Monthly Archives: June 2010

Some peculiarities of the pada paTha

Posted on June 28, 2010 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Years ago while learning RV 2.12.13 I encountered a peculiarity of Vedic usage that I asked my teacher about. He described the two alternatives: 1) going with pata~njali’s recommendation that the pada pATha should be reconstructed as per pANini, ignoring … Continue reading →

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The mantra saMhitA of the devI purANa

Posted on June 25, 2010 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

The devI purANa is one of the several dedicated shAktA purANa-s such as devI-bhAgavata, mahAbhagavata and kAlikA. The sections of other purANa-s like the proto-skanda purANa (the vindhyavAsinI section), the mArkaNDeya purANa (the devI mAhAtmya section) and the lalitopAkhyAna of … Continue reading →

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jyeShThA in shivAlaya-s

Posted on June 23, 2010 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Some of the major saiddhAntika pratiShTha tantra-s give an account of the installation of alakShmI or jyeShThA along with her daughter rakta-jyeShThA or mAnyA and her son vR^iSha who in shaiva tradition is bull-headed. Unfortunately, this section has not been … Continue reading →

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Did Wallace completely understand evolution?

Posted on June 18, 2010 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

At the outset I must present the disclaimer that I am no scholar of the histories of Wallace or Darwin. What I state here is merely my impression gleaned from readings of their own works and a subset of the … Continue reading →

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Southwest monsoons in kAvya

Posted on June 15, 2010 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

The life line of bhArata, the southwest monsoon wind, appears to have been an object of attention of the Hindu poets over the ages. One example presented by vidyAkara, whose author remains unknown to me, goes thus: vAti vyasta-lava~Nga-lodhra-lavalI-ku~njaH kara~nja-drumAn … Continue reading →

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Turtle origins: A flawed return to the parareptile theory by the morphologists

Posted on June 10, 2010 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

We have repeatedly discussed on these pages how molecular phylogenies have consistently shown morphological phylogenies to be outright wrong. The examples are many, and we need not rehash them again. A few researchers, including us, have seen this incongruence as … Continue reading →

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Origin mythologies from the upper penisula

Posted on June 5, 2010 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

R and me were wandering in the mAhArATTa country after having rid ourselves from the curricular entanglements. We rode on our “ashva-s” past the prickly pear that stood between a low encasement of Deccan basalts and the most ancient temple … Continue reading →

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