Democracy @ India during Chola period

Although, this cannot be compared to the present day democracy, i am just want to share this interesting news about ourselves.

This is the official version of History, recorded through inscriptions. This happened during Chola period, (i thing Raja Raja Cholan), where they went as far as indonesia and ruled.

This is about a village called Uthiramerur, located near chennai. The inscriptions at Uthiramerur gives us some detail over the eligibility to contest the elections. In tamil, its popularly called “Kudavolai”, since the election box is a “Kudam” (dont know english translation )
Eligibility criteria for Candidates:
- He should own at least Kaal Veli land (Kaal means Quarter and Veli is the unit measured for lands those days)
- He should live on his own land (means own house)
- Should be over 35 years of age and below 75
- Should have mastered in Vedhas and basic studies
- Shouldn’t have possessed the same position in the past 3 years

Disqualifications:
- He, who hasn’t shown his income to Government during his tenure
- If one has been proved corrupt during his tenure, he, his family
members and even his blood relatives cannot contest elections for next 7 generations
- He, who hasn’t paid taxes
- Who has extra marital affairs with married women
- Murderers, Liars, Drunkards
- Who swindled other’s money in the past
- He who eats the uneatable by humans

It also says that the tenure is only of 360 days (1 year, those days), after which he will have to voluntarily withdraw from the capacity. If he is found guilty during the tenure, he will be removed by force (by the king).

A 10th Century record also reveals how the fines imposed on the wrong doers of the village were administered. Those who were fined for wrong deeds were called “Dhushtargal” (means criminals). The fines were imposed on them by the village assembly and the sitting elected members.

The assembly also decides that the said fines imposed should be collected from the “Dhushtargal” and settled by the village administrators through the assembly, within the same financial year, failing which the assembly would
interfere and get the matter settled.

Delayed payment of penalties also had late fees attached to them. These all happened 1000 years back?
The important point to note is that all proceedings are held in public, and before the whole villagers. Since the villagers know each other, and the office bearer residing in the same village, anything going wrong is immediately brought before the council. (panchayat)..

(We could have heard this famous tamil dialog “Panchayata kootra.”)

It also clearly states that, even the elected members of village assembly cannot escape fines or punishment, using their powers. They will be dealt severely if found guilty.

(personally, during my childhood, i have seen people expressing opinion on panchayat leader.. and this opinion is what those leaders fear of. because, it means, a bad name to their family too, who reside among the same people… But in the last few years, the situation got worse due to the mentality “what will happen if i do this wrong”…)

In some areas of tamilnadu, predominantly south, the village head is Naattamai. (again the famous tamil dialog “naataama…. theerpa maathi sollu )

Probably, we have seen most of such things in cinema, and hence may not know the importance of such an administration.

So, what does the people do, when a village head, consolidates the power. The scholars, will take this issue to the king, and the king would dispatch an army to dislodge the village head.

Unlike today’s circumstances, the king dont have any voting compulsions to give second thought.. On those days, the people showed unquestionable loyalty to kings, and the kings realised his duty to protect his citizens. So, whenever any wrongs happen in any part of his kingdom, the scholars & affected ones at that place, bring the news to the king, who would take prompt action.

As an exemption, there are few kings, who remain casual in his duties, or failed in his duties. In such case, either the enemy rajyam, will capture his territory, or the people’s copoperation will be lost by the king, which bring him to confusion.

More over, any king who failed in his duty, has to lose all his goodwill and respect, not only among his subjects, but among other kings, whom he has to share dias in many occasions. (like suyamvaram, & other events).

I have lot to write on our polity and social structure, in detail. Probably, i will be able to in the near future.

Is there anything that we can learn from this simple history of ours? Please share me your views, and also if any related news that you know.

[Note: One of the few english books that i read is "Wisdom of Crowds". It was a compilation of research, on american people's behaviour and characteristics, and how they as a crowd, provided, solutions smarter than the expert.

