Author: जयकृष्णः | ജയകൃഷ്ണൻ

Zoroastrian temple in Kurdistan

The main protagonist of Gore Vidal’s novel Creation was Cyrus Spitama, the grandson of Zoroaster. Though the novel was set in the 6th century BCE, current scholarly consensus places Zoroaster’s time at 1400 –1000 BCE making him the founder of one of the earliest religions based on revealed scripture. Other dates place him in the time of the Axial age, the time of Vidal’s novel. Zoroaster lived in Bactria in present day Afghanistan and his religion was adopted by the Persian emperor Darius, whose empire at that time included modern day Iraq as well.

Now a Zoroastrian temple has been discovered in Kurdistan, Iraq.

Duhok’s Director of Antiquities, Hasan Ahmed Qassim, has announced the discovery of a Zoroastrian temple near Jar Ston Cave, a famous ancient site. The temple is believed to be the most complete to have been unearthed in the region. It is also said that it was a Metherani temple.”

The temple was dedicated to the deity Anna Hita, indicated by the discovery of Anna Hita’s holy star, and evidence of fires, as well as fireplaces and Zoroastrian holy sand stores have been found nearby,” Qassim revealed. He further described the temple as being made up of five sanctuaries, three of which were carved into rock, with the remaining two having been constructed from stone blocks.This discovery is being hailed as the most significant archaeological development in the region in recent times.

.”This new discovery will alter the history of the region due to its unique architectural style, which differs considerably from Zoroastrian temples previously discovered,” explained the Director of Antiquities.

“The temple’s style which looks toward the four-directions is a unique style ever discovered in the area; thus it becomes an entry to studying Zarathustrian arts and archeology.”At present archaeology teams are continuing work at the site to find out more about the temple’s history.[Kurdistan: Zoroastrian Temple discovered in Duhok]

Lebanon can learn from Nepal

The ceasefire mandated by the United Nations resolution 1701 has bought the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. The ceasefire also calls also upon the government of Lebanon and UNIFIL to deploy their troops to South Lebanon and make sure that there will be no weapons without the consent of the government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the government of Lebanon. The Lebanese interpretation of this rule is that the Hezbollah can keep the arms so long as it does not display it in public. A Hezbollah leader said that they would just hide the weapons and melt into the local population which is a bad idea for the people of Israel as we know from the whole Soviet Union-Afghanistan-Pakistan episode.

After the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, the weapons supplied to the Mujahideen stayed with them. Many weapons were left unaccounted for. Later any terrorist groups wishing to inflict damage to the world could find the weapons in the open markets of Pakistan and these terrorists have been creating trouble for India and Afghanistan. Even now graduates from the center of the Jihadi universe are involved in every terrorist plot from 9/11 to the trans-Atlantic terror plot. Instead of waiting for the next Hezbollah attack on Israel, the United Nations should have worked towards disarming them like what they did in Nepal.

On June 16th, in Nepal, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist leader Prachanda reached an agreement in which the Maoists would join an interim government. The question then was if the Maoists would disarm before it. Though some Indian columnists (you know the more Catholic than the Pope types) wanted the world to accept the reality that the Maoists would not disarm, the Maoists agreed to have their arms counted and deposited under the supervision of the United Nations.

Now that the Israel-Hezbollah is over, Hezbollah has declared victory and the celebrations are going on. At the same time the Lebanese are roasting them for all the damage they caused. The leaders of the March 14th movement have demanded an investigation into the circumstances that led to the war. Prominent Hezbollah supporters like Michel Aoun has called for the Shiite militia to disband.

Hezbollah is also criticized from within the Lebanese Shiite community, which accounts for some 40% of the population. Sayyed Ali al-Amin, the grand old man of Lebanese Shiism, has broken years of silence to criticize Hezbollah for provoking the war, and called for its disarmament. In an interview granted to the Beirut An-Nahar, he rejected the claim that Hezbollah represented the whole of the Shiite community. “I don’t believe Hezbollah asked the Shiite community what they thought about [starting the] war,” Mr. al-Amin said. “The fact that the masses [of Shiites] fled from the south is proof that they rejected the war. The Shiite community never gave anyone the right to wage war in its name.”

