Forgotten India - Podcast

30/08/2021

अधरं मधुरं वदनं मधुरं
नयनं मधुरं हसितं मधुरम् ।
हृदयं मधुरं गमनं मधुरं
मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥ ॥

वचनं मधुरं चरितं मधुरं
वसनं मधुरं वलितं मधुरम् ।
चलितं मधुरं भ्रमितं मधुरं
मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥ ॥

वेणुर्मधुरो रेणुर्मधुरः
पाणिर्मधुरः पादौ मधुरौ ।
नृत्यं मधुरं सख्यं मधुरं
मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥ ॥

गीतं मधुरं पीतं मधुरं
भुक्तं मधुरं सुप्तं मधुरम् ।
रूपं मधुरं तिलकं मधुरं
मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥ ॥

करणं मधुरं तरणं मधुरं
हरणं मधुरं रमणं मधुरम् ।
वमितं मधुरं शमितं मधुरं
मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥ ॥

गुञ्जा मधुरा माला मधुरा
यमुना मधुरा वीची मधुरा ।
सलिलं मधुरं कमलं मधुरं
मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥ ॥

गोपी मधुरा लीला मधुरा
युक्तं मधुरं मुक्तं मधुरम् ।
दृष्टं मधुरं शिष्टं मधुरं
मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥ ॥

गोपा मधुरा गावो मधुरा
यष्टिर्मधुरा सृष्टिर्मधुरा ।
दलितं मधुरं फलितं मधुरं
मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ll ll

- श्रीमन वल्लभाचार्य कृत मधुराष्टकं

19/03/2021

Kenneth Clark had once said

"Three or four times in history man has made a leap forward that would have been unthinkable under ordinary evolutionary conditions. One such time was around 3000 BC, when quite suddenly civilisation appeared, not only in Egypt and Mesopotamia but also in the Indus valley when there was not only the miracle of Ionia and Greece – philosophy, science, art, poetry, all reaching a point that wasn’t reached again for two thousand years – but also in India a spiritual enlightenment that has perhaps never been equalled."

Coming up soon...

16/02/2021

या कुन्देन्दुतुषारहारधवला या शुभ्रवस्त्रावृता।
या वीणावरदण्डमण्डितकरा या श्वेतपद्मासना॥
या ब्रह्माच्युत शंकरप्रभृतिभिर्देवैः सदा वन्दिता।
सा मां पातु सरस्वती भगवती निःशेषजाड्यापहा॥

🙏🙏

01/01/2021

Wishing all of you a very happy and healthy new year 2021 !

May you all become the charioteer to pull Indian History from the claws of distortionists and spread the light of knowledge to each corner of our beloved Bharatvarsha in this new year !

25/12/2020

अटल जी के दिव्य रचनाओं में से एक :

वेद-वेद के मंत्र-मंत्र में,
मंत्र-मंत्र की पंक्ति-पंक्ति में,
पंक्ति-पंक्ति के शब्द-शब्द में,
शब्द-शब्द के अक्षर स्वर में,
दिव्य ज्ञान-आलोक प्रदीपित,
सत्यं, शिवं, सुन्दरं शोभित,
कपिल, कणाद और जैमिनि की
स्वानुभूति का अमर प्रकाशन,
विशद-विवेचन, प्रत्यालोचन,
ब्रह्म, जगत, माया का दर्शन ।
कोटि-कोटि कंठों में गूँजा
जो अति मंगलमय स्वर्गिक स्वर,
अमर राग है, अमर राग है।

कोटि-कोटि आकुल हृदयों में
सुलग रही है जो चिनगारी
अमर आग है, अमर आग है ।

अटल जी को उनके जन्म - जयंती पर कोटि कोटि प्रणाम ।

24/12/2020

Shame on The Logical Indian for this hate post !

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was a firebrand revolutionist throughout his life. He was the first person who had written the true account of India's 1857 war of Independence, otherwise, it would always have been called as a sepoy mutiny. He was the first person who organised the secret society for India's Independence, which became the axis for the cause of India's independence on foreign soil. It was he (Not gandhi, Tilak, Bose or Nehru) from whom the Britishers were so petrified that he was sent to the Andaman Jail - one of the most notorious jails in India. Britishers wanted Veer Savarkar to be as away from India as possible.

