Ugra

Pañcatantra calling Persia In a 2024 paper, Ayelet Kotler summarizes the repeated Persian "translations and retranslations" of the Pañcatantra पञ्चतन्त्र (Five Principles), the Sanskrit work on political wisdom and power relations. The Persians recognized its seminal importance and attempted no less than six or seven times to bring it to life in their own language. The span of the efforts (a 1000 years) provide a backhanded compliment to the Pañcatantra. The most faithful (and unsuccessful) retranslation is considered to be that of Mustafa Khaliqdad ʿAbbasi's, commissioned by Akbar the Mughal Enperor. Khaliqdad tried to remain true to the work's spirit, retaining the Sanskrit untranslatables, avoiding Arabic words and staying away from the style of "Adab" (Persian poetry tradition). Predictably, the work fell out of favour and lost Akbar's commission. As the Persianate rubble bounces again and again, it would be timely to remember the first (and longest) book of the Pañcatantra - titled Mitrabheda (मित्रभेद) - meaning the "separation of friends".

शब्द नहीं शक्ति है, ‘अरिदमन’!

How the Bhitari (भीतरी) Seal of the Guptas was discovered - From Michael Willis, 2005.

This was the black swan event that disestablished the Gupta Empire through weather disruptions and crop failures. A "Little Ice Age" (Ulf Buntgen et al 2016) began in Eurasia. Political upheavals happened elsewhere as well. The Arabian Peninsula recieved more rainfall and sustained larger camel herds allowing Arab armies to successfully mount bigger incursions into Sasanid areas. The reason for the LIA is proposed to be either a series of volcanic eruptions or a comet explosion in the upper atmosphere that blocked the sun.

Mahavira lived in the same period as Siddhartha Gautama. Like him, he also belonged to the higher Kshatriya (ruling) class. Despite being part of the broader Vedic cultural context, both later claimed that is not. I’m somewhat disappointed that many people still don’t know much about Mahavira and Gosala. I sometimes wonder, if Ashoka had promoted Jainism instead, perhaps it might have had a stronger influence on protecting wildlife across the Asian continent.

The ASI began excavations at Kumarikkalpalayam at, Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, in February 2026. Located about 15 km north of Uthukuli Taluk, the site lies within agricultural field and represents an extensive Iron Age and Early Historic habitation, comprising a mound and an adjacent megalithic burial complex. Excavations at the habitation mound revealed a potsherd bearing a short-inscription. This fragment, part of a storage jar made of Black-and-Red ware, carries five Tamil-Brahmi characters that can be read as “Irumpurai.” Paleographically, the letters date to the late 1st cen. BCE-early 1st cen. CE. (1/2)

Approximately 70% of modern groups in the Indo-Iranic sphere having the highest Steppes MLBA ancestry are Tajiks, Uzbeks or Pashtuns. This fully tallies with the archaeological data of the Andronovo interaction layer which is limited to a zone in Central Asia and does not ingress beyond.

Modern pops with the most Steppe MLBA (Andronovo) Admixture Criteria : >25% Tool used: qpAdm

Indo-European people spread so effectively because for them sovereignty was a decentralized franchise and any ambitious young man could potentially lead his männerbund to found a new state. There were no built in brakes on their expansion, and no central decision maker to drive it, it simply flowed from the nature of their people. Instead of expecting a single political savior, we should create the conditions where hundreds of ambitious young men can become leaders, joined in a confederacy against our common enemies. The natural condition of European political authority is a patchwork of culturally allied sovereigns; the Near Eastern model of despotic imperium is foreign to us, and it only manifested in Rome as it became more Near Eastern genetically in the run up to the imperial era (see image below). A confederacy works as long as all the members are willing to show up to talk about their common interests without imposing their way as the only way. Regular dialogue between leaders of independent organizations is critical. The coalition will form among all those leaders with enough humility, and confidence, to engage each other as peers.