 

There were even sharper attacks. Mona Fayed, a prominent Shiite academic in Beirut, wrote an article also published by An-Nahar last week. She asks: Who is a Shiite in Lebanon today? She provides a sarcastic answer: A Shiite is he who takes his instructions from Iran, terrorizes fellow believers into silence, and leads the nation into catastrophe without consulting anyone. Another academic, Zubair Abboud, writing in Elaph, a popular Arabic-language online newspaper, attacks Hezbollah as “one of the worst things to happen to Arabs in a long time.” He accuses Mr. Nasrallah of risking Lebanon’s existence in the service of Iran’s regional ambitions.[Hezbollah Didn’t Win (WSJ: subscription reqd)]

The problem  is that Nasrallah doesn’t care much about Lebanese opinion. Known for his dictatorial style of working, the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers was ordered by him without informing the two Hezbollah ministers in the Siniora cabinet or the 12 Hezbollah members of the Lebanese parliament. He is accountable only to the Mullahs in Iran.

Now with an armed militia still around, what is to prevent him from conducting another attack against Israel?

Public Radio Links (1)

National Public Radio  and local affiliates like KQED in San Francisco  bring some of the best interviews and discussions you can hear in American Media. Here are some interviews worth listening.

Switching to Organic Foods

With their testing  CSE has bought into discussion the amount of pesticides we consume in Colas. Though the war fought by CSE was against Coke and Pepsi, it has provoked discussion and bought into focus the issue that we consume larger quantities of pesticides in daily foods such as milk, tea and sugar than Coke and Pepsi.

To avoid pesticides either we will have to harvest our own crops or switch to organic foods. Currently in United States, organic food and organic farming are gaining ground. Apart from health conscious stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, you can get organic food in regular grocery stores like Safeway and Albertson’s also.

The United States Department of Agriculture sets very strict standards for food which can be labeled organic. First, the farmers must avoid chemical fertilizers and pesticides for three years. There are strict rules for transporting, processing and selling food. Factories that process both organic and non-organic food need to stop their machines and clean them with an organic solvent before the organic processing starts. Even in stores, non-organic food cannot be store above organic food since the water that drips through non-organic food can pollute the organic food.

Though expensive compared to non-organic food, the prices are expected to fall soon as Wal-Mart is planning to enter this market a big way.

Wal-Mart says it wants to democratize organic food, making products affordable for those who are reluctant to pay premiums of 20 percent to 30 percent. At a recent conference, its chief marketing officer, John Fleming, said the company intended to sell organic products for just 10 percent more than their conventional equivalents.

Food industry analysts say that with its 2,000 supercenters and lower prices, Wal-Mart could soon be the nation’s largest seller of organic products, surpassing Whole Foods. Already, it is the biggest seller of organic milk. [Wal-Mart Eyes Organic Foods]

With the pesticide-in-food issue getting coverage, wouldn’t this be a good time to start an organic brand in India?.

varnam Book Store

Amazon.com now allows associates to create customized online stores. Called aStore, it behaves  like Amazon.com and allows the associate to feature nine products on the front page. I have chosen a few books I have read and some which I would like to read. You can buy books off the site and the payment and shipping are all handled by Amazon.com

So here is the varnam Bookstore

Surviving in a Globalized World

Often it is said that due to globalization, American companies will enter countries and create conditions in which local businesses cannot survive. This is not always true. Recently Wal-Mart pulled out of Germany since they could not adapt to German shopping habits and make profits in the eight years they were there. Now from China comes the story of online bookseller Dangdang.com, which is giving Amazon.com a run for their money.

Equally critical to success, analysts and executives say, is the ability of domestic companies to understand and adapt to some of the other peculiarities of China’s market. Ms. Yu says Dangdang had to make adjustments to the model pioneered by Amazon.com and others. For example, the vast majority of Dangdang’s Chinese buyers of books pay cash on delivery — a result of the fact that credit cards still are relatively uncommon in China.

Dangdang faltered early because of a failure to recognize the uniqueness of China’s market. Ms. Yu, a longtime credit-card user from her years in New York, felt they were essential to selling products online. But credit-card use in China was paltry, meaning many prospective customers couldn’t pay. “We didn’t get much business,” Ms. Yu says now.

So Dangdang switched to two other payment methods: cash on delivery and postal money orders. Now, only about 15% of Dangdang’s transactions are paid for with credit cards.