Since a long time now, Veer Savarkar is vilified and maligned by these neo communists' mouthpieces by branding him as a coward who sought petitions for his release from Andaman Jail. Numerous explanations have been given by many eminent historians (Vikram Sampath has written about this at length in his book on Savarkar) about the so called mercy petitions which were technically the clemency petitions written for the fellow prisoners.

It can't be emphasized enough that the grateful nation should award 'Bharat Ratna' at the earliest to this golden son of Maa Bharti.

16/12/2020

16 दिसंबर 1971 - फक्र है ।

13/12/2020

How India tamed ULFA ? (Post 5/5)

The actions by Royal Army of Bhutan against ULFA under the severe diplomatic pressure by then Vajpayee Govt eliminated the ULFA from Bhutan but slowly and Gradually ULFA and its allies started spreading their wings in Bangladesh. Naturally they were getting supported by the ISI detachment of Bangladesh and as quid pro quo ULFA acted as a conduit to induct and settle illegal immigrants in India.

At that time the establishment in Delhi was changed and the UPA was in power. The Manmohan Singh govt could not exert similar pressure on the Khalida Zia’s govt of Bangladesh as the Vajpayee govt had exerted in 2003 on Bhutan to act against the NE militants. This resulted in ULFA and their allies gaining momentum and carrying outut these vicious attacks throughout the first decade of 2000.

When Sheikh Hasina govt returned to power in Bangladesh, she adopted a zero-tolerance policy against the NE militants. For this, she had to overcome the tremendous pressure from the influential anti - Indian military establishments in her own country. The close coordination between the Modi govt in India and the Seikh Hasina govt in Bangladesh which started by sealing the longstanding land boundary agreement between the two countries in 2015 aided in the process. In the following year both the govt signed the most important extradition treaty which resulted in the extradition of ULFA’s general secretary Anup Chetia. The relentless all front gooseneck between India and Bangladesh divided ULFA vertically into two factions namely the overground peace favoring ULFA, led by chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and the under-ground rebel ULFA Independent (ULFA-I) led by Commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah.

Gradually by 2018, the hideouts of these militant outfits on Bangladesh’s soil reduced to almost zero.
However, the ULFA-I has started spreading their wings by following their age-old tactic of allying with the other NE rebel groups and spreading in the border areas outside Indian territory. The anti-talk faction of the ULFA made their ties strong with the rebel group of Nagaland called the National socialist council of Nagaland- Khaplang (NSCN-K) and spread their bases in Myanmar. Also as because several Naga tribes reside in the western part of Mayanmar, they became the natural allies of these militants.

This time Indian govt at the center led by Narendra Modi was pro-active. In conjunction with the diplomatic pressure on Mayanmar, a lot of aid flowed to Mayanmar with extensive and intense support from new Delhi. This resulted in one of its kind counter-insurgency operations by the Indian Army on a foreign soli where they crossed the border and inflicted heavy casualties on militants deep inside the border regions and in safe militant hideouts. In this one hour operation, more than 100 militants were killed and many hideouts were destroyed. Since then several joint operations were conducted between India and Mayanmar under the name operation sunrise to crackdown ULFA-I and their allies on the Indo-Myanmar border.

These efforts led by the central govt, the Indian Army, Assam Rifles, and the state police have hugely declined the insurgency in the northeast. The surrender of the deputy commander Dhristi Rajkhowa is a big blow to what was left of the anti-talk faction of ULFA. It has also helped to expedite the return of long-awaited peace in the region.
.....The End......

09/12/2020

How India tamed ULFA ? (Post -4)

The first army operation against ULFA was carried out in two phases between November 1990 and May 1992 codenamed as operation Bajrang and operation Rhino. On 27th Nov 1990, the president rule was imposed in Assam and the operation Bajrang was launched by then Prime Minister Chandrasekhar. The entire state of Assam was declared as ‘disturbed area’. Resulting in the army operation more than 30 ULFA militants were killed and more than 3000 were arrested. These army operations pushed ULFA to the negotiating table for the very first time and ULFA declared the unilateral ceasefire. It followed a long but fruitless half-hearted talks involving civil societies. During this lull period, ULFA changes its strategy and increased its support base by aligning with other militant organizations of the northeast such as the National Democratic Frint of Bodoland, BLT, KLO, etc. Also, they spread their base in the Border areas of Bhutan and consolidated their presence by getting involved in the internal issues of Bhutan.

