last updated 26th April 2007

Kazakhstan Update (26th April 2007)
http://www.dandavats.com/?p=3311

By BB Govinda Swami

Here is an update regarding our situation with the Kazakh government:

There have been a total of seventeen hearings in court.

There are twenty seven homeowners who have had cases brought against them.

Fourteen homes have already been demolished.

At the moment seven homes are meant to be demolished as the cases were lost in Provincial Court.

Four cases regarding six houses are still to be heard in the Provincial Court.

The case regarding our major one hundred and sixteen (116) acre property was lost in Provincial Court. This case has been appealed to Supervisory Panel of Provincial Court.

The case regarding the consortium of the Hungarian Society for Krishna Consciousness and the Almaty Society for Krishna Consciousness, which is the rightful owner of the one hundred and sixteen (116) acre property, will be heard on May 8, 2007 in the Supreme Court.

The case regarding the agricultural society Priozyerye, which is the rightful administrative body of the housing area in which the Krishna devotees live was lost in Provincial Court and was appealed to Supervisory Panel of Provincial Court.

We cannot win court cases as the judiciary is simply a puppet in the hands of influential persons.

A demolition crew came to the farm, just days prior to the OSCE meeting in Vienna, with the purpose of destroying five (5) homes. These cases had been heard in the absence of the home owners or their advocates. The cases had not been appealed to the provincial court. Still the government was violating its own laws ordering the demolition.

At the last second before the demolition began a person drove up in a black BMW and told the demolition crew to disperse.

The cases started against the Krishna believers are selective discrimination. No cases have been started against any of the other citizens of the area who are in the same legal situation.

When in Vienna at the OSCE meeting I met with Bolat Baikadamov. He was the head of the Kazakh delegation. Ninel Fokina of the Almaty Helsinki Commission participated in our meeting.

Baikadamov emphatically stressed that he had been instructed by the Administration of the President of Kazakhstan to deliver a message to OSCE, foreign government delegations, and to myself that the Kazakh government saw the issue of the Krishna Society as an obstacle to their aspirations to attain OSCE chairmanship.

Thus he expressed the government’s desire to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

He said that the president’s administration viewed the issue as “bad governance” of the Karasai district authorities, the government land committee, and the state controlled religious committee.

He very much stressed that the issue is directly under the guidance of the president’s administration and would no longer be dealt with by the above mentioned bodies.

I specifically asked him if the religious committee would govern our issue as I have been speaking to them for years that discrimination was taking place. Baikadamov clearly answered, no, the issue would be settled by the president’s administration.

He returned to Kazakhstan and went into the media to announce a solution to the issue had been reached with me while he was in Vienna. He said that I had agreed to accept one half (1/2) acre of land in the vicinity of Almaty city, that the government may consider land for our herd of cows, and that the government may consider compensation for the homes destroyed.

Our advisors in Kazakhstan have opined that this media blitz was conducted due to the arrival in Kazakhstan of the OSCE Chairman in Office Miguel Angelo Moratinos.

Our society sent a letter to the president’s administration and to the OSCE advisory committee requesting OSCE to participate as observers in the course of negotiations with the Kazakh Government on our issue.

As we heard no reply from the president’s administration my secretary spoke to Baikadamov on Friday April 20, 2007.

In the course of the conversation Baikadamov stated that our issue is not under the President’s administration, that it was never under the president’s administration, and that it will not be under the president’s administration. He said that the issue remains under the state religion committee under the guidance of Yeraly Tugzhanov.

His statement came as a total “about face.” When we informed Ninel Fokina of his statements she was dismayed as she had participated in the conversation.

Yeraly Tugzhanov has done nothing on our issue over the last month. He told us that he had liaised with the Almaty city administration and instructed us to apply for land in Almaty city to establish a temple. When we did so the Almaty city administration appeared to know nothing of the situation. Even today, the chairman of the religion committee in Almaty city told us that Tugzhanov has not given him any instruction from the capital.

Thus it appears that the Kazakh government is again playing the game of dragging out time, doing nothing, but sending signals to the world that the issue is being dealt with in order to secure its OSCE bid. In reality, nothing has been done.

Regarding freedom of assembly:

In March, in Tekeli city, Almaty Province, fourteen Krishna believers gathered in a person’s residence for a religious observance. Their meeting was disrupted by the police who accused them of conducting an illegal assembly. The police had a bus waiting, took all of the participants of the program, took their identification documents, and detained them at the police station for some hours. They were verbally abused for being Hindu followers and were pressurized to reveal the names of other Krishna believers in the Tekeli area. Only after some hours were they released by the police.

My humble request and prayer is that all of you will continue to pray for the devotees in Kazakhstan.

Please continue to contact officials in your respective foreign ministries that they would continue to bring the issue to the attention of their counterparts in Kazakhstan.

We may be pushed from our homes and property very soon. We will need to relocate around 45 devotees, 30 cows, and a wonderful pujari department.

For relocation we will require financial assistance from our well wishers around the world. We are humbly requesting everyone to help with this effort, even if a contribution of one cent, it will assist in the effort.

I hope that all of you are well, happy, and advancing in Krishna Consciousness.

With affectionate regards,

BB Govinda Swami

Visit www.kazakhkrishna.com to see the tragedy of the Krishna community in Kazakhstan.

On March 27, 2007, at around 5 p.m. in Tekeli city, Almaty province, officers of the local Hakimat and policemen interrupted a religious meeting of the followers of the Society for Krishna Consciousness. 14 members of the Society were arrested and taken to the Tekeli migration police office.

On March 27 the faithful gathered at a private apartment of one of the followers of the Society for Krishna Consciousness to celebrate a religious festival. At around 5 p.m. their celebration was suddenly interrupted by the chief of the local Hakimat’s department of domestic policy and two policemen who came and said that the meeting was illegal. They asked the assembled for documents and then put everyone in a reserved bus and took them to the local migration police office.

The faithful were told that their meeting was illegal because the Society for Krishna Consciousness is not registered in Tekeli, therefore they had no right to hold meetings. Then the officers demanded information of the other members of the Society who were not present at the meeting.

The faithful spent about two hours in the police office. The policemen treated them with rude words and threats, and then, having recorded their personal information, returned their documents and let them go.

It was not the first time that the local administration demanded a membership list from the leaders of the Tekeli community of the Society for Krishna Consciousness. Having violated the constitutional rights of the faithful, section 12 of the Law of Religious Freedom and Religious Associations in RK (wherein it is stated that worship, religious ceremonies and rites may be performed unobstructedly in private houses and apartments), and section 21 (on freedom of assembly) of the International Pact of Civil and Political Rights which was ratified by Kazakhstan, the local authorities interrupted the religious meeting and, using their official position, recorded the information of the Society followers.

The Society for Krishna Consciousness in Tekeli city applied for registration as far back as February of 2006. However the registration has not been given as yet. There is a verbal instruction not to give registration to the second largest Hare Krishna community in Almaty province until the litigation against the Society for Krishna Consciousness in the Karasai district is finished.

Read HERE how the original issue began in Kazakstan

Read HERE what the previous articles from November 2006 were

Written by HH Bhakti Purusottama Swami

Dear Maharaj/ Prabujis/ Matajis,

It is my great pleasure to inform all the devotees of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that a great service opportunity has been offered by the temple authorities of Gambhira, in Puri dham, where Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spent the final years of His manifested pastimes on this earthly planet. Kasi Mishra's house, also known as Gambhira, and the Radha Kanta math, were both under the care of the Orissa government due to 20 years of litigation. Finally, this litigation problem has been resolved and the management of the institution has been returned to the temple mahanta.

