Assur as Meluhha speakers, Asura, some divinities venerated in Rigveda.

January 28, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Zamindari privileges ordered by Civil Aviation ministry for criminal mirasdars in Parliament -- V Sundaram IAS

≪ Previous: The Aryan Debate: A 200 Year Old Question -- NS Rajaram (Nov. 2013)

$

0

0

Asura, Asur, Ashur

Asur in India had republics (janapadas). Ashur in Fertile Crescent had established kingdoms.

This is a monograph pointing out the roots of early Republican traditions in India compared to the tradition of dynasties of rulers in the regions of the Fertile Crescent exemplified by the Assyrian Empire and long lists of kings.

Rebus readings of Meluhha hieroglyphs on the following relief from Ashur point to the catalog of metalwares of the bronze-age Meluhhans who had settled in Ashur. The link of Sumer with Araṭṭa (known as Lāṭa, a Meluhha speech area) has been detailed at http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/aratta-as-lata-in-vicinity-of-rann-of.html and related links.

The Meluhha speech deployed on hieroglyphs on an Ashur plaque and deployment of lost-wax technique on Nahal Mishmar artifacts provide a link to Meluhha speech area of Asur (Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, India) who are acknowledged smelters and metal workers and of Dhokra Kamar in Jharkhand and Santal Paraganas areas of Bengal.

Asur Meluhhan speakers from India could have traversed the Tin Road trading in tin and spreading the lost-wax technique of bronze casting. See:

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/meluhha-hieroglyphs-1-dhokra-lost-wax.html

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/meluhha-and-tracking-tin-road-after-all.html

Tammuz, alabaster (Gypsum?) relief from Ashur, c. 1500 BCE; in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany Foto Marburg/Art Resource, New York. Two goats flank the person feeding them with leafy twigs. In the lower register, two women carry jars with overflowing streams of water. This is a Meluhha hieroglyph, as is the pair of twigs emanating from the waist of the standing person. Tham·muz (tä'mʊz) n. The tenth month of the year in the Jewish calendar. [Hebrew tammūz, akin to Iraqi Arabic tabbūz, July, both ultimately from Sumerian dumu-zi, Dumuzi, a dying and rising shepherd divinity (Inanna's husband): dumu, son, offspring + zi, true, effective.]

Meluhha hieroglyphs read rebus:

mr̤eka, melh'goat' Rebus: milakkhu'copper'.

• kūdī, kūṭī ‘bunch of twigs’ (Sanskrit) Rebus: kuṭhi ‘smelter furnace’ (Santali)  kūdī (also written as kūṭī in manuscripts) occurs in the Atharvaveda (AV 5.19.12) and Kauśika Sūtra (Bloomsfield’s ed.n, xliv. Cf. Bloomsfield, American Journal of Philology, 11, 355; 12,416; Roth, Festgruss an Bohtlingk, 98) denotes it as a twig. This is identified as that of Badarī, the jujube tied to the body of the dead to efface their traces. (See Vedic Index, I, p. 177). 
• dula 'pair' Rebus: dul 'cast (metal)'.

lo ‘pot to overflow’; kāṇḍa‘water’. Rebus: लोखंड lokhaṇḍIron tools, vessels, or articles in general.

kola ‘woman’ Rebus: kol‘ 'smithy, working in iron’

The object carried by the anthropomorphic eagle may be a pine-cone. If so, the rebus readings are: Ash. piċ -- kandə ʻ pine ʼ, Kt. pṳ̄ċi, piċi, Wg. puċ, püċ (pṳ̄ċ -- kəŕ ʻ pine -- cone ʼ), Pr. wyoċ, Shum. lyēwič (lyē -- ?).(CDIAL 8407). Cf. Gk. peu/kh f. ʻ pine ʼ, Lith. pušìs, OPruss. peuse NTS xiii 229. The suffix –kande in the lexeme: Ash. piċ-- kandə ʻ pine ʼ may be cognate with the bulbous glyphic related to a mangrove root: Koḍ. kaṇḍe root-stock from which small roots grow; ila·ti kaṇḍe sweet potato (ila·ti England). Tu. kaṇḍe, gaḍḍè a bulbous root; Ta. kaṇṭal mangrove, Rhizophora mucronata; dichotomous mangrove, Kandelia rheedii. Ma. kaṇṭa bulbous root as of lotus, plantain; point where branches and bunches grow out of the stem of a palm; kaṇṭal what is bulb-like, half-ripe jackfruit and other green fruits; R. candel.  (DEDR 1171). Rebus: kaṇḍa‘tools, pots and pans of metal’. Alternative: Paš. lauṛ. kayāˊ ʻ edible pine cone ʼ.

Two possible rebus readings: 1. pajhaṛ ‘kite’. Rebus: pasra ‘smithy, forge’ (Santali) 2. śyēná m. ʻhawk, falcon, eagleʼ RV.Pa. sēna -- , °aka -- m. ʻhawk ʼ, Pk. sēṇa -- m.; WPah.bhad. śeṇ ʻkiteʼ; A. xen ʻ falcon, hawk ʼ, Or. seṇā, H. sen, sẽ m., M. śen m., śenī f. (< MIA. *senna -- ); Si. sen ʻfalcon, eagle, kiteʼ. (CDIAL 12674) Rebus 1: senaka a carter ThA 271 (=sākaṭika of Th 2, 443) (Pali) sēnāpati m. ʻ leader of an army ʼ AitBr. [sḗnā -- , páti -- ] Pa. sēnāpati -- , °ika -- m. ʻgeneralʼ, Pk. sēṇāvaï -- m.; M. śeṇvaī, °vī, śeṇai m. ʻa class of Brahmansʼ, Ko. śeṇvi; Si. senevi ʻgeneralʼ (CDIAL 13589). Rebus 2: seṇi (f.) [Class. Sk. Śreṇi in meaning “guild”; Vedic= row] 1. A guild Vin iv.226; J i.267, 314; iv.43; Dāvs ii.124; their number was eighteen J vi.22, 427; VbhA 466. ˚ -- pamukha the head of a guild J ii.12 (text seni -- ).

Asura in the Ṛgveda

The gloss Asura is used as an epithet for various divinities in the Ṛgveda.

A remarkable survey and evaluation of semantics of the word Asura is provided in: Hale, Wash Edward, 1986, Asura in early Vedic religion, Delhi, Motilal Banaridass.

A succinct account on the use of cognate word in Iranian language is provided in the article by Eduljee on Zoroastrian religion (appended). It is clear that both Sanskrit and Avestan developed from a common source.

There has been a lot of speculation by scholars on how the positive and negative connodations associated with the word are in the distant past. Scholarship surveyed by Hale inlude the workd of Kuiper, Norman Brown, von Bradke, Rudolf Otto, Emile Benveniste, Sten Konow, Dandekar, Darmesteter, Bhandarkar, Przyluski, Burrows, Hillebrandt, Paul Thieme, Ilya Gerschevitch, Mary Boyce, Hermann Oldenberg, Geldner, Jan Gonda. establishes that Asura in early Vedic literature had a meaning close to what the Iranian texts denoted.

Agni is the most frequently divinity called asur in Ṛgveda. 'Father of the sacrifices, asura of the wise ones, Agni is the standard and reference of the sacrificers. He entered the multi-form world-hlves. The very dear poet is praised for his displays' (Hymn to Agni Vaiśvānara R 3.3.4). Thus, asura has the semantics of 'wisdom' and as a genitive of 'rulership'. 

Savitṛ is twice called an asura in the Family books of Ṛgveda. 'Aware of the going forth of the asura, favor the god Savitṛ with songs. The knowing one should enourage (him) with prostration and (also encourage) the one distributing the great treasure of  Āyu'. (Hymn to Viśvedevāh RV 5.49.2). Alternative trans. "Knowing full well the Asuras' time of coming, worship God Savitar with hymns and praises."

प्रति प्रयाणं असुरस्य विद्वान् सूरदेवम् सवितारम् दुवस्य 

उप ब्रवीत नमसा विजानञ्ज्येष्ठंम् च रत्नं विभजन्तम्   आयोः (RV 5.49.2)

Mention of Āyu's treasure (ratnam vibhajantam) is significant in the context of Baudhāyana śrautasūtra 18.44 which documents migrations of Āyu and Amavasu from a central region:

pran Ayuh pravavraja. tasyaite Kuru-Pancalah Kasi-Videha ity. etad Ayavam pravrajam. pratyan amavasus. tasyaite Gandharvarayas Parsavo ‘ratta ity. etad Amavasavam

Ayu went east, his is the Yamuna-Ganga region (Kuru-Pancala, Kasi-Videha).

Amavasu went west, his is Gandhara, Parsu and Araṭṭa.

And the son of Ila begat upon Urvasi six sons who were called Ayus, Dhimat, Amavasu and Dhridhayus, and Vanayus, andSatayus. (Mbh.1.75.4146)

Āyu's treasure is a clear reference to the artisans of Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization who had transactions in precious stones, tin, bronze and gold from Meluhha along the Tin Road to Sumer along the Pesian Gulf and into the Fertile Crescent. This matches with Enmerkar's reference to an envoy to Araṭṭa to get precious stones and gold.

MitrāVaruṇa are also called asuras: 'I make anew this song ike nourishment for you two, O MitrāVaruṇa, O asuras One powerful one of you is an undeceivable path-finder, and the one caled Mitra unites the people'.'(Hymn to Viśvedevāh RV 7.36.2). Similarly Rudra is an asura: 'Praise him who has good arrows and a good bow, who rules over al medicine. Sacrifice for great well-being to Rudra; favor the divinity, the asura with prostrations'. (RV 5.42.11). Here Rudra is called both asura and deva used as adjacent words showing that devas and asuras wre NOT different divine groups in eary Vedic religion.

Asuryā, a derivative, is the word used for Sarasvatī: 'I wish to sing a high word: (she is) the asuric one among rivers. Magnify indeed Sarasvatī with songs, with praises, O Vasiṣṭha, and the world-halves.' (RV 7.96.1) The word asuryām occurs 12 times in the Family Books indicating the divinity associated was made an asura by the consent and support of those who followed him.

In summary, the word asura occurs 70 times, derivatives and compounds of  asura such as asuratva, asuryā, āsura occur 39 times in all the books of Ṛgveda, almost all with positive connodations and associations of divinity and rulership.

Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (AB) mentions asuras as a group of beings in conflict with divinities. The compound devāsura appears a few times in positive contextx, e.g. 'the divinities and asuras strove for these worlds' (AB 1.14). In five passages Asurarakṣas occurs saying that asuras tried to disturb the yajñas saying that both asura and rakṣas were driven away. One passage notes: 'The Asura folk were rebellious towards the divinities; Indra with Brhaspati as companion smoke the Asura hue when attacking; verily thus also the yajñas by means of Indra and Brhaspati as aid smite away the Asura hue when attacking. ' (AB 6.36). Such references point to asura and rakṣas as distinct sorts of beings. Occurrence of Asura in the singular are rare. In contrast, ahura is used several times of people in the Avesta. Hale concludes:"In its earliest occurrences in the RV asura- meant something like 'lord'. Such a lord could be human or divine, but since the RV consists of hymns to gods, it occurs much more often referring to gods. We have some of the characteristics of these lords. They normally command some force of fighting men (vīra), should have keen planning ability or insight (kratu-), and in general should have the characteristics that would make one a good leader...An enemy leader could and sometimes was called an asura." (p. 180).

Segerestedt (T. Segerstedt, 'Les asuras dans la religion vedique', Revue de l'histoire de religions 57 (1908): 157-204, 'Les asuras dans la religion vedique (Suie et fin),'Revue de l'histoire de religions 57 (1908: 293-316) offers a different perspective that asura referred to the aboriginal Indians, than an unaccepable yajna practice would be called asuric,that their language is that of mlecchas, that Indra is said to vanquish asurasya varṇa while significantly linking asuras with dāsas and dasyus.

Hale notes that the plural usage of asura- for enemies was virtually synonymous with dasyu- and dāsa- and replaced these words in later texts.

“The word Asura including its variants asurya and aasura occurs 88 times in the Rg Veda, 71 times in the singular number, 4 times in the dual, 10 times in the plural, and 3 times as the first member of a compound. In this the feminine form asuryaa is included twice. The word asurya has been used 19 times as an abstract noun, while the abstract form asuratva occurs 24 times, 22 times in each of the 22 times of one hymn and twice in the other tow hymns.” (P.L. Bhargava, 1994, Vedic Religion and culture, Delhi, South Asia Books.) See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/12/assur-daiva-samudra-manthan-meluhha.html

Etymology

Old Norse "Æsir", implies a common Proto-Indo-European origin for the Asura and the Æsir. In entry 48 of his Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch,Julius Pokorny reconstructs this common origin as *ansu-.

ahu-, ahura-, asura-, and has's'u- from the same root, and Germanic *ansuz- is probably also from this root. There seems to have been an Indo-European word *Hesu- from which came Avestn ahu-'lord' and Hittite has's'u'king' and an Indo-Iranian derivative of this word, *asura- from which Avestan ahura- and Vedic asura- derive. (Hale, opcit., p 36; E. Polome, 'L'etymologie du terme germanique *ansuz'dieu soverain', Etude Germanique 8 (1953): 41).

The Germanic *ansuz- is instructive.

From Proto-Indo-European *h₂énsus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ens- (“to engender, beget”). Cognate with Avestan (aŋhu, “lord, lifetime”),  (ahura,  “godhood”), Sanskrit [script?](ásu-, “life force, spirit”),  असुर  (ásura, “spirit”),  Hittite [script?] (hass-, “to procreate, give birth”),Tocharian B ās- (“to produce”) and possibly Old Armenian այս (ays, “evil spirit”). (See: Bernfried Schlerath, 'Altindisch asa-, Awestisch ahu- and ahnlich klingende Worter,' in Pratidānam: Indian, Iranian and Indo-European Studies presented to Franciscus Bernardas Jacobus Kuiper on his Sixtieth birthday, ed. by JC Heesterman, GH Schoker, and VI Subramoniam (The Hague: Mouton, 1968), p.144).

The Tocharian ancu 'iron' (See George Pinault) may also be related to the Germanic *ansuz- and Vedic amśu (a synonym of Soma 'electrum').

I suggest that the enmity seen in early references to asura- in Vedic texts may relate to the semantics:ancu 'iron' (Tocharian) and the tensions among metalwork guilds to control the resources during the bronze age to smelt ores, manufacture metals, alloys, metallic tools and weapons and transact in precious stones (as noted earlier in Rgveda about Āyu's ratna treasure). It should be underscored that Asur of India were smelters and workers in metals (as evidenced by dhokra kamar specialising in lost-wax metal casting and Meluhha supplying -- along the Tin road from Meluhha to Nahal Mishmar across the Fertile Crescent -- of tin to make tin-bronzes which revolutionized the bronze age with startling evidence of over 20,000 cuneiform letters between merchants mostly of Ashur and Kanesh.

The treasures of both Āyu and Amavasu may have been the cause for tensions between asura and deva. The Samudra manthanam narrative recounts how Bali led Asura and there were tensions about division of the treasure which came out the joint churning of the resources of the earth and ocean. All kinds of herbs were cast into the ocean and fourteen Ratnas (gems or treasures) were produced from the ocean and were divided between asuras and devas.

Ahura in the Avesta

Hale notes: "The things said of ahuras in the Avesta are very much like those of asuras in the RV. Both seem to be powerful, respected lords with some kind of military force in their command...Ahuras also appeard in connection with the dinhupaiti, 'master of the land'. But there is one way in which ahuras seem to differ from asuras. Asuras seem to have been selected by the people and installed in their position. Ahuras are often mentioned together with sons of ahuras who also rule. Thus the ahura lordship may have been passed down from father to son in Iran. We have seen no evidence of such a succession in India. "(p.193).

Janapadas of asura (meluhha) and kingdoms of ahura 

This is a significant observation which refers to janapadas in India (araṭṭa or a-rāṣṭra, that is, republics without a king or ruler) while the history reconstructed in the Fertile Crescent and the larger ancient Near East seem to have a series of successions of rulers and feudal lords ruling select regions (that is there was a conscious attempt through warfare and other means to form raṭṭa or rāṣṭra ,'kingdoms' or 'empire' claiming suzerainty or sovereignty over extended stretches of land and sea).

This situation could explain why asuras are Meluhha (Mleccha) speaking asuri or mleccha (ungrammatical or mispronounced words unacceptable to the purists in the performance of yajñas. This clear distinction in the cultural practices adopted by asuras in India and Ahura in Iran point to the reason why there are no palaces or large mansions located in India while the Ancient Near East sites point to many locations with palaces of 'rulers'.

While the apparent deviations in organizing a state are noticed in the early practices of asuras and ahuras, there seems to be evidence that Meluhha hieroglyphs continued to be deployed in both India and Iran to catalog key bronze age lapidary and metalware activity.

This common lineage of Meluhha in the Fertile Crescent and in India may explain the reported mention in the Sumerian epic of Enmerkar who sends an envoy to Araṭṭa for transacting in precious stones (which could have included both lapis lazuli and carnelian) and gold.

This may explain why Tukulti-Ninurta worships fire-god in front of an altar found in Ashur -- an altar displaying Meluhha hieroglyphs.

Tukulti Ninurta is a king of Asura lineage.

Two safflower hieroglyphs flank the fire-altar worshipped by Tukulti-Ninurta I at Ashur.

Wall painting, fragment, found at Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta in Mesopotamia, Assyrian. The hieroglyph is 'safflower'.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Assyrian_painting.JPG

Allograph: करडी [ karaḍī ] f (See करडई) Safflower: also its seed.

Rebus: karaḍa 'hard alloy' of arka 'copper'. 

Photograph of excavation site. Shows three culd stands in situ in Room 6 of Ishtar temple of Tukulti-Ninurta I at Ashur. Courtesy: Vorderaslatisches Museum.

Andrae, 1935, 57-76, pls. 12, 30 1. Jakob-Rust, in Vorderaslatisches Museum 1992, 160, no. 103; Andrae, 1935, 16, figs. 2,3.

Another view of the fire-altar pedestal of Tukulti-Ninurta I, Ishtar temple, Assur. Shows the king standing flanked by two standard-bearers; the standard has a spoked-wheel hieroglyph on the top of the staffs and also on the volutes of the altar frieze.The mediation with deities by king is adopted by Assurnasirpal II.

The two standards (staffs)  are topped by a spoked wheel. āra 'spokes' Rebus: āra 'bronze'. cf. erka = ekke (Tbh. of arka) aka (Tbh. of arka) copper (metal); crystal (Kannada) Glyph: eraka 

This rebus reading is consistent with the prayer offered to the karaṇḍa 'hard alloy'.

‘alloy’. Allograph: khū̃ṭ  ‘zebu’.

करंडा [karaṇḍā] A clump, chump, or block of wood. 4 The stock or fixed portion of the staff of the large leaf-covered summerhead or umbrella. करांडा [ karāṇḍā ] m C A cylindrical piece as sawn or chopped off the trunk or a bough of a tree; a clump, chump, or block.

Rebus: fire-god: @B27990.  #16671. Remo <karandi>E155  {N} ``^fire-^god''.(Munda)

[quote]Description: Although the cult pedestal of the Middle Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta mentions in its short inscription that it is dedicated to the god Nuska, the relief on the front that depicts the king in a rare kind of narrative, standing and kneeling in front of the very same pedestal was frequently discussed by art-historians. More strikingly on top of the depicted pedestal there is not the lamp, the usual divine symbol for the god Nuska, but most likely the representation of a tablet and a stylus, symbols for the god Nabû. (Klaus Wagensonner, University of Oxford)[unquote] http://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=pedestal_tukulti_ninurta.

The ancient city of Ashur

It was also a construction project in Iraq that caused Ashur to be placed on UNESCO's red list in 2003, the same year it was made a heritage site. The historic archeological excavation sites faced security threats due to the construction of the Makhul Dam project, which has since been cancelled. The security issues have yet to be resolved, however.

From inside the Ziggurat in Ashur.

Ashur of Assyrian Empire anciently called "The Land of Subarum"; lies on a stony hill overlooking the Tigris on the east near Himrin mountains believed by the Assyrians to be the abode of their major divinity Assur. The city was the center for worship of the also of divinities Ishtar/Inanna. "Assur which was fortified by inner and outer walls, with several gateways, contained a large number of important religious buildings, about 34 temples, and 3 palaces as 7th century BC documents revealed."  One palace was attributed to Shamshi-Adad I (c. 1813–c. 1781 BCE) .

American soldiers on guard at the ruins of Ashur in 2008

Compare these gateways with Nineveh walls:

Nineveh was the 3rd capital of Assyria Empire after Assur and Nimrud (Kalakh). Nineveh is situated just outside Mosul on the east bank of the River Tigris with as a cultural settlement in the 6th millennium BCE. "The city wall was 12 km in circumference and had long series of bas-reliefs most of which were taken to the British Museum. It was set with 15 gates, each gate was named after an Assyrian god. Some are guarded with pairs of winged bulls still standing in their original places nowadays. And few have been reconstructed recently, notably the Shamash, Nergal, Maski, and Adad gates."

Ashur (also, Assur, Aššur; written A-šur, also Aš-šùr)

A Neo-Assyrian "feather robed archer" figure, symbolizing Ashur. The right hand is extended similar to the Faravahar figure, while the left hand holds a bow instead of a ring (9th or 8th century BCE relief).

Hebrew text of Genesis 10:8-12 King James Version (KJV)

8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.
10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.

Cut out from an Assyrian Empire map  750-625 BCE, locating Babylon, Ninevah, Ur, Uruk, Assur, Lagash, and Nippur.

It is unclear in Biblical tradition, if it was Asshur or Nimrod who built the cities of Nineveh, Resen, Rehoboth-Ir and Calah. (cf. Walter Raleigh, History of the World pp. 358-365). The lack of clarity relates to the problem of semantics: did Asshur refer to a person or the region?

Ashur (אַשּוּר; often also transliterated as Asshur to reflect the pointing of Hebrew letter 'ש' (Shin) in the Masoretic text, which doubles the 'ש'), was the second son of Shem, the son of Noah. Ashur's brothers were Elam, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

Ashur as a city is identified as modern Qalʿat Sharqāṭ, excavated by German expedition (1903–13) led by Walter Andrae. The name was also applied to the principal divinity of ancient Assyrians.

Devas and Asuras using the world serpent Vasuki and Mount Mandara to churn the cosmic ocean

Zoroastrian Heritage

Author: K. E. Eduljee

Aryan Religions

Pre-Zoroastrian 

Mazda, Asura, Deva worshippers

Religious wars & separation

(2005-13)

Pre-Zoroastrian Aryan Religions

Our sources for information about the pre-Zoroastrian Aryan religions are the Zoroastrian and Hindu scriptures: the Avesta and Vedas respectively, the Middle Persian Zoroastrian texts and the poet Ferdowsi's epic, the Shahnameh.

The description of the old Aryan religions, the names of their deities, and the groups that worshipped them, are not uniformly described in our reference texts. However, in reading the texts, some common themes do emerge, themes that allow us to attempt an understanding of the early Aryan religious beliefs, customs, and groupings - as well as the relationship between the different Aryan groups.

Battles between the devas and asuras. The cosmic wars between the deities were symbolic of the earthly wars between the two groups

We will examine three primary pre-Zoroastrian Aryan religions mentioned in our source texts: Mazda worship, Daeva or Deva worship and Asura worship.

1. Mazda Worship

Mazdayasni
In the Avesta's book of Yashts, verse 13.87 of the Farvardin Yasht as well as the Middle PersianDenkard at 3.35 mention that Mazda, God, was worshipped by the Aryans from the time of the first Aryan king Gaya Maretan - in other words from the outset of Aryan history. This statement is corroborated by the poet Ferdowsi's epic, the Shahnameh, and by Middle Persian Zoroastrian texts. In these texts, Gaya Maretan and his people were the first Mazdayasni meaning Mazda worshippers, the worshippers of God.

The word 'mazda' is thought by some to be related to the Sanskrit 'medha' meaning intelligent or wise. In usage, the word Mazda was used to mean God, that is, a creator who caused creation through wisdom, indeed, through a divine thought. Mazda therefore can be translated as God.

Paoiryo-Tkaesha
The opening paragraphs of the Avesta's Farvardin Yasht and the Yasht's verse 13.150 also tell us that Gaya Maretan and the other Pre-Zoroastrian Mazdayasni were called paoiryo-tkaesha meaning keepers of the original ancient law. In order to differentiate early Mazda worship from the later Zoroastrian Mazda worship, we will call this original Aryan religion, Mazdayasni Paoiryo-Tkaesha.

