The Exploitation of Religion

For a moment you would think that all those people were interviewing for the position of the Pope, but in fact they were interviewing for the position as the secular head of United States of America. All the candidates, mostly Republican, are desperate for the evangelical vote that the debates are now focusing on the candidates beliefs rather than his vision for the future.

When Rudy Giuliani was seen as the front runner, Mitt Romney started a campaign to show that he (Mitt) was a family values guy with just one marriage thus implying that Giuliani was an adulterer. As Romney started gaining some traction the fact that he was a Mormon came into a play and he was forced to give a speech in which he had to spell out loud that he believed that Jesus Christ was the son of God. Mike Huckabee put some zing into his campaign by running ads (later dropped ) which said that he was a Christian leader. All the candidates are running over each other to make a simple point – they are all believers in no one else but Jesus.

Mitt Romney in his religious speech mentioned that America has a tradition of religious tolerance and said that a person should not be elected due to this faith or rejected because of his faith. He acknowledged all the Abrahamic religions, supported the separation of Church and State, and in the same breath mentioned that secularism has no place in America. Then he came up with the most outrageous statement of the speech, “Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom.”

If you think Mitt Romney is nuts, all you need is read this statement by Huckabee on why left pastoring and entered politics, “I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ.” In 1998 Huckabee signed a statement which stated that, “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ”. The Taliban wanted to take Afghanistan back to the times of Mohammed and the answer to that would be to take America to the time of Christ.? Even the scholastics would have found Huckabee crazy.

41% of Americans attend Church regularly while those numbers are 15% in France and 10% in United Kingdom. About 80% of Americans believe in God, while that percentage is near 30% in France and 38% in England, and both France and England have strong democracies. Religious tolerance is not tolerating various denominations of the Christian Church and everyone who accepts Jesus as the savior, but also in people who don’t believe in Jesus and who don’t believe in the concept of God. Then you won’t get the Southern Baptist vote if you say that. Also with the last two elections, we seem to be electing the president of a theological school than the President of United States and these candidates want to carry on with that ritual.

United States was not created as a Christian nation and when it was launched did not have an official cult or official religion. In fact that was the only new thing in the American Constitution since federalism, independent judiciary, bicameral legislature, and tripartite administration existed either in theory or practice. The founders of such a nation would be shocked to see the exploitation of religion by their descendants.

Ancient World through Maps

(Martin Waldseemüller’s map)

$10 million might be too much to pay for a map, but not if the map is nicknamed, “America’s baptismal document.” The map we are talking about is a four-and-a-half-foot-by-eight-foot map, the last surviving print of a map of the world made by the German cartographer, Martin Waldseemüller. The speciality of the map is that it is the first one to use the words, “America”, to mark the region known by that name today.

The name America itself comes from Amerigo Vespucci, a contemporary of Christopher Columbus, who was believed to have discovered the fourth continent in 1504. The word, believed is used here because the basis of Vespucci’s discovery was a document known as the Soderini Letter which was later found to be a forgery. Waldseemüller removed the name America from later maps and replaced it with “Terra Incognita”, but by then the name America had spread across other maps.

(Tabula Peutingeriana showing the mouth of Ganges)

Another rare map, about 200 years older than Waldseemüller‘s map was made public recently. This map called the Tabula Peutingeriana is the only map from the Roman empire showing the road from Spain to India. This copy made in the thirteenth century was based on a version last revised in the fifth century CE.

The entire map is available on this page and it looks odd because the length of the map is 6.75 m and the width is only 0.34 m. This segment in the map shows India and you can see Sri Lanka at the bottom mentioned as Insula Taprobane. The red lines in the map represent roads all of them really lead to Rome which is at the center of the map.

Every so often there is a little hook along the red lines which represents a rest stop – and the distance between hooks was one day’s travel.” “Every so often there is a pictogram of a building to show you that there was a hotel or a spa where you could stay,” he said.

“It was meant for the civil servants of the late Roman Empire, for couriers and travellers,” he added. Some of the buildings have large courtyards – a sign of more luxurious accommodation. [Ancient Roman road map unveiled]

Speaking of maps, another article in the NY Times says that the oldest map in the world comes from Jaora^[1] near Bhopal, India.

