Sunday, July 29, 2007

Networking Basics

Hi... Frnds start learning CCNA. Now i start with networking basics. Please post ur doubts to arun2xy@rediffmail.com or give comments.

NETWORKING

As u all know about it... Networking is collection of two or more computers basically to share hardware devices and software application. Lets see about it....

WHY A COMPUTER NETWORK?



The main reasons are:

  • Distribute pieces of computation among computers (nodes)
  • Coordination between processes running on different nodes
  • Remote I/O Devices
  • Remote Data/File Access
  • Personal communications (like e-mail, chat, audio/video conferencing)
  • World Wide Web
  • ... and many other uses
TYPES OF NETWORKS


We can categorize different types of network for historical reasons, the networking industry refers to nearly every type of design as some kind of area network.

Types of area networks are ,

  • LAN - Local Area Network
  • WLAN - Wireless Local Area Network
  • WAN - Wide Area Network
  • MAN - Metropolitan Area Network
  • SAN - Storage Area Network, System Area Network, Server Area Network, or sometimes Small Area Network
  • CAN - Campus Area Network, Controller Area Network, or sometimes Cluster Area Network
  • PAN - Personal Area Network
  • DAN - Desk Area Network
mostly known area networks are LAN and WAN, other networks are used gradually emerged of technology evolution.

NETWORKING DEVICES


To know about networking devices click following link...

computer network devices guide...

ok frnds lets study about osi layers and standards in next post...

for more queries mail to arun2xy@rediffmail.com

Saturday, July 28, 2007

The words of AbrahamLincoln

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.We of... this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves... The firey trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation...

Abraham Lincoln
Concluding remarks,
Annual Message to Congress, 1862

Friday, July 27, 2007

Back to My Work

Hi frnds, As u all call me as Professor Now im back to my work. Yes, frnds i planned to teach CCNA through Blog from Basic to Enterprise level. I think u all are aware of CISCO certification, so i think it will help you in future. In future i planned to conduct a online examination for each chapter in CCNA. so that you can appear CCNA International Certification and u can develop your networking skills.
I planned to do it next month Hope you all use this oppourtunity.
And about me i was working with network for more than 4yrs im a CCNA, MCSE, MCP, Seagate Certified Service Engineer.

visit my training website: http://askarun.co.nr

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Last Poll Result


Post your comments...

CAPTCHA

Defeat spammer and bots, the smart way!

CAPTCHA is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computer and Human Apart”. A project of the Computer Science Department of Carnegic Mellon University (trade mark owned by Cernegic), CAPTCHA is a mechanism to tell humans and computers apart, automatically. In short, CAPTCHA is an application that can generate and grade tests that a human can pass, but are difficult (though not impossible, as we will see later) for a computer to pass.
The most common type of CAPTCHA is a challenge-response kind of a system. The application generates a distorted image of text characters, numbers, etc, that are difficult for a computer program to understand, but can be understood and read by a human. An example of CAPTCHA is the image below taken from wikipedia.org.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

HP


HP 9000 server family overview

The HP 9000 server family features world-class computing with the HP PA-8900 processors and the proven, mission-critical-ready HP-UX 11i operating system. Now, new models make the HP 9000 family even stronger. These new mid-range and Superdome systems, with the HP sx2000 chipset, deliver even higher availability and performance—lowering your overall TCO—and protect your investment with in-box upgrades to HP Integrity servers.
source: www.hp.com

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

REVIEW 200/TOP 10 MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES

How They Rated (charts):
* Microsoft
* Nokia
* Toyota Motor
* Intel
* Coca-Cola
* Sony
* IBM
* General Electric
* Nike
* Citigroup

1 MICROSOFT
Microsoft's main antitrust battle shifted from the United States to Europe this year, but the software giant remains steady in the REVIEW's rankings of the world's most admired companies. For the ninth straight year, the software giant tops our list, as readers ranked it No. 1 for long-term vision and No. 2 for financial soundness and as a company others try to emulate. Evidence: Revenues rose 13% to $32 billion in the year ended June 30, and operating income increased 11% to $13 billion. As to the vision thing, Microsoft pledged to invest a massive $6.8 billion in research and development in the current fiscal year. It's gearing up for the release of Longhorn, the next generation of the Windows operating system, and promises to spend $750 million to build its position in China by 2005.

2 NOKIA
For the second straight year, Finnish phone-making giant Nokia is second in our rankings, and once again tops the list in innovation. The company will need every bit of that innovation to combat narrowing margins in the core mobile-phone business. Sales volumes have continued to grow--Nokia's global hand-phone market share edged up to 39% by the end of September, from 36% a year earlier. But with prices falling and the infrastructure business still in the doldrums, Nokia is betting on all sorts of new initiatives, from next-generation video and content to cameraphones, in order to stay ahead. It puts plenty of its money to that use: The company spent $3.5 billion on research and development last year.

3 TOYOTA
The world's third-largest car maker, Japan's Toyota Motor, is our top-rated Asian multinational, edging up two slots to No. 3 this year. While the tech giants ranked above it slog through the fallout of the computer and telecoms crashes, Toyota has been rolling. It predicts $7.2 billion in net profits this year, double the level of four years ago. The company now has a 10% share of the global car market and 11% of the American market. Toyota is a pan-Asian giant: It has assembly and production facilities in 12 Asian countries, including Japan. While Japan's economy has struggled for nearly a decade and a half now, Toyota is an exemplar of what Japan Inc. can achieve: Our readers give it highest marks for long-term vision, where it ranks No. 3.

4 INTEL
Chip-making giant Intel is another big gainer this year, moving up three slots in our rankings. The intense boom-bust of the chip cycle is one explanation. Last year, with chip prices in the doldrums, the firm's ranking dropped. This year, prices started to rise again and Intel is back as well. A sign of the recovery: In the third quarter, Intel posted net profits double those of a year earlier. Its massive R&D commitment helps: Intel is reaping big benefits from the effort it put into developing Centrino chip packages--gear that powers laptops with wireless connections, for which demand is soaring.

5 COCA-COLA
Coca-Cola dropped one notch to No. 5, but for the second straight year, its marketing muscle led readers to rank it tops as the company others try to emulate. It's a brand that may be the world's most recognized, and its fortunes are a good measure of the economic health of the region. In Japan, a country where Coke still makes huge profits but where growth is slowing, the company is trying to keep its product mix up-to-date by adding new lines and new vending-machine strategies. But Coke is sizzling in other markets: Strong sales growth in several Asian countries, particularly China and Thailand, were solid contributors to its overall year.

6 SONY
It's been a tough year for Sony, the world's leading gadget maker, which drops three slots in our rankings to No. 6. The company has struggled to keep churning out hit products at the massive rate it did during the 1990s, and earnings were way down this year, with Sony turning a shocking $926 million loss in the January-March quarter. It has returned to profitability, but at levels lower than last year. But Sony is shooting to turn that around. It plans to reorganize production operations to boost profit margins to 10% in 2006, from 2.5% currently. And our readers certainly appreciate the company's innovations: It was one of only three firms that ranked in the top 10 in four of our five categories. Microsoft and Nokia were the others.

7 IBM
This isn't your parents' IBM--the stodgy, starched-collar Big Blue. The company is moving ever further away from its mainframe-computer history, and our readers rank it highly, particularly for having long-term vision. IBM continues to beef up its services businesses, where it expects 60% of the technology industry's profits to come from in the years ahead. Last year, it bought PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and Rational Software Corp., both moves aimed at expanding its services business. And among the world's tech giants, it's probably the furthest along in adopting the open-source Linux programming language.

8 GENERAL ELECTRIC
GE is now two years into the Jeff Immelt era and our readers figure the sprawling conglomerate is in good hands. The company jumps back into the top 10 after dropping out last year, and readers rank it second only to Microsoft as a company whose management has long-term vision. As befits a group with business lines ranging from gas turbines to finance to entertainment, the year brought a range of news: In China, for instance, GE won enormous orders for turbines on the east-west gas pipeline and for jet engines to power the country's new commercial-jet project.

9 NIKE
The Nike marketing machine continued to race along this year, and our readers kept the company in the No. 9 slot. Here's one broad-based measure of the global economic recovery: In the June-August period, Nike's quarterly revenues topped $3 billion for the first time ever, up 8% on an adjusted basis from the year earlier. Here's another: Nike set a record by paying a whopping $90 million endorsement deal to LeBron James, an American high-school basketball star, before he'd played a single game professionally. It lost out, however, to Reebok, which took Chinese star Yao Ming's endorsement in October.

10 CITIGROUP
It was a year of change for the world's widest-ranging financial group, most notably the ascension of Charles Prince to replace Sandy Weill as chief executive in July. Citigroup agreed to pay $400 million to settle charges brought by New York officials related to interactions between investment bankers and analysts during the telecoms boom. But business results bounced back with the American recovery, and the company jumped back into our top 10, up six slots from last year. In Asia, its Citibank unit tenaciously built its base in China with aggressive credit-card promotions.


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Saturday, July 21, 2007

Facts You Never Knew about India

Many interesting facts about India are well known: it is the world's largest democracy and federal republic, the second largest country in population and on track to become the largest, has the world's largest filmmaking industry, etc. But there are many interesting facts that are less commonly known.

Foreign Influence in India
Many well known foreign cultures throughout history have traveled to India. Below I describe some of the ways in which various groups interacted with India, and in particular, the state of Kerala on the southwestern coast of India.

Phoenicians
The Phoenicians are said to have traded with Kerala as early as 3000 BC for ivory, sandalwood, and spices. However their presence decreased as Arabs, Assyrians, and Greeks became more powerful.

