India was a happy country till around 1000 AD

ProverbHunter tells us:

Happy is the country that has no history
Often ‘nation’ is used instead of ‘country’ . Eduard Gibbon wrote in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ‘History is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.’ Thomas Jefferson wrote: ‘Blest is that Nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say.’

India didn't have Herodotus-type history until after 1000 AD. Perhaps not coincidentally, this era corresponds to the tremendously destructive invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni.  

Gentoo

Before the Englishmen used the term "Hindoo", they used the term "Gentoo", and I've always wondered where it came from.  The following finally got me actually looking to find out.

The Word Gentoo has been, and is still, equally mistaken to signify, in the proper sense of the Term, the Professors of the Braminical Religion, whereas Gent, or Gentoo, means Animal in general, and in its more confined Sense, Mankind; but is never, in the Shanscrit Dialect, nor even in the modern Jargon of Bengal, appropriated particularly to such as follow the Doctrines of Brihma.   The four great Tribes have each their own separate Appellation; but they have no common or collective Term that comprehends the whole Nation under the Idea affixed by Europeans to the Word Gentoo.  Possibly the Portuguese on their first Arrival in India, hearing the Word frequently in the Mouths of the Natives as applied to Mankind in general, might adopt it for the domestic Appellation of the Indians themselves; perhaps also their Bigotry might force from the Word Gentoo a fanciful Allusion to Gentile, a Pagan.  —from the preface of A Code of Gentoo Laws, or Ordinations of the Pundits, From a Persian Translation, made from the Original, written in the Shanscrit Language, 1776,Nathaniel Brassey Halbed.

The Oxford Hindi-English dictionary:
जंतु  jantu [from Sanskrit], m., an animal; a creature; an insect, &c.

Jantu is an every-day word in Hindi, but never previously had I associated with "Gentoo".

Apte's Sanskrit-English dictionary:
जंतु:  {jantuh}
1. A creature, a living being, man;
2. The (individual) soul.
3. An animal of the lowest organization

It turns out that (as far as I can tell with the help of relatives and friends) that only Sanskrit has retained the meaning of "man", Marathi, Konkani, Malayalam all have the word in the sense of "creature" or lowly organism.

 Wiki has some compelling references that show that Gentoo has its roots in the Portuguese gentio, or gentile.  This is by proven by looking at Portuguese literature from the 16th century (e.g., Duarte Barbosa (1480-1521)).  So it appears that Halbed had it backwards; Gentoo originated in gentio, and Halbed forced a fanciful allusion to jantu.

(Non)preservation of historical heritage

Mecca:

The authorities in Saudi Arabia have begun dismantling some of the oldest sections of Islam’s most important mosque as part of a highly controversial multi-billion pound expansion.

Commentary:

Muslim silence on this issue isn’t just cowardly, it’s deeply hypocritical. When an obscure group of foam-at-the-mouth Islamophobes got together in the United States to make an utterly pointless and deliberately provocative film about the Prophet Mohammad, or when a group of Danish cartoonists exercised their democratic right to lampoon a religious leader and the creeping self-censorship of the European press, protests broke out around the world.

At Friday prayers, imams and sheikhs wasted little time in giving rousing speeches about how Islam was being sullied and the Prophet insulted. The mobs came out, people died (mostly Muslims).

How many of those imams have bothered to get animated about what has happened in Mecca and Medina? How many are outraged that the house of Muhammad’s first wife Khadijah was pulled down and replaced with a block of public toilets, or that five of the seven mosques marking the Battle of the Trench outside Medina have been destroyed, or that religious police cheered when a mosque linked to the Prophet’s grandson was dynamited? It’s politically a lot more convenient to blame infidels for disrespecting your religion’s founder than it is to point the finger of blame at your own kind.

Is the commentary misplaced?  Maybe Muslims on the whole do not want these historical monuments preserved.   Maybe this is the inevitable price of progress.   Maybe this is what is needed for more Muslims to be able to make the Hajj, which may be more important in the scale of things than historical buildings.

Of course, it leaves the question of why all the conflict over, say, the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya? Is it because it cedes ground to the infidelators?

Somebody left the gate open

A big bank is using this song in their commercial - the line "somebody left the gate open".


I like that line, and so looked up the song: LP - Into The Wild:

Published on Oct 4, 2012
"Into The Wild" by LP. Available now on iTunes. The music video was shot at the Four Aces in Palmdale, CA over the summer of 2012. Video directed by Shane Drake and features Brittany Snow & Haley Bennett. Song currently featured in a Citibank commercial.

