bq. In the seventh century, Arab armies invaded Persia. Some Zoroastrians were converted to Islam and some preferred to migrate to India, which they did from the early eighth century. They too came to western India where they already had trading contacts, and established large settlements to the north of Mumbai, such as the one at Sanjan. Their descendants founded a community later known as Parsi, reflecting the land of their origin and their language. Some settled in rural areas but close to centres of trade; others were more active in the trading circuits of the time. [from Early India by Romila Thapar]
Now an archaeological dig at Sanjan is providing more information about the first Parsi settlement in India.
bq. The find at Sanjan’s Varoli riverside dig includes six whole skeletons and a few partial ones, coins, pieces of pottery, glass and beads. After being analysed by paleo-anthropologist S.R. Walimbe of Pune’s Deccan College, the skeletons? which were found lying with their hands crossed and legs tied together?will be sent to Oxford University for carbon dating and DNA testing to find out if they are of Parsis.
bq. Knowledge of Parsi history is only from the quasi-historical document, the ‘Kissei-Sanjan’ and from oral tradition. “We know of Parsis living in Sanjan from the 7th century (under the patronage of the Hindu ruler Jadi Rana) to the late 14th century when the place was invaded by a general of Mahmud Tughlak,” said historian Homi Dhalla, who is the president of the WZCG.
bq. “But there has been little evidence to indicate when and how they had come and the events they lived through. We are excited because these finds may provide the proof we need.” Confirming this, Ms Gokhale said that five of the 32 Indian and Persian coins date back to the seventh and eighth centuries. She has also found allusions to a fire altar?the temple where a flame is kept burning as a symbol of the cycle of life and eternal recurrence?on the sole Sassanian coin, which is from the 7th century.
bq. “A one-foot turquoise-blue ceramic vase and a small china celadon dish have been pieced together. Blue pottery was manufactured at Siraf in Iran and at Basra in Iraq in the 7th and 8th centuries and was in use in many Asian countries until the 11th century, when the preference for blue was possibly replaced by the pale green of celadon pottery. But the remains unearthed at Sanjan reveal a continuity in the usage of blue pottery as well as celadon?which probably means that there was a flourishing trade between Iran, Iraq and South Gujarat,” he added. [“Times of India”:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=43207293]
Author: जयकृष्णः | ജയകൃഷ്ണൻ
Terrorism causes social reform
When an act of terrorism happens in your country, you can use that to your advantage to make a social reform. When 9/11 happened, the US Govt could have used that to formulate a national energy plan to get us out of the dependence from foregin oil. But now, out of all the places, Saudi Arabia is now allowing women to work as a way fighting _homegrown terrorism_
bq. The Saudi cabinet, chaired by King Fahd, last week took a landmark decision allowing women to obtain commercial licenses. “This decision will certainly reduce social and economic pressures on men, who are no longer capable of meeting family needs due to a drop in personal income,” said Nahid Tahir, a senior economist at National Commercial Bank. She told AFP that creating employment had become a way of fighting “homegrown terrorism”. “It also has an important security aspect in fighting terrorists in the kingdom, as the solution to this problem is no longer of a purely security nature.”
bq. The head of the Jeddah-based Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies, Anwar Eshki, said the steps highlight the role the economy can play in “fighting extremism”. “The cost of living has gone up and women must share the burden with their husbands. If this is not done, it will negatively affect the security situation. It will only breed further complications,” Eshki said. Unemployment in Saudi Arabia is estimated at more than 20% “We cannot separate terrorism from the economy … The security solution is essential, but it is not the decisive one. The cabinet’s decision is a response to this understanding,” he told AFP. [“Al Jazeera”:http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/839B7B03-16B2-410B-8098-660A4CF6C010.htm]
Saudi Arabia in Terror
bq. Many people here believe that after years of threats, a struggle aimed at wrecking Saudi Arabia’s storied oil industry has begun. The nature of the violence has morphed; suicide bombings at housing compounds in Riyadh gave way to two major shooting rampages at oil companies last month. Workers are no longer rattled or nervous ? they are scared. Saudi stability once seemed a relatively safe bet; now analysts are questioning the security of the kingdom’s oil facilities and the tight grip of its ruling family. [“LA Times”:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-saudis5jun05,1,5607761.story?coll=la-home-headlines (regn reqd)]
This is what the terrorists wanted in the first place. People who keep the Saudi economy moving are the immigrants, about 6 million of them. Recently there “was a move to prevent immigrants”:https://varnam.org/archives/000329.html from taking up certain jobs. But the terrorist activity has accelerated the fleeing of immigrants.
bq. Now foreigners are barricaded in gated communities, terrified to venture outside. Some are abandoning Saudi Arabia altogether. Workers at Aramco estimate that dozens of employees have resigned since last weekend. Nervous workers are urging their spouses and children to leave the country for the summer, or longer. Many are quietly looking for new jobs, hoping to line up a financial escape route. [“LA Times”:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-saudis5jun05,1,5607761.story?coll=la-home-headlines (regn reqd)]
The British have warned of more _spectacular attacks_
bq. “We continue to believe that terrorists remain determined to carry out further attacks in Saudi Arabia, and that these may be in the final stages of preparation,” the Foreign Office said Sunday, advising against all but essential travel to the oil-rich kingdom. “The threat includes, but is not limited to, residential compounds and diplomatic and other official premises,” it said. [“Middle East Online”:http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=10106]
You may not like this place for all the hatred they export, but whatever happens here will affect your daily life.
