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We had earlier briefly considered the kAlAmukha-s on these pages. While once prominent in both the north and south of the country, their last occurrences are recorded only in the south (though they clearly acknowledge their connections to the northern branches). While the kAlAmukha institutions received a devastating blow from the army of Islam’s rampage through south India under genocidal Ghazis, such as Khalji and Tughlaq, we know from inscriptional evidence that few Acharya-s of the system survived into the early years of the vijayanagara empire.

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Unfortunately, some time after this period they became extinct and with them vanished their major ritual manual the kAlAmukha-mahAtantra. A few fragments of this tradition have nevertheless survived in the Alur town of the karNATa country, where the kAlAmukha-s were once at pinnacle of their glory. These fragments include a text from the vijayanagaran capital that narrates an unusual version of the old tale of the competition between kumAra and vinAyaka in the context of the origin of the kAlAmukha tradition.

Typically, this tale is used as device to downgrade the more ancient deity kumAra and prop up the emerging deity gaNesha within the shaiva hierarchy. But here it is resolved amicably.

This, to us, suggests a link to the dominance of the old kaumAra tapovana-s of dakShiNaugha which appear to have been a major force in the Bellary region before the Mohammedan terror intruded upon these regions. The tale goes thus:“In the long past rudra had narrated to his son kumAra the kAlAmukha lore. When rudra was holding court on his mountain abode, a devI known as sevitA, who was the mistress of the forest of nandana trees, appeared and offered a fruit of the kalpavR^ikSha tree to him, after having saluted him and his wife. Rudra gave it to aMbikA and in turn kumAra and vinAyaka wished to have the same. To have some fun, umA smilingly asked kumAra and gaNapati to go round the world and said that she would give it to the one who returned first. KumAra mounted his peacock and went racing around the world.

But vinAyaka was off to a slow start and instead went around umA and rudra. They were surprised at his action and he explained that they were the origin of the world as the puruSha and prakR^iti and thereby comprise the whole world; by going around them he said he has completed his task. Just them kumAra completed his circuit of the world and arrived there. Pleased with the energy of kumAra and the cunning of gaNesha, umA cut the fruit and gave each of them a half.

Two muhUrta-s later, mahAkAla, a gaNa of kumAra appeared there. He too had gone around the universe as he was keen to provide service for his lord, kumAra. But since kumAra was flying at a blistering pace and he was going unaided it took him a longer to complete the journey. Rudra noticed this and was struck by his loyalty to his leader. So rudra asked kumAra to give him mahAkAla and appointed him as one of his bhUtagaNeshvara-s beside nandin and vIrabhadra. Then one day kumAra revealed to him the kAlAmukha-mAhAtantraM. Thereafter, mahAkAla taught it to the deva-s and they imparted it to the muni-s.

The students of these muni-s transmitted it to the earthlings as the aghorasAra, and thus kAlAmukha tradition was promulgated.”In bharadvAja’s narration of it it began with the mantra:namaH shivAya devAya harAya paramAtmane rudraya kAlakAlAya kAlakaNThAya shambhave Continued. In 8th maNDala of the R^igveda there is famous vaishvadeva riddle of father manu vaivasvata (RV 8.29) in the peculiar partial virAT (dvipada virAT) meter. We had earlier seen the mantra deployments relating to the.

We shall now consider another tArkShya vidhi practiced by the knowers of the atharvaNa shruti. The day before the rite a pandal is put up and and decorated with flowers and flags with pictures of eagles. The ground is flattened and scents are dispersed into the air.

In the eastern side of the pandal a circle with a lotus figure inscribed within it is drawn with white powder. It is then decorated with colored powders. In the night before the ritual (around the midnight hour), the ritualist offers bali in baskets at the four cardinal points around the pandal.

