last updated 30th July  2008


The Sad Fate of Brahmins and Upper-caste Hindus in India

  http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=fgautier26

This video is mostly in Hindi, well worth watching



How the British destroyed India's Shipping and Garment Industries
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=194&page=17

    Date: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:28 pm ((PST))

          India’s Scientific Heritage-XVII

The British ploy

By Suresh Soni

  The shipping magnates of Britain could not tolerate the Indian art of ship manufacturing and they started compelling the East India Company not to use Indian ships. Investigations were frequently carried out in this regard. In 1811, Col. Walker gave statistics to prove that it was much cheaper to make Indian ships and that they were very sturdy. If only Indian ships were included in the British fleet, it would lead to great savings. This pinched the British ship-builders and the traders. Dr Taylor writes “When the Indian ships laden with Indian goods reached the port of London, it created such a panic amongst the British traders as would not have been created, had they seen the enemy fleet of ships on the River Thames, ready for attack.”

The workers at the London Port were among the first to make hue and cry and said that “all our work will be ruined and our families will starve to death.” The Board of Directors of the East India Company wrote that “all the fear and respect that the Indian seamen had towards European behaviour was lost when they saw our social life once they came here. When they return to their country, they will propagate bad things about us amongst the Asians and we will lose our superiority and the effect will be harmful. “At this, the British Parliament set up a committee under the chairmanship of Sir Robert Peel.

Black Law: Despite disagreement amongst the members of the committee on the basis of this report, a law was passed in 1814 according to which the Indians lost the right to become British sailors and it became compulsory to employ at least three-fourth British sailors on British ships. No ship, which did not have a British master, was allowed to enter London Port and a rule was made that only ships made by the British in England could bring goods to England. For many reasons, there was laxity in enforcing these rules but from 1863, they were observed strictly. Such rules which would end the ancient art of ship-building, were formulated in India also. Tax on goods brought in Indian ships was raised and efforts were made to isolate them from trade. Sir William Digby has rightly written, “This way the Queen of the western world killed the Queen of the eastern oceans.”

In short, this is the story about the destruction of the Indian art of ship-building.

Garment Industry
In an article written in Bhumiputra on June 16, 1986, Vinoba Bhave has described how clothes started being made. The basis of the garment industry is thread which is made from cotton. The Vedas say that Sage Gritsmad was the first to sow cotton and obtained 10 sers (1 ser =0.8 kg) of cotton wool. With this, he made thread. Then he had a problem of how to make cloth. He made a wooden bobbin and with the tantu (raw thread), he made cloth. Thus, the process of making cloth from thread was started by Sage Gritsmad.

Later, with progress and development, cloth started to be made from silk, kosa etc. and clothes and sarees thus made, began to be coloured and embroidered with gold, silver, etc. Clothes were dyed with natural colours. At one time, Indian cloth was exported to virtually all the countries of the world. Traders from ancient Greece, Egypt and Arabia started ordering cotton cloth from India, especially the mulmul from Bengal, which became famous throughout the world as Dacca mulmul. These traders used to sell this cloth in the various provinces and cities of their countries.

With respect to the speciality of Indian clothes, Pramod Kumar Dutt gives observations of various people and writes:-

“Two Arab travellers came here in the 9th century. They wrote that the Indian clothes were so extraordinary, that one could not find such clothes anywhere. The cloth is so fine and beautiful that an entire length can be passed through a ring.”

Marco Polo, who came in the 13th century, made a unique announcement that “Coromandal and Macchalipattanam coasts were the places of production for all types of beautiful, fine clothes found in any corner of the world.”

Various interesting stories about fineness and clarity of the cloth are famous. Once, Aurangzeb’s daughter went to court (Darbar). Aurangzeb was very angry to see her clothes and said, “Have you lost all sense of shame that you are showing your body to the whole world?” At this, his daughter said, “What can I do, father! I have folded the cloth seven times over and then worn it.”

The French traveller and trader, Tavernier, who came to visit central India in the 17th century, while describing cotton clothes, writes, “They are so light and beautiful that you cannot even feel them with your hands and the delicate embroidery is hardly visible.” He adds, “The cotton manufactured in Sikanj ( in Malwa province), like the one in Calicut, is so fine that the wearer’s body is visible as if he is naked.” He writes in another edition, “A Persian Ambassador went back from India and gifted a coconut to his Sultan. The courtiers were amazed at this petty gift. But more amazing was the fact that when the coconut was opened, a roll of 30 yards of mulmul came out of it.” M. Wilkins gave a piece of Dacca mulmul to Sir Joseph Bake who said that it was an excellent sample of the fineness of cloth in the recent past. He measured the sample himself and sent his analysis to India House. It was as follows-

Mr Bake says that the piece of cloth given by Wilkins weighed 34.3 grains (7000 grains = 1 pound and 15.5 grains = 1 gm.). Its length was 5 yards 7 inches and it had 198 threads. This meant that the total length of the thread was 1,028.5 yards, and that 29.98 yards of thread were made from 1 grain and that the thread was of 2,425 counts. In modern technology too, a thread is not finer than 500-600 counts.

On the request of the Secretary of State of India, Sir G. Birdwood had written a book entitled The Industrial Arts of India. On page 83 of this book, he writes that “it is said that during Jehangir’s reign, 15 yards long and 1yard wide Dacca mulmul weighed only 100 grains.”

On page 95 of the same book, it is written, “The British and the European authors have made poetic similes of the mulmul, the cotton and the silk cloth to a ‘bulbul’s eye’, the throat of a peacock’, ‘the moon and the stars’, Bafte Hava (The stars of the wind), ‘Flowing water’ and ‘Evening dew’. Production of cotton cloth and mulmul started in England in 1772 and 1781 respectively.

(This book is available with Ocean Books (P) Ltd, 4/19 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110 002)

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=194&page=17



Wearing Ethnic Clothes Keeps Teens Mentally Healthy

Source: http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2008/apr/15teen.htm

LONDON, UK, April 17, 2008: A new study has suggested that adolescents who dress according to the customs of their own ethnic group are less likely to have subsequent mental health problems as compared to those who don’t. The findings are based on a study which looked at 11-14 year old white British and Bangladeshi pupils of schools in East London, where levels of population diversity are among the highest in the UK.

Results showed that having friends from their own and other cultures or only having friends from their own culture made no difference to mental health. However, clothing choices did make a difference. Researchers found that foreign or second-generation immigrant pupils who wore traditional clothing were significantly less likely to have mental health problems as compared to those whose dressing style was a mix of traditional and white British/ North American tastes.

Researchers also found that white British pupils wore a mix of clothes from their own and other cultures had relatively good mental health. The study is published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

hinduism today



Ancient Deity Found in Bangladesh

http://vedaprakash.indiainteracts.com/2008/07/12/vishnu-idol-found-in-bangladesh-in-a-pond/

SULTANPUR, BANGLADESH, July 12, 3008: Brahmanbaria Sadar upazila found a 10th century statue of Lord Vishnu five metres below the ground in Sultanapur, Bangladesh. The night after the discovery, a local art smuggling group offered him US$15,000 for the statue, but he refused and contacted the local police station to handover custody of the statue.

Meanwhile, local journalist and cultural activists contacted Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (ASB) and urged them to help preserve the statue properly. Editor of Smatat Barta, a local daily of Brahmanbaria, Manjurul Alam said, “We thought it is our responsibility to protect our heritage from the clutches of smugglers.”

The experts claimed the five feet high and 2.6 feet wide statute of Lord Vishnu, weighing 262 kg, is an artefact of 10th century made during the Chandra dynasty”s rule of Samatat Kingdom, now the greater Comilla district.

Renowned archaeologist AKM Zakaria said, “It is a unique piece of art made with superior quality black stone… could be made of high-quality Basalt. It is one of the finest and one of the largest artefacts discovered in the country.”

On why the artefact was found five metres under the ground, Zakaria said it was a practice of the ancient Hindu community to bury the image of a deity, when a part of it was distorted. Of the four hands, two hands and the nose of the Vishnu statute are broken. But there is another theory. Archeologist Dr. R. Nagaswamy says Hindu scriputes give instructions on how to preserve a Deity by burying it under the ground or throwing it in a pond, lake etc., so that they can escape invaders and marauding iconoclasts. Later, they could be recovered and re-installed.

Last year, a Vishnu murti was reported in Russia fonud in similar circumstances as reported here. The statue found in Staraya dates back to the 8th century AD. Staraya Maina village in Ulyanovsk region was a highly populated city 1700 years ago, much older than Kiev, believed to be the mother of all Russian cities.

hinduism today



Burial of an Aryan was found in the Russian city of Omsk
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/13206_burial.html

Burial of an Aryan was found in the Russian city of Omsk, reported archaeologist Albert Pelevedov to "Interfax". Analyses indicated that the Aryan had lived 3 500 years ago.

One of the residents of the Beregovoy village (located on the outskirts of Omsk) discovered the burial. While fixing a water-pipe, the man stumbled upon a skull and immediately called the police. However, policemen denied criminal nature of the case and invited archaeologists to conduct some tests.

According to Polevodov, the burial belongs to the Andron culture (middle of the second millennium BC).

The archaeologist tells that the Aryan has been buried on his left side, facing south; his upper and lower limbs all drawn in. Archaeologists were able to determine the time of the burial afterexamining ceramic pieces found next to the skeleton. Some of the ceramic pieces depicted swastika turned the opposite direction.

Polevedov states, "Andron people, European-like tribes, who spoke languages of Indo-Iranian language group, were in fact the exact same Aryans that used to be praised by fascists."

The find is of tremendous significance due to the fact that settlements of Andron tribes are quite rare for that particular
region. Back in the days, they were forced out of there, stated the
archaeologist.

According to specialists, the burial was not solitary in the area. It
is also possible that a larger settlement of Andron people can be
found by the river Irtysh.



Metals described in the Vimana Shastra
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=191&page=27

    Date: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:29 pm ((PST))

Metals described in the Vimana Shastra

By Suresh Soni

If the country's policy makers contemplate on the manufacture of the various metals described in the book and how to accumulate the necessary thing, then it will be good for the future development of the country.

The second question that arises is whether there is any part of aeronautics, which could be proved initially through experimentation. If there is some part, then has any experiment been carried out in that direction? Was it successful?

Fortunately, the above questions can be answered in the affirmative. Dr. Sriram Prabhu of Hyderabad saw the chapter on the machine in Vaimanic Shastra and tried to recognise some of the 31 machines described in it and then experimented to find out if it was possible to make the alloys as described in its chapter on metals.

For experimental purposes, Dr. Prabhu and his colleagues began a project with the help from the B.M. Birla Science Centre, Hyderabad. Results obtained so far are promising.

They have been successful in making some metals on the basis of the descriptions in ancient scripture.

   1.      The first metal is tamogarbh iron. The Viman Shastra says that it is used to make aircrafts invisible. On exposing it to light, it absorbs 75-80 per cent of the light thrown on it. This metal is black in colour; hard like lead and it does not dissolve even in sulfuric acid.

   2.      The second is called the panch lauh or alloys of five items. It is golden in colour, but it is hard and heavy from inside. It is based on copper. Its speciality is that it has 7.95 per cent of lead, whereas the American Society of Metals in the US, has agreed that a maximum of 0.35 to three per cent of lead is possible in a copper based alloy. Hence, alloy with 7.95 per cent lead is unique in itself.

   3.      The third is and arar. This is a copper-based alloy which is yellow in colour, hard yet light. It has a property of resistance to moisture.

While informing the press on July 18, 1991 of the success in making these metals, Dr. B.B. Siddharth, Director, Birla Science Centre, Hyderabad, said that in making these metals, various medicinal leaves, gum, barks of trees, etc. are also used. That is why while the production cost is less, some special qualities are developed in the metals. He further said that if the country's policy makers contemplate on the manufacture of the various metals described in the book and how to accumulate the necessary thing, then it will be good for the future development of the country.

The news of the above press conference was released by the news agency Varta. It was published on July 19, in Nai Duniya, MP Chronicle and many other newspapers across the country.

In a similar fashion, Dr. Maheshwar Sheron of the Chemistry Department of IIT, Mumbai also tried to make some things described in the book. These were chumbakmani, which is used in the guhagarbha yantra and has the ability to capture reflection. Paragrandhik drav—this is a type of acid, which is used in the guhagarbha, and is used with a chumbakmani.

Similarly, there is a description of the various kinds of metals and mirrors in Sage Bharadwaj's Ansha-bodhini. Dr. N.G. Dongre, Reader in the Harishchandra PG College, Varanasi, has undertaken a project with the cooperation of the Indian National Science Academy. The project was named `The Study of Various Materials Described in Anshabodhini of Maharshi Bharadwaj'.

Under the project, he tried to make a mirror as described by Sage Bharadwaj, at the National Metallurgical Lab, Jamshedpur with the Director, P.Ramachandra Rao, who is at present the Vice-Chancellor of the Benaras Hindu University. He was successful in manufacturing a special kind of glass called prakash stambhan bhid lauh. The speciality of the this glass is that it absorbs visible light and allows only infra-red rays to pass through it.

It has been made of kachar louh-silica bhuch-akra surmitr-adikshar—lime ayaskakant—lodestone ruruk—deerbone ash, as per the process laid down in Anshabodhini. The speciality of prakash stambhan bhid lauh is that it is completely non-hygroscopic. Infra-red hygroscopic mirrors lose their polish and luster in water vapour or humidity and become useless. These days CaF2 is extremely hygroscopic. Therefore, one has to be extra cautious while using these machines, although a study of the prakash stambhan bhid lauh has proved that it works best in the infra-red range of two to five microns (µ), where 1µ =10-4 cm, and that it can be used without worrying about the moisture in the atmosphere.

Hence, we can say that the truth behind some of the experiments carried out in one of the chapters of Sage Bharadwaj's book make us believe that the others must also be true and that aeronautical science was not just an imagination in ancient times, but was a fact.
The other chapters are also waiting for courageous researchers to prove them true.

(This book is available with Ocean Books (P) Ltd, 4/19 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110 002)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=191&page=27



COW SLAUGHTER-THE BRAHMASTRA OF THE BRITISH
http://akincanaforum.eponym.com/blog/_archives/2007/3/12/2798182.html#949462

The Two most astonishing thing for the British who invaded India were.

1)      The Indian gurukula system.

2)      The Indian agriculture system.

The then Governor of British India Robert Clive made an extensive research on the agriculture system in India.

The outcome of the research was as follows:-

1)      Cows were the basis of Indian agriculture and agriculture in India cannot be executed without the help of cow.

2)      To break the Backbone of Indian agriculture cows had to be eliminated.

The first slaughterhouse in India was started in 1760, with a capacity to kill 30,000 (Thirty thousand only) per day, at least one crore cows were eliminated in an years time.

He estimated that the number of cows in Bengal outnumbered the number of men. Similar was the situation in the rest of India.

As a part of the Master plan to destabilize the India, cow slaughter was initiated.

Once the cows were slaughtered, then there was no manure and there is no insecticide like cow urine.

Robert Clive started a number of slaughter houses before he left India.

A hypothesis to understand the position of Indian agriculture without slaughter houses:-

In 1740 in the Arcot District of Tamil Nadu, 54 Quintals of rice was harvested from one acre of land using simple manure and pesticides like cow urine and cow dung.

      As a result of the 350 slaughterhouses which worked day and night by 1910. India was practically bereft of cattle. India had to approach England’s doorstep for industrial manure. Thus industrial manure like urea and phosphate made way to India.

After India attained independence in the name of “Green Revolution” there was extensive use of industrial manure.

Before British left India. The daily news paper Guardian interviewed India.

      To one of the questions Gandhiji answered, that the day India attains Independence, all the slaughter houses in India would be closed.

In 1929 Nehru in a public meeting stated that if he were to become the prime minister of India, the first thing he would do is to stop all the slaughterhouses.

The tragedy of the situation is since 1947 the number has increased from350 to 36,000(thirty six thousand) slaughter houses.

Today, the highly mechanized slaughterhouses Al-kabir and Devanar of Andhra Pradesh and Maharastra has the capacity to slaughter 10,000(ten thousand) cows at a time.

It’s a warning signal to one and all in India to rise to the occasion!!!

http://akincanaforum.eponym.com/blog/_archives/2007/3/12/2798182.html#949462

COW SLAUGHTER-THE BRAHMASTRA OF THE BRITISH
http://www.ciks.org/pub-other.htm

Hare Krishna!
This brings tears to my eyes...
Now we foreigners have to preach to them about their lost culture...

Your humble servant,
Hrimati dasi

there is a book on this subject
http://www.ciks.org/pub-other.htm
The British Origin of Cow-slaughter in India - Dharampal & T.M. Mukundan

Of all beings the cow is treated in India as the most sacred, auspicious and sanctified. Since about 1860 AD British and European scholarship started a new school of vedic interpretation to impress on the westernised class in India that the ancient Vedas, and allied texts also advocated, celebrated, and feasted on the flesh of the cow, or bullock, on special occasions. This book traces the British Origin of Cow-slaughter in India from the 18th Century. It also has British Origin of Cow-slaughter in India from the 18th Century. It also has British documents on the Anti-kine killing movement from 1880 - 1894.

Indian Price :
Rs.495/-

International Price :
US $ 21.00


Our contention is not that the pastimes of Sri Krishna are historical events but that they are a revelation of the Truth in the form of historical events. The pastimes of Sri Krishna are not, therefore, less true than any historical events whatsoever. They are much more. All the historical events of this world will be enabled to disclose the real elements of the Truth that they represent only when they would be set forth in their proper relationship to the only eternal Verity, viz., the pastimes of Krishna.

- Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada, "Sri Krishna: The Supreme Godhead" , Section 2 (essay)



Vedantic Influence over Chinese Philosophy

Professor Huang    Xinchuan
Department of Oriental Philosophy
Institute of    Philosophy
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
5, Jian Guo Men Nei    Dajie Street
Beijing 100732, China

The religious as well as the cultural interflow between Indian and China occurred as early as over two thousand years ago. Following the Buddhist and Hindu religious activities, the Indian orthodoxy philosophy---the Six Darsanas, Vedanta in particular once flourished in China. Vedanta had exerted also some influences on Chinese Buddhism and Taoism in its own way.

In China we have preserved abundant historical records and relics of Hinduism as well as Buddhism. Since the third century AD, China has discovered numerous Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit. There are records in Buddhist and Hindu scriptures either systematic or piecemeal.    For example, the Vedas and Upanishads as seen in Chinese historical record were translated freely into Chinese as Ming-Lun (the Science of Knowledge),    Zhi-Lun (the Science of Intelligence) or transliterated into Chinese as Feituo, Pituo, etc. Besides, there are Chinese historical sources of Vedangas.    At the stage of Mahayana Buddhism, Madhyamika drew close to Vedanta in both theory and practice. Samkara's Advitaism was in confrontation with Nagarjuna's Sunyata. We can find out the influences on some Sects of Prajna School (Three Treaties Sect, Tiantai Sect, Mahayanasamgraha Sect etc.) in Sui and Tang Dynasties and also on some eminent Buddhist monks. At the last stage of Indian Buddhism, it mixed with Hinduism again, in other words, Vajna-yana Mixed with Sakta.

It is noted that Vedanta's concept and application also directly influenced the formation of the Jo-nna Sect of Tibet. The Jo-nna Sect preached the "doctrine of non reality of person". This doctrine is similar to Vedanta's theory of two kinds of Brahmans, Mayavada and Adhyasa. Jo-nna Sect was formed in the 12th century and flourished during the period of 14-17th centuries, and still exists today. Tarnath's History of Indian Buddhism and a number of Buddhist works in Tibetan versions described the arguments between Samkara and Pandits Hulisasestha, Dharmakriti, Kumaralila and Kunadarorul in Varanasi, and worth making studies. Taoism is indigence to China. Chinese Taoism has something in common with Saktism. The interflow between Taoism and Brahmanism-Hinduism rarely appeared in ancient China, nonetheless, we can find some examples. One text in which the Tung Hsuan Section of the Tao Tsung (Taoist Canon) originated goes by the name Lin Pao Ching (Book of the Marvelous Jewel). In this text, we can find the influence of Brahmanism and Upanishad (Vedanta) in particular. It has a portrait of Yuan Shih Tien Tsun (the Highest God of Taoism) based on the portrait of the Maha Brahma of Brahmanism at the numerous kalpas in the unlimited darkness of Chaos. Thus, He transforms himself into thirty-three devas, asuras, " Ten directions of the Universe" etc. Thus we can say that there existed interflow between Taoism and Vedanta.

Vedic China Evidence
    Posted by: "Vrndavan Parker" vrnparker@yahoo.com
    Date: Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:44 am ((PDT))

Click links to see the images and details
Chinese Most Ancient Known Pictograms had Vedic Symbols
http://vedicempire.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=9

Ancient Chinese Document Reveals Vedic Based Society
http://vedicempire.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=9
 ___________________________________________

Courtesy of Vedic Culture list



Pejawar Shri galu invites Karunanidhi for Debate on Rama

Date: Sun Sep 23, 2007 11:01 am ((PDT))

Taken from http://www.Chennaionline.com

Mutt chief invites MK for Ram debate

Chennai, Sept 22: Flaying Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for his remarks on 'Lord Rama', Vishweswara Theertha Swami of Pejawar Mutt in Karnataka's Udupi district, today invited him for a public debate on the issue.

"If he can have a debate with (senior BJP leader) L K Advani on Ramayana, why can't he have one with me?" he asked while adding that he will be sending a letter to the Chief Minister today inviting him for the debate.

The Swami said that though there might be a difference of opinion, the debate would be very "friendly and peaceful".

"Though Karunanidhi might have his own opinion on God and Ramayana, he should respect the Hindu sentiments as a Chief Minister", he said while speaking to reporters here.

"Karunanidhi may not have belief in God and may deem God to be imaginary, but will he agree to demolish temples, mosques and churches to build industries?" he asked.

The Swami said he was not against the Sethusamudram project but was only against the demolition of the Ramar Sethu, which was a "holy shrine" to many Hindus.

On Karunanidhi's comments quoting Valmiki that Rama was a drunkard, the Swami referred to actor and politician, Sarath Kumar's words that 'madhu' in Tamil meant 'honey' and not alcohol, as mentioned by Karunanidhi.

When his comments were sought on Union Transport and Shipping Minister, T R Baalu's remarks that the Ram Sethu never existed, the swami said it (Ram Sethu) has been mentioned in Ramayana authored by Valmiki, Tulsidas and Tamil poet, Kambar. "The name Adam's bridge may have been given later to the Ramar Sethu," he said.

On another comment by Baalu that those who took up this issue were religious fundamentalists, the Swami said it was all about faith and there was no inter-community rivalry or clash of faith.

He said as a minister, Baalu should respect the sentiments of crores of Hindus. He also termed the proposed demolition of the Sethu as 'undemocratic'.(Agencies)



India: Partitioned Over Lunch
http://www.news.bbc.co.uk

LONDON, ENGLAND, August 13, 2007: Memoirs of a British civil servant never published until now show how much the partition of India was decided by just two men. In a quiet village in the northern English county of Yorkshire, Robert Beaumont rifles through his father's archives. The various and somewhat tatty pieces of paper he unearths are no ordinary collection of paternal memoirs. They are the thoughts and reflections of his father, Christopher Beaumont, who played a central role in the partition of India in 1947, which resulted in arguably the largest mass migration of peoples the world has ever seen. It is estimated that around 14.5 million people moved to Pakistan from India or travelled in the opposite direction from Pakistan to India. After the death in 1989 of Mountbatten's Private Secretary, Sir George Abell, Beaumont was probably not exaggerating when he claimed to be the only person left who "knew the truth about partition."

The famil y documents show that Beaumont had a stark assessment of the role played by Britain in the last days of the Raj. "The viceroy, Mountbatten, must take the blame - though not the sole blame - for the massacres in the Punjab in which between 500,000 to a million men, women and children perished," he writes. "The handover of power was done too quickly." The central theme ever present in Beaumont's historic paperwork is that Mountbatten not only bent the rules when it came to partition - he also bent the border in India's favor. The documents repeatedly allege that Mountbatten put pressure on Radcliffe to alter the boundary in India's favor. On one occasion, he complains that he was "deftly excluded" from a lunch between the pair in which a substantial tract of Muslim-majority territory - which should have gone to Pakistan - was instead ceded to India.

For the rest of this article, click URL below.

Courtesy of Hinduism today

In the following article there are many links and side links to related topics, see the BBC URL below

Partitioning India over lunch
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6926464.stm
Memoirs of a British civil servant never seen in public until now show how much the partition of India was decided by just two men, the BBC's Alastair Lawson reports.

In a quiet village in the northern English county of Yorkshire, Robert Beaumont rifles through his father's archives.

The various and somewhat tatty pieces of paper he unearths are no ordinary collection of paternal memoirs.

They are the thoughts and reflections of his father, Christopher Beaumont, who played a central role in the partition of India in 1947, which resulted in arguably the largest mass migration of peoples the world has ever seen.

