Saturday 28 January 2017

SPEED OF LIGHT ACCORDING TO RIGVEDA

SPEED OF LIGHT ACCORDING TO RIGVEDA
https://ramamohanraocheruku.blogspot.com/2017/01/speed-of-light-according-to-rigveda.html

It will be very surprising to note, especially for the present
generation if old people like us say that Vedas are treasures of
knowledge. Some may even do not hesitate to laugh.The first
quantitative estimate of the speed of light is seen in Indian
Vedic scholar Sayana’s commentary on the Rig Veda. It says that
sun light travels 2,202 yojanas in the time span of a nimishardha
(half a nimisha). The yojana is an ancient unit of length.
Arthasastra defines it as being equal to 8,000 dhanus, which is
equivalent to 9.09 miles. A nimisha is an ancient unit of time that
is equal to 16/75 seconds. Thus 2,202 yojanas in half a nimisha is
equal to 189,547 miles per second after conversion. The modern
estimate of the speed of light is 186,281.7 miles per second.
This velocity of Light was calculated by Maxwell in the 19th
century, but it was actually determined accurately thousands of
years before in the Rig Veda. It was further elaborated by
Sayana in the 14th century AD in his commentaries on Rig Veda.
Indian Almanacs have always calculated accurately the motion of
planets, sunset, sunrise, eclipses, etc. without using telescopes or

any other machinery.
It is to be noted that Bhatta Bhaskara (probably from the 10th

century) made the same statement in his commentary on

Taittiriya Brahmana, another Hindu Veda. He says this to
be an old tradition. The fourth verse of
the Rigvedic hymn 1:50 (50th hymn in book 1 of rigveda) is as
follows:
तरणिर्विश्वदर्शतो जयोतिष्क्र्दसि सूर्य |विश्वमा भासिरोचनम |
Taranirviśvadarśato jyotishkridasi sūrya | viśvamā bhāsirocanam.

This means “Swift and all beautiful art thou, O Surya (Sun),

maker of the light, illuminating all the radiant realm.

Explaining this verse
in his Rig Veda commentary, Sayana(సాయణ భాష్యము), who was

the brother of Vidyaranya, (As people say, some say Vidyaranya
himself is Sayana Madhava)founder of Vijayanagara  and was
in the court of Bukka Raya of the great Vijayanagara Empire of

Karnataka in South India (in early 14th century), says:
तथा च स्मरयते योजनम्.
सहस्रे शते द्वे द्वे शतेद्वे च योजने एकेन निमिषार्धेन क्रममन
Tatha ca smaryate yojananam. Sahasre dve dve sate dve ca
yojane ekena nimishardhena kramaman.
In the Vedas, Yojana is a unit of distance and Nimisha is a unit of
time.
Distance travelled=2202 Yojanas
1 Yojana = 9.09 miles,
110 Yards =21,144.705 miles (Apprx)

Time taken 1/2nimesha = 0.114286 seconds (Apprx) (note that
this is the actual calculation of nimisha as per our scriptures. Let
it not be mistaken that 1 Nimisha or nimesha= 1 Minute=60
Seconds.)
Speed of light=185,016.169 miles / seconds.
Modern Value=186,282.397 miles / seconds.
Modern science claims the speed of light to be approximately
186,282.397 miles / seconds
The Moksha Dharma Parva of Shanti Parva in Mahabharata

describes Nimisha as follows:
15 Nimisha = 1 Kastha
30 Kashta = 1 Kala
30.3 Kala = 1 Muhurta
30 Muhurtas = 1 Diva-Ratri (Day-Night)
We know Day-Night is 24 hours

So we get 24 hours =30 x 30.3 x 30 x 15 nimisha
in other words 409050 nimisha
We know 1 hour = 60x60 = 3600 seconds
So 24 hours = 24 x3600 seconds== 86400 seconds = 409,050
nimisha (As per Vedic calculation.)

Friday 27 January 2017

India the land of Stolen Jewels

India the land of Stolen Jewels

For thousands of years India has had an ancient connection with all gemstones. We see this evident in the traditional name for the Indian Ocean – Ratnakara “the mine of gems”. But did you know that up until the early 18th Century the entire world’s supply of diamonds came exclusively from India?
Below are short descriptions of some of the more famous Indian diamonds. Many of these diamonds were cursed after being stolen from Hindu temples.