The temple has sustained much damage over the years due to lack of proper maintenance. The whole place is very dirty and the roofs and walls are falling down. The temple roof is also cracking. Additionally, the temple has a lack of proper income for the maintenance of the devotees and for deity puja—and, of course, the more the Gambhira is allowed to deteriorate, the fewer visitors it will have.

At this crucial point, the mahanta of Gambhira has requested ISKCON to extend kind assistence to him in order to protect and maintain this most holy place. Devotees from all over the world come to offer their prayers and obeisances at Gambhira. This is one of the most important places for the followers of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and must be maintained nicely.

Thus, this is a golden opportunity for devotees to render service to this most sacred cause. I request all devotees to kindly donate towards this purpose. There are many things to be fixed at the place. For the time being we have prepared a rough budget, for whatever the most urgent needs are, just to bring the situation up to  survival position. Later on, we will let you know about further opportunities for service in the development of the Gambhira.

For further information contact

Bhakti Purusottama Swami

Phone: ++ 91 9434506434

E mail: bps@pamho.net

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=fgautier26

This video is mostly in Hindi, well worth watching

Compared to the other metros, the last one year has seen a remarkable growth of the spiritual phenomenon in Kolkata.

And if one goes by the figures alone, the city elders and the youth have got hooked to the meditation sessions being conducted free of cost by the International Society for Krishna Conciousness (ISKCON) in various parts of the city.

At present, the ISKCON is conducting meditation sessions in more than 64 centres located in various parts of the city like Behala, Lake Town, Dum Dum, Howrah, Salt Lake, Jadavpur, Minto Park, etc. And the ISKCON authorities said that by the end of this year the number of meditation centres would be increased to 100.

In 2004, there were 16 meditation centres, in 2005 it was 32 and by the end of 2006, there were 64 meditation centres centres in the city.

Called the Mahamantra (Hare Krishna) meditation, each class has 15 to 20 participants and one teacher-monk from the ISKCON. Every week, the ISKCON conducts aruond 70 classes. The participants meditate for 15 minutes in the meditation class and then they are asked to meditate daily for 30 minutes.

“This is an unique form of meditation which has been taken from Dhyana Yoga of the Bhagwata Gita. People meditate on the transcendental sound vibratation of Hare Krishna. In this city, it is the middle class comprising professionals and businessmen who are taking this meditation class,” said Ashreya Gouranga Das of ISKCON.

A special meditation session is conducted in the ISKCON headquarters in the city at Minto Park. Here, every Sunday, between 10 am to 5 pm, 100 disciples meditate on Mahamantra. Most of the discipiles after completing their meditation session have lunch (prasadam of the Hare Krishna deity) there before returning home.

“With time, people of all age and profession are realising that meditation helps them to get mental peace and directs them on the right path in their search for the supreme truth. This form of meditation is a huge craze at Mumbai and Delhi, but Kolkata is also catching up fast,” said ISKCON senior monk Varada Krisna Dasa.

Apart from holding meditation sessions for the city people, ISKCON is also taking meditation classes for the students of IIM-Joka, IIT (Kharagpur), Institute of Advanced Management and medical colleges of the city. Conducted by the International Youth Forum of the ISKCON, these classes vary from one day to six months.

ISKCON has set up a medtation centre near IIT (Kharagpur) where more than 50 students before going to their classes, engage in meditation for 2 hrs in the morning. In IIM (Joka), around 20 students at a time take the meditation class of the ISKCON.

In these meditation classes, the students are taught the “Art of Man Control”, “Stress Management”, “Self Discovery” and “Personality Development”. The ISKCON believes, since the students are engaged in tough competitive studies and jobs, the meditation helps them to relax. The meditation helps them to develop higher intellect and spirituality.

“Material life at one point of time leads to frustration. But meditation helps in the growth of the mind and the body, and provides the much-needed tonic required for relaxation. Meditation also increases concentration power, develop focussed approach towards studies and helps to give up mad habits like drug addiction,” said the ISKCON monk Anaga Mohan Das.

Gwalior family donates some rare 17th century works

Express News Service

Vadodara, March 8: WITH voluntary donations of rare manuscripts and books coming its way, the vast treasure of rare handwritten scripts at the Oriental Institute of MSU is growing richer. Recently, the Gwalior-based Kelkar family donated around 150 manuscripts to the institute, which are believed to be 250 years old. Earlier, a family from Wai, Satara in Maharashtra had given some given rare manuscripts to the institute, and there have also been such donations from families and individuals across Gujarat.   The manuscripts brought from Gwalior include a copy of the Rig Veda with a distinct Vedic accent, Ganesh Gita, Padma Purana, Sanskrit grammar, Vratkatha-Mahatmya, Amarkosh, Ramayan, Vedas, Upanishads, Straut Sutra, Gruhya Sutra and Dharmshashtra. Some of these handwritten manuscripts are also in colour.
                 According to Oriental Institute researchers, a few manuscripts were written in the Modi script of Marathi, which was used for preparing confidential reports, especially by kingdoms in Central India. In this case, the institute may require experts who can read this very traditional style of writing. Few manuscripts date back to the 17th century.   Institute director M L Wadekar said, "We aim to collect all such rare documents which are scattered across the country and need preservation." He said that for an individual, such manuscripts were not of much use and would be very difficult to preserve. He added, "If such donations do not come to us, there are chances that we may lose age-old knowledge scripted by scholars."   The manuscripts belonged to late Prof Chintamani Kelkar, a Sanskrit scholar at the Madhav College of Gwalior. He was also the brother of Prof Ramesh Kelkar of the Faculty of Technology and Engineering at MSU. Research officers at the Oriental
 Institute, Sweta Prajapati and Usha Brahmchari, had gone to Gwalior and sorted out these manuscripts from a large collection of papers and books maintained by Sharda Kelkar, Prof Chintamani's widow.   Researchers at the institute said that with such materials landing up at their doorstep, they had a good opportunity to undertake a comparative study of the contents and other details contained in the manuscripts found from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and other regions of India.   According to Wadekar, the Gwalior manuscripts would now be classified and categorically arranged to enable people to study them.   Incidentally, a delay of almost two months on the part of the varsity to give a go-ahead to the institute to get the manuscripts proved to be costly, as the Kelkar family already donated some rare books to a nearby library.   In the last year itself, the institute received around 300 manuscripts from different people, including manuscripts on Veda, Karmakanda and
 Dharmashashtra from Vedic scholar Pandit Vaman Joglekar. The institute now has a collection of 30,000 manuscripts on different and diversified topics like Vedas, Sanskrit, Grammar, Dharmashashtra, mathematics, architecture, arts, music, dance and others covering almost all fields of knowledge.  http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=225710

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17985948/  (Read the full article here)

Karma Tycoon has appeal for kids not into ‘killing people or racing cars’

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, April 12, 2007: A New York-based nonprofit is hoping to strike a philanthropic spark with Karma Tycoon, a new online game that aims to entertain teens while also giving them an appreciation for the business side of charitable works. The game is the creation of DoSomething.org, a not-for-profit that aims to inspire younger generations to embrace volunteerism, which worked with the JP Morgan Chase Foundation to develop it and get it to market. The idea behind Karma Tycoon was to put a twist on popular video and computer games in which players try to maximize profit in order to amass wealth. "Why not create a game that maximizes karma in order to make the world a better place?" Aria Finger, who is in charge of building corporate partnerships for Do Something, recalls of the brainstorming that led to the game. Teenager Nikki Mayer, an avid player, says that there is keen demand for entertainment with an optimistic message. "Not all teenagers are really interested in killing people or racing cars," she says.