This may look like the drawing of a 48 month old when asked to depict some images from Finding Nemo (look for the fish at the top), but according to rock art experts, the image above drawn 7000 – 8000 years back represents the heaven and earth.

This painting shows a ‘square’ (actually a rectangle), divided into several stripes decorated with a variety of design patterns. An empty circle is in the centre. On the upper periphery of the square, ‘fish’ are shown between ‘reeds’ or ‘lotus stems’. Along two other sides are ‘water birds’, besides the rectangle are five ‘flying birds’. The geometric design within the rectangle does not seem to represent fields of agriculturists because this kind of design is also applied to animal bodies and is used independently. Neumayer assigns the rock art of this style to the Mesolithic period as only activities of hunters and gatherers are shown in contrast to pictures of other rock art styles [Berger ]

We have to see who will pay a million dollars for this rock art.

[1] Jaora Rock Art image from From Circle And Square To The Image Of The World by Friedrich Berger (Thanks Francesco)

Who made Ram Sethu?

One of the disadvantages of running a large government is that ministers often have to spend time playing Whac-A-Mole. Life is especially hard for people like the Hon. Minister T.R.Baalu when he has too many moles to Whack. He had just finished whacking the Archaeological Survey of India on the head and now another mole has popped up. This time it is the Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) that comes under the Department of Space which has said that Ram Setu may be a man made structure.

The revelations in the book, with a foreword by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair, are in contrast to what the government has been maintaining so far that the setu is formed by giant tombolos – bars of sand connecting an island with another island of the mainland. It also contradicts the findings of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which says there is no “historic or scientific” evidence of the existence of Lord Ram or Ram Setu.[Ram Setu ‘man-made’, says government publication]

The book says the bridge is about 1,750,000 years and may be made-made. Considering the fact that modern humans originated in the African savanna around 200,000 years back only, it would be interesting to hear the NRSA theory of human evolution.

Jesus (and his twin) in India

‘The boy grew in wisdom and stature’. That’s what the Bible says about the life of Jesus between the the age 13 and 30. While the Church approved Gospels have been silent about this aspect, other people have come up with creative ideas which include various minority positions like he was in India or Glastonbury or he lived with the Essenes. There have been books like The Unknown Life of Jesus and many others.

Now a bunch of film makers are making a movie titled the Aquarian Gospel based on the book The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi H. Dowling. According to this book, Jesus wandered as a mystic across India, living in Buddhist monasteries and speaking out against the caste system. The movie, which will be made in the style of 300, will follow Yeshua all way from Middle East to India and will emphasize that Jesus was inspired by Indian spirituality, besides other religions.

While the Gospel says that Jesus came to earth to show the way back to God and all the usual stuff there are some more issues which will not go well with the Church. According to the The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, Jesus was conceived by a human father and not a divine one. Also, according to this gospel, the soul is not eternal but undergoes reincarnation, the Hindu way. Eventually all souls will become perfect and end the cycle of reincarnation. Both these contradict the fundamental teachings of the Church. You also have to see from where Levi H. Dowling got this material to know why the whole thing is called bizarre.

If this is a bizarre movie, the only way to take attention away from this would be release something more bizarre. How about if Jesus had a twin brother and he grows up to be a dacoit or software engineer.? That is what the German film maker Robert Sigl is planning to do, but the twin would not be a dacoit or software engineer for that would make the story completely unbelievable. The filming is expected to start as soon as they can translate, Mere pass maa hai into Aramaic.

