Author: जयकृष्णः | ജയകൃഷ്ണൻ

Hunting for Muziris

The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a travelog written by an unknown author in the first century about travel in the Indian Ocean. According to K.A. Nilakanta Sastri in his book, A History of South India.
bq. The author of the _Periplus_ (c A.D. 75) gives the most valuable information about this trade between India and the Roman empire. He mentions the ports of Naura (Cannanore), Tyndis–the Tondi of the poems, identified with Ponnani–and Muziris (Musiri, Crangannore), and Nelcynda very near Kottayam, as of leading importance on the west coast. Muziris abounded in ships sent there with cargoes from Arabia and by the Greeks.
A Sreedhara Menon in his book, A Survey of Kerala History writes that there is no doubt that the present Kodungallor is the ancient Musiris. Now Dr. Shajan, an archeologist “has proposed”:http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/03/28/stories/2004032800080200.htm based on some evidence that Muziris, the legendary seaport of the ancient world, stood at Pattanam, a small town some 12 km south of the Periyar rivermouth (present day Kodungallur)
bq. Radiocarbon dating of peat samples showed that Kodungalloor and Paravur areas were part of the sea some 5,000 years ago. By about 1,000 B.C., however, the sea had regressed and the coastline had more or less stabilised about two km west of the area where these two towns are situated at present. Another clue that led the team to Pattanam was the finding, based on remote-sensing data, that Periyar had changed course during the millennia, and the river course was in the Pattanam area 2,000 years ago. “My view is that the Paravur Thodu, which flows near Pattanam, was the old channel of the Periyar,” says Dr. Shajan.
bq. The most important find was the rim and handle of a classic Italian wine amphora, which came from Naples and belonged to the late first century B.C. The amphora, which was used to transport wine and olive oil, had been identified from a number of Roman sites in India, including Arikamedu and Alagankulam in Tamil Nadu. [via “The Hindu”:http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/03/28/stories/2004032800080200.htm]

Romila Thapar: No Aryan Invasion – II

“Few days back”:https://varnam.org/archives/000346.html Romila Thapar in a letter to the editor to The Hindu said that all along she had maintained that there was no Aryan Invasion. I am currently reading her book Early India: From the origins to the AD 1300” Here are some exceprts

Indo-European and Indo-Aryan are language labels, but in the nineteenth century these were also incorrectly used as racial labels and this confusion persists. The correct usage should be “Indo-European-speaking people” and `Indo-Aryan-Speaking-people’, but the shortened labels, Indo-European and Indo-Aryan are commonly used. Language is a cultural label and should not be confused with race, which although also a social construct, claims that it has to do with biological descent.
Some migrated to Anatolia, others to Iran, and some among the latterm it is thought migrated to India. In the texts composed by them, such as __Avesta__ in Iran and the __Rig-Veda__ in India, they refer to themselves as __airiia__ and __arya__, hence the European term, Aryan.
There are clearly many sources of information on the beginings of Indian history. Archeological evidence is chronologically more precise, but cannot be used to identify any culture as ‘Aryan’ since archeology, in the absence of a script cannot supply information on a language. Unfortunately, the Harappan script remains undeciphered. The theory of an Aryan invasion no longer has credence.

So there you have it, right from the horse’s mouth. There was no Aryan Invasion. Aryan is a language label. Aryans composed Rig Veda.

Bob Edwards being replaced

bq. Morning radio will soon lose one of its most familiar news anchors. Bob Edwards, who for nearly 25 years has greeted millions of weekday listeners with the distinctive and richly toned opener “This is ‘Morning Edition’ from NPR News,” is being replaced as host of that flagship morning program.
bq. Edwards said he found out early this month that he was being reassigned. “I was called into an office, and they said, ‘We’re making a change,”‘ he said. “You get a line like that, and I guess you should come back with some snappy rejoinder. But of course I did not. I was very surprised.” [via “Seattle PI”:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/165990_npr24.html]
This is one voice I will miss. In American Media, where anchors try to hog the limelight, promote themselves and pay little attention to news, Bob was different. I liked his style of interviewing where he would be very brief with the question and let the other person tell the story. I cannot imagine the line “This is Morning Edition from NPR News” in a different voice.

Dynasty

“Amberish K Diwanji”:http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/mar/24akd.htm
bq. In stark contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party has thus far not been smitten by the dynasty bug (one hopes it never does). It selects candidates based on parameters of success, not inheritance. But more important, any middle-level official in the party knows he stands a chance of winning a nomination, if not now then the next time. With such hope burning eternal in his breast, a member will work that much harder for the party’s success, because he knows the next time round his colleagues might well be working for his electoral success. Look at the contrast: the Congress president is president only because of her family connections; the BJP president comes from a humble family. What is the message being sent out?
“Indian Express”:http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=43597 (via “Jivha”:http://www.jivha.com/blog/archives/001108.html)
bq. The BJP released its fourth list of candidates today, and prominent among those in the list include sons of Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, and former CMs Kailash Joshi (Bhopal) and Babulal Marandi (Koderma, Chhattisgarh).

