening the user with innovations each week, they have decided to stand back and concentrate on something called Vista which is due next year, which means we will get it when America pulls out of Eye-Rack.
Update: Both Microsoft and Yahoo! are going to upgrade their web mail services.
Book Review: Lankaparvam (Malayalam)
Lankaparvam by T. Damu, DC Books, 50 pages.
Recently the Malayalam book Lankaparvam was in the news for making the claim that Thiyyas were from Kyrgyzstan. Fascinated by this fact, I managed to get this book which is about the history of Sri Lanka.
The author of the book is T. Damu, who has published many novels, short stories and articles under the pen name T. D. Vadakkumbad. He has also worked as newspaper reporter and associate editor for various newspapers in India. Currently he is an officer in a big unnamed company, and it was on a business trip that he reached Sri Lanka.
The book consists of a total of 48 pages of which seven are color photographs, and can be finished within the commercial break time of That 70s Show. As the author starts on his flight from Thiruvanathapuram, he is reminded of the Hanuman’s flight to the prosperous Lanka of Ravana and this Ramayana theme runs throughout the book as the author travels to places like Seetha Eliya, which has the only temple dedicated to Seetha.
The book also talks about the origin of the SriLankan people from a princess in Bengal, moves to the arrival of Buddhism, talks about the origin of Nairs and Ezhavas, and skips directly to the LTTE, all within about thirty pages. Even though the chapters seem to suggest historical progression, most of the contents are mythological stories. The author takes them seriously and presents them as facts even without expressing a bit of doubt.
So when he suggests that in a place called Nuvara Eliya, the soil is black in color because Ravanas palace was burned down by Hanuman here or that the presence of Asoka trees in some area suggests that Seetha was held by Ravana there, you know these are without any basis. Such stories are prevalent all around India too and you have to accept them for what they are — legends.
The author says that Thiyyas are different from Ezhavas and for this he cites two stories. The first one says that that Lord Siva saw seven women taking a bath in a river and decided to get them. For this he made the place cold and convertedhimself to fire and when the women came to warm themselves near the fire, he gotall of them. The children born of that relationship are called Thiyyas since they were born from Thee (fire in Malayalam). The second story says that Lord Shiva wanted to booze and for getting someone to climb the coconut tree to get toddy, he created Thiyyas.
Once these, Intelligent Design, equivalent theories have been presented, the author kicks it up a notch and suggests that some people migrated from Kyrgyzstan in 7000 B.C to India. Since they were from Thiyyan mountain area (Tien Shan), they were called Thiyyas. According to him an ancient book from Finland called the Edda has a mention of Thiyyas, so it could be that Thiyyas were from Finland also.
This book does not provide a single reference for this theory or any research which confirms this theory. There is a Salem in Massachussets and does not mean that people living there are from Salem, Tamil Nadu. If you look at the world map, you can spot places and races many such similarities, but similarity in names is not sufficient to prove such migration theories. Who knows what Thiyya in Finnish means?
All these doubts did not prevent The Hindu from writing this, “The predominant Thiyya community of Malabar migrated to Kerala in 7000 BC from Kyrgyzstan in the erstwhile Soviet Union, says a fresh study revealing their disputed origins”.After reading the book, I found there was no study mentioned. It was just a casual statement in the middle of a bunch of mythologies.
For all you know, Thiyyas might be from Kyrgyzstan. But unfortunately the context in which this information is presented and the lack of any reference makes me a skeptic.
Modernization catches up with Malayalees
Shashi Tharoor has two part article on Kerala which lists all the virtues of Malayalees and we get to see what a brilliant man he is in the following paragraph
Keralites never suffered from inhibitions about travel: so many Keralite typists flocked to stenographic work in Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi that “Remington” was thought to be the name of a Malayali sub-caste. In the nation’s capital, the wags said that you couldn’t throw a stone in the Central Secretariat without injuring a Keralite bureaucrat. Nor was there, in the Kerala tradition, any prohibition on venturing abroad, none of the ritual defilement associated in parts of North India with “crossing the black water”. It was no accident that Keralites were the first, and the most, to take advantage of the oil-fuelled employment boom in the Arab Gulf countries; at one point in the 1980s, the largest single ethnic group in the Gulf sheikhdom of Bahrain was reported to be not Bahrainis but Keralites.[Questing spirit]
He glosses over the fact that militant Communism prevented the growth of any industry and people had no other option, but go abroad to make a living. Tharoor makes it sound as if Malayalees were doing a favour to the nations of the Middle East. Since Communists resisted globalization in Kerala, Malayalees had to rely on the globalization of labor to find work in Arab countries and live like slaves.