Ahura-Tkaesha
The Farvardin Yasht's verses 89 & 90 mention that later in Aryan history, Zarathushtra proclaimed the Ahura-tkaesha, the laws of the Lord (Ahura). If the word 'mazda' related to the creative aspect of the divinity grounded in an ultimate concept of wisdom, the word 'ahura' related to the aspect of having dominion over creation through order and laws that are innate in every part and particle of creation (cf. fravashi). Zarathushtra used these two concepts to propound a belief described as Mazdayasno Zarathushtrish Vidaevo Ahura-Tkaesho, that is, Zarathushtrian Mazda-Worship opposed to the daeva through the laws of the Lord (Ahura). For the sake of brevity, we can call Zarathushtrian Mazda-Worship (i.e. post Zarathushtra) as Mazdayasni Ahura-Tkaesha.

Since, as we have just observed, both the pre- and post- Zoroastrian religions are called Mazdayasni, many authors have assumed that Zarathushtra was a reformer of a Mazdayasni religion that predated him, rather than the founder of a new religion. While Zarathushtra may have used previous concepts and while his followers may have incorporated elements of a previous religion, or religions, back into Zoroastrianism, Zarathushtra's teachings were different enough for him to have initially experienced great difficulty in getting others to listen to him. Our section on the war of religion further illustrates the radical nature of his teachings - regardless of the words used for divinity. There are other reasons not to assume that Zarathushtra was a reformer. His concept of being a Mazdayasni was quite different from previous concepts labelled as 'Mazdayasni'. There is an explanation for these assertions:

First, Mazda-yasni translated directly simply means God-worship rather than being the name of a religion. The form and doctrine of worship before Zarathushtra was very different from that preached by Zarathushtra, just as religions today who profess a worship of God i.e. God-worshippers, are radically different. Next, it is commonly assumed that Mazda is an Avestan name for God rather than a word for God - an assumption that may lead to incorrect conclusions. The difference is that if Mazda is the Avestan word for God, saying that the Aryans worshipped Mazda since the time of Gayo Maretan is the same as saying that the Aryans worshipped God (a supreme God) from ancient times. Mazda, or God, could have had different names through the ages, or the word for God could have changed with a change in language. For instance, if Varuna (also seebelow), a principle asura in the Vedas, was the name for God (Mazda) at one stage in Aryan history, then Varuna worship could also be called Mazda worship or the worship of God.

A parallel to this concept is found in the Christian Old and New Testaments as well as the Jewish Torah. There, the worship of Yahweh and Jehovah, or for that matter all the Judeo-Christian words or names for God, are synonymous with the worship of God. Despite the use of different words or names for God in the different languages of the Bible, Christians do not conclude that the Bible chronicles the worship of multiple gods throughout history. Christians say that Abraham worshipped God even though the attributes assigned to the Abrahamic God might be quite different from the more modern Christian assignment of divine attributes - thereby making Judaism and Christianity related but very different religions. Similarly, if we say that Gaya Maretan was a Mazda worshipper, the word or name for God in Pre-Zoroastrian Aryan history could have been Varuna or some other word / name, and the beliefs of the corresponding religions could also have been different, but nevertheless related, as would have been Varuna and Mitra worship, twoasuras mentioned in the Rig Veda. In any event, Mazda worship before Zarathushtra might have been related but was quite different from Zarathushtra's Mazda worship.

The Avesta's book of Yashts, as well as portions of other Avestan books, may give us clues about the pre-Zoroastrian Mazdayasni beliefs, thereby serving a function in the Avesta similar to the Christian Bible's Old Testament.

2. Daeva or Deva Worship

[Note: The words deva (Vedic Sanskrit), daeva (Avestan Old Iranian) and div (Middle and Modern Persian) are commonly considered to be variations of the same word, div being the more modern (Middle Persian) word. While the different words may at times be applied in a similar fashion, there are times when they have different connotations.]

Deva

The devas are the gods of the Hindu scriptures.

The earliest of the Hindu scriptures, the Rig Veda provides us with information about pre-Zoroastrian Vedic-Aryan deva worship.

Daeva and Div

The daeva and div in the Avesta and other Persian texts, are evil qualities, personification of evil qualities and demons. The terms 'demon', evil person and 'negative value' (or 'base quality') are freely interchangeable in the Zoroastrian concept of the daeva or div (as mentioned earlier, div is the later version of the Avestan word daeva).

The demonization of the Rig Vedic deva, primarily Indra, in the Avesta, the naming of a book of the Zoroastrian scriptures, the Avesta as the Vi-daevo-data (modern name: Vendidad) meaning the law against the daeva, as well as the name of the religion preached by Zarathushtra: Mazdayasno Zarathushtrish Vidaevo Ahura-Tkaesho, that is, Zarathushtrian Mazda-Worship opposed to the daeva through the laws of the Lord (Ahura), together signify the strong opposition of the Mazda worshippers to the daeva and the defining of Zoroastrian Mazda worship through it opposition to the daeva.

Not all the daeva in Zoroastrian and Persian texts are the devas mentioned in the Vedas. The Mazda worshippers began to use the word daeva generically to mean all demonic forces of evil. The word daeva and div came to include the personification of vices, other Aryan gods who were not part of the Vedic pantheon, as well as the gods of non-Aryan peoples.

In the chapter 32 of the Gathas, Zarathushtra speaks about the daeva, evil and the lie, a concept he introduces in Y.30.6. In Yasna 32.3 Zarathushtra states:
"At yush deava vispaongha
akat manangho sta chithrem."
translated as:
But all you daeva
Are the progeny of wicked thoughts (thinking).

The manner in which Zarathushtra refers to the daeva is ambiguous. Zarathushtra refers to the daeva as a group who collectively chose evil. He does not name the daeva in his hymns. However, some of the negative qualities he speaks about - such as aeshma, wrath, and achistem mano, evil mind,(Y.30.6) became named as daeva elsewhere in the Avesta.

In the Avesta's Aban (Avan) Yasht (5.94), we read of the Daevayasni, the daeva worshippers. In the Vendidad's chapter 19, the Daevayasni are juxtaposed against the Mazdayasni.

Further, a book of the Avesta, is Vi-daevo-data (the Vendidad), meaning the law against the daeva, mentions (in verses 10.9 and 19.43) Indra, a Rig Vedic deva (see below), by name. Verses 10.9 to 10.16 mention additional daeva: Sauru, Naunghaithya, Tauru, Zairi, Aeshma, Akatasha, Zaurva, Buiti, Driwi, Daiwi, Kasvi, Paitisha, the daeva of Varenya (Varena) and the daeva of Mazana, presumed to be a nation (not mentioned in Vendidad's list of sixteen nations) - modern Mazandaran. Daeva mentioned elsewhere in the Vendidad are Akem-Mano / Aka-Manah (evil mind) (19.4),

Of the daeva listed in the Vendidad, only Indra has a direct Vedic equivalent. Sauru is thought to be the Vedic Sarva (sometimes used in the Vedas as a name of Shiva). Similarly, Naunghaithya is thought to be the Vedic Nasatya. In the Vendidad, Indra operates under the auspices of angra mainyu, the evil spirit (in later texts, the embodiment of angra mainyu is Ahriman, the devil incarnate).

Deva Indra

The Rig-Vedic deva, Indra, riding his elephant, Airavata

Indra is a principle deva in the Rig Veda where he has more verses addressed to him than any other deva. In the image to the right, Indra is seen riding his elephant Airavata. Unlike the invisible, non-anthropomorphic, genderless, non-iconic Mazda, the devas are represented and worshipped as idols or graven images.

Indra's arch foe was the asura Vrita who was "manifested by the father of a youth killed by Indra. The young man had three heads, one for studying, one for eating, and one for watching. Indra was extremely jealous of the peaceful, studious youth. Finally, Indra was so enraged that he hurled a thunderbolt at him and cut of his heads." (p. 502, Dictionary of Ancient Deitiesby Patricia Turner, Charles Russell Coulter). Vrita emerged from the slain youth's body and was granted invincibility during night and day, to materials wet or dry, on land and on water.

Thereafter, in encounters between Indra and Vrita, Vrita was either victorious or succeeded in frustrating Indra's exploits, until that is, Indra was aided by Vishnu as the trickster (alsosee below). On Vishnu's advice Indra feigned a friendship and made a truce with Vrita. Then, after many years, Vishnu and Indra discovered the means to penetrate Vrita's invisibility. One day, while they were walking on a seashore at twilight - a time that was neither day nor night - the wily Vishnu gathered the froth of the ocean - which was neither wet nor dry - and threw it at Vrita standing at water's edge - a spot that was neither land nor water - engulfing and choking the asura.

We read into the myth, core values of the deva and asura worshippers, as well as the methods the deva-worshippers employed in order to co-exist for generations with the dominant asura-worshippers: bidding their time while plotting to gain power through subterfuge.

Div as Evil People

In Ferdowsi's epic, the kingdom of King Gaya Maretan was attacked by divs led by Ahriman's son - a battle that is discussed further below.

Div as Vices

The Shahnameh goes on to list in its pages nine principle vices called divs:

• Az - greed
• Niaz - desire
• Khashm - wrath
• Rashk - envy
• Nang - dishonour
• Kin - vengeance
• Nammaam - tell-tale
• Do-ruy - two-faced
• Napak-din - heretic

These divs and vices closely parallel the daeva characteristics - the demonic personification of vices - mentioned in the Avesta. The vices are considered evil by Zoroastrians and the antithesis of the virtues of an ashavan.

Nature of the Div (Evil)

Book 3 of the Denkard (a Middle Persian non-scriptural text) gives us interesting observations into the perceived nature of the div: Evil has no creative powers. If we extrapolate the statement we are led to the concept that Mazda, God, is creative [Dk 3.40: "The Self-existent is One, and God alone has created"], constructive and pure (cf. Pak Yazdan, a Pure Divinity) while the div is the dualistic antithesis - it is destructive and polluting. Therefore demonic forces cannot create. They can only pollute and contaminate, and thereby cause evil or transform something good to evil - like a drop of poison contaminating pure water and thereby transforming it from something life-giving to something deathly. When entities through an act of choice, choose evil and set about their acts of deception or destruction, they become that element of evil [Dk. 3.144 "Because of wisdom (i.e. choice) that a person is a doer of good or evil deeds". Also see Dk 3.33.]. The consequence is that since divs can only destroy, they will ultimately destroy themselves - that is the promise of Zoroastrian eschatology. However, the good must participate to bring about and facilitate that eventuality.

Other Denkard passages and Middle Persian texts question whether Ahriman and the divs exist at all. Perhaps referring to Chapter 30 of the Gathas, they postulate that existence or being is a result of the creative process from which life and goodness emerged. The evil mind (akem-mano / aka-manah), other aspects of evil, and the personification of evil, are progressions of being or existence's dual aspect - the aspect of not-being or anti-existence. The symbolic analogy here is that darkness is not an independent entity. It is the absence of light - it is not-light. Darkness is banished instantly when light emerges [Dk 3.142: Where there is much shining of light, there is permanence of light and disappearance of darkness]. The banishment of darkness is enduring if the light is enduring as with an ever-burning flame. Yet a flame is fragile. It is extinguished not by darkness, but by the lack of attention by those who must nurture it and fed it pure foods as a mind is fed the food of good thoughts and the body, good deeds. It follows that Ahriman and the divs cannot exist independently, but manifest themselves in the absence of goodness. Therefore evil would cease to be manifest if goodness were all pervasive - an ultimate goal towards which Zoroastrians dedicate themselves. Once again, the good must play an active part for without the spread of light, without the maintenance of an ever-burning flame, the darkness of evil cannot be banished. [cf. Dk 3.27, 33, 34, 40, 50, 130, 132, 142.]

3. Asura Worship

The Rig Veda or other Hindu religious texts do not directly mention Mazda worship or Mazda worshippers. Rather, they mention a set of deities who carry the title asura.

The word asura is the Vedic equivalent of the Avestan ahura. Avestan words can frequently be changed to their Sanskrit equivalent by replacing h with s. Ahura is in turn said to be derived from the word ahu, meaning lord. As with the English word 'lord', ahu is a descriptive title for both a human lord (e.g. a feudal lord or landlord) and a divine lord. In the Avesta, God or Mazda, is sometimes addressed as Ahura (Lord) and sometimes as Ahura Mazda (Lord God). The use of the words in this manner can also be found in the Judeo-Christian Bible.

It is pertinent to note that in the older Veda, the Rig Veda, the term asura or lord is used (as in the Avesta) for individual gods and for people - but never for a group of gods. In other words, asura does not define a class of gods. Rather it is a title. In these older Vedic texts, the term deva, however, is used for both individual gods and the group of devas (visve devah). In other words, deva is used both as a title - a superior god - and as the name for the group of gods. Some gods with the title asura are also referred to as devas. This nomenclature changes in the later Vedic texts, where the word asura is used as a title and as the name of a group of gods, gods who had evolved into demons.

There is a considerable difference in the way asuras are treated in the older and younger Vedic texts and the difference may help us understand the manner in which the Aryan religions, and the relationship between them, evolved.

In the earlier Vedas, the devas and asuras are said to have been born of a common parent, but the asuras were the older (purva-deva) and stronger siblings - powerful and beneficent gods who merited equal if not greater respect than the devas.

In the later Vedic texts starting with the Atharva Veda, the asuras are referred to in the plural, that is as a group of deities. It is also in these later texts that the asuras are depicted as being opposed to the devas. In conflicts between the two, the asuras were invariably victorious. The devas were victorious when they used a ruse or received the help of a benefactor trickster such as Vishnu.

In the post Vedic texts such as the Bhagavad-Gita, Puranas and Itihasas, the asuras are transformed and treated as a group of demons who possess the vices of pride, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, and ignorance (Gita 16.4). In the Brahmana texts, the asuras are hostile and opposed to the devas with whom they are in constant conflict.

However, no individual god who carries the title asura in the Rig Veda ever appears as an inimical adversary of the deva gods in the later Hindu religious texts, and none of the gods who bore the title asura in the older Rig Veda are mentioned in these later texts. In other words, the asuras of the earlier texts are not to be considered as demons. In one later text, the Upanishad, the new character of the asuras are accompanied with a new word, sura, meaning god, thereby implying that asura meant a-sura or a not-god.

It stands to reason that the change in the way the asuras were perceived by the deva worshippers closely parallels the changes in the relations between the asura and deva worshippers. There is an acknowledgement that the asura worship preceded deva worship and that in the early years, the asura worshippers were the dominant group.

A name that appears to be common to both the Avesta and Vedas is the Vedic asura Mitra (also see below) and the Avestan Mithra. In the Vedas, Mitra is often addressed together with the asura Varuna.

While the Vedas tend to anthropomorphize all its deities, it is probable that the asuras, Varuna, Mithra and Agni were originally invisible, non-anthropomorphic, genderless, non-iconic deities (cf. the attributes of Mazda) who may have been worshipped together as Asura worship or exclusively as Mazda worship.

References:
Asura in Early Vedic Religion, Hale, Wash Edward (1986), Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass
Review - Asura in Early Vedic Religion, Journal of the American Oriental Society, The, Oct-Dec, 1993 by Stanley Insler.

Differences Between Deva & Asura Worship

In his book, The Hymns of Atharvan Zarathushtra, Jatindra Mohan Chatterji calls the Rig Vedic devas the seen gods, and asuras the unseen gods. In other words the devas like Indra were anthropomorphic and capable of representation as idols, while the asuras like Mitra were, for the main part, non-anthropomorphic and formless.

In the Rig Veda, the devas preside over natural phenomena and the exercise of power and might while the asuras preside over the establishment of a moral and social order. For instance, the deva Indra is guardian of the weather and victory in battle earning the title sahasra-mushka, 'the one with a thousand testicles' (Rig Veda 6.45.3), while the asuras Varuna and Mitra are the guardians of the cosmic and moral laws of rita (cf. asha).

In the Rig Veda (4.42.1-6), when Varuna declares, "I, Varuna, am the king; first for me were appointed the dignities of asura, the Lord. I let the dripping waters rise up, and through rta I uphold the sky." Indra replies, "Men who ride swiftly, having good horses, call on me when surrounded in battle. I, the bountiful Indra, provoke strife. I whirl up the dust, my strength is overwhelming... . No godlike power can check me - I who am unassailable. When draughts of Soma, when songs have made me frenzied, then both the unbounded regions are filled with fear." The hymns addressed to Varuna are more ethical and devout in tone than the others, and form the most noble or high-minded portion of the Rig Veda.

If the qualities of the gods reflect the values of the worshippers, then for asura worshippers building and maintaining a peaceful society based on law and order was a priority. For the deva worshippers, the priority would have been the exercise of power through might and fear. The asuras are ethical where the devas are materialistic. While in the Rig Veda both deities and their respective allies are worshipped, Indra and deva worship clearly take precedence. The largest number of Rig Vedic hymns are dedicated to Indra - nearly 250 out of a total of 1028. Agni, an asura, is invoked in about 200 hymns, a greater number than the number of hymns dedicated to Varuna.

In Buddhism, the asuras are seen as lesser deities who are never satisfied and who continuously strive to better themselves. Zoroastrianism sees continuously striving for improvement towards excellence as a fundamental purpose of life.

The characteristics assigned to the devas and asuras reflected what beliefs the rulers and their supporting priests wished to promote in society. The ideal of continuously striving to improve oneself could have promoted ambition amongst the common people, while some rulers and priests may have thought it more desirable to promote satisfaction or resignation to one's lot in life - a life that had been divinely ordained. Rulers and priests so inclined would have promoted deva worship that included the caste system rather than asura worship that saw working to better oneself as a virtue and not a sin.

As in our example above, the differences between what the devas and asuras represented became differences in core beliefs, values, the nature of human beings, and the organization of society. These differences appear to have become strong enough to produce a deep societal divide - a schism - with the deva worshippers on one side, and the asura and Mazda worshippers on the other side. The Mazda worshippers were the Iranian-Aryans, The deva worshippers are generally thought of as being Indian-Aryans though they could have been any of the non-Iranian groups.

Incorporation of Pre-Zoroastrian Asuras into Mazda Worship & Zoroastrianism

Some of the asuras such as Mitra, are included in the Zoroastrian scriptures, the Avesta, as angels (fereshtes or yazatas) and guardians or lords (ahuras/asuras) of core Zoroastrian values and ideals.

In the Avesta, the names of the yazatas are also names for core values and ideals. For instance, as an angel in the Avesta, Mithra is the guardian of the values and qualities associated with friendship. In day-to-day language, Mithra means a friend, the ideals of loyal, trustworthy, caring and kind friendship and the qualities of kindness, helpfulness and benevolence. As a core value Mithra is the value of keeping of promises.

We do not know if the incorporation of asura worship into Mazda worship took place before, during or after Zarathushtra's time. In the hymns of Zarathushtra, the Gathas, Zarathushtra does not accommodate or incorporate the asuras in the manner that we see elsewhere in the Avesta. Indeed, depending on the interpretation of the Gathas being read, Zarathushtra can be seen as preaching an uncompromising monotheism. Regardless of the interpretations that abound, the Avesta taken as a whole together with Middle Persian literature and Ferdowsi's Shahnameh provide the full spectrum of belief and a consistent ethic. The texts are a repository of a rich heritage consisting of some of the earliest literature and history known to humankind - a history interwoven with the references to the asuras and daevas.

» Pre-Zoroastrian Aryan Religions & Religious Wars. Page 2

Appendix: Hindu Religious Texts

Vedas

1. The Rig Veda contains hymns (mantras) about the mythology and ancient Vedic practice
(At Wikipedia: Description, Translations, also Mandalas. At Sacred Texts: Sanskrit, English.);
2. The Sama Veda consists mainly of Rig Vedic mantras, arranged in the order required to perform the Soma ritual. (At Sacred Texts);
3. The Yajur Veda contains instructions for the soma rituals in prose (at Sacred Texts); and
4. The Atharva Veda consists of spells against enemies, sorcerers, diseases and mistakes made during the sacrificial ritual. It also outlines royal duties and expounds on spiritual matters. (AtSacred Texts)

Each of the four Vedas are divided into two sections:
1. The Samhita or mantras, hymns, and
2. The Brahmanas - commentaries, interpretation and instructions for the the rituals.

The Brahmanas are further sub-divided into two sections;
1. The Aranyakas, description of especially dangerous rituals such as the Mahavrata and Pravargya, and
2. The Upanishads (see below)

Upanishads

The Upanishad , meaning sitting near (the teacher), are philosophical and metaphysical writings about the relationship between the soul and Brahman. Collectively, the Upanishads are called theVedanta, the end of the Veda, because they appear at the end of each Veda, and because they are considered the culmination of Vedic knowledge.

Notes on the Vedas

The predominant deities of the Vedas, headed by Indra, are different from those in later, post-Vedic Hinduism. The central story of the Vedas is Indra's battle and eventual killing of the asura Vrita. The ritual focus is that of the yajna (cf. Avestan yasna) - the act of worship. The spiritual focus is in joining ancestral souls in the Vedic equivalent of heaven. The concept of reincarnation would enter Hinduism in the post-Vedic period. Reincarnation is not an native Aryan concept. The doctrinal focus is the purva or original mimamsa - inquiry or investigation.

Post Vedic Scriptures

1. Itihasas (epics like the Ramayana, Mahabharata). The heroes of the epics are avatars, incarnation of God, Vishnu, as human being: Rama, in the Ramayana, and Krishna, in the Mahabharata. Unlike the gods of the Vedas and the mystic all-pervading and formless Brahman in the Brahmanas, the avatars are developed loving and righteous personalities (Sacred Texts:Ramayana) ;
2. Puranas (mythology),
3. Agamas (theological treatises)
3. Darshanas (philosophical texts), and
5. Dharmashastras (law books)

Bhagavad-Gita

Also known as the Gita, the Bhagavad Gita (meaning the song of God) is a section of the Mahabharata where Krishna exhorts the devotee to abandon the mortal self and give oneself to the infinite love of God. By loving God a person loves the immortal self, and thereby finds harmony and peace with the universe.

Puranas

The Puranas consist of narratives ranging from the history of the universe from creation to destruction, cosmology, philosophy, geography, genealogies and myths of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods. Some individual Puranas feature a particular deity and their exploits such as Durga-Devi and her killing of Mahish-Asura. The Puranas are usually written in the form of stories told by one person to another.

Notes on the Post-Vedic Scriptures

In the post-Vedic scriptures, the focus of veneration of Indra in the Rig Veda, is replaced by the worship of Vishnu, Shiva and (Durga) Devi. Although Vishnu was a Vedic deity, he rises to pre-eminence in the post-Vedic scriptures. The Vedic yajna is replaced by a different religious ritual called the puja. The ritualistic purva mimamsa is replaced by the speculative philosophies of Vedanta also called the uttar, or later, mimamsa.

References to Asuras - Chronological Order in Vedic texts

Rig Veda books I, VIII, X; Atharva Veda; Sama Veda, Rig Veda Khilas (supplementary chapters) and the mantras of the Yajur Veda; Brahmanas. 

Evolution of Aryan Worship

In reading the different Zoroastrian and Hindu texts, we are left with the impression that the three different Aryan religions as well as the relationship between them, evolved significantly over time. They could have looked very different at different points in history and also in different locations. The relationship between them also changed from one of coexistence to irrevocable separation.

The communities in which the religions were practiced could have been exclusivist or pluralistic communities. Rulers of exclusivist communities could be expected to acknowledge a single religion or even a single deity within the deva or asura pantheon. Rulers of pluralistic communities could be expected to be more ecumenical.

At times the three religious groups coexisted while at other times they competed violently.

Coexistence

An example of a pluralistic, ecumenical accommodation of the asuras and devas by specific communities is a c. 1400 BCE peace treaty with the Hittites, the rulers of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni invoked the asuras Varuna and Mitra, as well as the devas Indra and the Nasatyas. Mitanni was located southwest of Lake Van, in an area that is part of Southern Turkey and Northern Syria today.

In the Rig Veda, we read that the initial relationship between the asuras and deva was one of coexistence. This relationship would gradually change to one of competition. Nevertheless, some asuras such as Agni (fire) are invited by the deva chief Indra to becomes devas (Rig Veda 10.124) and Agni is sometimes referred to as a deva. In verse 5, Varuna, a principle asura, is also invited by Indra to become a deva.

Cooperation between the asuras and devas is not relegated to the earlier Hindu scriptures, the Rig Veda. Stories of their cooperation can be found in the later Puranas, such as the story of Mount Mandara. However, their cooperation is short-lived. In the story, a catastrophic flood befalls the earth submerging the treasured possessions of the devas and asuras including the elixir of immortality, Amrita (cf. Avestan Amertat, immortality). The peak of the lofty Mount Meru rose above the flood and this is where the gods gathered and caucused on how to retrieve the Amrita. They agreed to a plan proposed by the deva Vishnu. Together, they uprooted the mountain Mandara and placed it on the back of Kurma, the tortoise. The gods then coiled the world serpent Vasuki around the mountain like a rope with the asuras holding one end of the snake and the devas the other end. By coordinating their actions, they used the snake coiled around the mountain to rotate the mountain and thereby churn the cosmic ocean formed by the flood. As the waters churned, the ocean turned to milk and then to butter, revealing the lost elixir of immortality and other treasures. The cooperation soon ended. According to the Bhagavata-Purana, as soon as the Amrita was produced, the devas took possession of it, and broke their promise to the asuras to give them half. As a consequence, the asuras then tried to steal it from the devas. A struggle ensued which the asuras lost and the devas consumed the nectar of immortality all by themselves.

