Vedic Chanting – a Perfectly Formulated Oral Tradition -- Dr. S. Yegnasubramanian

The following article explains the many unknown information on Vedic chanting. It is an eye opener too for the current generation which sees Vedas as a book whereas it is a oral wonder.

Of particular interest to me at the current juncture is the information that only 2 of the 8 forms of recitals are found in Krishna Yajur Veda which is prevalent in South India whereas all the 8 are found in Shukla yajur Veda which is prevalent in North India. As I am preparing my next article (in Tamil) in Thamizan Dravidanaa series, with inputs from commentary by Nacchinaarkkiniayar to the sutra in Tholkaappiyam (Ancient Tamil grammar work), this article adds strength to my perception that Krishna yajur veda is the oldest and was transferred from a long lost Shaka dweepa through Pandyan's Kumari land to the Tamil speaking brahmins who spread from the lost land to the Venkata malai (Thirumala hilla) for thousands of years. Vedic knowledge of Tamil brahmins had been inherent in that community - not transferred from the North - but a continuing practice form a distant past. The below article adds a new input to that perception.

To explain to non -Tamil readers the information in my current series in the Tamil blog (the link is given in the side bar),  my perception is that the Vedas had existed 10,000 years ago in the now submerged lands in the Indian ocean which originally housed Shaka dweepa many years before that and later gave rise to the kingdom of Pandyans with the help of  Agasthya who formulated written form forTamil.

A branch of people from that olden land -that existed even before the Pandyas - moved to the Arabian sea where considerable land was above the sea level off the Arabian coast about 20,000 years ago. Vaivasvatha Manu belonged to that place from where he entered Sarasvathy river when a sudden sea-level rise happened after the end of Ice age. He and his people were carried by the surging floods that took them through the River Sarasvathy which was more than 3 kilometres wide at that time. (about 13,000 to 15,000 years ago).The sages he brought along with them settled down in the Sarasvathy basin and made Rik Vedas. The knowledge of Yajur veda (for sacrifices) was already there with them which is known from the description  that the children of Manu were born as a result of the yajnas done by them.

The knowledge of yajur vedas had existed in the Shaka dweepa (later the land of Pandyans) as the system of 4 varnas was there in Shaka dweepa. (the articles in the internet tracing Shaka dweepa to Iran or central Asia is wrong. My subsequent posts in Tamil will show why). The Tamils extended from the deep southern part until Venkata hills (Thirumala hills) even before the time when Manu settled in Sarasvathy basin They had the knowledge of Yajur veda and not Rik Veda. The Krishna yajur Vedas perhaps was the oldest vedas that was present in Shaka dweepa, continued in  Pandyan's kumari lands and retained by the Tamil Brahmins.

This is an exhaustive topic that is going on in my Tamil blog and would need 30+ articles to complete it. The non- Tamil readers would be wondering or confused about what I have written here. I request them to wait for some more time when I will start writing the series in English. (Or if some one could help me with translation, they are most welcome). It covers not only the question of who is a Dravida but also the origins of the people of Bharath derived from internal evidence such as Ramayana and Mahabharata and supported by genetic revelations and other branches of study.

-jayasree

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

From

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2011/07/vedic-chanting-perfectly-formulated.html

Vedic Chanting – a Perfectly Formulated Oral Tradition -- Dr. S. YEGNASUBRAMANIAN
http://www.svbf.org/journal/vol1no2/chanting.pdf

Our tradition believes that the Vedas are the breath of God Himself!

With that belief, our Rishis exercised enormous care to preserve the Vedas in its original form without the infiltration of any errors. Especially in the absence of writing, and through only an oral transmission from father-to- son or teacher-to-disciple, for thousands of years, this is an accomplishment of unimaginable proportion! Considering the vast magnitude of mantras contained in the vedas, such a preservation, with built-in safeguards, is mind boggling! 

It is believed that the complete benefit of Veda mantras could be achieved only when the following conditions are met:
¨ Correct pronunciation of letters (words)
¨ Correct duration for utterance of letters (words) – and,
¨ Correct intonation of letters,

Our Rishis prescribed several fool-proof methods to correctly recite the veda mantras. 

Six ways of recitation were considered incorrect and they are :

One who chants in a sing-song fashion , who chants fast , who nods his head up and down without actually raising or
lowering the pitch , who reads from a book , who chants without knowing the meaning , and who chants in a feeble voice , are considered incorrect .

They believed that altering the pitch even (without any change in words and duration), might lead to diametrically opposite effects, as related in the story of Vrtra who, instead of killing Indra, got killed by Indra by just a change in the intonation alone of the mantras chanted by Vrtra's father, Tvashta. 

