Hindumahasagar Samaj: Hindu Samskriti 2020

[Guest guest]

Srinivasan Kalyanaraman <kalyan97@g...> wrote:

 

Out of the debris and devastation caused by the 2004 year-end tsunami

should re-emerge a vibrant and self-confident Hindumahasagar Samaj.

 

One recalls with fondness the pride with which people of Indonesia or

Thailand proclaim: "We are hindu," and celebrate their heritage,

their

vira_sat through puppet shows, through many cultural forms of homage

to their ancestors in places such as Ayodhya or Brahmavana

(Perambanan). Let Garuda Wisnu monument emerge in all glory, in Bali

as a reminder of the r.n.a we owe to our pitr.-s. Let there be a

rathayatra for jagannatha in Angkor Wat; let us help the large

communities around the Straits of Malacca to attain thei due place in

the comity of nations.

 

The tsunami is a reminder of two things: 1. that the Hindumahasagar

binds a community which extends over 63,000 miles of rim of the ocean

named after the hindu and can be recognized as such through

multi-disciplinary efforts of ocean and space technologies; and 2.

that the Hindumahasagar Samaj is a cultural entity dating back to the

days of early evolution of civilization.

 

Half-hearted and sporadic efforts have been made to constitute

groupings such as ASEAN, SAARC. Tsunami is a reminder that these

political attempts should be expanded into a larger cultural

framework

of an Indian Ocean Community (IOC) as a socio-economic-cultural

entity, a non-political entity to start with which can enlarge

further

over time with a common currency and a free trade zone leading to the

ultimate constitution of a United States of Hindumahasagar (or, IOC).

 

In historical terms, it is becoming increasingly clear that Sarasvati

civilization (earlier called Indus Valley civilization) of the 8th to

4th millennium BCE (Before Common Era) was a maritime, riverine

civilization, exemplified by the ealiest industry based on s'ankha as

the wealth-mineral of the ocean and the metaphor of Samudramanthanam

in which both asura and deva cooperated to harness the riches of the

earth without destroying the fragile ecosystem.

 

Evidences for such an ancient maritime, riverine community or Samaj

are present in the following facts:

 

1. Occurrence of mundarica words in R.gveda and in many dialects of

Indian Ocean rim states, extending perhaps into Easter islands

(exemplified by the Rongorongo epigraphs on tablets with hundreds of

glyphs, which are an echo from the hieroglyphs of Sarasvati

civilization and are not due to mere chance).

 

2. The presence of the largest vishnu mandiram in the world in Nagara

Vatika (Angkor Wat) in Cambodia and the expansion of Hindu Dharma and

Buddha Dhamma into Brahmades'a (Burma), Kamboja (Cambodia), Laos,

Champa (Vietnam), and Thailand (capital, Ayodhya).

 

3. It will be an error to view the expanse of Sarasvati civilization

only in terms of the land-based movements (such as into Gandhara,

Aryanam Vaejo (Iran), Central Asia), but should encompass the

contacts

with the dvipa (island settlements in areas such as Madagascar,

Maldives, Sri Lanka, Andoman, Nicobar, Aceh, Sumatra, and other

islands beyond the Stratits of Malacca) and also contacts with the

Gulf states (Gulf of Khambat, Gulf of Kutch, Persian Gulf, abutting

the Makran Coast and the early coastal Amri-Nal cultural areas) and

the Horn of Africa (Somalia). That is, the maritime, riverine

movements could have been of greater significance than the

land-movements in search of minerals such as tin during the bronze

age.

 

4.The finds of two tin ingots of 95% purity, with epigraphs

containing

Sarasvati hieroglyphs are no chance event. Similarly, the find of

Gundestrup cauldron remains yet unexplained though it contains may

echoes from the Sarasvati heiroglyphs. The two ingots of tin found at

a Haifa ship-wreck had two glyphs: 1. antelope; 2. measure of liquid

capacity (something like a square with a handle in the middle). There

is a mundarica word which explains an antelope, a measure of liquid

capacity. The word is 'ranku'. It means an antelope; it also means a

measure of liquid capacity. Surprisingly, the word 'ranku' also

means:

tin, yes, the mineral ore, cassite yielding tin through a unique

distillation process. This mineral is called zasta a homonym of

svastika; hence, the occurrence of svastika as a glyph not only in

the

Sarasvati Sibdu river basins but also in a Tepe Yahya seal, not far

from the Caspian Sea. It is not a mere coincidence that Easter island

people are referred to as rongorongo, a phonetic cognate of ranku,

tin, recollecting the enormous quests for the tin as an additive to

copper to create bronze, a hard metal which could be used for making

tools and weapons, creating a veritable revolution in technological

advance of an expansive civilization. Hence, the movements of early

metallurgists-traders in search of tin in ancient times of the bronze

age.