Karma Tycoon, which was officially launched with the ringing of the bell at the NSDAQ stock exchange on Dec. 21, empowers teens to get involved in philanthropic endeavors by giving them freedom to choose how they want to contribute, said Finger. Players who register at the site can pick the type of nonprofit they would like to administer, such as an animal shelter or a homeless shelter, and establish their virtual organization in one of 12 major U.S. cities. Kimberly Davis, president of the JP Morgan Chase Foundation, says that in addition to generating interest in charitable deeds, the game helps players become money-wise. "The game sort of sneaks up on you, and I think that's the way it has to become intuitive for kids," she says. "They don't realize that by playing this game that they are doing math and setting up budgets."

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/print/106568.htm

KAULA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, April 7, 2007: Islamic authorities took away the baby of a Muslim woman who is living as a Hindu in defiance of the law in the latest case of religious conflict straining ties in multiethnic Malaysia, officials said Friday. Revathi Masoosai's 15-month-old daughter was taken by the Islamic Religious Department in southern Malacca state on March 26 and handed to Revathi's Muslim mother, said department enforcement officer Mohamad Imran Ahmad. "The baby's grandmother has custody of her for now," Mohamad Imran told The Associated Press. Revathi, an ethnic Indian, is being held in a rehabilitation center run by Islamic authorities for her religious transgression. The baby was with Revathi's husband when she was seized. He has filed a police complaint, but it was not clear if he plans to take the case to court. Meanwhile, the baby will stay with her grandmother. "When the baby's mother is released, she can try to regain custody if she wants to," said Mohamad Imran without elaborating.

The case, which was made public by the opposition Democratic Action Party on Thursday, highlights an increasing number of spats affecting the religious and family rights of the ethnic Indian and Chinese minorities. Indians, who form about 8 percent of Malaysia's 26 million people, are mostly Hindus while some are Christians, Muslims and Sikhs. Activists say a string of recent disputes have ended in favor of Muslims -- who comprise nearly 60 percent of the population -- and strained ethnic relations in this multicultural nation, which has enjoyed racial peace for nearly four decades. Revathi, 29, was born to Indian Muslim parents who gave her a Muslim name, Siti Fatimah. However, Revathi claims she was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother and changed her name in 2001, said Chong Eng, an opposition member of Parliament. Revathi married Suresh Veerappan in 2004 according to Hindu rites. The marriage has not been legally registered because Suresh would have had to convert to Islam first.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

Fri, April 13, 2007 - By JOHN MINER, SUN MEDIA

London (Ontario) researchers have found the first scientific basis for folklore that a positive outlook can help to fight disease.

"There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence that well being and health of your immune system may be related. Nobody had any idea of how that worked," Dr. Peta O'Connell, a Robarts Research Institute scientist, said yesterday.

O'Connell worked on the research with Dr. Matilde Leon-Ponte, also from Robarts.

The discovery came while looking at serotonin, a chemical compound that regulates the feeling of well-being.

Drugs designed to treat depression, anti-depressants including Paxil and Prozac, work by manipulating serotonin.

The Robarts scientists have found T-cells -- the powerful immune cells that hunt down and destroy diseases, such as viruses and bacteria -- produce serotonin.

The scientists also found serotonin is responsible for the T-cells' immune response.

"T-cells are key to our immune system. They are the cells we need to fight cancer. They are the cells that are destroyed with HIV, making people susceptible to disease," O'Connell said.

The results of the study, now available online, are to be published in the April 15 issue of the journal Blood.

Earlier research has found tumours produce an enzyme that destroys the building blocks in the body needed for the production of serotonin.

"This may be a mechanism through which tumours are able to evade an immune response. Perhaps the T-cells are not able to become activated fully," O'Connell said.

A next step for researchers is to look at what happens when serotonin production is either high or low in individuals and its relation to immune-triggered disorders such as chronic asthma, eczema and inflammatory bowel disease.

Sooooooooooooooo having said that, you can go for a quick injection of immune humour at the following LINK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/6522909.stm

BERKSHIRE, UK, April 5, 2007: Patients at a Berkshire hospital are to be offered pastoral care from a new Hindu chaplaincy. Reading Hindu Temple has commissioned 11 chaplaincy volunteers to provide spiritual guidance for Hindu patients at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. The volunteers received training over the past year at the temple and under the guidance of officials from the hospital's chaplaincy service. A public ceremony was due to be held at the temple on Tuesday evening.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

Hindu scholars have always claimed that in remotest times, their ancestors visited every part of the globe, mapping it accurately, and mining gold and copper in such places as Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, England, Ireland, Peru, and Bolivia. Known to us as "Indo-Europeans," they lost their grip on the world in about 1500 BC., retreating to what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Northern India. However, they continued to visit the Americas in their large teakwood ships, many of them 250 feet long and five- to six-masted, until about 1200 A.D. After that, the sectarian fanaticism and territorialism of their religious leaders, rebellions among their conquered subjects, constant internecine rivalries, and troubles with Moslem invaders forced them into isolation.

No Westerner naively accepts India's claims of having once dominated the world. Right? Well, some of us do.

In an essay entitled On Egypt from the Ancient Book of the Hindus (Asiatic Researchers Vol. III, 1792), British Lt. Colonel Francis Wilford gave abundant evidence proving that ancient Indians colonized and settled in Egypt. The British explorer John Hanning Speke, who in 1862 discovered the source of the Nile in Lake Victoria, acknowledged that the Egyptians themselves didn't have the slightest knowledge of where the Nile's source was. However, Lt. Colonel Wilford's description of the Hindu's intimate acquaintance with ancient Egypt led Speke to Ripon Falls, at the edge of Lake Victoria.

The Hindus also claim that the gospel of their deity Shiva was once the religion of the world and the progenitor of all religions coming after it.

"Isvar was the only god in India, the whole of Asia, the southern parts of Russia, Mediterranean countries, Egypt, Greece, the whole of Europe, the human inhabited places of both Americas…and also in England and Ireland. In all these lands, Isvar was the religion with slight variations in the pronunciation of the word Isvar….the Isvar religion is the mother of all religions in the world, including Christianity and Islam."
(Remedy the Frauds in Hinduism, by Kuttikhat Purushothama Chon; p. 36.)

While the languages our forefathers spoke thousands of years ago would be completely unrecognizable to us now, the names of their deities (those that survived to this modern age) may be immediately recognizable to their respective modern adherents, such as the Christians, Jews, Moslems, Jains, Buddhists, and Hindus. Names of deities tend not to change.

Isvar was and is especially visible (to discerning eyes) in our own Southwest as well as in Northern and Central Mexico. Some tribes even worshiped God Shiva's wives and consorts. Spanish priest, Andres Perez de Ribas wrote in his book, My Life Among the Savage Nations of New Spain, that a Northern Mexican tribe worshiped two deities: Viriseva and a mother goddess named Vairubai. Viriseva means "Lord Siva" in Sanskrit. Vairubai has to be (a mispronouncing of) Bhairava, another name of Siva's consort, Goddess Durga.

A few Hindu scholars insist that not all their gods and religious traditions are natives of the Indian subcontinent. When the ancient Nagas retreated to India, they also took back the deities and religious traditions they had acquired abroad, incorporating them into "Hinduism," a term meaning "The Indus Valley Way of Life."

Historian Chon states:

"There are strong indications in our ancient texts that the places and events described in them are lying outside the geographical limits of India But when we talk of geographical limits, …are they the national boundaries of post-independent India? Or are they the boundaries of India, the ancient?"
(Remedy the Frauds in Hinduism; p.30.)

I'm especially impressed with the traditions of the Pimas (Akimel O'Odham) and Papagos (Tohono O'Odham) of Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico. Although I could write a lengthy article about Isvarist (worship of the Hindu deity, Shiva) practices in practically every Southwestern United States, Mexican, Central and South American Indian tribe, even India-Indian spiritual geography is reproduced abundantly in the O'Odham nation.

Though the pre-conquest era O'odhams were relatively primitive, the Spaniards admired them for their intelligence, industry, and high philosophy. Some Catholic missionary priests thought they were the progenitors of the Aztecs.

