Mahabalipuram: Deep sea structures

More news from Mahabalipuram. As per mythology there were seven temples in that area out of which only one is visible now. But the naval diving team helping the Archaeological Society of India has made some more discoveries related to that.

As the killer tsunami waves receded, it also gulped the sand deposits only to unveil a line of rocks 500 metres from the Shore temple. The neat arrangement of rocks with man-made features could turn out to be another cave temple of the Pallava era (8th century). The naval diving team, assisting the Archaeological Society of India, also discovered another structure $(Ope(Brhaps a temple 100 metres north-east.
Commander A K Sharma of Indian Naval Command Diving team claims that the structures have striking resemblance with the legendary painting of the seven pagodas (or seven temples). “We know for sure that a temple is going to emerge from the excavation site. We have found another temple close to the shore and also located a slab believed to be the pedestal on which the deity was placed,” he said.
Says commanding officer of INS Ghorpad, Lt Commander Satyendra Vaidya: “We have recovered prominent objects of archaeological importance. A temple-shaped structure has been discovered during one of the dives. Then came a square structure resembling a sanctum sanctorum. It is covered with marine growth and the centre is buried under silt.”
The INS Ghorpad team also found some artifacts belonging to the temple site. Carved relics depicting lions and elephant were exposed by the tsunami further down south of the excavation site. These rocks were visible earlier too, but not as clearly as now, showing sharp carvings. [Tsunami unveils ‘seven pagodas’ via IndiaArchaeology]

Queen Aishwarya and Sonia Gandhi

Was Sonia Gandhi behind the economic blockade imposed by India against Nepal 1989 ? According to Jonathan Gregson in his book Massacre at the Palace: The Doomed Royal Dynasty of Nepal, there was an issue between Sonia Gandhi and Queen Aishwarya during the SAARC meet over who should take precedence. This incident strengthened Rajiv Gandhi’s determination to teach and an economic blockade was imposed over Nepal using the pretext that the trade treaty between the two countries had expired.
Later when a widowed Sonia Gandhi visited Kathmandu, the Queen made sure that she was denied permission to enter Pashupathinath temple on the basis that she was born a Catholic. The Queen thus gained happiness of standing up against India, whom she hated because she thought India was behind the Spring Awakening of 1990 that led to democracy.
Devyani Rana was one of the women shortlisted for marrying Prince Dipendra and she was related to the Scindias of India. Devyani’s mother cosidered the Nepali Royal family below them. This combined with the Queen’s hatred for India, made the Queen oppose Dipendra’s marriage to Devyani. Later it was over this woman that Dipendra massacred the Royal family and killed himself.

King or Maoists

TVR Shenoy has an article criticizing the suspension of military aid to Nepal

Scenario One: The Maoists intensify their attacks, controlling larger swatches of that unfortunate country. They already rule 39 of Nepal’s 75 districts. If India chooses to starve the Royal Nepal Army of supplies, in the name of restoring democracy, there is an excellent chance that the king and his forces will simply throw in the towel and give in to the Maoists. The Maoists will then join hands with their murderous Naxalite brethren in India.
Scenario Two: What happens if King Gyanendra becomes desperate at the Indian decision to stop military supplies? Let us remember that it is open to him to seek aid from Pakistan or China. This gives him a fighting chance of beating the Maoists. The victorious monarch shall then be an enemy of India as long as he lives (and probably his successors too).
Scenario Three: The Government of India decides to reverse its stance and resume the flow of arms to the Royal Nepal Army. The politicians in Nepal will protest vehemently. Irrespective of whether King Gyanendra carries the field against the Maoists, a section of the Nepali people will hate India. [India’s short-sightedness]

While India tolerates a King in Bhutan, dictators in Myanmar and a General who exiled a Prime Minister, suddenly we have come intolerant of a King. The Maoists are gaining in Nepal and that is not good for India as well as Nepal. Most Communist/Maoist coming of power is followed by genocide and getting them off the chair is almost impossible. India has its own Naxalite problems and thanks to the lenient handling of the borders by the present Indian administration, both these guys are able to exchange notes.
Now that India and Britain has suspended aid, King Gyanendra has asked for international aid which means that some other countries could get involved in India’s neighborhood. India’s best bet would be to help Gyanendra in his fight against the Maoists while exerting sufficient pressure to bring back democracy.