Now modernization and competition in Qatar has caught these immigrants by surprise and many Malayalees are expected to be jobless.
The community suffered a massive setback more than two years ago when the mushrooming hypermarkets threatened the smaller provision stores by waging a fierce price war. Community sources estimate that out of about 125,000 commercial registrations (CRs), some 25 per cent of them may be small grocery stores run by Kerala Muslims.
Known in the local parlance as ‘baqalas’, the small-time owners of these outlets ran for help to community leaders. A committee was set up to study the problem and suggest ways to tackle it. One of the proposals made was that ‘baqalas’ form consortia, meaning that some 10 to 15 of them from one broader locality come together and make purchases of saleable goods collectively, so that they could buy and sell things cheaper to survive the price war. But the proposal never worked as it proved to be impractical and difficult to implement. The result was that many of these ‘baqalas’ continue to exist, albeit with difficulty, as jobs and profits have nearly halved.
According to him, considering the trend in Qatar that points to small businesses being replaced by bigger ones, community elders have long been warning those in catering an grocery trade to use foresight and diversify into other areas in vain.[Muslims from northern Kerala worried about future in Qatar]
If this were Kerala, there would be people shouting Inquilab in front of the hypermarts, but since Arab countries are big on human rights, the only thing you can do is swallow the bitter pill. You can run all you want from globalization and modernization, but you cannot hide.
Update: I Prefer That You Kiss My…
Rashomon Effect – Episode 1
Jagdish Tytler in his resignation letter
Since this unfortunate and unwarranted mention of my name is causing embarrassment to the government, I hereby voluntarily tender my resignation from the Council of Ministers. I also take this opportunity to thank you and the party for the faith reposed in me all along.
According to News Insight
Threatened with excommunication from the Sikh community, Manmohan Singh met Sonia Gandhi with the choice that either Jagdish Tytler would have to resign or he would have to quit, following which the overseas Indians’ minister, an accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, was asked to leave the government.
Soon afterwards, Manmohan Singh in his Parliament speech clearly hinted that Tytler would leave his government, but till the evening, he was not willing to budge, after which he was asked by Sonia Gandhi’s office to put in his papers.
The myth of Cheraman Perumal's conversion
Recently, The President of India, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam visited the Cheraman Juma Musjid in Kodungallur (ancient Muziris) in Kerala. This mosque, believed to have been built by Malik bin Dinar in 629 AD, is considered to be the oldest mosque in India. If this date is accurate, then this mosque was established much before the time of Adi Shankara (if we go by the dates ascribed by the Sringeri Peetam) and around the same time Huen Tsang was in India. This mosque has quite a history
As the tradition goes, a Chera king, Cheramanperumal of Kodungallure, left for Makkah, embraced Islam, and accepted the name Thajudeen. He married the sister of then King of Jeddah. On his return trip, accompanied by many Islamic religious leaders, led by Malik-ibn-Dinar (RA), he fell sick and passed away. But he had given introductory letters for the team to proceed to ‘Musiris’ (Kodungallur, the Chera capital. The visitors came to Musiris and handed over the latter to the reigning king, who treated the guests with all respect and extended facilities to establish their faith in the land. The king also organised help for the artisans to build the first Mosque at Kodungallur, by converting Arathali temple into a Juma-Masjid. It was build in 629 A.C., and the area around it had been ear-marked for the team’s settlement.[Cheraman Juma Masjid A Secular Heritage]
This story seems to be a myth propagated in the book Keralolpathi (The origin of Kerala) and repeated many times over. None of the reputed history books[1] mention this story, even the ones by eminent historians[3]. According to Sreedhara Menon[9]
The Cheraman legend is not corroborated by any contemporary record or evidence. None of the early or medieval travelers who visited Kerala has referred to it in their records. Thus Sulaiman, Al Biruni, Benjamin of Tuleda, Al Kazwini, Marco Polo, Friar Odoric, Friar Jordanus, Ibn Babuta, Abdur Razzak, Nicolo-Conti – none of these travelers speaks of the story of the Cheraman’s alleged conversion to Islam.
