Sunday, November 17, 2024

Vagbhatta

 Vagbhatta was a disciple of Charaka. He was born in 600 AD, in Sindh, Pakistan, and died: in 650 AD (age 50 years).

Vagbhatta, a prominent Sanskrit scholar, is one of the most influential writers, scientists, doctors, and advisors in Ayurveda. He authored two seminal medical texts: *Ashtāṅgasaṅgraha* and *Ashtāngahridaya Saṃhitā*. A disciple of Charaka, Vagbhatta originally wrote these texts in Sanskrit, comprising approximately 7000 sutras. According to his teachings, 85% of diseases can be cured without a doctor, with only 15% requiring medical intervention.

Some mistakenly believe that Vagbhatta was from Kashmir, a confusion arising from a note by German scholar Claus Vogel. Vogel referenced a commentator named Indu, not Vagbhatta, and suggested that Indu might have been from the northern region, like Kashmir because he used terms from that area.

In the concluding verses of the *Ashtāṅgasaṅgraha*, Vagbhatta is described as the son of Simha Gupta and a pupil of Avalokita. His works emphasize the worship of cows, Brahmanas, and various Vedic gods, beginning with an explanation of how Ayurveda evolved from Brahma.

### Story of Vagbhatta

A work called *Neminirvaṇa* is attributed to Vagbhatta, which narrates the story of Neminātha, a Jain hermit. Detailed accounts of Vagbhatta’s life are scarce, but one story suggests that during a time when Brahmins were oppressed by Muslim conquerors, who also took control of medical science, Vagbhatta was disguised as a Muslim boy to learn medicine from a Muslim physician. Despite the challenges and initial acceptance, his true identity was eventually discovered, leading to his expulsion from the Brahmin community. Nevertheless, Vagbhatta continued his work and authored the *Aṣṭāṅgasaṅgraha* and *Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya* during this period.

### Contributions and Works

Vagbhatta is celebrated as one of the most influential figures in the history of Indian medicine, following Caraka and Susruta. Though his exact period is uncertain, he is usually placed in the sixth century. His *Astanga Hridaya* (*Compendium on the Heart of Medicine*) is considered the greatest synthesis of Ayurveda, often used in medical practice and education.

Numerous other works are attributed to Vagbhatta, including the *Rasaratnasamuccaya*, an astrochemical text, and commentaries on his own works. The *Ashtanga Samgraha* is a systematic text on human illness and therapy, divided into six sections and 150 chapters, covering eight branches of Ayurveda: internal medicine, paediatrics, psychiatry, ENT, toxicology, surgery, geriatrics, and aphrodisiacs.

The *Astanga Hrudaya*, an authoritative text grouped under “Brihat Trayee” along with *Caraka Samhita* and *Sushruta Samhita*, consists of 120 chapters in six sections. It provides fundamental principles of Ayurveda to maintain health and cure diseases.

### Key Branches of Ayurveda in Vagbhatta’s Works

1. **Bhuta Vidya (Psychiatry)**: Focuses on mental diseases and their treatment through diet, herbs, and yogic methods.

2. **Rasayana (Rejuvenation Therapy)**: Prevents disease and promotes healthy living.

3. **Vajikarana (Aphrodisiacs)**: Increases sexual vitality and efficiency, closely related to Rasayana therapy for healthy progeny.

### Influence and Legacy

Vagbhatta’s *Ashtanga Hridaya* is highly regarded, written in a poetic language with easily understood Sanskrit verses. It presents a coherent account of Ayurvedic knowledge and has been translated into many languages, including Tibetan, Arabic, Persian, and several modern Indian and European languages.

### Recognition and Impact

Alongside Sushruta and Charaka, Vagbhatta forms the trinity of Ayurvedic knowledge. Though not much is known about his personal life, it is believed he lived around the sixth century in Sindh and was likely a Vedic scholar, as evidenced by his references to Lord Shiva and Vedic traditions in his writings.

Source:

https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/astanga-hrdayam-vagbhata/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39321016-vagbhata-s-astanga-hrdayam


Saturday, November 16, 2024

Einstein Turning Fifty

Einstein Turning Fifty

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Germany. He grew up in a Jewish family. His father, Hermann Einstein, was a salesman and engineer.

Faced with military duty when he turned of age, Einstein withdrew from classes, using a doctor’s note to excuse himself and claim nervous exhaustion. After graduating, Einstein faced major challenges in finding academic positions, having isolated some professors by not attending class more regularly instead of studying independently.

Einstein found steady work in 1902 after receiving a referral for a clerk position in a Swiss patent office. While working at the patent office, Einstein had the time to further explore ideas that had taken hold during his university studies and thus cemented his theorems on what would be known as the principle of relativity.

In 1905—seen by many as a “miracle year” for the theorist—Einstein had four papers published in the Annalen der Physik, one of the best-known physics journals of the era. Two focused on the photoelectric effect and Brownian motion. The two others, which outlined E=MC2 and the special theory of relativity, were defining Einstein’s career and the course of the study of physics.

Albert Einstein was a German mathematician and physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. In the following decade, he settled in the United States after being targeted by the German Nazi Party. His work also had a major impact on the development of atomic energy. Albert Einstein was a physicist and one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century.

As a physicist, Einstein had many discoveries, but he is perhaps best known for his theory of relativity and the equation E=MC2, which foreshadowed the development of atomic power and the atomic bomb.

In 1921, Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect, since his ideas on relativity were still considered questionable. He wasn’t given the award until the following year due to a technical ruling, and during his acceptance speech, he still opted to speak about relativity.

Einstein married Mileva Maric on January 6, 1903. While attending school in Zurich, Einstein met Maric, a Serbian physics student. Einstein continued to grow closer to Maric, but his parents were strongly against the relationship due to her ethnic background.