After the death in 1989 of Mountbatten's Private Secretary, Sir George Abell, Beaumont was probably not exaggerating when he claimed to be the only person left who "knew the truth about partition".

'Bending the border'

It is estimated that around 14.5 million people moved to Pakistan from India or travelled in the opposite direction from Pakistan to India.

It was a time of mass migration, uncertainty and bloodshed

In 1947, Beaumont was private secretary to the senior British judge, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who was chairman of the Indo-Pakistan Boundary Commission.

Radcliffe was responsible for dividing the vast territories of British India into India and Pakistan, separating 400 million people along religious lines.

The family documents show that Beaumont had a stark assessment of the role played by Britain in the last days of the Raj.

"The viceroy, Mountbatten, must take the blame - though not the sole blame - for the massacres in the Punjab in which between 500,000 to a million men, women and children perished," he writes.

"The handover of power was done too quickly."

The central theme ever present in Beaumont's historic paperwork is that Mountbatten not only bent the rules when it came to partition - he also bent the border in India's favour.

The documents repeatedly allege that Mountbatten put pressure on Radcliffe to alter the boundary in India's favour.

On one occasion, he complains that he was "deftly excluded" from a lunch between the pair in which a substantial tract of Muslim-majority territory - which should have gone to Pakistan - was instead ceded to India.

Beaumont's papers say that the incident brought "grave discredit on both men".

Punjab 'disaster'

But Beaumont - who later in life was a circuit judge in the UK - is most scathing about how partition affected the Punjab, which was split between India and Pakistan.

"The Punjab partition was a disaster," he writes.

"Geography, canals, railways and roads all argued against dismemberment.

"The trouble was that Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs were an integrated population so that it was impossible to make a frontier without widespread dislocation.

"Thousands of people died or were uprooted from their homes in what was in effect a civil war.

"By the end of 1947 there were virtually no Hindus or Sikhs living in west Punjab - now part of Pakistan - and no Muslims in the Indian east.

"The British government and Mountbatten must bear a large part of the blame for this tragedy."

Personality clash

Beaumont goes on to argue that it was "irresponsible" of Lord Mountbatten to insist that Beaumont complete the boundary within a six-week deadline - despite his protests.

On Kashmir, Beaumont argues that it would have been "far more sensible" to have made the flash-point territory a separate country.

According to Beaumont, the "formidably intelligent" Radcliffe "did not get on well" with Mountbatten.

"They could not have been more different," he writes.

"Mountbatten was very good-looking and had a well-deserved history of personal bravery but, to put it mildly, he had few literary tastes.

"Radcliffe... was very quietly civilised. It was a relationship so like chalk and cheese that Lady Mountbatten had to use all her adroitness to keep conversation between them on an even keel."

Beaumont died in 2002 - his son Robert remembers him with great affection.

"He was also a man of supreme honesty, who spoke out on numerous occasions against the official British version of events surrounding partition without in any way being disloyal to his country," Robert Beaumont recalls.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6926464.stm



Lost city 'could rewrite history'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1768109.stm

Well funny you should ask. It turns out that this find is very near to the city of that well known
blue personality named Krishna. The city's name was Dwaraka. It was built by Krsna and it sunk
into the ocean soon after He left the planet. The stories related to to dwaraka are literally in
the thousands. In the west a small single sentence about Atlantis has generated the whole Atlantis
legend. whereas hundreds of books, thousands of stories and an actual city to this day near the
old site, with the same name as Krishna's city of Dwaraka, is merely seen as religious belief. Now
with repeated finds in the area of Dwaraka surely there is alot more to the legend of Dwaraka than
there is to the legend of Atlantis. However if one were to browse the libraries, Tv guides,
movies, books etc one is startled as to how the single sentence regarding Atlantis is enough to
flood the world. Whereas the living culture of Hinduism and its authentic claim to a startling
history are ignored and sielined as myth. It is presented by many as merely a religious emotional
belief system unworthy of serious consideration. However there are many out there revealing the
truth of our collective human history.

Vedik Culture list - Vrindavan Parker



Sometimes we hear devotees in a cynical mood state that we are not living in
"Vedic times" that that was 5000 years ago. Here Srila Prabhupada counters
that line of thought. In another conversation that I heard but can not trace
at this time Srila Prabhupada said to a similar challenge that "Lord
Caitanya was Vedic;" so not that it was something of the past. Srila
Prabhupada himself was a perfect representative of Lord Krsna's Vedic
culture.
 

Devotee: If the Vedic culture was a superior culture, how come man gave up
the Vedic culture to take to the materialistic life? one

Prabhupada: No one has given up. You are taking up. No one has given up.
Devotee: But five thousands years ago...

Prabhupada: That's all right. Otherwise how you are getting if it was given
up? How you are getting now? It was not given up. Who says it was given up?

Devotee: Well, America was formed on a materialistic society.

Prabhupada: America may say, but if it was given up, then how you are
getting now?

Brahmananda: Now Americans are taking it up.

Prabhupada: Yes. How it is given up?

Laksmi-narayana: They will say that it became dormant. Not that many people
liked it anymore so...

Prabhupada: Not dormant. It is coming. It is coming. We have not lost it. It
may be that a few people know it, but it is not lost. It is not that missing
bone; it is not like that.

Morning Walk
-
July 11, 1975, Chicago



Many advances in the sciences that we consider today to have been made in Europe were in fact made in India centuries ago. Grant Duff, British historian of India

(From 1868 to 1874 Grant Duff served as under-secretary of state for India)



Cow Slaughter, Agriculture, and Conquest
http://www.atmayogi.com/node/180

Posted On: Wed, 2007-03-14 05:37 by josh sitapati
The two most astonishing thing for the British who invaded India were.

1) The Indian gurukula system.

2) The Indian agriculture system.

The then Governor of British India Robert Clive made an extensive research on the agriculture system in India.

The outcome of the research was as follows:-

1) Cows were the basis of Indian agriculture and agriculture in India cannot be executed without the help of cow.

2) To break the Backbone of Indian agriculture cows had to be eliminated.

The first slaughterhouse in India was started in 1760, with a capacity to kill 30,000 (Thirty thousand only) per day, at least one crore cows were eliminated in an years time.

He estimated that the number of cows in Bengal outnumbered the number of men. Similar was the situation in the rest of India.

As a part of the Master plan to destabilize the India, cow slaughter was initiated.

Once the cows were slaughtered, then there was no manure and there is no insecticide like cow urine.

Robert Clive started a number of slaughter houses before he left India.

A hypothesis to understand the position of Indian agriculture without slaughter houses:-

In 1740 in the Arcot District of Tamil Nadu, 54 Quintals of rice was harvested from one acre of land using simple manure and pesticides like cow urine and cow dung.

As a result of the 350 slaughterhouses which worked day and night by 1910. India was practically bereft of cattle. India had to approach England’s doorstep for industrial manure. Thus industrial manure like urea and phosphate made way to India.

After India attained independence in the name of “Green Revolution” there was extensive use of industrial manure.

Before British left India. The daily news paper Guardian interviewed India.

To one of the questions Gandhiji answered, that the day India attains Independence, all the slaughter houses in India would be closed.

In 1929 Nehru in a public meeting stated that if he were to become the prime minister of India, the first thing he would do is to stop all the slaughterhouses.

The tragedy of the situation is since 1947 the number has increased from350 to 36,000(thirty six thousand) slaughter houses.

Today, the highly mechanized slaughterhouses Al-kabir and Devanar of Andhra Pradesh and Maharastra has the capacity to slaughter 10,000(ten thousand) cows at a time.

It’s a warning signal to one and all in India to rise to the occasion!!!

If you think that's a little bit conspiratorial, just read a little about the history of British involvement in India. This page http://www.geocities.com/raqta24/bangla5.htm gives an informative overview.



HINDU TEMPLES WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM
http://www.voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples1/ch2.htm

Chapter Two
The Tip of An Iceberg
Sita Ram Goel

The mention made by Maulana Abdul Hai (Indian Express, February 5) of Hindu temples turned into mosques, is only the tip of an iceberg, The iceberg itself lies submerged in the writings of medieval Muslim historians, accounts of foreign travellers and the reports of the Archaeological Survey of India. A hue and cry has been raised in the name of secularism and national integration whenever the iceberg has chanced to surface, inspite of hectic efforts to keep it suppressed. Marxist politicians masquerading as historians have been the major contributors to this conspiracy of silence.

Muslim politicians and scholars in present-day India resent any reference whatsoever to the destruction of Hindu temples in medieval times.  They react as if it is a canard being spread by those they stigmatise as Hindu communalists.  There was, however, a time, not so long ago, when their predecessors viewed the same performance as an act of piety and proclaimed it with considerable pride in inscriptions and literary compositions.  Hindus of medieval India hardly wrote any history of what happened to their places of worship at the hands of Islamic iconoclasts.  Whatever evidence the "Hindu communalists" cite in this context comes entirely from Islamic sources, epigraphic and literary.

Epigraphic Evidence

There are many mosques all over India which are known to local tradition and the Archaeological Survey of India as built on the site of and, quite frequently, from the materials of, demolished Hindu temples.  Most of them carry inscriptions invoking Allah and the Prophet, quoting the Quran and giving details of when, how and by whom they were constructed.  The inscriptions have been deciphered and connected to their historical context by learned Muslim epigraphists. They have been published by the, Archaeological Survey of India in its Epigraphia Indica-Arabic and Persian Supplement, an annual which appeared first in 1907-08 as Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica.  The following few inscriptions have been selected in order to show that (1) destruction of Hindu temples continued throughout the period of Muslim domination; (2) it covered all parts of India-east, west, north and south; and (3) all Muslim dynasties, imperial and provincial, participated in the "pious performance."

1. Quwwat al-Islam Masjid, Qutb Minar, Delhi: "This fort was conquered and the Jami Masjid built in the year 587 by the Amir... the slave of the Sultan, may Allalh strengthen his helpers.  The materials of 27 idol temples, on each of which 2,000,000 Delhiwals had been spent were used in the (construction of) the mosque..." (1909-10, Pp 3-4). The Amir was Qutbud-Din Aibak, slave of Muizzud-Din Muhammad Ghori. The year 587 H. corresponds to 1192 A.D. "Delhiwal" was a high-denomination coin current at that time in Delhi.

2. Masjid at Manvi in the Raichur District of Karnataka: "Praise be to Allah that by the decree of the Parvardigar, a mosque has been converted out of a temple as a sign of religion in the reign of... the Sultan who is the asylum of Faith ... Firuz Shah Bahmani who is the cause of exuberant spring in the garden of religion" (1962, Pp. 56-57).  The inscription mentions the year 1406-07 A.D. as the time of construction.

3. Jami Masjid at Malan, Palanpur Taluka, Banaskantha District of Gujarat: "The Jami Masjid was built... by Khan-I-Azam Ulugh Khan... who suppressed the wretched infidels.  He eradicated the idolatrous houses and mine of infidelity, along with the idols... with the edge of the sword, and made ready this edifice... He made its walls and doors out of the idols; the back of every stone became the place for prostration of the believer" (1963, Pp. 26-29).  The date of construction is mentioned as 1462 A.D. in the reign of Mahmud Shah I (Begada) of Gujarat.

4. Hammam Darwaza Masjid at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh: "Thanks that by the guidance of the Everlasting and the Living (Allah), this house of infidelity became the niche of prayer.  As a reward for that, the Generous Lord constructed an abode for the builder in paradise" (1969, p. 375).  Its chronogram yields the year 1567 A.D. in the reign of Akbar, the Great Mughal.  A local historian, Fasihud-Din, tells us that the temple had been built earlier by Diwan Lachhman Das, an official of the Mughal government.

5. Jami Masjid at Ghoda in the Poona District of Maharashtra: "O Allah! 0 Muhammad! O Ali!  When Mir Muhammad Zaman made up his mind, he opened the door of prosperity on himself by his own hand.  He demolished thirty-three idol temples (and) by divine grace laid the foundation of a building in this abode of perdition" (1933-34, p.24). The inscription is dated 1586 A.D. when the Poona region was ruled by the Nizam Shahi sultans of Ahmadnagar.

6. Gachinala Masjid at Cumbum in the Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh: "He is Allah, may he be glorified... During the august rule of... Muhammad Shah, there was a well-established idol-house in Kuhmum... Muhammad Salih who prospers in the rectitude of the affairs of Faith... razed to the ground, the edifice of the idol-house and broke the idols in a manly fashion.  He constructed on its site a suitable mosque, towering above the buildings of all" (1959-60, Pp. 64-66).  The date of construction is mentioned as 1729-30 A.D. in the reign of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah.

Though sites of demolished Hindu temples were mostly used for building mosques and idgahs, temple materials were often used in other Muslim monuments as well.  Archaeologists have discovered such materials, architectural as well as sculptural, in quite a few forts, palaces, maqbaras, sufi khanqahs, madrasas, etc.  In Srinagar, Kashmir, temple materials can be seen in long stretches of the stone embankments on both sides of the Jhelum.  Two inscriptions on the walls of the Gopi Talav, a stepped well at Surat, tell us that the well was constructed by Haidar Quli, the Mughal governor of Gujarat, in 1718 A.D. in the reign of Farrukh Siyar.  One of them says, "its bricks were taken from an idol temple." The other informs us that "Haider Quli Khan, during whose period tyranny has become extinct, laid waste several idol temples in order to make this strong building firm..." (1933-34, Pp. 37-44).

Literary Evidence

Literary evidence of Islamic iconoclasm vis-a-vis Hindu places of worship is far more extensive.  It covers a longer span of time, from the fifth decade of the 7th century to the closing years of the eighteenth.  It also embraces a larger space, from Transoxiana in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south, and from Afghanistan in the west to Assam in the east.  Marxist "historians" and Muslim apologists would have us believe that medieval Muslim annalists were indulging in poetic exaggerations in order to please their pious patrons. Archaeological explorations in modern times have, however, provided physical proofs of literary descriptions.  The vast cradle of Hindu culture is literally littered with ruins of temples and monasteries belonging to all sects of Sanatana Dharma - Buddhist, Jain, Saiva, Shakta, Vaishnava and the rest.

Almost all medieval Muslim historians credit their heroes with desecration of Hindu idols and/or destruction of Hindu temples.  The picture that emerges has the following components, depending upon whether the iconoclast was in a hurry on account of Hindu resistance or did his work at leisure after a decisive victory:

1. The idols were mutilated or smashed or burnt or melted down if they were made of precious metals.

2. Sculptures in relief on walls and pillars were disfigured or scraped away or torn down.

3. Idols of stone and inferior metals or their pieces were taken away, sometimes by cartloads, to be thrown down before the main mosque in (a) the metropolis of the ruling Muslim sultan and (b) the holy cities of Islam, particularly Mecca, Medina and Baghdad.

4. There were instances of idols being turned into lavatory seats or handed over to butchers to be used as weights while selling meat.

5. Brahmin priests and other holy men in and around the temple were molested or murdered.

6. Sacred vessels and scriptures used in worship were defiled and scattered or burnt.

7. Temples were damaged or despoiled or demolished or burnt down or converted into mosques with some structural alterations or entire mosques were raised on the same sites mostly with temple materials.

8. Cows were slaughtered on the temple sites so that Hindus could not use them again.

The literary sources, like epigraphic, provide evidence of the elation which Muslims felt while witnessing or narrating these "pious deeds." A few citations from Amir Khusru will illustrate the point. The instances cited relate to the doings of Jalalud-Din Firuz Khalji, Alaud-Din Khalji and the letter's military commanders. Khusru served as a court-poet of sex successive sultans at Delhi and wrote a masnavi in praise of each.  He was the dearest disciple of Shaikh Nizamud-Din Awliya and has come to be honoured as some sort of a sufi himself.  In our own times, he is being hailed is the father of a composite Hindu-Muslim culture and the pioneer of secularism.  Dr. R. C. Majumdar, whom the Marxists malign as a "communalist historian" names him as a "liberal Muslim".

1. Jhain: "Next morning he (Jalalud-Din) went again to the temples and ordered their destruction... While the soldiers sought every opportunity of plundering, the Shah was engaged in burning the temples and destroying the idols.  There were two bronze idols of Brahma, each of which weighed more than a thousand mans.  These were broken into pieces and the fragments were distributed among the officers, with orders to throw them down at the gates of the Masjid on their return (to Delhi)" (Miftah-ul-Futuh).

2. Devagiri: "He (Alaud-Din) destroyed the temples of the idolaters and erected pulpits and arches for mosques" (Ibid.).

3. Somanath: "They made the temple prostrate itself towards the Kaaba.  You may say that the temple first offered its prayers and then had a bath (i.e. the temple was made to topple and fall into the sea)... He (Ulugh Khan) destroyed all the idols and temples, but sent one idol, the biggest of all idols, to the court of his Godlike Majesty and on that account in that ancient stronghold of idolatry, the summons to prayers was proclaimed so loudly that they heard it in Misr (Egypt) and Madain (Iraq)" (Tarikh-i-Alai).

4. Delhi: "He (Alaud-Din) ordered the circumference of the new minar to be made double of the old one (Qutb Minar)... The stones were dug out from the hills and the temples of the infidels were demolished to furnish a supply" (Ibid.).

5. Ranthambhor: "This strong fort was taken by the slaughter of the stinking Rai.  Jhain was also captured, an iron fort, an ancient abode of idolatry, and a new city of the people of the faith arose.  The temple of Bahir (Bhairava) Deo and temples of other gods, were all razed to the ground" (Ibid.).

6. Brahmastpuri (Chidambaram): "Here he (Malik Kafur) heard that in Bramastpuri there was a golden idol... He then determined on razing the temple to the ground... It was the holy place of the Hindus which the Malik dug up from its foundations with the greatest care, and the heads of brahmans and idolaters danced from their necks and fell to the ground at their feet, and blood flowed in torrents.  The stone idols called Ling Mahadeo, which had been established a long time at the place and on which the women of the infidels rubbed their vaginas for (sexual) satisfaction, these, up to this time, the kick of the horse of Islam had not attempted to break.  The Musulmans destroyed in the lings and Deo Narain fell down, and other gods who had fixed their seats there raised feet and jumped so high that at one leap they reached the fort of Lanka, and in that affright the lings themselves would have fled had they had any legs to stand on" (Ibid).

7. Madura: "They found the city empty for the Rai had fled with the Ranis, but had left two or three hundred elephants in the temple of Jagnar (Jagannatha).  The elephants were captured and the temple burnt" (Ibid.).

8. Fatan: (Pattan): "There was another rai in these parts ...a Brahmin named Pandya Guru... his capital was Fatan, where there was a temple with an idol in it laden with jewels.  The rai fled when the army of the Sultan arrived at Fatan... They then struck the idol with an iron hatchet, and opened its head.  Although it was the very Qibla of the accursed infidels, it kissed the earth and filled the holy treasury" (Ashiqa).

9. Ma'bar: (Parts of South India): "On the right hand and on the left hand the army has conquered from sea to sea, and several capitals of the gods of the Hindus, in which Satanism has prevailed since the time of the Jinns, have been demolished.  All these impurities of infidelity have been cleansed by the Sultan's destruction of idol-temples, beginning with his first holy expedition to Deogir, so that the flames of the light of the Law (of Islam) illumine all these unholy countries, and places for the criers of prayers are exalted on high, and prayers are read in mosques.  Allah be praised!" (Tarikh-i-Alai).

The story of how Islamic invaders sought to destroy the very foundations of Hindu society and culture is long and extremely painful.  It would certainly be better for everybody to forget the past, but for the prescriptions of Islamic theology which remain intact and make it obligatory for believers to destroy idols and idol temples.

Indian Express, February 19, 1989



Date of Mbt war convincingly established - comets caused confusion
http://sanskritdocuments.org/articles/ACriticalExaminationoftheAstronomicalReferencesinMah.doc

This is a breakthrough on the subject of the astronomical dating of the Kurushetra battle (3067 BC):

A Critical Examination of the Astronomical References in Mahäbhärata and Their Simulation by Planetarium Software
by B. N. Narahari Achar
University of Memphis

" omens ... refer to planets ... but scholars have not taken note of it.
Explicit references by specific names to comets have been mistranslated as planets ... "

"... simulations show an amazing degree of coherence, consistency, and agreement with the astronomical references in the epic  ... "

The work was supported in part by a grant and an award from the University.



Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge
http://www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/scientific-verif-vedas.html
by David Osborn

A vast number of statements and materials presented in the ancient Vedic literatures can be shown to agree with modern scientific findings and they also reveal a highly developed scientific content in these literatures. The great cultural wealth of this knowledge is highly relevant in the modern world.

Techniques used to show this agreement include:

• Marine Archaeology of underwater sites (such as Dvaraka)

• Satellite imagery of the Indus-Sarasvata River system,

• Carbon and Thermoluminiscence Dating of archaeological artifacts

• Scientific Verification of Scriptural statements

• Linguistic analysis of scripts found on archaeological artifacts

• A Study of cultural continuity in all these categories.

Introduction

Early indologists wished to control & convert the followers of Vedic Culture, therefore they widely propagated that the Vedas were simply mythology.

Max Muller, perhaps the most well known early sanskritist and indologist, although later in life he glorified the Vedas, initially wrote that the "Vedas were worse than savage" and "India must be conquered again by education... it's religion is doomed"

Thomas Macaulay, who introduced English education into India wanted to make the residents into a race that was: "Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals, and in intellect."

However, the German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer stated that the Sanskrit understanding of these Indologists was like that of young schoolboys.

These early Indologists:

• Devised the Aryan Invasion theory, denying India's Vedic past

• They taught that the English educational system is superior

• They intentionally misinterpreted sanskrit texts to make the Vedas look primitive.

• And they systematically tried to make Indians ashamed of their own culture

• Thus the actions of these indologists seems to indicate that they were motivated by a racial bias.

Innumerable archaeological findings and their analysis have recently brought the Aryan Invasion Theory into serious question. This theory is still taught as fact in many educational systems despite much contrary evidence.
 

The Aryan Invasion Theory Defined

• Vedic Aryans entered India between 1,500 and 1,200 B.C.

• They conquered the native Dravidian culture by virtue of their superiority due to their horses & iron weapons

• They Imported the Vedic culture and it's literatures.

• This Aryan Invasion Theory, however, deprives the inhabitants of India of their Vedic heritage. The wealth of their culture came from foreign soil.

The Aryan Invasion Theory raises an interesting dilemna called Frawleys Paradox: On the one hand we have the vast Vedic Literature without any archaeological finds associated with them and on the other hand, we have 2,500 archaeological sites from the Indus-Sarasvata civilization without any literature associated with them.

A preponderance of contemporary evidence now seems to indicate that these are one and the same cultures. This certainly eliminates this paradox and makes perfect sense, to an unbiased researcher.

Facts which cast serious doubt on the Aryan Invasion Theory

• There is no evidence of an Aryan homeland outside of India mentioned anywhere in the Vedas. On the contrary, the Vedas speak of the mighty Sarasvati River and other places indigenous to India. To date, no evidence for a foreign intrusion has been found, neither archaeological, linguistic, cultural nor genetic.

• There are more than 2,500 Archaeological sites, two-thirds of which are along the recently discovered dried up Sarasvati River bed. These sites show a cultural continuity with the Vedic literature from the early Harrapan civilization up to the present day India.

The archaeological sites along the dried up Sarasvati River basin are represented by black dots.

• Several independent studies of the drying up of the Sarasvati River bed, all indicate the same time period of 1,900 B.C.E.

• The significance of establishing this date for the drying up of the Sarasvati River is, that it pushes the date for the composition of the Rig Veda back to approximately 3,000 B.C.E., as enunciated by the Vedic tradition itself.

• The late dating of the Vedic literatures by indologists is based on speculated dates of 1,500 B.C.E. for the Aryan Invasion and 1,200 B.C.E. for the Rig Veda, both now disproved by scientific evidence.

Max Muller, the principal architect of the Aryan Invasion theory, admitted the purely speculative nature of his Vedic chronology, and in his last work published shortly before his death, The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, he wrote: "Whatever may be the date of the Vedic hymns, whether 15 hundred or 15,000 B.C.E., they have their own unique place and stand by themselves in the literature of the world."

The Vedic Culture is indigenous to India

It can be scientifically proven that the Vedic Culture is indigenous, through archaeology, the study of cultural continuity, by linguistic analysis, and genetic research.

For example, the language and symbolism found on the Harappan seals are very Vedic. We find the Om symbol, the leaf of the Asvatta or holy banyan tree, as well as the swastika, or sign of auspiciousness, mentioned throughout the Vedas. Om is mentioned in the Mundaka and Katha Upanisads as well as the Bhagavad Gita.

The Holy Asvatta tree is mentioned in the Aitareya and Satapata Brahmanas as well as the Taittiriya Samhita and Katyayana Smrti.

The pictoral script of these Harappan seals has been deciphered as consistently Vedic and termed "Proto-brahmi," as a pre-sanskrit script.