Egyptians
Egyptian trade also dates as far back as the third millenium BC. Cinnamon from Kerala was used to embalm the dead bodies of the pharaohs, and also in the manufacturing of perfumes and holy oils.

Arabs
Greeks
Assyrians

The Nestorian Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, may have been the first Christians to trade with Kerala and spread the religion into the region. Like all Assyrians, they were skilled in trade as well.

Romans
Chinese
Persians
Jews
Around 1000 B.C., Jewish King Solomon sent ships to the port of Ophir to buy timber, sandalwood, ivory, and other things for the construction of his temple in Jerusalem. Many historians believe Ophir is a city on the Kerala coast: either it is Bepur near Kozhikode, or it is Puvar near Thiruvananthapuram.

There are a number of theories about when the Jews first arrived in India.

> In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon captured Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon's Temple. Cyrus II of Persia conquered Babylon and released the Jews in 536 BC, although according to tradition, the "Babylonian Captivity" lasted 70 years. Some Jews are said to have come to Kerala after Cyrus released them.
>Following the "Great Revolt" of the Jews against the Roman Empire, Roman troops destroyed the Second Temple of Jerusalem (rebuilt on the site of Solomon's Temple after the end of Babylonian rule) in 70 AD. To escape Roman rule, 10,000 Jews are said to have migrated to Kerala in 72 AD.
>Another theory says Jews came to Kerala after being exiled from the island of Majorca in Spain by the Roman emperor Vespasian in the year 370. Unfortunately, the emperor of Rome in 370 was Gratian, and he did nothing notable in Majorca and never dealt with Jews. Vespasian was actually emperor from 69 to 79 AD, during the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. He and his son Titus did launch military campaigns against Judea however, and I believe it is possible that out of many Jews who fled the area during this time, some may have ended up in Kerala.

Verifiable historical evidence about Kerala Jews goes back to the Jewish Copper Plate granted by Bhaskara Ravi Varman to Jewish Chief Joseph Rabban of Anjuvannam in 1000 AD.

Jews also came from Baghdad and the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) in the sixteenth century. The Bene Israel and Cochini Jews became absorbed into the caste system in India. The Iraqi Jews tended to be more strictly adhering to their religious laws and viewed the Bene Israel Jews as being too secular. The Cochini Jews had a higher status in the caste system than the Bene Israel Jews. Thus Jewish communities were divided into various classes, and not existing as one united cultural group in India. Click here for more information on Jews in India.

Some say that many Kerala Christians were originally Jews who were converted by Syrian Christians. Jews lived peacefully in Kerala until the Catholic Portuguese arrived and persecuted both Jews and Syrian Christians during the Inquisition. The Portuguese destroyed the Jewish settlement in Kodungallor, sacked the Jewish community in Kochi and partially destroyed the famous synagogue there in 1661. After the Portuguese left, the Kerala Jews enjoyed normal life under the rule of the more tolerant Dutch and later the British. According to the Dutch Jew Moses Pereya de Paiva, in 1686 there were 10 synagogues and almost 500 Jewish families in Kochi. The state of Israel was created in 1948, and between 1948 and 1955, all of the "Black" and "Brown" Jews (about 3,000) went to Israel, where they are now known as "Cochini" Jews. In 1961 there were only 359 Jews left in Kerala and they were all "White" Jews. By then only two synagogues were open for service: the Pardesi Synagogue in Mattancherry built in 1567 and the synagogue in Parur. Today only about 50 Jews remain in Kerala.

Interestingly, the tiles on the floor of the synagogue in Kochi are Chinese, not Jewish. The king of Kochi originally received the tiles from Chinese traders, who frequently visited the ports of Kerala. A Jewish merchant concocted a story that the Chinese bleed cows in order to construct tiles, and thus persuaded the king to sell him the tiles cheap. Then the tiles were used in the construction of the synagogue.

Scandinavians
The Danish East India Company also had some settlements in India, primarily on the eastern coast. The most notable settlements are Serampore in West Bengal and Tranquebar in Tamil Nadu. See this page and this page for pictures from these areas and some information on them and other colonies.
The Svenska Ostindiska Companiet (SOIC, or Swedish East India Company), despite its name, had little to do with India. It was founded in 1731 in Gothenburg, Sweden, to conduct trade mainly with China. Inspired by the British East India Company, it became the largest Swedish trading company until it was folded in 1831. The Danish and Swedish East India companies at one point were more successful in the tea trade than the British, and would smuggle tea into Britain for huge profits.

Italians
Portuguese
Dutch

Portuguese power in Asia began to decline after its union with Spain in 1580. Catholic Spain at the time also controlled the area of northern Europe called the Low Countries, which today consists of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The Germanic people of the northern area of the Low Countries were Protestant and developed a powerful navy. They declared themselves independent in 1581 and called themselves the Dutch Republic or Netherlands. In 1588, Queen Elizabeth I's navy defeated the Spanish Armada, thereby weakening the Spanish navy. This encouraged the Dutch to use their navy to explore the seas in the early 1600s. They formed the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC, or Dutch East India Company), in 1602. The VOC is said to be the world's first publicly traded company. The Dutch East India Company successfully pushed the Portuguese out of most of Indonesia and set up a headquarters in Batavia (Jakarta). The Dutch also wrested Sri Lanka from the Portuguese and began to make trade agreements with the kings of Kerala.
The Dutch effectively controlled the major kingdoms of Kerala with the exception of Thiruvithamkode (Travancore) in southern Kerala. However they met strong resistance from the Samuthiri of Kozhikode, even though they had defeated his kingdom in battle many times. In addition the Dutch in Kerala received little assistance from the headquarters in Batavia as time wore on. Although the Dutch forcefully controlled their trade with Kerala (getting large quantities of pepper, cinnamon, etc. cheap and selling it expensively in Europe), the cost of warring with the Samuthiri and also competing with the rising French and British powers in India made things difficult. In 1741, the Dutch suffered a crushing defeat in a naval battle at Kolachel with the powerful king Marthanda Varma of Thiruvithamkode. This is said to be the first defeat of a European naval power at the hands of an Asian nation, although many history books wrongly give this credit to the 1905 victory of Admiral Tojo of Japan against Czar Nicholas II's Russian navy. Eventually the weakened Dutch were ousted from Kerala by the British. However the Dutch did control Indonesia until after World War II.

French
British
Indian Influence in Asia

Throughout history Indian people and ideas have spread throughout Asia. Indians settled and ruled in Indonesia and Indochina, and Buddhism and certain martial arts spread as far as Afghanistan, China, Japan, and Indonesia. Here I will describe the influences of Indians on different parts of East and Southeast Asia. This page contains detailed lists of rulers of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, and Tibet. This page contains detailed information about the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms of Indonesia.
Initially, Southeast Asia was inhabited by short, dark-skinned, hairy people known as Negritos, related to the Australian Aborigines. Eventually they were pushed out by Malayo-Polynesian people who colonized Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand, Hawaii, Easter Island, and even Madagascar, with their mastery of the outrigger canoe, by 500 CE. It appears they may have, over the years, developed a lot of technology on their own, including using their abundant supply of tin to make bronze, and mastering metallurgy as well as agriculture (rice in particular). By 300 BCE, the Vietnamese, Mon-Khmers, Tibeto-Burmans and Thais settled in the region, after being forced out of southern China. The Mon-Khmers split into the Mon, who settled Burma and parts of Thailand and Malaya, and the Khmer, ancestors of today's Cambodians.
The Mon made contact with India during Asoka's rule. Asoka sent Buddhist missionaries to Burma to convert the Mons in the mid-third century BCE, leading to Burma's perpetual Buddhism that lasts to this day. The Mons traded with India and Sri Lanka. In the second century BCE, India and China began to trade. The land routes were riddled with moutains, jungles, or warlike Central Asians. Indian merchants found water routes through Southeast Asia, where pirates were the only problem. Because of seasonal wind patterns in the Indian Ocean, Indian ships would often wait in Southeast Asia for months until favorable winds came, giving them plenty of time to mingle in society. Indian missonaries converted people to Hinduism and Buddhism, and local rulers began to call themselves maharajahs and precisely mimick Indian courts. Indian-style city-states flourished on the coasts of Burma, Malaya, Thailand, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam by the first century CE. See this page for more information.This site has a great presentation of information about the history of Southeast Asia, including the vast Indian influence on the region. I will give generalizations and interesting snippets of that history here.

Funan
The first kingdom of Southeast Asia was Phnom (the Cambodian word for "mountain"), or Funan (the Chinese name for the region). Both names refer to Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hinduism. The kingdom formed when the lower Mekong delta was united under a city called Vyadhapura ("hunter city" in Sanskrit). A Cambodian legend tells a story about how the kingdom formed. An Indian Brahmin was told to sail east by a spirit. He reached Cambodia where a beautiful woman sailed out to meet him. Soon he realized she was Queen Willow Leaf, ruler of Cambodia and daughter of a serpent god who is his enemy. She threatened to destroy him, but he shot a magic arrow into her boat. She realized she was no match for him, so they made peace, got married, and had a child who became the first king of Funan.
Funan was a great trade center, and not just between Indians and Chinese. A Roman coin dated 152 CE was found there. Funan had a Malay upper class, but most of the population was Negrito. A Chinese ambassador was offended by Negritos who were "ugly and black" with frizzy hair, who walked around naked. He told this to the king of Funan, who passed a law requiring everyone to be clothed in public. This led to the invention of the traditional Cambodian "sampot" loincloth. King Jayavarman I (478-514) ruled at the peak of Funan's power, and then the kingdom fell apart. Internal disarray and raids by Khmers and Laos weakened Funan. By 627, Khmers completely conquered Funan. However, the civilization of Funan established a trend for Southeast Asian states to follow.

