The Oldest Oil Painting

(Source: National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo)

Till recently it was believed that oil painting had its origins somewhere in Europe between 11^th and 13^th centuries when some unknown artist discovered that mixing linseed, walnut or safflower oil with pigments could produce a different feel than watercolour. Archaeologists looking into caves behind the destroyed Buddhas in Bamiyan found evidence that oil painting has a non-Eurocentric history. The artists who lived in the 7^th century, used besides oil, natural resins, proteins and gums to paint murals showing Buddha sitting cross-legged in vermilion robes.

The paintings in 12 of the 50 caves were created using oil paints, possibly from walnut or poppy, according to scientists at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France. “This is the earliest clear example of oil paintings in the world, although drying oils were already used by ancient Romans and Egyptians, but only as medicines and cosmetics,” says team leader Yoko Taniguchi.[Afghan oil paintings world’s oldest]

Now that the oldest oil painting has been found, it is time to look for the remains of the first oil painting critic.

Catholic Church, Italy and Philippines

In Philippines, a Roman Catholic majority country, the government has rejected contraception a family planning tool since it goes against the Church doctrine. The President herself suggested what the population should do – “Women not wanting to get pregnant, Arroyo advised, should buy a thermometer and recording charts and abstain from sex when they are outside the ‘infertile phases of the monthly cycle.'” The result of this advice, according to Washington Post, is a country of poor people with large families.

Acceding to Catholic doctrine, the government for the past five years has supported only what it calls “natural” family planning. No national government funds can be used to buy contraceptives for the poor, although anyone who can afford them is permitted to buy them. Local governments can also buy and distribute contraceptives, but many lack the money.

In 2005, Catholic bishops in the southern Philippines announced that they would refuse Communion to government health workers who distributed birth control devices. [Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty]

Deepak Chopra writes what is happening in the Pope’s back yard where people have rejected the thermometer and graphs.

Italy, the home country of Catholicism in Europe, has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. This implies a resort to contraception, and yet Church dogma calls that a sin, forcing its parishioners into Hobson’s choice.

Politicians Finally Get It

United States is the largest consumer of bottled water and since water bottles are made of a type of plastic which is difficult to break down, 86% of the bottles become garbage. Landfill clogging by these bottles became a major issue and many city councils took action by banning the bottles in government meetings, replacing them with water pitchers and drinking fountains. Restaurants too joined in, encouraging the use of tap water.

The environmentalists started a campaign and the bottled water industry reacted by releasing advertisements. On radio programs, the bottled water industry spokesmen argued that the issue is consumer choice; if a consumer has the freedom to eat a mango grown in Philippines, he also has the freedom to drink San Pellegrino.

After all that initial posturing the bottled water industry is now trying to accommodate the environmentalists, so that they are not seen on the wrong side in this issue. The solution they came up did not make the bottle disappear, but made it eco friendly by featuring smaller labels and bottles made with less plastic.

The present trend is growing environmental awareness among private businesses to make up for unenthusiastic stance of the Bush Administration. Buying from farmers market is popular and Low Carbon diet is the new mantra. The rising popularity of the environmental movement has recognition among politicians on both sides of the aisle and nothing says it better than this advertisment.

Spirituality as a Business

During ancient times, guru dakshina used to be a tricky business; gurus could ask for anything and the shishyas, without questioning, had to provide. Pandavas, on completion of their education asked Drona and his wish was a preemptive strike on Drupada. In a separate incident related to Drona, Ekalavya had to part with his thumb.

In modern times body parts and warfare are not in vogue; the disciple donates something according to his capabilities to the guru and such convention has worked very well. The stay at Sivananda Ashram in Kasi is entirely free for few days and if you want to extend the stay, all you need is notify the receptionist. The 10 day vipassana course conducted around the world is free as well. All these are supported by dakshinas by people and there are enough people donating that both these institutions, like many others, have been running successfully for years.

By giving a dakshina, as per Indian tradition, we honor the guru parampara; all the masters in the org structure who made this transmission of knowledge possible. By our support we also make sure that our children and grand children have access to this knowledge. It was never about money this has always been the way of Indian spirituality.

Now you see certain New Age spiritual groups which sell spirituality with a predefined price list for various courses. There is a fee for basic meditation course, a larger amount for advanced meditation and half your salary for a residential course. Essentially it is like registering for a tennis or salsa dancing class – you pay a certain amount and you get packaged spirituality.