About 5,000 BC or earlier, a brilliant deified Phoenician Naga king and philosopher named Kuvera (also Kubera) learned how to smelt copper, gold, and other metals. These activities took place in the kingdom named after him, Khyber ("Kheeveri"), which consisted of a group of craggy mountains in what are now Southeastern Afghanistan and Northeastern Pakistan (i.e. the Khyber Pass). According to Hindu mythology, Kuvera and God Shiva lived in the totally barren, mineral-poor, goldless, frigid, lofty, bell-shaped or pyramidical peak of Kailasa in Western Tibet.

Edward Pococke stated in his book India in Greece,

The Khyber; its region is wealthy and abounds with rubies; gold is found in the mines in its vicinity, and it (the Kheeveri kingdom) was likewise the ruling power in those early days. (p.220.)

We derived our word "copper" from Kuvera's name. Eventually, the Nagas extended their influence over all of India. If you've intuited that Afghan Khyber (Kheever), Hebrew Heber (pronounced Kheever), Egyptian Khepri, Greek Khyphera, Cabeiri, Cypriotic Cip'ri (Kheep'ri), biblical Capernaum, Arabic Khabar, O'Odham Babo-Quivari (Kheeveri), Francisco de Coronado's search for the fabled Quivira (Kheevira), ad infinitum, are somehow linked, you've intuited correctly.

But why do the Hindus and Buddhists worship Kuvera and Shiva in a barren peak and not in the Khyber mountain range itself? I don't want to get "mystical," but the "reason" for this anomaly is the world's best-kept millennium's-old secret. Besides, it's not the focus of this article.

Kuh or Koh = "Hump; Mountain"
while Vera or Vira = "Hero; Lord."

The Nagas, also called Nakas and Nahu(a)s, were a highly civilized ruling, maritime and mercantile class who once inhabited what is now Afghanistan, Tibet, Pakistan, and Northwestern India. The Nag ("Self-Consuming Serpent") was one of their principal tribal emblems. The substance of Kuvera's teachings is that God, then called Dyau, Deo, Dyaus or Jyaus, put all the plants, animals, ores, and minerals on earth for Man's enjoyment. As long as Man protects the happiness and security of all humanity, he need not place any limits on his greed. Kuvera's teachings spread throughout the whole world.

"Originally, the Asuras or Nagas were not only a civilized people, but a maritime power, and in the Mahabharata, where the ocean is described as their habitation, an ancient legend is preserved of how Kadru, the mother of serpents, compelled Garuda (the Eagle or Hawk) to serve her sons by transporting them across the sea to a beautiful country in a distant land, which was inhabited by Nagas, The Asuras (Nagas) were expert navigators, possessed of very considerable naval resources, and had founded colonies upon distant coasts."
(The Encircled Serpent, by M. Oldfield, p. 47.)

"Asura" is the Indian equivalent of Assyria (really Asuriya and Asir) and the Persian Ahura of Zoroastrianism. It derives from the name of the ancient Hindu sun god Ashur. The Naga capital was called Oudh, Iodh, Yudh, and Ayodhya. Located near what is now Herat, Afghanistan, it is not to be confused with todays Oudh or Ayodhya in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The citizens of Oudh were called Oudh-am and Otia-Am. Am = "People" in Sanskrit.

In those days, only a few million people inhabited the earth. Most humans were cavemen and less. The Nagas didn't entrust their highly developed technologies to such aborigines. But they did teach them how to build simple thatch and adobe homes, and to raise vegetable and animal foods. They also taught them about the Creator of All Life, Dyaus or Jyaus. Even today the O'Odhams call it Jeoss or Josh. Joshi is one of God Shiva's many names. Some White Arizonians mistakenly insist that the O'Odhams derived this term from Dios (Spanish for "God"), Jesus, or Joshua.

The innocent Arizona aborigines believed these Nagas from Oudh, Afghanistan (part of India until the late 1700s) were gods. They even named themselves Oudham, which they pronounced as O'Odham or O'Ot'ham. An ancient Sanskrit word for "brotherhood; fraternity" is Ton; Tahun. The Papagos called themselves Tohono O'Odham, or "Oudh-am Fraternity." Tohono now means "Desert" in the O'Odham language. The Pimas settled along winding rivers, which seemed to look like writhing serpents. They named themselves Akimel O'Odham. "Akimel" derives from the Sanskrit Ahi-Mahal (Great Serpent). This name eventually came to mean "River."

The Nagas dug deep wells in the desert, siphoning water out of the ground with long, thick tubes. The exterior ends of these tubes were large and bulbous, and painted to look like human heads, in order to mystify the aborigines. The water spouted out from what looked like round, puckered human mouths. The heads had horns which were really handles for pulling tubes to different irrigation channels. As the flowing water caused these tubes to writhe and undulate like serpents, the primitive Arizonians thought they were real. In Kashmiri, Nag means "a snake, esp. a fabulous serpent-demon or semi-divine being, having the face of a man and the tail of a serpent, and said to inhabit Patala. In Kashmir, they are the deities of springs." (Grierson's Dictionary of the Kashmiri Language; p. 624, item 2.) The Kashmirians also called these siphons Nag-Beg (Snake-Lords). Patala was one of the ancient Indian names for "America." It's real meaning is "Underworld," but not an underground world. They used it as we often call Australia: "The Land Down Under."

The Arizonian O'Odhams similarly called the water siphon Nah-Big. According to both Kashmiri and O'Odham legends, the Nah-Big was harmless. However, if someone "killed" it, the spring dried up - and for good reason. Without a proper siphon, needed water could no longer spew out of the well. Several Southwestern Indian tribes worship exact replicas of the Kashmiri Nag-Beg (siphon) in special religious ceremonies. However, some of them call it by other names. Certain O'Odham and other Native-American clans in the Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora area also call this mythical serpent Corua (KoROOah, with the "R" trilled as in our English "City"). It derives from Sanskrit: Krura-Sarpavat (Violent-Serpent); Kadruja (Serpent Mother Kadru's equally serpent son).

Another O'Odham word for "snake," Vah-Mat, is nearly identical to the Kashmiri/Sanskrit Veh-Mar: "Poisonous-Snake." The O'Odham language contains an unusually high number of North Indian words.

When the Nagas arrived in Arizona, they found a huge stone peak in the desert, resembling Kuvera and Shiva's (I-Itsoi's) Kailasa in nearly every way except one. The Indian Kailasa, also in a desert, is nearly four times higher above sea level than the O'Odhams' holy peak. To honor their spritual progenitor, the Nagas named this Arizona peak Babu-Kheever ("Grandfather" or "Illustrious Indian Immigrant" Kuvera), adhering closely to the exact pronunciation of the mineral-rich Kheever (Khyber) mountain range of Afghanistan.

Baboquivari (Babo-kheeveri) has retained almost the same name after more than six millenniums. The O'odhams also call it Waw-Kiwulk, which sounds like "Vahv-Kivur". Just as the Hindus, Jains and Buddhists call Kailasa the navel of the world, so do the O'odhams give Baboquivari the same distinction.

Babo-Kheeveri and the Afghan Kheeveri mountains were supposedly filled with unlimited gold, copper, and precious stones. Even today, much of the gold mined in that part of Arizona keeps leaking endlessly out of the Babo-Kheeveri (Baboquivari) mountain range.

Jutting upward at more than 7,750 feet above sea level, Baboquivari can be seen on a clear day from as far away as 80 miles, even from the Mexican side of the border. Few natural wonders equal the majesty and beauty of this spectacular peak. In my opinion, it is a "must-see" for any lover of Nature's wonders. You will notice that the mountain enjoys the close association of lesser peaks, forming a large trident.

