This blog aims at bringing out the past glory and history of India, Hinduism and its forgotten values and wisdom. This is not copyrighted so as to reach genuine seekers of these information. Its my prayer that only genuine seekers - and not vandals & plagiarists - come to this site.
I am delighted to share
the news about the A3 Conclave organized by Voice of Covai in Coimbatore. The
conclave, which took place on November 30 and December 1, 2024, at Codissia,
brought together 27 speakers, including myself, to discuss the significance of
Bharatiya culture in shaping India's identity and future.
The A3 Conclave,
which stands for "Awake, Arise, Assert," aimed to promote and
celebrate Bharatiya values and Sanatana Dharma. I am glad to be part of this
inaugural event, which was conceived to inspire and empower individuals to
assert their cultural heritage.
As one of the
speakers, I had a fantastic opportunity to share my insights and engage with
like-minded individuals. The conclave was indeed a thought-provoking platform
for discussion, debate, and assertion of the timeless wisdom and principles
that have sustained our nation.
The event
coincided with the return of Sri Annamalai, President of TN BJP, from his
3-month research stint at Oxford University. He graced the occasion as the
chief guest and delivered his first public address after his return.
The conclave faced
unexpected challenges due to heavy rainfall along the east coast of India,
resulting in delayed and cancelled flights. Unfortunately, Union Minister Sri
L. Murugan was unable to attend and inaugurate the event as scheduled.
On November 30, I
presented a talk titled "இதிஹாசப்பார்வையில்ஆரியப்படையெடுப்பும், ஹரப்பன்நாகரிகமும்" (Aryan Invasion Theory and Harappan
Civilization in the light of Itihasa). My presentation delved into genetic
studies on the Yamnaya culture, analyzing the movement of people from Europe preceded
by an earlier movement of people from Bharat to Europe through the lens of
Ramayana events. Additionally, I explored the Harappan culture from the
perspective of Mahabharata, shedding new light on the ancient civilization. I also
made a case for re-naming the Harappan culture as “Mahabharata Culture”.
In connection with Tipu Jayanti in November, I gave an interview to Tamil Janam TV on Tipu's atrocities.
I talked about many facets of Tipu, such as his rigor in religious conversion, temple destruction, and the horrific killing of the Mandayam Iyengars. The places raided by Tipu and his father Hyder Ali had left a trail of destruction and also conversion. I pointed out evidences of temples ransacked by them and how people had to flee their home towns to escape their fury. Popular example is that of the former Chief Minister of TN, Mr. MG Ramachandran (MGR) whose ancestors fled from Pollachi to Palakkad to escape the wrath of Hyder Ali.
I also pointed out the genetic research that shows Muslims of India, particularly in places like Tamilnadu and Kerala were converts. This is established by common ancestry between them and the Hindus in the neighborhood. Genetics show cultural change from Hinduism to Islam and no foreign component in the Muslims.
In this, I talk about whether there is a connection between climatic changes and the Yuga. Earlier in a movie, it was shown that people saved the essentials to escape on a ship, expecting that the world would be destroyed due to change of Time. This is how Vaivaswata Manu escaped a flood. I explained how Manu had known in advance the coming of a flood by observing the behavior of a fish.
I also explained many details about Time, the changes that occurred with Time, the first flood that brought Manu to the River Saraswati, the place where he reached after being swept away by the flood and the first rains in the Indian sub-continent.
I concluded this series by saying that these details have no connection with Yuga. Yuga is a different genre which I explained in the previous parts of this series.
In this, I have talked about the 24,000-year Yuga calculation given by Yukteshwar Giri. He says that Yuga is based on the precession cycle. This concept is based on the idea that the earth's axis keeps moving backwards; it takes 24,000 years to complete one circle. This is called precession; this cycle of 24,000 years is considered to be divided into four yugas, according to Yukteshwar Giri.
This concept is not mentioned in our scriptures. Based on the astrological texts like Surya Siddhanta, there is no precession; but the sun moves forwards and backwards. That is, the sun does not move in a straight line in the universe. It moves in a winding path like a snake. Everything in the universe moves in a spiral.
To us who travel with the sun, this curved path looks as though the sun is moving forwards and backwards.
Also, the earth's axis does not move. If it is true that it moves, then on the days of equinox (equal day and equal night), the sun will not be visible in the middle of our temple towers. I have explained such details in this part to establish that Yukteshwar Giri's version is not correct and that the Yuga concept is not based on precession.
