When will SUSY be wrong?

High energy particle physics theorists are disappointed and even dismayed that the Large Hadron Collider has shown up nothing beyond the Standard Model Higgs.  Their favorite "Beyond Standard Model" physics, based on an idea called supersymmetry (SUSY) has not shown even a tiny hint of existing.  Over on "Not Even Wrong", Peter Woit asked "“Is there any forseeable experimental data that would cause you to decide that SUSY was an idea that should be abandoned?”

Urs Schreiber gave a logical answer as to why physicists might think SUSY is relevant to physics - not just in a technical sense where it can make some computations tractable - but as a part of reality.  You can follow the link (or see below the fold).

So, I thought that Woit's question was answered.  Nothing but a mathematical theorem with a proof will serve to end the SUSY quest.  Namely, something like:

"Nature chose to have an ordinary group act on the supermanifold" because:

1. Using a supergroup on the supermanifold implies a necessary feature in the low energy theory that our observed low energy world lacks;  or

2. Our low energy world has an observed feature that the use of a supergroup on the supermanifold cannot reproduce; or else,

3. Using a supergroup on a supermanifold produces a high-energy theory that fails for some reason (without even considering the low energy world).

Since the question is: “Is there any foreseeable experimental data that would cause you to decide that SUSY was an idea that should be abandoned?”", (3.) above need not concern us here.  The Higgs as detected by the LHC, with nothing super- accompanying it, does not quite fall into either 1. or 2. without additional assumptions.

Therefore the SUSY search will continue.

Woit didn't like that answer and deleted it.

On a side note, Charles Darwin, around the time of spelling out his theory of evolution, also wrote: "It is mere rubbish thinking at present of the origin of life-- one might as well think of the origin of matter."  This is because he knew that the problem of the origin of life was well beyond the reach of the science of his time.  Particle physics theorists, however, have believed for about forty years that a complete description of fundamental physics is within their grasp.  Nature has proven to be rather elusive.

Hint of Rakhigarhi DNA news to come

The Times of India reports:

Scientists are anxiously awaiting complete re sults of the DNA tests of samples taken from Rakhigarhi. "We took DNA samples from skeletons recovered from the archeological dig as well as residents of Rakhigarhi village of today. The initial results have thrown up scientific evidence proving that even as the civilization faded away , some people adapted to the changes and continued to live here," the official added, requesting anonymity as the full results of the research project are not out yet.

Tying shoe laces

In each case, the link leads to a video that shows something that I did not know about tying shoe laces.

1. How to tie your shoes.

2. Running shoes.

Rakhigarhi DNA news

Via the Indian Express:

“We have found what has not been found at any other Harappan excavation site before — a DNA extraction from the skeletal remains,” says Shinde, describing it as one of the biggest breakthroughs in Harappan research, “The important aspect that we are working, on which has never been done before, is the facial reconstruction of the Harappan people. The South Koreans have developed a software in which if we feed the DNA data along with the morphological features, like measurements of bones, it can help us reconstruct the face. For the first time, we will be able to see what Harappans looked like, the colour of their skin, their eyes and so on.”

The lab in Seoul has sent the reports of the tests, but Shinde says they can’t be made public yet. He, along with his team, have tied up with top universities for cross-verification of the data. “Their experts will come down to Hyderabad in July and confirm the data and reports that we have received. Once that is done, we will apply for the data to be published in a world-reputed journal and only after that will we reveal it to the media and rest of the world,” he says.

Science?

The nerdy/geeky types have two obsessions - intelligence, and their self-perceived lack of social skills.  It is therefore a common theme with them that they have self-diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorders; that autism is also somehow correlated with high intelligence; and that many great minds of the past had some or other Autism Spectrum Disorder. This somehow is very comforting to them.

Then there are the conservative anti-government types, who want to find a genetic basis (and so supposedly immutable) for difference in intelligence - and intelligence to them is a one-dimensional IQ score; they pay lip service only to the idea that intelligence is multi-dimensional, such as Howard Gardner's musical–rhythmic, visual–spatial, verbal–linguistic, logical–mathematical, bodily–kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic dimensions. All achievement in life is highly correlated to this IQ according to these theorists. The idea is that immutable genetic differences make all government programs to help the less intelligent poor quite pointless.