The rules of correct pronunciation and articulation of sounds are given in the Vedanga, known as Seeksha. Seeksha deals with varNa (letters), svara: (pitch); [there are essentially three svaras, namely, anudatta (gravely accented or low pitched), udatta (high pitched or acutely accented), svarita (circumflexly accented)] maatraa (duration – a prosodial unit of time); balam (strength or force of articulation); saama (uniformity); and santaana: (continuity) during recitation.

Our ancestors devised unique methods to protect and maintain the basic Veda mantras in its original form through various patterns and combinations of recitation. The basic mantra is called vakya or samhita paatha which is a full sentence.
Splitting them word by word is known as pada paatha , which gives the knowledge of each word to the student. 

Next is krama paatha , where the first word of the mantra is added to the second, the second to the third and so on, until the
whole mantra is completed. This method enables the student not only to know individual words but also how to combine words in recitation and the changes in svara that occur as a result of such combination. 

Both Pada and Krama methods of chanting retain the natural order of words of the samhita paatha and so, are known as prakrti or natural. For example, if we take sentence consisting of six words a-b-c-d-e-f, in samhita paatha, it will be chanted as six separate words a, b, c, d, e and f in pada paatha will be recited as a-b, b-c, c-d, d-e, and e-f in krama paatha. Actually, a reciter proficient in chanting in the krama format is honored as a kramavit !

In addition, they devised eight other combinations which do not follow the natural order, and are known as vikriti or
artificial order. The vikritis are given in the following verse: They are, jataa, maalaa, sikhaa, rekhaa, dhwaja, danda, ratha and ghana. 

Among these only jataa and ghana are prevalent (or, only !) practices in the Krishna Yajur Veda which is mostly predominant in the South. In Sukla Yajur Veda, which is mostly predominant in Banaras and in the North, (the Madhyandina and Kanva schools) all the eight vikritis were practiced. 

However, today, there may not be any scholars at all who might know all these vikritis Jataa (braid) paatha In the above example, the six words in the line, when chanted in the jataa format becomes, a-b-b-a-a-b; b-c-c-b-b-c; c-d-d-c-c-d; d-e-ed-d-e; e-f-f-e-e-f and so on. As can be seen, the forward-reverseforward arrangement of words resemble the way ladies braid their hair, and so this practice of chanting is termed jataa! 

Two types of maalaa (garland) exist: a)krama maalaa and b) pushpa maalaa. 

This is simialr to krama paatha in that two-word units with the characteristic overlapping are the foundation. sikhaa
(top knot) is similar to jataa except that, instead of two words being repeated forwards and backwards, three words are linked.
Recitations in rekhaa (row), dhwaja (flag), dand (staff), and ratha (chariot) are more complex and the reader can refer to Wayne Howard [2] for details. 

Mention can be made here that there are three of ratha, namely, dvipaada (two wheels), tripaada (three wheels) and catuspaada (4 wheels). Each wheel corresponds to a quarter verse (paada) of the text. Among these, dvipaada catuspaada varieties are the ratha types most widely cultivated today.

Ghana (bell) paatha
This is one of the most popular format of recitations and requires years of learning and practice by the student. A scholar proficient in recitation in this format is honored as a ghana paathi . Here the arrangement of words take the shape of a bell.
For example, the group of words a-b-c-d-e-f mentioned earlier, when chanted in the ghana format will be, a-b-b-a-a-b-c-c-b-a-a-bc; b-c-c-b-b-c-d-d-c-b-b-d; and so on.

The earliar illustration of six words, when written in ghana format will appear as follows:
Please note that, what was originally six words in the samhita, evolve in to about sixty words in the ghana format – a ten fold
increase in this case – that gives an idea of how complex the chanting can become with larger sections of the mantras !! We can
now appreciate the rigor a ghana pathi has to go through in his education to learn, by heart, the thousands of mantras, to be able to recite in ghana format.

Our Rishis devised all these elaborate and complicated system of chanting in order to preserve the purity of the sound, word,
pronunciation, intonation , pitch and sound combination of the veda mantras which are the foundation for our sanaatana dharma itself.

Also, repetition of words in many ways, the correct tally of words was also maintained which ensured the purity. They also believed that higher merits (punya) accompany greater complexities in chanting – for example, a ghana recitation is several orders higher in merit than jataa recitation, which is higher in merit than krama recitation and so on.

Wayne Howard [2] noted in the preface of his book, "Vedic Recitation in Varanasi", "The four Vedas (Rg, Yajur, Sama and
Atharva) are not "books" in the usual sense, though within the past hundred years each veda has appeared in several printed editions.They are comprised rather of tonally accented verses and hypnotic, abstruse melodies whose proper realizations demand oral instead of visual transmission. They are robbed of their essence when transferred to paper, for without the human element the innumerable nuances and fine intonations – inseparable and necessary components of all four compilations - are lost completely. The ultimate authority in Vedic matters is never the printed page but rather the few members … who are today keeping the centuries-old traditions alive."