“Don’t try to change consumer behavior,” Ms. Yu says she learned from that experience. “If consumers don’t want to pay with credit cards, then ask them how they want to pay. If they want to pay cash, then figure out a way to get their cash.”[China’s Web Retailers Beat U.S. Rivals At Their Own Game(subscription reqd)]

Search for Saraswati restarts

Following the discovery of Mohenjo-Daro along the banks of Indus and Harappa about 350 miles away, archaeologists started looking for other sites in the area. New sites were discovered, but they were buried under the sand in the desert. Archaeologists knew that these towns could not survive in the desert and satellite images have now shown that in what is now Thar Desert, once traversed a river with its own fertile banks[2]. Geologists have identified this river, an extension of the present day Ghaggar, as the Saraswati river mentioned in the Vedic scriptures. Originally the Saraswati flowed through Rajasthan and met the ocean  at the Gulf of Kutch near the Kathiawar peninsula.

Romila Thapar thinks that this identification of Ghaggar with Sarasvati is controversial since Sarasvati is said to cut through high mountains and that is not the landscape of the Ghaggar. She believes that early references to Sarasvati could be to the Haraxvati Plain in Afghanistan[3].

During the time of the NDA administration, Jagmohan started this Saraswati Heritage Project to conduct archaeological excavations in the region.

So far, excavation has already been undertaken in 10 places – Adi Badri, Thanesar, Sandhauli, Bhirrana, Hansi (all in Haryana), Baror, Tarkhanwala Dhera, Chak 86 (all in Rajasthan), Dholavira and Juni Karan in Gujarat. The project’s action taken report claims that during the excavation, remains from the pre-Harappan, Harappan and even medieval times have been discovered. [Times of India]

Then the usual words – saffronization of history, attempts to push the antiquity of Indian civilization were thrown and the Sonia Gandhi administration has scrapped the project. Now Haryana’s Public Health Minister Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala has taken a lead in the search for Saraswati.

Mr Surjewala will soon convene a joint meeting of experts from the Archeological Survey of India, the Geological Survey of India, the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, the ISRO, and other organizations to form a joint working group to trace the paleo-channel of the ancient sacred, Saraswati.

After watching a presentation on the Saraswati paleo-channel here yesterday, Mr Surjewala said the government had twin interests in launching this project — first to find out whether there was any under-ground aquifer in Haryana and secondly even if there was any slight possibility of it, then to harness the water of this channel.

He said the mythical Saraswati was described as the biggest water reservoir by the Rig Veda and Yajurveda and presently confirmed by the satellite images.

The focus was to discover new sources of water by linking the past with the future.

He said the satellite images had confirmed the major course of Saraswati was present through the present day Gaggar which further passed through parts of Haryana, including Kurukshetra, Kalayat and Kaithal. Finally, the channel passed through parts of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and adjoining regions in Pakistan before discharging into Rann of Kutch.

He explained that paleo-drainage system was an old channel through which river flowed and could hold thousands of cubic km of water. [Surjewala keen on tracing Saraswati]

See Also: A detailed map showing Indus Valley sites and Ghaggar-Hakra river

Did Rama exist?

The presence of the Vanaras or monkeys, including Hanuman, has made the authenticity of the epic suspect. But this is the most plausible part of the story. The Vanaras were obviously tribes with the monkey totem: after all, the Ramayana belongs to a period when most of India was jungle with tribal forest-dwellers. India still contains several tribes with animal totems. An early issue of the Bellary District (now in Karnataka) Gazetteer gives us the interesting information that the place was inhabited by the Vanara people. The Jaina Ramayana mentions that the banner of the Vanaras was the vanaradhvaja (monkey flag), thereby reinforcing the totemic theory. Similarly, Jatayu would have been the king of the vulture-totem tribe and Jambavan of the bear-totem tribe.

Was Lanka the modern Sri Lanka? One school of thought places Lanka on the Godavari in Central India, citing the limited descriptions of the South in the latter half of the epic. Narada does not mention Panchavati or Rameshwaram, but refers to Kishkinda and Lanka. Living in the north, it is unlikely that Valmiki knew the south. But Valmiki would know the difference between a sea and a river. Lanka, says the author definitively, was across the sea.

