This is an updated version of our earlier study: published first at IndiaFacts
Research by Orlove, Cane and Chiang on the native weather forecasters in mountains of Peru and Bolivia has brought to light an interesting tidbit of traditional knowledge [Footnote 1]. The traditional crop of these regions is the potato, from where it has spread the world over to become a major source of nutrition, a delight to the tongue, and, more perversely, a cause of obesity and related troubles among the well-fed. However, to farmers in this region a successful potato crop is crucial for their sustenance. Hence, these farmers forecast the auspicious time for planting potatoes by means of a unusual meteorological/astronomical observation. For a week around the summer solstice they start intently observing the skies. At midnight they climb up to the peaks and start observing the Pleiades (M45 open cluster; Sanskrit: Kṛttikāḥ) a few hours before dawn, noting the apparent brightness and “sizes” of the stars in the cluster. Dimmer the Pleiades the less will be the rain in the area during winter. Hence, if the forecast is dry then the farmers delay planting their potatoes to reduce losses. The fluctuation in local rainfall is attributable to El Niño Southern Oscillation, a meteorological phenomenon associated with a cyclical pattern of warm and cold temperatures in the tropical Pacific. What the researchers found was that if an El Niño phase with low rainfall was to happen later in winter then it was accompanied by high cirrus clouds in the earlier summer. This in turn caused a dimming of the Pleiades when observed around the summer solstice. This use of the Pleiades as meteorological predictor is an interesting twist to its more general use, in many ancient traditions, as a calendrical marker to determine various seasonal phenomena and agricultural activities.
This research leads us to a new insight regarding the basis for an ancient tradition recorded in the Veda of the Atharvāṅgirasa-s in a ritual incantation known as the śakadhūma sūktaṃ, which to date has been poorly understood. In the vulgate Atharvaveda (AV) text (considered to be the Śaunaka śākhā ) the sūktaṃ occurs as 6.128, while in AV Paippalāda śākhā (AV-P) the relevant mantra-s are AV-P 19.24.16-19. The Paippalāda version is also appended at the end of the Nakṣatra-kalpa (AV-pariśiṣṭa-1) under the title: “kṛttikā-rohiṇī-madhye paippalādā mantrāḥ”. In both texts there are 4 ṛk-s, though they differ somewhat between them. The Kṛttikā-s (Pleiades) have been known in Vedic tradition to possess watery names, which are individually spelled out in the Yajurveda for oblations made during the ritual known as the Nakṣatreṣṭi: Ambā (watery), Dulā (shimmering), Nitatnī (showering), Abhrayantī (clouding), Meghayantī (clouding) [Stanayantī, i.e. thundering in the Maitrāyaṇīya saṃhitā], Varṣayantī (raining) and Cupuṇīkā (bubbling). It has long been suspected that these names are indicative of their connection with the arrival of monsoons. But were the Pleiades specifically used in weather prognostication in Hindu tradition? Here is where the evidence from the śakadhūma sūktaṃ comes in. The word śakadhūma is interpreted as smoke (dhūma) from a dung-pat (śaka) fire. But paradoxically we find the AV tradition remembering shakadhUma as a weather-predictor. Indeed, this is how the late medieval Atharvavedins seem to have understood the word in ritual context as indicated in their paddhati-s. The word has also been rendered as a human weatherman by modern white translators such as Whitney and Bloomfield.
However, an examination of the word shows that the AV tradition originally hardly implied an earthly weatherman in the term śakadhūma. The sūktaṃ it self opens by explicitly mentioning śakadhūma as being made the king of the nakṣatra-s (AV-vulgate: “śakadhūmaṃ nakṣatrāṇi yad rājānam akurvata |” AV-P: “yad rājānaṃ śakadhūmaṃ nakṣatrāṇy akṛṇvata |”). The purpose of him being chosen as the king was to ensure prognostication of fair weather (“bhadrāham asmai prāyachan”). The presence of the Paippalāda form of the text in the Nakṣatra-kalpa, a text with a slant towards prognostication, also reiterates the close connection of the weather-predictor śakadhūma with the nakṣatras. Realizing that a celestial entity is implied, some people have interpreted śakadhūma to mean the moon (as rājā of the nakṣatra-s) or the Milky Way (due to the “smoky” allegory). However, in no Hindu text known to date the term śakadhūma has been used to describe the moon, nor is the Milky Way ever described as the leader of nakṣatra-s. The original meaning of śakadhūma becomes clear from the ṛk found only in the AV-P version:
“yad āhuś śakadhūmaṃ mahānakṣatrāṇāṃ prathamajaṃ jyotir agre | tan nas satīṃ madhumatīṃ kṛṇotu rayiṃ ca sarvavīraṃ ni yacchatām ||”
Here śakadhūma is plainly termed the first born of the great nakṣatra-s and as being at forefront of the celestial lights. This shows that śakadhūma was a constellation and the first in the list. In the AV nakṣatra sūktaṃ (AV-vulgate 19.7.2) the first in the list is Kṛttikā. The AV Nakṣatra-kalpa also explicitly states that Kṛttikā is the first of the nakṣatra-s with whom Agni blazes forth: “sa nakṣatrāṇāṃ prathamena pāvakaḥ kṛttikābhir jvalano no ‘nuśāmyatām |”.
So it is likely that the nakṣatra implied by śakadhūma was none other than Kṛttikā. This is further confirmed by Charpentier’s finding that in the medieval deśa-bhāṣā lexicon of the Jaina polymath Hemacandra-sūrī (the Deśī-nāma-mālā) he gives dhūma as a synonym for Kṛttikā: dhūmad-dhaya-mahisīo kṛttikāḥ | DN-5.63
This leads to one other reference to śakadhūma which is found in the great brahmodaya sūktaṃ in the Ṛgveda (RV 1.164):
“śaka-mayaṃ dhūmam ārād apaśyaṃ viṣūvatā para enāvareṇa | ukṣāṇaṃ pṛśnim apacanta vīrās tāni dharmāṇi prathamāny āsan || (RV 1.164.43)”
Based on its deployment in the pravargya ritual some have commented that the śaka-dhūma here refers to the smoke from the fire on which the mahāvīra pot is being fumigated. This external interpretation is of course for the “un-enlightened”, for the rahasya-s are concealed beneath the ritual actions described in the mantra. That is exactly what this whole sūktaṃ is about – rahasya-s, including several astronomical ones. This becomes very clear from use of a technical astronomical term – viṣūvat. In Hindu tradition viṣūvat meant equinox [Footnote 2] and in this context clearly means the vernal equinox which formed one of the central days of the yearly sattra. Thus, the ṛk means: “From far I saw the śaka-dhūma at the equinoctial point further off from this lower one. The heroes cooked the speckled bullock; these were the first stations.”
Here, the constellation at the vernal equinox (viṣūvān) is being described as śakadhūma. The lower one, the speckled bullock, the first (previous) stations appear to stand for Taurus. Taurus being the prior station stands for the position where the equinox lay prior to śakadhūma, which is being described as currently being at the viśuvān [Footnote 3]. Here too śakadhūma implies the Pleiades. This would also suggest that the brahmodaya belongs to the same period as the core AV composition during which the Pleiades lay at the vernal equinox. Not surprisingly, a variant of RV 1.164 also occurs in the AV-vulgate as sūktaṃ 19.10
Finally it leads to the issue why the name śakadhūma for the Pleiades?
In the AV context the term śakadhūma is specifically applied in the context of predicting good weather. With high cirrus clouds it is quite likely that the Pleiades appeared as a smoky patch in the sky, which was then used for weather prognostication. Under this interpretation the AV śakadhūma tradition is likely to be the earliest surviving record of weather prognostication based on the appearance of the Pleiades. Now, given the South American tradition we suspect that indeed a smoky Pleiades was also, a prognosticator in India. Unfortunately, the original AV tradition is completely dead, hence only experimental verification can test the effectiveness of the method.
While the original AV tradition does not survive, we know from the much later meteorological traditions recorded in the Kṛṣi-parāśara (KP), a Hindu manual on farming, that knowledge derived from such observations did survive in some form. For example, the KP23 gives a rough formula to determine the nature of the El Niño effects. KP24-25 describes clouds associated with the cycle and mentions the puṣkara (cirrus) clouds that appear to prognosticate droughts. KP33 indicates that the predictions were refined using wind-vanes to measure wind direction/speed and predict rain several months later.
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Footnotes
Footnote 1: An account of Orlove, Cane and Chiang’ work:
Footnote 2: In his Kārikā on Īśvara-pratyabhijñā the Kashmirian tāntrika, Utpala-deva, makes the following statement: prāṇa-apāna-mayaḥ prāṇaḥ pratyekaṃ sūpta-jāgratoḥ | tac-ched-ātmā samāna-akhyaḥ sauṣupta viṣuvatsv-iva || The metabolism in both the sleeping and waking states is comprised of prāṇa and apāna processes. Both are suspended in the deep sleep state when the samāna process functions, like what happens on the equinox.
Here the word viṣuvan (equinox) is used metaphorically to explain that state of equality or balance (samāna) when the prāṇa and apāna are suspended in the deep sleep state.
Footnote 3: The memory of older equinoctial positions in Taurus and beyond where first proposed by the great patriot Lokamanya Tilak in his work: “The Orion or the antiquity of the Vedas”.
It was a late Friday afternoon and Vidrum had returned home early from the hospital. He spent some time in his garden making a ball from the paste of rain-tree pods, a messy but immensely meditative activity, which his friend Somakhya had introduced him to. Having completed the ball he glanced at its rotundity with an inner feeling of accomplishment and pride. Then placing it to dry in the path of the rays of the setting sun, he went back into his home to clean his hands. Thereafter he sat in his study, browsing the journals he checked every week. He downloaded a few articles for later reading and went on to check the scores of a one-day match that was going on. Ensnared by the interestingly poised game, he kept watching for some time, till he suddenly realized that the time of arrival of his visitors was drawing close. He got up hurriedly, tidied his study and hall, and checked with his caterer to ensure that dinner will arrive on time. Keeping an eye on the match, he basked in the pleasant warmth of the excitement and expectation he felt regarding these relatively rare social occasions that punctuated his otherwise monotonous existence. As he waited he wondered if he might ever experience the state his friend Somakhya had talked about: “True pleasurable experience does not always need an external, palpable object. It can arise from reflection, manipulation and realization of objects that purely lie in the mind or a computing device. After all even with Lootika of pretty smiles, the ullāsa of maithuna lasts for only a small fraction for our total existence. But our more continuous pleasures are not from externals but from the resonance we feel from the contemplation on inner objects.”
Soon he heard his bell ring and he went to the door to let in his visitors, Vrishchika and Indrasena. Even as they came in, Vidrum asked Vrishchika: “Where you able to figure out what was the deal with that patient #49?” Vrishchika: “Bad news, he died couple of hours ago. The autopsy has been arranged and we will know more soon but the preliminary indications are that it was Nocardia.” Vidrum: “What? Nocardia!” Vrishchika: “Indeed! We should have called that out earlier: It was a pretty gruesome end for the guy.” Indrasena was by now accustomed to his wife’s propensity for lapsing into talking morbidity whenever she was with her father or ran into others of her ilk. He had gone through it all in course of dinners at his in-laws place, where the forbidding descriptions of human taphonomy and pathologies ranging from those caused by Actinomadura to Malassezia had often ruined his bowl of hintāla pāsaya. He would say to himself that it was perhaps training to be a mahāvratin but today he did not hold back and said: “Hopefully you guys won’t continue this over dinner.” Vrishchika putting her hand around Indrasena’s shoulder: “No, then we will talk of something interesting to you, that gargantuan wonder of a protein from Nocardia!” Indrasena chuckled – “Ah that one” – and realizing that all this talk probably had a cathartic effect on his wife left her to it and silently picked up a magazine that lay on Vidrum’s coffee table.
The magazine went by the name “Svatantratā” and was produced by the federation of right-wing think-tanks. As he leafed through it an article by Dr. Ahmed al-Zaman and Prof. Adityo Sen caught his eye. It was titled: “triśūla-dīkṣa to nālīka-dīkṣa: down the slippery path”. Therein he read:
“We stand with the right-wing in their call for making economic progress and women’s rights a priority. They certainly need to sternly objurgate their obscurantist fellow travelers from the Deva-dharma-dala with regard to the push for making fire-arms more widely available. While their earlier triśūla-dīkṣa was a condemnable move, the chances of large-scale, serious injury to life and property from the short-handled tridents was limited. However, this new nālīka-dīkṣa movement has the potential to unleash immense danger to human life in India. We would soon see our homes, schools and work-places turn red with every petty squabble being settled via the business-end of a smoking barrel. Moreover, these obscurantist elements of the D-cubed would threaten the very lives of minorities in India if the nālīka-dīkṣa is not nipped in the bud…
Moreover, D-cubed spokesman Ravi Madhav Pandit’s call for Hindu-only housing and turning women into mindless baby-popping machines reeks of unspeakable retrogression. It not only threatens to shred the secular fabric of our nation but also endangers the lives of our women. Hence, going forward, we call upon our friends from the right-wing to come out explicitly in condemning the regressive attitudes and activities of the Hindutva Brigade. Let the peace-loving Hindus make it clear that they are Hindu and not Hindutvādin, thereby sending a strong message to both the D-cubed and the minorities that they reject the atmosphere of fear and violence.”
By the time Indrasena snapped out of the magazine Vrishchika and Vidrum had exhausted their share of morbidity for the day. The conversation moved to brighter matters and eventually segued into dinner.
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As they were chatting after dinner, Vidrum remarked: “I have been sitting in on the advanced course you two put together with the forensics experts. It is really great – Indrasena, your former student Devarshabha is doing a great job in explaining the genes to phenotypes stuff.”
Indrasena: “Glad to hear that. Which reminds me that I should try to finish up one of the papers on the work with him and Lootika.”
Vidrum: “I found an old skeleton in the storage of the trauma lab and brought it for the course. The guys have now completed a reconstruction of the deceased individual. It was just stupendous to see how from the skeleton we went all the way to piecing together the individual in life: his eye color, his hair-type, if his skin was prone to dryness or not and many other things – all of it came out so clearly.” Vidrum then sauntered to the drawer beneath his desk and brought a 3D printout of the individual’s skull and his reconstructed face. Vidrum: “They found a SNP in his Pax6 gene that was deemed informative.”
Indrasena: “Yes, this is a dominant one, likely he had one eye smaller than the other one.”
Vidrum: “Indeed, see that is how they have reconstructed it.”
Glancing at the report Indrasena further added: “Seems like he had potential to have had an IQ of around 140 and look at this. These alleles associated with his olfactory receptors suggest he would have been of a conservative type in his political leanings.”
Vrishchika: “Look at his skull – he seems to have suffered a massive trauma to his parietal lobe!”
Vidrum: “Yes, it appears his head was struck by a sword. We also noted the sectioning of one of his cervicals by the same instrument. Ain’t that sort of odd – this skeleton is of relatively recent provenance – how come we are seeing a fatal sword injury?”
Vrishchika: “Well, we would possibly never know for that skeleton was lying in the closet with not a smidgen of documentation to go with it. Did anyone check if there were any police records?”
Vidrum: “I do not know. But hey you guys are real vipra-s, somayājin-s or whatever you all are supposed to be. Are you all not the kind who are supposed to know all kinds of secret magic. May be you could find out? May be you all have some trick up your sleeve like that skull-tapping brāhmaṇa Vaṅgīśa one of you guys told me about.”
Indrasena: “All that is stuff from legend. Why not be happy with how much we have been able to glean using our knowledge of genetics.”
Vidrum persisted: “That is alright, we know how he lived but we would also want to know how he died. Indrasena I am sure you know more than what you show.”
Vrishchika: “Would you be willing to bear the force of śrī Kubera’s agent?”
Indrasena: “Let us not even go there.”
Vidrum: “I am ready for it. Vrishchika, do you think I have forgotten about your gang trying out your prayoga-s in the cemetery? Indrasena, I am pretty sure if Vrishchika has married you must be quite bit of wizard in these issues yourself.”
Indrasena: “Since you so blithely persist I think we must give you a taste of Vaiśravaṇa’s agents. Sit down, relax, and close you eyes.”
Indrasena thought of the words of Somakhya when he had revealed to him the Kauberī-pārṣadī-vidyā [Footnote 1] and deployed it. Vidrum instantaneously dropped as though dead on his carpet and lay sprawled like a copper-hoard anthropomorph. He started saying: “I am valśa. I am valśa”.
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The triangle of the Swan, the Eagle and the bright-eyed vulture had mounted the inky heavens. Seeing that it was late valsha decided to lay himself to rest on his litter. His body was racked with all manner of aches. The day that followed was not one to worry much about, so he unhurriedly lapsed into the hypnogogic state. Most unexpectedly a beautiful woman appeared before him. She was not anyone whom he had ever seen in wakeful life. Nor had anyone like her every manifested in a dream nor in hypnogogia before. She had long flowing black tresses in dense masses like the great bee-hive on the vast ashvattha tree near the pāṣaṇḍa-gṛha. Her eyes had a sparkle to them like heads of the asterism of the Twins. Her body was slim and shapely and wonderfully sculpted with breasts like the vessels that lustrate viṣṇupatnī. But she had upward pointed ears like that of a shepherd dog. valśa was even more surprised when he heard her speak – it was in the gīrvāṇa bhāṣā. valsha realized that in this tongue even the mundane sounded poetic. She introduced herself: “aham asmi pāṣupatānāṃ pātāla-rudrasya gahvare vāsā kukkuravati । asau gahvarasya samīpe eka uddhataḥ kedāro ‘sti । asmin kedāre viśālo vaṭa-vṛkṣo’sti । tasyādho’sti mama pīṭhikā ।” Hearing her he wondered if she was a yakṣiṇī or a piśācī or perhaps a shape-shifting rākṣasī. Neither her name nor her form was like any yakṣiṇī or apsaras he had encountered before. Finally she directed him: “śayāyā uttiṣṭha, etasmin caṣake saṃnihitaṃ rasaṃ piba, mama aṅgulyā mandaṃ cumba, mama upānahau gāḍhaṃ gṛhṇa! tvayā saha akāśe uḍḍayiṣyamy ahaṃ hā hā! paśya paśya! prakṛtes sarvānāṃ niyamānāṃ ati-laṅghanaṃ kariṣyāmi । mama patham na jñātuṃ śaknoṣi ।”
She flew carrying valsha at a dizzying pace. Finally they landed in a place that looked strangely familiar to valśa; yet he was unable to precisely identify it. It was a school building with an adjacent ground that looked like a rat-nibbled roṭikā. In the mid-1930s the Vatican had financed a bunch of German missionaries to go forth to the holy land of bhāratavarṣa and convert the heathens. Uwe Christian led the operation with his fellows brothers and fathers. He was also a double agent, working for Das dritte Reich. He tried hard to entice some brāhmaṇa-s to the fold of the preta, hoping that if he converted the brāhmaṇa-s then he would gain easy control over the “superstitious lay”. With this intention he started a school named after one of the many dead pretācarin-s, who had been proclaimed to be a saint by the Vatican rulers due to performance of an even lamer miracle than those that the unwashed Hindus were supposed to believe in. In this school he offered a proper western education that brāhmaṇa parents were supposed to seek like a good bride for their dear sons. In 1958 Christian was assassinated by an Israeli letter bomb. Shortly thereafter his school was bought by a Portuguese missionary group from Goa, who continued their operations in the service of the long decomposed corpse of Nazareth. But not long after that Goa was finally reconquered by the Hindus restoring the continuity of peninsular Bhāratavarṣa, whose coastline their old poet kālidāsa had likened to a drawn bowstring. With that the school and the associated church declined into disuse. A few years later in a great monsoon storm the spire of the church was knocked down reminding the Hindus of might of the devaheti that strikes from above. The people in that part of the city were growing prosperous again after the dismal years that followed independence and felt the need for more schools for their children. So they decided to use the old school’s infrastructure for a new one. Having renovated it, they reinitiated education in those premises in the form of a secular institution.
There, in the 9th class were studying students who went by the names saṃpadā durnāmikā, satyo daridrasaṃdhaḥ, harir babhruḥ and mahāmada aghomado marusaṃbhavaḥ. At that point kukkuravati briefly possessed their teacher. Their teacher then addressed the class indicating the topic for a small essay: “rāṣṭrīya dhvajasya pradhanaṃ arthavattvaṃ kiṃ?”
Then valśa and kukkuravati unseen by the rest went to look at what those four students wrote.
saṃpadā durnāmikā wrote: The national flag is symbol of India’s freedom. The length of the flag is 1.5 times that of its width. It is to be respected by all and never hoisted in peoples homes. No one should trod on it, burn it or defile it in any other way. It should be made by hand using cloth spun by the Gandhian wheel. If it is made using any other material then the person is liable to be interred in a jail for 3 years [Pointing to this sentence kukkuravati laughed and tapped valśa on his shoulder. valśa wondered if that was the real fate that awaited him for having flown a paper flag on some national day! saṃpadā saw no one but heard the laugh of a woman. She wondered “who that could be? May be it is my mind saying all this is so funny”]. A real Indian flag is only to be made in the state of Karṇāṭaka. People have to stand erect and sing the national anthem composed by śrī ravīndranātha when the flag is being hoisted.
satyo daridrasaṃdhaḥ wrote: The flag was made by some Telugu guy [He had forgotten the guy’s name. So he made it up: If there could be a Gandhi of the frontier in Afghanistan, why could we not have yet another Gandhi in Andhra. So let us call him the Andhra Gandhi]. At first B.G. Tilak had suggested a saffron flag with the picture of gaNesha. Aurobindo and Vankimchandra wanted the image to be that of a fierce Kālī with an upraised scimitar. Some other Hindu leaders wanted a cow on it. But the secularists wanted none of this. Eventually a flag was made to incorporate Gandhi’s wheel, a sign that the technology invented in the Indus valley civilization was still in unmodified use, the saffron color of the Hindus, the green color of the Mohammedans and the white for whatever other religions existed in the land.
mahāmada aghomado marusaṃbhavaḥ wrote: [Hearing the topic of the essay he had an angry flash back: A while back along with the rest of his male classmates he had enrolled in the National Cadet Corps, hoping to have some fun in the wild. On a certain national day he assembled with the rest of the cadets for a parade after which they were to have an excursion into the wild. Their leader regaled them with a tale from the past to boost their national sense. He spoke of the great invasion launched by the marūnmatta-s from the neighboring country into the fertile lands of the pañcanada. Facing fierce resistance from the Hindu forces they decided to deploy an elite force of airborne commandos behind the Hindu lines. In this great saṃgrāma even the NCCs had been meagerly armed and called up to do their duty for the defense of bhāratavarṣa. Their leader who was giving the speech was one of the cadets called for this action. He was armed with a mere WW2 era rifle and a knife but was brimming with courage to face the ākrānta-s. The famed marūnmatta paratroopers were finally dropped by their aircraft and they floated down from the realm of the great, pitiless vāyu who was praised in the days of yore by abhipratāriṇa kākṣasenī in the same lands. In their minds they were thinking that each one of them, supposedly tall, fair, ram-gulping central Asian warriors, were capable for slaughtering at least ten short, dark, taṇḍulāmbu sipping hīndūka-s in one go. But they were in for a rude surprise. Upon landing, the mere NCCs aided by local farmers armed with just daṇḍa-s and curikā-s made short work of the vaunted warriors of the old mahāmado marusaṃbhavaḥ and sent to them to meet their legendary 72 girls and 28 boys. Then the NCC leader said they were going to hoist the national flag and in a ritual imitating the ways of the English during the occupation of the country shouted: “Raising pole! By order of height! Eee-rect! Then the tricolored dhvaja went up even as the cadets stood taut and serenaded it with the anthem composed by the vaṅga poet ravīndra. But the mahāmada was already blazing with anger of the tale of the rout of his coreligionists that the leader had narrated and instead muttered the cry asserting ekarākṣasatvaṃ and AoA. The bewitching kukkuravati made his mind readable as print on paper and saying “paśya valśa! vastuto rāṣṭrīya dhvajasyocchrayeṇa asya marūnmattasya dhvajabhaṅga āsīt |”, she gave a canine bark. mahāmada wondered; “what is that noise of a dirty cur; may all of them be killed. Truly, those infidels praising their flag sounded like one”. With that he came out of his reverie and realized he had to write something about the flag.]
The primary significance of the national flag is it being a visible symbol of the oppression of minorities. At one point our just rulers like Alla-ad-din and Awrangzeb had brought this whole land under our rule. Hence, it belongs to us rightfully. But these infidels overthrew our great Silsila-e-Khandan-Timuriya and now trod over us building gold-decked idol-houses, with all their inequality towards the poor, in places where the muezzin’s cry rang out asserting that all are equal before God. That flag has their orange right on top and our green right at the bottom. With them riding roughshod with the wheel on it symbolizing them crushing us beneath it into undignified poverty. Truly one day as prophesied by the brilliant Karl Marx the class struggle will take place and we the oppressed will overthrow these infidel oppressors.
harir babhruḥ wrote: The wheel was what made the Indo-Europeans. It was by the wheel the Arya-s attained sovereignty. Hence, they celebrated it in their ritual known as the vājapeya by which the king announced his sovereignty. It was the symbol of power that lasts through the cycles of time. Hence, it is held in the hand of the great god of time, the triple-striding viṣṇu; likewise it adorns the king whose might earns him a place in history – the cakravartin. It was indeed seen as the symbol of the great cakravartin-s of history who unified bhārata, like Candragupta Maurya or Candragupta Vikramāditya. Hence, it is indeed fitting that it sits in the middle of the flag, representing the ancient roots and latent power of the nation, which becomes manifest when unified and led by a cakravartin. The saffron band is the traditional color of the Hindu flag, which fluttered when clashing with the armies of Islam and Isa. The green represents the pasture on which the ratha-cakra first rolled forth and cultivated field where the plow was first plied. Thus, it represents our deep roots in pastoralism and agriculture. Truly our flag is deep with meaning and connected to our ancient roots like none other.
kukkuravati howled like a bitch and said: “sa dṛḍho rāṣṭra-uttambhī kiṃ tu tasya pāṇau śuṣmi śastraṃ nāsti । etataḥ kāraṇāt sa vaṅga-deśīyānāṃ hindūkānāṃ samūha iva mṛtyum āpsyati | valśa wondered what that meant but he did not have to wait long to find out.