It is unfortunate that there is very little subscription to this education these days and it is an important duty of all of us to
ensure that this education is encouraged and adequate support is given to promote and propagate it.

References
1. "The Vedas", Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay 1988.
2. "Veda Recitation in Varanasi", Wayne Howard, Motilal Banarasidass, Delhi 1986. 

Dr. S. Yegnasubramanian ( President, SVBF) is a scientist at Bell Labs., NJ. He has been teaching vedic recitation & vedanta for several years.

Kalyanaraman

http://tinyurl.com/3mrkhea (Author: Rastram)

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/

https://sites.google.com/site/kalyan97/indus-script-cipher
https://sites.google.com/site/indianoceancommunity1/
https://sites.google.com/site/bharatasahitya/

When museums 'house' Gods....

Received this mail from a regular reader Mr Bala on an exhibition in New York featuring the images and paintings on Lord Vishnu. I am posting it below as I thought that the links (on the museum and the review of the museum) speak loudly about what kind of degradation of Hinduism could happen  when Gods are 'paraded' in museums and in places where the people have no idea of Hindu Gods and Hinduism. This mail is timely as we hear people talking about exhibiting the articles found in the cellars of Padmanabha Swamy temple in a museum.

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

From Mr Bala

One of the suggestions given by a few people regarding the treasures found
at the Anantha Padmanabha Swami temple is to hold an exhibition with the
treasures unearthed.


Whether any exhibition is going to be held near the temple in the near
future or not no one knows, but there is an ongoing exhibition currently in
New York at the Brooklyn Museam from June 24 to October 2, 2011.


The focus is on Vishnu with about 170 sculptures, paintings and ritual
objects that were made in India between the fourth and twentieth centuries.


Here is the link for the museum's website :

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/vishnu/index.php


Here is the link for the review of the exhibition in New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/arts/design/vishnu-hinduisms-savior-at-brooklyn-museum-review.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1#<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/arts/design/vishnu-hinduisms-savior-at-brooklyn-museum-review.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1> 

'The treasures belong to the deity' - Dr R.Nagaswamy

http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/op-ed/do-the-treasures-belong-to-the-temple/292407.html

Do the treasures belong to the temple?

By

R Nagaswamy
Director of Archaeology, Tamil Nadu.
Email: urnagaswamy@gmail.com


The question whether the treasures (temple offerings) recently brought
to light in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple belong to the state or the
temple is debated, with some asserting they belong to the state while
others claim they belong to the temple. But neither of them seem to
know either the ancient tradition or the modern situation. The entire
nation and perhaps the world must pay the highest tribute to the
Maharajas of Travancore and their families for having preserved this
collection meticulously all these years as true servants of
Padmanabhaswamy as they called themselves Padmanabha Dasas.


The main question that has escaped the debaters is to whom were these
offerings made? There is no doubt that these were devout offerings to
Lord Padmanabha. We have tens of thousands of written records by way
of inscriptions spread all over the country from early historical
times to modern times which show that such offerings were made to the
God and not to the temple. From the second century BC to the modern
times the offerings were recorded to have been made to the deity. In
the Pallava inscriptions assignable to 3rd or 4th century we find
specific mention that the gifts were made to the deity. There are many
inscriptions from Kerala almost from 9th century onwards recording
gifts to the deities.


A question that caused intricate examination was whether an
all-pervasive and omnipotent God could be treated as a juristic
entity. Whether He can own property? The ancient Indians got over this
subtle and abstract theological point by holding that God acts through
his representative. In the case of Siva temples the transactions were
made in the name of Chandikesvara, and in the case of Vishnu temples
it was Vishvaksena and so on.


This question had come up in many court cases in the late 19th and
20th centuries in different parts of India during the British rule. In
all these cases the courts have delivered judgments that the main
deity is accepted as a jurist entity. The latest significant judgment
on this point came in the London Nataraja case wherein the trial judge
of the London High court mentioned that in the western world this
question does not arise because they do not believe God could be a
juristic person, but in India and Asian countries this is an accepted
position in law. Delivering his judgment the judge observed that the
ruined Chola temple of Pattur, so long as even one stone belonging to
the temple built by the Chola chieftain remains in situ, the temple
continues to exist in the eye of law and has the right to own the
property and so the metal image of Nataraja must be returned to the
temple. The judge came to this conclusion after examining many
decisions of court cases conducted in India. According to the ancient
Hindu law (the Dharma Sastras) one cannot make a gift unless it is
legally acquired. (The ancient Indian law does not permit acceptance
of illegal money or the conferment of spiritual merit for the same).
Such gifts are brought under the category called Dana. This is
signaled by the donor who had the legal right of ownership
relinquishing his right over the material or property gifted, by
pouring water in the hand of the donee. An exemplary instance of 12th
century in 1111 AD (exactly 900 years ago ) is recorded in an
inscription in which Kulottunga Chola I entered in the Uraham temple
of Kanchipuram and his queen gave a golden vessel with water and the
king made a gift of land by pouring water in the hand of the Lord.
Once the gift is made he had no further claim over it.




