Monthly Archives: March 2007

Blowing the mammalian fuse

Posted on March 31, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Since the time of manu we have tried to understand the relationships between organisms. But even after realization of the modern evolutionary theory we failed completely achieve this goal. Many of us are chipping away at it, and the one … Continue reading →

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The figure in the shadows

Posted on March 29, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

After the futile battle of khANDava, which to us was like the decline into the sufferings of the kali age, we had climbed into the tower of parIkShit. Having been driven away from there by fate we had landed in … Continue reading →

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The purANa of the Maharatta ruler, the paTTisha and other issues

Posted on March 26, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

The Hindu paurANic style never died out. We know of the many responses seen in Sanskrit literature to the Mohammedan onslaught. We had earlier seen how kShemendra had described the kali yuga before the coming of kalki. The learned Ravlekar … Continue reading →

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An odd mantra

Posted on March 23, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

R mentioned to me a while back a mantra of great significance to sarasvatI that her ancestors had acquired from Shymol Ram:OM dhIH shruti-vij~nA || (1)Neither R nor me have not been able to locate it any tantra available to … Continue reading →

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Amniotes

Posted on March 19, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

The “anapsids” and their place in reptilian evolution have long puzzled biologists. The first major advance in amniote phylogeny was because of the brilliant, but largely forgotten English zoologist Edwin Goodrich, who showed that the basal division in the amniotes … Continue reading →

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New species of Neofelis?

Posted on March 17, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

R brought to my attention that there was a considerable press attention being give all of a sudden to two papers published late last year in the tabloid Current Biology by the cat experts O’Brien and Kitchener’s groups. The essence … Continue reading →

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Early Angiosperm evolution

Posted on March 16, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

1) Cabomba; 2) Waterlily; 3)Trithuria Molecular methods have caused a cataclysmic shake up in angiosperm phylogeny. Since Linnaeus the mainstream belief was that the angiosperms were divided into Monocots and Dicots, with each clade being supported by numerous characteristics, the … Continue reading →

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The Southern kekaya-s

Posted on March 14, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

The early kShatriya-s of the andhrApatha are important to understand the origins and transmission of the early medieval kaumAra sect. They are also critical to understand the peregrinations of kShatriya-s throughout India and the role they played in the unification … Continue reading →

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gAyatraM

Posted on March 13, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI
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The third vIra

Posted on March 10, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Whom shall vR^itrahan make the master of the realm?Whom shall the wise asura of the skies favor?Whom shall the bright Aditya be the friend of?Whom shall father dyaus and mother pR^ithivi raise to glory?Whom will the golden-handed deva savitA impel? … Continue reading →

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Organ and Edwards on dinosaur genomes

Posted on March 9, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Scott Edwards has been doing some interesting research on amniote genomes for sometime- of the type I was long back very interested in, before moving on to ancient evolutionary events. He had earlier presented the possibility that the decrease in … Continue reading →

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Australian entomofauna and arachnofauna

Posted on March 8, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

R and Marc had returned after long and were having a chat along with Sharada even though we should have been doing work. After all we are very like the Hindu kings who squandered their days in bhoga even when … Continue reading →

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vikrama enters the graveyard

Posted on March 6, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

tataH shamashAnam saMprApa niHsha~Nko bhuta-saMkulaMsarvApAyamayaM kAyam ivA .a.ayAsashatAshrayaMThen fearlessly he entered the crematorium which was full of ghostsIt was like the body of all deaths, the abode of a hundred misfortunes. mastiShka-lipta-shubraasthi prakaraM lohitAsavamAkrIDaM iva kAlasya kapAla-chaShakA-kulaMFull of heaps of … Continue reading →

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The jarAbodhIya sAmans

Posted on March 6, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

shakti was the son of maitrAvaruNi vasiShTha. The sons of shakti were the shAktya-s like parAshara and gauravIti. They were performing a yAga in which pashu-puroDAshas were offered. For this purpose the R^iShi gaurivIti shAktya had shot a deer. Just … Continue reading →

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indra’s a~Nkusha: conceiving the old Indo-Aryan weapon

Posted on March 4, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

The a~Nkusha is a common weapon of the gods. This in itself appears a bit strange. Among the gods it is most closely associated as the weapon of choice of the dreadful vinAyaka and kAmeshvarI. Most medieval icons of these … Continue reading →

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The "Kashmirian" ayyars

Posted on March 2, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

While there is some evidence from the early shrIvidyA and siddhAnta tantric sundaranAtha (tirumUlar) was probably from kAshmIra or at least had teachers from kAshmIra, we know little of him and his affiliation with other smArta brAhmaNa-s of the drAviDa … Continue reading →

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rudra vibhUti stotra

Posted on March 1, 2007 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

namaH shivAya rudrAya kadrudrAya prachetase |mIDhuShTamAya sarvAya shipiviShTAya-raMhase ||namaste kAlakAlAya namaste rudra manyave |namaH shivAya rudrAya sha~NkarAya shivAya te ||ugrosi sarva-bhUtAnAM niyantAsi shivosi naH |namaH shivAya sharvAya sha~NkarAyArtihariNe || grahAdhipatye bhagavAn-abhyaShi~nchad-divAkaram |vR^ikShANAm oShadhInAM cha somaM brahmA prajApatiH ||apAM cha varuNaM … Continue reading →

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