“The film is about two archaeologists touring India to research about Jesus’ life in India. The story is about Jesus’s evil twin brother who used to practice some different sect,” fieber.film’s producer Mario Stefan narrated the story at film ‘bazaar’ of IFFI organised by National Films Division Corporation (NFDC). The firm, which has produced film like “The Army of Ghosts”, is ready to face the controversy that would erupt on their project. “My aim is not to create controversy but if you deal with religious theme then be prepared to face the controversy,” Stefan said. “The film is a piece of fiction and not based on true events,” he sought to re-clarify. The film will mostly have an Indian cast except two who would be playing the role of archaeologists visiting India. [German filmmaker plans fictional film on Christ’s twin brother ]

Notes from Kerala (4)

Kerala Food Minister on the shortage of rice

For some days now, Kerala is facing problems in the supply of rice.
And hence there is an increase in the price and people are feeling the
heat. Now what is the solution to this problem? Here is what our food
minister C.K Divakaran has to say,

“Malayalees should change their food habits. They should start drinking more milk, eating eggs and eat more chicken dishes.”

I am still laughing my guts out. I wonder how PETA will react to C.K. Divakaran’s comment. I am sure he will need some additional
security [Tackling food shortage and traffic problems – kerala way]

Remember what Swami Vivekananda said about Kerala. It seems the Church wants to take us there as fast as possible.

A Church dignitary recently asked all Christians to send their children only to Christian schools. An explanation followed that the suggestion was aimed at ensuring that the new generation imbibed Christian values, and was unconnected with the issue of educational reform. What will happen if all caste and religious groups think along these lines? The Churches, which made possible the social renewal that rescued Kerala from darkness by establishing modern educational facilities, should not become instrumental for a return to the lunatic asylum.[..so we do not go back to the lunatic asylum]
The Communist Government does not allow private retail chains, but has plans to start their own.

It may be recalled that the Food and Civil Supplies Minister C.
Divakaran had announced one and a half years ago that State owned Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco) would start retail chains to take on the retail giants. This was a contradiction of sorts. The Minister was proposing to create a retail chain to compete with the retail chains instead of disallowing them, if the policy was to discourage them.

Anyway, that has not materialised so far. One cannot expect the Supplyco chains to actually take on the retail chains. Instead, one can expect more demonstrations from the CPI stable as its Minister rules the Supplyco.[CPI takes on retail chains]

2000 year old Jerusalem palace

In 70 CE, the Roman general Titus Flavius placed a siege around Jerusalem by digging a trench and building additional walls. Anyone caught fleeing was crucified. During this siege many Jews hid in a drainage canal and escaped through the city’s southern gate. This drainage canal was discovered underneath the rubble of the Second Temple, under what was the main road during the time.

Now, right opposite the Second Temple, below the parking lot, archaeologists have found the remains of a palace which was destroyed in 70 CE. This palace, in high probability belonged to Queen Helena, a wealthy Babylonian aristocrat who converted to Judaism and moved to Jerusalem with her sons.

The find includes massive foundations, walls whose remains soar five meters high in some places, two-story-tall halls, a basement, ritual baths (mikvaot), remains of colored frescoes, and more. The archaeologists say they can see, in the narrow openings discovered in the basement level, evidence of the drama that transpired in the structure prior to its destruction by the Romans. It appears that the inhabitants attempted to flee through the openings. Attempts were also made to destroy the structure at the time.[Discovered: Large 2nd-Temple House Adjacent to Temple Mount ]

See: Pictures, Video

Side Effects of Indian Spirituality

Today’s WP has the story of how Rep. Dennis Kucinich met his current wife.

That very morning, believe it or not, guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who teaches peace through meditation and rhythmic breathing, had come to town. Dennis and Ravi have known each other for a long time. Ravi asked about Dennis’s love life. Dennis said he was still looking for that special someone.

“And his response was, ‘Stop looking and then she will appear,’ ” Dennis says. “And I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to stop looking.’ I said that.

Her first inkling that Kucinich might be different from the run-of-the-mill congressman was the presence of two Indian nuns from the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University in Kucinich’s reception room. She chatted with the nuns about India and felt herself being “opened” up by the conversation.

Then she and Zarlenga were called into Kucinich’s office.

Dennis watched the young woman’s eyes. First they went to a bust of Gandhi sitting on his bookshelf. Then they went to a picture given to him by the Hindu nuns — a burst of brightness against an orange background meant to depict “conscious light.” Then her eyes went to his.

“That was it,” Dennis says now. “One, two, three.” He knew.

