It’s time to explain the gifts from Vedic Science to the world. Vedic Time System, was based on science. Part Two

Smallest Unit of Time
Vedic astronomy give a very detailed division of the Time upto the lowest sub division level of prāņa (respiration), a time lapse of four seconds. The lowest sub divisions prāņa is the same part of the day as the minute is of the circle, so that a respiration of time is equivalent to a minute of apparent revolution of the heavenly bodies above the earth. The astronomical division of sidereal time are:

1 paramanu 60,750th of a second
1 truţi = 29.6296 microseconds
1 tatpara = 2.96296 milliseconds
1 nimesha = 88.889 milliseconds
45 nimesha = 1 prāņa 4 seconds
6 prāņa = 1 vinādī 24 seconds
60 vinādīs = 1 nadī 24 minutes
60 nādīs = 1 ahorātra
As, according to modern standards, 24 hours make 1 day and night, one finds that, 1 nādi or daņda is equal to 24 minutes, 1 vinādī is equal to 24 seconds, 1 asu or prāņa is equal to 4 seconds, 1 nimesha is equal to 88.889 milliseconds, 1 tatpara is equal to 2.96296 milliseconds and finally 1 truţi is equal to 29.6296 microseconds or 33,750th part of second. It is really amazing that the Indian astronomers, at such a long time ago, could conceive and obviously could measure such a small interval of time like truţi. It should be mentioned here that, 1 unit of prāņa is the time an average healthy man needs to complete one respiration or to pronounce ten long syllables called guravakşara.

The Puranic division of the day is somewhat different. According to this, Kala (Time) is born out of Sun. The counting starts from nimesha (twinkling of an eye). (Source: Sūrya Siddhānta).

100 truti (atoms) = 1 tatpara (speck)
30 tatpara (specks) = 1 nimesha (twinkling)
18 nimesha (twinklings) = 1 kashtha (bit)
30 kashtha (bits) = 1 kala (~minute)
30 kala (minutes) = 1 ghatika (~half-hour)
2 ghatika (half hour) = 1 kshana/muhūrta (~hour)
30 kshana/muhūrta (hour) = 1 ahorātra (~day).
Truti is referred to as a quarter of the time of falling of an eye lid.

1 muhūrta equal to 48 minutes, 1 ghaţi equal to 24 minutes. 1 kalā equal to 48 seconds, 1 kāşţhā equal to 1.6 seconds and 1 nimeşa equal to 88.889 milliseconds as obtained above. In its daily motion, the earth rotates around its axis at a speed of nearly 1660 Km per hour and its illuminated half is called ahh (day) and the dark half is called rātri (night). From the system of units of time given above, one finds that 60 ghaţis or nādīs make 1 day and night.

Vedic astronomical texts divide the above units of time broadly into two categories; (i) mūrttakālah and (ii) amūrtakālah. The units of the former kind are manifested (mūrttah) by the nature while, those of the latter kind are created by man. From this view point, ahorātra, prāņa or asu. nimeşa are mūrttakālah and the rest are amūrttakālah.

Hour

Deleting the leading letter ‘a’ and the trailing ‘tra’ from ‘ahorātra’, one is left with the word horā, and from this horā, another system of measuring time, the ‘Horā System’, introduced in this country by the celebrated Hindu astronomer Varāha Mihira, by dividing a day and night into 24 horās. Many believe that from this Horā System the entire world has adopted the present practice of dividing a day and night into 24 hours and moreover, from Sanskrit horā, English hour, Latin hora and Greek ora (ωρα) have been derived. It is interesting to note here that, one can derive the names of the seven days of a week from this Horā System as well. One has to assume a lord for each horā of the day and Ravivāra is to be accepted as the first day of the week, but counting is to be made in the reverse or descending order and the fourth place gives the name of the following day.

Seven Days of Week

Why seven days make a week? And wherefrom the names of these seven days have come? Every Indian will be pleased to know that it is also a gift of India to the entire world. We have seen earlier that, 60 ghaţis or daņdas make one day and night or ahorātra. Indian astronomers dedicated each ghaţi of the day to a planet as its lord and derived the name of the day as per the lord of the first ghaţi of the day.

figure1.jpg
surya sunday
soma monday
mangala tuesday
budha wednesday
guru thursday
shukra friday
shani saturday
rahu & ketu eclipse
The sun or Ravi being the most powerful among the planets, as well as the giver and sustainer of life, has been honoured to be the lord of first ghaţi of the first day of the week. Hence it is named Ravivāra or Sunday. In Figure-1, the lords of second and third ghaţis of Ravivāra are Mars and Jupiter respectively. Proceeding in this manner, Saturn is the lord of the 60th ghaţi of Ravivāra and the moon or Soma becomes the lord of the first ghaţi of the following day and hence it is named Somavāra or Monday (Moonday). One may notice here that in counting 60 ghaţis along the circle of Firure-1, one has to make 8 complete revolutions and 4 more planets and hence starting from a particular planet, the 5th place gives the name of the following day. In this manner one finally arrives at Śanivāra or Saturday (Saturnday) and starting from Śanivāra one observes that the next day is Ravivāra and thus the cycle is completed.

It may be recalled that the Horā System is not essential for naming he seven days of a week and primarily it was done by the Vedic astronomers dividing a day and night into 60 ghaţis or 60 daņdas. Hence, we may conclude without doubt that, it is the Vedic astronomers who named the seven days of a week using the original Indian system of dividing a day and night into 60 ghaţis and in their subsequent attempt they have shown that, one can arrive at the same results using 24 horās as well. In a verse (1/296) of Yājňavalkya Samhitā, the names of the planets are given exactly in the order of week days and hence there is every reason to believe that the names of the planets in that verse were mentioned particularly as the lords of the seven days of a week. This makes Professor S. B. Dixit to believe that the names of the seven days of a week were known in the times of Yājňavalkya Samhitā.

Fortnight, Month and Year

Units of time larger than day and week are fortnight and month. The Ŗgveda says, “aruņo māsakŗvikah’’ and Ācārya Yāska in his commentary over the verse says. “aruņo arocano māsakŗņmāsānām cārddhamāsānām ca kartā bhavati” or the moon is the creator of months and fortnights. In Sanskrit the moon is called candramas and the word māsa has been derived from the parting syllable ‘mas’ of candramas. So it appears that, during the Vedic period people counted months and fortnights according to the phases of the moon. According to Professor S. B. Dixit, it was quite natural since one has to ascertain the duration of a solar month by tedious calculations, while lunar months arc visible to the naked eye and he writes, “Therefore it is clear that solar months came into being afterwards”.

Samvatsara — The Year Cycles

Samvatsara is a Sanskrit term for “year”. In Hindu tradition, there are 60 Samvatsaras, each of which has a name. Once all 60 samvatsaras are over, the cycle starts over again. The sixty Samvatsaras are divided into 3 groups of 20 Samvatsaras each. The first 20 from Prabhava to Vyaya are attributed to Brahma. The next 20 from Sarvajit to Parabhava to Vishnu & the last 20 to Shiva.

The 60 Samvatsaras are:

1. Prabhava 13. Pramāthin 25. Khara 37. Shobhana 49. Rākshasa
2. Vibhava 14. Vikrama 26. Nandana 38. Krodhin 50. Anala
3. Shukla 15. Vrisha 27. Vijaya 39. Vishvāvasu 51. Pingala
4. Pramoda 16. Chitrabhānu 28. Jaya 40. Parābhava 52. Kālayukti
5. Prajāpati 17. Svabhānu 29. Manmatha 41. Plavanga 53. Siddhārthin
6. Āngirasa 18. Tārana 30. Durmukha 42. Kīlaka 54. Raudra
7. Shrīmukha 19. Pārthiva 31. Hemalambin 43. Saumya 55. Durmati
8. Bhāva 20. Vyaya 32. Vilambin 44. Sādhārana 56. Dundubhi
9. Yuvan 21. Sarvajit 33. Vikārin 45. Virodhikrit 57. Rudhirodgārin
10. Dhātri 22. Sarvadhārin 34. Shārvari 46. Paritāpin 58. Raktāksha
11. Īshvara 23. Virodhin 35. Plava 47. Pramādin 59. Krodhana
12. Bahudhānya 24. Vikrita 36. Shubhakrit 48. Ānanda 60. Kshaya
Once the 60 names are finished, the next year starts with the first name again. This goes on in a cyclic manner.

Yuga

The units of time larger than a year are called yugas. The word yuga has been derived from yoga and yoga from samyoga, or conjunction of heavenly bodies. So one finds the origin of every unit of yuga to a specific conjunction of the heavenly bodies in the sky. In Indian astronomy, starting from a mere 5 year yuga to a vast Mahāyuga of 4,320,000 years are in vogue. Every 5 year, a conjunction of the sun and the moon occurs at the asterism Dhanişthā in the zodiacal sign Makara (Capricorn). The sun enters Makara, in the month of Māgha. Hence the conjunction recurs every 5 year on the new-moon day in the month of Māgha and that is the basis of counting a 5 year yuga. The Vedānga Jyotisa provides special names for these five years and they are Samvatsara, Parivatsara, Idāvatsara. Anuvatsara and Idvatvatsara [VS: 26/45, 30/16; TB: 1/4/10;111/4/1-4).

The planet Vŗhaspati (Jupiter) takes 1 year to cover a zodiacal sign and hence takes 12 years to complete its journey through all the 12 signs of the zodiac. This is the basis for counting a 12 year yuga and since it originates from the motion of Vŗhaspati, it is often called the Vrāhaspatya-yuga. It would be relevant to mention here that the Kumbha-Mela is held when Vŗhaspati enters the house of Kumbha (Aquarious) and hence the festival recurs every 12 years.

From the facts narrated above, one observes that a conjunction of the sun and the moon at Dhanişthā, while the Vŗhaspati (Jupiter) at makara (Capricorn), occurs every 60 years and that is the basis for counting a 60 year yuga. Hindu scriptures provide separate names for all the sixty years of a 60 year yuga.[4] The rare occasion when the sun, the moon and Vŗhaspati (Jupiter) meet at dhanişthā repeats at an interval of 865 million years. Such a conjunction occurs five times in a Kalpa.

Mahayuga (Chaturyuga) — The Yuga Cycles

Beyond this level there are 4 epochs or yugas, namely, Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga. All these four yugas together is called a chatur yuga, which means “four epochs”or also termed maha yuga that means “great epochs”. Together a chatur yuga constitutes 4,320,000 human years and the lengths of each chatur yuga follow a ratio of (4:3:2:1:).

yuga human years ratio
krita-yuga 1,728,000 years 4
treta-yuga 1,296,000 years 3
dvapara-yuga 864,000 years 2
kali-yuga 432,000 years 1
1 chatur yuga (mahayuga) 4,320,000 human years
The ages see a gradual decline of dharma, wisdom, knowledge, intellectual capability, life span and emotional and physical strength.

Krita Yuga Treta Yuga Dvapara Yuga Kali Yuga
other name Golden Age or Satya Yuga (age of Truth) Silver Age Bronze Age Iron Age
human years 1,728,000 1,296,000 864,000 432,000
climate virtue reigns supreme three quarters virtue and one quarter sin one half virtue and one half sin one quarter virtue and three quarters sin
human stature 21 cubits 14 cubits 3.5 cubits
human lifespan lakh of years and death occurs only when willed. lifespan is 10,000 years. lifespan is 1,000 years. lifespan is 100 or 120 years.
Time of the Devas — The Cosmic Years

1 day of the Devas 1 human year
1 month of the Devas 30 days of the Devas
1 year of the Devas (1 divine year) 12 months of the Devas
The lifespan of the Devas is 100 years of the Devas smile emoticon 36,000 human years).

