Saturday, February 4, 2012

Titanic Ship

In the dark waters of the North Atlantic, the great passenger liner, R.M.S. Titanic, came to a violent and mysterious end. Each of her passengers unwitting players in a harrowing drama. The builder who would pronounce her dead. The brave men who refused to let her die. Thousands of people who struggled for their lives.

Now for the first time, a prominent Titanic historian will retell her tragic tale from the ship's actual decks. Haunting locations will take us back to pivotal moments during the epic disaster. Newly discovered artifacts are helping to piece together Titanic's untold stories.

It's a moment in history we'll still striving to understand, a part of our past impossible to forget. On the French research vessel Nadir, a countdown begins. The crew prepares for an unprecedented dive to one of the greatest shipwrecks in history, R.M.S. Titanic. On Nadir's fantail, a prototype submersible, Nautile, is run through a final series of systems checks. She is one of a few submersibles able to dive more than twelve thousand feet to reach Titantic. Historian, Charles Haas, is leading today's dive. His mission, to document key sites on the ship where critical events unfolded. To Haas, Titanic is a dramatic stage.

But it is the characters in the tragedy who draw him in. I think in order to get a full picture of what that night was like, you need to know the people who were involved in that situation. By knowing the characters in the drama, by knowing the people, you get a much better insight into the great drama of that night. As part of Haas' mission, he will also look for artifacts, personal objects which may provide clues to Titantic's story. When Nautile leaves these decks, she will drop two and a half miles into the Atlantic, into a hostile world. A place of freezing temperatures, bone crushing pressure and desolate darkness. If something goes wrong at the site, there is no chance of a rescue. In the control room, Nautile's position will be monitored by expedition leader, George Tulloch. I'm really proud of this expedition and this team.

Dim lights Embed

It's just a wonderful thing to be a part of. The Titanic is the piece of our history and it's just special in every direction. Tulloch is joined by Titanic historian and Haas' writing partner, Jack Eaton. There are many things that still can be learned from Titanic, from the disaster, from the recollection of the people and of the events. There are some major mysteries that are still unsolved. From the bridge, the crew watches as Nautile free falls to Titanic. A ship still giving up her secrets. For historians studying Titanic, much of what they know is based on testimony taken after the disaster. Hearings were held in both the United States and Britain which investigated the reason for her sinking.

Additional evidence turned up in rare diaries and letters. Now artifacts retrieved from the ocean floor let us study tangible pieces of lost history. In their research, historians have learned most about passengers who traveled lavishly in first and second class. People such as Emily Ryerson and Lawrence Beesley have given us a glimpse of what that horrific night was like. Remarkably, personal accounts of Titanic continue to surface. New witnesses are emerging. Their stories have rarely been heard. As the submersible Nautile descends to Titanic, the crew prepares for arrival at the site. Your approach to the Titanic is pretty much like hovering over a beach in a helicopter. You see the sand rolling under you and your navigating forward at maybe two or three miles an hour. All of a sudden, you see this immense object. And it is so, so immense that it completely fills the view port. Your first reaction is, it's almost an automatic, "Oh my God." Titanic is, it's still a very, very beautiful ship to see.

The lines are so beautiful under water. And there's an awe or a reverence or a silence from realizing what occurred on these decks, human stories of personal tragedy that literally happened within the space that you can now see. On April 4th, 1912 at midnight, Titanic docks at Southampton, England where her fist passengers will board. Under the direction of Haas, the crew of Nautile moves to the very spot where travelers first embarked. The trip aboard Titanic actually began at this spot. These are the B deck doorways, the so called shell doors. When you boarded the ship at Southampton in England, you would essentially have gone through these doors and the purser would greet you there. These doorways mark the site where many first touched Titanic, a simple portal that became an entrance to history.

In Southampton, boarding begins in the early morning. In command of the ship is Captain E. J. Smith. Smith's passenger list includes a who's who of the era. But the majority of the ship's passengers are third class. Titanic's owners hope to profit from immigrants such as Gerda and Edvard Lindell. The Lindells recently married are living in Skognas in southern Sweden. According to plans, Edvard will go to America first. Gerda will follow thereafter. Gerda, however, won't be separated from her new husband. At the last minute, she joins him. In a farewell gesture, Gerda drops roses along their route leaving a trail behind. In Southampton she writes a final postcard to her brother. Tomorrow we shall go aboard Titanic. We have been down to see the colossus. You should see what a beast it is.

Greetings from Gerda. On the 10th of April, 1912, the Lindells join more than two thousand others for Titanic's maiden voyage. Onboard, Edvard and Gerda meet fellow Swede, August Wennerstrom. Wennerstrom is traveling under an assumed name. He's a political dissident leaving Sweden to live in America. Only one of these three passengers will survive the journey. Today Titanic is a mass of twisted metal. But historian Charles Haas can see past the decay to the people who once walked these decks. As the crew of Nautile moves to a new location, twelve thousand feet above them at the surface, members of the expedition team help navigate the wreck Their destination is a third class area at Titanic's bow. Hello Jack Hello Jack Hello Charlie. How are you doing down there? Over. We're working hard down here.

We're looking now down at the third class area, the so called forward well deck And it was here that third class passengers were enjoying themselves and coming out for recreation. From this place, the sunsets must have been dramatic. Third class passengers including the Lindells spent early evenings strolling here, taking in the brisk sea air. Above the third class promenade, first and second class passengers enjoyed uncompromising luxury. Amenities included an exotic steam room. A state of the art gymnasium. And lavish dining salons. For one first class passenger, none of Titantic's palatial amenities are enticing. Mrs. Emily Ryerson's eldest son has been killed in a car crash in America. She's going to claim his body. She leaves her cabin rarely and eats in her room. The elegance of Titanic is meaningless to a mother in mourning. Haas is now one deck above Mrs. Ryerson's cabin. The team moves forward along the bow to one of Titanic's most famous locations.

Between the first and second funnel, there was a magnificent dome which sat atop an area known as the grand staircase. There's really no part of the Titanic that perhaps demonstrated the grandeur of the ship than this feature which was called the grand staircase in first class. It was surmounted by a rod iron and glass dome. It penetrated five or six decks down through the ship. As we can see now, however, the grand staircase is only a shattered leftover of its former self. For the first few days out at sea, the trip to America is uneventful. Then on Sunday, the temperature drops dramatically. Titanic's chief designer, Thomas Andrews, spends his Sunday reviewing the ship's plans and inspecting the vessel for any subtle imperfections. Titanic is the greatest achievement to date of his ascending career. Harold Bride is one of the ship's two radio operators. Bride's partner is Jack Phillips. Throughout the day on Sunday, they receive six warnings of ice.

Titanic's course is altered further south to avoid the danger. For passengers like the Lindells, the frigid air is enough to keep them indoors. Mrs. Emily Ryerson, however, makes a rare appearance outside her cabin to enjoy the quiet evening with a friend. Bruce Ismay, managing director for the company that owns Titanic, approaches Ryerson. Mrs. Ryerson. Ismay shares a wireless message. I have here a communication from the captain. It indicates... First he showed the telegram, then he said, We're in among the icebergs. At the time, the conversation had no importance to me. I was very much overburdened with other things that were on my mind. First Class Passenger, Mrs. Emily Ryerson. In fact, few on board are concerned about ice. Titanic, after all, is unsinkable. The colossal scale of Titanic was unrivaled in her day. Her tragic sinking is one of few events in history that still holds such a grip on our imagination. Titanic holds the place in the public interest for a number of reasons of course.

The first... is that it was probably the first major disaster to be covered by all of the media. There were some very early disasters in the 20th century but Titanic was the first one that made such a worldwide impact. People from the outset could identify with people on board the ship and this is something that has remained over the years. Titanic stood as a pinnacle of human ingenuity in a time of unbridled optimism. There was great optimism that the age was going to improve. They had such modern things as telephone and automobiles and even airplanes. And how far are these wonderful scientific devices going to take us? Above the wreck, Nautile moves to a haunting location in the story. The submersible is guided to the devastated remains of the forward funnel.

A one hundred and fifty foot funnel once occupied this cavernous hole. What we're passing over now is a huge ventilation system. Titanic had, of course, four funnels connected to the boiler rooms. So what we're looking at here is a giant tube in effect. And if we were to pursue it further, we would find ourselves way down in the Titantic's boiler rooms. The massive boilers located deep in the belly of the ship were Titanic's source of power. On the day of the disaster, twenty-four boilers are feeding Titanic's enormous engines. The ship's speed, twenty-one and a half knots. That evening, stoker Frederick Barrett begins his shift. In a few short hours, he will find himself in a pitched battle for survival. Second class passenger, Lawrence Beesley, fills out a claim form so that he can retrieve his valuables from the purser's safe. Before retiring, Beesley takes in some quiet entertainment. Eternal father come to save... After dinner, Mr. Carter invited all who wished to the saloon and with the assistance at the piano, he started passengers singing hymns. He was curious to see how many chose hymns dealing with dangers at sea. Second class passenger, Lawrence Beesley.