I wonder, why no one does any such research on our own society and people. Infact, while reading that book, i just compared with our people's behaviour.. i have some really interesting things to share.. let me try in future doing some posts on that]

Source: http://thoughtbundles.blogspot.com/

Conversion destroys religious harmony – By SWAMI DAYANANDA SARASWATHI

This is an article written in New Indian Express. As this is not available in any of the internet links, i am providing it as it is, as i received it through mail.

About Swami dayanand Saraswathi:

Although, no introduction is needed for him, let me share what i know. He is one of the vedantic scholars in india, and runs dedicated calsses on vedanta in his ashram at Pennsylvania and in his Indian ashram at Coimbatore (Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, anaikatty hills), and in his Uttaranchal ashram.

I visited his coimbatore ashram twice, and it was one of the peaceful and splendid place, with moderate climate through out the year. There is a shiva temple and a murugan temple, and a lot of foreigners are seen learning vedas there.

Once i saw a young lady, with her naughty small kid (around 6 years) , chanting Om Namashivaya, in the murugan temple there. And i had an opportunity, to help an old american lady, who changed her name to “Vilasa Chaitanya”, in fixing a font related to sanskrit.  She was doing some research on vedantic philosophies, and hence may require sanskrit font for citing various sanskrit slokas.

The ashram is open to all, and in every sundays they provide annadhanams. (I used to have a short trip to anaikatty, enjoying the nature, and land in the ashram for breakfast. and then have a peaceful time, and then have the lunch and return back. Food attracts a lot )

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Below is the article written by swamiji, in New Indian Express on jan-21, 2007 . As usual, i have marked key paragraphs in blue color which i would like to highlight.By SWAMI DAYANANDA SARASWATHI

Monday, January 21
The New Indian Express
Hyderabad

“THERE are Christian theologians who feel the conversion of others is
not any more the business of the Church.” This is indeed an
encouraging statement from Dr Hans Ucko, Head of the Committee on
Inter-religious Dialogue and Cooperation of the World Council of
Churches, a powerful body that has over 350 member churches. This
statement has the potential to promote harmony among religions,
particularly between Christianity on the one hand and its two main
targets: Hinduism and Buddhism, on the other. Dr Ucko, as I know him,
is an upright, outspoken gentleman. Personally he has “never been
interested in converting people”. But, on the ground, the situation
presents a total contrast. Christian missionaries, almost without
exception, work with unabated zeal to convert. The conciliatory words
of Dr Ucko ,seem to conflict with what he says next. While
underplaying the conversion agenda, Dr Ucko also makes this seemingly
innocuous, but profoundly theological, statement: “I believe it is
more important for us to bear witness to Christ by our action of
caring for people without any ulterior motive and by our exemplary
living.” Here is the clue to the potential for disharmony.

Christians, regardless of their denomination, are mandated by their
theology to ‘bear witness to Christ’ which, in simple terms, means
sharing the faith with a stranger. Why share the faith with a
stranger? The vast majority of Christian believers are firmly
convinced that unless a person ‘accepts Christ as his saviour’, he is,
at the very least, denied entry to Heaven. More extreme, but not less
common, believers are convinced that he will definitely go to Hell -
and forever. So, given the theological compulsion to share the faith
with a stranger, a serious Christian has no option except to exert and
’save’ the person, inevitably a non-Christian, from such a fate. That
is to say convert him to Christianity. See the effect. Obviously the
theological belief that no faith other than Christianity can guarantee
salvation, or that other faiths can only lead to Hell, cannot amount
to honouring non-Christian religions. Can a Christian, who believes
this, view a non-Christian religion as anything but inferior or, as is
often the case, dangerous? So in the innocuous mandate to ‘bear
witness’ to Christ inheres the denigration of the religion of the
‘other’, if not explicitly, certainly implicitly. Herein lies
concealed the propensity and the potential for disharmony, for, when
one’s religion is denigrated a great violence is done to what one
holds most dear.