The story marks the end of cooperation between the devas and asuras and the start of a deep and irreconcilable schism between them. Their relationship had deteriorated to the point that they were henceforth bent on mutual destruction.

Schism Between Mazda-Asura and Deva Worshippers

The story of the differences between the asuras and devas were of course a reflection of the differences and the violent conflict between the deva and asura worshippers. While, as we have mentioned, the Hindu scriptures do not directly refer to Mazda worshippers, the Zoroastrian and Persian texts talk about the conflict as one between the deva and Mazda worshippers. We will therefore refer to the conflict as between the deva and asura-Mazda worshippers.

Primordial Battles Between Mazda & Deva Worshippers

According to the poet Ferdowsi's epic, the Shahnameh, at the dawn of history the Mazda worshippers and the deva worshippers fought two primordial battles. The battles took place during the reign of the first Aryan king, Gaya Maretan (a name later shortened first to Gayo-Mard and then Kayomars in the Shahnameh). The first battle started when the deva worshippers led by Ahriman, attacked Gaya Maretan's Mazda worshippers. During the battle, Ahriman's son killed Gaya Maretan's son Siyamak, and the first battle resulted in the defeat of Gaya Maretan's army by Ahriman's hordes. However, retribution was to follow. After a bitter period of mourning, Gaya Maretan assembled a large army led by his grandson Hushang. The Mazda worshippers then attacked and defeated the deva worshippers in a second battle, a defeat that resulted in a subjugation of the deva worshippers by the Mazda worshippers.

Hushang slays a div - a scene from the Shahnameh

These initial battles were to characterize the relationship between the deva and Mazda worshippers in subsequent millennia. Periodically, one group would win dominance over the other. Nevertheless, until, their separation into the nations of Iran and India, they did coexist, possibly within a community or in adjacent communities.

The War of Religion

If Gaya Maretan and his successors had asserted the dominance of Mazda worshippers over the deva worshippers, that state of affairs would change over time, and the deva worshippers would turn the table and gradually assert their dominance.

This change in dominance is recorded in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. The Shahnameh's chapter on King Vishtasp and Zarathushtra opens with the following lines which we have adapted from James Atkinson's translation of the Shahnameh:

I've said preceding sovereigns worshipped God (Mazda)
By whom their crowns were given
To protect the people from oppressors.
God they served, acknowledging God's goodness -
For to God, the pure, unchangeable, the Holy One!
They owed their greatness and their earthly power.
But after times,
Worship of God gave way to idolatry and pagan faith,
And then Mazda's name was lost
In adoration of created things.

At the time of Zarathushtra's birth, Mazda worship had lost ground to deva worship, as had the virtues of honesty and not causing harm to others. A young Zarathushtra, disgusted with the dishonesty, violence, greed and lawlessness that surrounded him, resolved to dedicate his life to changing this state of affairs. He preached establishing an ethical order based on the old Mazdayasni faith - one that would come to be known as the Mazdayasni Ahura-Tkaesha.

The first royal patron of Zarathushtra's religion was King Vishtasp. Ferdowsi's Shahnameh tells us that King Vishtasp was king of Balkh, which at that time had become a tributary state of Turan (Sugd). For a map that shows the location of these states, see Aryan Homeland page.

When King Vishtasp adopted the Zoroastrian Mazdayasni faith, he also decided to stop paying tribute to King Arjasp of Turan, whereupon Arjasp gave Vishtasp an ultimatum to resume paying tribute and forsake his adopted faith, or face a devastating invasion (cf. Warner & Atkinson translations of the Shahnameh):

"Abandon your ill course,
Be awed before the God of Paradise,
Put far from you that aging miscreant,
And hold a feast according to our customs... .

"If not, in a month or two,
I will enter your kingdom with fire and sword,
And destroy your authority and you.
I give you good advice:
Do not be influenced by a wicked counsellor,
But return to your former religious practices.
Weigh well, therefore, what I say."

Vishtasp rejected the ultimatum and what followed was the War of Religion (cf. Greater Bundahishn 9.36and Lesser Bundahishn 12.36) in which Vishtasp was apparantly victorious (also see the last para of this section).

The conflict and Vishtasp's victory could have resulted in the deva worshippers living in his Central Asian kingdom, leaving or being pushed south through the Hindu Kush mountain passes into the upper Indus valley (today's Pakistan). It is possible that the Indus valley had previously been populated by deva worshippers, and that those from Central Asia migrated to join their co-religionists. The Hindu Kush (meaning Hindu Killer) would from that point, have formed a border between the Zoroastrian Mazda worshippers and the deva worshippers.

The Indus Valley was called Hindu (later Hind or Ind) in the Avesta. The locals called the region Sindhu and then Sind. Replacing 'h' with 's' is a common way of transforming many Avestan words to Sanskrit. The Persians eventually called the people of the region Hindi, a name that would in western parlance become Indie (India). Indians, however, refer to their country as Bharat. In addition, the name for the religion of the deva worshippers, Hindu, is also derived from the Avestan / Iranian / Persian names for the Indus region. Hindu is not a name for their religion used by the ancient Hindus. Hindus refer to their religion by various names such as Sanatana Dharma, meaning eternal law in Sanskrit, or the Vaideeha Dharma.

However, the Greater Bundahishn also records in 9.36, "In the War of Religion, when defeat was with the Iranians,... ." Such a defeat could have pushed the Iranian out of their Central Asian homeland westward. The Lesser Bundahishn in 12.32-33 states, "32. From the same Padashkh-Vargar mountain unto Mount Kumish, which they call Mount Madofryad ('Come-to-help') -- that in which Vishtasp routed Arjasp -- is Mount Miyan-i-Dast ('mid-plain'), and was broken off from that mountain there. 33. They say, in the War of the Religion, when there was confusion among the Iranians it broke off from that mountain, and slid down into the middle of the plain; the Iranians were saved by it, and it was called 'Come-to-help' by them."

Asura Deva Conflict in the Hindu Scriptures

The perpetual war between the asuras and devas form some of the central themes in the later Hindu texts. This might signify that at the time when these texts were written, the relationship between the Aryan asura and deva worshippers had deteriorated to such an extent that they engaged in continuous internecine conflict.

The perpetual conflict between the devas and asura described in the Hindu texts found its way into Buddhist literature as well. In Pali Theravada Buddhist literature, the most frequent references to asuras are in connection with the continual war between asuras and devas. Similarly, in Mahayana Buddhist literature the asuras, motivated by envy of the devas, are constantly at war with them. [111: 21-6].

Mahish-Asura & Durga-Devi

Durga-devi killing Mahish-asura in the form of a buffalo

An example of the transformation in relations between the deva and asura worshippers in Hindu scriptures from a grudging acknowledgement of the onetime supremacy of the Mazda / asura worshippers to violent conflict, is the Hindu myth of the battle between female deva, Durga-devi and the asura, Mahish-asura (see image to the right) in chapters 81 to 93 in the Markandeya Purana.

[The Vedic name Mahish-asura may have an Avestan equivalence in mazishta-ahura i.e. the greatest ahura/asura. Mahish-asura could transform himself into a buffalo and the scenes of Durga killing Mahish-asura sometimes depicts Durga killing a buffalo, a scene reminiscent of Mitra killing the bull in Roman mithraeums. (Curiously, Mithra in Iranian tradition is the name of a woman.) Durga carries the title Mahish-asura-mardini, mardini meaning a killer of the feminine gender.]

According to the myth, Mahish-asura was pious and worshipped Brahma, the supreme deity among the devas and asuras. As a reward, Brahma granted Mahish-asura supremacy and omnipotence over all deities and humans - no man or male deity would be able to defeat him or kill him. Mahish-asura used his omnipotence over males to defeat Indra, the king of the devas, and take control of Swarga Loka, Indra's realm in the upper mountainous regions, and Prithvi Loka, the lower regions. In doing so, Mahish-asura drove Indra and all the other devas (in other words, the deva worshippers and temples housing the devas) out of Swarga Loka.

This description of Mahish-asura as an omnipotent god, a god who was supreme over both devas and asuras, is a description shared only by the Rig Vedic asura Varuna who is designated in the Rig Veda as the asura who is king of everyone, both gods and mortals (RV II.27.10). "This asura rules over the gods," is a further statement of omnipotence in Atharva Veda I.10.1. No other Vedic god is described in this manner. Asura Varuna is often thought to be the Vedic equivalent of the Avestan Ahura Mazda.

Swarga Loka, is the mountainous kingdom where Mount Meru stands. Mount Meru and its companion mountains are the hub from which the Himalayas stem (a possible description of the Pamirs). Bharatavarsha, Ancient India, lay to the south of the Himalayas. The Vedic description of Mount Meru is similar to the Zoroastrian description of Airyana Vaeja's Mount Hara (also see Aryan Homeland Location page).

After an eon-long lament by the expelled devas, Brahma created Durga, a female deity who avenged the devas by killing Mahish-asura whose omnipotence did not extend to females. The killing of Mahish-asura and the defeat of his armies enabled the devas to return to Swarga and Prithvi Loka.

The Deva and Mahish-asura armies meet in battle Berkley Art Museum Artist unknown. Karnataka, India 1830-1845 CE. Ink, gouache, and gold on paper

There are indications in the myth, that while Mahish-asura was in the beginning allied to other asuras, Mahish-asura eventually drove these asuras out of Swarga Loka as well. (This could mean that Mahish-asura was worshipped not just as a supreme God, but as an only God as well.) When the devas prepared to invade and retake Swarga and Prithvi Loka, the other asuras assisted Durga by providing her with weapons.

The myth has embedded in it, the common roots and the schism between the Aryan religious groups: the deva, asura and Mazda worshippers. It may also contain history. For instance, at the outset there are the common roots, shared history and co-existence among the groups. Next, there is the rise to dominance of the Mazda worshippers who drove the deva worshippers out of the upper and lower regions of the Aryan homeland. Later, the Mazda worshippers drove out the asura worshippers as well. Eventually, however, the deva worshippers, assisted by the asura worshippers, assembled a strong army and drove the Mazda worshippers out of Airyana Vaeja. The war of religion between the two groups may have therefore taken place in two stages, the second stage ending in the Mazda worshippers being driven out of their traditional lands. The Bundahishn 12.33 states that "They say, in the war of the religion, there was confusion among the Iranians... ."

There is a inexplicable gap in Zoroastrian history this myth might help to fill. The gap occurs after the closing of the Avestan canon and the start of Median and Persian history (c. 800 BCE). Some reason or event caused the Zoroastrians to migrate westward out of the upper Aryan lands.

The story is an example of how the schism between the two groups became part of Hindu scripture. Similarly, an entire book of the Avesta, the Vendidad, derives its name from Vi-dev-data, the law against the devas, that is, the law against evil.

Post Separation Relations

Once the two groups of Aryans had separated, the deva worshippers migrating south across the Hindu Kush mountains into the upper Indus valley, the relationship between the deva and Mazda worshippers appears to have oscillated between peaceful neighbourliness and conflict. However, when conflict did arise, it was more in the nature of kings and ruling groups seeking power (sometimes perhaps at the behest of religious advisors) than animosity between between two peoples.

To this day, the two peoples, the Zoroastrians and Hindus, intuitively feel a certain historic kinship. When the Zoroastrians were driven out of their Iranian homeland by the Arabs, it is the Hindus of India who gave the Zoroastrians a home, and the two groups have coexisted peacefully in India for over a thousand years, each honouring the other's freedom to maintain their religious beliefs.

Zoroastrians owe a debt of gratitude to their Hindu cousins for having opened the doors of their land for Zoroastrians to enter not just as guests but as members of a family. Even the Zoroastrians who remained behind in Iran benefited from Indian hospitality since the Zoroastrians (the Parsees) who prospered in India were able to provide support and advocate on behalf of their Iranian brethren who were discriminated against and persecuted in the land of their ancestors.

It is on this note: the completion of a full cycle of relations between the Aryan religious groups, that we end this chapter on Aryan heritage - a heritage that started and ended in coexistence and cooperation.

» Top

Further reading:

» Aryan Homeland, Airyana Vaeja in the Avesta

» Aryan Prehistory

» Aryan Homeland Location

» Aryan Religions

» Aryan Trade

» Western Views on Aryans

http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/religion.htm

Indian sprachbund glosses

S. asuru m. ʻ daybreak ʼ; Or.uchura ʻ delay ʼ, adv. ʻ late ʼ; G. asur n. ʻ lateness ʼ, asurũ ʻ late, long after the proper time ʼ.Pa. ussūrē ʻ in the evening ʼ, ussūra -- seyyā -- f. ʻ sleep after sunrise, sleeping late ʼ; Pk. ussūra -- n. ʻ evening ʼ; utsūra m. ʻ evening ʼ (Sanskrit)(CDIAL 1888) Sa. hasur `to set (of the sun, moon)'.Mu. hasur `to set (of the sun, moon)'. KW hasur (Munda etyma) सौर [ saura ] a S (सूर्य or सूर) Belonging or relating to the sun;--as worship, worshiper, fast, festival, observance &c. 2 Measured by the sun, solar;--a day, a year, time. 3 as s m A solar month. 4 The planet Saturn or the Regent of it.सौरवर्ष [ saura varṣa ] n S Sidereal year.

Sura [cp. Epic Sk. sura probably after asura] god Sn 681 (=deva SnA 484); name of a Bodhisatta J v.12, 13; surakaññā a goddess, a heavenly maid J v.407 (=devadhītā, C.); surinda the king of gods Mhbv 28. Opp. asura. (Pali)

Asura [Vedic asura in more comprehensive meaning; con- nected with Av. ahurō Lord, ahurō mazdā˚; perhaps to Av. anhuš & Lat. erus master] a fallen angel, a Titan; pl. asurā the Titans, a class of mythological beings. Dhpāla at PvA 272 & the C. on J v.186 define them as kāḷakañjaka -- bhedā asurā. The are classed with other similar inferior deities, e. g. with garuḷā, nāgā, yakkhā at Miln 117; with supaṇṇā, gandhabbā, yakkhā at DA i.51. <-> The fight between Gods & Titans is also reflected in the oldest books of the Pāli Canon and occurs in identical description at the foll. passages underthe title of devâsura -- sangāma: D ii.285; S i.222 (cp. 216 sq.), iv.201 sq., v.447; M i.253; A iv.432. -- Rebirth as an Asura is considered as one of the four unhappy rebirths or evil fates after death (apāyā; viz. niraya, tiracchāna -- yoni, petā or pettivisaya, asurā), e. g. at It 93; J v.186; Pviv.111, see also apāya. -- Other passages in general: S i.216 sq. (fight of Devas & Asuras); iv.203; A ii.91; iv.198 sq., 206; Sn 681; Nd1 89, 92, 448; DhA i.264 (˚kaññā); Sdhp 366, 436.    -- inda Chief or king of the Titans. Several Asuras are accredited with the rôle of leaders, most commonly Vepacitti (S i.222; iv.201 sq.) and Rāhu (A ii.17, 53; iii.243). Besides these we find Pahārāda (gloss Mahābhadda) at A iv.197. -- kāya the body or assembly of the asuras A i.143; J v.186; ThA 285. -- parivāra a retinue of Asuras A ii.91. -- rakkhasā Asuras and Rakkhasas (Rakṣasas) Sn 310 (defined by Bdhgh at SnA 323 as pabbata -- pāda -- nivāsino dānava -- yakkha -- saññitā). (Pali)

आसुर [ āsura ] a S Relating to an Asura or demon. 2 eye. fig. Fiery, ferocious, wicked, malevolent: horrible, atrocious, shocking: ugly, hideous, frightful--persons or deeds.आसुरी [ āsurī ] f (S) A division of medicine, surgery; curing by cutting with instruments, applying actual cautery &c.आसुरीकृत्यn Any violent, wild, or extravagant deed. आसुरीभोजन n Gluttonous or indiscriminate eating. These compounds, excepting singly  आसुरीक्रिया   (wherein  आसुर becomes   आसुरी because of the feminine noun क्रिया), are incorrect. The proper Prakrit derivative from असुर is not आसुरी but असुरी. आसुरीwith nouns feminine is correct.आसुरीसंपत्ति [ āsurīsampatti ] f (S) Prodigious and violently-acquired wealth. 2 Prodigal, riotous, mad revelling. 3 (As opp. to दैवीसंपत्ति) Worldly opulence or wealth, the objects of काम, क्रोध, लोभादि. (Marathi)

---

Zamindari privileges ordered by Civil Aviation ministry for criminal mirasdars in Parliament -- V Sundaram IAS

January 29, 2014, 6:53 am

≫ Next: Plagiarism case filed against Kejriwal - Anup Verma

≪ Previous: Assur as Meluhha speakers, Asura, some divinities venerated in Rigveda.

$

0

0

Zamindari privileges ordered by Civil Aviation ministry for criminal mirasdars in Parliament

V Sundaram IAS

January 29, 2014

The Zamindari System was abolished by the Estate’s Abolition Act after Independence. We have now created a new brand of Political Zamindars in the place of Erstwhile Feudal Zamindars. In the earlier system, only the Landless workers dependent on Agriculture were in the Bonded Labour of the Zamindars. In the New Political System created by Our New Constitution after our Independence, we have created a Class of New Zamindars. In this system, all the people of India have been brought under the Cruel Yoke of Bonded Labour of these New Zamindars! 

Yesterday, I was watching English News TV Channels. I am quite amused to see that the DGCA has issued Guidelines to all Airports and Private Airlines to extend Special Privileges to Members of Parliament. DGCA has reportedly asked Private Airlines to offer special privileges to MPs including Advance Notice of Flight Delays, Escorts, Priority Check-in, Security, Immigration Clearances, Lounge Access and Complimentary Refreshments. All Airports and Airlines in the Country have been asked to put in place the Protocols.

Currently, only Air India is following these Guidelines.

The Recent Directive came after the MPs complained that they should be treated like VIPs at all Airports and by All Airlines – Government or Private. The DGCA held a meeting to discuss the Issue and sent a Letter to all on the Protocol to be followed. All Airlines are also expected to give a List of Nodal/Protocol Officers for the same.

Recently, the Supreme Court of India in a Landmark Judgement came down heavily upon VIP Culture or LAL BATHI Culture.  Any Civilized Government wedded to the Cause of Maximum Welfare of the Maximum Number, would have understood not only the LETTER BUT ALSO THE LARGER SPIRIT OF THE SUPREME COURT DIKTAT ON LAL BATHI CULTURE. UPA Government is only a Whole-time Private Servant of the Firangi Memsahib Sonia Gandhi and her Family living in India and her Extended Family in ITALY and elsewhere outside India!

Perhaps the Union Civil Aviation Ministry has issued the recent Directive to all Private Airline Companies to give Special Facilities and Privileges to our Most Honourable MPs taking Note of the Following Factors:

1.   Most of our MPs are from the Rural Areas. Many of them are very Simple and Gullible. Shri Rajeev Shukla, a Congress Member of Parliament, has defended the Civil Aviation Ministry in a Rahul-like Bumptious Manner in these Classic Words : "Lot of MPs come from Rural Areas. What's wrong if they are being helped out. Lot of them don't understand Civil Aviation Rules." These Poor Rural Souls thoroughly understand Only the 2G Spectrum Scam Rules, Commonwealth Games Scam Rules, Coalgate Scam Rules, Adarsh Housing Scam Rules etc.

2.   Most of our MPs are only having a Subsistence Level Existence, languishing below the Poverty Line! If God cannot protect them, then their only hope is Union Civil Aviation Minister Shri. Ajeeth Singh ji!  Soon after the Results of the 2009 Lok Sabha Election Results were declared, an NGO called National Election Watch (NEW) came out with this Analysis: “The Number of Crorepatis (one Crore is 10 million) in the 15^th Lok Sabha has also nearly Doubled as compared to 2004. There are 300 ‘Crorepati’ MPs in the New Lok Sabha. This is a huge increase from what the number was in 2004 when the Number of Crorepati MPs stood at 154”.

Extreme Poverty and Extreme Criminality march together hand in hand amongst our Distinguished MPs!

According to National Election Watch (NEW), in the 15^thLok Sabha of 2009,  there were 150 newly elected MPs who have Criminal Cases pending against them as compared  to 128 MPs in the 14^th Lok Sabha of 2004!

The Former Air India executive director Jitender Bhargava reacted to the entire incident saying that the private airlines must gather enough guts to protest against DGCA guidelines. He has also noted that the DGCA does not have the Power to issue such Guidelines to give Special Privileges and Facilities to our Irresponsible and Despicable Members of Parliament!

I would like to invite the Kind Attention of Union Civil Aviation Ministry and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to the following Thundering and Roaring Lines of Walt Whitman (1819-1892), often hailed as the ‘POET OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY’ :

“While the members who composed it [any Democratic Party National Convention prior to the Civil War] were, seven-eighths of them, the meanest kind of bawling and blowing officeholders, office-seekers, pimps, malignants,  conspirators, murderers, fancy-men', custom-house clerks,  contractors, kept-editors, spaniels well-trained to carry and fetch, jobbers, infidels, disunionists, terrorists, mail catchers, pushers of slavery, creatures of the President , creatures of would-be Presidents, spies, bribers, compromisers, lobbyers, sponges, ruined sports, expelled gamblers, policy-backers, monte-dealers, duellists, carriers of  concealed weapons, deaf men, pimpled men, scarred with vile disease, gaudy outside with gold chains made from the people's money and harlots' money twisted together; crawling, serpentine men, the lousy combinings and born freedom-sellers of the earth”.

CONCLUSION: If Only Walt Whitman were to come to Life in New Delhi, I have no Doubt that He would commit Instantaneous SUICIDE if only He gets an Opportunity to Meet some of our Most Criminal MPs in Parliament!

Plagiarism case filed against Kejriwal - Anup Verma

January 29, 2014, 8:13 pm

≫ Next: Beginnings of Indian astronomy -- Asko Parpola (2013)

≪ Previous: Zamindari privileges ordered by Civil Aviation ministry for criminal mirasdars in Parliament -- V Sundaram IAS

$

0

0

PLAGIARISM CASE FILED AGAINST KEJRIWAL

Thursday, 30 January 2014 | Anup Verma | Noida

1

2

3

4

5

In a fresh trouble for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, a Noida-based writer has filed a case of plagiarism against him in a local court. Complainant Ajay Pal Nagar has alleged that Kejriwal’s book Swaraj has copied the contents in his book titled Bharatiya Raj Vyawastha. Nagar claimed that he had presented the book to Kejriwal in March, 2012 and he was appalled to see its content being copied in ‘Swaraj’ that was published in July 2012. The case has been filed before District Judicial Magistrate of Noida and the case has been accepted

The author has said that he had released his book through a Delhi-based publication one year before the release of Swaraj and the plagiarism has been done intentionally by Kejriwal. “Kejriwal has illegally published my book in his own name and has added some Government documents to mislead the people,” the complainant said.

Nagar, in his complaint before the court, has alleged that 80 per cent content of Swaraj has been copied from his book which is a clear violation of Copy Right Act. Nagar said he wrote the book Bharatiya Raj Vyawastha in year 2011 and the book was published in February 2012. Later, he sent a copy of the book to Kejriwal on March 26. In June 2012, when Swaraj was released with the author name Arvind Kejriwal, Nagar found that Kejriwal has taken most parts of his book without his consent to do so. He found that many pages, paragraphs and lines of Swaraj are word to word of his book.

Earlier the author lodged a complaint in Badalpur police station in December 2012 but no action was initiated against Kejriwal and the matter was almost closed. Nagar then went to Chief District Magistrate Court of Noida where his application under Section 156 (3) of CrPc was taken up by the Magistrate.

The complainant has also claimed that Manish Sisodia, a close associate of Kejriwal and a Minister in Delhi Government, has accepted that ‘the book is written by us but is amalgamation of different articles’. However, contrary to his claim, the book has the name of Arvind Kejriwal as its author.

“I wrote the book, Bharatiya Raj Vyawastha, with 10 years’ experience of my social life. I met eminent lawyers, socialists, constitutional experts and many more before writing the book. As I was impressed with Arvind Kejriwal and his team during Anna movement, I sent a copy of my book to Kejriwal but he took unfair advantage of it. I have moved court for action against him for exclusive theft and a case under Section 200 of CrPc has been registered against Kejriwal. The court could serve notice to him. If required I will move upper courts for justice,” said Nagar.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/city/plagiarism-case-filed-against-kejriwal.html

Beginnings of Indian astronomy -- Asko Parpola (2013)

January 29, 2014, 9:01 pm

≫ Next: Pranab babu, tell SoniaG UPA that a lame duck Govt should not mess with the bill.SoniaG, quit politics.