If you watch the video you will see it is quite appropriate for the US financial industry.
Spoiler:

Bird&Bee Plants - Details

Follow the links for some of the information about the bird&bee plants that I hope to grow:
(all from Toadshade Wildflower Farm)

1. Liatris spicata Asteraceae (Blazing Star)
2. Penstemon smallii Scrophulariaceae (Small's Beardtongue)
3. Monarda fistulosa Lamiaceae (Wild Bergamot)
4. Allium cernuum Liliaceae (Nodding Onion)
5. Campsis radicans Bignoniaceae (Trumpet Vine)
6. Salvia lyrata Lamiaceae (Lyreleaf Sage)
7. Asclepias tuberosa Asclepidaceae (Butterfly Milkweed)
8. Penstemon Digitalis Scrophulariaceae (Tall White Beardtongue)
9. Penstemon hirsutus Scrophulariaceae (Northeastern Beardtongue)
10. Physostegia virginiana Lamiaceae (Obedient Plant)
11. Iris Versicolor Iridaceae (Northern Blue Flag Iris)
12. Lobelia siphilitica Campanulaceae (Great Blue Lobelia)
13. Lobelia cardinalis Campanulaceae (Cardinal Flower)
14. Aquilegia candensis L. Ranunculaceae (Wild Eastern Columbine)

Vegucated - a documentary

Vegucated is a documentary about a six-week experiment in veganism by former carnivores.  Well worth watching even for the lacto-ovo vegetarian.

Warning: Meat-eaters and even milk drinkers will find Vegucated to be quite unsettling.

Trailer:

Spring is here!

If the crocuses are blooming, spring must be here - even if it doesn't feel that way with the cold weather.

These are from a couple of days ago:

At the bird feeder

The Great Hummingbird Migration

Read about it here.

Hummingbird Migration routes vary from species to species. The most famous is the Ruby-throated hummingbird which migrates from Central America and Mexico, crosses the Gulf of Mexico and continues as far north as eastern Canada.

The 2012 map:

The Village Republic

Via Reginald Reynolds, “The White Sahibs in India” (1937) we obtain the following:

….a great British administrator, Sir Charles Metcalfe, who afterwards became Acting Governor-General of India, wrote as follows concerning the last surviving Village Communities, which yet remain in 1830 in Northern India:

A clover lawn

I think it is time for my ecologically barren lawn to change.

From the days when I considered clover to be a weed in the lawn, I know that the bees simply love it; and I think if you don't walk barefooted on the lawn, the chances of getting a bee sting are low.

This website promotes clover in the lawn.  Books tell us that until the chemical companies started selling herbicides, clover was considered an essential part of the lawn.

The NY Times had this in 1987:

A lawn of clover is unpopular nowadays; I had to visit several stores before I could find seed. A neighbor observed, after I sowed the seed, that it would attract bees. He was correct, of course. There have always been a few colonies of clover in my lawn, and the blossoms do hum with bees. But my family's 16 years in this house, no one has ever been stung by a bee, even though we sometimes go barefoot. My clover lawn is actually in the best tradition. When Andrew Jackson Downing, the renowned writer on agriculture and horticulture, told people in the late 1840's how to plant lawns, he specified a mixture of white clover and Rhode Island bentgrass.

''Sow four bushels of it to the acre,'' he urged, ''and not a pint less as you plan to walk on velvet!''

Downing had immense admiration for clover, and his reasons were excellent. Clover is not subject to the mildews and other blights that can affect the grasses of today. It stays green on a leaner ration of water than grass. Its dark-green leaves remain attractive in hot weather. Its flowers are pretty, starring the turf.

Its fragrance, especially when newly mown, is sweet. Children can look for four leaves among the usual three. Being a legume, it makes it own fertilizer, snatching nitrogen from the air. And because of my clover lawn, there will be more honey in some neighbors' hives.

I can think of only one reason why we all do not have lawns of clover. Certain herbicides used in this country in prodigious amounts since World War II will not kill fescue and other grasses, but they will kill dandelions and plantains - and white clover. But those of us who forgo this chemical warfare can have sweet clover lawns and all their delights.

I think a garden must have, to the extent feasible, birds, bees, butterflies along with the essential flowers, scents and foliage. If you can add to it that the luxury - flowing water, then the garden is complete.

Valerie Tarico: If the Dalai Lama were Pope

Here.

....the Dalai Lama had this to say in his book, The Universe in a Single Atom. “—if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.” He went on to elaborate:

No credible understanding of the natural world or our human existence–what I am going to call in this book a worldview–can ignore the basic insights of theories as key as evolution, relativity, and quantum mechanics. It may be that science will learn from an engagement with spirituality, especially in its interface with wider human issues, from ethics to society, but certainly some specific aspects of Buddhist thought—such as its old cosmological theories and its rudimentary physics— will have to be modified in the light of new scientific insights.