The Orlov Diamond – This diamond originated from the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, Tamil Nadu, India as the eye of the deity of Vishnu. It was stolen by a French soldier in 1747 who had escaped from the Carnatic wars. It originates from the Kollur mine in Andhra Pradesh and was originally 300 carats before being cut down. It passed through the European diamond markets until eventually it was purchased by the Russian Count Orlov, the ex-lover of Catherine the Great of Russia. He purchased the diamond in an attempt to win back her heart. The diamond was white, with a hint of bluish green. She had the diamond reduced to 190 carats but retained its original Indian style rose cut and installed it as the center jewel of the Russian Imperial Sceptre. In due course of time the entire Russian Imperial family was executed.

The Black Orlov Diamond – Another diamond, called the Black Orlov, was an eye of the deity of Brahma in Pondicherry, India. It too was stolen and subsequently cursed. In 1932 the diamond dealer J.W. Paris, who owned the Black Orlov, committed suicide by jumping off a New York Skyscaper. Later two Russian Princesses owned it and both also jumped to their death in the 1940s. Finally, it was cut up into three pieces in an attempt to break its curse. It was originally 195 carats but currently stands at 67 carats.

Nassak Diamond – From the Amaragiri mine in Mahbubnagar, Telangana, India. It adorned the deity of the Trimbakeshwar Shiva temple in Nassik (Maharashtra, India). It was stolen by the British East India Company during the Third Anglo-Maratha War as a spoils of war. The word ‘loot’ entered the English lexicon at this time from the Hindi meaning ‘to rob’ due to the sheer amount of thievery by the British East India Company. The diamond was recut several times, finally by Harry Winston to its current size and shape. It was originally a bluish-white diamond of 89 carats cut down to 43 carats.

Kohinoor Diamond – Discovered in the Krishna river and meaning ‘the Mountain of Light’ this was the largest diamond in the world at 787 carats. However, it has been recut numerous times and today sits at 105.6 carats. It is known to be cursed as follows – “He who owns this diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God, or a woman, can wear it with impunity.” This diamond was originally stolen from the temple of the Goddess of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh. In 1849 Lord Dalhousie confiscated it from the Sikh empire and the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli presented it to Queen Victoria. Within less than 100 years the British Empire was completely destroyed. It currently sits in the crown of the Queen of England guarded in the Tower of London.

The Regent Diamond – Discovered in 1698, this blue-tinged diamond came in at 140 carats. It was stolen by the Governor of Madras Thomas Pitt. It went on to adorn various French royal crowns and swords. It was set in the crown of Louis XVI in 1775 and he in turn gave it to Marie Antoinette. Both ended up decapitated during the French Revolution. Next, Napoleon Bonaparte made it part of his sword hilt. He was eventually defeated and died in exile on the island of Saint Helena. Today it sits in the Louvre in Paris, France.
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India the land of Stolen Jewels --2 

The Blue Hope – This diamond was originally stolen from a deity of Sita Devi and bought by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in 1660. He sold it to King Louis XVI who in turn had it cut to 67 carats and gave it to Marie Antoinette. Both were executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. The diamond went missing and did not resurface until exactly 24 years (the statute of limitations on theft). Later Henry Thomas Hope purchased the diamond and recut it. His family soon went bankrupt. Next, an American socialite widow named Mrs. Evelyn McLean purchased it, only to have her son killed, losing all her money, and eventually committing suicide. Today it sits at 45 carats in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. New research by the Smithsonian Institute indicates it was originally cut to produce an image of the sun in the center when it was set against a gold background.


But all of these diamonds pale in comparison to a recent discovery by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. They have detected a diamond 50 lights years away, measuring 4,000 Kilometers in diameter, with a mass of 10 billion, trillion, trillion carats. It formed in the constellation Centaurus when its sun exhausted its fuel, became a white dwarf, and compressed its remaining carbon down into a solid planet made entirely of diamond. Its official name is ‘V886 Centauri and BPM 37093’ but astronomers simply call it ‘Lucy’. Truly a diamond in the sky.