This piece of pottery from the lowest level of Harappan excavations with pre-harappan writing is deciphered as ila vartate vara, referring to the sacred land bounded by the Sarasvati River, described in the Rig Veda.

Additionally, other archaeological finds are culturally consistent, such as the dancing girl, whose bracelets are similar to those worn by women of Northwest India today as well as the three stone Siva Lingas found in Harappa by M. S. Vats in 1940. The worship of the Siva Linga is mentioned in the Maha Narayana Upanisad of the Yajur Veda and is still ardently practiced today.

The Vedas were maligned by early indologists because of their disagreement with their Eurocentric colonialists world view, a view which produced and depended on the Aryan Invasion Theory. The fact that the Aryan Invasion Theory has been seriously challenged recently by scholars and indologists, adds credence to the Vedas as viable, accurate and indigenous sources of information.

Satellite imagery of the Dried Up Sarasvati River Basin

Using modern scientific methods, such as satellite imagery and dating techniques, it can be shown that the ancient statements of the Vedas are factual, not mythical as erroneously propagated. High resolution satellite images have verified descriptions in The Rig Veda of the descent of the ancient Sarasvati River from it's source in the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea.

"Pure in her course from the mountains to the ocean, alone of streams Sarasvati hath listened."

The mighty Sarasvati River and it's civilization are referred to in the Rig Veda more than fifty times, proving that the drying up of the Sarasvati River was subsequent to the origin of the Rig Veda, pushing this date of origin back into antiquity, casting further doubt on the imaginary date for the so-called Aryan Invasion.

The Satellite image (above) clearly shows the Indus-Sarasvata river system extending from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. Here the Indus River is on the left, outlined in blue, while the Sarasvati River basin is outlined in green. The black dots are the many archeological sites or previous settlements along the banks of the now dry Sarasvati River.

The drying up of the Sarasvati River around 1900 B.C.E. is confirmed archaeologically. Following major tectonic movements or plate shifts in the Earth's crust, the primary cause of this drying up was due to the capture of the Sarasvati River's main tributaries, the Sutlej River and the Drishadvati River by other rivers.

Although early studies, based on limited archaeological evidence produced contradictory conclusions, recent independent studies, such as that of archaeologist James Shaffer in 1993, showed no evidence of a foreign invasion in the Indus Sarasvata civilization and that a cultural continuity could be traced back for millennia.

In other words, Archaeology does not support the Aryan Invasion Theory.

Evidence for the Ancient Port City of Dvaraka

Marine archaeology has also been utilized in India off the coast of the ancient port city of Dvaraka in Gujarat, uncovering further evidence in support of statements in the Vedic scriptures. An entire submerged city at Dvaraka, the ancient port city of Lord Krishna with its massive fort walls, piers, warfs and jetty has been found in the ocean as described in the Mahabharata and other Vedic literatures.

This sanskrit verse from the Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata, describes the disappearance of the city of Dvaraka into the sea.

"After all the people had set out, the ocean flooded Dvaraka, which still teemed with wealth of every kind. Whatever portion of land was passed over, the ocean immediately flooded over with its waters."

Dr. S. R. Rao, formerly of the Archaeological Survey of India, has pioneered marine archaeology in India. Marine archaeological findings seem to corroborate descriptions in the Mahabharata of Dvaraka as a large, well-fortified and prosperous port city, which was built on land reclaimed from the sea, and later taken back by the sea. This lowering and raising of the sea level during these same time periods of the 15th and 16th centuries B.C.E. is also documented in historical records of the country of Bahrain.

Amongst the extensive underwater discoveries were the massive Dvaraka city wall, a large door-socket and a bastion from the fort wall.

Two rock-cut slipways of varying width, extending from the beach to the intertidal zone, a natural harbor, as well as a number of olden stone ship anchors were discovered, attesting to Dvaraka being an ancient port city.

The three headed motif on this conch-shell seal (above), found in the Dvaraka excavations, corroborates the reference in the scripture Harivamsa that every citizen of Dvaraka should carry a mudra or seal of this type.

All these underwater excavations add further credibility to the validity of the historical statements found in the Vedic literatures.

Thirty-five Archaeological Sites in North India

Apart from Dvaraka, more than thirty-five sites in North India have yielded archaeological evidence and have been identified as ancient cities described in the Mahabharata. Copper utensils, iron, seals, gold & silver ornaments, terracotta discs and painted grey ware pottery have all been found in these sites. Scientific dating of these artifacts corresponds to the non-aryan-invasion model of Indian antiquity.

Furthermore, the Matsya and Vayu Puranas describe great flooding which destroyed the capital city of Hastinapur, forcing its inhabitants to relocate in Kausambi. The soil of Hastinapur reveals proof of this flooding. Archaeological evidence of the new capital of Kausambi has recently been found which has been dated to the time period just after this flood.

Kurukshetra

Similarly, in Kurukshetra, the scene of the great Mahabharata war, Iron arrows and spearheads have been excavated and dated by thermoluminence to 2,800 B.C.E., the approximate date of the war given within the Mahabharata itself.

The Mahabharata also describes three cities given to the Pandavas, the heroes of the Mahabharata, after their exile:

Paniprastha, Sonaprastha & Indraprastha, which is Delhi's Puranaqila. These sites have been identified and yielded pottery & antiquities, which show a cultural consistency & dating consistent for the Mahabharata period, again verifying statements recorded in the Vedic literatures.

Renowned Thinkers Who Appreciated the Vedic Literatures

Although early indologists, in their missionary zeal, widely vilified the Vedas as primitive mythology, many of the worlds greatest thinkers admired the Vedas as great repositories of advanced knowledge and high thinking

Arthur Schopenhauer, the famed German philosopher and writer, wrote that: I "...encounter [in the Vedas] deep, original, lofty thoughts... suffused with a high and holy seriousness."

The well-known early American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, read the Vedas daily. Emerson wrote: "I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavat-Gita"

Henry David Thoreau said: "In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita... in comparison with which... our modern world and its literature seems puny and trivial."

So great were Emerson and Thoreau's appreciation of Vedantic literatures that they became known as the American transcendentalists. Their writings contain many thoughts from Vedic Philosophy.

Other famous personalities who spoke of the greatness of the Vedas were: Alfred North Whitehead (British mathematician, logician and philosopher), who stated that: "Vedanta is the most impressive metaphysics the human mind has conceived."

Julius Robert Oppenheimer, the principle developer of the atomic bomb, stated that "The Vedas are the greatest privilege of this century." During the explosion of the first atomic bomb, Oppenheimer quoted several Bhagavad-gita verses from the 11th chapter, such as:

"Death I am, cause of destruction of the worlds..."

When Oppenheimer was asked if this is the first nuclear explosion, he significantly replied: "Yes, in modern times," implying that ancient nuclear explosions may have previously occurred.

Lin Yutang, Chinese scholar and author, wrote that: "India was China's teacher in trigonometry, quadratic equations, grammar, phonetics... " and so forth.

Francois Voltaire stated: "... everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges."

From these statements we see that many renowned intellectuals believed that the Vedas provided the origin of scientific thought.

The Iron Pillar of Delhi

The Vedic literatures contain descriptions of advanced scientific techniques, sometimes even more sophisticated than those used in our modern technological world.

Modern metallurgists have not been able to produce iron of comparable quality to the 22 foot high Iron Pillar of Delhi, which is the largest hand forged block of iron from antiquity.

This pillar stands at mute testimony to the highly advanced scientific knowledge of metallurgy that was known in ancient India. Cast in approximately the 3rd century B.C., the six and a half ton pillar, over two millennia has resisted all rust and even a direct hit by the artillary of the invading army of Nadir Shah during his sacking of Delhi in 1737.

Vedic Cosmology

Vedic Cosmology is yet another ancient Vedic science which can be confirmed by modern scientific findings and this is acknowledged by well known scientists and authors, such as Carl Sagan and Count Maurice Maeterlinck, who recognized that the cosmology of the Vedas closely parallels modern scientific findings.

Carl Sagan stated, "Vedic Cosmology is the only one in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology."

Nobel laureate Count Maurice Maeterlinck wrote of: "a Cosmogony which no European conception has ever surpassed."

French astronomer Jean-Claude Bailly corroborated the antiquity and accuracy of the Vedic astronomical measurements as "more ancient than those of the Greeks or Egyptians." And that, "the movements of the stars calculated 4,500 years ago, does not differ by a minute from the tables of today."

The ninety foot tall astronomical instrument known as Samrat Yantra, built by the learned King Suwai Jai Singh of Jaipur, measures time to within two seconds per day.

Cosmology and other scientific accomplishments of ancient India spread to other countries along with mercantile and cultural exchanges. There are almost one hundred references in the Rig Veda alone to the ocean and maritime activity. This is confirmed by Indian historian R. C. Majumdar, who stated that the people of the Indus-Sarasvata Civilization engaged in trade with Sooma and centers of culture in western Asia and Crete.

The Heliodorus Column and Cultural Links to India

An example of these exchanges is found in the inscriptions on the Heliodorus Column, erected in 113 B.C.E. by Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador to India, and convert to Vaisnavism, as well as the 2nd century B.C.E. Coins of Agathocles, showing images of Krishna and Balaram. These artifacts stand testimony that Sanatan Dharma predates Christianity.

This also confirms the link between India and other ancient civilizations such as Greece and shows that there was a continuous exchange of culture, philosophy and scientific knowledge between India & other countries. Indeed the Greeks learned many wonderful things from India.

 Vedic Mathematics

Voltaire, the famous French writer and philosopher) stated that "Pythagoras went to the Ganges to learn geometry." Abraham Seidenberg, author of the authoritative "History of Mathematics," credits the Sulba Sutras as inspiring all mathematics of the ancient world from Babylonia to Egypt to Greece.

As Voltaire & Seidenberg have stated, many highly significant mathematical concepts have come from the Vedic culture, such as:

The theorem bearing the name of the Greek mathematician Pythagorus is found in the Shatapatha Brahmana as well as the Sulba Sutra, the Indian mathematical treatise, written centuries before Pythagorus was born.

The Decimal system, based on powers of ten, where the remainder is carried over to the next column, first mentioned in the Taittiriya Samhita of the Black Yajurveda.

The Introduction of zero as both a numerical value and a place marker.

The Concept of infinity.

The Binary number system, essential for computers, was used in Vedic verse meters.

A hashing technique, similar to that used by modern search algorithms, such as Googles, was used in South Indian musicology. From the name of a raga one can determine the notes of the raga from this Kathapayadi system. (See Figure at left.)

For further reading we refer you to this excellent article on Vedic Mathematics.

Vedic Sound and Mantras

The Vedas however are not as well known for presenting historical and scientific knowledge as they are for expounding subtle sciences, such as the power of mantras. We all recognize the power of sound itself by it's effects, which can be quite dramatic. Perhaps we all have seen a high-pitched frequency shatter an ordinary drinking glass. Such a demonstration shows that Loud Sounds can produce substantial reactions

It is commonly believed that mantras can carry hidden power which can in turn produce certain effects. The ancient Vedic literatures are full of descriptions of weapons being called by mantra. For example, many weapons were invoked by mantra during the epic Kuruksetra War, wherein the Bhagavad-gita itself was spoken.

The ancient deployment of Brahmastra weapons, equivalent to modern day nuclear weapons are described throughout the Vedic literatures. Additionally, mantras carry hidden spiritual power, which can produce significant benefits when chanted properly. Indeed, the Vedas themselves are sound vibrations in literary form and carry a profound message. Spiritual disciplines recommend meditational practices such as silent meditation, silent recitation of mantras and also the verbal repetition of specific mantras out loud.

A Clinical Test of the Benefits of Mantra Chanting was performed on three groups of sixty-two subjects, males and females of average age 25. They chanted the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra twenty-five minutes each day under strict clinical supervision.

Results showed that regular chanting of the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra reduces Stress and depression and helps reduce bad habits & addictions. These results formed a PhD Thesis at Florida State University.

Spiritual practitioners claim many benefits from Mantra Meditation such as increased realization of spiritual wisdom, inner peace and a strong communion with God and the spiritual realm. These effects may be experienced by following the designated spiritual path.

Conclusion

Most of the evidence given in this presentation is for the apara vidya or material knowledge of the Vedic literatures. The Vedas however, are more renowned for their para vidya or spiritual knowledge. And even superior is the realized knowledge of the Vedic rsis or saints — that which is beyond the objective knowledge of modern science — knowledge of the eternal realm of sat, cit ananda, eternality, blissfullness and full knowledge. But that is another presentation.

The Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge is available from DevaVision Video Documentaries as a DVD video and will be available for download as a Quicktime video by 17 November 2006: Devavision Video Downloads http://www.devavision.org/videos.html



When Caste was not a bad word. My article in todays Hindustan Times

Date: Mon Jun 4, 2007 1:16 am ((PDT))

Namaskar Mitra,
My latest article in todays Hindustimes Times. Makes some points on education as well. Sorry for an impersonal mail.
http://www.esamskriti.com/html/essay_index.asp?cat=892&subcat=891&cname=caste_ht_article or read below.

When caste was not a bad word

By Sanjeev Nayyar. Article appeared in Hindustan Times, Mumbai on June 4, 2007.

Were caste equations always as bad as they are today? Not quite. There were always castes but they were not backward.

Now that the Supreme Court has referred the matter of 27% reservations to a Constitutional Bench it might be worthwhile revisiting certain historical truths. Proponents of the 27% reservation for OBCs argue that reservations would help them overcome centuries of discrimination! However, if such animosity really existed between the forwards and backwards, how could the Indian Civilization have thrived for over 5,000 years?

A noted Gandhian, Dharampal visited British & Indian archives and reproduced reports of Surveys undertaken by the British in Bengal, Punjab and Madras Presidency (1800-1830). According to Collectors reports reviewed by Governor Sir Thomas Munro on 10/3/1826, of the 30,211 male school students in Madras Presidency 20% were Brahmins and Chettris, 9% were  Vaishyas,50% were Sudras, 6% were Muslims and others were 15%. Madras Presidency then consisted of areas that fall in modern day Tamil Nadu, A.P, Orissa, Kerala and Karnataka. Another report by J Dent, Secretary, Fort Geroge dated 21/2/1825 stated that out of 1,88,680 scholars in all collectorates of Madras Presidency Brahmins were 23% while Sudras constituted 45%.

Startling as it may sound, these percentages establish that Sudras not Brahmins comprised the majority of students and scholars.  How & Why do the Backward Classes find themselves in the situation they are today?

Before British rule, traditionally, educational institutions were funded by revenue contributions made by the community and State. About one third of the total revenue (from agriculture & sea ports) was assigned for the requirements of social & cultural infrastructure (including education). This system stayed mainly intact through all previous political turmoils. The British, however, increased the quantum of land revenue and adversely changed the terms of payment for the community. They centralized collection of revenue, leaving hardly any revenue to pay for social and cultural infrastructure.

Further, the means of the manufacturing classes (small scale enterprises or SME in today's parlance) were greatly diminished by the introduction of European goods. Craftsmen especially those engaged in the making of cloth, manufacture and mining of metals, construction work were through fiscal and other devices reduced to a state of homelessness.

Sapped for funds, educational institutions and manufacturing classes became history, leading to grave consequences. One, it obliterated literacy and knowledge amongst the Indian people. Two, it destroyed the Indian social balance in which, traditionally, persons from all sections of society appear to have received a significant degree of schooling. Three, this destruction along with economic plunder led to great deterioration in the status, socio-economic conditions and personal dignity of those, now known as scheduled castes; and to a lesser degree, that of the vast peasant majority encompassed by the term 'backward castes'.

From about the end of the 19th century, various factors began to attempt a reversal of the results of British policy. This led to what are now known as backward caste movements. The manner, in which their objectives are presented however, seems to suggest that the 'backward' status they are struggling against is some ancient phenomenon. In reality, however, their cultural and economic backwardness (as distinct from their ritualistic status on specific occasions) is post 1800, and what basically all such movements are attempting to achieve is the restoration of the position, status, and rights of these peoples prior to 1800.

Dharampal wrote in 'Rediscovering India', "For the British, as perhaps for some others before them, caste has been a great obstacle, in fact, an unmitigated evil not because the British believed in casteless ness or subscribed to non-hierarchical system but because it stood in the way of their breaking Indian society, hindered the process of atomization, and made the task of conquest and governance more difficult".

The interest in caste peaked around 1891 when the census came out with what were termed as Index of Castes. The word 'caste' is of Spanish origin and fails to capture the meaning of the Indian term, "jati," which more properly translated as "community."  Jati in traditional India promoted and preserved diversity and multiculturalism by allotting every jati a particular space and role in society so that no jati would be appropriated or dominated by another. America, which has long glorified the ideal of a "melting pot" of one assimilated culture, is now coming to see the value of the "salad bowl" model, in which different cultures co-exist in harmony. The epitome of this model was the Indian jati system, revealing that our ancient practices are relevant to the modern world. Moreover, the jati system was integral to the survival of the Indian nation: in Swami Vivekananda's words: "Caste is an imperfect institution no doubt. But if it had not been for caste, you would have had no Sanskrit books to study. This caste made walls, around which all sorts of invasions rolled and surged but found it impossible to breakthrough."

So, the widespread notion that discrimination in opportunity for education existed for millennia is a dangerous misconception that clouds our policies and threatens the real progress of the backwards castes.

The logical next steps are that, one, caste based reservations must come with a sunset clause as was envisaged in the Indian Constitution. Two, since economic deprivation has led to backwardness, economic backwardness should be the basis of reservation. The apex court has said that the creamy layer in OBCs must be denied reservations.

The reservations policy and caste-based politics of the last sixty years have managed to make people more aware of and narrowly identified by their caste, rather than focusing on true social and economic integration. Instead of increasing supply of education facilities, successive Governments have over regulated the sector, stifling its growth. Under the guise of protecting SME's, government policy has made them less efficient and does not allow economies of scale.

The words Caste and Class have become conflated together, when in reality they refer to different phenomena. Also, the nomenclature used to describe the backward classes keeps changing. In the 1890s they were called The Depressed Classes. In the early 1930's, Gandhi named them Harijans. The Government of India Act 1935 introduced the words Scheduled Castes for the first time. Since the 1990s, the word Dalit has come into prominence.

Jats are a backward community in Rajasthan but a very powerful community in neighboring Punjab. Is there a comprehensive national definition of who constitutes an OBC?

There are multiple solutions to the Reservation problem that need to be pursued simultaneously. One, Government should focus on primary education only. Two, it must lay down a transparent regulatory framework for higher education. This would increase investment in education across various sectors. Three; it must lay emphasis on vocational training that would make a graduate employable. It should support institutions that provide short term courses in retail, financial planning, analytics and pharma. Once supply is enhanced and identity based reservation eclipsed, India will have an egalitarian educational system where the only affirmative action will be financial assistance to economically weaker students.

Four, help students strike a work / life balance. Five, allow student to expand their knowledge beyond mere academics and to strengthen and explore their inner nature. Education should also encompass Indian wisdom and thought. Six, success is enhanced by the power of concentration so students must learn how to concentrate. Lastly, students should be made to realize that a degree is a passport to a job! Therefore, personality and character count.

All actions originate from thoughts. Pure thoughts result in constructive deeds. The above ideas could help students be at peace within rather than be caught in the chakravuya of reservations.

With so much emphasis on education I remember Mark Twain's words, "I do not allow my schooling to interfere with my education."

Sanjeev Nayyar is a Management Consultant and founder www.esamskriti.com.

3 paras below were part of the article but not published at the discretion of the respected Editor. Thought they might be useful so here they are for you.

1. To read 'The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the 18th century" by Dharampal

http://www.esamskriti.com/html/essay_index.asp?cat_name=why&cid=1062&sid=174

2. Four, help students strike a work / life balance. Five, allow student to expand their knowledge beyond mere academics and to strengthen and explore their inner nature. Education should also encompass Indian wisdom and thought. Six, success is enhanced by the power of concentration so students must learn how to concentrate. Lastly, students should be made to realize that a degree is a passport to a job! Therefore, personality and character count.

3. All actions originate from thoughts. Pure thoughts result in constructive deeds. The above ideas could help students be at peace within rather than be caught in the chakravuya of reservations.



Japan Wants To Encourage Studies Of Hindu Gods
http://hindustantimes.com/news/181_1934077,000600010001.htm

NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 21, 2007: Japan wants to encourage studies of Hindu Gods and Goddesses found in their country. Saraswati, Laxmi, Brahma, Ganesha among a large number of other Deities are still prayed to there though under different names. Saraswati's sketches (Benzaiten in Japanese) sanctify kitchens in rural areas of Japan even now, says Director International Academy of Indian Culture Lokesh Chandra. Japanese understood her as sa-rasavati or the Goddess of the kitchen. Rasavati is 'rasoi' in Hindi. Talking to the Hindustan Times the Japanese Cultural Counsellor Shigeyuki Shimamori said, "We would like to encourage more studies by scholars on the Hindu deities found in Japan."

It is the Mantrayana sect of Buddhism emphasizing mantras and rituals through which Hindu Deities reached Japan, Dr. Chandra said. The Japanese also perform homa known as "goma" to their Deities. Sarasvati or Benzaiten in Japanese is one of the Seven Lucky Deities (Shichi-fuk u-jin) blessing every home. Couples who desire to have beautiful daughters pray to Her. She is known as the patroness of writers, composers, musicians and painters. German scholar Philipp Franz von Siebold has written that in 1832 there were 131 shrines dedicated to Goddess Sarasvati and 100 to Lord Ganesha in Tokyo itself. A 12th century temple to Ganesha in Asa Kusa suburb of Tokyo is a National Treasure of Japan. Hindu Gods and Goddesses were introduced into Japan in 806 ADE by Kobodaishi a Japanese saint who went to China and brought with him Mantrayana text, scrolls and images.

hinduism today



The O`Odham: Native-Americans With Ancestors From India?
http://www.arisearjuna.org/article.asp
By: Gene D. Matlock, BA, M.A.

Hindu scholars have always claimed that in remotest times, their ancestors visited every part of the globe, mapping it accurately, and mining gold and copper in such places as Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, England, Ireland, Peru, and Bolivia. Known to us as "Indo-Europeans," they lost their grip on the world in about 1500 BC., retreating to what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Northern India. However, they continued to visit the Americas in their large teakwood ships, many of them 250 feet long and five- to six-masted, until about 1200 A.D. After that, the sectarian fanaticism and territorialism of their religious leaders, rebellions among their conquered subjects, constant internecine rivalries, and troubles with Moslem invaders forced them into isolation.

No Westerner naively accepts India's claims of having once dominated the world. Right? Well, some of us do.

In an essay entitled On Egypt from the Ancient Book of the Hindus (Asiatic Researchers Vol. III, 1792), British Lt. Colonel Francis Wilford gave abundant evidence proving that ancient Indians colonized and settled in Egypt. The British explorer John Hanning Speke, who in 1862 discovered the source of the Nile in Lake Victoria, acknowledged that the Egyptians themselves didn't have the slightest knowledge of where the Nile's source was. However, Lt. Colonel Wilford's description of the Hindu's intimate acquaintance with ancient Egypt led Speke to Ripon Falls, at the edge of Lake Victoria.

The Hindus also claim that the gospel of their deity Shiva was once the religion of the world and the progenitor of all religions coming after it.

"Isvar was the only god in India, the whole of Asia, the southern parts of Russia, Mediterranean countries, Egypt, Greece, the whole of Europe, the human inhabited places of both Americas…and also in England and Ireland. In all these lands, Isvar was the religion with slight variations in the pronunciation of the word Isvar….the Isvar religion is the mother of all religions in the world, including Christianity and Islam."
(Remedy the Frauds in Hinduism, by Kuttikhat Purushothama Chon; p. 36.)

While the languages our forefathers spoke thousands of years ago would be completely unrecognizable to us now, the names of their deities (those that survived to this modern age) may be immediately recognizable to their respective modern adherents, such as the Christians, Jews, Moslems, Jains, Buddhists, and Hindus. Names of deities tend not to change.

Isvar was and is especially visible (to discerning eyes) in our own Southwest as well as in Northern and Central Mexico. Some tribes even worshiped God Shiva's wives and consorts. Spanish priest, Andres Perez de Ribas wrote in his book, My Life Among the Savage Nations of New Spain, that a Northern Mexican tribe worshiped two deities: Viriseva and a mother goddess named Vairubai. Viriseva means "Lord Siva" in Sanskrit. Vairubai has to be (a mispronouncing of) Bhairava, another name of Siva's consort, Goddess Durga.

A few Hindu scholars insist that not all their gods and religious traditions are natives of the Indian subcontinent. When the ancient Nagas retreated to India, they also took back the deities and religious traditions they had acquired abroad, incorporating them into "Hinduism," a term meaning "The Indus Valley Way of Life."

Historian Chon states:

"There are strong indications in our ancient texts that the places and events described in them are lying outside the geographical limits of India But when we talk of geographical limits, …are they the national boundaries of post-independent India? Or are they the boundaries of India, the ancient?"
(Remedy the Frauds in Hinduism; p.30.)