Nonetheless, Einstein continued to see her, with the two developing a correspondence via letters in which he expressed many of his scientific ideas. Einstein’s father passed away in 1902, and the couple married shortly thereafter.

Einstein and Mavic had three children. Their daughter, Lieserl, was born in 1902 before their wedding and might have been later raised by Maric’s relatives or given up for adoption. Her fate and whereabouts remain a mystery. The couple also had two sons: Hans Albert Einstein, who became a well-known hydraulic engineer, and Eduard “Tete” Einstein, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a young man.

The Einsteins’ marriage would not be a happy one, with the two divorcing in 1919 and Maric having an emotional breakdown in connection to the split. Einstein, as part of a settlement, agreed to give Maric any funds he might receive from possibly winning the Nobel Prize in the future.

During his marriage to Maric, Einstein had also begun an affair sometime earlier with a cousin, Elsa Löwenthal. The couple wed in 1919, the same year as Einstein’s divorce. He would continue to see other women throughout his second marriage, which ended with Löwenthal’s death in 1936.

Einstein's house in Caputh near Berlin

Einstein wanted some solitude for his fiftieth birthday, a refuge from publicity. So, in March 1929 he fled once again, as he had during the publication of his unified field theory paper of a few months earlier, to the gardener's cottage of an estate on the Havel River owned by Janos Plesch, a flamboyant and gossipy Hungarian-born celebrity doctor who had added Einstein to his showcase collection of patients- friends.

For days he lived by himself, cooking his own meals, while journalists and official well-wishers searched for him. His whereabouts became a matter of newspaper speculation. Only his family and assistant knew where he was, and they refused to tell even close friends.

Early on the morning of his birthday, he walked from this hideaway, which had no phone, to a nearby house to call Elsa. She started to wish him well on reaching the half-century mark, but he interrupted.

"Such a fuss about a birthday," he laughed. He was phoning about a matter involving physics,  not merely personal. He had made a mall mistake in some calculations he had given to his assistant Walther Mayer, he told her, and he wanted her to take down the corrections and pass them along.

Elsa and her daughters came out that afternoon for a small, private celebration. She was dismayed to find him in his oldest suit, which they had hidden. "How did you manage to find it?" she asked, "Ah," he replied, "I know all about those hiding places."

The New York Times, as brave as ever, was the only paper that managed to track him down. A family member later recalled that Einstein's angry look drove the reporter away. That was not true. The reporter was smart and Einstein, despite his feigned fury, was as accommodating as usual. "Einstein Is Found Hiding on His Birthday” was the paper's headline. He showed the reporter a microscope he had been given as a gift, and the paper reported that he was like a "delighted boy" with a new toy.’

From around the world came other gifts and greetings. The ones that moved him the most were ordinary people. A seamstress had sent him a poem, and an unemployed man had saved a few coins to get him a small packet of tobacco. The latter gift brought tears to his eyes and was the first for which he wrote a thank-you letter.

Another birthday gift caused more problems. The city of Berlin, at the suggestion of the ever-meddling Dr Plesch, decided to honour its most famous citizen by giving him lifelong rights to live in a country house that was part of a large lakeside estate that the city had acquired. There he would be able to escape, sail his wooden boat, and scribble his equations in serenity.

It was a generous and gracious gesture. It was also a welcome one. Einstein loved sailing and solitude and simplicity, but he owed no weekend retreat and had to store his sailboat with friends. He was thrilled to accept.

The house, in a classical style, was nestled in a park near the village of Cladow on a lake of the Haval River. Pictures of it appeared in the papers and a relative called it “the ideal residence for a person of creative intellect and a man fond of sailing.”  But when Elsa went to inspect it, she found still living there the aristocratic couple who sold the estate to the city. They claimed that they had retained the right to live on the property. A study of the documents proved them right, and they could not be evicted.

So, the city decided to give the Einsteins another part of the estate on which they could build their own home. But that, too, violated the city's purchase agreement. Pressure and publicity only hardened the resolve of the original family to block the Einsteins from building on the land, and it became an embarrassing front-page fiasco, especially after a third suggested alternative also proved unsuitable.

Finally, it was decided that the Einsteins should simply find their own piece of land, and the city would buy it. So, Einstein picked out a parcel, owned by some friends, farther out of town near a village just south of Potsdam called Caputh. It was in a sylvan spot between the Havel and a dense forest, and Einstein loved it. The mayor accordingly asked the assembly of city deputies to approve spending 20,000 marks to buy the property as the fiftieth birthday gift to Einstein.

A young architect drew up plans, and Einstein bought a small garden plot nearby. Then politics intervened. In the assembly, the right-wing German Nationalists objected, delayed the vote, and insisted that the proposal be put on a future agenda for a full debate. It became clear that Einstein personally would become the focus of that debate.

So, he wrote a letter, mingled with amusement, declining the gift. "Life is very short," he told the mayor, “While the authorities work slowly. My birthday is already past, and I decline the gift." The headline the next day in the Berliner Tageblatt newspaper read, "Public Disgrace Complete / Einstein Declines."

By this point, the Einsteins had fallen in love with the plot of land in Kaputh, negotiated its purchase, and had a design for a house to build upon it. So, they went ahead and bought it with their own money. “We have spent most of our savings, Elsa complained, but we have our land.”

The house they built was simple, with polished wood Pannell’s inside and unvarnished planks showing to the outside. Through a large picture, the true window was a serene view of Havel. Marcel Bruder, the famed furniture designer, had offered to do the interior designs.

Einstein was a man of conservative tastes. "I am not going to sit on furniture that continually reminds me of a machine shop or a hospital operating room," he said. Some leftover heavy pieces from the Berlin apartment were used instead.