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The bali might comprise of meat, fish, beer or semicircular bhakShaNa-s (colloquially termed karaNjika) and is offered to the four dreadful vinAyaka-s mentioned in the AV tradition and vainateya. He then lights four ghee lamps, one beside each bali.The rite begins at the abhijit hour on the bright aShTaka day. An image of the fierce garuDa is installed in the center of the white circle with the mantra:tyam U Shu vAjinaM devajUtaM sahovAnaM tarutAraM rathAnAm ariShTanemiM pR^itanAjim AshuM svastaye tArkShyam ihA huvema (AVS 7.85.1c)An abhiSheka of the image of garuDa is performed with the mantra:imA ApaH pra bharAmy ayakShmA yakShma nAshanIH gR^ihAn upa pra sIdAmy amR^itena sahAgninA (AVS 3.12.9)Then the ritualist offers sandal paste, flowers, incense, camphor, lamps of ghee, vaTaka-s flavored with pepper with a hole in the middle and burns guggulu. The ritualist and his people then do a pradakShiNa of the image followed by complete namaskAra-s. The nAstika teacher paramArtha who operated in midst of the chIna-s 525-569 CE, wrote a hagiography of the famous dharmAcharya vasubandhu of puruShapura (modern Peshawar in the Islamic terrorist state). In this hagiography he gives a sthalapaurANika account for puruShapura which is not found in any Astika source. We do not see this as an old “para-paurANika” myth but a neo-myth created by the nAstika-s by using preexisting sthala-paurANika material along with mutation and recombination.

As we have noted before, this tendency possibly goes back to the tathAgata himself.The tale goes thus:The deva viShNu the lord of svarga, was the younger brother of the deva indra the supreme lord. The latter sent viShNu to be born in jambudvIpa as a prince, son of the king vasudeva, in order to subdue an asura named indradamana who was for ever locked in combat with indra with the aim of subduing him. Convert firebird to mysql. The vyAkaraNa shAstra explains that the word asura means one without pleasure in virtue. While all deva-s regard virtue as their enjoyment, all asura-s take evil acts as their enjoyment. Hence, they are named so. The asura had a younger sister named prabhAvatI. The word prabhA means luster while vatI means lady.

The asurI was possessed of great beauty. The asura seeking to kill the deva viShNu sought his sister’s help to seduce him. Through his mAyA the asura brought darkness over a part of jambudvIpa (i.e. The eastern part opposite to where puruShapura is located) so that nobody could see him.

He asked his sister to remain in the part that was still lit. He further instructed her that if someone wished to marry her, she should state that her elder brother would object. And he told her that she should tell her prospective mate that she would assent to marrying him only if he could fight her brother. The deva viShNu saw the lady in the lit part of jambudvIpa and was exceedingly taken in by her charms. He asked regarding her background. She said: “I am a maiden asurI.” viShNu said: “asurI-s frequently marry deva-s. I myself have no wife and you have no husband.

I wish to be with you and so seek to marry you. Will you agree?” She responded exactly as her brother had instructed her.

ViShNu said: “You think well of me so you are interested, and it is clear you love me, so I will not leave you alone. Since I have great strength I will fight your brother.” The asura went into the lit part and asked viShNu how he had dared to take his sister as his wife.

To that the deva responded that he could object if viShNu had not been a hero. Since he was a hero and the two were unmarried there was no reason why they could marry. The asura responded: “On what basis you claim to be a hero. If you can win against me in battle then I would give my sister to you in marriage.” viShNu answered: “If you do not believe it, let us put it to test.” Then they seized their weapons and attacked each other. This one is an incarnation of nArAyaNa and no weapon can wound his body. The deva cut off the head of the asura but it joined back to his body. Similarly when viShNu cut off his hands, legs and other parts of the body they kept joining back.

Thus, the battle raged from morning to evening. With his efforts viShNu was becoming tired while with the growing night the asura’s strength was increasing. Fearing that viShNu might not be able to succeed, prabhAvatI took a blue lotus flower and tore into two piece.

Then she cast the pieces in opposite directions and walked in between them and came back again. The deva understood what she meant and seizing the asura tore him into two pieces and threw them in opposite directions. Then he walked in between the pieces and came back again.