All the money, jewels, coins, etc. found in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple
were presented with great veneration and with sincere prayers that
their family and the public at large will be bestowed with prosperity.


According to a modern professor who neither knows ancient history nor
modern historical data, the kings acquired these treasures by looting
in wars. But, according to ancient Hindu law, recorded in the Raja
Dharma of the law books, the king had the right to capture treasures
in war and it becomes his legal property.


These do not invite the provisions of the Treasure Trove Act for the
simple reason that the ownership of this wealth is not under question,
but is well known and is documented even in living memories and was
not found lying buried. These were kept safely in the temple
bhandaras, as they were meant for use when required and its ownership
by the Deity Padmanabha is beyond dispute. Another curious suggestion
is that they should be arranged in a museum for the people to see.
This question also came up in the London High Court in which I
appeared as a witness. The judge asked me the question "Suppose I give
you back this Nataraja would you like to have it in the temple or in
museum, where visitors could see? And the judge wanted me to answer
as an archaeologist and not as a devout Hindu. I answered it must be
back in the temple. "Why?" asked the judge.


I replied that the main intention of the donor was not to make it an
exhibit in a museum, but it was a pious religious gift with many
sacred acts associated with it, many other associated activities like
music.


The judge agreed with me and mentionning it ordered the return of the
image to the temple. If a foreign court could respect the piety and
sentiments on scientific lines and return to the temple there is no
reason why India should respond to these self-styled historians. Let
us not forget that the priceless treasures in Indian museums are
stored as junk with no proper preservation. Then the question arises
who will administer these articles of wealth. Certainly not the state.
First of all it is secular and secondly we know in the past few
decades what has happened to the valuable treasures. The
administration has to be in the hands of legally eligible to be the
trustees as per the existing Acts. The Travancore royal families who
have saved these wealth for Lord Padmanabha all these centuries should
continue as the chief trustees with whatever safeguards required for
preventing misuse. The state government quite rightly has taken the
stand the status quo will continue and we are also happy that the
learned judges of the Supreme Court have ordered what should be done.
It is not the value of the wealth, but the greatness of Kerala that
has been brought fully to the people of the world.

Karunanidhi defends Maran - what else he can do?

From an earlier stance that Maran would  defend himself, Karunanidhi
has shifted to a new stance saying that he backs Maran now.
When everyone expected that MK would completely turn away form Maran,
this stance comes as a surprise.
But the short note he read from a paper says it all.

He read out that 
"In the whole world, especially in a country like India,
the media is ruling and (it) can defame anyone."

This is precisely what the Marans attempted to do
in the Dinakaran survey against Azagiri and Kanimozi
and this is again what they did against MK government
when they fell out with him in the aftermath of the Dinakaran episode.

MK called for a truce then,
apparently to stop them from doing harm to him and the DMK
through their media.
And now he blames the media for the fall of Maran.

Does he think that the Marans would play foul against him through their media
if he keeps them at a distance in their hour of crisis?
It seems so.
Otherwise why should MK revise his previous stance
despite considerable reasons for mistrust against the Marans in his second house?

Now after Maran, who is next?
I wish TR Balu fits the bill.

I want Balu to be re inducted,
or how else his misdemeanors in Ram Sethu project would come under focus of media scrutiny?

It is indisputable that media does play a role in exposing these looters.
But the UPA government listens only to the English media and the North media.
That is why I want them to 'expose' Balu also.
How could that happen unless Balu comes into focus by bagging a seat for himself?

Temple treasures belong to royal family: Sankaracharya

Temple treasures belong to royal family: Sankaracharya

Sree Padmanabha Temple treasures belong to Travancore royal family : Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati.