Tuesday 17 January 2017

The strange irony of Indian history--Michel Danino

The strange irony of Indian history – Michel Danino

Indian history presents us with a delightful irony. On the one hand, most schools and colleges teach it in such off-putting manner, with stale textbooks full of howlers, that most students come to hate the topic and happily erase it all from their memories the day after the exam. And on the other hand, Indian history seems to be alive and well, if we judge by the numerous historical debates that have filled the public space, from the Aryan theory to the Ayodhya issue, from the record of Aurangzeb or Tipu Sultan to pinning down the responsibility for the Partition, from “terrorism” in the Freedom Movement to Subhash Chandra Bose’s ultimate fate. That such “debates” are conducted more often through mud-slinging, if not demonization, than in a mature and civilized manner is another matter.
We also have a colourful range of scholars: At one end of the spectrum, some, dreaming of Puranic scales of time, are tempted to take Indian history millions of years into the past (or at least many thousands more than archaeology would permit), to visualize vimanas and other advanced technological devices from earliest times, and to imagine ancient India as a perfect golden age. And at the other end, scholars claiming to practise “scientific” history produce, instead, a brand heavily inflected by ill-suited imported ideologies and models, leave alone factual and methodological flaws. In between, are numerous solid, unprejudiced and meticulous historians who are passionate about the discipline; unfortunately, the wider public rarely gets to hear about them as the media can’t get desired sound bites from them .
Is this scene unique to India? By no means. Because history is at the root of the identity individuals, communities and nations choose to give themselves, it has immense bearing on current situations, and no nation escapes historical controversies. Did the Hebrews migrate from Egypt to Palestine as described in the biblical Exodus? Can the French nation be said to have been created by Joan of Arc? Did the “American holocaust” of Native Americans by the Spanish, Portuguese and British wipe out 100 million lives, as asserted by some scholars? Did the nations that declared their “neutrality” during World War II end up helping the Nazis? Did Stalin’s rule of the USSR result in some 60 million deaths? Is there firm evidence for the genocide of Armenians in 1915 by Turkey? Was Tibet ever an integral part of China, as the latter proclaims? Could the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been avoided?
Such questions can rarely be answered with a fair degree of certainty. Yet it is the job of history to try and answer. What is history, then? A few days ago, I was amused to read that Pakistan’s Sindh Minister for Culture, Tourism and Antiquities demanded that Ashutosh Gowariker, director of the newly released film History of IndiaMohenjo Daro apologize to the Sindhi people for “distorting historical facts and making a mockery of the 5000-year-old highly developed [Harappan] culture and civilization.” I have not watched the film, which does seem to have taken some liberties, but did not expect an avowed piece of fiction and entertainment to be taken so seriously. It is interesting to note in passing that many Indians feel similarly connected to the Indus civilization, many of whose sites are located on this side of the international border. Even such a crude example illustrates sharply enough how history—or protohistory, in this case—remains alive in sensitive ways and is intertwined with questions of national identity.
Yet “history is the lie commonly agreed upon,” in Voltaire’s opinion, which is hardly an optimistic definition. Two hundred years later, the U.S. historians Will and Ariel Durant were a little more explicit: “Our knowledge of any past event is always incomplete, probably inaccurate, beclouded by ambivalent evidence and biased historians, and perhaps distorted by our own patriotic or religious partisanship. Most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice.” An honest statement, but still not too hopeful. If, as the British historian E. H. Carr wrote, history is “an unending dialogue … between the society of today and the society of yesterday,” is such a dialogue possible at all when the data it is built upon is so deficient?
In India’s case, Tagore, in an insightful essay titled The History of Bharatavarsha, bitterly complained in 1903, “Our real ties are with the Bharatavarsha that lies outside our textbooks. … It appears as if we are nobody in India; as if those who came from outside alone matter.” He was echoed in 1942 by the scholar and statesman K. M. Munshi: “Most of our histories of India … deal with certain events and periods not from the Indian point of view, but from that of some source to which they are partial and which by its very nature is loaded against India.”
That, of course, was a reference to colonial histories written by the colonial masters. Has the situation much improved? Can we claim that we now have an “Indian perspective” on Indian history? Today, sober-minded Indologists and historians look at India as a civilization rather than a nation in the modern sense of the term; they ask when and how it emerged, and how it managed to integrate the myriad cultures of the subcontinent into one recognizable whole maintaining its original diversity. They query the social, political and administrative systems it evolved, its cultural developments, its myriad ethnic and linguistic units, and its interface with other cultures and civilizations. Despite yawning gaps in the archaeological, epigraphic, literary and economic records, a picture does emerge.
For a perspective of India to be successful, it should, in my opinion, build a sense of identity and belonging to a stream of civilization. But aren’t there many “ideas of India”? I propose to explore this question in later articles. – The New Indian Express, 24 September 2016
» Michel Danino is the author of The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati and Indian Culture and India’s Future. He teaches at IIT Gandhinagar. Email: micheldanino@gmail.com