The growing base of ULFA and its allies outside of Indian Territory was perceived as a huge threat to the sovereignty of the Indian state. Since 1996, continuous diplomatic pressure was exerted by the Indian govt on Bhutan. The Bhutan govt first resorted to peaceful negotiation which was carried out for 5 years but when by 2003, the talk failed to produce any results and as ULFA attacks were increasing, the military intervention was considered as the only resort.

On 15th Dec 2003, the operation all-clear was launched by the Royal Bhutan Army with the support of the Indian Army inflicting heavy casualties on ULFA rebels. Within 5 days of the military actions, the militants were dislodged from all of their 30 camps and within 15 days almost all of the ULFA militants were either arrested or cleared from Bhutan territory. The operation was a success which forced ULFA to look for new allies.

During the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, ULFA was considered as a potent but a limited force trapped in a landlocked region. However, in 2008 when as many as 18 serial bomb blast ripped apart the whole Assam claiming more than 81 lives and injuring more than 500 people, proved that ULFA and their allies had not only upgraded themselves but also acquired the operational sophistication and inter-organization coordination. The 2008 blast and subsequently 2009 serial blasts highlighted the fact that the ULFA and their allies are being very ably supported by the forces outside of India such as ISI which presented a Kashmir-like problem for the Indian Army in Assam. Also, the ULFA became the conduits of the ISI detachment in Bangladesh which helped in inducting and settling the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. After Bhutan, ULFA and its allies were spreading the wings in Bangladesh.
......(Continued)....

07/12/2020

How India tamed ULFA? (Post -3)

If the Dhemji school blast was close to genocide, the Jan 2007 killing of migrant workers was no less than a massacre. In three districts of Assam i.e Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, and Dhemji, the militants of ULFA carried out a series of major attacks targeting migrants mostly from Bihar. On 5th Jan, In Dibrugarh, ULFA raised the mayhem by gunning down 17 milkmen from Bihar. A day later they similarly massacred 28 people in the Tinsukia district of Assam. The rogue violence which lasted for more than a month Killed more than 70 Hindi-speaking immigrants and injuring hundreds.

These violences raised by the ULFA was only the tip of the iceberg. They were involved in many other activities such as economic subversion in this rich natural resource state of oil and timber. They had bombed several crude oil pipelines, freight trains, and government buildings. On 8th March 2003, they carried out a series of attacks on IOCL’s Digboi refinery. They put 5000KL petrol tank on fire and blasted the gas pipeline. The economic loss for this attack was alone more than 500 Million USD. Over the years, ULFA has been indulged in these economic subversions throughout the North East in various magnitude.

The problem in front of the government, army, security agencies, civil society, and the police was immensely huge. They not only have to be indulged and defeat the armed rebels of ULFA in their terrain but also neutralize the false narrative created by the left-liberal. A burning example of the false narrative is an article by Historian Amalendu Guha in a very reputed Journal “Economics and Political weekly where he hailed ULFA’s effort to liberate the “little nation” from the oppressive forces. These narrative builders also propelled ULFA’s Robinhood image all across tbe country by citing stray humanitarian initiatives taken by ULFA.
....(Continued)

04/12/2020

How India tamed ULFA ? (Post-2)

ULFA’S 40-year long resistance for Independent Assam started at an amphitheater called Rang Mahal in Assam’s oil-rich district Shiv Sagar on 7th April 1979. A form of student protests converted into armed revolution sympathized by the Assam Gan Parishad’s agitation against the immigrants in Assam. The resistance by the United Liberation Front of Asom during the 1980s led to a climate of dissent throughout Assam but was mainly concentrated in civil movement through literature, pamphlets, agitation, and peaceful protest. However, on the 10th foundation day of ULFA, the group disassociated itself from the civil protests and declared war on the Indian state. It invoked the sentiments of “Swadhin Asom” invalidating the 1826 treaty, adopted Guerilla tactics, and launched attacks on police and immigrants.

The violence in Assam rose rapidly during the 1990s. They started with kidnapping influential people such as the kidnapping of a soviet engineer in 1991, a social activist in 1997, a minister in 2000. During this time they were also involved in the assassination and killing of political party leaders. They carried out an assassination on then Assam minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in 1997. Three years later, they assassinated another Assam Minister Nagen Sharma of the Assam Gan Parishad party. They were also involved in several bank robberies all across Assam.

