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.

His tweets presented below are sufficient to illustrate what Dick Dawkins really stands for:One can see he is no different from an Abrahamist from the past [Update from 2015].

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.

Trimorphism and the rock-scissors-paper game

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 was 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 sexually 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).

From Sandom et al Note that the territorial boundaries of India are wrongly depicted by the white abettors of Mohammedan terrorism;

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 sparassodonts 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 sparassodonts spawned several massive forms such as Callistoe, Arminiheringia and Proborhyaena which was larger than a grizzly bear. By the Miocene these marsupials had 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 and sebecid crocodiles. 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 meiolaniid 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: Notoungulata, Litopterna, Astrapotheria, Pyrotheria and Xenungulata. Their fossils were first identified by Darwin but the real extent of their remarkable radiation in South America became apparent only due to the prolific studies of Ameghino who had a penchant for naming his discoveries after scientists with both the first and the last names. Among these, was Carolodarwinia, a notoungulate. More recent studies have shown that the earliest ungulates that appear in South America are the members of a clade known as the Mioclaenids, which are represented by the early Paleocene Tiuclaenus from Bolivia, known from a lower jaw and fragments of the upper jaw. These could very well be the stem members of the SANU (as proposed by the famous mammalogists Muizon and Cifelli) appearing shortly after then end of the Cretaceous.

a Toxodon (Toxodontidae); b Typotheriopsis (Mesotheriidae); c Paedotherium (Hegetotheriidae); d Nesodon (Toxodontidae); e Protypotherium (Interatheriidae); f Homalodotherium (Homalodotheriidae); g Scarrittia (Leontiniidae); h Rhynchippus (Notohippidae); i Thomashuxleya (Isotemnidae); From Patterson and Pascual

The notoungulates were the most speciose of the SANU and radiated into an astoundingly wide range of clades namely: [1) Henricosborniidae]; [2) Notostylopidae]; [3) Isotemnidae; 4) Homalodotheriidae; 5) Leontiniidae; 6) Notohippidae; 7) Toxodontidae];[ 8) Oldfieldthomasiidae; 9) Interatheriidae; 10) Archaeopithecidae; 11) Mesotheriidae; 12) Archaeohyracidae; 13) Hegetotheriidae]
The square brackets indicate what have been recovered as monophyletic higher order clades by the morphologists. Of these the first two are basal lineages and are seen in the Paleocene deposits from Brazil about 10 Mys after the cataclysmic close of the Mesozoic. By around 35 Mys in the Eocene they had radiated into at least nine of the above clades suggesting a notable diversification over the Eocene. By this time they had achieved considerable morphological diversity taking the ecological niches occupied by perissodactyls and artiodactyls in the Old World. On one end of the spectrum, forms like Toxodon converged on to a rhino-like morphology. Related forms even convergently acquired horns: Adinotherium a small one and Trigodon a large one. On the other end, interestingly, the Hegetotheriids (e.g. Pachyrukhos) converged onto a rabbit-like morphology acquiring both large gliriform incisors and long hind legs which allowed them a saltatory mode of locomotion. Others like the Homalodotheriid (Homalodotherium) converged on to an Old World chalicothere-like morphology with a partially bipedal stance with clawed fore-feet.

a Macruchenia (Macraucheniidae); b Astrapotherium ( Astrapotheria); c Thoatherium (Proterotheriidae); d Theosodon (Macraucheniidae); e Pyrotherium (Pyrotheria); From Patterson and Pascual

The litopterns diversified into at least five distinct clades the 1) Protolipternidae; 2) Notonychopidae; 3) Proterotheriidae; 4) Macraucheniidae; 5) Adianthidae. They are first recorded in the form of fragmentary remains from the Paleocene. The fragmentary Paleocene Didolodontids also show dental and ankle features very similar to the Protolitopternids suggesting that they might be another early clade of litopterns. By the Eocene they had reached Antarctica as shown by the fragmentary remains of Victorlemoinea but there is no evidence that they ever reached Australia. This suggests that they probably extended into Antarctica later than the marsupials. All litoptern ankles show evidence for adaptation towards fast running. However, the Proterotheriids evolved a morphology converging closely on horses with Thoatherium evolving a single hoofed state just like their Laurasian counterparts. The Macraucheniids were litopterns that convergently evolved a camel-like morphology but with a proboscis. The last of these were the victims of the megafaunal carnage with the coming of Homo. There were also small litopterns represented by the Adianthids which might have been fast-running forms generally horse-like in body plan.

The astrapotheres also appear in the Paleocene but became extinct at the end of Miocene. During the Eocene they also invaded the Antarctica, but like the litopterns never reached Australia, suggesting that they were part of the same later extension of South American mammals into Australia. The astrapotheres lost their upper incisors and probably had a horny pad against which the lower incisors operated. The upper canines evolved into tusks and the last two molars were enormous in size as grinding teeth. The late Eocene astrapotheriids were relative small, like the Scaglia a sheep-sized form and Albertogaudrya reaching the size of a small tapir. By the Oligocene they were represented by the large 3 m long Astrapotherium with large tusks and a proboscis. They might have been predominantly amphibious their lifestyle.

The pyrotheres were large SANUs which converged onto an elephant-like morphology: They lost their canines but in their case the two upper and one lower incisors on either side developed into tusks, while the six grinding molariform teeth resemble those of the early elephants. They appear first in the Middle Eocene represented by Colombitherium from of Colombia which was about the size of a tapir. By the early Oligocene we see the gigantic Pyrotherium with a skull of about a meter in length. The pyrotheres share unusual features of their ear morphology with the notoungulates suggesting that they might have been derived from the latter.

The xenungulates are relatively obscure SANU that did not make it past the Paleocene. They are currently, primarily known from two forms, Etayoa and Carodnia. Etayoa shows similarities in teeth morphology to the basal astrapotheriids suggesting a possible link between them.

While the monophyly of the individual higher order SANU groups shows reasonable morphological support the relationships between them have been debated by morphologists. Currently, one may say that none of the proposed features strongly negate or support their monophyly into the monophyletic clade Meridiungulata. Their relationships to the other mammalian groups have also been debated. Some have proposed a relationship with the Afrotherians, which have indeed independently spawned the ungulate morphology in the form of the elephants and their probable sister group Embrithopoda. Others have tried to link the monophyletic Meridiungulata to the other great monophyletic clade of South American mammals the Xenarthrans. Yet others, have seen the Meridiungulata as non-monophyletic but with different groups related to various other mammalian groups – for instance pyrotheriids and xenungulates have been linked to the Dinocerata, another group of mysterious extinct ungulates from the northern continents.

Against this backdrop a remarkable paper was published by Welker et al, who used liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry to determine the protein sequences of the two type I collagen subunits COL1α1 and COL1α2 from the bones of the notoungulate Toxodon and the litoptern Macrauchenia. Strikingly, they managed to recover a good part of the concatenated protein sequence (Macrauchenia: 89.4%; Toxodon: 91.0%), which could then be used for direct estimation of phylogeny. Radiocarbon dating of these bones showed that the Toxodon was around 12 Kys in age while the Macrauchenia was radiocarbon dead suggesting that it was much older. Based on the deamidation of glutamine they estimated the age of the Macrauchenia specimen as being up to 200-300 Ky old. Their studies also suggest that under such conditions collagen is likely to survive maximum for about 4 Mys, indicating that the earlier reported Tyrannosaurus rex collagen was an artefact. We had reached the same conclusion based on the observation that the reported peptides of Tyrannosaurus collagen could not be statistically distinguished from bacterial low complexity proteins making their collagen status most unlikely.

Interestingly, despite collagens being low complexity proteins the sequence obtained by the authors covering approximately 2,100 residues produced a good mammalian tree. We were able to reproduce this ourselves using their sequences and accordingly conclude that their results are entirely believable and pretty robust. The verdict is rather jaw-dropping: The litopterns and notoungulates are monophyletic, and in turn are a sister group of extant perissodactyls: ((Litopterna, Notoungulata),((tapirs,rhinos), horses)). They also sequenced the collagens of an extinct South American horse from Tapalque, Argentina, which vanished as a part of the megafauna extinction. This decisively rules out any possibility of contamination of the Toxodon and Macrauchenia remains by later perissodactyl collagen. Thus, molecular methods have finally lifted the veil of the mystery of the affinities of Litopterna and Notoungulata, dramatically indicating their membership to the greater perissodactyl clade – a relationship that to our knowledge was entirely unknown from morphological studies. Thus, it again underscores how much of phylogeny we really have no clue about given the inability of morphology-only methods resolve tree topologies obscured by evolutionary convergence and extreme divergence.

The implications of this discovery are many – we do not intend to discuss all of them here but briefly touch upon some of those:
● The presence of Litopterna and Notoungulata in the Paleocene suggests that their common ancestor was close to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Given that these two SANU unite into clade at the base of Perissodactyla, it implies that the stem perissodactyl had diverged from its closest sister group in the Cretaceous itself. This in turn overturns the theory of the O’Leary et al that the mammalian orders like Perissodactyla emerged first as part of a radiation that occurred after the great extinction at the K-Pg boundary around 66 Mya. Perissodactyla is united with Cetartiodactyla (the second great clade of extant ungulates and whales), Ferae (Carnivora+Pholidota; carnivorans and pangolins), Chiroptera (bats) and Eulipotyphla (hedgehogs, moles and shrews) into the higher order clade Laurasiatheria. This in turn means that the primary radiation of Laurasiatheria happened in the late Cretaceous. Thus, it brings the estimated time of this radiation with the range of multiple estimates from molecular data which place it typically in the 80-66 Mys window.

● However, it raises an interesting issue: While the monophyly of Laurasiatheria is not in question, certain relationships within have proven difficult to resolve even using molecular data. Within Laurasiatheria, the molecular studies unequivocally place the “insectivoran” clade of tiny mammals, the Eulipotyphla as the basal-most radiation but the relationships between the remaining groups Ferae, Chiroptera, Perissodactyla and Cetartiodactyla has been in a state of flux. One early study united Ferae, Chiroptera and Perissodactyla into Pegasoferae to the exclusion of Cetartiodactyla. There is some support for this based on the insertion sites of the L1 retroposon. With large sequence sets other studies recovered Chiroptera as an outgroup to Ferungulata (Ferae+Euungulata), and Euungulata uniting the two ungulate clades – this is the tree recovered in some analysis of Welker et al’s collagen data. Another study with 3733 protein-coding genes recovered Perissodactyla as a sister-group of Ferae, and Cetartiodactyla grouping with Chiroptera. This uncertainty, even with massive amounts of molecular data, suggests that the radiation of crown Laurasiatheria comprised of the above four groups was an explosive phenomenon which occurred very rapidly with branching events happening in quick succession. This kind of rapid cladogenesis would fit the post-Cretaceous radiation of placentals following the “ecological release” with the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. However, the above inference pointing to a pre-Cretaceous basal radiation of Laurasiatheria giving rise to the above clades is at odds with this scenario.

Furthermore, the anatomy of the potential basal-most Laurasiatherians seen after the K-Pg boundary is not exactly consistent with them having already occupied the niches typical of their extant representatives. We would interpret many of the primitive Laurasiatherians as having incipient, but not entirely developed, characteristics of the extant forms. Thus, the basal ungulates (“condylarths”) seen shortly after the K-Pg boundary depict some interesting features. The arctocyonids, while ungulates, show dental features clearly related to carnivory – this perhaps is an atavistic retention of features from their ancestor shared with Ferae. Indeed, some of the carnivorous “condylarths” were the first to occupy the large carnivore niche among the mammals. On the other hand, some arctocyonids were not just carnivorous but also lightly built and arboreal, making good candidates for the precursors of the chiropterans. The basal Ferae were small carnivores, not unlike some of the basal “condylarths”, in general body plan, except that they were not hoofed. This suggests that the pre-Cretaceous explosive radiation of the Laurasiatheres was unrelated to ecological release or even extensive morphological diversification in response to occupation of distinct niches. Rather it was more likely a radiation of small mammals without any particular accompanying morphological specializations corresponding to diverse niches. Even after the K-Pg boundary many of them appear to have retained a mix of primitive features and their cladogenesis did not necessarily go hand-in-hand with adaptations typical of their extant representatives. Thus, among the primitive “condylarths” there is probably a wealth of incorrectly understood affinities corresponding to the ancestors of the extant groups.

● By establishing the monophyly of Litopterna and Notoungulata, the two largest groups of SANUs, the collagen data raises the possibility of the monophyly of the SANU as Meridiungulata. The three other groups show a web of morphological features linking them one and other or to Litopterna and Notoungulata. This, with the relatively limited presence, suggests that they might after all be simply highly derived versions of a monophyletic Meridiungulata. The linkage of SANU with Perissodactyla indicates that they were derived from within Laurasiatheria after they had undergone their basal radiation in the Cretaceous. When exactly did this happen and how did they reach South America? A clue for this emerges from the observation that the titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur, Alamosaurus, of the largest ever land animals, reached North America from South America. Likewise, certain hadrosaurs and enantiornithine birds might have also been exchanged in the late Cretaceous between North and South America. This suggests that there was period of brief faunal exchange between the two continents in the late Cretaceous. We suspect that the ancestor of Litopterna and Notoungulata reached the South America in the same period, probably along with the ancestor of the southern marsupials and some dinosaurs. This might indirectly support the monophyly of Meridiungulata, given the limited opportunities for reaching the otherwise isolated South America. This also implies that the mioclaenids and didolodontids were indeed basal SANU, which retained the general “condylarth” morphology of their northern counterparts. We do not know for how long such exchanges took place and if there were any back migrations. Some workers have proposed that the northern Arctostylopids, with a general hyrax-like body plan, might have been back migrating Paleocene notoungulates. However, this needs to be viewed with circumspection.

1) Global late Quaternary megafauna extinctions linked to humans, not climate change; Christopher Sandom, Søren Faurby, Brody Sandel, Jens-Christian Svenning; Proceedings B
2) Ancient proteins resolve the evolutionary history of Darwin’s South American ungulates; Welker et al; Nature
3) The fossil mammal fauna of South America; Patterson and Pascual; The Quarterly Review of Biology
4) The Placental Mammal Ancestor and the Post–K-Pg Radiation of Placentals; O’Leary et al Science

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 wants 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 as he 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 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 them to 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 into 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 Sthaniśvara, 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 Sthaniśvara 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 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 a major protege of Khan Suluk. Vasumān quickly headed to his favorite guesthouse and sent for his Turkic paramour to visit him right away.

Vasumān’s local woman informed him that the ācarya of the vihāra she patronized was interested in purchasing some gemstones for the icon of Mañjuśrī. Vasumān accordingly agreed to accompany her to the vihāra along with his assistant. When they reached there the famous Pramukhācarya was giving a lecture. Vasumān heard him say: “There are many cakravartin’s who believed that they have conquered this world. But the true conqueror and chakravartin is the arihant. For him this whole world is just like a mere bead.” Saying so Pramukhācarya held up a spherical metal bead and continued: “It is a small thing for him like this little bead – he is the master of the universe. Just then a wave of agitation passed through the hall and three karmachārin-s ran in and told Pramukhācarya something. He looked alarmed and announced abruptly that the congregation was dismissed. Surprised, Vasumān asked one of the karmachārin-s what the issue was. He told Vasumān that the city was under attack and that the nearby temple of Śiva was being ransacked. Vasumān righteous wrath was inflamed and he immediately asked his assistant to mobilize his private army. In short while, fully armed, they advanced towards the famous śaivamaṭha of Paromūjavant, which to their shock was set ablaze. They saw bearded men leading the attack, who by then were also ravaging Pramukhācarya’s vihāra and the famous Iranic Atash-kadag. Vasumān just then received the news from one of his agents that Kārzāng had been slain in the fierce fighting near the city center. He asked that agent to try to escape the city right away and inform Khan Suluk. Even as he was doing so he saw his Turkic woman being captured and taken away as booty by the attackers.

He realized he was outnumbered by the attackers but decided he would not let the assault on the great śaivamaṭha go unavenged. So with his men he proceeded to the maṭha and decided drive off the attackers. There he was joined by Vāmaśaṃbhu deśika in the great battle against the attackers. Taking cover behind an arch the brave vaṇij showered arrows and deftly jumping down when a beaded attacker passed by he struck down the attacker with his sword. After an hour or so they felt they had repulsed the beards, when to their horror more of them poured in with their black flags waving in the afternoon sun. However, he decided to keep fighting till the end. Through an interpreter the attackers announced that they would stop their assault if the Hindis converted to the religion of Mahāmada. Vāmaśaṃbhu sent the reply that they may die but not convert to the religion of madmen, bhasad-cumba-s and liṅgachedi-s. On receiving that reply the Mahāmada-s resumed a fierce assault. Soon, Vāmaśaṃbhu was struck by an arrow. The attackers horribly mutilated him limb-by-limb and slashed him all over until he expired. Then they placed his disfigured head on a pole and waved it around. Vasumān and his assistant swooned after being wounded in the the close hand-to-hand combat that ensued. Thus, they were captured by the Mahāmada-s and taken to be sold as slaves. After a long and arduous march they reached Merv with many of them dying on the way. In course of their journey they noticed that Pramukhācarya accepted the evil religion of the Mahāmada-s and started dressing and behaving like an Arab. At the market they witnessed sellers shouting out their prices. The Turkic paramour of Vasumān was sold out first in an auction for 15 dirhams. Then they said that Vasumān’s assistant was a black Hindi and hence his minimum price was 2 dirhams, whereas Vasumān being a fair Hindi was worth 10 dirhams. Vasumān was soon purchased and led away, while his assistant fainted in the sun. He was taken for dead and dumped in the near by midden. He eventually regained consciousness, when Pramukhācarya, now going by the name al Baramak, gave him some food and water, and revived him. Al Baramak then knowingly let him escape and after an almost miraculous journey he made it back to the Pañcanada to tell this tale of horror. The horror did not end there and is indeed coming our way – on the way back, the assistant of Vasumān saw that Bhagāgāra was being sacked by roving bands of Mahāmada. There the great king Trivikramasena, after repulsing the hūṇa-s had erected the cakra of the cakravartin – a golden cakra mounted on a rustless iron pillar. The cakra had been venerated as that of Viṣṇu by the āstika-s, as that of the dharma by the tāthāgata-s, and the symbol of Zurvan by the Iranians. That was taken away as the booty of conquest by the marūnmatta-s when the city fell.

◊◊◊◊

It was a Saturday morning. Lootika was dejected with the way the day had started. Varoli had put the ball-bearing Somakhya had gifted Lootika into a tube with HCl and she was delightedly watching it effervescing away. To lift her mood she went to the museum near her house which would be open till noon. She intended look up the papers, which Somakhya had recommended, on staphylinids and ants from the early 1900s by a certain Ramakrishnan of Tanjavur. In those old papers she read that the staphylinids they had observed lay their eggs in the vicinity of the the Formica nest. Apparently guided by an olfactory cue the worker ants bring those eggs into the nest. Once inside, the ants attend to them like their own and the beetle larvae eventually hatch out. They are then fed by the ants until they reach a certain size when they start eating the ant larvae and as well as their own kin. Eventually, those that successfully make it come out and fly away as adults. Apparently, given that the staphylinids practice cannibalism their numbers never run away so as to cause a collapse of the ant colony. At the same time Lootika wondered if the cannibalism actually helped the fittest among them make it to the next generation. Lootika then thought of her vivid dream and of a subhāṣitam Somakhya had quoted from the wise Viṣṇuśarman:

iśvarāṇām idaṃ tantraṃ prāyeṇautsukyam āvahet |
yatas tiraścāṃ caritair nītimārgaḥ pradarśyate ||

This text of the gods might appear puzzling due to its teachings;
However it intends illustrating by actions of animals the path of right politics.

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 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, he 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 in his 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 yesterday’s five hour climb up Candragupta Maurya’s western precipice. 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 other things, 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 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.’
O descendant of Bhṛgu, would you think any of this can survive the razor of knowledge?

S: “O daughter of the Āṅgirasa line before we apply the razor of knowledge let us look at this: Gauss sees the world from the perspective of his suffering and believes, directed by his a priori belief in the ‘highest being’, that the said being should have something more beautiful in mind than the ephemerality and the suffering that characterizes human life. On the other hand he admits, what today we would term the biological component that makes people able bear suffering to different degrees. Now, from the perspective of our own first person experience I can tell you this: Today we are young, sheltered, provided for amply by our parents, and enjoy a certain ease of living on account of which we can pursue the paths among the rarefied heights of mental experience – a luxury which a man or woman born in a low station cannot easily afford. I can also tell you that people like our classmate Vidrum considers and even in the distant future would consider our lives ‘adorned with much worthy of envy’. But in that distant future we will also see suffering as we lead our real lives outside our parents’ shelter, battling various dasyu-s and avrata-s in different struggles. We will also be afflicted by the darts of Paśupati, even though we know the incantation “na bhavo na śarvo neśānaḥ”, and finally one of us will watch the other being consigned to the fires in which we had made our oblations as the final offering to Vivasvān’s bludgeon-wielding son. At that future time though Vidrum would be envious of our station, we would see him as taking his suffering more lightly than us. Now tell me O Ūrṇāyī, if, when confronted by all this that awaits us in the future, you might think that these are but ephemeral dreams before our awakening into that blissful wakefulness where these foregone dreams would be forgotten.”

L: “I too can see some glimpses of the future you see. From the reading of our national epic I have learned that such indeed is the way life – like that of Pāñcālī, the Pāṇḍu-s or Rādheya. I believe it was originally meant by the great sage Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana to be a tragedy. With the destruction of the Yadu-s on the final picnic, the death of the great hero Devakīputra at the hands of a hunter, and the Pāṇḍu-s on their Himalayan climb. But since then the Hindus did not want to see tragedy in literature anymore for we have enough of it in real life. Hence, unlike the Yavana-s who saw a direct catharsis in the tragedy, our ancestors hoped to make every story, however tragic its course, finally end on a more positive note. Thus, in our national epic as we now have it Pāṇḍu-s except the realized Yudhiṣṭhira tragically die one by one on their climb. Even Yudhiṣṭhira is left alone with his dog and despite mounting the great Indra’s car is sent to naraka. But in the end we are presented with a world in spirit much like what Gauss seems to envision. There Yudhiṣṭhira sees Bhīma united with the Maruts, Kṛṣṇa has become Viṣṇu, Arjuna as become Indra, Droṇa has united with the god Bṛhaspati, Abhimanyu has united with Soma, Nakula and Sahadeva have united with the Aśvinau, the 5 sons of the Pāṇḍu-s have become Gandharvas, Bhīṣṃa has returned to his Vasu-hood, Karṇa has united with the Sūrya, Sātyaki had become a Sādhya and Draupadī has become Śrī (though in terms of vaidika equivalence she is actually Sarasvatī). Thus, in the current form our national epic teaches us that there is a rather strong pull for imagining that ideal world and a journey or awakening into it. In terms of first person experience it has probably the same support as the concept of mokṣa, which later the Hindus came to place on much higher pedestal than the attainment of the daiva world. However, to me it appears a transition to such a daiva world would seem like a much more satisfying belief than the colorless, self-looping bliss of the mumukṣu. Thus, I accept that the desire to believe in such can indeed be strong but before we accept ‘suvargaṃ lokaṃ gamiṣyati’ or even mokṣa we need to subject them to a strike from the blade of knowledge.”

