The Charioteer

Oh that! Good old classic "what about before British" comeback! Too old! No worries! I am not here to insult, I am here to educate about ourselves. Let's jump right in: * Did you know, when Greeks and Chinese called us India and Indhu, Britain did not even exist! * Iranians called us Hindus too. (Geography= religion, just the same way, we now claim, Tamil region = Tamil religion!) * Did you know, Britain did not exist before 1707? In ancient times, those islands were collectively called Britainnia, as we were called India. * Was there a Germany before 1800s? * I wouldn't go near America, Canada, Australia, but we know the land and people were always there. * What was the religion of Iranian people, before Islam? Egypt? England? China? Greece? Turkey? See a pattern? They all had their own names to mean a "path" . And they were all polytheistic too. We did too! * In modern times, when countries formed, like minded principalities and feudal lands joined together to form countries. We too. Because all states in India are Dharmic states. We saw what happened when some parts did not think like us? Pak and B'Desh! * Tamil Nadu (actually Chola Nadu, Pandya Nadu, Chera Nadu) was and is always in SE part of this landmass called India! Just the same ASIA was there (though it was not known as Asia). * Yuan Tsang called us India Yin-du, Tian zhu in 7th century. And describes 5 parts of Tianzhu country he visited. (See graphic). Twmil Nadu was part of Nan-Tian zhu. Nan = South, Tian Zhu = India Contd...

Good questions, as always! Cambodia is fully Buddhist now. So is Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Burma etc. Malaysia, Indonesia are Muslim countries. Bali is probably the only ancient Hindu enclave left. Maybe, pockets in Vietnam, some in Thailand. Though all of them have Hindu and Sanskrit influences. In their names, place names, culture, dress etc. Ramayana and Mahabaratha on their walls, Hindu idols and deities in their ancestral worship. The temples in Cambodia, Laos, Vietname have turned into Buddhist already, though like in our tradition, they didn't destroy the temple, just replaced the deities. Many in ruins, so comtrolled by UNESCO and countries who sponsor renovation. India manages one temple complex. India had the nicest opportunity to lead it all, we left it to Europeans, mostly French as they colonized SEAsia. Many Cambodians know Hindu, but they know very little about India. Sadly we are fast losing our soft power there. Cambodia is developing, but poor. Khmer Rouge did a lot of damage. Plus the land mines are still active in many villages. Now China is playing a big role in developing it. And these countries are more and more Chinese sllied now. ...

@dacharioteer Now who controls this template hindu or buddhist ? And how many hindus there .. What was the religious demography of Cambodia, century by century?

Sunrise over Angkor Wat! We got in the van at 4:30 am for the sunrise tour. There were some people there. Once we got there, we found so many already waiting. Front row seats taken. But, the Sun, sky and the Angkor temple did their magic. We just clicked! Rest of the morning, we toured few more temples which we didnt plan for. Still in awe! Angkor Wat was a temple of Vishnu later turned into Buddhist temple. This and the surrounding temple cities show the glory of Hindu/Buddhist empire. Suryavarmans and Jayavarmans competed to build grander temples and paint the stories of Mahabaratha on their walls. Abandoned and frozen in time, we can see and learn about medieval, unadulterated India there.

Petaling Street Market is a thriving street market in China town in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It's famous for food and fake "designer" products. This market is acrually 2 markets in one! During day time, from 10 AM to about 4 PM, it's a street with brick and mortar shops and some stalls. After 4PM, it magically transforms into a real street promenade. We went there as part of our arranged city tour around 3PM. It was a buzzling market with stores selling watches, clothes, suitcases, bags, I later found out they were all cheap knockoff designer products. There were also stalls selling food. As we were strolling, we saw guys suddenly hauling big boxes, out of everywhere. We thought somebody was moving! Later found out that the market was literally in the midst of "transforming" itself into a buzzling street market. They apparently do this every night only to return to a regular market street next morning, like nothing happened! All trash cleaned in the wee hours! Amazing logistics and planning! Map credit Google, Night time pic credit - Travel leisure

Our Dharmic kings provided for the welfare of the people. Rarely we had a dictator that took away money from the people. They built villages based around temples, the temples employed locally in a thriving bartering economy. Even the taxes were measured and often used for local economy. They gave back to the community. Kings brought wealth from the regions they conquered. If we talk returning public money, then we may have to start repaying people of our neighboring states our kings conquered. That would be absurd. The modern, elected, representative Gov on the other hand, is really using public money and many abuse it. We see our infrastructure crumble, villages abandoned and people flock to the city causing slums. We see many ministers and elected officials get rich in front of our eyes. They did not conquer other lands or amass wealth by trade, they simply dipped into our money!! That's the difference! So if we talk reparations, we need to start with modern representative Government, not our kings!

