Okar Research: January 2016

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Mount Mandara & The Ocean of Milk

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"Mandara (Sanskrit: मंदार) is the name of a mountain which appears in the Samudra Manthan episode in the Hindu Puranas, where it was used as a churning rod to churn the ocean of milk....The story appears in the Bhagavata Purana, the Mahabharata and the Vishnu Purana. In literal terms, this tale is an allegorical description of what transpires during a kundalini awakening process. Kundalini is a latent energy that lays dormant in the spine. Upon awakening, it rises in a sensation akin to a slithering snake, up the spinal column (Meru-danda, represented by Mount Meru in the story)....."

"The churning of the Ocean of Milk was an elaborate process. Mount Mandara was used as the churning rod, and Vasuki, the king of serpents, who abides on Shiva's neck, became the churning rope. The demons demanded to hold the head of the snake, while the gods taking advice from Vishnu, agreed to hold its tail. As a result the demons were poisoned by fumes emitted by Vasuki. Despite this, the gods and demons pulled back and forth on the snake's body alternately, causing the mountain to rotate, which in turn churned the ocean. However, once the mountain was placed on the ocean, it began to sink. Vishnu, in the form of a turtle Kurma, came to their rescue and supported the mountain on his back."....http://mesosyn.com/myth2h-1.html

Mount Mandara...."The mountain round which the gods. Coiled the World Serpent to cause. The Churning of the Ocean. This is also said to be the home of the Shi Tenno, Japanese deities guarding the cardinal points. At times, identified as Mount Mandara, Mandara, Mandara, Cambodian Prah Sumer, Cambodian Prah Sumer, Chinese K'un Lun or Chinese K'un Lun."...http://www.mythologydictionary.com/mount-mandara-mythology.html

"Kshir Sagar.....In Hindu cosmology, the Ocean of milk (kṣīroda, kṣīrābdhi or Kṣīra Sāgara) mythologically denotes milky way as the fifth from the center of the seven oceans that surround loka or directional space and separate it from aloka or non-directional space. It surrounds the continent known as Krauncha.... In Hinduism, the devas (gods) and asuras (demons) worked together for a millennium to churn the ocean and release Amrita the nectar of immortal life.... It is spoken of in the Samudra manthan chapter of the Puranas, a body of ancient Sanskrit legends. It is also the place where Vishnu reclines over Shesha Naga, along with his consort Lakshmi."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshir_Sagar

"The Tibetan Bon ritual called “Offering the Ocean of Milk to the Lu (Naga) Spirits for Healing and Prosperity”.......http://www.olmoling.org/events/lu_chod_homi_gyatso_ritual_retreat

"On the four sides of the great Mount Meru are four mountains--Mandara, Meru.mandara, Suparsva, and Kumuda--which are like its belts.....Rig Veda 3.23.4 also states that east of Sumeru (Mt. Meru...Tibetan: Ri Rab) is the ocean of milk, in which there is a white city on a white island where the Lord Shiva can be seen sitting with his consort Parvati.....Kailash is a rather small member of the Himalayas. The name of this stupendous range stems from Himavat, the father of Lord Shiva’s bride, Parvati."

"The Vedas mentioned Mount Kailash as cosmic axis and world pillar, center of the world, and world tree. It has other names…Meru, Sumeru, Sushumna, Hemadri, Deva Parvata, Gana Parvata, Rajatadri, and Ratnasanu. Kang Tisé or Kang Rinpoche (the ‘Precious Jewel of Snow’ in Tibetan), Meru (or Sumeru), Swastika Mountain, Mt. Astapada, Mt. Kangrinboge (the Chinese name) – all these names, real or legendary, belong to one of the holiest and most mysterious mountains in the world – Mount Kailash. In religion or mythology, the world center or the connection is between Heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet."....https://sivkishen.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/hidden-mystery-of-kingdom-of-shiva/

"In Indian mythology, Mount Mandara is the cosmic pivot about which the serpent was twisted in order to churn the Sea of Milk at the beginning of Time. By alternately tugging at either end of the coil, Gods and Ashuras working together managed to extract amrita -- the Nectar of Immortality. The process also gave rise to butter, the sun horse, and the wishing-fulfilling tree.....This pivot that is the mountain is believed to be at the very centre of the celestial arrangement -- it marks the spot about which the equinoxes precess. In other words, the Sea of Milk is the Milky Way, and every 20,000 years or so, the path of the entire solar system wobbles as does the handle of a top. The point or very tip, that is, the spot about which the entire cosmos spins is Mount Meru....In Tibetan, Kailas is called Kang Rinpoche, or the Precious Mountain. The Bön call it Yung-drung Gu-tzeg "9-storey swastika" because on the south face of Kailash can be seen a swastika [Skt: 'self-manifested mark'] which, until the 20th century, was purely a universal symbol of prosperity, auspiciousness, and rebirth....This peak is also viewed as the earthly manifestation of Mount Sumeru or Meru, as it is also known. Sumeru is considered the actual focus -- the absolute central point -- of the mandala that is the universe. Some scholars think that the name Sumeru is a reference to the ancient kingdom of Sumer ..... ."....http://www.khandro.net/nature_mountain.htm

"Cooperation between the asuras and devas is not relegated to the earlier Hindu scriptures, the Rig Veda. Stories of their cooperation can be found in the later Puranas, such as the story of Mount Mandara. However, their cooperation is short-lived. In the story, a catastrophic flood befalls the earth submerging the treasured possessions of the devas and asuras including the elixir of immortality, Amrita (cf. Avestan Amertat, immortality). The peak of the lofty Mount Meru rose above the flood and this is where the gods gathered and caucused on how to retrieve the Amrita. They agreed to a plan proposed by the deva Vishnu. Together, they uprooted the mountain Mandara and placed it on the back of Kurma, the tortoise. The gods then coiled the world serpent Vasuki around the mountain like a rope with the asuras holding one end of the snake and the devas the other end. By coordinating their actions, they used the snake coiled around the mountain to rotate the mountain and thereby churn the cosmic ocean formed by the flood. As the waters churned, the ocean turned to milk and then to butter, revealing the lost elixir of immortality and other treasures. The cooperation soon ended. According to the Bhagavata-Purana, as soon as the Amrita was produced, the devas took possession of it, and broke their promise to the asuras to give them half. As a consequence, the asuras then tried to steal it from the devas. A struggle ensued which the asuras lost and the devas consumed the nectar of immortality all by themselves."....http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/religion2.htm

"According to Vayu Purana and Matsya Purana, the river Chakshu (Oxus) flowed through the countries of Tusharas (Rishikas?), Lampakas, Pahlavas, Paradas and Shakas etc.".....

"The Samudra Manthan process released a number of things from the Milk Ocean. One product was the lethal poison known as Halahal. (In some versions of the story, this poison escaped from the mouth of the serpent king as the demons and gods churned.) This terrified the gods and demons because the poison was so powerful that it can destroy all of creation. Then the gods approached Shiva for protection. Shiva consumed the poison in an act to protect the universe, and his wife Parvati pressed her hand on Shiva's throat to save the universe. As a result, The color of Shiva's neck turned blue. For this reason, Lord Shiva is also called Neelakanta (the blue-throated one; "neela" = "blue", "kantha" = "throat" in Sanskrit)."....http://mesosyn.com/myth2h-1.html

The Buddhism of Tibet: Or Lamaism, with Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and ...By Laurence Austine Waddell

Lonely Planet Tibet......By Lonely Planet, Bradley Mayhew, Robert Kelly

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

January 2016

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Monday, January 25, 2016

Bactrian Timeline: 2500 BC - 870 AD

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2300 BC......."The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (or BMAC, also known as the Oxus civilization) is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age civilisation of Central Asia, dated to ca. 2300–1700 BCE, located in present-day northern Afghanistan, eastern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centered on the upper Amu Darya (Oxus River)....In the Early Bronze Age the culture of the Kopet Dag oases and Altyn-Depe developed a proto-urban society..... Pottery was wheel-turned. Grapes were grown. The height of this urban development was reached in the Middle Bronze Age c. 2300 BC..... It is this Bronze Age culture which has been given the BMAC name."

