---------- Forwarded message --------- From: N Sekar <[email protected]> Date: Tue, May 7, 2024 at 6:01 PM Subject: Re: [KeralaIyers] Re: [iyer123] CULTURAL QA 05-2024-07 To: Narayanaswamy Iyer <[email protected]>, Kerala Iyer < [email protected]>, Gopa4411 <[email protected]>, Suryanarayana Ambadipudi <[email protected]>, Rangarajan T.N.C. < [email protected]>, Chittanandam V. R. <[email protected]>, Mathangi K. Kumar <[email protected]>, APS Mani <[email protected]>, Srinivasan Sridharan <[email protected]>, SRIRAMAJAYAM < [email protected]> Cc: Narayanaswamy Sekar <[email protected]>
Thanks. While on this subject, I received a personal mail asking me whether or not I believe that the Egyptian (E C) and Greek civilizations are older than the Indus Valley civilization ( I V C) to prove they are the oldest languages. I have written to that person to see my reply in K I and Thatha (from my g mail) as I feel a healthy discussion on the topic will add to what we know, even if we don't agree. 1. If you go purely by the history books, written largely by the West, it would seem that E C is older than IVC. These books date the E C around 3000 - 3500 years B C and IVC a couple or so centuries later. 2. I remember to have read (long back), in "The Economist" where they boasted about the "sacred history of the Christ and Christianity" while mocking at our Ramayana as mere "Mythology".. For them Ramayana (and Ayodhya) is a myth while Jerusalem is "Sacred history". 3. So there are inherent biases in the books we read. I may have mine too. 4. Mahabharatha is older than the E C. 5. In the Mahabharatha we hear the sages consoling the Pandavas telling them about the sufferings of King Nala and his queen Damayanti. I am not even talking about King Harishchandra. 6. We believe Ramayana happened during the Treata Yuga and Mahabharata in Dwapara Yuga, almost touching Kali Yuga when Krishna chose to leave the world. 7. And we have a list of the names of the Kings preceding Rama in the Ishvaku dynasty - like Raghu and Dilipan for example. I was astounded when an Upanyasakar reeled off the names of all these kings without even taking a breath. If I remember right, Dushyant Sridhar has also mentioned these names. 8. Given these facts (or myths for those who believe the West or the likes of our home grown Romilla Thapar) we can say that Ramayana and the Mahabharatha are older than the E C and as a corollary Sanskrit as these were written in Sanskrit. N Sekar Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 02:23:11 PM GMT+4, Narayanaswamy Iyer < [email protected]> wrote: Dear folks Sanskrit was spoken widely among the cognoscenti in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Persia for tens of thousands years before the advent of writing on palm-leaves, etching on stone, or painting in caves.. S Narayanaswamy Iyer On Tue, May 7, 2024 at 1:07 PM 'gopala krishnan' via iyer123 < [email protected]> wrote: *CULTURAL QA 05-2024-07* *All the BELOW QA are from Quora digest to me on 07-05-2024.* * Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers * *.Compiled **and posted by R. Gopala krishnan, on 07-05-2024* *Q1 How was the North defined as the top part of the Earth and the South defined as the bottom part of the Earth?* *A1 Silk Road, Studied at Generative Pre Training11h* *We tend to take our orientation with maps and the globe for granted.* *North is up, south is down, and it seems like it's always been this way.* *But how did we decide what's "up" on a giant, spinning ball floating in space?* *The truth is, it was quite arbitrary.* *For much of human history, the concept of "north" and "south" as universal directions was non-existent.* *Many ancient maps didn't even try to fit the whole planet on them, as accurate geographic knowledge was limited.* *Some early Egyptian maps placed south at the top, and in Medieval Europe, it was common to position east at the top, referencing Jerusalem and the direction of sunrise.* *So, why north? Blame it on the stars.* *Well, one star in particular: Polaris, a.k.a. the North Star.* *Early astronomers in the Northern Hemisphere noticed that Polaris seemed to sit still while other stars rotated around it – a handy celestial signpost.* *Over time, this led to a widespread adoption of north as the standard direction at the top of maps.* *Of course, this northern-bias has a touch of historical happenstance to it.* *Since much of human civilization developed in the Northern Hemisphere, where the North Star is visible, it solidified the idea of "north as up".* *Had early cartographers been based in Australia, we might have a very different view of our planet.* *And even though we've come to accept the current map layout, it still has limitations.* *The Earth is a sphere – there's no inherent top or bottom.* *This is why you occasionally come across maps with Antarctica proudly displayed at the top – a reminder that our perspective is entirely constructed.* *Q2 What is the world's oldest language still spoken today?* *A2 Michael de Werd, Studied History at Leiden University Updated Apr 14* *Of course it is impossible to say how long a language has been spoken, but we can answer the question which language that is still spoken today has the longest written record - in other words: for which we have the oldest proof that is was used. I think that there two possible candidates for this title.* *Egyptian. It the probably the second-oldest recorded language in history. The oldest texts date from 3200 BC. Although the oldest texts in Sumerian date from the same period, most scholars believe that Sumerian started to be written earlier. However, the question is how far we can consider Egyptian a language that is still spoken. Coptic, the youngest form of Egyptian, was spoken until the 18th Century AD, but it is still in use as the liturgical language in the Coptic Church. It is written in the Coptic script which is closely related to the Greek script. So it is spoken during church services and there are people who learn it. I have studied both classic Middle Egyptian and Coptic myself. I know of a group of scholars in Egypt who try to converse in Coptic and it even said that it has been revived somewhere in Middle Egypt and some families speak in daily life. I am not sure if this is true and I am rather sceptic about such stories.