Crested Iris

Got a few of these Iris Cristata from Lowes. The information about them on the web is a little confusing; but it is supposed to flower in April-May, and is supposed to be attractive to bees and hummingbirds. Quite important, it is supposed to do well under trees. We'll see how it does, given I just planted these, any results are at least an year away. This species is not native to New Jersey, and the best I can find is that it reported to do well in New York, and in South Jersey, and so perhaps it will do well in this middle region.

Conversion corrupts?! - 2

This item, appears in the Latter Day Saints' Millennial Star, available at Google Books,  Vol. L,  (1888),  page 28, under the heading "FACTS AND EVENTS".

Nagpur IT Tribunal - Hinduism is not a religion - 3

Excerpts:


The Assessee's arguments:

He {the assessee} contended that the temple is open to everybody without caste and creed. Anybody who have faith or not in Shiva, Hanuman, Durga may come or even the person who does not have faith in these deities, can also come. The temple does not belong to a particular religion. The expenditure so incurred are not of religious nature. Even the objects of the assessee are not the religious nature. Putting the idols is not a religious activity. The CIT has not stated how the activity so carried are religious. 

The question the Tribunal must decide:

We have gone through the relevant clauses which have been regarded to be religious in nature by the CIT(A). The object clause of the trust reads as under:

“Worship of Lord Shiva , Hanumanji, Goddess Durga and maintaining of temple. To celebrate festivals like Shivratri, Hanuman Jayanti, Ganesh Uttasav, Makar Sankranti, renovation and maintenance of temple. To make available temple for general public and to provide facilities for the public visiting temple. Balance fund, if any after utilizing for the above mentioned objects, may be utilized for education, social and the cultural activities. To conduct nursery school, library, sports club, hostels and other activities. To help poor children for education. To provide medical aid for poor. To help the peoples affected by natural calamity.”

Now the question arise whether these objects can be regarded to be of religious nature and the expenditure incurred for the fulfillment of these objects can be said to have been incurred for the benefit of particular religion.

The tax law:

Now coming to the question whether the assessee trust has violated the conditions as laid down in clause (iii) of section 80G(5), we reproduce this clause which reads as under :

“(iii). the institution or fund is not expressed to be for the benefit of any particular religious community or caste.”

This clause stipulates that the Institution or the Trust must not be for the benefit of any particular religious community or caste. The words “religious community” means the group of people having a common religion or faith. The word “religion” means the belief in and worship to a superhuman controlling power, specially the personal god or gods, a particular system of faith and worship. It means the trust should not be for the benefit of any particular group of persons having the common belief in worshiping of superhuman controlling power or having common system & faith and worship. 

If the trust is for the benefit of any particular religious community, it would include the advancement, support or propagation of a religion and its tenants, it could be said that a trust has violated the condition No. (iii) of section 80G(5). 

The objects as has been pointed out by CIT, nowhere talks of advancement, support or propagation of a particular religion, worshipping of Lord shiva, hanumanji , goddess  Durga and maintaining of temple, in our opinion, cannot be regarded for the advancement support or propagation of a particular religion. No evidence or material was placed on record or brought before us by the learned DR which may prove that these object relate to a particular religion. No doubt the DR argued that it relate to Hindu Religion but in our opinion it is not so. Lord shiva, Hanumanji, goddess Durga does not represent any particular religion, they are merely regarded to be the super power of the universe.

...
...

13. Explanation 3 to section 80G(v) states that “in this section, “charitable purpose” does not include any purpose the whole or substantially the whole of which is of a religious nature.”

This explanation takes note of the fact that an institution or fund shall be for a charitable purpose and may have a number of objects. If any one of these objects is wholly or substantially wholly of a religious nature, the Institution or Funds falls outside the scope of section 80G and the donation to it will not make the donor entitled for the deduction u/s. 80G.

The objects as per Explanation 3 must be wholly or substantially whole of which must be of religious nature. The assessee has submitted all the evidence including the objects and how the expenditure has been incurred by it. The onus, in our opinion, gets shifted on the Revenue to prove that the assessee-trust is wholly or substantially for the religious purpose.

There is no allegation on the part of the revenue that the whole or substantially whole of the object of the trust is to propagate or advance support to a particular sect.

We may observe that Hinduism is a way of life of a civilized society. It as such is not a religion. In this regard we rely on the case of T T Kuppuswamy Chettiar Vs. State of Tamil Nadu (1987) 100 LW 1031 in which it was held 

"The word “Hindu” has not been defined in any of the texts nor in judgment made law. The word was given by British administrators to inhabitants of India, who were not Christians, Muslims, Parsis or Jews. The alleged Hindu religion consists of four castes Brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas and sudras belonging ultimately to two schools of law, mitaksharas and dayabhaga. There is, however, no religion by the name 'Hindu'. It only shows that so called Hindu religion has been called for convenience.” 