Romila Thapar: No Aryan Invasion

For the many of you who think it was people like Romila Thapar who maintained the Aryan Invasion Theory, here is some news: She was “against it”:http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/22/stories/2004032201661001.htm all the time.
bq. If he had read anything on the debate among historians concerning the Aryan theory, he would have known that for the last 30 years I, together with other historians, have been refuting the concept of an Aryan race or a Dravidian race. I have stated categorically in “A History of India,” Vol. I, published in 1966, that Aryan is a linguistic term. I discussed this in greater detail in my presidential address to the Ancient Indian History Section of the Indian History Congress in Varanasi in 1968, where I argued that Aryan is a linguistic label and not a racial category. And just for the record, since I am frequently misquoted on this by some people, I argued further that although I did not accept the notion of an Aryan invasion, I did support the idea of a graduated migration of Aryan-speaking peoples from the Indo-Iranian borderlands into north-western India. This resulted in an interface of various cultures and this interface needs to be explored � and many of us have done so, as would be apparent from our other publications on the subject. [via “The Hindu”:http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/22/stories/2004032201661001.htm]
Updates:
Subramanian Swamy – “Swamy’s reply”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=330223
Sandeep – “The High Priestess Speaks Again!”:http://sandeep.vesana.com/mt/archives/000008.html#more

Sony Clie TH55

I have been evaluating various PDAs for quite sometime and had settled on the Sony Clie TJ-35. I ogled for quite a while without actually buying the device till Sony withdrew it from the market and came out with three new devices. I decided not to waste anymore time and got myself the “Sony Clie TH55”:http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=y6bL-RdWzUfL3FcKeUDB8lhG9hLnF6qr1_k=?CategoryName=hp_Multimedia&ProductSKU=PEGTH55%2fU&Dept=hp
This device has a 320×480 high resolution display, a camera with 2x optical zoom, audio and video player and integrated Wi-Fi. Considering that I used to own a Palm III before this, it is like owning a Lexus RX after driving a Toyota Corolla.
Brighthand has the “review”:http://www.brighthand.com/article/Sony_Clie_TH55_Review?site=Palm of the TH55 and PalmZone has a “comparison”:http://www.palmzone.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=191 of TH55 and Palm T3. The best site for keeping track of Clie news is “ClieSource”:http://cliesource.com/
Software sources for the Palm are
* “Sonystyle”:http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/micros/clie/software/index.html
* “Palm Gear”:http://palmgear.com/

More Bollywood Rules

Jivha had a blog entry on the “Top Thirteen Rules for Bollywood, 2004 Edition”:http://www.jivha.com/blog/archives/001065.html. Here are some of mine
# Even a poor villager goes to Switzerland to sing songs. We don’t know how he gets the money, maybe by selling one of his kidneys.
# In song sequences, every hero and heroine has a crowd of extras repeating the same steps behind them. 50 years and Bollywood has not found a different way to picturize film songs.
# Every film has a song which is set on stage which is surrounded by crowds of people, who just wave their arms in air. Where do these arm waving people work ?
# If want to look macho and your name is Bobby Deol or Sunil Shetty, then you should wear Rayban glasses even if it is midnight.
# If it is an Amitabh Bachchan movie, there has to be atleast one song where he dances with a bunch of scantily clad girls old enough to be his granddaughter.
# There has to be atleast one song containing the word “Maahive” and “Soniye”.
# Humor is Johnny Lever shouting.

Opinion Polls

The elections in India are a month away and here are some opinions on what will happen. The purpose of this blog entry is to visit this after the results are announced.
“Outlook & India Today”:http://www.expressindia.com/election/fullestory.php?type=ei&content_id=29064
bq. The opinion poll forecast that Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition of nearly 20 parties would win 280-290 seats of the 543 in the Lower House of Parliament. The coalition holds 303 seats now. The poll predicted Congress would win just 103 seats, an all-time low, although a stronger showing by its allies would lift the Opposition coalition to 159-169 seats from 140 now.
bq. India Today last month forecast the coalition would win 330-340 seats. The Congress and its allies got 105-115 seats in that opinion poll.
“Resident Idiot”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=329246
bq. Assuming the same rate holds ? despite the allies? depleted number and reduced strength ?, the party will only win 188 seats (if it contests 350, of a total of 545).
The Resident Idiot did not even bother to comment on how many seats Congress and its allies would win.

Finding Communist Workers

bq. Party politburo (PB) member Anil Biswas, in the latest issue of the CPM?s theoretical quarterly The Marxist, concedes that the party is facing a serious crisis as there was a drastic fall in the number of full-time workers and the new members are neither ideologically nor politically equipped to meet the standards and demands set by the party.
bq. Biswas, who is also the state secretary of the party?s West Bengal unit, says that there is a crisis brewing over the issue of full-time workers of the party. ??In a period of long-term status quo, it is very difficult to find wholetimers with a ideology-driven frame of mind that rejects selfishness and to work without a wage that would at least meet the minimum need for a living,?? he writes.
As InstaPundit would say, “HEH”:http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IER20040307014434&Page=R&Title=Kerala&Topic=0&