I'm especially impressed with the traditions of the Pimas (Akimel O'Odham) and Papagos (Tohono O'Odham) of Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico. Although I could write a lengthy article about Isvarist (worship of the Hindu deity, Shiva) practices in practically every Southwestern United States, Mexican, Central and South American Indian tribe, even India-Indian spiritual geography is reproduced abundantly in the O'Odham nation.

Though the pre-conquest era O'odhams were relatively primitive, the Spaniards admired them for their intelligence, industry, and high philosophy. Some Catholic missionary priests thought they were the progenitors of the Aztecs.

About 5,000 BC or earlier, a brilliant deified Phoenician Naga king and philosopher named Kuvera (also Kubera) learned how to smelt copper, gold, and other metals. These activities took place in the kingdom named after him, Khyber ("Kheeveri"), which consisted of a group of craggy mountains in what are now Southeastern Afghanistan and Northeastern Pakistan (i.e. the Khyber Pass). According to Hindu mythology, Kuvera and God Shiva lived in the totally barren, mineral-poor, goldless, frigid, lofty, bell-shaped or pyramidical peak of Kailasa in Western Tibet.

Edward Pococke stated in his book India in Greece,

The Khyber; its region is wealthy and abounds with rubies; gold is found in the mines in its vicinity, and it (the Kheeveri kingdom) was likewise the ruling power in those early days. (p.220.)

We derived our word "copper" from Kuvera's name. Eventually, the Nagas extended their influence over all of India. If you've intuited that Afghan Khyber (Kheever), Hebrew Heber (pronounced Kheever), Egyptian Khepri, Greek Khyphera, Cabeiri, Cypriotic Cip'ri (Kheep'ri), biblical Capernaum, Arabic Khabar, O'Odham Babo-Quivari (Kheeveri), Francisco de Coronado's search for the fabled Quivira (Kheevira), ad infinitum, are somehow linked, you've intuited correctly.

But why do the Hindus and Buddhists worship Kuvera and Shiva in a barren peak and not in the Khyber mountain range itself? I don't want to get "mystical," but the "reason" for this anomaly is the world's best-kept millennium's-old secret. Besides, it's not the focus of this article.

Kuh or Koh = "Hump; Mountain"
while Vera or Vira = "Hero; Lord."

The Nagas, also called Nakas and Nahu(a)s, were a highly civilized ruling, maritime and mercantile class who once inhabited what is now Afghanistan, Tibet, Pakistan, and Northwestern India. The Nag ("Self-Consuming Serpent") was one of their principal tribal emblems. The substance of Kuvera's teachings is that God, then called Dyau, Deo, Dyaus or Jyaus, put all the plants, animals, ores, and minerals on earth for Man's enjoyment. As long as Man protects the happiness and security of all humanity, he need not place any limits on his greed. Kuvera's teachings spread throughout the whole world.

"Originally, the Asuras or Nagas were not only a civilized people, but a maritime power, and in the Mahabharata, where the ocean is described as their habitation, an ancient legend is preserved of how Kadru, the mother of serpents, compelled Garuda (the Eagle or Hawk) to serve her sons by transporting them across the sea to a beautiful country in a distant land, which was inhabited by Nagas, The Asuras (Nagas) were expert navigators, possessed of very considerable naval resources, and had founded colonies upon distant coasts."
(The Encircled Serpent, by M. Oldfield, p. 47.)

"Asura" is the Indian equivalent of Assyria (really Asuriya and Asir) and the Persian Ahura of Zoroastrianism. It derives from the name of the ancient Hindu sun god Ashur. The Naga capital was called Oudh, Iodh, Yudh, and Ayodhya. Located near what is now Herat, Afghanistan, it is not to be confused with todays Oudh or Ayodhya in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The citizens of Oudh were called Oudh-am and Otia-Am. Am = "People" in Sanskrit.

In those days, only a few million people inhabited the earth. Most humans were cavemen and less. The Nagas didn't entrust their highly developed technologies to such aborigines. But they did teach them how to build simple thatch and adobe homes, and to raise vegetable and animal foods. They also taught them about the Creator of All Life, Dyaus or Jyaus. Even today the O'Odhams call it Jeoss or Josh. Joshi is one of God Shiva's many names. Some White Arizonians mistakenly insist that the O'Odhams derived this term from Dios (Spanish for "God"), Jesus, or Joshua.

The innocent Arizona aborigines believed these Nagas from Oudh, Afghanistan (part of India until the late 1700s) were gods. They even named themselves Oudham, which they pronounced as O'Odham or O'Ot'ham. An ancient Sanskrit word for "brotherhood; fraternity" is Ton; Tahun. The Papagos called themselves Tohono O'Odham, or "Oudh-am Fraternity." Tohono now means "Desert" in the O'Odham language. The Pimas settled along winding rivers, which seemed to look like writhing serpents. They named themselves Akimel O'Odham. "Akimel" derives from the Sanskrit Ahi-Mahal (Great Serpent). This name eventually came to mean "River."

The Nagas dug deep wells in the desert, siphoning water out of the ground with long, thick tubes. The exterior ends of these tubes were large and bulbous, and painted to look like human heads, in order to mystify the aborigines. The water spouted out from what looked like round, puckered human mouths. The heads had horns which were really handles for pulling tubes to different irrigation channels. As the flowing water caused these tubes to writhe and undulate like serpents, the primitive Arizonians thought they were real. In Kashmiri, Nag means "a snake, esp. a fabulous serpent-demon or semi-divine being, having the face of a man and the tail of a serpent, and said to inhabit Patala. In Kashmir, they are the deities of springs." (Grierson's Dictionary of the Kashmiri Language; p. 624, item 2.) The Kashmirians also called these siphons Nag-Beg (Snake-Lords). Patala was one of the ancient Indian names for "America." It's real meaning is "Underworld," but not an underground world. They used it as we often call Australia: "The Land Down Under."

The Arizonian O'Odhams similarly called the water siphon Nah-Big. According to both Kashmiri and O'Odham legends, the Nah-Big was harmless. However, if someone "killed" it, the spring dried up - and for good reason. Without a proper siphon, needed water could no longer spew out of the well. Several Southwestern Indian tribes worship exact replicas of the Kashmiri Nag-Beg (siphon) in special religious ceremonies. However, some of them call it by other names. Certain O'Odham and other Native-American clans in the Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora area also call this mythical serpent Corua (KoROOah, with the "R" trilled as in our English "City"). It derives from Sanskrit: Krura-Sarpavat (Violent-Serpent); Kadruja (Serpent Mother Kadru's equally serpent son).

Another O'Odham word for "snake," Vah-Mat, is nearly identical to the Kashmiri/Sanskrit Veh-Mar: "Poisonous-Snake." The O'Odham language contains an unusually high number of North Indian words.

When the Nagas arrived in Arizona, they found a huge stone peak in the desert, resembling Kuvera and Shiva's (I-Itsoi's) Kailasa in nearly every way except one. The Indian Kailasa, also in a desert, is nearly four times higher above sea level than the O'Odhams' holy peak. To honor their spritual progenitor, the Nagas named this Arizona peak Babu-Kheever ("Grandfather" or "Illustrious Indian Immigrant" Kuvera), adhering closely to the exact pronunciation of the mineral-rich Kheever (Khyber) mountain range of Afghanistan.

Baboquivari (Babo-kheeveri) has retained almost the same name after more than six millenniums. The O'odhams also call it Waw-Kiwulk, which sounds like "Vahv-Kivur". Just as the Hindus, Jains and Buddhists call Kailasa the navel of the world, so do the O'odhams give Baboquivari the same distinction.

Babo-Kheeveri and the Afghan Kheeveri mountains were supposedly filled with unlimited gold, copper, and precious stones. Even today, much of the gold mined in that part of Arizona keeps leaking endlessly out of the Babo-Kheeveri (Baboquivari) mountain range.

Jutting upward at more than 7,750 feet above sea level, Baboquivari can be seen on a clear day from as far away as 80 miles, even from the Mexican side of the border. Few natural wonders equal the majesty and beauty of this spectacular peak. In my opinion, it is a "must-see" for any lover of Nature's wonders. You will notice that the mountain enjoys the close association of lesser peaks, forming a large trident.

Being such a prominent landmark, Baboquivari keeps incoming undocumented Mexican aliens and drug smugglers from getting lost. That part of the desert also abounds in water-filled cacti to slake their thirst, including edible fauna and flora. Evidently, the INS knows about Baboquivari. On the day my wife and I visited the peak, we saw several of their vans in the area, waiting to pick up uninvited guests and transport them back to the border - or to prison.

When I told the O'Odhams that I had learned about the unlimited quantities of gold within Baboquivari from Hindu books written millenniums ago, one woman moaned hopelessly, "Now that this news is out, the White man will even rob us of our God." She wasn't too far afield. The government has always wanted to probe the interior of Baboquivari.
A Possible Historical Scenario
About 3,000 BC, a saintly Indian prince and high priest of the Kheeveri empire left Afghanistan for Arizona, to manage the mining operations at Baboquivari and govern the O'Odhams. In India, he is variously called Shiva, Siva, Shaveh, Suva, Su, Ish, Esh, Yesh, Isa, Itsa, Ishvara, Yishvara, Yeshva, Moshe, Mahesh, Mahisa, etc. The suffixes Va and Veh refer to someone who is vengeful and short of temper. Vara = "Blessings of." The prefixes Mo, Mu. and Mah means "Great." Ish, Esh, Yesh, Isa, etc., = "Material Universe" in both Sanskrit and Hebrew cabalism. From these Sanskrit elements we derived our term "Messiah," which in Sanskrit is Masiha, and Massee'akh in Hebrew. These terms were honorific titles of the highest ecclesiastical and leadership castes of that period in history. These supreme "Sivas," whether good, bad, or indifferent, were also regarded as earthly gods.
 

We may never know what this "Shiva's" real name was.

The Pimas call him Se-eh-ha; Siwa; Su-u (Elder Brother). The Papagos worship him as I'Itoi or I'Itsoi, which linguistically is nearly identical to "Isa."

Not yet united by a centralized government, the ancient Hindus weren't conscious of themselves as Indians - just as similar peoples separated by different tribes and kingdoms. All of them competed by fair and foul means for the resources of the world. Internecine rivalries tore them apart constantly.

During Shiva's Arizona reign, a powerful Indian emperor, Priyavarta, sent his armies to all the countries of the world, to unite all Indians and their colonial possessions as one nation. He appointed his sons as viceroys. One son, Sevana or Sewana, was sent to conquer and govern North America. Notice that he, too, was a "Siva." O'odham legends mention this Sewana whom they call Siwana. When I'Itoi or Se-eh-ha wouldn't submit to Priyavarta, he and Siwana met on the battle field. Ultimately, I'Itoi prevailed; Siwana was killed.

According to some Indian historians, later on, back in Southeast Asia, the volcano Krakatoa exploded violently, creating the China Sea. Our globe became extremely unsteady on its axis, causing rains, earthquakes, and floods to occur all over the world. The coastlands of Western India submerged by more than fifty feet and as many miles inland in some places. Even as you read this article, Indian archeologists are uncovering fabulous ruins lying just off the mainland, under the Arabian sea.

Dwarka, Indian deity Lord Krishna's capital city, is the focal point of these underwater digs. Dwarka may prove to be the greatest archeological dig in human history.

These floods forced millions of Indian refugees to flee to other parts of the world. When the Arizona desert flooded, the Pimas and Papagos took refuge on Baboquivari where I'Itoi or Se-eh-ha (Siva) helped them survive. After the waters had subsided, he helped the O'Odham re-establish themselves. Therefore, no matter to what religion they are converted, the O'Odham are always going to revere and respect I'Itoi.

Nearly all of today's O'Odham are Catholics. However, the Franciscan fathers tending to their spiritual needs allow them to set up the Swastika, I'Itoi or Isa's standard, on the altars of the Catholic churches there, even on the altar of San Xavier Mission church near Tucson.

There are other Shaivite reminders among the O'odhams. O'Odham Catholic churches usually face east as the Shaivite temples do in India. And, like the Hindus, they bury their dead in an east-west direction. They also revere the Shiva-Linga or Pillar of Energy, usually erected in front of and some distance away from their churches, placed on a tiered pyramid or pyramidical mound, exactly as in India. However, nowadays the Shivling is a Christian cross. In the book he wrote in 1644, Father Ribas acknowledged that the Northern Mexican Indians worshiped Shivlings.

"One of the padres, traveling along a trail near Guasave, observed an Indian suddenly depart into the woods. In curiosity they followed this Indian, presently coming upon him in the act of making reverence before a stone. This stone was about a vara (33 inches) in height, shaped in the form of a pyramid, and had some crude inscriptions carved upon it.

San Xavier Mission Church near Tuscon, Arizona.
"The Padre ordered this false idol destroyed. The Indian, horrified at the thought, declared that he dare not destroy it, for fear of death." (My Life Among the Savage Nations of New Spain; p. 34.)

During my visit at San Xavier mission, I also saw representations of the undulating serpent Nah-Big on the exterior of the church of San Xavier. And get this: The O'Odhams call their way of life Himday or Himdag! Hindi?

I was especially intrigued by the Pima name for "Medicine-Man:" Javet-Makai. Dyaus-Pitar or Jyapeti (Japhet) is really another title of Shiva. Makai may be derived from Maga (Priest-Magician). Javet-Makai = Jyapeti Maga?

DNA analysis may prove that today's O'Odhams are genetically related to the India-Indians. Arjuna, Krishna's companion in the Mahabharata Wars (fought on Northern India's Kuruksetra plains in about 3000 BC), was married to a Patalan (American) princess. Military forces from Patala, possibly even some O'Odham among them, fought in those famous wars.

How did I'Itoi's deification get exported to India? Because Isvar was once the religion of all mankind, It could have been a partial contributor to all worldwide myths about Siva, eventually becoming consolidated in the Indian subcontinent. I'Itoi earned "godhood" on his own merits. Also, as a Hindu supreme leader, he was deified anyway. After all, the O'Odham and the Hindus do share the same India-originated "Way of Life."

Hindu immigrants to this country often tell me that they see the Southwestern Native-Americans as long-lost brothers. They say that many Native-Americans tell them the same thing. If we use Sanskrit language resources, Hindu mythology, Shaivite practices and mutually identical holy names as measuring sticks, the kinship between Native-Americans and South Asians becomes easily verifiable, no matter what the "experts" say. Could there be a special political reason why "The Great White Father" doesn't want certain Native-Americans to know they're Himday?

Some tribes, such as the Huicholes in Central Mexico, even remember from what Indian seaport they left for America - Aramra in Gujarat. The Huicholes revere a part of the beach at the old Mexican seaport of San Blas, Nayarit, as Aramara, "Place of Origin of the Huicholes." Millenniums ago, Gujarat was called Jukhar. Juj-Kha is an O'Odham name for "Mexicans." The Navajos call them Nakaii (Nagas). The Apaches claim to be Inde (Indus People.) They worship Shiva as Yusn. In Sanskrit, Yishan = "Shiva." Apache = "Enemy" in O'Odham. In Sanskrit, Apachnan = "Destroyer." Another name of the Zunis ("Zoonyees") is Ashiwi (Azhuva?, "Way of the Serpent," in Sanskrit). Two of their principal deities are Shivani and Shiwanikoya. Zoonya (Zuni?) and Zeenya ware epithets of ancient Kashmir. According to Indian historian K. P. Chon, the Naga Azhuvas, perhaps the forefathers of the Zunis, were India's oldest ruling dynasty. He said that they ruled for more than a thousand years.

"The descendants of this dynasty are still to be found in the southernmost part of India in Kerala. They are even now called Azhuva or Ezhava. The emperor Azi Dahaka, -- with two snakes around his neck -- was a devotee of Isvara."
(Remedy the Frauds in Hinduism; p. 22.) The Ezhavas' ships were said to have sailed all over the world.

The Hopis worship Siva under several of his names, one of which is Massawa (Maheswa?). The Hopis are ophiolators (snake worshippers). Thousands of years ago, a famous Naga cult called Hophiz lived near Kabul, Afghanistan. Orginally, this nation was named Oph (Serpent) + Gana (Group; Family) + Stan (Nation). "Afghanistan" evolved from "Oph-gana-stan." The Afghan Hophiz snake cult spread to Greece, becoming Ophis. The Ophis cult was popular in the ancient world, even among the Christian gnostics. Needless to say, it also found its way to the American Southwest. We may never know the exact "hows."

The name of the ancient Hopi village of Oraibi causes me to wonder whether the Hopi nation was a famous stronghold of Saivism, known even in India. This unusual word lacks only the "Bh" in Bhairavi, epithet of Goddess Durga. However, Grierson's Dictionary of the Kashmiri Language mentions another meaning of the term, which may explain exactly how and why Oraibi got its name: "Name of a certain class of lower deities who form Siva's host..." One of these is after the local godling of some locality or tract of country. Special localities protected by him are looked upon as sacred" (p. 129; item 44.) Was Southwestern United States an important Shaivite holy center in earliest times?

Other ancient Naga sea-faring miners, traders, conquerors and colonizers who left their bloodlines and names all over the Americas and the rest of the world were the Ute, Yuti, Yutiya, or Juti (Jutes). The Northern Mexican Indians called the invading Spaniards, "People-Who-Came-Before:" Yutiya ("Judeeya"); Yuti; Juti ("Jodee" or "Judee)." In Spanish, the word is usually spelled as Yori; Yuri. "R" is trilled as in "City." "Y" often approximates our "J." Because of the Spanish spelling, we can't see that this word is really the English "Jute.". Why did these Indians believe the Spaniards were Jutes? Juti now means "non-Indian Mexicans and Gringos." In Sanskrit, Juddhi; Yuddhi = "Conquerors." Our history books tell us that the "Jutes" were "Northern German or Danish tribes." Does it surprise you to find "People-Who-Came-Before" in Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico?

Such human groups as "Phoenicians, Assyrians, Teutons, Jutes, Celts, Scythians, Chaldeans, Hittites, Kassites," plus many others, were not exactly who and what we've been told they were. The India-Indians can give mankind broader and more accurate descriptions of these principal actors on the stage of Ancient History. The Native-Americans are "Indians" after all!

Skeptics often tell me that I'm just using a fertile imagination to link the Southwestern Native-Americans with certain ethnicities and communities in South Asia. Just in case any of my readers think I'm imagining all these correspondences, put yourself in my place. Pretend that you've read a book about ancient Tibet. In this book, you read about a little mountain village called Dina. The villagers practice their national Tibetan religion: Bon. Their shamans use sand-paintings to heal the sick. After that, you read a book about the Navajos. Their real name is Diney. Their religion is Bahanney. Their shamans use sand paintings to heal the sick. Intrigued, you start comparing other Native-American tribes with peoples living in India, consistently finding tight similarities. What would you then think - or know? Of course, these India-related correspondences are not confined only to Native-Americans. But the rest of the world's peoples is not what this article is all about.

The spirit of I'Itoi, one of many Isas around the world, wanders within the bowels of Kheever or Quivari eternally, in a maze of tunnels running throughout the interior of Baboquivari. These tunnels may be shafts from which the ancient Hindus extracted unending quantities of gold, transporting it to India.
 
 

Like I'Itoi's swastika (on left), this maze (right) is also a sacred O'Odham emblem. It, too, stands at the altar of San Xavier Mission.

About Coronado's Ill-Fated Expedition
During my fact-finding mission to the O'Odham nation in September, 1999, a young O'Odham man told me that at the beginning of the Spanish conquest, a certain Spanish officer and his men tried to dig their way into Baboquivari. Suddenly, the ground under them opened; Baboquivari swallowed them. I intuited that he was giving me a mythologized version of Francisco de Coronado's search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and a place called Quivira, where, he was told, he could get his hands on unlimited quantities of gold.
 

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1510-1554) was the first explorer of America's Southwest. He arrived in Mexico in 1535, becoming governor of Nueva Galicia (the present states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco and Zacatecas). During his governorship he heard about the supposedly gold-rich Seven Cities of Cibola and Quivira, believed to be in what is now the American Southwest, somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico.

With 300 Spanish soldiers and some Native-Americans, he marched to the present state of Arizona. The news about the Spaniards' obsession for gold surely reached the O'Odham nation long before he did. A Northern Mexican Indian named Esteban, possibly an O'Odham, told Coronado that he knew the location of the Seven Cities of Cibola and the fabled Quivira. "Cibola" turned out to be a sleepy little Zuni village. Cibola, pronounced "Sivola" in Spanish, is similar to the Sanskrit Swala (Svala), a name of Shiva's wife Parvati, also called Sivani. The Hindu cult of Swala eventually spread to Phyrigia and Rome, becoming Cybele. The high priests of this wide-spread cult were often berdaches ("gender-benders") and eunuchs. It's a curious anomaly that berdaches are also regarded as holy people among the Zunis.

Esteban, also called El Turco, led the Spaniards away from Baboquivari, to what is now the Lindsborg, Kansas area. Coronado began to suspect that he had been tricked. Another Indian accompanying the expedition could have grown fearful that El Turco might be persuaded to lead the Spaniards back to Arizona. He begged Coronado to quit paying attention to El Turco, promising to lead the Spaniards farther northward, to the real "Quivira," but Coronado had lost his fascination with fairy tales. He had El Turco strangled to death, returning to Mexico in disgrace in 1542. It never occurred to Coronado to remove "Babo" from "Quivari."



Ancient Egypt`s Vaishnava Culture
http://www.arisearjuna.org/article.asp
By: Arise Arjuna Staff

Recently, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art held an exhibit called "Pharaohs of the Sun". It turned out to be the most popular exhibit ever. The exhibit featured artifacts from the reigns of Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and the famous King Tut.

Modern scholars claim that Akhenaton was the worlds first known monotheist. However, the fact is, he was actually reviving an ancient monotheistic religious tradition. Unknown to most is the true nature of this religion. This religion was not only vedic, but was actually an indiginous Egyptian form of Vaisnavaism.

Research has proven Akhenaton's vedic roots through his familial connections to the Hurrian/Mitanni peoples. Everyone agrees that the Mitanni were a Sanskrit speaking and writing people and they worshipped the vedic gods. What is forgotten is the fact that Akhenaton's father, his mother, and wife were all related to the vedic Mitanni. Thus, it is no surprise that Akhenaton's religion has so many vedic similarities. The research of BhaktiAnanda Goswami has proven the Vaishnava nature of his religion.

On April 10, 2000, BhaktiAnanda Goswami of E.O.H.N. (Ecumenical Order of the Holy Name), and Vedic Empire Productions put together a tour and presentation on Akhenaton's vedic/vaishnava past. During the two hours of the tour BhaktiAnanda Goswami enthusiastically pointed out the various vaishnava connections. Again and again he amazed and enlightened the tour participants. It is truly amazing how many ancient artifacts are related to the worship of Hari. Using the torchlight of knowledge, BhaktiAnanda Goswami clearly revealed the Vaishnava nature of Akhenaton's religion. During the tour, many people unconnected to our group were intrigued and asked intelligent and sincere questions which BhaktiAnanda Goswami answered.

The program continued that evening at the Los Angeles Hare Krishna Temple where BhaktiAnanda gave a detailed talk on various examples of the ancient world's global Vaishnava traditions. Using a scientific approach called linguistic archaeology, some of the key points he presented are as follows:
The original forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead worshipped in the Mediterranean region were Radha-Krishna and Balarama. The center of this ancient Vaishnava culture was the Greek Isle of Rhodes.
Jews, Egyptians, and Europeans all worshipped Lord Krishna in many forms all familiar to the modern day Vaishnava. Forms such as Matsya, Korma, Narasimha, and Kalki. This tradition was called Heliopolitan because they worshipped Helios (Greek for Hari).
Hundreds of Jewish, Egyptian, and Greco Roman deity names (theophoric names) can be clearly identified as names of Krishna or Vishnu.
Official religious emblems, including the state seals of the Jewish kingdoms of Israel and Judah, were indisputably Vaishnava symbols, and directly connected to Akhenaton's religion and the eternal Vaishnava traditions of India.
In ancient Egyptian religion, creation began from the form of NHRYN (Narayan) lying on the primordial waters. A lotus grows from His navel, and on this lotus appears the four armed and four headed Heliosphanes (Brahma) who speaks creation.
Ancient Mediterranean Vaishnavism can be properly understood when we compare it to the authentic Vaishnava scriptural sources especially Bhagavad-Gita, and Srimad Bhagavatam, where the viratarupa (Universal Form) conception of the Supreme Lord is revealed. For example, Krishna's self revelation in the "I Am" verses of the Bhagavad-Gita directly parallels the great hymns of HR-Heri of ancient Egypt. Therefore, ancient Egyptian religion considered HR-Heri the origin of all gods and deities. That is why they used the name HR-Heri or Asu (Vasu) along with deities considered to be aspects of Heri. Thus, the god of wealth was called KPHR/Kepe-Heri because in the Gita Krishna says "?I am Kubera".
Being authentic followers of Vaishnavism, ancient Heliopolitan cities always had a presiding deity of Helios (Hari). He was always worshipped with His Fortuna (Goddess of Fortune or Shakti). Evidence shows that the original form of Helios (Hari) was worshipped on the Greek Isle of Rhodes as Kouros. The original form of Fortuna was named Rhoda.
Even modern scholars accept that Kouros was considered the origin of all the Greek gods. He is described as a beautiful youth tending His sacred white cows with His elder brother and friends. He plays a flute and leads the boys in dance as they clash their cymbals. He dances with Rhoda and Her expansions in a circle dance named after Him called the Chorus Dance. As the Lord of the Dance He is called Choreagos from which is derived the modern word 'choreographer'. The peacock feather was the pre-eminent symbol of both Helios and Kouros. Throughout the region Helios (Hari) was worshipped as the Lord of the Heart and the Supreme Personality of Love. That is why He is the Lord of all living entities, cultures, and traditions.