2000 BC....."Balkh is considered to be the first city to which the Indo-Iranian tribes moved from the North of Amu Darya, between 2000 – 1500 BC. The Arabs called it Umm Al-Belaad or Mother of Cities due to its antiquity...Bactria in ancient times was renowned for its grapes, oranges, water lilies and later sugar cane.....several natural trade routes intersect at Balkh. From there, caravans could follow the well-watered foot of the mountains westward towards Herat and Iran, or across the Oxus to Samarkand and China and all the routes across the Hindu Kush......the greatness of Balkh owes even more to those distinctive people who promoted craftsmanship and trade, created cities and wrote poetry all across the Iranian world. On the down side, Balkh was usually rich rather than powerful, and became the envy and the prize of more warlike neighbors."......http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/afghanistan/balkh.html

Click on the map to enlarge

1800 BC........"Shenrab Miwo......"The teacher who transmitted Bon into Tibet from Shang Shung (or Tazik) reportedly in 1800 BC. The Berlin manuscript of the Zermig has several unusual representations of Shenrap."......The Bon Religion of Tibet: The Iconography of a Living Tradition...by Per Kvaerne

1700 BC......Zarathustra......"Controversy over Zaraϑuštra's date has been an embarrassment of long standing to Zoroastrian studies. If anything approaching a consensus exists, it is that he lived no later than 1000 BC, give or take a century or so, though reputable scholars have proposed dates as widely apart as 1750 BC and '258 years before Alexander'."........http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarathustra#cite_note-10

1600 BC......"The Proto-Indo-Iranians, from which the Indo-Aryans developed, are identified with the Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BC), and the Andronovo culture, which flourished ca. 1800–1400 BC in the steppes around the Aral sea, present-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The proto-Indo-Iranians were influenced by the Bactria-Margiana Culture, south of the Andronovo culture, from which they borrowed their distinctive religious beliefs and practices. The Indo-Aryans split off around 1800-1600 BC from the Iranians, whereafter the Indo-Aryans migrated into the Levant and north-western India.".....Anthony, David W. (2007), The Horse The Wheel And Language. How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped The Modern World,

1600 B.C......."In the Rig Veda, we read that the initial relationship between the Aryan religious groups... asuras (ahura) and deva was one of coexistence. This relationship would gradually change to one of competition....The story of the differences between the asuras and devas were of course a reflection of the differences and the violent conflict between the deva and asura worshippers. While the Hindu scriptures do not directly refer to Mazda worshippers, the Zoroastrian and Persian texts talk about the conflict as one between the deva and Mazda worshippers.....Periodically, one group would win dominance over the other. Nevertheless, until, their separation into the nations of Iran and India, they did coexist....At the time of Zarathushtra's birth, Asura/Mazda worship had lost ground to Deva worship....The conflict eventually resulted in the deva worshippers living in the Central Asian kingdom, leaving or being pushed south through the Hindu Kush mountain passes into the upper Indus valley.....The Indus Valley was called Hindu (Hind or Ind) in the Avesta." ....http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/religion2.htm

1500 B.C...."....The weather change in Airyana Vaeja, that pollen and tree ring analysis indicates the Chang Tang plateau in Western and Northern Tibet had a far more liveable environment than it has today - one that supported a primordial civilization - until, starting around 1500 BC, the climate become colder and drier. The climate change would have caused the population to migrate out of the northern plateau. This type of climate change from temperate to cold, and the resulting changes in the environment from comfortable and verdant to harsh and rocky, is similar to the Zoroastrian stories of a climate change during the reign of legendary King Jamshid."....http://iranian.com/posts/view/post/7621

1000 B.C.......The I Ching (Chinese: 易經; pinyin: Yìjīng; [î tɕjə́ŋ]), also known as the Classic of Changes or Book of Changes in English, is an ancient divination text and the oldest of the Chinese classics. Possessing a history of more than two and a half millennia of commentary and interpretation, the I Ching is an influential text read throughout the world, providing inspiration to the worlds of religion, psychoanalysis, business, literature, and art. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zhou period (1000–750 BC),

900 B.C..........."The King of Shambhala, King Suchandra (sometimes wrongly Sanskritized as "Chandrabhadra," Tib. Dawa Sangpo), was the one who requested teaching from the Buddha. In response to his request, the Buddha gave the first Kalachakra root tantra in 900 to 876 BC. Note: the Kalachakra calculations put quite a bit earlier than the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha (563 or 566 B.C.)"

600 B.C.......Zoroastrianism....one of the world's oldest religions, "combining a cosmogonic dualism and eschatological monotheism in a manner unique... among the major religions of the world." It was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) in ancient Iran approximately 3500 years ago. It was the official religion of Persia (Iran) from 600 BC to 650 AD.".....

604 B.C........Lao-Tzu (Lao-Tze)........c.604 - c.521 BC...Laozi of the Daoist school urged: "Man follows earth, earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows the Way, and the Way follows nature."

551 B.C.........Confucius (c. 551 – 479 BC)....... a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history....Confucius's principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He championed strong family loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives....Confucius said more about "human affairs" and less about "the Mandate of Heaven." Nonetheless, he also believed that "what the saint says" is in keeping with "the Mandate of Heaven."....The Mandate of Heaven is an ancient Chinese belief and philosophical idea that tiān (heaven) granted emperors the right to rule based on their ability to govern well and fairly. According to this belief, heaven bestows its mandate to a just ruler, the Son of Heaven."...Jiang, Yonglin (2011). The Mandate of Heaven and The Great Ming Code (Asian Law Series). University of Washington Press.

563 B.C......."Shakyamuni Buddha.....In 563 or 566 B.C., a prince was born to a noble family of the Shakya clan, in a very beautiful park called Lumbini Grove, which lay in the foothills of the Himalayas (in present-day southern Nepal). This beautiful park was not far from the capital city of the Shakya kingdom, Kapilavastu. The prince’s father, King Shuddhodana, named his son Siddhartha. He was a member of the Kshatriya, or royal warrior caste, and his clan lineage, the Gautamas, was ancient and pure. His mother was Mahamaya or Mayadevi, daughter of a powerful Shakya noble, Suprabuddha."...http://kagyuoffice.org/buddhism/shakyamuni-buddha/

329 B.C..........."Alexander took Bactria in 329 B.C., and made it his base for conquest and amalgamation of the Greek and Iranian civilizations.....After Alexander the Great’s victory over King Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC, he had to contend with small rebellions that broke out across his empire. In the summer of 328 BC, one such rebellion occurred in the eastern satrapy of Bactria, a rebellion that would lead to a chance meeting with the beautiful Roxanne, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Oxyartes, the satrap of Bactria .....The marriage between Roxanne of Balkh and Alexander the Great took place in 327 BC."

304 B.C......."Emperor Ashoka the Great (Aśoka) lived from 304 to 232 BC and was the third ruler of the Mauryan Empire."

129 B.C......Bactria.....annexation by the Kushans (129 B.C.), whose large and powerful empire stretched from Central Asia deep into India. Balkh flourished at the crossroads as a depot and trans-shipment point for the world’s luxuries. “ From the Roman Empire the caravans brought gold and silver vessels and wine; fom Central Asia and China rubies, furs, aromatic gums, drugs, raw silk and embroidered silks; from India spices, cosmetics, ivory and precious gems of infinite variety” With the merchants came monks preaching the new religion of Buddhism, and Balkh became a center of worship and learning, famous for its Buddhist temples and monasteries."...http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/afghanistan/balkh.html

216 A.D......Mani (Middle Persian Māni and Syriac Mānī, Greek Μάνης, Latin Manes; also Μανιχαίος, Latin Manichaeus, from Syriac ܡܐܢܝ ܚܝܐ Mānī ḥayyā)....... c. 216–274 A.D.), of Iranian origin....the prophet and the founder of Manichaeism, a gnostic religion of Late Antiquity which was once widespread but is now extinct.... In 240–41 A.D. , Mani travelled to "India" (i.e. to the Sakhas in modern-day Afghanistan), where he studied Hinduism and was probably influenced by Greco-Buddhism. Al-Biruni says Mani traveled to 'India' after being banished from Persia. Returning in 242 A.D., he joined the court of Shapur I, to whom he dedicated his only work written in Persian, known as the Shabuhragan. Shapur was not converted to Manichaeanism and remained Zoroastrian."....Marco Frenschkowski (1993). "Mani".

630 A.D......."By the time the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (formerly spelled Hsuan Tsang) passed through Balkh (630 A.D.) on his way to the fountainhead of Buddhism in India, the city had become part of the Sassanian empire. The bazaars were still humming with trade, the countryside fertile and the great temples impressed him with their magnificence. But Xuanzang noted laxness among the monks, and the rise of Zoroastrianism. There was strife with the Turki nomads across the Oxus, and the Arab incursions were just fifteen years ahead."...http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/afghanistan/balkh.html

633 A.D....."Parsis.....According to the Qissa-i Sanjan, Parsis migrated from Greater Iran to Gujarat and Sindh between the 8th and 10th century AD to avoid the persecution of Zoroastrians by Muslim invaders who conquered Iran....When Islam became the predominant religion of areas including such present-day countries as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman, the Muslim invasion of Persia, launched by the Rashidun Caliphate in 633 AD, became a huge event in the history of the region. During these conquests, buildings and books were destroyed....Due to this persecution, Zoroastrians became refugees in India."...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism_in_India

650 A.D......"Iranian-Aryan Relations with the Tibetan Empire....The Tibetan empire established by Songtsen Gampo soon grew in power that extended beyond its borders....The Yarlung dynasty appears to have continued the collaborative relationship the Zhang Zhung had with the Iranian Aryans. The relationship continued even after the Arabs had conquered the Persian empire. Since it is the Tibetans who had become the dominant eastern power in the seventh century CE, it is they who provided the Persians and Sogdians sanctury.....As they fled east, the Persians first took refuge in Sugd (Sogdiana) and their presence there has been recorded on Sogdian inscriptions in Panjakand and Paykand. Then as the Persians and Sogdians continued east into China...... the rise of Tibetan power was because of the assistance of Persian refugees fleeing from the Arab invasion of Persia in the 650s AD. According to Nikitin, when the Persians arrived in the Tibetan court, they trained the Tibetans in the art of imperial warfare. According to another author Beckwith, a Chinese source describes the Yarlung Tibetan warriors and horses as being completely clad in armour in the Sassanian fashion. An important military technological advance and advantage for the Tibetans was their newly acquired ability to produce chain mail for armour.".....http://iranian.com/posts/view/post/7621

674 A.D......."Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad (Arabic: عبيد الله بن زياد‎) was an Umayyad general and the governor for the Umayyad Caliphate in Kufa, in what is now Iraq during the reign of Yazid I.....In 674 he crossed the Amu Darya and defeated the forces of the ruler of Bukhara in the first known invasion of the city by Muslim Arabs.