School was over; hari and satya walked towards their home via a forested patch that covered a basaltic elevation. In front of them at some distance walked aghomada. Unexpectedly, a pangolin scurried across their path as they were in the midst of the thick forest path. Seeing it aghomada excitedly ran after it to kill it with his upraised hockey-stick. However, before he could strike hari and satya raced up to him with their own hockey-sticks and prevented him from killing it. Then they caught him and dragged him to the forest officer’s quarters and delivered him to the rangers. The forest officer on noting his name feared that it might blow up into a communal issue and let him go with a lecture. The next day when hari and satya were walking back the same way, they were suddenly ambushed in the forest by aghomada and his friends who were armed with swords. Their hockey-sticks were not sufficient to hold out against this marūnmatta gang whose members belonged to an organization known as the Peoples-Progressive-Assembly. Before they could escape, the PPA men cornered hari and struck him two blows. One on his head and another slicing through his neck. Then satya fell to another blow and they left him there taking him to be dead. Luckily for him, he was soon sighted and rescued by a forest ranger. The aghomada and his friends quickly ran to the tank of the vināyaka temple that lay just beyond the forest patch, washed their swords, and made away. valśa was shaken by what he saw. kukkuravati said to him: “triśūla-saṃkhyā-mānuṣa-yugānantaraṃ kṛṣṇa-śilā-nāma-nagare so’ghomadas tava jīvane luṇṭhanāya veṣṭā । ”
With a violent jolt Vidrum snapped out of his possession yelling: “I am Vidrum not valśa”.
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Vidrum: “That aghomada looked familiar. Who was he?”
Indrasena: “Did you not read that Svatantrā magazine on your table?”
Vidrum: “Why? It just came in today and am yet to look at it in detail.”
Indrasena: “Certainly do so!”
Vrishchika: “Vidrum, thank you for the wonderful dinner and we are sorry you were hit by much more than you asked for. But this might help you bring some things to a closure.”
Indrasena: “Yes, it may be rough but don’t worry we will be there for you. Thank you indeed for the great evening. I think we better be going – though our kid won’t mind spending all night with his cousins, I am sure they are causing Somakhya and Lootika a lot a of trouble!”
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Vrishchika and Indrasena were at Somakhya and Lootika’s place to finish up the paper on the gargantuan Nocardia protein and its relatives from other actinobacteria. They were taking a break in the writing when Lootika checking the news remarked: “Vrishchika, It appears like you will be seeing your colleague Dr. Ahmed al-Zaman again.”
Vrishchika: “What? How could that be I thought he was all set to play out a long innings behind the bars!”
Indrasena: “I am sure Vidrum would be disappointed to hear that.”
Somakhya: “Not just that; Vidrum’s life itself is in danger if the senior surgeon were to return to our city, which he well might.”
Lootika: “What is deal with him and Vidrum? The news article says he was arrested on espionage charges.”
Vrishchika: “There is probably much more than just espionage charges. He was the one who killed your classmate Meghana.”
Lootika: “Really?”
Somakhya: “As you may remember our friend Vidrum was emotionally entangled with Meghana. But she had was subsequently seduced by the much older al-Zaman when Vidrum was still a student at med-school and was drawn away from him. Some time later she was mysteriously found dead with her throat slit at the Madanamañjuka-udyāna . The cops had questioned Vidrum and al-Zaman then. Vidrum had a good alibi and the DNA evidence was in his favor. Though the DNA evidence clearly implicated Dr. al-Zaman, he was almost immediately released and the cops made an about-turn on the matter. Dr. al-Zaman is member of the PPA, which as you are aware passes off as an organization of progressives, while in reality it is a well-trained ghāzi force. He is probably a double agent at the hub of the mleccha-marūnmattābhisaṃdhi.”
Indrasena: “I believe we clued Vidrum on al-Zaman’s case with our kauberī prayoga. Vrishchika the aghomada whom he encountered in the āveśa was none other than the surgeon in his earlier days.”
Vrishchika: “Indeed – Vidrum had not believed that al-Zaman was behind the murder of his friend. But piqued by his experience, he went back to the records and found that the police commissioner at that time was śrī Kurmure, whom you might might vaguely remember as being big on Hindu terror.” Lootika: “Ha! He was the guy who called the PPA a character-building organization, which will be the beacon of secularism in the nation.”
Vrishchika: “Yes, śrī Kurmure was the one who absolved al-Zaman. However, now we have a patriotic commissioner who had been picked by none other than the national security adviser śrī Uniyal, who himself has some intelligence background. As the commissioner’s son is Vidrum’s patient, he was able use that connection to put the cops back on al-Zaman’s scent. While they could not conclusively close the Meghana case as śrī Kurmure had destroyed all the evidence, some new stuff came up. One day al-Zaman walked into my office and asked help with a project he was doing that was funded by the Tīrtha Foundation. I politely refused citing my genuinely packed schedule. I slipped this information to Vidrum, as Indrasena had informed me that the Tīrtha Foundation is a front end of a mleccha funding agency, which funds anti-national individuals and organizations to cause subversion in Bhārata. The cops latching on to it were able figure out that using hardware and software from the foundation al-Zaman had opened a very sophisticated backdoor on all our hospital computers. Incidentally, our little sis Jhilleeka gave me the means of stymieing it and protecting myself. They finally arrested al-Zaman on the charges of trying to relay health information of the governor to the mleccha-s. They were also able to obtain some data on his links to the Khalifa to whom he was poised to send a bottle of dimethylmercury.”
Somakhya: “We need to be absolutely beware of that dimethylmercury when Dr. al-Zaman resurfaces.”
Vrishchika: “Shortly after his arrest there were aggressive protests by the Mārjanidhvaja-dala along with the PPA volunteers outside our hospital. I recall moving my stambhaka-śaṅku from my backpack to my mekhalā that day.”
Indrasena: “Remember the regular articles in the newspapers and that Svatantratā journal decrying Dr. al-Zaman’s arrest as an appalling failure of justice and deliberate targeting of minorities?”
Vrishchika: “Not only that, while in jail, he was awarded the Edmond Glympton Global Initiative prize and the mleccha physicians’ council prize for his selfless service.”
Lootika: “Listen to this.” She then read from the news item: “In passing his judgment overturning the high court conviction the Chief Justice Mashanand Kukroo said that by arresting a blameless surgeon with a brilliant record on the slimmest evidence the government was sending an unacceptable message to the minorities. Such actions threatened to create an atmosphere of fear, which might then be exploited for political gains. By this judgment he hoped to stall the downward slide of the Indian polity towards the divisive Hindu nationalist agenda.” She continued: “Now in other news we have: Ramesh Pandeya and svāmin Kalananda to remain in jail for Islampur riots. Then there is this one: Pictures in temple vandalized…”
Indrasena: “All this with what people call a Hindu government in power and both the rākṣasonmatta-s and pretonmatta-s clearly stating their intentions.”
Somakhya: “Lootika, do you have a transcript of Varoli’s infamous speech at the right-wing think-tank”
Lootika: “Yes; Varoli was asked by one of her right-wing colleagues to speak at one of those Svatantratā think-tanks known as “India-Future”. It resulted in her being unceremoniously shunted off the stage and the question-answer session being called off. I’ll send the transcription of her speech around to you all.”
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The transcript of Varoli’s talk:
Hindus should realize they stand at a critical fork in the road of their history. Their linguistic and cultural cousins the Greeks, the Romans and the Iranians have all been consigned to perdition and their intellectual treasures and achievements are now being enjoyed by their Abrahamistic destroyers. We survived only because they lay ahead of us in the path of the hurricanes of Abrahamism. Now that they are gone the storm has begun blowing into our lands. Imagine the fate of the Gangetic Doab without the Himalayas to stanch the howl of Boreas from the Altaic heartland.
Let us face it, our situation is not good. Why is this the case? I am trained as both a chemist and a molecular biologist. Hence, I can tell you with some certainty that the biochemist who has done things the hard way achieves greater success when the real challenges hit her than one who has merely learned to do things as per the protocol accompanying a commercial kit. You might also agree with me that you would prefer to have a physician who has high tally in terms of the number of humans he has closely observed, dead or alive, than one who merely reads the diagnosis from the results of the tests. Likewise, only when you have real hands-on experience with your tradition and it’s significance, you are better equipped to adapt allo-cultural elements for your own effective use. In the old days at the height of Hindu power we were good at it. But when Hindu power was blasted away by the unmadita-s we lost not only the link to our own culture but with it the ability of our ancestors at allo-cultural adaptation. Thus, when by some luck the mleccha tyrants left our land due their hammering at the hands of the Germans and the Japanese, we adopted democracy without the proper wherewithal to handle this allo-cultural construct – it had no connection to our endogenous democracy enshrined in the śruti of the Bhṛgu-s and Añgirasa-s. Our ignorant peoples prided themselves over their success with this construct without realizing that it would bring their ruin unless they outlawed the preta-rākṣasa-mārgau. This negative externality was seen only be few of the Hindu leaders of the independence movement and was completely masked from public sight by the action of the men planted by the vengeful mleccha-s as they left our nation.
Since we had no hands-on experience with creating “systems-robustness” for the negative externalities of democracy, it has become a potent tool for the mleccha-s, aided by the marūnmatta-s, to get us to join the earlier-named civilizations. This will be felt even more as the Hindus decline in numbers and the Abrahamist occupy that space. I know many of you all, unlike me, like to call yourselves cultural Hindus, and the like distancing yourselves from the practice of the religion. By this you are only endangering the existence of your posterity even more. Hence, I posit that rather than patting ourselves on our backs and serenading our democracy, we resort to some really radical questioning. How many here would like to ask questions such as: Is democracy as it is practiced really doing us good? Are there religions that need to be outlawed in order to make it work? Is power of the people a good thing when the people are zombies? I know each of you all here are great analysts of politics and the media in the nation but have you asked if that nuanced dissection is of any avail when the whole structure has a foundation in quick-sand
If you think all this was radical, have you given thought to the actions of the judiciary? You know well that the judiciary plays a key role in this type of democratic set up. But is there not a logical paradox in a judiciary that places itself above the law itself? Especially so when there is really no one to check the integrity and patriotism of the judiciary. When you think more closely of this you will realize why I insist that no one other than a practicing Hindu well-versed in mīmāṃsa and nyāya should occupy a judicial position. The rāṣṭra is taken one step closer to the cremation ground when you appoint an Abrahamist as a judge at any level in the nation.
Since I would rather not relive Hypatia’s experience, I would like to suggest to you all that instead of delicately measuring our position on the left-right spectrum we start preparations to strike first and strike hard against our foes. This is what our tradition says – when the ātatāyin has come before us it is incumbent on us to dispatch him for an appointment with Citragupta.
indro viśvasya rājatoṃ ।
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Footnote 1: The Bhṛgu-s of yore had invoked Agni who dwells within water. That mighty deva who bears the oblations appeared at their ritual, and he transmogrified into a dreadful archer. This god was the terrible sharva with many death-dealing shafts; hence, the called out to him: “śivo bhava tuṃburo rudra jalāṣa-bheṣaja”. Then sa devaḥ emitted a mighty being known as the yakṣa-pati Kubera who appeared before them holding an axe and a mongoose. The Bhṛgu-s extolled him and offered him a caru. Then the mighty yakṣa revealed to them the secret vidyā-s which generations of Bhṛgu-s had built upon. It was those vidyā-s that Somakhya and transmitted to Indrasena in the mysterious shrine housing Mahādeva, Kubera, Skanda and Viśākha. Now he was a siddha in them like the legendary Naravāhanadatta.
When we were young, the normally taciturn vaiśya-jyotiṣa once asked us to participate in a peculiar weekly assembly of amateur astronomers that was apparently inspired by none other than the great Lokamānya Ṭilak and was housed in a memorial of his. Other than the vaiśya-jyotiṣa, his vaiśya sidekick, originally from the grocer community, and I, the rest of the participants in that assembly were stuffy, elderly Mahārāṣṭrī gentlemen who almost appeared as though they had jumped right out of Ṭilak’s era. They were amateur jyotiṣa-s whose primary interests lay in our solar system, with some passing interest in the older Hindu astronomy of Sūryasiddhānta, Varāhamihira, Āryabhaṭṭa. They discussed these matters a sauntering pace even as they viewed both me and the two vaiśya-s with a bit of quizzical but perplexed attitude. They wondered why we respectively interested ourselves so much in variable stars and globular clusters. When I told them of my sighting of BH Crucis near its maximum through my homemade telescope they all wondered with a slight murmur as to why such an out of the way star might seem interesting. One of them then slowly remarked that sighting omicron Ceti reach its maximum was sufficient for him. We would not disagree that it was a great sight. However, our main purpose of attending that assembly was because it was the only place where we could access the vanishingly rare copies of the astronomy magazine, the Sky and Telescope. It would be passed around the table in the cavernous little room where we assembled and we would each take a look at, with older copies available for borrowing. Beyond that the only memorable things about these meetings were the discussions we had on occasions on whether Sirius was once red, the star map of the Sūryasiddhānta, and the visits by noted astronomers from abroad which the old Mahārāṣṭrī gentlemen somehow managed to organize.
It was there that we learned, via Sky and Telescope, of the three volume work of Robert Burnham, “Burnham’s celestial handbook: an observer’s guide to the universe beyond the solar system”. Eventually, the assembly purchased those volumes at great expense and difficulty for Hindus were a poor people shorn of their wealth by the barbarous mleccha-s. It used to be kept under double-lock and keys, and could be accessed only if the secretary and treasurer both put in their keys to open the cabinet in which it was safely stowed away. Despite all this ado, its primary readers were the vaiśya’s lackey and I; the vaiśya-jyotiṣa himself had procured his own copy by virtue of his enormous riches as would befit a Lāṭānarta merchant. We found something very deep about Burnham’s mahāsaṃhitā: It was like no other text we had ever seen and after all these years still regard it as having a near magical quality. While we merely possessed a homemade 75mm refractor and a 50 mm Russian refractor with spectacular optics (the Rus made some great stuff then, which we never get anymore among the mleccha-s for all their technological prowess), Burnham spurred us to explore the utter limits of our instruments – can there ever be a feeling like being under pitā dyauḥ peering into the depths of the universe? That connection to the depths of the universe comes out brilliantly in Burnham’s work. Over the years, living in a place where our glimpses of the sky have become very few and far between due to cold and pollution, some of that connection from the long past days has receded into the background. But recently our friend pointed us to Burnham’s self interview, which prodded us to write something about the thoughts arising from reading the mysterious author’s thoughts beyond those found in his mahāsaṃhitā.
We learned that Burnham’s life began much like the comet he discovered with his own home-made telescope, which led him to a position at the Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory without any formal higher education. For years he lived the life of the reclusive self-made scientist operating a home-lab. Once that position was closed he was offered a janitor’s job at the same place, which he refused. His life had an unfortunate conclusion. Though a military veteran on losing his position at the observatory he lived a destitute life selling his own paintings in a park for a living. Unable to afford medical treatment he died at the age of 61 in 1993 from various dreadful ailments which had caught up with him. When he was a poor peddler of paintings in the park, astronomers did not even believe that he was the same Burnham of the handbook fame if mentioned that fact to them. Thus, even as his book was becoming a household name among amateur astronomers he dropped into anonymity and then died. His case is an example of how many great contributors to human expression are often ignored by society to die unsung in the dumpster, especially if they take an unconventional path that does not receive institutional recognition. This is particularly so in certain nations like the USA where medical care is difficult for the man of average means and typically of low-quality except for the very well-endowed or connected. Below we cull some of the interesting points from his interview with occasional remarks of ours indicated by bullet points.
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Interviewer: Your Handbook demonstrates that philosophy very clearly, I think. A number of readers have commented on the amount of space you devote to ancient mythology, Chinese poetry, oriental folklore, Roman coins — things like that. If you had omitted all this, do you think you might have reduced the book to a more practical size?
Not by very much. None of this adds that much to the page count. And I think it gives the work a certain sort of unique personality.
● Burnham was an example of what you don’t encounter that often in science these days: A sort of an all-rounder with wide cultural and historical interests.
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Interviewer: Do you feel the same about interstellar communication?
We may eventually exchange messages with inhabitants of nearby star systems; Tau Ceti, for example, if it has inhabited planets. But anything vastly more remote than that doesn’t look very practical. It isn’t communication if the answer to your message won’t arrive until a few centuries after your entire civilization has become extinct.
Interviewer: So you don’t believe that man will ever achieve the conquest of space?
That phrase is really one of the silliest ever invented. Here are two ants – perched on a leaf in the middle of the Amazon, and after enormous effort and incredible expense they finally manage to get across to the next leaf. So they claim they’ve “conquered the forest.”
● He had a particularly dim view of the physical conquest of deep space. We may view this in light of some recent discoveries: 1) Earth-like planets have been discovered around ancient stars suggesting that they formed much earlier than expected. 2) They appear to be more common than has been previously expected
Hence, Fermi’s paradox seems to be a reality: “Why have we not heard from or been visited by aliens yet?” This appears to be one of the fundamental lessons we are in the process of learning from Kepler and other exo-planet discoveries. We speculate in light of these observations affirming Fermi’s paradox that technology is fundamentally maladaptive. The kind of advanced technological existence needed to achieve moderately fast space travel most likely comes at the cost of fertility of the (super)organism, which generates such technology. Hence, such systems necessarily collapse before escaping the home star successfully. Moreover such (super)organisms are likely to be infected memetically by memoviruses, like the religions of peace and love, which enhance relative fertility of anti-technological groups hastening the collapse of technological civilization to a lower level that can never escape the home star. Thus, astronomy appears to have given us an important glimpse of the possibility that the technological overdrive we are pursuing might not be a stable strategy at all and sooner or later a collapse is eminent. On the other hand we posit that the societies of social insects re fundamentally more stable and there will a convergence towards such planet-bound social structures. In contrast, based on our empirical genomic studies we have held that real intra-stellar travel is done by structurally less differentiated life in the form of bacteria and archaea like entities.
Burnham should have lived to see this age of discovery in astronomy that has come for the first time since the great leap of Herschel and his contemporaries. This is due to great technological achievement on part of the United States. Our knowledge is likely to advance even more for a while as much greater successors of the Kepler mission are launched. We may even detect the chemical signatures indicating the existence of exo-life in the coming years, but that is different from the actual contact with the aliens, which should have happened. However, we suspect this will be very ironic in a sense because it might ultimately inform us clearly about the limits of our technology. Hence, finding some convergences with the thoughts of Burnham in this regard is interesting.
Just as we were deciding to make this note public, an interlocutor on Twitter brought back thoughts regarding the German intellectual Oswald Spengler. We recalled that the last two chapters of the mahāsaṃhitā have thoughts therein which seem to echo with the sentiment raised above. It would be too much to unpack all of it here. But it would suffice to say that it Hindus would be benefited if one among them takes up the task writing a narrative of this order from the Hindu perspective [Footnote 1]. It would obviously differ in words from that of Spengler but there might be some conclusions that ultimately converge. For now we will leave the reader with that concluding quote from Spengler, which we could immediately recognize as one of a realized man:
“Money is overthrown and abolished only by blood. Life is alpha and omega, the cosmic onflow in microcosmic form. It is the fact of facts within the world-as-history. Before the irresistible rhythm of the generation-sequence, everything built up by the waking-consciousness in its intellectual world vanishes at the last. Ever in History it is life and life only — race-quality, the triumph of the will-to-power — and not the victory of truths, discoveries, or money that signifies. World-history is the world court, and it has ever decided in favour of the stronger, fuller, and more self-assured life —decreed to it, namely, the right to exist, regardless of whether its right would hold before a tribunal of waking-consciousness. Always it has sacrificed truth and justice to might and race, and passed doom of death upon men and peoples in whom truth was more than deeds, and justice than power. And so the drama of a high Culture — that wondrous world of deities, arts, thoughts, battles, cities — closes with the return of the pristine facts of the blood eternal that is one and the same as the ever-circling cosmic flow.”
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Interviewer: Probably because the organized religions have made the whole idea so…
Cranky? Primitive? Yes. Well, that’s the old “guilt-by-association” syndrome again. A lot of scientists won’t touch ESP research for the same reason. They don’t want to be identified with cranks. But this situation is chiefly limited to the western cultures. Consider the difference in artistic traditions, for example. Suppose an American or European collector offers to show you a “religious” picture. You know what you will see. A Madonna. A nativity scene. A crucifixion. The martyrdom of some saint, perhaps. Always a conventionally religious theme. Now, let a cultivated Chinese gentleman show you his religious picture. High peaks looming though mist. A gnarled pine tree on a windy cliff. A mountain chasm at dawn. Yes, there may be a hermit or a holy man somewhere in all this, but you have to really hunt for him. Where’s the religion? Well, the oriental is experiencing the presence of the intelligence of the universe. In the world of nature.
Interviewer: Religious leaders claim to have a divine revelation which cannot be questioned.
Yes. But if neither reason nor science nor evidence nor human testimony can be trusted, how can you possibly know you have a divine revelation? Since you admit you are fallible human being, how can you be sure that you would recognize a divine revelation if you saw one? That’s a pretty arrogant claim to make, isn’t it?
Interviewer: Religious authorities will say that the whole history of the last two thousand years proves the truth of their claims.
Oh sure. The Inquisition, for example? The witchcraft mania? Centuries of cruel persecutions and intolerance and bigotry? How does it happen that this divinely revealed faith has by far the worst history of any of the great religions of the world, and has everywhere been the major cause of barbarism, strife and war? The whole history of Christian Europe reads like one long nightmare.Well, let’s suppose that none of these things had ever happened. Let’s close our eyes and pretend that the history of religion in the western world was all perfect sweetness and light, as many simple folk fondly imagine. The validity of their claims would still depend upon human reasoning. All theological statements are human statements; all theological writings are human writings; all religious concepts were developed by human beings. Obviously. There are people who imagine that they have something more, since their whole creed depends upon that idea. And where do they go to prove this? Right back to human reasoning! You can find entire books – hundreds of them – devoted to proving some theological doctrine or other. Using step by step human logic.
● It appears that Burnham had seen through the nature of the preta-mata. Indeed, elsewhere he mentions a certain attraction towards flavors of the Dao and the Tathāgata cults. However, it is unlikely he had any close understanding of these systems. This brings us to a more general issue of westerners who have outgrown the preta-mata . They typically come in a few standard flavors: 1) Those who have realized its futility but have limited horizons hence continue to remain within it in some non-practicing sense. They might term themselves as being non-practicing but having belief in its values. They resemble the common urban Hindu of India who has become deracinated and has never studied any śāstra that matters. 2) They see through the evils of the preta-mata but believe that all religiosity is the same as that of eka-rākṣasa-vāda. They bother not to more closely analyze the differences between systems or the biological foundations of the phenomenon of religion in apes. Hence, they become the kind who are well-known as the new atheists. But as we have discussed before they are, sometimes perhaps unwittingly, a mirror image of the eka-rākṣasa-vāda having arisen from societies infused with this ideology. They have imitators among the Hindus but this is again a reflection of Hindu deracination with resultant replacement of their endogenous memes with western ones. Thus, they react just like the mleccha-s though it is not relevant to their situation. 3) Those like Burnham who have outgrown it, understand the spirit of the alternatives, and even feel attracted towards them. However, they usually can never complete the circle because of incomplete understanding of the alternatives. Indeed, as we had discussed before, the Eklund survey suggested that many mleccha scientists, who describe themselves as atheists, might have an incipient potential in this direction. 4) Those who do adopt the alternatives whole scale irrespective of their actual understanding of it. These are the western converts to nāstika or āstika or other heathen systems. However, despite their conversion, they might retain the structures of their old eka-rākṣasa-vāda; thus, upon conversion they merely transfer their allegiance to the heathen systems and operate within it. For example, Devakīputra might replace the preta but they approach him similarly. Hence, they might also translate their confusions from the past to their interpretation of the heathen system. Thus, we have seen some western worshipers of Devakīputra become the spokesmen for Hindu intelligent design and anti-evolutionism. This too might be taken up by born Hindus due to their deracination. Thus, we have seen a pamphlet made by a well-known internet Hindu activist with some trite anti-evolutionist vociferations which are drawn from their western counterparts.
In the end, many mleccha-s adopting alternative systems face the issue of those systems ultimately “belonging” to alien cultures – a cultural difference exacerbated by the eka-rākṣasa-vāda. These, clash with a sense of superiority rooted in their psyche (even if subcurrent) coming from the influence of version 2 and 3 of eka-rākṣasa-vāda – a drive to save others even if it might mean killing them. This, along with political pressures of the mleccha lands can ultimately lead to the famous Malhotran U-turn in many.
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Footnote 1: The following is quite possibly a statement ensuing from false pride: We have long fancied ourselves as being able to do this in principle due to our penetration of certain domains of knowledge and things which we see clearly in our mind’s eye. However, as the realities of life impinge on you, the realization dawns that such a feat is likely to be out of reach for it is almost as if the gods come in the way when the mere martya has apprehended certain things. Surely there were many Khans on the steppes who never became Chingiz Khan. Such are the times when you wish for a capable successor to whom you can transmit your vidyā-s in toto, as Mahārāṇā Pratāpa wished there was no gap between him and Mahārāṇā Saṃgā.