All of this evidence highlights the fact that we are all rooted in the tradition of pure devotional service to Sri Sri Radha Krishna and Balarama. BhaktiAnanda Goswami hopes that his research can be instrumental in reuniting all of God's children and awaken the world to its common heritage as the people of Hari.



Documents by Missionaries showing planned destruction of Vedik Culture:.

The Mission Field 1881 AD

http://ia301221.us.archive.org/2/items/missionfieldamon31unkwuoft/missionfieldamon31unkwuoft.pdf

Study of Sanskrit in relation to Sanskrit Monier-Williams Boden Prof. 1861

http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=&scope=books&FORM=BCBB#q=%22Sanskrit%22&bookid=466525004d46eeed&p=7

Christian Conquest of Asia by John Hennry Barrows Univ. Of Chicago

http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=&scope=books&FORM=BCIR#q=Hindu&bookid=935fa465ba2d460b&p=9



Ancient India in the Heart of Global Trade
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/QA_Ancient_India_was_in_the_middle_of_global_trade/articleshow/2124322.cms

NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 18, 2007: S. P. Gupta, former director of Allahabad Museum and current chairman of Indian Archaeological Society, is credited with excavating several Indus Valley sites. He spoke to Rohit Viswanath on recent developments in marine archaeology.

What are the latest advancements in marine archaeology? "We do not use the term marine archaeology anymore. It is called underwater archaeology. That is because the term merely denotes oceanic and deep-sea archaeology. However, underwater archaeology has a wider scope. Fresh-water sources have been historically conducive to human habitation. Many ancient port cities and towns were located at the mouth of rivers or estuaries, where ships could be anchored. S. R. Rao has done great work in Dwarka. Vast discoveries have also been made in Lakshadweep and Elephanta islands. Several port sites have been found on the east coast in Andhra Pradesh."

What is the significance of these findings? "Rao asserts that the remains excavated by his team from the mouth of the Gomti river in the Gulf of Kutch are part of Krishna's Dwarka, on the basis of a seal found at the site. At the Elephanta islands, 2,000-year-old Roman pottery has been discovered, indicating rich trade with the late Roman Empire between the 4th century AD and 7th century AD. The findings establish it as a significant port of the period. Further, on the west coast, at Chaul, a team from Deccan College has found evidence of trade with Oman from the 1st century AD to 13th century AD. Evidence of trade has also been traced right up to Japan from the west as well as the east of the country. We now know that India had contacts all over the ancient world, right from the Red Sea in the west to South China Sea in the east. India was right in the middle of global trade.

hinduism today



Gunmen open fire at Hindu temple
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/07/05/india.site.background/index.html

(CNN) -- The dispute over a historic religious site in the northern town of Ayodhya has come to define the often fiery mix of politics and religion in India.

The fight over just who owns the patch of ground has caused deep divisions between Hindus and Muslims and has been at the core of secular violence throughout the past decade.

In December 1992, angry Hindu mobs descended upon the site and tore down the Babri Mosque that had stood there since the 16th century.

The razing of the mosque ignited nationwide Hindu-Muslim riots that left more than 2,000 dead.

In March 1993 a series of blasts in Mumbai killed more than 200 and injured over 1,000.

The bombings were blamed on underworld gangs seeking to avenge the killing of scores of Hindus during the riots.

Tensions over the site simmered until February 2003 when a fire erupted inside a train in Gujarat. The train was carrying Hindu activists returning from Ayodhya, where they had been attending a campaign to build a temple at the site.

More than 50 Hindus died and weeks of bloody sectarian violence ensued. In the rioting that followed, more than 3,000 people -- most of them Muslim -- are believed to have died.

The cause of that fire has remained in dispute.

Many Hindus say the disputed land in Ayodhya was the birthplace of the god Rama -- one of the most revered deities in Hinduism.

Muslims, however, say they have claim to land because the mosque was built there in 1528.

India, which prides itself for its secular freedoms laid down in its constitution, is home to the world's largest Muslim minority population of 140 million.

The surge of Islamic fundamentalism in the past 20 years has been matched by a rise in Hindu nationalism.

Following the violence in 2002, an Indian court ordered archaeological excavations to determine its history.

The archaeologists' report was presented to the Allahabad high court in August 2003 and contained a potentially explosive finding.

The study by the Archeological Survey of India found remnants of an ancient Hindu temple under the rubble of the Babri mosque.

But many Muslims, both in India and abroad, have disputed the findings.



Gift of rare manuscripts adds to Oriental Institute’s riches
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=225710

Gwalior family donates some rare 17th century works

Express News Service

Vadodara, March 8: WITH voluntary donations of rare manuscripts and books coming its way, the vast treasure of rare handwritten scripts at the Oriental Institute of MSU is growing richer. Recently, the Gwalior-based Kelkar family donated around 150 manuscripts to the institute, which are believed to be 250 years old. Earlier, a family from Wai, Satara in Maharashtra had given some given rare manuscripts to the institute, and there have also been such donations from families and individuals across Gujarat.   The manuscripts brought from Gwalior include a copy of the Rig Veda with a distinct Vedic accent, Ganesh Gita, Padma Purana, Sanskrit grammar, Vratkatha-Mahatmya, Amarkosh, Ramayan, Vedas, Upanishads, Straut Sutra, Gruhya Sutra and Dharmshashtra. Some of these handwritten manuscripts are also in colour.
                 According to Oriental Institute researchers, a few manuscripts were written in the Modi script of Marathi, which was used for preparing confidential reports, especially by kingdoms in Central India. In this case, the institute may require experts who can read this very traditional style of writing. Few manuscripts date back to the 17th century.   Institute director M L Wadekar said, "We aim to collect all such rare documents which are scattered across the country and need preservation." He said that for an individual, such manuscripts were not of much use and would be very difficult to preserve. He added, "If such donations do not come to us, there are chances that we may lose age-old knowledge scripted by scholars."   The manuscripts belonged to late Prof Chintamani Kelkar, a Sanskrit scholar at the Madhav College of Gwalior. He was also the brother of Prof Ramesh Kelkar of the Faculty of Technology and Engineering at MSU. Research officers at the Oriental
 Institute, Sweta Prajapati and Usha Brahmchari, had gone to Gwalior and sorted out these manuscripts from a large collection of papers and books maintained by Sharda Kelkar, Prof Chintamani's widow.   Researchers at the institute said that with such materials landing up at their doorstep, they had a good opportunity to undertake a comparative study of the contents and other details contained in the manuscripts found from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and other regions of India.   According to Wadekar, the Gwalior manuscripts would now be classified and categorically arranged to enable people to study them.   Incidentally, a delay of almost two months on the part of the varsity to give a go-ahead to the institute to get the manuscripts proved to be costly, as the Kelkar family already donated some rare books to a nearby library.   In the last year itself, the institute received around 300 manuscripts from different people, including manuscripts on Veda, Karmakanda and
 Dharmashashtra from Vedic scholar Pandit Vaman Joglekar. The institute now has a collection of 30,000 manuscripts on different and diversified topics like Vedas, Sanskrit, Grammar, Dharmashashtra, mathematics, architecture, arts, music, dance and others covering almost all fields of knowledge.  http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=225710



What happened to India when the British arrived?
HOW INDIA WAS DRAINED OF ITS WEALTH; India:`Milch Cow of the Empire`
http://www.arisearjuna.org/article.asp
By: Arise Arjuna Staff

On receiving silver bullion from Spain for the provision of 4,800 African slaves, Britain had a surplus of silver which it then used for trading with India. At Battle of Plassey in 1757 British troops commanded by Robert Clive defeated the Bengal ruler a Mughal viceroy and put in British puppet. Robert Clive said there would be little or no difficulty in obtaining absolute possession of these rich kingdoms. At this point silver was no longer needed for trading with India.

Before British rule, there was no private property in land. The self- governing village community handed over each year to the ruler or his nominee a share of the years produce. East India Company put a stop to this and introduced a new revenue system superseding the right of the village community over land and creating two new forms of property on land - landlordism and individual peasant proprietorship. It was assumed that the State was the supreme landlord. Fixed tax payments were introduced based on land whereby payment had to be made to the government whether or not crop had been successful. As one British put it we have introduced new methods of assessing and cultivating land revenue which have converted a once flourishing population into a huge horde of paupers. Indeed the first effect was the reduction in agricultural incomes by 50% thereby undermining the agrarian economy and self- governing village.

In 1769 the Company prohibited Indians from trading in grain, salt, betel nuts and tobacco and discouraged handicraft. Company also prohibited the home work of the silk weavers and compelled them to work in its factories. Weavers who disobeyed were imprisoned, fined or flogged. Company's servants lined their own pockets by private trading and bribery and extortion. Goods were seized at a fraction of their price and resold to their owners at five times their price.

In 1770s one writer said of Bengal : one continued scene or oppression. Systematic plunder led to a famine in which 10 million people perished. Bengal was left naked, stripped of its surplus wealth and grain. Famine struck in 1770 and took the lives of an estimated one third of Bengal's peasantry. A Commons Select Committee report in 1783 said that natives of all ranks and orders had been reduced to a State of Depression and Misery.

In 1787 a former army officer wrote: In former times the Bengal countries were the granary of nations, and the repository of commerce, wealth and manufacture in the East...But such has been the restless energy of misgovernment, that within 20 years many parts of those countries have been reduced to desert. The fields are no longer cultivated, extensive tracks are already overgrown with thickets, the husbandman is plundered, the manufacturer (handicraftsman) oppressed, famine has been repeatedly endured and depopulation ensured.

As India became poor and hungry, Britain became richer. Colossal fortunes were made. Robert Clive arrived in India penniless - activities of Company investigated by House of Commons. The Hindi word loot was introduced into English language because of the plunder of India. Colossal fortunes helped fund Britain's Industrial Revolution e.g.:
1757 - Battle of Plassey
1764 - Hargreaves spinning jenny
1769 - Arkwright's water frame
1779 - Crompton mule (whatever that is)
1785 - Watt's steam engine

When British first reached India they did not find a backwater country. A report on Indian Industrial Commission published in 1919 said that the industrial development of India was at any rate not inferior to that of the most advanced European nations. India was not only a great agricultural country but also a great manufacturing country. It had prosperous textile industry, whose cotton, silk, and woollen products were marketed in Europe and Asia. It had remarkable and remarkably ancient, skills in iron-working. It had its own shipbuilding industry in Calcutta, Daman, Surat, Bombay and Pegu. In 1802 skilled Indian workers were building British warships at Bombay. According to a historian of Indian shipping the teak wood vessels of Bombay were greatly superior to the oaken walls of Old England. Benares was famous all over India for its brass, copper and bell-metal wares. Other important industries included the enamelled jewellery and stone carving of Rajputana towns as well as filigree work in gold and silver, ivory, glass, tannery, perfumery and papermaking.

All this altered under the British leading to the de- industrialisation of India - its forcible transformation from a country of combined agriculture and manufacture into an agricultural colony of British capitalism. British annihilated Indian textile industry because a competitor existed and it had to be destroyed.

Shipbuilding industry aroused the jealousy of British firms and its progress and development were restricted by legislation. India's metalwork, glass and paper industries were likewise throttled when British government in India was obliged to use only British-made paper.

The vacuum created by the contrived ruin of the Indian handicraft industries, a process virtually completed by 1880, was filled with British manufactured goods. Britain's industrial revolution, with its explosive increase in productivity made it essential for British capitalists to find new markets. India turned from exporter of textile or importer. British goods had to have virtually free entry while entry into Britain of India goods was met with prohibitive tariffs. Direct trade between India and the rest of the world had to be curtailed. Horace Hayman Wilson in 1845 in The History of British India from 1805 to 1835 said the foreign manufacturer employed the arm of political injustice to keep down and ultimately strangle a competitor with whom he could not have contended on equal terms.

While there was prosperity for British cotton industry there was ruin for millions of Indian craftsmen and artisans. India's manufacturing towns were blighted e.g. Decca once known as the Manchester of India, and Murshidabad-Bengal's old capital which was once described in 1757 as extensive, populous and rich as London. Millions of spinners, and weavers were forced to seek a precarious living in the countryside, as were many tanners, smelters and smiths.

India was made subservient to the Empire and vast wealth was sucked out of the subcontinent. Economic exploitation was the root cause of the Indian people's poverty and hunger. Under Imperial rule the ordinary people of India grew steadily poorer. Economic historian Romesh Dutt said half of India's annual net revenues of £44m flowed out of India. The number of famines soared from seven in the first half of 19th Century to 24 in second half. According to official figures, 28,825,000 Indians starved to death between 1854 and 1901. The terrible famine of 1899-1900 which affected 474,000 square miles with a population almost 60 million was attributed to a process of bleeding the peasant, who were forced into the clutches of the money- lenders whom British regarded as their mainstay for the payment of revenue. The Bengal famine of 1943, which claimed 1.5million victims were accentuated by the authority's carelessness and utter lack of foresight.

Rich though its soil was, India's people were hungry and miserably poor. This grinding poverty struck all visitors - like a blow in the face as described by India League Delegation 1932. In their report Condition of India 1934 they had been appalled at the poverty of the Indian village. It is the home of stark want...the results of uneconomic agriculture, peasant indebtedness, excessive taxation and rack-renting, absence of social services and the general discontent impressed us everywhere..In the villages there were no health or sanitary services, there were no road, no drainage or lighting, and no proper water supply beyond the village well. Men, women and children work in the fields, farms and cowsheds...All alike work on meagre food and comfort and toil long hours for inadequate returns.

Jawarharlal Nehru wrote that those parts of India which had been longest under British rule were the poorest:Bengal once so rich and flourishing after 187 years of British rule is a miserable mass of poverty-stricken, starving and dying people.

India was sometimes called the 'milch cow of the Empire', and indeed at times it seemed to be so regarded by politicians and bureaucrats in London. Educated Indians were embittered when India was made to pay the entire cost of the India Office building in Whitehall. They were further outraged when in 1867 it was made to pay the full costs of entertaining two thousand five hundred guests at a lavish ball honouring the Sultan of Turkey.

In India, the hunger and poverty experienced by the majority of the population during the colonial period and immediately after independence were the logical consequences of two centuries of British occupation, during which the Indian cotton industry was destroyed, most peasants were put into serfdom (after the British modified the agrarian structures and the tax system to the benefit of the Zamindars - feudal landlords) and cash crops (indigo, tea, jute) gradually replaced traditional food crops. Britain's profits throughout the 19th century cannot be measured without taking into account the 28 million Indians who died of starvation between 1814 and 1901.



Japan's Hindu Linkages Still Alive
http://www.rxpgnews.com/india/Japans-Hindu-linkages-still-alive_15985.shtml

NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 17, 2007: Apart from the widely known fact that Buddhism in Japan has its origin in India, not many probably know that so many Hindu Deities surround the life of a Japanese. Speaking at a lecture titled "Hindu Gods and Goddesses rooted to Japan" here Friday, Lokesh Chandra, the director of International Academy of Indian Culture, highlighted how deeply Indian religion and culture has influenced Japanese culture and tradition over the past centuries. He said that many temples across Japan are full of Hindu Deities. Chandra said Japanese couples who desire to have a beautiful daughter pray to Goddess Saraswati even to this day. Saraswati is also believed as the patroness of writers and painters. "In ancient times, Japanese generals prayed to Saraswati to be victorious in war," Chandra told the gathering which was also attended by the Japanese Ambassador to India Yasukuni Enoki and his wife. Year 2007 is being celebrated as Japan-India Friendship Year to commemorate the 50th year of the cultural agreement between the two countries. According to Chandra, who has travelled to Japan many times to study the country's culture and tradition, Saraswati is also worshipped as the "Goddesses of the kitchen."

There is a suburban district in Tokyo named Kichijo, which traces its roots to "Lakshmi," the Hindu Goddess of Wealth. Lakshmi was propagated to China along with Buddhism in the ancient time, to be known as Kichijo in its Chinese form and then reached Japan as a Buddhist Goddess. Chandra also spoke extensively about how Sanskrit language has influenced traditional Japanese calligraphy. The Indian text was introduced into Japanese society many centuries ago. Japanese monks had to study Sanskrit in order to master Buddhism from original Indian scriptures and textbooks. Lord Ganesha in Japan symbolizes the joy of life that arises from the power rooted in the virtues of wisdom and compassion. There are roughly 100 temples dedicated to Ganesha in Japan, Chandra added. An 11th century Ganesha temple is the oldest among them. Together with Hindu Gods and Goddess, ancient Japanese society was also introduced to Indian dance forms and musical instruments. One can also see the Indian epic Ramayana in the traditional Japanese dance forms of Bugaku and Gigaku.

Hinduism today



Celebrating Christmas as a Hindu
http://www.hinduvoice.co.uk/Issues/12/Christmas2.htm

Vidya Bannerjee

A recent survey of 2,300 employers across Britain said that 74% of companies in Britain have chosen not to display Christmas decorations. The employment law firm Peninsula that conducted the survey claimed that this was so as not to open companies to litigation for discriminating against non-Christian religions. The National Secular Society dismissed the reports as "exaggerated and misleading." President Terry Sanderson said: "Where Christmas parties and decorations are being discontinued it is usually for cost or health and safety reasons. We do not consider the move to be 'Christophobic' as Christians are increasingly prone to claim".

Most of you will know that 25th December is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe to be God's only begotten son and the redeemer of all mankind. But what many of you will not know, is that this was not always so. It was only much later in the history of Christianity that 25th December became associated with the birth of Jesus.

The early Church did not celebrate the birth of Jesus at all. In fact they didn't celebrate anyone's birthday, as they considered celebrating birthdays to be an inherently sinful practice.

The celebration of Christmas has its roots in the pre-Christian Pagan traditions of Europe. The Winter-Solstice or Yuletide or Mother Night had been one of the major festivals of all pre-Christian Pagan religions and celebrated in a variety of different ways.

December 21st, Called Yule (remember the Yule Ball in Harry Potter?), is one of the traditional Celtic fire festivals and marks the return of light after the longest night of the year. The tradition of giving presents, feasting with family and friends and generally being merry comes from the festival of Saturnalia, which used to be celebrated around December 17th in honour of Saturn, God of agriculture and plenty. Big feasts were generally laid out by the rich, to feed their poorer neighbours.

These festivities continued over the "holidays" and were followed by the solstice feast of Mithras, God of light, on December 25th and the New Year celebrations. It marked the renewal of hope and people would decorate their homes with all sorts of greenery to symbolize new life. That's where the tradition of the green Christmas tree and the holly comes from. For that matter, decorating the tree with toys, singing carols about the promise of spring, kissing under the mistletoe and even Santa, yes him too (but that's another story)…they all find their origins in the religion of the Pagan ancestors of Europe. On a side note, Hindus too celebrate this sacred time of the year with the festival of Panch Ganapati.

It is well known that when Europe was Christianised, the old religions and traditions were brutally suppressed, with mass conversion to Christianity. However, even after their conversion to Christianity, people continued to practice and celebrate their old Pagan festivals, including the Winter-Solstice, (the same as how many Hindus who have converted to Christianity for whatever reason, usually continue to celebrate Hindu festivals like Diwali).

In this scenario, the Church leaders found it easier to consolidate their power by giving Christian meanings to previous traditions and celebrations. So eventually, the Church pronounced the traditional winter festival as the birth of Jesus Christ, as a matter of strategic interest.

But it did not end there. Even after the Church decreed the birthday of Jesus to be on 25th of December, various practices that betrayed Pagan origins were frowned upon, with an attempt to suppress them. The mistletoe (a name which means 'all heal') was not allowed inside Christian churches. The church had long anguished over the performance of carols and song-dances and these were explicitly banned in the 7th Century at the Council of Chalon-sur-Saône. Even mince pies were looked on with disfavour! Why? Well why not? They're derived from consecrated cakes of the Pagans after all.

In later history, every time puritanical Christian sects have established power, they've made it a point to ban Christmas. When a Puritan parliament triumphed over King Charles I of England (1644), Christmas was officially banned (1647). During the Cromwellian period anyone celebrating Christmas was jailed for heresy. The Restoration (1660) ended the ban, but Christmas celebration was still disapproved of by the Anglican clergy. In America, Christmas was generally outlawed until the end of the last century. In Boston, up to 1870, anyone missing work on Christmas Day would be liable to be fired. Factory owners customarily required employees to come to work at 5 a.m. on Christmas - to insure they wouldn't have time to go to church that day. Even today several strict Christian groups like Jehovah's witnesses do not celebrate Christmas and see having Christmas trees as nature venerating and thus 'denounce' it as - wait for it...idol worship.

So as we can see, Christmas has generally had quite a variable status in society…having repeatedly gone from celebrated to banned and back again. Even today, we witness that there is a move to reduce public expression of Christmas, so as not to discriminate against non-Christians, a phenomenon which may be well intentioned, but quite unnecessary.

The fact is that most people have wanted nothing to do with all the religious upheavals and politics, and have continued to celebrate this age-old festival of good will, like they have been doing for probably thousands of years. With all the twists and turns of history, the meaning of this time of the year remains a time of hope and goodwill in the midst of the cold winter (central heating and global warming not withstanding), and a time of celebration with friends and family - universal themes that anybody, especially Hindus, should be able to relate to.

Many alarmist Hindus bemoan the 'loss of culture' and 'westernisation' simply because their children celebrate Christmas. They should realize that if celebrated with the understanding of the real meaning of the rites and rituals associated with this festive time of the year, then not only are they NOT losing their culture but in fact enhancing it. If anything, Hindus should be able to relate to the spiritual traditions surrounding the Winter Solstice as derives its inspiration on same outlook to life as that of Hinduism.



Israel Is Not the Original Holy Land of the Jews, Muslims, and Christians!
http://www.mondovista.com/nephilim.html
By Gene D. Matlock

(NOTE: where written "Above" see original article for the related graphic or picture image.)

In reading the Torah we can infer that Eden was still a great place to live, even after Adam and Eve were thrown out of Eden, Probably in Adam's time, mankind had degenerated to the lower limits of his blessed human condition: the wise man.

Foreseeing that humans were gradually degenerating into little more than animals, the Divine Forces sent some divinities to the earth to give their help:

'When men began to increase on earth and daughters were born to them, the divine beings saw how beautiful the daughters of men were and took wives from among those that pleased them. The Lord said, My breath shall not abide in man forever, since he too is flesh; let the days allotted him be one hundred and twenty years. It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth--when the divine beings cohabited with the daughters of men, who bore them offspring. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown.' (Genesis, 6:1--4.)

Above: Did a spaceship such as the above bring the Nephilim to this world?

Most people can't understand why this passage was placed in Genesis and who the Nephilim were. The Nephilim descended to earth to plant the seeds of God--Men who would, from time to time, reincarnate to lead mankind on the right path. Nephilim has its equivalent both in Sanskrit and Greek. In Sanskrit, 'Nau/Nu/Na=' ship; boat; knowledge; certainty; the descendancy from Noah or Lord Krishna; God Shiva; Buddha; Noah.' Navalin = Star Ship; Constellation Ship. In Greek, Nephilim= Nuphylum, meaning The Five Races (Phylum) of Noah (Nu). Of the five races, Yadu, Turvasa, Druhyus, Anu, and Puru, the only one I€ ¦Õll deal with are the Yadu and their companions, the Yadavas. Yadava is a contraction of Yadu plus Deva, meaning 'The Yadu Demi--Gods or People of Yah.' It was through them that Lord Krishna, God Shiva, and Buddha came to earth to save mankind from time to time, as follows:

Nephilim/Navalin > Noah (Manu) >Jyapeti (Japhet or Yayati) > Yadu > Yadava > Jews/Yahuda.

Yayati/Jyapeti/Japhet was at one and the same time Dyauspitar (Jupiter), Dyus (Zeus), Vishnu or Lord Krishna, Shiva, and Buddha.