* *Greek. The oldest surviving texts in an Archaic form of Greek were found on Crete in a script called Linear B and date from the 15th Century BC, which makes it the oldest written Indo-European language after Hittite, that has died out over 3000 years ago. After the so-called dark centuries Greek reappeared as a written language in the 8th Century and flourished with authors like Homer and Hesiod. From then on it was written in the Greek script that is still in use today. I have studied both Ancient and Modern Greek and I can confirm that it has changed a lot over the course of time. However it is still recognizable as the same language.* *The Airport in Athens; Greeks from the times of Homer didn’t know airplanes, trains or buses but they could read the texts.* *Q3 Why king Ravana did not fight with king Aj?* *A3 Chauhan Babu Nath,18h* *Once King Aj was worshiping at noon, at that time Ravana, the king of Lanka, came to fight him and was watching him from a distance. King Aj worshiped Lord Shiva and instead of offering water in front, he threw it back.* *Ravana was very surprised to see this and before the battle, he came in front of King Aja and started asking that after worshiping, water is always anointed in the front and not at the back.* *What is the reason behind this? King Aja said, when I was worshiping Lord Shiva in meditation posture with my eyes closed, then I saw a cow grazing in the forest one yojana away from here and I saw that a lion was about to attack it. That's why I anointed the water backwards to protect the cow.* *Ravana was very surprised to hear this!* *Ravana went there one yojana away and saw a cow grazing on green grass while the lion had many arrows stuck in his stomach.* * Now Ravana believed that the great man whose arrows are made from water and without any means of aiming can achieve the goal. It is very impossible to conquer such a brave man who gets pierced.* *And he returns to Lanka without fighting with them!* *Q4 Can anyone give me a good joke?* *A4 Robert Farnsworth,2h* *There was a flood in town. Several inches of rain, the creek overflowed, water was up to the roof of some of the houses.* *Two teens were looking out a second floor window.* *A hat moved through the water. Then it moved back in the other direction. It went in one direction, then moved against the current in the other. Back and forth it went.* * “What in the world is that??” exclaimed one teen.* * “Oh.” said the other. “I am sure it is my dad. He said ‘come hell or high water’ he was going to mow the lawn today.”* *Q5 Why can’t we sleep in the evening even if we are tired as per Hinduism? When God is within us and is always there everywhere, then how according to the religion, does God visit us in the evenings?* *A5 Rama G, Former Self Employed home maker. At present also.22h* *Evening sun set time, morning sun rise time you get benefitted vitamin D from sunrays without strong, sharp UV rays.* *Sleeping in evening might impact your schedules and cause unnecessary stress.* *Scientifically, this might lead to lethargy and hamper digestion. People who sleep during the evening can become obese and this can lead to many other ailments they say.* *What I observed personally is, your eating pattern get disturbed. You will get up at midnight to have some food. You will get up very early in the morning, at three thirty like.* *If not,* *you may over sleep, then meal to meal gap will be more. You may eat more than required for breakfast.* *You are not doing anything to favour God. He doesn't need your sleep.* *People are categorised three types.* *Uttama, madhyama, athama.* *First category are really wise by birth. They are intelligent and sharp. They need not be told anything.* *Second category are not that wise but learn quickly by seeing others. Generally from.the first category. Why to reinvent wheel?* *Third category, neither wise by birth, nor interested to learn from others. They like to learn everything on their own. From own experience. It may be good or bad.* *For them they created this bhakti, bhayam concept.* *Bhakthi is knowledge. Doing anything after knowing, understanding, realising.* *Another is Bhayam. Fear. Since they don't listen anything told by others, elders brought this God concept. Instil fear for his good. He may follow good practices.* *If we say, fast once in every week, be on fluids, good for health. No one cares. May be very few may do it.* *ust, tell lord Vishnu likes Saturday fasting , Tuesday for subhahmanya swamy, Hanuman ji, Thursday for saibaba, raghavendra swamy, they will bless you otherwise curse you, many do it.* *So, they said morning sun rise time, evening sunset time Lakshmi visits our house. Keep it clean , be awake to welcome her, it's for your benefit.* *Immediate reply from a few is, even if we don't do, we are earning good money.* *Lakshmi is not just money only. Health, clean environment, kids, good communication with family, happy life etc, all these are considered wealth.* *When family is there awake when you are sleeping, when they go to sleep if you are awake, What's the use?* *This is one example.* *Nothing wrong if you sleep sometimes when you are exhausted, but it's better not to make it as habit**. Sun set to sunrise is anyway night time. You can fix your sleep timings in that margin.* *God is not stupid to create day and night. To work and sleep only they are made. Natural biological clock to live a good healthy life. * -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "iyer123" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/iyer123/750193411.4852365.1715058422193%40mail.yahoo.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/iyer123/750193411.4852365.1715058422193%40mail.yahoo.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . -- On Facebook, please join https://www.facebook.com/groups/keralaiyerstrust We are now on Telegram Mobile App also, please join Pattars/Kerala Iyers Discussions: https://t.me/PattarsGroup Kerala Iyers Trust Decisions only posts : https://t.me/KeralaIyersTrust Kerala Iyers Trust Group for Discussions: https://t.me/KeralaIyersTrustGroup --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "KeralaIyers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/keralaiyers/CAL4idhNa3Mvmfwwt_YtjkkuXuYvSXmqBt0cq445QWVY-TJpFUg%40mail.gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/keralaiyers/CAL4idhNa3Mvmfwwt_YtjkkuXuYvSXmqBt0cq445QWVY-TJpFUg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CABC81ZeXsii_9%2B%3DdgGRyuBu7rNEqQbv7dkdChZpyTHeAUN7mpA%40mail.gmail.com.
