Dalit B. R. Ambedkar, an Indian social reformer and politician who came from a social group that was considered "untouchable," theorized that untouchability originated because of the deliberate policy of the elitist Brahmins (brahmanas).
According to him, the Brahmins despised the people who gave up Brahmanism (the Brahminical religion) in favor of Buddhism or Jainism (shramana, "wandering ascetic" shamanic traditions).
Later scholars such as Vivekanand Jha have refuted this theory [10]. Professor of History Nripendra Kumar Dutt theorized that the concept of untouchability originated from the "pariah"-like treatment accorded to the indigenous people of India by the early Dravidians, and that the concept was borrowed by the Indo-Aryans from the Dravidians.
Scholars such as R. S. Sharma have rejected this theory, arguing that there is no evidence that Dravidians practiced untouchability before coming into contact with the Indo-Aryans [10]. Austrian ethnologist Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf theorized that untouchability originated as class stratification in urban areas of the Indus Valley Civilization. According to this theory, the poorer workers involved in "unclean" occupations such as sweeping or leather work were historically segregated and banished outside the city limits. Over time, personal cleanliness came to be identified with "purity," and the concept of untouchability eventually spread to rural areas as well. After the decline of the Indus Valley towns, these "untouchables" probably spread to other parts of India [11].
Scholars such as Suvira Jaiswal reject this theory, arguing that it lacks evidence and does not explain why the concept of untouchability is more pronounced in rural areas [12].
American scholar George L. Hart, based on his interpretation of Old Tamil texts such as Purananuru, traced the origin of untouchability to ancient Tamil society. According to him, in this society, certain occupational groups were thought to be involved in controlling the malevolent supernatural forces; as an example, Hart mentions the Paraiyars, who played the drums during battles and solemn events such as births and deaths. People from these occupational groups came to be avoided by others, who believed that they were "dangerous and had the power to pollute the others" [13].
Jaiswal dismisses the evidence produced by Hart as "extremely weak" and contradictory. Jaiswal points out that the authors of the ancient Tamil texts included several Brahmanas (a fact accepted by Hart); thus, the society described in these texts was already under Brahmanical influence and could have borrowed the concept of untouchability from Brahmins [14]. More
New evidence of civilizations THRIVING before the cataclysmic flood
(Gaia) Is there archeological evidence across ancient sites from around the world that suggests civilizations thrived before the flood?
Experts piece together pre-flood history by examining antediluvian (pre-flood) myths alongside astrologically aligned megaliths on different continents.
Connecting data points from before the Great Deluge uncovers new evidence of unfathomable complexes from a mythological time when gods walked the Earth and influenced humanity.
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Gaia.com, July 18, 2025; Pat Macpherson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
Breaking the Code: Deciphering the enigma of the Indus script with Yajnadevam
(CNN-News18) Oct. 24, 2024: Unlocking the secrets of one of the world’s oldest civilizations, this cryptanalytic decipherment of the Indus script takes us on a journey through ancient symbols. Through rigorous analysis, we move closer to unraveling the mystery behind the enigmatic script, shedding light on a civilization that has fascinated scholars for centuries. Yajnadevam unpacks insightful wisdom. Join a conversation that sparks thought.
I admire Aryan Hitler, it's true, but I'm nothing like Trump. I don't know why people say so.
Indian elections: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Vote for me or there will be trouble. Namaskar.
(LastWeekTonight on HBO) June 6, 2024: John Oliver discusses the elections in India, the world's largest democracy and now the world's most populous country (now even bigger than Buddhist China), what Prime Minister (racist, nationalist dictator) Narendra Modi has been doing in office, what he might do next, and the proper way to eat a mango.
UPDATE: Narendra Modi has fearmongered and bribed his way into a third consecutive term. Trump must be very happy to hear it
Scenes of Diwali celebration from Greater Noida | Diwali 2023 | Festival of Lights | English News
(MIRROR NOW) Nov. 12, 2023: Times Network ground report brings insight into the celebrations taking place across India on Diwali, the "Festival of Lights," illuminating India with joy and fervor as 1 billion people or more celebrate the triumph of light over darkness. #diwali #mirrornow #diwali2023
India is on the right with "Shakya Land" in grey
It’s also widely celebrated in Nepal, Malaysia, Fiji, and other countries with large South Asian diasporas. Homes, businesses, and public spaces are lit up with diyas, or oil lamps made from clay, and fireworks displays abound.
People gather with their families, eat sweets, and exchange gifts.
Despite its deep religious significance, Diwali today is also a cultural festival observed by people regardless of faith.