Notice that the Nephilim/Navalin did not detach themselves from their bodies and move into those of the Yadus and Yadavas. They could enter this world only via the bloodstreams of the Yadu and Yadava (Yahudas or Jews). For that, they had to breed with the daughters of men, leaving their seed in the wombs of these daughters. The closer people were tied genetically to the Yadu and Yadava, the easier it was to get a correct genetic match for producing a fetus capable of hosting a true Son of the Unbegotten. Any of the other races could produce saints but not saviors like Jesus and Krishna. For this reason, Lord Krishna and Jesus were related by blood ties. Krishna was a Yadu Kuru. Jesus was a Yehudi Koresh.

Could it be that the Hebrew and Hindu Gods, entering mankind's bloodstream through Japhet, the son of Noah, were really Gods? It seems that they were. We, whose religions descend from Noah's times, worshiping the same deities, accuse one another of being wrong and that we are right. We are all brothers. Let€ ¦Õ's face it. What amazes me is that the Krishtayani, who were the people of Noah, and now the Christians, have never left the world scene.

Before researching this information, I wondered why the Jews have always said they are 'The Chosen People.' That is because they, the Yadavas, and the Yadus were the only ones chosen by God to bring redemption to the world. Over the centuries, the Jews came to forget that they also shared that honor with the Indian Jyapeti, Yadus and Yadavas.

In ancient times, these tribes were said to possess great mystical knowledge--more than any other peoples on earth. It may be true that those who were chosen for the priesthood had to perform some kind of test to prove they descended from the Divine Beings called Nephilim/Navalin. In Hebrews 7:3, we read a description of the mysterious figure Melchizedec whom I claim was Malika Sadhaka (Lord Krishna), the Incarnation of Vishnu:

Above: Picture of Jerusalem's Melchisedec (God Krishna)?

'Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.'

The Bible said clearly that the Nephilim/Navalin were 'divine.'

I know that some people might regard such speculations of mine as fantasy. But I'm taking the Jewish and Hindu scriptures seriously.

After the Nephilim/Navalin had been on earth for sufficient time to seed the Yadus' and Yadavas' bloodstreams with the spirits of future divinities, the Torah states:

'The Lord saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised in his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened. The Lord said, 'I will blot out from the earth the men whom I created--men together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them. But Noah found favor with the Lord.' (Genesis 5--8.)

After that, God gave Noah time enough to build the Ark, and then, the floods came.

Some people may reject the idea that the Nephilim/Navalin impregnated Noah's progeny with the germs of potential God--Men who would later become Melchisedec, Jesus Christ, Krishna, Indra, Agni, Quetzalcoatl and others; men who would supply redemption to humankind in such severe crises as the Siberian Altai flood. If that is not so, for what other reason did God plant the Nephilim/Navalin in the blood of mankind before destroying all but a few?

It is possible that the ancient Jewish wise men did not want us to know the Nephilim came here to reseed the earth with people having an improved genetic structure, who would begin human life anew All we read in the Bible is a short description of the Nephilim/Navalin--and then the part about the flood. It probably took several hundred years for the Nephilim/Navalin to improve and regenerate the human genetic structure sufficiently in Noah and his descendants.

Just to give you an idea of how low mankind had fallen after the Great Flood in Altai, Siberia, read the Hindu account of Noah, taken from the Matsya Purana:

'To Satyavarman, that sovereign of the whole earth, were born three sons: the eldest Shem; then Sham; and thirdly, Jyapeti by name.

'They were all men of good morals, excellent in virtue and virtuous deeds, skilled in the use of weapons to strike with, or to be thrown; brave men, eager for victory in battle.

'But Satyavarman, being continually delighted with devout meditation, and seeing his sons fit for dominion, laid upon them the burdens of government.

'Whilst he remained honouring and satisfying the gods, and priests, and kine, one day, by the act of destiny, having drunk mead,

'Became senseless and lay asleep naked. Then, he was seen by Sham, and by him were his two brothers called:

'To whom he said, 'What now has befallen? In what state is this our sire?' By these two he was hidden with clothes, and called to his senses again and again.

'Having recovered his intellect, and perfectly knowing what had passed, he cursed Sham, saying, 'Thou shalt be the servant of servants.'

'And since thou wast a laugher in their presence, from laughter thou shalt acquire a name. Then he gave Sham the wide domain on the south of the snowy mountains.

'And to Jyapeti he gave all the north of the snowy mountains; but he, by the power of religious contemplation, attained supreme bliss.'

Can you imagine what men were like after the Great Flood if Ham attempted sodomy on his own father, an old wino? Ham was one of the 'good guys,' a man of 'good morals, excellent in virtue and virtuous deeds'?

Above: Remains of an ancient ark at Drupinar, Turkey, Visitor Center, believed to be either the Jewish Noah's Ark or the one mentioned in the Koran

Noah was a great yogi who spent his time in meditation and contemplating the Gods--while drunk as a skunk on mead.

What were the 'bad guys' like in those days? It goes without saying that the future Jesuses, Krishnas, Indras, Vishnus, Agnis and other God--men would have to endure many reincarnations and crucifixions before mankind could be regenerated sufficiently to return to the right path. Even now, in this bleeding world, we are noticing that many Navalins are forgetting the Divine Purpose for which they came when they left that faraway planet in Outer Space!

The War of Armageddon Already Happened in India, Nearly Five Thousand Years Ago!

When Lord Krishna (Melchisedec or Malika Sadhaka), his son Abraham, and Sarah fled to the Middle East, they took along many of Hinduism's favorite myths with them. That's why the Jews and the Hindus have similar deified heroes and legends. One memory that accompanied them, eventually weaving itself into Jewish--Christian--Islamic mythology, was the so-called 'prophecy' of The War of Armageddon which we mistakenly think will happen on the Plain of Meggido, in Israel--but only if we make it happen.

Supposedly, of the 200 million soldiers on both sides, who will be involved in that war, only 144,000 people will survive. For the Christians, the losers will be the Jews and the Moslems. For the Moslems, the Christians and the Jews will be the losers. Christ will be the champion of the winners, regardless of which side wins. Without a doubt, the Jewish Zionists have a less than favorable fate planned for us Christians and Moslems.

According to the Mahabharata, the ancient Indians fought a long war to rid themselves of the mercantile class of Indians called Asuras (Assyrians). In reality, it was mainly a war involving wandering landless nomadic goat and sheepherders and subsistence farmers against the shippers, merchants and traders, lumber men, miners, farmers, and cattle and horse ranchers who were exploiting ancient Western India to the limit. The nomads wanted to settle down but because of their poverty, they had to end up as servants of those who owned all the land, forests, and cities. The Bible refers to this war as the contention between Cain and Abel. It was similar to our own Wild West range wars. It took about a thousand years for the Asuras (People of Yah) to be defeated and driven out of India, among whom were Krishna, Abraham, Sarah, and all those tribes destined to become Yahudas or Jews.

'The Jews alias Judaists alias Zionists are the Vedic people of the clan of Lord Krishna who had to migrate from the Dwarka kingdom after the Mahabharata war.' (World Vedic Heritage, by P. N. Oak, p. 187.)

Historian Oak's statement confirms my thesis that the War of Armageddon (Ar-Maghada) was long ago past tense when the forefathers of the Jews arrived in the land over which the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs are now fighting.

Above: Israel's Plain of Meggido, named in remembrance of the Battle of Ar'maghada back in India.

Besides naming a plain in Israel, Meggido (Maghada), the forefathers of the Jews named two small mountains Zion and Moriah in remembrance of the Mt. Meru they left behind in India, for another name of Mt. Meru was Siyoni (From the Vagina [Source]). Even in such places as Egypt, pyramids are called M'ru, for every people on earth originated in the ancient Turkic countries and India.

Above: Archeological dig at Mt. Zion, named after Siyoni or Seuna, another name of Mt. Meru.

Above: Jerusalem Temple Mount or Mt. Moriah, also named after India€ ¦Õs Mt. Meru

Nothing that I have said thus far is original with me. Everything is derived from other sources. Even the early Portuguese Jesuit priests in India noticed that the Yadus and Yadavas called their ancient homeland in Maharasthra, Gujarat, and other places in the upper part of India, Seuna--Desa (Land of Zion.)

'€ ¦Éas the records of the [Seunadesa] dynasty traced its history from the Puranic hero Yadu, its rulers were better known as Yadavas although the word Seuna was not totally forgotten.' (The Yadavas and Their Times, By Onkar Prasad Verma, pp.2--3.)

Godfrey Higgins, in his monstrous two volume work, Anacalypsis, gave a detailed account of the Northern India origin of the Jews. When I was compiling my book, Jesus and Moses Are Buried in India, Birthplace of Abraham and The Hebrews, I bought a translation of an ancient book entitled History of the Afghans, by Khwaja Neamat Ullah, who lived about 300 or 400 years after the time of Mohammed. What I read in that book astounded me. To make sure I had understood the book accurately, I lent it to an educated friend of mine, a retired mathematician, asking him to read it and tell me his conclusions. After reading it, he said to me, 'This is a history of the Jews.' For the reasons I have described, it is absolutely certain that Israel is in no way the original holy land of the Jews, Muslims, and Christians. They are fighting one another over the wrong piece of real estate!
 

Above: Israelis capturing Palestinians on Temple Mount.

Over the millenniums, the people of India have forgotten where their original Mt. Meru was. Some think it could have been Mt. Ararat in Armenia. Some say it was Bulgaria's most sacred mountain, Sinanica. Others claim it is a mountain in Altai, Siberia, called Shambala. In his book, Ancient Geography of Ayodhya, Hindu geographer, Dr. Dr. Sham Narain Pande, says it was located in what is now Herat, Afghanistan. The Hindus have settled on the West Tibetan Kailasa as the original Mt. Meru. I feel that the real Mt. Meru may be found in today's Madhya Pradesh state. For the Christians and Jews, our 'Mt. Meru' was the Tower of Babel in Babylon. However, Edward Pococke, in India in Greece, stated that when the people of Northern India fled northward as a result of the War of the Mahabharata, they named Babel after Bopal which is a place in Madhya Pradesh.

At the tail end of the War of the Mahabharata, the forefathers of the Jews were composed of many tiny republican principalities because each tribe and clan was fiercely independent. They were always fighting among themselves, even for trivial reasons. However, one nation among all of them was unusually powerful and stable: Magadha. Because of his divine stature, the Yadus and Yadavas counted on Lord Krishna to be their divine savior and unite them as a single nation under Maghada, but things did not work out that way. One day, some drunken teenagers from various tribes and clans started fighting over the results of a dice game.

Above: Young Yadava men who got involved in the dice game.

Almost immediately, all the Yadus and Yadavas became embroiled in what was perhaps the bloodiest war in human history: The Eighteen Day War. The combatants faced off against each other in two different groups: the Kaurava (Kuru) army, headed by Krishna and his friend Arjuna, consisting of 11,000 chariots, 10,900 elephants, 200,000 horses, and three million foot soldiers versus the Pandavas, composed of 6,000 chariots, 6,000 elephants, 10,000 horses, and 1 million foot soldiers.
 

At the end of those 18 days, all the animals of both sides were killed. Only 18,000 warriors survived among an estimated 5 million warriors! Counting the wives and children of the surviving warriors, only about 144,000 Yadus and Yadavas survived just as we have been taught. Besides being called The Eighteen Day War, it was also called the War of Ar-Maghada, meaning 'The Maghada Massacre,' for the Sanskrit AR means 'misfortune, injury, and inflicted pain.'

Because he failed to unite the Yadus and Yadavas in a single monarchy, Krishna was impaled on a tree to atone for the sins of his people. A few days later, he arose from the dead. When Dwarka--Haran sank under the sea, Krishna led his people to what is now Jerusalem, becoming its King Melchisedec as St.Paul himself intimated in The Book of Proverbs.
 

Above: Lord Krishna involved in the falsely prophesied and plagiarized 18 Day War or the War of Ar'Maghada. According to Hindu historian P.N. Oak, when they went to the Middle East, they agreed to forget their tribal differences think of themselves as just Maghadans and just worship 'Yah.' In this way, they could preserve their tribal unity.
 

Above: Map of Kuruksetra. The site of the Battle of Ar'Maghada, which happened more than 4,000 years ago, but which ignorant Christian, Jewish, and Muslim clerics say hasn't happened yet, is colored a dark orange.

It may come as a surprise to most readers to learn that Sarah and Abraham were Yadavas. The Sarasvat Brahmin Yadavas are even today prominent world traders, especially the Gauda (God) Sarasvatis. In Sanskrit, Goda means 'Brain or Vulva,' the Source or Creative Principle. For that reason, Sarasvati is the Hindu Goddess of Knowledge. After four thousand years, Abraham and Sarah are still with us. However, in general, the Hindu Yadavas are lower caste, many of whom suffer unbearable misery. As the old saying goes, 'The more things change, the more they stay the same.'

After fleeing to the Middle East, the Yahudas (People of Yah) named a certain plain there, 'Meggido,' in remembrance of the so--called Eighteen Day Yadavi War back in Brahmavarta, India, in what is now the state of Haryana. Who would have known that the Bhagavadgita story of Krishna and the War of Ar-Maghada would end up being the sweetheart of ignorant Christian Evangelical preachers, Moslem extremists, and Zionist dreamers? And isn't it strange that hundreds of millions of thoroughly brainwashed people on earth are willing to lose their lives and even blow up this world to please their ignorant religious leaders and selfish interests who have stupidly and ignorantly led them astray?
 

Above: Most of the Yadavas (Hindu Jews or People of Yah) who didn€ ¦Õt escape to Jerusalem with Krishna Malika Sadhaka, Abraham, and Sarah are now low caste. Many of these low-caste Yadavas suffer almost unbearable pain in their lives. The Yadava man and woman (Dalits) in this picture were killed by some upper caste thugs who were angry because the victims were trying to improve their lives. Will the erroneous Armageddon prophecy in Israel spawn more horrors such as this one?
 

Throughout the millenniums, not only in India, but wherever they wandered in the world, the Yadavas, also known as People of Yah, and Jats, have affected human civilization as no other peoples on earth. Anyone wanting to find out more about these amazing people should read the following books: Yadavas Throughout the Ages, consisting of two volumes, by Yadav Singh; The Yadavas And their Times, by Onkar Prasad Verma; History of Jats, by Ram Sarup Joon; World Vedic Heritage, by P. N. Oak; Anacalypsis, a large two volume masterpiece by Godfrey Higgins.

In Yadavas Throughout the Ages, Yadav Singh discussed the astonishing cultural similarities between his distant relatives, the Israelis, and their modern brothers back in India:..their struggle for freedom, love for their motherland, attachment for land, stubborn attitude, their way of struggle, greediness for money, fighting qualities, fit to survive in adverse circumstances, make the best use of the worst type of land for agricultural production€ ¦É (Volume 1).

In volume II, he said that they civilized all the peoples they conquered, giving them 'new philosophy, religion, calendars, medical science, art of warfare, sculpture and what not ... Instead of Vedic religion, they had Bhagavata or Sarvata Dharma (Science of Living) as their way of life, which came to be known in later times a Vaisnavadharma (Bakhti Yoga, Science of Divine Love)...The Yadavas were progressive, dynamic, and energetic people. They opened new vistas in every walk of life-music, dance, fine arts, archery, government, wrestling, breeding, scaling high peaks, inventing new device, discovering new ideologies, philosophies, etc. The contribution of these people to India in particular, and the world in general, immense...' (Vol. II, pp. 7--8.)

Even today, In India, the Yadavas continue being the greatest social reformers. In my research, I noticed that many non--Yadava Hindus wish they were not such aggressive missionaries for social reform and human betterment. Historian Singh said that in the past many foreign and native--Indian non--Yadavas thought that they had been cursed by Yayati, and that non--Yadavas could never have their own gods and monarchs. Could the Nephilim/Navalin be the reason why?
 

Above: Portrait of one of India's most distinguished leaders of the 19th century, Swami Davanand Saraswati. He was the founder of India's Arya Samaj or The Society of Nobles Hindu Reform Movement. The society condemns and fights against ancestor worship, animal sacrifice, the caste system, child marriage, discrimination against women, idol worship, religious pilgrimages, and untouchability. It also champions reincarnation and celibacy.

The society is finally beginning to transform India and bring it to the forefront in this world of nations. Hopefully, in the near future, we will never again have to observe such heart--rending tragedies such as that mutilated couple whose only crime was in wanting to better themselves educationally and morally.

Note: This article is based on a chapter of Gene Matlock's book, Reaching For God--Now a Valid Science! On sale in August, 2007.

Viewzone || Comments? || More from Gene Matlock

  http://www.mondovista.com/nephilim.html


Ancient Greeks Punished for Cow Killing
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Helios.html

In the Odyssey (book XII), Odysseus and his surviving crew landed on an island, Thrinacia, sacred to the sun god, whom Circe names Hyperion rather than Helios:

"You will now come to the Thrinacian island, and here you will see many herds of cattle and flocks of sheep belonging to the sun-god-seven herds of cattle and seven flocks of sheep, with fifty head in each flock. They do not breed, nor do they become fewer in number, and they are tended by the goddesses Phaethusa and Lampetia, who are children of the sun-god Hyperion by Neaera. Their mother when she had borne them and had done suckling them sent them to the Thrinacian  island, which was a long way off, to live there and look after their father's flocks and herds."

There were kept the sacred red Cattle of the Sun. Though Odysseus warned his men not to, they impiously killed and ate some of the cattle. The guardians of the island, Helios' daughters, told their father. Helios destroyed the ship and all the men save Odysseus.
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Helios.html

Vedik Culture list - Vrindavan Parker



 
 
 
 
 
 



Gift of rare manuscripts adds to Oriental Institute’s riches
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=225710

Gwalior family donates some rare 17th century works

Express News Service

Vadodara, March 8: WITH voluntary donations of rare manuscripts and books coming its way, the vast treasure of rare handwritten scripts at the Oriental Institute of MSU is growing richer. Recently, the Gwalior-based Kelkar family donated around 150 manuscripts to the institute, which are believed to be 250 years old. Earlier, a family from Wai, Satara in Maharashtra had given some given rare manuscripts to the institute, and there have also been such donations from families and individuals across Gujarat.   The manuscripts brought from Gwalior include a copy of the Rig Veda with a distinct Vedic accent, Ganesh Gita, Padma Purana, Sanskrit grammar, Vratkatha-Mahatmya, Amarkosh, Ramayan, Vedas, Upanishads, Straut Sutra, Gruhya Sutra and Dharmshashtra. Some of these handwritten manuscripts are also in colour.
                 According to Oriental Institute researchers, a few manuscripts were written in the Modi script of Marathi, which was used for preparing confidential reports, especially by kingdoms in Central India. In this case, the institute may require experts who can read this very traditional style of writing. Few manuscripts date back to the 17th century.   Institute director M L Wadekar said, "We aim to collect all such rare documents which are scattered across the country and need preservation." He said that for an individual, such manuscripts were not of much use and would be very difficult to preserve. He added, "If such donations do not come to us, there are chances that we may lose age-old knowledge scripted by scholars."   The manuscripts belonged to late Prof Chintamani Kelkar, a Sanskrit scholar at the Madhav College of Gwalior. He was also the brother of Prof Ramesh Kelkar of the Faculty of Technology and Engineering at MSU. Research officers at the Oriental
 Institute, Sweta Prajapati and Usha Brahmchari, had gone to Gwalior and sorted out these manuscripts from a large collection of papers and books maintained by Sharda Kelkar, Prof Chintamani's widow.   Researchers at the institute said that with such materials landing up at their doorstep, they had a good opportunity to undertake a comparative study of the contents and other details contained in the manuscripts found from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and other regions of India.   According to Wadekar, the Gwalior manuscripts would now be classified and categorically arranged to enable people to study them.   Incidentally, a delay of almost two months on the part of the varsity to give a go-ahead to the institute to get the manuscripts proved to be costly, as the Kelkar family already donated some rare books to a nearby library.   In the last year itself, the institute received around 300 manuscripts from different people, including manuscripts on Veda, Karmakanda and
 Dharmashashtra from Vedic scholar Pandit Vaman Joglekar. The institute now has a collection of 30,000 manuscripts on different and diversified topics like Vedas, Sanskrit, Grammar, Dharmashashtra, mathematics, architecture, arts, music, dance and others covering almost all fields of knowledge. http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=225710



HINDU TEMPLES WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM
http://www.voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples1/ch2.htm

Chapter Two
The Tip of An Iceberg
Sita Ram Goel

The mention made by Maulana Abdul Hai (Indian Express, February 5) of Hindu temples turned into mosques, is only the tip of an iceberg, The iceberg itself lies submerged in the writings of medieval Muslim historians, accounts of foreign travellers and the reports of the Archaeological Survey of India. A hue and cry has been raised in the name of secularism and national integration whenever the iceberg has chanced to surface, inspite of hectic efforts to keep it suppressed. Marxist politicians masquerading as historians have been the major contributors to this conspiracy of silence.

Muslim politicians and scholars in present-day India resent any reference whatsoever to the destruction of Hindu temples in medieval times.  They react as if it is a canard being spread by those they stigmatise as Hindu communalists.  There was, however, a time, not so long ago, when their predecessors viewed the same performance as an act of piety and proclaimed it with considerable pride in inscriptions and literary compositions.  Hindus of medieval India hardly wrote any history of what happened to their places of worship at the hands of Islamic iconoclasts.  Whatever evidence the "Hindu communalists" cite in this context comes entirely from Islamic sources, epigraphic and literary.

Epigraphic Evidence

There are many mosques all over India which are known to local tradition and the Archaeological Survey of India as built on the site of and, quite frequently, from the materials of, demolished Hindu temples.  Most of them carry inscriptions invoking Allah and the Prophet, quoting the Quran and giving details of when, how and by whom they were constructed.  The inscriptions have been deciphered and connected to their historical context by learned Muslim epigraphists. They have been published by the, Archaeological Survey of India in its Epigraphia Indica-Arabic and Persian Supplement, an annual which appeared first in 1907-08 as Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica.  The following few inscriptions have been selected in order to show that (1) destruction of Hindu temples continued throughout the period of Muslim domination; (2) it covered all parts of India-east, west, north and south; and (3) all Muslim dynasties, imperial and provincial, participated in the "pious performance."

1. Quwwat al-Islam Masjid, Qutb Minar, Delhi: "This fort was conquered and the Jami Masjid built in the year 587 by the Amir... the slave of the Sultan, may Allalh strengthen his helpers.  The materials of 27 idol temples, on each of which 2,000,000 Delhiwals had been spent were used in the (construction of) the mosque..." (1909-10, Pp 3-4). The Amir was Qutbud-Din Aibak, slave of Muizzud-Din Muhammad Ghori. The year 587 H. corresponds to 1192 A.D. "Delhiwal" was a high-denomination coin current at that time in Delhi.

2. Masjid at Manvi in the Raichur District of Karnataka: "Praise be to Allah that by the decree of the Parvardigar, a mosque has been converted out of a temple as a sign of religion in the reign of... the Sultan who is the asylum of Faith ... Firuz Shah Bahmani who is the cause of exuberant spring in the garden of religion" (1962, Pp. 56-57).  The inscription mentions the year 1406-07 A.D. as the time of construction.

3. Jami Masjid at Malan, Palanpur Taluka, Banaskantha District of Gujarat: "The Jami Masjid was built... by Khan-I-Azam Ulugh Khan... who suppressed the wretched infidels.  He eradicated the idolatrous houses and mine of infidelity, along with the idols... with the edge of the sword, and made ready this edifice... He made its walls and doors out of the idols; the back of every stone became the place for prostration of the believer" (1963, Pp. 26-29).  The date of construction is mentioned as 1462 A.D. in the reign of Mahmud Shah I (Begada) of Gujarat.

4. Hammam Darwaza Masjid at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh: "Thanks that by the guidance of the Everlasting and the Living (Allah), this house of infidelity became the niche of prayer.  As a reward for that, the Generous Lord constructed an abode for the builder in paradise" (1969, p. 375).  Its chronogram yields the year 1567 A.D. in the reign of Akbar, the Great Mughal.  A local historian, Fasihud-Din, tells us that the temple had been built earlier by Diwan Lachhman Das, an official of the Mughal government.

5. Jami Masjid at Ghoda in the Poona District of Maharashtra: "O Allah! 0 Muhammad! O Ali!  When Mir Muhammad Zaman made up his mind, he opened the door of prosperity on himself by his own hand.  He demolished thirty-three idol temples (and) by divine grace laid the foundation of a building in this abode of perdition" (1933-34, p.24). The inscription is dated 1586 A.D. when the Poona region was ruled by the Nizam Shahi sultans of Ahmadnagar.

6. Gachinala Masjid at Cumbum in the Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh: "He is Allah, may he be glorified... During the august rule of... Muhammad Shah, there was a well-established idol-house in Kuhmum... Muhammad Salih who prospers in the rectitude of the affairs of Faith... razed to the ground, the edifice of the idol-house and broke the idols in a manly fashion.  He constructed on its site a suitable mosque, towering above the buildings of all" (1959-60, Pp. 64-66).  The date of construction is mentioned as 1729-30 A.D. in the reign of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah.