CIT must be aware of that the Hindu consists of a number of communities having the different gods who are being worshipped in a different manner, different rituals, different ethical codes. Even the worship of god is not essential for a person who has adopted Hinduism way of life. Thus, Hinduism holds within its fold men of divergent views and traditions who have very little in common except a vague faith in what may be called the fundamentals of the Hinduism.

The word ‘community’ means a society of people living in the same place, under the same laws and regulations and who have common rights and privileges. This may apply to Christianity or moslem but not to Hinduism. Therefore, it cannot be said that Hindu is a separate community or a separate religion. Technically Hindu is neither a religion nor a community. Therefore, expenses incurred for worshipping of Lord Shiva, , Hanuman, Goddess Durga and for maintenance of temple cannot be regarded to be for religious purpose.

Nagpur IT Tribunal : Hinduism not a religion - 2

The Income Tax Tribunal's judgment is here.

How they cite the Supreme Court case:

1. In the case of Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Madras vs. Sri Lakshmindra Thirtha Swamiar 1954 SCJ335, Religion has been expressed to mean a matter of faith with individuals or communities and it is not necessarily theistic. There are well known religions in India, like Buddhism and Jainism, which do not believe in God or in any intelligent first cause. A religion undoubtedly has its basis in a system of beliefs or doctrines which are regarded by those who profess that religion as conducive to their spiritual well being, but it will not be correct to say that religions is nothing else but a doctrine or belief. A religion may not only lay down a code of ethical rules for its followers to accept, but it might prescribed rituals and observances, ceremonies and modes of worship which are regarded as integral parts of a religion, and these forms and observances might extend even to matters of food and dress.

No material or evidence has been brought on record by the department which may prove that any person coming, worshipping and maintaining the temple has to follow a particular code of ethical rules and has to carry out the prescribed rituals and observances, ceremonies and modes of worship. The entry is not restricted to a particular group of persons. Any body whether want to worship or not and want to maintain or not can come to the temple and avail of all the facilities available to the public at large. Therefore, these objects cannot be regarded to be the religious objects. In our opinion, until and unless the activities for which the trust is established, involve the activity religious purpose, it cannot be said that the assessee has not complied with the condition No. (iii) enumerated u/s. 80G(5) of the Act.

Butterfly-Hummingbird Garden - Preliminary

Perusing the online catalog at Toadshade Wildflower Farm,
Toadshade Wildflower Farm
53 Everittstown Rd.
Frenchtown, NJ. 08825

I came up with this set of plants for a hummingbird-butterfly garden.  A complete plan will include where I will plant these.  I already have a trumpet vine with quite a bit of vegetative growth, but with scarce flowers, so I suppose I should consider conditions in my yard to be a bit adverse.

B=Butterflies/Bees
C=Caterpillars (butterfly)
H=Hummingbirds
In theory, flowering from April to September is covered.

Plant Name

B

C

H

Moisture

Light

Height

Color

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Lyreleaf Sage

x

x

Dry to Average

Sun to Part Shade

1-2'

Lavender-blue

x

x

x

Northern Blue Flag Iris

x

Moist to Wet

Sun to Part Shade

2-3'

Blue

x

x

x

x

Tall White Beardtongue

x

x

Dry to Average

Sun to Part Shade

2-4'

White

x

x

x

Wild Eastern Columbine

x

x

Dry to Average

Sun to Shade

1-2'

Red

x

x

x

Small's Beardtongue

x

x

Dry to Average

Full Sun

1-2'

Violet, Magenta

x

x

Butterfly Milkweed

x

x

Dry to Average

Sun to Part Shade

1-3'

Orange

x

x

x

x

Northeastern Beardtongue

x

x

Dry to Moist

Sun to Part Shade

1-3'

Violet, Magenta

x

x

Nodding Onion

x

x

Average to Moist

Sun to Part Shade

0.5-2'

Rose-pink

x

x

x

Trumpet Vine

x

x

Average to Moist

Sun to Part Shade

vine

Reddish-orange

x

x

x

Wild Bergamot

x

x

Average

Sun to Part Shade

2-3'

Lilac

x

x

Blazing Star

x

x

Average to Moist

Full Sun

1-4'

Purple

x

x

Great Blue Lobelia

x

Average to Moist

Sun to Shade

1-4'

Blue

x

x

Cardinal Flower

x

x

Average to Moist

Sun to Shade

2-5'

Scarlet

x

x

Obedient Plant

x

x

Dry to Moist

Sun to Part Shade

2-3'

Lavender-white

x