Kalpa — A Cosmic Day of Brahmā

In this cyclic process of time, 1000 chaturyuga or mahayuga period is called a Kalpa, and period of time is equal to a daytime for the Brahma, the creator of the universe. A thousand and a thousand (i.e. two thousand) chaturyuga-s are said to be one day and night of Brahmā (the creator).

1 kalpa 1000 chatur yuga (mahayuga)
1 day and 1 night of Brahmā 2 kalpas
At the beginning of creation begins the day of creation. At the end of that goes back all of the creation of the Absolute. This is a Kalpa a cosmic cycle of becoming and either of creation and destruction.

Manvantara

A cosmic days includes 14 Period or Manvantaras to 306 720 000 solar years. The next day, a cosmic unity is a Manvantara, there are fourteen pieces. A Manu mastered such a period. We live in the 7th Manvantara. Manvantara the first 6 have gone, 7 more will come. In particular, their names are:

01. Svaayambhuva — son of the self-born (here began the creation)
02. Svaarochisha — son of the Self Shining
03. Uttama — Son of the Most High
04. Taamasa — Son of Darkness
05. Raivata — son of wealth
06. Chaakshusha — son of the vision (this was the Quirlung instead of the milk ocean)
07. Vaivasvata — Vaivasvata is the son of the Sun God. <—- We currently live here.

08. Arka Saavarni (or Savarnika) — stands with the Sun God in relationship
09. Daksha-Saavarni — son of the rituals
10. Brahma-Saavarni — son of Brahma
11. Dharma-Saavarni — Son of the Eternal Law
12. Rudra-Saavarni — son of the Destroyer
13. Deva-Saavarni — Son of the Shining
14. Indra-Saavarni — son of the mighty Indra

71 cycles of chatur yuga is called a manvantara. At the end of each manvantara period, there comes a partial devastation period, which is equivalant to the duration of krita yuga. This means after every manvantara period, the world is partially destroyed and recreated.

1 manvantara 71 cycles of chatur yuga
A Manvantara is one of the 14 sub-units of a cosmic creation and lasts for 710 days or 306 720 000 solar years. 306 720 000 years. A Manvantara is divided into a total of 71 Mahayugas ( “big Yugas”). Currently, we live the 28th Mahayuga. Mahayuga of the 7th Manvantara. The Mahayugas close to each other seamlessly, without having a period of twilight to be separated.

Mahakalpa — Brahma’s Lifespan

Brahma (the creator) lives for 100 years of 360 such days and at the end, he is said to dissolve, along with his entire Creation, into the Paramātman (Eternal Soul). The scriptures put Brahma’s age at 100 years in his unique time scale.

Brahma’s life span is equal to 311,040,000,000,000 human years. This period in named as maha kalpa. A universe lasts only for one maha kalpa period. At the end of it the universe is completely destroyed together with the creator Brahma and a new universe would be created with a new Brahma. This cycle goes on endlessly. The Vedic universe passes through repetitive cycles of creation and destruction. During the annihilation of the universe, energy is conserved, to manifest again in the next creation.

1 maha kalpa 100 years of Brahma (311,040,000,000,000 human years)
Present date in Time
How old is the universe on this day of Brahma?

The current Kali Yuga began after the Surya Siddhanta at midnight on a change of 17 at 18 February in the year 3102 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar. Since the beginning of the Kalpa until the year 2005 AD passed:

6 complete Manvantaras: 6 x 710
7-Manvantara twilight before a Manvantara each: 7 x 4
27 complete Mahayugas of the current 7th Manvantara: 27 x 10
3 Elapsed Yugas the current 28th Mahayuga: (4 + 3 + 2) x l
5107 solar years in the current Kali Yuga
Kaliyuga calendar
The Kaliyuga calendar is apparently much older than — and quite out of line with — the other surviving old calendars. It also has a somewhat special standing because of its linkage with the religious account of the history of the world, described with mathematical — if mind-boggling — precision. (It is the last and the shortest of the four yugas, meant to last for 432,000 years, and has been preceded respectively by three other yugas, which were in length — going backwards — two, three and four times as long as the Kaliyuga, making up a total of 4,320,000 years altogether.)

The epoch (starting point or first day of the zeroth year) of the current era of Hindu calendar (both solar and lunisolar) is February 18 3102 BC/BCE in the proleptic Julian calendar or January 23 3102 BC/BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. Both the solar and lunisolar calendars started on this date. After that, each year is labeled by the number of years elapsed since the epoch.

This is a unique feature of the Hindu calendar. All other systems use the current ordinal number of the year as the year label. But just as a person’s true age is measured by the number of years that have elapsed starting from the date of the person’s birth, the Hindu calendar measures the number of years elapsed. As of May 18, 2005, 5106 years had elapsed in the Hindu calendar, so this is the 5107th Hindu calendar year. Note that the lunisolar calendar year will usually start earlier than the solar calendar year.

Outline
Prior to the creation of the universe, Lord Vishnu lies asleep on the ocean of all causes. He rests upon a serpent bed with thousands of cobra-like hoods. While asleep, a lotus sprouts from His navel. Upon this lotus is born Brahma the creator of the universe. Lord Brahma lives for a hundred years and then dies, while Lord Vishnu remains. One year of Brahma consists of three hundred and sixty days. At the beginning of each day Brahma creates the living beings that reside in the universe and at the end of each day the living beings are absorbed into Brahma while he sleeps on the lotus. On day of Brahma is known as a KALPA. Within each KALPA there are fourteen MANUS and within each MANU are seventy one CHATUR-YUGAS. Each CHATUR-YUGA is divided into four parts called YUGAPADAS.

From the first chapter of Surya-Siddhanta, the most revered authoritative source of Hindu astronomy, we have the following passage:

11. That which begins with respirations (prana) is called real…….Six respirations make a vinadi, sixty of these a nadi:

12. And sixty nadis make a sidereal day and night. Of thirty of these sidereal days is composed a month; a civil (savana) month consists of as many sunrises;

13. A lunar month, of as many lunar days (tithi); a solar (saura) month is determined by the entrance of the Sun into a sign of the zodiac; twelve months make a year. This is called a day of the gods.

14. The day and night of the devas are mutually opposed to one another. Six times sixty of them are a year of the devas.

15 & 16. Twelve thousand of these divine years are denominated a chatur-yuga; of ten-thousand times four hundred and thirty two solar years is composed that chatur-yuga, with its dawn and twilight. The difference of the krita-yuga and the other yugas, as measured by the difference in the number of the feet of virtue in each is as follows:

17. The tenth part of a chatur-yuga, multiplied successively by four, three, two, and one, gives the length of the krita and the other yugas: the sixth part of each belongs to its dawn and twilight.

18. One and seventy chatur-yugas make a manu; at its end is a twilight which has the number of years of a krita-yuga, and which is a deluge.

19. In a kalpa are reckoned fourteen manus with their respective twilights; at the commencement of the kalpa is a fifteenth dawn, having the length of a krita-yuga.

20. The kalpa, thus composed of a thousand chatur-yugas, and which brings about the destruction of all that exists, is a day of Brahma; his night is of the same length.

21. His extreme age is a hundred, according to this valuation of a day and a night. The half of his life is past; of the remainder, this is the firsts kalpa.

22. And of this kalpa, six manus are past, with their respective twilights; and of the Manu son of Vivasvat, twenty seven chatur-yugas are past;

23. Of the present, the twenty eighth chatur-yuga, this krita yuga is past……..

Pralaya
ALL THE BEINGS OF THIS UNIVERSE INCLUDING CHATURMUKHA BRAHMA AND OTHER GODS ARE RULED BY TIME. THEY ARE CREATED, LIVE AND ARE DESTROYED BY ONE SUPREME AND POWERFUL BEING , WHO HAS NO BIRTH OR DEATH.

This destruction is of four types:

(1) Nitya Pralaya (2) Naimittika Pralaya (3) Maha Pralaya and (4) Aatyantika Pralaya.

Nitya Pralaya is the sleep or by an extension thereof, Death.

Naimittika Pralaya is the end of a single day of Brahma, when the three worlds (Bhuh:, Bhuvaha: and Suvaha:) disintegrate.

Maha Pralaya is the great deluge at the end of the age of one Brahma ,which consists of 100 Brahmic Years (365 Times 2,000 ChaturYugas).

Aatyantika Pralaya is “the final deliverance or the attainment of Salvation by a Jivan and after that the Jivan is never again in the clutches of Karma nor bound by the tight ropes of Samsara.It is therefore a variable time span conditioned by the practise of the different kind of Yogas or Prapatti.

After these definitions of Units of Kaala and the alloted life spans of the Humans and Gods, we come to the concept of Kaala in the Nitya Vibuthi or Sri Vaikuntam. Since, Kaala is omnipresent, it has to be in Sri Vaikuntam also. However, it does not have the same power as in Leela Vibuthi or the Physical Universe, which serves as the play ground for Sriman Narayana. Kaala in Sri Vaikuntam is powerless and hence does not bring about growth, decay or destruction of any thing. Hence all there have eternal existence. Kaala is helpful there only “to describe one action as taking place before or after another. For instance in the service that the Muktas do to Sriman Narayana , they give a bath (Snana) at a point of time previous to that in which they offer food(Bhojana). It is all day there for ever and there is no division into day and night. Kaala is under the control of Sriman Narayana and he manipulates it as He likes it. It is used as an Instrument by Him in bringing about the modification of the various objects in Lila Vibhuti.”
Wikidot.com

Finding my roots

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SOURCE Virgin Management

LONDON, February 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ —

~Virgin Group Founder reveals pride in unearthing family history~

Writing in his blog today, Richard Branson traces his family history and reveals his pride in discovering he is of Indian descent:

“I know just about everything there is to know about my living relatives – we’re a tightknit bunch, who loves to share and celebrate our achievements together. Up until recently, however, I couldn’t say the same about those who came before my great-grandparents.

That was until I sat down with historian and journalist, Henry Louis Gates Jr to trace my roots. Let me tell you, it was a journey of wonderful discovery, in which I found out that I inherited several of my most defining character traits – namely my love of adventure, discovery and entrepreneurship – from my ancestors.

My father’s family left a paper trail that traced back to Madras, India in the 1700s. In 1793, my third great-grandfather, John Edward Branson set sail from Britain to India. After a gruelling six-month journey, in which his boat circled the Cape of Good Hope and crossed the Indian Ocean, he reached South East India – a trading hub of the fast-growing British Empire. He was eventually joined by his father, my fourth great-grandfather, Harry Wilkins Branson; and by 1808 three generations of my ancestors were living in Madras (or Chennai, as the city is known today).

When I heard this, I hoped that they had made the move for the love of adventure and in the spirit of entrepreneurship; and it turns out I was right. The paper trail showed that they moved in search of fortune, and within 10 years became successful businessmen – my great-great-great-grandfather, John, a shopkeeper and my great-great-great-great-grandfather, Harry, an auctioneer. I was terribly excited to discover that the entrepreneur gene runs deep in the Branson blood line.

