I visited the Chichen Itza in Mexico earlier this week, the temples and its construction was absolutely brilliant, felt for sometime that I was standing in sarabeswarar temple at Tanjore instead of Chichen.
The construction and the rise of their rule (mayan) was in 600 AD to 1200 AD, which is pretty much the same time of our rise of II gen Chozas.
Though not highly developed in literature and art, their carvings and construction is simply superb. Instead of a king, they were ruled by a high priest called Kukulcan and here is the deal...he was seated on a throne of Jaguar (their prime symbol is the Jaguar).
Their acoustics in temples was brilliant.
Their religious grouping was based on simple principles, our guide was a mexican christian who felt it was ridiculous that the Mayan thought Rain was God and Sun was God etc...
The evident truth was, not much literature of Mayan, a religion without a spiritual base and not much technical superiority compared to Chola dynasty, however, their construction was similar to our architecture. No one knows the answer to how the construction was done, but they do have explanation on WHY the construction was done. Mayan - the name is however very indian and itza was the community of Mayans who built the temple, it means Magician in ancient mayan language. End of day, all very mysterious and I was wondering with the naval strengths of our guys, mexico is not far away from South asia via Japan.
Anyway, it was an interesting visit and I thought some of our friends here may have some insight to a comparison to the civilization.
Another point I forgot to mention was the sculpture on the walls. There is a certain game, of pushing a ball through a hoop (symbolic of the cycle of the sun), if the team (comprising of the strongest of army men) cannot do so, their lead is beheaded. This is according to the guide / western archeologists.
Here is the deal, a few weeks ago, we had discussed about some sculptures of kumbakonam where arms were chopped off etc, now these mayan carvings were exactly similar.
People looking at the person whose head was cut were in a mode of praying and respect and the person whose head was cut had 7 streams of blood gushing out (potraying 7 layers of worlds above earth - something I co-related to be 7 astral planes) and 5 streams of blood flowing from the cut head (held by the high priest) fertilizing the soil and answering to the 5 worlds below earth. It was an interesting sculpture, when i started to correlate about our own carvings. How we view it differently than considering the act as barbaric.
There are more to the Mayan's, for ex: Sun God is the God of Energy, Moon is for fertility, Eagle for sight - dhoora dristi, Jaguar as a God of Power etc. Pretty much similar to Surya, Chandra, Garuda etc.
Personally, I believe some mayan's moved down to more lands and mixed with Inca tribe to build maachu pichu (my next travelogue in summer, hopefully :-) ).
My respect for the mayans is that they lived with Nature and believed Nature as the prime God. The first thing the spaniard christian crusaders did was to attack and burn down their temples and whatever little literature they have with it.
Here is a curious note: A segment of native mayans who live, even today, in central mexico, believe the cycle of earth is to complete in 2012 and the world order is to change then. For some reason, I have a feeling they may be right to some extent, considering the global challenges we have.
heard this from a friend, maybe you know of this kind of ettiquette for travel in peru.....be careful with the word chola/cholo or cholita, meaning indÃgena. This may be used affectionately among indigenous people (it'a very common appellation for a child, for instance) but is offensive coming from an outsider.
Its really very interesting. Some of the points i would like to note are:
1. Prior to islam and christianity, almost all people of this planet were nature worshippers. Europe was full of tribes, with indigneous culture, worshipping nature. Today, there are around 20 million paganist & pantheist in europe, who are in search of their ancient roots through various literatures (particularly german literature), and trying to rebuild their culture. One such is the fire worship that one of the german tribes are following.
2. I remember reading one of the sankarachariyar, saying, California was nothing but "Kalaprayan" (i dont know the real name).. ie, in our ancient purana, one of the boar (or pig) dig the earth and reached out of the other end. and if see the geographical position, california was exactly the other end of india.
3. 2012 was going to be most important year for the whole world. In Hindu prophetism, it was accorded as the year of destruction and havoc. Similarly, many of astrologers predicted, america is going to perish, if headed by a woman.. and now hilary is certain to be elected in 2008, can there be any relation b/w events. Personally, i believe, nothing happens isolated in this world... rather every event is a chain to some previous events. In that angle, considering all these, 2012 is going to be auspicious.
Also, its told that Hinduism will resurge, showing light to the whole world. With emergence of Modi, and resurgence of saffron wave, it seems to come true.
My prediction is that there will be heavy fight b/w muslims & Christians, and western nations will attempt to destroy the muslim world. India may not join them, and may rather protect our muslim people from such world wide backslash. Having the centre of islam destructed, our muslim people will gradually merge with the mainstream thus closing the cycle of history and embracing their common ancestry with Hindus. (today, many of the muslims are well aware of the brahmin roots, and personally & secretly preserving it. The same with case of malaysian and indonesian leaders, secretly preserving their pre-islamic traditions)
Dear Madan I think his dialogue needs to be reversed with the base consideration ...if and only if... Hillary revisits her home prior to a decade. Lets revisit this conversation in that extreme event . Boar digging is a metaphor, it must have meant the underworld / base of universe. Adiyum mudiyum ariya thathuvam should not be compared to CA vs TN debate. The Almighty Sri Bhuvaraha murthy lifting earth from under the ocean is also symbolic of lifting dharma over samsara saagaram as one theory.