The asura died there after. Formerly, a R^iShi had given the asura a boon that he would be immune to being sliced. But the R^iShi himself desirous that he should be killed by the deva-s did not grant him immunity from being torn into two halfs and thrown in opposite directions. Hence, he died.

A viShNu had showed his manliness (puruShatva) in this place came to be known as puruShapura.It is likely that indeed the city of puruShapura was associated with an old sthalapurANa related to the above. However, the bauddha retelling presented above from vasubandhu’s hagiography appears to have been purposefully distorted by the narrator. There is evidence that this narrative was part of a “mobile” sthalapurANa system that also asssociated itself with other places in jambudvIpa. The cognate myth from an Astika source is obtained in the pradyumna-vijaya-khaNDa of the vAgvatI mAhAtmya, which is a sthalapurANa attached to the Bagmati river in Nepal from the Northeast of jambudvIpa on the opposite side of puruShapura. This mAhAtmya is supposed to be part of a much larger pashupati-purANa, which to our knowledge is only extant as fragments.

The same narrative appears to have been transferred in this local milieu to other related texts, the nepAla mAhAtyma, which has its own pradyumna-vijaya, and the pradyumnottara of the himavat-khaNDa. Colloquial versions of the narrative found in these texts also exist in Hindi nATak-s which were enacted all over Northeastern jambudvIpa. A comparable Sanskrit nATaka name the prabhAvatI-haraNa was composed in Mithila by bhAnunAtha. In the Astika form of the narrative found in these texts we have an account of how the asurI prabhAvatI, the sister of indradamana, is married to pradyumna the son of kR^iShNa, along with the killing of indradamana. In the account of vAgvatI, the Nepali river is also described as being imprisoned by the asura and being allowed to flow upon his killing by pradyumna. These narratives, in turn, derive from the older version seen in the harivaMsha, where prabhAvatI is the daughter of the asura vajranAbha, and there is no indradamana.In south Indian popular literature the narrative of prabhAvatI follows the harivaMsha version in specifying vajranAbha as the asura.

An Andhran scholar from the iShTaka-kShetra felt that an Telugu kAvya known as prabhAvatI-pradyumnamu composed by piNgaLi sUrana was inspired by the Hindi prabhAvatI nATak-s seen by his brother during his visit to Gaya. While he may have had his learned reasons for this proposal, we suspect this is unlikely for the poem of sUrana is structurally comparable to a play by the noted chera king saMgrAma-dhIra ravivarman (1200s of CE). This king is eulogized in the Sanskrit verse of the poet from the chera country, samudrabandha, and in Tamil/maNipravAla verse in inscriptions from Kanchi, Thiruvadi and Shrirangam. These two, along with the version of the same story rendered in poetry by the south Indian jaina samayasundara, all have vajranAbha as the name of the asura suggesting that they are unlikely to have derived from the northern versions mentioning indradamana as his name.What paramArtha’s Chinese version suggests is that a version of the narrative with indradamana was already extant in the Northern sthalapurANa literature by the 500s of CE. He appears to have merged it with the jarAsandha mytheme in which jarAsandha had to torn asunder sagittally and his two half thrown in opposite directions. He incorporates it in order to slightly downgrade the Astika deity viShNu by needing help of prabhAvatI, the asurI to win the battle against the asura.

He also tries to simplify the the avatAra side of the story by removing pradyumna and only vaguely alluding to kR^iShNa and retaining viShNu for most of the narrative.In conclusion, these prabhavatI narratives should be seen as a mirror image of the mAyAvatI narratives. In those pradyumna marries the asura shambara’s wife mAyAvatI after killing him. There mAyAvatI helps pradyumna by providing him with mAyA tactics with which he could counter those of shaMbara. It is quite possible that this mytheme also inspired the nAstika paramArtha to incorporate a corresponding element of help from prabhAvatI into his narrative. The role of mAyAvatI and prabhAvatI, identified with ratI, and the appropriation of shaMbara’s killing (from indra) for pradyumna are aspects of early sAttvata pAncharAtra mythology that need more careful consideration. It was many many moons ago.