Though sites of demolished Hindu temples were mostly used for building mosques and idgahs, temple materials were often used in other Muslim monuments as well.  Archaeologists have discovered such materials, architectural as well as sculptural, in quite a few forts, palaces, maqbaras, sufi khanqahs, madrasas, etc.  In Srinagar, Kashmir, temple materials can be seen in long stretches of the stone embankments on both sides of the Jhelum.  Two inscriptions on the walls of the Gopi Talav, a stepped well at Surat, tell us that the well was constructed by Haidar Quli, the Mughal governor of Gujarat, in 1718 A.D. in the reign of Farrukh Siyar.  One of them says, "its bricks were taken from an idol temple." The other informs us that "Haider Quli Khan, during whose period tyranny has become extinct, laid waste several idol temples in order to make this strong building firm..." (1933-34, Pp. 37-44).

Literary Evidence

Literary evidence of Islamic iconoclasm vis-a-vis Hindu places of worship is far more extensive.  It covers a longer span of time, from the fifth decade of the 7th century to the closing years of the eighteenth.  It also embraces a larger space, from Transoxiana in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south, and from Afghanistan in the west to Assam in the east.  Marxist "historians" and Muslim apologists would have us believe that medieval Muslim annalists were indulging in poetic exaggerations in order to please their pious patrons. Archaeological explorations in modern times have, however, provided physical proofs of literary descriptions.  The vast cradle of Hindu culture is literally littered with ruins of temples and monasteries belonging to all sects of Sanatana Dharma - Buddhist, Jain, Saiva, Shakta, Vaishnava and the rest.

Almost all medieval Muslim historians credit their heroes with desecration of Hindu idols and/or destruction of Hindu temples.  The picture that emerges has the following components, depending upon whether the iconoclast was in a hurry on account of Hindu resistance or did his work at leisure after a decisive victory:

1. The idols were mutilated or smashed or burnt or melted down if they were made of precious metals.

2. Sculptures in relief on walls and pillars were disfigured or scraped away or torn down.

3. Idols of stone and inferior metals or their pieces were taken away, sometimes by cartloads, to be thrown down before the main mosque in (a) the metropolis of the ruling Muslim sultan and (b) the holy cities of Islam, particularly Mecca, Medina and Baghdad.

4. There were instances of idols being turned into lavatory seats or handed over to butchers to be used as weights while selling meat.

5. Brahmin priests and other holy men in and around the temple were molested or murdered.

6. Sacred vessels and scriptures used in worship were defiled and scattered or burnt.

7. Temples were damaged or despoiled or demolished or burnt down or converted into mosques with some structural alterations or entire mosques were raised on the same sites mostly with temple materials.

8. Cows were slaughtered on the temple sites so that Hindus could not use them again.

The literary sources, like epigraphic, provide evidence of the elation which Muslims felt while witnessing or narrating these "pious deeds." A few citations from Amir Khusru will illustrate the point. The instances cited relate to the doings of Jalalud-Din Firuz Khalji, Alaud-Din Khalji and the letter's military commanders. Khusru served as a court-poet of sex successive sultans at Delhi and wrote a masnavi in praise of each.  He was the dearest disciple of Shaikh Nizamud-Din Awliya and has come to be honoured as some sort of a sufi himself.  In our own times, he is being hailed is the father of a composite Hindu-Muslim culture and the pioneer of secularism.  Dr. R. C. Majumdar, whom the Marxists malign as a "communalist historian" names him as a "liberal Muslim".

1. Jhain: "Next morning he (Jalalud-Din) went again to the temples and ordered their destruction... While the soldiers sought every opportunity of plundering, the Shah was engaged in burning the temples and destroying the idols.  There were two bronze idols of Brahma, each of which weighed more than a thousand mans.  These were broken into pieces and the fragments were distributed among the officers, with orders to throw them down at the gates of the Masjid on their return (to Delhi)" (Miftah-ul-Futuh).

2. Devagiri: "He (Alaud-Din) destroyed the temples of the idolaters and erected pulpits and arches for mosques" (Ibid.).

3. Somanath: "They made the temple prostrate itself towards the Kaaba.  You may say that the temple first offered its prayers and then had a bath (i.e. the temple was made to topple and fall into the sea)... He (Ulugh Khan) destroyed all the idols and temples, but sent one idol, the biggest of all idols, to the court of his Godlike Majesty and on that account in that ancient stronghold of idolatry, the summons to prayers was proclaimed so loudly that they heard it in Misr (Egypt) and Madain (Iraq)" (Tarikh-i-Alai).

4. Delhi: "He (Alaud-Din) ordered the circumference of the new minar to be made double of the old one (Qutb Minar)... The stones were dug out from the hills and the temples of the infidels were demolished to furnish a supply" (Ibid.).

5. Ranthambhor: "This strong fort was taken by the slaughter of the stinking Rai.  Jhain was also captured, an iron fort, an ancient abode of idolatry, and a new city of the people of the faith arose.  The temple of Bahir (Bhairava) Deo and temples of other gods, were all razed to the ground" (Ibid.).

6. Brahmastpuri (Chidambaram): "Here he (Malik Kafur) heard that in Bramastpuri there was a golden idol... He then determined on razing the temple to the ground... It was the holy place of the Hindus which the Malik dug up from its foundations with the greatest care, and the heads of brahmans and idolaters danced from their necks and fell to the ground at their feet, and blood flowed in torrents.  The stone idols called Ling Mahadeo, which had been established a long time at the place and on which the women of the infidels rubbed their vaginas for (sexual) satisfaction, these, up to this time, the kick of the horse of Islam had not attempted to break.  The Musulmans destroyed in the lings and Deo Narain fell down, and other gods who had fixed their seats there raised feet and jumped so high that at one leap they reached the fort of Lanka, and in that affright the lings themselves would have fled had they had any legs to stand on" (Ibid).

7. Madura: "They found the city empty for the Rai had fled with the Ranis, but had left two or three hundred elephants in the temple of Jagnar (Jagannatha).  The elephants were captured and the temple burnt" (Ibid.).

8. Fatan: (Pattan): "There was another rai in these parts ...a Brahmin named Pandya Guru... his capital was Fatan, where there was a temple with an idol in it laden with jewels.  The rai fled when the army of the Sultan arrived at Fatan... They then struck the idol with an iron hatchet, and opened its head.  Although it was the very Qibla of the accursed infidels, it kissed the earth and filled the holy treasury" (Ashiqa).

9. Ma'bar: (Parts of South India): "On the right hand and on the left hand the army has conquered from sea to sea, and several capitals of the gods of the Hindus, in which Satanism has prevailed since the time of the Jinns, have been demolished.  All these impurities of infidelity have been cleansed by the Sultan's destruction of idol-temples, beginning with his first holy expedition to Deogir, so that the flames of the light of the Law (of Islam) illumine all these unholy countries, and places for the criers of prayers are exalted on high, and prayers are read in mosques.  Allah be praised!" (Tarikh-i-Alai).

The story of how Islamic invaders sought to destroy the very foundations of Hindu society and culture is long and extremely painful.  It would certainly be better for everybody to forget the past, but for the prescriptions of Islamic theology which remain intact and make it obligatory for believers to destroy idols and idol temples.

Indian Express, February 19, 1989



Date of Mbt war convincingly established - comets caused confusion
http://sanskritdocuments.org/articles/ACriticalExaminationoftheAstronomicalReferencesinMah.doc

This is a breakthrough on the subject of the astronomical dating of the Kurushetra battle (3067 BC):

A Critical Examination of the Astronomical References in Mahäbhärata and Their Simulation by Planetarium Software
by B. N. Narahari Achar
University of Memphis

" omens ... refer to planets ... but scholars have not taken note of it.
Explicit references by specific names to comets have been mistranslated as planets ... "

"... simulations show an amazing degree of coherence, consistency, and agreement with the astronomical references in the epic  ... "

The work was supported in part by a grant and an award from the University.



Significant finds at Dwaraka
http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/23/stories/2007022301242200.htm
  T.S. Subramanian

Ancient structures, under water and on land, discovered           PHOTOS COURTESY ASI

THE QUEST: An underwater archaeologist of the ASI examines an ancient structure off the shore of Dwaraka; a circular structure on the shore at Dwaraka; fragment of an ancient structure found underwater; remains of an ancient structure in the forecourt of the Dwarakadhish temple.     CHENNAI: Ancient structural remains of some significance have been discovered at Dwaraka, under water and on land, by the Underwater Archaeology Wing (UAW) of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Alok Tripathi, Superintending Archaeologist, UAW, said the ancient underwater structures found in the Arabian Sea were yet to be identified. "We have to find out what they are. They are fragments. I would not like to call them a wall or a temple. They are part of some structure," said Dr. Tripathi, himself a trained diver.   Thirty copper coins were also found in the excavation area. The structures found on land belonged to the medieval period. "We have also found 30 copper coins. We are cleaning
 them. After we finish cleaning them, we can give their date," he said.   Dwaraka is a coastal town in Jamnagar district of Gujarat. Traditionally, modern Dwaraka is identified with Dvaraka or Dvaravati, mentioned in the Mahabharata as Krishna's city. Dwaraka was a port, and some scholars have identified it with the island of Barka mentioned in the Periplus of Erythrean Sea. Ancient Dwaraka sank in sea and hence is an important archaeological site.   The first archaeological excavations at Dwaraka were done by the Deccan College, Pune and the Department of Archaeology, Government of Gujarat, in 1963 under the direction of H.D. Sankalia. It revealed artefacts many centuries old.   The ASI conducted a second round of excavations in 1979 under S.R. Rao's direction. He found a distinct pottery known as lustrous red ware, which could be more than 3,000 years old. Based on the results of these excavations, the search for the sunken city in the Arabian Sea began in 1981.
 Scientists and archaeologists have continually worked on the site for 20 years.   The UAW began excavations at Dwaraka again from January 2007. Dr. Tripathi said: "To study the antiquity of the site in a holistic manner, excavations are being conducted simultaneously both on land [close to the Dwarakadhish temple] and undersea so that finds from both the places can be co-related and analysed scientifically."   The objective of the excavation is to know the antiquity of the site, based on material evidence. In the offshore excavation, the ASI's trained underwater archaeologists and the divers of the Navy searched the sunken structural remains. The finds were studied and documented.   On land, the excavation is being done in the forecourt of the Dwarakadhish temple. Students from Gwalior, Lucknow, Pune, Vadodara,Varanasi and Bikaner are helping ASI archaeologists. In the forecourt, old structures including a circular one have been found. A small cache of 30 copper coins was discovered.



Celebrating Christmas as a Hindu
http://www.hinduvoice.co.uk/Issues/12/Christmas2.htm

Vidya Bannerjee

A recent survey of 2,300 employers across Britain said that 74% of companies in Britain have chosen not to display Christmas decorations. The employment law firm Peninsula that conducted the survey claimed that this was so as not to open companies to litigation for discriminating against non-Christian religions. The National Secular Society dismissed the reports as "exaggerated and misleading." President Terry Sanderson said: "Where Christmas parties and decorations are being discontinued it is usually for cost or health and safety reasons. We do not consider the move to be 'Christophobic' as Christians are increasingly prone to claim".

Most of you will know that 25th December is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe to be God's only begotten son and the redeemer of all mankind. But what many of you will not know, is that this was not always so. It was only much later in the history of Christianity that 25th December became associated with the birth of Jesus.

The early Church did not celebrate the birth of Jesus at all. In fact they didn't celebrate anyone's birthday, as they considered celebrating birthdays to be an inherently sinful practice.

The celebration of Christmas has its roots in the pre-Christian Pagan traditions of Europe. The Winter-Solstice or Yuletide or Mother Night had been one of the major festivals of all pre-Christian Pagan religions and celebrated in a variety of different ways.

December 21st, Called Yule (remember the Yule Ball in Harry Potter?), is one of the traditional Celtic fire festivals and marks the return of light after the longest night of the year. The tradition of giving presents, feasting with family and friends and generally being merry comes from the festival of Saturnalia, which used to be celebrated around December 17th in honour of Saturn, God of agriculture and plenty. Big feasts were generally laid out by the rich, to feed their poorer neighbours.

These festivities continued over the "holidays" and were followed by the solstice feast of Mithras, God of light, on December 25th and the New Year celebrations. It marked the renewal of hope and people would decorate their homes with all sorts of greenery to symbolize new life. That's where the tradition of the green Christmas tree and the holly comes from. For that matter, decorating the tree with toys, singing carols about the promise of spring, kissing under the mistletoe and even Santa, yes him too (but that's another story)…they all find their origins in the religion of the Pagan ancestors of Europe. On a side note, Hindus too celebrate this sacred time of the year with the festival of Panch Ganapati.

It is well known that when Europe was Christianised, the old religions and traditions were brutally suppressed, with mass conversion to Christianity. However, even after their conversion to Christianity, people continued to practice and celebrate their old Pagan festivals, including the Winter-Solstice, (the same as how many Hindus who have converted to Christianity for whatever reason, usually continue to celebrate Hindu festivals like Diwali).

In this scenario, the Church leaders found it easier to consolidate their power by giving Christian meanings to previous traditions and celebrations. So eventually, the Church pronounced the traditional winter festival as the birth of Jesus Christ, as a matter of strategic interest.

But it did not end there. Even after the Church decreed the birthday of Jesus to be on 25th of December, various practices that betrayed Pagan origins were frowned upon, with an attempt to suppress them. The mistletoe (a name which means 'all heal') was not allowed inside Christian churches. The church had long anguished over the performance of carols and song-dances and these were explicitly banned in the 7th Century at the Council of Chalon-sur-Saône. Even mince pies were looked on with disfavour! Why? Well why not? They're derived from consecrated cakes of the Pagans after all.

In later history, every time puritanical Christian sects have established power, they've made it a point to ban Christmas. When a Puritan parliament triumphed over King Charles I of England (1644), Christmas was officially banned (1647). During the Cromwellian period anyone celebrating Christmas was jailed for heresy. The Restoration (1660) ended the ban, but Christmas celebration was still disapproved of by the Anglican clergy. In America, Christmas was generally outlawed until the end of the last century. In Boston, up to 1870, anyone missing work on Christmas Day would be liable to be fired. Factory owners customarily required employees to come to work at 5 a.m. on Christmas - to insure they wouldn't have time to go to church that day. Even today several strict Christian groups like Jehovah's witnesses do not celebrate Christmas and see having Christmas trees as nature venerating and thus 'denounce' it as - wait for it...idol worship.

So as we can see, Christmas has generally had quite a variable status in society…having repeatedly gone from celebrated to banned and back again. Even today, we witness that there is a move to reduce public expression of Christmas, so as not to discriminate against non-Christians, a phenomenon which may be well intentioned, but quite unnecessary.

The fact is that most people have wanted nothing to do with all the religious upheavals and politics, and have continued to celebrate this age-old festival of good will, like they have been doing for probably thousands of years. With all the twists and turns of history, the meaning of this time of the year remains a time of hope and goodwill in the midst of the cold winter (central heating and global warming not withstanding), and a time of celebration with friends and family - universal themes that anybody, especially Hindus, should be able to relate to.

Many alarmist Hindus bemoan the 'loss of culture' and 'westernisation' simply because their children celebrate Christmas. They should realize that if celebrated with the understanding of the real meaning of the rites and rituals associated with this festive time of the year, then not only are they NOT losing their culture but in fact enhancing it. If anything, Hindus should be able to relate to the spiritual traditions surrounding the Winter Solstice as derives its inspiration on same outlook to life as that of Hinduism.



VISHNU IDOL FOUND IN RUSSIAN TOWN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1046928.cms

Moscow: - an ancient Vishnu idol has been found during excavation in an old village in Russia's Volga region, raising questions about the prevalent view on the origin of ancient Russia.

The idol found in Staraya (old) Maina village dates back to 7 to 10 century A.D.

Staraya Maina village in Ulyanovsk region was a highly populate city 1700 years ago, much older than Kiev, so far believed to be the mother of all Russian cities.

"We may consider it in credible, but we have ground to assert that middle-Volga region was the original land of ancient Russia.  This is a hypothesis, but a hypothesis, which requires thorough research," reader of Ulyanovsk state university's archaeology department Alexander kozhevin told state-run 24-hour news channel vesti.

Kozhevin, who has been conducting excavation in staraya maina for last seven years, said that every single square metre of the surroundings of the ancient town situated on the banks of samara, a tributary of Volga, is studded with antiques.

Prior to unearthing of the Vishnu idol, kozhevin has already found ancient coins, pendants, rings and fragments of weapons.

He believes that today's staraya maina, a town of 8.000 in the ancient times had ten times more population an form here people started migrating to the don and dneiper rivers around the time ancient russy built the city of Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine.

An international conference is being organized later this year to study the legacy of the ancient village.



Ancient City Discovered in Bangladesh Related to Indus Valley Civilization

sanatanadharma2002.blogspot.com

original text from http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20060315/sc_nm/bangladesh_citadel_dc_1

WARI, BANGLADESH, March 15, 2006: Archaeologists in Bangladesh say they have uncovered part of a fortified citadel dating back to 450 B.C. that could have been a stopping off point along an ancient trade route. So far, a moat round the citadel has been uncovered along with parts of an ancient road at Wari, 85 km (53 miles) northeast of the capital Dhaka. "The citadel and a raft of artifacts may help redefine history of India," said Sufi Mostafizur Rahman, head of the department of archaeology at Jahangirnagar University, near Dhaka. "The well-planned road with even manholes proves that the citadel was managed by a very efficient administration," Mostafizur added. "I am confident further excavation will lead us to residue of a palace," he said. Archaeologists have been excavating the ancient roads and unearthing artifacts for several years. Tests by a Dutch university revealed the objects dated to around 450 B.C.

Artefacts found in the 600 x 600 meter (1,800 x 1,800 ft) include metal coins, metallic chisels, terracotta missiles, rouletted and knobbed pottery, stone hammers and bangles. Ornaments suggested Buddhism dominated life in the urban centers. Mostafizur said the citadel was believed to be a part of Harappan civilization and a prime trade center might have flourished there, possibly serving as a link between contemporary South Asian and Roman civilizations. The Harappan civilization flourished in the Indus and Ganges valleys between 2,700 B.C. to 700 B.C. Archaeologists hope the citadel and surrounding area yield many more surprises. In Wari and the nearby Batteswar village there are 47 raised areas and archaeologists are planning to excavate all of these as well.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com



New Take on India's Caste History?

http://www.newindpress.com

NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 17, 2006: By meticulous research of the British sources over decades, Dharampal, a follower of Gandhi, has raised questions regarding the belief that India was backward educationally or economically when the British entered. Citing the Christian missionary William Adam's report on indigenous education in Bengal and Bihar in 1835 and 1838, Dharampal established that at that time there were 100,000 schools in Bengal, one school for about 500 boys; that the indigenous medical system that included inoculation against smallpox.

He believes he has proven, by reference to other materials, that Adam's record was not legend. He relied on Sir Thomas Munroe's report to the Governor at about the same time to prove similar statistics about schools in Chennai. He also found that the education system in the Punjab during the Maharaja Ranjit Singh's rule was equally extensive. He estimated that the literacy rate in India before the Br itish was higher than that in England.

Long after Dharampal had established that pre-British India was not backward, a 2005 Harvard University Research, India's Deindustrialisation in the 18th and 19th Centuries by David Clingingsmith and Jeffrey G. Williamson affirmed that "while India produced about 25 percent of world industrial output in 1750, this figure had fallen to only 2 percent by 1900." The Harvard University Economic Research also established that the Industrial employment in India also declined from about 30 to 8.5 per cent between 1809-13 and 1900, thus turning the Indian society backward.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com


Hinduism: Aryans, Invasions & Myths?
http://www.hinduvoice.co.uk/Issues/12/Controversy.htm

The 'Aryan Invasion Theory'

Pick up any textbook on Hinduism, and chances are that the beginning of Hinduism is identified with the 'Aryan invasion of India', dated around 1500 BCE, and their composition of the Rig Veda. According to this viewpoint, the 'Aryans' were a tall, fair skinned people who originated from outside India, and who are responsible for the composition of the Vedas and thus the founding of Hinduism.

What these textbooks do not mention is that the Aryan invasion is based on little more than speculation, with no archaeological or literary evidence to support it.

Some European scholars formulated the 'Aryan Invasion Theory' in the late 19th century, and it was resisted as unfounded by several voices from the beginning. Nevertheless due to prevailing circumstances, the Aryan Invasion Theory became accepted as truth, and gradually found its way into virtually every textbook of Hinduism or ancient India.

However, in the light of recent archaeological finds, the Aryan Invasion Theory has become less and less feasible as a model of ancient Indian history, for reasons that shall be briefly discussed here.

Religious factors in the formulation of the Aryan Invasion Theory

The attempt to fix a chronology for India's past was overshadowed by commonly held religious beliefs, which were still prevalent in 19th century Europe.

Adam and Eve were believed to have been created directly by God in 4005 BCE, and all the people on Earth are supposed to be descendents from one of the sons of Noah, the only human to survive the Great Flood, which was dated 2350 BCE.

Such 'scholars' of 19th century Europe could not conceive that the history of Hinduism could extend back to before 4005 BCE - it was simply impossible! They had to fit Hinduism and Hindu history into their preconceived chronology.

The French Missionary Abbe Dubois (1770-1848) spent over three decades in India, during which he collected large amounts of material on the customs and traditions of Hindus. His French manuscript was later republished in English, under the title 'Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies', in 1897. Abbe Dubois stated his belief that India was inhabited shortly after the Biblical Flood, and ventured Indians to be descendents of the people of Japhet, who reached India from the North. The reasons he provides to support his theory are very unconvincing, yet he goes on to build the rest of his migration theory (which did not yet mention 'Aryans' or an 'Invasion') on this shaky foundation.

The real architect of the Aryan Invasion Theory was Max Muller (1823-1903). He wrote a preface to the English edition of Abbe Dubois's work, in which he praises it as a "trustworthy authority…which will always retain its value", thus showing that Max Muller was close in thinking to earlier scholars who unquestioningly used the Bible as the basis of their chronology of ancient India. It is amazing that a history created in the shadow of such absurd chronological beliefs could ever have acquired such prestige, that it still dominates most textbooks in the 21st century.

Max Muller built the Aryan Invasion Theory based on another finding that came to light after the time of Abbe Dubois. When the affinity between many European languages and Sanskrit became a commonly accepted notion, European scholarship almost automatically concluded that the Sanskrit (or proto-Sanskrit) speaking ancestors of the present day Indians had to be found somewhere halfway between India the Western borders of Europe, for example Scandinavia or Southern Russia, from which they invaded the Punjab.

When the ancient Indian Harappan sites (of the Indus Valley civilisation) were discovered, it was clear that these reflected a much older civilisation than could be attributed to the supposed coming of the Vedic Aryans in 1500 BCE. At this point, the Aryan Invasion Theory underwent an adaptation, which made the Aryans the destroyer of the older Indian civilisation, and that the dark-skinned indigenous Indian were the ones on whom the Aryans imposed their Vedic religion and caste system. The indigenous people were identified with the races that live in the South of India.

This was a model of history that would later have important political consequences in India society - pitting region against region and caste against caste. Thus, Lord Rama was made into a high caste Aryan invader who came to harass the South, which was defended by the Dravidian king Ravana. The Ramayana itself opposes such ridiculous notions, which suggest that Ravana himself was a wayward Brahmin, the descendent of the Rishi Pulasyta, and himself a chanter of the Sama Veda, and most probably descended from further North India.

Alternative viewpoints

Towards the end of his career, Max Muller himself conceded that the Vedic chronology that he has formulated might not be true. In his last book, 'The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy', published shortly before his death, he admitted: "Whatever may be the date of the Vedic hymns, whether 1500 or 15,000BC, they have their own place and stand by themselves in the literature of the world." This reflects a tacit acknowledgement that there were plausible voices within the scholarly world, such as Moriz Winternitz and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who disagreed with his chronology and postulated a much earlier date for the Rig Veda.

These scholars pointed out that there was no reference in the Vedas of a migration from outside of India, and that all the geographical features mentioned in the RiVeda reflect the flora and fauna of India, with no knowledge of another homeland. On the other hand there were references to constellations in the Vedic works whose time frame could be re-established by commonly accepted astronomical calculations. The dates arrived at, however, 4500BCE for one observation in the Rig Veda, 3200 BCE seemed far too remote to be acceptable, especially if one assumed - as many 19th century European scholars did, that the world was only about 6000 years old and that the flood had taken place only 4500 years ago.

The problems regarding ancient Indian history resolve themselves when one stops trying to separate the Indus Valley civilisation from the Vedic people. Traditionally, European scholars never conceived that these sophisticated towns and cities could be attributed to the Vedic people, who they preferred to think of as semi-nomadic warriors.