All the places visited by Rama still retain memories of his visit, as if it happened yesterday. Time, in India, is relative. Some places have commemorative temples; others commemorate the visit in local folklore. But all agree that Rama was going from or to Ayodhya. Why doubt connections when literature, archaeology and local tradition meet? Why doubt the connection between Adam’s Bridge and Rama, when nobody else in Indian history has claimed its construction? Why doubt that Rama traveled through Dandakaranya or Kishkinda, where local non-Vedic tribes still narrate tales of Rama? Why doubt that he was born in and ruled over Ayodhya? [Did Rama exist?]

Nehru: We don't need a defence plan!

After India got Independence, the state of Jammu and Kashmir decided to remain independent. Once the British left, a revolt started in Poonch and was supported by tribesmen from North West Frontiner Province, who decided to give a helping hand to their Muslim brothers. Faced with this threat, the Maharajah of Kashmir had  to request help from India but the India would not intervene unless the Maharajah joined the Indian Union. So he signed the Instrument of Accession and the airlift of Indian troops began on 27th October. So instead of seeing the fruit falling into his lap , Jinnah saw it fall into India’s lap.

According to a new account, it was this war that saved the Indian Army since Prime Minister J. Nehru wanted to follow the principle of ahimsa and not have a defense policy at all.

The Kashmir war saved the Indian Army from being scrapped, seems strange? Well, a biography of Major General AA “Jick” Rudra of the Indian Army by Major General DK “Monty” Palit claims so.

According to the book, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru blew his top when Lt General Sir Robert Lockhart, the first commander in chief of India took a strategic plan for a Government directive on defence policy.

“Shortly after independence, General Lockhart as the army chief took a strategic plan to the prime minister, asking for a government directive on the defence policy. He came back to Jick’s office shell-shocked. When asked what happened, he replied, The PM took one look at my paper and blew his top. ‘Rubbish! Total rubbish!’ he shouted. ‘We don’t need a defence plan. Our policy is ahimsa (non-violence). We foresee no military threats. Scrap the army! The police are good enough to meet our security needs’,” the Daily Times quotes the book as saying.[‘Nehru wanted army scrapped’]

On the bright side if Nehru’s plan had worked, then there would be no Kashmir issue, no border disputes with China and no need of nuclear weapons. Instead we would all be debating if Urdu or Mandarin would be our national language.

The Looming Tower

Did you know that Al-Qaeda members had medical benefits and paid holidays. They had to submit requests in triplicate to get new tires or other hardware? Lawrence Wright wrote this new book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 taking almost five years and interviewing more than 600 people including members of Al-Qaeda and Osama’s wives. It also talks about the effort of FBI agents to crack down on them.

The arrival, then, of Lawrence Wright’s “The Looming Tower,” a deeply researched history of al Qaeda, is welcome and timely. This is a largely Egyptian and Saudi tale, one that Mr. Wright intercuts with the stories of the small group of U.S. officials who early on understood the threat posed by the group. Mr. Wright focuses on the decisions made by certain individuals rather than on the play of great impersonal forces. At one point he considers “whether 9/11 or some other similar tragedy might have happened without [Osama] bin Laden to steer it.” His answer: “Certainly not. The tectonic plates of history were certainly shifting, promoting a period of conflict between the West and the Arab Muslim world; however, the charisma and vision of a few individuals shaped the nature of the contest.”

One of those individuals was Sayyid Qutb, a nebbishy Egyptian writer who arrived in Greeley, Colo., in 1946 to attend college. A priggish intellectual, Qutb found the U.S. to be racist and sexually promiscuous, an experience that left him with a lifelong contempt for the West. “Instead of becoming liberalized by his experience in America, he returned even more radicalized,” Mr. Wright says. Once in Egypt again, Qutb joined the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and was later jailed and tortured.[Profiles in Terror (subscription reqd.)]

Sayyid Qutb wrote a manifesto called Milestones which became a jihadi primer. Sayyid also wanted jihad to be conducted against Muslim nations which did not implement Shariat. Note that this all started much before the Palestine, Kashmir  and so many other issues which jihadi apologists claim as excuse.

The book traces the career of Osama from his days fighting the Soviets which was greatly exaggerated to his exile in Sudan where he spent time farming sunflowers to the plotting of 9/11 with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The book also profiles Daniel Coleman and FBI debriefer who in 1996 concluded that Al-Qaeda was a big threat to United States and John O’Neill, another FBI agent who aggressively investigated the bombing of USS Cole in Yemen.

Listen: Lawrence Wright on Fresh Air