Burma
Between the Irrawaddy delta and the border of modern Bangladesh, a kingdom called Arakan, likely founded by Indians, existed. Arakan is separated from the rest of Burma by the Arakan Yoma mountain range, isolating them culturally from the changes that took place in the rest of Burma. Today they still speak an old dialect of Burmese. They were interested more in sea trade with India due to the difficulty of traveling through the mountains. Sanskrit inscriptions describe an old kingdom in the area. The Arakanese people may have been Pyu from northern Burma who were expelled during Thai invasions. The Arakanese tolerated other religions when they sought trade with India, and today there is a community of Bengali Muslims in Arakan.

Indonesia
The islands of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia got their names from the original Indian names: Swarna-Dwipa ("gold island") and Yava-Dwipa ("rice island"; "yava" is barley in Sanskrit). After the fall of Funan, a powerful Buddhist kingdom called Srivijaya rose to power on the southeastern coast of Sumatra Island in Indonesia. Srivijaya became a center of Buddhist learning and practice, as well as the main controller of naval trade with Indochina. They kept good trade relations with the Tang dynasty in China and the Islamic caliphates in the Middle East. They had competition from the Hindu Mataram kingdom in central and eastern Java. But another Buddhist kingdom, the Sailendras, arose in Java. In 775, the Saliendras overthrew the Hindu kings of Mataram. The then Buddhist kindgom of Mataram is known for building the gargantuan Borobudur temple in central Java.
But Buddhism was on the decline in Champa (Vietnam), Cambodia, and post-Gupta India. By 850, the Sailendra rulers of Mataram had converted to Hinduism and built Hindu temples to match Borobudur. Eventually Mataram was overthrown and Javanese pirates began raiding Srivijayan ships. The Srivijayans failed in getting help from China to fight the pirates. In the tenth century, both China and the Abbasid Caliphate crumpled, causing more economic problems for Srivijaya. In 1030, the Chola Empire of South India devastated Srivijaya and forced them to pay tribute until 1190. Srivijaya never recovered and the kingdoms of Sumatra and Java had limited power.
A new kingdom called Singosari arose in 1222 in Java. King Kertanagara extended his rule to nearby islands: Madura, Bali, the lesser Sundas, and southern Sumatra. But in 1289, he mistreated an envoy of Kublai Khan who was coming to demand submission to China, and the Mongols sent an army in response. Kertanagara was killed by a rival, Jayakatwang, of the Kediri kingdom, before the Mongols arrived. Kertanagara's son-in-law, Kertarajasa, used the Mongols to defeat Jayakatwang and then drove the Mongols back out of Indonesia. A new capital was established at Majapahit. During the reign of Kertarajasa's daughter (1329-1350), Majapahit became the center of what may have been the most powerful kingdom in Indonesian history, with the help of a skilled general named Gajah Mada. Gajah Mada continued to help the next ruler, Hayam Wuruk (1350-1389) rule the most glorious period of Javanese history. Java traded with everyone in Asia except for Sumatra, which rebelled briefly in 1377 to try to restore Srivijaya. The rebellion was crushed. But Java was in decline after Hayam Wuruk, who divided Java among his sons of concubines. Civil war broke out and in the early 1400s, a Chinese pirate captured Palembang (the capital of Srivijaya) and raided local ships until a Chinese fleet removed him and returned Palembang to Majapahit. Over the next century, Muslim influence increased in Indonesia, although it is known that a Hindu king named Ranavijaya ruled in Java as late as 1486. The rule of a non-Muslim ended around 1520 or 1530 according to Portuguese records, and the pre-Muslim era of Indonesia ended. Majapahit's culture has survived however: the island of Bali is now a haven for Indonesian Hinduism.

Cambodia
Chenla, the first Khmer kingdom, grew in the 7th century but split into Land Chenla (Laos) and Water Chenla (Cambodia). At the end of the 8th century, Java's Sailendra kings conquered Water Chenla. The new king of Water Chenla under Javanese domination was Jayavarman II, who ruled for roughly 50 years. He gave the name Kambujadesa to Water Chenla (leading to later names Kampuchea and Cambodia).

Vietnam
Vietnam was originally two states: Annam (a.k.a. Nam Viet, or Dai Viet) in the north, and Champa in the south. Annam was part of China for a long time, while Champa was largely controlled by Indians. The rulers of Champa are divided into fifteen periods: fourteen dynasties and a Cambodian period. All except the twelfth and fourteenth dynasty contain rulers with Indian names. From late in the third dynasty (510 CE) through the Cambodian period (1220), only two rulers were non-Indian: one was an Annamese king who ruled for three years, and another was an Annamese vassal who ruled during the last six years of the Cambodian period. The thirteenth dynasty also saw two Indian rulers, Jaya Sinhavarman V and Maija Vijaya, who ruled from 1400 to 1446. After winning freedom from China, Annam eventually conquered Champa and the Chinese culture of the north overwhelmed the Indian culture of the south.

Friday, July 20, 2007

True story of Taj Mahal

The Tajmahal is Tejomahalay A Hindu Temple
By P.N.Oak

Probably there is no one who has been duped at least once in a life time. But can the whole world can be duped? This may seem impossible. But in the matter of indian and world history the world can be duped in many respects for hundreds of years and still continues to be duped. The world famous Tajmahal is a glaring instance. For all the time, money and energy that people over the world spend in visiting the Tajmahal, they are dished out of concoction. Contrary to what visitors are made to believe the Tajmahal is not a Islamic mausoleum but an ancient Shiva Temple known as Tejo Mahalaya which the 5th generation moghul emperor Shahjahan commandeered from the then Maharaja of Jaipur. The Tajmahal, should therefore, be viewed as a temple palace and not as a tomb. That makes a vast difference. You miss the details of its size, grandeur, majesty and beauty when you take it to be a mere tomb. When told that you are visiting a temple palace you wont fail to notice its annexes, ruined defensive walls, hillocks, moats, cascades, fountains, majestic garden, hundreds of rooms archaded verendahs, terraces, multi stored towers, secret sealed chambers, guest rooms, stables, the trident (Trishul) pinnacle on the dome and the sacred, esoteric Hindu letter "OM" carved on the exterior of the wall of the sanctum sanctorum now occupied by the centotaphs. For detailed proof of this breath taking discovery,you may read the well known historian Shri. P. N. Oak's celebrated book titled " Tajmahal : The True Story". But let us place before you, for the time being an exhaustive summary of the massive evidence ranging over hundred points:

NAME

1.The term Tajmahal itself never occurs in any mogul court paper or chronicle even in Aurangzeb's time. The attempt to explain it away as Taj-i-mahal is therefore, ridiculous.
2.The ending "Mahal"is never muslim because in none of the muslim countries around the world from Afghanistan to Algeria is there a building known as "Mahal".
3.The unusual explanation of the term Tajmahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal, who is buried in it, is illogical in at least two respects viz., firstly her name was never Mumtaj Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani and secondly one cannot omit the first three letters "Mum" from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name of the building.
4.Since the lady's name was Mumtaz (ending with 'Z') the name of the building derived from her should have been Taz Mahal, if at all, and not Taj (spelled with a 'J').
5.Several European visitors of Shahjahan's time allude to the building as Taj-e-Mahal is almost the correct tradition, age old Sanskrit name Tej-o-Mahalaya, signifying a Shiva temple. Contrarily Shahjahan and Aurangzeb scrupulously avoid using the Sanskrit term and call it just a holy grave.
6.The tomb should be understood to signify NOT A BUILDING but only the grave or centotaph inside it. This would help people to realize that all dead muslim courtiers and royalty including Humayun, Akbar, Mumtaz, Etmad-ud-Daula and Safdarjang have been buried in capture Hindu mansions and temples.
7.Moreover, if the Taj is believed to be a burial place, how can the term Mahal, i.e., mansion apply to it?
8.Since the term Taj Mahal does not occur in mogul courts it is absurd to search for any mogul explanation for it. Both its components namely, 'Taj' and' Mahal' are of Sanskrit origin.