≪ Previous: Plagiarism case filed against Kejriwal - Anup Verma

$

0

0

Since the subject of the paper links Harappan hieroglyphs and suggested decoding by Asko Parpola in the context of the roots of Indian astronomy sought in Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization, I am reproducing the paper in full here for the benefit of those who may not have access to the journal from Trivandrum where it first appeared. Asko Parpola also notes that a short summary of the paper 'Beginnings of Indian and Chinese calendrical astronomy', was presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the American Oriental Society in Portland, Oregon, 17 March 2013.

Beginnings of Indian astronomy (Asko Parpola, 2013) With reference to a parallel development in China. in: History of Science in South Asia 1 (2013), pp. 21-78

Abstract

Hypotheses of a Mesopotamian origin for the Vedic and Chinese star calendars are unfounded. The Yangshao culture burials discovered at Puyang in 1987 suggest that the beginnings of Chinese astronomy go back to the late fourth millennium BCE. The instructive similarities between the Chinese and Indian luni-solar calendrical astronomy and cosmology therefore with great likelihood result from convergent parallel development and not from diffusion.

Read on...

PS: I have gone through the paper. I will leave it to scholars in the study of history of Indian astronomy to react to many segments of the paper by Asko Parpola. I will post addenda in due course, on my refutation of Asko Parpola's prima facie erroneous reading of the Harappan hieroglyphs.

I would like to comment on the following Fig. 16 of Parpola's paper:

Fig. 16 Two-faced tablet from Dholavira, Kutch, Gujarat, suggesting child sacrifice (lower picture) connected with crocodile cult (upper picture). After Parpola 2011: 41 fig. 48 (sketch AP). 'Crocodile in the Indus civilization and later south Asian traditions'. In Linguistics, archaeology and the human past: occasional paper 12, ed. Toshiki Osada & Hitoshi Endo. Pp. 1-58. Kyoto: Indus Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature.

To compare the details provided by AP's sketch on this Fig. 16, I reproduce below a photograph of the tablet:

Even assuming that a seated person on the lower sketch figure with raised arms carries 'children' I do not see how Asko Parpola (AP the sketch-maker) can jump to the conclusion of 'suggested child sacrifice'.

Dholavira molded terracotta tablet with Meluhha hieroglyphs written on two sides. See my take on the Meluhha readings of the hieroglyphs of the tablet and the context of crocodile hieroglyphs on Ancient Near East and ancient Indian artifacts at  http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/meluhha-hieroglyphs-snarling-iron-of.html Snarling iron, fish, crocodile and anthropomorph Meluhha hieroglyphs of Bronze Age

Some readings: 

Pa. kōḍ (pl. kōḍul) horn; Ka. kōḍu horn, tusk, branch of a tree; kōr horn Tu. kōḍů, kōḍu horn Ko. kṛ (obl. kṭ-)( (DEDR 2200) Paš. kōṇḍā ‘bald’, Kal. rumb. kōṇḍa ‘hornless’.(CDIAL 3508). Kal. rumb. khōṇḍ a ‘half’ (CDIAL 3792).

Rebus: koḍ 'workshop' (Gujarati) Thus, a horned crocodile is read rebus: koḍ khar 'blacksmith workshop'. khar ‘blacksmith’ (Kashmiri) kāruvu ‘crocodile’ Rebus:  ‘artisan, blacksmith’.

dhokra ‘decrepit woman with breasts hanging down’. 

Hieroglyph: krəm backʼ(Khotanese)(CDIAL 3145) Rebus: karmāra ‘smith, artisan’ (Skt.) kamar ‘smith’ (Santali)

 Rebus: dhokra kamar 'artisan caster using lost-wax technique'.

Thus, a consistent interpretation is possible in the context of the bronze age artisanal competence instead of resorting to mythical or ethnographic or cult studies, or even astronomical extravaganzas to explain the entire set of corpora of Meluhha hieroglyphs (aka Indus writing), which now reached an impressive count of 7000 epigraphs, ready to be subjected to the minimum needs in cryptography for a cipher text.

I have provided my views on the Dholavira two-faced tablet reading rebus the hieroglyphs of a horned woman with hanging breasts ligatured to the back of a bovine as dhokra kamar. In Fig. 16, Parpola provides  a line-drawing sketch of the same tablet. He interprets it: "A tablet from dholavira in Kutch, Gujarat, suggests that the Harappans offered human children in sacrifice to a crocodile god. (Fig. 16). A unique crocodile cult has been preserved until our times in 50 tribal villages of southern Gujarat. In order to get offspring and fulfilment of other wishes, these tribals have an image of ccrocodile or a pair of them made of wood by the priest, who instals the image horizontally upon a wooden pillar which goes through the back part or the middle of the body (Fig. 17). The image is then consecrated in a marriage ceremony and worshipped by daubing it with vermilion and offering it animal victims and strong drink, which are afterwards consumed by the worshippers." (p.60)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/203336496/Beginnings-of-Indian-astronomy-Asko-Parpola-2013

Beginnings of Indian astronomy (Asko Parpola, 2013)

Pranab babu, tell SoniaG UPA that a lame duck Govt should not mess with the bill.SoniaG, quit politics.

January 29, 2014, 11:07 pm

≫ Next: Some select Meluhha hieroglyphs and rejecting Asko Parpola's faith in Old Tamil in Indus writing

≪ Previous: Beginnings of Indian astronomy -- Asko Parpola (2013)

$

0

0

Andhra Pradesh Assembly rejects draft Telangana bill

Express News Service | January 30, 2014 12:20

SUMMARY

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy. (Reuters)

This comes a day after Reddy threatened to quit politics if the Telangana bill is tabled in Parliament.

In a setback to the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Thursday rejected the draft Telangana billby voice vote.

The Assembly passed by voice vote a resolution moved by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy rejecting the AP Reorganisation Bill. Following this, the Assembly was adjourned sine die.

This comes a day after Reddy on Wednesday threatened to quit politicsif the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2013, is tabled in Parliament in its current form.

“The Bill is incomprehensive and incomplete. What the Centre has sent us cannot be accepted by anybody. Even then, if the Centre tables it in Parliament, I will quit my post and quit politics,” he had told reporters.

“The Union home ministry cheated us on the Telangana Bill. It is the responsibility of the home ministry to check the Bill and ensure that it is in proper order before sending it to the Assembly. I am not asking them to correct flaws, but am opposing the Bill,” he had said.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/andhra-pradesh-assembly-rejects-draft-telangana-bill/

Some select Meluhha hieroglyphs and rejecting Asko Parpola's faith in Old Tamil in Indus writing

January 30, 2014, 12:23 am

≫ Next: 'Organised racket brokering the operation.' Only 5% pandits missing: Maharishi vedic university

≪ Previous: Pranab babu, tell SoniaG UPA that a lame duck Govt should not mess with the bill.SoniaG, quit politics.

$

0

0

A paper was presented by Asko Parpola wherein some examples of Indus writing are cited in relation to cardinal directions, solar disks, astral symbolism denoted by 'trefoil' or 'fish' or 'crocodile' glyphs. See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/beginnings-of-indian-astronomy-asko.html

These examples of 'symbols' used by Asko Parpola have been discussed in the context of decoding many Meluhha epigraphs of Indu script corpora and cuneiform seals etc. from Ancient Near East.

Alternative Meluhha rebus readings are suggested in this note, in addition to the dhokra kamar tablet of Dholavira discussed at http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/beginnings-of-indian-astronomy-asko.html

Prima facie, it may be far-fetched to see astronomical roots in the types of geometrical patterns depicted in the following examples which could simply be geometrical designs used by the scribe unless the context in which the seals were discovered can be evaluated:

Distribution of geometrical seals in Greater Indus Valley during the early and *Mature Harappan periods (c. 3000 - 2000 BCE). After Uesugi 2011, Development of the Inter-regional interaction system in the Indus valley and beyond: a hypothetical view towards the formation of the urban society' in: Cultural relagions betwen the Indus and the Iranian plateau during the 3rd millennium BCE, ed. Toshiki Osada & Michael Witzel. Harvard Oriental Series, Opera Minora 7. Pp. 359-380. Cambridge, MA: Dept of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University: fig.7

Kot Diji type seals with concentric circles from (a,b) Taraqai Qila (Trq-2 &3, after CISI 2: 414), (c,d) Harappa(H-638 after CISI 2: 304, H-1535 after CISI 3.1:211), and (e) Mohenjo-daro (M-1259, aftr CISI 2: 158). (From Fig. 7 Parpola, 2013).

Sun's rays as hieroglyph

The following examples cited, however, can be seen to relate to the depiction of 'sun' or 'sun's rays and can be read rebus:

Hieroglyph: arka ‘sun’; agasāle ‘goldsmithy’ (Ka.) erka = ekke (Tbh. of arka) aka (Tbh. of arka) copper (metal); crystal (Ka.lex.) cf. eruvai = copper (Ta.lex.) eraka, er-aka = any metal infusion (Ka.Tu.); erako molten cast (Tulu) Rebus: eraka = copper (Ka.) eruvai = copper (Ta.); ere - a dark-red colour (Ka.)(DEDR 817). eraka, era, er-a = syn. erka, copper, weapons (Ka.)

M428 Mohenjo-daro. Sun's rays

Seal from Rahman  Dheri with the motif of 'rays around concentric circles'. After Durrani, FA, et al., 1994-95, Seals and inscribed sherds in: Excavations in the Gomal valley: Rehman Dheri report No.2 ed. Taj Ali. Ancient Pakistan 10, Peshawar: Department of Archaeology, University of Peshawar: Pp. 198-223.

'Sun' in 'four quadrants', painted on faiz Mohammad style grey ware from Mehrgarh, period VI (c. 3000-2900 BCE), Kacchi plain, Pakistan. After C. Jarrige et al., 1995, Mehrgarh Field Reports 1974-1985: From neolithic times to the Indus civilization, Karachi: Sind Culture Department: 160.

Trefoil as hieroglyph

Trefoil as hieroglyph presenting some examples is evaluated at http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/the-most-vexed-problem-of-indian.html

Rebus readings on the trefoil signifiers which appear in the civilization in the following examples:

1. Shown pota 'cloth' worn as a shawl by the important person, the trefoil hieroglyph can be read rebus as the homonymous word: pōtṛ 'temple priest'.

2. Shown on pota 'young animal or heifer', or on beads, the trefoil hieroglyph can be read either as pot'boat' or pote 'long straight bar of jewelry or bead'.

Finely polished stone pedestal from Mohenjo-daro, decorated with 'trefoil' figures. After Parpola, Asko, 1985, The sky garment: a study of the Harappan religion and its relation to the mesopotamian and later Indian religions. Studia Orientalia, 57. Helsinki: The Finnish Oriental Society: fig. 91.

Fish, crocodile as hieroglyphs

Fish and crocodile as hieroglyphs are evaluated at http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/meluhha-hieroglyphs-snarling-iron-of.html

The Meluhha rebus readings are:

kāru 'crocodile' (Telugu) Rebus: khar ‘blacksmith’ (Kashmiri); kāru ‘artisan’ (Marathi) 

ayo 'fish' Rebus: ayas 'metal'.

In some cases, fish is shown as caught in the jaws of a crocodile. This set of hieroglyphs is read rebus as: ayakāra‘ironsmith’ (Pali)[fish = aya (G.); crocodile = kāru (Te.)] 

Seal H-9 from Harappa with the sign sequence "7" + "fish". After CISI 1:166.

Horizontal crocodiles set on vertical poles, Mature Harappan painted pot from Amri, Sindh, Pakistan. After Casal, Jean-Marie, 1964, Fouilles d'Amri, 2 vols. Publications de la Commission des Fouilles Archeologique: Fouilles du Pakistan. Paris: C. Klincksieck: II, fig 75, no. 323.

Hieroglyphs: 'fig tree' + 'fish' on Seal M-414 from Mohenjo-daro. After CISI 1:100.

Meluhha rebus readings:

kamaḍha = ficus religiosa (Skt.); kamar.kom ‘ficus’ (Santali) rebus: kamaṭa = portable furnace for melting precious metals (Te.); kampaṭṭam = mint (Ta.) Vikalpa: Fig leaf ‘loa’; rebus: loh ‘(copper) metal’. loha-kāra ‘metalsmith’ (Sanskrit).

ayo 'fish' Rebus: ayas 'metal'.

Hieroglyph Ka. koṇḍi the sting of a scorpion. Tu. koṇḍi a sting. Te. koṇḍi the sting of a scorpion.(DEDR 2080). Rebus: kuṇḍī = chief of village. kuṇḍi-a = village headman; leader of a village (Pkt.lex.) i.e. śreṇi jeṭṭha chief of metal-worker guild. khŏḍ m. ‘pit’, khö̆ḍü f. ‘small pit’ (Kashmiri. CDIAL 3947), kuṭhi‘smelter furnace’ (Mu.) kuṇḍamu ‘a pit for receiving and preserving consecrated fire’ (Te.) kundār turner (A.); kũdār, kũdāri (B.); kundāru (Or.); kundau to turn on a lathe, to carve, to chase; kundau dhiri = a hewn stone; kundau murhut = a graven image (Santali) 

In summary, it may be said that while Asko Parpola has presented a remarkable array of references from ancient Indian tradition, most of the references are unrelated to the Meluhha epigraphs. It can only be a matter of faith that one can read astronomy in the artifacts presented in an elaborate monograph of Asko Parpola.

Parpola's reading of crocodile cult in the Dholavira tablet showing the hieroglyph, dhokra'a decrepit person' ligatured to the back (kamar) of a bovine, I have suggested that the hieroglyphs relate to the work of dhokra kamar whose artisanal competence in making artifacts is seen in the bronze dancing girl of Mohenjo-daro made using lost-wax technique. Such a technique in Indian sprachbund vernacular is called dhokra.

S. Kalyanaraman
Sarasvati Research Center
January 30, 2014

'Organised racket brokering the operation.' Only 5% pandits missing: Maharishi vedic university

January 30, 2014, 2:30 am

≫ Next: Mohenjo-daro rocks !!! Rock-stars of the world now have a sound stage.

≪ Previous: Some select Meluhha hieroglyphs and rejecting Asko Parpola's faith in Old Tamil in Indus writing

$

0

0

Published: January 27, 2014 22:27 IST | Updated: January 28, 2014 01:39 IST

130 Vedic pandits go missing in U.S.

Narayan Lakshman

The Iowa-based institutions of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi have confirmed that at least 130 Indian “Vedic pandits” have gone missing in recent years after arriving in the U.S. to pursue programmes of religious learning.

Meanwhile, one of the institutions’ officials described media reports alleging ill-treatment as “replete with falsehoods” and “defamatory.”

In an email to The Hindu, William Goldstein, Dean of Global Development and General Counsel to the Maharishi University of Management, based in Fairfield, Iowa, said the Global Country of World Peace (GCWP), the U.S. organisation sponsoring the pandits’ R-1 visas and their stay in this country, had not received any communication from the scholars before they went “AWOL” (Absence Without Leave) and it could be that “someone is misinforming them about the financial opportunities and the legal implications, and their prime motive appears to be to generate more money for their families.” There could be an “organised racket brokering the operation.”

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/130-vedic-pandits-go-missing-in-us/article5623856.ece

Only 5% pandits missing: Maharishi vedic university

PTI Jan 28, 2014, 12.19PM IST

WASHINGTON: The Iowa-based institutions of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi have said about only five per cent of the 2,600 vedic pandits, who were brought to the US from north Indian villages, have gone missing in recent years.

"Each of these cases the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been informed about vedic pandits leaving their United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and State Department approved programme at its Iowa campus," said William Goldstein, Dean of Global Development and General Counsel to the Maharishi University of Management.

"Only a small number of the over 2,600 pandits, about five per cent, who have come on this unprecedented vedic programme to the US have gone AWOL (absent without leave)," Goldstein said in an email.

"For the first four years of this programme, it was a very small number. In recent months this number has been unfortunately increasing," he said.

He alleged that they appear to have been induced by individuals providing false and bad information of high earnings, or by unscrupulous employers taking advantage of them.

He also denied allegations of mistreatment of the priests, including giving them low wages.

In an investigative report, Chicago-based ethnic weekly newspaper Hi India alleged that 163 vedic pandits brought to the US lived in pathetic conditions and were paid less than 75 cents an hour.

Goldstein claimed that these pandits come to the US under R-1 visas and thus are not subject to the minimum wage rules.

"They are on R-1 visas. They are not in possession of a visa to be day labourers nor are they equipped to be such. Their visa only entitles them, and they are solely qualified to engage in, their spiritual vocation of meditation and vedic performances," he said.

"They are not subject to minimum wage laws in this spiritual or ministerial vocation, like monks in a monastery," said the official from Maharishi University of Management. The Iowa campus has been specifically inspected and approved for this precise purpose by USCIS, for use as a site for R-1 pandits," he said.

Denying allegations that pandits brought to the US are underage, he said, "No pandit has ever come on the programme under 18 years of age."

He said that it has been agreed with the pandits that of the USD 200 per month base cash compensation, USD 150 will be transmitted to their families in India.

All the pandits, contrary to the allegations, reside in modern, fully heated and air-conditioned comfortable modular homes, with an indoor and outdoor athletic facility and a large organic vegetarian kitchen and cafeteria, along with their meditation halls, classrooms, and Vedic performance halls, he said.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2014-01-28/us/46734407_1_pandits-maharishi-mahesh-yogi-programme

Mohenjo-daro rocks !!! Rock-stars of the world now have a sound stage.

January 30, 2014, 4:05 am

≫ Next: Relics of India’s Golden Age discovered in Bihar

≪ Previous: 'Organised racket brokering the operation.' Only 5% pandits missing: Maharishi vedic university

$

0

0

Maybe Pak never believed that a civilization site like Mohenjo-daro could have existed before the Prophet PBUH.

Just look at the way museums are stacking up stolen artificats (pace British Museum with two stolen Sarasvati pratimaa from Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, Bhojashala and the residents of Dhar are praying with akhandadeepam in the empty niches of what was once a temple and a Sanskrit school set up by Bhojaraja, hoping and praying for the return of the pratimaa to be reinstalled there -- for offering daily puja-s).

Now, the rock-stage for rock-artists in Mohenjo-daro will make it rock and roll.

Who cares about heritage or civilization studies. It is all mythology, folks. So, study the likes of the Sanskrit scholar, Witzel or Wendy Doniger.

Kalyanaraman

Amar Guriro‏@AmarGuriro

#SindhFest stage right on the ruins of #MoenJoDaro will destroy 5K years old civilization @BinaShahpic.twitter.com/PTuhq9KTVy

• 85RETWEETS
• 7FAVORITES

1:07 AM - 29 Jan 2014Flag media

Tweet text

Reply to @AmarGuriro @BinaShah 

Dismiss

Image will appear as a link

1. Amar Guriro ‏@AmarGuriroJan 29

   Look at this how they are erecting poles just of the ruins for the stage @BinaShah@BBhuttoZardaripic.twitter.com/17ew9zUBst

   •  Reply 
   •  Retweet 
   •  Favorite 
   •  More

   Details
2. Guhram Sindhi ‏@GuhramSindhiJan 29

   @BinaShah@AmarGuriro That is not any festival but instead of that its the destruction of our heritage and identity! @BBhuttoZardari

   •  Reply 
   •  Retweet 
   •  Favorite 
   •  More

   Details
3. shahid shah ‏@shazoom1Jan 29

   @AmarGuriro people who allowed this, hv no understanding abt history. culture n heritage, i protest @BinaShah

   •  Reply 
   •  Retweet 
   •  Favorite 
   •  More

   Details
4. Nuzhat S. Siddiqi ‏@guldaarJan 29

   "@AmarGuriro: #SindhFest stage right on the ruins of #MoenJoDaro will destroy 5K years old civilization @BinaShahpic.twitter.com/PUh7knSf27"

   •  Reply 
   •  Retweet 
   •  Favorite 
   •  More

   Details
5. MIAN MOON ‏@MianMoonPTIJan 29

   @BinaShah@BBhuttoZardari@AmarGuriro Bilawal Bhutto is thinking like his father - who I mean curaurqtl

   •  Reply 
   •  Retweet 
   •  Favorite 
   •  More

   Details
6. MIAN MOON ‏@MianMoonPTIJan 29

   @BinaShah@AmarGuriro@BBhuttoZardari Bilawal Bhutto is thinking like his father - who I mean curaurqtl

   •  Reply 
   •  Retweet 
   •  Favorite 
   •  More

   Details
7. da vincian ‏@evo8X8Jan 29

   jeez... this is a culture coup against culture... who is advising, planning this for bill. @guldaar@AmarGuriro@BinaShah

   •  Reply 
   •  Retweet 
   •  Favorite 
   •  More

   Details
8. JASONE BORNE ‏@RadicalisttJan 29

   @AmarGuriro@SaffinaEllahi1@BinaShah@BBhuttoZardari save our heritage. plz dont do that mr. Bilwal zardari.

   •  Reply 
   •  Retweet 
   •  Favorite 
   •  More

   Details
9. Ghazala Khan ‏@ghazala_khanJan 29

   @guldaar@SaeedShah@AmarGuriro@BinaShah oh plz don't do that . Feeling so helpless.

   •  Reply 
   •  Retweet 
   •  Favorite 
   •  More

   Details
10. Urooj Hussein ‏@UroojHusseinJan 29

    @guldaar@evo8X8@AmarGuriro@BinaShah Stage on MoenJoDaro is 2save not destroy. Idea will reignite Sindhu civilisation from being destroyed

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
11. Clint Sharpe ‏@ClintSharpeJan 29

    @guldaar@SaeedShah@AmarGuriro@BinaShah Is it a requirement to be a moron to be a politician in Pak. also? I thought it was only DC....

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
12. Ghazala Khan ‏@ghazala_khanJan 29

    @guldaar@SaeedShah@AmarGuriro@BinaShah Plz Ms @ShaziaAttaMarri@Anny_Marri ask CM Sind to save this heritage plzzzzzzzz

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
13. Saffina Ellahi ‏@SaffinaEllahi1Jan 29

    @Radicalistt@AmarGuriro@BinaShah@BBhuttoZardari is a spoilt rich kid-wants his fest no matter if edu, feudal syst or heritage is priority

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
14. Bina Shah ‏@BinaShahJan 29

    Please don't include me in the name-calling, ok? @SaffinaEllahi1@Radicalistt@AmarGuriro@BBhuttoZardari

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
15. Urooj Hussein ‏@UroojHusseinJan 29

    @BinaShah@guldaar@evo8X8@AmarGuriro Am not there but quite sure expert archeologists must have vetted the site before putting up stage

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
16. Saffina Ellahi ‏@SaffinaEllahi1Jan 29

    My apologies @BinaShah , a momentary lapse on my part, ok?!

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
17. Bina Shah ‏@BinaShahJan 29

    I'm from the feudal background, and am educated - not a fair comment on your part. @SaffinaEllahi1

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
18. Huma Ali Azmi ‏@hermithereJan 29

    @BinaShah@SaffinaEllahi1@BBhuttoZardari@AmarGuriro wish these feudals understood :( #patheticPPP

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
19. Imran Waseem ‏@imranwaseemJan 29

    @SaffinaEllahi1 what happened to arrogant feminist bina shah ? Why sorry ?

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
20. Fatah ‏@fatah_pak23h

    @ZarrarKhuhro@MahmoodK69@BinaShah ive been there in nov. This is the side back portion where there is max empty land available.

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
21. Zarrar Khuhro ‏@ZarrarKhuhro23h

    @fatah_pak I hope so. Let's see at the actual venue I suppose. Hard to tell otherwise. @MahmoodK69@BinaShah

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
22. Zulfiqar Yousafzai ‏@zulfiqar_toru23h

    @BinaShah@SaffinaEllahi1 why Bilawal will ruin Mohenjudaro..? Just propaganda against him @BBhuttoZardari@gabeeno@Anny_Marri

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
23. Daaniyal ‏@le_Sabre23h

    Think they may have damaged Qaim Ali Shah's old house MT @kashifviews@ZarrarKhuhro@MahmoodK69@guldaar@AmarGuriropic.twitter.com/EWosHDrTa6

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
24. M Qazi ‏@MQazi_21h

    Unfuckingbelievable RT @AmarGuriro: #SindhFest stage on the ruins of #MoenJoDaro will destroy 5K yrs old civilization pic.twitter.com/oLdZfBrYeK

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
25. V T RAKESH ‏@rakeshvt21h

    @AmarGuriro@smitaprakash@BinaShah@BBhuttoZardari Spoiling remains of world's 1st civilization,Pakistanis prove they r lesser than animals

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
26. Hifza Shah Jillani ‏@Hifzaaa20h

    @AmarGuriro the heritage sites r preserved, nothing is touching the ruins! Archeologists are on board @SkyisNeela@BinaShah@BBhuttoZardari

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
27. Amar Guriro ‏@AmarGuriro20h

    Please disclose the names of Archaeologists @Hifzaaa@SkyisNeela@BinaShah@BBhuttoZardari

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
28. Shahzeb Jillani ‏@ShahzebJillani18h

    Sindh Govt accused of damaging World Heritage site by building a huge stage on Mohen-jo-Daro via @AmarGuriropic.twitter.com/QwBE8pMrZL

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
29. kashif ali abrejo ‏@Abrejo_Ali18h

    @ShahzebJillani@AmarGuriro some PPP paid experts approved this place for the stage..