Source: PTI

Date: 7/5/2011

Golden Lord Padmanabha Negating any other option, t he Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi stated t hat the huge treasures, near Rupees 100000 crores  in current valuation as found in  Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple  in Thiruvananthapuram were the "exclusive property"  of Travancore royal family that dedicated  their kingdom to the presiding deity of the temple. "For long the erstwhile royal family  was the custodian of the temple and t hey dedicted their kingdom to  Lord Sree Padmanabhaswamy. The treasures were offerings made  by erstwhile rulers to the temple,  hence the recoveries belonged to the royal family",  he told PTI here. "However, the treasures should be  kept in the temple cellars itself", he said. The cellars of the temple, closed for several decades,  were ordered to be opened by the Supreme Court  to prepare inventory while considering a private petition recently. The deity of Padmanabha Swami Temple  is the family deity of Travancore royal family.  Members of the erstwhile royal family  had dedicated their kingdom to the deity and  pledged that they will live as servants of Padmanabha.  The Shrine is run by a trust floated  by the Travnacore royal house.   Vast collection of gold, silver, precious stones  and priceless jewellery were discovered  in the cellars of the temple while preparing the inventory.'' [e PTI News]. Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi of  Kanchi Kamkoti Peetham hinted the tradition  of Sanatana Bharat, where the many  ancient Hindu Kingdoms were operated  by the King under the dictum of the Guru  (Mentor-Path Finder)and as a servant  of the People and People's God.  The people and the King of Travnacore  enriched this ancient temple as the richest  Hindu Deity in this world so far. The Travancore royal family did follow  the tradition to be the servant of  Lord Padmanabh here. Sankaracharya  of Kanchi Mutth reminded the glorious past  of Hindu dynasty of King Janaka under  the blessings of Saint Yagyavalkya,  King Vikramaditya under the teachings  of Kautilya, King Harihar and Bukku  with the inspiration of Vidyaranya Swami or  Chatrapati Shivaji offered everything to  Devi Bhavani and Samrath Guru Ramdas Swami. The Sankaracharya vehemently opposed  the present Govt.'s attitude to denounce  the Sanatana Hindu Dharma  by some of its key functionaries  in Congress and the tendency to grab  Temple Properties of Hindus through  an unprecedented pro-activeness for the last 10 years. The Kanchi seer advocated in favour of  keeping the unearthed near 100000 crore ($ 25 Billion)  treasury as temple property under the sacred authority  of Travancore royal family.  Undoubtedly, descedents of this Kingdom  think themselves as the servant  of Lord Padmanabha  and    they did not stashed any thing out side  the Temples or in any Swiss Bank.  Actually, the British snatched many  things invaluable for Britain from India.   One stone harmonium of this Padmanabha Temple  was transported by the British to Britain illegally.  The world famous Kohinoor Diamond was  also grabbed by the English Men near Agra,  when it was being trasported to Lord Jagannath of Puri  by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, after he understood  the possible aggression of the Brtish rulers  throuhout India. [eAgencies] Read details and much more in   Hindu Existence & World Hindu Unity.

From Puri Rath yathra to Madurai yadavas.

Even as lakhs of devotees are enjoying the annual Rath yathra of Lord Jagannath of Puri, my mind keeps wandering on the verses of Silappadhikara, Mahabharatha  and Brihad samhitha that seem to contain a hidden story behind the Puri deities and a probable connection between two groups of people – one at Puri and another at Madurai in Tamilnadu whose ancestors had a connection with the Krishna – siblings in Dwaraka or Mathura. Let me explain how. 

The deities of Puri are Krishna as Jagannatha, his elder brother Balarama (Baladeva) and younger sister Subhadra. Though worship of these three is not found today except in Puri, the description on how to carve the images of these deities for worship appearing in Brihad Samhitha goes to show that worshiping these three deities together had been there before 2000 years ago.

The positioning of the Krishna siblings with Subhadhra in between is indicative of a dance they used to do along with their friends in the cow shed in Gokulam. Such a dance is depicted in Bala charitha of Bhasa, I presume. Because there is a verse in Silappadhikaram, in which the Yadava woman Mathari, recalls the dance in Bhalacharitha in Ayarpadi, which was done by Krishna and Balarama with Subhadra in between. She also says that Krishna used to dance like that whenever there were ill omens and when the surroundings presented a gloomy picture. When Krishna began to dance, the entire situation would change and every one would feel happy.

So saying Mathari called out the children in the neighborhood and they all began to dance. That dance is the famous ‘Aaycchiyar Kuravai” a part of it has been immortalized by Mrs MS Subbhulakshmi in her stirring voice.

Silappadhikaram explains how this dance was done. It makes us think that this was how Krishna also danced in Gokulam. Silappadhikaram was written 1800 years ago and therefore it is possible to believe that the olden tradition of Bala charitha dance of Krishna was preserved at that time. This particular chapter is worthy of research by dancers. 

This particular dance has 7 girls forming some pattern. The seven girls represent the seven swaras of music.

Of them the shadjam (sa) was represented by Krishna.

The Panchamam (pa) was represented by Balarama.

Subhadra always represented Rishabham (ri) and therefore would be moving close to Krishna and always seen in between Krishna and Balarama (sa and pa).

The singers would sing ragas and songs. The dancers, each representing the swaras would move in accordance with the swaras of the songs. There are others who would jump in and jump out. I think they represent the variations in swaras (like sadharan gandhara or anthara gandhara). One can guess the raga from the formation of pattern by the dancers. It is very fascinating to read the description of that dance in Silappadhikaram.

The intriguing part of it is how the cowherds settled in the outskirts of Madurai in Tamilnadu, were aware of the childhood dances of Krishna who lived some 2500 years before that time.