What’s more exciting is that the Madras archives combined with analysis of my DNA uncovered a very surprising family secret. The baptismal record of my second great-grandmother Eliza Reddy strangely didn’t list her mother. Analysis of my DNA revealed that the reason for this was because my third great-grandmother was Indian. Yes, it turns out I’m part Indian. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face when I found this out. I’m honoured. I wish that my father had got to see these records; he would have been fascinated too.

Like my paternal ancestors, it appears that my maternal side also embraced the spirit of adventure. While probing into my mother’s family lineage something odd happened: my mother’s great-grandparents, Henry and Fanny Flindt, disappeared from English census records. They appeared to completely vanish after 1861, but luckily showed up in Australia!

Baptismal records from Prahran, Melbourne show that some time after 1861, Henry and Fanny moved their entire family to Australia. Again, I had no idea about this part of my family’s history. No wonder I have always loved Australia – it’s in the blood!

However, while the Australian economy was booming, my family was anything but prosperous. Soon after arriving they were forced to file for bankruptcy. And in 1867 both Henry and Fanny died from dysentery, leaving their four children – including my great grandfather, Sydney Flindt – orphaned.  Fortunately, my third great-grandfather, Julius Emanuel Flindt brought the children back to England, and made them his heirs.

The story of my great-great-great grandfather’s altruism has affected me deeply. Thanks to the generosity and kindness of one man, my ancestors managed to get back on their feet, and find success and happiness. I hope that when my family look at our family tree, they look at my name and think: great-grandfather Richard Branson really made a difference. I hope that they will be proud of me.

Perhaps the most surprising piece of information discovered on my mother’s side was the fact that I’m related to Charlemagne, King of the Franks. It turns out that he is my fortieth great-grandfather! But that’s a story for another time.

Richard revealed his family history as part of Finding Your Roots which is broadcast on PBS. Find out more by visiting virgin.com/richardbranson.

1.What ISLAM has done to HINDU SUN WORSHIP in Multan,Pakistan?

A. SUN TEMPLE OF MULTAN . The original Sun Temple at Multan is said to have been built by Samba, son of Krishna in 3000BE to gain relief from the symptoms of his leprosy.…

 
1. At the entrance of the main door, to the right side, a stick which was used by Ananthaalvar to hit Venkateshwara Swamy is present. When this stick was used to hit the ‘small boy’ Venkateshwara, his chin was hurt. Since then, the practice and tradition of applying Sandalwood paste on Swamy’s chin began.
2. There is real hair on the main idol of Venkateshwara Swamy. They say that this hair never tangles and is silky smooth always.
3. There is a village, approximately 23 Kms from the temple in Tirumala.
The entry to this village is only for the villagers. The people are said to be living with strict practices and tradition. It is from this village, that all the flowers, milk, ghee, butter are sourced for the God.
4. Venkateshwara Swamy appears to be standing in the middle of the garba gudi. Actually, Swamy stands at the right side corner of the garba gudi. This can be noticed from standing outside.
5. Every day a new & sacred dhoti (bottom) and saree (top) are used to decorate Swamy. Blessing newly married Couples who perform a spl seva are given this.
6. All the flowers used in the garba gudi are in no condition brought out. There is a waterfall behind Swamy’s behind. All flowers are thrown in this water fall.
7. No matter how many times, the back of Swamy is dried, it remains wet always. If you carefully keep your ear and listen against Swamy’s back, sound of an ocean is heard.
8. Lakshmi Devi is on the heart of Swamy. On Thursdays, during Nija Roopa Darshanam, Swamy is decorated with white wood paste. When this decoration is taken out, the imprint on Lakshmi Devi remains. This imprint is sold by the temple authorities.
9. When someone dies how one does not see behind and lights the fire, similarly, the flowers removed from Swamy are thrown at the back of Swamy. It is said that the pujaris do not look at the back of the Swamy that entire day. All these flowers can be seen coming out at a place called Verpedu, 20 kms from Tirupati (on way to Kalahaasti).
10. The lights (deepa) lighted in front of the Swamy is said to be lit since thousands of years. And no one exactly knows since when these lights are lit.
11. In 1800, the temple was said to be closed for 12 years. One King is said to have punished. 12 people (who committed some crime) by killing them and hanging them on the walls of the temple. They say that, it was at this time that Vimana Venkateshwara Swamy appeared..!
13. The Arch at the entrance ofTirumala Hills is unique in the world.
14. The Idol of Balaji is adorned with ‘Pachai Karpooram’, from Cinnamomum camphora, which is a highly volatile substance,daily. If applied to a stone, it will form Cracks. But not so in Lord Balaji’s case.
15.There is no mark of the Chisel in the Idol.
16. The Idol is always at 110 Degree F, despite being bathed in Water, Milk at the early hours, 4.30am. After bathing the Deity Sweat forms every day and it is wiped off.
17. Lord Balaji is worshiped as Goddess Uma (Ambal) on four days , as Vishnu for two days and Shiva as One day in a week.
18. This Place is known for its amazing literacy rate (87.55%). What’s even more remarkable is that this is significantly higher than the national average of 73%
19. It has the second largest zoo in Asia.

Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park covers an area of 5,532 acres (22 square kilometers). It is said to have been built on the concepts of the Hindu Mythology, and is home to some of the animals that exist in ancient texts like Ramayana and Mahabharata.
20.The Local National Park is home to some rare birds and animals and has won accolades from several bio reserves. About 178 species of birds have been identified here, which also includes the globally threatened “Yellow-throated bulbul”, the critically dangered “Oriental white-backed vulture”, Loten’s Sunbird etc.

The “Gliding Lizard” and “Golden Gecko” are famous reptiles.
21. It has one of the richest temple administration, TTD (Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam)The major source of its income is Kanuka or Hundi offerings. Besides this, the sale of prasadam, darshan tickets, sale of seva tickets, sale of human hair, and receipts from choultries (places of accommodation) are the other significant sources of income.

The gross income of TTD for the current year (2014-15) is estimated to be Rs.2359.2 crores($385.33 mn). So, that is about Rs.6.34 crores($1.036 mn) per day.
23. It has free transport.The free bus services operated by TTD in Tirumala are known as “Dharma Radhams”. There are 12 such buses that pass through cottages, choultries, temples and other places in Tirumala, at a frequency of every 3 minutes in the prescribed time slots.
24.The Garuda Hill in Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateswara, features a natural rock formation that is in the form of Garuda (the eagle).

Incidentally, it turns out that Garuda is also the vehicle of Lord Venkateswara.
25. 300 years old “TIRUPATI LADDU” has a global patent.
It got the patent rights under theGeographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act; to counter the black market that was developing. Around 150,000 laddus are made daily. Each laddu weighs around 100gms, and is said to be made by a group of priests called “Archakas” in a special temple kitchen called “poku”.
26. The ambulance, a specially outfitted truck costing Rs. 13 lakh, has been funded by the Animal Welfare Board of India and the Marchig Animal Welfare Trust of Scotland. It uses a hydraulic system to haul animals into its stalls and can also be used for shifting stray dogs.
27. The most visited place of worship of the world.Visited by about 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims daily; while on special occasions and festivals like the annual Brahmotsavam, the number of pilgrims shoots up to 500,000 and more, making it the most-visited holy place in the world.
28. Tirumala temple has gold reserves and 52 tonnes of gold ornaments ( including antique gold ornaments and vessels of deity donated by kings and even British rulers since over 1000 years) which are worth over Rs 37,000 crore as per latest estimates. Every year it converts over 3000 kg of gold received in hundi from pilgrims as gold reserve deposits with nationalised banks.
29. The Tirumala Hill is 853m above sea level and is about 10.33 square miles (27 km2) in area. It comprises seven peaks, representing the seven heads of Adisesha thus earning the name Seshachalam. The seven peaks are called Seshadri, Neeladri, Garudadri, Anjanadri, Vrushabhadri, Narayanadri and Venkatadri.
30. Tirumala Tirupati is the richest temple in the world in terms of donations received and wealth, and the most-visited place of worship in the world.The temple is visited by about 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims daily (30 to 40 million people annually on average), while on special occasions and festivals, like the annual Brahmotsavam, the number of pilgrims shoots up to 500,000, making it the most-visited holy place in the world.
31.Lord Vishnu is worshiped in the Temple as per Vaikhanasa traditions. The ancient texts of the sage Marichi (the Bhagvad Shastram and Vimanarchana Kalpam) state that Lord Vishnu here should be worshipped six times a day.

UshaKala Aradhana — worship (or Aradhana) should start and finish before sunrise

Prathakala Aradhana — worship should start after sunrise and finish before noon

Madhyanika Aradhana — worship should start and finish at noon

Aparahana Aradhana — worship should start when the sun starts to descend

SandhyaKala Aradhana — worship should start and finish around the sunset

Ardharatri Aradhana — worship should start after the horizon is completely dark.
32. Many devotees have their head tonsured as “Mokku”, an offering to God. The daily amount of hair collected is over a ton. The hair thus gathered is sold by the temple organisation a few times a year by Public Auction to international buyers for use as hair extension and in cosmetics, bringing over $6 million to the temple’s treasury.This is the second highest income generating activity in the temple next to the Hundi Collection.

Nitya Anna Danam is a daily programme conducted by TTD about 1,20,000 People will be served daily.
33. A Cowherd or ” Sannidhi Golla” is the first person to open doors and enter the girbagriha and light the lamps. The family line of Cowherd has maintained the legacy all these years by blessing of lord Tirumala.

A physics team from The University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering soon will take delivery of a specialized system to see if they can “Z-pinch” a tiny bit of that salt into the heart of a star.

Popular Mechanics has coverage of this research project (H/T Instapundit)

“We are trying to develop a small, lightweight pulsed nuclear fusion system for deep space missions,” explained Dr. Jason Cassibry, an associate professor of engineering at UAHuntsville. “If this works we could reach Mars in six to eight weeks instead of six to eight months.”

In hockey, a slapshot digs the head of the hockey stick into the ice to bend the shaft, like an archer’s bow, storing energy for a sharper snap against the puck and drive it down the ice rink. Cassibry and his team will attempt to drive a hollowed-out puck in on itself, fusing lithium and hydrogen atoms and turning a little of their mass into pure energy.

The “pucks” are approximately two inches wide and an inch thick, smaller than a regulation three-inch puck. They are made of lithium deuteride (LH 2), the lightest metal combined with the middle-weight form of the lightest element.
In May, 2012, big flatbed trucks were unloading combine-sized pieces of equipment at the lab deep on Redstone. When assembled, they will make a Decade Module Two (DM2) pulsed power generator. It was originally designed for the Department of Defense for weapons testing in the 1990s and is coming to Huntsville from Tullahoma, Tenn.

The DM2 consists of banks of capacitors that store an electrical charge for release on command. The analogy is a photographer’s flash. That electrical charge will slam lithium and hydrogen atoms into each other and turn their mass into a tiny burst of pure energy.

The reactions of the lithium deuteride to the energy pulse will tell Cassibry and the team if their theory is correct and their fusion propulsion model is valid. If it is, they will begin crunching the numbers to see how to “scale up” a tiny project into something that might power a rocket.

Z-Pinch Engine: Physical nozzle shown for illustrative purposes only.