Being such a prominent landmark, Baboquivari keeps incoming undocumented Mexican aliens and drug smugglers from getting lost. That part of the desert also abounds in water-filled cacti to slake their thirst, including edible fauna and flora. Evidently, the INS knows about Baboquivari. On the day my wife and I visited the peak, we saw several of their vans in the area, waiting to pick up uninvited guests and transport them back to the border - or to prison.

When I told the O'Odhams that I had learned about the unlimited quantities of gold within Baboquivari from Hindu books written millenniums ago, one woman moaned hopelessly, "Now that this news is out, the White man will even rob us of our God." She wasn't too far afield. The government has always wanted to probe the interior of Baboquivari.
A Possible Historical Scenario
About 3,000 BC, a saintly Indian prince and high priest of the Kheeveri empire left Afghanistan for Arizona, to manage the mining operations at Baboquivari and govern the O'Odhams. In India, he is variously called Shiva, Siva, Shaveh, Suva, Su, Ish, Esh, Yesh, Isa, Itsa, Ishvara, Yishvara, Yeshva, Moshe, Mahesh, Mahisa, etc. The suffixes Va and Veh refer to someone who is vengeful and short of temper. Vara = "Blessings of." The prefixes Mo, Mu. and Mah means "Great." Ish, Esh, Yesh, Isa, etc., = "Material Universe" in both Sanskrit and Hebrew cabalism. From these Sanskrit elements we derived our term "Messiah," which in Sanskrit is Masiha, and Massee'akh in Hebrew. These terms were honorific titles of the highest ecclesiastical and leadership castes of that period in history. These supreme "Sivas," whether good, bad, or indifferent, were also regarded as earthly gods.

We may never know what this "Shiva's" real name was.

The Pimas call him Se-eh-ha; Siwa; Su-u (Elder Brother). The Papagos worship him as I'Itoi or I'Itsoi, which linguistically is nearly identical to "Isa."

Not yet united by a centralized government, the ancient Hindus weren't conscious of themselves as Indians - just as similar peoples separated by different tribes and kingdoms. All of them competed by fair and foul means for the resources of the world. Internecine rivalries tore them apart constantly.

During Shiva's Arizona reign, a powerful Indian emperor, Priyavarta, sent his armies to all the countries of the world, to unite all Indians and their colonial possessions as one nation. He appointed his sons as viceroys. One son, Sevana or Sewana, was sent to conquer and govern North America. Notice that he, too, was a "Siva." O'odham legends mention this Sewana whom they call Siwana. When I'Itoi or Se-eh-ha wouldn't submit to Priyavarta, he and Siwana met on the battle field. Ultimately, I'Itoi prevailed; Siwana was killed.

According to some Indian historians, later on, back in Southeast Asia, the volcano Krakatoa exploded violently, creating the China Sea. Our globe became extremely unsteady on its axis, causing rains, earthquakes, and floods to occur all over the world. The coastlands of Western India submerged by more than fifty feet and as many miles inland in some places. Even as you read this article, Indian archeologists are uncovering fabulous ruins lying just off the mainland, under the Arabian sea.

Dwarka, Indian deity Lord Krishna's capital city, is the focal point of these underwater digs. Dwarka may prove to be the greatest archeological dig in human history.

These floods forced millions of Indian refugees to flee to other parts of the world. When the Arizona desert flooded, the Pimas and Papagos took refuge on Baboquivari where I'Itoi or Se-eh-ha (Siva) helped them survive. After the waters had subsided, he helped the O'Odham re-establish themselves. Therefore, no matter to what religion they are converted, the O'Odham are always going to revere and respect I'Itoi.

Nearly all of today's O'Odham are Catholics. However, the Franciscan fathers tending to their spiritual needs allow them to set up the Swastika, I'Itoi or Isa's standard, on the altars of the Catholic churches there, even on the altar of San Xavier Mission church near Tucson.

There are other Shaivite reminders among the O'odhams. O'Odham Catholic churches usually face east as the Shaivite temples do in India. And, like the Hindus, they bury their dead in an east-west direction. They also revere the Shiva-Linga or Pillar of Energy, usually erected in front of and some distance away from their churches, placed on a tiered pyramid or pyramidical mound, exactly as in India. However, nowadays the Shivling is a Christian cross. In the book he wrote in 1644, Father Ribas acknowledged that the Northern Mexican Indians worshiped Shivlings.

"One of the padres, traveling along a trail near Guasave, observed an Indian suddenly depart into the woods. In curiosity they followed this Indian, presently coming upon him in the act of making reverence before a stone. This stone was about a vara (33 inches) in height, shaped in the form of a pyramid, and had some crude inscriptions carved upon it.

San Xavier Mission Church near Tuscon, Arizona.
"The Padre ordered this false idol destroyed. The Indian, horrified at the thought, declared that he dare not destroy it, for fear of death." (My Life Among the Savage Nations of New Spain; p. 34.)

During my visit at San Xavier mission, I also saw representations of the undulating serpent Nah-Big on the exterior of the church of San Xavier. And get this: The O'Odhams call their way of life Himday or Himdag! Hindi?

I was especially intrigued by the Pima name for "Medicine-Man:" Javet-Makai. Dyaus-Pitar or Jyapeti (Japhet) is really another title of Shiva. Makai may be derived from Maga (Priest-Magician). Javet-Makai = Jyapeti Maga?

DNA analysis may prove that today's O'Odhams are genetically related to the India-Indians. Arjuna, Krishna's companion in the Mahabharata Wars (fought on Northern India's Kuruksetra plains in about 3000 BC), was married to a Patalan (American) princess. Military forces from Patala, possibly even some O'Odham among them, fought in those famous wars.

How did I'Itoi's deification get exported to India? Because Isvar was once the religion of all mankind, It could have been a partial contributor to all worldwide myths about Siva, eventually becoming consolidated in the Indian subcontinent. I'Itoi earned "godhood" on his own merits. Also, as a Hindu supreme leader, he was deified anyway. After all, the O'Odham and the Hindus do share the same India-originated "Way of Life."

Hindu immigrants to this country often tell me that they see the Southwestern Native-Americans as long-lost brothers. They say that many Native-Americans tell them the same thing. If we use Sanskrit language resources, Hindu mythology, Shaivite practices and mutually identical holy names as measuring sticks, the kinship between Native-Americans and South Asians becomes easily verifiable, no matter what the "experts" say. Could there be a special political reason why "The Great White Father" doesn't want certain Native-Americans to know they're Himday?

Some tribes, such as the Huicholes in Central Mexico, even remember from what Indian seaport they left for America - Aramra in Gujarat. The Huicholes revere a part of the beach at the old Mexican seaport of San Blas, Nayarit, as Aramara, "Place of Origin of the Huicholes." Millenniums ago, Gujarat was called Jukhar. Juj-Kha is an O'Odham name for "Mexicans." The Navajos call them Nakaii (Nagas). The Apaches claim to be Inde (Indus People.) They worship Shiva as Yusn. In Sanskrit, Yishan = "Shiva." Apache = "Enemy" in O'Odham. In Sanskrit, Apachnan = "Destroyer." Another name of the Zunis ("Zoonyees") is Ashiwi (Azhuva?, "Way of the Serpent," in Sanskrit). Two of their principal deities are Shivani and Shiwanikoya. Zoonya (Zuni?) and Zeenya ware epithets of ancient Kashmir. According to Indian historian K. P. Chon, the Naga Azhuvas, perhaps the forefathers of the Zunis, were India's oldest ruling dynasty. He said that they ruled for more than a thousand years.

"The descendants of this dynasty are still to be found in the southernmost part of India in Kerala. They are even now called Azhuva or Ezhava. The emperor Azi Dahaka, -- with two snakes around his neck -- was a devotee of Isvara."
(Remedy the Frauds in Hinduism; p. 22.) The Ezhavas' ships were said to have sailed all over the world.