The answer for this lies in the migration of a group of people from Dwaraka, about which I have written many articles before. Dr SN Rao’s exploration at Bet Dwaraka pointing to a submergence about 3500 years ago holds the key for the movement of people from Dwaraka (and Indus sites near that) not only to Tamilnadu but also to Orissa. The Balacharitha tradition of dances must have been retained by the post Mahabharata followers of Krishna. Though a majority of the people of Dwaraka had left soon after Krishna’s exit (when Dwaraka was inundated), a part of them had returned and reclaimed Dwaraka. They had settled there and continued with the memories of Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra.

Again tragedy struck them in the form of a fresh flood which struck at around 1500 BC. From Tamil texts it is known that a part of them had been brought to Tamilnadu by sage Agasthya. The Tamil source even suggests that some of them were the descendants of Drushtadhyumna. It is these people who brought the worship of Baladeva and the dances of the three siblings to Tamil lands.

There must have been another group of the same region of Dwaraka, that had left for Puri after the deluge at Bet Dwarka. They had carried the same memory of Krishna, Baladeva and Subhadra to Puri. We have some theories on the origins of Puri deity worship, but we cannot ignore the similarity between the tradition that had lived in these two regions (Madurai and Puri). A tradition of post Mahabharata worship had lived on in a song and dance form in Madurai whereas it was manifested as a formal worship in Puri. This worship must have existed in other regions too (such as Mathura) because we have rules of Shilpa sastra saying how to carve out the deities of this group. But what made these two regions to cling on to the three deities could perhaps be traced to a common beginnings in Dwarka for the people of Madurai -yadavas and those settled in Puri.

I say this because of the particular name “Indradhyumna” connected to the Rath yathra at Puri. The divine siblings make this Rath yathra mainly to pay a visit to their Aunt’s house. The name of the aunt given as “Indradhyumna” sounds similar to Dhrishtadhyumna and rings some familiarity with another connection to Orissa (Kalinga of olden days).

In the Mahabharatha war, the Kalinga king sided with Duryodhana because Duryodhana was his son in law.  The Kalingas fought fiercely with Bheema which saw Dhrishtadhyumna rushing to Bheema’s help. Dhrishtadhyumna fought valiantly and defeated the Kalingas. (MB -6-54). Perhaps after the war, the descendants of Dhrushtadhyumna were given the rulership of Kalinga.

There is yet another reference to Kalinga – here connected to Krishna. Yudhishtra praises Krishna as the Lord who in the form of a Tiger was worshiped in the Kalingas (MB 13-17). So Krishna worship and Dhrsuhtadhyumna’s connection were there right from Mahabharata times. The name of the aunt as Indradhyumna sounds similar to Dhrishtadhyumna and it is probable that some close relative of Dhrishtadhyumna who was in the status of an aunt of Subhadhra was wedded to a king of Kalinga. When deluge took away the reclaimed land of Dwaraka in BC 1500, a group of Dwarakans might have left for the already known place in Kalinga territory (Orissa / Puri). With them the worship of the three siblings might have travelled.

Those who had gone to Orissa might have been royals or those related to Indradhyumna. Commoners also might have gone with them. But those who had travelled to Tamilnadu included for sure the cowherds – along with royals and others. These cowherds had retained the memory at the cow sheds in Gokulam and also the leelas of Krishna. Perhaps a genetic study of Madurai based Yadavas and people of Orissa traditionally connected with the Puri temple might throw up some hints to support this view. 

Related posts:-

Dhrishtadyumna, the probable ancestor of the VeL kings. (World Tamil Conference series 11)

http://www.tamilhindu.com/2009/12/who-is-nappinnai/

Don’t touch Lord Padmanabha’s treasures

Much hue and cry is being raised about the hidden treasures found in the cellers of Ananatha Padmanaabha swamy temple in Trivandrum. Some have even said that this is ‘hidden black money’ of the Lord!! Did they ever think over why this wealth was hidden and how this wealth got accumulated? It was obviously to escape from the devouring hands of the colonial rulers. 

The temples have been the richest ones in this country – richer than the kings. All the best of things – jewels, gems, food items, cloths etc were dedicated to God. The God Himself becomes the custodian of that wealth. Infact there is nothing that a person can claim as his. Everything in Nature and in Creation belongs to Him. Even our very soul, the Athman belongs to Him. That is the basic concept of Hinduism which is a rational explanation on existence. So people of this country including Kings did not claim anything as theirs and dedicated everything to God. That is how the temples became rich places.

It is because the temples were places of wealth; the Muslim invaders targeted the temples. The fact that not one temple of olden past exists in North India today is because they all have been raided and destroyed by the invaders. Only some South Indian temples have escaped the wrath of these barbaric raiders.

Of them, Lord Padmanabha swamy temple is one as it had been under the patronage of Travacore kings until recently. But then this temple has such secret chambers goes to show that they have obviously managed to conceal the wealth of God from the British or their coteries.