> 1. Sankarachariyar's book where he quotes kalaprayan
Hi just a geographical question?
arent water and land usually positioned on either side of the globe. I have always heard that land on one side will have a sea on the other.
can some one check the longtitudes of california and india?
or let us know what is exactly on the other side of india? venketesh
> > 2. 2012 - where in hindu 'prophetism' is 2012 marked as the year of > destruction and death > > 3. Who and why is it predicted that a women ruling USA would bring havoc > > 4. On what basis are the statements 'muslims and christians will fight' and > 'christians will try to destroy the muslim world' based on? > > If not for myself, I would at least like Senthil to question himself on > these aspects - if he is really interested. > > Regards, > Madan. >
I just mailed based on various sources that i came across in the past. I dont claim all these to be valid or true, but since, the mail chain was some what related, i shared my views.
Regarding californiam, the actual sanskrit name quoted was kapilaranya.. I dont know if it is sankaracharya, but found this in one of his website. I am giving the following for reference.
They also mention adjacent lands like horse land, ash land, .. although there is no concrete proof, i just mentioned it, because of the some similarity to our ancient texts.
On Hindu Prophecy: Again, this is based on my past reading, which i dont remember exactly. A simple google search gave me these links.
On woman president and prediction of havoc, i have to admit that i dont have any proofs.. Somewhere, i heard, one of our film actor (who is good in astrology) saying that in some local newspaper..
On christians attempting to destroy muslims, again, there is no concrete proof.. However, circumstances prevailing now, shows they are at war even in the present time, although in a different mask..
Its a known secret that the vatican aspires to establish christendom throughout world and the same for muslims.. and both are at war now in iraq & afghanistan.. only time will say, how pakistan event will unfold..
So, when fundamentalists take over power in both america & Britain, there may be chances that they may attempt to do it.
So, as you said, these are all my good imaginations, my small attempt to predict how future would unfold.. :)
I do believe in Kaapila Aaranyam, but with a foot note of the boar theory as metaphor.
In hinduism, its very difficult to provide grounded proofs. Any googling out, we can find so many articles without grounded proofs' It is better to analyze and look at the 'ut karuthu' than going ahead to physically determine the structures. The globe must have definitely changed since the age of Kaapila. We all know that the lands were connected and lands shift causing Tsunami's etc. Gujarat was linked to africa etc... when we talk physical existance, there must be a grounded proof.
There are scholars debating at all times on the time line of Krsna avatar. Obviously, we all know that there is a huge debate on Rama- Sethu.
Hinduism is a mystery, I believe in many acharya's words, however, to understand God and the reality, there is a niche provided by Aadi Sankarar himself in Baja Govindam song where he says 'Dhukrinjh Karane' - unwind all that is logical. Dukrinjh Karane - stands as a difference between Western and Eastern philosophy.
I too have the same opinion, that whatever is stated should not be taken as it is..
My personal opinion is that such boar theory could have been evolved as a symbology to indicate the position of kapilaranya region.. (Its better to say scientifically that its 180 degree opposite to us)..
And such truths and interpretations can be realised only by discussion & positive interaction..
Some one commented my first mail as thrillers.. (it appeared to me the same when i read it two days later).. i would like to clarify, that its my imagination and certain level of predictions.. IT need not be true..
Hi, Talking of religions fighting it out, reminds me of how two big empires keeping fighting each other and spend all their energies and allow an entirely king or empire to show up. Eg: 1. 850AD Pallavas and Pandiyas fight it out - thirupurambiyam, out of it comes the new empire building by cholas. 2. 15-16th Vijayanagar and Bahmini kingdoms fight it out, result is that goa comes under permanent portugese territory. 3. Aurangazeb goes into fighting the flourishing maratha kingdom, results in Punjab sikh kingdom. 4. Aurangazeb goes fighting against the deccan sultanate, results in Shivaji's maratha empire building. 5. 1st BC/2nd AD Chola and Pandiyas keep fighting, results in Kalapirarars taking over tamilnadu. 6. Chola and Pandiya fight it out during Kulothunga 2's reign, resulting in Hoysala someshvara extending his kingdom all the way into samayapuram.
oops, the list is growing, someone else can add to this list.
So, if two big enemies fight it out, result is that next level players are going to get their chance to move up, in this case it could be buddhism and hinduism.
Wish you all a very happy new year 2008, and I am praying that this year brings in peace, health, prosperity and happiness to all.