Design of Z-pinch and Dense Plasma Focus Powered Vehicles (11 pages)

Z-pinch and Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) are two promising techniques for bringing fusion power to the field of in-space propulsion. A design team comprising of engineers and scientists from UA Huntsville, NASA’s George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and the University of Wisconsin developed concept vehicles for a crewed round trip mission to Mars and an interstellar precursor mission. Outlined in this paper are vehicle concepts, complete with conceptual analysis of the mission profile, operations, structural and thermal analysis and power/avionics design. Additionally engineering design of the thruster itself is included. The design efforts adds greatly to the fidelity of estimates for power density (alpha) and overall performance for these thruster concepts.

Z-Pinch Operation

The approach investigated in this study involves the use of a confinement scheme known as a Z-Pinch, which falls under the MIF regime. The premise of a Z-Pinch is to run very large currents (Megampere scale) through a plasma over short timescales (200 ns). The magnetic field resulting from the large current then compresses the plasma to fusion conditions. This plasma formation is widely used in the field of Nuclear Weapons Effects (NWE) testing in the defense industry, as well as fusion energy research. Facilities of note include the Z Machine at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and MAGPIE at Imperial College, London. For a fusion propulsion system, the Z-Pinch is formed using annular nozzles with Deuterium-Tritium (D-T) fuel in the innermost nozzle and a Lithium mixture containing Lithium-6/7 in the outermost nozzle. The configuration would be focused in a conical manner so the D-T fuel and Lithium-6/7 mixture meet at a specific point that acts as a cathode so that the lithium mixture can serve as a current return path to complete the circuit.

In addition to serving as a current return path, the lithium liner also serves as a radiation shield. The advantage to this configuration is the reaction between neutrons and Lithium-6 resulting in the production of Tritium, thus adding further fuel to the fusion reaction, and boosting the energy output. In utilizing this method of fusion for propulsion, high thrusts and/or specific impulse can be produced.

Fusion Ignition Chamber

For this study, we selected 38,120 N and a mass flow rate of 0.2 kg/sec resulting in 19,400 seconds of specific impulse, consistent with one of the calculated performance points in the model.

A vehicle of this magnitude represents a substantial investment. In order to justify its development, it must be reusable and suitable for a wide variety of missions. It is possible that with some refurbishment between missions, the vehicle could have a very long service life (much like Naval vessels). New (full) propellant tanks could replace the spent ones, and components that incur significant wear and/or damage (Z-Pinch electrical leads, Lithium nozzles, Z-Pinch diodes and switches, SP-100 Reactor, etc) could be replaced while the vehicle is at dock at L1.

Tesla and Vedic Philosophy—————————

By  Arjun Kadya Balakrishna 
Spiritual concepts of our ancient world are directly intertwined with modern-day science, more so quantum physics, and Nikola Tesla was well aware of this.
“All perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, or tenuity beyond conception, filling all space, the akasha or luminiferous ether, which is acted upon by the life giving Prana or creative force, calling into existence, in never-ending cycles all things and phenomena.”- Nikola Tesla, Man’s Greatest Achievement, 1907 
As you can see, Tesla was aware of ancient concepts and the correlation it had with the science he was working on -using sanskrit worlds like “akasha,” and “prana” to describe the force and matter that exists all around us. These words come from the Upanishads (a collection of Vedic texts)
Nikola Tesla had correlations with Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), who was one of the most famous and influential spiritual leaders of the philosophies of Vedanta (one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, the term originally referred to the upanishads, a collection of philosophical texts in Hinduism) and Yoga. He was the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the founder of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. He is a giant figure in the history of the hindu reform movements.
Vivekananda wrote a later to Tesla in the late 1800′s stating:
“Mr. Tesla thinks he can demonstrate mathematically that force and matter are reducible to potential energy. I am to go and see him next week to get this new mathematical demonstration. In that case the Vedantic cosmology will be placed on the surest of foundations. I am working a good deal now upon the cosmology and eschatology of the Vedanta. I clearly see their perfect union with modern science, and the elucidation of the one will be followed by that of the other.” – Swami Vivekananda (Complete Works, VOL. V, Fifth Edition, 1347, p. 77). 
Tesla began using the Sanskrit words after meeting with Swami, and after studying the Eastern view of the true nature of reality, about the mechanisms that drive the material world. Eventually, it led him to the basis for the wireless transmission of electrical power, what is known as the Tesla Coil Transformer. During this year he made the following comments during a speech before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. (Given before he familiarized himself with the the Vedic sincere of the easter nations of India, Tibet, and Nepal.)
“Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point in the universe. This idea is not novel…We find it in the delightful myth of Antheus, who derives power from the earth; we find it among subtle speculations of one of your splendid mathematicians….Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static, or kinetic? If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic – and this we know it is, for certain – then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheel work of nature.” – Nikola Tesla

Arjun Kadya Balakrishna

There are many similarities among different mythical characters of different epics.Here’s a list of few of the similarities between Indian and Greek mythology.

1. Zeus and Indra

us, the God of rains and thunder is the most worshipped God in Greek Pantheon. He is the king of Gods. He carries with himself a thunderbolt. Indra is the God of rains and thunder and he too carries a thunderbolt called Vajra. He is also the king of Gods. Both were considered womanizer.

2. Krishna and Hercules.

It is said that Greek explorer Megasthenes took the tale of Lord Krishna from India to Greece, whom he called Heracles. Heracles’ tales then became part of the Greek mythology, with appropriate modifications to fit into Greek environment. Greek God Hercules. If we compare Lord Krishna with Heracles then we find many similarities between the two. There are evidences which prove that Hercules is none other than Lord Krishna.

3. 3 Main gods : Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva :: Zeus, Hades and Poseidon

Both Hindu and Greek mythology are centered on three main Gods that are the designated leaders. Just like we have our Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva, they have Zeus, Hades and Poseidon who respectively rule the heavens, the underworld and the seas. Curiously, Indra, the Hindu king of the Gods, is but a caricature and is often depicted in stories as vengeful and petulant. Zeus, in contrast, is all-powerful and feared by all his subjects.

4. The weapons are the same

Indra is considered the God of rain, and his weapon, the Vajrayudha, is said to be a thunderbolt. Though there is no competing myth in the case of Zeus as to how the weapon came into being, his very voice carries a deep rumble, it is said, and he’s often depicted in art with a live streak of lightning trapped in his closed fist. Poseidon, the second God of the trinity, wields the trident, much like Shiva. Weapon of Murugan and Ares are spears.

5. Afterlife and Rebirth

In both mythologies, the souls of the deceased are judged according to their actions and sentenced to different places. Souls judged as wicked were sent to the Fields of Punishment in Greek mythology, or Naraka in Hindu mythology where they were punished as befits their crimes. Souls judged as good were sent to the Elysian Fields in Greek mythology, or Svarga in Hindu mythology. The Greeks also had the Asphodel Meadows for those who lived ordinary lives, neither wicked nor heroic, and Tartarus as the ultimate concept of Hell. Hindu scriptures define various planes of existence as lokas among other things.

6. Ares and Murugan 

Ares is the god of war, son of Zeus and Hera. According to Homer he was not in good terms with Zeus and Hera. He was shown as being in humiliating situations. Ares fought for Hector in Trojan War. His weapon is spear. Murugan is the god of war and son of Shiva and Parvati.Murugan got angry at his parents and went away from home after he was humiliated in a game between him and Ganesha. Murugan fought for Banasura against Krishna and Balarama in the fight for Usha of Tezpur. Usha in Sanskrit means dawn. Helen means shining light. Weapon of Murugan is also a spear.

7.Birth of Aphrodite and Laxmi
Aphrodite is said to have born from the bubbles formed in sea when Ouranous’s genitals fell in after he was cut down.Laxmi shares a different premise, but similar birth; she appeared from a disturbance in sea. Both are regarded as goddesses of love and beauty. Funnily enough, Lakshmi’s flower, the Lotus, is also prominently used to represent the Hindu goddess Rati who represents carnal desires, something right up Aphrodite’s lane.

8. Helen of Troy and Draupadi

In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy has always been portrayed as a seductress who eloped with young Paris, forcing her desolate husband to fight the war of Troy to get her back. This war resulted in the burning of the beautiful city. Helen was held accountable for this annihilation. We also hear of Draupadi being accounted for Mahabharata.

9. Karna and Achilles

A demigod, Karna was born to Kunti and the Sun god. The unfortunate circumstances of his birth force the virgin Kunti to abandon the baby. He is brought up by a charioteer, Adhiratha, and his wife Radha, who shower their love on him. Born with a gold-plated armour and earrings that would make him invincible, he grows up to be a handsome lad, irresistibly drawn to the kshatriya tradition of warfare, perhaps due to his kshatriya heritage. Achilles leads the Greek army to the gates of victory but falls when a divine arrow shot by Paris, prince of Troy strikes his heel, the only vulnerable part of his body. Both these heroes perhaps fought for honor and glory. Though they have left an indelible mark as legends. They were both the right people in the wrong team.

10. Atlantis and Dwarka

Atlantis is a legendary island. It is said that after a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean “in a single day and night of misfortune.” In Hindu Mythology, Dwarka, a city built by Vishwakarma on the order of Lord Krishna is supposed to have suffered a similar fate of submersion into the sea after a war among the Yadavas, the descendants of Lord Krishna.

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1. The swastika has an extensive history

2. The meaning of swastika

The word ‘swastika’ is a Sanskrit word (‘svasktika’) meaning ‘It is’, ‘Well Being’, ‘Good Existence, and ‘Good Luck’. However, it is also known by different names in different countries – like ‘Wan’ in China, ‘Manji’ in Japan, ‘Fylfot’ in England, ‘Hakenkreuz’ in Germany and ‘Tetraskelion’ or ‘Tetragammadion’ in Greece.

3. Positive and Negative Shapes of Swastika

A Sanskrit scholar P. R. Sarkar in 1979 said that the deeper meaning of the word is ‘Permanent Victory’. He also said that as any symbol it can have positive and negative meaning depending on how it is drawn. So in Hinduism, the right-hand swastika is a symbol of the God Vishnu and the Sun, while the left-hand swastika is a symbol of Kali and Magic.

4. The symbol of the Swastika and its 12,000-year-old history

Swastika appears to have first been used in Neolithic Eurasia, perhaps representing the movement of the sun through the sky. For the Hindus and Buddhists in India and other Asian countries, the swastika was an important symbol for many thousands of years and, to this day, the symbol can still be seen in abundance on everything auspicious. It was also used in Ancient Greece and can be found in the remains of the ancient city of Troy, which existed 4,000 years ago.

5. Was it given by Krishna?

As the symbol more or less existed in all cultures from the beginning and in each faith it has been given a prominent position. It becomes even more difficult to trace its origins. However, some experts believe that it originated in Dwarka as that was the city of Lord Krishna. The city is now under the ocean after a massive earthquake destroyed it about five and a half thousand years ago. There is no documented proof however to support how this symbol came into existence.

6. The Oldest Known Symbol

The swastika is indeed a sun symbol from antiquity, appropriate in many themes and on many occasions. Like flood legends, the swastika (in various recognizable styles) is one of many symbols found throughout ancient civilisations having no possible contact (as we understand contact) with each other. Usually it meant the sun, in its scheme as “the wheel of life”. It was also a popular good luck symbol.

7. Mezine Swastika

The earliest swastika ever found was uncovered in Mezine, Ukraine, carved on an ivory figurine, which dates an incredible 12,000 years, and one of the earliest cultures that are known to have used the Swastika was a Neolithic culture in Southern Europe, in the area that is now Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, known as the Vinca Culture, which dates back around 8,000 years.