TEMPLE TRADITION

9.The term Taj Mahal is a corrupt form of the sanskrit term TejoMahalay signifying a Shiva Temple. Agreshwar Mahadev i.e., The Lord of Agra was consecrated in it.
10.The tradition of removing the shoes before climbing the marble platform originates from pre Shahjahan times when the Taj was a Shiva Temple. Had the Taj originated as a tomb, shoes need not have to be removed because shoes are a necessity in a cemetery.
11.Visitors may notice that the base slab of the centotaph is the marble basement in plain white while its superstructure and the other three centotaphs on the two floors are covered with inlaid creeper designs. This indicates that the marble pedestal of the Shiva idol is still in place and Mumtaz's centotaphs are fake.
12.The pitchers carved inside the upper border of the marble lattice plus those mounted on it number 108-a number sacred in Hindu Temple tradition.
13.There are persons who are connected with the repair and the maintainance of the Taj who have seen the ancient sacred Shiva Linga and other idols sealed in the thick walls and in chambers in the secret, sealed red stone stories below the marble basement. The Archaeological Survey of India is keeping discretely, politely and diplomatically silent about it to the point of dereliction of its own duty to probe into hidden historical evidence.
14.In India there are 12 Jyotirlingas i.e., the outstanding Shiva Temples. The Tejomahalaya alias The Tajmahal appears to be one of them known as Nagnatheshwar since its parapet is girdled with Naga, i.e., Cobra figures. Ever since Shahjahan's capture of it the sacred temple has lost its Hindudom.
15.The famous Hindu treatise on architecture titled Vishwakarma Vastushastra mentions the 'Tej-Linga' amongst the Shivalingas i.e., the stone emblems of Lord Shiva, the Hindu deity. Such a Tej Linga was consecrated in the Taj Mahal, hence the term Taj Mahal alias Tejo Mahalaya.
16.Agra city, in which the Taj Mahal is located, is an ancient centre of Shiva worship. Its orthodox residents have through ages continued the tradition of worshipping at five Shiva shrines before taking the last meal every night especially during the month of Shravan. During the last few centuries the residents of Agra had to be content with worshipping at only four prominent Shiva temples viz., Balkeshwar, Prithvinath, Manakameshwar and Rajarajeshwar. They had lost track of the fifth Shiva deity which their forefathers worshipped. Apparently the fifth was Agreshwar Mahadev Nagnatheshwar i.e., The Lord Great God of Agra, The Deity of the King of Cobras, consecrated in the Tejomahalay alias Tajmahal.
17.The people who dominate the Agra region are Jats. Their name of Shiva is Tejaji. The Jat special issue of The Illustrated Weekly of India (June 28,1971) mentions that the Jats have the Teja Mandirs i.e., Teja Temples. This is because Teja-Linga is among the several names of the Shiva Lingas. From this it is apparent that the Taj-Mahal is Tejo-Mahalaya, The Great Abode of Tej.

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

18. Shahjahan's own court chronicle, the Badshahnama, admits (page 403, vol 1) that a grand mansion of unique splendor, capped with a dome (Imaarat-a-Alishan wa Gumbaze) was taken from the Jaipur Maharaja Jaisigh for Mumtaz's burial, and the building was known as Raja Mansingh's palace.
19. The plaque put the archealogy department outside the Tajmahal describes the edifice as a mausoleum built by Shahjahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal , over 22 years from 1631 to 1653. That plaque is a specimen of historical bungling. Firstly, the plaque sites no authority for its claim. Secondly the lady's name was Mumtaz-ulZamani and not Mumtazmahal. Thirdly, the period of 22 years is taken from some mumbo jumbo noting by an unreliable French visitor Tavernier, to the exclusion of all muslim versions, which is an absurdity.
20. Prince Aurangzeb's letter to his father,emperor Shahjahan,is recorded in atleast three chronicles titled `Aadaab-e-Alamgiri', `Yadgarnama', and the `Muruqqa-i-Akbarabadi' (edited by Said Ahmed, Agra, 1931, page 43, footnote 2). In that letter Aurangzeb records in 1652 A.D itself that the several buildings in the fancied burial place of Mumtaz were seven storeyed and were so old that they were all leaking, while the dome had developed a crack on the northern side.Aurangzeb, therefore, ordered immediate repairs to the buildings at his own expense while recommending to the emperor that more elaborate repairs be carried out later. This is the proof that during Shahjahan's reign itself that the Taj complex was so old as to need immediate repairs.
21. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur retains in his secret personal `KapadDwara' collection two orders from Shahjahan dated Dec 18, 1633 (bearing modern nos. R.176 and 177) requestioning the Taj building complex. That was so blatant a usurpation that the then ruler of Jaipur was ashamed to make the document public.
22. The Rajasthan State archives at Bikaner preserve three other firmans addressed by Shahjahan to the Jaipur's ruler Jaising ordering the latter to supply marble (for Mumtaz's grave and koranic grafts) from his Makranna quarris, and stone cutters. Jaisingh was apparently so enraged at the blatant seizure of the Tajmahal that he refused to oblige Shahjahan by providing marble for grafting koranic engravings and fake centotaphs for further desecration of the Tajmahal. Jaising looked at Shahjahan's demand for marble and stone cutters, as an insult added to injury. Therefore, he refused to send any marble and instead detained the stone cutters in his protective custody.
23. The three firmans demanding marble were sent to Jaisingh within about two years of Mumtaz's death. Had Shahjahan really built the Tajmahal over a period of 22 years, the marble would have needed only after 15 or 20 years not immediately after Mumtaz's death.
24. Moreover, the three mention neither the Tajmahal, nor Mumtaz, nor the burial. The cost and the quantity of the stone also are not mentioned. This proves that an insignificant quantity of marble was needed just for some supercial tinkering and tampering with the Tajmahal. Even otherwise Shahjahan could never hope to build a fabulous Tajmahal by abject dependence for marble on a non cooperative Jaisingh.

EUROPEAN VISITOR'S ACCOUNTS

25. Tavernier, a French jeweller has recorded in his travel memoirs that Shahjahan purposely buried Mumtaz near the Taz-i-Makan (i.e.,`The Taj building') where foriegners used to come as they do even today so that the world may admire. He also adds that the cost of the scaffolding was more than that of the entire work. The work that Shahjahan commissioned in the Tejomahalaya Shiva temple was plundering at the costly fixtures inside it, uprooting the Shiva idols, planting the centotaphs in their place on two stories, inscribing the koran along the arches and walling up six of the seven stories of the Taj. It was this plunder, desecrating and plunderring of the rooms which took 22 years.
26. Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra recorded in 1632 (within only a year of Mumtaz's death) that `the places of note in and around Agra, included Taj-e-Mahal's tomb, gardens and bazaars'.He, therefore, confirms that that the Tajmahal had been a noteworthy building even before Shahjahan.
27. De Laet, a Dutch official has listed Mansingh's palace about a mile from Agra fort, as an outstanding building of pre shahjahan's time. Shahjahan's court chronicle, the Badshahnama records, Mumtaz's burial in the same Mansingh's palace.
28. Bernier, a contemporary French visitor has noted that non muslim's were barred entry into the basement (at the time when Shahjahan requisitioned Mansingh's palace) which contained a dazzling light. Obviously, he reffered to the silver doors, gold railing, the gem studded lattice and strings of pearl hanging over Shiva's idol. Shahjahan comandeered the building to grab all the wealth, making Mumtaz's death a convineant pretext.
29. Johan Albert Mandelslo, who describes life in agra in 1638 (only 7 years after mumtaz's death) in detail (in his `Voyages and Travels to West-Indies', published by John Starkey and John Basset, London), makes no mention of the Tajmahal being under constuction though it is commonly erringly asserted or assumed that the Taj was being built from 1631 to 1653.

SANSKIRT INSCRIPTION

30. A Sanskrit inscription too supports the conclusion that the Taj originated as a Shiva temple. Wrongly termed as the Bateshwar inscription (currently preserved on the top floor of the Lucknow museum), it refers to the raising of a "crystal white Shiva temple so alluring that Lord Shiva once enshrined in it decided never to return to Mount Kailash his usual abode". That inscription dated 1155 A.D. was removed from the Tajmahal garden at Shahjahan's orders. Historicians and Archeaologists have blundered in terming the insription the `Bateshwar inscription' when the record doesn't say that it was found by Bateshwar. It ought, in fact, to be called `The Tejomahalaya inscription' because it was originally installed in the Taj garden before it was uprooted and cast away at Shahjahan's command.
A clue to the tampering by Shahjahan is found on pages 216-217, vol. 4, of Archealogiical Survey of India Reports (published 1874) stating that a "great square black balistic pillar which, with the base and capital of another pillar....now in the grounds of Agra,...it is well known, once stood in the garden of Tajmahal".

MISSING ELEPHANTS

31. Far from the building of the Taj, Shahjahan disfigured it with black koranic lettering and heavily robbed it of its Sanskrit inscription, several idols and two huge stone elephants extending their trunks in a welcome arch over the gateway where visitors these days buy entry tickets. An Englishman, Thomas Twinning, records (pg.191 of his book "Travels in India A Hundred Years ago") that in November 1794 "I arrived at the high walls which enclose the Taj-e-Mahal and its circumjacent buildings. I here got out of the palanquine and.....mounted a short flight of steps leading to a beautiful portal which formed the centre of this side of the `COURT OF ELEPHANTS" as the great area was called."
KORANIC PATCHES
32. The Taj Mahal is scrawled over with 14 chapters of the Koran but nowhere is there even the slightest or the remotest allusion in that Islamic overwriting to Shahjahan's authorship of the Taj. Had Shahjahan been the builder he would have said so in so many words before beginning to quote Koran.
33. That Shahjahan, far from building the marble Taj, only disfigured it with black lettering is mentioned by the inscriber Amanat Khan Shirazi himself in an inscription on the building. A close scrutiny of the Koranic lettering reveals that they are grafts patched up with bits of variegated stone on an ancient Shiva temple.

CARBON 14 TEST

34. A wooden piece from the riverside doorway of the Taj subjected to the carbon 14 test by an American Laboratory, has revealed that the door to be 300 years older than Shahjahan,since the doors of the Taj, broken open by Muslim invaders repeatedly from the 11th century onwards, had to b replaced from time to time. The Taj edifice is much more older. It belongs to 1155 A.D, i.e., almost 500 years anterior to Shahjahan.

