Geography, geo-dynamics and Peoples in Puranas – what Valdiya knows, Witzel doesn’t know!

 

Another revelation that Puranas have mirrored the real history of the past in diverse angles has been brought out by Prof KS Valdiya in his recent book. Dr S Kalyanaraman's review of this book is provided at the end of this post. Before reading that let us have an entertaining piece from Dr Witzel. In his post in a yahoo group (reproduced below), he has derided Prof Valdiya's book and also ridiculed the 'link' between Buddhism and Indus civilization. Perhaps he is not aware of the Indus proof on Yogic meditation – a core concept of Hindu Dharma which Buddha practiced but later developed as a separate religion by his followers.

Given below is the image found in Mohanjadaro. A man is in a seated position with his left palm kept upwards and resting on the left lap and the right palm resting on the right lap with fingers stretched down.

http://www.harappa.com/indus/46.html

 

The description in the above link just hovers around the head, the probable hair style and the dress of the figure.  The writers could not think beyond that. Perhaps they also belong to the categories of Witzel-likes, and reject what Hinduism says as imagination. They do not seem to have any interest in knowing why a man should be seated in such a position and that it had to be carved by Indus artists. If they care to look for this posture, they would know that this is the penultimate posture for a Yogi engaged in Kundalini Yoga.  This posture is called as Bhumi Sparsa mudra where the Yogi who has reached the "Enlightened" state, calls on the Mother Earth (Bhumi) to witness the enlightened state of the Yogi. The Yogi directs his right hand towards the earth while his left hand shows that he has gone up to the enlightened realm.  Gauthama Buddha attained this level which is depicted in many places like the following.

http://www.craftsinindia.com/products/bhumisparsha-buddha-plain-body-small.html

 

 

Certainly Buddha's time comes much later than the Indus period. But a similar looking posture of the enlightened Buddha which is nothing but the penultimate posture in Kundalini Yoga, to be found in Mohanjadaro undisputedly shows that Hinduism with its Yogic culture was in existence in the Indus site at that time itself.

Yet another proof of this is the much talked about "Pasupathi" which in fact was the state of attainment of Lalana Chakra in Kundalini Yoga whereby the Yogi attains the capability as 'tri-kaala jnani' – the one who knows past, present and future.

This is the Indus figure of "Pasupathi"

 

The 3 faces shown in this happens on attainment of Lalana chakra (Knower of 3 phases of Time) which lies above Ajna and below Sahasra Chakra.

The sitting posture in these figures is known as Siddhasana – the posture of the Siddhas who are engaged in raising Kundalini. For comparison see the picture given below.

 

This posture is Siddhasana where one heel is brought to the groin and the other heel is placed over the other. The same posture is Siddhasana is seen in Indus tablet.

 

Another proof that this pose is a sure case of Kundalini Yoga is known from the exaggerated Muladhara source,  shown by the arrow mark in the above figure.  

Muladhara and other chakras are shown in the picture below.

The garuda and snake in the above figure is the simplistic depiction of kundalini (compared to a snake in Yogic parlance and also because it represents the Sesha, the jeevatma) rising up only to fly as a free and strong bird. The people outside Bharat had borrowed this figure without knowing the meaning of it.

When Lalana chakra is attained which lies just below the crown, the Bheejakshara of OM occurs to the Yogi.

OM

The travel of the Kundali shakthi from Muladhra to the Crown shows that the stage is ready for Release. The Muladhara chakra in Hindu Yantra shows Vigneswara – the figure of OM, having the Sanskrit letter OM flashing out of his head. This can be seen in the Muladhara Yantra  given below.

We can see the letter OM depicted on the head of Lord Vigneswara in this Yantra worshiped in India.

This figure of OM is seen depicted in the head of the Indus Yogi as follows.

The depiction of the horn like feature above the head of the Yogi in the Indus figure is indeed the attainment of Lalana chakra.

Further up, when he attains sahsara chakra, he is said to have attained the ultimate Enlightenment. It is depicted as the growing of the Asvattha tree.

Finer details of the attainment in the form of Asvattha is also depicted in Indus tablets as follows.

The Unicorn figures in the above picture stands for Dharma – a depiction of Varaha. Varaha, the single horned Boar (Eka shringi) stands for Dharma according the narration in Mahabharata.  For Witzel it could be an imagination, but the Indus features contain the image of this imagination! When the yogi attains this state he himself becomes the symbol of Dharma which is what Buddha became. The Dharma or Dhamma is represented as a chakra – the same chakra that is seen in the seals of Unicorn (Varaha)

Chakra with Asvattha.

 

Varaha yantra too has the chakra in the middle. It is shown below.

 

 

What I have shown here is just one idea. There are several others which can be known if the researcher knows the Hindu texts. The Indus culture cannot be understood without accepting the underlying culture as Vedic / Hindu.

-          Jayasree

******************

From Indo-Eurasian Reserach Yahoo group mail:-

another weekend: Valdiya on Puranas & Indus and the Buddha

Posted by: "Michael Witzel" witzel@fas.harvard.edu   witzel_michael

Sun Apr 22, 2012 3:01 pm (PDT)

Dear All,

unfortunately, we can easily point out something like the following each weekend. No end to the imaginary histories of ancient India.

S.K. Valdiya,
Geography, Peoples, and Geodynamics of India in Puranas and Epics".
New Delhi: Aryan Books 2012
(Rupees 500). pp. xxxii + 244

In this book the well-known geologist equates the holocene with the "Chaturyuga" eons of the Epics and Puranas, that can, at best, be dated around 2000 years ago. No matter: the authors of these texts "were quite knowledgeable about the origin, evolution and progression of life, including the coming of man, the interiror of the earth," etc. etc. etc.