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
30. Himalaya ‏@Himalaya88818h

    @ShahzebJillani@AmarGuriro Dear @BBhuttoZardari Pl stop this

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
31. Malik Zameer Hassan ‏@ComradePk18h

    We already have clarified dat site ws marked by international experts & only ground support has been usd but not the ruins. @ShahzebJillani

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
32. Himalaya ‏@Himalaya88818h

    @ShahzebJillani@AmarGuriro@BBhuttoZardari Just horrific even to watch those fabricated stage casings in #MohenjoDaro

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
33. Shahzeb Jillani ‏@ShahzebJillani17h

    @ComradePk thanks. But Qs r being asked abt credibility of "int'l experts". Why cudn't the stage be built away from the World heritage site?

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
34. Malik Zameer Hassan ‏@ComradePk17h

    @ShahzebJillani The basic purpose is to generate funds for the site that may get vanished in few years if we will not take care, 1/2

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
35. Malik Zameer Hassan ‏@ComradePk17h

    @ShahzebJillani And only ground support has been used & wooden structure is much above than the ruins beneath. 1/1.

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
36. Vikranth Reddy Kalva ‏@VikranthKalva10h

    .@AmarGuriro@barbarindian@BinaShah repeat of BamiyanBudha with far less violence ways

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
37. Pankaj Kaushal ‏@pkaushal_9910h

    @AmarGuriro@barbarindian@BinaShah But who cares : since it was inhabited by Kaafirs ?

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
38. Khatri ‏@HopefulAtDes9h

    @AmarGuriro@barbarindian@BinaShah they are building stage right on ruins of Mohan Ji Daro ......IDIOTS !

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details
39. Aleem Maqbool ‏@AleemMaqbool3h

    Disturbing RT @ShahzebJillani: Sindh Gov accused of damaging World Heritage site by building a stage on Mohenjo Daro pic.twitter.com/D2hH9cQGGq

    •  Reply 
    •  Retweet 
    •  Favorite 
    •  More

    Details

---

Relics of India’s Golden Age discovered in Bihar

January 30, 2014, 4:41 pm

≫ Next: A perfumed flower as a Meluhha hieroglyph in Ancient Near East. Evidence of the Tin Road from Meluhha.

≪ Previous: Mohenjo-daro rocks !!! Rock-stars of the world now have a sound stage.

$

0

0

Relics of India’s Golden Age discovered in Bihar

Reena Sopam, Hindustan Times  Patna, January 30, 2014

First Published: 18:25 IST(30/1/2014) | Last Updated: 19:29 IST(30/1/2014)

Concrete floors and walls that likely belong to a temple of the ancient Gupta Period – known as the Golden Age of India – have been discovered in north Bihar’s Vaishali district.

State archaeology officials confirmed that ongoing excavations at Chechar village had unearthed the relics, apparently dating back to the 5th Century AD. The Gupta age lasted roughly from the 4th to the 6th Century AD.

"At no other site have the remains of the Gupta age settlements been discovered hardly six feet below the ground," said archaeologist Arun Kumar.

"A whole concrete floor has been discovered and there is evidence of piling below it. The wall over it must have been above the ground, which no longer exists. It must have been part of a huge temple."

For the past few weeks, archaeologists have been digging two trenches at Chechar village – a well-known Neolithic site with evidence of unbroken historical and cultural sequences down to the present day.

Situated nearly 50km from state capital Patna, the site has divulged red and black pottery phases, Mauryan artefacts and even evidence of the pre-Mughal period. The site has also yielded evidence of its connections with the Buddha.

Though the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had conducted excavations here in 1977-78, not much progress was made later.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who visited the site a few months ago, had directed state archaeology officials to begin excavations all over again.

Archaeologist Arun Kumar said that much before the formal excavations had begun, locals had discovered sculptures, coins, clay and metal pots, jewels and figurines of the ancient age in superficial diggings.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/relics-of-india-s-golden-age-discovered-in-bihar/article1-1178420.aspx

A perfumed flower as a Meluhha hieroglyph in Ancient Near East. Evidence of the Tin Road from Meluhha.

January 30, 2014, 5:18 pm

≫ Next: A saint who documented facts and ideas, no mythology rubbish here. A tribute to Will Durant.

≪ Previous: Relics of India’s Golden Age discovered in Bihar

$

0

0

Map of major routes and sites of Meluhha (mleccha) interaction areas, location of Tell Abraq (adapted from Potts DT. 1994 fig.5 http://tinyurl.com/yljaqdu) 

In the course of my studies on hieroglyphs of ancient Near East 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE, and the Tin Road of the Bronze Age, I have come across the use of a flower used for perfume oil:tabernae montana as a hieroglyph. I find that this hieroglyph is deployed on hair combs and also on a metal, shaft-hole axe. 

In interaction areas, tabernae montana glyph appears: 1. on an ivory comb discovered at Oman Peninsula site of Tell Abraq, 2. on a Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex stone flask and, 3. on a copper alloy shaft-hole axe-head of (unverified provenance) attributed to Southeastern Iran, ca. late 3rd or early 2nd millennium BCE 6.5 in. long, 1980.307 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The ivory comb found at Tell Abraq measures 11 X 8.2 X .4 cm. Both sides of the comb bear identical, incised decoration in the form of two long-stemmed flowers with crenate or dentate leaves, flanking three dotted circles arranged in a triangular pattern. The occurrence of wild tulip glyph on the  ivory comb can be explained.

The spoken word tagaraka connoted a hair fragrance from the flower tagaraka  These flowers are identified as tulips, perhaps Mountain tulip or Boeotian tulip (both of which grow in Afghanistan) which have an undulate leaf. There is a possibility that the comb is an import from Bactria, perhaps transmitted through Meluhha to the Oman Peninsula site of Tell Abraq.

At Mundigak, in Afghanistan, only one out of a total of five shaft-hole axes analysed contained as much as 5% Sn. Such shaft-hole implements have also been found at Shah Tepe, Tureng Tepe, and Tepe Hissar in level IIIc (2000-1500 BCE).

Tell Abraq axe with epigraph (‘tulip’ glyph + a person raising his arm above his shoulder and wielding a tool + dotted circles on body) [After Fig. 7 Holly Pittman, 1984, Art of the Bronze Age: Southeastern Iran, Western Central Asia, and the Indus Valley, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 29-30]. 

tabar = a broad axe (Punjabi). Rebus: tam(b)ra ‘copper’ tagara ‘tabernae montana’, ‘tulip’. Rebus: tagara ‘tin’. Glyph: eṛaka ‘upraised arm’ (Tamil); rebus: eraka = copper (Kannada) 

A rebus reading of the hieroglyph is: tagaraka, tabernae montana. Rebus: tagara ‘tin’ (Kannada); tamara id. (Skt.) Allograph: ṭagara ‘ram’.  Since tagaraka is used as an aromatic unguent for the hair, fragrance, the glyph gets depicted on a stone flask, an ivory comb and axe of Tell Abraq.

 

The glyph is tabernae montana, ‘mountain tulip’. A soft-stone flask, 6 cm. tall, from Bactria (northern Afghanistan) showing a winged female deity (?) flanked by two flowers similar to those shown on the comb from Tell Abraq.(After Pottier, M.H., 1984, Materiel funeraire e la Bactriane meridionale de l'Age du Bronze, Paris, Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations: plate 20.150) Two flowers are similar to those shown on the comb from Tell Abraq. Ivory comb with Mountain Tulip motif and dotted circles. TA 1649 Tell Abraq. [D.T. Potts, South and Central Asian elements at Tell Abraq (Emirate of Umm al-Qaiwain, United Arab Emirates), c. 2200 BC—AD 400, in Asko Parpola and Petteri Koskikallio, South Asian Archaeology 1993: , pp. 615-666] Tell Abraq comb and axe with epigraph After Fig. 7 Holly Pittman, 1984, Art of the Bronze Age: Southeastern Iran, Western Central Asia, and the Indus Valley, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 29-30].

"A fine copper axe-adze from Harappa, and similar bronze examples from Chanhu-daro and, in Baluchistan, at Shahi-tump, are rare imports of the superior shaft-hole implements developed initially in Mesopotamia before 3000 BC. In northern Iran examples have been found at Shah Tepe, Tureng Tepe, and Tepe Hissar in level IIIc (2000-1500 BC)...Tin was more commonly used in eastern Iran, an area only now emerging from obscurity through the excavation of key sites such as Tepe Yahya and Shahdad. In level IVb (ca. 3000 BCE)at Tepe yahya was found a dagger of 3% tin bronze. (Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C. and M., 1971, An early city in Iran, Scientific American, 1971, 224, No. 6, 102-11; Muhly, 1973, Appendix 11, 347); perhaps the result of using a tin-rich copper ore." (Penhallurick, R.D., 1986, Tin in Antiquity, London, Institute of Metals, pp. 18-32) 

Diffusion of Metallurgy: Meluhha and western Afghanistan sources of tin

"...In the later 4th and early 3rd millennia, greater tin values occur--5.3% in a pin from Susa B; and 5% in an axe from Mundigak III in Afghanistan; but these are still exceptional in a period characterized by the use of arsenical copper ...arond 270 BC, during Early Dynastic III in Mesopotamia...eight metal artifacts of forty-eight in the celebrated 'vase a la cachette' of Susa D are bronzes; four of them -- three vases and one axe -- have over 7% tin. The analyses of objects from the Royal Cemetery at UR present an even clearer picture: of twenty-four artifacts in the Iraq Museum subjected to analysis, eight containing significant quantities of tin and five with over 8% tin can be considered true bronzes in the traditional sense.a contemporary shaft-hole axe from Kish contains 4% tin, and significant amounts were detected in a few artifacts from Tepe Giyan and Tepe Yahya IVB in Iran, and Hili in Oman. Thus, we see an increasing pattern of tin usage......Gudea of Lagash (2150-2111BCE)speaks of the tin of Meluhha...the geographer Strabo (XV.2.10) who, in referring to the inhabitants of Drangiana (modern Sistan), says that they have 'only scanty supplies of wine, but they have tin in their country'...this passage..does accord well with the discoveris in the area of Herat...There are two possible routes from Afghanistan to Mesopotamia. One crosses the northern part of the Iranian plateau, along the Elburz mountains, then through the passes in the Zagros descends to Babylonia and Assyria. In the 1st millennium it was one of the principal supply routes of eastern goods to Assyria. In the 2nd millennium the tin that Assur exported to Anatolia might have followed this route. Along it are found such sites as Tepe Sialk (where the use of tin is attested in the 4th millennium), Tepe Giyan and Tepe Hissar, wehre other finds (such as lapis lazuli at Hissar) implicate them in long-distance commerce in the 3rd millennium...Recently Oman has yielded the first signs of the use of tin in the region. The analysis of a sword from Hili, dated to the mid-3rd millennium, shows a tin content of 6.5%, and a mold of a tap hole (?) associated with the remains of a furnace held metal with a tin content of 5%...At Umm an-Nar artifacts with tin contents on the order of 2% were recovered; the tin must have been mixed with the local copper...Meluhha...the use of tin is attested already in the late 4th or early 3rd millennium at Mundigak III in southern Afghanistan. Tin appears only in small quantities in artifacts from Sahr-i-Sokhta in eastern Iran and at Tepe Yahya in southern Iran...In the Indus Valley, the copper-tin alloy is known at Mohenjodaro...The discoveries of tin in artifacts at Hili, though singular, are important because the site lies in an area clearly involved in long-distance trade. However, there is no clear evidence that the site was a way-station on the route which brought tin from Afghanistan to Mesopotamia. Therefore the presence of tin at Hili indicates only that it was transported in the Gulf area, where it was also used to fill local needs. The collective indications are that western Afghanistan ws the zone able to provide the tin used in Southwest Asia in the 4th and 3rd millennia...In order to elucidate the questions raised by our findings, a project aimed specifically at tin-- its sources and metallurgy-- should be organized." (Serge Cleuziou and Thierry Berthoud, Early Tin in the Near East, in: Expedition, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1982, pp. 14-19). cf. R.J.Forbes, 1954, Extracting, smelting and alloying, in: Charles Singer, E.J.Holmyard and AR Hall (eds.), 1954, A History of Technology, Oxford, Clarendon Press. Knox, Robert, 1994, A new Indus Valley Cylinder Seal, pp. 375-378 in: South Asian Archaeology 1993, Vol. I, Helsinki. Ibid., p. 377; cf. Lamberg- Karlovsky and Tosi 1973: pl. 137. 

It is likely that the sources of tin can also extend the Tin Road of Meluhha into the river beds of Sindhu and Sarasvati rivers and associated tributary rivers and water channels for panned tin obtained by prospectors.

An unresolved problem in the study of Bronze Age civilizations has been the identification of sources of tin. Arsenical bronzes of the millennia earlier to the 5th millennium were replaced by tin-bronzes creating a veritable revolution in the march of civilization.

John Muhly has highlighted and contributed significantly to the resolution of this problem. Many cuneiform texts do point to Meluhha as the major source of tin, reaching through the transit points of Magan and Dilmun along the Persian Gulf region and west of Mehergarh.

A possible scenario is presented by a geologist, TM Babu (2003) in: Advent of the bronze age in the Indian subcontinent In Mining and metal production: through the ages, eds. P. Craddock and J. Lang, London, British Museum Press, pp175-180. In this article, Babu starts with the traditions in ancient India of making idols for worship using pancha-loha (lit. five metals), creating an alloy of copper, tin, lead, zinc, arsenic and less commonly, silver and gold. A word in Tamil denoting this alloy is kol which also means ‘working in iron’. This lexeme is denoted by the hieroglyphs: tiger (kola), woman (kola), rice-plant (kolom). Similar rebus readings of hundreds of hieroglyphs on Indus writing point to the Indian sprachbund, a linguistic union which explains the presence, for example, Munda words in ancient Sanskrit texts.

Documenting the Tin processing tradition in India

As the pictorial gallery demonstrates, the entire tin processing industry is a family-based or extended-family-based industry. The historical traditions point to the formation of artisan guilds to exchange surplus cassiterite in trade transactions of the type evidenced by the seals and tablets, tokens and bullae found in the civilization-interaction area of the Bronze Age.

Papagudem boy wearing a bangle of tin

“Bronze articles such as ornamental mirrors, arrowheads, pins, bangles and chisels, of both low tin and high tin content, have been recovered from Lothal, the Harappn port on the Gujarat coast, which has been dated earlier than 2200 BCE. The tin content in these articles range from 2.27% to 11.82%; however, some of the articles contain no tin. Tin is said to have been brought as tablets from Babylon and mixed with copper to make an alloy of more pleasing colour and luster, a bright golden yellow. The utilization of bronze is essential only for certain articles and tools, requiring sharp cutting edges, such as axes, arrowheads or chisels. The selection of bronze for these items indicates the presence of tin was intentional…Recent discoveries of tin occurrences in India are shown in…Fig. 11.2. However, none of these occurrences shows evidences of ancient mining activity. This is because, unlike copper ores, the mining and metallurgy of the tin ore cassiterite is simple, and leaves little permanent trace…tin ore is usually recovered by simple panning of surface deposits, often contained in gravel, which soon collapse, leaving little evidence of having once been worked. Cassiterite is highly resistant to weathering, and with its high specific gravity, it can be easily separated from the waste minerals. The simple mining and metallurgical methods followed even now by Bastar and Koraput tribals in Chattisgarh and Orissa, central India, could be an indication of the methods used in the past. These tribal people produce considerable quantities of tin without any external help, electric power or chemical agents, enough to make a modern metallurgist, used to high technology, wonder almost in disbelief. Clearly though, the technology practiced has a considerable importance for those studying early smelting practices. The history of this process is poorly known. Back in the 1880s Ball (1881) related the story of a Bastar tribal from the village of Papagudem, who was observed to be wearing a bangle of tin. When questioned as to where the metal had come from, he replied that black sands, resembling gunpowder were dug in his village and smelted there. Thus it is very likely that the present industry is indigenous, and may have a long history. That being said, neither the industry or its products appear in any historical document of any period, and thus is unlikey to have been a significant supplier of metal…The tin content of cassiterite ranges from 74.94% (mean 64.2%), showing that pebbles contain about 70% to 90% of the tin oxide, cassiterite…The ore is localized in gravel beds of the black pebbles of cassiterite which outcrop in stream beds etc. and there are other indicators, in the vegetation. The leaves of the Sarai tree (Shoria robusta) growing on tin-rich ground are often covered in yellow spots, as if suffering from a disease. (The leaves were found to contain 700 ppm of tin on analysis!) Wherever the tribals find concentrations of ore in the top soil, the ground all around the area is dug up and transported to nearby streams, rivers or ponts…The loose gravelly soil containing the tin ore is dug with pick and shovel, and carried to the washing sites in large, shoulder-strung bamboo baskets. The panning or washing of the ore is carrie out using round shallow pans of bamboo. The soil is washed out, leaving the dense casiterite ore at the bottom of the pan…The ore is smelted in small clay shaft furnaces, heating and reducing the ore using charcoal as the fuel…The shft furnaces are square at the base and of brick surmounted by a clay cylindrical shaft…The charcoal acts as both the heating and reducing agent, reducing the black cassiterite mineral into bright, white tin metal…a crude refining is carried out by remelting the metal in an iron pan at about 250 degrees C. The molten tin is then poured into the stone-carved moulds to make square- or rectangular-shaped tin ingots for easy transportation.  (Babu, TM, 2003, Advent of the bronze age in the Indian subcontinent in: Craddock, PT and J. Lang, Mining and Metl production through the ages, British Museum,  pp.174-180). See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/asur-metallurgists.html

two late bronze age tin ingots from the harbor of Haifa, Israel contain glyphs used in epigraphs with Indus Writing of Sarasvati civilization!See:http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/archaeological-mystery-solved-site-of.htmlThe inscriptions on two pure tin ingots found in a shipwreck in Haifa have been discussed in: Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies, Vol. 1, Number 11 (2010) -- The Bronze Age Writing System of Sarasvati Hieroglyphics as Evidenced by Two “Rosetta Stones” By S. Kalyanaraman (Editor of JIJS: Prof. Nathan Katz)http://www.indojudaic.com/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=1&Itemid=8 (See embedded document).

Here is a pictorial gallery:

Panning for cassiterite using bamboo pans in a pond in Orissa. The ore is carried to the water pond or stream for washing in bamboo baskets.

People panning for cassiterite mineral in the remote jungles of central India.

The ore is washed to concentrate the cassiterite mineral using bamboo pans. Base of small brick and mud furnace for smelting tin.

The tin is refined by remelting the pieces recovered from the furnace in an iron pan. The molten tin is poured into stone-carved moulds to make square- or rectangular-ingots.

As the pictorial gallery demonstrates, the entire tin processing industry is a family-based or extended-family-based industry. The historical traditions point to the formation of artisan guilds to exchange surplus cassiterite in trade transactions of the type evidenced by the seals and tablets, tokens and bullae found in the civilization-interaction area of the Bronze Age.

Illustrated London News 1936 - November 21st. A 'Sheffield of Ancient India: Chanhu-Daro's metal working industry 10 X photos of copper knives, spears, razors, axes and dishes.

The words used in the lingua franca of such tin-processing families constitute the words invented to denote the Bronze Age products and artifacts such as tin or zinc or the array of metalware discovered in the Sheffied of the Ancient East, Chanhu-daro as reported in the London News Illustrated by Ernest Mackay.

Validating the Bronze Age Linguistic Doctrine

Hence, the search for the identification of the language Meluhha (mleccha) of Indian sprachbundhas to be carried out in documenting the practices of the types shown in the pictorial gallery of tin processing and from within the cluster of over 8000 semantic clusters of the languages of the Indian sprachbund. This will be a first step in reiterating the Bronze Age Linguistic Doctrine. The directions of borrowings of lexemes from one language to another are secondary features. The fact that such common lexemes related to metallurgy and metalware exist in Indian sprachbund is enough to validate the Bronze Age Linguistic Doctrine. 

The doctrine is that Meluhha speech was the vernacular of Indian sprachbund, ancient India of the Bronze Age.

S. Kalyanaraman

Sarasvati Research Center

January 31, 2014

A saint who documented facts and ideas, no mythology rubbish here. A tribute to Will Durant.

January 30, 2014, 5:57 pm

≫ Next: Five-petaled tagaraka fragrance and hieroglyph read rebus as tin for the Tin Road from Meluhha

≪ Previous: A perfumed flower as a Meluhha hieroglyph in Ancient Near East. Evidence of the Tin Road from Meluhha.

$

0

0

Five-petaled tagaraka fragrance and hieroglyph read rebus as tin for the Tin Road from Meluhha

January 30, 2014, 9:13 pm

≫ Next: Sinister Commonalities In Alleged Visa Fraud By Khobragade And 163 Missing Vedic Pandits In USA? -- TSV Hari

≪ Previous: A saint who documented facts and ideas, no mythology rubbish here. A tribute to Will Durant.

$

0

0

General semantics of tagara, ṭagara in Indian sprachbund: 

Agni, ram; flower, fragrance, tin. Broad spectrum identification: Tabernæ montana coronaria

This is an addendum to: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/a-perfumed-flower-as-meluhha-hieroglyph.html A perfumed flower as a Meluhha hieroglyph in Ancient Near East. Evidence of the Tin Road from Meluhha. 

Tabernaemontana divaricata

The characteristic feature of the flower is that it is five-petaled as shown on Meluhha hieroglyphs.

Common name: Crape jasmine, Moonbeam, Carnation of India • Hindi: Chandni चांदनी , Tagar तगर, Tagari तगरी• Kannada: ನಂದಿಬಟ್ಟಲು Nandi Battalu • Tamil: நந்தியார்வட்டை Nandiar vattai • Gujarati: Sagar • Marathi: Ananta, Tagar

Botanical name: Tabernaemontana divaricata (L.) R.Br. ex Roem. & Schult. Tabernaemontana divaricata    Family: Apocynaceae (Oleander family)

Synonyms: Tabernaemontana citrifolia, Tabernaemontana coronaria, Nerium coronarium. Other synonyms cited: Ervatamia divaricata, Ervatamia coronaria

Crape jasmine, a shrub very common in India, generally grows to a height of 6 ft. However, it can also grow into a small tree with a thin, crooked stem. Like many members of the Oleander family, stems exude a milky latex when broken. The large shiny leaves are deep green and are 6 or more inches in length and about 2 inches in width. Crape jasmine blooms in spring but flowers appear sporadically all year. The waxy blossoms are white five-petaled pinwheels that are borne in small clusters on the stem tips. Flowers are commonly used in pooja in north and south India.

http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Crape%20Jasmine.html On leave methanol extracts of Tabernaemontana coronaria.

See: http://jocpr.com/vol4-iss7-2012/JCPR-2012-4-7-3731-3733.pdf

Cylinder seal showing tabernae montana.The tabernae montana glyph characteristically depicted with five petals gains currency where Meluhha settlements existed or where Meluhha traders had contacts.

See: 

Jasmine Absolute Oil.

Latin Name : Jasminum Officinale.

Part Of Flower Used : Flower 

Source : India.

Extraction Method : Steam Distillation.

Meluhha glosses:

तगर [ tagara ] f A flowering shrub, Tabernæ montana coronaria. 2 n C The flower of it. 3 m P A ram. 

తగరు [ tagaru ] tagaru. [Tel.] n. A ram. పొట్టేలు. తగరురవుతు the god of fire అగ్ని.

Ta. takar sheep, ram, goat, male of certain other animals (yāḷi, elephant, shark). Ma. takaran huge, powerful as a man, bear, etc. Ka. tagar, ṭagaru, ṭagara, ṭegaru ram. Tu. tagaru, ṭagarů id. Te. tagaramu, tagaru id. / Cf. Mar. tagar id. (DEDR 3000).