Einstein's room on the ground floor had a spartan wooden table, a bed, and a small portrait of Isaac Newton. Elsa's room was also downstairs, with a shared bathroom between them. Upstairs there were small rooms with sleeping niches for her two daughters and their maid. "I like living in the new little wooden house enormously, even though I am broke as a result," he wrote to his sister shortly after moving in. "The sailboat, the sweeping view, the solitary fall walks, the relative quiet is a paradise."

There he sailed the new twenty-three-foot boat his friends had given him for his birthday, the Tümmler, or Dolphin, which was built fat and solid to his specifications. He liked to go out on the water alone, even though he didn't swim. "He was absurdly happy as soon as he reached the water," recalled a visitor. For hours he would let the boat drift and glide aimlessly as he gently toyed with the rudder. "His scientific thinking, which never leaves him even on the water, takes on the nature of a daydream," according to one relative. "Theoretical thinking is rich in imagination."?

Throughout Einstein's life, his relationships with women seemed subject to untamed forces. His magnetic appeal and soulful manner repeatedly attracted women. And even though he usually shielded himself from entangling commitments, he occasionally found himself caught in the swirl of a passionate attraction, just as he had been with Mileva Marić and even Elsa.

In 1923, after marrying Elsa, he fell in love with his secretary, Betty Neumann. Their romance was serious and passionate, according to newly revealed letters. That fall, while on a visit to Leiden, he wrote to suggest that he might take a job in New York, and she could come as his secretary. She would live there with him and Elsa, he fantasized. "I will convince my wife to allow this," he said. "We could live together forever. She replied by riding both him and the idea, which prompted him to concede how much of a "crazy ass" he had been. " You have more respect for the difficulties of triangular geometry than I, old mathematics, have.”

He finally terminated their romance with the lament that he "must seek in the stars" the true love that was denied to him on earth. "Dear Betty, laugh at me, the old donkey, and find somebody who is ten years younger than me and loves you just as much as I do."

But the relationship lingered. The following summer, Einstein went to see his sons in southern Germany, and from there he wrote to his wife that he could not visit her and her daughters, who were at a resort nearby because that would be "too much of a good thing." At the same time, he was writing Betty Neumann saying that he was going secretly to Berlin, but she should not tell anyone because if Elsa found out she "would fly back."

After he built the house in Caputh, a succession of women friends visited him there, with Elsa's grudging consent. Toni Mendel, a wealthy widow with an estate on the Wannsee, sometimes came sailing with him in Caputh, or he would pilot his boat up to her villa and stay late into the night playing the piano. They even went to the theatre together in Berlin occasionally. Once she picked Einstein up in her chauffeured limousine, Elsa got into a furious fight with him and would not give him any pocket money.

He also had a relationship with a Berlin socialite named Ethel Michanowski. She tagged along on one of his trips to Oxford, in May 1931, and stayed in a local hotel. He composed a five-line poem for her one day on a Christ Church college notecard. "Long branched and delicately strung, nothing that will escape her gaze," it began. A few days later she sent him an expensive present, which was not appreciated. "The small package angered me," he wrote. "You have to stop sending me presents incessantly... And to send something like that to an English college where we are surrounded by sense- less affluence anyway!" 

Einstein died on April 18, 1955, at age 76 at the University Medical Center at Princeton. 

References:

1.Albert Einstein: Biography, Physicist, Nobel Prize Winner

2. Walter Isaacson’s book.


Thursday, November 14, 2024

THE GLORY OF LAXMI

 THE GLORY OF LAXMI

One day Laxmi's elder sister Jyeshtha said, "Laxmi, I have been thinking a long time over a matter. I don't know if I should ask you or not."

"You must ask, sister. Do not brood over something for too long without bringing it out. Come clean," Laxmi encouraged.

"I always think we two are equally beautiful. But everyone likes you whereas I am despised. No one likes me. Many shut their doors in my face. We are sisters as well. Why so?"

Laxmi smilingly explained, "Being sisters or of equal beauty does not earn one other's respect, sister. Some other factors count. Wherever I go I create or cause riches, luxuries, celebrations and happiness. That's why everyone adores and worships me. But wherever you go you take along miseries, diseases, woes and tragedies. That is why you are disliked. Bring happiness to others if you want love and respect."

Laxmi is the goddess of fortune and Jyeshtha is the goddess of poverty. The elder sister did not like the sermonizing tone of her younger sister. To her Laxmi sounded egoistic.

She hissed, "Laxmi! You are junior, in age and influence too. Don't preach to me. If you take pride in your riches I too can change fates. That is in my power. I can turn a millionaire into a pauper in a jiffy."

Laxmi smirked saying, "Alright, you can take advantage of your age. But in influence, I am no lesser than you are. Anyone you turn into a pauper can again become wealthy at my wish instantly."

"So what? I can again condemn him for poverty."

"Don't forget the fact that only he can be condemned to poverty who loses my favour. Anyone blessed by me is safe from the miseries of wants. If you are so keen to prove your superiority you can try. I would like to see it tomorrow itself."

"All right, how do you want it proved?"

"I have an idea. In a nearby village there lives a Brahmin called Deenanath". He worships me and I intend to reward him with riches, you can show your worth by keeping him poor."

Jyeshtha accepted the challenge. She jerked her hand aggressively saying. "All right, we will see. You will face defeat tomorrow," She went away in a charged-up mood.

Laxmi watched her go and pitied her attitude. The next day, they arrived at the Vishnu temple of Anuradhapura village. They were in the guises of simple rural women and sat on the stone wall of the temple stairs. No one took an interest in them. The temple was visited by similar village women every day. Most of them were suffering folk. So, every one by habit remained withdrawn into oneself. The deity was the only one they would confide in.

Then, Deenu (Deenanath) arrived. The sisters paid attention to him. When he came out of the temple Jyeshtha said, "There comes your devotee. Help him, dear sister."

