Topic started by Vignesh (@ lan-202-144-91-253.maa.sify.net) on Tue Jun 17 14:10:43 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Interesting Research by Prof.George Hart
at

http://tamil.berkeley.edu/Research/Articles.html

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: madhu (@ 199.67.140.75) on: Thu Jun 26 10:59:04 EDT 2003
  
  karuvayan,
  
  "That date is only the date of the composition in writing of the Rig Veda. It is very different from when the Rig Veda came into existence. "
  
  At the same token, it is also possible the contents of vedas are plagiarized. Buddhism has such an profound impact and the authors are forced to modify their orginal text. No one should accept Vedas we read today were written thousands of years ago.
  
  
• From: Karuvayan (@ cs2417534-176.austin.rr.com) on: Thu Jun 26 12:32:46 EDT 2003
  
  //At the same token, it is also possible the contents of vedas are plagiarized//
  
  No it is not true. The Vedas cannot be plagiarized. This is because of the uniqueness of the Sanskrit meters. (Ref: A History of India by John Keay). This fact is attested even by independent scholars such as Michael Witzel of Harvard University and Prof Klostermaier of the University of Manitoba in Canada.
  
  //Buddhism has such an profound impact and the authors are forced to modify their orginal text//
  
  That is also not true. Buddhism had it's own category of texts, the first being the Pali Canon. The Buddha himself admits into buddhism many ideals from the Upanishads.
  
  //No one should accept Vedas we read today were written thousands of years ago. //
  
  They were. They continue to be read and cherished. They continue to be the foundations of Quantum Physics. This is what Erwin Schrodinger, the pioneer of the Quantum Theory has to say:
  
  http://atributetohinduism.com/articles_hinduism/96.htm
  
  
• From: Gopalan (@ 202.41.104.94) on: Thu Jun 26 13:22:46 EDT 2003
  
  a word about the oral transmission of vedas:
  
  to check the veracity of the oral transmission, each vedic line was chanted syllable by syllable. this combination of two-syllable and three-syllable recitation ensured that the lines were transmitted perfectly. also, as there was no script people developed their memories to hold huge volumes of poetry. (even now we come across people who can recite koran, kural or bible). thus the vedas as we get today are substantially preserved.
  
  however, this does not mean that all they say are relevant, or true, or correct, or should be followed. we have hammu- rabi's legal code today. that does not mean we should follow it.
  
  about gajabahu, thiru, maduraiveeran, it is deepavamsa that mentions him. silappadikaram states, "kadal shool ilangaik kayavaahu vendanum". it also mentions some other kings who visited at that time- king of malava among them. his date is 150 AD. nobody has tried to equate him with gajabahu ii of 12 century as thiru.uaday has mentioned. sanskrit is around since 5th century BC. nobody has accepted this dating of snaskrit to 8th century. i can tell a series of inscriptions in sanskrit before this date: rudradaman's junagrh pillar inscription, samudra gupta's allahabad pillar inscription composed by harisena, skanda gupta's junagarh inscription, harsha's madhuaban copper plates, sivaskanda varman of kanchi's copper plates, pulikesin's aihole inscription, etc. can thiru.udaya quote any evidence?
  
  the latest date for silappadikaram is around 175 AD, not later. about buddha's nirvana date, there are two traditions: taranatha and mahayana. the former says it is 567 BC the latter says 487 BC. the latter is now widely accepted. bimbisara is dated to 550 BC. buddha was his contemporary. moreover buddha was an eyewitness to the civil strife among the videha, an event of ajatashatru's time. hence it is not correct to date buddha to 567 BC.
  
  
• From: Karuvayan (@ cs2417534-176.austin.rr.com) on: Thu Jun 26 16:02:32 EDT 2003
  
  Gopalan, are you from JNU?
  
  
• From: Karuvayan (@ cs2417534-176.austin.rr.com) on: Thu Jun 26 16:05:09 EDT 2003
  
  //we have hammu- rabi's legal code today. that does not mean we should follow it.//
  
  That is true for Manu Smriti as well. Even the kanchi shankaracharya has said that it is no longer valid. The funny thing is that parties such as DMK/Samajwadi et al say that the manu smriti is the book for casteism - while they themselves commmit the worst casteist crimes. Yadvas Vs Chamars in UP and Thevars Vs Paraiyars in TN is well known.
  
  
• From: V. Ganesan (@ ) on: Thu Apr 15 08:37:42
  
  Can any one give the details of Shri Madurai Veeran. (The War Lords of South). This is for our research work and post in the web.
  
  
• From: Nedunchezhiyan (@ 142.76.1.62) on: Thu Apr 15 10:20:44 EDT 2004
  
  Here is what I know about casteism:
  
  
  Some people say and mostly accepted fact is that the Casteism originated in Iraq and came to TN...which is possible but then again...if Iraquis have the origin of Thamizh then it also relates to Thamizh society.
  
  The next theory say the casteism existed in TN but not in the form as it now but instead people were called under the caste of the organization of their family was. Now day you have an organization for all labours teachers...to plummers and etc. Thus in those days although you weren't doing the certain thing that your group of people weren't doing..however since you born in you were called by it (I'm not sure if the people then got called different after let's say they do something different than what their parents or ancestors had been doing). So anyway it's believed that people were actually proud of like a family branch they came from (since certain families who did the same job) and so they didn't worry about being in a caste or something and it wasn't a big deal back then. The theory also says that after the invasion of aryans...the aryans took this in another way to put different among Thamizhars! Thus succeeded into making organzied families which had been doing certain jobs to caste! Thus you could for instance that 'parayar' must have been the people who had been working labour as 'drum beater' for wars and for death ceremony ...so the family of such people had followed this job...although there wasn't any such obligation of doing the same job as your fore-fathers did...it's not good to make a law or do things like that for the improvement of the society. Anyway I believe any such division would bring up separation in our society...such that division should be avoided at all cost. yes we are humans but we are Thamizhans--That's should be in the heart of all Thamizhans and the world also should think interm of co-operating as a world together and accepting the different communities establishments and should get rid of casteism!
  
  

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