Friday 13 January 2017

The Indian Genius

The Indian Genius

 https://ramamohanraocheruku.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-indian-genius.html

India unlike other civilizations, is the world’s most ancient and the only surviving ancient civilization. Much that has been destroyed in the records and even the records were destroyed by the barbaric foreign rulers under whose legs we were stamped for about 800 years. But even in what survives, we have continuity going back at least ten thousand years. Sequences, lineages of knowledge, of leadership, of Kings and so on, still surviving. This is the only civilization which has dared to explore every single field of human endeavor without exception. For any civilisation to flourish language is the base and our base language is Sanskrit. This language consists of a whole science of linguistics, a science of language in which we go down to the very root sounds and those root sounds are not arbitrary conventions as all the modern languages today are including our favorite English . Every word in these languages is only a convention and we have to refer to the dictionary for the meaning there of.  The most noteworthy character of Sanskrit is if you have something to say, you can express it, even create a new vocabulary to express it. On the other hand if you hear something which you do not know, you can go back into the root sounds and recover the essential meaning that is being communicated. The researchers at NASA, explained that Sanskrit is the best language for artificial intelligence though it was created as a natural expression to articulate what is true and permanent. What was expressed and articulated 10,000 years ago can be decoded, it takes effort though. We can say that it is the only natural language. Certain things that are recorded in code languages like 'Katapayadi' and Bhuta Sankhya' or in some other code it may take time, at times may not be possible also for the reason that the things mentioned there in might have extinguished or our intellect may not be sufficient to decode it as in the case of 'Vimana Sastra'.

 In fact, if you look back at the history of Europe and philosophy in Europe, you find philosophy got a boost in Europe when they began to study the Upanishads.  It was link point to India which was the cause of the renaissance in Europe, and with that philosophical awakening, began a series of other explorations including mathematics, medicine, physics, chemistry and so on, linking back to India for inspiration which became the basis for the renaissance and subsequent what we call   Western modern civilization. In case of mathematics when The experts recommended our system of numbers, that being very simple, the Church resisted for a long time with the fear that they would lose controls over people’s minds.

 Look at this ancient culture.  An interesting display in the British Museum of Indian Jewelry along with  a note there said, 'It was about 300 years ago, the jewelry displayed from India in Paris in that period’ and it astounded Europe as they couldn’t imagine that such complex intricate and beautiful work could be done by human hands! These founded the base for their renaissance.

India was the only civilization which sustained economic development without taking from others but giving more than it took as against the European countries who conquered for their own selfishness by usurping their sources of raw material.

India was so rich and self-contented since thousands of years back. Just notice this small sentence in Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice' that Antonio becomes rich suddenly at the end of story because the three ships arrived from India. Venice was their famous port where from they were trading more with India overseas. It was the kind of thinking that existed in Europe, because India was the focal point for wealth. It is a falsehood to say that India, because she was spiritual, was not strong or rich.

We had the world’s largest ship building industry producing ships which could go across the ocean for six months carrying all the food supplies and people in it; for 6 months without stopping at a port! And this involves very advanced navigation skills. When, Vasco da Gama was heading for India, he was hugging the coast, he was afraid to go into the ocean and at some point on the African coast, he bumped into a ship which was 3 times the size of his ship. It was a trader from Gujarat and Vasco do Gama said, ‘I want to go to India, I don’t know how to go and I am scared’. The trader said, ‘follow me’. He followed the rest of the journey behind these big ships from the Indian traders.  That’s how he came to India.

You will be surprised to know perhaps that Shivaji had a massive battle out there in the sea with the Portuguese, because he was protecting the sea coast line with 200 ships. And there was massive gun battle across ships in the waters, in which Shivaji won.  This is recorded and is in fact displayed by the Indian Navy as one of the early traditions of warfare in the sea. The misery is that we never find these facts in History as it was concocted by invaders, especially by Europeans. To get their roots penetrated, they have realised to conquer our minds more than the land as they can rule us forever even though they handover the country to us.