Of course, India or the subcontinent are equated with "Bharatvarsha" (with North Indian mispelling, as for other terms throughout this book). And: "it seems that the [imagined "author' of the Mahabharata Epic and all Puranas...] Krishna Dvaipāyan Vyas wrote most of the Puran volumes sometime after [the god] Krishna left Mathura and before the great civil war….[that] happened 3500 years ago."

Unlike his many scientific publications, he has no problem here to separate the Sciences from the largely imaginary religious texts. Just like in his earlier book on the Sarasvati River, some ten years ago.

===========

To top it off,
a "link" has now been established by one Daniel Salas between earliest Tibetan Buddhism (Padmasambhava) and the Indus civilization. Not to forget the fake birch bark pages (at Kabul), discussed (negatively) by Lucy Zuberbuehler in her undergraduate thesis at Bern U.

Here his links:
See: <Kabul Artifact and the 8Th Buddhist Padmasambhava>
Padmasambhava was born into a Brahmin family of the Indus Valley and raised by one of the 8Th century Shahis of Kabul / Ghandara.

<http://www.indoeurohome.com/kakutstha.html>

below a link to Kabul artifact
<http://www.indoeurohome.com/LucyZuberbuehlerindusscriptmss2009.pdf>

Enjoy!

Michael

************************

From

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/04/geography-peoples-and-geodynamics-of_23.html

by Dr S Kalyanaraman.

Geography, Peoples and Geodynamics of India in Puranas and Epics - KS Valdiya (2012).

A tour de force on Indian history.

Geography, Peoples and Geodynamics of India in Puranas and Epics - KS Valdiya (2012), New Delhi, Aryan Books International, ISBN 978-81-7305-431-0 A brilliant book with insights provided by an eminent geologist, Prof. KS Valdiya is a must read by every child on the globe. I can do no better than Prof. Shivaji Singh's foreword to the book from which the following excerpt is provided: "Various factors sum up to make a study valuable and expedient. The reach and scope of the topic selected, the significance of the primary data used, the propriety of the line of approach followed, the sobriety of the inferences drawn and conclusions arrived at, and above all, the competence of the scholar to do justice to his subject are, admittedly, the most potent ones among them.

 

And, I have no hesitation in stating that this book, authored by KS Valdiya, is worthwhile on all these counts...As a well-informed geo-scientist of the 21st century, Prof. Valdiya is fully aware of the nature of networking between and among various natural subsystems, geomorphology, climate, flora and fauna and its bearing on human habitat...The present study collects and reproduces several epic and Puranic descriptions that clearly indicate tectonic movements, such as the sudden uplift of Vindhya Giri at the occasion of age Agastya's journey towards South India or the abrupt sinking into sea of Dwaraka soon after Lord Krishna's death. What is the most noteworthy point in this context is that this study authenticates these episodes on the basis of modern earth-scientific evidence. This indicates that these descriptions are not spurious, as suspected by many, but based on real happenings...

 

The identification of Epic-Puranic mega-island Jambudveepa and its various constituent lands, called 'varshas', is masterly and trustworthy. It may be noted that except for one of these varshas, namely, Bharatavarsha or the land of Bharatas (which was the India of pre-partition times), the exact location of others was almost unknown so far...Some of the inferences drawn and conclusions arrived at in this study are extremely thought-provoking and truly seminal. For instance, it is demonstrated authoritatively that Purana scholars' conception on the origin, evolution and progression of life -- including he coming of man -- is compatible with modern palaeontologists' deductions based on fossil rcords...almost all the Jyotirlingas...are located in places characterized by very spectacular, unique landforms and extraordinary geological featurees shaped by uncommon earth processes...evidence on the basis of comprehensive geological and bathymetric investigations backed by by tell-tale satellite picture has been adduced to show that it would not have been much difficult to build a bridge of sorts to link Rameshwaram with Lanka...

 

Needless to say, these findings amply testify to the authenticity of the Epic-Puranic descriptios. The last one,it may be noted en passant, has even a far reaching implication for the highly debated issue of the original homeland of the early Aryans. Interestingly, the author has equated the 12,000-year-long Chaturyuga (Krita, Treta, Dwapara and Kali) with geologists' Holocene epich, which is the 11,000-year-long period of social and cultural development of humans." Prof. Valdiya's insightful presentation has been exquisitely presented in mellifluent prose embellished with colourful satellite and other images and maps. This is a book which will be debated and deliberated upon for a long time to come among scholars and academics engaged in civilizational studies. It may even change the views of those who hang on to the relic of Aryan invasion/migration/trickle-in models to describe the peopling of early India and make them agree to an indigenous, autochthonous evolution of the present-day Bharatiyas who have constituted an Indian sprachbund (language union).

 

The book is a challenge to explorers to rewrite the true history of Bharatavarsha, the nation of Bharatam janam mentioned by Rishi Viswamitra in the Rigveda. The comprehensive geological view of the Puranas and Epics can be seen from the Table of Contents of the splendid book:

1. Purans: the ancient history

2. Geography of modern India and changes of landforms with time

3. Puranland: position and extent

4. Mountains of Bharatvarsh

5. Rivers of Bharatvarsh

6. Flora and fauna of Bharatvarsh

7. Peoples of the Puranland

8.Teerths and holy shrines

9. Ashrams and Purs

10. Tectonic movements and natural hazards Manifestaton of tectonic movements Uplift of Vindhya Giri Sinking of Western coastal tract Earthquakes and tsunamis Rivers changed courses Climate changes Concept of Pralaya

11. Understanding of geology and knowledge of engineering Scholars' grasp of sciences Nature of earth's interior Evolution of life Progression of life Anthropo-social development of humans Natural gases, mineral, metals and metallurgy Engineering of bridge building Town planning Knowledge of aerodynamics

12. Long summary of the book References Index Kalyanaraman