The Hopis worship Siva under several of his names, one of which is Massawa (Maheswa?). The Hopis are ophiolators (snake worshippers). Thousands of years ago, a famous Naga cult called Hophiz lived near Kabul, Afghanistan. Orginally, this nation was named Oph (Serpent) + Gana (Group; Family) + Stan (Nation). "Afghanistan" evolved from "Oph-gana-stan." The Afghan Hophiz snake cult spread to Greece, becoming Ophis. The Ophis cult was popular in the ancient world, even among the Christian gnostics. Needless to say, it also found its way to the American Southwest. We may never know the exact "hows."

The name of the ancient Hopi village of Oraibi causes me to wonder whether the Hopi nation was a famous stronghold of Saivism, known even in India. This unusual word lacks only the "Bh" in Bhairavi, epithet of Goddess Durga. However, Grierson's Dictionary of the Kashmiri Language mentions another meaning of the term, which may explain exactly how and why Oraibi got its name: "Name of a certain class of lower deities who form Siva's host..." One of these is after the local godling of some locality or tract of country. Special localities protected by him are looked upon as sacred" (p. 129; item 44.) Was Southwestern United States an important Shaivite holy center in earliest times?

Other ancient Naga sea-faring miners, traders, conquerors and colonizers who left their bloodlines and names all over the Americas and the rest of the world were the Ute, Yuti, Yutiya, or Juti (Jutes). The Northern Mexican Indians called the invading Spaniards, "People-Who-Came-Before:" Yutiya ("Judeeya"); Yuti; Juti ("Jodee" or "Judee)." In Spanish, the word is usually spelled as Yori; Yuri. "R" is trilled as in "City." "Y" often approximates our "J." Because of the Spanish spelling, we can't see that this word is really the English "Jute.". Why did these Indians believe the Spaniards were Jutes? Juti now means "non-Indian Mexicans and Gringos." In Sanskrit, Juddhi; Yuddhi = "Conquerors." Our history books tell us that the "Jutes" were "Northern German or Danish tribes." Does it surprise you to find "People-Who-Came-Before" in Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico?

Such human groups as "Phoenicians, Assyrians, Teutons, Jutes, Celts, Scythians, Chaldeans, Hittites, Kassites," plus many others, were not exactly who and what we've been told they were. The India-Indians can give mankind broader and more accurate descriptions of these principal actors on the stage of Ancient History. The Native-Americans are "Indians" after all!

Skeptics often tell me that I'm just using a fertile imagination to link the Southwestern Native-Americans with certain ethnicities and communities in South Asia. Just in case any of my readers think I'm imagining all these correspondences, put yourself in my place. Pretend that you've read a book about ancient Tibet. In this book, you read about a little mountain village called Dina. The villagers practice their national Tibetan religion: Bon. Their shamans use sand-paintings to heal the sick. After that, you read a book about the Navajos. Their real name is Diney. Their religion is Bahanney. Their shamans use sand paintings to heal the sick. Intrigued, you start comparing other Native-American tribes with peoples living in India, consistently finding tight similarities. What would you then think - or know? Of course, these India-related correspondences are not confined only to Native-Americans. But the rest of the world's peoples is not what this article is all about.

The spirit of I'Itoi, one of many Isas around the world, wanders within the bowels of Kheever or Quivari eternally, in a maze of tunnels running throughout the interior of Baboquivari. These tunnels may be shafts from which the ancient Hindus extracted unending quantities of gold, transporting it to India.

Like I'Itoi's swastika (on left), this maze (right) is also a sacred O'Odham emblem. It, too, stands at the altar of San Xavier Mission.

About Coronado's Ill-Fated Expedition
During my fact-finding mission to the O'Odham nation in September, 1999, a young O'Odham man told me that at the beginning of the Spanish conquest, a certain Spanish officer and his men tried to dig their way into Baboquivari. Suddenly, the ground under them opened; Baboquivari swallowed them. I intuited that he was giving me a mythologized version of Francisco de Coronado's search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and a place called Quivira, where, he was told, he could get his hands on unlimited quantities of gold.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1510-1554) was the first explorer of America's Southwest. He arrived in Mexico in 1535, becoming governor of Nueva Galicia (the present states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco and Zacatecas). During his governorship he heard about the supposedly gold-rich Seven Cities of Cibola and Quivira, believed to be in what is now the American Southwest, somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico.

With 300 Spanish soldiers and some Native-Americans, he marched to the present state of Arizona. The news about the Spaniards' obsession for gold surely reached the O'Odham nation long before he did. A Northern Mexican Indian named Esteban, possibly an O'Odham, told Coronado that he knew the location of the Seven Cities of Cibola and the fabled Quivira. "Cibola" turned out to be a sleepy little Zuni village. Cibola, pronounced "Sivola" in Spanish, is similar to the Sanskrit Swala (Svala), a name of Shiva's wife Parvati, also called Sivani. The Hindu cult of Swala eventually spread to Phyrigia and Rome, becoming Cybele. The high priests of this wide-spread cult were often berdaches ("gender-benders") and eunuchs. It's a curious anomaly that berdaches are also regarded as holy people among the Zunis.

Esteban, also called El Turco, led the Spaniards away from Baboquivari, to what is now the Lindsborg, Kansas area. Coronado began to suspect that he had been tricked. Another Indian accompanying the expedition could have grown fearful that El Turco might be persuaded to lead the Spaniards back to Arizona. He begged Coronado to quit paying attention to El Turco, promising to lead the Spaniards farther northward, to the real "Quivira," but Coronado had lost his fascination with fairy tales. He had El Turco strangled to death, returning to Mexico in disgrace in 1542. It never occurred to Coronado to remove "Babo" from "Quivari."

Recently, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art held an exhibit called "Pharaohs of the Sun". It turned out to be the most popular exhibit ever. The exhibit featured artifacts from the reigns of Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and the famous King Tut.

Modern scholars claim that Akhenaton was the worlds first known monotheist. However, the fact is, he was actually reviving an ancient monotheistic religious tradition. Unknown to most is the true nature of this religion. This religion was not only vedic, but was actually an indiginous Egyptian form of Vaisnavaism.

Research has proven Akhenaton's vedic roots through his familial connections to the Hurrian/Mitanni peoples. Everyone agrees that the Mitanni were a Sanskrit speaking and writing people and they worshipped the vedic gods. What is forgotten is the fact that Akhenaton's father, his mother, and wife were all related to the vedic Mitanni. Thus, it is no surprise that Akhenaton's religion has so many vedic similarities. The research of BhaktiAnanda Goswami has proven the Vaishnava nature of his religion.

On April 10, 2000, BhaktiAnanda Goswami of E.O.H.N. (Ecumenical Order of the Holy Name), and Vedic Empire Productions put together a tour and presentation on Akhenaton's vedic/vaishnava past. During the two hours of the tour BhaktiAnanda Goswami enthusiastically pointed out the various vaishnava connections. Again and again he amazed and enlightened the tour participants. It is truly amazing how many ancient artifacts are related to the worship of Hari. Using the torchlight of knowledge, BhaktiAnanda Goswami clearly revealed the Vaishnava nature of Akhenaton's religion. During the tour, many people unconnected to our group were intrigued and asked intelligent and sincere questions which BhaktiAnanda Goswami answered.