Older traditions, in contrast, do not believe in conversion. A Jewish
person is born of a Jewish mother. A Zoroastrian is born of
Zoroastrian parents. A Hindu is born of Hindu parents. And so are the
followers of Shintoism, Taoism and other ancient religious groups all
over the world. They acquire their religions by birth. They do not
convert anybody to their faith. Hindus stand as an example of how this
approach protects ‘other faiths’, not denigrate them. When the
persecuted Zoroastrians, the Parsis, came here as refugees driven from
Persia, they were received here as “Athithis” and were helped to
settle in India. Identical was the case with the Jews. This is what a
booklet “Indian Jews in Israel” [edited and published by Reuven Dafai,
Consul, on behalf of the Consulate of Israel, 50 Pedder Road, Cumballa
Hill, Bombay 26] says: “While most of the others came to Israel driven
by persecution, discrimination, murder and other attempts at total
genocide, the Jews of India came because of their desire to
participate in the building of the Third Jewish Common Wealth their
long sojourn in India, nowhere and at no time were they subjected to
intolerance, discrimination and persecution” . The Parsis and the Jews,
protected thus, saved their religion and lived by it. The Hindus
protected the early Christians and Muslims too. Our vision of God
compels us to do that. We accept various forms of worship, prayers and
Gods; one more really does not matter to us.

In contrast, in the other category of religions, mandated by their
theology to convert, their followers practise conversion with
conviction. Undoubtedly, they have a right to believe that unless one
is a Christian, one will not go to Heaven. But to claim the right to
go further and exert influence to turn all non-Christians into
Christians to make them eligible to enter Heaven cannot but promote
conflict. Dr Ucko identifies the “key issue that haunts people opposed
to conversion” as what he calls “aid-evangelism” – a euphemism for
conversion by “allurement” or “fraudulent means.”

The key issue is not this, but the very assumption underlying the
impulse to convert. Today we stand at a precarious juncture in world
history, where a wide range of factors including monoculture, nuclear
warfare, and ecological disasters threaten our survival as a human
race. As never before, we stand in need of the rich knowledge base of
various indigenous traditions. We stand in need of diversity,
ecological diversity, bin-diversity, and religious-diversity . We stand
in need of understanding hoiv to live peacefully with one another,
without destroying one another, and our environment. While our need is
diversity, conversion endangers all diversities, not just religious.
Conversion comes at the cost of extermination of native people’s
cultural diversity and way of living. Without preserving as they are,
the existing religious traditions and the people that practised them,
we cannot access these knowledge-bases that contain the lessons of
harmonious co-existence.

I would unhesitatingly call the Jewish, the Zoroastrian and the Hindu
traditions as non-aggressive traditions for just this reason: they do
not convert. Conversion uproots individuals, devastates families,
creates discord in communities and destroys ancient cultures. This is
what we have been arguing for several years. We need all cultures, and
therefore all religions. With the destruction of religion comes the
destruction of culture. Our religion and culture are intertwined. The
religion has gone into the fabric of the culture. When I say ‘Namaste’
to you, it is culture. It is religion. When you are doing rangoli, it
is religion; it is culture. There is a vision behind all that. Every
form of culture is connected to religion and religion itself is rooted
in spiritual wisdom. As spiritual tradition informs all aspects of
life, there is no cultural form or expression unconnected to religion.
Destruction of culture is destruction of religion. Destruction of
religion is destruction of culture. If this destruction is not
violence, what else is violence? Aggression need not be physical. It
need not be the Kargil type. There are a varieties of aggression. You
can either be emotionally, economically or verbally aggressive. But,
the worst aggression, more than physical aggression, is cultural
aggression or religious aggression. That is why we say ‘Conversion is
Violence’. It is the deepest and most profound violence.

To overcome this violence we need to think of conflict avoidance and
conflict resolution. Conflict avoidance implies the abstention from
propaganda for conversion as that is the major cause of violence.
Conflict resolution demands that the conflict-prone faiths and
civilisations understand the need to internalise the acceptance of
others’ view of God. Here is where the world, as two of the greatest
historians Will Durant and Arnold Toynhee had said, has to look to the
Hindu civilisation for relief from conflicts. Durant told the West
that “in return for conquest, arrogance and spoliation, India will
teach us tolerance and gentleness of the mature mind, the quiet
content of the un-acquisitive soul, the calm of the understanding
spirit and unifying, pacifying love for all living things”. Toynbee
prophesied that “a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to
have an Indian ending if it is not to end in self-destruction of the
human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the
only way of salvation is the ancient Hindu way. Here, we have the
attitude and spirit that can make it possible for the human race to
grow together into a single family”. The two historians have exposed
the source of disharmony and pointed to where to look for solution.