In Hindu tradition there is a clear demarcation of at least three distinct classes of ritual observances: 1) The most conservative of these are the śrauta rituals that deviate little from their Vedic prototype specified in the texts known as the brahmaṇa-s and śrauta sūtra-s. 2) The next are the gṛhya or domestic rituals, which are associated with the major events in an individual’s life such as birth, naming, studentship, marriage, setting up of a household, and death. These show a conservative core going back to the earliest Vedic age or earlier, specified in texts known as the gṛhya sūtra-s, along with later accretions coming from texts known as the purāṇa-s, local customs and sectarian traditions. 3) Finally, we have the festive observances, which are followed by the whole of Hindu society including the lay people. Examples of these include Indradhvaja, Dīpāvalī, Holākā (commonly called Holi in Northern parts of India) and vasanta-pañcamī.
Of the three, the śrauta rituals are practiced by very few people today and are largely unknown to the modern lay Hindus even though the foundations of their dharma lie in these rituals. The gṛhya traditions are somewhat more widely known, though they too are declining among the Hindus of urban India. In contrast, the festive observances are still widely known and practiced. However, unlike the śrauta and gṛhya rituals the festive observance are much less tethered to the canonical texts and are greatly prone to local variations. Indeed, this distinction is clearly recognized by the great theorists of ritual in Hindu tradition, i.e. the commentators of the mīmāṃsa system, who explicitly distinguish these festivals from the rituals ordained by the words of the Veda. Nevertheless, these festivals are likely to have been of great antiquity in the Indo-Aryan world because at least some of them correspond to festivals of comparable intent observed elsewhere in the Indo-European world. The earliest references to these festivals are seen in the sūtra-s of the 18th pariśiṣṭha of the Atharvaveda (the Utsava-sūtrāṇi), which provides a list of such observances that are to be supported by the state.
We believe it is important that the history of these rituals be closely studied as it provides clues to understand our past and the role they played in the well-being of the people. Indeed, it was for this reason the great king Bhojadeva Paramāra paid great attention to their description and observance. Two centuries later these observances were studied and described at length by the great encyclopedist Hemādri in his Caturvarga-cintāmaṇi. Unfortunately, the loss of Hindu power to Islam and Christianity resulted in the memory of the old practices being forgotten to a great degree. In our times the systematic study of the early lay or social observances of Bhārata was done by the great Sanskritist V. Raghavan. His work was published with assistance of his successor S.Janaki because of his death before it saw print. Our intention here is to merely revive the study of these observances with an examination of the early history of Holākā. We must stress what we present here is largely indebted to Raghavan’s work along with some additional observations.
The earliest mention of Holākā is in the 18th pariśiṣṭha of the Atharvaveda in the form a brief sūtra: atha phālgunyāṃ paurṇamāsyāṃ rātrau Holākā ||AV 18.12.1
Now on the night of the phālguni full moon is Holākā.
This continues to be its date of observance to the current day. The verse of the Gāthasaptaśati of the Andhra king Hāla refers to getting “dirty” in the phālguṇi festival: phālgunotsava-nirdoṣaṃ kenāpi kardama prasādhanaṃ dattam | stana-kalaśa-mukha-praluṭhat sveda-dhautam kimiti dhāvayasi ||37/4.69 (provided in Sanskrit for easier understanding)
[The man addressing his female friend says]:
In the phālguṇi festival someone innocently colored you by throwing dust,
Why are you trying to wash that away, when it has been washed,
by the sweat flowing off the nipples of your pitcher-like breasts?
The preparation of powder for throwing in the festival is also alluded to in the same context in the Gāthasaptaśati mukha-puṇḍarīkac-chāyāyāṃ saṃsthitau paśyata rājahaṃsāviva | kṣaṇa-piṣṭa-kuṭṭanocchalita-dhūli-dhavalau stanau vahati || 39/6.24
Look! Sitting in the shadow of the lotus which is her face,
dusted by the powder thrown up as she grinds for the festival,
are her two fair breasts sitting like a pair of royal swans.
Not unexpectedly, such frolicking in the festival could have negative consequences. Indeed, a Mahārāṣṭrī Prākṛta gātha attributed to the same work of the Andhra monarch preserved only in the Telugu country sarcastically states: khaṇa-piṭṭha-dhūsara-tthaṇi mahu-maataṃb-acchi kuvala-ābharaṇe | kaṇṇa-gaa-cūa-maṃjari putti tue maṃḍio gāmo || 38/8.26
With breasts colored by the festival’s powder,
eyes showing intoxication by liquor,
with a lotus as ornament and mango shoot behind the ear,
you are, girl, a real honor to our village!
Thus, one may say that by the beginning of the Common Era when the Andhra-s held sway, the key elements which define Holākā were already in place: the color play and the drunken revelry. These are mentioned in authoritative medieval digests on festivals which collect material from earlier texts. For instance, the Varṣakṛtyā-dīpikā says that the people smear themselves with ashes from a bonfire (see below) and color powders and prance about like piśāca-s on the streets (grāma-mārge krīḍitavyaṃ piśācavat).These are features of the festival that persist to the current day.
However, these are not the only elements that characterize the festival. Hemādri in his account of the Holākā festival provides information from the now lost account of the Bhaviṣyottara purāṇa. This records an interesting tale that is not widely known among modern Hindus: “When Raghu was the emperor of the Ikṣavāku-s at Ayodhyā, the lord of Lankā was a Rākṣasa known as Mālin. His daughter was a Rākṣasī known as Ḍheṇḍhā (In some texts Ḍhuṇḍhā). She attacked the city of Ayodhyā and wrought much havoc by slaying the children in the city. Raghu advised by his preceptor Vasiṣṭha asked the people, particularly the youngsters, to gather cow dung, leaves and logs, and place them at the center of a decorated enclosure. They then set these afire and went around the pyre shouting, singing and calling out obscene words including the names of male and female genitalia in deśa-bhāṣā-s. Then they clapped their hands, made a noise by striking their open palm against the open mouth (bom-bomkāra) and shouted out the words aḍāḍā and śītoṣṇa. Surprised by the obscene language Ḍheṇḍhā started running and fell into the pyre and was burnt to death.”
In this account aḍāḍā is described as the mantra of Holākā by which the Rākṣasī is driven away and the fire is said to be the homa in which this mantra is practiced to bring welfare to the settlement.
Several variants of this basic form of the festival are seen in medieval manuals for festivals. The Jyotir-nibandha specifies that the fire for the Holākā pyre should be brought by children from the house of a caṇḍāla woman who has just given birth. It mentions an effigy of Ḍheṇḍhā along with a five-colored flag being set up for burning. The Puruṣārtha-cintāmaṇi additionally specifies a cattle race at midday for the Holākā festival. A paddhati from the Tamil country specifies that scorpions, snakes and centipedes are made out of molasses and thrown into the Ḍheṇḍhā pyre.
The legend of Ḍheṇḍhā has been recycled into two vaiṣṇava narratives which are more popular today: 1) She is known as Holikā, the sister of Hiraṇyakaśipu, who loses her invulnerability to fire and perishes in an attempt to burn her nephew the daitya Prahrāda. 2) The Holākā fire is supposed to commemorate the killing of the rākṣasī Pūtanā by Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra – Pūtanā was originally a fierce kaumāra goddess who was completely demonized in the vaiṣṇava narrative.
The common element in all these narratives is the protection of children from harm. Indeed the kaumāra goddess Pūtanā is described as being a deity of pediatric illnesses, from which she provides relief upon being given ritual fire offerings and bali. The junction period between winter and summer in India is marked by several illness that afflict children. This might indeed have been the rationale behind this facet of Holākā. Likewise, in rural India, the coming of summer heralded the emergence of scorpions, centipedes and snakes from hibernation. This appears to have found expression in the ritual offering of images of these animals in the Holākā fire.
Unlike the vaiṣṇava-s, the śākta-s gives a positive color to the narrative of Holikā, wherein she is described as an incarnation or emanation of Caṇḍikā, who fought a great battle with a daitya known as Vīrasena, and slew him on this day. Thus, it is his effigy which is burned accompanied by the worship of Holikā devī, followed by the śākta observance of the Vasanta-navarātrī. Thus, it is symmetrically placed in the calender with respect to the exploits of the great trans-functional goddess celebrated in the autumnal navarātrī. This account is elaborated in an eastern text known as the Holikāmāhātmyam.
Thus, multiple elements have been melded together into the Holākā festival. Of these the element involving the color play and obscenity probably relate to it being an ancient festival of love. Indeed, an aspect of this is obliquely recorded in the Nārada-purāṇa by noting that it marks the burning of Kāma by Rudra – a feature which survives to the current date in the form of the green twig representing Kāma being placed in the Holākā bonfire. In certain accounts the people from the Ārya varṇa-s freely touched people from lower jāti-s on this occasion, and this action was supposed to help provide immunity from diseases. Thus, the festival might have additionally had an angle of establishing social cohesion.
Finally, right from the first few centuries of the Common Era, as indicated by the great mīmāṃsa commentator Śabharasvāmin, Holākā appeared to have had a patchy, regional pattern of observance. According to him it was observed only by easterners. Such a regionally restricted pattern is observed even today with the festival lacking prominence in much of the peninsular south. This is paradoxical because it appears to be an early festival alongside the ancient Indradhvaja and Dīpāvalī. Moreover, it is attested in texts from all over India including places like Kumbhaghoṇa in Tamil Nad where the festival in no longer observed. One possible explanation for this is that frivolous and obscene facets of the festival have resulted in being ignored in several parts of the nation [Footnote 1]. On the other hand in other places it was “domesticated” to a degree and continued to be observed. However, in very recent times it seems to be resurgent in several places where it was previously not observed. Hence, it is possible that it can be used as a means to counter imported western observances that serve as conduits for Abrahamistic memes.
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Footnote 1: In dhammapada 2.4 the buddha Gautama criticizes the festival celebrated in Śrāvastī as one of fools making particular reference to the coarse language being used in the celebrations.
This article was first published on Feb 18, 2006. However, we thought it was apposite to re-publish it with some additions give the recent attack on the Hindus by the mlechCha propaganda arm.
Liberals are a putrid and noxious bunch. Sadly, as we discussed before, they are pretty widespread in academia. Liberal is merely another more dignified name for communist or leftist. The liberals live in a paradoxical world. Some profess to viscerally hate religion, whereas in reality they end up mouthing a secular version of their dominant meme: exclusivist Abrahamism. This is not surprising because following the footsteps of the Hindu intellectuals Shri Ram Swarup and Sitaram Goel, and later the prolix Balagangadhara of Ghent (though we disagree on several issues with him) we realized that the socialism or communism were but secularized versions of the basic Abrahamistic meme. We find that liberals of very different hues showing this dogma at different levels of discourse. Let us consider a diverse set of examples to illustrate this:
1) Jared Diamond- kalashajA and me had discussed his 2nd book after reading it with some eagerness (biased positively by the first one). We soon realized that this book was not universalist history but a politically biased affair that prevented him from making proper scientific inferences. Due to his hidden socialist disposition (coming from a deeper Abrahamistic belief of “equal before G-d”) he thought that geographical contingency directs human history without altering the human biology at a genetic level. He is resoundingly proven wrong by the most recent studies that the differences between human races is indeed due natural selection.
2) Stephen Gould and Dick Lewontin- Both were respectable evolutionary theorists with a decent understanding of aspects of the heart of biology. Yet both were communists (cloaked as liberals) which prevented them from understanding the significance of the evolutionary theory for human diversity. Their politics made them oppose science even though it stared on their face and they tried to hide behind statistical smoke screens to provide a false respectability to their positions. So they sang the song all humans are equal and the environment makes them different.
3) Richard Dawkins- A great popularizer of the evolutionary theory and the proposer of the meme concept is a closet leftist . This again made him ignore many aspects of intra-human differentiation and support Mohammedans! In his case the loss of a religious identity has been replaced by a fanatic atheism where he literally worships a new crypto-Abrahamistic entity “humanism” with a convert’s zeal. In the year 2015 he started tilting against Hindus in support of a compatriot puMshchalI who is engaged in a smear campaign against the Hindus. The puMshchalI herself was supported by the puMshchalI-grAhin mlechChesha’s strI who earlier was seeking to support the Mohammedans in lATa and Anarta.
4) PZ Myers- a minor scientist and major pamphleteer, but I hear from aurvasheyI that he is almost as popular as the others on the web. Lately he has been taking anti-Hindu stances. We wonder if he can take a similar stance against Judaism- I doubt he would last long. His stuff is another blind anti-religious blather similar to Daniel Dennett, whose ignorance prevents him from understanding some really commonsense stuff about things like consciousness. Myers profound blindness is a good example of the liberal’s missionary zeal where in he literally shows the zeal of an Abrahamist only transferred to a new religion dubbed as “science”.
In conclusion liberalism has made otherwise intelligent scientists incomplete men. It also speaks rather badly of these scientists because it shows that they are actually unable to pursue scientific thought to its conclusion because of their inability to give up their political figments. These incomplete men are victims of the Abrahmisitic meme. The meme had imprisoned their ancestors and kept them in a state of intellectual servitude for a millennium or more. Then science disrupted this meme and showed it puerility. But these mlechChas having no philosophical or cultural scaffold larger than Abrahamistic delusions, felt rudderless upon its collapse. As a result they needed something to take its place and give them a “Weltanschauung”. Sure enough the Abrahamism returned in a secular form- communism or leftism- that provided them with the needful pillar for support. Thus, unable to percieve, leave alone understand, the philosophy of life they wander around spreading hate like walking graveyards.
To sit or to rove: the tale of maggots
The gene coding for cGMP-dependent kinase (PKG) in Drosophila melanogaster, whose kinase activity is activated by binding of the second messenger cGMP by its two cNMP-binding domains, is characterized by two allelic variants for-s and for-R. The for-s flies make less PKG while the for-R flies make more PKG. The for-s flies are sitters. When food is abundant, in their youth as maggots they move less and feed only from a localized patch of food source. In contrast, the for-R flies are rovers. When food is abundant they rove around widely and feed less but sample a distant patches of food. They also have a higher rate of glucose absorption from food. When food is limiting both for-s and for-R maggots have a common level of food intake and movement. As adults for-R flies lick sucrose more often with their proboscis while for-s flies turn more frequently after feeding on sucrose. The for-R flies learn faster but show poorer long term memory, while it is exactly the opposite for the for-s flies. The short-term memory of for-R flies is resilient to sleep deprivation while that of for-s flies is disrupted. In contrast, short-term memory of for-R flies is disrupted by overnight starvation while that of for-s flies are resilient to the same. Most of these differences are consistent with advantage under opposite environmental conditions for the two genotypes. Thus, when food is plentiful the sitter maggots appear to be at an advantage as they eat more food, waste less of the consumed nutrition in generating energy for moving around, and thus grow more. However, when food is limiting, because the two converge to a common level of food intake and rapid movement, the higher rate of glucose absorption of the rover maggots gives them an advantage. Similarly, the behavioral and cognitive differences between the rovers and sitters would also be helpful under opposite sets of conditions. Thus, if the environment fluctuated often enough between the alternate states favoring one or other of the phenotypes, such that neither of them is taken to fixation by natural selection, then the allelic polymorphism at the locus would be the norm. This balancing, oppositely aligned environmental effect on advantage of the two forms is supported by the fact that the two alleles occur as a natural, stable polymorphism in fly populations.
Our own studies from some years back suggested that such dichotomy in strategies is pervasive aspect of biology. Even the genes in the genome of an organism might be partitioned into alternative strategies when it comes to a particular responses, such as dealing with deleterious chemicals: some are part of a strongly evolutionarily conserved strategy which which does not show much noisiness in gene-expression (sitter), whereas others are part of a rapidly evolving, exploratory strategy with noisy gene-expression (rover).
To stay at the natal home or fly away: dimorphic males of fig wasps
This dimorphism in the tactics of PKG allelic variants in the fly is reminiscent of the male dimorphism in fig wasps. The fig wasps come in three major life-style categories: 1) the pollinators which necessarily enter the fig through its opening and pollinate the flowers inside it; 2) the non-pollinators which might rarely enter the fig along with the pollinators or more frequently bore into the fig using their ovipositor from outside and lay their eggs within. Inside the fig their offspring might form a gall, inside which they develop. 3) the parasitoids that use their ovipositor to drill into the gall formed in the fig by the above and lay their egg as a parasite on the above’s larvae. Among the non-pollinators at least 10% of the species are characterized by dimorphism in males, where the two basic versions are winged or wingless. The winged males are like the females which are always winged and typically bore their way out of the fig and fly away to mate with a female elsewhere. The wingless males in contrast usually remain in the fig of their birth and mate right there. The wingless males display alternative mating strategies. One of these seen in the wasp Pseudidarnes minerva where the wingless morph is a dwarf, thus uses much lesser energy, but has mandibles that allow it to bite its way into the gall of the virgin female and mate right there even before she emerges out. Now wings are costly both in terms of making them and the energy expended in flying with them. The resource gained by not making wings can be used for alternative purposes in the wingless males and this manifests as the second tactic, the soldier phenotype (e.g. Sycoscapter). These develop strong mandibles and in some cases armor and engage in lethal combat with other wingless males – 25-50% of the males often die in combat, frequently through decapitation, in their natal fig – as the great biologist WD Hamilton estimated millions of males might die in combat on a large nyagrodha or udumbara tree. This level of lethal combat is atypical for males and is predicted by evolutionary theory to occur only if the future reproductive opportunities are very low relative to the currently contested reproductive opportunity, which is indeed the case for these wasps. While the determinant of male dimorphism remains unclear, the evidence in several cases favors it arising from two alleles at single locus. This makes it remarkably similar to the sitter-rover dimorphism in the fly, raising the possibility of a similar genetic basis for it. However, in some wasps like Otitesella pseudoserrata the close match between the morph and the availability of the mating opportunity specific to a morph, suggests that similar dimorphism could emerge from conditional epigenetic control of a determinant genetic locus. As we will see below this also holds true for the PKG gene.
Like the above examples of dimorphism, there can also be trimorphism if a triad of alleles result in three distinct phenotypes, which are locked in a rock-scissors-paper (RSP) game – in such a game one strategy always beats another but is always beaten by the third (rock breaks scissors; scissors cuts paper; paper can cover rock). Numerous cases of phenotypic trimorphism is observed in distant members of the animal tree. In the isopod crustacean Paracerceis sculpta (sponge louse) the 3 types of males alpha, beta and gamma adopt 3 distinct strategies with the alphas being big harem holders with large uropods that hoard females in the cavity of sponges. The smaller betas in contrast mimic females in appearance and reside in the harem by passing of as females. The gammas in contrast are very small and slip right through every now and them into the harem evading the alpha even as he is fighting to throw out interlopers with his uropods. Trimorphic males often distinguished by the differences in their weaponry or ornamentation used in sexual conflict. It has recently become clear that this is prevalent in beetles. In the iridescent green rhinoceros beetle Oxysternon conspicillatum the three forms are those with a long horn, those with a short horn and those with no horns which resemble females. Similarly, in the stag beetle Dorcus rectus the three types of males are distinguished by having long mandibles with two teeth, medium mandibles with one tooth and short mandibles with no tooth. In the weevil Parisoschoenus expositus it manifests in the sternal spines which are long in the alpha, short in the beta and absent in the gamma. Trimorphism is also seen in the case of the fig wasps like Otitesella longicauda and Otitesella rotunda, where the three morphs differ entirely in mating tactics; hence, each has its own specific feature: the primary dichotomy, as noted above, is between (1) the winged flier male and the wingless forms; which in turn use two distinct strategies: (2) the wingless soldier male with armor and (3) the unarmored dwarf male with long mandibles, which are used to pull females out of galls and mate with them before they emerge on their own.
Trimorphism is not the unique preserve of arthropods of the pan-crustacean lineage – a similar situation is observed in the case of trimorphic males of the lizard Uta stansburiana. The belligerent alpha males with bright orange throats and large territories hold harems and beat the beta males which have blue throats and small territories. However, once the betas get a female they hold tight guarding them jealously against the smaller yellow-throated gamma males that look like females. The gammas however beat the alphas by slipping into their territories looking like females and sneak a copulation with the real females. Finally, it should be noted that trimorphism is not the exclusive premise of males. In the case of the damselfly (e.g. Ischnura elegans) there are three female morphs with two being regular females types and one being a male mimic (Something l discovered for myself via endless hours of dragonfly watching in school and college). Here sexual harassment by the male apparently reduces the future fitness of the females. Thus the male-mimicing female is believed to gain a selective advantage even though it is less preferred by the male. Evidence from the Uta, Paracerceis and the female-trimorphic Ischnura elegans suggest that the presence of three distinct alleles at a single locus result in three morphs. Moreover, the frequency with which trimorphic males have independently emerged across the animal tree, and a similar genetic basis for the instances when trimorphism emerges in females suggests that a single gene with three distinct genetic (i.e. alleles) or epigenetic (expression) states is the most likely mechanism by which this is initiated. If these three morphs are then locked in a RSP conflict then they are all likely to persist in the population.
However, the possibility of greater complexity in the interactions between the distinct morphs is suggested by the male trimorphism seen in the ruff (a sandpiper-like bird; Philomachus pugnax). Here the alpha male holds territory and advertises himself with his dark color and a prominent collar of feathers on his neck. The beta males hold no territory and are light colored with a weak collar. They are satellites which associate themselves with the alpha males. The gammas are female mimics, which lack the collar and are difficult to distinguish from females. The alphas compete with other alphas in territorial conflicts but they tolerate betas when the males assemble in large groups to attract females. Females prefer assemblies with large numbers of males. Hence, toleration of beta satellites by alphas allows them fluff up their numbers to attract females better. Once the females come the alphas with territories are dominant in securing their mating rights. However, as the alphas are squabbling between themselves for obtaining a territory the betas sneak in quick copulations. The gammas in contrast mingle with the females by looking like them and get their copulation. The issue with this avian situation is that there is both conflict and cooperation between the alphas and the betas and the exact situation of the gamma vis-a-vis the other two morphs is unclear. Thus, at the face, it does not look like a simple situation of conflict between the three morphs with each beating one and losing to the other.
Polymorphism and caste
When such polymorphism of strategies arising from genetics or epigenetic regulation is superimposed on a social organism it can manifest as caste. This is likely to be accentuated in a social organism because there can be greater buffering against the fitness reduction in the individual caused by certain strategies if they can result in increased included fitness (kin selection) or group success (group fitness). Interestingly, some studies do suggest that cGMP-dependent kinase activity in social hymenopterans plays a role in the labor specialization. The honeybee workers begin their adult lives as nurse bees which hang out in the nest and perform the task of rearing offspring. Subsequently, they transition to forager bees, which fly out of the hive to seek flowers to gather nectar and pollen. In the stay-at-home nurse bees the PKG levels and concomitantly activity is low but when the transition to the forager state is made PKG doubles in expression level and activity. Moreover, treatment with cGMP triggers the transition to the forager state indicating a causal role for this phosphorylation pathway. This increase in PKG activity also appeared to initiate expression of the archetypal PAS domain protein Period which regulates circadian rhythms. This correlates with the fact the the nurse bees engage in round-the-clock activity without any particular circadian rhythm, whereas the foragers seek flowers only in the day. Thus, the labor specialization in the honeybee is a mirror of the PKG allelic dimorphism in Drosophila, only that it is achieved in the same animal via epigenetic means. A similar pattern of PKG expression is also seen in the bumble bee suggesting the generality of this function. However, this clean dichotomy has been fudged by work on the ant Pheidole pallidula where it is the soldiers which have high PKG levels rather than the minor workers which do most foraging. But these observations should be treated with caution because recent work on the red harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) shows that early in the morning foragers are marked by lower PKG expression levels than stay-at-home workers but at midday their PKG levels of former shoot up much higher than the latter. This suggests that time of the day for such measurements and also the age of the worker (for with aging generally PKG goes down in some hymenopterans) might make a difference. Thus, the same gene under, genetic, epigenetic or more dynamic and immediate regulation can produce dimorphism in population, dimorphic behavior in the same animal with a switch at certain point in time, or cyclically over the day.
This said it is there is evidence for at least partial genetic control of the labor specialization between a nest-bound nurses and the foragers bee in the honeybees. Studies point to the presence of a genetic basis for the predisposition to take up forager roles as indicated by the variation being related to queens inseminated by multiple males differing in their genetics. Within foragers the threshold of response to sucrose has a genetic basis and determines whether the forager brings back water, pollen, nectar, or nectar+pollen in that order. Given the role of the PKG polymorphism in differential sucrose response in Drosophila, it is possible that the genetic basis for differential foraging in the honeybee works via the PKG network. In at least three distinct hymenopterans, the honeybee, the leafcutter ant Acromyrmex versicolor and the social wasp Polybia occidentalis a distinct subgroup of workers have emerged that specialize in corpse disposal [like the caṇḍāla in the historical Hindu caste structure]. There is some evidence that there is a genetic component to their specialization. Likewise, as Hölldobler, Wilson and others point out in the honeybee there are some workers known as elites that consistently perform better than the rest in terms of speed, productivity, or memory and also in stimulating and organizing their nest-mates. This elite status might also have a genetic component to it as suggested by the heritable nature of task learning performance/memory in honeybees.