Two hours before impact, wireless operator Jack Phillips receives a warning from the ship Mesaba. Ice report, latitude 42 degrees north to 41 degrees, twenty-five minutes north. Saw much heavy pack ice and great number of large icebergs. Wireless operator, Jack Phillips. Phillips doesn't realize the ice field lies directly in Titanic's path. Rather than report the warning to an offiicer, he places it on a spike. This simple act dooms Titanic. The warning should have been delivered to Second Offiicer Charles Lightoller who was working on the bridge. The one vital report that came through but which never reached the bridge was received from the Mesaba. That delay proved fatal and was the main cause of the loss of that ship. Second Offiicer, Charles Lightoller. With the stage now set for disaster, the Nautile approaches an eerie scene. We are hovering over the fallen forward mast and you see the remains of the crow's nest. It was here that lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. On the night of April 14th, 1912. Fleet used the crow's nest bell but he essentially telephoned the bridge to report iceberg dead ahead.

The iceberg is spotted a quarter mile away. Not enough distance to turn a ship that stretches four city blocks long. Offiicers steered Titantic from this location. The ship's wheel used to be attached to this device called a telemotor. It is all that's left of the bridge. What we're seeing is the telemotor coming up. Here is really where Frederick Fleet's order was translated into action. Between Frederick Fleet's warning of the berg and the collision, it was just thirty-seven seconds of time. As Titanic begins to turn, it looks as if the ship will clear the iceberg. But an underwater ledge pierces Titanic's steel hull, buckling plates, causing thin separations in her side. There came what seemed to me, nothing more than an extra heave of the engines, nothing more than that, no sound of a crash or anything else. No sense of shock, no jar that fell like one heavy body meeting another. Second Class Passenger, Lawrence Beesley. I was just about ready for the land of nod when I felt a sudden vibrating jar run through the ship. Not that it was by any means a violent concussion but just a distinct and unpleasant break in the monotony of her motion.

Second Offiicer, Charles Lightoller. Deep below in third class, the impact is more obvious to the Lindells. And August Wennerstrom. Captain Smith dispatches Titanic designer Thomas Andrews to inspect the damage to the ship. What Andrews sees is devastating. He reports to Captain Smith that Titanic is filling fast. A quick calculation reveals the ship has an hour, maybe two. Andrews realizes the deadly implications immediately. On board are more than two thousand passengers and crew but only enough lifeboats for just half of them. Following the collision, the ship is quiet again. Most first and second class passengers are still sleeping. Little do they realize, a drama unfolds in the bow of the ship. Deep below, the front of Titanic is quickly flooding. The forward crew must abandon their positions. For the time being, Titanic's electricity is holding. Stoker Barrett and several others attempt to keep the water out of boiler room five. The men attach long hoses to the pumps.

If they keep this section from flooding, they believe they can save the ship. They do not know that Titanic's designer has already declared her doomed. From the boiler rooms, Nautile travels to a location where another battle was fought. Above this fatal wound in the ship lies Titanic's mail room. Among the greatest heroes of Titantic's story, I think, are the postal workers. There were more than thirty- five hundred bags of mail onboard... Thirty-five hundred. and as the water began flooding this area, the men's only thought was to try to rescue the mail that they had been placed in charge of. As Titanic's mail room floods, the postal workers drag the mail to higher ground. As they work, the rising water rapidly pursues them, lapping at their heels at each level. Eventually, they are overtaken. This great hole marks the spot where the five postal workers died. They were Titanic's first victims. The next site is perhaps the most wrenching. From the control room, the crew guides Nautile to one of the evacuation areas.

Titanic's lifeboats were stored on her uppermost decks. There were only sixteen, capacity for about one thousand. This ghostly crane lowered boats into the dark sea. Second Offiicer Charles Lightoller worked at this very spot. As Lightoller and his men crank out the boats. Passengers stand by and watch. Among them, there is utter disbelief. Nothing seems wrong. Why are they being asked to evacuate? Many passengers initially won't leave and the first boats are launched virtually empty. Near this location, the radio operators frantically signal for assistance. In a desperate attempt to summon help, they send a newly adopted distress code SOS. Titanic is one of the first ships in history to send the call. What we are looking at now is the interior of the ship's wireless room. Here the radio operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride were given the information that the Titanic was doomed. They began immediately sending out distress signals.

And so it was from this very room that these two men worked very hard to save lives. Recognizing the fatal damage to Titanic, designer Thomas Andrews calmly works to prepare the passengers for the lifeboats. He knows, regardless of his effort, there will be a tragic loss of life. Third class passengers August Wennerstrom and the Lindells are left on their own. As they head for the lifeboats, the stern begins to rise out of the water. We saw the sea climbing up the deck more quickly than before. I could see that everyone was clamoring aft and trying to keep from sliding down the slanting deck which was growing steeper. Third Class Passenger, August Wennerstrom. Deep in the belly of the ship, Frederick Barrett of the crew feared the red hot boilers will explode when they come in contact with the icy sea water so they extinguish the boilers.

As each fire is put out, the hold fills with steam. Blinded by black dust and steam, one of Barrett's companions falls into an open manhole. His leg is shattered and Barrett drags him to a pump room. Nearly two hours after impact, a weakened wall caves in and the sinking of Titanic accelerates. Barrett escapes but his companion will perish. When Barrett arrives on deck, his timing is perfect. He is quickly assigned to a lifeboat as an oarsman and is lowered away. Lawrence Beesley climbs aboard Barrett's boat when no more women or children are nearby. On the opposite side of the ship, one man wrestles with his conscience. His name is Masabumi Hosono. I tried to prepare myself for the last moment making up my mind not to leave anything disgraceful as a Japanese but I still found myself looking for any possible chance for survival. There were many men who attempted to squeeze in but sailors refused them at gunpoint. I, myself, was deep in desolate thought.

Even if I became the target of a pistol shot, it would be the same and thus I made a jump for the lifeboat. From the dark sea, Hosono looks back at embattled Titanic. Her lights burning brightly. Her stern rising perversely from the water. I saw a great number of passengers still frantically moving about on the deck giving terrible shouts and cries for help. The scene was just horrible and eerie. Our lifeboat too was filled with sobbing and weeping women who had been worried about the safety of their husbands and fathers. It was all unbearably sad and hopeless. On board Titanic, Mrs. Ryerson refuses to leave her husband despite his best efforts to convince her otherwise. My husband said, "When they say women and children first, you must go." And I said, "Why do I have to go on that boat?" And he said, "You must obey the captain's orders and I'll get in somehow. "First Class Passenger, Mrs. Emily Ryerson. Hundreds of families are struggling with the same question.

Should they separate or stick together? With few lifeboats left, people take the threat of sinking seriously. Now the challenge for the crew is to keep people from mobbing the remaining boats. At 1:45 a.m., Emily Ryerson boards one of the last boats to be launched with her two daughters and one son. Her husband stays behind. Mr. Andrews, Mr. Andrews. Titantic's designer, Thomas Andrews, is last seen looking lost in a trance in the first class smoking room. Andrews. Mr. Andrews. Mr. Andrews? As Titantic's stern tilts higher, the Lindells and August Wennerstrom slide into the water. Relieved of his duty, Second Offiicer Lightoller also takes his chances in the sea. Immediately he is sucked into a ventilation shaft. Although I struggled and kicked for all I was worth, it was impossible to get away. Every instant expecting myself shot down into the bowels of the ship. I was still struggling and fighting when suddenly a terrific blast of hot air came up the shaft and blew me right away up to the surface.

From the surface, Lightoller witnesses the end of R.M.S. Titanic. The bow of the ship was now rapidly going down and the stern was rising higher and higher out of the water piling the people into helpless heaps around the steep decks and by the score into the icy water. Second Offiicer, Charles Lightoller. As she swung out, her lights, which had shown without a flicker all night, went out suddenly. Came on again for a single flash and then went out all together. Second Class Passenger, Lawrence Beesley. The stern stood for several minutes black against the stars and then the boat plunged up. Then began the cries for help which seemed to go on forever. First Class Passenger, Mrs. Emily Ryerson. As Titanic plummets to the ocean floor, the most beautiful liner the world every saw shatters into pieces. On the surface, the human drama continues. Charles Lightoller manages to climb atop an overturned lifeboat. Some thirteen men struggle here to keep their balance, to prevent slipping into the icy water. Wireless operators, Bride and Phillips are among these men. Phillips will die of exposure before morning.