In this, I explain how the calculation of the beginning of Kali Maha Yuga is different from the calculation of the beginning of Kali Dharma Yuga. The source for this is Srimad Bhagavatam.
The differences are mentioned in 12th chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam. Kali Maha Yuga began when Krishna left this world. That was 3101 B.C. We are now following that as our calendric years.
Kali Dharma Yuga began when the Sapta Rishis entered Magha Nakshatra. At that time, the Nandas were ruling. That was 575 B.C. I explained the cycle of the Sapta Rishis and also why it is said that Kali Dharma began during the time of the Nandas. I also explained how its time was discovered.
Following this, a question was asked whether Sadhguru's version of Yuga cycle is true. He says that currently we are in the Dwapara Yuga. My answer can be watched in this video.
My replies to the following questions can be seen in this video.
# Were people very tall in Krita Yuga and short in Kali Yuga?
# It is said that man lived for 4000 years in Krita Yuga? Is this true?
# Nilesh Oak says that the Ramayana period is 12,209 BC. Is that true?
# He too claims to have based his derivation of the date from Valmiki Ramayana. It is different from the date I have derived. How could the same source (Valmiki Ramayana) give rise to two different dates?
I am sharing the feedback of AdvocateRavi Rajagopalanabout my historical research book "Who Killed Aditya Karikala".
While expressing my sincere gratitude for his appreciation of my work, I am thrilled to know that it has resonated with him from his professional point of view. Such kind of feedback fuels my passion for research into historical conundrums of the past. Many thanks to him.
Independent Practicing Advocate | Counsel, Ravi Rajagopalan Associates | Foreign Lawyer at Marsans Gitlin Baker UK
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Trivia: The Cholas did not adhere to the rule of agnatic primogeniture in their succession protocol- they adopted co-regency and selected the most accomplished, as the co-ruler from amongst the male descendants by applying the law of tanistry I am making this post not to discuss the movie "Ponniyin Selvan" but to point out how historians wrongly applied the imperial succession rules and got the entire line of Chola Kings and their regnal years wrong. The great chroniclers and historians of the Chola history, from the last century, namely Prof Nilakanta Sastri and Sadasiva Pandarathar completely overlooked two aspects:
1. There was no single King. There were 2 royals at the same point who ruled with equal powers, in what is called as Co-Regency. 2. If one of them died the surviving Regent appointed another one. 3. The selection was from the available males in the ruling clan and the person chosen was not necessarily the first born or the senior most. It was a person who in the opinion of the ruling family was most valorous and competent to preserve, protect and defend the dominion/ kingdom. In essence the historians of the last century while putting the genealogy, the line of succession of Chola kings and their regnal years, completely overlooked these two aspects – namely one of co-regency and the other being adoption of tanistry in contrast the rule of agnatic primogeniture. So, they got the regnal years all wrong because they simply presumed that the eldest always succeeded and there was only one sovereign at any point in time. Thus, for example Aditya Karikala who was also called as Parthivendra Varman (remember that his brother Raja Raja was Arulmozhi Varman) was an actual reigning sovereign co-regent and ruled as a King between 961-976 CE and he anointed Uttama Chola as a co-regent after his father Sundara Chola died. Popular versions and even in the film "Ponniyin Selvan", Aditya Karikala is depicted only as a Crown Prince and he died even before his father Sundara Chola, in the year 969AD. Now this eye-popping alternate/correct version of Chola history is subject of the research and book by DrJayasree Saranathanwho has published her findings in her book in Tamil (“ஆதித்த கரிகாலனைக் கொன்றது யார்?”) and its English translation titled “Who killed Āditya Karikāla?: The historical facts” available in print/Kindle. She has relied on solid evidence to advance her propositions. Why this post : From a legal perspective the supposed imperial monarchical convention followed by the Cholas which accounts for the correct assessment of the regnal years of Chola kings, the aspects of primo geniture as well as the quaint succession law of tanistry made an interesting study for me. History certainly needs to be rewritten and lineages and succession lines redrawn. I would certainly recommend reading this book in Tamil if you can and if you cant, the English version should be the second best.
**
To get the print copy of the book in English, write to jayasreebooks@gmail.com
This is the fourth part in a series of my talks about Yuga given to Dheivam Channel.