Thus, hymenopteran societies are anything but what social thinkers, particularly those with a Marxian psyche, have wished – the egalitarian society with no caste structure. Old Hindu thinkers, following their earlier Indo-European predecessors were different, they accepted the biological reality of strategic polymorphism and tried to frame their social theories against the backdrop of caste differentiation. Modern Hindu thinkers are generally very troubled about this aspect of their history. They may take the stance that: 1) they were really egalitarian as in the Marxian theories; 2) they had varṇa but it was a pernicious aspect of their society that needs to be abolished today; 3) they accept the existence of varṇa but argue that it was entirely by vocation and not by birth, and argue the latter to be a perversion of the original intent. Indeed, even in old India there were two theories – varṇa by janman (caste determined by birth) or varṇa by karman (caste determined by vocation). When compared to the societies that emerged among hymenopterans or cockroaches it becomes clear that both forces have been just as active in Hindu society – varṇa by janman might be compared to the genetic contribution to propensity for particular labor specialization whereas varṇa by karman may be compared to the epigenetic specialization for a particular activities. Given that the human ape has both a sex and reproductive organization different from its insect counterparts, the genetic basis for specialized tactics are likely to be common and is seen in societies even today as suggested by the work of Clark. This is not going to vanish irrespective of what people wish. Moreover, irrespective of whether epigenetic switches or genetic propensities have a primary role in labor specialization there will be scope for intra-caste conflict and struggle for belonging to a particular caste. One may illustrate this by examples from the brilliant work of Hölldobler and Wilson: In the ant Odontomachus brunneus the dominant workers establish their location within the colony close to the brood, the middle ranked workers are inside the colony but doing tasks away from the brood, finally the low ranked workers with withered ovaries do the foraging outside the colony. This hierarchy is enforced by aggressive posturing with the defeated pushed to a lower rank and walk away with lowered bodies and shivering antennae in the direction indicated by the higher ranked. In the leafcutter ant Atta cephalotes the garbage dump workers are confined to permanently working in the garbage dump via aggressive behavior by other workers upon sensing the smell of garbage on their bodies. So the emergence of such behaviors in human society should be considered in this light.
The victory of the fire ants: genetic polymorphism and a transnational society?
Some modern human social thinkers yearn for a society without national boundaries. Can this happen? The fire ant Solenopsis invicta comes in two behavioral flavors: One is the the monogyne/oligogyne version whose colonies have a single or a small number of genetically closely related queens. These colonies are like nations that strongly defend territories as result of which they form spread-out nests. The other flavor is the polygyne which has numerous queens and it does not maintain territorial boundaries. Interestingly, a dominant allelic variant in a gene coding for an odorant-binding-protein (OBPs) Gp-9 is the genetic basis for the polygyne phenotype. The OBPs are insect proteins which bind small molecules on their antennal sensors and help them identify and respond to different smells. The polygyne variant is incapable of responding to the differences in odors of workers and queens from different colonies. The loss of this discrimination has resulted in loss of recognition of territorial boundaries. A key aspect of this phenotype is that when polygyne workers are as few as 15% of the colony they kill all queens that are homozygous for the monogyne allele. Thus, the colony is converted to polygyne. In the polygyne colony the queens are small and produce fewer eggs and the whole colony becomes a mass of individuals with no specific genetic relationship between the workers and queens. One wonders if certain human societies are like this and certain alleles in our midst predispose such behaviors.
In numerous jawed vertebrates testosterone appears to play an important role in courtship, aggression, and territorial defense, particularly by males. It is very likely that last common ancestor of jawed vertebrates already used testosterone in such capacity. The jawless vertebrates do not seem to use testosterone as their primary male hormone but they might use related steroids like androstenedione in a similar capacity. However, there have been some suggestions that testosterone might act as a pheromone in some lampreys. Whatever the case, the fixation of this steroid and the basic behavioral pattern regulated by it appear to have emerged after the split of the jawed and jawless vertebrates from their common ancestor, though related steroids might have functioned in the vertebrate common ancestor itself in a similar capacity. The expression of male ornaments and behaviors targeted to elicit female interest are under the control of testosterone across vertebrates – horns, bright colors, songs are all induced by testosterone secreted from the testes. Given that sexual selection by female choosiness tends to act on these manifestations one question is would there be selection for males with increasing testosterone levels. Studies by Ketterson et al using the sparrow-like bird the junco have thrown light on various tradeoffs imposed by testosterone.
Testosterone, polygyny and cuckoldry
A classic tactical fork faced by a male vertebrate like a junco with territorial behavior and parental care is whether to form a long term pairing with a single female or whether to attempt to inseminate many females. At first sight the latter tactic might seem the obvious winner. Among birds, species with persistently high levels of testosterone throughout the mating season tend to sing more and mate with multiple females. However, juncos, like other examples across the vertebrate tree, are nominally monogamous, with biparental care, though not without extra-pair copulations. It would hence, appear that some tradeoff might be involved. The effects of exogenous testosterone implantation in male juncos was used to assess the role of the possible tradeoffs involved. The males with testosterone implantation, as opposed to those with control null implantation, flew around a wider swath of territory, sang more and attempted courtships with more females. However, they unlike the controls did not provide much help in chick-rearing to their females. This responsibility landed mostly on the females unlike in natural situation were both parents are involved. However, measures of female fecundity showed no significant decreases from the non-participation of their males. This meant that the tradeoff in the case of juncos was not coming from any lowering of fitness from lack of paternal contribution to chick-rearing. It was also observed that the male with implanted testosterone tended more frequently to father chicks on females of males from adjacent territories. Thus, they were indeed accruing more fitness from extra-pair copulations than the control birds. However, it was also observed that they themselves were getting cuckolded more often by other males unlike the control birds. It was noted that the fitness gained from extra-pair copulations were balanced by the fitness lost due to cuckolding.
Testosterone and immunity
Several experiments have shown that elevating testosterone by extrinsic administration tends to suppress the humoral and cell mediated acquired immune responses that are typical of jawed vertebrates. This relationship between testosterone and immunity is relevant to a widely studied and well-known hypothesis in animal biology known as the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis (IHH). This derives from the signaling theory that posits that signals, which are used by males to indicate their quality to females, should be costly to ensure honesty. If this were not the case they can also be displayed by low quality males, which lack the wherewithal for such signals, there by defeating their very purpose. Thus, the signals of the male have to come with an associated handicap that only a good quality male would have the wherewithal to overcome and still show the signal. As per the IHH the elevated testosterone levels that are need to express the sexual ornaments and behaviors come at the cost of lowering immunity. This could lead to increased susceptibility to infections – thus testosterone cuts both ways. Hence, a poor quality male would not be able to cheat by merely elevating testosterone because it will also knockdown his immunity, render him prone to infection, and thereby make him unable to sustain the higher grade ornaments or aggression displays. In contrast, only a genuinely good quality male will be able to tide over the testosterone immunity handicap and still show his ornaments or aggressive displays.
In another set of experiments using the junco model the levels of endogenous testosterone through the mating season were measured and compared with the endogenous concentration of complement and total immunoglobulin IgG concentration in blood. The latter two were seen as proxies of innate immunity, which represents the readily available immune capacity to neutralize pathogens. It was observed that there was a good negative correlation in the male birds between testosterone and the two proxies of innate immunity. Other experiments on the junco had also shown that injections of testosterone in males resulted in lowered humoral and cell-mediated acquired immunity suggesting that effect of testosterone probably affects all arms of the immune response. Thus, birds with higher testosterone had a lower immunity – given this situation only a male with really good quality would be able to sustain a high testosterone mating season because a lower quality male would succumb to the ravages of infection. Importantly, it was found that both the above measures of innate immunity were positively correlated with the mass of the male bird. Thus, lighter males had weaker immunity and elevation of testosterone on this background could weaken it even more, making it difficult for him to falsely signal his quality before falling to infection. Hence, in line with the IHH the immunity cost imposed by testosterone allows for honest signaling.
Testosterone and female choosiness
When sexual selection operates on high testosterone induced traits there will be tendency for the genetics of female choosiness to get linked to the genetics to the sexual selected traits in the male. Given that the genetic control of testosterone levels might be generic, selection for its elevation in males of the species would hence lead to elevation in the females. This could potential constrain sexual selection for testosterone associated traits in the male if elevated testosterone starts having negative effects on the females. In the junco model it was observed that implantation of testosterone into the females to elevate their levels resulted in them becoming less choosy between males with elevated or normal testosterone level. Thus, if sexual selection of traits associated with elevated testosterone were to occur it would be nullified by the loss of female choosiness with increasing testosterone.
In conclusion the junco experiments suggest that the elevation of testosterone potentially comes with multiple tradeoffs – elevated risk of cuckoldry, lowered immunity, and unintended side-effect in the form of reduced female choosiness. Thus, the junco has probably converged to an optimum, elevation beyond which is deleterious. Given certain similarities in the mating system of the junco with modern humans, and the conservation of the testosterone system in jawed vertebrates, some these observations are indeed relevant to us. Of course we are a social ape with a long history of such sociality in the primate tree and breed throughout the year. This adds additional factors but some of basic responses remain very much the same. It is common to believe that tendencies towards monogamy in humans result from selection for shared parental care. This is not entirely supported because in most mammals the female provides the bulk of the parental care, with male, if involved at all, playing a primarily protective role against rival males who may kill his offspring. The possibility that risk of cuckoldry as in the case of the junco could be a major factor favoring tendencies of monogamy in extant Homo should be considered. In this regard, one may also ponder over the effects of modern Anglospheric social engineering and the kind of males and females they are favoring.
Some memories are simultaneously pleasant and sad: One such is of the many afternoons spent reading about the discovery and then the osteology of South American mammals. It was then that we read with some awe of the great deeds of Florentino Ameghino on the discovery of the mammalian fauna of South America. The pleasantness of those memories comes from being inspired, even a bit awed, by Ameghino’s meteoric and prolific contribution to paleontology, which uncovered a genuinely lost Cenozoic world, full of such unfamiliar mammals and dinosaurs attempting a comeback that the northerner is simply left stunned by their strangeness. Ameghino was the successor of Charles Darwin in South America and the first to really understand the evolutionary theory in Argentina. He came from a low class family and became a self-taught biologist without any formal education while exploring the wilds and collecting fossils as a child in Argentina. Upon reading Darwin’s works he immediately realized its profound significance and wrote that biology had finally become an exact science as he foresaw the role for mathematical methodology in reconstruction of evolutionary histories. While he was widely admired in his country as a brilliant man, even a hero, the heavy hand of the the corpse-cult resulted in him never being fully understood or followed by capable immediate successors. Indeed, many in his country held the view that the evolutionary theory presented by Darwin had “villainous consequences” upheld by the “laughable pride” of his follower Ameghino. In course of his life of 56 years he published 24 volumes of papers, covering over 18000 pages, on fossil vertebrates from Argentina. Among these was his magnum opus “Mammalian Fossils in the Argentine Republic”, the first detailed work on the extraordinary mammalian world of South America of over 1000 pages. Being isolated in the southern hemisphere, with little direct understanding of the northern faunas, he came up with some strange ideas like the origin of humans in South America from a fossil primate, which in reality was an ancestral New World monkey. Nevertheless, Ameghino’s study of humans in South America led to one of the widely debated ideas in archaeology – namely the human hand in the extinction of the megafauna of South America (and more generally in all parts of the world where humans event spread out of Africa).
This dramatic event first discovered by Ameghino may be described thus:
● Around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary 100% of the mammals 1000 kg or greater in mass abruptly became extinct
● 80% of large mammal species with mass over 44 kg became extinction
● Only a small number of mammals below that threshold and no notable set of plants became extinct.
Interestingly, certain plants adapted to the megafauna continue to linger on as before: the Osage-orange tree with it is giant fruit which were once dispersed by extinct elephants feeding on them; the Cassia grandis tree whose fruits were consumed both by extinct giant sloths and elephants; the honeylocust tree which has large spines high above the ground to deter extinct elephants; the avocados whose fruits were consumed by sloths and thus dispersed – this plant has found a second life with human cultivation.
Thus, this extinction was unlike the other mass extinctions – while the great extinctions like the K-Pg transition was marked by the death of all dinosaurs above a certain mass, it also had mass-independent effects with several small sized vertebrates, plants, mollusks and even microbial eukaryotes taking a noticeable hit. This peculiar pattern of the megafaunal extinction played out in all other parts of the world with the spread of the hominids. The effects were particularly severe outside of Africa and Asia where Homo appeared abruptly. Today the weight of the evidence delivers what to us is a clear verdict: “Homo stands accused in the mass extinction of megafauna.”
One could debate if the extreme form of the hypothesis, sometimes called the “Blitzkrieg” version played a role but the evidence from the Americas does point to relationship between emergence of particular hunting tactics and megafaunal extinction. Genomic evidence suggests that the first, and most prominent thrust of humans in to America was by the group called the First Americans who entered via the Bering land bridge from Northeastern Asia. With the exception of the Eskimos and Na-dene groups, the majority of native Americans have entirely descended from these First Americans. The recent sequencing of the genome of the Anzick-1 boy from 12.7-12.5 kya (belonging to the first archaeologically prominent human culture of North America, the Clovis culture) and comparisons with other native Americans suggests that there was some already diversification of among the First Americans descendants by this time. This suggests that the First Americans might have entered North America around 15 Kya or a little before that. Their descendants rapidly advanced through the two American continents and appear to have been hunter-gathers pursuing a wide range of foraging tactics, which involved some hunting of megafauna coupled with exploitation of marine food along the coast and plant-based subsistence. Among the descendants of the First Americans the Clovis culture emerged in North America around 13 kya. This was marked by the development of a very distinctive type of stone points, the Clovis points, that were hafted onto projectile javelins. The emergence of this culture was accompanied by a major push towards megafaunal hunting and was followed by complete extinction of the megafauna by 10.37 Ky in North America. The influence of the Clovis culture (either through diffusion of technology or the people) rapidly entered Central and South America, where its presence is marked by the emergence of the related Fishtail point that was similarly hafted on projectile javelins. Like their North American Clovis counterparts, the Fishtail hunters clearly targeted megafauna. Not unlike North America, the emergence of the Fishtail point marked the beginning of the end of the South American megafauna. Three items of note might be gleaned from what is currently known regarding the emergence of these cultures: 1) The emergence of the above hunting technologies are archaeologically correlated with a deliberate targeting of large animals by the Paleoamericans in both the northern and southern continents. 2) The Clovis points are typically earlier than their southern Fishtail counterparts. 3) The megafaunal extinction occurs first in the northern and then in the southern continent, but in both cases is preceded by the emergence of the distinctive hafted missile. Thus, irrespective of whether it is considered a Blitzkrieg or not, the emergence of a particular hunting technology and associated tactics, specifically targeting large animals, was a major factor in their extinction in a circumscribed temporal window. Some of these megafauna like the carnivorans and sloths were capable of defending themselves at close quarters – recently there was a report of how a hunter in Brazil was killed by an anteater using its claws – their extinct relatives, the large sloths could have similarly used their claws. However, the use of projectile javelins along with fire by specialist hunters could have over come these defenses. Finally, the rapid depletion of the megafauna might have had a feedback effect on the Paleoamericans with the unified Clovis/Fishtail system breaking up and giving way to a wide diversity of local cultures with not much gene flow between them.
The casualties of the First American invasion of the continents spanned a wide range of mammalian lineages. In the north there were: xenarthrans including several lineages of giant sloths, glyptodonts and armadillos; afrotherians including lineages of elephants (Cuvieronious, Mammut and Mammuthus), perissodactyls including horses and tapirs; Artiodactyls including camels, llamas, cattle, bisons, Ovibos, peccaries, several deer and peccaries; cats including Homotherium, Smilodon, American cheetah and American lion; dog-bears including dire wolves, the short faced bear, and varieties of spectacled bears; giant rodents including the capybaras – Neochoerus and Hydrochoerus. In the southern continent some of the above such as peccaries, certain llamas, the spectacled bear, tapirs, and one capybara survived the onslaught at least in certain localities; however 50-60 species were lost in South America as opposed to the estimated 30-40 in North American. Among these were a huge chunk of xenarthran diversity including several lineages of sloths, glyptodonts and armadillos; elephants like Stegomastodon and Cuvieronious; perissodactyls including horses; some llamas, the deer Morenelaphus and Antiger; similar carnivorans took a hit as the north, including the gigantic short-faced bear Arctotherium; some capybaras; the large New World monkey Protopithecus brasiliensis; most dramatically the South American native ungulates (SANU) represented by forms like Toxodon, Mixotoxodon, Xenorhinotherium, Macrauchenia, Hemiauchenia completely vanished without trace. While many of the extinct megafauna of South America descended from the northern animals, or have at least a few living representatives (the xenarthrans) the SANU have no identifiable relatives, living or extinct, elsewhere in the world. This was the cause of sadness – a veil over the knowledge of their true affinities – their anatomical uniqueness only making things worse.
South America was home to much strangeness over the Cenozoic: The aftermath of the tumultuous closure of the Mesozoic left the marsupials in possession of much of the continent. There they greatly diversified giving rise to several forms among which chiefly, the borhyaenoids occupied the carnivore guilds. These included the early tree-climbing carnivore Mayulestes from Bolivia and the related Allqokirus. They were followed by more advanced forms like the Brazilian Patene from the end of Palaeocene emerge and in the Eocene the borhyaenoid spawned several massive forms such as Callistoe, Arminiheringia and Proborhyaena which was larger than a grizzly bear. By the Miocene they diversified into a range of carnivore niches: otter-like Cladosictis, a marten-like Prothylacinus, a peculiar long-snouted ambush predator Lycopsis, mongoose-like hathlyacynids, leopard-like Borhyaena, saber-toothed Thylacosmilus resembling the saber-toothed cats and the probably bear-like Pharsophorus. The Pliocene however saw their ultimate decline and extinction. Interestingly, despite their diversity they were never solely in possession of the carnivore niche. They were accompanied by the theropods attempting a come back in the form of the phorusrhacid birds. The rest of the South American mammalian radiations were those of placentals. Of these the xenarthrans were an exclusively South American clade, which from early on (i.e. the glyptodonts) as though responding to the predation from the phorusrhacid birds developed armor and even spiked tail clubs, thus converging to strategies of the Mesozoic ankylosaurs against bipedal theropod predators (also mirrored by meiolanid turtles). Some placentals reached South America from the Old World, probably floating across the paleo-Atlantic from Africa. These included the two related clades the rodents and the primates. The rodents, while typically small animals on other continents, appear to have undergone a major ecological release in South America giving rise to gigantic forms like Josephoartigasia (~3 meters; 800 kg or more), Phoberomys (~3 meters; ~700 kg), Telicomys (~2.5 meters; 600 kg) and Chapalmatherium (1.7 m; 200 kg). They appear to have taken the place, in part, of the ungulate herbivores in several South American ecosystems. However, along side them were the SANU which were ecologically indistinguishable from the ungulates of the Old World and North American ecosystems.
Five major lineages of SANU have been recognized: Litopterna, Notoungulata, Astrapotheria, Xenungulata, and Pyrotheria.
Vidrum was nearing the road to his house. Instinctively, he felt his backpack and found it to be unzipped. Then to his utter disappointment he found that his box containing geometric instruments was missing. Anxious to get it back he started retracing his path to the school. He finally reached the road where his intuition told him that it might have fallen off. So he got off his bike, parked it, and started slowly walking along the footpath scanning the side of the street. Just as his hopes were fading he heard a girl call out to him in a vaguely familiar voice: “Are you looking for something?” He looked up and saw two charming girls riding their bikes towards him. One of them he recognized as the new girl in his class who had just joined the school. The other one was a bit shorter but resembled the first one in her features. Looking at them:he said: “Yes, I have lost my geometry box. It seems to have fallen out of my bag, may be somewhere on this road.” They gave him the box saying: “Here it is. We found it further up the street even as we were riding along.” Then the elder one said: “I am sorry I don’t know your name but I believe that you are in my class.” Vidrum knew her name as she was clearly well-endowed in her appearance and had also made herself rather prominent in class by being the only girl who would solve rather difficult problems in mathematics and physics, which even challenged most of the guys. Vidrum: “My name is Vidrum; indeed I am your classmate” and feeling a certain excitement in their presence tinged with coyness and relief over getting back his box did not know what more to say. The elder girl assuming that he might similarly not know her name introduced herself: “I am Lootika and this is my sister Vrishchika who is also in our school but two standards our junior.” Before Vidrum could respond they bade him good bye and darted away at top speed on their bikes down the road. Vidrum, still feeling the pleasantness, ambled back to where he parked his bike. To his stomach-churning horror it was missing. He realized just then that he had forgotten to lock it and someone had stolen it as he was looking for his box. The relief at getting back his box turned into even a far greater despair of losing his bike.
From then on with no bike to ride Vidrum had a long walk to and fro from school. It was a real drudgery – he arrived just in time for school and had to leave early to reach home in time – no longer could he enjoy the hangouts with his friends before and after school. Every now and then in the days following the theft of his bike, as Vidrum was on the long trek back home, he would see Lootika and Vrishchika whiz past him on the road, weaving their way through the traffic at top speed. He would wave out to them and Lootika would often wave back but the girls would never stop to talk to him let alone even acknowledge his presence beyond that split second. He remarked to himself: “These girls seem very prone to speeding; hopefully they don’t hurt themselves or someone.” One of those days as Vidrum walked back he saw that the girls had parked their bikes just beside an open plot of land not far from their school and had wandered into it. He saw that Vrishchika was collecting Datura pods while Lootika was collecting some small insects. He remarked to himself: “It appears that these girls are not exactly the innocent and studious type I thought them to be. They seem to be into drugs. Why else would she be putting those weed pods into her backpack.” Then feeling a sense of duty Vidrum called out to them and said: “Hey that plant is poisonous don’t try it out.” Vrishchika shot back: “Of course I know that; that is why I am collecting it.” Vidrum persisted saying: “You could harm yourself by eating those.”
Vrishchika: “Why do you think we don’t know about this? We know exactly what we are doing. Do you know anything about tropanes?”
Vidrum thought to himself: “This girl is in the class where they have chemistry as a subject for the first time. You are introduced to elements for the first time and she is already talking about substances that I have never heard of. She seems much like her sister. May be I should just let them be.”
Shutting the pillbox with the insects in Lootika came back to her bike with Vrishchika following her. Lootika looked at Vidrum and asked: “Why are you walking these days. Did you not have a bike?”
Vidrum: “To my great misfortune, that day when I was searching for my geometry box, which you recovered, I had forgotten to lock my bike and it was stolen by the time I returned to it.”
Lootika: “That is very sad indeed! Did you register a case with the cops?”
Vidrum: “My father took me to the cops but they laughed at us and said everyday cycles are stolen by the dozen and they had bigger crimes to deal with.”
Lootika: “That is indeed very apathetic. We sincerely hope you find your bike.”
Vidrum: “Why are you picking the Datura pods and those insects?”
Lootika: “We wish to do some analysis of the tropane diversity in Indian Daturas. We believe there might be some interesting things going on there. As for the insects they are staphylinid beetles. I am trying to find which of them have interesting symbiotic bacteria. On some evenings and weekends I work along with some researchers at the university to extract these bacteria and try identify any interesting compounds they might produce. Later in the year I hope to extract DNA from them and identify proteins that might be of interest or involved in the synthesis of the interesting compounds.”
That was a lot for Vidrum. He did not exactly understand the meaning of what Lootika had just told him. But some of the key words reminded him of his friend Somakhya. He said: “Do you know our classmate Somakhya?”
Lootika: “Not really, but I believe he was the guy who was showing those interesting protozoa in the biology lab last week?”
Vidrum: “I was really not paying attention to what he was showing but he does a lot of such things and has a little lab in his house. He says things that sound like what you just said, though I must confess I did not fully understand what you are trying to do. You must talk to him.”
Lootika: “Very well, may be you should introduce him to me.”
Before Vidrum could say anything the sisters bade him good bye got on their bikes and sped away.
◊◊◊◊
The next day at school Vidrum found himself alone with Somakhya for a moment. Vidrum: “Somakhya, you must talk to that new girl Lootika”
Somakhya: “Why would you want me to do that?”
Somakhya: “I am sure you would like her and it would bring you some relief from the boredom you experience with us.”
Somakhya: “Her eagerness in class suggests that she is one who perhaps want to show off how much she knows. She might indeed be smart and given that she is pretty too, I suspect she might be quite the type who never gets of her high-horse. Why would you want me to fall into that Lootika’s jāla?”
Vidrum: “Yes, it does seem like she might not be get along well with many, but I feel she is a nice girl. Listen to me, I have this intuition that you will really have a great conversation with her. She is all into insects, DNA, proteins and all that stuff you like.”
Somakhya: “I am not sure about your intuition but what you say about her is very interesting… If true may be I should talk to her after all when the chance presents itself.”
Vidrum noticing that Somakhya was not exactly rushing for an introduction, he thought it better to let the matter remain at that.
It was a weekend within a fortnight of that conversation. Somakhya headed out from his home on his bike towards pair of basaltic hills that lay several kilometers away from his house. Normally Vidrum would have accompanied him on such journeys. Since, Vidrum’ s bike was stolen, Somakhya had to head out alone. Some distance into the lonely ride Somakhya’s mind was filled with frustration. He thought to himself: “If only those rocks were not drab black basalts but Mesozoic sedimentary outcrops how much more interesting life would have been.” Just then his eyes caught sight of a large ball-bearing on the side of the street. He stopped his bike and pocketed it with much joy. That sort of lifted up his mood. Just then he arrived at a desolate spot where an ancient icon of Padmāvatī, damaged by the Mohammedans, was housed in a little shrine. He thought it was an opportune moment to propitiate Padmāvatī as had been ordained by the vipra Gobhila in the days of yore. Having mentally uttered a stuti to the snake-decked Padmāvatī, he decided to do a pradakṣiṇa of the shrine. While doing so, and was about to turn a corner he was startled by someone jumping at him with a with a cloth as though to cover his face. He reacted instinctively putting his leg forward in a defensive pose to trip the accoster and with his right hand drew out his knife half way. Just then, to his horror he realized that his “assailant” was none other than his new classmate Lootika. Utterly, embarrassed he helped her regain herself and introducing himself as her classmate worriedly asked if he had hurt her. Nervously giggling, Lootika, adjusted her uttara-vastra, which she had used to startle Somakhya, and brushed aside his concerns: “Since you were not quick enough to knife me I believe I am fine. I was amused by the strange coincidence of meeting you here and thought I should give you a bit of surprise…”
Somakhya: “What brings you here of all places?”