The decade of the 2000s became the bloodiest decade for Assam when the militants of ULFA took the violence to another level. On the eve of ULFA’s army day on 16th March 2003, they carried out an IED explosion under the bus carrying civilians. In this explosion, at least 6 people were killed and more than 60 injured. In the same year, ULFA raised region-wise unrest in the name of immigrants, and hundreds of immigrants from Bihar were either killed or beaten severely. This created a sense of panic among these immigrated laborers and hence hundreds of thousands were forced to leave Assam leaving their households and livelihood.

Then came the era of severe IED explosions led by ULFA militants. On 15th Aug 2004, in a small town of Assam called Dhemaji people mostly comprising of school children had gathered to the college ground to celebrate India’s 58th Independence Day. At around 8:45 am local time, a powerful bomb planted near the college gate was triggered by a Remote control device which killed 10 school children and a total of 13 people. Many unnumbered children were injured out of those several remain handicapped for the rest of their lives. This tragedy was carried out by ULFA militants because they had called to boycott India’s Independence Day celebration but the children of that Dhemji district defied ULFA’s call and participated in the most ceremonious day of Independent India.

Though this incident remained as the most horrendous killing by ULFA to date, they orchestrated several cowardly and horrific blast in subsequent years.
......(Continued)

01/12/2020

FI Editorial : How India tamed ULFA (Post -1)

Last week while browsing through the news, my eyeballs stopped over a visibly unimportant news which read “5 ULFA militants including a top commander surrendered in Meghalaya”. The news further stated that the No 2 ULFA commander Dhriti Rajkhowa had also surrendered who was being considered as the closest confidant of ULFA I chief Paresh Baruah. Out of curiosity, I further researched this development and came to know how armed personnel and state police worked in close coordination for 9 long years to achieve this feat. But, I was a lot disappointed and a bit disturbed about the lackluster coverage by this in media. Hence, I decided to do editorial post for all our readers talking about the ULFA in great detail covering its inception, years of violence, years of negotiation, and its current status-quo.

As usual, we will start our discussion by talking about a bit of the history of the Assam area. During most of the medieval period 1.e from the 13th century till the 19th century, Assam and the adjacent region were ruled by the Ahom kingdom. This kingdom was first established in the year 1228 by a king named Sukphaa. It is believed that these Ahom people came from Burma, befriended locals, accepted local traditions, culture, and religion, and governed largely peacefully for 600 years. In between the kingdom resisted many attacks by various Mughal emperors. One of the historically important battles between the Mughals & Ahom kingdom was called the battle of Saraighat fought in 1671 where the Ahom kingdom under the commandership of Lachit Borphukan defeated the mighty Mughal Army of Aurangzeb in an epic battle.

This battle of saraighat was a naval battle in the Brahmaputra. On one side of the Brahmaputra, there was a large army of Aurangzeb comprising of 1800 Turkish Cavalry, 30000 infantry, and 500 canons manned by the Portuguese along with the army of 21 Rajput kingdoms while on the other side of the river Brahmputra a local infantry of much smaller number under the commandership of Lachit Borpukan of Ahom kingdom. With a stunning display of naval fighting and guerrilla warfare, the Ahom army defeated the Mughals and forced them to retreat. This battle and the bravery of Lachit Borpukkan put him in the rank of Maharana Pratap & Veer Shivaji.

This anecdote of Assam History was important to understand the basis of a genuine Assamese pride which these militant outfits keep on harping now and then. Towards the end of the Mughal era and during the onset and rising of British east India company, the region was made a part of British India through a treaty between British East India and Burmese Empire in 1826 in the aftermath of an intensively fought battle in which the Burmese Kingdom lost decisively. After independence, the whole Assam region became an integral part of India.
...(Continued)..

14/11/2020

नगरी हो अयोध्या सी,
रघुकुल सा घराना हो ।
चरण हो राघव के,
जहां मेरा ठिकाना हो ।।

आप सभी को दीपावली की अनेकानेक शुभकामनाएं ।

13/11/2020

Forgotten India Series-001, Post -13 (Part-2) on ‘Kaiyuan Temple’ in Quanzhou, China is powered by Forgotten India podcast.

There are many temples in China of the name Kaiyun but today we will talk about a rare Hindu-Buddhist temple called Kaiyun temple in the Fujian province of China. Why this temple is called a Hindu-Buddhist temple? How and when this fusion of Hinduism and Buddhism got mixed in this temple which is still one of the most visited temples of the province.