@00lucastw @saranstm You need to get the understanding right. Even if it was built by a king, in our Dharma the Deity becomes the owner of all those properties. This law continues even today. Just check Chola Kings' temple administration. The King always considered himself as the servant of the deity

Udhayanidhi Stalin’s defense of spending ₹10 crore of temple funds on a multi-story parking lot in Coonoor is highly alarming. Using sacred temple lands and resources for public infrastructure projects is a calculated move that systematically strips these religious institutions of their financial autonomy over time. As a crucial side note, let’s not forget that this is the exact same leader who infamously spoke about eradicating Hinduism, comparing it to diseases like dengue and malaria. To me, this approach mirrors the exact playbook used by the Roman Empire to erase Pagan traditions. By gradually diverting resources, taking over lands, and weakening the foundations of the faith from within, policies like this pose a direct, long-term threat to the survival of Hinduism.

Sunset at Phnom Bhakeng, near Angkor Wat, Cambodia. The temple complex is built on a hill. Built as a Shiva temple by Yasovarman I in 9th century. The city he founded was called Yasodharapura. Later converted to Buddhist temple in 16th c. Each Khmer king had this practice of building and moving to a grander new temple based city when they came to power. Older ones abandoned, preserved, now serve as a monument to Dharmic religions in SEAsia! When we got there, it was crowded. We were all there to get a shot of sunset and personally to get a glimpse of Shiva too, though not an active temple. There is a Nandhi facing the temple at the foot of the hill. Buddhists offer their prayers to Buddha in some shrines here. At some temples, they worship Shiva for fertility! Some Cambodians said, "Hindu Buddha same"!

Interesting, I have always felt the difference, you pinpointed it well. Here are my observations to add: Vishnu feels luxurious and urbane, while Shiva feels rustic and ascetic. In Tamil world, Shiva also stands for bravery, valor. To me even the addressing feels different Hara Hara Mahadeva revs one up, while Namo Narayana is more soothing. Just an observation or interpretation. Also, the Devis are addressed in Tamil as Thiru makal - Lakshmi - Goddess of wealth, Kalai makal - Saraswathi - Goddess of education/arts, Malai makal - Uma - Goddess of valor, bravery.

An interesting observation: look at Vishnu's appearance. He is depicted as a divine king, adorned with regal ornaments, while Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, stands beside him as a queen. The grandeur of many Vishnu temples reflects this symbolism of abundance, order, and auspiciousness. And that is why most Vishnu temples are in city centres. This stands in contrast to the imagery often associated with Shiva and many forms of the Devi, where the emphasis may be on renunciation, austerity, inner transformation, or the mystical dimensions of existence.

That's interesting. Thank you for posting this. Yes please post more. One suggestion/comment though. As much as Aryabhata was great in mathematics, I am sure he didn't think in terms of Sine and Cosine. Can you clarify that? Also how they arrived at the same results without using these functions? If you think it was actually Sin and Cos, its time we update our math terminology, at least in India.. 🙏

⚡️While I had earlier illustrated in 2020 how Āryabhata created Sine tables from Bow and Arrow, but something is striking me more : •RCos(θ) is the piercing Power of Arrow while RSin(θ) deals with Elevation parameters . •The use of Mathematics for Development of Dhanurveda Lost Arts and Military Grade Bows , just like Pentagon Maths for US military ! •Are you interested to know more . Should I put my time in it ?