Lootika: “This patch of fallow land around the shrine has multiple interesting species of staphylinid beetles…”
Somakhya: “Ah staphylinids; so you interest yourself in beetles.”
Lootika: “The crazed old German, Nietzsche, had remarked – I followed after the living thing, I went upon the broadest and narrowest paths that I might know its nature. So too all branches of the tree of life interest me.”
Somakhya: “Wonderful; could you show me your catch of staphylinids?”
Lootika taking out her pillboxes showed them remarking: “Look at this one with a green iridescence and this one with blue-purple iridescence – these are beauties you only find in this patch of vegetation near the temple!”
Somakhya looking at them closely: “Wonder if they have toxins of note”.
Lootika: “It is interesting you say so; that is what I am seeking to find out more about. More precisely, if they have any symbiotic bacteria what might be the genetic determinants they carry for producing such toxins.”
Somakhya with a pleased chuckle said: “Good to know you are getting right to the bottom of it. What kinds of toxins are you expecting?”
Lootika: “Both low molecular weight ones and perhaps toxic proteins made by the bacterial symbionts.”
Somakhya: “That is good thinking. How do you intend to detect them?” In response Lootika gave an account of her work at the university and her clever plan to clone the genes and identify determinants using assay systems that two graduate students at the university were developing for the toxins.
Somakhya: “Your expression strategy with different bacterial vectors spread across the bacterial tree based on rRNA analysis of the symbiont bacteria is interesting. However, I think I have a way of cleanly getting to many if not all of them even more quickly using a computational approach. So before you do any cloning just sequence the genomes of the bacteria and get them to me. Then I can do some sequence analysis to get to the candidates.”
Lootika was excited to hear of Somakhya’s plan wanted to know more of it, but she paused for moment and looked at the object in Somakhya’s hand – while conversing with her he had been rolling the ball-bearing he had found between his fingers. Lootika’s eyes widened and she asked if she could hold the ball-bearing. She admiringly rolled it around on her palm and somewhat coyly said: “Somakhya this is a nice ball-bearing; could I take the liberty of asking you if you might be willing to give it to me?” Somakhya: “So you too like ball-bearings?”
Lootika: “I have a collection of them ranging from those extracted from fine-tip pens to a fairly large one from a truck. I can bring them to school next week and show you when nobody is looking.”
Somakhya smiling said: “It is nice to hear that someone else shares this fascination for ball-bearings.”
Lootika suddenly realizing the brazenness of her request said: “I am really sorry. I thought you guys used these for playing marbles. That is why I so carelessly asked you for it.”
Somakhya: “In the rare joy of meeting a fellow enthusiast I will let you keep it, though I would certainly like to see your collection.” Lootika’s face lit up as she put into a box in her backpack and she said: “Sure; I’ll see if I can trade something for this one from my collection. By the way, it seems it might have an familial pattern in my case because my youngest sister Jhilleeka has the same love for them and competitively keeps her own collection. Now coming back to the bacteria genomes could you please tell me more of your plans of analyzing them.”
Somakhya: “Sure we can talk about them; but why don’t you come along with me to where I was headed and I will show you some staphylinids which have established a cohabitation relationship with ants. I suggest you add them to your survey for there is lot of interesting biology there!”
Lootika: “Old Darwin had said – Whenever I hear of the capture of rare beetles, I feel like an old warhorse at the sound of a trumpet – I feel the same hearing your words.”
Somakhya: “Then hop on to your horse and let’s be going.”
◊◊◊◊
While on the way to the hills Somakhya and Lootika had been excitedly talking, on their way back that evening both went silent. Each was absorbed in their own thoughts about the delightful time they had spent at the hills – each was thinking about the Formica ants and the staphylinid beetle that was making them its hosts – each wondering about the experiments they wished to do. As they neared Lootika’s house, she remarked: “Somakhya – I had never given much thought to these drabber staphylinids. I believe one could spend a lifetime studying them.” Somakhya: “Certainly you can. But there are many other interesting problems; so we should get to the bottom of the things we find most interesting and then move on to other organisms. May be some day we will find students who can make this their life’s pursuit.” Just then they reached the road on which Vidrum’s house was situated. Somakhya: “Lootika, I am thinking of giving our classmate Vidrum a shout. If you don’t wish to stop to see him you may go ahead to your house.” Lootika: “I don’t mind hanging along for a brief while.”
Vidrum on being called ran down to the corner of the street to meet Somakhya. He was surprised to see Lootika with him.
Vidrum: “That is a surprise. Didn’t expect to see you both. So what were you guys up to?”
Somakhya: “Had an interesting day studying insects in the woods between the two hills.”
Vidrum: “Did I not tell you all that you two will find much of common interest.” Somakhya and Lootika merely smiled.
Somakhya: “It is really sorry to see you in the ranks of the aratha-s.”
Vidrum wistfully said: “I wonder when I will own a bike again. Luckily, there was a match on TV to occupy me for the day.”
Lootika: “The crazed old German Nietzsche had said – Alles geht, Alles kommt zurück; ewig rollt das Rad des Seins. [Everything goes, everything comes back; eternally rolls the wheel of being.] Likewise, may be the day will come when you will get your Rad back.”
Vidrum: “I suppose das Rad also means a bike in German?”
Somakhya: “Indeed, it is a cognate of ratha, which similarly underwent an earlier semantic shift in the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European to mean a wheeled vehicle. I believe that it was my use of aratha that triggered the response from Lootika.”
Vidrum: “May be she is just reading too much of that crazed old German guy she mentioned.”
Lootika coyly smiled but did not say anything. Then they bade Vidrum good bye and went their way to their respective houses.
◊◊◊◊
Lootika joined her sisters and showed them her beetles and placed the box with the ball-bearing she had been gifted by Somakhya on table beside which her sister Varoli was doing her first experiments. Later that night Lootika and her sister Vrishchika spread out their mats to sleep. Lying on their mats the two always talked a bit before falling asleep. Lootika told Vrishchika of the rove beetles and ants. Vrishchika in turn asked Lootika to clarify to her the mechanism of action of different acetylcholine receptors which she had just read about. Thus, conversing they lapsed into the realm of Hypnos.
In her hypnagogic state Lootika saw a woman dressed in vestures from a bygone era. As her image became clearer it struck Lootika that she would probably look exactly like that woman when she grew up. Seamlessly, Lootika’s own sense of identity merged in to that woman. She knew her actual name was Devasomā. She was in the kitchen compartment of her makeshift dwelling finishing up the cooking and packing the food into containers for the next day’s journey. Once she was done with that she laid herself beside her husband Skandaśakti Somayājin who had already fallen asleep. The next day they were to move from Kapiṣṭhala to Sthaniśvarara, where once the ancient river Sarasvati had flowed. As Devasomā waited for sleep to overtake her, she saw a spider by the moon’s light which was streaming in. The concentric circles with the radial threads of the web it put forth reminded Devasomā of the words of the śruti: the substratum of existence was the lūtikā from which the universe was emitted and expanded forth like the concentric circles of the web the arachnid puts forth. Finally once’s its job is done it is reabsorbed by the lūtikā. The orb of the web in its full glory, glimmering in the moonlight, reminded Devasomā of the wheel on which the brahman stands while singing the song of the victorious horses of the ārya-s even as the adhvaryu turns it thrice in the great Vājapeya ritual. As she fell asleep she remarked to herself indeed this is the wheel of the cakravartin, which is verily as ephemeral as the lūtikā’s web.
A couple of days later they arrived at Sthaniśvarara and Skandaśakti Somayājin performed a ritual at the tīrtha of the god Kumāra, which in the long past days lay on the banks of the Sarasvati, as narrated by the Bhārgava Mārkaṇḍeya. After that he and Devasomā set up their makeshift dwelling at a convenient spot near the tīrtha. Over the day Skandaśakti was busy with visitors from Kāngrā with whom he was discussing his commentary on the rasavaiśeṣika-sūtra-s of Bhadanta Nāgārjuna and with another local visitor his new work on the dhūmaketu-s. Later that evening he was visited by the vaṇij Kuberadatta and after he left, Skandaśakti went back inside his house for dinner.
Devasomā: “ārya, you seemed rather agitated at dinner. Is anything amiss?”
Skandaśakti: “Our journey ends here. We must head to Kāshi to see our sons and then back to Dakṣiṇāpatha.”
Devasomā: “What? How could we end our journey without reaching the holy Kaumārakṣetra of Lambakapura and glorious Oḍḍiyāna high in Uttarāpatha?”
Skandaśakti: “priye, the horrors of the downward turn of the kali are upon us. The well-spring of the tantra-s has been defiled. The head of Bhārata has been pierced and the wheel of the cakravartin has been stolen!”
Devasomā: “That sounds awful! could you please tell me more?”
Skandaśakti: “I wonder if you really want to hear more – it is a tale of great horror and savagery, which is probably just the beginning for the kali age is supposed to be long and dark.”
Devasomā: “I would certainly wish to know since it sounds like the vartana of the yugacakra is under way.”
◊◊◊◊
Thus was Skandaśakti’s narrative of the events he had heard from the vaṇij Kuberadatta to Devasomā: We were to join the caravan of the wealthy Kuberadatta to journey across the Pañcanada to first reach Lavapura and then advance to Puṣpapura and from there to Lambakapura. There we were to join the caravan of Kuberadatta’s friend Vasumān to advance to Oḍḍiyāna but all this was not to be as he received terrible news.
Vasumān was headed with his usual caravan towards Bāhlika when his agent brought him the news that it was better if he called off the journey to city and instead went to the fortified city of Aśmakūla. He had obtained intelligence that a tribe of dreadful barbarians known as the followers of Mahāmada who were no different from rākṣasa-s had taken the city, slain most of its inhabitants and destroyed all its shrines. Vasumān was shocked to hear the news. He had issued several credit cards to the sthavira-s of Navavihāra at Bāhlika. He knew that all that money was gone. He had also already committed to the journey at the receipt of a monetary assurance with goods to be sold to the Iranian merchants of Bāhlika. He knew that it would all be lost. At that moment he quickly decided that the best course for him was to go to Aśmakūla. He reasoned that Aśmakūla was heavily fortified and given that the Khan Suluk had issued him a trading permit to set shop in its market place, it would be his best option to sell off the goods to possibly recover his costs. He also thought that he could sell off the precious stones he was carrying for Navavihāra to the Iranic chief Kārzāng who governed the city, given that he had previously been fair in his dealings.
That evening as they were about to pitch their camps they saw a band of about 50 armed men on horseback approach his caravan. He ordered his personal army to move into a defensive position and prepare to fire arrows at the signal. But the approaching horsemen halted at some distance and put up white flags. One of them rode forth then to meet with Vasumān. He showed a letter and seal of Turk Buri-Tegin, the governor of Bhagāgāra, whom Vasumān had known well as one his customers. He had also helped Vasumān with the renovation of the Rudra temple at Surkh Kotal complex, which had been built by the emperor Kaniṣka. The letter stated that there was great danger in the environs due to the irruption of the men of Mahāmada; hence, Buri-Tegin decided to send a force to ensure that all merchant caravans passing through his regions would be safe-guarded. Convinced by the seal of Buri-Tegin, and realizing that his personal army might not be enough to defend himself against the enemies who were said to be rākṣasa-s not men, Vasumān accepted the offer of the horsemen to join his ranks. However, as a precaution he had them ride in front of him rather than behind him. Thus, he reached Aśmakūla and his retinue as was let in by Kārzāng’s guards once he produced the necessary documents. However, they objected to the other horsemen entering for they were not part of the documentation of Vasumān. They were quick to produce documents certified by Buri-Tegin and they too were let in as Buri-Tegin was recognized as major protege of Khan Suluk. Vasumān quickly headed to his favorite guesthouse and sent for his Turkic paramour to visit him right away.
It was a bright spring day, when the vaṭakinī mahotsava was being celebrated. Several families from the town were arriving early in the morning at a shrine, which contained a gigantic image of the terrible ape Hanūmat. Even as Somakhya arrived with his family he saw his classmate Lootika, with whom he had recently made acquaintance at the Padmāvatī-caitya, arriving arriving at the shrine with her family. The two of them high-fived on meeting each other but conscious of their families watching kept to their own respective groups. Soon they all assembled at the enclosure before the idol and the arcaka performed the ritual of abhiṣeka with milk, honey and various other substances before the final lustration with water. Then each family had to wait for their turn for their personalized session where the image of the great simian was garlanded with their personal offerings. Some offered a garland of vaṭaka-s with a central hole, yet others were offering garlands of jahāngiri-s and still others garlands of laḍḍuka-s made of a legume’s paste. It was a wait of several hours before that would be done. In the meantime some families participated in listening to a narration of the sundarakāṇḍa, others took part in a saṃskṛta-saṃbhāṣaṇa-śibiram, and yet others in cooking food to offer to poverty-stricken people. The youngsters were playing various games. However, Somakhya did not feel like joining them. Instead sat for a while with his parents hearing the sundarakāṇḍa but he was not too inspired by the lack of the vīra-rasa and the melodramatic bhakti of the bhāgavata. Hence, he got up and wandered away to see what his friends were up to. Vidrum who was playing marbles with some others called out to him to join them but that day his mind was not in the game, and he wandered away after watching for a minute or two. Then he saw some other acquaintances playing a kandūka-krīḍā but he was again disinclined to join them. As he wandered towards the river adjacent to the shrine he saw Lootika’s sisters and other girls playing a childish game with much enthusiasm. Finally, he wandered past two vīrakal-s of dead heroes and reached an enormous aśvattha at the edge of the shrine’s campus. Beneath it were several Nāgas and on the rim of the circular platform around it he saw Lootika seated. Noting her to be engrossed in a book he let her be and proceeded to the wall near the river from where he saw several dinosaurs cackling and screaming in or by the water. Then he saw a vāhana of the great god Kumāra jump off a tree and course into the sky the in full glory. This brought to his mind a mantra from the Ṣaṇmukha-kalpa – he felt it was some kind of signal and started walking back. As he passed the sprawling aśvattha Lootika called out to him.
Seated beside her under the great tree he asked: “Not engaging something more physical like your sisters? What are you reading?”
Lootika: “Actually my limbs are still aching from five hour climb up Candragupta Maurya’s western precipice yesterday. Hence, I thought I would finish off reading the fourth of the śūlapuruṣa-s.”
S: Which śūlapuruṣa? I remember you mentioning Herr Nietzsche before…”
L: “Well, I have covered Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Spengler. Though we routinely study Karl Gauss as part of our education in mathematics and science, I am only now taking in his biography – he is the fourth of the śūlapuruṣa-s”.
S: “Reading biographies of scientists serves more than one useful purpose. First, it lets us gain an estimate of where exactly we stand with respect to their deeds. In this regard Gauss is an unscalable peak in the realm of science and mathematics; perhaps in times closer to our own only Śrīnivāsa Rāmānuja could have come close. May be a thousand Newtons.”
L: “Indeed. Reading and thinking about these mleccha-s, the four śūlapuruṣa-s in particular, has brought forth many disparate questions some potentially deep and others shallow. Among others, the parallels and contrasts between the scientist and the philosopher among the mleccha-s as well as our own midst strikes me. I wanted to talk to you about these things.”
S: “Pray proceed.”
L: “What do you think of Gauss’s aphorism in Latin – ‘pauca sed matura (Few but ripe)’ . Is this the correct approach to science?”
S: “Today we are often confronted with ‘pūrṇa-kara iva khara-viṣṭāḥ |’ in science. In this atmosphere, this is indeed a sound approach, especially for those who do science for merely for the sake of fluffing up their publication count – saying little new but appearing in possession of a big CV. On the other hand it is misused by the cartel which runs the magazines to slow down and prevent publication of what is really good science. Looking at what a man does often reveals more than his motto. After all, in real life Gauss himself provided the counter-example. He published two immensely dense books and papers amounting to at least 12 sizable volumes. So his motto was certainly no obstacle to his productivity; hence, if we have a lot to say there is no harm putting down a lot on paper. Moreover, given that today science is done by the mleccha-rIti, we should be ready to move fast to strike before our bhrātṛvyas.”
L: “One thing which caught my attention is in regard to the little that we know of the peculiar philosophical positions of Gauss. Among these was his alteration of a statement of Plato recorded by Plutarch ‘ἀεὶ ὁ θεὸς γεωμετρεῖ (the god always always geometrizes)’ to ‘ἀεὶ ὁ θεὸς ἀριθμετἰζεῖ (the god always arithmeticizes)’. In our days, with computers being an inseparable part of our lives, one might be inclined to say: ‘saṃkhyānti nityaṃ devāḥ | (the gods always compute)’. It appears that Gauss privileging arithmetic over geometry might be a step in the direction of eventually seeing the ultimate action of the gods as being one of computation. Perhaps, it was reflection of his own capacity for enormous calculations and algorithmic thinking as seen in his algorithm for π. It also seems to me that our people arrived at something closer this position than that of our yavana cultural cousins. After all, though we display geometry of some sophistication and intricacy in our śrauta rituals, we arrive at it not so much by geometrizing but via an algorithmic back-end intensive on computation. What can be more distinctive than the way the yavana arrives at Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. and the way we do so in the altars of the soma rituals via a computation with the ‘scaffolding hidden away after the edifice is constructed’ as Gauss would say.”
S: “Gauss’s favoring of ‘arithmetic’ at first sight does appears like a step in the direction of: ‘nityaṃ hi devāḥ saṃkhyānti na kṣetraṃ pragaṇayantīti |’. But it appears that our position was much more of the pure form of it than that of Gauss. For us it would seem that all emerges via an algorithmic process; mathematics itself is subservient to and a limb of the algorithmic process, even as the śrauta ritual and bhāṣā were produced via computational processes. However, what we see on part of Gauss is a much greater status accorded to arithmetized mathematics. After all he remarked to Bessel, another man close the pinnacle of scientific capacity: ‘all the measurements in the world do not balance one theorem by which the science of eternal truths is actually advanced.’ Thus, Gauss places the measurements, which form the basis of science as we know, below the ‘science of eternal truths’, which is mathematics. Here perhaps he is closer to the Platonists than to us.”
L: “Somakhya, we can clearly apprehend certain things to be computational processes. The development of a multicellular organism can be seen as computation performed by transcription factors on DNA sequence. We can also see the maintenance of particular gene expression states as computation performed by enzymes writing and erasing modifications on histone tails or DNA in chromatin coupled with reader proteins that recognize them. One can also imagine other forms of computations taking place more generally in the whole universe: after all if space and time are quantized then reality is amenable to being conceived as a series computations performed on these discrete units. Then the question would emerge if there is a need at all for the θεὸς in all this.”
S: “If indeed the whole universe were a computer, as it seems likely to people like us, then we may say that the fundamental aspect of it is information which impinges on and underlies existence. This information is what one might be inclined to assign to the realm of the θεὸς. In our old sāṃkhya thought this underlying information is an essential foundation of the universe in the form of the guṇa known as sattva; of the two other guṇa-s, energy maps to rajas and mass to tamas. The deva-s were seen as manifestations of that underlying information the sattva: thus one may see them as the limbs of the code that operates the universe-computer. In this conception one might say we are the ones closer to the Platonists. But there is no place for the θεὸς outside of the universe-computer, as Gauss, due the vāsana-s of the preta-delusion might have imagined.”
L: “Hence, it would seem to me that when those entities of the underlying universe-code impinge on the physical world we see them as manifestations of the deva-s as praised in the veda; when they impinge on our phenomenal world we see them as the devatā of the mantra or the mantra itself. The latter aspect appears to play a larger role in the tantra-s.”
S: “Lootika, we may with some caution accept that to be the siddhānta.”
L: “Gauss seems to accept something like a śuddha-bhuvanādhvan (pure worlds) beyond this physical world where the one might rest after cessation in the physical world. But his certainty in this regard despite admitting the absence of a ‘rigorous scientific basis’ in notable. Let me read out his words to you: ‘In this world there is a pleasure of the intellect, which is satisfied in science, and a pleasure of the heart, which consists principally of the fact that human beings mutually ease the troubles and burdens of life. But if it is the job of the highest being to shape creatures on special spheres and to let them exist 80 or 90 years in order to prepare such a pleasure for them, then that would be a miserable plan. Whether the soul lives 80 years or 80 million years, if it perishes once, then this space of time is only a reprieve. One is therefore forced to the view, for which there is so much evidence even though without rigorous scientific basis, that besides this material world another, second, purely spiritual world order exists, with just as many diversities as that in which we live – we are to participate in it.’
Now let me read out what he writes in a letter to his friend Bolyai: ‘It is true, my life is adorned with much that the world considers worthy of envy. But believe me, dear Bolyai, the austere sides of life, at least of mine, which move through it like a red thread, and which one faces more and more defenselessly in old age, are not balanced to the hundredth part by the pleasurable. I will gladly admit that the same fates which have been so hard for me to bear, and still are, would have been much easier for many another person, but the mental constitution belongs to our ego, which the creator of our existence has given us, and we can change little in it. On the other hand I find that this consciousness of the nothingness of life, which in any case the greater part of humanity must express on approaching the goal, offers me the strongest security for the following of a more beautiful metamorphosis.’
We have learned emphatically in the past 25 years that morphology is not the best guide for phylogeny. Yet we currently have no options when it comes to long dead forms from the Mesozoic. In the least, we can comfort ourselves that at least broad lines of phylogeny can be still reliably established using morphology though highly derived forms will continue to defeat us. Thus, we can be fairly sure of the broad lines of archosaur phylogeny. The archosaurs are divided into two great lines, the Pan-Crocodylia, represented today by the crocodiles and the Pan-Aves represented, today by the birds. Pan-Aves appears first in the fossil record in the form footprints from the Early Triassic of Poland, a primitive quadrupedal form from around 249 Mya and a fully bipedal form from around 246 Mya. Both these sets of footprints have been attributed to dinosauromorpha suggesting within 3-6 million years of the catastrophic Permian-Triassic transition the Pan-Aves had already split into their two great clades, Pterosauromorpha represented by Scleromochlus and the pterosaurs on one side and Dinosauromorpha on the other. The Dinosauromorpha rapidly radiated first spawning the basal lineages like the Lagerptonids (Lagerpeton and Dromomeron) and a succession of clades closer to the crown dinosaurs, like Marasuchus, Saltopus and the widely distributed sillesaurids. While what appear to be the basal-most sillesaurids, like Lewisuchus are carnivorous, the crown sillesaurids are clearly herbivorous. The dinosaurs themselves can be divided unequivocally into two major lineages, the ornithischians and the saurischians. The saurischians in turn can be unambiguously divided into theropods and sauropodomorphs.
In this broad phylogenetic framework, which is likely to be correct, we can confidently state that the ancestral dinosauromorph was a carnivorous animal similar to the ancestral archosauriform that spawned the great radiation of archosauriformes almost immediately after the catastrophic Permian-Triassic extinction event. However, in the dinosauromorph lineage there were several independent acquisitions of the herbivory. As noted above the sillesaurids probably mark the the first such transition known to us and had already taken place before 242 Mya as indicated by Asilisaurus from the Manda beds of Tanzania. With the origin of dinosaurs there were more such transitions. Whereas the earliest sauropodomorphs like Eoraptor and Pangphagia were probably omnivores in the least, the complete transition to herbivory happened rapidly within sauropodmorpha. In the case of the ornithischians, we do not know of mode of nutrition of the basal-most form Pisanosaurus, but the heterodontosaurids had already transitioned at least partially to herbivory.
For long, the understanding had been that the transition to herbivory in theropods happened only within ornithomimosaurs, birds and perhaps oviraptorosaurs. There was one more enigmatic clade of theropods, the therizinosaurs, that looked like possible herbivores – they were so aberrant that early workers saw them as a distinct clade of dinosaurs or even a transitional group between basal sauropods and ornithischians in a clade termed phytodinosauria or a monophyletic group of herbivorous dinosaurs. However, more recent studies have firmly placed them inside coelurosauria, along with the other herbivore-containing clades like birds, ornithomimosaurs, and oviraptorosaurs. A recent analysis by Zanno and Makovicky confirmed the pervasive herbivory in these clades and also suggested that the troodontid Jinfengopteryx might be a herbivore. Based on their results, they suggested that the crown-ward coelurosaurians, after the separation of the tyrannosaurs and compsognathids were predominantly herbivorous with hyper-carnivory only secondarily evolving in the deinonychosaurs. While, the secondary evolution of hyper-carnivory of the deinonychosaurs may be questioned, it is clear that the crown-ward coelurosauria had a propensity for repeatedly evolving herbivory.
In contrast, the more basal theropods were, to date, considered to be largely hyper-carnivorous with very rare emergence of herbivory as seen in the case of the ceratosaur Limusaurus (and likely the related Elaphrosaurus). But a new twist to the story has emerged with the publication of a preliminary description of Chilesaurus from the Upper Jurassic Toqui Formation, Chile, of the Tithonian age. It occurs in a late Jurassic fauna along side basal crocodiles and sauropods of the diplodocid and titanosaurian clades as indicated by fragmentary remains. This is one of the most remarkable dinosaurs I have ever come across and displays a striking chimera of features described by Novas et al:
● A short deep premaxilla with a rugosity indicative of a covering by a keratinous beak. Over the upper jaw is vaguely reminiscent of an ornithischian rather than a theropod.
● A short deep dentary, with a down-turned symphyseal region, which is typical of herbivorous saurischians.
● The teeth are rod-like and blunt, typical of herbivores, and reminiscent of sauropodomorph teeth.