S: “O Gautamī, why do think ideas like these arose in the first place?”

L: “O Ātharvaṇa, of course I was going to apply that question to subject them to the test of knowledge. The conviction of the peoples of old in such concepts was strong indeed – there was a certain śraddha in such matters – I suspect it was the strength of this śraddha that made such concepts survive long after the initial experiences that gave rise to it. The future suffering that we are going experience is going to be a very real first person experience to us. Since you and me sort of seem to have the same mind and perhaps even a unified consciousness we might even perceive each other’s experiences. Given this, one could inductively speculate if there is only one common experiencer across all that exists. We believe that this type of speculation repeatedly emerged among the ancients. To add to this the ancients also had vivid experiences from various substances, the yoga of oṣadhi-s and the tāduri (toad), like one discovered by our ancestors the Bhārgava-s and the Āṅgirasa-s in what is known in the Veda as the incantation of the toad.The first person experiences caused by these substances were as real as the reality experienced in their absence. Some of them gave rise to visions that looked like the journey to the daiva realm while others were the experience of unitary universal consciousness. Given these qualia were as real as any other qualia from real life they reasoned that such realms and mokṣa existed. At least among our people they were able to reproduce these to a degree based on practices independent of oṣadhi, i.e. the yoga of the triple bandha, khecari and the like. This reproducibility increased their śraddha in the same. This combined with the nature of life being characterized by sorrow led to the fixation of these memes. But then there was some doubt in the minds of even the ancients regarding the ultimate reality of these worlds – after all you snap out of such visions just like from a dream rather than permanently awakening into them. However, with the mokṣa experience the ancients were able to develop a completely consistent world placing it at the base of a cit-parama axiomatic system. Hence, they saw it as being something greater than the transition to the suvargo lokaḥ. But Somakhya do we now possess a divya-cakṣus to see beyond it?

S: “I have no major disagreement with your summary of these ideas. Their strength is indeed great as a man of highest capacity like Gauss was enmeshed by them. Many have thought that these other loka-s were not mere ideals inhabiting some śuddha-bhuvanādhvan that lie beyond the material real worlds but actual real worlds like Mars, the Sun or some other star or planet. This was indeed a strand of thought among our own ancestors. Gauss too thought that the ‘soul’ could be situated on the Sun or Ceres or some other planet and calculated that according to the gravity of the world on which it is situated it might be of different sizes – like a bug on the Sun or 12 feet tall on Ceres. But with today’s knowledge transpositions to such loka-s seem much less appealing even if it were somehow to be feasible.

More importantly, we have another crucial piece of information. Yesterday I described to you the origin of the animal amine methyltransferases via a lateral transfer from bacteria. These include tryptamine N-methyltransferase, which enables our own pineals to synthesize the molecule N,N dimethyltryptamine. We have access to this molecule in our own bodies and it can confer us the first person experience like the oṣadhi-s or the tāduri. It has been around for a while, from at least the base of the placental mammals. Yet, it almost appears that natural selection has kept out the ability to access such states of experience via such molecules and even in fleeting moments if we do, as you said, we awake out of them rather than into them. Further, many in our religion who have attained a certain permanence of such experiences often tend to belong to or subscribe to the ways of ascetics, which compromises their fitness. Perhaps, it is not without reason my ancestor, Bhṛgu said in the Atharvaṇa śruti that the great Indra slaughtered the yati-s. This was probably to ensure that their ways do not become the ādarśa for the Ārya-s and they do not drop their weapons when in the strife with the Dasyu-s. It is for this, among other reasons, that the Tathāgata and the Nagna were disrupters of the Ārya-patha. Hence, such awakenings into alternative states seem to be anaisargika and not necessarily the goal facilitated by nature for all. To the extent it is pauṣṭika, as it seems it was in Gauss’s case, people may cling to them. But we are unlikely to find it to be pauṣṭika: anṛtam iva dṛśyate

That said, O Lootika, I do suspect there is a different kind of an ideal (which one might call the śuddha-bhuvanādhvan), perhaps it is not something which we awaken into at the time of death, but it is that collection of scripts which run in universe-computer. Hence, when the great Kauśika says in the śruti:
Oṃ bhur bhuvaḥ suvaḥ | tat savitur vareṇyam | bhargo devasya dhīmahi | dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt | paro rajase sāvadom ||
The vyāhṛti-s are verily the universe of space and time. The sāvitrī the energy and matter therein, which we meditate upon. The secret fourth foot is the collection of ideals which form the code of the universe-computer.”

L: “Keeping that in mind may we some day make the sāvitra oblations.”

Just then Varoli came by and called Lootika to join her family as their turn had come to place a garland around the mighty vānara. Somakhya too walked away to join his family.

Go to upakathā of previous: śūlapuruṣa-catvārakam-2

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; their preferred position is that of Chilesaurus as a 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 Chilesaurus inside Theropoda 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 record 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.

upakathā of previous: śūlapuruṣa-catvārakam-1

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 persists 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 an 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.”

◊◊◊◊

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 a 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 lichen 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’. When we see a male praying mantis sacrifice himself to his mate to achieve reproductive success we can see that survival does not matter all to him but he is rather doing all it takes to ‘become more’. In contrast this lichen here seems to be devoting most of its efforts to preserving itself and has hardly a centimeter to show in terms of becoming more in all this time. What is the unifying siddhānta here Somakhya?”

As they started climbing down back towards the bastard poon tree and the Indian ghost tree in whose shade they had chained their bikes, Somakhya responded: “It seems the śūlapuruṣa was keen to distinguish himself from and show that he was going beyond his primary influences like the āngalika Darwin and the other śūlapuruṣa Schopenhauer. However, in the case of old Charles, Nietzsche had heard of him only second hand from his compatriots. His situation was similar to that of the great patriot of our nation, Lokamanya Tilak, who was similarly inspired regarding the slave-making ants among other things by learning of Darwin’s work via the lens of Spencer and the early śūlapuruṣa Darwinians. Consequently, whatever Nietzsche thought as being an improvement of Darwin was already there in old Charles’s work or was a consequence of the śūlapuruṣa’s insufficient knowledge of biology. Nietzsche thought that when Darwin talked of fitness it was merely physical strength but Darwin clearly meant ‘most capable of reproduction’ when he talked of the term fittest. Again, it seems he took survival to mean preservation of the organism, whereas Darwin meant what remains behind, i.e. “survives” the struggle is that which was reproductively more successful, irrespective of what happened to the organism’s body itself. So, effectively we may take the statement, which you cited, as being merely a restatement of the essence of the principle realized by Darwin – thus, Nietzsche and Darwin actually converged.

But indeed in that “improvement” of Darwin by the śūlapuruṣa there is indeed an implicit fingering of a key biological principle. I believe, that is what you saw as a fallacy. All cellular organisms, viruses or even genomic parasites like transposons ultimately face a basic trade-off between a strategy investing in reproduction and one in investing in their own physical survival (which includes effectiveness in conflicts with other organisms). Both strategies can be viable: The dandelions are making more of themselves as fast as they can and invest little in weaponry for conflicts. The lichen in contrast is literally living off rock, air and light – something which few others can do; so it can afford to go slow on its reproduction and also you cannot really go fast in making more of yourself when living off such measly fare. However, it needs to invest much more on its own preservation to sustain this life-style – both in terms of surviving the climatic insults like drying and cold as also other organisms that might try to feed on them. For such organisms preserving themselves occupies more of their investment than ‘making more’. But then we could say that every time an organism preserves itself there is no other purpose to it than to more effectively make more of itself. Thus, the śūlapuruṣa could stake a claim to correct apprehension after all.

However, when we view this in terms of the actual evolutionary changes in organisms it appears that much of it is what allows an organism to hang in there, i.e. survive, rather than confer a direct reproductive advantage. Most often the evolutionary adaptations in organisms come at a cost to what can be invested in reproduction, but without those adaptations the organism will not live to reproduce another day (i.e. become extinct). That, is why our immune systems are complex, potentially dangerous to our own selves and impose a major cost on resources that could have gone towards reproduction – because without it we would not make it to the point of making more of ourselves. This is what manifests in paleontology as the famous ‘Law of Extinction‘, which states that the background rates of extinction (i.e. leaving out catastrophic mass extinctions) for any group of related organisms is constant. A corollary is that organisms need to continually adapt primarily to avoid extinction from competition with others in face of an environment changing over time. Thus, the history of life is inherently a constant 0-sum game; hence, the only victory here is survival. Thus, the siddhānta is that the organism which leaves behind more of itself is the one that persists, but to do so it needs adaptations that allow it to survive the competition it continually faces.”

By then Somakhya and Lootika had reached their bikes. They patted the trunks of the huge bastard poon tree and the Indian ghost tree, each mentally taking in the remarkable coincidence of the two trees growing beside each other. Lootika then remarked: “It does appear that the pramatta-śūlapuruṣa in his urge to show himself as better and distinct from Darwin wound up restating Darwinian corollaries on multiple occasions. I remember one more interesting one that I would like to bring to your attention.” Somakhya: “Pray proceed.”

Lootika then pulled out her computer and read out the following: “He says – ‘Man as a species does not represent any progress compared with any other animal. The whole animal kingdom does not evolve from the lower to the higher – but all at the same time, in utter disorder, over and against each other. The richest and most complex forms – for the expression “higher type” means no more than this – perish more easily: only the lowest preserve an apparent indestructibility.’”

She then continued: “This statement suggests that he arrived at a conclusion that one can reach with a proper knowledge of the evolutionary process as enunciated by old Charles. Ironically, many people who with an air of knowing proclaim to study biology today lack this basic understanding – we see words like “higher organisms”, “higher vertebrates”, “ greater complexity of humans compared to fishes” and such other verbiage in their papers acclaimed by other equally ignorant souls. We have ample examples that drive home this point today – myxozoans have degenerated to a protozoan like state from ancestral animals that once had a nervous system. Likewise, the sister group of vertebrates the tunicates exhibit a degenerate anatomy as adults without a notochord – thus in evolution they have regressed relative the state exhibited by the more primitive amphioxus. On the other hand they have evolved this unusual ability to concentrate vanadium, tantalum, and niobium using sulfuric acid long before any humans isolated these metals. Similarly, from the genomes we can infer that in many ways the nematodes have degenerated relative to the more primitive cnidarians. Regarding the ‘apparent indestructibility’, we can now infer that bacteria and archaea have retained forms and genes today like they did for at least 3.5 billion years and probably are older than the earth itself. But there are no eurypterids around today…”

Somakhya: “Touche. The failure on part of numerous modern scientists to grasp the totality of Darwin is an example of the larger problem, which we may term as ‘the damping of the message of the greater promulgator’. The original teachings of Darwin were in large part not properly understood in the initial period by scientists and thinkers despite being proximal to him. Even the man closest to him, the brilliant Wallace, stumbled while applying the principles of Darwin and his own to the animal called man. Yet others who did do so, applied it in wrong ways though the path was clearly shown by Darwin himself. Then there were people like Owen who despite a lifetime of study and a mountain of evidence they had amassed before their own eyes notably failed to grasp the message of Darwin. Such a damping happened to the early manifestations of such teachings in our midst, namely those of Yājñavalkya and Vasiṣṭha preserved in the Mahābhārata. So also the same thing happened in the midst of the yavanas with Empedocles and among the romākas with the teachings of Lucretius Carus. Against this background, it is notable that with an imperfect transmission Nietzsche managed to rediscover key facets of it in his philosophy. Perhaps another factor behind this was his other great influence, the other śūlapuruṣa Schopenhauer, from whom he actively sought to distinguish himself, who too had converged on Darwinian ideas before Darwin. After all Schopenhauer correctly saw the struggle between organisms as being part of the evolutionary process in what he termed the ‘will’ something used by Nietzsche too.”

Lootika: “Somakhya, your bringing up the ancient ārya-s, yavana-s and romākas leads me to that zone where it is hard to tell where science has ended and philosophy has begun. Most scientists, especially those who have modeled themselves after the idiom of the wicked mleccha-s, do not venture there. Most philosophers are insufficiently educated in the technical aspects of doing science as well as the fundamental constraints that science places. But there exist in that zone several wonderful and even mysterious avenues for exploration that contribute to the completeness of our knowledge and throw light on matters that might defeat a good scientist. As Hindus we subscribe to and practice the totality of that knowledge, since it is a heathen thing. Of the śūlapuruṣa-catvārakam, Gauss did not achieve that totality of knowledge despite his supreme mental capacity because of incompleteness on the philosophical front caused by the pretamata. Schopenhauer had experience with actual science as part of his research on color vision and his extensive study of the works of biologists. However, importantly, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, accessed glimpses of the heathen past, thought not of their own but of the yavana-romākau and the ārya-s. As a result they were able to access aspects of the completeness of knowledge and perhaps that allowed them to channel part of it into scientific insight. Let me read out another statement of the pramatta, which reveals that heathen inspiration with respect to  his theory of the totality of aesthetic understanding, but may also be more generally true of knowledge –

‘I have kept my gaze fixed on those two artistic deities of the Greeks, Apollo and Dionysos, in whom I discern the living and visible representatives of two art-worlds which differ in their deepest essence and highest goals. Apollo stands before me as the transfiguring genius of the principium individuationis [principle of individuation], through whom alone release and redemption in semblance can truly be attained, whereas under the mystical, jubilant shout of Dionysos the spell of individuation is broken, and the path to the Mothers of Being, to the innermost core of things, is laid open.‘

As Hindus we can identify with that one – ironically, in our case those two deities are unified in one Rudra but the dichotomy is maintained between the ūrdhva-srotas (Apollonian) and the four directional srotāmsi (Dionysian). However, would I be right in saying that while Hindus have remained heathens, they need a reamination by reconnecting to their ancient past equipped with fresh understanding to complete their sphere of knowledge?”

Somakhya: “Doubtless; the renewal of philosophical insight among the śūlapuruṣa-s and earlier science itself in the greater mleccha world was via reamination with heathen knowledge. But in response, an important reaction occurred in the world of the mlecchas, which was a major factor in ‘the damping of the message of the greater promulgators’. We must not forget that the mleccha power structure as it continues to this date was established after destruction of heathens by the pretavādin-s (rākṣasavādino vadanti: eko rākṣaso .anyā devā na vartante). At the heart of this power structure lies the scaffolding of rākṣasavāda and it was threatened seriously by the insights of Schopenhauer, Darwin and Nietzsche – the preta literally was in danger of being dead once and for all. This caused an upheaval that had the potential to shake the mleccha world. A similar thing had happened much earlier with the other eka-rākṣasavāda, namely marūnmāda, when encountering the heathen knowledge of the yavana-s and Hindus. There it was eventually smothered by the marūnmatta-s so firmly that it had, and will have, no opportunity of raising its head again. The age was different when it did raise its head this time around among the mlecchas, and its earlier assaults had already weakened the ability of the mlecchas to smother it in the fashion of the marūnmatta-s before them. However, the meme of rākṣasavāda was not to be defeated by such upheavals. It instead remodeled itself in the form of the secular idiom of the mlecchas, which is after all pracchana-rākṣasavāda. In this pracchana-rūpa it invaded the masses of the Hindus when we were conquered by the vile mleccha and our dharma is drowning due to it. Even in the mleccha world it set off a great internal conflict when the śūlapuruṣa-s realizing their servility to the ekarākṣasavāda attempted to shake it off, but due their own insufficiency of understanding, and defeat by their cousins they were forced to submit to it in its open or hidden forms. We too will face such a moment of reckoning where we will have to fight a combined assault of ekarākṣasavāda in its various manifestations to preserve our heathendom or perish in an attempt.

The momentous challenge to the rākṣasonmāda-s and the philosophical renewal in the mleccha lands had its ripples in our midst too. However, our being far away from the action and enslaved by the mleccha tyrants resulted in us to not having our own reanimation. We were of course better placed to achieve it being heathens but did not go too far. Among those responding to the ripples were few men of note: Lokamanya Tilak recognized the importance of Darwin and saw the congruence of the evolutionary process with that seen in sāmkhya. The svāmin Vivekananda and Krishnaverma were deeply influenced by Spencer but never got to a proper understanding of the essence of Darwin who lay at the core of the doctrine. By then, for a long time the Hindus had been rather smug with the insights of uttara mīmāṃsa in its various evolutes and manifestations. In the process they had turned their back in large part on their deeper genius ensuing both from the original śruti and that of ancient sāmkhya in the great epic, Āryabhaṭa, Caraka, Suśruta, Kaṇāda and Akṣapāda. Even though Annambhaṭṭa had emphasized that Pāṇinīyam and Kāṇādam should be combined and form the basis of knowledge there were few listeners. As a result, we were left we few who could surf on the ripples from the mleccha lands to facilitate a reanimation with our own past – in all this only the vaṇga Brajendranath Seal made a solitary but commendable attempt. Hence, as you say such a reanimation is still necessary if a larger Hindu system of knowledge were to rise again.

With the fight back by the ekarākṣasavāda the Dionysian and the Apollonian ceased to coexist. Among those smoldering ruins of the revolution in the mleccha lands arose the fourth of the śūlapuruṣa-s you have studied and he saw their course far into future with few scattered fragments of the Apollonian and Dionysian peppering that path. That future will tumultuously collide with our own, which only few like you and me see, that too very hazily. But as it is already dark we may talk about that another day O Jālikā.”

Then Somakhya and Lootika collected some caṇaka herbs and went towards a nyagrodha tree under which sat an old woman with a goat. They gave the herbs to the goat, for it is an offering to the great god Kumāra in his manifestation as Bhadraśākha. Thereafter they rode away in opposite directions. Half way to her house Lootika passed a hedge where through the corner of her eye she saw her classmate Meghana scowling at her accompanied by three boys whom she did not recognize. To her right an elephant was ambling on the road. Even as Lootika passed them, one of the boys jabbed at her back wheel with a long, stout stick attempting to pass it between the spokes. But the scowl of Meghana had triggered her instincts and she had veered to the right evading his jab. She nearly collided with the elephant but extending her right hand she pushed against the elephant’s fore limb to deflect herself ahead with added speed from the reaction. She remarked to herself: “By Varuṇa that was a narrow one but the wheel rolls on.”

In the future there will be a concluding part relating Oswald Spengler.

Right away we should state that there is going to be some dilation – hence “the like”.

“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 it 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-s 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. In the extreme scenario, 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 Ukraine 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 themselves 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. This affiliation of the Rus even after conversion to the preta fold was the second factor that kept them apart from the western Europeans and their allies. Subsequently, the star of the Rus dimmed under the defeats at the hands of the Mongols. But being defeated by a heathen rather than Abrahamistic force meant that they retained their preta affinities through this dark phase until they were finally revived by the energetic czar Peter-I. He now put them on the path of competing with the powers of western Europe and they were quick to recognize this. However, they saw the Rus as uncivilized and still of a part Asian type who had rudely broken into the party of the Westerners like a bear entering a house to ransack the kitchen. Thus, they tried their best to keep the Rus out. Just as the west was plundering the Americas and Australia, the Rus too felt their urge of the great exploration and colonization. Being a traditional land power they did it their own way by expanding eastwards into Asia and eventually reaching Alaska, which they were coerced into ceding to the USA by āngalika action.

In Europe the first great continental challenge to the āngalika power emerged in the form of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose campaigns in many ways foreshadowed those of the śūlapuruṣa-s in WW2. The Rus saw an opportunity to increase their power and waded into these affairs playing on both sides just as they did in WW2. In the process they expanded their own territory by conquering Georgia and the Derbent Khanate. The activity of the Rus, especially the tacit alliance with the English, alarmed the French who under Napoleon had risen to be the greatest power of continental Europe. Napoleon, now at the head of the biggest army which had ever been assembled in Europe, decided to silence to Rus for good by launching a massive invasion against them. While Czar Alexander and his generals took a heavy beating, and even saw Moscow along with the center of the orthodox church being reduced to ashes, they put up a resolute resistance using the strategic depth of Russia to finally inflict a disastrous defeat on the French.

continued…

“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 she 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 Nikhila’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.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

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 with 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 the 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 as ours 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 the 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 Cathbad 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 her own 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 gives 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 times 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 unfairly 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).

● Consequences for Indo-European
The above examination of motifs reveals what appears, at least to us, an unprecedented parallelism between the epic traditions of two very far-flung corners of the IE world – India and Ireland, which mark in a certain sense (leaving out Tocharian) the extremities of the IE world. While some of these motifs appear elsewhere in the IE world, to our knowledge, and in terms of what has survived the assaults of Abrahamism, these parallels are are the strongest. For example, in the Greek world we have the tale of Ion and Creusa: Ion the founder of the Ionians (Skt: yavana) is fathered by a solar deity on Creusa before her marriage. She then abandons him in a casket with his divine ornaments and cloak and he is brought up by foster parents. He is said to devote his time to worship of the solar deity. Thus, we see motifs of the Karṇa class occurring in this legend but without the later military episodes. In both the Germanic and Iranian world we encounter parallel father-son conflicts (e.g Rostam and Sohrab) and other epic motifs. In the Irish world the Karṇa and Arjuna class motifs are mixed into Cúchulainn and some conferred on his most capable rival Ferdiad, but it represents the fullest expression of such motifs elsewhere in the IE world.

There are some other interesting specific parallels that are shared by the Celtic and Hindu worlds, like the words for king, rix and rājan. Moreover, chariot warfare is important in the epics of both the Hindus and the Celts but not to that degree in the Greek or Roman epics. The Coligny calender of the Celts uses a system of synchronizing lunar and solar cycles similar to the Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa. The are also mysterious later iconographic parallels like that of “Taranis : Indra-Viṣṇu” and the motifs of clearly Indian origin on the Gundestrup cauldron. While the Hindus preserve the largest body of the ancestral IE tradition, which has overlaps with each of the IE traditions some of these specific parallels with the Celts raise thorny and interesting questions: What is the significance of this survival of traditions at the two extremes of the IE world? Do they merely represent the survival of motifs at the fringes of the IE world after the radiation from the ancestral IE homeland or do they mean a later second transfer?

The year 2015 CE has been a landmark year in our understanding of the spread of IE into Europe. Ancient DNA sequencing has provided genomic data from Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze age humans both from western Europe and the steppes of Eurasia. This has thrown considerable light on the timing and direction of population movements that likely corresponded to the early Indo-Europeans. Briefly the data suggests the following. The most likely homeland of PIE was the Caspian-Pontic steppe. Part of the Early IE population, at least that part which invaded Europe, was associated with the Yamna Culture which occupied the steppes to the north of the Black and Caspian Seas. Archaeology suggests that this culture appears to have been pastoral with cattle, sheep, goats and horses, practiced agriculture in vicinity of rivers, and built defensive structures in the form of forts on hills. These features generally match what is expected for the Proto-IEans. The Yamna culture is dated approximately from 5500-4000 YBP. The genetic evidence suggests that by at least 5000 YBP or earlier they had expanded eastwards in the direction of Altai, South Siberia and Mongolia (the Afanasievo culture). These probably brought the precursors of Tocharian to the east. By 4500 YBP, peoples derived from the Yamna culture had launched a massive, rapidly moving invasion westwards into Europe. This invasion smashed the existing European system of Neolithic farmers and resulted in large-scale replacement by the old population by the invading Yamna-derived populations. It is most likely that these brought the precursors of Celtic, Italic and Germanic languages to Europe.