"Just watch." Laxmi put a bamboo pole on his way. The hollow of the pole was filled with gold coins.

Jyeshtha also touched the pole to cast her spell.

Deenu saw the hand stick length pole and picked it up. A bamboo pole can have a hundred uses in a rural household besides serving as a walking stick or a lathi.

A little ahead he was met by a boy. The boy greeted Deenu and said, "Panditji, we need a bamboo stick for our cot like the one you carry. The grandpa asked me to buy one in the market. Which shop should I go to?"

Deenu said, "Son, I didn't buy it. I found it lying on the way. You can take it if you like. It will cost you at least one rupee in the market."

The boy gave him a 25 paise coin saying, "I have only this at present. I will give you the rest of the money in the evening." Deenu nodded his head. He was happy to have earned a rupee for doing nothing. He handed the boy the bamboo stick.

The goddess sisters were watching the scene from a nearby spot. Jyeshtha spoke, "See? Your stupid devotee gave away gold coins for only 25 paise. Let us follow him and you will see that I will make him lose that coin also."

The sisters followed Deenu. On the bank of a pond, he put down his pooja carry bowl and began picking lotus flowers. In the meanwhile, a shepherd kid arrived there. He took out the 25 paise coin from the bowl and ran away with the steal.

Just then, the other boy arrived carrying that bamboo stick. He said, "Punditji! My grandpa says that this pole is too heavy to be suitable for our cot. Please take your bamboo stick back." The boy thrust the stick into Deenu's hands.

Deenu looked into his carry bowl to return the boy's coin. He was shocked to find the coin gone. He said, "Son, come with me. I will give you your 25 paise at home. I seem to have lost your coin."

"Don't worry, uncle. I will come to you in the evening." the boy expensively said.

The bamboo pole was again with Deenu. Laxmi smiled. Her smile greatly annoyed Jyeshtha. In a fury she raged, "The game has just begun. Watch what I will do to your stupid devotee!"

Unaware of the background drama Deenu went on, on his way. He knew not that he had become a pawn of the goddess sisters.

Up ahead a fisherman accosted Deenu. He gave a 25 paise coin to Deenu and spoke, "Punditji, My prankster son had picked this coin from your carry bowl. The lad is a spoilt one. Please forgive my son. I already have given him a piece of my mind." Deenu thanked the man and took the coin. Now he called out to the boy who he owed the coin and who was supposed to come to him in the evening. The boy had not gone far. He came back and took the coin gratefully. The coin went into the boy's pocket again.

Deenu resumed his journey with the bamboo stick in his right hand and the carry bowl in the left.

This time Deenu was thinking, This stick is heavy and unusual for a bamboo. That boy was right. Maybe, this one is solid...a very stout variety. It could serve as a thatched roof support. Should carry weight for years.’

His thoughts angered Jyeshtha as she read them. She knew it was due to the influence of Laxmi that he was thinking positively.

It infuriated her. Now Deenu was almost home.

Jyeshtha saw that the game was coming to an end. In frustration and in the face of stark defeat she decided to kill the stupid devotee of her rival Laxmi She transformed into a deadly cobra with its hood menacingly raised up.

Laxmi watched her with a smile. She did not look concerned. Deenu heard a hissing sound, and he looked behind. He saw a dangerous-looking cobra coming at him with evil intentions. He ran in a panic. The cobra increased its speed. It looked like a crooked arrow flying at ground level. Frightened Deenu ran faster but he could not shake the cobra off. It was gaining ground on him. He prayed in his heart, 'Naga god, please spare my life. I will worship you all my life.

The cobra had no noble intentions. It was the goddess Jyestha who wanted to keep Deenu tied to her kingdom of poverty. But the man was holding a stick of fortune provided by her rival sister. The traitor Deenu must die.

As soon as the cobra came within striking distance of Deenu it swung its head backwards for the sting charge. Faced with death Deenu acted in self-defense. He brought down the heavy stick on the cobra in a flash. The blow broke the back of the cobra and the stick itself also broke in two spilling all the gold coins. In a happy surprise, he stared gleefully at the treasure as the beaten and broken cobra slithered towards the nearest bush.

Deenu filled his carry bowl with gold coins and walked away for his home whistling merrily at the change of his fortune for the better.

Standing by the side of the bush Laxmi asked her moaning sister, "Well now tell me who won the match? Who is more powerful? The benefactor is always superior to the destroyer."

Jyeshtha stood rubbing her back sadly saying nothing. Laxmi graciously said, "Anyway, we are sisters and shall remain so forever. Now let’s go."

The Godly Qualities

 

In the kingdom of Kashi, King Anandamitra had two sons: Mahinsasa, the eldest, and Chandra Kumar, the younger. Mahinsasa, blessed with divine wisdom and compassionate nature, was revered by the people as a future king with godly qualities, including a radiant presence and magnetic personality. A tragic event struck the royal family when the queen passed away, casting a shadow over the kingdom. After a year of mourning, the king remarried to a princess from Ayodhya, and in time, they welcomed a third son, Surya Kumar.

Fifteen years later, as the king grew older, the queen seized the opportunity to use a promise the king had made her long ago, requesting that her own son, Surya, inherit the throne. The king was deeply troubled by the injustice this posed to his eldest son Mahinsasa, who was the rightful heir. Despite his inner conflict, he honored the queen’s wish, explaining his predicament to Mahinsasa and Chandra and sending them into exile, hoping they might someday reclaim their rights.

To everyone’s surprise, Surya, loyal to his brothers rather than his mother’s ambitions, chose to accompany Mahinsasa and Chandra into exile. The three brothers journeyed together through the Himalayas, visiting sacred sites. They eventually reached a lake guarded by a Yaksha, a divine being who would only allow those who understood "the qualities of a god" to drink from the lake. Chandra and Surya failed to answer the Yaksha’s question and were imprisoned.