870 A.D......."In 672 an Arab governor of Sistan, Abbad ibn Ziyad, raided the frontier of Al-Hind and crossed the desert to Gandhara, but quickly retreated again. The Arab General Obaidallah (Ubayd Allah) crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul in 698 only to meet with defeat and humiliation. Vincent Smith, in Early History of India, states that the Turkishahiya dynasty continued to rule over Kabul and Gandhara up until the advent of the Saffarids in the ninth century. Forced by the inevitable advance of Islam on the west, they then moved their capital from Kapisa to Wahund on the Indus, whence they continued as the Hindushahiya dynasty. This was in 870 A.D. and marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

870 A.D......."The Kabul Shahi dynasties also called Shahiya ruled the Kabul Valley (in eastern Afghanistan) and the old province of Gandhara (northern Pakistan and Kashmir) during the Classical Period of India from the decline of the Kushan Empire in the 3rd century to the early 9th century A.D. They are split into two eras the Buddhist-Shahis and the later Hindu-Shahis with the change-over occurring around 870.A.D."....Sehrai, Fidaullah (1979). Hund: The Forgotten City of Gandhara

"The times that followed were turbulent ones in Central Asia. Balkh changed hands repeatedly among Arab, Persian and Turki rulers, and was sacked more than once, yet it continued to flourish. The Arab geographers Yaqubi and Moqaddasi (9th and 10th centuries) depict Balkh as it was under Samanid rule, whe Bukhara was the center of power. A large and prosperous city of mud brick some three square miles in area, it held perhaps 200,000 persons. It was surrounded by mud-brick walls pierced by seven gates. A splendid Friday Mosque occupied the center, and many more mosques were scattered among the dwellings. The fire temple in the suburbs, which Xuanzang had admired when it was a Buddhist monastery, was still noteworthy. The city was home, not only to Persians and Turks but also to communities of Jews and Indian traders. It nourished poets and scholars, lawyers and even geographers and astronomers. But peace was a sometime thing; even when Balkh came under Seljuk rule for over a century, the nomads were never far away."......http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/afghanistan/balkh.html

("Catastrophe struck in 1220 A.D., when Ghengis Khan chose to make an example of Balkh, perhaps as punishment for an uprising. One hundred thousand Mongol horsemen embarked on an orgy of slaughter and destruction that left nothing standing; a few weeks later they returned to pick off the survivors of the carnage. Balkh remained in ruins for a century.".....http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/afghanistan/balkh.html

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January 2016

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Monday, January 18, 2016

Uttarakuru and Uttaramadra in the Aitareya Brahmana (c.1000 BC)

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"Uttarakuru (Sanskrit: उत्तर कुरु) is the name of a dvipa ("continent") in ancient Hindu and Buddhist mythology......Uttarakuru country and its people are sometimes described as belonging to the real world, whereas at other times they are mythical or otherworldly spiritual beings.....Aitareya Brahmana makes first reference to Uttarakuru and Uttaramadra as real-life Janapadas. According to Aitareya Brahmana, these two nations lay beyond the Himalayan ranges (Hindukush). The Aitareya Brahmana adduces these two people as examples of republican (vairajiya) nations, where whole Janapada took the consecration of rulership.......Aitareya Brahmana again notes that Uttarakuru was a deva-kshetra or divine land......Uttarakuru also finds numerous references in Buddhist literature, sometimes as a real land and other times as a mythical region.....Ramayana testifies that the original home of the Kurus was in Bahli country. Ila, son of Parajapati Karddama was a king of Bahli, where Bahli represents Sanskrit Bahlika (Bactria)....Bahlika or Bactria may have constituted the Uttarakuru. Mahabharata and Sumangalavilasini also note that the people of Kuru had originally migrated from Uttarakutru. Bactria is evidently beyond the Hindukush.....".....Geographical Data in Early Puranas, 1972, Dr M. R. Singh

"Uttara Madra is a kingdom grouped among the western kingdoms in the epic Mahabharata. It is identified to be located to the northwest of eastern Madra with Sagala as its capital. It was situated along the ancient route called Uttarapatha extending from Vanga Kingdom in the eastern sea shore through the Gangetic Plain, Punjab, mountain passes of the Western Mountains, to the city of Balkh in Afghanistan and to the far western countries. In some parts of the epic, Uttara Madra and Bahlika are considered as the same country. Arjuna collected tribute from Uttara Madra during his northern military campaign for Yudhishthira's Rajasuya sacrifice."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttara_Madra_Kingdom

"The Aitareya Brahmana (Sanskrit: ऐतरेय ब्राह्मण) is the Brahmana of the Shakala shakha of the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of sacred hymns.....The Aitareya Brahmana is dated variously from 1000 BC to 500 BC."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Brahmana

"Jean Przylusky has shown that Bahlika (Balkh) was an Iranian settlement of the Madras who were known as Bahlika-Uttaramadras....The Kambojas, the neighbors of the Uttaramadras, here obviously refers to the Parama-Kambojas branch the Kambojas located in Trans-Hindukush regions."....An Ancient People of Panjab, The Udumbras, Journal Asiatique, 1926, p 11, Jean Przylusky showing that Bahlika (Balkh) was an Iranian settlement of the Madras who were known as Bahlika-Uttaramadras.

"The Uttaramadra was the northern branch of the Madra people who are numerously referenced in ancient Sanskrit and Pali literature. In Aitareya Brahmana (VIII.14), the Uttarakuru and the Uttaramadra tribes are stated to be living beyond Himalaya.

"Since Uttarakuru of the Aitareya Brahmana is said to lie beyond Himalaya, the Bahlika or Bactria is also beyond Hindukush (i.e ... Kurus, the Madras were also originally a people living in/around Bahlika as is suggested by Vamsa Brahmana of the Sama Veda which text refers to one Madragara Shaungayani as ... In Aitareya Brahmana, the Uttarakurus and Uttaramadras are stated as living beyond Himalaya (paren himvantam) ..."....http://www.liquisearch.com/what_is_aitareya_brahmana

"The Ramayana seems to localize the Uttarakurus in Bahlika country. According to it, Ila, son of Prajapati Karddama, king of Bahli (Bahlika) country, gave up Bahli in favor of his son Sasabindu and founded the city of Pratisthana in Madhyadesa. The princes of the Aila dynasty (which is also the dynasty of Kurus) have been called Karddameya. The Karddameyas obtained their names from river Kardama in Persia and therefore, their homeland is identified with Bahlika or Bactria. This indicates that Bahlika or Bactria was the original home of the Kuru clans.... According to Jean Przylusky, the Bahlika (Balkh) was an Iranian settlement of the Madras who were known as Bahlika-Uttaramadras...in the remote antiquity (Vedic age), the (Iranian settlement of) the Madras was located in parts of Bahlika (Bactria)--the western parts of the Oxus country. These Madras were, in fact, the Uttaramadras of the Aitareya Brahmana (VIII/14). However, in 4th c BC, this Bahlika/Bactria came under Yavana/Greek political control and thus the land started to be referenced as Bahlika-Yavana in some of ancient Sanskrit texts..".....http://www.liquisearch.com/bahlikas/kurus-bahlikas-kambojas-madras_remote_connection

".... the Uttarakurus, Uttaramadras and Kambojas-- all were located beyond the Himalaya/Hindukush ranges. Probably, the Uttarakurus were located in the northern parts of Bahlika, the Uttaramadras were in the southern parts of it and the Kambojas (=Parama Kambojas) were to the east of Bahlika, in the Transoxiana region. The ancient Bahlika appears to have spanned a large expanse of territory. The commentator of Harsha-Carita of Bana Bhatta also defines the Kambojas as Kambojah-Bahlika-Desajah i.e. the Kambojas originated in/belonged to Bahlika. Thus, it seems likely that in the remote antiquity, the ancestors of the Uttarakurus, Uttaramadras and the Parama Kambojas were one people or otherwise were closely allied and had lived in/around Bahlika (Bactria)."............http://www.liquisearch.com/bahlikas/kurus-bahlikas-kambojas-madras_remote_connection

"Astronomy played a significant role in Vedic rituals, which were conducted at different periods of a year. The Aitareya Brahmana (4.18) states the sun stays still for a period of 21 days, and reaches its highest point on vishuvant, the middle day of this period...".....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Brahmana

"This work, according to the tradition, is ascribed to Mahidasa Aitareya.".....Arthur Berriedale Keith (1920). Rigveda Brahmanas: The Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas of the Rigveda. Mot

"The Aitareya Aranyaka is undoubtedly a composite work, and it is possible that the Aitareya Brahmana also had multiple authors."