Now that this wealth has become known to politicians, we have to be vigilant that they do not loot the wealth on some pretext.

First of all anyone toying with the idea of using this wealth to be distributed to people, must know what happens to

(1) the ones who think so,

(2) who really do so and

(3) who finally enjoy that.  

There is an adage in Tamil ‘Kovil soththu kula naasam”.

• The one who loots or steals and uses the wealth of the Temple will have his lineage terminated within 3 generations.
• He will lose his wealth in this birth itself and will be born in ‘paamara yoga’ – in utter destitution.

Look at the way Karunanidhi’s family is running around to do propitiations.

Would that help?

How much of public money and even temple money they would have enjoyed illegally?

In this age of Kali, the re-actionary karma would be manifest within one’s life time.

• All the 3 category people (mentioned above) who get involved in using that wealth would be born with chronic ulcer of the stomach, chronic breathing and lung problems and incurable skin diseases in their next birth.
• The male lineage will stop after 3 generations and those born after the 3^rd generation will be born with defective organelle system.  

God’s money do not belong to us – let people have no doubt about it.

Particularly this God of Thiruvanathapuram is known for helping the people get back their lost property!

This boon of Lord Anantha Padmanabha 

was told by Lord Krishna to Yudhsitira

when they were exiled after losing all their wealth.

Lord Krishna advised him to do a ritual for Lord Anantha Padmanabha

in the waxing phase of Bhadrapada month

which is also known as Pithru paksha. 

 Every year a knot is made on the sacred thread to show that the ritual is progressing.

On the 14^th year, 14 knots are made and the ritual is completed.

After completion of this ritual, the Pandavas got back their kingdom.

Since there is a practice to regard a day as equivalent of a year,

people do this vratha for 14 days in the Bhadrapada month and

finish it on the 14^th day.

Nowadays the vratha is done on the 14^th day only (Chathurdasi).

This vratha focusing on Lord Anantha Padmanaabha swamy

was aimed at getting lost goods and wealth,

reuniting with near and dear ones who were not seen for years and

reunion with separated ones.

It is an irony that the wealth that is offered to this Lord

with a view to get back lost wealth,

itself is now speculated to be taken away from the Lord!!

There is special information on this Lord related to the patron kings, the Marthandas. 

The very country of Travancore under the ruler ship of Maharaja Marthanda varma was gifted by him to Lord Anantha Padmanabha swamy!

So legally the entire Trivandrum and

adjoining places belong to this Lord.

Please read this eye opening article by Smt Sasikala Teacher in this link :-

http://ghatotkacha-nair.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

The Marthanda connection to this Lord shows another importance of this Lord.

Marthand is the name of Sun.

The Sun God is known by 12 different names for the 12 months

 that the Sun moves around the zodiac.

But once in 2 and half years, an additional month comes.

This is done to equate the lunar and solar months

The sun completes one round in 365.25 days

whereas the moon completes in 354 days.

The difference of 11.25 days is accumulated and

comes to 28.15 days in 2 and a half years.

This additional month is the adhik masa.

This is the 13^th  month whose lord is Marthanda  (another name for Sun).

In Adhithya Hruthayam,

we will find this name “Marthand”

It means the Lord who creates the world after a deluge!

The oldest temple for Sun as found in India today was dedicated to Marthand

which is in Kashmir. 

It is really intriguing that a Sun temple is there at a place

where the Sun does not shine overhead.

The reason can be known only from the meaning of Marthand.

After the deluge Vaivasvatha Manu and his people

were led into the river Saraswathy and

reached  Naubhandana in the Himalayas.

They started a fresh life after that.

The first worship they could do was to thank Marthand

who blesses a revival after deluge.

Also they had to offer oblations to the people who died in the deluge.

For that also, Marthand is worshiped.

The adhik masa is devoted to Pithru related ceremonies.

The Lord of the adhik masa is Marthand.

The Marthanda varman of  Tarvancore might have had

some connection with Marthand worshippers of the olden order

in the Saraswathi basin or in the Himalayas.

Their attachment to Lord Padmanabha also shows

a connection to regaining the lost wealth or land or  glory.

Such being the greatness of Lord Padmanabha,

the best course of action is to adorn the deity with traditional jewellery

gifted by the kings and

make each day a Uthsav day for the deity.

When the energy spread by the deity is well kept up through Uthsavs,

the community also gets energized.

The pilgrims and people of the locality will flourish.

This is how the people will become better off and

not by robbing the deity of His riches.

There is enough wealth kept in Swiss banks and

wealth looted by politicians.

The government can very well bring back that wealth and use them for the people.

Related post:-

(1) 

Misuse of temple property and its manifestation in horoscope.