Some of these themes come together in this recent paper:
Autism As a Disorder of High Intelligence

The abstract begins (emphasis added):

A suite of recent studies has reported positive genetic correlations between autism risk and measures of mental ability. These findings indicate that alleles for autism overlap broadly with alleles for high intelligence, which appears paradoxical given that autism is characterized, overall, by below-average IQ. This paradox can be resolved under the hypothesis that autism etiology commonly involves enhanced, but imbalanced, components of intelligence. This hypothesis is supported by convergent evidence showing that autism and high IQ share a diverse set of convergent correlates, including large brain size, fast brain growth, increased sensory and visual-spatial abilities, enhanced synaptic functions, increased attentional focus, high socioeconomic status, more deliberative decision-making, profession and occupational interests in engineering and physical sciences, and high levels of positive assortative mating.

For the highlighted part, e.g.,
Compared to What? Early Brain Overgrowth in Autism and the Perils of Population Norms

Elsewhere in the paper we see this:

However, a suite of recent studies, described in more detail below, has demonstrated that alleles “for” autism, that is, common alleles that each contributes slightly to its risk, overlap substantially and significantly with alleles “for” high intelligence (Bulik-Sullivan et al., 2015; Clarke et al., 2015; Hill et al., 2015; Hagenaars et al., 2016). To a notable, and well-replicated, degree, then, many “autism” alleles are “high intelligence” alleles. How can these paradoxical observations be reconciled?

When I chase the citations, I go, oh really? If I find the enthusiasm, then you might see more about it here.

"Archaeological and genetic insights into the origins of domesticated rice"

Warning: the publications in my last series of posts was obtained by "cites" or "cited by", so there is a selection bias.  Not being an expert, I cannot provide the nuance and balance that might be necessary to interpret these publications.

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/17/6190.full.pdf
Archaeological and genetic insights into the origins of domesticated rice
Briana L. Gross and Zhijun Zhao

(emphasis added)
Excerpt:

India. The prehistory of indica and japonica in India presents one of the more interesting stories of domestication, long distance spread, and subsequent interactions of cultivars within a single genus of plants. Both O. rufipogon and another close wild relative, Oryza nivara, are native to India and well distributed there today, and probably were present since the Pleistocene (46). The country has a number of long archaeological sequences with good plant records including those in the Ganges River valley in the north where rice, likely wild O. rufipogon and O. nivara, is documented by 9000 BP (46,47). It is now recognized that the Indian subcontinent was probably an independent center of agricultural origins with important regions in the Ganges plain and to the south on the Deccan Plateau. Native plants that were cultivated or domesticated before crops were introduced from elsewhere include mung bean and small-seeded grasses, among others (47). The question of an origin of indica rice in India has been under active discussion, and recent research has done much to clarify and resolve the issue. It now appears that an independent origin of cultivation of ancestral indica or proto-indica rice took place in the Ganges plains, but that the plant was completely domesticated only when domesticated japonica arrived from China and hybridized with it about 4,000y ago (47). Indica consumption began early, by 8400 BP, and the plant was cultivated and appears to have been a staple food by 5000 BP (47).

"The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory: Why did Foragers become Farmers?"

The (Barker 2006) reference found in the excerpt that I previously posted,  of "Cultural and Demic Diffusion of First Farmers, Herders, and their Innovations Across Eurasia" 

Our own simulations for the Indian subcontinent showed that the connection from the Indus region to the Levante was only established after the transition to agropastoralism (Lemmen and Khan 2012), consistent with the wheat/rice barrier identified by (Barker 2006).

is:
The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory: Why did Foragers become Farmers? 1st Edition, by Graeme Barker

Large sections of the book are readable on amazon.com. I'm breaking my discipline by posting something without reading the whole book, but these, from the conclusion of chapter 5, Central and South Asia: the Wheat/Rice Frontier, I thought, would be a good motivation to get and read the book.

and:

"Cultural and Demic Diffusion of First Farmers, Herders, and their Innovations Across Eurasia"

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.00201v2.pdf  (PDF)
Cultural and Demic Diffusion of First Farmers, Herders, and their Innovations Across Eurasia
Carsten Lemmen

From the paper:

Our own simulations for the Indian subcontinent showed that the connection from the Indus region to the Levante was only established after the transition to agropastoralism (Lemmen and Khan 2012), consistent with the wheat/rice barrier identified by(Barker 2006).