● The limb bones are stout, as in sauropodomorphs.
● The hands are like theropods with digits I and II being fully functional with terminal unguals. However, digit III is degenerate with only a slender metatarsal and a single minute phalanx. Thus, Chilesaurus appears to have been convergently two-fingered like Tyrannosaurus and its close relatives.
● The pubis is fully retroverted like in ornithischians, therizinosaurs and dromeosaurs.
● The trunk is long and reminiscent in a general way of the ceratosaurs Elaphrosaurus or Limusaurus.
● The tarsus resembles basal saurischians.
● The foot approaches the tetradactyl condition of early sauropodomorphs, ornithischians and derived therizinosaurs.
● The cervical and anterior dorsal vertebrae have pneumatic fossae suggesting that these vertebra were associated with diverticula of the cervical airsacs and the lungs, suggesting an airsac layout typical of saurischians.
Novas et al performed several phylogenetic analysis with different data matrices and all of them indicated that this bizarre dinosaur was nested inside Theropoda as basal tetanuran. This suggests that right at the base of a clade considered to be primitively hyper-carnivorous we have a herbivorous form. The unusual morphology of Chilesaurus raises the question if this phylogenetic position might be right. Indeed, if it were not for an articulated skeleton the individual elements would have looked like coming from distantly related dinosaurs. The recovery of a similar position with different datasets generally suggests that the theropod position is likely, though within Neotheropoda there could still be room for some doubt. Interestingly, it appears to be convergent with respect to the therizinosaurs and a genuine close relationship to them appears to be very unlikely. Importantly, it brings back focus on the fragmentary Chinese form, Eshanosaurus, which the authors do not address. Eshanosaurus was reported to be an early Jurassic therizinosaur. While this affinity has been questioned, even the conservative and regressive English paleontologist, Barrett, who performed a very thorough analysis of Eshanosaurus concluded that it might be a therizinosaur after all. Now with the discovery of forms like Chilesaurus with features generally reminiscent of therizinosaurs we know with certainty that there was an early clade of potential basal tetanurans that possessed therizinosaur-like features. Could Eshanosaurus be a member of this clade or yet another theropod converging on to such an anatomy? It does look rather plausible.
In ecological terms, Chilesaurus comes from a time when dinosaur faunas are considered to be rather uniform throughout the world, with the small to medium sized herbivore guilds dominated by ornithischians. However, in the South American Toqui Formation we see Chilesaurus to be the dominant herbivore in the lower size range as indicated by its relative abundance in the fossil from this stratum. Thus, it brings home how little we really know of dinosaur evolution and biogeography. Importantly, it shows how much more frequent the switch to herbivory was in dinosauromorpha, including basal theropods.
It was a Saturday afternoon. The caturbhaginī-s had returned from their weekly visit to the museum library and were in a huddle at their home. Lootika was seated on the floor and was classifying and labeling the insect photos in her computer placed on the low desk in front of her. Little Jhilleeka lay on the floor with her head on Lootika’s lap facing Vrishchika, who was reading a fat volume from her grandfather’s time. Lootika occasionally caressingly tousled Jhilleeka’s locks but was otherwise busy with her work and was not paying attention to the rest. Jhilleeka asked Vrishchika: “That Mahābhārata looks like a rather prolix tome Vrishchika. It did not seem like such a giant story from what Lootika told me. What is it that makes the book so big?” For some reason this statement caught Lootika’s attention and she remarked, perhaps meaning it only for herself: “I am reminded of a statement of the crazed old German Nietzsche – ‘Something said briefly can be the fruit of much long thought: but the reader who is a novice in this field, and has as yet reflected on it not at all, sees in everything said briefly something embryonic, not without censuring the author for having served him up such immature and unripened fare.‘ Though very young, Jhilleeka, intelligent as her sisters, got the drift and remarked with a smile of mischief, as though to needle Lootika: “Sis, if that was supposed to be for me, I am not censuring the author of the text here, but the person who narrated it to me.” Lootika half smiled and tickled Jhilleeka as though to get back at her.
Vrishchika: “Jhilleeka, what you have heard from our agrajā is only the skeleton of our national epic; it is replete with many more stories and narrations that you are not yet aware of or might need to grow up a little more to grasp them. There are other parts there which would take all of us a long time to understand. Those would need a much more detailed study. Lootika, I am sure you have something from the unmatta śūlapuruṣa of old to say on such a study of a text.”
Lootika looked up something on her computer and read it out: “Here – ‘An aphorism, properly stamped and moulded, has not been ‘deciphered’ when it has simply been read; one has then rather to begin its exegesis, for which is required an art of exegesis. […] To be sure, to practise reading as an art in this fashion one thing above all is needed, precisely the thing which has nowadays been most thoroughly unlearned – and that is why it will be some time before my writings are ‘readable’ – a thing for which one must be almost a cow and in any event not a ‘modern man’: rumination…‘
Lootika then continued: “While the pramatta-śūlapuruṣa says this of his own writings, it does more generally apply to any literature ensuing from a serious author. Unfortunately, this is not a custom cultivated by many in the modern age. Dear Jhilleeka that is why you must be careful at school not to adopt such ill habits from your plebeian friends.”
Jhilleeka: “The Bhārata has been fascinating to me but I have not put in such cow-like introspection you talk about.”
Vrishchika: “You will have the chance for that as you grow older but you have to begin young like our agrajā showed the way.”
Jhilleeka: “For now could you please tell me some narrative I may not have heard of.”
Vrishchika: “Why not: here is one which would make you think. I am not endeavoring to reproduce the exact words of the great sage Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana but I will put it in my own words trying to keep fairly close to the original. When your competence in the daivi-vāk reaches a sufficient degree you may read it on your own, little one. The narration goes thus – After the great war, Dhṛtarāṣṭro Vaicitravīrya, who has been described as an evil king in the śruti, was distraught at the death of his century of sons. While attending to their final rites he repeatedly sought consolation from his half-brother the kṣattṛ Vidura. In one of his many consolatory statements Vidura told him the following: There was once a brāhmaṇa, who was lost in a great forest, difficult to traverse. [Such forests indeed used to characterize our country when our Ārya ancestors had first settled in it.] It abounded in voracious lions, tigers, and animals having a form like an elephant.
Lootika distracted by Vrishchika’s narrative interjected: “May be those elephant-like animals were the supposed relict populations of Stegodons that apparently persisted in Asia into the Holocene.”
Vrishchika continued: Perhaps! The said brāhmaṇa became exceedingly agitated and his hair stood on end. He panicked and wandered about hoping to find someone who might help him. To his horror he saw that the forest was surrounded by a net that blocked his escape and he also saw a large, frightful woman lying in wait with her arms stretched out, along with many broad-hooded cobras. Everywhere there were trees that seemed so tall that they were touching the sky. In their midst was a deep waterhole, which was obscured by a dense overgrowth of grass and entwined creepers. Not seeing it the brāhmaṇa fell headlong into the mouth of that waterhole. But he got enmeshed in the vines lining the wall of the waterhole and was suspended there even as the giant fruit of a jack-tree is attached to its trunk. Thus, he did not fall into the hole but remained stuck in an upside down position. Trapped thus, he saw a huge python eyeing him from the depths of the waterhole. At the rim of the waterhole he saw the giant-elephant-like animal gradually approach, which looked to him like the dreadful elephant of Kumāra with six heads. There were branches of trees that extended out into the waterhole. On those were many large beehives of diverse forms, buzzing with angry bees gathering honey.
Honey dripped in streams from those hives and the suspended brāhmaṇa sustained himself by licking that honey. However, in that distressed state he could not satiate himself satisfactorily with that honey and tried to lick more of it. Then he saw white and black rodents gnawing away the roots of the tree on which the hive was situated. Thus, he remained suspended from the wall of the waterhole fearing the snake beneath, the elephant-like animal above, the angry bees, and the fear of the tree coming crashing down upon its roots being cut away by the rodents. Even if he did make it out, he still had the snakes in the forest and the dreadful woman and the net to fear. Despite this he tried his best to enjoy as much sweetness of the honey as he could and continued to hope that he would live on.
That is it, Jhilleeka. It is a narrative with no ending but one that you should think about.”
Jhilleeka: “It is indeed a dark narrative. It seems frightening to think about. Could it mean that is how life is supposed to be?”
Lootika chimed in: “That is correct Jhilleeka. It is not impossible that such is the condition of any of our lives in the future. We may be of high brāhmaṇa birth but it does not take much to fail to adhere to the path ordained for those in the head of the puruṣa and fall headlong into ignominy, even as king Triśaṇku was hurled down by the deva-s. Then, even if one did adhere to the high path there is no guarantee that our individual biology will match up. We could thus fall prey to defective genetics or disease and be reduced to the state of the fallen brāhmaṇa in the narrative. Or ill-luck, which manifests as genetic drift in the evolution of organisms, could reduce one. That is why when population sizes are small the fittest may not make it and deleterious genetics persist in the population.”
Vrishchika: “Now this narrative from the great epic reminds one of the very life of Nietzsche. Indeed, our agrajā told me the said śūlapuruṣa as consequence of being unable to control his urges contracted a dreadful disease and continually suffered from it. Finally, he became mentally ill and thereafter lapsed into the condition of a human vegetable. Such indeed could be ones fate even upon the acquisition of discernment.”
Lootika: “Perhaps, when one is confronted with such misfortune, some people might acquire a meta-insight into the human condition as Nietzsche did in a brief flash before the disease took him out. Whereas others, like the fallen brāhmaṇa in the itihāsa, even in dire straits might merely try to get a transient pleasurable experience, like his attempt to lick some more honey, but they never get any satisfaction from this and it goes on till their end comes. From the viewpoint of the individual both fates might be the same, but because we are eu(?)social organism the former path is of great value for we might benefit our group thereby.”
Just then Varoli joined her sisters and showed Lootika and Vrischika a tube with a blue solution and said: “I believe that the basaltic eminence where we hang out occasionally has two types of nodules. This nodule seems to have copper in it.” Lootika: “That is good, kanīyasī. I am pleased that you did the whole qualitative analysis properly from merely our oral instructions. But don’t tell our parents about your success in detailed terms for I don’t want them to know that I let you use the concentrated nitric acid.”
Lootika realized that it was time for her to go to the university lab where she worked on weekends and some evenings to do her research on the catalytic activities of insect toxins and biosynthesis of certain secondary metabolites. She had a few overnight reactions to set up, so she got up and left saying: “Varoli, I will get you some more minerals to analyze later this evening.”
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On her way back from the lab, Lootika met Somakhya at the base of the hill of Vṛścikodarī and they ran up the hill. After a quick visit to the shrine they climbed further up until the reached a plateau with henge of stones from the megalithic period. There they wandered in silence on the plateau till the sun hit the horizon. Lootika occasionally picked up some stones and put them into her bag, while Somakhya was silent and deep in thought. But at one point he paused and kept staring at a rock. Lootika broke his reverie: “Somakhya, I see that you are looking at the lichen – anything of interest there?”
Somakhya: “I noted that a couple of minutes ago you were staring at this mass of Asteracean plants spreading before us.”
Lootika: “They were not here a month ago.”
Somakhya: “Yes, but I measured the lichen on this rock 3 years ago and in that time it has hardly added a centimeter to its diameter in that time. That aster and this lichens are close to the two poles of the spectrum of growth strategies.”
Lootika: “This suggests to me a possible fallacy in a statement of the pramatta-śūlapuruṣa that I read- ‘It can be shown most clearly for every living thing, that it does everything, not in order to preserve itself, but to become more.‘ He saw this formulation as a improvement of Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’…”
“In my generation, we lived under the impression that the term patriotism was poisoned during Nazi times. German history, unlike American or French history, did not allow the growing of patriotism in a natural way.” Richard von Weizsaecker brother of Carl von Weizsaecker.
“I commemorate the 60 million people who lost their lives because of this war unleashed by Germany… I bow before the victims.” Angela Merkel at Gdansk, Poland; formerly the German territory of Danzig.
“History is harsh. What’s done cannot be undone. With deep repentance in my heart, I stood there in silent prayers for some time. On behalf of Japan and the Japanese people, I offer with profound respect my eternal condolences to the souls of all American people that were lost during World War II…Our actions brought suffering to the peoples in Asian countries. We must not avert our eyes from that. I will uphold the views expressed by the previous prime ministers in this regard.” Shinzo Abe speaking to the congress, USA.
“The hard lessons of the World War II say that coexistence of humanity is not ruled by the law of the jungle. The politics of peace is the exact opposite of the aggressive hegemonic politics of force. The path of human development does not lay in the principle ‘the winner takes it all,’ not in zero-sum games,” Vladmir Putin the lord of all Rus. (Addendum: “There are no longer any international security guarantees at all and the party responsible for the destruction of global collective security is The United States of America.”)
“ ” Apology of the Americans to the Japanese for making them the first human victims of nuclear strikes. (Addendum: “We save innumerable human lives by swiftly ending the WW2 by nuking the Japanese.” – commonly heard from the mleccha-s of krauñcadvīpa)
“ ” Apology offered by British for their genocides of various peoples. (Addendum: “Today, with the balance and perspective offered by the passage of time and the benefit of hindsight, it is possible for an Indian Prime Minister to assert that India’s experience with Britain had its beneficial consequences too.” nīloṣnīṣa klība)
The above statements tell a tale that discerning men can immediately flesh out. However, as victors write history, we are fed a non-stop propaganda about the WW2, which the undiscerning swallow without reflection and eventually end up believing and propagating the same.
While the WW2 was primarily a war between mleccha-s, the Hindus were wittingly or unwittingly dragged into it (Those inspired by Subash Chandra Bose fought willingly to liberate their land from the mleccha-s or the wage Jihad on the Kaffirs. Others were dragged into it unwittingly, though some Hindu leaders like Savarkar felt it was good if the Hindus participated, even if on the side of their enemies, because it would give them battle experience for the impending conflicts with the mleccha-s and marūnmatta-s).
From a Hindu perspective, in some ways one can see in as a parallel to the great war at kurukṣetra in our national epic. At the heart of that war was a sibling rivalry between the kuru and the pāñcāla, the two mighty Indo-Aryan kingdoms of the day. Likewise in WW2 at its heart was the rivalry between the sibling Germanic peoples, the continental śūlapuruṣa-s and the island āngalika-s. At kurukṣetra, there were other rivalries running in parallel: e.g. between the kuru somadatta clan on one side and the yadu-s kṛṣṇa and sātyaki on the other; between two factions of yadu-s, namely those who sided with the kaurava-s and those who sided with the pāṇḍu-pāñcāla alliance; between the rākṣasa and the pāṇḍu-s. All of these got sucked into the core sibling conflict at the kuru field. Likewise, in WW2 there were other parallel conflicts: the German-Slav conflict along ethnic lines; The intra-Slav conflict between the Poles and the Rus; The deep civilizational conflict between modernized heathen Japan and the Christian world of the mleccha-s; Economic conflicts involving groups close to the deep-scaffold of the mleccha world, which cannot even be mentioned openly to this date.
Moreover, while many people may think this to be frivolous, we also hold that there are some parallels to the First War of Independence and WW2 (interestingly, 7/8th May is what the victors of WW2 celebrate as the end of the war in Europe while 10th May is the start of the FWI).
In both these wars the prime villain was the fiendish nation of the āngalika-s, which played its guileful game very well. In Europe they were alarmed by the rising might of their siblings on the continent. They knew well that if anyone could challenge their power it would be their cousins on the continent who possessed in ample measure the qualities, which had led to the success of the āngalika-s even as other European powers like Spain, Holland and Portugal waned despite their head-start. Hence, the śūlapuruṣa-s had to destroyed at all costs. In WW1 they had achieved this partially, but it was clear that it was just a matter of time before the śūlapuruṣa-s recovered. Hence, the āngalika-s and their allies tried to curb the śūlapuruṣa-s via economic warfare resulting in much damage to them. Importantly, they divided the old śūlapuruṣa nation by giving part of their territory to their hated bhrātṛvya-s, the Poles of śrava blood and severing off Austria and other bits, granting them to France, Czechs and Slovaks. Finally, they built up the over-confidence of the Poles to such an extent that they thought it would be possible to defeat the śūlapuruṣa-s all by themselves. The wild-card in all this was the Rus who were lead by the blood-thirsty Stalin who could nearly match the āngalika-s in his cunning. But the āngalika-s knew that if they played their game just right even Stalin and his vast Rus horde would be sucked into to a 0-sum game with the śūlapuruṣa-s. Finally, the āngalika-s knew that if things still went south, they could count on their brothers from krauñcadvīpa, with their akṣayapātra of resources to shore them up in that situation. It is amazing that even today these very same mleccha-s play the very same game and minnow nations unerringly fall prey to it to their own detriment: We saw just in the past decade how the mleccha-s incited the Georgians and Ukrainians in conflict with the Rus much as they built up Poland’s territorial ambitions with respect to the śūlapuruṣa-s. Even as this is being written we are watching the consequences for Ukrain are unfolding – which will probably end up seriously damaged or even destroyed at the end of it.
Going back to WW2, it is clear that the Rus were the biggest contributors to the victory of the victors and that came an enormous human cost to them. The Rus were considered by the western European powers as something of an outcast. First, they were inheritors of the old multi-ethnic heathen state of the Khaganate of the Rus, where Slavic, Germanic, Finnic and Altaic people lived together with the Rus Khagans being apparently of part Germanic ancestry. We have evidence from the discovery of a Viṣṇu idol by Alexander Kozhevin in the middle Volga region raising the possibility that there were even Hindus in this mix. But with conversion of the Rus queen Olga to Christianity things started going down hill, and despite the vigorous efforts of Khagan Sviatoslav to uphold the Slavic version of the Indo-European religion, Vladimir the confused eventually fell victim to infection by the pretamata. He and his clan destroyed the old Slavic temples and “with fire and sword” forcibly converted the people of the Rus to the pretamata. However, Vladimir went to the ‘other side’ of the deep schism within the pretamata by accepting the orthodox church.
“Since you are recording the diverse Vaidruma-s would you record the tombstone variation? While other matters like the sloths of South America, the megalithic culture of India, cave paintings, or even WW2 might be more interesting to the occasional reader who constitute the bulk of visitors, the Vaidruma-s have a peculiar value – the entertainment and the motifs – for few of us.”
The ponderous tale of the tombstones
When Lootika had joined the school several of her new classmates had showered enthusiastic attention on her and helped her fit into the alien environment. They soon suspected that she might probably know more about certain subjects than some of the teachers in the school. Hence, many of them stuck to her as she could effectively help them with their academic travails, though they found her evincing little interest in their discussions and activities. While most teachers developed a soft corner for Lootika out of silent respect for her abilities, two of them, namely the one who taught chemistry and the one who taught history developed a loathing for her. They sought to trap her in a situation such that they could inflict punishment on her. While Lootika deftly navigated these dangers, on one such occasion she nearly fell into the hands of the chemistry teacher due to the alleged theft of a bottle of copper sulfate crystals from the lab. While the teacher was preparing a severe penalty for Lootika, in the last minute, she was saved by a classmate Nikhila, who was greatly favored by the said teacher. As a consequence, Lootika and Nikhila became friends; the latter in return for Lootika’s help in the exams, introduced her to some crafts. Amongst other things, she showed Lootika how to make a lamp from the dehisced pod of the bastard poon tree and to carve figures out of chalk. One day Nikhila showed Lootika a necklace she had made from Cardiospermum, Canna and Adenanthera seeds. Lootika wondered if Nikhila might help her in making one for herself, but the latter did not know which plants bore those seeds as she had bought them from a roadside peddler. Lootika, told her that she knew those plants well and that they could go to collect their seeds if she wished.
Soon there after Nikhila had visited Lootika’s home to seek help with some thoroughly boring problems in Euclidean geometry. Lootika quickly decimated them and then suggested to her friend that they go out to collect seeds. Relieved from the incubus of the confusing problems, Nikhila decided to accompany her. Lootika’s peculiar pursuits, largely mystified Nikhila, as she had little understanding or interest in them. However, collecting seeds seemed innocuous enough, unlike other hard-to-fathom-things she had seen Lootika and her sisters do. They soon rode out until they reached a narrow unpaved, tree-lined path that branched off from the road near Vidrum’s house. As they took that path they seemed to move into another world – the bustle of the city was replaced by a sense of silence, though not a real one as the air was abuzz with the busy stridulations of insects seeking mates and birds going about their business. They finally reached a wall with a few trees and shrubs beside it. Lootika directed Nikhila to chain her bike to one of the trees, hidden from sight by the bushes. Then she pointed to the wall and told her companion that they needed to climb over to the other side.
Nikhila was horrified: “Lootika what do you mean! I believe this is the wall of the old cemetery. I am just too scared to do this – there could be bhūta-s, preta-s, and what not. Moreover, we are girls from proper families and it would be really wrong for us to go into such shady places. What would people say if they saw us there.”
Lootika smiled and said: “Don’t worry. I have worked this out well. This spot is rarely frequented by anyone, there are no guards for it is an abandoned cemetery, and this section is known to only few of us. We can get two of the types of our seeds inside there.”
Nikhila: “No, No! This does not look right. We should not go in just for the seeds. I am scared of bhūta-s.”
Lootika: “Nikhila, the living man is a much greater threat to life and limb than the dead one. But fortunately for us most living men are afraid of the dead ones making this place one of the safer hangouts for us. Yes, the danger from mysterious entities of the realm of the dead exists but even if the worst were to befall you from that quarter you can count on me to get you out.”
Saying so, Lootika jumped up to hold on to the top of the wall and heaved herself on to it. From atop she motioned to her companion to do the same. Nikhila had never done anything that came even close to this – not even climbing a wall, leave along that of a cemetery. But seeing Lootika in action, something clicked within her brain – a sudden urge to do something which was so utterly forbidden in her parlance arose within her and she followed suit. She struggled to get over the wall but eventually did so and climbed down on to the other side with some help from her friend. As Nikhila saw the gravestones her heart raced and she held Lootika’s hand in fear. Lootika explained to her: “The region was once the cemetery land of the liṅgavanta-s. After the English conquest of our land the tyrants took over the cemetery and usurped the still available land for use by them, the Anglo-Indians, and the śavārādhaka-s. Of course they were all segregated as they did not want the dark-skinned native śavārādhaka-s to share a resting place next to that of a proper Englishman. These parts were abandoned after 1947 CE and over time they fell in the sights of the real estate agents who sought to take the land to build houses. These parts originally stretched from over here all the way to our classmate Vidrum’s house; in fact his house is built on a plot that was right inside the erstwhile cemetery.”
Hearing Lootika’s narrative Nikhila felt only slightly better from assurance that grounds were not in use for a long while. So she followed Lootika in collecting the Cardiospermum and Adenanthera seeds, but cautiously looked around every now and then. At one point Lootika showed her a bone and said: “See this beautifully shaped bone? It is a human left astragalus, a bone in our ankles. From its robustness I would say it is most likely from a male. Note this half-pulley-like surface for the joint with the tibia.” Nikhila was not able to easily take in the beauty of the astragalus that Lootika was describing. She nervously remarked: “To think that it was once a bone in a man somehow fills me with some angst.” Lootika: “Fear not, it is just as lifeless as a stone on the ground.” Despite Lootika’s assurances, her friend kept casting wary glances at every little rustle of the wind or hop of an insect. As she did so she her eyes fell upon a beautiful gravestone and she remarked: “Lootika, that handsome gravestone to your right has a really nice lattice work. I wish we could take a photo of it and make something like that.”
Lootika: “Let us check it out. I suspect its owner must have been of considerable wealth.”
They went up to it and read the faded inscription: “Mrs. Emily Walsh, wife of Colonel Christopher Walsh, soldier distinguished for his services in the Indian mutiny…” As they read it Lootika interjected: “Good riddance, killers of our people.” Nikhila: “May be so, but this delicate work is really impressive. Let me make a quick sketch of it.” While Nikhila was doing so she leaned forward and touched the latticework on the gravestone. Lootika was aghast and yelled out: “Nikhila! Take your hand off it! It could be really dangerous for you.”
Nikhila withdrew her hand as though she had touched a hot pan. She was even more terrified by the anxious look of Lootika who till then had appeared almost carelessly comfortable, even while handling the remains for her little osteological demonstration. Lootika caught hold of her friend’s hand and pulled her towards the wall saying: “Let’s better get out of this place right away.” They rapidly climbed on to the wall and were back beside their bikes. As they rode back Nikhila asked in a trembling voice: “Lootika, could something bad happen from touching that gravestone?”
Lootika: “I don’t want to frighten you but I should have told you not to touch that one. It was my mistake.” Nikhila persisted: “Do you know what can happen to me.” Lootika: “Hopefully nothing. But let me know if you sense something untoward over the next few days.” To calm her friend Lootika rode with her all the way to her house and changed the topic of their conversation to more mundane matters. Finally having seen her off at her house Lootika returned home to join her sisters.
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For the first time in her life Lootika felt a sense of loneliness. She had just obtained her doctoral degree and was visiting her home for a short while before starting her own lab. Vrishchika was busy with her medical residency and preparing to enter her fellowship. Varoli had joined grad school and was on course of repeating or even outdoing the heroics of her elder sisters. Jhilleeka alone was at home but she had entered college and was also working at a lab on her inventions, so Lootika saw little of her. Lootika had not spoken to Somakhya, her closest friend for most of her life, since they had entered grad school. She had heard through the grapevine that he too had graduated and started his own lab but he had not responded to a mail she had sent him about some enzymes and so she feared that he had forgotten her. She had lost touch with all her other classmates except for hearing from Vrishchika that Vidrum had just started practicing at the university hospital. Many times she felt the urge of visiting Somakhya’s house and inquiring about him from his parents. On other occasions she felt she should do the same with Vidrum but her pride and dignity prevented her from doing so. With such thoughts crowding her mind she felt no urge to visit their old hangout spots or even explore the backyard for arthropods. She instead spent most of the time ensuring that the orders of material for her lab were being delivered or helping her mother in the kitchen making pickles and powders.