Indian philosophy has supported a market place of ideas including both astika and nāstika but there never was, during ancient times, an instance when spirituality was sold as a product in the market place. Earlier each school differentiated itself by ideas, now it is by the menu card. To top it, these spiritual groups demand a guru dakshina at the end of the class and what got by goat was a recent $100 discount coupon I got for one such spiritual course.

Selling spirituality is not to be delated. That is business and looking at the amount of people flocking to these gurus, it seems to be a profitable one too. Then, at the end of the tennis class our coaches do not ask for more money for the price for the class was negotiated and settled earlier. Asking for guru dakshina in such situations does not go with tradition and it would be as disagreeable as adding sugar to sambar. As Yoda would have said^*, “This mix and match of business and tradition, jarring I find it to be.”

(*) result of watching 6 Star Wars movies back to back.

The Reading Brain

When asked why he did not introduce a iPod like book reader, Steve Jobs arrogantly said, “the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.” He was being dismissive of Amazon Kindle, which was sold out in a day and was buying time to develop the Kindle killer. Still the point that Americans read less is a valid one.

Tom Ashbrook recently had an interview with Maryanne Wolf, the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, which explains that reading shapes the human brain and by reading less we are going through devolution.

Thus the reading brain is part of highly successful two-way dynamics. Reading can be learned only because of the brain’s plastic design, and when reading takes place, that individual brain is forever changed, both physiologically and intellectually. For example, at the neuronal level, a person who learns to read in Chinese uses a very particular set of neuronal connections that differ in significant ways from the pathways used in reading English. When Chinese readers first try to read in English, their brains attempt to use Chinese-based neuronal pathways. The act of learning to read Chinese characters has literally shaped the Chinese reading brain. Similarly, much of how we think and what we think about is based on insights and associations generated from what we read. As the author Joseph Epstein put it, “A biography of any literary person ought to deal at length with what he read and when, for in some sense, we are what we read.” [Reading Lessons From Proust and the Squid]

Indian History Carnival – 4

(Image of Sanchi stupa by spaceppl)

The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology.

Manjunatha looks at genetic data and concludes: “This is the precise reason I believe the Dravidian languages are part of South India since the beginning.”
The Governments of Haryana and Rajasthan have decided to revive the Ghaggar river system. Suvrat Kher clarifies the geological understanding regarding the river Ghaggar /Saraswati.
Sigrid Harris writes about the rise and fall of Buddhism in India, “It flourished for centuries, but eventually, the corruption of the Sangha, the rivalries between sects, and the lack of protection from the ruling class weakened Buddhism and made it unable to compete with the reformed Hinduism. The anti-Buddhist campaigns led by the Muslims caused its final downfall, and Buddhism eventually entirely disappeared from India between 1000 and 1200 C.E.
BD says, “this theory that Brahmins and/or Hinduism eradicated Buddhism does not quite hold” and offers this advice: “I realize that the Buddhists and Dalits are trying to build up their own identity, but relying on wrongful views or misinterpretation of history will lead to two things. One is people chuckling at you and second is a weak identity.”
In our last edition, Stephanie laughed at the outrageous reports of Herodotus, especially the gold digging ants of India. Arvind Sharma asks: how is the account of gold-digging ants to be reconciled with the claims of Greek rationalism?
HelloJi has a detailed post about the Nizam of Hyderabad, who is Fifth on Forbes ‘All Time Wealthiest’ list.
According to TMMK leader M.H. Jawahirulla Aurangzeb destroyed the temple at Varanasi because the Maharani of Kutch was disrobed and insulted there. B. Shantanu finds that this is a fabrication .
Yossarin reminds us that Ambedkar took a strong stand against having the word “socialism” ingrained in the preamble and wonders if the intellectual pygmies who are appropriating Ambedkar’s legacy have any idea of his liberal views.
Maddy writes about the role of V. K. Krishna Menon in the war with China.

If you find any posts related to Indian history published in the past one month, please send it to jk AT varnam DOT org or use this form. The next carnival will be up on May 15th.