However, the currently available evidence points only to the presence of wagons not chariots in the Yamna and immediate descendant cultures of Europe. This has been used to suggest the absence of classical chariots with the spoked wheel in the PIE period. These type of chariots appear only later in the Sintashta culture, earliest at 4100 YBP. Based on this it has been proposed that Sintashta corresponds to the early Indo-Iranians because both their earliest texts mentions the spoked wheel chariot (e.g. the phrase arān na nemiḥ occurs multiple times in the Ṛgveda [Footnote 2]). This proposal is further supported by the evidence for Uralic contact in Indo-Iranian and early Indo-Aryan given that the Uralic zone and Sintashta zone are in close proximity. The word for chariot, rátha, had udātta on first syllable unlike the reconstructed PIE form with udātta on second syllable. This seems to have marked the semantic shift from wheel in the ancestral state (e.g. retained in German and transferred to bicycle in recent times) to chariot. In this context a further wrinkle, which has emerged from the ancient DNA evidence, needs to be noted: There is some evidence that the Sintashta and its successor Andronovo culture are not directly derived from the earlier Yamna. Rather they appear to be a reverse eastern movement of the earlier Yamna peoples who went west into Europe and mixed with the local populations therein.

If this were the case then how do we account for the parallelism between the Celtic and Hindu epic traditions with a prominent role for the chariot and the charioteer?

Several possibilities present themselves:
1) The chariot tradition developed earlier in the PIE period itself but did not refer to the spoked chariot but the solid wheeled one (a Talagerian view mouthed uncritically by Hindu OITists). Later it was transferred to the spoked wheel chariot.
2) Like above, the chariot tradition developed earlier in the PIE period itself but it has simply not yet been recovered in earlier steppe sites sampled to date. In this context we may point out that while the solid wheel depictions are more common in Sindhu-Sarasvati sites the spoked wheel appears there slightly before (may be ~100-300 years) it does at the Sintashta sites. Hence, there could have been an earlier presence of spoked wheels bring it close to the dispersal of IE into inner Europe.
3) The movement that gave rise to the Sintashta culture, which began deeper in Europe was the one in which the spoked wheel was indeed innovated. From this culture, the technology was transferred along with a specific class of linked legends pertaining to chariot warriors to the proto-Celts who were proximal to the earliest Sintashta people. These Sintashta people later bore these legends and the chariot to the Indian world. This last explanation might account for the unusual pattern of specific similarities.

This also has bearing on the timing of origin of the Indo-Aryans and the timing of the famous AI and thereby parts of the Vedic corpus. The Ṛgveda has a clear memory of the Caspian region and the ancient DNA from the steppes (Yamna, Sintashta/Andronovo and ) do show links to the component termed “Ancestral North India” in the Indian ancestry. This puts the origin of the Indo-Aryans in the same general region. However, in the absence of ancient DNA data from India a direct estimate of the time cannot be done unlike what has been published now for Europe and Eastern Asia. If indeed the Sintashta were the early Indo-Iranians then it is likely that the Indo-Aryans reached India only after the end of the mature phase of the Harappan civilization. This the preferred position of the white Indologists. This would mean late dates (not older than ~4100 YBP but more like 3500 YBP) for the Vedic corpus more in line with what the white indologists have consistently believed. Now, we cannot entirely rule out that the Indo-Aryans instead reached India earlier via an extension of the early Maykop culture. The philological analysis of Hindu tradition points to more than one wave of invading Aryans in the form of the Śalva-s and Pāṇḍava-s. This raises the possibility of an earlier wave which brought the spoked wheel to the Harappan civilization and the later waves corresponding to groups like the Śalva-s and Pāṇḍava-s. Then there is also a similar scenario where the chariot culture reached them secondarily as a technological adaptation but this is not consistent with the Indian linguistic evidence. Thus, the timing of the AI still needs data to be properly resolved. But if Hindus neglect this field of investigation they are likely to consigned to the position of “secondary Indo-Europeans” by the white Indo-Europeanists – a state much worse than the glorious OIT of their dreams.

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Footnote 1: Lugus in contrast is shown as a tricephalic figure on the European continent.

Footnote 2: It is common for western Indo-Europeanists, including the less educated white indologists, to propose that main thing linking the Sintashta culture to the I-Irians is the presence of burials corresponding to rituals mentioned in the Ṛgveda. This is however an exaggeration. Such burials do not have any specific features linking them to the funerary sūkta-s of RV or Avestan tradition – rather it is the fertile imagination of western archaeologists with little philological training.

Somakhya, standing beside a pillar outside his university department, glanced at his watch with a tinge of irritation as he waited for Lootika to show up. She was to bring her sister Vrishchika from the medical school, which was some distance away, and meet him there. Beside him were several of his classmates. One clump was talking about how difficult the latest lessons on the chemical synthesis of peptides were and how it could slay them in their exams. Another group was less worried and talking about sexual pleasures, cricket and films. Yet another set had formed a little circle with Sharad, who was considered a seasoned politics buff, in the middle. He was giving his nuggets of political wisdom even as the other classmates were approvingly listening and adding their own tidbits. Just then a student from the history department walked by and delivered a brisk spray of tāṃbūla-rasa on the pillar with a click of his mouth. Somakhya anticipating his action moved away from the pillar even as he watched the red parabola terminate on the pillar and in turn bounce off as little droplets to the floor. He mentally remarked: “So much for Vātsyāyana’s effort to inculcate the use of a pot among our peoples.” As he did so he noticed that the said student wore a shirt with a mug shot of Che Guevara and a cap with an image of a dustbin printed on it. From this he realized that he belonged to the PB [Pratibhraṣṭācār] party founded by a rabble-rouser, Rajiv Jaisval, from the rājadhānī. Then he overheard Sharad say: “Pakistan is Duryodhan and Afghanistan is māmā Śakuni. Yāroṇ, this is just a repeat of the Mahābhārat. Duryodhan will take us to Kurukṣetr where all of us would be destroyed. Hence, I think the PM is right in keeping the peace channel open like bhagavān Kṛṣṇ did.” Another classmate said: “Then who are the cīna-s?” Sharad: “They are like bhagavān Balrām – they will support Duryodhan but we can deal with them diplomatically like bhagavān Kṛṣṇ did because they are rational players.” Thus, their conversation went on.

Just then Somakhya sighted Lootika and Vrishchika arrive like Sinīvāli and Anumati. Noticing the frown on his face Lootika said: “I am sorry for keeping you waiting; it was not at all my intention to hold you up here. We had to take a lengthy detour because there was a caḍḍi morcā being staged by the PB party activists just outside the history department and a beśarmī morcā by the feminists outside the English department. You can imagine the chaos that ensued when the two met. But we have something really interesting for you O Bhṛguvaṃśin!”
Somakhya: “It was with that hope I waited for you two Gautamī-s, as you have been saying since the morning that you might have something interesting without telling me what it might be.”
Lootika: “You would recall that sometime ago Vrishchika had brought to your attention the case of the patient who had died a gruesome death from a mycosis after receiving a steroid injection for back-pain.”
Somakhya: “Yes, I had identified the mucor as being Mortierella.”
Vrishchika: “Indeed, I am still hoping to put together a little paper with a case study on that but we might have something way more interesting here.”
Lootika: “I managed to have the genome of the fungus sequenced. It shows good synteny with the species in the database but there these fairly gene-rich regions where the synteny breaks down. We have collected all those genes and have prepared a list for you. I am waiting to hear what you might have to say about these genes.”
Somakhya transferred the data to his computer and took a quick look: “Interesting, many of them seem to be part of a paralog expansion. Let’s head to my house and look at them more closely – it seems promising.”

Just then they overheard one of the guys in the group discussing politics animatedly say: “How could you say such things being a student of science. Be it the god of the Christians, or that of the Moslems, or Hindus, it is the same thing, and in this day and age science has emphatically taught us that there is no god, hence no religion. We better have people focus on economics, corruption, and humanity than on religion. Religion has only brought us trouble.” Then another guy went off: “But Hinduism is different. The principles of Hinduism have always been the same as secularism. That is why I say let us have real secularism and that is no different from Hinduism. What the Christians and the Musalmans are calling for is pseudo-secularism.” Somakhya, Lootika and Vrishchika looked at each other with a smile.

Somakhya: “Let’s be going.” As they started towards Somakhya’s house Lootika remarked: “Vrishchika and I drop in sporadically at the right-wing student’s debating club for an occasional dose of entertainment and these worthies are all there.”
Somakhya: “What a waste of time.”
Vrishchika: “Totally, but just once or twice a semester.”
Lootika: “But their discussions like this did bring to mind your remark from school days of the importance of distinguishing between homologies and analogies in historical and political discourse. Subsequently, I discovered that the fourth of the śūlapuruṣa-s whom we alluded to was perhaps to first to state this explicitly.”
Somakhya: “Just to be clear, I had arrived at the same independently of him but of course nice ideas are few and mostly someone has had it before you. Indeed, it seems the fourth śūlapuruṣa was the first to voice it but I must stress that my vision of it is not identical to his.”
Lootika: “Notably, surprising as it might seem, many biologists are not aware of it is importance. Perhaps, some of them understand it to a lesser degree than the turīyaḥ śūlapuruṣaḥ despite all his flaws.”
Somakhya: “The mode of operations in biology breeds many ‘bauddha-s’: they sound like they have seen a real sūkta but what they really have is an imitation sutta in the vulgar Pāḻi.”

Just then they reached Somakhya’s house and having parked their aśva-s went into his home lab. Vrishchika remarked: “Could you tell me more of what the turīyaḥ śūlapuruṣaḥ had to say in this regard and how we would see it today?”
Somakhya pulled up the appropriate part from the copy of Spengler’s magnum opus on his computer and handed it over to Lootika: “Ūrṇāyī, could you please read it out aloud for all of us. While some of the homologies detected by Spengler were wrong it is still to useful to revisit what he thought. Moreover, even we as biologists occasionally make mistakes in this regard due to the incompleteness of data.”

Lootika read it out: “Biology employs the term homology of organs to signify morphological equivalence in contradistinction to the term analogy which relates to functional equivalence. This important, and in the sequel most fruitful, notion was conceived by Goethe (who was led thereby to the discovery of the ”os intermaxillary” in man) and put into strict scientific shape by Owen; this notion also we shall incorporate in our historical method.

It is known that for every part of the bone-structure of the human head an exactly corresponding part is found in all vertebrated animals right down to the fish, and that the pectoral fins of fish and the feet, wings and hands of terrestrial vertebrates are homologous organs, even though they have lost every trace of similarity. The lungs of terrestrial, and the swim-bladders of aquatic animals are homologous, while lungs and gills on the other hand are analogous — that is, similar in point of use. And the trained and deepened morphological insight that is required to establish such distinctions is an utterly different thing from the present method of historical research, with its shallow comparisons of Christ and Buddha, Archimedes and Galileo, Caesar and Wallenstein, parceled Germany and parceled Greece. More and more clearly as we go on, we shall realize what immense views will offer themselves to the historical eye as soon as the rigorous morphological method has been understood and cultivated. To name but a few examples, homologous forms are: Classical sculpture and West European orchestration, the Fourth Dynasty pyramids and the Gothic cathedrals, Indian Buddhism and Roman Stoicism (Buddhism and Christianity are not even analogous) the periods of “the Contending States” in China, the Hyksos in Egypt and the Punic Wars; the age of Pericles and the age of the Ommayads; the epochs of the Rigveda, of Plotinus and of Dante. The Dionysiac movement is homologous with the Renaissance, analogous to the Reformation. For us, ”Wagner is the résumé of modernity,” as Nietzsche rightly saw; and the equivalent that logically must exist in the Classical modernity we find in Pergamene art.

The application of the ”homology” principle to historical phenomena brings with it an entirely new connotation for the word “contemporary.” I designate as contemporary two historical facts that occur in exactly the same — relative — positions in their respective Cultures, and therefore possess exactly equivalent importance. It has already been shown how the development of the Classical and that of the Western mathematic proceeded in complete congruence, and we might have ventured to describe Pythagoras as the contemporary of Descartes, Archytas of Laplace, Archimedes of Gauss. The Ionic and the Baroque, again, ran their course contemporaneously. Polygnotus pairs in time with Rembrandt, Polycletus with Bach. The Reformation, Puritanism and, above all, the turn to Civilization appear simultaneously in all Cultures; in the Classical this last epoch bears the names of Philip and Alexander, in our West those of the Revolution and Napoleon. Contemporary, too, are the building of Alexandria, of Baghdad, and of Washington; Classical coinage and our double-entry book-keeping; the first Tyrannis and the Fronde; Augustus and Shih-huang-ti; Hannibal and the World War.”

Vrishchika: “While I never read the whole prolix tome of the turīyaḥ śūlapuruṣaḥ, I did read this part when agrajā asked me to read it. I thought it was interesting but passed over it because he like the unmatta-śūlapuruṣa betrayed a certain misunderstanding of the āṅgalika Darwin – raising questions of how deep an insight he had attained.”

Somakhya: “He too like Nietzsche felt he was doing better than Darwin – perhaps somewhat parochially he felt what was worthwhile in Darwin was already known among the śūlapuruṣa-s due to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. But in the end he is only paraphrasing Darwin and misunderstood the principle of ”survival of the fittest” like many others. He understood the principle of homology sufficiently to use. It was after all used effectively in the context of the analysis of grammar, perhaps more precisely, by Patañjali in our midst in the old days.”

Lootika: “Here is what he says in passing regarding old Charles: It is not superfluous to add that there is nothing of the causal kind in these pure phenomena of “Living Nature.” Materialism, in order to get a system for the pedestrian reasoner, has had to adulterate the picture of them with fitness-causes. But Goethe — who anticipated just about as much of Darwinism as there will be left of it in fifty years from Darwin — absolutely excluded the causality-principle. And the very fact that the Darwinians quite failed to notice its absence is a clear indication that Goethe’s “Living Nature” belongs to actual life, “cause”-less and “aim”-less; for the idea of the prime-phenomenon does not involve causal assumptions of any sort unless it has been misunderstood in advance in a mechanistic sense.”

Lootika then continued: “Indeed as Nietzsche too realized it is aimless and doesn’t per say have an extrinsic cause. Rather, the cause is fitness in itself – this is what they seem to have misunderstood.”

Somakhya: “In philosophical terms, that indeed relates to natural selection being a corollary to the most basic axioms of biology: namely, 1) the central dogma and the “globular” geometry of functional proteins and 2) the folded functional state of ribozymes, riboswitches, tRNA, rRNAs etc making active sites mostly inaccessible to directed mutators (i.e. the intelligent designer). Thus, evolution is restricted to the process of natural selection, which has the fitness clause folded inside it.”

Vrishchika: “So can the homology principle apply even if we are uncertain of the axioms of our system, unlike the case of biology where we know them as stemming from the geometric constraints interacting with the underlying chemistry?”

Somakhya: “Now say in our language we consider the following words as our old thinkers had suggested: paṭhati, paṭhana, pāṭhaka, pacana, pacati, pācaka we may note there are some common functions shared by paṭhati and pacati, paṭhana and pacana, and by pāṭhaka and pācaka, then paṭhati, paṭhana, and pāṭhaka share some functions while pacana, pacati, pācaka share some functions. The principle of homology allows us to discern various modules just like we discover domains in proteins or RNAs with conserved folding. The equivalents would be the roots, pac- and paṭh-, the verbal ending -ati, the nominal suffix -ana, and the nominal suffix -aka which also strengthens the root itself. Hence, we can see these as the homologous modules of words, which, just like domains fusing to constitute proteins with functions going beyond those of the individual domains, fuse to form words with meanings beyond the modules. This shows that even if equivalents of the axioms of biology do not exist in the linguistic system, the principle of homology can still be used for successful analysis and prediction of function. Thus, if you now encounter a strange word like iṅgati you still know how to constrain its possible function. Then we can extend this between languages e.g. we have the root pac whereas the greater clade of the śūlapuruṣa-bhāṣā-s have bak, which are homologous.”

Lootika: “Thus, what matters is identifying descent from a common ancestor. If we can identify the paths of descent from the component in the ancestor for each component in our sample of comparison, we can differentiate similarity due to common origin from convergent similarity. Then we can make meaningful inferences of homology that lead to some insight about why things are a certain way or a predictive insight.”

Vrishchika: “We can clearly see biopolymers like nucleic acids and proteins, and languages as evolutionary systems which adhere to the principle of descent from a common ancestor with modification. But what about history? After all the śūlapuruṣa wants us to see historical layers of different cultures as homologous which we could rather interpret as being purely convergent. For example, a whale is close to hippo, whereas we are close to a tree-shrew. Yet in brain size and cognitive capacity we and the whales have achieved a degree of equivalence – a convergent process. Likewise, when our śūlapuruṣa homologizes the age of Pericles among the yavana-s and the age of the Umayyads among the marūnmatta-s I would say he is merely seeing a convergence; Where is the descent from a common ancestor?”

Somakhya: “Upagautamī, the way one could look at the śūlapuruṣa’s thoughts on civilizational homology is thus: Imagine the civilization to be like an organism developing from a single zygote and temporally expressing various morphological features. Now when you look at the zygote of a man and one of a crocodile the homologies will not be apparent at that point. But as the embryos develop you will see that both develop equivalent sets of tissues, organs and systems which you are now able to see as being homologs of each other. Likewise, he believes that as two civilizations develop then they would temporally express morphological features that can be identified as being homologous. Now in biology, we know that though those homologies are not visible in the zygote, they are all there as a “program” encoded in the genetics of the organisms. They express themselves only later as the program is executed. Thus, Spengler’s idea implies that the civilizations in their embryonic state have homologous programs that execute themselves as the civilization develops. Now, outre as it might seem, at least in some cases we might see something like this in action. In the case of the Indo-Europeans, they originated from a common ancestor in the steppe zone in vicinity of the Caspian and Black lakes. Right in their ancestral homeland they had developed an elaborate civilizational scaffold in the form of legends, epic narratives, divine abstractions, and ritual practice. This was the program which they carried with them as they founded new embryonic civilizations in India, Iran, West Asia, Greece, and Rome, among others. That program inherited from their cultural ancestor was executed in each of those civilizations – that was the inbuilt homology which executed itself. In some cases they supplemented it with code from their neighbors and the older people of the lands they conquered; these were what we would term horizontal transfers, an important concept in evolution that was absent in the days of Spengler. Thus, one could see that when the full civilizational expression occurred after the various Indo-European groups settled in their various new homes the execution of the program resulted in elements that could be considered truly homologous. For instance I would consider expressions such as Roman law and Mānava dharma homologous in this vein. Likewise, the development of Neo-Platonism and classical post-vaidika vedānta can be seen as homologies expressing in the Hellenes and the Hindu world. Hence, one could see the periods when these developments happened as being homologous in those two cultures as per the śūlapuruṣa’s idea. Here we are still talking of Indo-Europeans who have a common cultural and partly common genetic ancestry. However, other comparisons, as his between the age of Pericles and the Umayyad Khalifa, indeed enter a more murky zone, where convergences tend to obscure genuine evolutionary affinity”

Lootika: “Talking of lateral transfers, we could extend the idea of such homologies to homologous memes. After all we had shown when in school that many innovations relating to apoptosis, immunity, conflict spread among bacteria and were also laterally transferred to distant eukaryotic groups like plants and animals to produce comparable systems in each place. Thus, the transfer of memes, which would then by definition be homologous, could produce similar expressions between distant civilizations.”

Somakhya: “Indeed, in addition to the ”vertically” inherited memes that result in subsequent civilizational homologies the laterally transferred ones too play a role. One could cite the examples of Hindu memes in the Nipponic civilization or the Iranic memes in the Mongol tradition. Likewise, it was the lateral transfer of Hellenistic memes that caused the scientific developments attributed to the realm of the early marūnmatta-s and later what the mlecchas term the Renaissance. Thus, these are genuinely homologous elements that need to be discerned to correctly understand historical developments.”

Lootika: “All these fit well with the basic understanding of evolving systems, which we have perfected in biology, and of course I agree that using these are central to proper historical analysis. However, it appears that the śūlapuruṣa in his ideas on homology, even if inaccurate, was suggesting something more – it would seem as per him all cultures and civilizations have some deeper program being executed. For example, we can see that the Hellenistic, and Hindu civilization followed a certain trajectory – the embryonic Indo-European foundation, a vigorous period/s of glorious expression with national unity or “the classical phase”, a period of political fragmentation while retaining cultural unity/creativity, and finally a complete demise or near demise under the assault of one or more Abrahamistic infections. Now, we could say that the inherited Indo-European blueprint they shared was what conditioned the similarity of trajectory. But then I would say that we do see this even in a non-Indo-European civilization, like that of the Egyptians, playing out on a different time scale. Now, one could say that this was because all these civilizations were strongly interacting in antiquity. However, we see elements of it even the Sinitic, Nipponic and Mayan civilizations. Of course the period of encounter with Abrahamism and the civilizational state makes a big difference in way the outcomes play out but there are parallels of the overall trajectory – ultimately the overall decline of Sinitic and Nipponic civilization involved an encounter with Abrahamism. At first thought I would have brushed these aside as generic similarities and not given much weight to the śūlapuruṣa’s considerations. However, I was struck by the fact that on the basis of such ideas he was rather successful as a futurist. Hence, I wonder if we should see a deeper civilizational program which might actually arise from the sociobiology of humans themselves – where issues like regulation of sexuality, fecundity, etc interact with factors such as group and kin selection and finally memes that participate in and out-group recognition.”

Vrishchika took Somakhya’s computer from her sister and remarked: “Thank you both for the clarifications. In light of all this, it would seem that the deeper homology or equivalence between cultures which we would not regard as closely related seems would lie at the heart of the śūlapuruṣa’s writings. That is how I would take this account of his: ‘‘I hope to show that without exception all great creations and forms in religion, art, politics, social life, economy and science appear, fulfill themselves and die down contemporaneously in all the Cultures; that the inner structure of one corresponds strictly with that of all the others; that there is not a single phenomenon of deep physiognomic importance in the record of one for which we could not find a counterpart in the record of every other; and that this counterpart is to be found under a characteristic form and in a perfectly definite chronological position…””

Then Vrishchika continued: “He even sees this as having the role of paleontology plays in inferring anatomy of long-vanished forms: ”Reconstructing long-vanished and unknown epochs, even whole Cultures of the past, by means of morphological connections, in much the same way as modern palaeontology deduces far-reaching and trustworthy conclusions as to skeletal structure and species from a single unearthed skull-fragment.” In this he was perhaps inspired by the research of Baron Friedrich von Heune who had discovered the cladistic method of phylogenetic inference in paleontology, which for long was ignored by paleontologists elsewhere in the world, only to be rediscovered closer to our times. Now this view of the śūlapuruṣa is also apparent in the comparative tables of civilizations he provides to illustrate the previous point I just read out. There civilizations are arrayed as though playing out a developmental plan, as you mentioned, with a ”homology” in their cognate growth stages which are labeled from spring to winter. That civilizations have a such phases is not in doubt – in the case our own civilization we undoubtedly see a certain refreshing vigor at the dawn of our civilization in the śruti-s of the Ṛk and the early Atharvāñgirasa. We see a certain genius in our early medical tradition from the latter texts and Caraka, in the mathematics of the Śulba, and in the sūtra-s of the sages Kaṇāda and Akṣapāda. Over time we even see a certain maturity: in the religion of the Tantra-s, the medicine of Vāgbhaṭa, and the genius of king Bhoja and Bhāskara. Then we see an autumn where the soma-drinking Nīlakaṇṭha and Loliṃbarāja standout like the bright colors of the deciduous leaves and an Appayya like a sprinkling of snow shining on the footpath on an autumn evening. We are indeed in that winter where we shudder in the confines our heated homes with a blizzard blowing all around us, even as the walls of the vidyāpīṭha are painted red by an activist of the Pratibhraṣṭācār party and our classmates ask: ”why waste time on an earthworm or a rat when the objective in med-school is slice open a nṛ-kalebara?” Now the question is if the course similar for other civilizations?”