From the paper:

"A simulation of the Neolithic transition in the Indus valley"

I didn't know arxiv.org carried papers on this subject:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1091

Emphasis added.
A simulation of the Neolithic transition in the Indus valley
Carsten Lemmen, Aurangzeb Khan

(Submitted on 5 Oct 2011 (v1), last revised 7 May 2012 (this version, v3))

The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was one of the first great civilizations in prehistory. This bronze age civilization flourished from the end of the fourth millennium BC. It disintegrated during the second millennium BC; despite much research effort, this decline is not well understood. Less research has been devoted to the emergence of the IVC, which shows continuous cultural precursors since at least the seventh millennium BC. To understand the decline, we believe it is necessary to investigate the rise of the IVC, i.e., the establishment of agriculture and livestock, dense populations and technological developments 7000--3000 BC. Although much archaeological information is available, our capability to investigate the system is hindered by poorly resolved chronology, and by a lack of field work in the intermediate areas between the Indus valley and Mesopotamia. We thus employ a complementary numerical simulation to develop a consistent picture of technology, agropastoralism and population developments in the IVC domain. Results from this Global Land Use and technological Evolution Simulator show that there is (1) fair agreement between the simulated timing of the agricultural transition and radiocarbon dates from early agricultural sites, but the transition is simulated first in India then Pakistan; (2) an independent agropastoralism developing on the Indian subcontinent; and (3) a positive relationship between archeological artifact richness and simulated population density which remains to be quantified.

The authors point to a possible center of rice domestication ("Lahuredawa in the middle Ganges plains") as a possible source of agropastoralism.

Less favored by the model are the valleys along the Indo-Iranian plateau, where broad subsistence possibilities are seen as one precondition for the rise of the IVC and where agropastoralism arose before 6500 BC [Jarrige, 1995]. The model might underestimate the potential for agropastoralism in this area because of its coarse spatial scale.

FYI: Definition of agropastoral. : of or relating to a practice of agriculture that includes both the growing of crops and the raising of livestock.

The mythical link between poverty and terrorism

Back in 2014:

New research from Queen Mary University of London has found youth, wealth, and being in full-time education to be risk factors associated with violent radicalisation. Contrary to popular views – religious practice, health and social inequalities, discrimination, and political engagement showed no links.

The recent terror attack in Dhaka was committed by young, educated, highly privileged Bangladeshi youth.

Meanwhile, The Straits Times reports:

Two terror groups spread tentacles in Bangladesh
Officials say new breed of militants is efficient, highly educated, more organised.

Tacit approval of jihad in Bangladesh

From a June 8, 2016 article in the New York Times, Bangladesh Says It Now Knows Who’s Killing the Bloggers:

In a lengthy interview, the chief of the police counterterrorism unit, Monirul Islam, who assumed his post in February, laid out the findings of his investigation in minute detail.
....
.....

But secularism is far from universally accepted in Bangladesh, and has always had to contend with a conservative Islamic culture.

To a surprising extent, the militants have succeeded in their aim of discrediting secularism, the chief investigator said.

“In general, people think they have done the right thing, that it’s not unjustifiable to kill” the bloggers, gay people and other secularists, he added.

Curry

The BBC reports:

In other words, had you been washed ashore four millennia ago on the banks of the now lost river of Saraswati and hitched a bullock cart ride to Farmana in the Ghaggar valley near modern-day Delhi, here's what you might have eaten - a curry.

For in 2010, when advanced science met archaeology at an excavation site in Farmana - southeast of the largest Harappan city of Rakhigarhi - they made history, and it was edible.

Archaeologists Arunima Kashyap and Steve Webber of Vancouver's Washington State University used the method of starch analysis to trace the world's first-known or "oldest" proto-curry of aubergine, ginger and turmeric from the pot shard of a bulbous handi (pot). 

Hoisted from the comments

In a comment on a previous post, I wrote:

I would say that the modern population genetic data and the archaeological data are consistent with a Yamnaya incursion into Europe. The ancient DNA data is also consistent. There is no literary record, and neither genes nor archaeology inform us about language, but presumably the Yamnaya incursion is a candidate to which to tie IE expansion into Europe. The problem is that the earlier farmers are also a candidate for I.E. introduction into Europe. Neither genes nor archaeology can help us decide between the two. Most historical linguists like the shorter time depth and favor the Yamnaya theory. But their tools, e.g., "glottochronology" are riddled with flaws.

The archaeological record for India does not show a Yamnaya incursion or Andronovo incursion or any other significant incursion in the 1900 BC - 1200 BC timeframe. Language-wise - the Rg Veda is the oldest attested I.E. example but is known via oral tradition; and the Mitanni records with a few Vedic deities and I.E. words as its closest competitor; but the Indian archaeological record does not provide any evidence of language. (Re: Hittite, see below) India does not yet have any ancient DNA. Genetics of the modern population so far rules out any significant incursion into India 4000-2500 years ago - but India remains a grossly undersampled population.