When Mahinsasa arrived and encountered the Yaksha, he answered wisely: "A true god does not speak ill of others, does not show false pride, avoids quarrels, and works for the welfare of all." The Yaksha, impressed, offered to free only one of his brothers, and Mahinsasa chose Surya, explaining that Surya had willingly sacrificed his royal future to join his exiled brothers.

Recognizing Mahinsasa’s selflessness, the Yaksha released both Chandra and Surya, bestowing them with divine gifts. Upon their return, following the death of the king and queen, Mahinsasa was rightfully crowned king, with Surya as the Crown Prince and Chandra as commander-in-chief. United by loyalty and wisdom, the brothers ruled with harmony and justice, embodying the godly qualities Mahinsasa had so perfectly expressed.

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

BERRIES OF SHABRI

 

BERRIES OF SHABRI

(The same Shramna is the famous Shabri of Ramayana.)

Shramna was a lower caste woman of Bheel tribe. From the very childhood she was devoted to Rama. Worshiping Rama and singing his prayers was her favourite daily exercise. Her family didn't like it because it belonged to a tribe that used to be engaged in lowly and anti-social practices.

Shramna was married off when she grew up. But the marriage brought no joy to her. Her husband was a no good drunkard. His family too consisted of anti-social elements. Shramna felt suffocated there. Every member of the family cursed Shramna for all the ills that befell them. All of them derided her devotion of Rama. In that unholy environment life had become impossible for her. She wanted to run away to some place from that hell.

But where could she go? That was the problem.

After a lot of thinking she decided to go to the ashram of Sage Matang. One day, she left her home and reached the ashram. Being an untouchable she could not summon courage to go inside. She sat down near the entrance bundled up in confusion.

Sometime later, Sage Matang arrived. He saw Shramna cringing by the side of the entrance. Sage Matang wanted to know the reason of her presence there. With reluctance Shramna revealed her story. It set Matang thinking. After some consideration he admitted her to his ashram.

Shramna's polite behaviour and her usefulness made her the favourite of the inmates.

When her husband learnt that his wife was living in an ashram of a sage he flew into rage. With a view of taking her back by force he marched to Matang ashram accompanied by some of his hooligan friends who were armed.

Sage Matang learnt about the intentions of the rogues. Shramna did not want to go with her evil husband. She looked helplessly at the sage.

The sage used his para-powers and created a ring of fire around Shram to protect her from the hooligans. The sight of the fire frightened the husband and his evil gang. They fled. After that he never troubled Shramna.

The time passed.

Then, Rama and Laxmana one day arrived at the Matang ashram in the course of their search of missing Sita. The sage welcomed the brothers to his ashram.

He revealed to the tribal woman, "Shramna, the Rama you have been worshiping all your life since childhood today stands before you. Treat him t whatever you can manage in this wilderness."

Shramna looked at Rama wonder eyed and fell at his feet. Then, she ran away to the forest. A little while later she returned with some edible roots, wild melon and berries.

She placed the basket of roots and melon before Rama and Laxmana and begged them to eat. But how could she offer the berries? They were a mix of sweet and bitter ones. Serving bitter berries was unthinkable for her. So, what to do? Her simple tribal mind worked out a simple solution.

She sat beside Rama. Then, she would pick a berry, take a small bite to taste the berry and offer it to Rama if it was sweet.

Rama was delighted to see her simplicity and affection. He smilingly accepted the bitten berries and ate them with relish because they represented her pious devotion to him, the fruits of her selfless love. She was granted heaven by the Lord.

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Early Contacts between India and Europe

 

Early Contacts between India and Europe

In a popular story when Zeus had swollen Phanes then what happened.

Yes, in some versions of ancient Greek mythology, particularly in the Orphic tradition, Zeus does indeed swallow Phanes.

Phanes, a primordial deity associated with creation and light, was born from the cosmic egg and is often depicted as the first ruler of the cosmos, representing life, light, and procreation. According to this Orphic myth, Zeus swallowed Phanes to absorb his power and wisdom, allowing Zeus to become the supreme god and creator of the current order of the universe.

After swallowing Phanes, Zeus took on the role of creator, reordering the cosmos and fathering the gods of the Greek pantheon. This act of consuming Phanes symbolizes the transfer of cosmic authority and wisdom to Zeus, solidifying his position as the most powerful deity in Greek mythology. This story reflects themes of renewal and the cyclical nature of creation, where each generation of gods inherits and reshapes the world.

So, formed in the body of Zeus, after he had swallowed Phanes, the offspring of the great 'World Egg', in whom all the seeds of things are present.

[Phanes is a mysterious and dual deity who hatched from the cosmic egg and brought the light and life to the world. Phanes is a hermaphroditic god with golden wings, who emerges from the cosmic egg of Chaos and Eros in Orphic mythology. He symbolizes the transition from chaos to order, the cycle of life and death, and the revelation of all things. Phanes is the first god in Orphism, a mystical belief system that sees him as the source of all life and the universe. He came out of the cosmic egg, which represents the potential for everything, and brought order and light to the chaos.]

Phanes, the Greek mystical first-born deity of creation and new life

[Learn about Phanes in Greek mythology - The Greek Gods

Thus, the world is the body of God: the heavens are his head, the sun and moon his eyes, and the ether his mind. In the same way, we are told in the tenth book of the Institutes of Manu how the Supreme Soul produced by a thought a Golden Egg (Brahmanda) from which he was born as Brahma. The resemblance between the two legends is too close to be accidental. The doctrine of Xenophanes (570 B.C.), that God is the eternal Unity, permeating the universal and governing it by His thought, occurs time after time in post-Vedic Hindu literature.

