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Recommended Books - Guest - 02-28-2008
<span style='color:red'><b>Review of "Astronomical Dating of Events & Select Vignettes from Indian history"</b></span>
<b>Edited by Kosla Vepa PhD</b>
ISBN 978-1-4357-1120-4
http://www.lulu.com/content/2060969
This is an anthology of essays on the distortions that have accreted in the historical narrative of the Indic peoples and their civilization. Most of these egregiously erroneous accretions have been initiated at the behest of the colonial overlord and are the result of preconceived notions on the part of the Colonial Power . These preconceived notions include
The set of assumptions underlying the Aryan Invasion Theory . The most important assumption was that the Indic civilization could not possibly have been the product of the autocthonous peoples of the subcontinent and must have been seeded by a superior race of people from elsewhere.
In order to make this hypothesis stick with some degree of credibility, the other major postulate was that the seeding occurred after the Golden age of Greece (400-600 BCE)and that all of the science developed in the subcontinent was a derivative of the Greeks
The inherent contradictions of the Aryan Invasion Theory by the mythic and yet to be identified Aryan race.
The insistence on clinging to a racial terminology even when it is widely discredited and abandoned elsewhere
The insistence that Indic astronomy , geometry and mathematics was not autochthonous to India but was borrowed from the Greek or the Babylonians,without any evidence
The origin of the Brahmi script becomes a victim of the 'anywhere but India' syndrome
Devaluation and denigration of the extent of the ancient Indic contribution to Mathematics and Astronomy
There are resulting inconsistencies in the chronology of the Indic historical narrative, which is now horribly mangled to fit the straightjacket of British assumptions.
The result is a tectonic shift in the Chronology of the Indic civilization, with the resulting falsification of most of the important dates
Dating of the Mahabharata
Dating of the Satapatha Brahmana
Dating of the Veda
Dating of the Vedanga Jyotisha
Dating of the Sulva sutras
Beginning of the Vikrama era
Dating of the Buddha
Dating of the Arthashastra
Dating of Chandragupta Maurya
Dating of Panini's Ashtadhyayi and consequentially the dating of Panini himself
Dating of Aryabhata
Such a distortion has resulted in vast gaps in the narrative of the history of the Indics and has resulted in absurdities such as the naming of the calendar after a person who is yet to be born.
This collection of papers , summarizes these lacunae in the chronology and advocates the use of Astronomical Software to determine the accurate dates.
Recommended Books - ramana - 03-20-2008
Google books
Future of Islam by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
This is the famous book that acharya keeps refrring to. It costs >$200 from Amazon.
Download the pdf!
Recommended Books - Guest - 12-09-2008
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><b>R's Journey - The Wounded Elephant by Maya Radj</b> </span>
I found Maya Radj's (free) online novel âR's Journey â The Wounded Elephantâ captivating. It can be downloaded (free) at www.mayaradj.com.
In the form of an entertaining story--a young Indian eager to migrate to the USA who discovers the value of his cultural, spiritual and philosophical heritage during a journey across Bharat (India) after an initial meeting with his guru--, this book is a contemporary crash course on Sanatan Dharm (Hinduism) -- its eternal way of life, values and philosophy.
I read it with my kids and we smiled as we recognized many pertinent aspects of Indian migration to the West. We were also carried away by Maya Radjâs clear explanation of key spiritual, philosophical and cultural treasures of Bharat, embedded within an emotionally gripping tale. My children now feel that they understand and can explain previously âmysteriousâ aspects of our culture and values. Its glossary of over 200 terms is a treasure in itself.
From the novel's summary:
This is the story of a life-changing three-week period in the life of R. Sharma, a young graduate living in New Delhi in contemporary India. It is a story of ignorance and discovery, of illusion and reality.
After completing his undergraduate degree with high honours, R is still searching for a first job in the Indian capital. It is a deeply frustrated R that we discover at the start of this novel, a young man who has lost faith in his country and who begins to loathe it.