I learned a little bit Mandarin earlier. Their challenge is to find the closest pictogram. As such they have 1000s. They try to combine existing picture strokes and phonemes to make new words. Sometimes, combined strokes could lead to a new meaning they want to avoid. Also, remember they don't pronounce R too well, so those words turn into L words. I am always amused by how Rajendra Chola turns into Lā-jīn-dé-lā Zhū-luó in Chinese! But that's closest components they have and put together to get our name! Since various Chinese languages share the script, it's even more interesting to see the consequences to pronunciations! To their credit, they revised and simplified their Romanization to be more modern. Turkish and Malay too! It's about time, we standardize and Indianize Romanization of Indic scripts. Indian languages are Abuguida - we represent each sound with a letter. When you transliterate into English, we know how they suffer. Alapuzha was Aleppey, Vandavasi became Wandiwash! I recently learned about Bannerji, Chatterji etc names were actually Anglicized Hindu names!! And then some letters are unique to specific languages. Tamizh "zha" always suffers. I see more Tamils struggle with it & often replace it with L. It's amusing to see how one struggles with "malai (hill) Mela mazhai (rain) peyyuthu" - it rains on the mountain! In California, J takes on H incarnation from Spanish influence (San Jose) trips up other English speakers. In some parts of India, Zero is always Jeero. In TV news, I see N. Indians struggle with S.I long names. We joke about how, Varadha Rajan (Rajan who gives boons) becomes Varaadha Rajan (Rajan who didn't come) in TV news 😀 Tamil grammar explicitly has rules to transliterate Sanskrit words Pankajam > Pankayam, Sha > da etc). Car is often pronounced kaaru in Tamil-only soeakers. In Chinese, Japanese and Korean too! And in Japanese L turning to R, Base Ball = Besu Baru! I can't imagine their struggle with Glass and Grass 🤣

I am not an expert, but I am always amused by such variations in different languages. I think it comes down to what sounds are natural for people in specific areas (Geographic, environmental etc). We all know how British struggle with Indian names. With pictograms and tones, Chinese have even bigger challenge I think. How they pronounce and trsnsliterate Trump is a classic example!!

Xuanzang describing the Pallava kingdom and it's capital Kānchipuram in the 7th century. Xuanzang calls the entire region as 'Country of Ta-lo-pi-ch’a' (Dravida). He calls Kānchipuram 'Kin-chi-pu-lo'.

அருமை. திருப்பரங்குன்றத்தைப் பற்றி ஒரு வெண்பாவைக் கேட்டேன். பல விகற்ப இன்னிசை வெண்பாவாகத் தந்திருக்கிறது பரங்குன்றம் ஏறிப் பரமனை வாழ்த்தி அரங்கின்றி ஆடும் மயிலைக் கரம்குவித்து நெஞ்சாரப் போற்றி நினைந்துருகின் நெஞ்சினில் அஞ்சாமை நல்கும் அரண்.

தமிழ் யாப்பிலக்கணம் கற்கவும், ஆராயவும், இயற்றவும் உதவிய அவலோகிதம் இப்போது மேலும் புதிய AI சிறப்பம்சங்களுடன்! 📷 வெண்பா AI (avalokitam.com/ai) எந்தத் தலைப்பைக் கொடுத்தாலும், நொடிப் பொழுதில் உங்களுக்காக வெண்பா இயற்றித் தரும். 1/n

Six months passed, this is in the news again, because the new TN Gov contests a court verdict that allowed Hindus to light the lamp at least on Karthikai Deepam day. It just hit me! Muslims are claiming the Dargah and the hill in the name of Sikandar Shah, last Sultan of the short lived Madurai Sultanate. But he was killed in battle elsewhere by Kampanna Maharaja of Vijayanagar. When questioned by historians, some claim this was a different Sikandar, a Sufi one, though there is no proof for that. Some claim miracles performed by Sikandar Shah and thus they built the Dargah here (some claim, Hindus built it for them!). Madurai Sultans came into power in 1335 after Ulugh Khan's violent raid of S. India. They only lasted for 43 violent years. Their atrocities, particularly against Hindus, were recorded by Ibn Batuta, Moroccan traveller who was a guest of one of the Sultans. Also in Madura Vijayam written by Ganga Drvi, wife of Kampanna Maharaja. But, Sikandar Shah seems to have got his revenge on Hindus. Muslims are now claiming ownership of the hill, want to rename it to Sikandar hill and have been blocking lighting of lamps (Deepam) on the hill. In case you didn't know, the hill is Thirupparan Kundram (Hill of Murugan) and there is a Hindu temple there that predates the Dargah by centuries. If this is the status of Hindu temples even after a defeat, I cannot imagine the status of them, if the Madurai Sultans succeeded. The South would have looked a lot worse than Ayodhya and Madura. Thank God for Vijayanagar. Hindus need to be grateful to them forever!