"The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rigveda: Translation, edited by Martin Haug...(1827-1876)..... Oriental scholar and one of the founders of Iranian studies. His contributions to Old and Middle Iranian studies remained influential well into the twentieth century....His intimate, cordial, and affable manner of communicating with Hindu brahmans and Parsi priests (dasturs) enabled him to obtain the most extended and accurate information concerning their beliefs, rites, and customs ever vouchsafed to any European....He also bought Avesta, Pahlavi, and Vedic manuscripts for his own private collection.....His lectures on Indo-Iranian philology, linguistics, and Oriental studies....Haug published his Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings and Religion of the Parsis (Bombay, 1862), which offered the first grammatical description of the Avestan language in comparison with Sanskrit.....Haug argued that Zarathushtra taught a pure, ethical monotheism and a philosophical dualism, that there was no evidence for rituals in the Gathas, and that the prophet’s teachings were corrupted by later generations."...http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/haug-martin

The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rigveda: Translation, edited by Martin Haug.....http://www.wilbourhall.org/pdfs/vedas/aitereya/the_aitareya_brahmanam_of_the_rigveda__s.pdf

Studies in Vedic and Indo-Iranian Religion and Literature....by Kshetresh Chandra Chattopadhyay.... 1978....The University of Virginia

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January 2016

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Saturday, January 16, 2016

Paradesha, Parádeisos, Chahar Bagh: Royal Walled Gardens of Kalapa

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"The mythical paradise of Shamballa, sometimes thought to be in a parallel world or dimension , is a land of a thousand names. The Hindus call it "Paradesha" (Paradesa: Sanskrit) (Paradise....Persian: پردیس,.....High Land).....or "Aryavarsha", the land from which the Vedas came from; the Buddhists "Shambala"; the Chinese know it as " Hsi Tien", the Western Paradise of Hsi Wang Mu, the Royal Mother of the West; the Russians knew it as "Belovodye" and "Janaidar", the Christians and the Jews the "Garden of Eden". In the esoteric literature it has become known as "Shangri-La", "Agarttha" or "the Land of the Living".It has the name of "Forbidden Land"; "the Land of White Waters"; the "Land of Radiant Spirits"; the "Land of Living Fire"; the "Land of the Living Gods" and the "Land of Wonders".....Vedic society... the ancient civilization was Arya-Varsha......Taoist mythology calls it Tebu...Beneath the land of Shambhalla lies a cavernous underworld.. Its summit aligns to the wheeling constellation of Ursa Major, the Seven Stars that circle the Pole. .... The Japanese also have a Shambhalla which they have named ‘Island of the Congealed Drop’. It is situated ‘on the top of the globe' but at the same time 'at the center of the earth'. Its first roof-pillar was the earth's axis, and over it was the pivot of the vault of heaven.......The Chinese actually describe their idea of Shambhalla as the Center of the Earth, directly under Shang-te's heavenly palace, declaring it to be in the polestar. They also call it, ‘The Palace of the Center’. "....IN SEARCH OF SHAMBHALA........Mary Sutherland 2003

A Brief History of the Kalachakra....by John R. Newman....https://collab.itc.virginia.edu

"The word "paradise" entered English from the French paradis, inherited from the Latin paradisus, from Greek parádeisos (παράδεισος), from an Old Iranian *paridayda- "walled enclosure". By the 6th/5th century BC, the Old Iranian word had been adopted as Assyrian pardesu "domain". It subsequently came to indicate walled estates, especially the carefully tended royal parks and menageries. The term eventually appeared in Greek as parádeisos "park for animals" in the Anabasis of the early 4th century BC Athenian Xenophon. Aramaic pardaysa similarly reflects "royal park"."

"Paradise....The word's etymology is ultimately derived from a PIE root *dheigʷ "to stick and set up". It is reflected in Avestan as pairi-daêza-. The literal meaning of this Eastern Old Iranian language word is "walled (enclosure)", from pairi- "around" and -diz "to make, form (a wall), build". The word is not attested in other Old Iranian languages (these may however be hypothetically reconstructed, for example as Old Persian *paridayda-)."

"Sanskrit: paradise: नन्दन nandana .....Paradesa (Sanskrit) [from para beyond, above + desa region, country] The region above or beyond; said to be the highlands to which the first Sanskrit-speaking people have supposedly been traced. More truly, the cradleland of the first thinking man. It is also the sacred land in Central Asia inhabited by the Dragons of Wisdom or initiates, and in this sense is synonymous with Sambhala. .....'paradise' is believed to have probably come from the Sanskrit word 'paradesa' परदेश meaning 'foreign' land."

"Vedic society of the ancient civilization was Arya-Varsha - a civilization (not just a national culture or people). Arya Varsha translates roughly to 'enlightened world' ......Arya Varsha referred to morally developed regions......Within Arya Varsha, was Bharatha Khanda (Basically South asia), and within that Jambu Dwipa (Indian region), and within that many kingdoms and states......Arya Varsha extended all the way to Ireland the legend goes. South India was definitely part of it......Archeology suggests that there was an advanced Indus valley civilization around the saraswathi river, and at some point there was a massive drought and most cities had to be abandoned, and the population got dispersed. Then when the climate improved, people from the western areas came and settled there. As they settled, they absorbed much of the beliefs and culture of the prior people, and that became the modern system."....https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-advanced-developed-Vedic-Society-in-India-like-Was-there-a-parallel-culture-in-south-India

"Arya (Sanskrit, also ārya; Pāli: ariya) is a term frequently used in Buddhism that can be translated as "noble", "not ordinary", "valuable", "precious",[a] "pure", etc. Arya in the sense of "noble" or "exalted" is frequently used in Buddhist texts to designate a spiritual warrior or hero.....In Chinese Buddhist texts, ārya is translated as 聖 (approximately, "holy, sacred", pinyin shèng, on'yomi sei)......

THEORIES OF PARADISE........"The west first heard of Shambhala in 1627 after Catholic missionaries travelled to Tibet and heard stories about it. Some Buddhists associate it with the mythical land of Olmulungring, an invisible kingdom dating back to the 17th century BC, when its king travelled to Tibet to bring enlightenment. Some scholars think Shambhala is simply a remembrance of earlier civilisations of Central Asia which were known to exist, and had contact with Tibet. Many other scholars and traditions place Shambhala in a variety of locations. Taoist mythology calls it Tebu, a secluded land between Tibet and Szechwan. Blavatsky thought it existed somewhere in the Gobi Desert. Whilst historian Geoffrey Ashe suggested it might be in the remote Altar mountains between Russia and Mongolia. However, other traditions give a more esoteric location, explaining the mythology concerning its disappearance."

"From the time of the Achaemenid Dynasty the idea of an earthly paradise spread through Persian literature and example to other cultures, both the Hellenistic gardens of the Seleucids and the Ptolemies in Alexandria. The Avestan word pairidaēza-, Old Persian *paridaida-, Median *paridaiza- (walled-around, i.e., a walled garden), was borrowed into Ancient Greek: παράδεισος parádeisos, then rendered into the Latin paradīsus, and from there entered into European languages, e.g., French paradis, German Paradies, and English paradise. The word entered Semitic languages as well: Akkadian pardesu, Hebrew pardes, and Arabic firdaws."....Fakour M., Achaemenid Gardens

Pairidaēza....."The central "royal garden" at Pasargadae was designed to reflect this new empire. Recent international collaborative archaeological fieldwork incorporating surface, geophysical, and aerial survey has modified earlier ideas about this formally laid out, irrigated area. Excavations in the 1960s uncovered a system of limestone channels, 25 cm wide and punctuated with a deep square basin every 13 or 14 m, thus dividing the area into two rectangles. The channels probably sat flush with the ground surface. At the edges of this garden were three structures: Palace P, and two smaller pavilions. The main portico of Palace P opened directly onto the garden; a stone throne was fixed at its center, giving the ruler an uninterrupted view over the area. Some scholars have assumed that the central placement of the throne implies a second axial division of the garden into four quadrants. Recent work now indicates that this space may have incorporated a much greater area, including both a pool-like construction crossed by a bridge as well as other monumental structures. In this scenario, the pool would have acted as a channel, whose embankments were also lined with stone, drawing water from the nearby Pulvar River. The classical historian Arrian, writing in the second century a.d., left a snapshot of the park in his description of Cyrus' tomb: located approximately 1 km from the palaces, it was set in a "royal park at Pasargadae, and around it a grove of all kinds of trees had been planted. It was also watered by a stream, and high grass grew in the meadow" (Anabasis, 6.29)."....http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/now-at-the-met/features/2013/pasargadae

"Charbagh or Chahar Bagh (Persian: چهارباغ, chahār bāgh, "Four Bāghs") is a Persian-style garden layout. The quadrilateral garden is divided by walkways or flowing water into four smaller parts. In Persian, "Chār" means 'four' and "bāgh" means 'garden'.....Was there a connection between the proposed four quadrants and the "four quarters" of Cyrus' empire, to which he referred in the Cylinder text quoted above, as has been suggested by some scholars? Is the royal garden with the fourfold design, or chahar bagh, the earliest example of a feature that became a dominant characteristic of Persian garden design in the ensuing centuries?.......Chahrbagh originated from the time of Achaemenid Persia. Greek historians, such as Herodotus and Xenophon, give extensive accounts of Cyrus the Great's palatial city of Pasargadae and his four-gardens..... The tradition of paradise garden originated among the Mughals, originally from Central Asia, which is found at Babur's tomb, Bagh-e Babur, in Kabul.....