Somakhya: “And the day may come when the blizzard shatters the safety of the shelters. Thus, indeed with the violence of a February night lie shattered the cultures of the Maya, Greece, Egypt and Iran with their fragments blown all over to be collected by bandits at their leisure. But coming back to the issue of the deep homology we may ask to types of questions: 1) What is the evidence for it? 2) Can we reach the conclusion that such a thing might happen from examination of the data or by means of analogies we have at hand? We know that mythologies of IE cultures are related. But some have noticed that many relationships in the mythosphere that go well beyond the ancestral IE, probably back to the first humans who left Africa and encountered the Neanderthals, Denisovans and others, and perhaps a few go back even to our deep African roots. Likewise we see faint linguistic echoes of a distant past that might again go as far back as the African roots. Now those are signs of descent from a common ancestor who already possessed a spoken language and a body of legends regarding origins, animals and plants, and the sky along with a sense of ancestors living on in some form past their expiration and a world of gods. So those are deep homologies relating to descent from a common ancestor. Now humans also share other neural synapomorphies in the form of the capacity for language with some hard-coded linguistic features, the capacity for myths and the capacity for religion. These are aspects of the ”inbuilt hardware” which interact with the evolving memetic ”software” in the form of the actual legends and language acquired from the ancestor. This we might see as possible evidence for deep homology between cultures. From this one might posit that the interaction between biology and the evolving memes would result in similar features being repeatedly produced across the mythospheres and languages of distant cultures. Hence, it is possible that Spengler’s surmise regarding historical development of cultures emerge from similar processes as those for myths and languages. As a biological analogy we know that the endosymbiosis of cyanobacteria gave rise the primary plant lineage. Then they were engulfed by eukaryotes giving rise to several secondary photosynthetic lineages. Across all these lineages was the deep homology of chloroplasts and a gene-repertoire of cyanobacterial origin. Those repeatedly favored the emergence of comparable “plant-like” morphologies across many of these lineages. Hence, while we would properly describe these as convergences in biology, they still are conditioned and channeled by a deep underlying homology interacting with selection by geometric constraints.”

Lootika: “Jāmadagnya, in addition to memes, we may also add their technological equivalents the temes interacting with the underlying biology. One may even say that the śūlapuruṣa was perhaps one of the first make note of a concept that would lead to temes. He says: ”The peasant, the hand-worker, even the merchant, appear suddenly as inessential in comparison with the three great figures that the Machine has bred and trained up in the cause of its development: the entrepreneur, the engineer, and the factory-worker.” Then we may also ask why technological innovations of high standing to do not persist in civilizations – Why did the surgical instruments of Divodāsa vanish; why was the Antikythera mechanism forgotten; why did Mayan way of building concrete roads cease to exist? It does seem to suggest that technologies emerge at a certain points in the evolution of independent cultures and may vanish unless a certain process of lateral transfer disperses them more widely between cultures, even as the lateral transfer of memes. The inventor of a technology may not be the one who actually benefits from it – hence, a teme might perish due to the indifferent or negative fitness advantage it confers on the host, unless it has other means to laterally spread itself. Rather than the inventor, someone else who has merely acquired a teme by lateral transfer might make most use of it. In biology, as you discovered, the bacterial peptide-modification systems ”invented” the SET domain methyltransferase but it remained marginal therein, hardly in the league of the other methylases. However, when eukaryotes acquired it, it became mainstream ”technology” – there is no eukaryotic life without SET domain methylases. Likewise, many technologies were invented by mlecchas but it was not they who made most use of it; rather it was the pītavarṇa-śvapaca-s and bindudhvaja-s who did so. Hence, the śūlapuruṣa prophetically feared that technologies invented by gaurāṅga-s might help anyavarṇa-s against them – the fight of this type launched by the bindudhvaja-s on the gaurāṅga-s is well-known to the discerning. Finally, like successful memes which might be maladaptive to the host, the spread of certain temes might also be maladaptive to the host and drive cultural senescence. Following the śūlapuruṣa we may say money itself might fall in this category: I don’t know whether it is all meme or teme or mixture of both, but as it becomes the central focus of the culture it exposes the said culture to a certain vulnerability which allows senescence to set in.”

Somakhya: “Indeed! Regarding that last point O Ūrṇāyī and Alalūmā: In that matter lay the original strength and the eventual the failure of the brāhmaṇa, and is ironically also the block on which the Bhārata-s stumbled to be left with very little wealth of their own.”

Vrishchika: “So, Vatsajanya and agrajā in conclusion can we conclude that an extension of the śūlapuruṣa’s ideas is still valid? One where we do accept a deep biological homology but see it as interacting with vertically inherited and laterally transferred memes and temes of ancient as well as more recent origin. The determinism that it suggests is not entirely different from the ancient conception of our ancestors, which we share with the yavana-s and others, expressed in the form of the caturyuga view of history. It is ironic since the śūlapuruṣa saw us as being ahistorical and atemporal, much like most gaurāṅga-s see us. Keeping with his background, the śūlapuruṣa’s forecast spans just one cycle but there is nothing to preclude a certain degree of cyclicity as held in our tradition. But the realization of determinism leads to a certain foreboding and what some like to term fatalism. This feeling is even more demoralizing to a civilization already reaching the winter of its existence. We see that in the life of the great yavana sage Proclus and even in the optimism of Georgios Gemistos Plethon we can sense the last flash of a spluttering flame…”

Somakhya: “Well the original śūlapuruṣa-s would have said that after the Ragnarok, Modi and Magni would return with Vidarr and in our thought there is still a new cycle that will come, for which the seeds must exist in this one. Then if those ideas still sound empty to you at least we should at least bring down the skambha even as the yuga-cakra turns, for when the time come there is the teaching regarding the great axe-wielding Rāma’s battle with the Vītahavya-s, Tuṇḍikera-s, and Tālajaṅgha-s [Not given, as it cannot be stated in public]. But then ladies we have wandered from our purpose of meeting –  time is running short and let us get back to our mucor.”

What they discovered that day was to be a big story in their lives, one which they were only able to fully unravel and utilize only when Indrasena joined them.

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At a later time… Vrishchika: “ārya, I heard from my senior Vidrum that the train-stop near my old home was vandalized yesterday by the PB party members.”
Indrasena: “svādiṣṭhā, there is not a word of it in the news. You may remember the day the PB activist Nitish Singh had killed his wife in your old city. All news reports said she had died by accidentally falling down the stairs.”
Vrishchika: “I don’t think I told you this, I was part of the team that had performed the autopsy – it was rather obvious that she had been killed. Agrajā had asked to me read the words of the old śūlapuruṣa then:
”And the other side of this belated freedom — it is permitted to everyone to say what he pleases, but the Press is free to take notice of what he says or not. It can condemn any “truth” to death simply by not undertaking its communication to the world — a terrible censorship of silence, which is all the more potent in that the masses of newspaper readers are absolutely unaware that it exists [He then goes on to note that this is worse than all the books burned by the Chin Shi Huang].”

Indrasena: “Vrishchika, he continues: ”…but in no other Civilization has the will-to-power manifested itself in so inexorable a form as in this of ours [i.e. the śūlapuruṣa’s mleccha civilization]. The thought, and consequently the action, of the mass are kept under iron pressure—for which reason, and for which reason only, men are permitted to be readers and voters — that is, in a dual slavery —while the parties become the obedient retinues of a few, and the shadow of coming Caesarism already touches them. It is this mleccha-kṛtā kṛtyā which has been sneaked into our midst via laterally transferred memes, and is now used to subjugate our people.”

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There will be further part/s on Spengler

A version of this article was published originally at India Facts

The Hindu encounter with Abrahamism began with the initial expansions of the second (Christ cult) and third (Mohammedanism) versions. Hindus figured among the early victims of the second Abrahamism in the holy war of Gregory in the region of Armenia, which had a Hindu colony and rulers of Hindu descent in the early part of the 300s of the common era. However, being far away from the West Asian epicenter of Abrahamism, India remained by and large secure from Abrahamistic depredations until Mohammedanism arrived with a bang at the inception of the Arab Jihads on India. Despite debacles in the Sindh and what is today northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan, the battle of Rajasthan kept India largely safe until the Turks became the spear-head of the Army of Islam’s assault on India with the invasions of Mahmud Ghaznavi that took place a millennium ago. Since then the Hindus have been involved in a life-and-death struggle with the third Abrahamism. With the Portuguese aggression under Vasco da Gama in the late 1400s, Mohammedanism was joined by the cult of Jesus in the assault on India. This is rather appropriate since a hadithic prophesy claims that the final Jihad on India will also involve a resurrected Jesus joining the war (Ghazwa al Hind). By the early 1800s the second Abrahamism was to become a bigger challenge than the third one, which had been dealt several defeats by the resurgent Hindu empire of the Marāṭhā-s. While the Marāṭhā response modulated the threat from the Portuguese and the French, it ultimately failed against the English who became the primary spear-head of the Christ cult in India. Things came to head with the first war of independence in 1857 CE where the Indian army faced a catastrophic defeat against the English and their Indian supporters. While the Indians lost the war, they had at least made the English to be wary of directly imposing the Jesus cult on them. Nevertheless, the English covertly pursued this objective to undermine the sanātana-dharma.

Right from the early days of English entrenchment in India there were number of responses to their attempts to foster the Christ cult in the Indian population. Given that the Hindu struggle with Abrahamism is still underway, we believe it is of some importance to study these early responses, both for their positives as well as for their failings. Unfortunately, Hindus have often unthinkingly adopted bad occidental ideas to replace their own robust constructs. Hence, it is necessary pay special attention in understanding the failings as we could end up repeating them even today. Before the first war of independence one response was that of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who was heavily influenced by both Islam and Christianity. As a result he sought to remodel Indian religion on the lines of the Abrahamisms adopting their anti-iconic and monotheistic traits.
For instance this is exemplified in this statement:

“In conformity with the Precepts of our ancient religion, contained in the holy Vedanta, though disregarded by the generality of moderns, we look up to One Being as the animating and regulating principle of the whole collective body of the universe, and as the origin of all individual souls which in a manner somewhat similar, vivify and govern their particular bodies; and we reject Idolatry in every form and under whatever veil of sophistry it may be practised, either in adoration of an artificial, a natural, or an imaginary object, The divine homage which we offer, consists solely in the practice of the Daya or benevolence towards each other, and not in a fanciful faith or certain motions of the feet, legs, arms, head, tongue or other bodily organs, in pulpit or before a temple.”

This had negative consequences in softening the stance of sections of the Bengali elite towards the Abrahamisms. In contrast to Roy, others, like the Vaṅga scholar Tarkapañcānana, correctly saw the encouragement of Christianity as an ideological assault on the Hindus. Hence, they focused on polemics, attacking the Christ and his cult to make them look less appealing to the Hindus being enticed into conversion.

Roy and other Hindu responders also focused on reform within the dharma; however, unlike Roy, reformers like Mahadev G Ranade and the jaina Virchand Gandhi sought to make the dharma more resistant to attacks via reform rather remodel in the Abrahamistic mold. MG Ranade additionally focused on work to set right the Hindu historical narrative which had been usurped by the English for their own agenda. Then there was Dayananda Sarasvati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, who correctly realized the importance of the Vedic roots of Hindu civilization and the need to reconnect to the Veda-s for reinvigorating the Hindus. On the downside he brushed aside the vast Hindu tradition that had accumulated since the Veda-s and sought to show that all knowledge lay in the Vedic corpus. Rather mistakenly, like some others he too turned against iconic worship, which is an important binding force in Hindu society. The great patriot Lokamanya Tilak also studied our Vedic roots but on a more philologically grounded basis and sought to obtain evidence for the antiquity of Hindu thought. He also endeavored to position Hindu thought as a capable player in the arena of modern philosophical discourse, which had been animated in Europe by the upheavals of Arthur Schopenhauer, John Herschel, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Finally, some took the attack back to the West projecting a cosmopolitan form of the sanātana-dharma that was to eventually absorb all religions and cults within it. Most prominent among these was the charismatic and energetic svamin Vivekananda who conceived an expansive sanātana-dharma based on his understanding of Vedānta. He saw a manifestation of Vedānta that was capable to absorbing other religions:

“Ours is the universal religion. It is inclusive enough, it is broad enough to include all ideals. All the ideals of religion that already exist in the world can be immediately included, and we patiently wait for all ideals to come in the future to be taken in the same fashion, embraced in the infinite arms of the religion of the Vedanta.”

He posited that, long before the second and third Abrahamisms, the bauddha dharma had spread as a universal religion. Thus, there were comprehensive, older, and more uplifting missionary religions, which were in turn were just sects of a much greater whole, the sanātana-dharma. While the problems in svamin Vivekananda’s understanding of the structure and the breadth of Hindu knowledge are correctly brought up by traditional Hindus scholars, no Hindu doubts his patriotic service or role in defense of the dharma, especially at a time when it was girt by life-threatening attacks. His role in the Hindu resurgence was the inspiration for many a Hindu in during the struggle against the English and remains so for many in our era. Importantly, he restored the spirit in the Hindus that they could again positively influence the world as they had done in the past, and made them believe that their eclipse under the British was merely a transient phase. Thus he said: “The only condition of national life, of awakened and vigorous national life, is the conquest of the world by Indian thought.”

While svamin Vivekananda is widely known for his contributions today, some years after his death arose another remarkable Hindu responder, Shridhar Venkatesh Ketkar, who is hardly known outside of Maharashtra. His approach was perhaps the most distinctive one, that of a sociological researcher and social theorist. Since, his work presents a rather unique response, perhaps one of the earliest in the modern academic mold, it is certainly worthy of more detailed consideration. This is particularly relevant given the continuing assistance rendered, overtly or covertly, to the assault on the sanātana-dharma by the western academia and its followers. Ketkar belonged to the cittapāvana brāhmaṇa sect whose roots lay in coastal Maharashtra. Early in his life he was influenced by the Savarkar brothers and espoused ideas of a violent struggle against the English tyranny. As a result he neglected his studies for a while and came under British surveillance. However, in due course he was drawn towards more academic pursuits and sought the blessing and advice of Tilak. Inspired by his discussions with Tilak he sought to pursue a PhD at the Cornell University, USA. To this end he was partly funded by king Sayajirao Gaikwad of Baroda but had to supplement his income in USA by working as a doorman at a hotel and a traveling salesman to make do in the cold wastes of central New York. In course of his PhD he studied history of caste in India which became the subjection of his dissertation. Subsequently, on his way back to India, he spent some time in England and wrote a follow up book titled “An essay on Hinduism, its formation and future”. During this period he befriended an intellectually inclined German-speaking Jewish woman of the Kohen lineage who helped him with his research. Eventually, he married her, bringing her into the Hindu fold as Shilavati.

On returning to India he became a prolific writer of both fiction, and historical, economic and legal research. He traveled to south India and Sri Lanka, where he gave several talks in Sanskrit on the topic of local language education. As result of discussions with Andhran activists he became committed to the cause of religionalism and linguistic re-division of Indian into states. This in turn inspired him to devote his efforts to a unique project in modern Indian literature, i.e. creating a 23 volume encyclopedia, jṅāna koṣa, in the Marāṭhī language, to encapsulate as much of human knowledge as he could. Tilak saw this as a venture of great value, which could then be duplicated in other major Indian regional languages to provide Indians with access to information. Tilak had earlier noted that lack of access to knowledge was a major impediment holding back the Hindus and stunting their response to the English. He pledged support to Ketkar, and even hoped to write articles for the jṅāna koṣa. However, Tilak died shortly thereafter before he could contribute to it. Nevertheless, Ketkar labored with extraordinary energy publishing the first volume in 1921 and finishing the 23 volumes by 1927. He devoted one of the volumes to Vedic texts, knowledge in the Vedic corpus, and the era of the old Indo-Aryans, topics which were of much interest to both him and Tilak. One other volume was completely devoted to the history of science, which he worked on with help from his wife on German sources. He then decided to duplicate the encyclopedia effort in the Gujarātī language and managed to produce one volume. He had been critical of Mohandas K Gandhi’s handling of the nationalist freedom movement [Footnote 1]. In turn Gandhi opposed Ketkar’s Gujarātī encyclopedia effort. Disappointed with this Ketkar gave up on the big plan of translation into other Indian languages; however, he did visit and interact with the Andhran scholar Lakshmipati, who attempted a comparable but not entirely complete effort in the Telugu language. His restless labors were accompanied by declining health and he died from an infectious complication arising from diabetes in 1937. In the years just before his death he completed a history of the Sātavāhana-s (the Andhra-s) and a work visualizing India as a successful nation and civilization (“Victorious India”).

It is in his essay on Hinduism that we see the clearest exposition of his response, which we shall consider in greater detail:

• He felt that by adopting the occidental term religion the Hindus were constraining themselves to the narrow bounds within which the Abrahamistic west operated. Hence, he felt that Hindus should return to their own nuanced terminology using the terms dharma, mārga, sādhana, mata saṃpradāya, and sādhya for which he tried to give rigorous definitions based on Hindu tradition.

• After analyzing Christianity he emphasized that “Hindus do not accept the interdependence of theology and morality” as the Christian-conditioned occidental people do. Then he went on the contrast the Ārya dharma, which he explicitly stated as being the Hindu-dharma and the mleccha dharma to which the Christ cult belongs. At the end of this analysis he concluded that Christianity can be regarded only as a tribal tradition and thus cannot lay claims to universality which is rather the domain of the Hindu dharma. He argued that while people might state that the Hindu theory lacks a sense of a specific Hindu community, it operates under the view of a world community and is thus truly universal – he termed that the mānava consciousness.

• He presented a view summarized in this statement:
“Hindu were developing not Hinduism [i.e. a limited tribal theophratry of Hindu people], but a cosmopolitanism, a dharma for Humanity, but were prevented by two heresies of Semitic origin.” The explanation of how he intended the term Hinduism to be understood in this context in the brackets is mine. Thus, despite adopting a completely different socio-historical approach he converged on a view rather comparable to svamin Vivekananda, namely that of the Hindu system being a universal one. This, convergence in two thinkers independently of each other is widely echoed in the thought of many Hindus who see their system as a cosmopolitan one and strive to establish it in that form (often using the quote “vasudhaiva kutuṃbakam: the whole world is verily a family” to make this point).

• However, he did admit that Hindus had to a develop a consciousness of separateness upon their encounter with the cults of Mohammad and Jesus as they were were irreconcilable with the Hindu universalism.

• He pointed out the importance of brāhmaṇa-s as the natural leaders of Hindu society because, to quote him: “The brāhmaṇa-s represented the sciences, and the knowledge of dharma depended on the knowledge of the sciences.” He hence suggested that the intentions of the brāhmaṇa-s had been strongly maligned by the Christians with the purpose of undermining the dharma of all Hindus. In this regard, also argued that adhikāra to śruti recitation was not a significant issue as the adhikāra to itihāsa-purāṇa was available to all Hindus and thereby provided them with knowledge contained in the śruti , which was otherwise difficult to access directly.

• Despite being cosmopolitan in outlook he believed that the dharma had the power to unite a nations, even those which were not Hindus original. In this regard he considered the case of Japan. After presenting a brief history of the Japanese people and alluding to their old Kami religion Ketkar states:
“The Japanese did not accept the Chinese civilization in wholesale, but accepted it in such a manner as to suit their needs. The Chinese thought was accepted in the main and was used to systematize the local traditions. The different legends of various growths were retold with some principle as the basis. The old legends and traditions were not annihilated, as is usual in the migration of “religions” but preserved… The influence of the Chinese philosophy helped Japan to unify its cults to some extent, but the influence of Indian thought and method was greater in this direction. Japan was thoroughly changed by the influence of Buddhism. But the Buddhism which influenced Japan was entirely different from what was preached by Gautama. It was infact Hinduism which was carried to Japan under the name of Buddha…In the year 552 AD priests and images migrated to Japan but the foreign cult instead of destroying the pre-existing cult absorbed it… Shinto was not deserted, but was turned to account by Buddhism. Thus the Indian system became the authorized interpreter of the old. The Indian system simply gave them new knowledge and thus united all the various pre-existing cults. I say that it was Hinduism which united the worships of Japan because the doctrines which bound Japan together are the very things which Gautama opposed. All that had been exorcised came back again.”

• In the above he saw the model for the global spread of the Hindu dharma and saw this as the future. He wrote India’s contributions to the world had not ended she had more to offer. He believed that future belonged, not to Mohammedanism or Christianity, but to a cosmopolitan variant of the Hindu dharma, which would unify India with the west in addition to their shared Indo-European roots. Here too while adopting a different approach he had converged to views not very different from that of svamin Vivekananda. In his optimism regarding the success of Indian civilization and the Hindu religion he might be compared to the Greek thinker Georgios Gemistos Plethon who made a valiant attempt to revive Hellenistic heathenism in the 13-1400s [Footnote 2].

The allure of Hindu cosmopolitanism expressed by these early thinkers is still very much alive. Only recently the prime minister Narendra Modi managed to institute the “International yoga day” on June 21st,the summer solstice, a holy day for the heathens around the world. In his speech to the UN the prime minister stated: “Yoga is an invaluable gift of India’s ancient tradition. This tradition is 5000 years old. It embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us deal with climate change. Let us work towards adopting an International Yoga Day.”

In this speech, one cannot but catch a whiff of the same spirit expressed by svamin Vivekananda and Ketkar of the Hindu dharma contributing to the welfare of world. Indeed, this view is justified because globalized yoga and globalized neo-vedānta (both pioneered by svamin Vivekananda; and the latter also advocated by Ketkar as the future cosmopolitan religiosity; [Footnote 3]) have widely contributed to global health and the modern philosophy of consciousness. Both these contributions have faced immense opposition from the cults of Jesus and Mohammad – for example one might simply look up the controversies created to tar something as innocuous as the yoga day. This notably substantiates Ketkar’s view that the global spread of the dharma is a natural consequence, which is only being prevented by these Abrahamistic cults.