China and India: Ancient cultural relations

Last year, Amartya Sen had an article in New York Review of Books on the 2000 year old relation between China and India. Now on the occasion of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s upcoming visit to New Delhi in March, China Daily has an article on the same topic, acknowledging the cultural imports from India.

China was thus linked culturally to India, via its adoption and transformation of Mahayana Buddhism (of the “Large Vehicle,” as opposed to Hinayana Buddhism of the “Small Vehicle,” which spread from Sri Lanka to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia). Both were already pursuing their “wider Asian interests” then, as they dominated the philosophical and cultural psyche of Asia. This “civilization dialogue” between China and India (and through China to the rest of Confucianist Asia) could be seen in three aspects of Chinese civilization: architecture and temple-building, sculpture (in China’s famous “temple caves”), and paintings and creative arts.
The teachings of Gautama Buddha indeed added flavour to Chinese civilization. Buddhism “with Chinese characteristics” had in fact helped galvanize Chinese civilization, as was built up to an apogee (of Chinese culture and civilization) during the Tang Dynasty. The Tang was also at the zenith of Chinese art and culture in its millennium-old history, and India and Buddhism have undoubtedly contributed to China’s cultural apogee.
Although Buddhism was first introduced to the Chinese courts during the Han Dynasty, the religion only pervaded Chinese society and culture progressively, as Buddhist concepts and philosophy were infused into a fast-developing and affluent Chinese society, with its own inherent characteristics and personality. [Cultural factors bind China and India]

Tsumani treasures: Not really Buddha

Remember the tsunami treasures that were discovered in Mahabalipuram ? One of the items was a granite lion which was actually seen in 1980. Now it seems the Buddha statue that washed ashore is not really Buddha but Jalagupta, a Hindu diety worshipped in Myanmar.

K Gurumurthy, a member of the Indo-Myanmar Chamber of Commerce, who visited the Meyyurkuppam site upon advice from the Myanmar Embassy, New Delhi, has now confirmed that the idol is of Myanmarese origin but not that of the Buddha. The raft-shrine that houses the idol must indeed have come from Myanmar as the robe, bowl and photograph that accompanied the idol on the high seas all contained Myanmarese letters.
However, contrary to media reports till now, the statue with distinct Mongloid features is not that of Buddha but of Jalagupta, a local Hindu deity much in worship in Myanmarese village as a

Book Review: State of Fear

State Of Fear by Michael Crichton, HarperCollins Publishers, 603 pages.

“The United States of America is an international pariah, isolated from the rest of the world and justifiably despised because we failed to sign the Kyoto Protocol to attack a global problem”, says one of the characters in Michael Crichton’s new book State Of Fear. This is countered by one of the main characters in the book with the statement that Kyoto protocol does plan to reduce warming by 0.04 degrees Celsius in 100 years. Right now we cannot even predict weather beyond five days accurately and how do we know what’s going to happen in 100 years.
In the book the villain is Nicholas Drake, the head of National Environmental Resource Fund who thinks that people have lost interest in environmental causes and need to be shocked into action. For this he plans some eco-terrorism with a group called Environmental Liberation Front. Fighting them are George Morton, a billionaire philanthropist, Peter Evans, a junior attorney, and John Kenner an M.I.T professor who works for the National Security Intelligence Agency.
After the heroes and villains have been introduced, they embark on their well choreographed behaviors. The villains try to blow up things and the heroes reach just in time to foil it. For foiling the terrorist activities, our heroes follow the Dan Brown design pattern which says that there has to be clues to the actual locations of terrorism which the heroes will decode with their brains and Internet. The Dan Brown pattern also says that even though the villains know that the hero has decoded the location, they will still go ahead with their plans. During this dance, we are given lectures on how much we trust all these global warming advocates who themselves have no idea on how the weather changes.
Crichton’s books are mostly techno-thrillers. Prey was about nanotechnology, Timeline was about time travel and Airframe was about the airline industry. This book questions the blind faith that people have in the global warming theory and Crichton quotes several research papers in footnotes to lend authenticity to his arguments.
The book does manage to raise awareness on the global warming data and on the agenda of the NGOs who claim to work for environmental causes which is refreshing. After reading this book, you will look at global warming with skepticism. As a thriller it is predictable and the characters are two-dimensional. This book is not as good as Jurassic Park or even Prey or Timeline, but better than Airframe.