Her mother’s conversations were filled with deep worry for her. She would say repeatedly: “Dear Lootika, all these successes in grad-school or you starting your own lab are great and I am really proud of you. I felt so relieved that all my daughters took after you and did not turn out to be secularists, Aynrandists, dim-wits, or voluptuaries overly interested in movies, clothing, and food, living off your father’s wealth. I cannot describe how pleased I am that all of you all turned out to be beautiful as adults, of good complexion, strong in limbs, and generally free from disease. You all are indeed like a colorful peacock spider, a fluorescent scorpion, an iridescent wasp or a silky gryllacridid. So, even if the great Vaivasvata struck me down this moment with his utkrāntida I would have no regrets for my life has served its function. But let me tell you dear daughter that all these are transient and a woman must make most them when they last. You are very lucky, unlike most others to have raced through grad-school so quickly. So nothing is lost. But then my Lootika all your brilliant conquests will be of no consequence if you linger on like this without finding a mate. It should happen soon and you should be furthering our line. And certainly you should not take a mate who drinks alcohol, ignores the rituals to the deva-s, gnā-s, yakṣa-s, gandharva-s, apsaras-es and our ancestors, or is of low intelligence.”
These conversations filled Lootika with a deep fear that she was experiencing for the first time in her life. For some inexplicable reason her gloom seemed to increase when in course of their conversations her mother mentioned how three skeletons had been unearthed below Vidrum’s garage and that they discovered that the bathroom of his house had been paved with gravestones. At dinner that night Lootika was alone with her parents. Her father said to her: “Do you remember Nikhila that friend of yours from school?”
Lootika: “Yes, though I have not spoken to her since we collected our school leaving certificates long long ago. But why do you ask?”
Her father continued: “Shortly after her marriage was afflicted by a mysterious disease that none of us have been able to diagnose or treat. Her condition is now worsening by the day.”
This information made Lootika feel even more gloomy and after dinner she did not wait for Jhilleeka to come back but retired to lie down on her mat. Even as her mind was spinning with the various impinging thoughts adding momentum to it she lapsed into that twilight between a dream and wakefulness. She thought she saw Somakhya, Sharvamanyu, and Vrishchika and that they were together operating the planchette in the cemetery. She remarked to herself: “I must see Nikhila tomorrow”, mentally uttered the ṛk of Gṛtsamada Śaunahotra to the great asura Varuṇa concluding with “namo asurāya pracetase vo namaḥ | and passed into the realm of sleep.
So the next day she called her former classmate who in a weak voice expressed the great desire to see Lootika. When she reached Nihila’s home she was shocked to see her friend in a dismal state, as though she may not have many days left. They spoke a little about their old school days but soon Lootika found her old friend tiring and unable to sit. So she helped Nikhila to her bed, where she lay and wearily continued the conversation. Her mind wished that she talk a lot to Lootika but her body was not cooperating. Sensing this Lootika was thinking how best she should take leave. At the same time she also felt a certain obligation to stick on, for it would almost look as though she was forsaking her old schoolmate to her own silent suffering. All the while she had been raking her mind about what might be the etiology of Nikhila’s condition. She wished her sister Vrishchika was beside her but then she realized that her sister could not be better in diagnostic deduction than her father by any means. She had already asked her friend about the filthy roadside eateries, cysticerci, tick bites, even syphilis and the like. She was reminded of the vātaroga of the medieval brāhmaṇa, Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭātiri, from the Cera country. But her friend had even shut off that avenue as she said that even two difficult trips to Tirumala and Puṣkara-tīrtha had yielded not even a smidgen of an improvement. On top of it Nikhila feebly remarked that she had already seen more than one great physician and also Lootika’s own father.
With not even a glimmer of a meaningful lead and those assailing thoughts swirling about in her head Lootika got up and started pacing before Nikhila’s bed. Just then she caught sight of a painting on the wall and froze as she noticed a specific detail on it. With a dash of excitement in her voice she asked: “Nikhila, where did you get that painting?” Nikhila: “From a dealer of old stuff, dug up from second hand sell-offs – it looked really pretty. I later realized it was a real antique piece – I wished to learn more of its provenance but then I was felled by this illness soon thereafter.” Lootika, with her voice choking with agitation asked: “Did you see something strange in the picture.” Nikhila: “Why? I used think there was a figure of a young European man in it, which used to appear and disappear. He would appear as though gazing at the horses which were corralled in that stable with beautiful carvings that form the main aspect of the picture. I really did not feel like telling that to anyone for they could think I am crazy.” Lootika whistled in satisfaction and muttered a barely audible incantation invoking the eight mātṛkā-s, śabdarāśi-bhairava, and parā. Nikhila: “What’s that?” Lootika: “Nikhila, you must get rid of this picture right away. I will be calling my old Sanskrit teacher to ask her husband to take this away to the collections of the College of Archaeology.” Nikhila: “What do you mean?” Lootika: “There are certain things I cannot explain. But if you wish return to the world of the living and further yourself do as I say.” Her friend always had a certain awe and respect for Lootika; so when she was commanded thus she acceded.
Lootika placed a call to Shilpika to take away the painting and took a detour to examine her old haunt at the cemetery. There she meditated for a while on the great circle of terrifying yoginī-s on the red cakra in the midst of the raktāṃbodhi and the aṭṭahāsa of the bhairava which awakens the mantra-s. Thus, she experienced the great vidyā-s believed to be transmitted by Rāmo Bhārgava. Then after offering that most secret tarpaṇa to the eight mātṛkā-s she arose to return. She came back performing Huḍukkāra while she entered her house as an act of pleasing the Bhairava. Her mother sharply chided her: “Lootika! Now what is wrong with you? Why are you making these undignified, unwomanly clicks with you tongue like a kāpālikā?” Lootika: “Never mind, let Śiva be pleased.” Her mother said: “You seem in a rather merry mood, did you see Nikhila at all? Her case is tragic indeed!” Lootika: “Yes, I did. There is no need to fear, I am pretty certain she will soon be fine. But I wanted to ask you something. Would you know anything more of the skeletons or the gravestones they unearthed at Vidrum’s place. Her mother responded: “I am surprised by what you say. But why the concern about Vidrum’s house. As you know well they got that land for cheap because it was a part of the cemetery. It is not entirely surprising that they find such things. But I think they said they were British era tombstones.” Lootika: “Good to know that.” Her mother was a bit puzzled by her mood and statements and asked: “What is all this – you seem to be hiding something from me?” Lootika: “Don’t worry. Will tell you more when all pieces fall in place.”
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Finally, Somakhya and Lootika were back together after typhonic events which are not a part of this story and had just started their own household. They were performing a tāntrika fire-ritual on a new moon day on a sthaṇḍila with just a single iron pātra of ghee and sesame seeds. Lootika held the sruva and Somakhya made the oblations with the sruk. The first oblation was made with the bahurūpī ṛk, that great mantra which lies at the root of all tantra-s of the dakṣiṇa-srotas. Then oblations were made with the combination of the aghora-pada to the mantras of Aindrī and Brahmāṇī. Then with ghora-pada and the Kaumārī and Vaiṣṇavī mantras the next set of oblations were made. Then the ghora-ghoratara-pada was combined with mantra-s of Vārāhī, Cāmuṇḍā and Raudrī for the next set of oblations. Then they made offerings to the white yoginī-s emanating from the first two mātṛ-s, the red yoginī-s emanating from the second dyad, and the black yoginī-s emanating from the final three mātṛ-s. Since they were performers of vaidika rites they then offered an oblation to the great goddess parā-sarasvatī with the mantra of Śaunaka Bhārgava: oṃ aiṃ hrīṃ sarasvati tvam asmāṃ aviḍḍhi marutvatī dhṛṣatī jeṣi śatrūn svāhā || They visualized parā-sarasvatī in her warrior form holding a trident and a spear as she accompanied the great Indra and the sons of Rudra who had set forth to slaughter the dānava ritualists known as the Śaṇḍika-s. Then they made the final offering to the Soma-drinking Rudra surrounded by his gaṇa-s, as done by the kāpālika-s with the mantra: oṃ hsauṃ hskhphreṃ śūragrāmaḥ sarva-vīraḥ sahāvāñ
jetā pavasva sanitā dhanāni | tigmāyudhaḥ kṣipradhanvā samatsv
aṣāḷhaḥ sāhvān pṛtanāsu śatrūn svāhā||
Then they remained silent gazing at the ritual fire meditating on 16 vowels combined with ghora-ghoratarebhyo namaḥ. After a while they sensed the presence of the terrifying yoginī Karṇamoṭinī. Somakhya instructed Lootika to take up her siddha-kāṣṭham (magic wand) made of the wood of the Indian ghost tree and her iron kamaṇḍalu with the inscription of a dragonfly, which her student had given her in Mongolia. Upon holding them up Lootika felt them being enveloped by the goddess. Then Somakhya instructed Lootika to sprinkle water from the kamaṇḍalu on the magic-wand and said: “Now the magic-wand is ready. Bring it along as we go out to the grove and keep it ready for use in the appropriate place at night.”
They next wandered into a grove on their university campus until they reached a large Calotropis shrub. Lootika placed her wand among the branches and under it they offered butter to the dreadful ape-faced Nandikeśvara and the awful elephant-faced Gaṇeśvara. Then taking up the wand again they walked up to a Kadamba tree under which they offered butter to Kumāra, Viśākha, Śākha, Nejameṣa, Ṣaṣṭhī, the kaumāra elephant Duḥsaha, Mukhamaṇḍikā and Indra. Having done so Lootika put back her wand into her backpack and they headed to their respective offices to attend to work.
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Later in the evening Vidrum was visiting Somakhya and Lootika for the first time since they had stated their household. Somakhya: “So, Vidrum have you too moved to your new residence?”
Vidrum: “Yes. It is such a relief to be there. Everything that could go wrong would go wrong in the old place. After my parents and aunt left I was the sole victim of whatever that was there.”
Somakhya: “So you found a buyer?”
Vidrum: “Thankfully, I even made a little bit on it.”
Somakhya: “That is a good parting gift.”
Vidrum: “Talking of gifts, I have a little gift for you guys. While clearing out, I rummaged the house and found these two items. This is an image of Indra. It looks very old and I don’t know how it came into my house. I thought of handing it over to the museum of the College of Archaeology but I remembered your words that our nation has come to the point of sinking due to our people forgetting the worship and the path of Amarendra. So I thought it is better I hand it you so that it can receive appropriate worship.” Somakhya received the idol and carefully examined it: “Vidrum, how on earth did this land in your house? It looks like something from a the temple of Indra from Kanpur whose utsavamūrti now lies in a museum at Lucknow. It is reported to have been vandalized by the English in the aftermath of the First war of Independence in 1857 CE. After that the temple is supposed to have been erased from the memory of the people. Some say that Maghavan was first worshiped there by Urubilva-Jaṭila-Kāśyapa who fell to the tathāgata but the nāstika is said to have asked the people to continue worshiping Vajrabāhu.”
Vidrum: “I suspect this may have something to do with the gravestones of some erstwhile English ruffians atop which my house was built.” Then Vidrum drew out a cast iron pot which was shaped like the frustum of a cone with two small diametrically opposite horizontal handles at the top. It had a cover with many circular grooves making it look like ripples and a boss at the center made of a different shinier metal which had been screwed in. Handing it over he said: “Lootika, this is for you given your liking for iron vessels.” Lootika found it to be a rather attractive vessel and set it down on the table in front of them. The rest of the evening passed away in discussion of other topics and it was really late when Vidrum finally left.
Exhausted by the day’s activities Somakhya and Lootika fell right away asleep on their mats in their fire room. It was perhaps about two hours into their sleep when Lootika suddenly awoke screaming: “Was that a dream or something worse. Where is he?” Somakhya woke up hearing her screams and said: “siddhakāṣṭhena pretikam ucchāṭaya!” But Lootika could not find her wand. So she got up and started running towards their home lab where it lay in her backpack. But as she tried to do so she uttered a cry and fell to the ground. By then Somakhya had drawn his own wand from behind his pillow and uttering an incantation to the goddess known as Mohanī pointed it at the pretika terminating the incantation with the formula: “bandhaya bandhaya huṃ ceṭakaṃ bhava huṃ phaṭ |” Drawing the pretika now bound as a ceṭaka he led it into the iron pot which Vidrum had gifted Lootika earlier. He then held the wand in his mouth and gingerly lifted the pot with the two handles and placed it in a sacristy behind the deva-gṛha. Picking up his kamaṇḍalu he sprinkled water on his strī and Lootika slowly got up but still looked dazed. He looked at her closely and found that she bore a bleeding cut on her left hand. He mopped up her wound and bandaged it, and then led her back to her mat and placed her on it. She found herself still in a haze and kept asking: “Has he gone?”. Somakhya pointed his wand at her with an incantation to the goddess Cakravegā ending the formula jṛmbhasva prasvapihi huṃ phaṭ and Lootika instantly settled into a deep sleep.
The next morning Somakhya wandered in while Lootika was cooking food for the day. He silently siddled up beside Lootika and checked out her left hand. Lootika: “I don’t know how I got his cut. It seems to coincide with a terrible dream, which seemed to connect many memories from the past but it is stuck somewhere in my brain. I am unable to recall it or even bandaging this cut.” Somakhya gently caressed her hand and said: “Why did you forget your wand in the bag? Would you ever make such a mistake in a laboratory protocol?” Lootika looked sheepishly at Somakhya saying: “Why, I left it right there in my bag. I even have memory of trying to get it but everything goes blank after that. I am sure the strange phantasm of last night has something to do with it. Was it something to do with the cast iron pot which Vidrum gave – I don’t see it?” Somakhya: “I have bound him inside that pot, just as years ago I bound the pretapatnī at the cemetery when we were plying the planchette.” Lootika: “The English marauder Christopher Walsh? I now recall he was trying to bayonet me in the dream last night.”
Somakhya: “Ūrṇāyī we will make him speak this Sunday. We could have made him a subdued ceṭaka doing our bidding, like vetāla-bhaṭṭa for Vikrama, if only you had deployed your wand. But now some day like the Fenris wolf he may break his prison to fight again on his pakṣa against us Hindus.
Lootika: “I recall this phrase being uttered by a dead brāhmaṇa in my dream – ‘There has actually been only one war of independence which took place in 1857 CE. We will have another one in the future; 1947 CE was not the real thing’ – but I don’t see all pieces of the story here.”
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It was more dangerous than it seemed when that Sunday afternoon Somakhya and Lootika placed the iron pot in front after performing the dig-bandha and experienced the ceṭaka-naṭanam. Lootika made a transcript of it which she read out in the later years to their children, nieces and nephews:
A party was underway at the house of Colonel Stephen Jackson. Captains Bustin and Walsh arrived with their women in tow. Jackson: “India is not a bad place to be. Especially with the prospects of the malodorous vapors from Thames promising to hit a high later this summer. Sure there is the downpour and the heat, but you’ll certainly find good śikār. I bagged this tiger at my foot the last week I was there.” Bustin and Walsh surveyed the walls of the old Colonel, rich with trophies of his śikār in India. Bustin: “But then the ferocious Ghilzais of Ghazni…” Jackson: “Young man, you should not forget that a mass of martial tribes from the restless frontier are no match to a disciplined unit under European command. Moreover, the wily Pole Yan Vitkevich is no more and the Russian have no one of his caliber to stir up the murderous Ghazis.” Walsh: “I believe our position is the Punjab is rather firm with the bearded Sikhs brimming with martial ardor now willing to fight under our banner. But for fair Albion I would be always ready to take the slug to show the heathen savage his place.” Pouring himself some alcohol Jackson continued: “I must note that the Sikh is different from the lying Hindoo. He is less prone to insubordination and his religion provides an incipient grasp of the Christian faith that I am sure will take him towards being a good Christian in the near future. The Hindoo though effete and weak in constitution is so full of guile that it takes some time for a gentleman to gain mastery over him.”
Then the young English officers took in the splendors that the old colonel had acquired in India. They wondered if they might be able to similarly enrich themselves. Eyeing a golden casket studded with gems, Walsh discreetly inquired the colonel as to where he had obtained the same. The colonel responded: “This yarn runs a long way but let me keep it short. We needed to present an example to the heathens after their atrocities led by the hideous Dewan Mulraj. Hence, we conducted a brisk razzia in the vicinity of Mooltaun. This was my trophy from one of the devil-chapels of the idolatrous Hindoostanis; the said chapel was apparently endowed with this casket by the barbarous Dewan.”
…
Captain Walsh was making his way back from the śikār with his four coolies bearing the sloth bear and the leopard which he had downed that day. While it had been a promising day, he was still yearning to bag a crocodile as his comrade Captain Bustin had done. As he reached home he found his woman Emily in a distraught state. She informed him that General Wheeler had received a notice from Nana Sahib that he would attack Cawnpore the next day at 10.00 AM. Walsh panicked as he realized that the English situation was precarious and he immediately went to report to the General.
Walsh then narrated: “The next day the assault on Cawnpore by the black devil-worshipers began as expected and soon we realized that our city was under an impenetrable siege by Nana Sahib’s men. After some desultory fighting for few days I felt triumphant as I downed 15 Hindoostanis as they attempted to break the English positions – I did not miss a single shot. But Nana Sahib retaliated strongly with a heavy bombardment followed by accurate sniper fire. Consequently, my triumph turned to despair as General Wheeler’s son who was beside me had his head blown off by a shot from a field gun fired by a despicable Maharatta gunner. Things turned worse as my comrade in arms Bustin sustained a shot to his thigh and collapsed as his company tried to relieve our position by a mid-night sortie on the mutinous Indians. He was taken to the hospital but the next day the hospital was on fire as Nana’s devilish men launched an incendiary shell on it. It is with much sorrow I must state that young Bustin perished in the flames.”
Soon the English were forced to surrender and were granted passage to flee to Prayāga. But once they were on their barges on the Ganga, Lieutenant Wayne and Captain Walsh decided to take some potshots at the freedom fighters as they could not take such a defeat lying down. The Indians retaliated and they quickly were overwhelmed by the Nana’s men and most shot down or put to sword by the cavalry men who rode out into the Ganga. Captain Walsh and Emily were among the few who barely made it alive, evaded a Mohammedan cavalryman who was chasing them, and ran into the temple of the great god Indra. There they came across Chandrashekhar Pandit, a scholar of the Ṛgveda, whose ancestors had settled in the north while aiding Chatrapati Śivājī escape from the clutches of Awrangzeb. He officiated as the priest of the temple of Indra. Walsh begged to him in his broken Hindustani to allow them to hide in the temple. Moved with pity over the young Englishman’s entreaties the brāhmaṇa concealed him and his woman.
Walsh narrated: “After a while I was rescued by the faithful Sikh Futhey Sing and found myself back with General Wheeler’s company. After we took back Cawnpore from the Satanic heathens, we decided to teach them a memorable lesson. We lined up our devil-worshiping captives and asked them clean up the bloodstains of the white women and children on the terrace of the Ganges by licking it clean with their tongues. However, since the pundit Caundrasekaur had done me good, I decided to grant him clemency. I told him that all he needed to do was to touch the bloodstain once with the tip of his tongue and then I would let him go. But the Baphometh he had worshiped all his life had taken possession of him and he most insolently chose to lecture me in response to my kind clemency. He said ‘You mlecchas think you have triumphed but remember we are neither beggars nor deceitful businessmen like you all. When we do charity we don’t expect to be paid back by the recipient. So I don’t need to be paid back by your clemency. Your men were killed for invading āryāvarta. I let you and your woman live because an ārya grants abhaya to those who seek refuge with him. But remember when mleccha-s occupy āryāvarta we will not cease to resist them until we have extirpated them from our land.’ I promptly bayoneted the ungrateful wretch. His wife who was with him drowned herself by jumping into the Ganges. It was then that I made up my mind to root out the heathenism, which was the cause of the evil among the Hindoos.
Accordingly, I set out with Lieutenant Benson to pillage the chapel of Baphometh where the pagan priest Caundrasekaur had officiated. Finders are keepers; I got hold of the legendary sapphire of the place while Benson took of a golden idol of the Termagant. I resolved that the idol of Baphometh would be installed at the foot of my grave marking my conquest of the devils of Hindoostan. We then advanced against the rebellious Hindoos to the west. There in the town of Auwa after much fighting I ordered several monstrous idol houses demolished to bring the Hindoos to their knees. Finally, we advanced to the central part of the country to complete our figure of eight campaign. We took an old temple, which the heathens claimed was built by their great emperor King Bowje. I had it converted to a stable for our horses. It was there that Emily made a great painting of our stable that hung in my house.
Having put down the Indian mutiny we settled for a quieter life in a more southerly city. We were joined there by Emily’s father, reverend Brown from America who was engaging in bringing the light of the good Lord to the Hindoos. He was engaged in writing epistles to counter the utterly derogatory pamphlets being circulated by Chote Laul against Christ and Christians. Nothing since Celsus had been so full of bile. It was then that I believe that Chote Laul engaged in some kind black magic to make the spirit of the old Caundrasekaur to seize Emily. They call such a goblin a brahma-rākṣasa in these regions. Possessed by the goblin Emily hung herself from the branch of a bastard myrobalan tree some distance from our home. I tried my best to put salt on Chote Laul’s tail but the wily Hindoo got away. Shortly there after while playing polo I was struck by a bolt of lightning and expired. Unfortunately, contrary to my wishes I was not buried beside Emily as the ground in that part of the cemetery had gotten very soggy from the incessant monsoon. I thus was interred elsewhere on the same grounds.
Now a ghost, I had many an epic fight with Caundrasekaur’s ghost as also that of his wife. I also journeyed east and fought the impious ghost of Jagabandhu who was constantly harassing me – a phantasmagorical matter that caused extraordinary excitement in that part of the country. But I got to rejoice when good Sir Winston Churchill himself honored my grave and pledged not to let our sacrifices go in vain. But to my greatest horror, at the mere suggestion of a mutiny of far lower magnitude than what we quelled in 1857 CE those weaklings Mountbatten and Attlee handed our the jewel in the crown, which we had fought to make that of fair Albion, to the Hindoos and the Mahometans on a platter.”
Then the ceṭaka went silent and the lid of the iron pot seemed as though it moved a little. We went up to it and using an incantation of Sarasvatī on the tongue of the rākṣasa Kumbhakarṇa we made him continue speaking upon sprinkling water from our kaṃaṇḍalu-s. It was clear that what he spoke thereafter was something he never wanted to say.
He continued: “But the lords of the Anglosphere have not given up – verily our grip is likened to the bite of a bulldog. We fully well realized that those who control India control the world. From America we control the whole western hemisphere. From Australia and New Zealand we control the southern hemisphere. From England we control Europe. But there is a lacuna in Asia, which arose after we lost India. We knew that the Mahometans have always sought world-conquest like us. I must confess that sometimes I do feel the Mahomet’s religion is perhaps the very word of God in practice. We knew that if we could lure the Mahometans to make common cause with us then we could start all over again to get the sub-continent back in our control. We had won before using the perimeter strategy; to win again we needed to reinstate the perimeter strategy. It is with that in mind we had left the Mahometans in possession of the perimeter state of Pakistan so that they could keep the noose around the neck of the Indians. We realized that the nationalism of the Hindoos could be very dangerous and even an unstoppable force if unleashed: much like their old war weapon,-the elephant. Hence, we ensured that they are saddled with debilitating leaders like the naked fuckeer and the rose-chested romantic whom they took to be their collective father and uncle respectively. But we knew that our old enemy the Rus would aid them against our designs. Hence, we first had a to get rid of them and did so after a hard fought war using the Mahometans as our tool. Thus, we finally achieved what we had failed to achieve in the invasion of Crimea. The weakening of the Rus also weakened the Indians but unfortunately ended up strengthening the Chinese with respect to whom we always had the agreement of them being an equal share of all of the white world. We had also built them up by crushing their mighty foes, the Japanese
To restore equilibrium, we needed a foothold in Asia whereby we could reach the rear side of China. That foothold had to be India. At this point I should make it clear that we have always had a kinder side to us. Just as we tried our best to bring you under our benign rule rather than let you rot under some oriental despot, we again want you to benefit from our actions. It is with that in mind that we bequeathed you with secularism, a constitution, and the rule of law – this was accepted by your emperor the mute blue-turbaned Sikh but was since rejected by the ungrateful Hindoos. We shall incessantly try to bring you all the book of God. When you have joined the kingdom of God we shall again fight shoulder to shoulder to punish the godless. But addled by the words of your lying Brahmins and Baniyans you will refuse and even try your best to prevent your downtrodden from receiving God’s word. In the East, where we ensured that the writ of your Brahmins and Baniyans would be weak, the word of God will spread fast. So also would be the case with your downtrodden in the south, in the Punjab and your capital city when we would place our agent while the mute blue-turbaned Sikh is your emperor. Thus we will restore the perimeter. The Rus will make one great attempt to get back at us but will eventually fade into irrelevance. We shall balance you all with the Chinese but since you multiply like bunnies eventually you will hold the edge. It is then that there will arise a ruler in your midst who will persecute the flock of God as also the God-fearing Mahometans and seek to restore the heathen religion. Around that time will occur a war of immense proportions with you, us and the Mahometans, all in the fray. The lay will not even realize that the war is being fought. It will be the biggest fight we have ever fought since the fields of 1857 CE and we will have to put down more Hindoos than we ever did then. I shall rise again to protect the banner, like Napoleon’s soldier had promised when he fell while retreating from Russia. That conflict will engulf you in your later age and therein you and your children will perish.”