However, a closer study of Vedic literature, a subsequent archaeological examination of the Indus Valley sites, and the relatively later discovery of numerous towns and cities centred around a huge dried up river which can be identified as the 'Sarasvati River' of the Vedas points strongly to the Vedic character of the Indus Valley civilisation.

Archaeological finds

The Sarasvati was a river that is commonly referred to in Vedic literature. It dried up approximately 4,000 years ago. The discovery of the Saraswati River, in modern day Haryana and Rajastan, together with numerous cities and towns along its banks shows that Vedic civilisation was centred in these regions of India, and has a chronology reaching much further back than postulated by the Aryan Invasion Theory. In fact, the sites around the Sarasvati river are significantly older than those of the Indus Valley sites, suggesting that the Indus Valley sites represent a relatively later period of Vedic civilisations.

The Indus-Sarasvati archaeological sites are the most extensive remains of the ancient world. Without the Vedas, these sites are a civilisation without a literary record. And without this civilisation, the Vedas are an extensive literature about a society of which there is no record. This corrects itself once the Vedas are seen as a product of the Indus-Saraswati people - the earliest phase of Hindu civilisation. The frequent findings of fire altars in these cities, which were commonly used in Vedic rituals, further attests to their Vedic character.

There were also other artefacts that support this line of thought. One of the most striking was a beautifully sculpted bronze head, called 'Vashista's Head', which was found near Delhi, dated through radiocarbon testing to around 3700 BCE, the time when some scholars believe that the 'Battle of the Ten Kings', the greatest war attested to in the Vedas, took place. Vashista is mentioned in the Rig Veda as the advisor to King Sudas.

The abandonment of the many ancient population centres around the Sarasvati River was due to climate changes rather than invasions. The population shifted towards the Ganga River. Hindu literature shows a population shift from the Saraswati (Rig Veda) to the Ganga (Brahmana and Puranas), and this is also evidenced by archaeological finds.

So as we see, over time archaeological findings and scholarship are now actually bringing us closer to traditional Hindu viewpoints of Indian history rather than the version of history composed by 19th century Europe.



Britain saves but Indian Govt ruins Hinduism
http://www.newsanalysisindia.com/24_nov.htm

By premendra Agrawal

Britain is communal, so it’s PM Tony Blair and its MPs protest and speak out against Kazakh harassment of Hindu! India is secular, so neither its government nor parliamentarians, have a single word against Kazakh harassment of Hindus. Only BJP condemned the demolition of a Hindu temple in Kazakhstan and expressed surprise over government's silence over the issue.

Kazakhstan , the largest republic in Central Asia with a population of over 15 million, comprises over 130 ethnic groups who practice 40 religions. Ethnic Russians, who typically are traditionally members of the Russian Orthodox Church, constitute around a third of the population while ethnic Kazakhs, who are Sunni Muslims, make up half.

At a recent meeting held in Almaty and chaired by A.M. Muhkashov, the deputy director of the Kazakh government Region Committee, the ISKCON delegation was clearly told that Hindus do not have a place in Kazakhstan .

Is our secular government in coma?

Are Hindus no place and no votes in India? Is tolerance means to give liberty for playing vote bank politics to disunite Indians? While Britain is taking up this issue, our own secular government will never do anything for the Hindus in Kazakhstan. What did our secular government in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Fiji, and Malaysia or elsewhere?

Demolition of Hindu temples in Malaysia

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has come to learn of several cases involving the demolition or at least partial damage of Hindu temples in Malaysia following orders by government authorities. Furthermore, in addition to such acts, which are a violation of domestic laws, those ordered to carry out the destruction have used force and caused injuries to the devotees of the temples .

Only Hindu temple in Moscow had been demolished

Hindus all over the world expressed outrage and anger after a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Nikon called the Hindu God, Lord Krishna an ‘evil demon’ around the time of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan’s state visit to Moscow to meet Russian President Putin.

The only Hindu temple in Moscow had been demolished last year, leaving some 15,000 Indians and 10,000 Russian followers of Hinduism without a place of worship. Now the Mayor of Moscow and the Russian Orthodox Church are together trying to stop Hindus from

“Now, the Russian Hindu community in Moscow have no place to house the consecrated Deities they had worshipped for the last decade,” claimed Dr Mihir Meghani, President of the Hindu American Foundation.

Buddha statue Demolished by Taliban

In my previous articles I have sighted how Hindu temples and ancient religious books of Hinduism are being damaged and burnt there. Burning of Hindu books and libraries and the places of worship in Nepal after abolishment the Hindu Kingdom reminds us Nazi’s ‘funeral pyre of the intellect’ & demolition of Buddha statue by Taliban. Who kills people burns books?  I reproduce here three stanza of my poem of the article mentioned above.

Insult of Hindu god and goddesses abroad

Without hesitation intentionally our god and goddesses are insulted in foreign countries. For example:

“Toronto Star” selected and published this "NUDE" picture by ignoring three following "Dressed & Decent Durga" pictures available on Reuters that time At last, The Toronto Star published an unconditional apology along with an appropriate Durga image.This apology was published in the same section where the initial nude Durga image was published. The apology reads:
"On Oct. 4. the Star published a photo of an unfinished depiction of the Hindu goddess Maa Durga. Members of Toronto's Hindu community took great exception to this goddess being presented in an undignified manner. The above picture shows the goddess in an appropriate manner. The Star regrets that publication of the original photo has caused anguish and apologizes to the Hindu community."

Secular Indian Government!!

Indian Govt. acted promptly on dargah which was being demolished in Vadodara f or widening roads. After that more than hundred Hindu temples are demolished in Mumbai without any hurdle. Govt. is silent over the demolition of the famous Krishna temple in Moscow and a century- old Hindu temple in Malaysia. Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh called up the Denmark Prime Minister to object to the publication of the offensive cartoon caricaturing the Prophet.

SIMI and Seculars

I would like to remind the UP Chief Minister that his own state police have arrested six SIMI activists in connection with last year's attack on the Ayodhya temple. So many cases were in the court for hearing but for getting votes and support his government took back and many SIMI leaders became free from the prisons. T here have been several attacks and explosions on Hindu temples and even Malegaon blasts on the pious Friday of Ramzan in India by the terrorists with the support of SIMI. Congress including Sonia Gandhi, Ambika Soni and Sriprkash Jaiswal had opposed the NDA for banning SIMI.

Shri Shri Ravi Shankar on Ram Janmabhoomi

There was a livetelecast program related to four days Art of Living camp at Mumbai of Shri Shri Ravi Shankar on Nov 23. One participant asked about the allegation related to RSS or VHP linking of Shri Shri. Ravi Shakar jee gave answer in detail but in the simple way. He said that he embrassed to all without discriminating caste, religion or ideology and party politics. Even he met naxaltes, Hurriyats or terrorists. There should be common law for all even withoutgender bias. The same may be said by others. Birth places Christ and Mohammed Paigamber should be respected. Like that crores and crores believe and want the temple of Ram Janmbhoomi. This may be gifted by others for unity and as the sign of love and co-existance. This is his thinking. There my be same or opposite to this views.

In December 1999, the Director of CIA George Tenet and State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism Michael Sheen testified before a Senate subcommittee that US has evidence that Pakistan is a state-sponsor of terrorism against India. Muslim conquerors destroyed over 5,000 temples in North India, including those at the sites holiest for Hindus. They built mosques there instead, which have no particular significance to Islam. In order to reconstruct their holiest temple, Hindu organizations have offered compromises to Muslims. Pakistan sponsored terrorists destroyed the hospitals, Hindu and Sikh temples and the church of Baramula.

Colonial British records maintain that efforts to replace the mosque with a temple had been on since before independence in 1947, but had been continually stymied by both the central government and various Indian courts.

As per Ramayan & Hindu Mythology the site of Ram 's birth is situated in the city of Ayodhya in Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh state of India . Ayodhya is a city sacred to devotees of Vishnu , who Hindus believe took birth as King Ram, and has several temples devoted to the deity. The Ayodhya of Ram is believed to have existed in the Treta Yuga of the Hindu calendar, about 900,000 years ago to 1.3 Millions of years ago. In 1528 , the Rama Mandir is Demolished & the Babri

Masjid is constructed on the orders of the Mughal leader Babur .

Who were underground on Vandematram Day?

Sonia was underground with PM and other Congress Ministers on the occasion of Vandemataram day to appease Muslims: Govinda may say if Vande Mataram becomes Vande Mat Rome, then his Sonia Mata participate the national function, other wise not?

The British government banned the song, but it was the Congress that sang it as an expression of protest against British rule."

Now on Sept 7, 2006 instead of pre-independence Congress now BJP sang ‘Vandematram’ as and expression of protest against Italian rule. Instead of British Govt. now Italian Mussolinism influenced UPA Govt. made mandatory to sing national song (partially banned). Now vote bank politicians stabbed ‘Khanjar’ on the back of nationalism to call ‘patriotism’ a matter of choice.

Many ‘ Martyr ’ hanged in the British Rule with this song on their lips.

MF Hussain: London Vs India

The Times of India (May 24) carried a story of an exhibition held in Asia House in London of two nude portrayals of Hindu goddesses drawn by M.F.Husain—and the shocking thing is that the exhibition was inaugurated by none else than India’s High Commissioner, Kamalesh Sharma, who is probably telling himself how liberal Hindus are and how forgiving even when their gods and goddesses are mocked and insulted.

The Secretary General of the Forum, Ramesh Kallidai told The Times of India: “In the case of Da Vinci Code, the authorities slapped an ‘A’ certificate. When it came to the Prophet’s cartoons, PM personally condemned them. India was one of the first to ban Rushdie’s book, The Satanic Verses. Why should artistic freedom only be enjoyed by those who hurt and insult Hindus?”

Due to ‘Hindu Human Rights protest Tony Blair banned the exhibition.

On revenge website of Hindu Human Rights, the group of young activists who helped shut down the offensive exhibition of M.F. Husain in London, has been blocked by the UPA regime!

Hindus themselves are culprits and victims who have given free hand to them to ruin our culture and country.

They know that Hindus are divided though they are in majority. Educated and upper caste Hindus are not interested to vote. SC/TB/OBC among them uses their voting right. Due to this ‘Arjun’ is on forefront for religion and caste based reservation quota system and to appease minority to ruin Indian ancient culture and glorious history. So even he make Congress leaders Tilak and Subhash terrorists and insulted Hindu deities in IGNOU -NCERT books intentionally
 

* This side that side
Every where,
Dishonor of Bharatmata
Hindu God Goddesses
And Gandhi by Gandhigiri,

Oh Lord Krishna
Re-born re-born again
to fight Mahabharat again
We can't wait
Can't wait no long
Hear my pray
Oh Lord krishna

* Body burns, but the soul flies away
Paper burns, but the words fly away
Every word of book enlightens others
Every patriot martyr enlightens others

* Holika burns, Bhakt Prahlad was safe
Yet Sanatan Hinduism Hindutva is safe
Hirnakasyip wished all to worship him
Maoist Leftists want all to follow them

* They crush flower perfume spreads
Can break Violin but music spreads
Can kill human, not remembrance
Hinduism preaches much tolerance

By Premendra Agrawal


Not many know the Indian past he had discovered!
http://www.newindpress.com/column/News.asp?Topic=-97&Title=S%2EGurumurthy&ID=IE620061115230938&nDate=&Sub=&Cat=&
Thursday November 16 2006 09:31 IST

S Gurumurthy

"What is it that keeps the country down", asked the speaker. A young man in the audience replied unhesitatingly: "Undoubtedly the institution of caste that kept the majority low castes and the society backward" and added "it continues".

The speaker replied, "May be". But, pausing for a moment, he added, "May not be". Shocked, the young man angrily asked him to explain his "may-not-be" theory.

The speaker calmly mentioned just one fact that clinched the debate. He said, "Before the British rule in India, over two-thirds - yes, two-thirds - of the Indian kings belonged to what is today known as the Other Backward Castes (OBCs).

"It is the British," he said, "who robbed the OBCs - the ruling class running all socio-economic institutions - of their power, wealth and status." So it was not the upper caste which usurped the OBCs of their due position in the society?

The speaker’s assertion that it was not so was founded on his study - unbelievably painstaking study for years and decades in the archives in India, England and Germany. He could not be maligned as a ‘saffron’ ideologue and what he said could not be dismissed thus. He was Dharampal, a Gandhian in ceaseless search of truth like his preceptor Gandhi himself was, but a Gandhian with a difference. He ran no ashram on state aid to do ‘Gandhigiri’.

Admitting that "he and those like him do not know much about our own society", the young man who questioned Dharampal - Banwari is his name - became his student. By meticulous research of the British sources over decades, Dharampal demolished the myth that India was backward educationally or economically when the British entered. Citing the Christian missionary William Adam’s report on indigenous education in Bengal and Bihar in 1835 and 1838, Dharampal established that at that time there were 100,000 schools in Bengal, one school for about 500 boys; that the indigenous medical system that included inoculation against small-pox.

He also proved by reference to other materials that Adam’s record was ‘no legend’. He relied on Sir Thomas Munroe’s report to the Governor at about the same time to prove similar statistics about schools in Madras. He also found that the education system in the Punjab during the Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule was equally extensive. He estimated that the literary rate in India before the British was higher than that in England.

Citing British public records he established, on the contrary, that ‘British had no tradition of education or scholarship or philosophy from 16th to early 18th century, despite Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Newton, etc’. Till then education and scholarship in the UK was limited to select elite. He cited Alexander Walker’s Note on Indian education to assert that it was the monitorial system of education borrowed from India that helped Britain to improve, in later years, school attendance which was just 40, 000, yes just that, in 1792. He then compared the educated people’s levels in India and England around 1800. The population of Madras Presidency then was 125 lakhs and that of England in 1811 was 95 lakhs. Dharampal found that during 1822-25 the number of those in ordinary schools in Madras Presidency was around 1.5 lakhs and this was after great decay under a century of British intervention.

As against this, the number attending schools in England was half - yes just half - of Madras Presidency’s, namely a mere 75,000. And here to with more than half of it attending only Sunday schools for 2-3 hours! Dharampal also established that in Britain ‘elementary system of education at people’s level remained unknown commodity’ till about 1800! Again he exploded the popularly held belief that most of those attending schools must have belonged to the upper castes particularly Brahmins and, again with reference to the British records, proved that the truth was the other way round.

During 1822-25 the share of the Brahmin students in the indigenous schools in Tamil-speaking areas accounted for 13 per cent in South Arcot to some 23 per cent in Madras while the backward castes accounted for 70 per cent in Salem and Tirunelveli and 84 per cent in South Arcot.

The situation was almost similar in Malayalam, Oriya and Kannada-speaking areas, with the backward castes dominating the schools in absolute numbers. Only in the Telugu-speaking areas the share of the Brahmins was higher and varied from 24 to 46 per cent. Dharampal’s work proved Mahatma Gandhi’s statement at Chatham House in London on October 20, 1931 that "India today is more illiterate than it was fifty or hundred years ago" completely right.

Not many know of Dharampal or of his work because they have still not heard of the Indian past he had discovered. After, long after, Dharampal had established that pre-British India was not backward a Harvard University Research in the year 2005 (India’s Deindustrialisation in the 18th and 19th Centuries by David Clingingsmith and Jeffrey G Williamson) among others affirmed that "while India produced about 25 percent of world industrial output in 1750, this figure had fallen to only 2 percent by 1900." The Harvard University Economic Research also established that the Industrial employment in India also declined from about 30 to 8.5 per cent between 1809-13 and 1900, thus turning the Indian society backward.

PS: This great warrior who established the truth - the truth that was least known - that India was not backward when the British came, but became backward only after they came, is no more. He passed away two weeks ago on October 26, 2006, at Sevagram at Warda.



Web Site Offers Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge

http://www.archaeologyonline.net

USA, March 3, 2006: This website ("source") by David Osborn is informative and well illustrated. It says in the introduction, "A vast number of statements and materials presented in the ancient Vedic literatures can be shown to agree with modern scientific findings, and they also reveal a highly developed scientific content in these literatures. The great cultural wealth of this knowledge is highly relevant in the modern world." The site presents a wide range of new information, including that from marine archeology, satellite imagery, carbon dating and linguistic analysis.



Vedic Culture is the Parent of Humanity
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/vedic_culture_is_the_parent_of_humanity.htm

By Stephen Knapp

The title of this page may seem like a bold statement, but there is some very interesting evidence to consider. As we established in the chapter on the creation of the material world, when the Supreme Being created the universe He also provided the Vedic knowledge and terminology by which humanity could live peacefully as well as advance spiritually. Even the Bible (Genesis 11:1) describes how originally during pre-Christian times, "the whole earth was of one language and one speech." And, as we can see from the evidence in the previous chapters, that language was Sanskrit.

Theologians in general agree that despite diverse scriptures and tales of various people experiencing or hearing the voice of God, the immanent Divinity is One. Even physicists agree that the ultimate source of all elements has to be one. History too began from a single point. This means that the origination of the universe as well as the beginning of mankind was a purposeful and arranged event. It was not a chance encounter, a random, freakish, or spontaneous beginning, but an expansion from the Absolute Truth.

Since there is but one ultimate source of everything, all human activity started from that divine beginning. And activity means thought and speech. As the Vedic texts explains, the original language was Sanskrit, as taught by the Supreme Himself. We find that even the 1951 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (P. 70, Vol 13) describes that some scholars gave up attempts to explain the origin of language and have fallen back to the religious explanation that the first language was given by God to man.

Some people, however, feel that ancient man was able to only slowly develop a language of his own. This is thought to have started from grunts and noises like animals until it somehow shaped into the different languages we find today. So does that mean that babies will also develop some kind of language of their own if they are given enough time and not taught one? As described in P. N. Oak's book, World Vedic Heritage (p. 130), the 16th century Moghul emperor, Akbar, had also questioned this. Being in such a position of authority, he was able to indulge in a heartless experiment. He ordered several infant children to be taken away from their mothers and be confined to a house. No one was permitted to speak anything to the children, even when clothed and fed. The result was that they all grew to be dumb adults. They could speak no language at all. Neither did they develop any form of communication between themselves. Therefore, the idea that man will eventually educate himself or even develop a language on his own is mistaken. All knowledge must be given by a superior, which is exactly what the Vedic literature says happened at the beginning of time. The Vedic references explain that human civilization began by the arrangement of the Supreme. Man was given an original consciousness by which he had knowledge of the Sanskrit language and was guided by Vedic information, as taught by Lord Brahma and the numerous sages that followed. Thus, the ancient Vedic culture is the primordial culture of the whole world and not exclusive to India, Arabia, or Sumeria. It is universal.

The philosopher and researcher Edward Pococke also wrote about this conclusion in his book India in Greece (page 251). He states: "Sir William Jones concluded that the Hindus had an immemorial antiquity with the old Persians, Ethiopians and Egyptians, the Phoenicians, Greeks and Tuscans, the Scythians or Goths, and the Celts, the Chinese, Japanese and Peruvians." The observance of this global connection between India and the rest of the world is actually an indication that the whole world was once under the influence of the Vedic culture. Thus, it was India who nurtured the rest of the world with her wisdom and Vedic knowledge.

Pococke continues in this vein in his observation: "Now the whole of the society of Greece, civil and military, must strike one as being eminently Asiatic, much of it specially Indian. . . I shall demonstrate that these evidences were but the attendant tokens of Indian colonization with its corresponding religion and language. I shall exhibit dynasties disappearing from India, western India, to appear again in Greece, clans who fought upon the plains of Troy." Therefore, since Greece is supposed to be the origins of European culture, and since Greece displays much of the same culture as India, we can say that the pre-Christian culture of Europe was Vedic.

In fact, it may be the case that without the connection with India, Greece may not have been a major contributor to the advancement of Europe. Godfrey Higgins writes in his book The Celtic Druids (p. 112), "In science the Greeks were pygmies. What would they have known of science if their Platos and Pythagorases had not traveled into the East! In science and real learning they were inferior to the Orientals [Indians], and were the greatest liars upon earth. They wilfully mis-stated everything or they foolishly confounded everything."

William Durant, author of the 10-volume Story of Civilization, wrote, "India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of European languages. She was the mother of our philosophy. . . of our mathematics. . . of the ideals embodied in Christianity. . . of self-government and democracy. . . Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all."

Interestingly, Sir Isaac Tailor, the author of The Origins of the Aryans, wrote in a similar way (page 1), "Adelung, the father of comparative philosophy. . . placed the cradle of mankind in the valley of Kashmir, which he identified with paradise. To Adelung we owe the opinion, which has prevailed so widely, that since the human race originated in the East, most westerly nations, the Iberians and Celts, must have been the first to leave the parent."

As explained in World Vedic Heritage (p. 115), this is also the conclusion of Mr. B. C. Chhabra, who is the ex-Assistant Director General of Archeology under the British administration in India. He writes, "I do not want to go deep into the larger question of the theory of evolution which is today at the base of archeological interpretations, but I must need say that the history of Indian civilization begins with knowledge and not barbarism. The kind of knowledge that has been preserved therein has stood the test of time and is still unsurpassed in certain respects. It believes in an evolution of limited extent only and that for a definite period of time in the history of man's life as also in that of a nation. To base the entire history of mankind, down to the present-day, on the ape-man and the archeological ages of Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron is a travesty of facts. Even in the present age of great scientific achievements the ape-man cannot produce the homosapiens, obviously because they are two different species. Recent archeologists have proved abundantly that these ages have no meaning because different cultural ages are found in different regions, and that sometimes they co-existed in the same region which cannot be explained on the basis of the theory of evolution." Thus, regardless of the classifications made by archeologists about the ancient history of mankind, as confirmed by the prehistoric records of the Vedic literature, India was the center from where spread the intellectually superior Vedic culture, and is, therefore, the source of humanity's spiritual heritage.

The Preface of Vol. VI of Indian Antiquities (pp 11-13) also points one in this same direction: "The Hindu religion probably spread over the whole earth; there are signs of it in every system of worship. . . the arithmetic, astronomy, astrology, the holidays, games, names of the stars, and figures of constellations, the language of the different nations bear the strongest marks of the same origin."

The discerning and honest Christian author Godfrey Higgins wrote in his book, The Celtic Druids (p. 61), about the basis of all human civilization originating from India and the Vedic culture. "The peninsula of India would be one of the first peopled countries, and its inhabitants would have all the habits of progenitors of man before the flood in as much perfection or more than any other nation. . . In short, whatever learning man possessed before his dispersion. . . may be expected to be found here; and of this Hindustan affords innumerable traces. . . notwithstanding all. . . the fruitless efforts of our priests to disguise it."

The above quotes would indicate that the Vedic culture was a global faith, a world influence. This may be given further credence in the remarks of Ctesias, the Greek writer (as found in Historical Researches, Vol. II, p.220), "The Hindus were as numerous as all the other nations put together."

This is further corroborated in P. N. Oak's World Vedic Heritage (p. 506) in which he presents evidence that, "In pre-Christian times the temples of Vedic Deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, the Mother goddess, Rama, Hanuman, and Krishna used to abound in all regions of the world. Evidence of this is found in the works of ancient authors such as Megasthenes, Strabo, and Herodotus. All those names are of Vedic origin, too. The term Megasthenes is Megh-Sthan-eesh, i.e. the Lord of the Region of the clouds. The name Herodotus is Hari-dootus, i.e. Messenger of [Hari] God."

In Some Missing Chapters of World History (p. 134), P. N. Oak also explains that Shiva was worshiped all over the world, even in the Vatican. The word vatican comes from the Sanskrit word vatica, which means a bower or sylvan hermitage. He explains that even the premises of the Vatican have many Shiva emblems buried in their walls and cellars. Many such emblems have been dug up in other parts of Italy as well. And some of those found in the Vatican are still preserved in the Vatican's Etruscan museum.

Another point is that the original worship of the Mother Goddess can be traced back to India. Whether this Goddess is called Ma, Uma, Mata, Amba, Shakti, Durga, Bhagavati, Parameshvari, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Astarte, Venus, Ceres, Mother Mary, Mariamma, Madonna, Notre Dame, etc., it can be traced to the Vedic culture where such worship originated.

Albert J. Edmonds, in his book Buddhist and Christian Gospels, also explains that, "Strabo considered all Asia as far as India to be consecrated to Bacchus where Hercules and Bacchus are called Kings of the East. The last religions of Babylon and Egypt were born there. Even the Greeks and the Romans were debtors thereto for the cult of Bacchus and Mithras."

Bacchus refers to Bakesh or Tryambakesh, Shiva. Hercules refers to Hari-culeesh, Lord Krishna. They were known as Kings or supreme deities of the East. Since the religions of Babylon and Egypt were born in Asia, and Greeks and Romans observed a similar version of the Bacchus cult and one of Mithras, the sun, it is obvious the whole world followed, or was influenced by, Vedic culture. The reason is that all of these deities can be traced back to India, or are directly Vedic deities. From this information we can begin to understand that Vedic culture was a cause of worldwide unity, or the parent culture of all humanity.

(This article is from: http://www.stephen-knapp.com)