The Lindells manage to find a lifeboat but the boat overturns sending them helplessly back into the sea. For how long a time I was away from the boat, I don't know. When I came back to the boat, it was filled with water. My friend, Edvard Lindell had also got aboard. I saw Mrs. Lindell in the water and clasped her hand. I didn't have the strength to pull her aboard. Mr. Lindell looked straight ahead. Never made a move or said a word. I realized that he'd frozen to death. After a half hour, I lost my grip and saw Mrs. Lindell disappear into the sea. Third Class Passenger, August Wennerstrom. More than one thousand, five hundred men, women and children perished this night. Relics of their lives are strewn along the ocean floor. Artifacts like these provide the last clues to their stories. Among broken plates and debris, Haas makes a discovery. He finds and retrieves a device called a telegraph that was used to signal the engines.

Your emotional attachment to a particular object eventually evolves into a great deal of anxiousness about its future. And when you see the artifacts being brought up and in particular when you see them being conserved that anxiousness is replaced by a great, great deal of happiness that you've preserved them for the future. After a day of exploration, Nautile returns to the surface with precious cargo. On the fantail of Nadir, the newly discovered artifact is shared with the crew. You know, history's progressed another notch there Charles. I'm really quite overwhelmed by that. In a warehouse in Hamburg, Germany, people line up to visit an extraordinary exhibit of Titanic artifacts. Historians Charles Haas and Jack Eaton and expedition leader, George Tulloch take in the emotional display.

They have come to see fragments of history, some of which they have helped to rescue from certain oblivion. Certain objects here played a critical role during Titanic's final hours. The giant wrenches used by the men in the boiler room remind us of those who struggled to keep Titanic afloat. Men like Frederick Barrett. Barrett survived the disaster and continued to work most of his life out at sea. One of Titanic's brass bells, a symbol of her elite offiicers, including Second Offiicer Charles Lightoller. Lightoller was the only senior offiicer to survive Titanic. He retired unceremoniously. During World War II, he used his yacht in daring missions to aid the British war effort. This claim check, number two, oh, eight, belonged to Lawrence Beesley and it was retrieved from the ocean bottom.

Beesley lived to be eighty-nine and write one of the most significant accounts of the Titanic tragedy. Women's jewelry, reminds us that many of Titanic's survivors were widowed that night. When Mrs. Ryerson arrived in New York, she would bury her son who was killed in a car crash and mourn her lost husband. Mrs. Ryerson died at the age of seventy-six. Masabumi Hosono lived reclusively and rarely spoke of Titanic. His rare written account has now become a part of history. Hosono lived to be sixty-nine and died in Japan. August Wennerstrom survived Titanic. He spent most of his life in America and died in Culver, Indiana.

This is the wedding band of Gerda Lindell. It was retrieved from the lifeboat where both she and her husband lost their lives. These objects are the last remnants of the Titanic disaster. They forge a link across a century to a vanished time. This clarinet and these letters of love found in a man's suitcase give us an intimate glimpse into a life we would have known nothing about, a life like many others forever changed by Titanic. Of the two thousand, two hundred and twenty - eight individuals aboard Titanic, we only know the experiences of perhaps half. Some of their stories have been told and fully developed. But even to this day, most of Titanic's stories still remain untold.

Original: http://www.amworld.info/titanic-stories/titanic-ship

Friday, February 3, 2012

HTC acknowledges long-running WiFi security flaw, says it deliberately kept it quiet

As far back as September, security researchers discovered a "critical" bug in many HTC Android handsets that exposed users' WiFi credentials to any hacker who cared to look. The flaw affected recent devices like the Thunderbolt and EVO 4G all the way back to the Desire HD. The researchers promptly notified HTC, but the manufacturer waited a full five months before acknowledging the flaw publicly a few days ago. Sounds shady, perhaps, but HTC sent us a statement clarifying that this is standard policy to protect customers. It says it waited to develop a fix before it alerted the big bad world to the vulnerability. Most newer devices have already received their fix OTA, but owners of some older phones -- we'll update this post when we know exactly which ones -- will need to check the HTC Support site for a manual update next week. Meanwhile, in manufacturer's defense, the guys at the Open1X group who discovered the bug say that HTC was "very responsive and good to work with." Here's HTC's statement to us:

"HTC takes customer data security very seriously. If there is a known breach of sensitive customer data, our priority is customer notification along with corrective actions. It is our policy, and industry standard procedure, to protect customers, which sometimes necessitates not increasing data security risks by disclosing minor breach issues where no malicious applications are detected. In those cases, premature disclosure of vulnerabilities could spur creation of malicious apps to take advantage of any vulnerability before it is fixed. For this specific WiFi bug issue, we worked closely with Google and the security researchers from the date of notification and throughout this process to ensure that the majority of affected HTC phones had already received the fix prior to the vulnerability being made public."

HTC acknowledges long-running WiFi security flaw, says it deliberately kept it quiet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

GANDHARA—LAND OF THE BUDDHA?

Loriyan-Tangai. Relief of Buddha surrounded by worshippers. Lahore Museum. Notice Buddha's moustache.

Gandhara seems to have taken to Buddhism with surprising speed and vigor, based on the archaeological remains and statuary found there. The earliest datable Buddhist sites, Butkara I in the Swat Valley and the Dharmarajika complex in Taxila, near Sirkap, are dated to the early second century BCE. Even conceding that Asoka introduced Buddhism to Gandhara through his missionaries, as per legend, the country would have had to have been converted and its art and culture adapted in response to this new religion within less than two centuries. This would have required a massive evangelical effort, which seems rather improbable in the period before the Common Era, for a religion like Buddhism, where salvation is believed to be achieved through personal striving.

The video above, from the BBC series "In the footsteps of Alexander the Great," shows scenes from Gandhara, such as the Swat Valley.

From Buddhist Art of Gandhra by Sir John Marshall.

Gandhara was the ancient name of the tract of country on the west bank of the Indus river which comprises the Peshawar Valley and the modern Swat, Buner and Bajaur. It was a country with rich, well-watered valleys, clear-cut hills and a pleasant climate: a country where a Greek might well dream of being back in his homeland. Situated on the border between India and western Asia, Gandhara belonged as much and as little to the one as to the other. In the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, it formed part of the Achaemenid empire of Persia. In the fourth it was occupied for a brief period by the armies of Alexander the Great. Thereafter it was conquered by Chandragupta Maurya, but after a century of Indian rule the West again asserted itself, and for another century (roughly, the second century BCE) Greek dynasts took the place of India. Then came, early in the first century BCE, the victorious Sakas or Scythians, to be followed, after yet another century, by the Parthians and Kushans. And even then the tale of foreign conquest was not ended. For in the third century CE Gandhara again reverted to Persia, now under Sasanid sovereigns, and was again re-conquered by the Kidara Kushans in the fourth. Finally, the deathblow to its prosperity was given by the Ephthalites or White Huns, who swept over the country about 465 CE, carrying fire and sword wherever they went and destroying the Buddhist monasteries.
Gandhara (red circle).

The people of Gandhara were thoroughly cosmopolitan in their culture and their outlook. Of their physical appearance we get some idea from the old sculptures. Some of the men, with strikingly tall and dignified figures, closely resembled many present-day Pathans, and wore the same distinctive kind of baggy trousers and sleeved coat. Others were characteristically Greek; others just as characteristically Indian. And, no doubt, if we knew more about them, we should recognize other racial elements portrayed by the sculptors. The common speech of the people was an Indian Prakrit [Buddha was said to have spoken Prakrit], but the script they used for the writing of this vernacular was not, as might have been expected, the current Brahmi of Northern India but a script known as Kharoshthi—a modified form of the Aramaic of Western Asia, which had been adopted for official use throughout the Persian Empire during Achaemenid times. [Jesus was supposed to have spoken Aramaic. Link between Buddhism and Christianity?] Other languages and other script were also employed, on occasion, in Gandhara. The coins, for example, normally had Greek legends on their obverse, Kharoshthi on their reverse; but in rare cases the legends were in Brahmi. Brahmi, too, was the usual script employed in the sacred manuscripts of the Buddhists. Nevertheless it is true to say that Gandhara took its everyday speech from India and its writing from the West.

The earliest images of Buddha, such as the one above from Gandhara, clearly show him as an Indo-Aryan.