Fortunately, Mohini, his sparkling girlfriend knows how to cheer him up. Behind a mask of superficial frivolity characterised by a passion for Bollywood movies and their stars, she hides a clear agenda about her future and that of her boyfriend â they should leave India and emigrate to Americaâlike her cousins, who are now enjoying a regal life there. Encouraged by Mohini, R begins to nurture an American dream. After all, his elder brother Ashok is now a successful computer programmer in a Los Angeles company.
R asks Ashok for help. Initially very reluctant,âmuch to Râs bewildermentâAshok eventually agrees to help his younger brother. However, prior to Râs departure, Ashok demands that his younger brother visit their family guru, Pundit Yogish Doobay in Varanasi. Oddly, Ashok also asks R to hand-deliver gifts to five of his university friends. The young man, already daydreaming of Los Angelesâ attractions, grudgingly agrees to undertake what he feels will be a highly unpleasant three week trip across the poor and dirty country that he now despises. Unknown to him, this journey is part of a plan orchestrated by Ashok to open his younger brotherâs eyes on the hidden treasures of their country of birth.
Indeed, at every step, the journey provides plenty of surprising discoveries for the young would-be migrantâthrough experiences that re-shape his thinking and will likely change his outlook on life forever.
R starts his journey in the mystical city of Varanasi on the banks of the sacredâand highly pollutedâGanges river. There, Yogish Doobay reveals some of Indiaâs deepest philosophical and spiritual treasures: Yoga and Ayurveda, the stages and aims of life, Vastu, Maya and reality.
In Jaipur, the capital of majestic Rajasthan, R meets Colonel Singh, a direct descendant of Rajput kings who challenges some of the young manâs assumptions about Indian history and politics.
In Mumbai, the countryâs economic powerhouse, as R watches the flow of poverty-stricken rural migrants flocking into the city, he reflects upon the social and political challenges facing India and Ashraf offers him an emotionally charged taste of Hindu-Moslem relations. To Râs surprise, the gift that Ashraf unwraps looks exactly like the Colonelâs, an elephant-shaped sandalwood paperweight that conceals a hidden message. But, like the Colonel, Ashraf does not wish to discuss the mysterious gift nor its contents!
We follow R as he visits Jeremy Souza in Goa, a popular seaside resort in Southern India. There, Ashokâs friend and R discuss a few controversial aspects of the regionâs colonial past.
In the southern temple city of Madurai, R meets Nandan. The fourth of Ashokâs friends proudly shows off his new Ayurvedic clinic to the young man. He also explains why, unlike Ashok, he chose to return to his hometown after living and working several years in America. Nandanâs father, an expert Ayurvedic practitioner, introduces R to the fundamental concepts of this ancient science of healthy living.
On the last leg of his trip, R meets Gautam, the last of Ashokâs friends in Bodhgaya, a historic Buddhist pilgrimage site in rural Bihar. There, R learns from Radhaâs about the different styles of classical Indian music and dance, and the fifth of Ashokâs friends reveals to R the astounding secret of the elephant-shaped paperweightsâ¦and that of the journey. It is a shaken young man who then hurries to Varanasi to seek advice from his guru! Along the way he begins to realize the influence that this journey has had on him.
Back in Varanasi, Yogish Doobay listens sympathetically to his young disciple, and helps R to see the light and find balance through some chosen teachings from the Vedants and the Upanishads.
âRâs Journey â the Wounded Elephantâ is a novel of self-discovery that also outlines key aspects of the culture, philosophy, spirituality and history of Indiaâthe country hosting the worldâs oldest continuing civilisationâ, against a backdrop of contemporary socio-economic and political issues, at a time when more and more people are turning their eyes toward this âWounded Elephantâ struggling to rise.
This novel also aims to stimulate some thinking about immigration and its causes: poverty, underdevelopment, and the growing expectations of the youthful population of the âdevelopingâ world.