Here’s what to know about the holiday.
What is Diwali?
Crowds in Bombay, India, ahead of 11/5/23.
Diwali comes from the Sanskrit word deepavali, meaning “row of lights.” It marks the triumph of light over darkness, of good over evil.
Though Diwali traditions vary according to region and religion, the myths and historical stories behind the holiday share themes of justice and liberation.
When is Diwali?
Are you Indian? - Ha ha, wait, I can answer!
Diwali is celebrated every year in autumn, usually falling between October and November.
The festival lasts five days, with the main celebration occurring on the third day.
It's curious. One never thinks about it. But an Indian runs England (arch conservative good old boy Rishi Sunak, 43). An Indian runs Ireland (gay Pres. Leo Varadkar). An Indian runs India (uber-conservative, anti-Muslim, nationalist and Trump-wannabe Narendra Modi). An Indian ran South Carolina (former governor, US Ambassador to the UN, and rabid Republican conservative Nikki Haley (née Ms. Nimarata "Nikki" Randhawa). And then there's the young upstart Indian Republican Hirsh Vardhan Singh (conservative businessman).
But who are any of these Indian innovators and what are they doing? They're gunning for business entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy's next job in the White House.
If anyone is making a splash in Trump's yellowish (orange) pool, it's Whippersnapper Ramaswamy-jii. He's the sharpest, most rappingest Indian in the U.S. race.
As president, I'll represent the corporations.
And given the financial success of many Indians in America, they're becoming the model minority. The world knows something: India is now the largest country in the world, by population, so Indians are the future. China is falling away, due in large part to its old one child policy which left a gender imbalance and a non-replacement population. Demographics don't lie. Think business. It won't be China so much as India. The EU knows it, so the US finds itself waking up.
Democrat? Dotard Biden can't cut it. Who's Joey's heir apparent? IndianKamala Harris(HarishchandraGopalan?), current VP with her designs on the Oval Office. With Trump on his way to jail for corruption, bad business practices, and court, where he'll be bogged down for years, it looks like it's bye-bye for the Boogeyman, the Mara at the Lago mansion.
We're voting for Andrew D. Basiago, so who needs an old white man in the highest office? Biden is the oldest. Trump is the second oldest. And one could hardly get any whiter, having been bitterly let down by Black sellout Prof. Cornel West and this year's Green Party.
Siri Mata-ji (larathayatra.com); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY
Krishna, the all-attractive "Dark One," has a thing for the human beauty, Radha.
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It was a very strange meeting of minds at the annual "Festival of the Chariots" on the Venice Beach Boardwalk.
The morning began with KPFK (90.7 FM) playing Alan Watts on the topic of the Bhavagad Gita, devotional-Hinduism "Song of the Lord."
Alan Watts explains the Bhagavad Gita or"The Song of the Lord"
It's a world-famous text that attempts to tell an unbelievable story about how "God" on Earth, Lord Krishna (the "Dark One") argues with Arjuna (the best of men) to kill.
Hare Krishna vegetarians party on the beach
Arjuna doesn't want to kill, particularly not his friends an relatives. But Krishna insists it's the right thing to do.
It must be some kind of metaphor. Surely, it's a metaphor. It can't be literal. No religious text would tell its devotees to KILL or that it's right to kill as long as you're "just doing your job," aka social "duty" (innate obligation under the Vedas' strict caste system) and obeying the Lord.
It turns out it does. These mainly white Hare Krishna converts each said they would kill if God told them to. They weren't kidding. They urged me to kill if instructed. I said, "You must be out of your mind." It's like the satirical Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys opening that song from Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables with the line, "God told me to skin you alive."
Krishna and Krist are pro-gun?
We think of conservative, Republican, gun-toting Jesus freaks eager for war with Russia -- or whomever the Pentagon is designating as the enemy of the moment, which as in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, changes from time to time. Sometimes we're told to hate/fear the communists of China, other times the Muslims of the Middle East, or the Ruskies or the liberals or the Satanists or the unpatriotic or, worst of all, those damned Unbelievers.
(Airplane!) Americans were once sick to the bloody teeth of Hare Krishna cult
It's good we get along, but our followers? Oy vey
No wonder India gets so much "communal violence," which is when Hindu mobs practice ahimsa (non-violence) to the utmost -- murdering Muslims, Christians, members of other castes or creeds or ethnicities -- because they, as the majority, are whipped up into believing the "other" is harming their interests. Indian Prime Minister Modi is accused of inciting ethnic violence and getting tens of thousands murdered to promote himself and his political party, the BJP, and Indian patriotism above all.