I have explained that the Maha Yuga, which is a part of the Kalpa called day or night of the life of the creator God Brahma, is different from the Dharma based Yuga in which Rama was born.
The time period of creation and destruction of the entire world and also of the Universe is measured in Maha Yuga scale. But in the case of human life, the twin existence of Dharma and Adharma measure time. In other words, the Yuga Dharma determines a Yuga. Whenever the Dharma of a Yuga decreases, God incarnates. When Treta Yuga Dharma decreased, Rama incarnated.
The existence of Yuga Dharma and avatara-s of God to protect Yuga Dharma happen only in the land of Bharat. To put it in another way, Dharma based Yuga happens only in Bharat. In contrast, the yuga of Brahma's Kalpa, which consists of millions of years, is common to the entire world.
When a Maha yuga changes, disasters occur on cosmic or global scale. 5000 years ago, before the beginning of the Kali Maha Yuga such a disaster was caused by a break-away comet hitting the earth. It caused Amavasya to advance to Trayodasi tithi. Many old-timers would have seen this as a story in the movie 'Karna'. That story was not a figment of imagination but a real event mentioned in the Mahabharata. It caused a change in Time. The unusual Amavasya on Trayodasi resulted in the loss of a tithi, with a new alignment of star-tithi which continues till date.
This loss of tithi when extrapolated to Rama's time (before that catastrophic event in the Mahabharata time) gets reflected in the mismatch of Rama's birth star Punarvasu, with Rama's birth tithi (Shukla Navami) when the Sun is in Mesha.
In the 3rd part of the Yuga series given to Dheivam Channel, I explained how the Treta Yuga in which Rama lived is determined.
The basis is Yuga Dharma in which Dharma and Adharma co-exist in the ratio of 3:1.
In such a Yuga, Rajasa will be high. Since the kings were over-zealous with Rajasa, Parashurama incarnated to subdue the Rajasic kshatriyas.
Rama lived in the same period as an avatara. Avatara-s occur to protect the Yuga Dharma. Shambuka Vadha was done by Rama to restore the balance of Dharma and Adharma in Treta Yuga. Details such as this are given in this video. Please watch and share.
In the first part I explained the meaning of Yuga.
In this section (2nd part), I explained how Yuga described in Vedanga Jyothisha is different from what is described in Jyothisha Siddhanta. In Vedanga Jyothisha, 5-year yuga is given, whereas Jyothisha Siddhanta-s describe Yuga in lakhs of years in the context of Brahma Deva's age. During Rama's time, the 5-year was in vogue. In our current times, we follow the Maha Yuga system which is actually used to measure Time from Creation to Destruction.
I also explained how these two types of yugas are calculated. I have given the details about Krita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali as numbers, by citing the use of them in the dice game in the Mahabharata.
Taking clue from Sathyabhama's story of bringing Parijatha plant from Indra loka and the presence of Dwaravati culture in Myanmar to the south of Mt. Popa, I decoded the story of Krishna killing Narakasura.
I have spoken about it in this video. Please watch and share.
Deepavali is celebrated as Naraka Chaturdasi in Tamilnadu whereas it is a five-day festival in North India. In this interview to Mediyaan News Channel, I explained the genesis of Deepavali as a 3 day festival in memory of Mahabali and how it expanded to a five-day festival during Krishna's time.
I also replied to the questions that are currently circulating.
* Is Diwali an Aryan festival?
* Is Narakasura a Tamilian?
* Is Diwali just about celebrating the killing of a Tamilian?
* Isn't this a northern festival?
* What are the evidences for Deepavali celebrated in Tamil lands?
* Tamilians light lamps only for Karthigai? Isn't that a Tamil festival?
There is a lot of confusion about Yuga particularly in the context of Avatara-s.
To clarify, I have given a series of interviews to Dheivam Channel replying to various doubts and questions on Yuga.
Here is the first part wherein I explain the meaning of Yuga.
You will be surprised to know that Yugas are many and sage Agastya had mentioned 18 different types of yugas including the popularly known Krita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali yuga.
I have talked about the education system introduced by Macaulay which continues to this day. Macaulay's aim was religious conversion. Macaulay has written that not a single Hindu or Muslim will remain in India in the next 30 years with the education policy he brought. He also wrote that the time was ripe to convert all Indians into to Anglo-Indians.