The program continued that evening at the Los Angeles Hare Krishna Temple where BhaktiAnanda gave a detailed talk on various examples of the ancient world's global Vaishnava traditions. Using a scientific approach called linguistic archaeology, some of the key points he presented are as follows:
The original forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead worshipped in the Mediterranean region were Radha-Krishna and Balarama. The center of this ancient Vaishnava culture was the Greek Isle of Rhodes.
Jews, Egyptians, and Europeans all worshipped Lord Krishna in many forms all familiar to the modern day Vaishnava. Forms such as Matsya, Korma, Narasimha, and Kalki. This tradition was called Heliopolitan because they worshipped Helios (Greek for Hari).
Hundreds of Jewish, Egyptian, and Greco Roman deity names (theophoric names) can be clearly identified as names of Krishna or Vishnu.
Official religious emblems, including the state seals of the Jewish kingdoms of Israel and Judah, were indisputably Vaishnava symbols, and directly connected to Akhenaton's religion and the eternal Vaishnava traditions of India.
In ancient Egyptian religion, creation began from the form of NHRYN (Narayan) lying on the primordial waters. A lotus grows from His navel, and on this lotus appears the four armed and four headed Heliosphanes (Brahma) who speaks creation.
Ancient Mediterranean Vaishnavism can be properly understood when we compare it to the authentic Vaishnava scriptural sources especially Bhagavad-Gita, and Srimad Bhagavatam, where the viratarupa (Universal Form) conception of the Supreme Lord is revealed. For example, Krishna's self revelation in the "I Am" verses of the Bhagavad-Gita directly parallels the great hymns of HR-Heri of ancient Egypt. Therefore, ancient Egyptian religion considered HR-Heri the origin of all gods and deities. That is why they used the name HR-Heri or Asu (Vasu) along with deities considered to be aspects of Heri. Thus, the god of wealth was called KPHR/Kepe-Heri because in the Gita Krishna says "?I am Kubera".
Being authentic followers of Vaishnavism, ancient Heliopolitan cities always had a presiding deity of Helios (Hari). He was always worshipped with His Fortuna (Goddess of Fortune or Shakti). Evidence shows that the original form of Helios (Hari) was worshipped on the Greek Isle of Rhodes as Kouros. The original form of Fortuna was named Rhoda.
Even modern scholars accept that Kouros was considered the origin of all the Greek gods. He is described as a beautiful youth tending His sacred white cows with His elder brother and friends. He plays a flute and leads the boys in dance as they clash their cymbals. He dances with Rhoda and Her expansions in a circle dance named after Him called the Chorus Dance. As the Lord of the Dance He is called Choreagos from which is derived the modern word 'choreographer'. The peacock feather was the pre-eminent symbol of both Helios and Kouros. Throughout the region Helios (Hari) was worshipped as the Lord of the Heart and the Supreme Personality of Love. That is why He is the Lord of all living entities, cultures, and traditions.

All of this evidence highlights the fact that we are all rooted in the tradition of pure devotional service to Sri Sri Radha Krishna and Balarama. BhaktiAnanda Goswami hopes that his research can be instrumental in reuniting all of God's children and awaken the world to its common heritage as the people of Hari.

Chapter Two
The Tip of An Iceberg
Sita Ram Goel

The mention made by Maulana Abdul Hai (Indian Express, February 5) of Hindu temples turned into mosques, is only the tip of an iceberg, The iceberg itself lies submerged in the writings of medieval Muslim historians, accounts of foreign travellers and the reports of the Archaeological Survey of India. A hue and cry has been raised in the name of secularism and national integration whenever the iceberg has chanced to surface, inspite of hectic efforts to keep it suppressed. Marxist politicians masquerading as historians have been the major contributors to this conspiracy of silence.

Muslim politicians and scholars in present-day India resent any reference whatsoever to the destruction of Hindu temples in medieval times.  They react as if it is a canard being spread by those they stigmatise as Hindu communalists.  There was, however, a time, not so long ago, when their predecessors viewed the same performance as an act of piety and proclaimed it with considerable pride in inscriptions and literary compositions.  Hindus of medieval India hardly wrote any history of what happened to their places of worship at the hands of Islamic iconoclasts.  Whatever evidence the "Hindu communalists" cite in this context comes entirely from Islamic sources, epigraphic and literary.

Epigraphic Evidence

There are many mosques all over India which are known to local tradition and the Archaeological Survey of India as built on the site of and, quite frequently, from the materials of, demolished Hindu temples.  Most of them carry inscriptions invoking Allah and the Prophet, quoting the Quran and giving details of when, how and by whom they were constructed.  The inscriptions have been deciphered and connected to their historical context by learned Muslim epigraphists. They have been published by the, Archaeological Survey of India in its Epigraphia Indica-Arabic and Persian Supplement, an annual which appeared first in 1907-08 as Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica.  The following few inscriptions have been selected in order to show that (1) destruction of Hindu temples continued throughout the period of Muslim domination; (2) it covered all parts of India-east, west, north and south; and (3) all Muslim dynasties, imperial and provincial, participated in the "pious performance."

1. Quwwat al-Islam Masjid, Qutb Minar, Delhi: "This fort was conquered and the Jami Masjid built in the year 587 by the Amir... the slave of the Sultan, may Allalh strengthen his helpers.  The materials of 27 idol temples, on each of which 2,000,000 Delhiwals had been spent were used in the (construction of) the mosque..." (1909-10, Pp 3-4). The Amir was Qutbud-Din Aibak, slave of Muizzud-Din Muhammad Ghori. The year 587 H. corresponds to 1192 A.D. "Delhiwal" was a high-denomination coin current at that time in Delhi.

2. Masjid at Manvi in the Raichur District of Karnataka: "Praise be to Allah that by the decree of the Parvardigar, a mosque has been converted out of a temple as a sign of religion in the reign of... the Sultan who is the asylum of Faith ... Firuz Shah Bahmani who is the cause of exuberant spring in the garden of religion" (1962, Pp. 56-57).  The inscription mentions the year 1406-07 A.D. as the time of construction.

3. Jami Masjid at Malan, Palanpur Taluka, Banaskantha District of Gujarat: "The Jami Masjid was built... by Khan-I-Azam Ulugh Khan... who suppressed the wretched infidels.  He eradicated the idolatrous houses and mine of infidelity, along with the idols... with the edge of the sword, and made ready this edifice... He made its walls and doors out of the idols; the back of every stone became the place for prostration of the believer" (1963, Pp. 26-29).  The date of construction is mentioned as 1462 A.D. in the reign of Mahmud Shah I (Begada) of Gujarat.

4. Hammam Darwaza Masjid at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh: "Thanks that by the guidance of the Everlasting and the Living (Allah), this house of infidelity became the niche of prayer.  As a reward for that, the Generous Lord constructed an abode for the builder in paradise" (1969, p. 375).  Its chronogram yields the year 1567 A.D. in the reign of Akbar, the Great Mughal.  A local historian, Fasihud-Din, tells us that the temple had been built earlier by Diwan Lachhman Das, an official of the Mughal government.

5. Jami Masjid at Ghoda in the Poona District of Maharashtra: "O Allah! 0 Muhammad! O Ali!  When Mir Muhammad Zaman made up his mind, he opened the door of prosperity on himself by his own hand.  He demolished thirty-three idol temples (and) by divine grace laid the foundation of a building in this abode of perdition" (1933-34, p.24). The inscription is dated 1586 A.D. when the Poona region was ruled by the Nizam Shahi sultans of Ahmadnagar.

6. Gachinala Masjid at Cumbum in the Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh: "He is Allah, may he be glorified... During the august rule of... Muhammad Shah, there was a well-established idol-house in Kuhmum... Muhammad Salih who prospers in the rectitude of the affairs of Faith... razed to the ground, the edifice of the idol-house and broke the idols in a manly fashion.  He constructed on its site a suitable mosque, towering above the buildings of all" (1959-60, Pp. 64-66).  The date of construction is mentioned as 1729-30 A.D. in the reign of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah.