We know the word Sastra. Sastra is that which gives the ruling. We can develop anything on the basis of the rule. But the rule will not change as in the case of modern science. Take the case of Vimana Sastra.

The shastra of aero plane,  not only teaches how to construct an aero plane, but the specific alloys necessary to make the aero plane,  the kinds of dresses that the pilot should wear to protect himself against different kinds of radiation. It categorizes different kinds of radiations at different heights from the earth. It makes a distinction between flight in the atmosphere, flight in outer space and flight across in the solar system and different kinds of radiations and dangers at each of these levels. It specifies the kinds of food that pilot should eat. It specifies the kinds of machines, According to this shastra 32 machines make the aircraft complete. Among the machines are things which we cannot even imagine, things which we also have developed.  We take an example or two.

One is, “apasmāra dhūma prasārana yantra”

Apasmāra – forgetfulness, dhūma – smoke, prasārana – spreading, yantra – machine – that is, machine that spreads the smoke of forgetfulness. When the Vimana operates during war, it can spread the smoke which knocks out people and makes them unconscious. This we hear in Mahabharata where Arjuna uses in 'Uttara Gograhanam'.

 

Now imagine a description like this existing then. They dealt with 'tamogarbha yantra' which means machine that produces darkness from its womb. We cannot imagine this as so far we have no information of research on this topic. Our physics is a description and not an explanation. We have formulae which describe behaviors, but do not explain why they are, what they are. There is an interesting description of glass and the whole process of manufacturing it, in which you can see the other vimanas flying all around like ‘dots’, like stars in the sky, that is it works as a radar. Here one thing we should realise. What are not seen now and we believe that they were by our belief or research we endorse it otherwise we reject it. How can this be correct? Let us take the present case. The shastra that was written was systematically written. Confirming certain things that we know. Then how can we ignore the other things to be false without inferring its correctness.

 

 Please find a reply for my above statement. Recently, Dr. C.S.R. Prabhu in Hyderabad replicated 3 or 4 of them (he has decoded about 16 formulas so far). Among them was a material which belongs to the ‘thamo garbha yantra’.  He developed from that formula a ferrite material which was absorbing something like 94% of light shown on it.  He developed from those formulas a copper alloy material which was harder than steel and which doesn’t corrode in the sea water.  And as evidence that these things actually existed then he got a piece of copper alloy from Dwaraka which has been sitting under water for the last 5000 years, it has not corroded.  And it shows you that these things did exist.

 

The immediate question is 'Then why don't we try on these lines. The answer depends on our analysis. 1. This is a culture of not less than 10,000 years as per the proof till date. If we say it is since lakhs of years the western scientists and their eastern followers will not accept it. 2. The Government does not evince any interest to promote such researches and further researches. 3. The modern vocabulary is subjected to a sea change and moreover all those documents are in Sanskrit about which we know little. However we contributed and are also contributing our mite to make it dead. Hence we cannot realise the correct meaning of the word used in the then shastras. 4. While Kaliyuga was about to be started the then entire technology was subjected to be submerged in the sea. Therefore we cannot get the opportunity of making any research on the instruments. 5. Our ancient’s great works were destroyed mercilessly by both Mohammedan and the British rulers. But swamy Vivekananda exhorted so firmly “We do not belong to the past ‘dawn’s but to the ‘noon’s of the future' – whatever was achieved then, however great was, only a beginning and there is so much more to be done. India is destined to be the Guru of the World”. See how authentic was he in his expression. Let us not just wait for that day let us also contribute as much as we can by means of our knowledge, intelligence, commitment, concern, devotion and dedication. This is possible if we trust in Guru - shishya parampara and not Teacher - student culture, as Teacher is not equivalent to guru, as Guru is far far superior to him as he takes care of several aspects of his disciple other than teaching which a teacher does.

Hebrew civilization, the ideal there is ethics and morality, the Greece civilisation , the Ideal was elegance of thought, beauty of form, Roman civilization , the Ideal of law, order and discipline and the total European civilisation is the sum total of this.

Swasti.