————————————————————————–

Note:

We may have opposite views on this issue. So, Instead of discussing about the author, let’s focus on the issues he raised.

Conversion is violence. Conversion is predatory.

Please share your comments on this.

India arrives

This is another article from TOI that i liked. (the reason is obvious )

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swapan_Dasgupta_India_arrives/articleshow/2695654.cms

The author describes about the arrival of indian generation with self dignity, who are not apologetic, and who have the guts to take on the whites and question them.  He base his conclusion on the recent racial episode in Cricket match with australia.

However, i could not agree entirely with the author.   We could not judge a whole nation out of cricket.  But, the points he raised is thought provoking.

Kumble has pointed “There are two teams out there; only one is playing cricket”.

Can an Indian captain comment like this, some 10 or 20 years back? Ofcourse, it could not have been possible.

There is another thing which i want to highlight.  Definitely Harbajan could not have made this remark with racial mindset..  it could be out of anger, where its normal in india to scold another as monkey (And as usual, indian medias, particularly IBN, portrayed it in negative tone.. will dwell on it in another post)

What i feel is that this episode reflects a confident indian influencing Indian cricket and NOT the other way.  And having our politicians in BCCI board, it seems, they are also becoming confident enough to criticize west.

Indeed a good sign.

My opinion on dignified indian would be, when he is able to do trade with his traditional kurta, just like those US business people, just roam around with shorts, in meeting hall..   and its possible, if business took place on equal footing rather than client server model as it happens now, where the western corporate always dictate terms.

The Indian pride that is proved real

In lot of occasions, i had come across mainly two types of people in India. Those who feel, that India has nothing great in it.. and those who list out India’s historic achievements, and exhibit so much of pride in it.

And occasionally, some people take a middle stand.. what’s the use of talking of history.. today, india is poor, backward, and full of evil like caste system..

Before going further, i frankly admit, that i take on the side of those who exhibit pride in india.. I am too proud of india, for lot of facts.. and for a simple reason there is no answer for the question, “Why should NOT I be proud of my country?” .

Infact, i have many answers for the alternate question.. “What’s the use of getting proud of past?”.. A simple straight forward answer is that, when we hold some thing high, we feel good about it.. and when we realise that such high glory being lost today, we will get the urge to restore it.. and this will induce me to work towards that..

So, getting pride indicates, our self dignity.. if we dont feel proud of, then who will? This is my country.. (Just like, if we dont look after our mother, then who else?)

Ok .. Let me discuss that important thing, that i want to share to everyone..

There are lot of efforts, to re-invent the scientific achievements of our history. This is an important thing, because, these efforts prove that what we are proud of our country, can be brought in to live today. We have lot of scientific heritage, that we can benefit from.

YOu can get the full details in the following organiser article.

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=191&page=27

Some of the highlights are:

Dr. Sriram Prabhu of Hyderabad saw the chapter on the machine in Vaimanic Shastra and tried to recognise some of the 31 machines described in it and then experimented to find out if it was possible to make the alloys as described in its chapter on metals.

For experimental purposes, Dr. Prabhu and his colleagues began a project with the help from the B.M. Birla Science Centre, Hyderabad. Results obtained so far are promising.

They have been successful in making some metals on the basis of the descriptions in ancient scripture.

1. The first metal is tamogarbh iron. The Viman Shastra says that it is used to make aircrafts invisible. On exposing it to light, it absorbs 75-80 per cent of the light thrown on it. This metal is black in colour; hard like lead and it does not dissolve even in sulfuric acid.

2. The second is called the panch lauh or alloys of five items. It is golden in colour, but it is hard and heavy from inside. It is based on copper. Its speciality is that it has 7.95 per cent of lead, whereas the American Society of Metals in the US, has agreed that a maximum of 0.35 to three per cent of lead is possible in a copper based alloy. Hence, alloy with 7.95 per cent lead is unique in itself.