Muslim nuclear hawk – unacceptable

Last time we told you about the satirical report on Jawaharlal Nehru University students who had stopped brushing their teeth. But now here is a report, which is real.

Independent thought in India’s better universities is alive and well. Office bearers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University students union in Delhi were requested by the university’s administration to present flowers to President Abdul Kalam at the annual convocation. They flatly refused, saying that he is a nuclear hawk and an appointee of a Hindu fundamentalist party. Moreover, as young women of dignity they could not agree to act as mere flower girls presenting bouquets to a man. [India, as Seen Today Through the Eyes of an Eminent Pakistani Scholar]

Indian President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam was the person whom Pervez Hoodbhoy’s friend Praful Bidwai accidently left out from his list of Muslim achievers.

Mehrgarh – II

The French have been doing lot of excavation in Mehrgarh (in Balochistan), home of one of the oldest farming communities in the subcontinent that existed about 8000 years ago. Mehrgarh was abandoned by the time of emergence of the Indus Valley Civilization and now findings have surfaced which link these two.

Most of the ruins at Mehrgarh are buried under alluvium deposits, though some structures could be seen eroding on the surface. Currently, the excavated remains at the site comprise a complex of large compartmental mud-brick structures.
Function of these subdivided units, built of hand-formed plano-convex mud bricks, is still not clear but it is thought that many were used probably for storage, rather than residential, purposes. A couple of mounds also contain formal cemeteries, parts of which have been excavated.
Although Mehrgarh was abandoned by the time of the emergence of the literate urbanized phase of the Indus civilization around Moenjodaro, Harapa, etc., its development illustrates the development of the civilization’s subsistence patterns, as well as its craft and trade.
Mr Jarrige said that many beautiful ceramics had been found at the site in Balochistan and were believed to be of the era as early as eighth millennium BC. The French archaeologist said that studies suggested that the findings at Mehrgarh linked this area to the Indus civilization.
There are indications that bones were used in making tools for farming, textile, and there are also evidences of the use of cotton even in that period. Mr Jarrige pointed out that the skeletons found at the site indicated that the height of people of that era was larger than that of the later period.
He said that the architecture at that time was well developed. Rice was the staple food for those people and there were also indications of trade activities. [8,000-year-old civilization in Mehrgarh proved via IndiaArchaeology]

Earlier date for Tamil-Brahmi

When the urns containing human skeletons were discovered in Adichanallur in Tamil Nadu, they were initially dated to 800 BC. Now one of the urns has been dated to 500 BC and what makes this interesting is the script which was present in the urn.

The claim on the date of the script and the assertion that it is in Tamil-Brahmi will be subjected to the scrutiny of scholars in the field.
The term `Tamil-Brahmi’ is used when the script is in Brahmi but the language is Tamil. The Brahmi script was predominantly used for Prakrit from the Mauryan (Asokan) period. The Brahmi script was brought to the Tamil country in the third century B.C. by the Jain and Buddhist monks during the post-Asokan period.
According to Iravatham Mahadevan, one of the foremost authorities on the Tamil-Brahmi script: “The Brahmi script reached Upper South India (Andhra-Karnataka regions) and the Tamil country at about the same time during the 3rd century B.C. in the wake of southern spread of Jainism and
Buddhism.” In his magnum opus, Early Tamil epigraphy, From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D., Mr. Mahadevan says that “the earliest Tamil inscriptions in the Tamil-Brahmi script may be dated from about the end of 3rd century or early 2nd century B.C. on palaeographic grounds and stratigraphic evidence of inscribed pottery. The earliest inscriptions in the Tamil country written in the Tamil-Brahmi script are almost exclusively in the Tamil language.” [`Rudimentary Tamil-Brahmi script’ unearthed at Adichanallur]

Tamil Brahmi scripts have been found in the caves of Jain monks in Tamil Nadu and they were dated to 3rd century BC, thus working with the theory that Buddhist and Jain monks could have bought the Brahmi script to the south. But if the date of around 500 BC is accurate, it means that the script reached Tamil Nadu during the time of Buddha itself and not much later