[Xenophanes of Colophon was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet, and critic of Homer from Ionia who travelled throughout the Greek-speaking world in early Classical Antiquity. Xenophanes was a pre-Socratic philosopher who lived in ancient Greece around the 6th and 5th BCE.]

Xenophanes | Pre-Socratic, Eleatic, Monotheism | Britannica

Xenophanes’s Philosophy: Key Concepts - PHILO-notes

Empedocles, besides believing in transmigration, holds several tenets which are curiously like those of Kapila, the author of the Sänkhya system. Kapila traces the evolution of the material world to primeval matter, which is acted upon by the three 'qualities' or gunas, i.e. sattva, rajas, and tamas, lightness, activity, and heaviness. Empedocles looks on matter as consisting of the four elements, earth, water, air, and fire, acted upon by the motive forces of love and hate.

[Empedocles was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is known best for originating the cosmogonic theory o... Empedocles challenged the practice of animal sacrifice and killing animals for food. He developed a distinctive doctrine of reincarnation. He is generally considered the last Greek philosopher to have recorded his ideas in verse. Some of his work survives, more than is the case for any other pre-Socratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was mythologized by ancient writers and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments. ]

[Empedocles – Wikipedia]

Attention has been called to the resemblance between the Hindu varnas or classes, brahmans, kshatriyas or warriors, vaiśyas or merchants, and śūdras, and the division of the ideal polity in Plato's Republic into Guardians, Auxiliaries, and Craftsmen. The story that Socrates proposes to talk about their divine origin, in order that the system may be perpetuated, otherwise the state will certainly perish', is curiously like the Vedic myth about the origin of the four classes from the mouth, arms, thighs, and feet of Purusha, the Primeval Man. Are these mere coincidences?

Eusebius shares a story from the writer Aristoxenus, who tells of a time when some learned Indian scholars visited Athens and spoke with Socrates. They asked Socrates about the purpose of his philosophy, to which he replied, "an inquiry into human affairs." One of the Indian visitors found this amusing and laughed, asking Socrates, "How can a person understand human matters without first understanding the Divine?" If this story from Eusebius is true, it challenges our assumptions about early contact and exchange of ideas between India and Greece.

[Eusebius Pamphili (aka Eusebius of Caesarea, 260-340 CE) was a Christian historian, exegete, and polemicist.He became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima in 314 CE and served as court bishop during the reign of Constantine I (r. 306-337 CE). Eusebius is known as "the father of Christian history" for his works: Preparation for the Gospel, On Discrepancies Between the Gospels, Ecclesiastical History ...

[Eusebius on Christianity - World History Encyclopedia]

Eusebius carefully transmitted the succession of church leaders and recorded the history of influential Christian teachers. He also tells us the history behind various heresies. Eusebius openly ignores some of the darker aspects of Christianity’s history, and intentionally glosses over some of the internal struggles within the church.

[Who Was Eusebius? - OverviewBible]

Greece and India, however, were destined to be brought into yet closer and more direct contact. The older Greek states were exclusive in their outlook. To them, all non-Greeks were barbarians, and it needed some great shock to break down the barriers dividing them from the outer world. This was provided by Alexander the Great, himself only half-Greek, but wholly inspired by the Greek spirit of inquiry. When he set out on his famous expedition to the East it was as an explorer as well as a conqueror: on his staff were several trained historians and scientists. In the spring of 326 B.C., the Macedonian hoplites, (hoplites, were the heavily armed foot-soldiers of ancient Greece, from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE. They had major battles and events involving hoplites in the Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian War and more.)

having marched half-way across Asia, entered the passes and gaps of the Hindu Kush and found themselves in the fertile plains of the Panjab. Alexander's first halt was in the great city of Taxila, where for the first time the civilizations of East and West found themselves directly confronted. Taxila was of special interest for the scientists in Alexander's train, as being one of the leading seats of Hindu learning, where crowds of pupils, sons of princes and wealthy brahmans, resorted to study 'the three Vedas and Hydaspes (Jhelum), Alexander travelled down the Indus to its mouth, fishing fortified posts or 'colonies' at strategic points, and turned his Westwards in October 325 B.C. In June 323 he died of fever at Babyloni.

[B. J. Urwick, The Message of Plato, London, 1920. Republic, Book iii; Rig Veda, x. 90. Eusebius, Praep. Evang. xi. 3. Early Contacts between India and Europe]

The story of Alexander’s campaign in India became a celebrated tale, deeply woven into the "Romance of Alexander," a work originating with the *Pseudo-Callisthenes*. This imaginative biography of Alexander, with adaptations appearing in over thirty languages, kept the legend alive long after Alexander's death. The Indian episode became a focal point for creative embellishment. In medieval Europe and Asia Minor, the encounter was romanticized and even mythologized—one example being Jean Racine's play, where Alexander is portrayed as falling in love with an Indian princess, Cléophile.

Although Alexander’s empire fragmented soon after his death, with nearly all traces of Greek control in India gone by 317 B.C.E., his legacy continued. His conquests broke down barriers between East and West, forging a bridge for cultural exchange that, while at times faded or forgotten, had lasting significance. This initial connection between Greek and Indian civilizations would echo through history, influencing trade, philosophy, and cultural traditions for centuries to come.

About the time of Alexander's death, a new ruler, Chandragupta Maurya had established himself in the Ganges valley, and he quickly extended his empire to the Panjab. He was so successful that when, in 305 B.C., Seleucus Nicator tried to repeat his predecessor's exploits, he was defeated and glad to come to terms. An alliance was formed and cemented by a marriage between the Indian king (or a member of his family) and a Greek princess. This was the beginning of a long, intimate, and fruitful intercourse between the Greek and Indian courts, which was continued by Chandragupta's son and grand- son, Bindusara and Aśoka. Ambassadors from the Greek monarchs of the West resided at Pataliputra, the Mauryan capital. The most important of these was Magasthenes, who wrote a detailed account of Chandragupta's empire, much of which has been preserved. Magasthenes was greatly impressed by the resemblance between Greek and Indian philosophy.