At no time did Alan Watts say the central dialogue between the Lord (a kind of "all-attractive" Krist figure) and the ideal man Arjuna was a metaphor. And everyone to a man today said, "It's not a metaphor. It's literally true. I would kill if God (Krishna) told me to."
Expect someone to come down from space ("heaven") and tell the Indians it's time to kill those darn, pesky, Muslim Pakistanis...and they'll do it with Christian Crusader gusto, "Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition." Un be liev a ble. So much for only being a cult aggressively panhandling for cash donations, ISKCON (the International Society for Krishna CONsciousness) is so much more and eventually will be a willing arm of the Indian Army.
The Hare Krishna devotional cult lives on in LA
Send hate mail and threats of communal violence to Wisdom Quarterly care of Editor Ashley Wells, through the comments section. Or if someone has another, less literal, take on the true meaning of the Advice to Arjuna in the Gita, we'd love to hear it. Here is Alan Watts' explanation as the interpreter of Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism, Zen, and Taoism for the West.
"The Song of the Lord" as metaphor
Wiki Bhagavad Gita edited by Wisdom Quarterly
God on earth (blue-black Krishna) tells Arjuna to fight and kill because it's "right" to do so.
These are all incarnations (avatars) of the Sustainer Lord Vishnu in Hinduism (South Park).
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If God says so, maybe we should kill? - No, guys.
Summarizing [Hinduism's] Upanishadic conceptions of God, the Gita ("The Song by God") posits the existence of a lower self (atman) and a higher GOD self (Brahman) within each individual [Note 1].
The dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Krishna his charioteer has been interpreted as a metaphor for an immortal dialogue between the human self and God [Note 2].
Commentators of Vedanta (the "best of the Vedas") read varying notions in the Bhagavad Gita about the relationship between the atman (individual Self) and Brahman (universal Self):
Advaita Vedanta affirms the non-dualism of Atman and Brahman [7], Vishisht-advaita asserts qualified non-dualism with Atman and Brahman being related but different in certain respects, while Dvaita Vedanta declares the complete duality of atman and Brahman [Note 3][6][8].
As per Hindu mythology, the Bhagavad Gita was written by the god Ganesha, as told to him by the sage Veda Vyasa.
The Bhagavad Gita presents a synthesis [9][10] of various Hindu ideas about dharma (social duty or innate obligation) [9][10][11], theistic devotion (bhakti) [11][12], and the yogic ideal [10] of liberation (moksha) [10].
The text covers Knowledge, Devotion, Action, and Royal (Jñāna, Bhakti, Karma, and Rāja) Yogas [12], while incorporating ideas from the Samkhya-Yoga philosophy [Web 1][Note 4].
The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most revered Hindu texts [13] and has a unique pan-Hindu influence [14][15]. Numerous commentaries have been written on the Bhagavad Gita with differing views on its essentials. More
The annual "Festival of Chariots" in L.A.
The vast majority of the Festival will be on the Venice Beach Boardwalk.
Travel to India while staying in the U.S. at the 47th Annual Los Angeles Ratha Yatra or "Festival of the Chariots."
On the first Sunday in August, three deities (Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra) take their annual trip, or Yatra, on three 40-foot-tall chariots down Main Street in Santa Monica and onto the iconic Venice Beach Boardwalk.
The Ratha Yatra Festival includes a colorful Indian parade in addition to a festival at the Venice Beach Windward Plaza, featuring cultural performances, a FREE feast, kirtan (spiritual chanting), food stalls, and Indian gifts.
The future Buddha, Prince Siddhartha Gautama of the Shakya (Saka) clan was born and raised in and around modern Afghanistan -- in ancient Kapilavastu, three seasonal capitals, two of which were certainly Bamiyan (according to Dr. Ranajit Pal), Kabul (Kapil), and we speculate Mes Aynak, now the site of the world's largest unexcavated Buddhist temple complex of the extent of about one square mile (soon to be razed by a Chinese mining interest to extract copper and rare earth elements for profit, much as the US is doing in selling National Forest land to a mining company to raze sacred Native American sites at Oak Flat, Arizona (apache-stronghold.com). This would make the Buddha Shakyamuni, Scythian "Sage of the Shakyas," a blue eyed, black haired, fair golden skinned Central Asian in the Middle Country between Asia and Europe in what is now referred to as the Stans.