A mention of the Cheraman Perumal legend appeared in the 16th century book Tuhafat-ul Mujahidin by Shaik Zainuddin, but he too did not believe in its historical authenticity. But later cut and paste historians seem to have forgot to add his disclaimer.
Sreedhara Menon also authoritatively states that Kerala never had a king called Cheraman Perumal and quotes Dr. Herman Gundert, the German who composed the first Malayalam-English dictionary and the grandfather of Herman Hesse for this. But there seems to have been a Cheraman Perumal, whose history is overlaid by legend. According to Saiva tradition, he had an association with a Sundaramurti, the last of the three hymnists of Devaram. This Cheraman Perumal vanished in 825 A.D, about 200 years after Muhammed thus confirming that all that Mecca trip was a fanciful legend.[10]
Update (Jan 1, 2009): Maddy has detailed post about this episode
Footnotes:
[1] Picture of the old mosque and the renovated one
[2] India Archaeology Messages 2112, 2123
Sharada Thirtha
Often, Indian Hindus and Sikhs make demands to Pakistani authorities to give them permission to visit their holy places located in Pakistan. These visits allow the visitors to worship in those places and also see for themselves how temples and gurudwaras are maintained in the Islamic state.
One such holy place, the Sharada temple, according to Subhash Kak, is the most famous and sacred of all Kashmiri pilgrimage centers. It is located in Neelam valley in Pakistan occupied Kashmir near the Line Of Control. According to Al-Biruni Sharada was as important as Somnath, Multan and Thaneshvar.
The native script for Kashmiri is also called Sharada and was derived from Brahmi. The earliest records in Sharada have been dated to 800 A.D and was found all over northwest India. Also, Gurmukhi, the Punjabi script was based on Sharada script. None of the history books, even ones by eminent historians[3] do not mention this script or temple.
A mention of the Sharada temple is present in the second volume of Rajatarangini, translated by M.A.Stein.
In the centre of the quadrangle is the temple raised on a basement of 24 feet square and 5 feet 3 inches high. The entrance to this inner temple is from the west side and is approached by stairs five and a half feet wide with flanking side walls. The interior of the inner temple is a square of 12 feet and 3 inches and it has no decoration of any kind. The only conspicous object inside is a large slab which measures about 6 by 7 feet with a thickness of about half a foot. This slab is believed to cover a kunda, or spring, in which goddess Sharada appeared to the sage Shandilya. This kund is the object of the special veneration of the pilgrims.[Sharadha Tirtha]
Recently someone traveled to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and sent a detailed report on the journey as well as the state of the temple.
Anyway, we arrived in Sharda to be told that the Sharda temple was inside Pak army barracks and permission had to be obtained to see it. Apparently, the Pak army moved there a long time ago, taking over the temple complex and the surrounding area for their barracks.The upside of this was that the remains of the temple were being maintained and protected by Pak army. Anyway, we got permission to see the temple but were not allowed to take photographs due to some law. (I think it was more to do with the current political climate etc). Anyway, we talked to the commanding officer and he gave us permission for photography.[Pictures of Sharda Peeth (has 22 pictures) via IndiaArchaeology]
Looking at the pictures, you can see for yourself how well the Pakistani Army has maintained the temple. Well, atleast they did not blow it up like what the Taliban did to the Bamiyan Buddhas.
Footnotes:
[1] After looking around I could not find who built the temple or what era it was built. If you have any information/links, please let me know.