"On a recent trip to Kalapa Valley, Eva Wong, our esteemed feng shui master, felt that this valley held the secret command of the Shambhala vision and that it would affect the energy and spirit of all of our centers. Even though many of us have not seen the land, by receiving it now, Kalapa Valley will have a positive effect on all of our activities. It will have a unique role in our community since it will not be built up into a major practice center. Rather, it will have a pavilion for the practice of the sacred Werma sadhana and sacred gardens for practitioners to visit."....http://kalapavalley.shambhala.org/about/

"HAŠT BEHEŠT ....The description of a palace in the Hašt behešt of Amir Ḵosrow, with four pavilions on the cardinal points around an octagonal basin in a luxuriant garden, represents the clearest literary reconstruction of this model in Persian literature....This cosmological concept is closely connected to Islamic eschatology, in which paradise is conceived as having eight gates and eight spaces, each one decorated with a special precious stone or material. The description of paradise was further elaborated by the philosophers and Sufis who considered the eighth paradise to be the highest garden, that is, the Garden of Eden"....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hast-behest-2

"Genesis describes the Garden of Eden as being "in the east, in Eden" (Gen 2:8). In the Assyrian inscriptions idinu (Accadian: edin) means "plain" and it is from this that the Biblical word is probably derived. The Garden is described as having "all kinds" of trees growing in it....As with many passages in Genesis, there is debate among Christians whether or not the story of the Garden of Eden should be taken literally or metaphorically......The traditions of its location somewhere in central Asia are numerous and persistent, and naturalists have in the past pretty generally fixed upon the portion of Central Asia stretching east from the Himalayas - often referred to as the roof of the world and from which flow four great rivers: the Indus, the Tarim, the Sur Daria (Jaxartes), and the Ainu Daria (Oxus) - as the original cradle of mankind."....http://www.conservapedia.com/Garden_of_Eden

"Professor S.H. Buchanan, a Biblical scholar during the late 19th century, was one of those believers, who put down in his work The World and the Book:......“Thus everything invites us to place the Eden of the Semites (Aryans) in the mountains of Belurtag, at the point where this chain unites with the Himalaya, toward the Plateau of Pamir... We are conducted to the same point, according to Brunoff, by the most ancient and authentic texts of the Zend-Avesta. The Hindu traditions also contained in the Mahabbarata and the Puranas, converge to the same region. There is the true Meru (Ararat) (of the Hindus), the true Albordj (of the Persians), the true river Arvanda, from which all rivers take their source, according to Persian tradition. There, according to the opinions of almost all the populations of Asia, is the central point of the world, the umbilici, the gate of the universe. There is the Uttarakura; ‘the country of happiness,’ of which Magesthanes writes. There is, finally the point of common attachment of the primitive geography, both of the Semitic and the Indo-European races.” ......The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus also hinted that the Garden of Eden had a central Asian location"......http://www.conservapedia.com/Garden_of_Eden

"The Persian Garden......exemplify the diversity of Persian garden designs that evolved and adapted to different climate conditions while retaining principles that have their roots in the times of Cyrus the Great, 6th century BC. Always divided into four sectors, with water playing an important role for both irrigation and ornamentation, the Persian garden was conceived to symbolize Eden and the four Zoroastrian elements of sky, earth, water and plants. These gardens, dating back to different periods since the 6th century BC, also feature buildings, pavilions and walls, as well as sophisticated irrigation systems. They have influenced the art of garden design as far as India and Spain....They reflect the flexibility of the Chahar Bagh (Four Gardens), or originating principle, of the Persian Garden, which has persisted unchanged over more than two millennia since its first mature expression was found in the garden of Cyrus the Great's Palatial complex, in Pasargadae...The word Paradise entered European languages from the Persian root word "Pardis", which was the name of a beautiful garden enclosed behind walls. .".....UNESCO » Culture » World Heritage Centre » The List » World Heritage List......http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1372

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January 2016

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Thursday, January 14, 2016

Polaris, Ursa Major, the Saptarishi Mandala and Yungdrung

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"In the Puranas, connected with the Kali-Yuga and Kalki Avatara prophecies, computations utilizing the cycle of the Big Dipper (The Great Bear, in Sanskrit, the Seven Rishis (Saptarsi)....revolving around the circle of the 27 asterisms....staying in each of them for 100 years....this cycle is strikingly similar to the one hundred year reigns of the Kings of Shambhala."...Page 9....Kalachakra Research Publications...No.1...Feb 1986

"The North Pole Star is called Dhruva Nakshatra in Sanskrit literature. Saptarishi are seven stars of the Big Dipper named "Vashista", "Marichi", "Pulastya", "Pulaha", "Atri", "Angiras" and "Kratu". There is another star slightly visible within it, known as "Arundhati" who is the wife of Vashista. This Pole is the center of Kalachakra around which Saptarishi Mandala revolving around a fixed centre on clockwise direction because of a geocentric understanding of an astronomical phenomenon called axial precession....The Vedas postulate that ‘Svastika’ represents it as the Universe in our own spiral galaxy in the fore finger of the creator. Swastika is a geometric pattern in the sky representing the north ecliptic pole. This carries most significance in establishing the creation of the Universe and the arms as 'kal' or time"...It is a very sacred and auspicious symbol of Kalachakra."...http://sivkishen.wikia.com/wiki/File:Swastika.jpg

"YungDrung Bön is Tibet's oldest spiritual tradition, and the founder of the Bön religion is Buddha Shenrab. He is said to have been born in the mythical land of Olmo Lung Ring, whose exact location remains something of a mystery. The land is described as dominated by Mount Yung-drung Gu-tzeg (Edifice of Nine Swastikas), which many identify as Mount Kailash in western Tibet. Due to the sacredness of Olmo Lung Ring and the mountain, both the counter-clockwise swastika and the number nine are of great significance in the Bön religion.".....http://www.sherabchammaling.com/index.php/tibetan-bon-3.html

Svastika (Sanskrit Language, sva + asti, auspicious)
Yungdrung (Tibetan/Zhangzhung Language, ever-lasting)...The yungdrung is the principal symbol of the Bon Religion, also known as the Yungdrung Bon, Ever-lasting Truth.

"Svastika is a Sanskrit word: Swastika. (Tibetan is g.yung drung གཡུང་དྲུང་ ).... It is a composite word consisting of su+ asti +ka. The word ‘su’ means "good, well" and “asti “being"; the suffix “ka” either forms a diminutive or intensifies the literally verbal meaning as "that which is associated with well-being," corresponding to "lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious. It is lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote auspiciousness, or any piece of luck or well-being. It is a symbol that generally takes the form of an equilateral cross, with four legs its four legs bent at 90'°. It is a very sacred and auspicious symbol of Kalachakra, Yuga Dharma and Chaturpada represents seasons as well....Swastika is a symbol of calendar system and is clearly visible at Asthapada Parvata on the west side of Mount Kailash. This is a Kala Chakra or Time Cycle."....http://sivkishen.wikia.com/wiki/File:Swastika.jpg

Asthapada Parvata on the west side of Mount Kailash

"Vedas postulate that ‘Svastika’ represents it as the Universe in our own spiral galaxy in the fore finger of the creator. Swastika is a geometric pattern in the sky representing the north ecliptic pole. This carries most significance in establishing the creation of the Universe and the arms as 'kal' or time, a calendar that is seen to be more advanced than the lunar calendar symbolized by the lunar crescent common to Lord Shiva. The 4 arms of the Svastika represent 4 aspects of nature -the sun, wind, water, and soil. Its 4 arms are four seasons, where the divisions for 90-degree sections correspond to the solstices and equinoxes. The luni-solar solution for correcting season drift was to intercalate an extra month in certain years to restore the lunar cycle to the solar-season cycle......North Pole Star is called Dhruva Nakshatra in Sanskrit literature. Saptarishi are seven stars of the Big Dipper named "Vashista", "Marichi", "Pulastya", "Pulaha", "Atri", "Angiras" and "Kratu". There is another star slightly visible within it, known as "Arundhati" who is the wife of Vashista. This Pole is the center of Kalachakra around which Saptarishi Mandala revolving around a fixed centre on clockwise direction because of a geocentric understanding of an astronomical phenomenon called axial precession......The seven Rishis in the next Manvantara will be Díptimat, Gálava, Parasurama, Kripa, Drauńi or Ashwatthama, Vyasa and Rishyasringa."....https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/svastika-swastika-sivkishen-lionlinked-gmail-com?forceNoSplash=true