Armed with the advantage of hindsight and wider knowledge, how should we evaluate these ideas today? First, we do agree that there is scope and perhaps even necessity for the sanātana dharma to position itself as a cosmopolitan tradition. However, this if done unthinkingly might only end up harming the dharma. For instance, the exuberant tendency to see Hindu signatures everywhere (e.g. the deriving California from kapilāraṇya as was done by śrī Candraśekarendra sarasvati of Kanchi) should be tempered with a more realistic approach to history. This is indeed on positive message to be taken from the efforts of Ketkar. Indeed, the Japanese example brought up by Ketkar should be given more careful consideration. While there might be streams of the sanātana dharma that are adopted more widely beyond the current Hindu circles (there are already several examples of such, irrespective of what traditional Hindus might think of them), it would be more apposite for Hindus to instead be leaders and catalysts of heathen-world, encouraging the revival and restoration of local heathen traditions, serving more as a model, meta-template, and in some cases the “glue” rather than being transmitters of their own practice as is. Unlike the old thinkers discussed above, it is important to realize that the metaphysics of neo-vedānta or yoga are pretty useless by themselves in serving as a globalized version of the dharma. Rather the emphasis should be on rituals, which will become rites and festivals of the state at large as wellas local provinces, both in India and elsewhere.

However, on the downside we do hold that the earlier thinkers were rather optimistic. The second and third Abrahamism and their secular derivatives like Marxism, new atheism and liberalism have the quality of being pathogenic meme complexes, which will not cease from harming the dharma without an effective immune response. Given that: 1) the Abrahamists might possess greater relative fitness, 2) large swaths of infected territory are being lost, and 3) schemes like ghar vāpasī only cure a limited number of people, it is important that attempts are made to improve Hindu demographics to simply keep up in the struggle for survival. Whether Hindus would succeed in this regard remains rather uncertain due to various operational issues. Finally, like in any pathogen-host or prey-predator system the Hindus are locked in an arms race with these pathogenic memes. The party not innovating new “weaponry” or evolving “resistance” to keep up in such a struggle will eventually become extinct. Hence, just a demographic edge may not be sufficient in the long run. Thus, even within India the vision of attenuating and absorbing the Abrahamistic cults will remain unattainable, unless the sanātana dharma re-acquires its aggressive sword-arm. However, this “weaponry” or “resistance” is not just physical but also memetic. It in this regard that neither the earlier thinkers nor most modern Hindus give much thought. Hence, we posit that greater attention to and development of new strategies for survival in the arms race will be critical for Hindu survival, let alone global spread, in the coming years.

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Footnote 1:
Ketkar felt that Gandhi was a conduit for English manipulation of the Indian freedom movement. He wrote:
“He [MKG] began to praise Christ, and they [Christian missionaries] began to praise him. He began to appropriate his conduct to missionary expectations, and the desire of receiving their praise so much influenced his life that he became what he became by that. The poison of the praise of strangers affected his life to the detriment of his people. He became, therefore, a dishonest leader of the Indian people, the writer meaning, by dishonesty, having a desire in one’s mind other than that of the success of the task one has undertaken. Even if a person has a desire of maintaining the friendship, and earning the good opinion, of the people he is contending against, he becomes dishonest to his charge. Gandhi’s desire of being dubbed as a saint has spoiled the cause which he espoused several times, although he temporarily got praise from a section of the adversary community. Gandhi, in his South African political work, was a complete failure, and the people in South Africa say that he made the condition of Indians worse than before. Inasmuch as Gandhi was helped a great deal in his work by the Government of India, he had a good opinion about the British Government, and he even explained to one Governor of Bombay the difference of that character between him and Mr. Tilak.”

Footnote 2:
A brief sketch of Plethon’s contributions might be found here: https://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/the-end-of-the-heathens/

Footnote 3:
By neo-vedānta I mean the teaching of vedānta principles to non-Hindus outside the traditional set up of the Vedic education or the monastic education by maṭha-s (e.g. those founded by Śaṃkara, Rāmānuja and Madhava among others).

Vidrum was hurrying back to his office after a quick dinner. As he did so he mentally rued the fact that every time he found his way out of one problem in life a new one came upon him. Once in his office he rummaged some of the drawers to find the documents he was looking for; but they were not there. He was puzzled, he clearly remembered putting them back into the drawers after a conversation with a visitor earlier in the day. Holding his head in despair, he recalled that after meeting his visitor in the morning he had gone on deliver consultation to his patients. Hence, he decided to head down two floors to the rooms where he saw his patients. As walked down the corridor he saw the light in Vrishchika’s office to be on and heard her talking to someone with a familiar voice [Footnote 1]. It was not unusual to see Vrishchika at that time because since having her child she saw patients only till noon and came back in the evenings to do her research. But Vidrum was rarely around in the evenings and if he did stay on or come in it was because he had to attend to something that needed attention. To his surprise he found that Vrishchika was with Lootika in her office and they were looking at some images being streamed in from her microscope.

Vidrum: “Don’t want to disturb you ladies, but hope you two are doing well. Lootika it is a real surprise to see you here in the medical school campus. What brings you here?”
Lootika: “Good to see you after long; we are surviving and hope life ain’t treating you too badly.”
Vidrum then added with a grin: “Lootika I thought you would be working on more interesting organisms than Homo sapiens.”
Lootika: “Now our husbands our working together on more interesting organisms and Varoli, who has just started her lab, has also joined forces with them. I have hence turned to the conquest of uncharted territory in the biochemistry and physiology of Homo along with sis and the combined forces of our pupils.”
Vrishchika: “Like emperor Raghu’s digvijaya we have embarked on a campaign of the human cell, all the way from the nucleus to the extracellular matrix to bring a closure to the proteins C6orf70, leprecan, FAM55D PC-esterase, C5ORF32, and C7orf58.” Pointing to her screen she continued: “See these are promyelocytes in which we have induced the expression of C5ORF32 and they are surviving multiple chemical stressors better that those in which it has not been induced.”
Vidrum: “As ever it looks like you have something interesting to keep yourselves busy with. But I have my more mundane troubles to return to.”

Lootika and Vrishchika: “Why, what is troubling you?”
Vidrum: “Well key documents concerning the experimental treatment I was managing are missing from my office. I remember so clearly putting them in my drawer. That’s why I am on my way to check if I left them in the consulting rooms. On top of that I just heard this evening that our senior colleague Prof. Suryaprakash is seriously ill with the unexpected onset of multiple neurological deficits. Just before he took ill he was supposed to tell me something important about my own trial for he was doing something comparable, although with other tumors.”

Vrishchika: “That is awful – do you have any details? It is tragic to hear that so strong and intellectually agile a man has been suddenly disabled thus. It reminds us of our own impending mortality. I have indeed not seen Suryaprakash for several days. Now I recall that he did look a little unsure while taking the stairs when I last saw him. But then I did not give it much thought. Thus indeed are the ways by which the black son of Vivasvān drags his victims with his pāśa. By the way I do hope you find your documents soon.”
Vidrum: “I am going to see him tomorrow morning…will let you know” Saying so Vidrum scurried along to search for his documents.”

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

Later that week Indrasena was surprised to see his wife Vrishchika burst in to his lab as she seldom visited him at work. She frantically asked: “Ārya, is Lootika around?”
Indrasena: “Did you check in her lab (Lootika’s lab was next to that of Indrasena)? Gautamī, is something amiss you look bothered?”
Vrishchika: “She is not there. I need to see agrajā right away I will explain things to you later at home.”
Indrasena: “She must have gone home to attend to the kids but if it is some real problem you could go to Somakhya’s office and tell him.”
Vrishchika: “Don’t worry it is nothing for you to be concerned about now. This is something that only she would understand at this point. For now I will just say that it about ZU5 and DEATH-like domains.”
Vrishchika next hastened to Somakhya’s office and without any introduction said in voice barely concealing her agitation: “Where is agrajā?”
Somakhya: “Why, is there some problem? She must have gone home if you are not finding her here. What has brought you so unexpectedly to our campus?”
Vrishchika: “Lootika will tell you everything, but let me go and see her. It is not something I should bother you with while at work.” Saying so she hurried away.

Surprised by this appearance of Vrishchika and her cryptic statements, Somakhya went over to Indrasena and said: “Vrishchika was here asking for Lootika. I sensed some discomposure in her voice and appearance. Any trouble?”
Indrasena: “Yes, I too was puzzled. All she told me was it is about ZU5 and DEATH-like domains. Wonder why that should produce such an effect on her. I know she is not currently working on any genes coding for these.”
Somakhya: “Currently, nor is Lootika; though there was stuff she did with the proteins with those domains from the boring sponge Zyzzya which we two had pulled off from the Lakṣadvīpa-s. She mentioned reading our paper on that and being inspired by it in the period when we were out of contact.”
Indrasena: “Strange indeed. I don’t quite understand why this should be a matter of concern for our patnī-s. In any case I guess we would learn of it soon, but I am sure if it was really something of a bother, needing our attention, they would have told us of it.”

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

In the meantime Vrishchika picked up her kid and went to see Lootika at home. Settling down on the chair in Lootika’s kitchen she said: “agrajā, I heard the details of the tragic case of Prof. Suryaprakash from Vidrum. He seems to have contracted a disease with several manifestations suggestive of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. However, they failed to detect the PrP^Sc despite finding 14-3-3 proteins in his cerebrospinal fluid. But everything else is symptomatically comparable. As far as we know, we do not have any evidence he consumed meat or had an invasive procedure or transfusion that could have transmitted it. Lootika, what does this bring to your mind?”

Lootika: “That is tragic indeed. He had been good to you and was a good medical scientist. But you are the physician here, anujā, so why do you ask me – there must be something more to this if you have come running all way from to see me, since we would have anyhow met in the evening. Perhaps it was one of those other diseases coming from Prnp mutations deleting parts of the N-terminal region or it could have been an octapeptide expansion, and may be they failed to detect it?”

Vrishchika: “Yes all that came to mind when Vidrum informed me but they have all been ruled out. In fact his Prnp is totally normal!”
Lootika: “Then it is something else which is resulting in similar symptoms. May be there is some issue with the doppel protein or the shadoo protein?”
Vrishchika: “They did quite a thorough job and checked for those – there was no mutation or polymorphism in those genes and we have no evidence that their expression changes can induce prions.”

Lootika: “There are other neurodegenerative conditions – some type of aggregation disorder I would postulate.”
Vrishchika: “Yes possible. But upon hearing the case from Vidrum, I did intervene right away and carried out a panel of tests for repeat expansions and possible protein aggregation disorders. All negative. But one thing struck me in the biopsy material from the enteric nervous system: Rampant neuron death due to polymers of DLD proteins, primarily those of the NACHT ATPase NALP1. Incidentally, I used Varoli’s new direct AAA+ motor-peptidase coupled protein sequencing method – it worked brilliantly. Now an intracellular prion-like transformation cannot easily pathologically transmit like a glycophosphatidylinositol anchored PrP^Sc, which encounters abundant PRNP protein at the cell surface. So what do you think is happening here Lootika?”
Lootika: “Well that is rather surprising. It reminds me of what my engineered Sarcocystis neurona could do to its victim. That is exactly why we had used it to probe the nervous system.”
Vrishchika: “That is why I am here, agrajā. Your engineered S.neurona is the one that can do it – that with the macrophage chitinase inhibitor which injects the sponge ZU5-DEATH protein, one of those you learned of from our puruṣa-s. I cannot forget your words when you successfully made it – ‘this could be a biological weapon that might be useful when that great irruption of dasyu-s threatens our very existence.’ But who could have used it like this against Suryaprakash?”

Lootika: “Vrishchika, my strains are under lock-and-key with access only by biometric scan and is under video surveillance. Moreover, all my weaponizable constructs are kept separately and labeled using a cipher, the key for which is only known to me and your husband. Other than he and I, only one technician maintaining the cells and parasites has access to the room. The technician is reliable and would not know what is what unless she chose to take out all the apicomplexans in the collection. If she were to do that she would be caught by the scanner. Are you sure it could be one of my bugs?”

Vrishchika: “Wow, I forgot all the weaponizable material was well-guarded. But who else could have it other than you? What about…”
Lootika: “When I had done those experiments I had an upacīna student who did lot of the initial animal work; Other than me she can make those strains in principle. She went on to become a post-doc with Sterling McKnight that dhūrta who deceivingly set up a collaboration with me and then tried to run away with our discoveries and publish them as his. You may recall how the two of us then narrowly outran the mleccha rogue in that race. That dhūrta McKnight does know how to make those organisms and I have reason to believe he has made several of them for the mleccha-senā. But then he is two oceans away from us and what reason does he have to target Suryaprakash!”

Vrishchika: “I hear all your objections. I will check more carefully again. That is why I need the S.neurona primers from you. We were unable to microscopically detect the organism.”
Lootika: “I can give you the S.neurona primers later today. But we cannot rule out incidental Sarcocystis infection. As you know better than me, people do get it once in a way.”
Vrishchika: “But is there some conclusive test?”
Lootika: “anujā, think carefully – Somakhya’s mother thinks you are the the smartest of the four of us [Footnote 2] – do I need to be telling you of all people about monocytes.”
Vrishchika: “Ah – I believe I should be able to get the bug out by establishing a monocyte culture and sorting for CD11b positive cells. Then we will sequence the genome and see if and how it is has been engineered. ”
Lootika: “Yes. That would be the ultimate test. A skilled molecular biologist could use the details we provided in our paper to re-engineer such a such a bug with different specifications. We will know if that was really done.”
Vrishchika: “But let us make sure this evening that there has been no tampering of your biological storage. I just needed to tell you this for I think there is more to it than we know right now. Let me now go back home – I need to get something ready for dinner.”

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

Vrishchika received a mail from the chairman of the medical school:
“We are interviewing Dr. Brihat Gupta for a faculty position (CV is attached). The search committee would particularly value your opinion on him especially given that he combines a strong basic research component with his clinical work. He comes from the lab of the renowned cancer biologist Prof. Richard Junkberg and as you can see has an impressive list of highly cited publications. All in all, he is seen as a rising star in experimental therapeutics and we would really appreciate if you attend his talk. The time and abstract of his talk are appended below.”

Vrishchika glanced through his abstract and seeing the phrase “…therapeutic maneuvering of social RNA in the war against cancer…” thought to herself: “This must be given close attention; wonder what he has to say.”

On the day of Brihat Kumar Gupta’s talk Vrishchika arrived at the auditorium and noticed that there was a swelling crowd. There were students who were already trying to sneak an introduction to the speaker, even as he was girt by the search committee and brought to the auditorium. He was introduced to Vrishchika as he was being ushered in by her colleagues. In an unadulterated mleccha accent he professed knowledge of her work and smoothly complimented her for some publication in a high profile tabloid. Vrishchika being her usual shy self in public shrugged it away and merely said she looked forward to his talk.

While Gupta’s clinical exploits looked impressive, Vrishchika found his basic research component to be heavy on phenomenology, with little to offer in terms of crisp demonstration of precise biochemistry, which her sister and Somakhya had instilled in her from childhood. As her eyes were almost shutting down in the dim light of the auditorium, she suddenly perked up at the display of a miRNA supposed to inhibit the HoxD10 gene. The alignment looked so flimsy that it was rather unlikely that HoxD10 was ever a significant target for that miRNA. She surreptitiously took a photo of the slide and sent it over to Indrasena asking if it made sense. This made her pay closer attention to what Gupta was presenting, when suddenly she saw a data figure on his slide where two bands seemed exactly the same. But they had been pasted at different positions as though they were reporting the expression of two different genes on the gel. She remarked to herself: “That looks very strange indeed!” As Gupta went on he said: “This miRNA is showing great promise and we developed therapeutic RNAs in collaboration with Prof. Sterling McKnight, which were being subject to a large trial by Dr. Suryaprakash in your department. I am grieved to hear that he has recently taken seriously ill. However, on the positive side a parallel trial by the team put together by Prof. McKnight at his medical school have yielded excellent results and were just published. Vidrum in your school is also managing the trials of another class of therapeutic RNAs designed in Prof. Junkberg’s lab. I hear Dr. Sonenberg from his lab had just visited your school recently in this regard.”

As the talk concluded Vrishchika was tempted to ask Gupta about those figures but it suddenly hit her then that she was staring a something which might be linked to the other matter which had startled her some days back. Hence, she kept quiet. A throng of students surrounded Dr. BK Gupta, each vying for his attention, and some seeing him as a possible conduit to make it to the lab of the great Prof. Junkberg. Just then Vrishchika’s student came up to her and asked her if it might be worth exploring such pleotropic miRNAs. Vrishchika: “Look more closely at his work and the data there might be something more than what it seems.” The chairman prised out Dr. Gupta from the cordon of students that had formed around him saying that he needed to go to his next meeting with faculty. As they were walking him to his next appointment, the chairman separated from the rest of the crowd a bit and turning to Vrishchika said: “Did you like the talk?”
Vrishchika: “The talk had several notable points and we may discuss it at length when time permits.”

Realizing that she might not want to talk about it with Dr. Gupta within earshot they rejoined the rest of the group and the chairman asked: “Vrishchika, would you like to join us for dinner with Dr. Gupta.”
Vrishchika: “That would have been nice but I need to be at home then.” Vidrum just then chimed in: “Vrishchika, the restaurant we are going to should suit your dietary restrictions.” Hearing this Dr. Gupta, who was beside Vidrum, in his crisp accent added: “With South Asian food we can all ways find something for every palate.” Just then another colleague Ahmed al Zaman said with a smirk, his voice sounding like metal grating on metal: “You see she is a high caste brahmin; they don’t wine and dine with us groundlings.”

One part of Vrishchika wanted her to lash out in response to all this, but realizing that sometimes it is a good thing to keep the sting hidden, she stated with a coy smile: “I have a little kid who needs some attention, else I would have been there with you all.” Most of her colleagues murmured sympathetically and proceeded their way. Vrishchika felt an urge to talk right away with her gang about the tangled web she had stumbled upon. But as she turned it over she realized there were many incomplete points and it was better she investigated the various leads a little more before letting the rest know. She also realized that it was not right to bother them at work with a matter which was still largely in the realm of gossip and decided that for the time being she would only tell Lootika later in the evening. As she was returning home she saw a mail from Indrasena saying that indeed HoxD10 was unlikely to be a target for that miRNA.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

That evening as Vrishchika and Lootika were riding to work, the former filled in her sister regarding the Suryaprakash case. Everything was suggesting that her hunch, outlandish as it seemed to Lootika, was right. She had managed to conclusively show S.neurona in the patient’s monocyte culture and had sent its genome for sequencing. The sequence was to be ready for them to examine that evening.

As they looked at the genome browser in Vrishchika’s lab it became clear that the S.neurona had the engineered Mucor chitinase inhibitor gene fused to the 3′ end of the secreted apicomplexan HAD phosphatase gene. Then there were three ZU5-DLD genes with a signal peptide region derived from the secreted kinase engineered into the genome. They were all the alternative versions noted in Lootika’s paper but not the one they had used in their experiments. Seeing that Lootika remarked: “Hey you were right it is certainly this S.neurona after all. What’s more is that it is likely the creation of Sterling McKnight!”
Vrishchika: “Today I heard something interesting in the talk of this guy BK Gupta who is from the lab of this hotshot cancer biologist, Junkberg. Apparently, McKnight and Suryaprakash were collaborating on a treatment protocol using small RNAs that Gupta had designed at the Junkberg lab. Suryaprakash was doing his trial here, while McKnight’s team was doing it at his medical school. Is it not interesting that Suryaprakash took ill and just around that time McKnight published his own results – I checked and of course Suryaprakash and his people were not on that paper.”
Lootika: “That is interesting. Given how Mcknight sweet-talked me into collaborating only to run away with my ideas and technology, I won’t put it above him to have tried the same with Suryaprakash.”
Vrishchika: “There is something stranger going on here. I have a sneaking suspicion that the results BK Gupta showed are fake.” Vrishchika then explained to Lootika what she had seen on BK Gupta’s slides and the possibility that some of his data was problematic.
Hearing that Lootika remarked:“That is strange indeed indeed. I don’t quite understand how McKnight’s team had successful therapeutic results those RNAs if Gupta’s results were manufactured.”

Vrishchika: “Whatever the case, now that we have some evidence that McKnight might have aimed at bumping off Suryaprakash, should we alert our contacts in the intelligence agencies – they could take it up from here.”
Lootika: “Well, how can we convince people that McKnight did it? We should be cautious at this stage and I believe we are best suited to investigate this further ourselves. It is our hunch that he has done it but how did Suryaprakash receive this bug. I wonder if he had visited McKnight or McKnight had come here. Can we find out? If the former was the case, he could always say Suryaprakash accidentally caught the infection while visiting the McKnight lab – after all they were collaborating. Moreover, in principle someone else could have also engineered something like this.”
Vrishchika: “I am pretty certain Mcknight did’nt come here after I took my position but Suryaprakash likely traveled abroad and might have visited him. Vidrum would certainly know – I’ll ask him tomorrow.”
Lootika: “Ask Vidrum in a very discreet way. This is not a casual matter. Don’t tip off Vidrum about any of what we have learned today, especially that Suryaprakash is being assassinated and has not just taken ill with a strange disease. Though Vidrum is an old acquaintance from school days, who knows how invested he is in all of this, since you say he is doing something similar with Junkberg.”
Vrishchika: “Sis, you can count on me for that.”
Lootika: “It is also prudent that we now discuss all this with our pati-parameśvara-s to flesh things out more because not everything is adding in my mind. They could tell us more about Junkberg – after all they went to the same grad school where Junkberg is professor and even skirmished with him in his famous mandatory biology course for grad students.”

Accordingly, the sisters decided that they would meet at Somakhya’s house the coming weekend along with their families.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

The week was busy one and neither sister got much chance to take it further. But on Friday Vrishchika checked on the Suryaprakash case and realized that he did not have much time before joining his pitṛ-paṅkti. That night while leaving for home she noticed that Vidrum was in his office and thought it might be an opportune moment to extract further information regarding Suryaprakash’s travels from him. She stopped by his door: “Goodnight Vidrum, working late?”
Vidrum: “Yes, I was to be at the club tonight but was most annoyingly let down by Meghana.”
Vrishchika: “Sorry to hear that; By the way I doubt śrī Suryaprakash would last too long and there is nothing we can do about it. Are there any arrangements for students and the treatments he was managing?”
Vidrum: “Good you ask. It has been bothering me. The chairman had called me and requested that I guide his students to publish their results. They told me that everything was in fairly good state for a high-profile publication. But things don’t look that good.”
Vrishchika: “Oh, so the data is not clear?”
Vidrum: “Well, I was initially eager to quickly complete it because his trial was a much bigger one than that of Prof. McKnight’s team and striking while the iron is hot will still allow us to notch a big one. I heard from Dr. Suryaprakash’s students that he had already presented the results at a meeting at Tokyo where it caused a big splash. He had apparently written a draft of the paper thereafter when he was doing an advanced training in cutting edge molecular techniques with top scientists at the Dārubilapattana in the big mleccha-land. But then what his students tell me about the paper sounds like garbage. It makes no sense in light of Prof. McKnight’s resounding publication. I spoke to our statistician but he agrees with them. I think the data has gotten mixed somewhere and I am scratching my head as to how to restore it.”

Vrishchika: “So, all this happened just before he took ill? Did he tell you anything before that which might help you unscramble things?”
Vidrum: “I met him once before he left for Tokyo but we did not discuss this stuff at all for he was not exactly in the loop with respect to what I was doing. From Tokyo he went straight to Dārubilapattana where he spent nearly 50 days and immediately on his return we spoke. That is when he learned that my trial was similar and said he would tell me something about it. But that was not to be.”
Vrishchika: “Do you know if spoke somewhere after his stay at Dārubilapattana: may be you could ask them and piece together what his final interpretation of the data was.”
Vidrum: “From what I heard from him he came straight here. So I am trying to see if I can find someone who attended the Tokyo meeting to see what he presented.”
Vrishchika: “Well I hope you find one. I’ll let you know if I can get someone who attended it. Bye for now.”