8. Lalibela Swastika

On the walls of the Christian catacombs in Rome, the symbol of the Swastika appears next to the words “ZOTIKO ZOTIKO” which means “Life of Life”. It can also be found on the window openings of the mysterious Lalibela Rock churches of Ethiopia, and in various other churches around the world.

9. Navaho Swastika

In Nordic Myths, Odin is represented passing through space as a whirling disk or swastika looking down through all worlds. In North America, the swastika was used by the Navajos. In Ancient Greece, Pythagoras used the Swastika under the name ‘Tetraktys’ and it was a symbol linking heaven and earth, with the right arm pointing to heaven and its left arm pointing to Earth.

10. How did this sign come into use?

To understand this we have to go back to the beginnings of our earth and the solar system. It is believed that there was an explosion and scattering of energy in all directions. As a result our earth and other planets formed. Scientists call this explosion the Big Bang. The exploding of a hundred H-bombs and one thousand A-bombs would be something like a Diwali firecracker compared to the Big Bang. The energy scattered in the shape of Swastik!

11. The deeper meaning of Swastika as a sun mark

As we have already noticed Surya Deva is everything to us. If he stops shining his light on us we will all perish. The four arms of Swastik stand for four main directions: North, South, East, West; the four Vedas: Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva; the four aims of human life called purusharthas in Sanskrit: Dharma (righteousness), Arth (Wealth); Kama (Desires); and finally Moksha (liberation.) And the four stages of life are called ashrams – Brahmacharya, Grahasth, Vanaprasth and Sannyas.

12. A Hinduism belief

The right-hand swastika is one of the 108 symbols of the Hindu god Vishnu as well as a symbol of the sun. The symbol imitates, in the rotation of its arms, the course taken daily by the sun, which appears in the Northern Hemisphere to pass from east, then south, to west. The left-hand swastika usually represents the terrifying Hindu goddess Kali and black magic. However, this form of the swastika is not “evil” and it is the form most commonly used in Buddhism.

13. Another Hindu belief

In Hinduism, the two symbols represent the two forms of the creator god Brahma: clockwise it represents the evolution of the universe (Pravritti) anti-clockwise it represents the involution of the universe (Nivritti). The Hindu God Ganesh is closely associated with the symbol of the swastika.

14. Swastika in Buddhism

In Buddhism, the swastika is oriented horizontally. It marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures. The swastikas, in either orientation, appear on the chest of some statues of Gautama Buddha and are often incised on the soles of the feet of the Buddha in statuary. Because of the association with the right facing swastika with Nazism, Buddhist swastikas after the mid 20th century are almost universally left-facing. Additionally, the left-facing swastika is found on Japanese maps to indicate a temple.

15. Swastika contains Buddha’s mind?

In Buddhism, the swastika is a symbol of good fortune, prosperity, abundance and eternity. It is directly related to Buddha and can be found carved on statues on the soles of his feet and on his heart. It is said that it contains Buddha’s mind.

16. Swastika in Jainism

Jainism does not use the Hindu om symbol at all and thus gives even more prominence to the swastika than Hinduism. It is a symbol of the seventh Jina (Saint), the Tirthankara Suparsva. It is considered to be one of the 24 auspicious marks and the emblem of the seventh arhat of the present age. All Jain temples and holy books must contain the swastika and ceremonies typically begin and end with creating a swastika mark several times with rice around the altar.

17. Swastika in the Abrahamic religions

The swastika was not widely utilized by followers of the Abrahamic religions. Where it does exist, it is not portrayed as an explicitly religious symbol and is often purely decorative or, at most, a symbol of good luck. Some Christian churches built in the Romanesque and Gothic eras are decorated with swastikas, carrying over earlier Roman designs. Swastikas are prominently displayed in a mosaic in the St. Sophia church of Kiev, Ukraine dating to the 12th century.

18. On tombs and mosques

They also appear as a repeating ornamental motif on a tomb in the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan. The Muslim “Friday” mosque of Isfahan, Iran and the Taynal Mosque in Tripoli, Lebanon both have swastika motifs.

19. Pre-Christian European Traditions

The swastika, also known as the fylfot in northwestern Europe, appears on many pre-Christian artifacts, drawn both clockwise and counterclockwise, within a circle or in a swirling form. The Greek goddess Athena was sometimes portrayed as wearing robes covered with swastikas. The “Ogham stone” found in County Kerry, Ireland is inscribed with several swastikas dating to the fifth century AD.

20. Why did Adolf Hitler decide to use it?

The Nazis adopted the swastika because it was understood as an Aryan symbol indicating racial purity and superiority. (The Nazis propagated a historical theory in which the early Aryans of India were white invaders.) There may also be a connection with the swastika’s magical connections, for Hitler and other Nazi leaders were keenly interested in the occult.

21. Nazi propaganda

The Nazi party, however, was not the only party to use the swastika in Germany. After World War I, a number of far-right nationalist movements adopted the swastika. As a symbol, it became associated with the idea of a racially “pure” state. By the time the Nazis gained control of Germany, the connotations of the swastika had forever changed.

22. In Mein Kampf, Adolph Hitler wrote:

I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika. Red, white, and black were the colors of the flag of the old German Empire.

23. Taboo in Western Countries

Because of its use by Hitler and the Nazis and, in modern times, by neo-Nazis and other hate groups, for many people in the West, the swastika is associated primarily with Nazism, fascism, and white supremacy in general. Hence, outside historical contexts, it has become taboo in Western countries. The Society for Creative Anachronism, which aims to study and recreate Medieval and Renaissance history, imposes restrictions on its members’ use of the swastika on their arms.

Source-Pallavi Thakur

1. Shiva Lingam: Some unknown truths

2. Shiva Lingam was worshipped all across the globe

The worship of Shiva Lingam was not confined to India and Sri Lanka only. Lingam was referred to ‘Prayapas’ by the Romans who introduced the worship of Shiva Lingam to European countries. The statutes of Shiva Lingams were found in the archeological findings in Babylon, a city of ancient Mesopotamia. Further, the archeological findings in Harappa-Mohanjo-daro yielded numerous Shiva Lingam statutes, which disclose the existence of a highly evolved culture long before the Aryan’s immigration.

3. The configuration of Shiva Linga

Shiva Lingam consists of three parts. The bottom part which is four-sided remains underground, the middle part which is eight-sided remains on a pedestal. The top part, which is actually worshipped, is round. The height of the round part is one-third of its circumference. The three parts symbolize Brahma at the bottom, Vishnu in the middle and Shiva on the top. The pedestal is provided with a passage for draining away the water that is poured on the top.

4. Misinterpretations

The Lingam symbolizes both the creative and destructive power of Lord Shiva and great sanctity is attached to it by the devotees. This does not mean others should give a false meaning to the image of Shiva Lingam. It is unfortunate for some critics to have an imaginary invention on the image of Shiva Lingam as a male organ and viewed with obscenity, but had conveniently forgotten how a phallus could have appeared from the base.

5. The concept

Since Lord Shiva is described as having no form, it is ridiculous to maintain that Lingam represents a phallus. This is the reason why Swami Vivekananda described Shiva Lingam as the symbol of the Eternal Brahman, when a German Orientalist, Gusta Oppert traced it to phallicism. Swami Vivekananda cited Atharva Veda that the worship of Shiva Lingam was sung in praise of sacrificial post – a description of the beginningless and endless of the Eternal Brahman and refuted it as an imaginary invention.

6. Kinds of Shivalinga

The Lingam is shaped like an egg and represents the ‘Brahmanda’ or the cosmic egg. There are two types of Shiva Lingam. One is a black meteorite egg-shaped stone. It is said that such a stone is installed at Kabba in Mecca. The other one is man-made and is solidified mercury. Solidifying mercury is an ancient Vedic science. Shiva Lingam represents the totality of the Cosmos and the Cosmos, in turn, being represented as a Cosmic Egg.

7. Six kinds of Shivalingas

1. Daiva-lingas are those installed and worshipped by the gods and other celestial beings, and thus named after them. They continue to exist in the present day and on earth, but their origin is traditionally ascribed to the gods. 2. Asura-lingas are those installed by the class of the wicked titans (known as asuras) but were pious and zealous devotees of Shiva (like Ravana); 3. Arsha-lingas were installed and worshipped by sages of yore (like Agastya).

8. Various kinds of Shivalingas

4. Purana-lingas are those which have been celebrated as installed at the very distinct past by mythical personages. 5. Manusha-lingas are those that have been caused to be made by human patrons (rulers, chieftans, wealthy folk etc) in historical times and 6. Svayambhu-lingas are the forms which Shiva assumed to manifest himself.

9. Ancient Shiva Linga in Ireland

In County Meath, Ireland, on the Hill of Tara sits a mysterious stone known as the Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny). According to The Annals of the Four Masters, an ancient document written by Franciscan Monks between 1632-1636 AD, this stone was brought to Ireland by the Tuatha Dé Danann – supernaturally gifted people. Some speculate it was they who brought the power to make bronze to Ireland. They were the main deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland.

10. The legend

The Tuatha Dé Danann, meaning the children of the goddess Danu, are said to have ruled Ireland from 1897 B.C. to 1700 B.C. having arrived from the coast on ships. The Christian monks viewed the stone as a pagan stone idol symbolic of fertility. This stone was so important that it was used for the coronation of all Irish Kings up until 500 AD. The goddess Danu in European tradition was a river goddess. In some Irish texts her father is said to be Dagda (the good god), a father figure in Irish tradition.

11. The Vedic connection

The Vedic tradition also has a goddess Danu, the daughter of Daksha, wife of Kasyapa Muni, who was a goddess of the rivers. The word Danu in Sanskrit means ‘flowing water’. As the daughter of Daksha, her sister Sati was married to Lord Shiva. To practitioners of Vedic tradition the Lia Fáil matches very closely to the Shiva Linga. Eventually the Tuatha Dé Danann were defeated in battle. According to legend, they were allowed to stay in Ireland only under the ground as the ‘Aes sidhe’ – people of the fairy mounds.

12. Ancient Shiva Lingas Found throughout Vietnam

Vietnam was the home to a vibrant Vedic civilization. Many spectacular temples and sculptures still remain to this day .Throughout Vietnam many ancient Shiva Lingas have been found, dating back thousands of years. This is further proof of the vast extent of Vedic culture throughout the world.

13. Etruscan Museum at the Vatican

This piece is at present on view in the Etruscan Museum at the Vatican in Rome. Encyclopedia Britannica mentions under the headings “Etruria” and “Etruscan” that between the 2nd and 7th centuries BC, northern Italy was known as Etruria. During excavations many such “meteoric stones mounted on carved pedestals” are discovered in Italy. Obviously, therefore, this one was dug up from the Vatican itself. Many more must be lying buried in the Vatican’s massive walls and numerous cellars.

14. 5,000 year old Shivalinga found at Harappa

In 1940, archaeologist M.S. Vats discovered three Shiva Lingas at Harappa, dating more than 5,000 years old. This rare archival photo shows that ancient Shiva Linga as it was being excavated from the Harappa site.

15. Shivalinga in Africa

There is Shiva in Kailasha and there is Shiva in Kashi and now in Africa too. The discovery of a Shiva idol in South Africa is the proof that 6000 years ago Africans used to worship him. Archeologists have found 6000 year old Shivalinga in a cave named Sudwara in South Africa and it is made of hard granite stone. The archeologists are amazed that how the Shivalinga survived there for so long.