As we talked about in our previous post that a Tamil speaking Hindu merchant community lived around the tenth century in South China’s coastal city of Quanzhou. We don’t know much about these people except what we could gather from the inscriptions found in the area which were written in both Tamil and Mandarin. According to one of the inscriptions, a Siva temple was built by these communities in the southern region of the province around the 13th century. This temple is in ruins but as many as 300 carvings of this temple are preserved in the local museum.

The introduction to this museum which also has several idols of Hindu gods such as Vishnu and Laxmi says, “Hindu stone carvings exhibited in it include more than 100 square stones, including stone sarcophagi, stone pillars, vertical statues, column foundations, pedestals and other building infrastructure components. The Hindu Vishnu stone statues are preserved in the Quanzhou Sea Museum, depicting the god of protection, Vishnu, one of the three Hindu gods. It is a prototype of Vishnu and is a common form in a Hindu temple”. These carvings state the fact that between the 10th-15th century, Hinduism has a dominant influence in this Chinese province.

The Kaiyun temple which was built in 685 during the Tang dynasty rule is dedicated to the Vairocana Buddha of the Huyana school of Buddism prevalent in China. The temple is spread over more than 70,000 square meters and consists of 10 halls. The Mahavira Hall is the main hall of the temple which preserves a large number of cultural Buddhism texts amount to more than 3700 scriptures. The other magnificent architecture of this temple is its twin Pagodas. The east one is called Zhenguo Pagoda while the west one is Rehshou Pagoda. These are 40 meters in height and the tallest pagoda in China.

What is more interesting in the architecture of this Kaiyun temple is of distinguishing and spectacularly similarity between its carving with temples built around 13th Century AD near the Kaveri delta region of TamilNadu. The carvings on the pillars of the temple hold Citrakhanda columns with lotus petal carved base moldings. The other prominent carvings on the temple consist of Kapota, Ghata, Malasthana, and Hastistha – all peculiar architecture associated with Hindu temples. Additionally, a bas relief of Hanuman appears on one of the temples pagodas.

The presence of Hindu temple carvings on this Kaiyun temple must have its association with the Tamil merchant community who lived in this province for a long. But most probably, in 1238 during the third renovation of this temple, these carvings were inscribed. The Kaiyun temple’s gazetteer record shows that around that time there was a ‘Master from India’ who served as the chief architect of the temple.

The multilingual inscriptions and Indic carvings found across South East Asia suggest a wider pattern of the resurgence of Hindu cultural influence around the 13th Century and for that we owe a lot to these masters from India who chose architecture as their method of communication.

Image descriptions :
1- Kaiyan Temple
2- One of the tallest Pagods of china
3 - The carvings on the base of temple quite similar to South Indian temples
4 - The Citrakhanda carving on the pillar of the temple
5 - Lord Vishnu idol in local museum
6- Tamil Inscription found in the area kept in local museum

References:
1. Risha lee's dissertion in Columbia University 2012
2. Article in " the Hindu" on this temple

06/11/2020

Forgotten India Series-001, Post -13 (Part-1) on ‘Kaiyuan Temple’ in Quanzhou, China is powered by Forgotten India podcast.

In last twelve posts of this series we talked about several Indian temples of 1000-1500 years old which were masterfully built by our great ancestors across the country. In next few post under this series, we will talk about a few Hindu temples which were built outside India more than a thousand years ago. These temples are a testimony of the fact that how our great civilisation had influenced the culture across the world.

Let’s start this post with an introductory discussion about the ‘Hinduism in China’. We all are aware of the impact and spread of Buddhism in China, hence it would have been inconceivable why Hinduism would not have travelled to China. Ofcourse, the Marxist distortionists never talked about the subject and hence, there were almost no serious effort put to explore the subject further. The limited material which we have, prominently connects an important ancient province called Quanzhou or Chinchew to Hinduism. It is said that during the Song and Yuan dynasties (960AD -1368 AD), many South Indians - mostly Tamil traders lived in the huge areas of in and around the province who became the primary vehicles to take Hinduism in China. The native Chinese of those areas were quite influenced with Shaivism sect of Hinduism. Recently, in early 2019, a 13th century stone inscription in Tamil and Mandarin scripts was discovered in Quanzhou which starts the words ‘Hari Om’ and goes on to praise the greatness of lord shiva to seek his blessings for the Chinese king. The fascinating fact about these inscriptions are that the Tamil is written on top of the inscription and mandarin in the bottom.