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

On Saturday they all convened for lunch at Somakhya’s house. After the kids got busy with their games the sisters filled in Somakhya and Indrasena about their adventures, with Vrishchika capping it with the latest information she had obtained from Vidrum.
Somakhya and Indrasena: “Wow! you girls have waded into some really crazy stuff!”
Lootika with a look of despair: “But if Suryprakash only went to Dārubilapattana the McKnight theory falls apart he is after all at the other end of the country.”
Indrasena: “Wait a minute let me check something. As luck would have it, I was a teacher at one of the parallel courses being done at Dārubilapattana and I see that one of the directors of the course Suryaprakash was attending was none other than the dhūrta McKnight; He was the one supervising the labs!”
Lootika: “Ah that clinches it in my mind!”
Somakhya: “In the meantime I have got the other piece of the puzzle which completes the picture and we can explain everything now. That Tokyo conference is part of a series where I was a speaker. Hence, I receive the talk program of other meetings in the series. Not being of interest to me I did not check it but I usually file these away in case there is a title of interest somewhere. I just pulled it up now and here is Suryaprakash’s title: ‘anti-mir10 is not effective in control of metastasis in RHOC+ mammary tumors.’”
Indrasena: “Now what Suryaprakash was saying is the exact opposite of what McKnight published. This is what his students likely conveyed, and no doubt it made no sense to Vidrum who was expecting to see McKnight being confirmed…and no doubt Suryaprakash thought it would be a big publication for it demolishes a train of falsehood that has issued forth from the Junkberg lab.”
Lootika: “Ah that finally cleans up the problem I was having all along. These trials could have never worked in the fair world. Given this, why would Mcknight need to see Suryaprakash as a competitive threat because after all the latter’s trials would have not worked in the first place compared his fake results! Now I see that Mcknight needed to get rid of Suryaprakash because he threatened to completely overturn McKnight’s high-profile article based on fake results that was just submitted.”

Vrishchika: “McKnight was always rapacious as a wolf. In the past he contended himself to stealing or plagiarizing other peoples discoveries and passing them off as his own, but at least it was real stuff. But over the years he saw a money pot in the war the mleccha-s had declared on cancer, even as various military contractors saw wealth to be made out of their various invasions of weak marūnmatta chiefs. As a result he seems to have aligned himself with the fraud emanating from Junkberg’s endeavor and dispatched poor old Suryaprakash with his usual rapacity. Sadly there is little we can do to even make people aware of this act of murder.”

Lootika removed her spectacles and put her head in her hands: “I thought Junkberg was the big man who made many contributions to cancer biology. As the old kṛśa-puruṣa Conan Doyle had said, the tree seems to have developed a ghastly eccentricity somewhere along its growth. Our preliminary survey suggests its not just Brihat Kumar Gupta but more widespread in the Junkberg lab.”

Indrasena: “When one joins Junkberg’s lab as a student or a post-doc he tells you that you must give him six years of your life with unwavering devotion with one or more publications in the English or American tabloids or a piece of trash forced on to one of the august journals at the climax of those labors. The said pupil is then rewarded with a faculty position. As you come to his holy feet he would sketch out in advance a draft of how the final results should look like – something not different from the a priori belief system of the Abrahamists. Ere long his pupils realized that all they needed to do was to manufacture a fair copy of that Junkbergian draft – after all, when the master knows how the results should look why bother about the science. Moreover, with control over the journals whatever comes from the great Junkberg, even his laundry list, would be published forthwith and at the expense of everything else; whether it was real or not stopped mattering. In the meantime Junkberg would be flying around the world broadcasting these stories, one day in Shanghai to the adulation of the cīna, another day in Tokyo to the prostrations of the uṣāputra-s and yet another day at Kāmasetu opening up even the eternally stiff upper lips of the kṛśa-puruṣa-s in wonder. Then many a cīna in Beijing and upacīna in Seoul would ‘reproduce’ his results and publish identical ‘me-too’ pieces in lesser journals.”

Somakhya: “Indeed Junkberg poisons the well-springs of science by catching his charges early. His basic biology course is considered by some to be finest that is offered in the big mleccha-land. With a swagger the great professor would stride in into to class and inform us that he was not there to teach details, which are anyhow abundant in biology. Rather, he was there to teach us the much needed critical thinking that we so completely missed in our fascination for the details. Then he would flash a network of proteins and nucleic acids in the cell, all rendered as faceless blobs or lines, and declare that we would forget all of that by the time the course ended: so what was important was the thought process and not the names of those proteins. Then he would reveal his much vaunted critical thinking, which was so thoroughly disconnected from the foundations of biology that it did not matter if a homeodomain that bound DNA HoxD10 was replaced with a cytoskeleton-regulating GTPase RhoC. From this forge of Junkberg emerged many a man – BK Gupta, Sonenberg, Schimmeler, Yi Chang and perhaps others, each forging his own way as per the data-free critical process proclaimed by the big man, thus toxifying the science like a blast at Fukushima.

Vrishchika: “hanta! Sonenberg? That is the guy Vidrum is working with!”
Lootika: “Perhaps, you should gingerly warn him that he might sliding down a slippery slope!”

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

Vidrum suddenly came to Vrishchika’s office: “Vrishchika, I need to talk straight with you.”
Vrishchika: “OK”
Vidrum: “I always knew your sister and you had a competitive streak right from our school days but you need not have acted in this mean fashion. It is said women always like to sting men even while they are professing friendship but till know I thought you were a mature person and above such things. But then I should have known better; after all, true to your names, your sister and you used to leave your peers in school stinging from a sense of inferiority. You always had the answers for the tough questions but rarely shared them with others, instead giving inane hints in guise of getting them to solve things by themselves. You would often be the cause for the teachers not explaining stuff or castigating the rest as dimwits because you would have answered the question even as the teacher was posing it. You would bluntly tell the rest that they need not ask what you were reading because they would anyway not understand it. Why carry all that into adulthood? You are well-settled and a mother now – then why be venomous to others in need?”

Vrishchika was appalled by Vidrum’s outburst but retaining her calm and pointing him to a chair in her office said: “Boy O boy! Why are you so angry? Please take a seat and explain matters more clearly – I sincerely don’t get what I might have done wrong.”

Vidrum: “I just spoke to the chairman. When Brihat Kumar had visited the chairman had verbally offered him a job saying that a formal conformation would follow shortly. But then based on your very negative report, the chairman has suspended his appointment with the intention of declining the offer. After all you are well-established at a young age and why would this act of realist politics be of any help to you. BK would not have competed with you in any way. He was going to help me write up the Suryaprakash trial as well as take my own trials to the next stage. I had a good working relationship with the Junkberg lab. Now as consequence of this scorpion-like sting of yours they are going to think twice before continuing with me. You very well know I have never been your competitor; so why do this? After all BK is a young and rising physician-researcher – why stunt his career rather than let it bloom. Imagine if someone had done that to you especially when you were away while being pregnant and after your son was born.”

Vrishchika: “I now see why you are so angry. Whatever old frictions you might have perceived in our school days or in med-school, my sisters and I have always stood by you in difficult times. I hate to remind you of such things, but when your checks were mysteriously lost and your passport and credit cards were most mysteriously flushed down the commode who came to your aid? As you said, I really have no reason to do anything against you in front of you or behind your back. As for BK Gupta I will right away ask the chairman to let you read my recommendation. Once you read it, I am pretty sure you will exonerate me of all you have said today. I don’t want to say anything more right now.”

Junkberg, true to his word, had placed BK Gupta as a professor at the famous medical center at mlecchānām Hastināpura. Hence, Gupta did not care to check if he got the job at Vidrum’s medical school or not. He was now acknowledged as a rising star in a brisk gladiatorial competition with Sonenberg who had also obtained his own faculty position at another medical center at Lavaṇahrada. Thus, even though Vidrum had read Vrishchika’s report on Gupta he could not get himself to accept it.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

Vidrum was feeling upbeat. His paper with the Junkberg and Sonenberg labs had just yielded a high-profile publication. As Vidrum was taking in the words of praise he was receiving from his colleagues he received a brief mail from Vrishchika in which she said it was a tragedy that he had gotten himself mired in this publication. Even though he had not accepted her report on BK Gupta he had quickly patched up matters with her, and on the surface she too seemed to have buried the hatchet. Hence, he wondered why she had sent such mail and remarked to himself: “This is no different from her jealousy towards Junkberg and her nitpicking to demonize BK. It seems she is unable to accept that I could do good stuff too.” But keeping his cool this time he quietly mailed her back asking why she felt so. In return she sent him an article from a newspaper:

“The appointment of Dr. Brihat Kumar Gupta, a native of India, working as a principal investigator at the Hastināpura ojaḥkṣaya-kṣetra, has been terminated. He was considered one of the top cancer scientists in the country with over 2.7 million dollars in grants. The investigation launched by the university upon being tipped off by a whistle-blower resulted in discovery of massive data fraud involving at least 15 papers co-authored by Dr. Gupta. The inquiry found clear evidence that he had misused grants and submitted manipulated data for his grant applications to the federal government. His mentor the renowned Prof. Junkberg and former collaborator Prof. McKnight agreed with the findings of the inquiry committee. They said that he was solely responsible for the actions that brought disrepute to the field and were taking appropriate steps to remedy the damage they had caused. Action is also being initiated to revoke his medical license. Senator Jefferson is calling for stricter action in the case which if effected would result in jail time for Dr. Gupta.”

Vidrum suddenly felt the compass rotate the other way: “After all this girl Vrishchika was appointed professor of medicine in her 25th year: it could not have been for nothing. I should have paid closer attention to her words.” Suddenly it hit Vidrum like a sledge-hammer that the day Sonenberg had visited him was when his patient records had gone missing and had suddenly reappeared in his drawer the next day. On both days they had looked at them together. He had then wondered how that could have happened but had brushed it aside since he got them back intact, or so he thought. But could something have been tampered then? Thinking thus, Vidrum rushed to pull out his notes written by hand at the patients’ bedside. To his horror he found the the patient numbers had been completely interchanged with respect to his notes. The results they had published were likely untrue. Holding his head in despair Vidrum slumped on his desk.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

The next day as they were headed for lunch Somakhya told Indrasena with a smile: “Send this over to your wife – she might be amused to read it.” Thus, he forwarded Indrasena a little press release titled: “Renowned scientist Professor Junkberg wins presidential award.”

::::::::::::::
Footnote 1: Vrishchika was then a professor in the section for experimental therapeutics where Vidrum was also a consulting physician.

Footnote 2: That is the catur-bhaginī

A version of this article was published earlier at India Facts

Indra, is the Indo-Aryan version of the preeminent deity of the ancestral Indo-European pantheon. In the Vedic texts we see remnants of what might have been an ancient tripartation of this deity, as manifest on the earth, in the atmosphere and in the heavens. In the first realm he is manifest a warrior who inspires men in battle and comes to the aid of his ārya worshipers who offer him rituals – in this form he is typically called Indra or Maghavan or Vṛtrahan. In his atmospheric form he is Parjanya, who abundantly pours down life-giving rain. In his celestial manifestation in the high heavens he is Dyaus. Already in the Ṛgveda, the earliest surviving Indo-Aryan text, under the name Indra he comprehensively encompasses all three functions. Yet, the old memory of tripartation is still seen as both Parjanya and Dyaus are retained as distinct devatā-s with specific functions in the atmospheric and celestial domains. By the time of the Mahābhārata, Parjanya has already mostly merged into Indra and lost his distinctness and Dyaus is only faintly remembered within the ogdoad of Vasu-s [incarnated on earth as the pitāmaha Bhīṣma]. In the rest of the Indo-European world we see a similar consolidation of the ancestral tripartation into a single figure, but in each case a different strand of original triad is chosen for consolidation. In the Greek and Roman world we have the cognate deities Zeus and Iuppiter (Ius+piter being father), where both are cognates of Dyaus. In the Baltic and Slavic world we have Perkunas and Perun, both of which are cognates of Parjanya. In Lithuania, the name of the place featuring the great shrine of Perkunas with a holy oak tree from pre-Christian times was Perkūnija – a cognate of Parjanya. However, in Lithuania the cognate of Indra continued to survive as Indraja, the name of the deity of the planet Jupiter. In the Indosphere and among the Kalasha we see the consolidation under Indra.

While Indra is the preeminent deity of the ancient Vedic rituals, in the later period his prominence was challenged by sects centered on other deities like Prajāpati (Brahmā), Bṛhaspati, Rudra, Viṣṇu and Kumāra. This challenge becomes visible first in the latter Vedic texts, especially the brāhmaṇa-s (including their terminal upaniṣad-s) and becomes rather ubiquitous in the epics and the purāṇa-s. Such challenges to the preeminence of the Indra-like deity are also seen in other branches of the Indo-European world: In the Iranosphere Ahura Mazda, a cognate of the Indian Varuṇa, takes over as the supreme deity. In the Germanic world Odin, belonging to the Rudra-class of deities takes over while also subsuming few elements of Varuṇa in his persona. While the Veda-s abound in mantra-s to Indra, they are allusive in nature. Hence, unlike the deities who became prominent later, some of legendary materials, similar to those encountered in the purāṇa-s for deities like Rudra, Viṣṇu and Kumāra, have been forgotten. Yet, the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata still retain some memory of the system in which Indra is preeminent and consequently preserve some such legendary material of interest. Indeed, such material seems to have been known to the aitihāsika-s, as suggested by the specific reference to them by Skandasvāmin, the old commentator of the Ṛgveda. One such is the description of Indra’s realm to Yudhiṣṭhira and his brothers by the sage Nārada. On account of it being one of those pieces from the great epic plainly retaining the ancient preeminence of Indra we present it below in full (Mbh 2.7.1-26ab):

śakrasya tu sabhā divyā bhāsvarā karmabhir jitā |
svayaṃ śakreṇa kauravya nirmita+arka-samaprabhā ||

Indeed, the divine and radiant assembly hall of Śakra was achieved by his own deeds. O Kauravya, with splendor like that of the sun, it was built by Śakra himself.

vistīrṇā yojana-śataṃ śatam adhyardham āyatā |
vaihāyasī kāma-gamā pañca-yojanam ucchritā ||

It is laid out as a rectangle, 100 yojanas in breadth, 150 yojana-s in length and 5 yojana-s in height. It is suspended space and can go anywhere at will.

jarā-śoka-klamāpetā nirātaṅkā śivā śubhā |
veśmāsanavatī ramyā divya-pādapa-śobhitā ||

Driving away weakness of age and anguish, free from affliction, benevolent and auspicious is provided with chambers and seats and decorated with divine trees.

tasyāṃ deveśvaraḥ pārtha sabhāyāṃ paramāsane |
āste śacyā mahendrāṇyā śriyā lakṣmyā ca bhārata ||

O Pārtha, in that assembly hall, on the foremost of thrones sits the lord of the gods with Śacī, who, O Bhārata, is the the great Indrāṇī [also known as] Śrī and Lakṣmī.

bibhrad vapur anirdeśyaṃ kirīṭī lohita+aṅgadaḥ |
virajo’mbaraś citramālyo hrī-kīrti-dyutibhiḥ saha ||

Bearing an indescribable form, crowned, and with ruby-red bracelets, wearing pure attire, with beautiful garlands, [he sits] accompanied by the goddesses of modesty, fame, and majesty.

tasyām upāsate nityaṃ mahātmānaṃ śatakratum |
marutaḥ sarvato rājan sarve ca gṛhamedhinaḥ |
siddhā devarṣayaś caiva sādhyā devagaṇās tathā |
marutvantaś ca sahitā bhāsvanto hemamālinaḥ || [double anuṣṭubh]

O king, in that hall, the with Marut-s all around, all of whom are the receivers of the offerings in the gṛhamedha ritual, the siddha-s, devarṣi-s, sādhya-s, hosts of gods, all accompanied by the Marut-s and shining forth with golden garlands continually worship the mighty one, the god of a hundred acts.

ete sānucarāḥ sarve divyarūpāḥ svalaṃkṛtāḥ |
upāsate mahātmānaṃ devarājam ariṃdamam ||

These, his attendants, of divine form and well-ornamented, worship the great soul, the king of the gods, the crusher of foes.

tathā devarṣayaḥ sarve pārtha śakram upāsate |
amalā dhūta-pāpmāno dīpyamānā ivāgnayaḥ |
tejasvinaḥ somayujo vipāpā vigata-klamāḥ ||

Then, O Pārtha, all the devarṣi-s, clean, rid of their evil, blazing like fires, full of luster, united with soma, sinless, having overcome all weakness, worship Śakra

parāśaraḥ parvataś ca tathā sāvarṇigālavau |
ekataś ca dvitaś caiva tritaś caiva mahāmuniḥ |
śaṅkhaś ca likhitaś caiva tathā gauraśirā muniḥ || [3-footed anuṣṭubh]
durvāsāś ca dīrghatamā yājñavalkyo ‘tha bhālukiḥ |
uddālakaḥ śvetaketus tathā śāṭyāyanaḥ prabhuḥ ||
haviṣmāṃś ca gaviṣṭhaś ca hariścandraś ca pārthivaḥ |
hṛdyaś codaraśāṇḍilyaḥ pārāśaryaḥ kṛṣīvalaḥ ||
vātaskandho viśākhaś ca vidhātā kāla eva ca |
anantadantas tvaṣṭā ca viśvakarmā ca tumburuḥ ||
ayonijā yonijāś ca vāyubhakṣā hutāśinaḥ |
īśānaṃ sarvalokasya vajriṇaṃ samupāsate ||

Parāśara, Parvata, Sāvarṇi, Gālava, Ekata, Dvita, Trita the great sages, Śaṅkha, Likhita the white-headed sage, Durvāsas, Dīrghatamas, Yājñavalkya,Bhāluki, Uddālaka, Śvetaketu, master Śāṭyāyana, Haviṣmānt, Gaviṣṭha, king Hariścandra, Hṛdya, Udara-śāṇḍilya, Kṛṣīvala the Pārāśaryaḥ, Vātaskandha, Viśākha, Vidhātā, Kāla, Anantadanta, Tvaṣṭṛ the divine architect, Tumburu, those not born from wombs and those born from wombs, those who feed off air and those who feed of fire, together worship the wielder of the Vajra weapon, the supreme lord of all the worlds.

sahadevaḥ sunīthaś ca vālmīkiś ca mahātapāḥ |
samīkaḥ satyavāṃś caiva pracetāḥ satyasaṃgaraḥ ||
medhātithir vāmadevaḥ pulastyaḥ pulahaḥ kratuḥ |
maruttaś ca marīciś ca sthāṇuś cātrir mahātapāḥ ||
kakṣīvān gautamas tārkṣyas tathā vaiśvānaro muniḥ |
muniḥ kālakavṛkṣīya āśrāvyo ‘tha hiraṇyadaḥ |
saṃvarto devahavyaś ca viṣvaksenaś ca vīryavān |
kaṇvaḥ kātyāyano rājan gārgyaḥ kauśika eva tu || [double anuṣṭubh]

O king, Sahadeva, Sunītha, Vālmīki of great asceticism, Samīka, Satyavān, the Praceta-s who are epitomes of truthfulness, Medhātithi, Vāmadeva, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Marutta, Marīci, Sthāṇu and Atri, all of great asceticism, Kakṣīvān, Gautama, Tārkṣya, the fire sage, sage Kālakavṛkṣīya, Āśrāvya, Hiraṇyada, Saṃvarta, Devahavya, Viṣvaksena of great virility, Kaṇva, Kātyāyana, Gārgya and also Kauśika [are all attending to Indra]

divyā āpas tathauṣadhyaḥ śraddhā medhā sarasvatī |
artho dharmaś ca kāmaś ca vidyutaś cāpi pāṇḍava ||
jalavāhās tathā meghā vāyavaḥ stanayitnavaḥ |
prācī dig yajñavāhāś ca pāvakāḥ saptaviṃśatiḥ ||
agnīṣomau tathendrāgnī mitro ‘tha savitāryamā |
bhago viśve ca sādhyāś ca śukro manthī ca bhārata |
sarveṣāṃ marutāṃ mānyā guruḥ śukras tathaiva ca |
viśvāvasuś citrasenaḥ sumanas taruṇas tathā || [double anuṣṭubh]
yajñāś ca dakṣiṇāś caiva grahāḥ stobhāś ca sarvaśaḥ |
yajñavāhāś ca ye mantrāḥ sarve tatra samāsate ||

O Pāṇḍava, the celestial waters, plants, the goddesses Śraddhā, Medhā and Sarasvatī, artha, dharma and kāma, lightning, monsoon clouds, other clouds, winds, thunders, the eastern direction, 27 fires bearing ritual offerings, the gods Agni, Soma, Agni who is conjoined with Indra, Mitra, Savitṛ. Aryaman, Bhaga, the Viśvedeva-s, and the Sādhya-s, and O Bhārata the Śukra and the Manthin [Soma cups], all those respected ones of the Marut-s, Jupiter and Venus, thereafter [the Gandharva-s] Viśvāvasu, Citrasena, Sumana, Taruṇa, the rituals, the ritual-fee, the soma-cups, the magical vocalization of the Sāman chants, the ritual fires, all the mantra-s attend to Indra therein [in his assembly].

tathaiva+apsaraso rājan gandharvāś ca manoramāḥ |
nṛtya-vāditra-gītaiś ca hāsyaiś ca vividhair api |
ramayanti sma nṛpate devarājaṃ śatakratum || [3-footed anuṣṭubh]

Then O King, the enchanting Apsaras-es and Gandharva-s, by means of various dances, instrumental and vocal music, and comedies gladden the king of the gods, the performer of a hundred acts.

stutibhir maṅgalaiś caiva stuvantaḥ karmabhis tathā |
vikramaiś ca mahātmānaṃ vala-vṛtra-niṣūdanam ||
brahma-rājarṣayaḥ sarve sarve devarṣayas tathā |
vimānair vividhair divyair bhrājamānair ivāgnibhiḥ ||
sragviṇo bhūṣitāś cānye yānti cāyānti cāpare |
bṛhaspatiś ca śukraś ca tasyām āyayatuḥ saha ||

In addition to the above, all the brāhmaṇa sages, the sage-kings and divine sages, adorned with garlands, come and go in their diverse, flying machines which blaze forth like celestial fires, praising the great one, the destroyer of Vala and Vṛtra, with auspicious praises, by rituals and acts of valor. Bṛhaspati and Śukra had gone there together!

ete cānye ca bahavo yatātmāno yatavratāḥ |
vimānaiś candra-saṃkāśaiḥ somavat priyadarśanāḥ |
brahmaṇo vacanād rājan bhṛguḥ saptarṣayas tathā ||
eṣā sabhā mayā rājan dṛṣṭā puṣkaramālinī |

O king, many other self-restrained souls, firmly observant of ritual vows, Bhṛgu and the seven sages [go forth] upon recitation of mantra-s [to Indra] by means of their moon-shaped flying machines, which are beautiful as moons. O King, this assembly hall of Indra, the Puṣkaramālinī was [thus] seen by me (i.e. Nārada).