2023 Badakhshan Earthquake
On March 21, 2023, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan [ancient "Shakya Land," Kapilavastu, Gandhara, Sakastan, Central Asia], with an intermediate depth of approximately 187 km (116 mi) [1].
The epicenter of the earthquake was 40 km (25 miles) south-southeast of Jurm [1].
Tectonic setting
The Himalayas [as this area of the Hindu Kush is part of the Himalayan range], partially formed by the collision of tectonic plates, are prone to devastating earthquakes.
Afghanistan is situated near the southern extent of the Eurasian Plate [2] in Central Asia next to the subcontinent.
Most of these earthquakes are associated with reverse, thrust, or strike-slip faulting. Large earthquakes with magnitudes of up to 7.5 have occurred in the region with an average recurrence interval of 15 years.
Kapilavastu: Bamiyan, Kabul, Mes Aynak (Shakya Land)
These earthquakes correspond to reverse faulting at a depth of 170 to 280 km (110 to 170 miles) [3]. These earthquakes, rather than occurring at a plate boundary, are sourced from within the Indian Plate as it dives beneath the Hindu Kush [mountains].
As the tectonic slab of the Indian Plate descends at a near-vertical angle into the mantle, it stretches and begins to "tear," eventually leading to a slab detachment [4]. This action results in stress accommodation along faults that produces earthquakes when ruptured.
Smaller shallow focus earthquakes are also observed in the region, particularly associated with north–south trending zones of right lateral strike-slip, such as the Chaman Fault, with an increasing degree of shortening to the north, together accommodating the highly oblique convergence between the Indian and the Eurasian Plates [5].
Earthquake
The United States Geological Survey reported a magnitude of Mww 6.5 [1], while the Pakistan Meteorological Department said the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.8 [6].
The earthquake was initially reported inaccurately as Mw 7.7 [7]. Shaking was felt over an area 1,000 km (620 miles) wide by approximately 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre [8].
Impact
Afghanistan
At least 10 people were killed [9], 80 others were injured [10], and more than 665 houses were destroyed in nine provinces of Afghanistan [11, 12]. Two people died, 25 others were injured, and 22 houses collapsed in Laghman Province [13, 14, 15].
In Takhar Province, 20 buildings collapsed, one person died, and five others were injured [16, 17]. In Panjshir Province, three buildings were seriously damaged, and three people were injured [17].
In Badakhshan Province, where the epicenter of the earthquake was located, one person was injured, 70 buildings were destroyed, and 50 were damaged [18, 19].
In Kabul Province [ancient Kapil'vastu], one person died and one house was destroyed [11]. Five houses collapsed in Nangarhar Province [15].
Pakistan
Tremors were felt in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta, and Peshawar [20]. In Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a teenager was killed from a collapsing wall and a police station was damaged [8, 21].
Two people also died due to a wall collapse in the district [22], while a falling wall killed another child [23]. In Swat District, there were power outages, severe damage, and 250 injuries. More
The lovely and massive Buddha statue in Enlightenment Grove, Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India.
The oldest settlements in South India: The Keeladi excavations
(Storytrails) Premiered March 6, 2023. CHENNAI (Madras), India - How old are the oldest settlements in South India?
What did the recent excavations at Keeladi (aka Keezhadi) and other places along the Vaigai and Porunai (Thamirabarani) rivers reveal?
For a long time, it was believed that South India had no ancient urban civilizations like in the north [where the Indus Valley Civilization and the Vedic Civilization thrived near Gandhara, now in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which were formerly parts of the Indian Empire].
While the Sangam Period (dated 300 BCE–300 CE) literature talks of a sophisticated Tamilcivilization, there was no concrete archeological proof to back it up…until the path-finding/groundbreaking Keeladi excavations that started in 2015.
A series of digs carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India in a little village near Madurai unearthed artifacts dating back at least to the 6th century BCE [the time of the Buddha].
This included pottery fragments with graffiti marks very similar to the Indus Valley Civilization script.
But Keeladi isn’t the first or only place to offer evidence of ancient settlements in Tamil Nadu.
Adichanallur, Korkai, Pallavaram, Attirampakkam, and many more sites have produced an array of amazing artifacts over the last 100 years or so, including the oldest human tool to be ever discovered in India -- a hand-axe that was discovered in Pallavaram, part of present-day Chennai.
It’s only in recent years that the pieces of the jigsaw have started coming together. Archeologists believe that many more exciting discoveries, possibilities, and answers are waiting to be found at this site.
Editing credits: Studio A, Chennai
Music, Sound Design, Mix & Master: Vishwi (vishwimusic.com)
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