Though sites of demolished Hindu temples were mostly used for building mosques and idgahs, temple materials were often used in other Muslim monuments as well.  Archaeologists have discovered such materials, architectural as well as sculptural, in quite a few forts, palaces, maqbaras, sufi khanqahs, madrasas, etc.  In Srinagar, Kashmir, temple materials can be seen in long stretches of the stone embankments on both sides of the Jhelum.  Two inscriptions on the walls of the Gopi Talav, a stepped well at Surat, tell us that the well was constructed by Haidar Quli, the Mughal governor of Gujarat, in 1718 A.D. in the reign of Farrukh Siyar.  One of them says, "its bricks were taken from an idol temple." The other informs us that "Haider Quli Khan, during whose period tyranny has become extinct, laid waste several idol temples in order to make this strong building firm..." (1933-34, Pp. 37-44).

Literary Evidence

Literary evidence of Islamic iconoclasm vis-a-vis Hindu places of worship is far more extensive.  It covers a longer span of time, from the fifth decade of the 7th century to the closing years of the eighteenth.  It also embraces a larger space, from Transoxiana in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south, and from Afghanistan in the west to Assam in the east.  Marxist "historians" and Muslim apologists would have us believe that medieval Muslim annalists were indulging in poetic exaggerations in order to please their pious patrons. Archaeological explorations in modern times have, however, provided physical proofs of literary descriptions.  The vast cradle of Hindu culture is literally littered with ruins of temples and monasteries belonging to all sects of Sanatana Dharma - Buddhist, Jain, Saiva, Shakta, Vaishnava and the rest.

Almost all medieval Muslim historians credit their heroes with desecration of Hindu idols and/or destruction of Hindu temples.  The picture that emerges has the following components, depending upon whether the iconoclast was in a hurry on account of Hindu resistance or did his work at leisure after a decisive victory:

1. The idols were mutilated or smashed or burnt or melted down if they were made of precious metals.

2. Sculptures in relief on walls and pillars were disfigured or scraped away or torn down.

3. Idols of stone and inferior metals or their pieces were taken away, sometimes by cartloads, to be thrown down before the main mosque in (a) the metropolis of the ruling Muslim sultan and (b) the holy cities of Islam, particularly Mecca, Medina and Baghdad.

4. There were instances of idols being turned into lavatory seats or handed over to butchers to be used as weights while selling meat.

5. Brahmin priests and other holy men in and around the temple were molested or murdered.

6. Sacred vessels and scriptures used in worship were defiled and scattered or burnt.

7. Temples were damaged or despoiled or demolished or burnt down or converted into mosques with some structural alterations or entire mosques were raised on the same sites mostly with temple materials.

8. Cows were slaughtered on the temple sites so that Hindus could not use them again.

The literary sources, like epigraphic, provide evidence of the elation which Muslims felt while witnessing or narrating these "pious deeds." A few citations from Amir Khusru will illustrate the point. The instances cited relate to the doings of Jalalud-Din Firuz Khalji, Alaud-Din Khalji and the letter's military commanders. Khusru served as a court-poet of sex successive sultans at Delhi and wrote a masnavi in praise of each.  He was the dearest disciple of Shaikh Nizamud-Din Awliya and has come to be honoured as some sort of a sufi himself.  In our own times, he is being hailed is the father of a composite Hindu-Muslim culture and the pioneer of secularism.  Dr. R. C. Majumdar, whom the Marxists malign as a "communalist historian" names him as a "liberal Muslim".

1. Jhain: "Next morning he (Jalalud-Din) went again to the temples and ordered their destruction... While the soldiers sought every opportunity of plundering, the Shah was engaged in burning the temples and destroying the idols.  There were two bronze idols of Brahma, each of which weighed more than a thousand mans.  These were broken into pieces and the fragments were distributed among the officers, with orders to throw them down at the gates of the Masjid on their return (to Delhi)" (Miftah-ul-Futuh).

2. Devagiri: "He (Alaud-Din) destroyed the temples of the idolaters and erected pulpits and arches for mosques" (Ibid.).

3. Somanath: "They made the temple prostrate itself towards the Kaaba.  You may say that the temple first offered its prayers and then had a bath (i.e. the temple was made to topple and fall into the sea)... He (Ulugh Khan) destroyed all the idols and temples, but sent one idol, the biggest of all idols, to the court of his Godlike Majesty and on that account in that ancient stronghold of idolatry, the summons to prayers was proclaimed so loudly that they heard it in Misr (Egypt) and Madain (Iraq)" (Tarikh-i-Alai).

4. Delhi: "He (Alaud-Din) ordered the circumference of the new minar to be made double of the old one (Qutb Minar)... The stones were dug out from the hills and the temples of the infidels were demolished to furnish a supply" (Ibid.).

5. Ranthambhor: "This strong fort was taken by the slaughter of the stinking Rai.  Jhain was also captured, an iron fort, an ancient abode of idolatry, and a new city of the people of the faith arose.  The temple of Bahir (Bhairava) Deo and temples of other gods, were all razed to the ground" (Ibid.).

6. Brahmastpuri (Chidambaram): "Here he (Malik Kafur) heard that in Bramastpuri there was a golden idol... He then determined on razing the temple to the ground... It was the holy place of the Hindus which the Malik dug up from its foundations with the greatest care, and the heads of brahmans and idolaters danced from their necks and fell to the ground at their feet, and blood flowed in torrents.  The stone idols called Ling Mahadeo, which had been established a long time at the place and on which the women of the infidels rubbed their vaginas for (sexual) satisfaction, these, up to this time, the kick of the horse of Islam had not attempted to break.  The Musulmans destroyed in the lings and Deo Narain fell down, and other gods who had fixed their seats there raised feet and jumped so high that at one leap they reached the fort of Lanka, and in that affright the lings themselves would have fled had they had any legs to stand on" (Ibid).

7. Madura: "They found the city empty for the Rai had fled with the Ranis, but had left two or three hundred elephants in the temple of Jagnar (Jagannatha).  The elephants were captured and the temple burnt" (Ibid.).

8. Fatan: (Pattan): "There was another rai in these parts ...a Brahmin named Pandya Guru... his capital was Fatan, where there was a temple with an idol in it laden with jewels.  The rai fled when the army of the Sultan arrived at Fatan... They then struck the idol with an iron hatchet, and opened its head.  Although it was the very Qibla of the accursed infidels, it kissed the earth and filled the holy treasury" (Ashiqa).

9. Ma'bar: (Parts of South India): "On the right hand and on the left hand the army has conquered from sea to sea, and several capitals of the gods of the Hindus, in which Satanism has prevailed since the time of the Jinns, have been demolished.  All these impurities of infidelity have been cleansed by the Sultan's destruction of idol-temples, beginning with his first holy expedition to Deogir, so that the flames of the light of the Law (of Islam) illumine all these unholy countries, and places for the criers of prayers are exalted on high, and prayers are read in mosques.  Allah be praised!" (Tarikh-i-Alai).

The story of how Islamic invaders sought to destroy the very foundations of Hindu society and culture is long and extremely painful.  It would certainly be better for everybody to forget the past, but for the prescriptions of Islamic theology which remain intact and make it obligatory for believers to destroy idols and idol temples.

Indian Express, February 19, 1989

Vedic World Heritage links:

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There was one kansamar.  He was to go home, so he asked his friend, "So long as I am not here, you serve European master."  So he said, "I do not know English.  How can I serve him?"  "No, no, no," the kansamar replied.  "These three words will do.  Yes, no, and very good."  Then he was engaged as a servant.  Then one day something was missing from the master's room.  He asked his new servant, "Did you take it?"  "Yes," came the reply.  "Return it."  "No."  "Oh, then I shall hand you over to the police."  "Very good."  Then when the police came and questioned him, they discovered that he only knew three English words, yes, no, and very good.

MORAL: This story criticizes the mentality of Indians who blindly follow western society.

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