This intimate fusion of widely divergent elements was equally apparent in the religious life of the people. As each successive conqueror added his quota to the local gallery of deities and creeds, the number and variety went on growing. In the second century CE the coins of the Kushan kings Kanishka and Huvishka, whose capital was at Peshawar, exhibit a truly amazing gallery of gods and goddesses probably unparalleled elsewhere in the field of numismatics. Most numerous are the Iranian types, including among others the sun (Mioro), the moon (Mao), the wind (Oado), fire (Athsho), war (Orlagno), victory (Oanindo). The names are given in corrupt Greek. Not all these multifarious deities were all worshiped at the heart of the Kushan empire in Gandhara; for they may well have been designed as a means of popularizing the new gold currency in distant parts of the Kushan empire and even beyond its borders, where it was hoped the currency might compete with the Roman aureus. Indeed, the great predominance of Western Asiatic types on these coins suggests that the currency was intended for use in the West rather than in the East. But, however this may be, this gold coinage leaves us in no doubt that the attitude of the Kushans towards religion was as thoroughly cosmopolitan as it was towards other matters, as cosmopolitan indeed as that of the Romans or Alexandrians, and perhaps no less practical. Looking at this coinage one would never guess that in the time of Kanishka and Huvishka Gandhara and the greater part of the Kushan empire were overwhelmingly Buddhist.

The beginnings of Buddhism in Gandhara go back no further than the middle of the third century BCE when the Maurya emperor Asoka sent one of his many missions to spread the gospel of his newly adopted faith among his subjects on the Northwest Frontier. [I've argued elsewhere that there is insufficient evidence to maintain that he converted to Buddhism.] Evidence of this mission’s activities may still be seen in the fourteen Edicts of the emperor engraved on the rocks at Shabaz-Garhi in the Peshawar Valley, which set forth the Buddhist principles of religion and ethic, and such simple rules of conduct as Asoka deemed most conducive to the welfare of his people.

To Asoka was also due the outstanding importance of the stupa or funeral mound as an emblem and cultural object of worship among the Buddhists. For one of the many acts by which he sought to popularize the Sakya faith was the gift to each of the principal cities in his dominions of a portion of the body relics of the Buddha. These he obtained by opening the seven of the eight stupas in which the relics had originally been enshrined and dividing up their contents. Along with the relics he also presented each city with a stupa worthy of housing them. [On the other hand this could be stuff of myth and legend.] In making these gifts the emperor may well have recognized the value of providing the worshippers with some visible and tangible object on which to focus their thoughts and prayers. But, whatever his purpose, the effect of these relic-stupas was profound and lasting. Not only did the presence of the relics make them cult objects of worship, but in after days the stupa itself, whether it contained a relic or not, was worshiped for its own sake; so that the mere erection of a stupa large or small and in whatever material, became an act of merit, bringing its author a step nearer salvation. [Not true; in Buddhism, doing good actions can never lead to salvation. “Whoever shall do nothing but good works will receive nothing but excellent future rewards.” The aim of the disciple is not to accumulate merit, but to win insight.] This matter of the stupa cult deserves our particular attention because it was on the adornment of the stupa that the early Buddhists lavished the wealth of their sculpture, and stupas, sometimes richly decorated, figure prominently among the reliefs of Gandhara.

By the side of some of his relic-stupas Asoka also erected tall pillars of stone, crowned by lions or other symbolical animals and usually inscribed with one or more of his Edicts. These, too, came to be looked on as characteristic emblems of the Buddhist Church, and are frequently to be seen portrayed in the sculptured panels of the Early Indian and Gandhara Schools. The finest of the pillars were executed by Greek or Perso-Greek sculptors; others by local craftsmen, with or without foreign supervision.

How Buddhism fared under the Greek princes of the Northwest during the second century BCE is largely a matter of inference and surmise. For among the myriads of Buddhist monuments and antiquities that have survived until the present day there is not one that can be referred with certainty to Greek authorship in the second century before our era. Indeed, the only positive bit of information about this Greek period that we possess is the story told in the Milindapanha about King Menander (reigned circa 140--110 BCE) and his conversion to Buddhism by Nagasena. Though the story may be largely apocryphal, there is no reason for doubting its substantial truth. The Greeks were very open-minded about religious matters; and the teaching of the Sakyamuni, by its essentially ethical character, by its logical reasoning, and by the stress it laid on free will and the observance of the golden mean, was bound to make a strong appeal to the Greek intellect.
[This supports my thesis that Buddhism was an invention of the philhellenic Sakas or Scythians and not the invention of a Vedic mind.] Moreover, from a political point of view Menander must have had the strongest reasons for identifying himself with the Buddhist Church in its struggle against their common enemy, the Sunga king Pushyamitra, and the violent Brahmanical reaction championed by him, which had led to the wholesale destruction of Buddhist monasteries in the Eastern Panjab.

Time Line.

518—515 BCE. Conquest of the Indus valley by Darius I. By shunting Buddha’s date forward by about a century, India’s first certain (more or less) date becomes the conquest of the Indus valley by Darius I, he whose far-flung battles included defeat at Marathon by the Athenians in 490 CE. Before this, Darius had evidently enjoyed greater success on his eastern frontier; a Persepolis inscription, dated to circa 518, lists amongst his numerous domains that of ‘Hi(n)du.’ An earlier inscription also refers to ‘Gadara,’ which looks like Gandhara, a mahajanapada or ‘state’ mentioned in both Sanskrit and Buddhist sources and located in an arc reaching from the western Panjab through the northwest frontier to Kabul and perhaps into southern Afghanistan (where ‘Kandahar’ is the same word). According to Xenophon and Herodotus, Gandhara had been conquered by Cyrus, one of Darius’ predecessors.

448/480 BCE. Birth of the Buddha (high and low range).

368/405 BCE. Death of the Buddha (high and low range).

331—327 BCE. Alexander the Great (ruled 336-323). Alexander's Indian campaign follows not long after Buddha's death. He is in Gandhara, conquers Taxila, and arrives at the Indus River.

The Indian king Porus on his war elephant, attacked by Alexander on horseback, a coin struck by Alexander to celebrate his victory in 326 BCE.

322 BCE. The rise of Chandragupta Maurya.

313—312 BCE. Chandragupta Maurya king of Magadha / Megasthenes at the court of Pataliputra, identified as modern Patna. But according to Dr. Ranajit Pal, this is incorrect. See A New Non-Jonesian History of the World.

264 BCE. Accession of Asoka. (Asoka’s stupas are difficult to identify in the archaeological record, but were likely built at important Buddhist centers in Gandhara and the Ganges Basin.)

200 BCE. The first Buddhist sites are founded in Gandhara, but no religious imagery is known from this period, (Butkara I, Swat valley and Dharmarajika, Taxila). The few Asokan rock-cut edicts that remain in Afghanistan and Pakistan do not directly address the introduction of Buddhism into Gandhara; many scholars have nonetheless considered them evidence of the beginning of Buddhism in the region. [If Asoka had introduced Buddhism to Gandhara, wouldn't he have boasted about it on his rock-cut edicts?] Not until the early second century BCE, however, was the earliest datable Buddhist site, Butkara I in the Swat Valley, founded in Greater Gandhara. The only other Buddhist site in Gandhara that can be attributed to the second century BCE is the Dharmarajika complex in Taxila, near Sirkap.

Dhamarajika, Taxila.

circa 168 BCE. King Menander (reigned circa 140--110 BCE) withdraws from the Magadha to the Panjab (until circa 145). According to Dr. Pal, Magadha is not modern Bihar; if it was it would mean that the Indo-Greeks controlled territory all the way to east India.

Menander, Bactrian Greek philospher-king of northwest India.

circa 150 BCE. The stupas of Bharhut and Sanchi / The Buddhist philosopher Nagasena / The Milindapanha.

Sanchi, Great Stupa, seen from the east, before 'restoration'.

circa 130 BCE. Invasion of Bactria by the Yuezhi tribe.

circa 90-80 BCE. Invasion of the Sakas (Indo-Scythes) / Collapse of the Greco-Bactrian kingdoms.

circa 70 BCE. The vedika of Bodh Gaya. Shrine and monastery of Bhaja.

circa 30 CE The toranas of Sanchi.

One of the four carved gateways (toranas) of the railings with which the Great Stupa at Sanchi was embellished.

circa 78 CE. The Saka era. The Kushanas extend their power in India.

1st century CE. First appearance of sculpture embellishing Buddhist sites (Gandhara).

circa 125 CE. Completion of the Ramayana and compilation of the Mahabharata. / The Begram site in Kapisa / Drafting of the Bhagavad Gita / The dramatist Asvaghosa.

circa 144—185 CE. Accession and death of king Kanishka.