Best Medicine for Depression

The surfer, Steven Kotler, was making his living as a writer, with the perfect apartment and perfect girl friend. Then he got the Lyme disease. On days he could make it to the kitchen from the bed, he would end up standing with a coffee pot in one hand and the tap running not sure what to do next as he had forgotten to do the most basic tasks. He lost his job, woman and his mind and started thinking of suicide. So he decided to do the best thing possible – go surfing in Costa Azul, Mexico and to his surprise he started feeling better.

In the book, West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origins of Belief Steven wondered why he got better. Another book, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, explains the science and it has something to do with neurogenesis.

While it was known that our skin, liver and bones constantly regenerate, it was believed that neurons could not. Ramon y Cajal, considered one of the founders of neuroscience and a Nobel Prize winner wrote in 1913, “In the adult centers, the nerve paths are something fixed, ended, and immutable. Everything may die, nothing may be regenerated. It is for the science of the future to change, if possible, this harsh decree.”

The science of the future did not have to do anything to change this since the assumption itself was incorrect, but Cajal’s theory was held as dogma till 1962 when a scientist at MIT, Joseph Altman, decided to challenge it. Altman found that brains of adult rats, cats and guinea pigs generated new neurons. Later experiments by Michael Kaplan on the brains of adult rats, Fernando Nottebohm in bird brains and Elizabeth Gould in primates confirmed this theory.

The scientific community still did not accept that human brains could create new neurons but soon that Berlin wall too crumbled. Fred Gage and Swedish neurologist Peter Eriksson found through experiments conducted on the brains of terminal cancer patients that neurogenesis happened in humans; new neurons were born even in people who were in their fifties and seventies. The discovery that these new neurons matured and became part of the brain circuitry with new connections overturned conventional wisdom.

Researchers focused on finding the optimal conditions for neurogenesis by comparing the brains of mice with sedentary life style with physically active ones. Not surprisingly they found that ones which were physically active produced twice as many cells in their hippocampus than the armchair quarterbacks. Also observed was that it was voluntary exercise that produced brain cells and not coerced ones. This means that if your take a TV watching Google Reader addict and tie him on a treadmill his brain will remain unchanged whereas if he voluntarily registers for Ekal Marathon, there could be a burst in neurogenesis.

These new neurons were found to colligate in the dentate gyrus, a part in the hippocampus which forms distinct representations of multiple contexts, places and episodes. These neurons were also found to have more dendrites making it better connected and as a result enhanced the ability to connect new facts with old, retrieve memories and find patterns in disparate events.

Finally it was found that in people suffering from depression, the dentate gyrus had shrunk; such people were not able to find any novelty in life resulting in the philosophy, “Life sucks.” With exercise and the resulting neurogenesis the dentate gyrus was able to recognize novelty, recognize new experiences and bring back excitement into life. Consumer Reports advices, “Regular aerobic exercise is another effective antidote. It provides a time-out from unpleasant thoughts, generates feelings of well-being, and reduces depression.”

Exercise is what Steven Kotler did and he survived.

Technorati Tags: neurogenesis

Reference

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves

Lotta Examined Lives

Learning philosophy is in vogue. Students at various universities are registering for Philosophy 101 classes, reading Socrates and debating the metaphysics behind “The Matrix”.

David E. Schrader, executive director of the American Philosophical Association, a professional organization with 11,000 members, said that in an era in which people change careers frequently, philosophy makes sense. “It’s a major that helps them become quick learners and gives them strong skills in writing, analysis and critical thinking,” he said.

Max Bialek, 22, was majoring in math until his senior year, when he discovered philosophy. He decided to stay an extra year to complete the major (his parents needed reassurance, he said, but were supportive).

“I thought: Why weren’t all my other classes like that one?” he said, explaining that philosophy had taught him a way of studying that could be applied to any subject and enriched his life in unexpected ways. “You can talk about almost anything as long as you do it well.”[In a New Generation of College Students, Many Opt for the Life Examined]

If this trend stays, then reading Ravikiran will be required in many graduate schools.

The Circle of Life

On July 2, 1999, at the height of the Kargil War, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif telephoned President Bill Clinton and asked for his personal intervention. Clinton was very clear on his message; Pakistan had to withdraw unconditionally and United States would not reward Pakistan for the violation of the Line of Control. On July 3rd, Sharif called Clinton again with a message: though not invited he was leaving for Washington D.C. immediately. Clinton remarked, “This guy’s coming literally on a wing and a prayer.”^[1]

In 1999, Nawaz Sharif cut a sorry figure. He was like the resident of Tokyo trapped in front of Godzilla, but indecisive. Prince Bandar bin Sultan who picked Sharif at Washington airport told the Americans that Sharif was in mental pain about the crisis and scared about the reaction from the Pakistani Army, especially Musharraf.

