The Fool wrote: > It's not that those thing you listed aren't true, they are. > They could > still flare up, but the cold war is over. Did you know that > before the > british came to india, there was a religious group in india called > 'thugs'. the Thugs systematically killed more than an order > of magnitude > more people (over a very long period of time) than the > numbers you just > listed. All for kali.
I'll disagree here. I have no idea where you came upon these figures but they seem too high. As for how long they have been in existence, well, I am not sure. However this is not a topic I know a lot about. Just general history and references in literature over the last 4 centuries or so. Based on that, some general impressions: Thugs are have certainly been in existence since the 16th century, if not earlier. The Mughal papers mention them from that time on. And they start making regular appearance in poetry and literature from around the end of that century. However, the 'Thugs' were never a religious group, though they have certainly claimed that and have been perceived by some as that. But by and large, by Indians they were considered to be nothing more than a unsavoury, scary group of robbers and cut-throats. They were chillingly efficient though and rather well organised. Garroting, hanging, strangling and diembowelling the victim using a spring-loaded, three-pronged serrated knife were their favoured methods of dispatching the victims. However, I have never come across any reason to believe that the picture painted in that url you posted is close to correct. That article is filled with errors. The myth about Kali is erroneous, the comments on Hindi alphabet are wrong, the description of a strongly centralised organisation of Thugs is false as by all accounts these groups were organised locally - for some decades they actually centered around the maths.There are many more exagerations, misinterpretations and it seems pointless to point them all out. Would take far too long anyway. :) Some of the shortcomings of that view have been pointed out in another article though. Here is the url for an alternative look at the issue: http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/yale/9.1roy.html It has extensive notes pointing towards further avenues of research. Most of them are probably not accessible online though. Ritu _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
