Friday, October 29, 2010

When Past was ahead of its Future!!

While returning from US in early October 2010 as I flipped through the latest issue of TIME magazine in the boring and lengthy 9 hours leg between London’s Heathrow terminal and Bangalore, I chanced upon the article ‘The new science of fetal origins,’ researched and written by Annie Murphy Paul. It explores the life as a fetus: besides the nutrients that the mom supplied through her own good or bad dietary habits, which played a significant role in the health at a later age in life; this article explores the stress level and the state of mind the mother eventually unknowingly transferred to her yet-to-be-born.

According to the article in TIME magazine dated 4th October 2010, Mathew Gillman, a professor of population medicine at Harvard University launched project Viva – a study tracking more than 2,000 Boston area children since they were fetuses. Another set of results will be available in the year 2012 from mothers and children aged 21 on a voluntary study being conducted to understand the gestational factors in brain development.

This relatively new subject, known as fetal origins claims that the 9 months of gestation is how the mom influences the wiring of the brain and the functioning of the organs. There is a frightening similarity to what has been explained in the epic Mahabharata – the chapter that dwells on Arjuna’s explanation in detail about the array of battle formations, complete with individual and unique technique of attacking and escaping to his wife Subhadra, who was then carrying little Abhimanyu in her womb. Apparently, Arjuna stopped narrating when he discovered that Subhadra had dozed midway during his explanation of breaking the battle formation: Chakravyuha. Not knowing the escape technique proved fatal for the young warrior Abhimanyu who was cordoned off by six Maharathis defying and breaking all the established war rules.

It would be interesting to note that the scientific dating of the Mahabharata war has been established by Dr. P V Vartak, a scholar from Pune. By using astronomical references he has derived the date as 16th October 5561 BC. Circa 2010: 7,571 years later TIME magazine publishes an article that goes on to prove the already known fact stated by sage Veda Vyasa eons ago. It is a foregone conclusion that in the past, Astronomy and Mathematics were far more advanced than what we have believed. The recordings by sage Veda Vyasa of presence of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto, their orbit around the sun, their relative position to earth bears testimony to this fact.

More recently, I watched with fascination the six-part serial ‘Ancient Aliens’ that first made an appearance in the History channel. The 1935 born Swiss author Erich Von Daniken, best known for his hypothesis that human culture in the ancient times have been influenced by extra-terrestrial is prominently featured in this television series. Daniken’s first book ‘Chariots of the Gods’ was a best seller in US, Europe and in India; his books have been translated in more than 30 languages and have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. While he claims visitations by aliens having the know-how of vastly superior technology, the historical artifacts that he uses to prove his hypothesis is clearly not established. His explanation of the superior technology used to erect gigantic prehistoric monuments across the world, namely the Giza pyramids in Egypt, Stonehenge located in the English county Wiltshire, Piri Reis Map is quite convincing that the accuracy with which the monuments were built and the maps drawn, surpassed the tools and measuring equipments available at that time. The Piri Reis map is indeed mysterious as it contains a precise representation of the coasts of Antarctica, a continent unknown at that point in time. Such a map could have been drawn during the mythical Atlantis days or were drawn from pictures taken from the sky, by satellites, aircraft's or spaceships some 15,000 years back. This map known after the Turkish Admiral Piri Reis is actually just a fragment of the original map drawn on gazelle skin.

Using the hydrocarbon dating technique the monument building of the Stonehenge site began in 3100 BC and ended around 1600 BC. A debate still exists whether the Stonehenge was constructed based on a religious belief or as a scientific observatory. There is a strong belief that the site was created to commemorate the solstices – an astronomical event that takes place twice each year when the position of the sun moves to the northernmost or southernmost end. For half the year the northern hemisphere of earth is inclined towards the sun with the maximum inclination occurring on 21st June. Likewise for the other half of the year the southern hemisphere is inclined towards the sun with the maximum inclination occurring on 21st December. In the Hindu calendar the two solstices are named Makara Sankranti (January 14) which marks the start of Uttarayana and Karkata Sankranti (July 14) which marks the start of Dhaksinayana.

The Hindu calendar descends from the Vedic times and many references have been found in the Vedas. The Vedas are amongst the oldest sacred texts and dates back to the late Bronze Age – early Iron Age; 1500 BCE (Before Common Era). It is interesting to note that the Mayan calendar dates back to 5th century BCE and is believed to be amongst the most sophisticated, well documented and widely understood. This unique civilization in the western hemisphere flourished from 2000 BC to 900 AD with the period 250 BC to 900 AD being devoted to building impressive monuments and temples. During this period the Mayans made astonishing discoveries in mathematics and astronomy. The No. 1 amongst the Mayan architecture is the temple: Chichen Itza. The design of this temple has special astronomical significance. The four corners of the base is a true match to the sunrise and sunset positions of the summer and winter solstices. What is amazing is this was precisely built during the period when there were no measuring instruments and compass to show the direction. Each face of this pyramid Chichen Itza has a stairway with 91 steps, which together with the shared step at the very top add up to 365, the number of days in a calendar year.

The Great Pyramids of Giza, one among the seven wonders of the ancient world constructed over a 20 year period around 2560 BC has been built on such a precise location that a deep knowledge of mathematics and geometry was necessary, something that never existed. More intriguing is the comparison between the three pyramids and the three belt stars in Orion constellation. There is a striking resemblance: three stars in the middle of the Orion constellation, diagonally with one star deviating and three pyramids also with one deviating from the diagonal. The relative positions of the stars and the pyramids match each other perfectly.

While Von Daniken’s theory of alien influence over mankind in the past can sound far fetched and perhaps preposterous, it does leave more questions in the mind about the vastly superior knowledge of our forefathers in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, geometry and precision engineering. It is indeed amazing to learn how the human brain, if channeled correctly, is capable of delving into the complexities of laws governing the formation of this Universe, be it in any era. One just needs to have the curiosity and urge to seek knowledge. The fact that our ancestors were able to do so with pinpoint accuracy tells us how much more focused and superior they were to us. Are we willing to learn?

Cheers!!

1 comment:

  1. And some of those guys, we cant just imagine how much they would've acheived now had they had the resources we have now - especially people like Aryabhatta, Magellan et al..

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