Kiss of the Yogini
Another of “Wendy’s Children”:http://www.sulekha.com/expressions/column.asp?cid=239156 has come up with a new book “KISS OF THE YOGINI”:http://www.the-tls.co.uk/this_week/story.aspx?story_id=2107312: “Tantric sex” in its South Asian context, by David Gordon White. Rajiv Malhotra writes about this new interpretation of Tantra in an e-mail
bq. White’s book’s core thesis is that tantra was intended as South Asian decadent sexuality, with NO spiritual purpose, and that this decadence was the result of sociological suffering of Indian subaltern (lower castes) in classical times.
bq. However, he offers no textual basis to prove this (and he is the one who should have the burden of proof, not his critics). Since his thesis on tantra claims to demolish centuries of writings by Kashmir Shaivites and other thinkers from within the tradition, he asserts (without proof) that scholars like Abhinavgupta did not know or did not want to know the real tantra which White claims to have uncovered in his book.
bq. So once again, the natives are not to be trusted in their own interpretations, including their eminent thinkers who have been studied by westerners for centuries. Bottom line: tantra has nothing to do with being a spiritual quest at all.
bq. Coming from one of Wendy’s Children, this is not a surprise, but it raises other issues. A Kashmir Shaivism and tantra scholar who finds this book disgusting in methodology, conclusion and demeaning tone, tells me privately that he does not believe that the pandits in India under whose feet White did his research since 20 years ago have any clue that this is how their firangi scholar (who once respected them with gifts and namaskars) has twisted their translations.
bq. My main purpose in writing this short piece is to focus on Wendy’s use of the book review for political purposes:
Continue reading “Kiss of the Yogini”
A Dangerous Place
Past two days here in Los Angeles
* “Boy, 7, Is Shot in Head as He Plays in Backyard”:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-briefs2.3jun02,1,4413906.story?coll=la-headlines-california
* “1 Killed, 2 Wounded as Gunmen Fire at Group”:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-briefs2.1jun02,1,3627472.story?coll=la-headlines-california
* “Woman, Toddler Wounded in Drive-By Shooting”:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-060204shooting_lat,1,2327201.story?coll=la-home-headlines
bq. In Los Angeles last year, 350 gang-related homicides accounted for 68% of the city’s killings, according to police. That was about 19% more than the total of gang-related homicides for 1999. Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton joined Fox in releasing the gang violence study. Bratton said the number of gang-related homicides in Los Angeles rose in the last two years even as killings overall dropped 23%. [“LA Times”:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-homicide2jun02,1,580713.story?coll=la-headlines-california, regn reqd]
Give everyone a gun and you get a city of angels.
No More Clie's
It was only a few months back that I bought the “Sony Clie TH55”:https://varnam.org/archives/000345.html after over-analyzing various PDAs. Now Sony has announced that they are no longer going to release PDAs for the American Market. This means there will only be Palm devices running the Palm OS. I always found that Sony Clie’s looked much more elegant than Palm Devices while running the same OS.
bq. Mr. Limp told Brighthand that this simply continues the trend toward consolidation of marketshare in the traditional PDA business to two major players, HP in the Pocket PC arena and palmOne in the Palm OS arena. “The market is in transition from a standalone PDA market to a wireless communicator market,” said Mr. Limp. When asked whether Sony would be releasing a Palm OS-based communicator in the future, Mr. Limp said “there are no guarantees in this world.” [“Brighthand”:http://www.brighthand.com/article/sayonara_clie]
“PDA Buyers Guide”:http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Board=news&Number=11594 has the following reasons for the annoucement.
* Sony had 20% of the Palm OS market in Q1, down from 25% in 2003, not good.
* Sony as a company is struggling financially. They need to concentrate on game consoles and games, and other bread and butter ventures.
* Sony is trying to buy MGM, which involves a great deal of money.
* The Clie’s high end multimedia niche didn’t pay off.
* They came out with 30 different models and that made for hard work to differentiate models.
* Innovation slacked, with the UX50 being the last innovative model, and that came out 1 year ago.
* Sony Clie models are expensive to produce.
* Sony didn’t keep pace with PalmOne restructing and cost reduction.
* PalmOne products are cutting into Sony territory: T3, Zire 71 and 72.
* Only 160,000 PDAs shipped in Japan last year. Todd wonders how worthwhile PDA sales in Japan are since high end feature phones are king there.