We were seated upon the wall near the viShTa-parvata when the kR^iShNa-shUdra materialized in front of us. He was looking agitated. Just a few days before the English teacher had asked the class to write an essay on which political party would be best for the republic of India. KS had told us as to how he had filled a whole page with his rudimentary English in support of the Kangress party.

Even before the essay exercise, he had told us how he was excited by the full-page advertisements that had been sponsored by the Kangress party in the local news paper. In particular, he was impressed by one ad, which he showed me with some animation: It depicted scorpions and may be snakes and a broken figure of a doll and had words like communalism, separatism and disorder printed above them.

Behind all of this was the hand symbol (the hastANka) subliminally signaling an image of protective assurance. KS told us that, in particular, he has discussed the significance of this advertisement in his essay. He stated how, from the civics textbook we had long left behind us, he added the lines regarding the sovereign, secular republic of India and how the Kangress party was the best option for maintaining it.

We had then asked kR^iShNa-shUdra what he felt was communalism? He promptly described it as being rioting by the Meccan ruffians. Just then the proud brAhmaNa, dvipakSha-kesha chimed in regarding an experience he had during the recent vinAyaka festival when the beards had fallen upon their procession and he was struck by a large stick. KS quipped that he should be happy that it was just a stick and not a sword which had struck him. We were a little puzzled by KS’s vision of things. The arrogant dvipakSha-kesha left, but before parting he advised Blackie to see a certain documentary that was being aired for a nominal price in the college auditorium by the BJP youth wing.It was after seeing this that KS had emerged in an agitated state before us.

We queried him regarding his great agitation and he proceeded to narrate what he had seen. He had seen graphic images of Hindus being slain and dispossed by the marUnmatta-s in Kashmir.

In the same documentary he had also seen some material regarding stealth ghazis from TSB. It had struck him like blow from hanumat’s fist that the Kangress party which he had much admired was at the center of these happenings, and not exactly in the way he thought it to be. KS asked: “Could it be true that the party which had brought us to freedom from the the English has been neglecting the nation, aiding and abetting our millennial foes?

If true everybody needs to know this. At least they need to discuss whether this is true.” We told KS that we completely stood by him but wondered if the others might. Indeed, KS had his doubts if what he had seen was true.

The documentary was claiming that BDs had been imported to give votes for the Kangress, but then could the “party that led us to freedom” really commit such a crime. Then there were sphichChiras, aja-dADhika and lambashiras who were telling KS to get away from all this politics, which could only ruinous to his “abhyAsa”. They asked him if it really mattered him if something was happening in kashmIra, prAgjyotiSha or ayodhyA, especially when he was an year away from what they thought was the biggest event in life. PaDo yAr, ye sab bAt choDo, nahi to DakTar yA injinyar kaisa banega?”.Indeed, KS applied himself aggressively to the curriculum, all the while reinforcing himself with the quip: “kuch bhI hone do; AkAsh bhi sar par paDne do; jarUr DAkTrI karnA chAhi.e”.

In this quest of his life’s goal he was taking special tuitions from the crack of dawn. He had made it his habit to swing by our place after his morning lessons to discuss his latest conquests in the curriculum. One evening in the year of vibhava, in the second turning of the hexadecal cycle in our lives, we had gone out of our compound to the end of the street to meet Mis-creant.

Shortly, there after palitANga materialized from nowhere, perhaps because Mis-creant attracted guys like flies to a syrupy spill (OK I did not say that:-)) creating a moment of silence. Two streets beyond was a small rAkShasAlaya topped with the shashidhvaja. The still evening air was pierced by the wail of the marUnmatta crier proclaiming ekarAkShasatvaM and the primacy of the Adyunmatta. It was much louder than usual.

From our vantage point we faintly heard a response of AoA’s and suddenly the crier suddenly took off delivering a fiery sermon in the turuShka-vAk. PalitANga who was familiar with the turuShka-vAk caught a few words which he translated for us – including: “the marUnmAda is in danger from the infidels”. Mis-creant added that she had passed that rAkShasAlaya as a kid was terrified by the sight of an aja being slaughtered and added that she felt a sense of terror.