16. Statue of Lord Shiva’s sacred bull found in Indonesia

Archaeologists have found a statue of Nandi, the sacred bull that carried the Hindu god Shiva, among the ruins of what is believed to be an ancient temple at an excavation site in Yogyakarta in Indonesia. The head of the excavation team from the Yogyakarta Antiquities and Relics Conservation Agency said, “The statue is exquisite. The sculpture is carved differently from other statues of Nandi. This one is not depicted as fat.”

17. Other findings

Previous discoveries at the site, which is located on the Indonesian Islamic University campus, include a statue of Ganesha, Shiva’s divine son; a linga , the symbol of worship for Shiva; and a yoni , a Hindu symbol for divine passage or birth. The head of the excavation team said that archeologists were working under the assumption that the pillars had not been destroyed by a volcanic mudflow hundreds of years ago, but had instead been removed by people.

18. Lord Shiva and Roman God Neptune

Notice the trident on this statue of Neptune, typical of Shiva. The trident was always an emblem of Lord Shiva. Neptune is also seen here standing on an entity in which case Shiva is also seen at times standing on the being of ignorance, illusion, or maya, showing that he is not affected by the power of the illusory energy. Also here, Neptune’s hand is raised in a calming gesture, and when Shiva’s hand is raised it signifies abhaya or giving blessings and represents sthiti, or preservation and protection.

19. Wandering impressions of Vedic culture

Thus, anyone familiar with Vedic culture will realize that he is styled in a similar way to Lord Shiva. This shows how the impressions of Vedic culture and its gods came from India, though styles and names may have changed as it traveled west.

Link

पांच हजार साल से जलता ‘अग्निकुंड’

Five thousand old ancient Mamleshwar Temple, at Karsog,HP

 Mamleshwar Temple is the 
ancient 
srine of 'Lord Shiva'. Legends speak 
of Pandavas had built this temple , 
during their exile period. Few significant 
attractions of this temple are;
-- Single grain of wheat , weighing 250 gms
-- A temple drum ,6 ft long. As per legend 
this drum was played by 'Bhima' ( one of the Pandava
brothers).It is known as ' Bhil ka dhol ' 

Mamleshwar Mahadev Temple:- Another temple that is situated in the Karsog valley is Mamleshwar Mahadev Temple Mamel. Main thing about this temple is that their is a statue of lord Shiva & Parvati in this temple & in other Temple Lord Shiva Statue is in the form of Shiv Ling, but in this temple its different. One more thing is that, this statue is made up of metal whose name is Asht Dhatu. This Temple was made by Pandav’s of Mahabharat, while they were in their exile period. In the temple you can see the ropes of Pandav’s ancient time, the artwork on woods and stones.

The temple have a great value local people and others life. So you can receive people always in the temple compound. It is easy to reach this temple from the Local Karsog Bustand. Malel is 4km far from karsog.  Apart from that huge sized rope there is an another thing which you may not see anywhere in the world is an grain of wheat whose weight is NEAR ABOUT 150 GRAM ! You may be thinking its Unbelievable well believe it. Because its true. This  Grain came in to eye during Excavation work in Temple Premises of  Lord Shiva Named as Mamleshwar mahadev In Tehsil Karsog Of Distt. mandi (H.P.)

Local People relate this grain to the Exile period  of PANDAV’s in Mahabharat. They also beleive that this temple of Lord Shiva was also made by the PANDAV’S.

Well ! Old saying are Part. But we have to beleive which is in front of our eyes. I Belive it  & you will also start believing in  it after visiting this Place.  Here you can see an picture of that religious grain

Click to read more and watch Video in Hindi language

Karsog is an beautiful valley near Tattapani and is popular for its temples, nature and local culture. Karsog is amidst enormous orchards of apples and dense hilly woods of deodars and pines located in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. The Karsog valley is fully furnished with latest facilities, like hotels,  roads,  High Speed Internets, and Transport. The place is becoming popular and attraction of tourist day by day.

Enter a caption

Kamaksha Devi Temple Kao

http://www.vedicbharat.org

Gandikota is a small village located in Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established in 1123 by Chalukyan king of Kalyana named Ahavamalla Someswara I. The Gandikota fort was constructed by the Kappa king during 13th century. Situated on the banks of river Pennar, Gandikota derives its name from two Telugu words ‘Gandi’ meaning gorge and, ‘kota’ meaning fort. Also known as George fort, it is guarded by a huge entrance gate that’s 20 feet high and 101 bastions each over 40 feet high. The fort is surrounded by the deep gorge, impenetrable hills and dense forest. The landscape also includes monolithic boulders of red granite.

Although numerous empires control this fort but Nayaka empire control lost for 300 years. Others were-The Chalukya, Viyanagara, Nayaka, Mughal, Quli Qutub and also the British.  Gandikota has mixed culture but dominated by  Kakatiya Dynasty of Warangal.

Ranganath Swami Temple.

This temple sets an example of fine architecture and design and constructed around 1500 bc.

Madhava Swami Temple The Madhavaraya

Temple is the grandest structure in Gandikota making it equivalent to the temples of Hampi. Architecture of this temple is a little more difficult than of Ranganath Swami temple. Interiors are more attractive than exterior. There are small statues and sculptures of Hindu Gods carved over the Gopuram and walls of the temple.

Jamia Masjid

This masjid inside the fort is add on by Muslim rulers as always happens in Indian temple trying to either convert old temples or destroy..

Rayalacheruvu Lake

This Lake is adjacent to the fort and origins from Pennar River.  It is adjacent to the Jamia masjid and to the west of Raghunathaswamy temple. There are yet many unexplored places and things in the region. Recent architectural research has revealed the presence of underground passages that connect the fort with the valley.

Original Link

  
Hindu Vahanas in Italy and Greece
By Santanam Swaminathan
Hindu Vahanas (Mounts of Gods) are found in different parts of the world. We have already seen them in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Turkey and other places. Since the Middle Eastern countries were under the Kassites, Hittites and Mitanni from 1800 BC, who followed Vedic Religions, we see the Vahanas of gods there in sculptures and inscriptions. I have given the proofs in my earlier articles. Now I furnish more details about how the European countries adapted Hindu Gods’ vahanas with new stories.
We have sculptures showing Hindu Vahanas in Rome (Italy) and various parts of Greece or in the countries where Romans and Greeks extended their rule. Most of these sculptures were from First few centuries before Christ.
Times News Paper published a story on 23the February 1994 (see the picture in the paper cutting which I have preserving for 20 years in my file) detailing the symbols of three Roman Gods: “It consists of three seated figures of Minerva, Jupiter and Juno with their sacred animals the owl, eagle and peacock. The image of the goddesses appeared on Roman coins during the reigns of the emperors Trajan and Antonius Pius.” The statues belong to 3rd century BC. It shows that before the spread of Christianity and Islam, people worshipped different forms Gods like the Hindus of today.
In course three thousand long years, all the Gods and Goddesses got mixed up in their forms and interpretations. Any one opening the Encyclopaedias of Gods and Goddesses ( I have four different books on Gods and three different books on Symbols) will get confused when they say this god was worshipped as XXXX in this country, this god may be from XXXX country etc. The scholars are more confused than the people who worshipped them!
All the tales of ancient heroes and gods are full of violence, one killing another, cutting the body into many pieces and throwing them into different areas. Most of them may be interpreted as some natural phenomenon or astronomical events. We see it in Rig Veda from the story of Indra slaying Vritra etc. So called scholars with motive interpret them as Aryan-Dravidian fight. We know them as absurd theories because such fights are found in every ancient culture. There is no religious book or ancient literature without such clashes. Only in India the so called scholars deliberately mislead the general public for political gains.
Aphrodite on Hamsa Vahana and Hindu Anna Vahana of Sarsvati
Aphrodite is goddess of sexual love, worshipped from 1300 BC. She is equated with Ishtar (Akkadian), Astarte (Syrian), Astoreth (Phoenician), Dione, Cytherea, Venus (roman). She came from the foam of the ocean. In fact it was a distorted story of Hindu Samudra Marthan (Churning of the ocean) where Goddess Lakshmi, Heavenly nymph Apasaras and Jyeshta come out of the ocean. Aphrodite is shown as riding a swan, like goddess Saraswati. Egyptian Goddess Neith also emerged from the primeval ocean to create the world. She was depicted as the great celestial cow, like Hindu Kamadhenu. Neith is the goddess of weavers. I have already explained Neith–al means ‘weaving’ in Tamil in my earlier posts.
Hindu God Brahma and goddess Saraswati are shown riding swan.
Apollo was god of light, music and medicine. He was the son of the Titan Leto and the god Zeus (Latona and Jupiter to Romans) and the twin brother of the goddess Artemis (the Roman Diana). Apollo was often depicted with a lyre riding a swan. Known period of worship is circa 1300 BC. He is drawn as a god of hunters carrying a bow and arrow and associated with a stag. He is also pictured with lions. Apollo is strongly associated with the mystical number seven. Artemis rides a stag like Hindu Goddess Durga.
Hephaistos is an Olympian God in Greece. He rides a donkey. Donkey is Vahana for Hindu Gods and Goddesses as well:
Donkey Vahana for Indra: A.V. 9-6-4
Donkey vahana for Agni: Aitareya Brahmana 4-9-1
Donkey Vahana for other Gods: AV 8-8-22
Jyeshta or Muthevi or Seetala Devi have donkey has her Vahana.
 
Henrich Zimmer (1890-1943) wrong!
German Scholar, like most foreign Indologists misled the world by mixing the poison of Aryan –Dravidian theory in his interpretation of Vahanas. He said,
“ Animal symbol carrying the human is the duplicate representation of the energy, character of that god. They are the tutelary deities of the Indian household derived from the pre-Aryan aboriginal tradition and playing a considerable role in the Hindu and Early Buddhist lore”. Those who read about Vahanas from 3000 BC in Sumerian culture to 3rd BC in Greek culture can see the absurdity in Zimmer’s theory. If Indian Vahanas are pre Aryan, what about the Vahanas of other cultures? Moreover we see Vahanas as negative forces that is controlled by the Gods, not duplicate as Zimmer described.
Foreign scholars caused a big havoc by poisoning the Indian history with their own invented theories of Aryan-Dravidian divide wherever possible. Tamil Kings Chera ,Choza and Pandyas fought for 1500 years without any break! They deserve a place in Guinness Book of Records for the longest fight in the world. But nobody saw any Aryan-Dravidian division in those fights. But if there was a fight between a Northern kingdom and Southern Kingdom, immediately they described it as Aryan-Dravidian clashes. If two kings or kingdoms fought during Vedic period, immediately they described it as Aryan-Dravidian!! But we see such clashes in Greece, Rome and Egypt.