Coin of Kanishka, Pakistan, ancient region of Gandhara.

A coin of Kanishka depicts, on the obverse, the king standing and facing left; he has a full beard and wears a pointed hat and heavy felt coat, a mode of dressing similar to that of Parthian kings, which marks him as coming from a land outside South Asia. Kanishka reaches out with his right hand to make a sacrifice at a low altar; in his left hand he carries a spear. Flames issue from his right shoulder, indicating his superior natural powers. The reverse of the coin shows a four-armed Shiva, a Hindu god, who is wearing a dhoti (loincloth) and holding a vajra (a weapon), and ankusa (elephant goad), a trident, and an antelope by the horns. No aspect of this coin's iconography makes reference to the Buddhist faith, which is especially significant since later Buddhist text sources refer to Kanishka as a great Buddhist king, equal only to Asoka. Kanishka did mint coins with images of Buddha on the reverse, but he also had coins produced showing a range of other South Asian (Hindu) and Near Eastern deities, associating his portrait with various gods venerated by the people of his realm and by his Near Eastern trading partners.

1st—3rd century CE. Kushan dynasty controls much of Greater Gandhara and north India, reaching the zenith of its power under kings Kanishka (ruled CE 129-155) and Huvishka (ruled 155-193).

2nd century CE. Period when many Buddhist sites are founded and when most Gandharan Buddhist native sculpture is produced.

3rd century CE. Devotional icons of the Buddha and bodhisattvas begin to be sculpted. Schist remains an important medium, but clay, stucco, and terracotta start to be widely used.

Before 200 (?) The Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna.

Before 300 (?) The sites of Nagarjunakonda and Goli.

circa 375—circa 414. The most splendid of the Ajanta caves / The philosophers Asanga and Vasubandhu / The poet and dramatist Kalidasa.

3rd—5th century CE. Period of greatest prosperity in Gandhara; new Buddhist sacred sites are founded and older ones are greatly expanded. Most Gandharan Buddhist iconic sculpture is produced during this period.

Massive rock-hewn Buddhist caitya at Mes Aynak, Ancient Gandhara.

4th—5th century CE. Devotional icons become monumental, and the iconography of Buddha images becomes more complex.

5th—6th century CE. Various Hun people take control of Gandhara. There is a gradual decline in donor patronage to Gandharan Buddhist sacred areas; as they contract, Buddhist communities re-use older sculpture.

Early Chinese pilgrims, for example, considered the relics at sites in Afghanistan and Gandhara, rather than the sacred sites of north India, the culmination of their travels through Central Asia.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Millau Viaduct - (Large cable-stayed road-bridge)


The Millau Viaduct (French: le Viaduc de Millau) is a large cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by Norman Foster of Foster and Partners, and bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux, it is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with one mast's summit at 343 metres (1,125 ft) — slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 38 m (125 ft) shorter than the Empire State Building. The viaduct is part of the A75-A71 autoroute axis from Paris to Béziers. It was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004 and opened to traffic two days later.







The bridge’s construction broke three world records :

The highest pylons in the world: pylons P2 and P3, 244.96 metres (803 ft 8 in) and 221.05 metres (725 ft 3 in) in height respectively, broke the French record previously held by the Tulle and Verrières Viaducts (141 m/460 ft), and the world record previously held by the Kochertal Viaduct (Germany), which is 181 metres (590 ft) at its highest;

The highest mast in the world: the mast atop pylon P2 peaks at 343 metres (1,130 ft).

The highest road bridge deck in the world, 270 m (890 ft) above the Tarn River at its highest point. It is nearly twice as tall as the previous tallest vehicular bridge in Europe, the Europabrücke in Austria. It is slightly higher than the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia in the United States, which is 267 m (880 ft) above the New River. Only the bridge deck of the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado, United States (mainly a pedestrian bridge over the Arkansas River, occasionally also used by motor vehicles) is higher with 321 m (1,050 ft), and is considered the highest bridge in the world.





The Millau Viaduct consists of an eight-span steel roadway supported by seven concrete pylons. The roadway weighs 36,000 tons and is 2,460 m (8,100 ft) long, measuring 32 m (100 ft) wide by 4.2 m (14 ft) deep, making it the world's longest cable-stayed deck. The six central spans each measure 342 m (1,120 ft) with the two outer spans measuring 204 m (670 ft). The roadway has a slope of 3% descending from south to north, and curves in a plane section with a 20 km (12 mi) radius to give drivers better visibility. It carries two lanes of traffic and one safety lane in each direction.



The pylons range in height from 77 m (250 ft) to 246 m (810 ft), and taper in their longitudinal section from 24.5 m (80 ft) at the base to 11 m (36 ft) at the deck. Each pylon is composed of 16 framework sections, each weighing 2,230 tons. These sections were assembled on site from pieces of 60 tons, 4 m (13 ft) wide and 17 m (56 ft) long, made in factories in Lauterbourg and Fos-sur-Mer by Eiffage. The pylons each support 97 m (320 ft) tall masts.

The pylons were assembled first, together with some intermediate temporary pylons, before the decks were slid out across the piers by satellite-guided hydraulic rams that moved the deck 600 mm every 4 minutes. Then the masts were driven over the new deck, erected on top of the pylons, connected to the deck and the temporary pylons removed.

Construction began on 10 October 2001 and was intended to take three years, but weather conditions put work on the bridge behind schedule. A revised schedule aimed for the bridge to be opened in January 2005. The viaduct was inaugurated by President Chirac on 14 December 2004 to open for traffic on 16 December, several weeks ahead of the revised schedule.



Original Content From: http://xtreme-engineering.blogspot.in/2008/11/millau-viaduct.html

Michigan Stadium (The Big House)

Michigan Stadium, nicknamed The Big House, is the football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan Stadium has often been called "The Carnegie Hall of all Sports" and is also known as "the House that Yost built." It was built in 1927, at a cost of $950,000 and had an original capacity of 72,000. Before playing football at the stadium, the Wolverines played on Ferry Field. Today, Michigan Stadium has an official capacity of 106,201, due to renovations for the 2008 season. The stadium previously had a capacity of 107,501 spectators. The football game attendance often exceeds 111,000 when band members, stadium staff, and others are added. The largest crowd in NCAA college football history was 112,118 on November 22, 2003 for a game against Ohio State.




Currently the stadium lists as the second largest in the United States, behind Penn State's Beaver Stadium. Michigan has retained its number one ranking in actual attendance. The former official capacity of 107,501 made The Big House the largest stadium in the United States up until the recent changes. Current renovations are expected to be completed in time for the 2010 football season. These renovations will bring the capacity up to 108,000, once again making it the largest football stadium in the country. It is the fourth largest stadium in the world, and the 31st largest sports venue in general (which includes auto racing and horse racing tracks, among others).



Michigan Stadium's size is not entirely apparent to outside observers, as it is constructed partially below grade, leaving only the upper 20 rows (in most sections) visible from the outside. The stadium's original capacity was 72,000, but Yost made certain to install steel footings that could allow for expansion up to 200,000 seats. Initially, all seating consisted of wood bleachers. These were replaced with permanent metal seating in 1949 by Crisler, who had become athletic director. Longtime radio announcer Bob Ufer dubbed Michigan Stadium "The hole that Yost dug, Crisler paid for, Canham carpeted, and Schembechler fills every cotton-pickin' Saturday afternoon.




From 1927 to 1968, the stadium's field was covered in natural grass. This was replaced with TartanTurf in 1969 to give players better traction. However, this surface was thought to be unforgiving on players' joints, and the stadium returned to natural turf in 1991. This too became problematic, as the field's below-surface location near the water table made it difficult for grass to permanently take root. The field was converted to FieldTurf, an artificial surface designed to give grass-like playing characteristics, in 2003.
















Michigan Stadium Seating Chart


Michigan Stadium in Winter

  
  
Original Content From: http://xtreme-engineering.blogspot.in/2009/11/michigan-stadium.html

Girl accidentally hangs herself at haunted house

FENTON, Mo. — A girl was found hanging by a noose inside a haunted house attraction Thursday night, according to law-enforcement officials. Customers may have even walked past her thinking she was a scary prop.
Police believe it was an accident at “Creepy World” in Fenton. Police say a 17-year-old female actor, whose name has not been disclosed, was using a noose as a prop before the accident. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s office says she was unconscious when rushed to a hospital and is now in critical, but guarded condition. Deputies continue to investigate.
“We noticed a bathtub was there. It appears as though the individual stood up on the sides of the bathtub and for whatever reason, put their head in this noose. It looks like her feet may have slipped,” said Captain Ron Arnhart of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office.
Police say the complex shut down part of the attraction after the accident, but re-opened it within a few hours. No one from Creepy World has been available for comment.