টগর [ ṭagara ] n a kind of small flower (usu. white), Tabernamontana coronaria. তগর [ tagara ] বি. টগর ফুল বা তার গাছ। [সং. ত + √ গৃ + অ]। 

টগর [ ṭagara ] বি. (সচ.) সাদা ফুলবিশেষ। [সং. তগর]। White bell. [Song. Tagara].(Bengali) తగటు [ tagaṭu ] tagaṭu. [Tel.] n. Lace. సరిగ. తగటుచీర a lace cloth. తగటి or తగటీ tagaṭi. adj. Laced సరిగగల. తగడు [ tagaḍu ] tagaḍu. [Tel.] n. A plate or flat piece of metal. Gold leaf, brocade. రేకు A. iv. 132. M. VI i. 298. చీనాతగడు a tin plate. తగరము [ tagaramu ] tagaramu. [Tel.] n. Tin. తగరపు పెట్టె a tin box. కళాయి [ kaḷāyi ] kaḷāyi. [H.] n. Tin. తగరము. కళాయివేయు to tin a vessel. தகடி¹ takaṭi , n. < id. [T. tagaṭi.] Gold-embroidered silk; பீதாம்பரம். Loc.  தகடு takaṭu , n. [T. K. tagaḍu.] 1. Quality of being thin and flat, as plate of metal; மென்மையுந் தட்டையுமான வடிவு. (பிங்.) 2. Metal plate; 3. Foil set below a precious stone to enhance its lustre; வருணத்தகடு. தகட்டி லழுத்தின மாணிக்கம்போலே (ஈடு). 4. Leaf blade; இலை. (பிங்.) 5. Black betel-leaf; கம்மார்வெற்றிலை. (தைலவ. தைல. 85.) 6. Outer petal; பூவின் புறவிதழ். கருந்தகட்டுளைப் பூமருதின் (திருமுரு. 27) (Tamil). Ta. takaṭu quality of being thin and flat (as a plate of metal), metal plate, leaf blade, outer petal, layer of earth. Ma. takaṭu, takiṭu thin metal plate, spangle; takiṭa copper leaf written over and worn as amulet. Ka. tagaḍu metal beaten into a plate, flat piece or sheet of metal. Tu. tagaḍu thin metal plate.Te. tagaḍu plate, sheet, leaf or foil, of metal. / Cf. Mar. takaṭ, takṭẽ metal beaten into a plate or leaf.(DEDR 2995).

টগরা [ ṭagarā ] বিণ. (আঞ্চ.) চালাক ও চটপটে (বেশ টগরা ছেলে)। [দেশি]। Trans. Clever and smart (quite tagara boy). (Bengali) تکل takal, s.m. (2nd) Endeavour, attempt, effort, essay, application, study. Pl. تکلونه takalūnah. تکل کول takal kawul, verb trans. To endeavour, to attempt, to essay, to make effort, to study. (Pashto)

T تكر takar, Wheel (m.c.) (Persian)

Ta. takaram tin, white lead, metal sheet, coated with tin. Ma. takaram tin, tinned iron plate. Ko. tagarm (obl. tagart-) tin. Ka. tagara, tamara, tavara id. Tu. tamarů, tamara, tavara id. Te. tagaramu, tamaramu, tavaramu id. Kuwi (Isr.) ṭagromi tin metal, alloy. / Cf. Skt. tamara- id.(DEDR 3001).

Ta. takaram wax-flower dog-bane, Tabernaemontana; aromatic unguent for the hair, fragrance. Ma. takaram T. coronaria. Ka. tagara id. / Cf. Skt. sthakara-, sthagara-, tagara, tagaraka-; Pali tagara-; Pkt. ṭagara-, tagara-. (DEDR 3002). Ta. takarai fetid cassia, Cassia tora.Ma. takara   id. Ka. tagaci, tagace, tagarce, taggacci, ṭagarise, taragasi, taruvasa, cagace id.; tagace, cogaci, cogarci C. occidentalis; taṅgēḍi C. auriculata. Tu. tajaṅků, (B-K. also) sajaṅků, hajaṅků C. tora. Te. (B.) tagara, tagirisa, (VPK) tagirinta, tagarise, tailanca id.; taṅgē̆ḍu  C.auriculata./ Cf. Skt. cakragaja-, cakramarda- C. tora (Turner, CDIAL, no. 4546); taravaṭa- C. auriculata, Mar. tarvaḍ, taroḍ C. auriculata or tora, etc. (ibid., no. 5705).(DEDR 3003). పిండీతకము [ piṇḍītakamu ] pinḍītakamu. [Skt.] n. The tree called మంగచెట్టు, గ్రంధితగరపుచెట్టు or మరువము. మంగ [ maṅga ] or మ్రంగ manga. [Tel.] n. The tree called Vangueria spinosa, or Randia dumetorum. పిండీతకము, మందాచెట్టు.(Telugu)

लोखंडी तगर [ lōkhaṇḍī tagara ] f A variety of the flower तगर.

తగర [ tagara ] tagara [Tel.] n. A rogue, a deceiver. KP. iii. 206. A tree called Morinda tinctoria. Rox. i. 543. నందివర్ధనపుచెట్టు. See కసింద. తగిరిసచెట్టుthe Foetid Cassia, Cassia Tora (Watts.) The oval leaved Cassia. Ainslie. నందివర్ధనము [ nandivardhanamu ] or నంద్యావర్తము nandi-vardhanamu. [Skt.] n. The broad leaved Rose Bay. Nerium coronarium. Rox. ii. 23.తగరచెట్టు.(Telugu)

अनंततगर [ anantatagara ] f A flower, Tabernæ-montana coronaria. Var. अनंत A flower. गणतगर [ gaṇatagara ] f A variety of the flower-tree तगर. 2 n Its flower. गेंदीतगर [ gēndītagara ] f A variety of the shrub तगर. गोंडी [ gōṇḍī ] a Having a गोंडा or tufted head. In comp. with names of flowers; as गोंडीजास्वन, गोंडीतगर, गोंडीमखमल. बनतगर [ banatagara ] f A wild variety of the flowertree तगर.(Marathi)

लोखंडी [ lōkhaṇḍī ] a (लोखंड) Composed of iron; relating to iron. 2 fig. Hardy or hard--a constitution or a frame of body, one's हाड or natal bone or parental stock. 3 Close and hard;--used of kinds of wood. 4 Ardent and unyielding--a fever. 5 लोखंडी, in the sense Hard and coarse or in the sense Strong or enduring, is freely applied as a term of distinction or designation. Examples follow.लोखंडी [ lōkhaṇḍī ] f (लोखंड) An iron boiler or other vessel. 2 A large scandent shrub, Ventilago Maderaspatana. Grah. लोखंडी कडबा [ lōkhaṇḍī kaḍabā ] m The haum or culm of that species of जोंधळा called अरगडी. लोखंडी काव [ lōkhaṇḍī kāva ] f A red ochre or earth. लोखंडी केळ [ lōkhaṇḍī kēḷa ] f A species of the Plantain. लोखंडी केळ or -केळें n Its fruit. लोखंडी चार [ lōkhaṇḍī cāra ] f A kind of grass. लोखंडी चुना [ lōkhaṇḍī cunā ] m A term for strong and enduring chunam-work. लोखंडी छाप [ lōkhaṇḍī chāpa ] m (Iron type.) A term, according to popular apprehension, for Leaden types and for Printing; in contrad. from दगडछापLithography. लोखंडी जर [ lōkhaṇḍī jara ] m (लोखंड & जर) False brocade or lace; lace &c. made of iron. लोखंडी झाड [ lōkhaṇḍī jhāḍa ] n Ironwood-tree, Memecylon tinctorium. Grah.लोखंडी पाया [ lōkhaṇḍī pāyā ] m A firm and abiding foundation, lit. fig. लोखंडी फळ [ lōkhaṇḍī phaḷa ] n The fruit of लोखंडी झाड.

लोखंडी मुरूम [ lōkhaṇḍī murūma ] m A hard kind of मुरूम q. v. लोखंडी रस्ता [ lōkhaṇḍī rastā ] m लोखंडी सडक f (Iron-road.) A railroad. लोखंडी हळद [ lōkhaṇḍī haḷada ] f A red-colored, hard, and coarse kind of turmeric. The हळकुंड is short and small. Applied revilingly to discolo red and bad turmeric. (Marathi)

தகரஞாழல் takar-ñāḻal , n. < தகரம்¹ +. An aromatic unguent for the hair; மயிர்ச்சாந்து வகை. (நன். 368, மயிலை.) takaram"> தகரம்¹ takaram , n. < tagara. 1. Wax- flower dog-bane, Tabernae montana; வாசனை மரவகை. W.) தகரை takarai, n. < tagara. (L.)  1. Fetid cassia, s. sh., Cassia tora; செடிவகை. 2. West Indian bead tree. See பெருந்தகரை.  ஞாழல் ñāḻal , n. 1. Orange cup-calyxed brasiletto-climber wagaty. See புலிநகக் கொன்றை.  குவியிணர் ஞாழல் (பதிற்றுப். 51, 5). 2. Peacock's crest. See மயிற்கொன்றை. 3. Fetid cassia. See பொன்னாவிரை. (மலை.) 4. False tragacanth. See கோங்கு. (திவா.) 5. Jasmine, Jasminum; மல்லிகைவகை. (W.) 6. Cinnamon,  Cinnamomum; கொடிவகை. (W.) 7. Saffron, bulbous-rooted plant. See குங்குமம். (அக. நி.) 8. Heart-wood; மரவயிரம். (W.) 9. Hard, solid wood; ஆண்மரம். (அக. நி.) ஞாழல்மாது ñāḻal-mātu , n. Trumpet- flower. See ஊமத்தை. (மலை.)(Tamil)

tagara (nt.) the shrub Tabernaemontana coronaria, and a fragrant powder or perfume obtained from it, incense Vin i.203; It 68 (=Udānavarga p. 112, No. 8); Dh 54, 55, 56 (candana+); J iv.286; vi.100 (the shrub) 173 (id.); Miln 338; Dāvs v.50; DhA i.422 (tagara -- mallikā two kinds of gandhā).(Pali)

तगरिकी [ tagarikī ] [ tagarikī ] f. a seller of Tagara powder g. [ kisarādi ] .

तगरक [ tagaraka ] [ tagaraka ] Tabernaemontana coronaria and a fragrant powder prepared from , it Lit. VarBṛS. li.

तगर [ tagara ] [ tagara ] n. (m. Lit. L.) = [ °raka ] Lit. Kauś. 16 Lit. MBh. xiii , 5042 Lit. Buddh. Lit. Suśr. Lit. VarBṛS. lxxvii , 5 ff.   [ tagara ] n. = [ -pura ] Lit. Romakas.  [ tagarī ] f. = [ takarī́ ] q.v.   = [ sthakara ] or [ sthagara ] , a partic. fragrant powder (Bloomfield's Lit. AV., p. 311).   = [ sthakara ] or [ sthagara ] , a partic. fragrant powder (Bloomfield's Lit. AV., p. 311). तगरवल्लि [ tagaravalli ] [ tagara-vallí ] f. Cassia auriculata Lit. Npr.

tagara1 n. ʻ the shrub Tabernaemontana coronaria and a fragrant powder obtained from it ʼ Kauś., °aka<-> VarBr̥S. [Cf. sthagara -- , sthakara -- n. ʻ a partic. fragrant powder ʼ TBr.] Pa. tagara -- n., Dhp. takara; Pk. tagara -- , ṭayara -- m. ʻ a kind of tree, a kind of scented wood ʼ; Si. tuvara, tōra ʻ a species of Cassia plant. ʼ tagaravallī f. ʻ Cassia auriculataʼ Npr. Si. tuvaralā ʻ an incense prepared from a species of Tabernaemontanaʼ. (CDIAL 5622, 5624).

Sinister Commonalities In Alleged Visa Fraud By Khobragade And 163 Missing Vedic Pandits In USA? -- TSV Hari

January 30, 2014, 9:56 pm

≫ Next: Mr. Minister, you are wrong -- Anmol Awasthi & Neil Chatterjee

≪ Previous: Five-petaled tagaraka fragrance and hieroglyph read rebus as tin for the Tin Road from Meluhha

$

0

0

THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014

Sinister Commonalities In Alleged Visa Fraud By Khobragade And 163 Missing Vedic Pandits In USA?

Smuggling persons seeking greener pastures to advanced nations is a highly profitable occupation if one identifies who profits from it.

One such case was that of the Christian maid - Sangeetha Richard who had worked for Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade. I had exposed the whole racket in my blogs - saying the disgracing of Devyani had nothing to do with her being arrested for quietly using a job-racket-type operation to have a maid cheaply at her home in New York. It was altogether something else.

In a simple sentence, I had averred that Devyani Khobragade was attempted to be turned into a pro-CIA spy, the operation failed, she was collecting money from the USA, spreading disinformation on behalf of RAW, the mandarins in Langley found out and out she went in disgrace. 

The links:

http://tsvhari.blogspot.in/2013/12/the-khobragade-affairs-shocking-aspects.html

http://tsvhari.blogspot.in/2013/12/the-sinister-angles-behind-devyani.html

Everyone in India and in the US of A who mattered and matter in the chatterati class attempted to make it appear that the entire Indian diplomacy is doing something illegal in employing maids or other servants abroad and/or smuggling them to foreign climes and helping them settle down in much better off economic conditions. 

Well sadly it is not.

Many clever chaps and organisations have found better, legal methods of smuggling persons into the US of A under false pretexts. And those acts make the endeavour to find better life abroad illegal. Some get smuggled in containers and others do it the most cushy way. 

One of them is masquerading them as Hindu priests.

An investigative report in Chicago had exposed this and cited over 100 Vedic Pandits had gone missing from a well advertised so-called monastery once having been headed by the late Maharshi Mahesh Yogi.

Sensing rotten fish, I had reproduced the original reports to expose the racket. 

http://theonlysecularfaith.blogspot.in/2014/01/now-what-on-earth-is-happening-in-us-of.html

Now the dried, rotten fish have come home to roost as can be seen from the news reports appended below.

In a nutshell, reading between the lines anyone can make out that a huge number of persons are being smuggled into the US of A under the guise of their being innocent, devout, saintly Hindu Priests attempting to meditate in foreign climes for world peace.

So they go on an R1 visa - which does not necessitate a work permit, green card or migration or anything. More importantly, the visa does not necessitate a minimum wage as that visa norm is not covered under the rules of employmentapplicable in the US of A. 

I shall quote parts of the email of William Goldstein who is a lawyer who defends the Mahesh Yogi outfit sent to newspaper offices.

They [the Vedic Pandits] are on R-1 visas. They are not in possession of a visa to be day labourers nor are they equipped to be such. Their visa only entitles them, and they are solely qualified to engage in, their spiritual vocation of meditation and Vedic performances. They [the Vedic Pandits] are not subject to minimum wage laws in this spiritual or ministerial vocation, like monks in a monastery.

The sting is in another part of the email of Goldstein.

A small number of the over 2,600 pandits, about five per cent, who have come on this unprecedented Vedic programme to the US have gone AWOL (absent without leave).

When one says Absent Without Leave - in US legal military parlance - a person becomes a criminal deserter - punishable by imprisonment.

Of course, the missing persons are Pandits and not bandits.

Of course, they were being treated well, as Goldstein argues, when comparable with life in India.

So, if all was so hunky dory, a few questions, however, emerge.

[1] What exactly did Goldstein mean when thepersons went AWOL?  

[2] By leave as in AWOL did Goldstein mean permission to leave work and relax as in weekly/monthly off days - when salaries are payable by employers?

[3]  Since he admits that the persons have gone AWOL - and since he insists their lives were filled with the kindness of milk and honey, experiences comparable with heaven when juxtaposing them tolives in India, the question is - why did the 163 persons go AWOL?

[4] What are the 163 who went AWOL doing? Meditating in an organisation rival to the Mahesh Yogi outfit? Serving as waiters in restaurants? Studying in some university? Participating in a competing religion's monastery while praying/preying for world peace? Did some of them convert to Christianity or Islam? 

[5] Now that Goldstein has admitted that the 163 persons went AWOL, can he provide the documentation that show how the missing persons and the better part of the crowd of 2600 in the monastery were qualified to meditate or to mediate with God for the peace/piece of the more pleasing part of the world please? 

[6] Are there universities in India to certify Vedic Pandits? If yes, how long do such courses run? Are such varsities and/or organisations of credibilityrecognised in the US of A and the better part of the advanced world?

[7] Can Goldstein provide credible evidence to the authorities in the US of A that in case there are no qualifications needed, in case there are no statutory bodies in India recognised by the Indian and US education system [both being mandatory] to issue such certifications, that such persons introduced into the US of A are not terrorists in disguise and being smuggled into the US of A under false pretexts?

[8] Can Goldstein assure all concerned that the 163 persons who have gone AWOL did not use the Mahesh Yogi set up to enter the US of A under false pretexts?

[9] Would someone in the US of A bother telling everyone concerned that why stringent lawful checks applicable to properly educated migrants seeking jobs in the US of A [like say persons from Indian Institutes of Technology or Anna Varsity in India] or applying for students' visas meant for higher education are not applicable to those who enter US of A under R1 visas?

[10] Will the US immigration service say it is sure that it is not allowing terrorists to slip through in special juxtaposition with what had happened on 9/11 - when the very system had blinked several times on the entries of the agent provocateurs?

Two respectable newspapers have published follow up stories on this:

130 Vedic Pandits go missing in U.S.

Narayan Lakshman

The Iowa-based institutions of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi have confirmed that at least 130 Indian “Vedic pandits” have gone missing in recent years after arriving in the U.S. to pursue programmes of religious learning.

Meanwhile, one of the institutions’ officials described media reports alleging ill-treatment as “replete with falsehoods” and “defamatory.”

In an email to The Hindu, William Goldstein, Dean of Global Development and General Counsel to the Maharishi University of Management, based in Fairfield, Iowa, said the Global Country of World Peace (GCWP), the U.S. organisation sponsoring the pandits’ R-1 visas and their stay in this country, had not received any communication from the scholars before they went “AWOL” (Absence Without Leave) and it could be that “someone is misinforming them about the financial opportunities and the legal implications, and their prime motive appears to be to generate more money for their families.” There could be an “organised racket brokering the operation.”

Link:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/130-vedic-pandits-go-missing-in-us/article5623856.ece

Only 5% pandits missing: Maharishi Vedic university

PTI Jan 28, 2014, 12.19PM IST

WASHINGTON: The Iowa-based institutions of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi have said about only five per cent of the 2,600 Vedic pandits, who were brought to the US from north Indian villages, have gone missing in recent years.

Each of these cases the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been informed about Vedic pandits leaving their United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and State Department approved programme at its Iowa campus, said William Goldstein, Dean of Global Development and General Counsel to the Maharishi University of Management.

Only a small number of the over 2,600 pandits, about five per cent, who have come on this unprecedented Vedic programme to the US have gone AWOL (absent without leave), Goldstein said in an email.

For the first four years of this programme, it was a very small number. In recent months this number has been unfortunately increasing, he said.

He alleged that they appear to have been induced by individuals providing false and bad information of high earnings, or by unscrupulous employers taking advantage of them.

He also denied allegations of mistreatment of the priests, including giving them low wages.

In an investigative report, Chicago-based ethnic weekly newspaper Hi India alleged that 163 Vedic pandits brought to the US lived in pathetic conditions and were paid less than 75 cents an hour.

Goldstein claimed that these pandits come to the US under R-1 visas and thus are not subject to the minimum wage rules.

They are on R-1 visas. They are not in possession of a visa to be day labourers nor are they equipped to be such. Their visa only entitles them, and they are solely qualified to engage in, their spiritual vocation of meditation and Vedic performances, he said.

They are not subject to minimum wage laws in this spiritual or ministerial vocation, like monks in a monastery," said the official from Maharishi University of Management. The Iowa campus has been specifically inspected and approved for this precise purpose by USCIS, for use as a site for R-1 pandits, he said.

Denying allegations that pandits brought to the US are underage, he said, No pandit has ever come on the programme under 18 years of age.

He said that it has been agreed with the pandits that of the USD 200 per month base cash compensation, USD 150 will be transmitted to their families in India.

All the pandits, contrary to the allegations, reside in modern, fully heated and air-conditioned comfortable modular homes, with an indoor and outdoor athletic facility and a large organic vegetarian kitchen and cafeteria, along with their meditation halls, classrooms, and Vedic performance halls, he said.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2014-01-28/us/46734407_1_pandits-maharishi-mahesh-yogi-programme

In the past the so-called holy men from India who had settled abroad had indeed broken immigration laws.

One of them was Bhagwan Rajneesh, for whompractice of free, unhibited, group sex was one method to find Nirvana [the word nirvaana in Tamil means naked].

The Wikipedia says thus on Rajneesh:

Chandra Mohan Jain (11 December 1931 – 19 January 1990), also known as Acharya Rajneesh from the 1960s onwards, as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh during the 1970s and 1980s and as Osho from 1989, was an Indian mystic,guru and spiritual teacher who has an international following.

A professor of philosophy, he travelled throughout India during the 1960s as a public speaker. His outspoken criticism of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi and institutionalised religion made him controversial. He advocated a more open attitude towards sexuality, a stance which earned him the sobriquet of "sex guru" in the Indian and (later) international press.

In 1970 Rajneesh settled for a time in Bombay, initiating disciples (known as neo-sannyasins) and assuming the role of spiritual teacher. In his discourses he reinterpreted the writings of religious traditions, mystics and philosophers from around the world. Moving to Pune in 1974, he established an ashram which attracted a growing number of Westerners. 

The ashram offered therapies derived from the Human Potential Movement to its Western audience and made news in India and abroad because of its permissive climate and Rajneesh's provocative lectures. By the late 1970s, tensions were mounting with the Indian government and the surrounding society.

In mid-1981, Rajneesh relocated to the United States, where his followers established an intentional community (later known as Rajneeshpuram) in Oregon. Within a year the commune's leadership became embroiled in conflicts with local residents (primarily over land use), which were marked by hostility on both sides. 

The large number of Rolls-Royce cars purchased for Rajneesh's use by his followers also attracted criticism. The Oregon commune collapsed in 1985 when Rajneesh revealed that the communeleadership had committed a number of serious crimes, including a bioterror attack (food contamination) on the citizens ofThe Dalles. 

He was arrested shortly afterwards, and charged with immigration violations. Rajneesh was deported from the United States in accordance with a plea bargain. 

Twenty-one countries denied him entry, causing Rajneesh to travel the world before returning to Pune, where he died in 1990.

Other individuals whose business activitieshave been linked to visa frauds include the owners of Saravana Bhavan hotels. Once upon a time, it used to supply packed veg lunches to various diplomatic missions - especially in Chennai.

Some of its owners were caught with alleged visa fraud.

Its founder - Annachchi Rajagopal - was accused of murdering lusting after the wife of one of his employees - a Christian youth.

I had written about this earlier in one of my blogs. Link:

http://tsvhari.com/template_article.asp?id=644 

There are persistent rumours that indicate the Saravana Bhavan group has been sold to big-time politicians.

There are several God-men who used political bigwigs like late PM Chandrasekhar - to obtain US visas. One such holy man is said to be Chandra Swamy, whose role in the assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi was pointed to by the late DGP of Tamil Nadu K Mohandas.

So, the question to be asked:

Are human trafficking rackets only ordinary get-rich-quick tricks or are they something else altogether? 

And a piece of simple advice to those Indian diplomats attempting to take Indian maid servants when posted to the US of A: Next time get them in through R1 visas attached to some money making racketeer's trust temple abroad. For details approach someone in the Enforcement Directorate. They have all the details of the schmucks. And please use the criminal schmucks. That is what they are there for! 

POSTED BY HARI TSV AT 7:52 PM 
http://tsvhari.blogspot.in/2014/01/sinister-commonalities-between-alleged.html

Mr. Minister, you are wrong -- Anmol Awasthi & Neil Chatterjee

January 31, 2014, 12:55 am

≫ Next: A naxal's wife meets a Maoist.

≪ Previous: Sinister Commonalities In Alleged Visa Fraud By Khobragade And 163 Missing Vedic Pandits In USA? -- TSV Hari

$

0

0

MR MINISTER, YOU ARE WRONG                                                                                         

The Statesman 30 Jan 2014

HOME MINISTER SUSHIL kumar SHINDE’S DIRECTION TO STATES TO SET UP COMMITTEES FOR REVIEW OF TERRORISM CASES AGAINST YOUTH FROM MINORITY COMMUNiTiES FAILS THE CONSTITUTIONAL TEST, SAY ANMOL AWASTHI AND NEIL CHATTERJEE

Sixty-six years into independence and we are still not tired of party politics. It is almost disturbing to fathom how degrading it has become to live in India and still not be treated as an Indian, but by the religious description, whether individually accepted or not, attached to one’s life. 

Recently our Home minister, Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde, created a fuss by deciding to direct all Chief Ministers to set up screening committees in their respective states to review terrorism cases against youth from the minority communities. Headed by a retired judge and two senior state officers, these committees would be required to visit every prison in the respective state and independently examine the complaints from accused, majorly minority youth. They are further required to go through the evidence in every complaint, including the time spent by the accused in prison before the start of trial. Mr. Shinde seems to suggest that these review committees shall be similar to the ones that were formed under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) by the BJP government in 2003. But alas, he misses a major legal and moral point here.

Back in 2003, the misuse of the draconian POTA was so prevalent that every person who came under the suspicion of the police was arrested without proper investigation. POTA gave arbitrary powers to the police officers, which in fact needed a leash. This led to the formation of POTA review committees at the centre and in states. Purely advisory in the beginning, an ordinance enlarged the scope of Section 60 of the POTA and expanded the judicial review power of these committees. Their findings and decisions were made binding on the State Governments and the investigating officers and in case of a conflict, the decision of the Central Review Committee prevailed. However, since filing of a complaint was condition precedent to the investigation by the Review Committee and because of limited resources and no regulated time frame, these committees failed to provide an effective redress mechanism. 