As an aside, Sikandar shah who got killed by Kampanna Maharaja may have gotten his revenge on Hindus centuries later! Perhaps you have heard about Thirupparan kundram (Murugan temple) in TN. It was in the news a lot lately. There is a Dargah on this hill, Sikandar was supposedly buried here. Thus Muslims wanted to rename it to Sikandar hill. But when historians point out that he was killed in a battlefield elsewhere, some claim this was another Sikandar who was a Sufi saint! There is a legal battle going on right now with Hindus fighting to light the lamp on top of the temple (like in Thiruvannamalai) for Karthigai Deepam. Muslims block it. If not anything else, it shows what every Hindu temple in TN would have to go through, had it not been for Vijayanagar empire.

Thank you for this post! Kumara Kampanna is my hero. Got to know about him only a few years ago, while reading Thiruvarangan Ula, a novel in Tamil about Srirangam temple deity (and some devotees) going on a trail of fear and tear for 49 years escaping the Ulugh Khan's (aka Md. Bin Tughlaq) army and the tyrannical Madurai Sultan. Second part of it was Madura Vijayam, recapture of a Sanskrit poem of the same name, written by Ganga Devi, wife of Kampanna Maharaja. If not for him and the Vinayanagar empire (VNE), all our temples in S. India would have looked like Ayodhya. There is an anti-VNE sentiment in some circles in TN because of our linguistic divisions. But all our Tamil glory in Thanjavur, Madurai and Srirangam and the rest are here only because VNE protected them and renovated them. As a Hindu, we are indebted to the empire.

The Madurai Sultanate...! The sultanate was founded by Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan, who declared his independence from the Delhi Sultanate in 1335. All their kings were either murdered, except Ghiyas-ud-din Damghani, who died of overdose of aphrodisiacs. A prime witness to their atrocities on common people, was the great traaveler, Ibn-Battuta. The sultanate was annexed by Vijaynagar empire, when Kumar Kampala killed Allauddin Sikandar Shah in 1373. The only legacy left by this kingdom were atrocities on the Hindus and murders for the throne.

@sonisfood Beautiful! Sky is our canvas, nature the painter! Of course, some camera magic too! Just click away! Sunset magic over La Verne, CA

Nature’s brushstrokes and a crescent moon 🌙 Share your painted skies..

We all know how successful Google has been under Sundar Pichai, its Indian-American CEO. But have you heard of Rajeev Motwani who influenced the beginnings of Google? Rajeev Motwani, an Indian-origin Stanford professor, played a significant role in Google's early development. He mentored Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-authored early research paper about PageRank algorithm, a foundation to Google's formation and success! Sadly, Motwani passed away in 2009; in his eulogy Sergey wrote, "...Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it" youtube.com/shorts/Dwkebv0…

The recent moves by TN Government and @tnhrcedept to cancel the Government Orders issued for illegal projects of Wedding Halls and Commercial Complexes in Temple lands using Temple funds is great development to protect the interests of Hindu Temples by @CMOTamilnadu - Shri Joesph Vijay - we also owe our thanks to the Minister of @tnhrcedept Shri @RameshOffcl I thank @TamilTheHindu newspaper for a detailed article on this. Please note Tirupparankundram Order by the Learned Single Judge was confirmed by Division Bench of Madras High Court. Not by Supreme Court. The previous DMK regime with @PKSekarbabu at he helm of HR&CE Department deliberately violated every law in the HR&CE Act that was meant to protect Hindu Temples and Endowments. Temples lost 1000s of Crores of rupees. The assurance now given by Chief Minister Vijay - through the Governor's address - that the @tnhrcedept will be structurally reformed, focussed audit for temple properties will take place and all past malpractices of the Department will be eliminated - - should be welcomed by ALL Hindus in Tamil Nadu and across INDIA.

On the occasion of #WorldMusicDay, here are some fascinating details from one of the earliest musical inscriptions of Tamilakam. The Kudumiyanmalai inscription offers valuable insights into the musical system of its time and reinforces the cultural unity of Bharat and the commonality of our musical traditions

In 1905, R Shamasastry opened a bundle of palm leaves in Mysore and recognised it as Kautilya's Arthashastra, which was lost for nearly a thousand years. The find was pure luck. India has one crore more manuscripts like it. Now, @midf_org is working to make them searchable. 🧵