There could be one explanation that this was an isolated incident. But in fact, always fearful and manipulated by Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz and Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad, Sharif was like like Rajesh Kuthrapalli on The Big Bang Theory. In 1998, Strobe Talbott, Bruce Riedel, Tom Simmons and Gen. Anthony Zinni met Nawaz Sharif to dissuade him from conducting a tit-for-tat nuclear test and Sharif, “seemed nearly paralysed with exhaustion, anguish and fear.”^[1]

While many join Toastmasters to boost their confidence, conquer their fears and express ideas, nothing can match the fear of death and an exile in Saudi Arabia. On the day Yousaf Raza Gillani was sworn in as the Prime Minister, two American diplomats visited Pakistan and they saw Nawaz Sharif in a completely new avatar.

The leader of the second biggest party in the new Parliament, Nawaz Sharif, said after meeting the two American diplomats that it was unacceptable that Pakistan had become a “killing field.”“If America wants tosee itself clean of terrorists, we also want that our villages and towns should not be bombed,” he said at a news conference here. Mr. Sharif, a former prime minister, added he was unable to give Mr. Negroponte “a commitment” on fighting terrorism. The statements by Mr. Sharif, and the cool body language in the televised portions of his encounter with Mr. Negroponte, were just part of the sea change in Pakistan’s domestic politics that is likely to impose new limits on how Washington fights militants within Pakistan’s borders. [New Pakistani Leaders Tell Americans There’s ‘a New Sheriff in Town’]

The 16th century Malayalam poet Poonthanam wrote in Jnanappana, a treasury of transcendental knowledge, “In a day or two, it is He, who makes them ride on the royal chair.” Poonthanam was writing, of course, about the lilas of Guruvayoorappan, but impermanence as elucidated by ancient bhakti poets seem to predict the affairs in our neighboring country quite accurately.

Poonthanam also wrote, “People who is seen by all; you are the one who makes them disappear. On the shoulder of the king; you are He, who places a tattered heap.” If only President Musharraf could read Malayalam.

1. Strobe Talbott, Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy, And the Bomb: Revised Edition, (Brookings Institution Press, 2006).

The New Hyphenation

Mr. Prakash Karat, who admires the way Nirupama Rao was summoned at 2 AM by the Chinese, explains why we should not support the protests against Tibet.

“In our country also we have problems of separatism. Those who want the chorus of independent Tibet will be doing a disservice to India,” the CPI(M) chief said reminding that we also had secessionist demands in Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir and other places.[CPI(M) goes hammer & sickle on Tibet]

B. Raman replies (well actually to Aamir Khan)

9. You and others, who have written on this subject, are correct in their references to Kashmir, our North-East, the grievances and anger of our Khalistanis and Muslims etc. We too have been having problems with our religious and ethnic minorities just as the Chinese are having problems with their minorities in Tibet, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. No country in the world has been free of such problems.

10.The question to be asked is not whether we have the same problems as the Chinese, but what has been our approach to these probelms. Do we deal with these problems in the same way as the Chinese do or do we follow a different approach?

17. The leaders of Kashmiri and other separatist organisations freely interact with our media. They are interviewed by our print and electronic media and invited to participate in our TV talk shows. You recently attended the World Leadership Summit of “India Today”. I read in the media that one of those, who was invited to address the summit, was Yasin Malik, the leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. Can you mention a single instance since 1949 when Beijing has allowed a single dissident leader to similarly interact with the media and foreign diplomats? Have you ever seen a single interview of His Holiness in the Chinese media? Have you ever seen a single statement of his ever published in the Chinese media?

Read the entire post. Now that the moral equivalence between India and Pakistan has vanished, it is time to establish the hyphenation between India and China and treat a democracy and dictatorship the same way in term of human rights violations. Communists have been parroting those lines and now Aamir Khan has joined in. If someone stands up for India, call him a nationalist (add the word pseudo for more effect). Rinse and Repeat.

Technorati Tags: Tibet, China,