Consequently, POTA was repealed in 2004.

Additionally, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, as amended in 2008 already provides for setting up of Independent Review Committees by every state and by the Centre. Section 45(2) of the UAPA which deals with cognizance of offences categorically specifies that sanction for prosecution under UAPA shall be given only after consideration of the report of an Independent Review Committee which shall separately examine the evidence gathered in the course of investigation and will determine whether or not the case should proceed to prosecution. Most states have already formed such screening committees which are headed by a retired judge and the state law secretary. 

What Mr. Shinde fails to understand is that formation of another set of review committees will only result in confusion and further delay. It is unclear as to how two committees, operating in the same state, examining the terror charges against the same person will function in harmony? Whose authority would be supreme? Whose report would hold more ground? It is an unnecessary dispersion of resources and time. Rather than forming a separate committee, why could he not look into functioning of existing committees and remove inefficiency.

It seems strange that on one hand Article 44 of the Indian Constitution talks of a uniform Civil Code for all citizens and the existing Criminal Procedure Code does not classify the accused persons on the basis of faith and religion but Mr. Shinde desires to provide a redress mechanism only to the accused persons from the minority communities.Under the UAPA Act, 21 of the 35 terrorist organizations listed in the Schedule of Chapter VII are non-Muslim organizations. This means that there exists a high probability that many false terror cases are pending against non-Muslims too. By this definition, if an effective redress mechanism is truly required to look into the complaints of accused persons who are booked on terror charges, then it must be equally provided to every accused person who is a citizen of India and is booked under terrorism. The supposed move by the Home Minister is against article 14 of the Constitution of India. What his actions intend to do is to create a separate class of persons for whom a redressal mechanism is available against false terror cases, but is not consistent with the nexus the Government of India intends to achieve by virtue of Articles 38, 39A and 44. The articles provide that one, the state should strive to promote social justice for all and provide equal opportunities and facilities for all. Secondly, in light of this, justice ought to be promoted on the basis of equal opportunity to all and thirdly, it should also strive to secure a uniform civil code for all. 

If the present move of the Home Minister would have achieved this nexus of the Government, being a constitutionally mandated nexus, it would have been deemed to be a reasonable classification and permitted under law by virtue of article 14. Having achieved nothing of this sort it stands to be a clear violation of article 14. Like we mentioned before, this is nothing but stupidity that our political class believes would be widely accepted by the country. But we have today entered a new millennium, an era where accountability is on the rise like never before and politics of appeasement is being tremendously questioned and criticized. 

In a growing India, it is shameful that senior political leaders still continue to play the outdated and morally incorrect appeasement card in order to re-accumulate the votes they figure are being lost to parties with a motto of honest accountability. It is even more shameful to know that vote-bank politics conveniently overshadow and overpower the constitutional duties pledged by our political leaders during the election period, and how truly words speak louder than actions now!

THE WRITERS ARE MEMBERS OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH & POLICY CLUB, NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, ODISHA
http://www.thestatesman.net/news/36770-mr-minister-you-are-wrong.html

A naxal's wife meets a Maoist.

January 31, 2014, 2:59 am

≫ Next: Delhi, dynasty & danga face -- Mamata addresses 14 lakhs in Kolkata

≪ Previous: Mr. Minister, you are wrong -- Anmol Awasthi & Neil Chatterjee

$

0

0

Everywhere, a Maoist plot

Nandini Sundar | January 31, 2014 09:16

SUMMARY

Chhattisgarh government is unable to accept the right to protest and unwilling to hear the people’s voice.

By going to town as the Chhattisgarh police and media have recently done on my alleged Maoist links, the real questions have been sidelined. As citizens of this country, do we have the right to protest democratically and constitutionally, and as journalists, researchers or human rights activists, are we free to pursue our vocation?

The police arrested one Badri Gawde on January 23, and paraded him before the media four days later, after his family had filed a missing report. Puffy faced, and barely able to keep his eyes open, Gawde “revealed” to the media that I was working on behalf of the Maoists to oppose the mines and railway line that are to come up in the Raoghat area of the state. The activities that my doppelgänger is up to, such as leading the Raoghat Rail Sangharsh Samiti in faraway Chhattisgarh, even as my mundane self takes classes in Delhi, amazes me. If only I had that much energy and time.

Like many young men in conflict areas, Gawde is a man of many parts. Stylishly dressed, and with political ambition, Gawde is active both with the Congress and in local Gond community politics, which involved supporting Vikram Usendi, the Gond BJP candidate in the assembly elections against the Halba Congress candidate. But being political in these parts also means, perforce, keeping up with the Maoists. In November 2013, soon after the assembly elections, I visited Bastar as part of my research on counterinsurgency and democracy. With me was a friend with ancestral roots in Narayanpur-Antagarh. Badri mentioned that he was going to meet a Maoist leader, and asked if we would like to come. Since this was a rare opportunity for us, we went along.

While the Maoists have often given access to embedded journalists and others, they have been deeply resentful of my criticism of them. If meeting a Maoist is a crime, then dozens of journalists should be instantly arrested. Can it be anyone’s case that there is a different law for journalists and a different one for scholars, each of whom contributes to information and knowledge dissemination, but in different ways? On that same visit, incidentally, I also met a senior police officer.

Our meeting with the young Maoist, who had a childlike face and giggled frequently, lasted an hour or so. We discussed the implications of the Raoghat mines of course, because it would be impossible not to, but also Godse versus Gandhi, local gods and customs, and his own life history. I came away from that meeting with a sense of great sadness, after having travelled through some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen — mist covered mountains blue-green with trees, and clear pebbled streams. Badri pointed out a special tree from which alone the Anga Deo, or the log god, can be fashioned.

This area deserves to be treated as a national biodiversity paradise rather than mined into a wasteland. It has a unique expression of Indic religion unavailable anywhere else in the world, described by Verrier Elwin as “a special and characteristic faith”. Each hilltop houses a clan god, and people come from faraway places in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh to their clan festivals every few years. People are immensely proud of their culture. And yet the fake gram sabha certificates, which the government has produced as evidence of popular consent, all state in identical language that there is nothing of cultural or religious value in the area. This is a Fifth Schedule area, yet none of the safeguards that the Constitution affords in the form of PESA or the Forest Rights Act have been followed.

Part of the sadness I felt is that while people think the Maoists are saving the land, they are hardly the answer. The government, however, appears insistent on stopping all peaceful protest, and violating every law to ensure the mines come up. Ten years ago, when the mines were still emerging, the police made people deposit their bows and arrows in the thana, and entire villages now have no means to defend themselves against wild animals. There are ghost villages of women and children, because all the men have been arrested. Twenty-two CRPF camps have come up in the area financed by the Bhilai Steel Plant. Ostensibly, the mines will be used by the public sector, but large private players are waiting in the wings. Those who have not been arrested are being silenced through civic action programmes.

Sadly for democratic politics, the post-1947 government has inherited, among other things, a colonial theory of incitement. Unable to accept that people have a legitimate right to safeguard their lives, they are always looking for conspirators to explain resistance. In this case, the aim is not simply to target me, but to pre-emptively act against all democratic, peaceful and lawful opposition to the Raoghat mines by raising the Maoist bogey. It also helps the Chhattisgarh government to deflect attention from its deliberate refusal to act on the Supreme Court’s orders. Schools are still occupied by security forces putting girl students at risk, no one has been compensated for their houses being burnt and, of course, no one has been prosecuted for the killings and rapes the security forces and the Salwa Judum carried out.

The Chhattisgarh government has long tried to claim that our petition against the Salwa Judum in the SC has been filed at the behest of the Maoists. It cannot accept that ordinary, democratic-minded citizens, who have witnessed or experienced firsthand the devastation brought about by the Salwa Judum, might independently want justice. My co-petitioners, Ramachandra Guha and E.A.S. Sarma, can hardly be accused of being Maoist dupes. The incitement and urban network theory can only go so far. Till the day that our Constitution says that the profits of mining companies outweigh the right to life, affected villagers will continue to fight, and democratic people will continue to support them.

NANDINI SUNDAR

The writer is professor of sociology at Delhi University and a co-petitioner in an ongoing PIL in the Supreme Court against the Chhattisgarh government. 

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/everywhere-a-maoist-plot/

---

Delhi, dynasty & danga face -- Mamata addresses 14 lakhs in Kolkata

January 31, 2014, 3:09 am

≫ Next: Foreign powers behind AAP -- Ashok Singhal, VHP. Kejriwal proxy for RahulG as PM? - V Sundaram

≪ Previous: A naxal's wife meets a Maoist.

$

0

0

| Friday , January 31 , 2014 |

Didi’s 3D: Delhi, dynasty & danga face - Mamata airs national ambition, sends equidistance message to Congress and BJP but door still ajar

Not bad, can do better DEVADEEP PUROHIT

Calcutta, Jan. 30: Mamata Banerjee today announced that the time had come for a change of guard in Delhi and made loud and clear her disapproval of both Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi as potential Prime Ministers. She did not name either during her 45-minute speech at the Brigade but the repeated stress that she neither wanted “rajtantra” (dynasty) nor “dangar mukh” (the face of riots) in Delhi was an indication that she was maintaining equal distance — at least for the time being — from the Congress and the BJP. “Ebar amra Dilli-te poriborton chai. Kintu amra rajtantra chai na, amra dangar mukh chai na (Now we want a change in Delhi. But we don’t want dynastic rule, we don’t want the face of riots),” Mamata told a Trinamul rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds today. The rally was held to commemorate Trinamul’s Martyrs Day programme — which could not be held on its scheduled date, July 21, because of the panchayat polls — besides marking the victory in the rural polls and launching the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. Not bad, can do better Mamata claimed towards the end that 20 to 25 lakh people took part in the programme, which Trinamul leaders said was one of the biggest in terms of turnout. Other Trinamul sources put the overall participation at 14 lakh. “This is a historic rally. We have never seen such a big gathering in recent times,” Mukul Roy, Trinamul’s all-India general secretary, kept repeating. Mamata used the opportunity to send out an unmistakable message for the first time in public that she nursed the ambition to play a bigger role in national politics. Although this was not the first time that Mamata was attacking the Congress and the BJP at one go, two factors stood out. First, the pitch of criticism was much higher. Second, she offered Trinamul as the alternative to both these parties at the national level. “The BJP cannot be an alternative to the Congress and the Congress cannot be an alternative to the BJP…. The TMC is the alternative for the country,” said Mamata. “Dilli chalo, Bharat goro (Let’s go to Delhi and build India).” From rolling out a long list of states from where Trinamul will contest the Lok Sabha polls to referring to issues of national concern — like the alleged rapes in government shelters in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh — the Bengal chief minister kept the focus on national politics. That she was trying to communicate her party’s national ambitions to an audience beyond Bengal became clear as she spoke either in Hindi or in English while listing her achievements as chief minister. Not only did she pitch Trinamul as a potential key player after the elections, she also hinted at alliances with regional parties by projecting a prospective federal front as something that will give more powers to the states. A fierce critic of the Centre for its refusal to offer a financial package to Bengal to tackle the debt burden accumulated during Left rule, Mamata has been demanding a higher share of the central taxes and trying to get other chief ministers to press the demand. In a departure from the past — when economic concerns prompted her to stitch together alliances — she pitched the third front as an alternative to the two main political blocs built around the Congress and the BJP. “We will contact friends in other parts of the country to form a federal front,” Mamata said. Although her announcements about taking Trinamul beyond Bengal or forming an alliance with other regional parties were not backed by specifics — such as how many seats in which states the party will contest or who will join her in the federal front — her speech had several political messages. Expressing firm disapproval of Modi, she tried to send out a signal to the minority community that she would not support him. As the Bengal chief minister has never openly criticised her Gujarat counterpart, the Left has always prodded her to explain her position on the BJP’s candidate for Prime Minister. “She may have spoken about the face of riots but she did not make it clear whether she would join hands with the BJP if Modi is replaced by someone else from the BJP,” said Md Salim, a CPM central committee member. That she got Noor Ur Rahman Barkati, the imam of Tipu Sultan mosque, at the programme, who spoke briefly projecting her as the future Prime Minister, was a masterstroke to counter such criticism, said Trinamul insiders. “Her speech had a lot of nuances and they can have different interpretations,” said a Trinamul source. Take, for instance, the other key announcement about Trinamul fighting all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal. “We have to target 42 out of 42…. We will have to win even if the CPM, Congress and the BJP form an alliance. They had formed such an alliance in the panchayat polls, but they could not do anything. We will repeat that in the Lok Sabha polls,” said Mamata. The contents of the chief minister’s speech — during which she criticised the UPA II government for price rise, corruption and reforms like opening up retail to FDI — may come across as a message that she is slamming the door on any pre-poll alliance with the Congress, but the reality may be different, said a source. “The firm message can be a signal that if the Congress wants an alliance, it can happen only on her terms…. She knows how to drive a bargain,” said the source. But in her speech, the chief minister gave an impression that she was willing to make sacrifices for the welfare of the country. On the proposed federal front — which may include several Prime Minister aspirants — Mamata made it clear that she was not interested in “chair or power”. “We will not be at the front; we will be at the back…. We will put others forward,” Mamata said. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140131/jsp/frontpage/story_17883942.jsp#.UuuDRD2SzCc

Foreign powers behind AAP -- Ashok Singhal, VHP. Kejriwal proxy for RahulG as PM? - V Sundaram

January 31, 2014, 7:41 am

≫ Next: Why did Prannoy sponsor Rs 1 crore holiday for small-time NDTV anchor? -- Gurumurthy

≪ Previous: Delhi, dynasty & danga face -- Mamata addresses 14 lakhs in Kolkata

$

0

0

From: VHP INT'L HQs DELHI  -   vhpintlhqs@gmail.com

How is treasonable Arvind Kejriwal serving as an interim proxy for Rahul Gandhi as PM in 2014?

V Sundaram IAS

January 31 , 2014

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has released a list of people whom he considers to be corrupt in the India of today! (Friday the 31^st January 2014).  The most unique feature about the multiple-tongued, mendacious, malicious and mischievous Personality of Arvind Kejriwal is that he considers himself to be the only Honest Man with an Unimpeachable Integrity not only in the whole of India, but in the Whole World.

Addressing the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) National Executive Committee meet today (Friday, the 31^st January 2014) Kejriwal said: "I HAVE MADE A LIST OF CORRUPT PEOPLE. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING AND THE LIST WILL GROW. I AM PRESENTING THE LIST IN FRONT OF YOU, AND YOU DECIDE WHETHER THESE PEOPLE SHOULD BE VOTED OR NOT."

Kejriwal's Black List:

·        Rahul Gandhi

·        Suresh Kalmadi

·        Nitin Gadkari

·        Sushilkumar Shinde

·        BS Yeddyurappa

·        Kapil Sibal

·        Mulayam Singh

·        Kamal Nath

·        Veerappa Moily

·        Ananth Kumar

·        Anurag Thakur

·        Sharad Pawar

·        Praful Patel

·        P Chidambaram

·        Alagari

·        Kanimozhi

·        A Raja

·        Tarun Gogoi

The Firangi Memsahib Sonia Gandhi should have headed the above list. Ten days ago, I wrote an Article titled : ”WHEN WILL ARVIND KEJRIWAL NAME SONIA GANDHI INSTEAD OF SHEILA DIXIT AS A SUPREME EMBODIMENT OF HIMALAYAN CORRUPTION?” In this Article I had observed as follows :

“I have never heard Arvind Kejriwal raising his voice against the Gargantuan Fraud and Corruption of the Firangi Memsahib Sonia Gandhi hailed as Mahatma Gandhi for her Noble and Heroic Act of Supreme Self-Sacrifice in voluntarily giving up the High Office of the Prime Minister of India after sweeping the Lok Sabha Polls in May 2004! As an International Specialist on Corruption in India in General and Congress / BJP Politicians in particular, Arvind Kejriwal cannot take cover under the Aam Aadhmi Umbrella of either Simplistic Innocence or Credulous Ignorance of the Multitude in defending his Sphinx-Like Silence on the CORRUPTION of Sonia Gandhi and her Family.”

My Question, questioning the Intellectual, Idealogical and Political Integrity has been answered without leaving room for any  ambiguity or doubt by Arvind Kejriwal himself today when he has tactically, strategically, cleverly and unscrupulously left out the name of The Firangi Memsahib Sonia Gandhi from his List of 18 Corrupt People given above.

Perhaps at the instance of Sonia Gandhi, he has cleverly included the name of Rahul Gandhi to just mislead the people of India into believing that he is WAGING A WAR AGAINST THE CORRUPTION OF THE CONGRESS PARTY IN INDIA! Colluding with Sonia Gandhi he is preparing the Stage – nay THE SEAT of the PRIME MINISTER – for Rahul Gandhi!

Now that the CAT is out of the BAG of both  Sonia Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal, their GAME PLAN has also become CLEAR. Rahul Gandhi may not contest at all for a Seat in the Lok Sabha in 2014. Sonia Congress Party and the Aam Aadhmi Party are insidiously planning to Jointly Function as POST ELECTION COALITION PARTNERS. In case the Firangi Memsahib is able to successfully RIG THE ELECTIONS in 2014, in the same Manner and Measure she was able to do with Great Finesse in 2009 (which Ensured the Victory of Congress Party in 108 Selected Lok Sabha Seats!), then Sonia Gandhi will bring in Rahul Gandhi into the Rajya Sabha, through one of the Pocket Buroughs of the Congress Party in Nagaland or Manipur or Megalaya. He will then be Installed as the Prime Minister of India! In that Government, Arvind Kejriwal may become the Home Minister or Finance Minister of India! In short, the Same Path would be charted out for Rahul Gandhi as was done for Dr.Manmohan Singh in 2004. If the Joint Subterranean Plan of Sonia Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal materialises, then Arvind Kejriwal will become the Sushil Kumar Shinde of the New Congress Government in 2014.

Firangi Memsahib was able to successfully Rig the Elections in 2009,  with the Full Participation and Cooperation of Navin Chawla, the then Chief Election Commissioner of India, who was a whole time Agent of the Congress Party for more than 30 years. His contemptible record was taken to the Notice of the President of India by several Members of Parliament which included Sri. L K Advani and several senior Members of Parliament!

In his List of 18 Corrupt People, Arvind Kejriwal has deliberately left out the Names of Smt. Sheila Dixit, Former Chief Minister of Delhi, Sri Bhoopinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister of Haryana, Sri Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sri. Ajith Singh, Union Civil Aviation Minister, and Sri. Virbadra Singh, Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh.

At the Beginning was the Congress Party. The Congress Party was with the STOOGE. And the STOOGE was Arvind Kejriwal!

At the Beginning was the CIA. The CIA was with the AAP. And the AAP became the STOOGE of CIA. AMEN!

At the Beginning was the FORD FOUNDATION. The FORD FOUNDATION was with the AAP. And the AAP became the FORD FOUNDATION!

Dr Bhagwati Prakash Sharma wrote an Article in the ORGANIZER under the Title “AAP leaders and signs of alien influences”. In that Article, he wrote as follows: “Quick emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the political horizon of the country, with an unprecedented youth and civil society activism, needs to be viewed with a bit of caution, in view of the alien influence that has been visible over some of its leaders. The nation was altogether stunned in 2011, when Arundhati Roy, a civil society activist,  disclosed in a column in The Hindu followed by an interview in the CNN-IBN that some of Anna’s team members have been running NGOs funded by foreign multinational corporations. She alleged in a column in The Hindu on August 21, 2011 - “Kabir, an NGO run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodiya, theQuick emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the political horizon of the country, with an unprecedented youth and civil society activism, needs to be viewed with a bit of caution, in view of the alien influence that has been visible over some of its leaders. The nation was altogether stunned in 2011, when Arundhati Roy, a civil society activist,  disclosed in a column in The Hindu followed by an interview in the CNN-IBN that some of Anna’s team members have been running NGOs funded by foreign multinational corporations. She alleged in a column in The Hindu on August 21, 2011 - “Kabir, an NGO run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodiya, 2011 - “Kabir, an NGO run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodiya, the key figures in team-Anna have received       $400,000 from the Ford Foundation in the last 3 years”.

Today we can see that Dr Bhagwati Prakash Sharma was able to see through the Nefarious Game of Arvind Kejriwal and his Grisly Gang! PEOPLE CAN NOW SEE THROUGH THE MASQUERADING MASKS OF AGENTS WORKING THROUGH AND FOR FOREIGN POWERS AND INTERESTS. In this Context, I fully endorse the following Statement issued by Shri. Ashok SInghalji, Patron, Vishva Hindu Parishad in Allahabad today(Friday, 31^st January 2014):

 “Arvind Kejriwal, during the past 1½ - 2 years, came before the society as a leader of agitations for India Against Curruption (IAC) and Jan Lokpal Bill, and later on he floated a political party. Taking advantage of the declining popularity of the Congress Party and deluding the people, Kejriwal has come to assume power in Delhi. Today the whole country is askance as to which superpower stands behind Kejriwal’s coming to power? Increasingly it is becoming plain that behind Kejriwal there is the big hand of the Ford Foundation of USA and its supporter the American intelligence agency the CIA. Under the cover of civil society, Kejriwal and his comrades, with their demands, have been thrashing about. The so-called ‘Civil Activists’ or members of the ‘Civil Society’ are part of a vast organization namely the World Social Forum. The formation and growth of the ‘World Social Forum’ took leaps through the leftist thinkers whose world leadership had abandoned communism after the decline and disintegration of the Communist Russia in the 1990s.”  

“Ever since the western world has set foot in Bharat, since then and even after the independence of Bharat, their firm grip on the Bharatiya market and national policies has still been continuing. Being petrified by the growing power of Narendra Modi they had a feeling that the Congress, through which they were so easily manipulating the national policies and the Bharatiya market, was sliding to the abyss, then through the Ford Foundation they pooled all those forces that can prevent Narendra Modi from becoming the leader of Bharat. Today, various institutions in Bharat, violent Naxalite organizations, violent Jihadi organizations and fast-growing foreign-funded TV channels and their directors and handlers and journalists and the activists of thousands of NGOs here receiving direct or proxy aid from the Ford Foundation, Rockfeller Foundation, Clinton Foundation, etc., have turned up as the Kejriwal’s Party (AAP) to serve the interests of America. The Anglo-American power is solely working behind its attractive slogans like ‘Corruption-free India”.

“The way the government running under the authority of Soniaji has brought Bharat to its economic predicament, that has made their downfall sure and under these circumstances the Aam Admi Party (AAP) has been floated as their political accessory and servo in the 2014 general elections. When the AAP prides itself of fielding over 300 candidates in the coming parliamentary elections, every Bharatiya citizen wants to know the powers standing behind them. Kejriwal has been given the Magsasay Award. The Ford Foundation tries to give this award to those people who can work for American interests. “ 

“A few days ago a lady from America Simrit Lee by name came to Bharat to assess as to who could actually sincerely work for American interests in Bharat. This lady was sent to other countries also where the big force of Ford Foundation has been working in the form of NGOs. This lady had presented a report as to how could the power of Ford Foundation be successful against Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. In other countries also she has made extensive and intensive explorations as to what could be the grounds to remove the existing governments and how could the people serving American interests come to power. Any semblance or inkling of the slogan of ‘Corruption-free India’ of Kejriwal is nowhere to be found in his personal behaviour as yet.”

“After being sworn in to the Chief Minister’s office, sitting on Dharna, transgressing the Constitution of Bharat, is a flagrant display of the anarchist Naxalite persona and arrogance in him.  It is open sedition and anti-national stand on the part of his party to say that there should be a referendum in Kashmir even if it is for disintegration of the country, the Army should be withdrawn from Kashmir in spite of the fact that full-fledged terrorist camps are running across in the Pak-Occupied Kashmir and there is perennial efforts at infiltration of terrorists from Pakistan, and what is more they are even demanding such action in the Maoist-infested areas and withdrawal of the paramilitary forces. KEJRIWAL, ON THE ONE HAND, IS FIGHTING AGAINST THE POLICE FORCE, AND ON THE OTHER, HE WANTS TO END THE RULE OF LAW IN THE MAOIST-INFESTED AREAS, AND SURELY IT IS A PLOT TO SPREAD ANARCHY IN THE WHOLE OF BHARAT, SO THAT THE FOREIGN POWERS CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION.”

“THE PEOPLE OF BHARAT HAVE DETECTED IT AND SEEN THROUGH THE MASKS OF THESE SUBVERSIVE AND TREASONABLE ACTIVISTS. THE LEADERSHIP OF NARENDRA MODI CAN ENSURE THAT BHARAT STANDS AS A SOVEREIGN, INDEPENDENT AND POWERFUL NATION. THIS IS THE DEMAND AND COMMAND OF THE COUNTRY TODAY.”        