ARCHITECHTURAL EVIDENCE

35. Well known Western authorities on architechture like E.B.Havell, Mrs.Kenoyer and Sir W.W.Hunterhave gone on record to say that the TajMahal is built in the Hindu temple style. Havell points out the ground plan of the ancient Hindu Chandi Seva Temple in Java is identical with that of the Taj.
36. A central dome with cupolas at its four corners is a universal feature of Hindu temples.
37. The four marble pillars at the plinth corners are of the Hindu style. They are used as lamp towers during night and watch towers during the day. Such towers serve to demarcate the holy precincts. Hindu wedding altars and the altar set up for God Satyanarayan worship have pillars raised at the four corners.
38. The octagonal shape of the Tajmahal has a special Hindu significance because Hindus alone have special names for the eight directions, and celestial guards assigned to them. The pinnacle points to the heaven while the foundation signifies to the nether world. Hindu forts, cities, palaces and temples genrally have an octagonal layout or some octagonal features so that together with the pinnacle and the foundation they cover all the ten directions in which the king or God holds sway, according to Hindu belief.
39. The Tajmahal has a trident pinncle over the dome. A full scale of the trident pinnacle is inlaid in the red stone courtyard to the east of the Taj. The central shaft of the trident depicts a "Kalash" (sacred pot) holding two bent mango leaves and a coconut. This is a sacred Hindu motif. Identical pinnacles have been seen over Hindu and Buddhist temples in the Himalayan region. Tridents are also depicted against a red lotus background at the apex of the stately marble arched entrances on all four sides of the Taj. People fondly but mistakenly believed all these centuries that the Taj pinnacle depicts a Islamic cresent and star was a lighting conductor installed by the British rulers in India. Contrarily, the pinnacle is a marvel of Hindu metallurgy since the pinnacle made of non rusting alloy, is also perhaps a lightning deflector. That the pinnacle of the replica is drawn in the eastern courtyard is significant because the east is of special importance to the Hindus, as the direction in which the sun rises. The pinnacle on the dome has the word `Allah' on it after capture. The pinnacle figure on the ground does not have the word Allah.

INCONSISTENCIES

40. The two buildings which face the marble Taj from the east and west are identical in design, size and shape and yet the eastern building is explained away by Islamic tradition, as a community hall while the western building is claimed to be a mosque. How could buildings meant for radically different purposes be identical? This proves that the western building was put to use as a mosque after seizure of the Taj property by Shahjahan. Curiously enough the building being explained away as a mosque has no minaret. They form a pair af reception pavilions of the Tejomahalaya temple palace.
41. A few yards away from the same flank is the Nakkar Khana alias DrumHouse which is a intolerable incongruity for Islam. The proximity of the Drum House indicates that the western annex was not originally a mosque. Contrarily a drum house is a neccesity in a Hindu temple or palace because Hindu chores,in the morning and evening, begin to the sweet strains of music.
42. The embossed patterns on the marble exterior of the centotaph chamber wall are foilage of the conch shell design and the Hindu letter "OM". The octagonally laid marble lattices inside the centotaph chamber depict pink lotuses on their top railing. The Lotus, the conch and the OM are the sacred motifs associated with the Hindu deities and temples.
43. The spot occupied by Mumtaz's centotaph was formerly occupied by the Hindu Teja Linga a lithic representation of Lord Shiva. Around it are five perambulatory passages. Perambulation could be done around the marble lattice or through the spacious marble chambers surrounding the centotaph chamber, and in the open over the marble platform. It is also customary for the Hindus to have apertures along the perambulatory passage, overlooking the deity. Such apertures exist in the perambulatories in the Tajmahal.
44. The sanctom sanctorum in the Taj has silver doors and gold railings as Hindu temples have. It also had nets of pearl and gems stuffed in the marble lattices. It was the lure of this wealth which made Shahjahan commandeer the Taj from a helpless vassal Jaisingh, the then ruler of Jaipur.
45. Peter Mundy, a Englishman records (in 1632, within a year of Mumtaz's death) having seen a gem studded gold railing around her tomb. Had the Taj been under construction for 22 years, a costly gold railing would not have been noticed by Peter mundy within a year of Mumtaz's death. Such costl fixtures are installed in a building only after it is ready for use. This indicates that Mumtaz's centotaph was grafted in place of the Shivalinga in the centre of the gold railings. Subsequently the gold railings, silver doors, nets of pearls, gem fillings etc. were all carried away to Shahjahan's treasury. The seizure of the Taj thus constituted an act of highhanded Moghul robery causing a big row between Shahjahan and Jaisingh.
46. In the marble flooring around Mumtaz's centotaph may be seen tiny mosaic patches. Those patches indicate the spots where the support for the gold railings were embedded in the floor. They indicate a rectangular fencing.
47. Above Mumtaz's centotaph hangs a chain by which now hangs a lamp. Before capture by Shahjahan the chain used to hold a water pitcher from which water used to drip on the Shivalinga.
48. It is this earlier Hindu tradition in the Tajmahal which gave the Islamic myth of Shahjahan's love tear dropping on Mumtaz's tomb on the full moon day of the winter eve.

TREASURY WELL

49. Between the so-called mosque and the drum house is a multistoried octagonal well with a flight of stairs reaching down to the water level. This is a traditional treasury well in Hindu temple palaces. Treasure chests used to be kept in the lower apartments while treasury personnel had their offices in the upper chambers. The circular stairs made it difficult for intruders to reach down to the treasury or to escape with it undetected or unpursued. In case the premises had to be surrendered to a besieging enemy the treasure could be pushed into the well to remain hidden from the conquerer and remain safe for salvaging if the place was reconquered. Such an elaborate multistoried well is superflous for a mere mausoleum. Such a grand, gigantic well is unneccesary for a tomb.

BURIAL DATE UNKNOWN

50. Had Shahjahan really built the Taj Mahal as a wonder mausoleum, history would have recorded a specific date on which she was ceremoniously buried in the Taj Mahal. No such date is ever mentioned. This important missing detail decisively exposes the falsity of the Tajmahal legend.
51. Even the year of Mumtaz's death is unknown. It is variously speculated to be 1629, 1630, 1631 or 1632. Had she deserved a fabulous burial, as is claimed, the date of her death had not been a matter of much speculation. In an harem teeming with 5000 women it was difficult to keep track of dates of death. Apparently the date of Mumtaz's death was so insignificant an event, as not to merit any special notice. Who would then build a Taj for her burial?

BASELESS LOVE STORIES

52. Stories of Shahjahan's exclusive infatuation for Mumtaz's are concoctions. They have no basis in history nor has any book ever written on their fancied love affairs. Those stories have been invented as an afterthought to make Shahjahan's authorship of the Taj look plausible.
COST
53. The cost of the Taj is nowhere recorded in Shahjahan's court papers because Shahjahan never built the Tajmahal. That is why wild estimates of the cost by gullible writers have ranged from 4 million to 91.7 million rupees.

PERIOD OF CONSTRUCTION

54. Likewise the period of construction has been guessed to be anywhere between 10 years and 22 years. There would have not been any scope for guesswork had the building construction been on record in the court papers.

ARCHITECTS

55. The designer of the Tajmahal is also variously mentioned as Essa Effendy, a Persian or Turk, or Ahmed Mehendis or a Frenchman, Austin deBordeaux, or Geronimo Veroneo, an Italian, or Shahjahan himself.

RECORDS DON'T EXIST

56. Twenty thousand labourers are supposed to have worked for 22 years during Shahjahan's reign in building the Tajmahal. Had this been true, there should have been available in Shahjahan's court papers design drawings, heaps of labour muster rolls, daily expenditure sheets, bills and receipts of material ordered, and commisioning orders. There is not even a scrap of paper of this kind.
57. It is, therefore, court flatterers,blundering historians, somnolent archeologists, fiction writers, senile poets, careless tourists officials and erring guides who are responsible for hustling the world into believing in Shahjahan's mythical authorship of the Taj.
58. Description of the gardens around the Taj of Shahjahan's time mention Ketaki, Jai, Jui, Champa, Maulashree, Harshringar and Bel. All these are plants whose flowers or leaves are used in the worship of Hindu deities. Bel leaves are exclusively used in Lord Shiva's worship. A graveyard is planted only with shady trees because the idea of using fruit and flower from plants in a cemetary is abhorrent to human conscience. The presence of Bel and other flower plants in the Taj garden is proof of its having been a Shiva temple before seizure by Shahjahan.
59. Hindu temples are often built on river banks and sea beaches. The Taj is one such built on the bank of the Yamuna river an ideal location for a Shiva temple.
60. Prophet Mohammad has ordained that the burial spot of a muslim should be inconspicous and must not be marked by even a single tombstone. In flagrant violation of this, the Tajamhal has one grave in the basement and another in the first floor chamber both ascribed to Mumtaz. Those two centotaphs were infact erected by Shahjahan to bury the two tier Shivalingas that were consecrated in the Taj. It is customary for Hindus to install two Shivalingas one over the other in two stories as may be seen in the Mahankaleshwar temple in Ujjain and the Somnath temple raised by Ahilyabai in Somnath Pattan.
61. The Tajmahal has identical entrance arches on all four sides. This is a typical Hindu building style known as Chaturmukhi, i.e.,four faced.

THE HINDU DOME

62. The Tajmahal has a reverberating dome. Such a dome is an absurdity for a tomb which must ensure peace and silence. Contrarily reverberating domes are a neccesity in Hindu temples because they create an ecstatic dinmultiplying and magnifying the sound of bells, drums and pipes accompanying the worship of Hindu deities.
63. The Tajmahal dome bears a lotus cap. Original Islamic domes have a bald top as is exemplified by the Pakistan Embassy in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, and the domes in the Pakistan's newly built capital Islamabad.
64. The Tajmahal entrance faces south. Had the Taj been an Islamic building it should have faced the west.