Bactrian Gold
Bactria, located in Northern Afghanistan between the Hindu Kush mountains and Oxus river, was the eastern province of the Persians before it was conquered by the Greeks. Something that has survived even after the Soviet and Taliban rule is their gold. Now for the first time this ancient gold will be available for the whole world to see.
bq. While other important archaeological sites are plundered or have been ruined by war, the Bactrian gold, discovered by a Soviet team near the northern town of Shiberghan just before the Red Army invasion of 1979, has had a number of narrow escapes, adding to its allure and mystery.
bq. An Afghan official who viewed the Bactrian gold recently in an underground vault in the heavily guarded presidential palace in Kabul described the pieces he saw, including an intricately designed belt and a gold broach, as “priceless”. [“Al Jazeera”:http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D6A2AC7E-96D1-4CDF-8510-1FD7126CC672.htm]
Still an infidel
The Indian Govt. “reacts to the terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia”:http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=20282
bq. “We condemn this wanton act of terrorism which has led to the loss of innocent lives and damage to property,” the external affairs ministry said in a statement. “The Indian casualties were victims of the circumstances rather than pre-meditated targets of attack.”
It was a pre-meditated attack and it is part of their plan to cleanse the Arabian peninsula of infidels. It was explicitly stated by the terrorists:
bq. Accompanying the eight-minute recording was a 700-word written statement which claimed that “infidels and crusaders” among the hostages had been killed, including 10 Indians, “those cow worshippers who killed our Muslim brothers in Kashmir”. [“Guardian”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11599,1228365,00.html]
As per the new Common Minimum Program adopted by the Congress Govt, there are plans to push India’s decades-old commitment to the cause of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own and improve ties with the Arabs. You can do all that, but still that will not change the fact that you are an infidel.
6 months of Arnold
How is Arnold doing as our Governor ? When he became Governator, the state was in a big mess.
bq. After his 2002 reelection, Davis had announced that California was confronted with a deficit of $35 billion — caused in large part by a gargantuan spending increase of 36% during his years in office, and an explosion of hiring in the public sector, whose unions were among Davis’ most reliable supporters. Among the people of California, there was an increasing sense that perhaps the state’s problems were insurmountable and that the state itself, controlled by Davis and a wildly left-wing Legislature, had become simply ungovernable. [“Human Events”:http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=4022]
But after Arnold took over, California’s rating was upgraded by Moody’s for the first time in four years. One of the reasons was the state’s political climate had improved considerably under the new Governor.
To cover the deficits he put a proposition on the ballot and the state is now issuing a $15 Billion dollar bond. Also according to an opinion poll nearly two out of three voters “approve his job performance”:http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/ca/election/polls/story/9441162p-10365310c.html. But now he will be forced to make “some tough decisions”:http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2182240,00.html.
bq. The Assembly endorsed increasing the minimum wage to $7.75, a 15 percent increase. If the more liberal Senate concurs, as expected, the governor will have to choose between being a champion of low-wage workers or signing a bill that small businesses and the California Chamber of Commerce say will cost the state jobs.
bq. The Legislature is also poised to approve a handful of measures that would encourage individual Californians and state agencies to import prescription drugs from Canada, where they are cheaper. The notion is popular among elderly voters and could save the cash-strapped state millions. But approving those bills would put Schwarzenegger on a collision course with the pharmaceutical industry and the Republican administration in Washington, D.C.
bq. Schwarzenegger may have to choose between politically appealing measures and some of his bigger campaign supporters in other areas. Car dealers, for instance, will strongly urge him to veto a measure that would allow used car buyers to return a car within three days of sale. The bill passed the Assembly this week. Automotive interests have donated $824,335 to Schwarzenegger, according to ArnoldWatch.org, a consumer activist Website.
Even though he sometimes is known as “The Exaggerator”:http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/ca/story/9480438p-10404413c.html, the public still trusts him to pull the state through.
Abu Hamza and Akshardham
Abu Hamza, the Muslim cleric who gave us the Shoe Bomber has "now been arrested":http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=11171_Abu_Hamza_Arrested_At_Last for deportation to United States. As per a report in The Times of India, "Abu Hamza was the main conspirator":http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-706485,curpg-1.cms in the terrorist attach in Akshardham in India in September 24, 2002.
bq. The investigating agency in its chargesheet in the case named Abu Hamza of Riyadh as one of the main conspirators. The Crime Branch had alleged that the plot to attack Akshardham was hatched to avenge the communal riots in Gujarat. The chargesheet said that the plot was hatched in Saudi Arabia and that the terrorist attack in Gujarat had been planned by Abu Hamza and Abu Sifiyan of Riyadh along with Abu Talah, a resident of Jeddah. They allegedly took the help of one Salim Shaikh who worked in Riyadh but hailed from Dariapur in Ahmedabad. Salim was among the first to be arrested while the other three are named as absconders in the case.