3. The third is and arar. This is a copper-based alloy which is yellow in colour, hard yet light. It has a property of resistance to moisture.

Dr. Maheshwar Sheron of the Chemistry Department of IIT, Mumbai also tried to make some things described in the book. These were chumbakmani, which is used in the guhagarbha yantra and has the ability to capture reflection. Paragrandhik drav—this is a type of acid, which is used in the guhagarbha, and is used with a chumbakmani.

Dr. N.G. Dongre, was successful in manufacturing a special kind of glass called prakash stambhan bhid lauh. The speciality of the this glass is that it absorbs visible light and allows only infra-red rays to pass through it. It has been made of kachar louh-silica bhuch-akra surmitr-adikshar—lime ayaskakant—lodestone ruruk—deerbone ash, as per the process laid down in Anshabodhini. The speciality of prakash stambhan bhid lauh is that it is completely non-hygroscopic. Infra-red hygroscopic mirrors lose their polish and luster in water vapour or humidity and become useless.

I do not have that much scientific skills to understand the basics behind those discoveries. But the fact, that it has been the result of analysing our ancient sastras is an important step in proving that we were once the pioneers of science in the past.

Still there may be people, who will deny all these. My only question is that how much of history do we know, to dismiss all these claims. There are lot other questions to ask indeed. Why our government, neglected such valuable source of knowledge, which no country can ignore? Why still, there is no division to explore our ancient texts atleast for the history sake?

We also know that takshila and nalanda were completely destroyed that these burned for years. In that case, we can imagine, how far, the extent of knowledge that were destroyed in that fire. SHould we believe, that there is nothing valuable taught in that university, as claimed by some historians?

Ok.. In the other case, how the modern world would be, if those knowledge had been preserved? Wouldnt india been the pioneers in all fields of science? And how far could we have advanced in today’s world.

Again, there would be argument.. what’s the use of imagining those? I would like to remind them.. I am rightful in being proud of that heritage, and there is nothing wrong in it. After all, we are doing lot of useless things, and let this be one among that.

Nanotechnology:

This is yet another article that i came across in the following article.

Click here for the article

As per this report, ancient indian had used some techniques of nanotechnology, to produce damascus sword, and it started as early as 300 BC. This was discovered by Nobel Laureate (chemistry) Robert Curl Jr.

Sir Walter Scott in his book Talisman mentions, through a recreation of the scene of October 1192 AD when Richard Lionheart of England met Saladin the Saracen to end the Third Crusade, that Richard wielded a good English broadsword while Saladin had a scimitar of Damascus steel, ‘a curved and narrow blade, which glittered not like the swords… but was, on the contrary, of a dull blue colour, marked with ten millions of meandering lines…

Interesting … right..

Remembering Dharampal :

Earlier, few months back, i was reading Dharampal’s (www.dharampal.net) book on Indian science. It was indeed a detailed description, that i could not comprehend fully. I just went through sections, which dealt with Benaras Astronomical Observatory which was the world’s largest observatory, listed in Britanica Encyclopedia till 1832.

Some other interesting information from dharampal’s book was, that india had mastered controlling small pox by its so claimed rude method of vaccination. (Indeed i am vaccinated in that method during my childhood.. still having the scar in my left hand.)

Then, dharampal also described how the britishers learned manufacturing of high quality steel from india, and rechristened as wootz steel. Then how Indian Textiles were suppressed, to promote british goods. The quality of textile by Bengal weavers were so high, that they could fold an entire saree in a matchbox size container. But, the britishers broke their thumbs, and stopped all source of raw materials to them.

(Is it not a grave injustice done to us.. And if we really had the dignity, we would have made britain apologise for all these atrocities, and in turn claim certain compensation.. But still there will be people, who will say, why should we remind of the past…)

And i wish, that the future generation, and in turn future government, put efforts on research in to all these indigenous sources of knowledge and wealth.

Will that happen?