PROOF OF SLAVIC REGIONS

VEDIC HINDU ROOTS OF SLAVIC REGION CAN BE PROVED WITH ETYMOLOGICAL STUDIES [STUDY OF LANGUAGES]
Slavs are the people who live in Eastern and Central Europe, the Balkans, Central Asia and North Asia . They include: Russians, Poles,Macedonians, Czechs, Serbs, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats and Bosnians. (Serbia, Slovenia, Russia, Poland, etc.)slightly vary only in expression depending on the region .Swarog or Svarog is the Slavic sun and fire god. In the Slavic religion, Svarga is heaven. In Sanskrit, Svarga is heaven too.
Present-day Slavic people are classified into West Slavic (chiefly Poles, Czechs and Slovaks), East Slavic (chiefly Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians), and South Slavic (chiefly Serbs, Bulgarians, Croats, Bosniaks, Macedonians, Slovenes, and Montenegrins), though sometimes the West Slavs and East Slavs are combined into a single group known as North Slavs. 
Hindu deities have remarkable similarity with Slavic deities – both in pronunciation and in significance. Sanskrit and Slavic words may not be always entirely similar (in pronunciation and connotation), but may carry remarkable elements of similarities like in the case of the Slavic god Veles (god of shepherds and a great serpent), who bears a resemblance to Vedic Vala, a Hindu Naga (serpent) and Asura (mostly sinful and power-seeking deities) mentioned in Rig Veda over twenty times.
LETS US EXAMINE FEW GODS OF ‘SLAV’S’ 
ROD~ Scholars believe that a much older name represents him instead – Rudra, which sounds like the word used for the most ancient Slavic god – Rod, who was the primordial god – creator of the universe.The origin of the word “red” (English), or “rot” (German) probably comes from the primordial adoration of the god of fire, most likely a deity like Slavic Rod, Hindu Agni or Rudra. You will find many words with similar sounding both in European languages and Sanskrit – for example, the Sanskrit word “rakta” – English “red” (“rudy” in Czech, “rouge” in French, “rojo” in Spanish, etc.). The origin of the word “red” most probably dwells in fire, which had been adored and personified by all ancient and tribal cultures.
ZIWA~Lord Shiva’s attributes are materialized in a Slavic female deity called Siwa, Ziva, or Zivena – goddess of fertility and love. A similarity with Sanskrit appears in the fact that the word “ZIVA” means (in Sanskrit) “the one who is kind”. Unlike war or scorpion goddesses, goddesses of love are kind for most of the time.As concerns symbolism, lingam is a Hindu (Shiva’s) symbol for fertility – the same dimension that ancient Slavs attributed to Ziva.
There is yet another similarity between Shiva and Ziva – goddess Kali and Morena, the sister of Ziva. Both Kali (Hindu goddess) and Morena (Slavic goddess) are goddesses of death. In Hinduism, Kali is tightly associated with Shiva, as she is a form of Durga, the Shiva’s consort. There is not a big difference between these two, as Shiva’s association to Kali is as strong as Ziva’s connection to Morena. If we look at similarity in pronunciation, Slavic Morena has its equivalent in the Sanskrit word maraNaanta (coming to death).
ZORA ~ Vedic god Surya has his Slavic equivalent in goddess of beauty – Zora, Zarya, or Zori. There is also the word Zorya, which identifies less important goddesses – Slavic guardians of the dawn, but connection to the sun is indisputable.
TRIGALV~Triglav is a Slavic word for god “with three heads”, almost identical to Hindu Trinity (Trimurti). The oldest meaning of the word Triglav characterized the following three deities – Svarog, Perun, and Dazhdbog; however, Veles or Svantovit later replaced Dazhdbog. Triglav has its Hindu equivalent in Brahma (almost always pictured with three heads), or Dattatreya – Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva in one – an incarnation of the divine Trinity (Trimurti). Hindus believe that this form of God had once appeared here on earth.
Slavonic svastika : Hindus use svastika as a symbol of good luck. Boreyko coat of arms is the symbol of svastika pointing to the left; it had been used in Poland. Svastika can also be found in symbolism of Svarog.

Source: “You possess a mysterious power”—Vladimir Putin congratulates Russian women on International Women’s Day

Add to this the theory that Chidambaram , India being the Magnetic Centre of the Earth, three Shiva Temples  representing thecthree natural principles,in Tamil Nadu,Nataraja’s dancing pose is…

Source: Twenty World Spiritual Sites Same Latitude Seven Hinduism

A city , modern city during Rome era, Alexandria, where all cultures were living together including Peganism until last Roman emperor made Christianity as state religion and here comes destruction of other cultures.

Pagans, Christians and Jews had coexisted in polytheistic peace in early Ptolemaic Alexandria, until, as often in history, religion raised its ugly head in the fourth century after Emperor Constantine in Rome decided to make Christianity the official one-and-only religion of the empire. After centuries of religious pluralism in Alexandria, “Christians” rose up against the pagan worshipers of Mithras and the Roman deity, Jupiter and the Egyptian deities of Osiris and Apis, killing, spreading mayhem and destroying their places of worship.

The pagans responded in kind until they were subdued. Then the Christians turned on the Jews, attacking private homes and shops in a kind of Kristallnacht and demanding their expulsion from the city.

Religion had again carried out its mandate: Christianity’s victory over all other religions of the great city marked the downfall and then the death of Alexandrian intellectual life and tradition and contributed to the destruction of the great school of learning that was the Alexandrian Library, the Museum. It was victory of ignorant religion and fanaticism over progressive mankind, already 1700 years ago.

Founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was first ruled by Ptolemy, the son of a general of Alexander the Macedonian. As such, Alexandria became one of the world’s largest cities. The Ptolemaic dynasty lasted until the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest of Egypt in the year 30. Even though historians have largely neglected that era (a period longer than the existence of the United States of America), Alexandria in that time became the capital of Egypt, its major port, and then the major center of the widespread Hellenistic civilization lasting for one thousand years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641. Hellenistic Alexandria was best known in those times for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos) one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After Constantinople, Byzantine Alexandria was the world’s finest and strongest city. It was also the home of the largest urban Jewish population in the world.

the great Alexandrian Library which according to some malevolent chroniclers was destroyed by Arab conquerors when Alexandria fell to Islamic armies from Arabia in the year 641. However, according to Philip K. Hitti in his History of the Arabs (perhaps the most authoritative of traditional Western historiography on the Arab peoples), “the story that by the Caliph’s order Amr for six months fed the numerous bath furnaces of the city with the volumes of the Alexandrian Library is one of those tales that make good fiction but bad history.” Hitti reports that in reality the great Ptolemaic Library was burnt as early as 48 BC by the Roman imperialist, Julius Caesar. The Daughter Library in the Serapeon was destroyed about AD 389 by edict of a mad neo-Christian fanatic, Emperor Theodosius. Therefore, at the time of the Arab conquest no library of importance existed in Alexandria.

Ancient sources describe the Alexandrian Library as comprising a collection of scrolls stored in a hall known as bibliotheca on shelves made to hold papyrus scrolls. Allegedly a sign hung over the shelves reading “the place of the cure of the soul”. The Museum also had a dining room, meeting rooms, lecture halls and gardens, something like the typical American university campus. Per historians connection between Ancient India and Alexandria, and books and mathematical knowledge etc came from India to Alexandria.

A number of Rome writers—Cicero, Livio, Seneca, Plutarch et al—confirmed that the Library and 700,000 books were burned during Julius Caesar’s conquest of Alexandria in year 48.

Yet the hostility to “pagan wisdom” of official warlike Christianity spreading through the Roman world (and not only) was so intense that  newly converted Emperor Theodosius ordered the destruction of Alexandria’s book treasures in 391.

Other ancient libraries suffered the same fate in that era of empires rising and falling during the transition from Paganism to Christianity. By the end of fourth century, Rome’s reported twenty-eight public libraries and many private collections no longer played a cultural role and people simply stopped reading. As the Roman Empire crumbled, culture vanished. The people had to be entertained, recited and sung to, while libraries disappeared. Christianity’s purge of the “dangerous” legacy of pagan or pre-Christian culture resulted in the destruction of education and learning as well as of its symbol: books. (Books offering pagan culture, after all!) After the disintegration of the Empire, the barbarians arrived and the books or rather parchments-papyrus scrolls that had survived perished in the chaos of wars and flames.

However, a few pockets of culture resisted. The nearly hidden and only with difficulty accessible monasteries founded in that epoch from Europe to the Middle East treasured the scrolls of pagan works; monks developed the art of copying by hand and conserving those major intellectual works some of which would then re-emerge after the dark period lasting almost until the Renaissance.

Book Burning in History-

The earliest recorded book-burning is attributed to Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s order in 213 BC that all books of philosophy and history from anywhere other than Qin province in China be burned (and a large number of intellectuals buried alive). Then, the Ancient Greeks and Romans burned Jewish and Christian scriptures, and thirteenth-seventeenth century popes ordered the burning of the Talmud. The same happened to John Wycliffe’s works in the fifteenth and William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament in the sixteenth centuries.

The Maya, on the other hand, manufactured paper from the inner bark of certain kinds of trees, mainly the amate and ficus. Stone bark-beaters, oblong, flat grooved tools about hand-size were used to pound out the bark which was then bleached with lime, cut into strips and folded like a Japanese screen. A variety of paints were employed to illustrate these “books”, which were painted on both sides and bound between elaborately decorated boards.

Nearly all of the Maya books did not survive the Spanish conquest because the Maya writing was deemed to have been inspired by the Devil, and the church and government officials went to extreme lengths to destroy these examples of “paganism”. No telling how many hundreds or thousands of volumes were burned in the name of Christianity, but three books have survived. All are presently reposing in European museums having been sent to patrons and friends of Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century. Given the determination of Bishop Diego de Landa, the second bishop of Yucatan in the mid-sixteenth century, it is a wonder that anything Maya survived. Landa was something of a double-edged sword. As a scholar he was very interested in all aspects of Maya culture and went so far as to interview informants and record a great deal of data concerning the day-to-day life of the Yucatec Maya while systematically destroying the very culture he recorded. In a passage that accompanies Landa’s description of Maya writing, he ironically discusses his role in the destruction of the Maya libraries: “We found a large number of books in these characters, and as they contained nothing in which there were not to be seen superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction.”

A passage in the New Testament’s Book of Acts (Acts 19: 19-20) suggests Christian converts in Ephesus burned books of “curious arts”: “Many of them also which used curious acts brought their books together and burned them before all men….” The Spanish Inquisition burned five thousand Arabic manuscripts in Granada in 1499, and Spanish conquistadors burned all the sacred texts of the Maya in 1562. Luther’s translation of the Bible was burned in Catholic parts of Germany in the 1640s, and in the 1730s the Archbishop of Salzburg ordered the burning of every Protestant book and Bible that could be found. During the McCarthy era of the 1950s several American libraries burned the works of supposedly pro-Communist authors. Two twentieth century novels feature book-burnings by future authoritarian societies: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, in which book-burning becomes institutionalized in an anti-intellectual US much like today’s America, and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, where unapproved books are burned in a “memory hole”. Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem burned copies of the New Testament in 1984; Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was ceremonially burned in 1988; BBC reported on a bonfire of Henry Potter books in the state of New Mexico, USA, burnt by people accusing the fictional boy wizard of being the devil. In Italy in 2008, conservative Christian Democrat city councillors burned on the main square of the town of Ceccano near Rome a copy of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code which they labeled “blasphemous” because it depicts Jesus and Mary Magdalene having a daughter which the Church has spent two thousand years trying to cover up.

LAW BANNING ALL RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIANITY

“It is Our will that all the peoples who are ruled by the administration of Our Clemency shall practice that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans. According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe in the one deity of the father, Son and Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity. … The rest, whom We adjudge demented and insane, shall sustain the infamy of heretical dogmas, their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by divine vengeance and secondly by the retribution of Our own initiative.” — Codex Theodosianus, XVI.1.2.

Source: Encyclopaedia Romana, “The End of Paganism” see also Henry Bettenson, ed., Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford University Press, 1943, p. 31.