Notes
1) The motif of an assembly hall of the great Indra-like deity is likely an ancestral Indo-European one. We encounter it in the Germanic world in the form Valhalla of Odin or Bilskirnir of Thor; both are described as celestial halls of enormous size. The meaning of the latter is lightning-streak, which relates it directly to the hall of Indra. Just as Indra’s hall endowed with several chambers (veśman), the Bilskirnir is said to have 540 rooms (a number related to the precession of earth’s axis), where he is said to hold court with his wife the goddess Sif (parallel to Indrāṇī). Just like Indra’s realm, Odin vast hall the Valhalla is said to welcome extraordinary individuals (not the common dead) who proceed there due their valor in battle. Indeed memorial stones depicting the ascent of fallen heroes to Valhalla of the Indra-realm, with beckoning Valkyries or Aparas-es are seen respectively in the Nordic and Indic world. The Valhalla, like Indra’s hall, is said have divine trees (Glasir and Læraðr are named in particular) and is said to be shining and golden comparable to the above account. In the Greek world too Zeus is said to have an assembly hall in the heavens where all the gods meet with Zeus at the head, much like what is described in the case of Indra’s hall (e.g. Illiad 20.5).

2) The Indra-sabhā is not just seen as a hall but is conceived more like a cuboidal space station which can freely move about in space. It also receives traffic of arriving and departing space-crafts which are said to bear the visiting sages. Thus, it is conception is a truly celestial and “futuristic” one relative to the Greek and Germanic versions which seem more static. This illustrates a less-appreciated point: space travel has long existed in human thought, well before the first operational space-crafts were sent up. Thus, it is the continuity with epic visions such as these, which might be seen as the archetypal inspiration for human flight and space voyages.

3) Marut-s figure prominently among the gods mentioned in this account. While the Marut-s had faded in prominence by the time core Mahābharata, this account clearly preserves the older Vedic system with the troops of Marut-s as the primary companions of Indra, especially in his battles with the demons. Importantly, this account uses the term gṛhamedhin, i.e. Marut-s as the recipients of the offerings in the gṛhamedha which is part of the larger sākamedha rite, the autumnal ritual in the yearly cāturmāsya cycle. Most other Vedic deities are listed with the exception of Yama, Varuṇa, Prajāpati, Viṣṇu, and perhaps Rudra. These were perhaps consciously omitted by the composer or the redactor of the text because: 1) the first three of these are described as having their own celestial realms that are described later. 2) Viṣṇu, and Rudra were probably left out because with their rise in the late Vedic and Epic period their votaries did not want to see them as being secondary to Indra. However, it is uncertain if Sthāṇu in the above list stands for Rudra or someone else. Whatever the case, the above narrative is emphatic in placing Indra as the supreme deity using terminology parallel to the Rathantara Sāman of the Vedic ritual: “īśānaṃ sarvalokasya vajriṇaṃ samupāsate”.

4) The goddess Indrāṇī is identified with Śrī and Lakṣmī following an ancient pattern. Indra is also said to be accompanied by other goddesses such as the personified modesty, fame, and majesty, and Śraddhā, Medhā and Sarasvatī, who are like the Muses in Zeus court. There are also Gandharva-s and Apsara-s who provide music, dance and comedy in the court. This music in the sabhā seems to have been an ancient feature for it is paralleled by comparable music in the court of Zeus in the Olympian realm. For example we have Pindar describe it thus:
Golden lyre, possession and advocate of Apollo
and the Muses with their violet hair,
the dance step which begins the festivity hear you,
and singers obey your signals
when you quiver and fashion the preludes
of the proems that begin the dance.
You quench even the pointed lightning [of Zeus]
with its ever-flowing fire. On his scepter
the eagle of Zeus sleeps. [Translation by K. A. Morgan]

5) A long list of sages and sage-kings, although anachronistic, stretching from the ancient Vedic patriarchs to the authors of the Rāmāyaṇa are all provided as a list. This is to illustrate the point that extraordinary individuals upon death attain the Indra realm, where they engage in his direct worship as they had done formerly in their earthly fire and soma rituals. This is further emphasized by pointing out that the normally antipodal Bṛhaspati and Śukra are seen together worshiping Indra in line with their Vedic persona, where both sages are composers of mantra-s to Indra.

6) Several terms specifically refer to the Vedic rituals where Indra reigns supreme. Some of these represent celestial entities and phenomena: The 27 fires represent the 27 Nakṣatra-s of the Vedic ecliptic: the deities corresponding to these receive offerings in the ritual known as the Nakṣatreṣṭi. Then there are the graha-s, which represent both the cups in which soma is offered to the gods and the planets. Specifically the pair of cups used in the great soma ritual are mentioned: Śukra and Manthin. These two cups commemorate a cunning trick by which the Deva-s overthrew Śanda and Marka, two partisans of the Asura-s and Rakṣa-s, who tried to steal the Soma. Also mentioned are the stobha-s, which are magical vocalizations of the Sāman chants (au ho vā, iḍā etc).

The Indian Saura-mata (or the Hindu sect of the Sun) is an amalgam of two distinct layers [Footnote 1]: 1) The endogenous layer of solar deities going back to the Veda and 2) the neo-morphic layer of Iranic origin which was transferred to India as as a result of contact with Zoroastrians and to an extant non-Zoroastrian Iranians from a period spanning the beginning of the common era to the around the 6th-7th centuries of the common era. While primarily an āstika tradition, the later period the nāstika traditions of the Bauddha-s and to some degree the Jaina-s also developed reflexes of the Saura system. Among Bauddha-s, the earlier manifestation crystallized around the goddess Marīcī whose roots as a warrior goddess lay in the Saura pantheon. In the later phase, the high-point of the Vajrayāna tradition, in the form of Kālacakra also incorporated several Saura elements.

The Veda, like other Indo-European traditions, preserves a strong element of worship of solar deities. It should be stressed that the solar deities are not necessarily the sun: they are associated with solar characteristics. This means they are inspired by the experience of the sun but go beyond the sun and are more general in their manifestations encompassing the stars, the laws of cyclicity and invariance, and light and darkness. While one could say that all Vedic deities simultaneously have a solar character, the most prominent among them are the Ādityas who were to play a major role in the Indian Saura-mata:

In the most ancient layers of the Veda six (or perhaps seven) of them are named together as a group:
imā gira ādityebhyo ghṛtasnūḥ sanād rājabhyo juhvā juhomi |
śṛṇotu mitro aryamā bhago nas tuvijāto varuṇo dakṣo aṃśaḥ ||RV 2.27.01

imās= these [feminine accusative plural]; gira= invocations [feminine accusative plural]; ādityebhyo= for the Āditya-s; ghṛtasnūḥ= dripping with ghee [feminine accusative plural]; sanāt= always; rājabhyo= for the royal; juhvā= with the juhū ladle; juhomi= I offer; śṛṇotu = each one hears; mitraḥ; aryaman; bhagaḥ; nas= us; tuvijātaḥ= widely manifest favor; varuṇaḥ; aṃśaḥ.

Before we render a translation we should note three points: 1) juhū ladle: The scholiast Sāyaṇa explains that as the invocations are said to be dripping with ghee, it should be understood metaphorically, with the juhū standing for the tongue that composes the said invocation. 2) While a plurality of Āditya-s are named the imperative class-5 verb śṛṇotu is in the singular. Sāyaṇa explains that it implies that each one of the Āditya-s starting from Mitra are called to hear the invocation [as per Sāyaṇa: naḥ śṛṇotu -> asmadīyāstā giro mitrādayaḥ pratyekaṃ śṛṇotu] – it should be noted in this context that they are not named as a compound or with an enclitic ‘ca’ but simply as a list. 3) While the names of the 6 Āditya-s are plain in this mantra, the word tuvijātaḥ is traditionally taken as an adjective for Varuṇa. Indeed, it is a fairly common adjective in the Ṛgveda for Mitra and Varuṇa, and more generally the Āditya-s as also for Indra, Bṛhaspati and Agni. Sāyaṇa explains the word as one who widely manifests his favor to many nations. Going against the grain we suggest that it is possible that tuvijātaḥ here is another Āditya, i.e. Vivasvān.

Hence we have:
With the juhū ladle [which is my tongue], I perpetually offer to the royal Āditya-s these ghee-dripping invocations. May each one of them, Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, the one with widely manifesting favor [or Vivasvān], Varuṇa, Dakṣa and Aṃśa, hear us!

The reason why the list of 7 is a possibility is because elsewhere in the Ṛgveda the number of Āditya-s is stated as 8 (RV 10.72), with 7 being the immortal gods and the 8th being the dead-egg Mārtāṇḍa from which the rest of the universe was fashioned. A similar tale is elaborated in the brāhmaṇa sections of Taittirīya Saṃhitā 6.5.6 and Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa 1.1.9 in the context of the brahmaudana ritual (rice offering to the goddess Aditi). The still-born Āditya Mārtāṇḍa might have had old Indo-European antecedents as suggested by the dead solar deity Baldr in the northern Germanic tradition. Moreover, the Āditya-s are recorded as numbering 8 even in the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka 2.10.7. However, there Mārtāṇḍa is replaced by Indra and Dakṣa by his ectype Dhātṛ. Thus the list runs as: Mitra, Varuṇa, Aryaman, Bhaga, Vivasvān, Dhātṛ, Aṃśu and Indra.

In the late Vedic period we also have statements that give the number of Āditya-s is given as 12:

sa manasaiva vācam mithunaṃ samabhavat | sa dvādaśa drapsān garbhy abhavat | te dvādaśādityā asṛjyanta | tān divy upādadhāt || Śatapatha Brāḥmaṇa 6.1.2.8
By his mind he [god Prajāpati] came into copulation with speech; he became pregnant with twelve drops; they were emitted as 12 Āditya-s; he placed them in the sky.

By the epic period the 12 Āditya-s are specifically named as Mitra, Varuṇa, Aryaman, Bhaga, Vivasvān, Dhātṛ[or Dakṣa], Aṃśa, Puṣan, Savitṛ, Tvaṣṭṛ, Indra and Viṣṇu.
e.g. the Mahābhārata has:
adityāṃ dvādaśādityāḥ saṃbhūtā bhuvaneśvarāḥ |
ye rājan nāmatas tāṃs te kīrtayiṣyāmi bhārata ||
dhātā mitro ‘ryamā śakro varuṇaś cāṃśa eva ca |
bhago vivasvān pūṣā ca savitā daśamas tathā ||
ekādaśas tathā tvaṣṭā viṣṇur dvādaśa ucyate | 1.59.14-16a (“Critical”)

From Aditi were generated 12 Āditya-s, the lords of the universe, whose names, O king, I shall narrate:
Dhātṛ, Mitra, Aryaman, Śakra (i.e. Indra), Varuṇa, Aṃśa, Bhaga, Vivasvān, Puṣan, Savitṛ, Tvaṣṭṛ, and Viṣṇu.

In this regard we may point out a sūkta from the Atharvaveda where the above 12 are all named, albeit along with other gods (AV 11.6). Taking the number of Āditya-s as 12 also allows us to explain the traditional short count of male deities, i.e. 33 [Footnote 2], which is seen in both the Veda and the Itihāsa-s, in a straight-forward way. For example the Rāmāyaṇa has:

adityāṃ jajñire devās trayastriṃśad ariṃdama |
ādityā vasavo rudrā aśvinau ca paraṃtapa || 3.13.14c-15a (“critical edition”)
From Aditi were born the 33 deva-s, O foe-crusher (i.e. Rāma): the Āditya-s (12), the Vasu-s (8), the Rudrā-s (11) and the twin Aśvin-s (2), O foe-scorcher. [Traditional numbers in brackets]

One may note that the same counts as above for the Āditya, Vasu-s and Rudrā categories are given in the Śatapatha Brāḥmaṇa 6.1.2.6-8. Regarding these categories and the total count, in the Ṛgveda we have:

tvam agne vasūṃr iha rudrāṃ ādityāṃ uta |
yajā svadhvaraṃ janam manujātaṃ ghṛtapruṣam ||
śruṣṭīvāno hi dāśuṣe devā agne vicetasaḥ |
tān rohidaśva girvaṇas trayastriṃśatam ā vaha || RV 1.45.1-2
You O Agni offer ritual here to the Vasu-s, the Rudra-s and also the Āditya-s [on behalf] of the people who are Manu’s descendants, who perform proper rituals and pour offering of ghee.
O Agni and the gods, wise ones, do hear the worshiper: O you with a red-horse, delighting in Vedic chants, bring those 33 gods!

Thus, we find both the categories (Ādityas, Rudra-s, Vasu-s, and also Aśvin-s), and the total number 33 to be an ancient one. Indeed this count 33 likely goes back to the Indo-Iranian period as the Zoroastrians also enumerate 33 yazata-s. Hence, it is possible that there was a system of counting even from the earlier Vedic period that already had 12 Āditya-s, 11 Rudra-s, 8 Vasu-s, 2 Aśvin-s, and it would suggest that the count 8 or lower for the Āditya-s seen in the Ṛgveda is a parallel tradition.

Accepting this proposal allows us to account for most major Vedic deities within those 3 categories plus the Aśvin-s: The 12 Āditya-s as listed above already includes a big fraction of the chief Vedic deities going back to the Indo-Iranian period. Indeed, such a number 12 for the chief gods might have ancient Indo-European antecedents for among the Hittites, Greeks and the northern Germanic people we either see pantheons with 12 chief gods or a category of deities with 12 gods [Footnote 3].

The 12 Hittite gods from Yazılıkaya

The Rudra category originally also included the Marut-s who constitute a second block of major Vedic deities. The Vasu category includes Agni, Vāyu, Soma and Dyaus, among others who make another key set of Vedic deities. This way one can see why the Vedic pantheon is often described as triad of Vasu-s, Rudra-s and Āditya-s. Finally, we have the twin Aśvin-s and Bṛhaspati, who are usually in the Viśvedeva category. Finally, we may note that the functional principle of the triad of Vasu-s, Rudra-s and Āditya-s also lurks behind the classical Hindu trinity: Dyaus, who is the old Indo-European father figure in the Vasu category, reemerges as the father-deity Brahman; Śiva is the exemplar of the Rudra category; Viṣṇu the epitome of the Āditya category. In this regard the Mahābhārata has: “jaghanyajaḥ sa sarveṣām ādityānāṃ guṇādhikaḥ ||” 1.59.16cd (“Critical”) i.e. He [Viṣṇu], who is the last-born (of the Āditya-s) is the most endowed of all of them. This marks the rise of Viṣṇu to the preeminent status in that category.

This position of Viṣṇu among the Āditya-s, while a hallmark of Vaiṣṇava ascendancy [Note that elsewhere in the Mahābhārata, Indra or Varuṇa are mentioned as the foremost of the Āditya-s], was also interiorized in part by the Saura-mata. We see this an iconographic representation (below), which was stolen from a Saura shrine in Madhya Pradesh, and auctioned in 2002 (Likely of the Chandela dynasty based on stylistic grounds). Here we can see that the central image of the Āditya is accompanied by both a distinctive Saura pantheon (see below) and also Brahman and Śiva on either side of his head. This implies that the central Āditya is being implicitly identified with Viṣṇu.

Central Āditya implicitly identified with Viṣṇu; flanked by Brahman and Rudra

Despite the above-noted parallelism with the Vaiṣṇava-mata, the 12 Āditya-s as a group were central deities of the Saura-mata, especially, in their solar aspect embodied by Vivasvān. They were combined with the Iranic elements to give rise to a distinctive Saura pantheon. In iconographic terms this is represented by several images showing the 12 Āditya-s as a group. We shall consider one of those, which was first described by the historian AL Shrivastava [A Rare Representation of Dvādaśāditya; East and West, Vol 52], to illustrate the peculiarly Saura pantheon (below). On stylistic grounds this image can be considered a production of the rājpūt dynasty of the Pratihāra-s, who were known to be major votaries of the Saura-mata: We have king Mihira Bhoja who was said to have been born upon the invocation of Mitra by his father, and the kings Rāmabhadra and Mahīpāla whose inscriptions described them as Saura-s. The image shows stylistic and material similarity to a toraṇa with 12 Āditya-s from Hinglajgarh, Madhya Pradesh, which was noted by AL Shrivastava as being housed in the Central Museum, Indore. Image was auctioned by the Sotheby’s auction house and has been since lost to the public. Hence, it is possible that the image was stolen from the Hinglajgarh ruins or a temple renovated by the Chandela-s or Paramāra-s by one of the image thieves who have been operating at these sites for several years.

The 12 Āditya-s with the Saura pantheon

Here the central Āditya may be identified with his primary solar aspect, i.e. Vivasvān. Forming a right triangle around around his head are the triad of Āditya-s who come as a group from the Ṛgveda: Mitra, Varuṇa and Aryaman who are also associated with the rising, setting and meridian solar aspects. The remain tetrads on either side of the “top-center” Aryaman account for the remaining 8 Āditya-s of the dodecad.

In addition to the 12 Āditya-s the image also depicts the distinctive Saura pantheon which includes:

The twin Aśvin-s: These are horse-headed deities depicted at extreme lower corners of both images. The twins are ancient deities going back to the Proto-Indo-European period and are attested in most branches of the Indo-European tree. They may even go back to an earlier phase of human history being related to twin deities seen elsewhere in Eurasiatic cultures and their New World descendants. In the Hindu tradition they are said to be born of Vivasvān and his wife Saṃjñā when they assumed the form of horses. They are the physicians of the gods who are supposed to have transmitted the science of medicine to the Bhṛgus

Saṃjñā: On the right of the god is his wife Saṃjñā also known as Rājṅī. She is said to have assumed the form of a mare in the realm of the Uttarakuru where Vivasvān is a said to have mated with her in the form of horse to sire the Aśvin-s.

Chāyā or Nikṣubhā: The left of the god is his wife Chāyā the personification of the shadow or darkness. She is specifically known as Nikṣubhā in the Iranized flavors of the Saura-mata and is central to the origin mythology of the Iranic Saura ritualists. The Bhaviṣyata purāṇa narrates the following tale in her regard:
Kṛṣṇa, the hero of the Yadu-s married Jāṃbavatī, the daughter of the great bear Jāmbavān. Their son was the valiant Sāmba. As Sāmba grew up he secretly dallied with some of numerous wives of Kṛṣṇa. Hence, Kṛṣṇa cursed him with an incurable disease that disfigured his skin. To relieve himself of this curse Sāmba went to the banks of the river Candrabhāgā, worshiped Vivasvān, and honored the god by constructing a temple at Mūlasthāna (what is today Multan, where the temple was destroyed by the Mohammedans). No local brāhmaṇa knew of the mysteries of his worship; hence, they could not take up priesthood at the temple. So Sāmba sought help of Gauramukha, the adviser of the Yadu chief, Ugrasena. Gauramukha asked him to go to Śakadvīpa and obtain a special class of ritualists called magācārya-s to worship Sūrya. Sāmba then asked regarding the antecedents of these worshipers of the sun. Gauramukha told him that the first of the brāhmaṇa-s amidst the śakha-s was called Sujihva. He had a daughter of the name Nikṣubhā. Sūrya was enamored by her took her as his wife. Thus, she gave birth to Jaraśabda [the Indianized Zarathushtra of the old Zoroastrians], who was the founding father of all the Magacārya-s [Indianized Magi]. The gotra he founded was hence termed the Mihira gotra. They are distinguished by the sacred girdle called the avyaṅga [Avestan: Aiwyanghana, i.e. Parsi kusti] that they wear around their waist. Sāmba there upon requested Kṛṣṇa to send him Garuḍa and flying on the latter’s back he landed in Śakadvīpa. He collected the magācārya-s, brought them back to Bhārata and installed them as priests of his Sūrya temple.

Piṅgala: On the proper right of the god is a deity with a pen and inkpot. He is the attendent of Vivasvān known as Piṅgala. He is the deity of writing. Thus, he becomes the patron deity of the kāyastha-s or the old Indian scribal guild. Sometimes, he is identified with Citragupta who records all the deeds of beings. In the later Saura tradition he came to be identified with Agni.

Daṇḍin: On the proper left of the god is the attendant deity Daṇḍin. He is depicted typically with a scepter of law. He is said to be the enforcer of law among the beings even as Piṅgala records their deeds. In the later Saura tradition he came to be identified with Yama.

Srauṣa and Rājña: Like Piṅgala and Daṇḍin another pair of attendants of Vivasvān, Srauṣa and Rājña, are mentioned in the Saura tantra literature, like the tantra sections of the Sāmba purāṇa. Their origins from the Mithraic branch of the Iranic tradition are transparent: In the Avesta, Mithra (cognate of Indic Mitra) is said to be flanked on either side by the deities Rašnu and Sraoša. They were Indianized as Rājña and Srauṣa even as Mithra (Mihira) was identified with primary solar deity in the Saura-mata. In later tradition, Rājña is further identified with Indic Rudra and Srauṣa with Skanda. The latter’s identification is unsurprising as Indic Skanda and Iranic Sraoša are deities sharing an ancient common origin, as supported by two diagnostic iconographic features. The first is found in the Sraoša yasht of the Avesta:

sraoshahe ashyehe taxmahe tanu-mãthrahe darshi-draosh âhûiryehe
xshnaothra ýasnâica vahmâica xshnaothrâica frasastayaêca ||
To the embodiment of universal law, the mighty Sraoša,
whose body is made of mantra-s, the mighty-speared and lordly god,
be propitiating ýasna offering, recitation, propitiation, and praise. [Translation from Avestan modified by me based on Darmesteter]

Here we note that Sraoša’s primary weapon like that of Skanda is the spear, a epithet repeated for Sraoša in the Iranian holy book the Fargard 18.

In Fargard 18.23 we have:
âat hô sraoshô ashyô aom merekhem frakhrârayeiti parô-darsh nãma spitama zarathushtra ýim mashyâka avi duzhvacanghô kahrkatâs nãma aojaite, âat hô merekhô vâcim baraiti upa ushånghem ýãm sûrãm |
And then the universal-law embodied Sraoša awakens his rooster named Parodarsh, O Zarathushtra of the Spitama clan, which ill-speaking people call Kahrkatas, and the rooster lifts up his voice against the mighty Ushah [demonized cognate of Indic dawn goddess the Uṣas; Translation from Avestan modified by me based on Darmesteter].

Here were see that Sraoša’s bird is the rooster, which is the same as the bird of Skanda.

This identification of Sraoša and Skanda might relate to the fact there is some evidence for the worship of Skanda by Iranians in the Indosphere in first few centuries of the common era [Footnote 4].
In this later period where Skanda is explicitly identified with Srauṣa we observe Daṇḍin being replaced by Skanda or iconographically converging to Skanda. We can see that in the above image.

Mahāśvetā: Below the solar deity rising from the pedestal is seen the image of a goddess named Mahāśvetā, a key deity of the Saura-mata. She is identified sometimes with the white light emitted by the sun or more commonly with the deity of the earth i.e. Pṛthivī.

The Marīcī-s: Above the two wives are shown two archer-goddesses in the above image. Sometimes there might 4 such archer goddesses. They are known as the Marīcī-s or the light goddess and sometime explicitly named as Uṣas and Pratyuṣas when present as a pair. They represent the darkness dispelling function of the sun with the arrow they shoot representing the rays of light. Their warrior nature was combined with elements drawn from another āstika warrior goddess Vārāhī and essentialized in the bauddha tradition in the form of the solo goddess Marīcī.