TOMB IS THE GRAVE,NOT THE BUILDING

65. A widespread misunderstanding has resulted in mistaking the building for the grave.Invading Islam raised graves in captured buildings in every country it overran. Therefore, hereafter people must learn not to confound the building with the grave mounds which are grafts in conquered buildings. This is true of the Tajmahal too. One may therefore admit (for arguments sake) that Mumtaz lies buried inside the Taj. But that should not be construed to mean that the Taj was raised over Mumtaz's grave.
66. The Taj is a seven storied building. Prince Aurangzeb also mentions this in his letter to Shahjahan. The marble edifice comprises four stories including the lone, tall circular hall inside the top, and the lone chamber in the basement. In between are two floors each containing 12 to 15 palatial rooms. Below the marble plinth reaching down to the river at the rear are two more stories in red stone. They may be seen from the river bank. The seventh storey must be below the ground (river) level since every ancient Hindu building had a subterranian storey.
67. Immediately bellow the marble plinth on the river flank are 22 rooms in red stone with their ventilators all walled up by Shahjahan. Those rooms, made uninhibitably by Shahjahan, are kept locked by Archealogy Department of India. The lay visitor is kept in the dark about them. Those 22 rooms still bear ancient Hindu paint on their walls and ceilings. On their side is a nearly 33 feet long corridor. There are two door frames one at either end ofthe corridor. But those doors are intriguingly sealed with brick and lime.
68. Apparently those doorways originally sealed by Shahjahan have been since unsealed and again walled up several times. In 1934 a resident of Delhi took a peep inside from an opening in the upper part of the doorway. To his dismay he saw huge hall inside. It contained many statues huddled around a central beheaded image of Lord Shiva. It could be that, in there, are Sanskrit inscriptions too. All the seven stories of the Tajmahal need to be unsealed and scoured to ascertain what evidence they may be hiding in the form of Hindu images, Sanskrit inscriptions, scriptures, coins and utensils.
69. Apart from Hindu images hidden in the sealed stories it is also learnt that Hindu images are also stored in the massive walls of the Taj. Between 1959 and 1962 when Mr. S.R. Rao was the Archealogical Superintendent in Agra, he happened to notice a deep and wide crack in the wall of the central octagonal chamber of the Taj. When a part of the wall was dismantled to study the crack out popped two or three marble images. The matter was hushed up and the images were reburied where they had been embedded at Shahjahan's behest. Confirmation of this has been obtained from several sources. It was only when I began my investigation into the antecedents of the Taj I came across the above information which had remained a forgotten secret. What better proof is needed of the Temple origin of the Tajmahal? Its walls and sealed chambers still hide in Hindu idols that were consecrated in it before Shahjahan's seizure of the Taj.

PRE-SHAHJAHAN REFERENCES TO THE TAJ

70. Apparently the Taj as a central palace seems to have an chequered history. The Taj was perhaps desecrated and looted by every Muslim invader from Mohammad Ghazni onwards but passing into Hindu hands off and on, the sanctity of the Taj as a Shiva temple continued to be revived after every muslim onslaught. Shahjahan was the last muslim to desecrate the Tajmahal alias Tejomahalay.
71. Vincent Smith records in his book titled `Akbar the Great Moghul' that `Babur's turbulent life came to an end in his garden palace in Agra in 1630'. That palace was none other than the Tajmahal. 72. Babur's daughter Gulbadan Begum in her chronicle titled `Humayun Nama' refers to the Taj as the Mystic House.
73. Babur himself refers to the Taj in his memoirs as the palace captured by Ibrahim Lodi containing a central octagonal chamber and having pillars on the four sides. All these historical references allude to the Taj 100 years before Shahjahan.
74. The Tajmahal precincts extend to several hundred yards in all directions. Across the river are ruins of the annexes of the Taj, the bathing ghats and a jetty for the ferry boat. In the Victoria gardens outside covered with creepers is the long spur of the ancient outer wall ending in a octagonal red stone tower. Such extensive grounds all magnificently done up, are a superfluity for a grave.
75. Had the Taj been specially built to bury Mumtaz, it should not have been cluttered with other graves. But the Taj premises contain several graves atleast in its eastern and southern pavilions.
76. In the southern flank, on the other side of the Tajganj gate are buried in identical pavilions queens Sarhandi Begum, and Fatehpuri Begum and a maid Satunnisa Khanum. Such parity burial can be justified only if the queens had been demoted or the maid promoted. But since Shahjahan had commandeered (not built) the Taj, he reduced it general to a muslim cemetary as was the habit of all his Islamic predeccssors, and buried a queen in a vacant pavillion and a maid in another idenitcal pavilion.
77. Shahjahan was married to several other women before and after Mumtaz. She, therefore, deserved no special consideration in having a wonder mausoleum built for her.
78. Mumtaz was a commoner by birth and so she did not qualify for a fairyland burial.
79. Mumtaz died in Burhanpur which is about 600 miles from Agra. Her grave there is intact. Therefore ,the centotaphs raised in stories of the Taj in her name seem to be fakes hiding in Hindu Shiva emblems.
80. Shahjahan seems to have simulated Mumtaz's burial in Agra to find a pretext to surround the temple palace with his fierce and fanatic troops and remove all the costly fixtures in his treasury. This finds confirmation in the vague noting in the Badshahnama which says that the Mumtaz's (exhumed) body was brought to Agra from Burhanpur and buried `next year'. An official term would not use a nebulous term unless it is to hide some thing.
81. A pertinent consideration is that a Shahjahan who did not build any palaces for Mumtaz while she was alive, would not build a fabulous mausoleum for a corpse which was no longer kicking or clicking.
82. Another factor is that Mumtaz died within two or three years of Shahjahan becoming an emperor. Could he amass so much superflous wealth in that short span as to squander it on a wonder mausoleum?
83. While Shahjahan's special attachment to Mumtaz is nowhere recorded in history his amorous affairs with many other ladies from maids to mannequins including his own daughter Jahanara, find special attention in accounts of Shahjahan's reign. Would Shahjahan shower his hard earned wealth on Mumtaz's corpse?
84. Shahjahan was a stingy, usurious monarch. He came to throne murdering all his rivals. He was not therefore, the doting spendthrift that he is made out to be.
85. A Shahjahan disconsolate on Mumtaz's death is suddenly credited with a resolve to build the Taj. This is a psychological incongruity. Grief is a disabling, incapacitating emotion.
86. A infatuated Shahjahan is supposed to have raised the Taj over the dead Mumtaz, but carnal, physical sexual love is again a incapacitating emotion. A womaniser is ipso facto incapable of any constructive activity. When carnal love becomes uncontrollable the person either murders somebody or commits suicide. He cannot raise a Tajmahal. A building like the Taj invariably originates in an ennobling emotion like devotion to God, to one's mother and mother country or power and glory.
87. Early in the year 1973, chance digging in the garden in front of the Taj revealed another set of fountains about six feet below the present fountains. This proved two things. Firstly, the subterranean fountains were there before Shahjahan laid the surface fountains. And secondly that those fountains are aligned to the Taj that edifice too is of pre Shahjahan origin. Apparently the garden and its fountains had sunk from annual monsoon flooding and lack of maintenance for centuries during the Islamic rule.
89. The stately rooms on the upper floor of the Tajmahal have been striped of their marble mosaic by Shahjahan to obtain matching marble for raising fake tomb stones inside the Taj premises at several places. Contrasting with the rich finished marble ground floor rooms the striping of the marble mosaic covering the lower half of the walls and flooring of the upper storey have given those rooms a naked, robbed look. Since no visitors are allowed entry to the upper storey this despoilation by Shahjahan has remained a well guarded secret. There is no reason why Shahjahan's loot of the upper floor marble should continue to be hidden from the public even after 200 years of termination of Moghul rule.
90. Bernier, the French traveller has recorded that no non muslim was allowed entry into the secret nether chambers of the Taj because there are some dazzling fixtures there. Had those been installed by Shahjahan they should have been shown the public as a matter of pride. But since it was commandeered Hindu wealth which Shahjahan wanted to remove to his treasury, he didn't want the public to know about it.
91. The approach to Taj is dotted with hillocks raised with earth dugout from foundation trenches. The hillocks served as outer defences of the Taj building complex. Raising such hillocks from foundation earth, is a common Hindu device of hoary origin. Nearby Bharatpur provides a graphic parallel.
Peter Mundy has recorded that Shahjahan employed thousands of labourers to level some of those hillocks. This is a graphic proof of the Tajmahal existing before Shahjahan.
93. At the backside of the river bank is a Hindu crematorium, several palaces, Shiva temples and bathings of ancient origin. Had Shahjahan built the Tajmahal, he would have destroyed the Hindu features.
94. The story that Shahjahan wanted to build a Black marble Taj across the river, is another motivated myth. The ruins dotting the other side of the river are those of Hindu structures demolished during muslim invasions and not the plinth of another Tajmahal. Shahjahan who did not even build the white Tajmahal would hardly ever think of building a black marble Taj. He was so miserly that he forced labourers to work gratis even in the superficial tampering neccesary to make a Hindu temple serve as a Muslim tomb.
95. The marble that Shahjahan used for grafting Koranic lettering in the Taj is of a pale white shade while the rest of the Taj is built of a marble with rich yellow tint. This disparity is proof of the Koranic extracts being a superimposition.
96. Though imaginative attempts have been made by some historians to foist some fictitious name on history as the designer of the Taj others more imaginative have credited Shajahan himself with superb architechtural proficiency and artistic talent which could easily concieve and plan the Taj even in acute bereavment. Such people betray gross ignorance of history in as much as Shajahan was a cruel tyrant ,a great womaniser and a drug and drink addict.
97. Fanciful accounts about Shahjahan commisioning the Taj are all confused. Some asserted that Shahjahan ordered building drawing from all over the world and chose one from among them. Others assert that a man at hand was ordered to design a mausoleum amd his design was approved. Had any of those versions been true Shahjahan's court papers should have had thousands of drawings concerning the Taj. But there is not even a single drawing. This is yet another clinching proof that Shahjahan did not commision the Taj.
98. The Tajmahal is surrounded by huge mansions which indicate that several battles have been waged around the Taj several times.
99. At the south east corner of the Taj is an ancient royal cattle house. Cows attached to the Tejomahalay temple used to reared there. A cowshed is an incongruity in an Islamic tomb.
100. Over the western flank of the Taj are several stately red stone annexes. These are superflous for a mausoleum.
101. The entire Taj complex comprises of 400 to 500 rooms. Residential accomodation on such a stupendous scale is unthinkable in a mausoleum.
102. The neighbouring Tajganj township's massive protective wall also encloses the Tajmahal temple palace complex. This is a clear indication that the Tejomahalay temple palace was part and parcel of the township. A street of that township leads straight into the Tajmahal. The Tajganj gate is aligned in a perfect straight line to the octagonal red stone garden gate and the stately entrance arch of the Tajmahal. The Tajganj gate besides being central to the Taj temple complex, is also put on a pedestal. The western gate by which the visitors enter the Taj complex is a camparatively minor gateway. It has become the entry gate for most visitors today because the railway station and the bus station are on that side.
103. The Tajmahal has pleasure pavillions which a tomb would never have.
104. A tiny mirror glass in a gallery of the Red Fort in Agra reflects the Taj mahal. Shahjahan is said to have spent his last eight years of life as a prisoner in that gallery peering at the reflected Tajmahal and sighing in the name of Mumtaz. This myth is a blend of many falsehoods. Firstly,old Shajahan was held prisoner by his son Aurangzeb in the basement storey in the Fort and not in an open,fashionable upper storey. Secondly, the glass piece was fixed in the 1930's by Insha Allah Khan, a peon of the archaelogy dept.just to illustrate to the visitors how in ancient times the entire apartment used to scintillate with tiny mirror pieces reflecting the Tejomahalay temple a thousand fold. Thirdly, a old decrepit Shahjahan with pain in his joints and cataract in his eyes, would not spend his day craning his neck at an awkward angle to peer into a tiny glass piece with bedimmed eyesight when he could as well his face around and have full,direct view of the Tjamahal itself. But the general public is so gullible as to gulp all such prattle of wily, unscrupulous guides.
105. That the Tajmahal dome has hundreds of iron rings sticking out of its exterior is a feature rarely noticed. These are made to hold Hindu earthen oil lamps for temple illumination.
106. Those putting implicit faith in Shahjahan authorship of the Taj have been imagining Shahjahan-Mumtaz to be a soft hearted romantic pair like Romeo and Juliet. But contemporary accounts speak of Shahjahan as a hard hearted ruler who was constantly egged on to acts of tyranny and cruelty, by Mumtaz.
107. School and College history carry the myth that Shahjahan reign was a golden period in which there was peace and plenty and that Shahjahan commisioned many buildings and patronized literature. This is pure fabrication. Shahjahan did not commision even a single building as we have illustrated by a detailed analysis of the Tajmahal legend. Shahjahn had to enrage in 48 military campaigns during a reign of nearly 30 years which proves that his was not a era of peace and plenty.
108. The interior of the dome rising over Mumtaz's centotaph has a representation of Sun and cobras drawn in gold. Hindu warriors trace their origin to the Sun. For an Islamic mausoleum the Sun is redundant. Cobras are always associated with Lord Shiva.