"Saptarshi is the name of a constellation near celestial pole and also the collective name of the seven sages who carries forward the secret of Kalachakra. This constellation also plays a role in the movement of the wheel of time as some of the stars in it becomes the pole-star due to the precessional movement. It is known as Big Dipper and Ursa Major (Great Bear) in western astronomy. The names of the seven sages differ based on the source text. Popular list include Bhrigu, Atri, Angirasa, Marichi, Pulastya, Pulalaha and Kratu. Sometimes Marichi is replaced by Vasistha and either Atri or Kratu replaced by Agastya.....The Saptarishi (from saptarṣi, a Sanskrit dvigu meaning "seven sages") are the seven rishis who are extolled at many places in the Vedas and Hindu literature. The Vedic Samhitas never enumerate these rishis by name, though later Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas and Upanisads do so. They are regarded in the Vedas as the patriarchs of the Vedic religion.....In some parts of India, people believe these are seven stars of the Big Dipper named "Vashista", "Marichi", "Pulastya", "Pulaha", "Atri", "Angiras" and "Kratu". There is another star slightly visible within it, known as "Arundhati". Arundhati is the wife of Vashista."....In Hindu astronomy the seven stars of the Saptarshi Mandal or Big Dipper or Ursa Major....At the end of every four ages there is a disappearance of the Vedas and it is the province of the seven Rishis to come down upon earth from heaven to give them currency again."....http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/article:kalachakra

"The Vedas, Epics and Puranas of ancient India describe an interesting concept of time called Kaalachakra, the wheel of time. This wheel of time is conceived as having twelve spokes indicating twelve points of time measurement on the wheel of time. Close examination of the imagery reveals that this concept is related to the Yuga System and used for various kinds of time measurements in ancient India.".......http://sivkishen.wikia.com/wiki/File:Swastika.jpg

"The mythical paradise of Shamballa, sometimes thought to be in a parallel world or dimension , is a land of a thousand names. The Hindus call it "Paradesha" (Paradesa: Sanskrit) (Paradise....Persian: پردیس,.....High Land).....or "Aryavarsha", the land from which the Vedas came from; the Buddhists "Shambala"; the Chinese know it as " Hsi Tien", the Western Paradise of Hsi Wang Mu, the Royal Mother of the West; the Russians knew it as "Belovodye" and "Janaidar", the Christians and the Jews the "Garden of Eden". In the esoteric literature it has become known as "Shangri-La", "Agarttha" or "the Land of the Living".It has the name of "Forbidden Land"; "the Land of White Waters"; the "Land of Radiant Spirits"; the "Land of Living Fire"; the "Land of the Living Gods" and the "Land of Wonders".....Beneath the land of Shambhalla lies a cavernous underworld.. Its summit aligns to the wheeling constellation of Ursa Major, the Seven Stars that circle the Pole. .... The Japanese also have a Shambhalla which they have named ‘Island of the Congealed Drop’. It is situated ‘on the top of the globe' but at the same time 'at the center of the earth'. Its first roof-pillar was the earth's axis, and over it was the pivot of the vault of heaven.......The Chinese actually describe their idea of Shambhalla as the Center of the Earth, directly under Shang-te's heavenly palace, declaring it to be in the polestar. They also call it, ‘The Palace of the Center’. "....IN SEARCH OF SHAMBHALA........Mary Sutherland 2003

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January 2016

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Tuesday, January 12, 2016

The Sanskrit Kālacakra and the Vimalaprabha Commentary

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"In 1986 David Reigle published a pamphlet, The Lost Kālacakra Mūla Tantra on the Kings of Śambhala, in which he edited from eight Sanskrit manuscripts a quotation giving the names of the kings of Śambhala. A small book by Reigle was published in 1996, titled Kālacakra Sādhana and Social Responsibility. Drawing on statements by the Dalai Lama, this book says that the Kālacakra practice or sādhana benefits not only the individual practitioner, but society as a whole. In 1998 he and Andy Wistriech co-founded the International Kalachakra Network. This has become a major internet source on Kālacakra. He contributed an essay to As Long as Space Endures: Essays on the Kālacakra Tantra in Honor of H.H. the Dalai Lama, 2009. In 2012 his lengthy review article, The Kālacakra Tantra on the Sādhana and Maṇḍala, was published in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.".....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reigle

"The Vimalaprabha (Wyl. dri med 'od), translated as Stainless Light or Immaculate Light, is the main commentary on the Kalachakra tantra. Composed by Pundarika, the 8th king of Shambhala and the second Kalkin king, brought to India in about 967 AD and introduced in Tibet 60 years later in 1027 AD, still existing in Sanskrit, it is the basis for all Kalachakra commentaries....Vimalaprabha (Sanskrit) means 'Stainless Light Commentary', or 'Dri-med ‘od' (in Tibetan), it is a commentary to the Kalachakra tantra, more specifically, the Laghutantra or Abridged Kalachakra Tantra from Shambhala King Manjushri-Yashas. The Vimalaprabha was written by Shambhala King Pundarika."....http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Vimalaprabha

Source: http://www.unesco-ci.org/photos/

"Though the Kālacakra Mūla Tantra is lost, it has been quoted at length in the great Kālacakra commentary entitled Vimalaprabha.....Important in establishing the true Seven and Twenty-Five Sanskrit names of the Kings of Shambhala."..........Kalachakra Research Publications...No.1...Feb 1986

"The seventh King after Sucandra, named Yasas, came to the throne of Sambhala. He prepared a condensation of the Mula Tantra, which he taught to the Brahma-Rishis of Sambhala...It is called the Laghu, or Short Kalachakra Tantra, consisting of about 1000 verses. This teaching unified the four castes of Sambhala into a single Vajra caste...Yasas became known as Kalki, Possessor of the Caste, Rigs-ldan (pronounced Rigden)....his sucessor, Kalki Pundarika wrote a commentary on the Laghu Kalachakra entitled Vimalaprabha."......Kalachakra Research Publications...No.1...Feb 1986

"Dipankara.....Skt. दीपंकरः, dīpaṁkara, Pron.: dipankara. From Sanskrit: 'light-causer'....."In a significant passage from the Kālacakra Mūla Tantra, these teaching are traced back to the previous Buddha, Dipankara....quoted in the Sekoddesatika....a Sanskrit edition was published in 1941.".......Kalachakra Research Publications...No.1...Feb 1986

"The relationship between the Buddhist tradition of Sambhala and Hindu tradition of the Kalki Avatara of Vishnu...In about half of the Hindu Purana and epic sources on the Kalki Avatara of Vishnu, he is stated to be the son of Vishnu-Yasas...It is the 25th Kalki of the Buddhist tradition, Raudra, who plays the same role as the Kalki Avatara of Vishnu: riding out from Sambhala with a large army to destroy the wicked at the end of the Dark Age (Kali-Yuga)....In the Tibetan tradition, Raudra is considered to be an incarnation of Yasas (Manjusri)...the Buddhist Kalki Raudra is an emanation of Manjusri, just as the Hindu Kalki is an incarnation of Vishnu."......Kalachakra Research Publications...No.1...Feb 1986

Kalachakra Research Publications...No.1...Feb 1986....The Lost Kālacakra Mūla Tantra on the Kings of Śambhala....by David Reigle...http://www.easterntradition.org/kings%20of%20sambhala.pdf

"The International Kalachakra Network is non-sectarian.....The purity of the Kalachakra tradition is very powerfully protected. This protection makes authentic materials hard to access. The most famous example of this is that the Root Tantra is not available in our world - only in Shambhala. Furthermore, experience has shown that of the materials available in our world, many are hard to acquire.....The International Kalachakra Network will only succeed if it respects these powerful protective forces and takes great care to ensure that materials it develops for practitioners are not made available to a wider audience.".....http://kalachakranet.org/ikn_kpg_index.html