He then tried to leap forth from the pot. We silenced him with our kamaṇḍalu prayoga and placed him in a bottle and buried it under a vibhītaka tree.
We do not intend to recount the biography of Chintamani Raghunathachari as it is publicly available to anyone interested in the matter. But our intention is simply to talk a little about his life and times. He lived at a time when the country was going through great tumult – 1828-1880 CE – a time when humiliating conquest and subjugation of Bhārata by the English was completed. Raghunathachari represents an important figure in our eyes though few Indians know of him.
In late March of 1987 we had made our first telescope, a 75mm refractor, and observed Eta Carinae from near our house. It was an experience which might could be likened to what an old Hindu might have felt on the attainment of khecaratvam. On December 16 1837, John Herschel, one of the greatest men of science, discovered what came to be known as the Great Eruption of this star – representative of a phenomenon with few parallels in terms of energy output among stellar processes. In our readings with the vaiśya-jyotiṣa we learned that from almost the same observing spot an English warrior who was to fight the Hindus in 1857 had made detailed observations of the Great Eruption in 1847 and 1849. The fact that hardly a Hindu took much note of an event as dramatic as the Great Eruption was indeed a testimony of the abyss into which the Hindus had descended. Bhārata had become a mere outpost for the science of the Englishman. The one man who stood out in the midst of this desolation was Raghunathachari (RA).
Not much is known of the life of RA – he was born in family of traditional Hindu astronomers. Some have claimed that he was a madhva from the Karṇāṭa country based on the fact that he cites a calendrical work of Madhva. However, he discussed with and extensively resorted to the advice of the jīyar of Ahobilam on how to interpret the purāṇa-s. He also discussed the importance of modern astronomy with the ācarya of the Sriperumbudur śrīvaiṣṇava maṭha and convinced him to adopt a modern astronomical almanac. His closest Hindu associates are said to be his brother-in-law Raghavachari whom he trained in astronomy, his assistant Muthusvami Pillai, and the smārta-s Venkateshvara Dikshita and Sundaresha Shrautin from the Dramiḍa country. Together these points and others (below) indicate that he was rather a śrīvaiṣṇava brāhmaṇa from the Dramiḍa country. The Indian astronomer SB Dikshit accuses him of being poor in Saṃskṛta – this is again unclear for the errors in his Saṃskṛta citations in a Kannada work on the transit of Venus might have emerged as part of reproduction for the primitive lithographic process used to produce it – there is even an error in the mathematics and no one has accused him of bad mathematics yet. While coming from a traditional astronomer family he sought to do modern astronomy and was an autodidact in this regard. He was reduced to supporting himself as a coolie for the Sāhibs but at age of 18 he was appointed to the British observatory of Madras, where the noted astronomer Norman Pogson (whose name is common knowledge to variable star observers) was active. Much surviving material on RA has been made available by Pogson’s great-great-grand-daughter. By the time he stopped work due to declining health in late 1878 he was called the Head Native Assistant to the Astronomer (i.e. Pogson). Despite this unglamorous title he was an original observer and discoverer of his own right. He carried out observations both from the English observatory and from his house at Nungambakkam (where today nobody can do any practical astronomy). Additionally, he and Muthusvami Pillai managed a local saving fund, “dravya-siddhi”, for Hindus.
His objective was to compose a vast synthetic work that combined modern astronomy with traditional Hindu astronomy titled the Jyotiṣa Cintāmaṇi but he died before he could do that. However, he gave several public lectures in Chennai to attempt to increase the awareness of Hindus on modern astronomy and the importance of first hand and meticulous observations. He also emphasized the need for the Hindus to return to the basic premise of the old Vedic ritualists – i.e. the importance of observational astronomy – the Veda clearly specifies the nakṣatra-darśa (the observational astronomer) as a function supported by the ancient Indo-Aryan state. He also pointed out the importance of observation as stressed by the great Hindu astronomers of yore Varāhamihira and Āryabhaṭa as well as the medieval Hindu dharma scholar Vaidyanātha Dīkṣita whose astronomical work is now lost. He demonstrated to his Vedic ritualist friends, Venkateshvara Dikshita and Sundaresha Shrautin, that the astronomical tables of the traditional astronomers of Andhra and Dramiḍa were otiose and that they badly mis-predicted basic astronomical events which are central to Vaidika rituals. After reproducing his methods and being convinced of the power of the theory of modern astronomy they went to the Kumbhaghonam Śaṃkara maṭha and asked the ācarya to call upon the people to adopt modern astronomical methods. Sadly, his efforts were not entirely successful as he did not manage to get the Hindus become more serious about astronomy. However, during the solar eclipse of August 18, 1868 RA was able to demonstrate his predictions: He got the eclipse time correct with an error of 12 seconds using calculations done by his hand while the traditional astronomers performed dismally with a whopping 24 minute error. This had a strong effect and many traditional Hindus now switched over to his side. He then demolished the most recalcitrant traditional astronomers in a sadas of brāhmaṇa-s of the Dramiḍa country. Seeing this the Śaṃkara maṭha sent out a circular stating that the Vedic ritualists Venkateshvara Dikshita and Sundaresha Shrautin were correct in adopting modern theory and techniques for their rituals. His efforts were paralleled by those of Ketkar in Maharashtra and Venkatakrishna Raya in Andhra to get the Hindus to use modern astronomical calculations.
However, RA’s most important thrust was on the need to study observational astronomy not merely for calendrical purposes but as a science in its own right. Thus, he envisaged the need to set up an institution where Hindus could study theoretical and observational astronomy simultaneously:
“In Europe, excluding Russia, there now exist fifty-four public and ten private Observatories spread over an area of less than two million square miles. In India with a surface of one and half million miles we have but one, that one wholly supported by the State … I recommend no more than that a modest but thorough place of instruction and study should be founded where theoretical knowledge can be united to actual practical work … Such places exist in hundreds in Europe, but nowhere is the need for them greater than in India. Not much money, a little zeal, a little steadfastness of purpose, wed these to a regard for science, and soon would the metropolis of Southern India be graced with an Institution which would be an honor to the country.” -Raghunathachari
Sadly this remained unfulfilled even when we were in school more than 100 years after the death of RA. There was no astronomy as a subject both at school and in college even though we were in the so called science and mathematics stream all our education. Most of our classmates in school could not locate Jupiter or Venus in the night sky leave alone tell them apart. Most in my class till we left school had never seen Mercury. The ignorance of astronomy went hand in hand with the lack of instruction in it at school – a testimony of the modern collective Hindu’s tendency to limit himself to the narrow confines of that part of this textbook which might appear in his final exams.
But above all why we think RA was unique and particularly important was because he was the first modern Hindu to realize the importance of variable stars and make discoveries in that regard. The story of variable stars is one of the most romantic in the history of astronomy. Particularly notable is the case of John Goodricke (1764-1786 CE) who after detailed observations of Algol (β Persei) discovered that the variability of the star was due to two stars revolving around and eclipsing each other. He followed it up with the discovery of the variability of δ Cephei, the archetype of the Cepheid variables, on account of which we are able to measure distances in the universe as their period of variability is directly related to their luminosity. Thus in a brief span of 21 years Goodricke made findings that were to revolutionize not just astronomy but our very understanding of the universe. Pogson was one of the foremost variable star observers of the day. When RA joined the Madras Observatory he too got hooked on to them upon learning about variable stars from Pogson. RA discovered the Mira type variable R Reticuli which varies between magnitudes 6.35 and 14.2 over a period of 281 days. RA and Pogson also discovered the May 1863 eruption of U Scorpii that led to the discovery of the recurrent nova which erupts as matter from a companion star falls on a white dwarf in a binary system. RA along with Muthusvami Pillai also captured the fading of R Coronae Borealis in 1863 CE. It gave us much satisfaction when in September 2007 with a friend we observed the dramatic great fading of R Coronae Borealis. These fadings are caused by eruptions of black carbon clouds from the star with unusual molecular forms such as C2 (dicarbon). In some theories these might have played a major role in the origin of life.
In conclusion, RA was Hindu astronomer who was rooted in tradition yet learned and adopted modern astronomy. Due to his strenuous efforts he could illustrate the importance of adopting modern astronomy for proper performance of Hindu rituals. To a degree he succeeded in this regard but the fact that Hindus even today do not have a standardized calendar throughout Bhārata to perform rituals is an illustration of a deep flaw in the collective modern Hindu. This standard calendar should have gone hand in hand with the state performing key Hindu rituals on a national scale – here the evil of secularism, which is nothing but concealed Abrahamism, has conspired with the above flaw. But more important than calendrical issues was the science of RA as an observer and discoverer of variable stars. The Hindus should have taken this up on a war footing and it could have helped them regain their preeminence in science. However, as we have remarked before RA was yet another, albeit early example, of the isolated modern Hindu scientist whose attempts to establish a Hindu scientific ecosystem met with failure. The Hindus need to look at this and understand it very closely for herein lies he deep rooted bases for the failure of Hindus as a modern nation. The consequences of this failure are likely to be far reaching and perhaps even fatal for the Hindus.
As we have said many times before most Hindus, despite being the last holders of the Indo-European tradition, have done little in recent times to use their unique position to develop further understanding of their ancestral system. In large part this stems from their: 1) unwillingness to study other IE languages and texts in detail; 2) laziness in putting the effort to understand the comparative method; 3) tendency to get caught up in moronic fads such as AIT denial (!), OIT and the like.
As a result much of the comparative work is done by western Indo-Europeanists, white Indologists and Dumézilianists. While these tend to see some parts of the picture, they are disadvantaged by no longer belonging to a real IE tradition. In particular, the Dumézilianists who saw the farthest tend to constrain themselves by overdoing the typological tripartite system proposed by Dumézil. Wikander, Hiltebeitel, and West, who also did related comparative work, suffer from the failure to see the deeper permeation of the IE tradition in Hindu lore beyond the Mahābhārata. There is also the OITist Kazanas whose work in this regard is to a degree colored by his OIT frame work.
Here we shall examine the wider manifestations of what we call the Karṇa complex of motifs. This complex is intimately entwined with the distinct Arjuna complex in more than one part of the IE world, instances which will also be considered as appropriate.
● Gleaning motifs in the Celtic cycle
A large body of Celtic IE material comes down to us in the form of the four Irish mytho-epic cycles in which the Ulster Cycle contains the legends of the great hero Cúchulainn who was famed for his battle frenzy known as the ríastrad. To better visualize the motifs we will first retell parts of his legend relevant to this topic.
-His mother Deichtine was the daughter of the charioteer of the Ulster king Conchobar.
-His father was the great god Lugh the Irish version of the pan-Celtic deity Lugus who is often described as the bright one with long hands. He is clearly distinct from the other great Celtic deity Taranis who combines the Indra and Viṣṇu class in him – Taranis is iconographically similar to both those Indo-Aryan deities, being shown by the continental Celts with a vajra in one hand and a cakra in the other [Footnote 1]. The epithets of Lugus namely his brightness and long hands are specifically matched by one Indo-Aryan deity: Savitṛ who is described as being bright (citrabhānu, RV 1.35.4) and long-handed (pṛthupāni, 2.38.2) and is clearly associated with the solar domain. Thus, Cúchulainn can be considered the son of a solar deity.
-When the Ulster men led by Conchobar had gone hunting magical birds they were stranded by a snowstorm and had to take shelter in a house. Their host in the house fathers a son on Deichtine and reveals himself to be the great god Lugh and the child is was initially called Sétanta. In another versions Deichtine is already married to Sualtam and when Lugh reveals that he has placed a child in her womb during the hunting expedition it results in a scandal. Many suspect that Conchobar using his “right of first night” has impregnated her. But she appears to abort and go to Sualtam with virginity restored. But a child is reinstated in her womb then and Sétanta is born who is considered Sualtam’s son but is actually by Lugh.
-As a kid Conchobar and many other Ulster elite share the task of parenting the young Sétanta
-Sétanta enters a game of the boy-troops of Ulster where the boys attack him for not first seeking their protection and permission to join. But Sétanta smashes them thoroughly displaying his battle frenzy for the first time. Conchobar ends the fight but it is the boys who now have to take Sétanta’s protection. Then he kills a hound of the smith of Ulster, Culann, which was guarding his house. But he agrees to compensate the smith by guarding his house till he can rear a suitable dog for him. Hence the warrior druid Cathbad decided to name him Cú Chulainn – Dog (Cú; cognate of Skt śvan) of Culann.
-Then one day Cúchulainn spied on the druid Cathbad teaching sacred lore to his students. Cathbad was special in that he was not just a druid but also a warrior who had his own private fighting force with whom he had defeated and slain warriors of a previous Ulster king. One of Cathbad’s students asked him what the day was auspicious for and Sethbad said that the one who bore arms on that day would become a great warrior with eternal glory. Overhearing that Cúchulainn immediately rushed to Conchobar and asked for weapons. All the weapons they gave him broke and could not bear his might until Conchobar gave him his own weapons. Just then Cathbad realized what had happened and informed him that he had not heard the remaining part of his statement: “The person who bore arms on that day would become a famous warrior but would die young.”
-Cúchulainn then wanted to marry a woman named Emer but her father opposed the match and sent him off to try to train under the warrior woman Scáthach. He was sure that Cúchulainn would be killed in the process as even entering her abode involved a difficult jump across a water body on to an island. However, Cúchulainn successfully managed this and she taught him many secrets of using a sword, spear, staff and lasso, as also various chariot feats. There a fellow trainee Ferdiad became his foster brother. Scáthach had a sister Aífe who was her great rival and attacked her when Cúchulainn was a student. He joins the fight on behalf of his teacher and the battle between him and Aífe is evenly poised. But he knew that Aífe valued her chariot and horses more than anything else. So he (apparently deceitfully) tells her in course of the battle that they have fallen off a cliff. She stops fighting on hearing this and Cúchulainn seized her right away. He releases her on the condition she would never fight with Scáthach again. Then he fathered a son on Aífe named Connla. He gave Aífe his ring and asked her to send Connla with it to seek him when he comes of age. Scáthach also offered the “friendship of her thighs” to Cúchulainn and eventually conferred her daughter Uathach as his wife. But Cúchulainn still sought to conquer Scáthach’s realm from her and wages a battle with her. In midst of it both are tired and refresh themselves eating magical hazelnuts. As a consequence it is revealed to Cúchulainn that he could never defeat Scáthach and gives up. Scáthach also possessed the power of foretelling the future with a charm but she refuses to do so for Cúchulainn as she realizes that he would kill his son through her sister. Finally, before parting she confers on Cúchulainn, but not his foster brother, the use of a secret magical weapon known as the Gáe Bulga, which was a spear hurled by using the foot. Nobody could survive a strike from this spear.
-Connla the young son of Cúchulainn and Aífe comes searching for his father with his ring. On reaching Cúchulainn’s fort Connla defeats a warrior and shows his prowess. Cúchulainn then fights him and the two are evenly matched. His wife even warns him that Connla is his son by Aífe. Connla recognizes his father and lays aside his weapons but by then Cúchulainn has deployed the Gáe Bulga and kills Connla. As he dies he tells his father: “Together we would have carried the banner of Ulster to Rome and beyond.”
-In one of the legends Cúchulainn crushes the rival Irish kingdom of Connacht in a campaign. The queen of Connacht retaliates by ordering a great cattle raid on Ulster. At that point Cúchulainn was supposed to be guarding the cattle but he was busy enjoying himself with a woman. The other Ulster warriors are unable to fight due to a curse neutralizing them. Seeing this Cúchulainn leaves his woman and enters the battle single-handed challenging the foes to combats at fords where they have to fight one by one. He defeats many but after much fierce fighting he is severely injured and unable to fight, when the great god Lugh appears and heals him. But by then his companions from the boy-troops enter the battle and are slain by the Connacht cattle raiders. Cúchulainn enters into a tremendous battle frenzy slaughters the Connacht forces raising heaps of corpses. Seeing this the Connacht queen sends Cúchulainn’s foster brother Ferdiad to fight him. Though both are described as having studied with Scáthach (the modest), Uathach (the terrible) and Aífe (the beautiful), each is said to have special gifts – Cúchulainn his Gáe Bulga and Ferdiad his “horn-skin”, a special impenetrable armor. The two are evenly matched neither yields in a great hand-to-hand battle fought for 3 days at a ford. They use up 8 swords, arrows, and spears, throwing-spears, lances, and heavy swords (or maces?). At the end of it Ferdiad seemed to be slightly gaining on Cúchulainn, who is without the Gáe Bulga which is in his chariot. But his charioteer Laeg, who is said to be king among charioteers, sends it to him by floating it down the river at whose ford they were fighting. Once he gets the Gáe Bulga, he first hurls a throwing spear at Ferdiad, who raises his shield to fend it off. Seeing that opening with his foot Cúchulainn discharged the Gáe Bulga which pierces Ferdiad and kills him. While falling Ferdiad thinks he was unfairly struck down and cries:
“O Cu of grand feats,
Unfairly I’m slain!
Thy guilt clings to me;
My blood falls on thee!”
Realizing he has killed his foster-brother Cúchulainn mourns him.
-Cúchulainn kills many great warriors and wins several victories but the Connacht queen seeking revenge wages another war on Cúchulainn. Before this war he is tricked into eating dog meat which makes him lose his invulnerability. In the battle that follows he fights Lugaid who possessed 3 magical weapons. By hurling the first he kills Laeg the the charioteer-king who was driving Cúchulainn’s chariot. With the second one he kills the great horse of Cúchulainn. Finally before he could use the Gáe Bulga with the third magical dart he strikes Cúchulainn. Despite being mortally wounded Cúchulainn ties himself to a menhir so that he dies facing his enemies and on his feet. When a crow sits on Cúchulainn they finally realize he has died and Lugaid advanced with his sword to cut off Cúchulainn’s head. Then a bright light emerges from him and scorched Lugaid and Cúchulainn’s sword fell from his hand cutting off Lugaid’s hand. That light vanished only when they cut off Cúchulainn’s right hand marking the end of the cycle.
• Apprehending the motifs
Some motifs are found in the Mahābhārata but not necessarily linked to the Karṇa or Arjuna complex:
1) The motif of a hero being born or conceived while taking shelter/rest in a dwelling with an unfamiliar host during a hunt: This is seen in the legend of the birth of the founder of our nation, Bharata Dauḥśānti, where Duśmanta fathers him on Śakuntalā while visiting the āśrama of Kaṇva for refreshment during a hunt.
2) The motif of providing a ring to the woman on whom the child is fathered before leaving so that it can be used to identify paternity later: This again appears in the tale of Bharata Dauḥśānti, where he uses the ring is used prove identity of the son to the father. In the Irish cycle it is decoupled from the former motif.
The remaining motifs are part of the classic Karṇa and Arjuna classes.
3) Being fathered on an earthy woman by a solar deity (Karṇa).
4) Parentage linked to the ruling king’s charioteer – Rādha and Deichtine (Karṇa).
5) Mother’s mating with the solar deity happens out of wedlock – Kunti and Deichtine (Karṇa)
6) Mother’s virginity restored after the mating for real human marriage – Kunti and Deichtine (Karṇa).
7) Learning something related to the use of weapons from a teacher of the priestly class in an unauthorized or unapproved fashion and the teacher pointing to (or cursing with) a fatal consequence as result: Cúchulainn overhearing Cathbad’s teaching to his students and Karṇa lying about his varṇa to Rāmo Bhārgava. Consequently, both are saddled with the disadvantage of potential death despite their prowess (Karṇa).
8) Learning something related to arms from a warrior priest: brāhmaṇa Rāmo bhārgava and druid Cathbad (Karṇa).
9) The hero appears suddenly when other elite youth are engaging in sport/arms display breaking convention and causing a stir: Cúchulainn appearance before the boy-troops and Karṇa’s appearance at the sporting/arms display of the Kurus (Karṇa).
The motifs relating to the warrior women while prominent in the Irish epic cycle are muted in the Mahābhārata. However, there are still several recognizable motifs that unite them. In the Mahābhārata they are all consistently associated with Arjuna and could be considered part of the Arjuna class.
10) Leaving the principle wife or woman on an exile-like journey to a far away land: Cúchulainn leaves behind Emer who is his primary wife and Arjuna leaving behind Draupadi (Arjuna).
11) The hero consorts with three women during this journey: Cúchulainn with Scáthach, Uathach and Aífe; Arjuna with Ulūpī, Citrāṅgadā and Subhadrā (Arjuna).
12) Meeting one of the alien woman in the vicinity of a water body: Cúchulainn had to jump over a water body to reach Scáthach and Arjuna is captured by Ulūpī on the banks of the Gaṅgā and taken to her realm (Arjuna).
13) The alien women met by the hero live by themselves without their male partners before and after marriage; the hero leaves them after inseminating them. This is a marked departure from the traditional IE family structure: Scáthach and Aífe of Cúchulainn and Ulūpī and Citrāṅgadā of Arjuna (Arjuna).
14) The warrior woman offers to sex to the hero out of their initiative: Scáthach to Cúchulainn and Ulūpī to Arjuna (Arjuna).
15) The woman/women train male sons in the use of arms all by themselves: Scáthach trains Cuare and Cet, while Ulūpī trains Irāvān and Babhruvāhana (Arjuna).
16) The warrior woman give the hero a gift of an invincible weapon or power associated with the aquatic realm: Scáthach gives Cúchulainn the Gáe Bulga which is made from the bones of a sea-monster which had died fighting another sea-monster. Ulūpī gives Arjuna the power of invincibility over aquatic creatures.
The motif of the conflict between the hero and his son according to the studies of Joseph Campbell is rather widespread suggesting that it could be an ancient one. While Campbell and others have tried to give it Freudian overtones much of the verbiage expended in that direction does more to obfuscate than to explain. However, it is possible that it represents the quintessential problem faced by a male: the uncertainty of paternity, which in pre-modern was never resolvable with certainty. But in our current case there are some specific features on top of the generic father-son conflict motif.
17) The hero fathers a mighty son on an independent woman during his exile/forced wanderings and leaves the son with the mother: Cúchulainn fathers Connla on Aífe and Arjuna fathers Babhruvāhana on Citrāṅgadā (Arjuna).
18) The son through the warrior woman on growing up sets out to find his father: Connla seeking Cúchulainn; In the Mahābhārata this motif is not joined to the father-son conflict system. But it exists in the form of Irāvān journeying to meet his father.
19) Father and son don’t recognize each as one sees the other intruding his domain and battle breaks out in which one is killed: In the Irish legend it is the son who is killed. In the Hindu one Arjuna invades the kingdom of Maṇipura where Babhruvāhana is the prince during the aśvamedha rite of Yudhiṣṭhira. Babhruvāhana kills Arjuna in the battle that follows.
The battle motifs are shared between the Karṇa class and the Arjuna class though they might not come in the same character.
20) Possession of magical spear that can kill the opponent on whom it is deployed infallibly: Cúchulainn’s Gáe Bulga and Karṇa’s Indra śakti (Karṇa)
21) This infallible weapon does not help them in the final battle (Karṇa)
22) Weakened in final battle by a curse or breaking of taboo and a related ethical dilemma: Cúchulainn’s ate dog meat because he could not avoid accepting hospitality and that broke his invincibility. Karṇa did not wake Rāmo Bhārgava while being bitten by the alarka tick but in the process he had to reveal that he was not a brāhmaṇa leading to a curse. He broke the taboo by killing the cow (Karṇa).
23) Fights a solo battle in a cattle raid against several warriors, including brother warrior, when other defenders are not available: Cúchulainn fights Ferdiad in the battle against the Connacht raiders and Arjuna fights Karṇa in the Kuru raid on Virāṭa (Arjuna/Karṇa ).
24) Kills brother warrior in a great battle which is the or at least one of the main highlights of the conflict under consideration: Cúchulainn kills Ferdiad and Arjuna kills Karṇa (Arjuna/Karṇa).
25) One of the brother warriors has a special armor that confers him invulnerability but fails or is unavailable in the last encounter: Ferdiad’s horn skin and Karṇa special kavaca with which he is born (Karṇa).
26) In their most critical encounter when the brother enemy gains the upper hand his charioteer makes a crucial move that saves the hero and eventually confers him victory: Laeg floats the Gáe Bulga to Cúchulainn. Kṛṣṇa saves Arjuna by the chariot feat and later directs him to deploy the fatal aṅjalika missile when Karṇa is trying to lift up his chariot wheel (Arjuna/Karṇa).
27) The fatal weapon is supposed to be irresistible and pierce the very innards of the foe and said to be bathed in the blood and fat of the foe. In the Irish cycle we hear of: “Cúchulainn saw his weapon [Gáe Bulga] bloody and crimson from Ferdiad’s body.” Likewise the weapon of Arjuna said to be smeared in the blood and fat of the foe. Just as the might of the Gáe Bulga is emphasized, Arjuna’s weapon is described as being powered by Indra and resembling the weapons of Rudra or Viṣṇu or an abhicāra of the Bhṛgu-s and Āṅgirasa-s.
28) The killing of the brother warrior is considered an unfair act: Ferdiad while dying clearly declares his killing by Cúchulainn an unfair act probably referring to the use of the first spear to open his defense before using the Gáe Bulga. Karṇa before being killed objects to Arjuna trying to strike him when he is trying to set right his chariot wheel (Karṇa).
29) The charioteer of the hero in said to be a king among charioteers: Laeg and Śalya, who is the king of Madra (Karṇa)
30) Before being struck by the fatal dart the hero’s chariot is incapacitated: This happens to both Cúchulainn and Karṇa albeit in different ways (Karṇa).
31) Upon their death their corpse is said to be endowed by luster: The solar luster of both the dead Cúchulainn and Karṇa is emphasized in the respective narratives (Karṇa).
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Footnote 1: Lugus in contrast is shown as a tricephalic figure on the European continent.