Aruṇa: The lame charioteer of the sun, the brother of the celestial eagle Garuḍa, is sometimes shown managing the seven horses of the solar chariot. He can be seen the first of the images shown above.

The Saura pantheon also includes other deities like Revanta and Yama the god of death and the netherworld, both of whom are the sons of Vivasvān. They are rarely depicted in classic Saura images as those shown above. However, Revanta along with deities of his maṇḍala, including Piṅgala and Daṇḍin, where depicted in images specifically dedicated to him.

::::::::::::::::::::
Footnote 1: Picture showing reconstructed evolution of Saura-mata

Footnote 2: The short count is 33; the long count given in the Veda as 3339 (A lunar eclipse cycle number, as noted by R. Shamasastry) and subsequently later day Hindus hold that number to be 33 x 107.

Footnote 3: The significance of this number was also transmitted to Japan, where the Indo-Aryan deities inherited via the Bauddha was developed into a Nipponic pantheon of 12 gods drawn from different original categories (dvādaśadevāḥ).

The Nipponic dvādaśadevāḥ are (left to right each row): Pṛthivī [Vasu], Soma [Vasu], Kubera [Yakṣa], Vāyu [Vasu], Varuṇa [Āditya], Nairṛta [Rākṣasa], Brahman, Vivasvān [Āditya], Rudra [Rudra], Indra [Āditya], Agni [Vasu], Yama

Footnote 4: For example: We have Skanda depicted on the early Iranic ruler Ayalisha (Azilises) in India. We also have an inscription of an Iranian general in the Kadamba army who records worshiping Skanda in South India and then building a temple for Skanda in Gandhara upon his return.

It is said that Śiva transforms continually into many forms for his own enjoyment not all of those are enjoyed by the consciousness housed in a paśu

*∆*∆*∆*

It was the time around Dīpāvalī, an year after when Somakhya and Lootika had come to know each other. Their school had closed for the autumnal vacation. Lootika’s mother had woken up at night due some commotion on the street but being rather tired from the day’s labors she fell back asleep. Her husband was out of the country for several days to attend a conference. The next morning remembering that commotion she checked the news before heading out to get some vegetables. She saw in the news that the serial murderers who left a characteristic card signed Rahul and Robert had broken into a house near theirs. The owners were not there but a Nepali street guard had challenged them while they were in the premises. He was injured in the encounter even as the killers had made an escape, but not before dropping their signature card and a bludgeon, which they evidently had wished to use in the crime. Lootika’s mother grew rather concerned. While her husband kept a couple of illegal revolvers she had never used them. As she was still pondering whether to fetch the vegetables herself of take the help of the community gardener, she got a call regarding a close relative who lived in the province to the south of theirs. The said relative had been bitten by a cobra and was in a serious condition in the hospital. She needed to go right away give her kinfolk some help but under those circumstances she did not want to leave her daughters alone in the house because she could be away for up to 4 days irrespective of the fate of her relative. So she decided to leave her four kids with Somakhya’s family. She apologetically called up Somakhya’s parents and explained her situation to them and sought permission to leave her precious brood there. Lootika was not at all unhappy with the arrangement because it meant they had more opportunity to discuss the stuff they were collaborating on and generally more time to chat about things.

Accordingly their mother packed them up to drive them to Somakhya’s house. Lootika and Vrishchika insisted on having their bikes with them, so grudgingly she let them ride their bikes along, checking on them repeatedly. But she absolutely forbade Varoli and Jhilleeka from taking their cycles. Before dropping them off at Somkhya’s house she gave Lootika a purse with cash and told her to be in charge of any needs that might arise for her younger sisters. When they reached Somakhya’s house they learned that Somakhya had gone with his other classmates to play a match. Somakhya’s mother told Lootika’s mother that she had come to know of the very existence of the serial killers only when the latter had called. But Somakhya’s mother made it clear to the latter that henceforth they would not be let to wander around by themselves far from home. She also assured Lootika’s mother that they would not be allowed to stray after taking the younger ones to their scheduled language lessons.

That evening, though Somakhya wanted to go out again to meet his friends Sharvamanyu and Vidrum, he was sternly instructed to stay at home with the girls. Hence he spent his time working on the bow he was making. After dinner Somakhya opened his home lab with his books and instruments to the four sisters. He took his seat on a low stool at the back door of his home lab crushing rain-tree pods to make a ball. The four sisters were excited by Somakhya’s extensive library and started combing through it. Lootika grabbed for herself a book titled “The evolution of synapsids in the Paleozoic and Triassic”, which was so absorbing that she seated herself cross-legged on the floor right next to the bookshelf reading it. Jhilleeka made herself comfortable on the couch with her tablet and a book titled “Trigonometric delights”, even as she worked out some of the interesting results therein, occasionally consulting Lootika and Somakhya if she got stuck. Varoli curled herself on the mat having grabbed for herself a book titled the “Biochemistry of coenzymes” and also an interestingly-written textbook of organic chemistry to help her along. Vrishchika picked up a peculiar old book titled the Kāvya-kautūhalam and was soon busy savoring its contents. She was enamored by a verse she had just read and recited it out aloud to the rest:

na gajā nagajā dayitā dayitā vigataṃ vigataṃ calitaṃ calitaṃ pramadā ‘pramadā mahatā mahatām araṇaṃ maraṇaṃ samayāt samayāt ||

Vrishchika: “That poem is by a rājaputra chieftain bhaṭṭi in the court of the king śrīdharasena. While it is a low-complexity sequence we can confer meaning on it thus:
The mountain-born beloved elephants were not attended to;
the flight of the birds stopped and all movement disappeared;
lovers were no longer loved; by the great one [the Hanumat fire]
death of the great ones [the Rakṣa-s] arrived in due time, [though] not in battle.”

Somakhya: “What would be the biological analog such a verse?”
Lootika: “Two adjacent nucleosomes, while otherwise identical, could have a different biological meaning due to modification of their side chains!”
Somakhya: “Good!”
Vrishchika: “Could you tell me more about this?”
Lootika picked up a textbook on the biochemistry of epigenetics from Somakhya’s collection and handed it to Vrishchika warning her: “Not all of its contents should be taken at face value; I or Somakhya could clarify things further once you get up to speed with the basics.”

Having started her up on that, Lootika went over to Somakhya and took a seat on the floor beside him even as he was starting to the gather the paste for the final act of the kanduka-kṛti. As he was doing so, Lootika, as though induced by her relative’s fate, started talking about snakes with Somakhya. She reminded Somakhya of the day when they were looking for beetles and wasps at an abandoned quarry in the hills when a cobra had dashed forth at him from its elevated lair. As Lootika yelled out to him, Somakhya instinctively ducked and ran out of the mouth of the quarry, even as the snake literally flew over his head with the momentum of the attempted strike. Somakhya: “I thought that day I may have become a sacrificial victim for the dreadful Vāsuki or Takṣaka.”

Having placed the ball to solidify, Somakhya went on to look at microbial eukaryotes and microscopic animals under his microscope even as the four sisters joined him. Thus, they would have spent the whole night, had Somakhya’s parents not constantly pestered them to go to sleep.

◊◊◊◊

The next day Somakhya and Lootika were to accompany the younger three to Shilpika’s house for their language lessons and fetch them back. Somakhya and Lootika had stopped attending the language lessons, so they were sternly instructed not to wander in the hills, go to any eatery to have snacks, or go to the woods of the university campus. The only thing they were allowed to do was to visit the aquarium which was near Shilpika’s house while the younger ones took their class. They nodded in acquiescence, and left to drop off the three younger ones.

On the way Somakhya told Lootika: “If Vivasvān’s black son has to visit us in the form of the serial killers then none of these precautions would really help.”
Lootika: “I agree, but given this whole atmosphere of fear if we are caught in the surveillance of your parents elsewhere from where we are supposed to be we could be in unnecessary trouble. By the way there are other dangers. My friend Maurvi mentioned that there was a kidnapper on the prowl.” Somakhya: “I have my knife. I believe that should do for the kidnapper, given that Sharvamanyu, Vidrum and I have practiced for many attack scenarios.”
Lootika: “But what about me?”
Somakhya: “We could get a knife for you from Vidrum and Sharvamanyu. They have figured out a place to get an excellent gravity knife and we could teach you the right defensive moves with it.”
Lootika: “But to get the cash for that might be difficult now.”
Somakhya: “We are planning to get ourselves Kukri-s. I could lend you mine then.”
Lootika: “I need to have something for me and my sisters that might be easier to use. My father did tell me that some day he will teach me to shoot. But I think for the immediate future we should talk more about our other ideas for weapons; may be later tonight. As we discussed before we should make use of the ghasa-ghasā plant or even more spectacularly the yavaviṣa plant.”
Somakhaya: “Lootika, you must realize that you would still need to learn the moves and it is no joke to put them to use when being actually attacked by someone bigger and stronger than us. But, indeed, we should continue the weapons project. Praise be to our ancestors the Bhṛgu-s and Āngirasa-s and the cunning of Cāṇakya. We should also continue working on that prototype for the stun ray weapon with the new sapphire lenses.”

Thus conversing they arrived at Shilpika’s house and dropped off the younger three. While Shilpika was scholarly, she was a boring teacher. That was one of the main reasons that Somakhya and Lootika no longer continued the literary lessons even though she liked them a lot and was very good them. That day they realized that her husband was instead teaching the lesson. Shilpika told them that he had decided to conduct free courses in autumn for a month by taking time off from his job as an archaeologist and epigraphist. She mentioned that he was doing this because he very keen to revive the Devabhāṣā as the language of the Hindus. Lingering on, Somakhya and Lootika realized that, unlike Shilpika, her husband was a great teacher who had a knack for making the students immediately attentive and interested. Somakhya whispered to Lootika that he was a man who possessed brahmavarcas and might be in possession of brahman power. So they did a namaskāra to him. He asked them if they might be interested to join the readings he conducted from the samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra, yuktikalpataru, and mānasāra. They thought that was interesting and expressed their desire to attend the readings.

On the way back the weather was pleasant, so Lootika and Vrishchika had Jhilleeka and Varoli sit on seats attached to the back of their respective bikes even as they slowly walked their bikes along towards Somakhya’s house. Just then Lootika noticed that Shilpika had sent her a mail, with something her sister Varoli had done, adding that her sister was just like her. Lootika showed it to Somakhya. On a piece of paper, on one side Varoli had drawn an elephant written out the below words under it:

sa nāgaḥ | so ‘tīva sthūlas tuṅgaś ca+āsīt | tena tulyo ‘paraḥ paśur na+āsīt | avartanta tasya sthulāś ca kaṭhiṇāś ca ghorāś ca dantāḥ | ko ‘yaṃ nāgaḥ ?

On the other side, she had written in those same words along with the additional words:

cakāra taraṇam arṇāyāṃ dakṣiṇa-krauñca-dvīpe | babhakṣa nakraṃ mahāghora-rūpaṃ |

But now the earlier words were placed in a winding pattern in compartments placed inside the body of another zoomorphic figure.

Somakhya: “Why this seems like the Titanoboa we used to draw in śrī Shilpika’s sleepy class?”
Saying so, he gave it back to Lootika. In a flash he took it back from her, looked hard at it and continued: “What do you think is in the serpent’s mouth?”
Lootika: “Why that looks like the two inverted crossed ₹ symbols! Is that not the sign the serial killers Rahul and Robert leave behind at the venues of their crimes?”
Somakhya: “Yes, indeed. Ask your sister why she drew that symbol in the serpent’s mouth.”
With some trepidation Lootika asked Varoli who was riding in the seat attached to Vrishchika’s bike in front of them: “Why this symbol dear Varoli?”
Varoli: “agrajā, I think you were the one who first showed it to me in a news article. Then I had this dream last night where I saw the snake with that symbol. I don’t remember anything else of that dream other than that I awoke from it in sort of a scare but quickly fell back asleep because you hugged me. I decided to incorporate it into my sarpabandha after Shilpika’s husband showed us the sarpabandha-s of Paramāra kings along with a little play on homonymy to confound the other students.”
Lootika: “Yes, being too sleepy I only vaguely remember that you suddenly woke up.”

Just then Lootika got a call from Somakhya’s mother: “Where are you all? Hurry home right away. Apparently Rahul and Robert had struck again near your house and killed someone.” Deciding not to worry their parents and guardians too much with such news, they quickly mounted their bikes and sped homewards.

As they reached home they saw Somakhya’s mother standing at the gate and to their amusement she counted them twice to make sure they were all in. She then asked Lootika to call her mother and inform her that they were alive and well.

◊◊◊◊

Realizing that with such news, that too in broad daylight, there was no hope for their outdoor activities, the five filed into the home lab to resume where they had stopped the previous night. Just then Somakhya got a message from Sharvamanyu:
“You might know of this girl Meghana in our class in whom our friend Vidrum has a particular interest. I understand she was killed by the serial killers Rahul and Robert. Thankfully Vidrum was not with her at the time. Her body was found on the middle of the quiet Subhas Chandra Bose Road with her skull shattered by a club, which is apparently the trademark of these murderers.”

Somakhya showed it to Lootika. Lootika: “Now that is really scary! That girl was a good-for-nothing, but to be brained this way on the middle of the road is very tragic indeed!”

As the day proceeded they got moving with the lab and the books. Somakhya saw a strange large non-photosynthetic euglenozoan growing in one of his water cultures. He called Lootika over to see it and they decided they should catch a few of them and try to get them to grow by themselves in tube with bacterial suspension. He handed over the microscope and a pipette to Lootika to catch them even as he proceeded to set up a bacterial suspension. Having done completed that task they felt good and sat down on the couch hoping their plan would work even as they swiped through the photographs of the said protist. Suddenly, Lootika got distracted by a message from her friend regarding the murder of their classmate Meghana. She remarked: “How many times have we ridden on the SCB road. Rather frightening indeed to imagine Rahul and Robert were prowling there.”
Somakhya: “Well they had struck on the same lane as your house the previous night. In what way is this more frightening in that regard?”

Lootika: “Perhaps it is just beginning to sink in now.”
Somakhya: “Talking of this, it just strikes me that there is something strange here. Do you think this girl would have been walking in the middle of the road? The news reports say that she was found dead on the middle of the SCB road. If that is where she was, why did they not find her bike or some other vehicle. If she was crossing the road then she could have seen her assailants and would have reacted in some way, as consequence of which they could not have killed her right in the middle of the road.”
Lootika: “What if they had attacked her on the footpath and she had run to the middle of the road to avoid them?”
Somakhya: “Possible, however note this: the assailants are supposed to operate in a white van. Quiet as the SCB road is, if they were lying in wait, their white van should have been parked somewhere near if they wished to commit the crime on the footpath. The reports say that two men on the motorbikes supposedly noticed R&R’s trademark white van speeding away at the end of the SCB road to enter the University road even as they entered the road in the opposite direction and saw the corpse. That does not seem to square with the report saying that none of the residents saw or heard anything: her screams, noises of the girl being clobbered, or the white van being parked for a substantial time on their parking spaces.”

Varoli who was nearby remarked: “Now that you say all this, I remember little more of my dream. I think I saw someone being chased by two men in a lonely place. She tripped and fell and they struck her with hunting crops. I think that’s when I woke up in a fright.”

Just as they were taking in Varoli’s curious statement, Vrishchika chimed in sounding rather shaken: “Well, we are not going to be seeing two of our schoolmates when school resumes…”
Lootika: “What do you mean!”
Vrishchika: “I just got a message from my friend that my classmate Vikas died today. Apparently, he had unwrapped a large number of those ‘atom-bombs’ which come wound in a green rope and collected the explosive to make a big one. He put the stuff in a tin, inserted a magnesium wire into it, and set it alight. Before he could run it apparently went off straight on his face and he succumbed to his injury today.”

Somakhya: “Ouch, what a sad way to go! That is one experiment which should be done with utmost caution; not at all something for the casual pyrotechnic enthusiast. The poor boy should have really listened to the warnings of the elders for that one.”

For some time they remained silent, each turning in their mind how close Vaivasvata could be. Finally, perhaps to articulate her sense of disquiet little Jhilleeka broke the somber stillness: “Ain’t it strange that Varoli had a such a prognostic dream? Aren’t dreams supposed to recapitulate past events rather than prognosticate future ones?”
Lootika: “Dear antajā, I don’t think Varoli’s dream was prognostic. See she was already primed by the fact that R&R had struck near our house. Then there was the snake looming large on our minds. She already knew from the reports that R&R had dispatched their victims by slugging them on the head and I had shown her the article which showed the symbol they left behind. So all that congealed into her dream. Moreover she remembered this only post-facto; so how can we even be sure that her recall was perfect. We tend to see patterns, so we think it was prognostic. After all no one dreamed of Vrishchika’s classmate detonating his own face.”

Varoli: “But then you surely recall that August Kekule von Stradonitz discovered the aromatic ring structure of benzene in his dream. Would this not fit the bill as being prognostic? After all this is one discovery on which we peg much of what we do even today.”

Vrishchika: “Lootika, in the same vein I am sure you also remember the studies which have shown that rats dream of futures movements in locales that they have not been able to actually explore. That is in a sense a prognostic pre-view in a dream. So when we put all those things together we can arrive at something close to being a real prognosis.”

Somakhya asked Varoli to pass him her drawing of the sarpabandha, which was related to the on going discussion amongst the sisters. Having closely looked at it and then checking out a map on his computer he returned it to Varoli remarking: “I suspect that Meghana was not killed on the middle of the SCB road but was rather clubbed to death at the Manorañjanodyānam near Vidrum’s house.”

Lootika: “Why do you say so?”
Somakhya: “Well, all I will say for now is that if it proves to be right then Varoli’s dream was genuinely prognostic.”

◊◊◊◊

Lootika’s mother came back a couple of days later after having helped her relative who had survived but for the loss of a couple of toes. She headed straight to collect her daughters from Somakhya’s home and returned home. With Rahul and Robert claiming further victims, Lootika and Somakhya never got to meet again that vacation except for the day when their families had assembled together at the hilltop shrine of the god Kumāra for a major triannual festival. But they did not get to talk much that day as they were totally taken in by the bustle of the ritual. However, Somakhya managed get the large euglenozoan growing but to his disappointment he could not get it over to Lootika to do her molecular biological wizardry for them to proceed ahead. As he was ruing this on the last day of the vacation, he received a message from her:
“Hey, I just heard from Maurvi and Nikhila that there is a shootout going on outside the gym near school.”

Somakhya checked the news and confirmed that something like that was indeed underway. He hoped that this might lead to school being closed for at least one more day. But his hopes were dashed as he got a message from Vidrum: “The situation has resolved in the most unbelievably dramatic fashion. Apparently, Awrangzeb Khan and Sher Khan, the suspects in the mall bombing that took place last year had a brush with none other than Rahul and Robert outside the gym. In the ensuring skirmish Awrangzeb Khan was killed and the remaining three were seriously injured. Consequently, they were unable to flee and have been taken into custody.”

◊◊◊◊

It was many years after these incidents. Lootika was in the last semester of her college and Vrishchika deep in med-school. At the end of the day Lootika had gone over to the medical campus to pick up Vrishchika since she had given her bike for servicing. There she saw Vrishchika waiting for her along her former classmates Vidrum and Gardabh and Vrishchika’s classmate Mahish. Since they were seeing Lootika after a long time they paused to chat a little.

Gardabh: “What are you guys doing for the commute tomorrow? Do you think it might be better to take the train or bus?”
Mahish: “What is the matter?”
Gardabh: “Did you not hear that Sher Khan is going to be hanged?”
Mahish: “Who on earth is this Sher Khan and why are they hanging him?”
Vidrum: “Don’t tell me you don’t know who Sher Khan is. He was the brain behind the mall-bombing when we were kids.”
Mahish: “I really don’t bother about all this politics. It is so boring and as it is there is so much to study with exams round the corner. I seriously want to become a doctor. ”
Gardabh: “But then this could be a life and death issue; especially if the two communities decide to clash. That is why I say we must be more enlightened like Europe and abolish this death punishment.”
Vidrum: “What nonsense. I would say let us not just hang Sher Khan but also Rahul and Robert. They are no less deserving of this.”
Vrishchika: “I am sure you have seen the news that the church of the baptists is working hard to get Robert’s sentence commuted right away.”
Gardabh: “Now why are you bringing religion into all this. That is why we could be caught in riots tomorrow.”
Lootika: “Hey Gardabh – you are the guy who procured me the knife that I am still carrying with me. Now why are you getting worried about riots.”
Gardabh: “See Lootika those were old days. I am not into all this anymore. Like Mahish says I am serious about becoming a doctor.”
Vidrum: “So you think I am not?”

Gardabh: “No, No. I am just trying to bring sense to you guys. Killing the killer does not right the wrong. Yes they were a danger to society; let us keep them in jail so that they can never cause trouble to us again. Now by killing them we are only worsening the communal divide. Also think about this Rahul and Robert were young and misguided. They confessed that they thought killing people was like hunting tigers on a safari, just more exciting. If they lived in a humane society they would not think like this. So jail has to be corrective experience for them not just punitive. By executing them the government is being given power to do the very thing they are being punished for. Moreover, R&R killed Awrangzeb Khan. So have the not also contributed to fighting terrorism? Now look at Sher Khan. He has a young daughter who might one day be a student like us. Should we not have compassion?”
Vrishchika: “Well I am not exactly waiting with bated breath for that. If she gets to see anything beyond the haze of her veil that would achievement enough! I agree with Vidrum all three of them should be put to death forthwith.”
Mahish: “Friends, I am sure there are so many such cases all over the country. Why waste our energy arguing over all this useless stuff. We could have talked about those difficult questions on resistance to beta-lactams that I am not making any sense of.”

Vidrum: “Lootika, you don’t have an opinion?”
Lootika: “I do but not that it would matter much to the world.”
Gardabh: “Let’s hear it anyhow.”
Lootika: “I think Sher Khan should not be hanged because he becoming a martyr would only further the marūnmāda meme-complex. Instead he should be subject to such treatment so that he repeatedly confesses that marūnmāda is utter nonsense, that he has given it up, and that all marūnmatta-s should give it up. These statements should then be widely broadcast for both the Hindus and marūnmatta-s to see and hear. If you think that it is impossible, we hear that a Japanese lord made it happen to the pretasādhakas in the past, and we have had Bhāgurāyaṇa. As for R&R I think they should be given the mṛtyu-daṇḍa and not waste the tax-payer’s money. And Vidrum I do hope you get you closure with R&R.”
Gardabh: “All that will never happen. You are just being a cruel girl.”

Vidrum: “I have already got it: even if not total, it is a liberating closure. I doubt you have seen the details that came out during these cases. Apparently Meghana was waiting for none other Sher Khan’s junior partner Awrangzeb Khan at the sitting area in the Manorañjanodyānam. That was when R&R clobbered her and then threw her corpse out of their van on the middle of the SCB road. R&R’s skirmish with the marūnmatta-s was apparently precipitated by this.”

Lootika: “Vrishchika, did you hear that! Let’s be going.”
Vrishchika: “Vow! We must stop at Somakhya’s house on the way home!”

◊◊◊◊

Somakhya: “Gautamī-s, look at this; your sister’s old drawing and the udyāna’s walk way. What would you say pareidolia or prognosis?”

Lootika: “Unbelievable.”
Vrishchika: “And the biological equivalent of that would be recombination of transposons on chromosome.”