FORGED DOCUMENTS

109. The muslim caretakers of the tomb in the Tajmahal used to possess a document which they styled as "Tarikh-i-Tajmahal". Historian H.G. Keene has branded it as `a document of doubtful authenticity'. Keene was uncannily right since we have seen that Shahjahan not being the creator of the Tajmahal any document which credits Shahjahn with the Tajmahal, must be an outright forgery. Even that forged document is reported to have been smuggled out of Pakistan. Besides such forged documents there are whole chronicles on the Taj which are pure concoctions.
110. There is lot of sophistry and casuistry or atleast confused thinking associated with the Taj even in the minds of proffesional historians, archaelogists and architects. At the outset they assert that the Taj is entirely Muslim in design. But when it is pointed out that its lotus capped dome and the four corner pillars etc. are all entirely Hindu those worthies shift ground and argue that that was probably because the workmen were Hindu and were to introduce their own patterns. Both these arguments are wrong because Muslim accounts claim the designers to be Muslim,and the workers invariably carry out the employer's dictates.
The Taj is only a typical illustration of how all historic buildings and townships from Kashmir to Cape Comorin though of Hindu origin have been ascribed to this or that Muslim ruler or courtier.
It is hoped that people the world over who study Indian history will awaken to this new finding and revise their erstwhile beliefs.
Those interested in an indepth study of the above and many other revolutionary rebuttals may read this author's other research books.

Tajmahal The True Story authored by Shri P.N. Oak can be ordered from :

A. Ghosh Publisher5720,
W. Little York #216Houston,
Texas 77091


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Tamil Nadu History

Tamil Nadu History

The history of Tamil Nadu is very old and it is believed that human endeavour s to inhabit this area began as early as 300, 000 years ago. It is also suggested that the first Dravidians of Tamil country were part of the early Indus Valley settlers and moved south during the advent of Aryans around 1500 BC. However, the recorded history goes back only to the 4th century BC. There are references in the early Sangham literature to the social, economic and cultural life of people. The proximity to the sea established the Tamil Country on the maritime map of the world even before the dawn of Christian era. The Tamils were bonded through trade links with ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome.



History rewinds
Prior to the Christian era, the Cheras, Cholas and Pandias ruled Tamil Country. This was the golden period of Tamil literature, the Sangham Age that shadowed three centuries after Christ. The domains of these three dynasties changed many times over the centuries. At times other dynasties like Pallavas and Chalukyas came into power. All these dynasties engaged in continual skirmishes; but their steady patronage of arts served the expansion of Dravidian culture. It is speculated that the early Dravidians were part of the Indus Valley Civilisation. However, with the coming of the Aryans, the Dravidians were pushed back into the deep south where they ultimately settled around 1500 BC. Excavations have revealed that the features of the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation bore a marked resemblance to that of this region.

Bastion of legacy

Tamil Nadu is famed for its rich tradition of literature , music and dance which are continuing to flourish today. It is one of the most industrialized states in India. Tamil is the official language of Tamil Nadu (as well as one of the official languages of India). Tamil Nadu was carved from the old Madras State in the 1950s, when India re-drew some state lines according to language. State politics continue to have a lot to do with protecting and celebrating the Tamil (and Dravidian in general) language and culture.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Digital Cameras: Double Take


Is 2005 the year of the digital camera? Uh, no. That was 2004 . . . or maybe the year before that. It is no surprise that digital has surpassed film. What continues to amaze is its blitzkrieg progress, namely, more megapixels, better features, easier integration with other technologies, and lower prices. Nowadays the choice is not whether to buy, but which one. There are packable and worry-free point-and-shoots, larger and superhigh-quality SLRs, and plenty to choose from in between. In each class we've found the best cameras, laid out the specs, and contrasted the features. One of these cameras on the next few pages is the right fit for you. Pocket MagiciansPint-size, affordable, and easy to use


1. Casio Exilim Card EX-S500 (Left)

User Profile: Minimalist


This stainless-steel Casio ($399; http://www.casio.com/) is nearly credit card–size (just 0.6 inches or 1.5 centimeters thick!) and is available in three colors: stainless, copper, and white. Though you'll pay more and won't have the same range of control as with Canon's A95 (at right), the EX-S500 has a retracting 3x zoom, a big color screen, and a five-megapixel sensor somehow squeezed into a tiny, yet uncluttered body. It can also record high-quality video with sound.


Best Feature: The EX-S500's Anti-Shake signal processor, unusual in such a small camera, reduces low-light blur from slow shutter speeds and camera shake.


2. Canon PowerShot A95 (Right)

User Profile: Tourista


Despite its bargain price and modest size, the five-megapixel A95 ($285; http://www.canon.com/) allows for creative license unheard of with most automatic point-and-shoots. A host of manual settings permits customization, and savvy features like an exposure histogram help amateurs nail tricky shots. All functions are accessed with a thumb-operated controller and easy-to-navigate, on-screen menus. For quick travel snaps, the A95's nine-point autofocus is precise, fast, and just what you need.


Best Feature: The bright, 1.8-inch (4.5-centimeter) LCD swings out and rotates for shooting and viewing from virtually any angle


1. Olympus Camedia C-7070 Wide Zoom (Left)

User Profile: Photojournalist


This sturdy 7.1-megapixel C-7070 ($450; http://www.olympus.com/) won't win a beauty contest, but similar Olympus offerings have snagged prizes for photojournalist Alex Majoli, who covers war zones like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iraq. The C-7070's sculpted magnesium-alloy body fits your hand like a glove, so it's great on the fly and for fast-action shots. Also, it sports myriad manual controls, along with a microphone so you can narrate images as you shoot them. As a bonus, its flip-up, swiveling LCD is great for tough angles.


Best Feature: The C-7070's wide-angle zoom handles tight quarters like markets or sporting events and big, jaw-dropping vistas with equal ease and quality.


2. Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-V3 (Right)

User Profile: Control freak


Though beefy, the snazzy-looking 7.2-megapixel V3 ($600; http://www.sony.com/) is smaller, lighter, and more packable than its counterpart, the Olympus C-7070 (at left). But it offers similarly high-quality images. The V3's supersharp 4x zoom is less wide and more telephoto than the Oly's, so it's better suited to portraits and detail shots. Also, the focus is remarkably fast, even in low light, thanks to its laser-guided Hologram AF Illuminator. Finally, the V3 has a big rubber grip and among the best video capabilities in its class.


Best Feature: Its huge color LCD (fixed, no flip) is easy to see even in direct sunlight.


Breakout TECH: Wi-Fi CamerasKodak EasyShare-One

User Profile: Cyberphile


There's a whole new reason to search for a wireless hot spot. Yup, even cameras have gone Wi-Fi. Though the flagship, four-megapixel EasyShare-One ($600, not including $100 Wi-Fi card; http://www.kodak.com/) is the only such unit currently on the market, you'll be almost guaranteed to see more in the next year. The advantage? Built-in Wi-Fi connects without a PC to a Kodak online service via any wireless hot spot or home network, which means you can be sitting at the ferry terminal in Sydney, Australia, say, and fire off real-time shots of the Opera House to your friends. You're also able to manage online photo albums and order prints to be delivered to your door before you get home from vacation. As well, the internal memory holds up to 1,500 pictures, so you don't have the additional cost of memory cards.


Best Feature: The huge three-inch rotating touch screen, navigated with a built-in stylus like a PDA, is incredibly flashy and cool.


1. Nikon D50 (Left)

User Profile: Action photographer


Competent and comfortable, the D50 ($700, body; $850 with 18–55mm lens; http://www.nikonusa.com/) refines the proven Nikon DSLR formula and delivers pro-caliber shooting to ordinary folk. Less flashy but more affordable than the Konica Minolta 5D (at right), the Nikon has better-organized menus and superior battery life—up to 2,000 shots per charge. Also, if you're willing to tote a hefty camera bag along, you have access to nearly 50 different Nikkor autofocus lenses and loads of accessories for any shooting circumstance.


Best Feature: For the money, you can't find a camera that handles continuous action like the D50, with its superior operating speed, including superfast focus tracking, instant shutter response, and nearly unlimited continuous shooting.


2. Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D (Right)

User Profile: Perfectionist


Konica Minolta's state-of-the-art Maxxum 5D ($800, body; $900 with 18–70mm lens; http://www.konicaminolta.com/) is the ultimate starter DSLR. It's got the biggest, clearest optical viewfinder in its class, so beginners can easily frame shots. And its huge 2.5-inch (6.35 centimeter) LCD is as big as they come in a consumer DSLR, which allows for easy viewing (count on making some new friends on the road). The screen doubles as a supersize data panel, teeming with dedicated buttons for instant access to all major settings.

Best Feature: The image-stabilization system tames camera shake in low-light situations and with telephoto and, unlike competing systems, works with any lens.


Breakout Tech: Camera Phones

Samsung Sprint PCS SPH-a800

User profile: Multitasker


These days it seems like every time you turn around somebody is snapping a camera phone. Smile! And as fun (or occasionally annoying) as this trend might be, most of the shots stink. Enter the quirky-looking and pocketable SPH-a800 ($499; http://www.samsung.com/), the first two-megapixel camera phone available in the United States. Complete with a 2x digital zoom lens, the SPH-a800 yields quality photos that will print nicely up to five-by-seven inches. You can also e-mail shots at will or output them directly to a USB-connected printer. Plus, when you're not taking photos, you can play music, videos, and games, and, of course, talk.


Best Feature: Its voice recognition enables you to address and dictate text messages sans keypad.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Real Story of DIAMONDS

By Andrew Cockburn

Funneled through secretive networks, these precious gems can carry a huge cost in human suffering.


"Diamonds are not really a commodity like gold or silver,” a leading New York dealer explained to me one day. “You won’t buy a stone from a jeweler and then sell it back to him for the same price—he’s not going to give up his profit. But they are definitely the easiest way to move value around. I know a guy who had to leave Iran at a moment’s notice during the revolution there. No time to sell his house or get to the bank, but he had time to pick up 30 million dollars’ worth of diamonds and walk away.” “They are a form of currency,” remarked Mark van Bockstael of the Diamond High Council in Antwerp. “They back international loans, pay debts, pay bribes, buy arms. In many cases they are better than money.” Monrovia, capital of Liberia, for example, is known as a mecca for money launderers seeking to turn questionable cash assets into diamonds that can then be easily moved and sold elsewhere. There have been unconfirmed reports that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization, al Qaeda, made use of this operation. As van Bockstael expounded on his favorite subject, we were strolling to lunch from his office in the city’s diamond district, the heart of the world’s diamond bazaar. Eighty percent of the world’s rough gem-quality diamonds are traded every year along three short streets next to the Antwerp railroad station. The Antwerp district has extensions in many cities: West 47th Street in New York, London’s Hatton Garden, the high-rise offices of Ramat Gan in Tel Aviv, not to mention the Opera House district in Mumbai (Bombay) and the other “diamond cities” of India, where, in a union of modern technology and cheap labor, 800,000 workers craft stones weighing a fraction of a carat into polished gems. Each of these business centers revolves around personal contact and connections, thrives on rumor and gossip, and cherishes secrecy. Multimillion-dollar deals are clinched with a handshake and the word mazal, Hebrew for “good luck.” “So many secrets,” sighed van Bockstael as we skipped to avoid a cyclist in a long black coat and a broad, flat, fur-trimmed hat. “Nothing is what it seems in the diamond business, and half the time you don’t even know if that’s true.”



Associating diamonds with love and emotion has long been the key marketing strategy for De Beers. Fundamental to the campaign is the famous slogan “A Diamond Is Forever”—embracing the twin notions of eternal devotion and eternal value. Sometimes De Beers advertisements are more explicit about the role of its product in the mating game: “Of course there’s a return on your investment,” ran one full-page offering just before Christmas 2000. “We just can’t print it here.”De Beers may be single-handedly responsible for prompting, in less than a century, American, European, Japanese, and, increasingly, Chinese women to expect the “traditional” gift of a diamond engagement ring as a matter of right. But myths that associate diamonds with love and devotion go back long before De Beers’s marketing campaign.In Indian mythology gems are considered to have a cosmic power in and of themselves. Astrologers advise clients on which gems to wear in order to alter their destinies, and diamonds, according to one practitioner I consulted in Hyderabad, exhibit powerful effects on love, procreation, and, by extension, immortality.Given their supernatural powers, it is not surprising that jewels have deep religious significance in India. Thus it was that in a gold-plated Hindu shrine high in the hills above Tirupati northwest of Chennai (Madras), I found a god adorned in diamonds. The ancient idol, nine feet tall (three meters) and carved of black stone, stood at the end of a narrow passageway. This was Balaji, fast becoming the most popular deity in all India. In the line behind me, stretching back miles, tens of thousands of excited worshipers chanted his name, the sound competing with the roar of nearby machines sorting the donations—destined to be used for the temple’s charitable enterprises—that poured into collection sacks at the entrance. Balaji wears a colossal shimmering crown of diamonds. It weighs almost 60 pounds (27 kilograms) and contains no less than 28,000 stones. His hands are covered with more diamonds; his ears sport massive diamond earrings. Close by are a diamond-encrusted conch shell and discus, his traditional accessories. As Nanditha Krishna, an elegant Chennai matron and ardent Balaji devotee, explained somewhat superfluously, “He likes diamonds.” Among other examples, she cited the experience of a friend who had promised Balaji a valuable diamond ring and then thought better of it, only to have the ring violently sucked off his finger and into the collection sack by an unseen force as he entered the shrine. Deposited in the brimming treasure vaults of the temple, the ring would have joined priceless relics of an era when India was the world’s sole source of diamonds. Southern Indian kingdoms and empires grew powerful on the wealth pouring out of the alluvial mines of the eastern Deccan Plateau, much of which was deposited at Tirupati and other temples as offerings from devout rulers. Their religious obligations fulfilled, kings and princes indulged themselves with exotic jewelry in forms and settings similar to those bequeathed to the gods. Travelers from far-off Europe marveled at the profligate display of wealth at the royal courts. According to one awestruck 16th-century visitor, even the king of Vijayanagar’s horse wore a “city’s worth” of jewels.

Source of "Killer Electrons" in Space Discovered, Study Says

Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News
July 17, 2007



Scientists have discovered the force that creates "killer electrons," particles that pose a significant hazard to spacecraft and astronauts. The supercharged particles are also a menace to satellites, which are increasingly vital to phones, television, and other communication systems.


Killer electrons are found in the outermost of Earth's doughnut-shaped radiation belts. The belts circle the Earth and are bound by the planet's magnetic fields.
Scientists have long pondered where the killer particles come from and how they accumulate in the radiation belts. Some theories suggest that they originate in the sun, which produces similar particles, or are the remnants of cosmic rays from outside our solar system.


KILLER ELECTRONS

But a team at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory may have solved the mystery, and their findings suggest the particles actually form much closer to home.
Using satellite detectors to probe the outer radiation belt, the team found that killer electrons occur extremely unevenly. Such localized peaks in intensity, the researcher say, could only be caused by electromagnetic waves accelerating electrons to "killer" status within the radiation belt.


"I think we show conclusively they do not come from further out [in space]. They are accelerated in the radiation belt itself," said Reiner Friedel, co-author of a paper published in the July issue of the journal Nature Physics.

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