THE DESTRUCTION OF TEMPLES

“It is decreed that in all places and all cities the [pagan] temples should be closed at once, and after a general warning, the opportunity of sinning be taken from the wicked. We decree also that we shall cease from making sacrifices. And if anyone has committed such a crime, let him be stricken with the avenging sword. And we decree that the property of the one executed shall be claimed by the city, and that rulers of the provinces be punished in the same way, if they neglect to punish such crimes.“– Codex Theodosianus, XVI.10.4.

Source: Codex Theodosianus, in Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., The Library of Original Sources, Vol. IV: The Early Medieval World (Milwaukee, WI: University Research Extension Co., 1907), pp. 69-71.

“[Christian monks}… hasten to attack the temples with sticks and stones and bars of iron, and in some cases, disdaining these, with hands and feet. Then utter desolation follows, with the stripping of roofs, demolition of walls, the tearing down of statues and the overthrow of altars, and the priests must either keep quiet or die. After demolishing one, they scurry to another, and to a third, and trophy is piled on trophy, in contravention of the law. Such outrages occur even in the cities, but they are most common in the countryside …” — Letter of Libanius to Emperor Theodosius I, 386 C.E.

Source: Libanius: Selected Works, Tr. A.F. Norman (Loeb Classical Works, 1977)

“Let all temples in the countryside be demolished without disturbance or upheaval.  With their overthrow and removal, all material basis for superstition will be destroyed.” — Codex Theodosianus, XVI.10.16

Source: Brian Croke & Jill Harries (eds.), Religious Conflict in Fourth-Century Rome: A Documentary Study (Sydney: Macarthur Press, 1982).

THE BURNING OF NON-CHRISTIAN BOOKS

“All writings whatever which Porphyry or anyone else has written against the Christian religion, in the possession of whomsoever they shall be found, shall be committed to the fire.” — Emperor Theodosius I.

Source: Lardner, Works, vol. vii., pp. 206, 396.

MANDATORY WORSHIP: ESTABLISHMENT OF “THE LORD’S DAY”

“On the Lord’s day, which is the first day of the week, on Christmas, and on the days of Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost, inasmuch as then the [white] garments [of Christians] symbolizing the light of heavenly cleansing bear witness to the new light of holy baptism, at the time also of the suffering of the apostles, the example for all Christians, the pleasures of the theaters and games are to be kept from the people in all cities, and all the thoughts of Christians and believers are to be occupied with the worship of God.  And if any are kept from that worship through the madness of Jewish impiety or the error and insanity of foolish paganism, let them know that there is one time for prayer and another for pleasure. And lest anyone should think he is compelled by the honor due to our person, as if by the greater necessity of his imperial office, or that unless he attempted to hold the games in contempt of the religious prohibition, he might offend our serenity in showing less than the usual devotion toward us; let no one doubt that our clemency is revered in the highest degree by humankind when the worship of the whole world is paid to the might and goodness of God. Theodosius Augustus and Caesar Valentinian.” — Codex Theodosianus, XV. 5.1

Source: The Medieval Sourcebook

History of Pi-

Pi was discovered by Indian mathematician but it was copied by Muslim and Europeans. Pi is mentioned even in Vedas.

Since the Indus Valley script is not deciphered, it will be incorrect to claim that Π was known in the subcontinent in 3000 BC. But they did know the value of Pi by the time Rigveda was written. The Vedangas and Sulabasutras also mention the value of Π. The oldest of them, the Baudhayayana Sulabasutra claims that the perimeter of a pit is 3 times its diameter- therefore approximating the value of Π at 3. Many other texts, including the Mahabharata (Bhishmaparva, XII: 44) and many Puranas approximate Π at the value of 3.

Later, many other Sulabasutras mention the value of Π to be 18 * (3 – 2 √2) = 3.088. The Manava Sulabasutra approximates the value of Π to be 28/5= 3.125. The ancient Jaina school of mathematics preferred the approximation Π = √10. This value of Π has been used not only by Jainas, but also by the greats like Varahamihira, Brahmagupta and Sridhara.

With Aryabhatta (476 AD), a new era of mathematics dawned in India. Aryabhatta approximated Π = 62832/20000 = 3.1416. This was astonishingly correct to 4 decimal places (better than 22/7, which is correct only to 2 places). The Indian values of Π (√10, 62832/20000) were later included in Chinese and Arabs literature.

Many years later, another great mathematician of the Aryabhatta School of mathematics, named Madhava (1340 AD). Madhava gave the value of Π to be 2827,4333,8823,3 / 9*1011. This approximation yields correct value of Π to 11 decimal places. This value of Π is still in use in modern mathematics. Madhava also knew the Madhava series of Π/4, which was rediscovered in Europe by Leibniz in 1673.

http://ambergriscaye.com/museum/digit13.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book-burning_incidents

http://religionvirus.blogspot.com/2008/12/one-catholic-priest-destroyed-entire.html

http://souravroy.com/2010/11/05/traditional-indian-astronomy-and-mathematics/

http://www.countercurrents.org/stewart090316.htm

http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_pers2.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_pagans_in_the_late_Roman_Empire

http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Censorship/Christian%20Intolerance.htm

Electrical Batteries in Ancient India

  
Agastya Samhita written during era of God Ram sometimes more than 170,000 years ago by sage Agatsya, describes method to make dry electric cell with 1.138 volts and 23 mA and electroplating process, hydrogen balloons.
The ancient text of Agastya Samhita describes the method of making electric battery, and that water can be split into oxygen and hydrogen. Modern battery cell resembles Agastya’s method of generating electricity.
For generating electricity, Sage Agastya had used the following material:
1.One earthen pot
2.Copper plate
3.Copper sulphate
4.Wet saw dust
5.Zinc amalgam
His text says : “Sansthapya Mrinmaya Patre Tamrapatram Susanskritam Chhadyechhikhigriven Chardrarbhih Kashthpamsubhih. Dastaloshto Nidhatavyah Pardachhaditastah Sanyogajjayte Tejo Mitravarunsangyitam”
संस्थाप्य मृण्मये पात्रे ताम्रपत्रं सुसंस्कृतम्‌। छादयेच्छिखिग्रीवेन चार्दाभि: काष्ठापांसुभि:॥ दस्तालोष्टो निधात्वय: पारदाच्छादितस्तत:। संयोगाज्जायते तेजो मित्रावरुणसंज्ञितम्‌॥
Which means, “Place a well-cleaned copper plate in an earthenware vessel. Cover it first by copper sulfate and then by moist sawdust. After that, put a mercury-amalgamated zinc sheet on top of the sawdust to avoid polarization. The contact will produce an energy known by the twin name of Mitra-Varuna. Water will be split by this current into Pranavayu and Udanavayu. A chain of one hundred jars is said to give a very effective force. (p. 422)”
When a cell was prepared according to Agastya Samhita and measured, it gives open circuit voltage as 1.138 volts, and short circuit current as 23 mA.
Anen Jalbhangosti Prano Daneshu Vayushu Evam Shatanam Kumbhanamsanyogkaryakritsmritah.
if we use the power of 100 earthen pots on water, then water will change its form into life-giving oxygen and floating hydrogen.
Vayubandhakvastren Nibaddho Yanmastake Udanah Swalaghutve Bibhartyakashayanakam.
If hydrogen is contained in an air tight cloth, it can be used in aerodynamics, i.e. it will fly in air. (Today’s Hydrogen Balloon)

Elephants which mention in ramayan was very old and they was lived on earth more than ten lakh year ago ram setu’s carbon date also found seventeen lakh year old our books (purans) also given date of Ramayana age (treta yug ) is approx same date but modern history not belives more than 20000 years for human civilization. 

You have read lot about Ancient Greece, The Egyptians, The Romans etc from Bible, historians but not about Mayan period because  books, knowledge were ,just like Muslim burned Hindu, Buddhist books in Nalanda, Takshshila ead terrorist religion which you still seen day, players changed as now Saudi and many Middle east Islamic nations pay for terrorism to spread. Why little is known about the pre-Columbus Maya peoples is because Christians , Spaniards finished their existence to spread Christianity. Mel Gibson’s 2006 film ‘Apocalypto’ doesn’t count as an accurate source of Mayan information.

The Mayans formed the first pre-Columbus writing system in the Americas, which is thought by historians to date back to as far as the 3rd century BC. Historians believe the writing used 800 different glyphs which, as you can see, appears somewhat reminiscent of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, but it has no direct parallels.

Spanish  burned all  Mayan-related documents they could get their hands on, only four books with Mayan writings are believed to be in existence.Mayans named newborns after their birthdate.The Mayans were believed to reside in large swathes of Central America, encompassing the south of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador.

The last known Mayan government governed in the island city of Tayasal until surrendering to Spanish rule in 1697.

Although the Mayan civilization was entirely conquered by the latter end of 17th century, the ancient culture and Mayan language are still prevalent in some rural areas of Mexico and Guatemala

Like many ancient civilizations, Mayans never used iron or steel to make their weapons. Instead, they were formed of obsidian or volcanic rock.

In the modern-day world, ballgames are beloved the world over, and it seems the Mayans were no different. Indeed, like the Aztecs, the Mayans were avid fans of the ballgame ‘Mesoamerican Ballgame.’ However, unlike popular ballgames of soccer and basketball, the Mayans game was  associated with life and death,  on the losing team.

Saunas and hot baths were often used by the Mayans to rid impurities

Though many will tell you the Mayan calendar predicted the fatal end of the world in 2012, none of their calendars predicted anything of the sought

Mayan dentistry, the ancient peoples- of all classes-  implanted gems into their teeth due to the aesthetic appearance! 

Away from the Ancient Indian and Babylonian  system, the Mayans are thought to be the first civilization to use the number zero as a placeholder.

The Mayans are synonyms with many things, but it’s often the ruins and pyramids in the city of Chichen Itza, the largest Mayan city that most people will recognize. Unbelievably, the government only recently purchased the historic city from a private owner!

Human sacrifice played a large role in the Mayan culture, and as many historians have discovered over the years, the sacrifices were huge spectacles. Normally, prisoners and slaves were painted blue before led up the staircases of a pyramid. From that point, many would succumb to their deaths via the barrage of stabbing arrows from exuberant onlookers. If that hadn’t killed them, then they’d find themselves in the more unfortunate position of being skinned alive.

Mayan medicine was quite advanced, and though they equated sickness with the supernatural, research has shown that a high percentage of Mayan surgeries were based on rational observations via the effects of plants and the human body. Yes, many of the shamans were ahead of their time, and were known to sutured wounds with human hair, and even perform complex oral surgeries.

No single King ruled the Mayan Empire. Instead, rule and law was spread across 20 separate areas, each with their own ruler and noble class.

The Mayans had a penchant for farming, and although agriculture in a tropical rainforest isn’t easy, the farmers overcame such obstacles by clearing large areas to create large reservoirs from which to store water.

Like many cultures past and present, the Mayan society was divided into three separate groups. At the top, you had the kings and priests while the middle and lower classes comprised of artisans, tradesmen and merchants. Farmers were deemed to be of the lowest class.

The decline of the Mayan Empire came long before the Spanish conquest. In fact, many of the great Mayan cities such as Palenque, Tikal, and Copán had long disappeared, and even to this day, no one knows quite what happened. And though many theories have since proliferated- the most frequent being disease and invasion- there has never been any substantial evidence to prove such theories.

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