Resource: http://bangordailynews.com/2011/11/01/news/nation/girl-accidentally-hangs-herself-at-haunted-house/

Ghost Sex At Ohio Haunted House Arouses Interest Of Paranormal Researchers

A house in Euclid, Ohio, is arousing interest from ghost researchers because the owner claims that she has seen two ghosts having sex with each other.
Dianne Carlisle claims that she has seen afterlife amore going in the living room, which seems to be more of a living-and-dead room.
"It looks like, like ghosts having sex," she told the Fox affiliate in Cleveland. "You can see the lady's high heeled shoes!"
If true, this represents an extraordinary development in paranormal research, according to Ohio-based investigator David Jones.
"This has never been reported before," Jones told HuffPost Weird News. "It would be interesting to know more about the house, especially [Carlisle's deceased sister], who supposedly left a voicemail message from the afterlife. However, I don't think that has anything to do with [the sex], but I do wonder how long it's been going on.
Jones says ghosts are examples of residual energy that get imprinted on to a certain location and aren't always from dead people.






"It's possible that the ghost could be [Carlisle] from an earlier age," he said.
Although Carlisle claims she has pictures of the ghosts "getting busy" that were snapped by her four-year-old granddaughter Kimora while she was playing with Dianne's cell phone in the living room, paranormal experts like Amy Allan, star of the Travel Channel series "The Dead Files," is skeptical.
"I've never seen two dead people who were conscious entities have intercourse," Allan told HuffPost Weird News. "I have heard of people having sex with ghosts, but not this."
Based on the evidence she's seen from the news report, Allan is skeptical.
"All we have are a few images that don't relate well to YouTube," she said.
But paranormal researcher Alexandra Holzer, whose dad, Hans Holzer, was a pioneer in the field, says the case, while unusual, is not uncommon.
"These could be two spirits who knew each other in life and have a connection to the house," she said. "When you're dealing with residual energy -- which is what a ghost is -- any intense emotional experience can be imprinted, and that could be an act of passion or of murder."
On the other hand, she says it's possible that the ghostly lovers had no connection with each other when they were on Earth and simply found themselves in the afterworld.
Holzer recommends more research be done on the house, and says that might require researchers as well as psychics who can communicate with any of the spirits that may be lurking.
"You have to speak to ghosts conversationally," she advised. "Say something like, 'I can appreciate it that you have a connection with each other, but we have children here."
Jones, who lives three hours away from the horny haunted house, says he'd love to investigate this afterlife orgy, but Allan says there's not a ghost of a chance she will devote an episode to the horny house.
"It's better for the Playboy Channel, than the Travel Channel," she laughed.

WAS BUDDHA A SCYTHIAN?

The Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed. The Thracians make theirs have gray-eyes and red-hair. And if oxen and horses and lions had hands and could paint with their hands, and produce works of art as men do, horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, and make their bodies in the image of their own.
Xenophanes (circa 570-circa 478 BCE.)

Seated mustachioed Buddha.
Pakistan or Afghanistan, ancient region of Gandhara, 1st-2nd century CE.

Since the 19th century certain Buddhologists have speculated that Buddha was a member of the Scythian steppe nomads, some of whom had been encroaching since the mid-first millennium BCE into the Gandhara region, becoming sedentary in the process, eventually reaching northwest India and founding an empire there in the first century BCE.

"Even a cursory acquaintance with later Vedic texts, like the Upanisads, and that of the earliest Buddhist and Jain texts leaves the reader wondering whether they can possibly refer to the same society, even though admittedly there is a time gap of a thousand years between their composition. The Sanskrit texts evoke a mostly agrarian way of life in which states play a minor part and status is governed by lineage and ritual observance. Buddhist and Jain texts, on the other hand, portray a network of functioning states, each with an urban nucleus heavily engaged in trade and production. Here wealth as much as lineage confers status. Indeed, the Buddhist concept of ‘merit’ as something to be earned, accumulated, occasionally transferred and eventually realized seems inconceivable without a close acquaintance with the moneyed economy." This is strong circumstantial evidence for the Buddha, or the man who the story of the Buddha was based on, actually having been a Gandharan, where urbanization developed ahead of north and east India.

Another piece of circumstantial evidence is found in the Digha Nikaya [DN 1.90-95] which tells a story of Buddha's people, the Sakyas/Scythians, as being 'foreign.' They are described by Ambattha as "fierce, rough spoken, violent, wanderers (sometimes incorrectly mistranslated as menials, but refers to their medicant lifestyle; or could it be a slight on their nomadic past?). They do not respect Brahmins, nor pay homage to them." Upon visiting Kapilavatthu, hometown of the Sakyas, Ambattha explains them as those who "sat upon high seats in meeting halls, engaging in laughing, rough playing, poking each other with fists and fingers and paid no regard to [Ambattha]." In referring to Buddha, the "Scythian-sage" (Sakyamuni), he [DN 3.144] "has blue eyes." See here and here.

Relief panel with the Dipankara Jataka, (Megha and the Buddha Dipankara). Pakistan, Swat Valley, circa 2nd century CE.

The most visual circumstantial evidence, as the relief panel and Buddha image above show, is that Gandharan artists were still representing Buddha, (present and previous buddhas), as Aryans wearing Greek togas well into the Common Era.

These are some observations to support the contention that Buddha was a Saka/Scythian:

1. Buddha was of the kshatriya (warrior) caste; foreign invaders were always co-opted into this caste by the Brahmins;

2. Buddha rejected the caste system;

3. Buddhism introduced animal motifs to India derived from the steppe peoples: the stag or deer, symbol of Buddha's first sermon in the deer park; the horse--Buddha rode out of his father's palace as a renunciate on his horse Kanthaka, which was immediately taken to heaven to be reborn among the gods; the Scythian eagle and lion griffins used as motifs at Barhut and Sanchi stupas, etc;

Relief panel with the Buddha's first sermon, showing the wheel and deer symbols.
Pakistan, ancient region of Gandhara, circa 2nd century CE.

4. The cremation of bodies and the erection of burial mounds, or stupas (topes), previously unknown in India.

5. The Buddhist ideal of the chakravartin, or wheel-turning monarch, to which kings aspired, a concept borrowed from the steppe peoples who must have been quite familiar with wheels and wagons;

6. One of the 32 marks of the mahapurusha, or great man (Buddha was one), was that he had blue eyes. This would indicate that Buddha was an Iranian/Caucasian.

1. From Relics of the Buddha by John S. Strong:

"This is not the place to examine the origin of the chakravartin ideal and its influence on the legend of the Buddha. Suffice it to say that the parallelism between the Buddha's funeral and that of a chakravartin continues a theme already implied in the doctrine of the twin careers of a mahapurusa. It is sometimes argued that this association with great kingship was intended to enhance the prestige of the Buddha as a figure of great distinction. At the same time, however, it is important to see one of the more specific implications of this. Jean Przyluski, who has looked into Northwest Indian, Hellenistic, and, ultimately, Ancient Near Eastern traditions as sources of at least parts of the chakravartin mythology, has argued that we should look in the same direction for the origins of relic worship in India. [Watch "Alexander the God King."] He points out that Alexander the Great was divinized and that a dispute erupted over his body, which the Macedonians felt would bring happiness and prosperity to the land where it was kept. Even more specifically, he cites the case of King Menander, whose ashes (according to Plutarch) were divided among the cities of Northwest India, which erected mnemeia, [memorials, i.e., caityas], over each portion. For Przyluski, then, the veneration of a great being's remains was intimately linked to the nascent cult of the chakravartin and both were imported ideologies. This is important because, if it is true, the fact that Buddha's body is to be treated as though it were that of a great king may not simply be intended to "glorify" or "divinize" him. More basically, it may be related to the injunction that his relics be preserved, and that his body not be handled like those of ordinary beings or of other sannyasins, whose remains were not preserved."

2. From The Indian Saint; or, Buddha and Buddhism: A Sketch, Historical and Critical, by Charles D. B. Mills, 1874:

[Samuel] Beal [translator of Buddhist Records of the Western World from ancient Chinese], however, advances the opinion that [Buddha] was of Scythian descent. A branch or clan of this race, he thinks, may have penetrated Northern India, as another did Assyria about this time, and Buddha was born of this blood, a descendant of Chakravarttins or Wheel Kings, i.e., universal monarchs. Sakya's directions as to the funeral obsequies to be observed after his death, the cremation of the body, and the subsequent erection of mounds, or topes, in such numbers over India,--all, he deems, indicate a foreign parentage for this saint... But this of the directions is very probably a subsequent invention; it certainly comports little with his known character, and especially with the light esteem, almost the contempt, in which he is represented to have held the body. The weight of the evidence seems altogether in favor of the view that he was of the Aryan race and family of the Sakyas.