"David Reigle ...began his Sanskrit studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1978, he did not pursue a PhD, but rather continued his Sanskrit studies independently. He began his Tibetan studies with a private tutor in Dharamsala, India, in 1979. While working on Sanskrit texts, he identified two very rare Sanskrit verb-forms and wrote an article about them that was published in the Indo-Iranian Journal.....The Indo-Iranian Journal is a peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on aspects of Indo-Iranian cultures. The journal was started by Jan Willem de Jong and Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper in 1957......Editors-in-Chief: Peter Bisschop, Leiden University & Jonathan Silk, Leiden University.......The Indo-Iranian Journal (IIJ), founded in 1957, is a peer-reviewed journal that focuses on the ancient and medieval languages and cultures of South Asia and of pre-Islamic Iran. It publishes articles on Indo-Iranian languages (linguistics and literatures), such as Sanskrit, Avestan, Middle Iranian and Middle & New Indo-Aryan. It publishes specialized research on ancient Iranian religion and the Indian religions, such as the Veda, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism (including Tibetan). The Journal welcomes epigraphical studies as well as general contributions to the understanding of the (pre-modern) history and culture of South Asia. A substantial part of the Indo-Iranian Journal is reserved for reviews of new research. The Journal predominantly publishes articles in English and occasionally in French and German.".....http://www.brill.com/indo-iranian-journal

"'Svastika is a Sanskrit word of Swastika. (Tibetan is g.yung drung གཡུང་དྲུང་ ).... It is a composite word consisting of su+ asti +ka. The word ‘su’ means "good, well" and “asti “being"; the suffix “ka” either forms a diminutive or intensifies the literally verbal meaning as "that which is associated with well-being," corresponding to "lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious. It is lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote auspiciousness, or any piece of luck or well-being. It is a symbol that generally takes the form of an equilateral cross, with four legs its four legs bent at 90'°. It is a very sacred and auspicious symbol of Kalachakra, Yuga Dharma and Chaturpada represents seasons as well....Swastika is a symbol of calendar system and is clearly visible at Asthapada Parvata on the west side of Mount Kailash. This is a Kala Chakra or Time Cycle."....http://sivkishen.wikia.com/wiki/File:Swastika.jpg

"The Vimalaprabha on Kdlacakratantra, Abhisekapatala v. 198 explains that verse as meaning that the initiate should promise always to give to his Guru one sixth of all his inherited and self-acquired wealth in the form of gold, jewels, grains and the like, and a sixth of all his livestock. It adds that he is required to give his wife to the Guru five times each month (vol. 2, p. 144, 11. 17-22).".....Vimalaprabha: Vimalaprabhatika of Kalkin Sripundarlka on Srikdlacakra- tantraraja by Srimanjusriyasas, ed. Vrajavallabh Dwivedi and S.S. Bahulkar. Rare Buddhist Text Series 13. Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1994......https://archive.org/stream/GenesisAndDevelopmentOfTantra/GenesisDevelopmentOfTantra_djvu.txt

"The system of the fourth typological tradition has only an internal dimension, i.e. dimension (C). This system is a mixture of three theories: (i) the theory of holy sites, (ii) the theory of inner circles (cakra), and (iii) the theory of the circulation of the vital wind (prana etc.), or in other words, the theory of the inner wheel of time (kalacakra). A system which is similar in structure to this one appears in the Kalacakratantra and its commentary, the Vimalaprabha. 18 "..........https://archive.org/stream/GenesisAndDevelopmentOfTantra/GenesisDevelopmentOfTantra_djvu.txt

"The Kalacakratantra, SKT ed: 2.2.38-40. The Vimalaprabha, SKT ed: p.177, 1.25- p.179. 1.11. The difference between the system of the fourth typological tradition in ques- tion and that found in these Kalacakra texts can be explained as follows. First, in the Kalacakra system, the inner channels running through the nirmanacakra and the dhar- macakra are not identified with magical females assigned to external holy sites. Second, the Kalacakra system according to the Vimalaprabha equates twelve joints of one's body through which the inner channels run with twelve site-categories and with twelve spiri- tual stages [SKT ed: p. 73, 1.23-24]. (The Kalacakratantra per se does not have this second instruction [SKT ed: 1.7.20].)"..........https://archive.org/stream/GenesisAndDevelopmentOfTantra/GenesisDevelopmentOfTantra_djvu.txt

"Rishi (Sanskrit: ṛṣi, Devanagari: ऋषि) originates from the ancient Hindu culture of the Indus region earth-based cultures. Rishis were the scribes of the large body of nature hymns and spiritual science known as the Vedas….A Rishi (or rishika, when referring to female rishis) is a sage of insight, one who practices self-cultivation as a Yogini or Yogi and attains asamprajñata Samadhi. The Rishi's soul is interpreted as imbibing wisdom directly from the universal source. Vedic hymns are sermons conceived as delivered by divine inspiration by the rishis."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi

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January 2016

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Saturday, January 9, 2016

Otzi, the Frozen Copper Age Mummy (3239 BC) & Indo-European Migration

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"Otzi, the frozen Copper Age mummy who was discovered in 1991 in the Otzal Alps: He suffered from parasitic worms, Lyme disease, tooth decay, joint problems, and other ailments. He died in his mid-40s, likely sometime between 3239 and 3105 BC....and likely from a blow to the head. He has at least 19 living relatives somewhere in Austria. His nickname, the Iceman, is a perfectly badass moniker for someone who wore leather leggings and had 60-plus tattoos.....a microbe taken from his gut reveals new information about human migration patterns during and after Otzi’s lifetime.....The bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, is found in roughly half of all people alive today. It’s been infecting humans for an estimated 100,000 years.....The modern European strain is thought to be a hybrid of two older Asian and African strains. But when the authors of the Science paper reconstructed the genome of Otzi’s microbe, they found it to be nearly identical to the Asian variety—meaning it shared less ancestry with the African strain than the bug carried by modern Europeans......the authors offer one possibility: that a mass migration from Africa to Europe took place sometime in the millennia between Otzi’s death and the present day.......He carried a more pure strain, an unmixed strain, and we can say that the history of Helicobacter population genetics in Europe is different than previously thought.."....http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/otzi-the-iceman-gut-bacteria-mass-migration/423069/

"The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the nickname "Ötzi", near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy.....On a sunny day two hikers, Erika and Helmut Simon, from Nuremberg in Germany, were walking in the Ötztal Alps. Descending from the Finail peak in the Tisenjoch area, the Simons decided to take a shortcut and left the marked footpath. As they walked past a rocky gully filled with meltwater, they noticed something brown on the gully bed. At first they thought it must be some sort of rubbish, but on closer inspection they realized with horror that they had discovered a human corpse...."

"Scientists believe that the first anatomically modern humans to disperse out of Africa were already carrying H. pylori, and have discovered that different strains can be associated with different human populations. In the far north of India, H. pylori from the stomach of Buddhists is genetically distinct from H. pylori from the stomach of Muslims, one study found. The slave trade, the colonization of Polynesia, and other human migrations spread different variants as well...Otzi’s H. pylori, the researchers write in Science, is a nearly pure Asian strain. Genetically, it is most closely related to an H. pylori strain now found primarily in India. Otzi’s bacterium had almost nothing of the African admixture common in present-day European stomachs......That does not mean Otzi came from India: isotope analysis has shown that he lived his whole life in the Alps. What it does suggest is that the influx of Northeast African H. pylori came to Europe some time after Otzi died.."..http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/01/07/5300-year-old-iceman-had-the-stomach-bug-that-causes-ulcers.html

"“Something really dramatic has happened in the last 5,000 years in H. pylori DNA that hasn’t happened in human DNA. There will be an interesting reason for that … we haven’t figured it all out yet,” says Falush....."....http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/01/07/5300-year-old-iceman-had-the-stomach-bug-that-causes-ulcers.html

"Otzi the Iceman’s Stomach Sheds Light on Copper-Age Migration to Europe......In the oldest known pathogen study, scientists find the prehistoric hunter had ulcer-causing microbes that exist only in India and South Asia today.....this early European wanderer was infected with a strain that survives today only in India and South Asia, and not those more prevalent in modern Europe. The finding suggests that multiple waves of migrants settled the region, introducing new strains of the bacteria as they intermingled, they said.....