Thanks to Indian spirituality, one more person has found moksha

1000 Year Old Temples in Chandragiri

(Extent of Vijayanagara Empire)

There were attempts to plunder rich Hindu temples. Jesuits and other priests worked on conversion in the coastal regions. No, we are not talking about the present, but what was happening in South India some time in the 14^th century. This threat to Hinduism was controlled and checked by the rise of the Vijayanagara empire.

One of the major tasks of the empire was to conserve the Hindu society and save it from these threats as well as from the Bahmani Sultanate. This empire, run by very able monarchs of whom the most famous was Krishnadevaraya, was the focus of a resurgent Hindu culture with the works of Sayana, and Mādhavācārya, the construction of various temples, and the promotion of religious worship, education and learning.

The third capital of Vijayanagara was in Chandragiri and a recent ASI excavation has revealed two temples in the premises of the fort.

The temples are understandably in a bad shape. Nonetheless, are quite interesting given that one is a Vaishnava temple and the other a Shivaite one. Though idols of the presiding deities were missing in both, archaeologists were able to identify their nature by studying the structures.Vaishnava temples are structurally different from Shivaite temples. The ASI also found a statue of Nandi near one temple.

The other big find was near Srinivasa Mangapuram. Sources in the ASI say 250 exquisitely carved pillars, each at least 7 to 8 ft long and all laid out in an orderly fashion, were excavated at the temple.[ASI stumbles upon 1000-yr-old temples in Chandragiri fort]

The Lost Translation of Judas

The Divine Comedy , Dante’s imaginative vision of the Christian afterlife, describes the poet’s journey through hell, purgatory and paradise. In Dante’s hell, there are nine concentric circles and in each region the sinners are punished in proportion to their earthly sins. The ninth circle is reserved for Lucifer and the traitors. Lucifer has three faces in which he chews three of the greatest traitors in history: Brutus and Cassius, Caesar’s assassins and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

This year The National Geographic published a translation of the Lost of Gospel of Judas. According to the National Geographic translation, Judas is the favorite disciple to whom Jesus imparts secret teachings. Contrary to the teachings of other Christian texts, Jesus came to save the world, predicted his own death and used Judas as an instrument in that process. According to this version, Judas is the good guy, a friend of Jesus who helps him achieve his life mission.

A new book,The Thirteenth Apostle by Dr. April Deconick says that the National Geographic translation is wrong.

I wrote this book because when I read the Coptic transliteration of the manuscript in April 2006, I realized that Judas was much more a hero in the National Geographic translation than he was in my own translation. As I worked through the Coptic and then sat and studied the text as a whole, I quickly came to see that Judas is not a good guy in this gospel. He is not Jesus’ friend or the greatest disciple. I began to wonder why the NG team translated in reference to Judas “daimon” as “spirit” when its most accepted translation is “demon.” I wondered why the team chose to say that Judas is “set apart for” the holy generation, when the Coptic actually reads that he is “separated from” the holy generation. And so forth.[What is different about my translation of the Gospel of Judas?]

In his lecture at the 19th International Conference on South Asian Archeology in Italy, Prof. B.B. Lal gave an example of how linguists can manipulate translations to suit their agenda.

A case in point is that of the well known Professor of Sanskrit at the Harvard University, Professor Witzel. He did not hesitate to mistranslate a part of the Baudhayana Srautasutra (Witzel 1995: 320-21). In 2003 I published a paper in the East and West (Vol. 53, Nos. 1-4), exposing his manipulation. Witzel’s translation of the relevant Sanskrit text was as follows:

“Aya went eastwards. His (people) are the Kuru-Pancalas and Kasi Videha. This is the Ayava(migration).(His other people)stayed at home in the west. His people are the Gandhari, Parasu and Aratta. This is the Amavasava (group).

Whereas the correct translation is:

Ayu migrated eastwards. His (people) are the Kuru-Pancalas and the Kasi-Videhas. This is the Ayava (migration). Amavasu migrated westwards. His (people) are the Ghandhari, Parsu and Aratta. This is the Amavasu (migration).