I don't agree with Mills' last part where he states that Buddha held the body in light esteem. In fact, Buddha had a very high opinion of himself and always wanted to be treated in a special way.

3. From
The Indian empire: its people, history, and products
By William Wilson Hunter (published 19th century),

There are indications that a branch of the Scythian hordes, who overran Asia about 625 B.C., made its way to Patala on the Indus, the site selected by Alexander in 325 B.C. as his place of arms in that delta, and long the capital of Sindh under the name of Haidarabad. One portion of these Patala Scythians seems to have moved westwards by the Persian Gulf to Assyria; another section is supposed to have found its way northeast into the Gangetic valley, and branched off into the Sakyas of Kapilavastu, among whom the Buddha was born.


During the two hundred years before the Christian era, the Scythic movements come a little more clearly into sight, and in the first century after Christ those movements culminate in a great Indian sovereignty. About 126 B.C., the Tartar tribe of Su are said to have conquered the Greek dynasty of Bactria, and the Graeco-Bactrian settlements in the Punjab were overthrown by the Tue-Chi, [Yuezhi].

The football-field-size burial mound that Scythians made with sandstone from nearby cliffs which were the forerunner of Buddhist stupas. Above is Arzhan-2 in Tuva's Valley of the Tsars. (National Geographic, copyright infringement unintended). Archaeologists found undisturbed wooden vault with two skeletons and 44 pounds of gold (2). They also found rare remnants of clothing (3), a horse grave (4), but nothing at (1) where kings were usually buried.

Two centuries later, we touch solid ground in the dynasty whose chief representative, Kanishka, held the Fourth Buddhist Council, circa 40 A.D., and became the royal founder of Northern Buddhism. [Historicity of Fourth Council now doubted.] But long anterior to the alleged Tue-Chi settlements in the Punjab, tribes of Scythic origin had found their way into India, and had left traces of non-Aryan origin upon Indian civilization. The sovereignty of Kanishka in the first century A.D. was not an isolated effort, but the ripened fruit of a series of ethnical movements.

Coin of Kanishka, Pakistan, region of ancient Gandhara, circa 130 CE. Reverse, Hindu deity; Kanishka also struck coins with Buddha on the reverse, (below), where Boddo is clearly stamped.

Certain scholars believe that even before the time of the Buddha, there are relics of Scythic origin in the religion of India. It has been suggested that the Asvamedha, or Great Horse Sacrifice, in some of its developments at any rate, was based upon Scythic ideas. 'It was in effect,' writes Mr. Edward Thomas, 'a martial challenge, which consisted in letting the victim who was to crown the imperial triumph at the year's end, go free to wander at will over the face of the earth; its sponsor being bound to follow its hoofs, and to conquer or conciliate' the chiefs through whose territories it passed. Such a prototype seems to him to shadow forth the life of the Central Asian communities of the horseman class, 'among whom a captured steed had so frequently to be traced from camp to camp, and surrendered or fought for at last.' The curious connection between the Horse Sacrifice and the Man Sacrifice of the pre-Buddhistic religion of India has often been noticed. That connection has been explained from the Indian point of view, by the substitution theory of a horse for a human victim.

Workers unearth the remains of 14 sacrificed horses; a measure of wealth on Earth and in the hereafter, horses were the mainstays in many Scythian graves. This herd is modest--Scythian graves elsewhere have been found with hundreds of horses. (National Geographic).

Whatever significance may attach to this rite, it is certain that with the advent of Buddhism, Scythic influences made themselves felt in India. Indeed, it has been attempted to establish a Scythic origin for Buddha himself. One of his earliest appearances in the literature of the Christian Church is as Buddha the Scythian. It is argued that by no mere accident did the Fathers trace the Manichaean doctrine to Scythianus, whose disciple, Terebinthus, took the name Buddha. As already stated, the form of abjuration of the Manichaean heresy mentions [Buddha and the Scythian or Sakya], seemingly, says Weber, a separation of Buddha Sakya-muni into two. The Indian Buddhists of the Southern school would dwell lightly on, or pass over altogether, a non-Aryan origin for the founder of their faith. We have seen how the legend of Buddha in their hands assimilated itself into the old epic type of the Aryan hero. But a Scythic origin would be congenial to the Northern school of Buddhism: to the school which was consolidated by the Scythic monarch Kanishka, and which supplied a religion during more than ten centuries to Scythic tribes of Central Asia.

4. From Earth to Heaven The Royal Animal-Shaped Weights of the Burmese Empire by Donald and Joan Gear:

The invasions of the Greeks, Sakas, Parthians and Kushans into the Bactria and north India regions between the 1st century BCE and 2nd century CE led to one of the most creative periods in the history of India’s art. Another important influence was that of the Romans from about the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE.

In Ordos, bronzes with animal decoration continued until about the 5th or 6th century CE. This region is sometimes referred to as the last stand of animal art. At some time before the 2nd century BCE the Yueh-chieh [Yuezhi] in present day Kansu, not far from Ordos then at its peak of abundant production, must have contacted the Sakas of near Lake Balkash and acquired knowledge of its stag art, which, in modified form, could have been transmitted south through Szechwan to the semi-nomadic tribes of Yunnan. The Yueh-chieh subsequently drove out the Sakas (about 160 BCE) who then moved into northwest India, (Gandhara), while the Yueh-chieh became the Kushans at the west end of the Tarim basin.

The Saka retained some of their animal art but the Yueh-chieh abandoned theirs. The region from the Black Sea to Mongolia, including Central Asia, from before the 8th century BCE was occupied by nomadic steppe tribes many culturally and probably ethnically related to the East Iranians (i.e. they were Indo-Aryans). Many belonged to the Saka group. Those occupying the region north of the Black Sea were named Scythians by the 8th century BCE Greeks, those west of the Altai mountains were called Saka by the pre-6th century BCE Persians and those east of the mountains, for convenience today, are called Saka-Siberian. On the northwest borders of China and in the Tarim basin region before the 2nd century BCE were the Yueh-chieh, also probably an Indo-Aryan people related to the Sakas. They were driven along with the Sakas by the Hsiung-Nu, a Turki people. The Indo-Aryans of about 2000 BCE and the Saka group are the most important of the steppe nomads to this work.

Firstly, this is because the Indo-Aryan peoples of 2000 BCE brought to India in the Vedic religion basic concepts held by the steppe nomads which, together with Indian animism, led to Hinduism and Buddhism. Secondly, it is because tribes of, or related to the Saka group repeatedly invaded India from 2000 BCE onwards, so spreading their culture from the kingdoms and republics they established in India and thus leading to the flowering of stone architectural animal art in India from about the 2nd century BCE.

The Saka influence on animal art appears to have flowed round both sides of the Tibet plateau and converged on southeast Asia. This flow of art and people may have led to the foundation of the first Burmese kingdom, Tagaung. The Yueh-chieh were driven away from their homeland by the Hsiung-Nu about the 2nd century BCE; part of the tribe moved south towards Burma and part moved west to the northern marches of India, changing their name to Kushan as they did so. There, for about five centuries, they became a great influence on the development of Mahayanist Buddhism and overland trade from the Persian to the Chinese borders.

During their migration they drove a part of the Sakas before them and these settled in west India before temporarily extending their sway to the east of India south of the Kushans. The persistence of the word ‘Saka’ in various forms in India and Burma is noteworthy. Sakka is another name of Indra, the Indo-Aryan and Hindu god. Saka is the name of the group of tribes of which the Scythians were one. The Sakas, ‘people of the stag,’ are associated with the animal symbols of the chakravartin, (universal ‘wheel-turning’ sovereign). Gautama Buddha was the Sakyamuni, the sage of the Sakyas.

Lion capital of the pillar erected by Asoka at Sarnath. Mauryan, circa 250 BCE. Chunar sandstone, Height 2.5m. (Archaeological Museum, Sarnath).