(2) Interview with Former Travancore king, Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Verma.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/The-riches-belong-to-nobody-certainly-not-to-our-family/H1-Article1-719270.aspx

(3) There’s a complete record of temple treasures

http://expressbuzz.com/magazine/there%E2%80%99s-a-complete-record-of-temple-treasures/294232.html

Probability in Ancient India: a debate

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: S. Kalyanaraman

Probability in Ancient India: a debate

 

An interesting debate is ongoing between Prof. C.K. Raju and Prof. Michael Witzel on the topic: Probability in Ancient India. This is at H-Net online (Humanities and Social Sciences – Discussion Networks).

Here is the abstract from the draft referred to by Prof. Raju in his message of June 25, 2011: http://multiworldindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ckr-Tehran-talk-on-academic-imperialism.pdf

 

Ending  Academic Imperialism: a Beginning

 

Abstract: Academic imperialism begins with Western education, which has not been seriously challenged in hard sciences. Colonialism changed the system of education as a key means of containing revolt, and stabilising Western rule. The change was possible (e.g. by Macaulay in India)  just because a large section of the colonised elite had already swallowed the racist beliefs of the 18th  c., that only the West had innovated in science. Those racist beliefs, in turn, were based on a bad history and philosophy of science violently distorted by the  religious fanaticism which overwhelmed Europe from the Crusades in the 11th c. until the 17th c. Therefore, to end academic imperialism it is necessary to take the following steps. (a) Dismantle and expose the falsehoods of this Western history of science. (b) Change also the accompanying philosophy of science. (c) Use this to construct a new pedagogy, particularly in the hard sciences, and demonstrate its practical value,  to dismantle the colonial education system. (d) Dismantle the Western power structure at the level of higher-education and research. 

 

The immediate action items relate to (c) and (d). (1) Help repeat an experiment to test a new pedagogy of the calculus ("5-day course on calculus without limits") based on a new history and philosophy of mathematics, which enables the calculus to be taught very easily, with the help of computers, even to non-math students. (The calculus is at the base of hard science.) (2) Join and contribute to a new society and web-journal for History and Philosophy of Non-Western Science (HAPONOWS), which will not permit reliance on secondary Western sources, so that authors will have to assume that all such material is doubtful and untrustworthy.

 

Kalyanaraman

 

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

 

Probability in Ancient India

by

C. K. Raju 

 

Visiting Professor

School of Mathematical Sciences

Universiti Sains Malaysia

Penang

 The history of Asia is somehow understood in the West in such a way as to *exclude* the history of science,and, by extension, the possibility that the Asian philosophies can ever contribute significantly to present-

day science.

 

However, mathematics in India was not just about the place-value system for numbers and zero and algorithms.

 

Some years ago I showed that the calculus (not the "pre-calculus") originated

in India and was transmitted to Europe where it was not properly understood by Newton et al. (Cultural foundations of mathematics: The nature of mathematical proof and the transmission of the calculus from India to Europe in the 16th c. CE, Pearson Longman, 2007, PHISPC vol x.4). My new philosophy of zeroism, related to sunyavada and the philosophy with which calculus developed in India, has demonstrated advantages over the older way to teach calculus based on the European notion of "limits", and the university curriculum in mathematics is accordingly being reformed in this part of the world.

 

This note is just to bring to the notice of Asian historians that probability too originated in India,  where the game of dice is described in detail in the RgVeda (ca.-4000 CE), though bad translations like those of H. H. Wilson could not capture the spirit of that poetic description. The game of dice also played a key role in precipitating the Mahabharata war (traditional date-3100 CE). The epic clearly has a notion of a fair game, hence some notion of unbiased dice and consequently probability. The game of  dice is related to sampling theory in the romantic story of Nala and Damayanti, where a king knowledgeable in dice (and a prospective suitor for Damayanti) explains to her husband Nala how to count the number of leaves in a tree.

(Sad that romance, like poetry, never mixes with serious science in the West!)

 

Early Indian mathematical texts had worked out the theory of permutations and combinations. More details are in my paper, "Probability in Ancient India" published in the Handbook of Philosophy of Science, vol 7. Philosophy of Statistics, Elsevier, 2011,  a draft version of which is available at

http://ckraju.net/papers/Probability-in-Ancient-India.pdf.

 

One contemporary application is to the frequentist interpretation of probability, which is what is needed for statistical physics, for relative frequency is what can be measured. But relative frequency cannot be used to *define* probability (in a non-circular way), since probability is the limit of relative frequency only in a probabilistic sense. The philosophy of zeroism provides a way out of this paradox which actually arises due to

the notion of "limits".

 

The other contemporary application is to show that probability defined using Buddhist logic (as distinct from Jain logic used by D. S. Kothari)corresponds to quantum probabilities, involved in quantum computing. This part is only for the technically well-informed. (But, then, again, why should it be the norm that historians of Asia need not be technically well-informed?)