"....anatomically modern humans migrated out of Africa in successive waves starting about 60,000 years ago. It serves as a biomarker for the global travels of humankind.......“The Iceman’s strain must have been the original population that inhabited the stomachs of Europeans 5,000 years ago,” Dr. Moodley said...... the bacteria had inflamed his stomach lining, indicating that the prehistoric hunter, fleeing into the icy highlands where he was shot in the back with an arrow and beaten, may have been feeling ill on the day he was murdered......"....http://www.wsj.com/articles/otzi-the-icemans-stomach-sheds-light-on-stone-age-migration-to-europe-1452193200

"Up till now, it had been assumed that Neolithic humans were already carrying this European strain by the time they stopped their nomadic life and took up agriculture. Research on Otzi, however, demonstrates that this was not the case......"The recombination of the two types of Helicobacter may have only occurred at some point after Otzis era, and this shows that the history of settlements in Europe is much more complex than previously assumed," said Maixner......The findings were published in the Science Magazine. "....http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/bacteria-found-in-otzi-the-icemans-stomach-study/1/565758.html

"European hunter-gatherers fired their last arrows around 3000 BC......A study of ancient European DNA has found that indigenous hunter-gatherers and immigrant farmers lived together for 2,000 years, before the hunter-gatherer lifestyle finally died out around 5,000 years ago. The study, led by anthropologist Joachim Burger of the University of Mainz, studied bones from the Blätterhöhle Cave near Hagen, Germany, where both hunter-gatherers and farmers were buried...When the glaciers finally retreated and the first farmers began to arrive from the Near East 7,500 years ago....The hunter-gathering lifestyle thus only died out in Central Europe around 5,000 years ago, much later than previously thought......It marked the end of a way of life in Europe practised since the first arrival of their modern human ancestors on the continent 40,000 years before, and which had helped them survive the last Ice Age.."....http://www.abroadintheyard.com/european-hunter-gatherers-fired-their-last-arrows-around-3000-bc/

https://aratta.wordpress.com/ie-indo-european-1/

"Indo-Aryan Migration into India, c. 1750 B.C.....This map shows the general route taken by the Indo-Aryans who migrated into India beginning around 1750 B.C. They were nomadic warriors who came from the Plateau of Iran and moved through the Hindu Kush Mountains into the Indus Valley and beyond to the Ganges Valley. With them they brought bronze weapons, horses, and chariots They spoke an Indo-European language called Sanskrit."....https://www.pinterest.com/pin/521502831825304354/

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January 2016

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Friday, January 8, 2016

Kapila and the Samkhya School (6th c. BC)

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"Kapila (Drang-srong Ser-skya).....was a Vedic sage credited as one of the founders of the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy. He is prominent in the Bhagavata Purana, which features a theistic version of his Samkhya philosophy..... He is estimated to have lived in the 6th-century BC....Samkhya is called one of the several major atheistic schools of Hinduism by some scholars..... Others, such as Jacobsen, Samkhya is more accurately described as non-theistic.."

"Rishi Kapila is credited with authoring the influential Samkhya-sutra, in which aphoristic sutras present the dualistic philosophy of Samkhya..... Kapila's influence on Buddha and Buddhism have long been the subject of scholarly studies.....While he pre-dates Buddha, it is unclear which century he lived in, with some suggesting 6th-century BC.... Others place him in the 7th century BC.....Kapila is credited with authoring an influential sutra, called Samkhya-sutra (also called Kapila-sutra)....Buddhist sources present Kapila as a well-known philosopher whose students built the city of Kapilavastu....Some Buddhists texts claim the Buddha was Kapila in a previous life.....Scholars have long compared and associated the teachings of Kapila and Buddha....It has been said that Buddha and Kapila were both atheists, and that Buddha borrowed his atheism from Kapila......Kapila, when accused of atheism, is not accused of denying the existence of an Absolute Being. He is accused of denying the existence of an Ishvara....(Max Muller et al, Studies in Buddhism)....

"Jain philosopher, Vijayasena Suri in the court of Akbar the Great (1542 - 1605 AD) when accused of preaching atheism declared that Jainism's belief is not atheistic and is similar to the Samkhya....The existence of God or supreme being is not directly asserted, nor considered relevant by the Samkhya philosophers....."

"Ishvara (Sanskrit: ईश्वर, Īśvara) is a concept in Hinduism, with a wide range of meanings that depend on the era and the school of Hinduism.... In ancient texts of Indian philosophy, Ishvara means supreme soul, Brahman (Highest Reality), ruler, king or husband depending on the context..... In medieval era texts, Ishvara means God, Supreme Being, personal god, or special Self depending on the school of Hinduism.....In Shaivism, Ishvara is synonymous with "Shiva", as the "Supreme lord over other Gods" in the pluralistic sense, or as an Ishta-deva in pluralistic thought. In Vaishnavism, it is synonymous with Vishnu. In traditional Bhakti movements, Ishvara is one or more deities of an individual's preference from Hinduism's polytheistic canon of deities. In modern sectarian movements such as Arya Samaj and Brahmoism, Ishvara takes the form of a monotheistic God.... In Yoga school of Hinduism, it is any "personal deity" or "spiritual inspiration".... In Advaita Vedanta school, Ishvara is a monistic Universal Absolute that connects and is the Oneness in everyone and everything......The word Īśvara never appears in Rigveda.....Samkhya is called one of the several major atheistic schools of Hinduism by some scholars..... Others, such as Jacobsen, Samkhya is more accurately described as non-theistic.... Isvara is considered an irrelevant concept, neither defined nor denied, in Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy....... In Mahayana Buddhism it is used as part of the compound "Avalokiteśvara" ("lord who hears the cries of the world"), the name of a bodhisattva revered for her compassion. ....Ishvara is similar in some ways to Adi Buddha of Madhyamika Buddhists...."

"The Kalachakra system is clearly related to the ancient Vedic tradition in India which existed long before Buddhism appeared.....The Kalachakra refers to many different traditions, for example the Hindu; Saivite, Samkya, Vaishnava, the Vedas, Upanisads and Puranas traditions, but also Jainism. For example, the Kalachakra mandala includes deities which are equally accepted by Hindus, Jainas and Buddhists."

David Reigle , "Among the many traditional ideas which must be mastered to understand Kalachakra are several which are not found within Buddhism.... These include .... the Sankya system .... the Mandukya Upanisad .... and even the Jaina tradition."...The Lost Kālacakra Mūla Tantra on the Kings of Śambhala, Talent, Oregon: Eastern School, 1986

"In ancient times Kapilavastu (historical location unknown) was the capital city of the Shakya kingdom. King Śuddhodana and Queen Māyā are believed to have lived at Kapilavastu, as did their son Prince Siddartha Gautama until he left the palace at the age of 29.....The 19th-century search for the historical site of Kapilavastu followed the accounts left by Faxian and later by Xuanzang, who were Chinese Buddhist monks who made early pilgrimages to the site."....

"Ruzsa in 2006, states, "Sāṅkhya has a very long history. Its roots go deeper than textual traditions allow us to see. The ancient Buddhist Aśvaghoṣa (in his Buddha-Carita) describes Arāḍa Kālāma, the teacher of the young Buddha (ca. 420 B.C.) as following an archaic form of Sāṅkhya"....Ruzsa, Ferenc (2006), Sāṅkhya.

"Alara Kalama (Ārāḷa Kālāma) was a hermit saint and a teacher of yogic meditation. According to the Pāli Canon scriptures, he was one of the teachers of Gautama Buddha......After Gotama became an ascetic, he went to Alara Kalama, who was a teacher that taught a kind of early samkhya at Vessali. Alara taught Gautama Buddha meditation, especially a dhyānic state called the "sphere of nothingness" (Pali: ākiñcaññāyatana)......Gotama eventually equalled Alara, who could not teach him more, saying, "You are the same as I am now. There is no difference between us. Stay here and take my place and teach my students with me." Gautama was not interested in staying. After leaving, Buddha found a new teacher, Uddaka Ramaputta."

"The dualistic metaphysics of various Tantric traditions illustrates the strong influence of Samkhya on Tantra. Shaiva Siddhanta was identical to Samkhya in its philosophical approach, barring the addition of a transcendent theistic reality..... Knut A. Jacobsen, Professor of Religious Studies, notes the influence of Samkhya on Srivaishnavism. According to him, this Tantric system borrows the abstract dualism of Samkhya and modifies it into a personified male–female dualism of Vishnu and Sri Lakshmi..... Dasgupta speculates that the Tantric image of a wild Kali standing on a slumbering Shiva was inspired from the Samkhyan conception of prakṛti as a dynamic agent and Purusha as a passive witness. However, Samkhya and Tantra differed in their view on liberation. While Tantra sought to unite the male and female ontological realities, Samkhya held a withdrawal of consciousness from matter as the ultimate goal....According to Bagchi, the Samkhya Karika (in karika 70) identifies Sāmkhya as a Tantra, and its philosophy was one of the main influences both on the rise of the Tantras as a body of literature, as well as Tantra sadhana."....Bagchi, P.C. (1989), Evolution of the Tantras

"The purpose of this chapter is to reconcile three different views of the Universe proposed by the philosophies of Samkhya, Vedanta and Tantra. ...The ancient sages sought to capture these stark oppositions through distinctive dualities: Samkhya called it Purusha-Prakriti, Tantra defined the dual Ishwara-Shakti, and Vedanta called it Atman-Maya...."....https://auromere.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/reconciling-samkhya-vedanta-and-tantra/

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January 2016

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Okar Research

Pages

Pages

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Mount Mandara & The Ocean of Milk

Monday, January 25, 2016

Bactrian Timeline: 2500 BC - 870 AD

Monday, January 18, 2016

Uttarakuru and Uttaramadra in the Aitareya Brahmana (c.1000 BC)

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Paradesha, Parádeisos, Chahar Bagh: Royal Walled Gardens of Kalapa

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Polaris, Ursa Major, the Saptarishi Mandala and Yungdrung

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

The Sanskrit Kālacakra and the Vimalaprabha Commentary

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Otzi, the Frozen Copper Age Mummy (3239 BC) & Indo-European Migration

Friday, January 8, 2016

Kapila and the Samkhya School (6th c. BC)