The lion is among the figurines created by the people of the Indus valley civilizations about 2000 BCE, though it does not become a frequently used motif, at least in durable material, until it was adopted by the Buddhists about the 3rd century BCE when it looks distinctly west Asian or perhaps Persian. The adoption of the lion motif instead of the tiger may have been because the Buddhists needed a royal symbol without the ferocious or steppe nomad association of the tiger, the emblem of the warrior caste into which Gautama Buddha was born. The stone-shafted pillars of India, usually referred to as Asokan pillars, can be separated into two age groups: pre-3rd century BCE and later. The early pillars bear, or bore, on their tops copper gilt images of the lion, the bull, and the elephant. Of these the lion image is by far the most frequent. It is also the youngest, replacing the bull and elephant images. It occurs in the region formerly occupied by the republican, warlike Licchavis and later by the Nandas. In style the images show the influence of the Anatolian Hittites (20th century-8th century BCE), as do those of the south Chinese lions of the 2nd century BCE—6th century CE. The Indian lion representation gradually changed its form, partly because most of the sculptors probably had never seen a lion, which was rare in India compared with west Asia and which today exists only in west India, and partly because it was intended to represent the broadcasting of a spiritual image. By the 11th century CE its shape had become unrealistic, humanoid, and subsequently became increasingly so.

Left: Gold stag headdress pin; the deer became an important Buddhist icon.

Stags appear to be particularly important in the art and myths of Central Asia, the steppes and Siberia from 1500 BCE and earlier. The stag was especially used by the Altaian Saka people. It was one of the three main animals represented in their art, the others being the horse and the tiger. In the Indus valley civilizations of about 2000 BCE stag-horns were emplaced on composite creations. Portrayals show that Agni was horned. Agni was one of the chief gods of the Aryan invasion from the steppes of about 1000 BCE. Stag representations are not found again until the last two centuries BCE but then seem to be replaced mainly by ruminants with unbranched horns or does.

The two thousand five hundred-year-old Pazyryk rug, found in 1949 on the steppes of Mongolia in a Scythian prince’s tomb, already displays all the symbols later to be associated with Buddhism: the lotus blossoms, solar symbols, stags, horses, and eagle and lion griffins.

Except in the Upper Punjab, the deer was not worshipped in India. The Punjabi worship was derived from the Sakas, ‘the people of the stag,’ from near Lake Balkash, who ruled various parts of northern India from about the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE. The horned lion or lion-griffin reached the Indus valley about 2000 BCE. The griffin was utilized by Alexander the Great and he may have introduced or reintroduced it to India about 325 BCE. Certainly two griffins of about 3rd century BCE occur at Patna. Lion-griffins and eagle griffins were employed in the sculpting on the Indian Buddhist temples of the 2nd to 1st century BCE, the motifs possibly having been introduced by the Scythians (Saka) invaders. The griffin and the lion-griffin motifs were distributed by the steppe nomads on the artifacts manufactured in western Asia, just as they transmitted artifacts and motifs from the Orient.

The Scythians of east Asia adapted these motifs to their own requirements before the 7th century BCE. It is likely that the lion-griffin had reached the Altai, Siberia and China well before 1000 BCE. The Scythians preferred combat scenes with griffins as the aggressors and they themselves became especially associated with the griffin by the western world, which in fact made the association Scythia-griffin-gold because at that time, the Altai and adjacent regions produced much of the world’s gold. Lion-griffin figurines were present in Bactria in the 4th century BCE at a time when colonies of Greeks were working for the Scythians. In the 3rd-1st century lion-griffins were being made at Pazyryk in the Altai.

The Neolithic religions of the Eurasian agriculturalists appear to have been characterized by a belief in earth gods, i.e. those of the earth as a whole, of the soil and of the underworld. This belief is expressed most obviously in the forms of earth mounds, sometimes capped by stones, megaliths, dolmens, menhirs, small stone pyramids and other structures. Such occur in Central Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Assam, Orissa, Southeast Asia, etc. Later the belief was expressed in the form of pillars in India, Yunnan and Vietnam, as stupas in much of the same region and, in Southeast Asia, as temples intended to represent mountains, e.g. many Khmer temples. The natural, or man-made, elevations seems to have been regarded as a substitute for the body of the local earth god (and later for the tribe itself symbolized through the ancestors of the rulers) within which was concentrated the power of the deity, a capping stone often serving to concentrate the power still more effectively. Celestial gods formed part of the cosmology but were less important than the earth gods. A link between the two kinds of god was often made by the use of a pillar or tree on or near the mound, but the elevation itself, especially if high, may have served as the link. Horse sacrifices, practiced by the Mongols, Turko-Tartars, Indo-European peoples and others, were always offered to the god of the sun and sky. The horse, especially a white one, symbolized the sun. In the Altai it was the function of the shaman, in a trance, to accompany the soul of a sacrificed horse on its celestial journey and also to offer horseflesh to the ancestors. Horse sacrifices and horse burials formed part of the burial rites of these peoples throughout the entire region, the best known being those of the Indo-Aryan Scythians, Sakas and other invaders of India. These rites and sun worship continued among the Mongols until after the 14th century CE, while Tartar chiefs continued to present thousands of white horses to the Chinese emperor until after the 18th century CE. In ancient India and elsewhere, long hair on shamans, such as the Ari favored, symbolized the snakes that appeared on the costumes and in the beliefs of the Central Asian shamans. The snake played an important role in Central Asian and Siberian mythology and on the shaman’s costume. The Indo-Aryans of about 1500 BCE, the Scythians of pre-8th century BCE and the Sakas of the same stock about 2nd century BCE all invaded India. They drank intoxicants like the Ari and took narcotics (soma, haoma) to attain ecstasy. The Sakas had ancestor cults. In Hindu-Buddhist cosmogony there are 33 gods who reside on the summit of Mount Meru, among whom Indra (Sakka) is king. In Central Asia the people of the Altai mountains have a belief in 33 heavens. In the 7th century BCE Saka-Siberian burial site of Tuva, just east of the Altai mountains, the chief’s tomb comprises a large central mound surrounded by a stone wall 44 meters away. The annulus so-formed is separated into sections by 32 radial spokes built of stones bearing incised depictions of horses. This is a temple of the sun. The number of 32 appears also as that of the number of bodily marks of the chakravartin. There seems to be good reason to think that the 32 fiefdoms of the chakravartin are derived from the solar cult of the Indo-Aryans and reached Burma through the Sakas.

The Aryan invasion of Persia and India of about 2000 BCE introduced the Vedic religion. The descendants of the Aryans and the Saka/Scythians (sun and snake worshippers) became allies perhaps before 700 BCE, the Sakas becoming known as ‘the serpent’ or naga race, while the naga itself became one of the most important associates of the Brahmanic, Hindu and Buddhist pantheons. According to the Indian Puranas, Gautama Buddha originated from the solar race of Iskshvahu and at the commencement of his ascetic life, he was protected by the naga king. Tombs of Gautama’s own Sakya tribe, excavated in the 19th century, each contained an effigy of a naga.


Naga king and his consort--Cave Temples, Ajanta, Maharashtra.

This is one of the several pieces of evidence linking Gautama Buddha with the steppe nomads. Vedism and indigenous animism merged to form Hinduism about the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, about the same time as Buddhism emerged. In the section entitled ‘Trade’ the voyages of the allied Sakas and Indo-Aryans as traders are mentioned and it is these which may have given rise to some of the Hindu legends, such as the ‘Churning of the Oceans,’ and the association of the naga with water. Beginning not later than the 2nd century BCE and increasing during the 1st and 3rd centuries CE, Buddhism spread to Central Asia under the dominant influence of the fervently Buddhist and-commercially-conscious Kushans, (the former Yueh-chieh), whose empire stretched from north India to Bactria and from the Parthian empire of Persia on the west to that of the Chinese Han empire on the east. Eastern Persia and much of Afghanistan also adopted Buddhism, parts remaining until after the Moslem invasion. In the shaman’s ecstatic techniques throughout central and north Asia, the number seven plays an important role, one which is due ultimately to influences from Babylon. On his costume, a Yurak shaman may have seven balls representing the seven celestial maidens. There are also the common beliefs in seven or nine each of celestial and infernal levels, though rarely, up to 33 occur. In his rites the Altaic shaman climbs a tree or a post notched with seven or nine steps to symbolize his ascent to the most powerful one. The seven steps are similar to the Buddha’s seven steps mentioned below, a concept derived from Buddhism’s parent, Brahmanism. In legend Buddha could walk immediately after his birth. He took seven steps in the direction of each of the cardinal points and claimed possession of the world. Seven days after Guatama Buddha’s birth his mother died. After Buddha’s enlightenment he meditated for three periods each of seven days. After these he was wrapped in seven coils of the serpent king, Mucalinda, and endured continuous rain for seven days. Seven also symbolizes the horse, one of the seven treasures of the chakravartin.