“Is this not open incitement” she asked? To that palitANga replied how many people in this locality other than the marUnmatta-s understand the chaste turuShka-vAk (perhaps in those days apparently Bollywood was not yet so drastically turuShikized)? Confidently, palitANga dismissed Mis-creant’s concerns saying that the marUnmatta-s were all talk and could really do nothing.

On that somber note we retired to our respective abodes.The next morning KS appeared extraordinarily agitated – words were difficult to come. He said that one his way back from his tuition he had witnessed an outrageous sight and there was definitely potential for great trouble. There was a vinAyaka devAlaya, not far from our regions, which we used to occasionally visit.

KS told us that a freshly severed bleeding bovine head had been deposited in the maNDapa of the said devAlaya and that the SS party activists had gathered there shouting that they would retaliate. Just then ajagarAsya, hrasvaroman, sphichChiras, AmrAnana and braindeya appeared. They all looked worried. SphichChiras broke the silence by stating that he was worried that this political “chaos” might prevent him from attending his afternoon physics tuition, thereby setting him back by a precious day or more in his conquest of the curriculum.

Thereafter, ajagarAsya said that this SS party was only out to cause trouble – why could they not just remove the bovine head, clean up the temple, and move on with life rather than threatening to bring the sky down? Most of the rest seemed to murmur in assent. But KS and braindeya remained silent with conflicted miens. After a moment of silence braindeya spoke as though some deep feeling within him had just erupted: “It is not the SS party which is the issue here, and nor is it the issue of our classes being disrupted, but the marumoha spitting at our faces”.

This is marumoha and its rascally founder have nothing but evil to offer” said KS in apparent agreement. Just then AmrAnana stepped forth and blasted them: “How could you blame an entire community or religion. My own parents while born Hindu greatly respect dargahs and prayed for my birth at a Saracenic structure.

You are the ones encouraging communalism”. The rest of the crowd was sort of sporting a glazed look on their eyes and were murmuring in discomfort. This catalyzed the break up of the group and everyone went their own way. The expected riots did not pan out and the still was restored the next day. But AmrAnana came up to KS and us with a newspaper article – it stated that the temple desecration was possibly a “political act” by “activists” in order to bias the results in nearing elections against an incumbent Kangress politician. He then stated: “Did I not tell you so.

It is all a political game and probably the cow-head incident was done by the SS activists themselves to gain in the elections against the Kangress. You have to always seek a political explanation before a communal one.” While KS and AmrAnana argued for a while, we merely smiled and remained quiet. After AmrAnana had departed we told KS that fellow was beyond repair and probably might get the message only when he is being slashed by a ghazi. But KS was livid, he said: “this fellow does not know anything and he accuses us of communalism. Today, I have obtained reliable intelligence that the Kangress was distributing free gifts in the marUnmatta locality and they had organized a slogan-shout-out in return for the politician from that party.

Today, I know that this Kangress is not the party that lead us to freedom but one that might take us back to the times before the Chatrapati! Could it after all be that even Gandhi and Nehru were like this? After all my mother had said that the old Nathuram was a patriot too.”. Search for:. Archives Archives.A freshwater fish that lives very long:I think the ancestral vertebrate was also longlived.I attended an excellent talk by the great paNDita Ramasubrahmanian from IIT-Mumbai. He gave a nice prahelika by the.A talk on late H scientist nityAnanda's trigonometry:.I had started writing an article on this but it ended there. Indeed this section needs further exposition as an imp.The phylogeny of arachids and chelicerates:.

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Standard Catalog of World Coinsby George S. Cuhaj(Krause Publications)ObverseCrescent with diamond above and two curved lines and ten pellets below (some off flan). The curved lines and pellets are a depiction of 'Vishnupaadam' (feet of Lord Vishnu, a God in Hinduism). Reverse12 pellets (some off flan) above a crescent representing the Rasi or the 12 signs of the zodiac.

Flowers/sprays below. Travancore was a major center of Black pepper exports from India and there are opinions that the flowers/sprays represent pepper vines.