In many points [he says] their teaching agrees with that of the Greeks-for instance, that the world has a beginning and an end in time, that its shape is spherical: that the Deity, who is its Governor and Maker, interpenetrates the whole.... About generation and the soul their teaching shews parallels to the Greek doctrines, and on many other matters. Like Plato, too, they interweave fables about the immortality of the soul and the judgements inflicted in the other world, and so on.

The account written by Magasthenes, improving as it did the earlier works of Alexander's companions, gave the Greek world a vivid impression of the great and magnificent civilization of contemporary India. The intercourse between the Indian and Syrian courts was not confined to the interchange of occasional courtesies. Magasthenes repeatedly visited Pataliputra. Bindusara maintained an amusing correspondence with Antiochustalipu asked him to buy and send him samples of Greek wine, raisins, and a Sophist to teach him how to argue. [Early Contacts between India and Europe p-431]

Antiochus wrote in reply saying that he had pleasure in sending the wine and raisins as desired but regretted that 'it is not good form among the Greeks to trade in Sophists!

[Antiochus I Soter (324-262 BC) was the son of Seleucus I and the founder of Antioch. He fought against nomads, Gauls, Egyptians, and Pergamum, and rebuilt cities and temples in his empire.]

[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antiochus-I-Soter]

Magasthenes was apparently succeeded at Pataliputra by Daïmachus of Plataea, who went on a series of missions from Antiochus I to Bindusara. Nor was Syria the only Greek state to depute ambassadors to the Mauryan Court: Pliny tells us of a certain Dionysius who was sent from Alexandria by Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.). When Aśoka became a convert to Buddhism his first thought was for the dispatch of a mission for the conversion of his neighbours, 'the King of the Greeks named Antiochus', and the four other Greek kings, Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt, Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia, Magas of Cyrene, Ptolemy's half-brother, and Alexander of Epirus (or of Corinth). Whether the yellow-robed messengers of the Law of Piety ever actually reached Macedonia or Epirus may be regarded as doubtful, but there is no reason to suppose that they did not go as far as Alexandria and Antioch. Aśoka's object was not merely to promulgate Buddhism, but to establish a 'world peace', and prevent the repetition of tragedies like the Kalinga massacre, which had led to his conversion.

At the same time a flourishing trade was being carried on between Syria and India. Strabo tells us that Indian goods were borne down the Oxus to Europe by way of the Caspian and the Black Sea. No doubt they travelled along the Royal Road from Pataliputra to Taxila, and by the old route from Taxila to Balkh. This was made easier by the fact that Aśoka's empire stretched far west of Kabul, and the passage of merchandise through this wild country was comparatively safe. The evidence of the coins shows that during the period when history is silent a busy life was throbbing on both sides of the frontier, and Greek and Indian merchants were constantly coming and going, buying and selling.

With the death of Aśoka in 232 B.C. the close connection with Pataliputra appears to have been broken off, but in the meantime the Greek descendants of Alexander's colonists in Bactria, who had declared themselves independent in 250 B.C., had crossed the Hindu Kush, and established themselves in the Panjab. The greatest of the Indo-Bactrian rulers was Menander (c. 150 B.C.). Menander's capital was at Sagala (? Sialkot), and he conquered for a time a considerable portion of the Mauryan Empire. The Bactrian Greeks have been called 'the Goanese of antiquity'. By this time, they had become thoroughly Indianized, and Menander was converted to the fashionable creed of Buddhism. His conversion is recorded in that famous work, the Milinda-panha, or Questions of Milinda, a kind of Platonic dialogue in Pali, in which the sage Nagasena plays the part of Socrates, this history of the Bactrian Greek rulers of the Panjab has been reconstructed from their coins. The earlier issues are of great beauty, but they tend to degenerate, and the appearance of bilingual superscriptions tells its own tale. Curiously enough, the Greeks have left no other memorial in India except a column erected at Besnagar in Madhya Pradesh by Heliodorus of Taxila, an ambassador from the Maharaja.

column records the fact that He Antialcidas to King Bhagabhadra, Heliodorus was a devotee of Vishnu and shows how rapidly the Greeks adopting Were martyrdom.

Among recent books on Aśoka cf. P. H. L. Eggermont, The Chronology of the Reign of Asoka Moriya, Leiden, 1956; R. Thapar, Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, Oxford, 1961.

Cambridge History of India, Vol. 1, pp. 432 ff.

Early Contacts between India and Europe

Xxx

1440

The Bactrian Greeks yielded by several Saka and Parthian princes, and it was at the court one of these that the Apostle Thomas is said to have suffered Acts of Judas Thomas, which exists in Syriac, Greek, and Latin version apparently based on a kernel of historical fact, and some apparent persons and of places, have been identified. Gondophernes has recognized as Gaspar, the first of the Magi. About A.D. 48 these tribes were replaced by the Yüeh-chih or Ku horde from Central Asia. The Kushana Empire reached its zenith of the proper Kanishka, who succeeded to the throne about A.D. 120. His capital was at Peshawar, but far-flung empire extended as far west as Kabul and as far north as Kasher. Kanishka was a convert to Buddhism, but his coins, with their curious deities, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Greek, and Buddhist, indicate the cosmopolitan nature of his territories. Among the deities depicted are Helio Selene, and Buddha, the latter in Greek dress. Kanishka employed Greek workmen and silversmiths. The relic-casket discovered at Peshawar bears a Kharoshthi inscription. Excavations at Taxila have revealed a wealth of beautiful objects of the Saka and Kushana periods, showing how strong was Greek influence there. Some of the murals are decorated with Corinthian pillars. Under the Kushanas thus curious hybrid product, the so-called Gandhara School of sculpture, flourished.