According to the correct translation, there was no movement of the Aryan people from anywhere in the north-west. On the other hand, the evidence indicates that it was from an intermediary point that some of the Aryan tribes went eastwards and other westwards.

The problem it seems was that National Geographic gave the manuscript to a few scholars who mistranslated. The originals were not made public and so no one else could read or correct these mistakes. Now National Geographic has decided to make this information public so that scholars can read, debate and decide what those Coptic texts really mean.

In the Aryan Invasion folklore, the agenda is very clear, but in the case of the Lost Gospel of Judas story, it is not clear if it was a genuine mistake or agenda driven.

Demolishing 19th Century Paradigms

It was a long speech, but he was very clear about the message. Delivering the inaugural address at the 19th International Conference on South Asian Archeology in Italy, Prof B.B.Lal told the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists that they have to abandon the 19th century biases. Then with the clinical precision of a surgeon administering electric shocks to revive Dick Cheney’s heart, Prof. B.B.Lal demolished the Aryan Invasion Theory and tore apart some of the eminent historians and their guru Harvard University, Professor Witzel.

Professor Witzel and I happened to participate in a seminar organized by UMASS, Dartmouth in June 2006. When I referred, during the course of my presentation, to this wrong translation by the learned Professor, he, instead of providing evidence in support of his own stand, shot at me by saying that I did not know the difference between Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Should that be the level of an academic debate? (Anyway, he had to be told that I had the privilege of obtaining in 1943 my Master’s Degree in Sanskrit (with the Vedas included), with a First Class First, from a first class university of India, namely Allahabad.)

When the Aryan Invasion Theory was demolished, a migration theory was adopted by Prof. Romila Thapar and the lines and the homeland of the Aryans was shifted to the region of Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. Prof Lal shows that the BMAC people were not nomads and the characteristic features of BMAC never reached the Indus region.

Both Thapar and Sharma are even now laboring under the 19th century belief that the Vedic Aryans were nomads. But have they even once cast a glance at the make-up of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. As would have been absolutely clear by now, the BMAC is a fully developed civilization with all the trappings of urbanism. How can then Thapar and Sharma devalue the Bactria-Margiana people and call them ‘pastoral cattle-breeders’? Just to fit into their preconceived notion that the Rigvedic Aryans were ‘nomads’?

But more strange is the argument that the occurrence of a single antennae-hilted sword in Bactria would entitle that region to be the ‘motherland’ of the Gangetic Copper Hoard people who produced these copper weapons and other associated objects in hundreds, if not thousands.

If, following the footsteps of Parpola, I were to say that the find of the well known seal of the ‘Persian Gulf’ style at Lothal in Gujarat establishes that the Persian Gulf Culture (which abounds in such seals) originated in Gujarat or, again, if I said that the occurrence of a cylinder seal at Kalibangan in Rajasthan entitles Rajasthan to be the ‘motherland’ of the Mesopotamian Culture (wherein cylinder seals are found in large numbers), I am sure my learned colleagues present here would at once get me admitted to the nearest lunatic asylum.

Migration theorists claim that the BMAC people were the ancestors of the Iranians and Indo-Aryans because they had fire-worship, homa rituals, evidence of asvamedha and some cult motifs. He takes the case of fire worship and proves that the direction of movement of that was from India to Central Asia and not the other way. He also shows that there was no soma/homa in BMAC, the skeleton of the horse was not one from an asvamedha, and that the motifs found on the cylindrical seal could be anything depending on your imagination.

He then brings in genetic studies

“As for the question of biological continuity within the Indus Valley, two discontinuities appear to exist. The first occurs between 6000 and 4500 BC … and the second occurs at some point after 800 BC.” In other words, there was no entry of a new set of people between 4500 and 800 BCE, much less of Aryan invaders / immigrants !

The Y-chromosomal data consistently suggest a largely South Asian origin for Indian caste communities and therefore argue against any major influx, from regions north and west of India, of people associated either with the development of agriculture or the spread of the Indo-Aryan language family.”

Will this right-on-the-face lecture change the European mindset.? It probably will not, but at least the lecture makes it crystal clear that some people don’t take the Eurocentric world view seriously any more.