His methodology was three-fold: (1) Make Indians to think like the westerner though they may remain Indian in blood and colour. (2) Make Indians look at their scriptures such as Vedas from western prism. (3) Make Indians look at their regional languages and culture from western outlook.
To achieve the first, he replaced the then existing self-sufficient education system by English education to cater to his clerical needs.
The achieve the second, he asked Max Muller to interpret the Vedas from a Western perspective, Max Muller fulfilled his wish by inventing Aryan invasion in the Vedas and made Indians believe that Aryans came from Europe to conquer the Indians. Brahmins were the residual Aryans, according to them.
His third aim was fulfilled by Caldwell who taught us that Tamil was Dravidian and that our culture was Dravidian who were driven out by the Aryans from their habitat in the Indus.
Macaulay, Max Muller, and Caldwell were the Tri-Murthi-s who destroyed Indian education and culture. I discussed these details with data on how the old education system was self sufficient and how it was destroyed.
Macaulay's education led to a situation where one has to pay to get education. Not everyone got education. Mahatma Gandhi had said that at the Round Table Conference in 1931 and also highlighted how it increased the poverty level.
Mahakavi Bharathiar wrote in his autobiography how the Macaulay education ruined him. His father sent him to study in that educational system, but it was expensive; he did not gain knowledge,
To show the world what Gandhiji had said then, that the English had destroyed the roots of our 'beautiful tree' of education, Dharampal titled his book as 'The Beautiful Tree' in which he compiled all the available evidence on how the Indian education system worked wonderfully until the British destroyed it. To the best of my ability, in the time available, I have explained how we had progressed in many fields like astronomy, astrology, sculpture, weaving, etc.
I also talked about the economic growth in the past 2000 years as given by an English economist named Madison. According to his statement, from the year 1 of the Common Era to 1820, we were creating 45% of the world's production. After the advent of Macaulay education, our industries collapsed.
Like a piece of junk food, the talk of 'Dravidam' keeps raising its head from time to time. When it was the talk of the town during Karunanidhi's rule, some 13 years ago, I started a website named "Thamizhan Dravidana" to study the Dravidian concept and had written more than a hundred research articles. Read a sample article here.
The recently released movie 'Vettaiyan' starring with super hero-s like Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan created a stir by the opening verse on Lord Macauley that he was responsible for bringing education for all which was denied until then. I was asked about the veracity of this observation and my replies were telecast by Janam TV (Tamil) channel.
I bring out the facts about the existence of a national universal education throughout India for ages which was uprooted by Macaulay. It resulted in closure of traditional schools and impoverished the masses. This also gave rise to child labour for the first time in India. How that happened can be learnt from my interview here:
Due to pre-occupations, I couldn't post some of my videos in the past few weeks.
Let me start uploading here one by one starting with my interview in Mediyaan News Channel on Ayudha puja.
In this interview I am answering questions such as
# Is Ayudha Puja an Arya festival?
# Why should we celebrate it?
# Does celebration of Ayudha Puja mean celebration of violence?
I also pointed out the details of the Vettuva Vari in Silappadhikaram as the earliest evidence of Ayudha Puja.
Apart from that, the 'TuRai" called VaaN Mangalam mentioned in Tolkappiyam shows that there was a practice of worshiping weapons. In connection with that, there is a Purananuru verse about Avvaiyar talking to Tondaimaan.
In Pari Paadal there is also a description of Mallars decorating their weapons.
All these are not pujas done just for the sake of preparing for the war.
It is a pooja performed every year on Maha Navami which is the day of Ayudha Puja.
In this connection, I discussed the epigraphical evidence and literary evidence found in Periya Puranam.
A comet is going to appear in our skies after 80,000 years.
Named as C/2023/A3(Tsuchinshan- ATLAS), this comet is making a brief but spectacular appearance in October for about 9 days. The appearance of this comet coinciding with the month of Purattasi (Virgo) which is auspicious for the worship of Bhagavan Venkateshwara, a question arises whether this comes as a fore-warning or a signal to us in the wake of adulteration of ghee with animal fats in the preparation of Laddu Prasada in Thirumala.
Since such kind of mundane results are indicated by the ancient rishis and recorded in Brihat Samhita by Varahamihira, I picked out such kind of results indicated for this comet when I was asked in a brief interview in Thanthi TV. It can be watched below:
Following this interview in Tamil, I received requests from viewers to give detailed information about this comet and the Sanatan views on comets. The videos I created as a result in Tamil and English are given below.