The most striking achievement was the application Hellenistic methods to the portrayal of scenes in the life of the Buddha, and more especially, to the allocation of the Master himself. Hitherto, Buddhists had been content to represent him by conventional symbols: it was probably Greek artists of Gandhara conventional it was accepted as canonical all over the Buddhist world today. A cosmopolitan culture, borrowed from Iranian, Hellenistic, India.

In Antioch, Palmyra, and Alexandria, Indian and Greek merchants and men of letters met freely to exchange ideas. Antioch, the old Seleucid capital, was the great meeting place of caravans from the Gulf of Suez on the one hand and from the headwaters of the Euphrates on the other, and its bazaars and marketplaces were thronged with a cosmopolitan crowd, second only to that of Alexandria. Travellers from Barygaza (Broach), at the mouth of the Narmada, would probably follow the overland route up the Euphrates and then cross the desert to Antioch, while those from south India and Ceylon would preferably go via Aden and the Red Sea.

The Kushanas were particularly anxious to be on good terms with Rome, whose eastern boundary was the Euphrates, less than 600 miles from their western border. The closeness of their intercourse is illustrated in a striking manner by the Kushana coinage, which imitates that of contemporary Roman emperors. The Kushāna gold coins are of the same weight and fineness as the Roman aurei. It appears probable from an inscription that the Kushāna King Kanishka II used the title of Caesar. The friendly and intimate nature of the relations between Rome and India is shown by the number of embassies dispatched by various Indian rājās from time to time. One of these, from an Indian king whom Strabo calls Pandion (probably one of the Pandya kings of the south), left Barygaza in 25 B.C. and encountered Augustus at Samos four years later. The time occupied by the journey seems less strange. Elizabethan travelers’ itineraries had to wait for prolonged periods at stopping-places until caravans were formed and escorts arranged for. The ambassadors brought Augustus a variety of queer presents, including tigers, a python, and an arm- less boy who discharged arrows from a bow with his toes. The leader of the embassy was a monk named Zarmanochegas (Śramanāchārya), who brought a letter, written on vellum in Greek, offering the emperor an alliance and a free passage for Roman subjects through his dominions.

Like Kalanos, the monk who accompanied Alexander the Great to Babylon, Zarmanochegas committed suicide by burning himself to death on a funeral pyre. From this it is perhaps permissible to conclude that he was a Jain, as Jainism looks upon 9 voluntary immolations as a laudable act. According to Strabo, his epitaph was Here lies Zarmanochegas, an Indian from Bargosa, who rendered himself immortal according to the customs of the country. An Indian embassy, probably from the Kushana king Kadphises II, went to Rome in A.D. 99 to congratulate Trajan on his accession. Trajan treated his Indian visitors with distinction, giving them senators' seats at the theatre. 

Sunday, November 10, 2024

SHIVA AND MARKANDEYA

 

SHIVA AND MARKANDEYA

Once Sage Mrikundu did hard penance to please Lord Shiva who was duly pleased and appeared to him. He said, "Tell me what is your wish?" The sage revealed that he wanted a son.

Lord Shiva asked, "Do you want a son with a long life but little brains of a son with intellectual qualities but only sixteen years of life?"

"Lord, I would prefer a son with qualities," the sage expressed his preference.

"So be it," said Shiva and disappeared.

In due course the sage wife Marudwati gave birth to a son. The fellow sages congratulated them, and the couple celebrated the newborn’s arrival and christened him to "Markandeya'.

As expected, the child was brainy, and he excelled in studies and intellectual pursuits. By the age of sixteen he had become an authority on Vedas and other treatises. His teachers prided themselves over their exceptionally brilliant student. Many envied the parents of the boy for their good fortune.

But the mother of the boy was a very worried and sad woman. She would sob and confide in her husband, "Master! How can I ignore the fact that our son will soon depart leaving us to grieve over him for the rest of our lives."

One day Markandeya had gone to the garden to pick flowers for worship. On his return he found his mother weeping. He asked, "Ma! Why do you weep? The mother didn't reply. She kept sobbing.

His father was sitting beside the mother in an equally depressed mood.

Markandeya asked again, "Ma, why don't you tell me what is wrong with you? Are you not feeling well or something you think I would not be able to do what you want? Look, I am no longer a child. You can confide in me. Tomorrow I will complete my 16th year of my age."

"That is why your mother is weeping, son," the father slowly said.

-What? What is wrong in my becoming 16 year old?" Markandeya asked greatly puzzled "Alright, I will tell you," his father said with a sigh.

The father told his son all about the boon of Shiva and his birth. Markandeya consoled his mother saying, "Don't weep, ma. I will not die. You will see. Lord Shiva can grant life against death. He is power immortal."

"My child, God bless you. Try what you can," the father hopefully said. Markandeya left home with the blessing of his parents. The next morning, he reached the seashore where he raised a sand and mud Shivalinga. He put flowers on it and sat down to meditate. Markandeya meditated for the whole day. In the evening, he sang prayers. Just then, Yama, the god of death arrived. He announced, "Your days are up, boy. Prepare to depart." "Wait a bit, Lord. Let me finish my prayers," Markandeya requested.

"The death does not wait for anyone," Yama growled.

"Please don't disturb my worship. You can take me to the other world as soon as I finish the worship."

"Fool! Do you think that clinging to lignum would earn you longer life? No one can escape death."

Yama prepared to cast his death line on the boy. Suddenly a miracle happened. Lord Shiva materialized there. Yama froze became Shiva was the master of death.

Markandeya fell at Shiva's feet. The Lord knew his wish and granted him immortality. Later before a doom's day Lord Hari appeared to Markandeya and showed him the whole cosmos inside his mouth.

It is believed that Markandeya still exists and frequents the pilgrim centres in disguises.