 

4. This historical legacy is manifest in many traits and cultural

indictors such as the following: exchange of tambula (which,

incidentally is a mundarica word, bura 'betel') to signify settlement

of a mitra or contract; exchange of narikela (coconut) during

festivities; performance of vrata (exemplified by Mahavrata of

Aitareya Aranyaka); yoga; veneration of tirthasthana; veneration of

s'iva in the form of a tower shaped after the summit of Mt. Kailas

(above Manasarovar glacier) evidenced by the finds of s'ivalinga in

Harappa and Kalibangan; s'ankha industry for making s'ankha bangles,

s'ankha ladles, s'ankha seals (as the one found in Bet Dwaraka),

s'ankha trumpets (yielding om-kara); evolution of types of

navigational crafts such as kattaimaran, sail-boats; the spread of

Nahali language from the banks of Tapati and Narmada rivers into

Bhimbhetka, Gondwana, along the Mahanadi and Godavari into the Bay of

Bengal islands (celebrated as Bali Yatra even today in Orissa and

Chattisgarh); the expansion of naga vams'a all over the Indian Ocean

region; celebration of nature, the mountains, and rivers (exemplified

by the names of Irawaddi in Brahmades'a and Mekong (Maa Ganga) in

China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam); the Himalayan ranges as a

unifying

force for the entire IOC region stretching from Teheran in the west

to

Hanoi in the east leading to the kaleidoscope of Himalayan dialects;

celebration of Brahmaputra as Lohitya (loha ! metal) and association

of people and settlements in the region of Brahmaputra-Barak basins

in

the Great Epic, Mahabharata; the evocation of the Ramayana in almost

all states of IOC -- communities stretching from Strait of Hormuz

across Straits of Malacca upto the western borders of Australia...the

list can go on and are subject areas for further researches breaking

away from the shackles of Macaulayish-indological gibberish.

 

5. The most dominant ideology which pervades the cultural gamut of

IOC

states, the ideology of DHARMA. Dharma is NOT religion. It is:

dha_ran.a_t dharma itya_huh -- that which sustains is dharma, the

principles and tenets which hold the cosmic order together without

allowing it to break-up or fall apart. An inquiry, a quest, a veda

(vid, to know) leading to an understanding of dharma. Dharma and

Vrata

are inviolate, they cannot be violated even by Indra, Agni or Varuna.

Yajna and vrata are two sides of the same coin, the process of

unraveling dharma and practising dharma in all facets of life and

civilizational activity. Let us wean ourselves away from the

divisive,

destructive, desiccating processes of indology and explore the

history

of dharma, dhamma which could provide a purushartha, a goal for the

present and future generations in the inexorable march of

civilization. IOC can become the beacon, the lighthouse which shows

the way to reach the shores of sanity and moks.a.

 

So, here we have some topics, some intimations for research for

civilizational resurgence in Hindumahasagar Samaj.

 

It will be a dharmic gesture incumbent on hindu samaj leaders to pay

their homage to the departed a_tman, and contribute to the relief for

victims of tsunami: they are about 90,000 of Indonesia; about 20,000

of Sri Lanka; about 9,000 of Bharat; and about 20,000 of other

regions

of Hindumahasagar such as Thailand, Maldives, Africa, Tasmania and

many as yet unnamed islands of the Great Ocean merging into the

Pacific Easter Islands; and about a million people affected by the

tandava nr.tyam, a pral.aya in motion.

 

If Varaha signifies the raising of the earth caused by the clash of

Bharat and Eurasian plates, let Hindumahasagar Samaj signify the

matsyavatara and samudra manthanam. It is within our competence to

enshrine this Samaj in the hearts of dharmic women and men of the

world. If only Manu can emerge floating on the top of a tortoise

shell

as the tsunami waves toss to re-state the dharma for the times...

 

It is within the domain of the young civilization of Bharat, with 35%

of the population less than 15 years of age, to transform the Hindu

Predicament 2005 into Hindu Samskriti 2020. This Vision of Hindu 2020

is within our grasp if only we seize the moment, the maha_ka_la

encapsuled in a tsunami as a reminder of our dharma, our duty

enjoined

on us by our pitr.-s.

 

Let us perform this s'ra_ddha together. a_ no bhadra_h kratavo yantu

vis'vatah

 

Dhanyavaadah.

 

Kalyanaraman

--- End forwarded message ---