POST SCRIPT

TRAITORS LIKE SMT. SONIA GANDHI OR SRI. ARVIND KEJRIWAL ARE THE OUTCOME OF A FOOL NATION.

IN MY VIEW, THERE ARE ONLY TWO SIDES TO THIS QUESTION. EVERY MAN MUST BE FOR OUR GREAT BHARAT VARSHA OR AGAINST IT. THERE CAN BE NO NEUTRALS IN THIS WAR FOR THE LIBERATION OF BHARAT VARSHA! THERE CAN ONLY BE TRUE PATRIOTS LIKE SHRI. NARENDRA MODI OR TRAITORS LIKE SONIA GANDHI OR ARVIND KEJRIWAL!!

Umberto Eco was right when he wrote: “Political satire is a serious thing. In Democratic Newspapers throughout the World there are Daily Cartoons that often are not even funny, as is the case especially in many English-Language newspapers. Instead, they contain a Political Message, and the Artist takes Full Responsibility.”

I was delighted to see one such CARTOON in INDIA TODAY.The reprehensible Treachery of Firangi Memsahib Sonia Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal has been brought out in a Graphic and Telling Manner by the Great Cartoonist Kesavan in INDIA TODAY.

Why did Prannoy sponsor Rs 1 crore holiday for small-time NDTV anchor? -- Gurumurthy

February 1, 2014, 9:01 pm

≫ Next: AgustaWestland's India deal -- Cameroon entering the mud?

≪ Previous: Foreign powers behind AAP -- Ashok Singhal, VHP. Kejriwal proxy for RahulG as PM? - V Sundaram

$

0

0

• January 25, 2014
• |
• Cover Story
• |
• 26 Comments

Why did Prannoy sponsor Rs 1 crore holiday for small-time NDTV anchor?

MUMBAI: The investigations into accounted funds of NDTV running into Rs 5000 crore is pointing to a massive collusion between the directors of the reputed media company and senior I-T officials, allegedly with the blessings of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

The involvement of Sumana Sen, an IRS officer of the 1999 batch, is now under scrutiny after it emerged that her husband Abhisar Sharma was an employee of NDTV when she was appointed the Assessing Officer of NDTV Ltd, its group companies and all directors, including Prannoy Roy himself. It emerges that Sen and her husband enjoyed an all-expenses paid pleasure trip to Europe sponsored by Prannoy’s company.

S Gurumurthy, who was the convenor of the task force conceived by the BJP to assess black money illegally deposited by Indian politicians and businessmen in foreign banks, has now written to Roy to clarify why his company never bothered to inform the government or the Income Tax department that the wife of its employee had been appointed to assess it under all Direct Tax Acts.

“More importantly, Sumana Sen, when she became the Assessing Officer of NDTV in August 2004, never informed the government about the fact that her spouse Abhisar Sharma was employed with NDTV which was mandatory under rules…which entails imposition of major penalty including dismissal from the service,” Gurumurthy has noted.

In his defence, Prannoy Roy claimed that Sen was NDTV’s assessing officer only for a period of one year during which no substantive assessments of NDTV were made by her except one order under sec 143(1), and that all other assessments of that year were made by other I-T officers.

SPONSORED EUROPEAN HOLIDAY: PERK OR BRIBE?

It is relevant to note that at the point, NDTV had claimed a tax refund of Rs 1.47 crore, but a notice for scrutiny assessment u/s 143(2) was pending.

In March 2005, around five months after she had become the assessing officer for NDTV, she was offered through her husband Abhisar Sharma an “all expenses paid pleasure trip of Europe with her entire family” by the company. The total cost of the week long trip to the UK came to a whopping Rs 1 crore, which was entirely borne by NDTV. It was a luxury no other employee in Sharma’s grade had ever been offered. In fact, no other employee of NDTV had ever been given such a perquisite in its history.

Sequence of events:

March 21,2005: Sumana Sen writes to the government seeking permission for availing the offer with her husband.

March 28, 2005: Sen illegally passes an assessment order u/s 143 (1) of the Income Tax Act accepting the return of NDTV and granting a refund of Rs 1.47 crore.

April 8, 2005: The government grants her permission to avail the holiday in Europe on the condition that she should not have at any point in time had any official dealings with NDTV.

April 10, 2005: Sen furnishes fraudulent undertaking claiming that she was “not the Assessing Officer of NDTV Ltd, has never dealt with the case of NDTV and has never had any official dealings with it”.

April 12, 2005: Sumana Sen and her husband Abhisar Sharma take a British Airways flight to London to begin a week long holiday in Europe, which cost about Rs 1,00,00,000 to NDTV Ltd.

Abhisar Sharma

Was husband’s job at NDTV ‘arranged’ by Sumana?

While Sumana Sen was brazen enough to lie about her relationship with NDTV despite just 13 days earlier having allowed an illegal refund as its assessing officer, Abhisar Sharma was hardly a passive bystander in all this. According to Gurumurthy, he had in fact “aided and abetted in all illegalities committed by Sumana Sen.”

According to documents and correspondence available withMumbaiwalla, Sen’s husband was a “small time stringer” in BBC before he landed a job in NDTV as an anchor in October 2003. The big question now is whether it was merely a coincidence that just a few months later, the I-T department appointed his wife to assess the books of NDTV.

Preliminary verification of facts point to a well planned strategy by the husband wife duo. Sen was apparently “aided and abetted” by her superior (Prakash Chandra CIT, Delhi V) in getting her husband employed by NDTV.

With the tickets for the trip amounting to a couple of lakhs at most, it is unclear how the couple actually managed to spend Rs 1 crore in the short period between April 12 and April 20, 2005. Even after completing her luxury holiday, Sen failed to submit accounts of her expenses abroad, though it was mandatory under the rules.

It begs attention why NDTV would agree to pay Rs 1 crore for a holiday to Sen in exchange for a refund that amounted to Rs1.47 crore

In hindsight, the ‘Inspection Note’ filed by I-T Commissioner SK Srivastava in March 2007 over tax-evasion of about Rs 200 crore by NDTV and payment of bribe and illegal gratification to Sumana Sen was merely the tip of the iceberg.

Surprisingly, the observations on fraudulent assessments made on NDTV Ltd by Sen were not only set aside on March 29, 2007, the very next day Chidambaram – acting on the proposals of PK Mishra, DGIT (Vig) & CVO, CBDT – suspended Srivastava on allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault, molestation and rape filed by two female I-T officers.

The officers in question were Sumana Sen and her batchmate, Ashima Neb.

26 Comments

1. sunit vadehra
   

   January 25, 2014 at 4:35 pm

   If this information is true( and it must be),then all efforts should be made to bring this information in front of the public . Surprised that the common man has no clue about the going-ons in this regard and the Chidu connection.Why is media silent on this issue? One way could be to make someone file a Pill in the SC on this issue.
2. sushil gangwar
   

   January 26, 2014 at 3:10 pm

   Media is running in Jholamjhaal … ?
3. g.b.venkatesha murthy, Bangalore
   

   January 27, 2014 at 2:49 am

   All loyalists of congress are being favored right from the early days of congress rule. Those days there was no media to expose the shady deals of political parties.Now media is vigilant and it has been reinforced by RTI.
4. ramit
   

   January 27, 2014 at 9:22 am

   wow…..

   even the media is highly corrupt
5. sasmita
   

   January 27, 2014 at 9:30 am

   What rubbish….. Abhisaar Sharma works for ABP News…. If u dnt believe thn tune into ABP News from 7 PM every day and you will see him..
6. Vikram Malik
   

   January 27, 2014 at 10:42 am

   How does one spend 1 CRORE on a one week holiday? Today the Pound is worth 100 Rupees but back in 2005 it was much less! Yet, even today I can’t imagine anyone spending 100,000 Pounds on a one week holiday, so the question of spending much more than that back in 2005 is inexplicable!

   Deserves thorough investigation, followed by stringent prosecution if found guilty.
7. Pingback: Quora
8. Remote Desktop
   

   January 27, 2014 at 5:33 pm

   Have you thought about adding some social bookmarking buttons to these blog posts. At least for facebook.
9. Pingback: Quora
10. Sunny Ray
    

    January 28, 2014 at 2:00 am

    Looks like a botched up story with one details contravening other ! Seems Neighbours envy Owner’s pride ,stuff ! Amateurish and not even Yellow Journalism
11. mal-ta-vi
    

    January 28, 2014 at 3:26 am

    You will allow it to be look not that hard together with your demonstration however I in discovering this disorder to be in fact an issue that I believe I’d never ever have an understanding of. It sort of feels also elaborate and really big personally. Now i’m looking ahead of time for your forthcoming create, I most certainly will attempt to get the embrace of computer!
12. ramdev
    

    January 28, 2014 at 5:04 am

    This is how Abhisar secretively leaked insider info on Kejriwal and how alinged his wife was towards Kejriwalhttps://twitter.com/abhisar_sharma/status/267136569880764416

    As an IRS officer Kejriwal wld call all his staff to his room nd make them swear on a candle that they will nt accept bribe!( Insider info)
13. ramdev
    

    January 28, 2014 at 5:11 am

    https://twitter.com/abhisar_sharma/status/424426145879060480

    @AAPWatch @madhukishwar Ds she even know tht it ws my wife in vigilance who ws investigating Srivastava’s corruption nt the other way aound?

    abhisar’s wife is in vigilance. and she is investigating corruption on srivastava. Putting this information in public is not abuse of secrecy?
14. ramdev
    

    January 28, 2014 at 5:18 am

    The real character of abhisar_sharma where he abuses

    https://twitter.com/sureshnakhua/status/269851833160327168
    https://twitter.com/Ikumar7/status/270583592294416385
15. ramdev
    

    January 28, 2014 at 5:26 am

    Proof that Abhisar’s wife signed the refund. He says she was not assessing. But Prannoy says, she was assessing officer for 1 year. which of them is lying?

    https://twitter.com/abhisar_sharma/status/424613801304920064
    @Anushka_Lal @GulPanag Look u have alphabets( fr companies) under ur charge. And wn I ws working there, her Boss started assessing it. Nt hr

    https://twitter.com/abhisar_sharma/status/424611994658820097
    @Anushka_Lal @ndtv @GulPanag No . Never. Her Boss assessed all cases. She did not assess a single case.

    https://twitter.com/abhisar_sharma/status/419830538996686848
    @ShailendraDhar @surnell her boss ws assessing it. Nt her. She jst signed refund tht means nthing. Alphabet “n” fell in her domain
16. n.r.i
    

    January 28, 2014 at 7:09 am

    This T.V channel should be closed down. It is scam ridden and full supporter of foreign rule over India
17. Ganesh
    

    January 28, 2014 at 10:27 am

    It really saddens us when journos who day in & day out carry stories of loot & scams & grill netas of all hues are themselves involved in such shady deals. And more hurting is the fact that this news has not been highlighted by any1 in the media – print or visual. Not shocked to find PC’s name as he is into too many already & this will be another among the lot but all the same very shameful of P.Roy & NDTV to be part of this scandal(:
18. shankar jog
    

    January 28, 2014 at 2:16 pm

    The accusation of molestation and rape was before the new Act passed last year for defense of women. If this accusation is done now, the innocent Shri. Srivastav would be ruined for his life. Whatever the punishment and when it comes does not matter. Life of accused is ruined by Media by prosecution and publicity in various media channel and print media . If his innocence is proved afterwards by Court, can they reverse his bad publicity and ruined life back ?
    This is an example of women using the new Protection Act for their selfish means, keeping their identity secret above all.
    If a women accusing of molestation, rape, etc., has a right to keep her identity undisclosed, why the person accused is not given the same protection ? Why he is punished before proving his guilt ? Let all think over it.
19. Glen Kotarski
    

    January 29, 2014 at 12:47 am

    I just want to mention I’m new to weblog and honestly enjoyed this web page. Most likely I’m planning to bookmark your blog . You definitely have fabulous article content. Regards for revealing your web-site.
20. Pinnix
    

    January 29, 2014 at 1:14 am

    Keep on writing, great job!
21. Jose
    

    January 29, 2014 at 3:15 am

    One more scam ! But it is hardly surprising. Even though their TRP ratings was abysmal, their programs were pukingly biased, it was still surviving and showing profits. I always suspected, NDTV was a frontend for money laundering of politicians. How true. Hopefully this wont be covered up like other major scams.
22. Schnelzer
    

    January 29, 2014 at 5:43 am

    Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with some pics to drive the message home a little bit, but instead of that, this is great blog. A great read. I’ll certainly be back.
23. sam
    

    January 29, 2014 at 11:54 am

    It is truly a nice and helpful piece of info. I am happy that you shared this helpful info with us. Please stay us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
24. rohini nair
    

    January 30, 2014 at 6:00 am

    investigation is going on the media broadcasting and news anchors in huge tv channnels
25. archana roy
    

    January 30, 2014 at 6:02 am

    shame on mr prannoy roy and his news channel
26. Azad
    

    January 30, 2014 at 10:39 am

    its a botched up story made by person accused of sexual harrassment,processing u/s 143(1) done by computer system,its really rubbish to malign the young lady officers

http://mumbaiwalla.com/prannoy-sponsor-rs-1-crore-holiday-small-time-ndtv-anchor/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/201390328/Gurumurthy-s-reply-to-Prannoy-Roy-s-email-regarding-Chidambaram-NDTV-s-Rs-5000-crores-money-laundering-scam

Gurumurthy's reply to Prannoy Roy's email regarding Chidambaram & NDTV's Rs. 5000 crores money laundering scam

January 22, 2014

Gurumurthy's reply to Prannoy Roy's email regarding P. Chidambaram & NDTV's Rs. 5000 crores money laundering scam

Gurumurthy's reply to Prannoy Roy's email regarding Chidambaram & NDTV's Rs. 5000 crores money laundering s... by pcwedsndtv

AgustaWestland's India deal -- Cameroon entering the mud?

February 1, 2014, 9:39 pm

≫ Next: Does AAP's media obsession lead to anarchism? -- K. Srinivasan

≪ Previous: Why did Prannoy sponsor Rs 1 crore holiday for small-time NDTV anchor? -- Gurumurthy

$

0

0

Telegraph.co.ukSunday 02 February 2014

Government fights for AgustaWestland’s India deal

Official in regular meetings with counterparts in India to resolve issue over helicopter contract

See: 

htmlhttp://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/02/how-firangi-memsahib-sonia-gandhi.html

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/02/soniags-role-in-agustawestland-ghotala.html

The Indian government terminated a deal to buy 12 AW101 transport helicopters, amid claims that officials were bribed 

By Rebecca Clancy

9:30PM GMT 01 Feb 2014

British government officials have waded into a dispute between Anglo-Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland and Indian authorities in an effort to salvage a £465m contract.

Last month the aerospace company warned it was preparing a “mitigation plan” that would involve cutting some of its 3,300 workers in the UK. It followed the Indian government’s decision to terminate a deal to buy 12 AW101 transport helicopters, amid claims that officials were bribed to win the contract.

However, a Government spokesman has confirmed to The Telegraph that officials have held regular meetings with their counterparts in India in an effort to resolve the matter, with the latest discussions taking place as recently as last week.

Up to this point, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Government have said they would not intervene in the dispute because it was thought to be “a matter for the company and the Indian government”.

“We have been keeping the Government very much informed,” said Graham Cole, chairman of AgustaWestland. “The Government have been understanding and supportive wherever they can.”

Related Articles

• MoD safeguards 1,000 AgustaWestland jobs 
  29 Jan 2014
• AgustaWestland warns on UK jobs 
  02 Jan 2014
• India terminates AgustaWestland deal 
  01 Jan 2014
• Secrecy doesn’t pay in the credit rating lottery HP

In a recent positive development for AgustaWestland, authorities in India have appointed an arbitrator to enter into talks.

The company, based in Yeovil, Somerset, hopes to have the contract reinstated, or to be able to recover funds that it claims are owed for three helicopters that have already been delivered to India and a further three aircraft that have been built.

Daniele Romiti, the Italian head of company, has said he “hoped” the process would start quite soon.

The helicopters were intended to transport India’s high-ranking politicians before the contract was frozen last February.

“We have asked the Indian government to have these legal disputes in an international arena so we can have clarity about the situation,” Mr Romiti has said.

David Cameron has previously defended AgustaWestland to his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, but has drawn back from directly intervening.

In a trade visit to India last February, shortly after the bribery allegations surfaced, Mr Cameron said the row would not stop him from lobbying for new contracts on the company’s behalf. He has also insisted the problem is an Italian one with no direct British involvement in the alleged wrongdoing.

India’s ministry of defence had threatened to scrap the deal since it froze the contract last year, following claims AgustaWestland paid bribes to senior defence officials, including relatives of India’s former air chief, Shashindra Pal Tyagi. AgustaWestland and Mr Tyagi have denied any wrongdoing.

The original bribery allegations emerged from an inquiry in Italy that led to an arrest warrant for Giuseppe Orsi, the chief executive of AgustaWestland’s parent company, Finmeccanica.

Investigators claim he paid €30m (£25.4m) to a British man, Christian Michel, to act as a middleman between the company and members of the Tyagi family. The Indian government has not specified the nature of the suspected bribery beyond these original allegations.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/defence/10612406/Government-fights-for-AgustaWestlands-India-deal.html

Daily Pioneer, Feb. 2, 2014 Front Page

Does AAP's media obsession lead to anarchism? -- K. Srinivasan

February 2, 2014, 12:21 am

≫ Next: On the speech of Neanderthal man

≪ Previous: AgustaWestland's India deal -- Cameroon entering the mud?

$

0

0

After gaining enough popularity through IAC movement led by Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal broke away from the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement and started his own political party, ‘Aam Aadhmi Party’ (AAP).  Within a few months of forming the party, AAP surprised the whole nation by securing 28 seats (29.5% vote share) out of 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly Elections.  Since BJP with 31 members refused to form the Government, AAP formed the Government with the outside support of Congress (8 members) and won the vote of confidence in the Assembly too.

IAC movement has set the entire nation to fight against corruption.  The AAP youngsters led by Arvind Kejriwal brought confidence on the people that they would bring some change.

Media Obsession

AAP and Arvind Kejriwal got a wonderful opportunity to prove to the nation their capabilities through good governance.  But they seemed to grow obsessed with media coverage, as they started looking at every action keeping the media in mind, without looking at the governance aspect.  They did not understand the risk of the media and that the same media which glorified them could also shame them.

Probably, since they were under pressure to implement the un-implementable election promises, they started resorting to ‘attention diversion’ and childish tactics, like Janata Dharbar, raids of schools, hospitals, etc.

CBI Court order against Somnath Bharati

CBI courts criticism on Somnath Bharati, the Law Minister for tampering the records, his illegal orders to  Police in the mid night to arrest African ladies have all come up for serious criticism and brought embarrassment to the party.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s dharna in the prohibited area defending the actions of Somnath Bharati and calling himself as ‘anarchist’ has further created confusion among the people, who had reposed highest confidence on them.  Chief Minister’s call to police force to join the dharna, his declaration that he would derail Republic Day celebrations, Prashant Bhushan’s comments on Kashmir, open invitation extended by Bhushan and Anjali Damina to Maoists and Davood Ibrahim have further raised the doubts among the people about their real agenda. A case is also pending against Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi Court on charge of plagiarism for the book ‘Swaraj’. His recent statement in support of illegal ‘Khap Panchayats’ has added further controversy.

Hoping the AAP would be a different political party with more maturity, many eminent people and the middle class section of the society supported AAP earlier.    

Though they may all enjoy freedom, they are yet to understand that freedom and violation have a thin line of separation between them.  If they continue to function in this reckless manner, people would lose confidence in any future social activists turning out to be politicians.

Allegations about funding

Facebook page  reported to be that of Pak separatists

Under the Indian law, only Indians can donate to the Indian political parties.  It is alleged that during the election time, Pakistan-based separatists encouraged their people through the Facebook (shared 955 times) to fund AAP with false Indian Passport number (by writing one letter of the alphabet followed by 7 digits), to falsely identify themselves as Indian nationals.  Since the AAP site did not have any mechanism to validate the passport number, many Pakistan-based terrorists are suspected to have funded AAP during the elections. This allegation is now being investigated by the Government of India.

Learning from the past

The leaders of AAP should have learnt their lessons from the history of our nation.  In the past, India faced two types of people’s movements.  One was based on ‘regional aspirations’. Political parties like DMK, TDP, AGP and BSP were formed  by the regional aspirations of strong leaders.  Though these parties might have undergone splits, they still continue to be powerful political forces in India.

The other type of movement was focused only on a single agenda. In early 1970s, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan called for a ‘total revolution’ to fight against Indira Gandhi’s regime. Many senior political leaders with a huge following came together to form the ‘Janata Party’ in 1977 and secured a massive victory in the Lok Sabha elections after the emergency, defeating Indira Gandhi.  Within a few months after their victory, they got disintegrated due to lack of focus and future plans for the country.

In 1985, VP Singh, another mass leader formed the ‘Jan Morcha’ to fight against corruption in Rajiv Gandhi’s regime.  They also won to form the Government at the centre. After a few months, they got disintegrated and lost power for a similar reason. Both these parties / movements are not in existence today.

AAP - Party without policies and membership drive

Political history loudly indicates that any political movement with a single agenda cannot survive for a long time.  The political movement should have effective leadership with clear policies on various issues.  It is surprising that AAP, without clear leadership and policies on various issues, is now calling itself  the third force at the national level, after the Congress and the BJP. It is also surprising to see the media project AAP as an alternative to the Congress or BJP, when AAP has not yet set up even its party units in the other states.  

Membership card in the name of  President Obama – applied and got  for the purpose of this  article within a few seconds

AAP’s claim of having more than one crore members has become a mockery.  The social media is now flooded with AAP membership cards in the names of President Obama, Jayalalitha, Sonia Gandhi, Mayavati, Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi. We also found it very easy to obtain a membership card in the name of President Obama.  Such a membership drive reduces the credibility of the party.  Even the traditional national parties do not claim to have such huge membership.

Allegations against the Trusts owned by Kejriwal

When AAP talks about transparency, many of the critics also accuse them of lack of transparency in the functioning of the trusts owned by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia.

Arvind Kejriwal created 3 NGOs viz. Parivartan (1999), Kabir (2005) and Public Cause Research Foundation (2006).  He was also given Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2006. 

Ford Foundation Annual reports of 2002 and 2005

These trusts have received several crores of rupees from the Ford Foundation, the Dutch Embassy and other international funding agencies. Ford Foundation is accused of being an extended arm of the ‘Central Intelligence Agency’ (CIA) of USA. In the biography and citation released by the ‘Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation’ while presenting the Award to Arvind Kejriwal in 2006, they cited ‘Central Intelligence Agency’ (CIA) as the first reference. (See screenshot below)

Biography of Arvind Kejriwal released by Magsaysay Award Foundation -  First reference is Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

When somebody questioned about the purpose of the funds in the Court, the Delhi Court ordered the Government to investigate it.  The websites of Parivartan and Kabir are now closed. The Government of India seems to be investigating on violations.

While they talk about transparency, the IAC volunteers raise doubts about the hasty closure of the websites of these two trusts and their refusal to divulge the details.  The dubious 

connectivity between CIA, Ford Foundation, Magsaysay Award and some AAP founders still remains without proper clarification and shrouded in mystery.

Anarchism is Not a Substitute for Governance

The President of India in his Republic Day speech cautioned in general that ‘anarchism’ cannot be a substitute for ‘governance’.   

We also observe from the social media that some of the young people and even intellectuals hail and justify such ‘anarchism’ and immature acts of AAP leaders under the pretext that the country needs a change and a new type of politics.

India is the largest democracy in the world with more than 130 crore people.  Braving many internal and external challenges, India has shown progress in various fields at the global level. Although we may have more unresolved issues, they need to be tackled in a mature way without creating chaos.  In the past 65 years, many leaders have shown effective leadership by taking the country to the next level.  Without any hullabaloo, Narasimha Rao (Prime Minister) handled the financial crisis of the country in early 1990s and took the country to the next stage of economic progress through his mature and effective leadership.

Justifying the wrong actions of any political party is quite dangerous and risky.  Creating an impression among the new-generation voters that anarchy is a heroic deed is dangerous. Internal and  external enemies and terrorists wait for an opportunity to destabilise the nation.  The founding fathers of the Indian constitution have carefully drafted the Constitution to provide ample solutions for any crisis.

Arvind Kejriwal and his team should not play to the galleries. They are no longer activists. They should realise that activism is different from governance. Just like they were watching the rulers closely as activists, now people have started watching AAP also more closely.  The people have given them constitutional responsibilities to govern the Delhi State. Instead of creating a pandemonium before the cameras, they should sit and calmly discuss with experts and officials to solve the problems one by one. They should transparently come out with their own past and present financial transactions before blaming others and to avoid allegation against them.  The nation expects more from them, to bring the desired change.

By K. Srinivasan, Editor in Chief

Source: www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0114.pdf

http://www.primepoint.in/2014/02/does-aaps-media-obsession-lead-to.html