One of the similar inscription dated 1281 AD were discovered in 1930s. The inscription talked about a Lord Shiva temple being built in the region and called it as Kaneeswaram temple. It is believed that the famous Kayuvan temple of the region was originally Kaneeswaram temple which got the Buddhism influence in later renovations.
......(Continued)

01/11/2020

9. The dating of Rigveda Part-1

The anchor point of reconstructing the timeline of ancient Indian civilization is to determine the true age of Rigveda. Rigveda is the nucleus, the source, and guiding light from where the knowledge and wisdom emancipated. In this two-part series, we looked into the various archaeological, climatic, linguistic, and archaeo-astronomical evidence to approximate the age for the composition of Rig Veda. Listen to the first part of the series.

The anchor point of reconstructing the timeline of ancient Indian civilization is to determine the true age of Rigveda. Rigveda is the nucleus, the source, and guiding light from where the knowledge and wisdom emancipated. In this two-part series, we will look into the various archaeological, climat...

23/10/2020

सप्तमं कालरात्रीति । 🙏

अविरलगण्ड गलन्मदमेदुर मत्तमतङ्ग जराजपते
त्रिभुवनभुषण भूतकलानिधि रूपपयोनिधि राजसुते ।
अयि सुदतीजन लालसमानस मोहन मन्मथराजसुते
जय जय हे महिषासुरमर्दिनि रम्यकपर्दिनि शैलसुते ॥ १३ ॥

कमलदलामल कोमलकान्ति कलाकलितामल भाललते
सकलविलास कलानिलयक्रम केलिचलत्कल हंसकुले ।
अलिकुलसङ्कुल कुवलयमण्डल मौलिमिलद्बकुलालिकुले
जय जय हे महिषासुरमर्दिनि रम्यकपर्दिनि शैलसुते ॥ १४ ॥

17/10/2020

प्रथमम शैलपुत्री च ।

अयि गिरिनन्दिनि नन्दितमेदिनि विश्वविनोदिनि नन्दिनुते
गिरिवरविन्ध्यशिरोऽधिनिवासिनि विष्णुविलासिनि जिष्णुनुते ।
भगवति हे शितिकण्ठकुटुम्बिनि भूरिकुटुम्बिनि भूरिकृते
जय जय हे महिषासुरमर्दिनि रम्यकपर्दिनि शैलसुते ॥ १ ॥

सुरवरवर्षिणि दुर्धरधर्षिणि दुर्मुखमर्षिणि हर्षरते
त्रिभुवनपोषिणि शङ्करतोषिणि किल्बिषमोषिणि घोषरते
दनुजनिरोषिणि दितिसुतरोषिणि दुर्मदशोषिणि सिन्धुसुते
जय जय हे महिषासुरमर्दिनि रम्यकपर्दिनि शैलसुते ॥ २ ॥

03/10/2020

"The dating of Rigveda" Post-4

In the previous post, we established that it was not Chandragupta Maurya but Chandragupta I of the Gupta dynasty who was contemporary to Alexander the great. Hence, if we can determine when Chandragupta Maurya ruled India we can solve the big 'anchor' problem regarding the timeline of Indian history.
But how can we ever know when Chandragupta Maurya actually ruled - for that we need to refer our ancient texts particularly ‘the Puranas’.

The Puranas describe the chronology of the universe from creation to destruction. Most significantly it contains the genealogy of kings who ruled in India. According to this dynasty account mentioned in Puranas post-Mahabaharata war following kingdoms ruled in India :
a) Bradrath dynasty – 32 kings ruled for 967years
b) Pradyotas of Avanti – 5 kings ruled for 173 years
c) Sisunaga dynasty -10 kings ruled for 360 years
d) Nanda dynasty – Mapadma and his sons ruled for 100 years

If we add these four dynasties together, it accounts for 1600 years. As we know, Chandragupta Maurya defeated Ghananad, the last king of the Nanda dynasty to start his kingdom. It means that according to Puranas, Chandragupta Maurya must have ruled India 1600 years after the Mahabharata war.

Now the next question comes, how can know when the Mahabharata war actually happened?

Eminent Indologists have used several methods to ascertain the exact dates of the Mahabharata war and to elaborate on these methods that we will need several posts on that topic itself. However, for the continuity of this post, we will use one very important archaeological reference which will help us determine the exact timeline of the Mahabharata war.

If you remember, in one of our posts on the forgotten temple series we talked about the Pattadakal group of temples. In that post, we mentioned how these temples were the cradle of south Indian temple architecture. Most of these temples are built in Aiholi village by Chalukya dynasty king around 5th century AD. There are many inscriptions written in Sanskrit on the walls of these temples named Aiholi inscriptions which are of great historical significance. The 33rd verse of Aiholi inscription reads as follows :

त्रिंशत्सु त्रिसहस्रेषु भारतादाहवादितः।

सप्ताब्दशतयुक्तेषु गतेष्वब्दषु पंचसु ॥

पंचाशत्सु कलौ काले षट्सु पंच शतेषु च ।

समासु समतीतासु शकानामपि भूभुजाम् ॥

The inscriptions mean, “ To date (the date when the inscriptions were written), 3735 years have been passed since the great Mahābhārata war, and currently we are into 556th year of Shak Samvat."

Considering the common knowledge of Shak Samvat starting at 78 AD and using simple math from the information given in the inscription, the date of the Mahabharata war comes around 3102 BCE. These dates are pretty close to the astronomical calculation done by Acharya Aryabhatta to determine the timeline of Mahabharata war.

Now considering the timeline of the Mahabharata war as 3102 BCE and taking 1600 years of chronological dynasty account of Puranas, the Chandragupta Maurya must have ruled in India around 1500 BCE, not around 300 BCE which are told to us by the East India company distorians and Marxist propagandists.

This is truly significant! In a matter of few posts, we have pushed our history by at least 1200 years. In the next post, we will apply this new information to find the first true timeline for the composition of Rigveda.
……(To be continued)

P.S: Just to remind you dear readers, Many true Indologists have worked tremendously to establish these things which I am mere iterating through these posts. Everything is there out in open and all we need is to be seeker with the right intent.

25/09/2020

" The dating of Rigveda" Post-3

So what was this vulnerable fault line in the Indian calendar system which these distorianists exploited?

For centuries, the different kingdom of India followed different calender systems. Once a powerful king used to defeat another king and start their own Kingdom, they would like to set the clock zero. Hence, they used to start their own calendar system and almost never continued the calendar of their predecessors. Even though the two prominent Indian systems i.e Vikram Samvat and Shak Samvat survived but the problem with them that there was no milestone attached to their zero date and hence they don't make much sense in the absolute term of historical time scale. This deep void in timescale had made Indian ancient history almost impossible to reconstruct, at least in those times.

Max Muller exploited this basic flaw of the Indian calendar system. Taking excuse for the discontinuity in the Indian historical time scale, he looked parallel civilizations such as Greek and Latin for the reference. In his research, he found that an Indian king named “ Sandrokottos” was mentioned in a greek book “Indika” written by Megasthenese. He related this Sandrokottos with a great king mentioned in 'Puranas' called “Chandragupt Maurya”. The only basis on which he called Sandrokottos as Chandragupta Maurya is because he found a phonetic resemblance between the Indian word ‘Chandragupt’ and the Greek word ‘Sandrokottos’.

On the basis of this single reference, Max Muller reconstructed the whole ancient Indian History. He used this reference as the anchor point of Indian ancient history and said that because Megasthese had written about Sandrokottus who was Chandragupta Maurya, hence Chandragupta Maurya must be contemporary to Alexander - the great. As Alexander lived around 300BCE, Chandragupt Maurya also must have lived around the same time. This single distortion by Max Muller had pushed Indian History by at least 1300 years.

Many Indic scholars with substantial proof have argued that It was in fact Chandragupt I of the Gupta dynasty whom Megasthenese had called Sandrokottos. Megasthenese had talked about three ancient Indian Kings namely, Xandrammes, Sandrocottus, and Sandrocyptus. He had mentioned that Sandrokottos killed Xandrammes and became king whose son was named as Sandrocyptus. Now there is no phonetic resemblance between Chandragupta Maurya’s son Bimbisar and Sandrocyptus but there is a definite resemblance between Chandragupt I’s son Samudragupt and Sandrocyptus.

Moreover, there is no mention of Kautilya /Chanakya in Megathenese writing, also there is no mention of Ashoka- the great in any of the greek writing. So, how can it be possible that the two most prominent people of the Mauryan dynasty never found a place in their writing? The only logical explanation is because they happened quite early than Megasthenese' writings.
............(To be continued)