The Saraswati River mentioned in the Rg Veda is named with other rivers; in the hymn, these other rivers are in the correct geographic sequence of rivers of the Indus and Gangetic systems. If we thus place the Saraswati, it was a mighty river then, it now corresponds to the seasonal Ghagghar-Hakra; the channel along of which the majority of Harappan civilization sites are found; it corresponds to the Saraswati, already dried up by the time of the Mahabharata. If we accept this identification it places the Rg Veda to before 2000 BC. Since Hittite is attested to 1600-1300 BC in written records (only), the Rg Veda would be the oldest attested I.E.

We need not accept this identification of the Saraswati, linguists such as Harvard's Sanskritist M. Witzel have theorized that some other river in Afghanistan was the original Saraswati, and for some reason the Rg Vedic people transferred the name to the already-dried up river bed that they found when they entered India.

The Rg Veda was composed in India, of that there can be little doubt. But the Saraswati timeline throws the historical linguists' 1900 BC - 1200 BC time line into confusion, so they hypothesize that the hymns are sometimes a memory of some other place where the "original" Saraswati was. They also dismiss the Rg Vedic mention of the sea and of hundred-oared boats, which are not there in the deep inland Afghan location that they want to place the "original" Saraswati, by saying that the composers were incorrigible boasters and exaggerators. Then, by their estimates, these memories were transformed into Rg Vedic hymns around 1400 BC. Then Hittite becomes the oldest attested IE language.

Some things to keep an eye on

This is from 2011, talking about the "next generation sequencing".  I'm told newer technology is on the way, but still not in wide use, so this is still relevant.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3593722/

Genotype and SNP calling from next-generation sequencing data

Meaningful analysis of next-generation sequencing (NGS) data, which are produced extensively by genetics and genomics studies, relies crucially on the accurate calling of SNPs and genotypes. Recently developed statistical methods both improve and quantify the considerable uncertainty associated with genotype calling, and will especially benefit the growing number of studies using low- to medium-coverage data. We review these methods and provide a guide for their use in NGS studies.

This next one is intriguing too. Frankly, I would not have guessed that laboratory conditions, reagent lots and personnel differences might lead to large problems.
http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v11/n10/full/nrg2825.html
Tackling the widespread and critical impact of batch effects in high-throughput data

High-throughput technologies are widely used, for example to assay genetic variants, gene and protein expression, and epigenetic modifications. One often overlooked complication with such studies is batch effects, which occur because measurements are affected by laboratory conditions, reagent lots and personnel differences. This becomes a major problem when batch effects are correlated with an outcome of interest and lead to incorrect conclusions. Using both published studies and our own analyses, we argue that batch effects (as well as other technical and biological artefacts) are widespread and critical to address. We review experimental and computational approaches for doing so.

---

The next one is a personal observation, possibly of little merit. All these studies that try to figure out the ancestry of populations essentially compile some data, apply some statistical models and computation and then try to come to some conclusions. One way of looking at it is that they trying to create classifiers, trees or directed graphs with some level of statistical reliability. But another way of looking at it is that they are doing one-half of machine learning. They have created a training set and applied it. The second part, which is to use the model to make predictions is missing. That is, having done their first thousand samples, they should now let their trained model work on the next thousand samples, and see how well it performs. IMO, this would be as good a demonstration of the statistical significance of their model as any other.

---
PS:
http://biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2016/06/15/059139.full.pdf

"Population Structure Analysis of Globally Diverse Bull Genomes" has this fascinating plot.

Among these genomes, there are m = 3,967,995 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with no missing values and minor allele frequencies ¿ 0.05 (Supplementary Fig. 2). To explore structural complexity, whole genome sequences of n = 432 selected samples were hierarchically clustered using Manhattan distances (Figure 3, colored by 13 different breeds). It is evident that official breed codes (or countries of origin) do not necessarily represent the genetic diversity among bulls represented by SNPs.

The most effective way of learning about a complex topic

I'm sure there are many ways of learning about a complex topic.  The one that works least well for me is to simply be a sponge.  The most effective way I've found is to take a position - have some explicit or implicit hypothesis or major assumption - and then proceed therefrom.   It helps in many ways, too numerous to enumerate.

Clusters and Clines

This paper

Front Genet. 2016; 7: 22.
Published online 2016 Feb 17. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2016.00022
PMCID: PMC4756148
Population Genomics and the Statistical Values of Race: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Biological Classification of Human Populations and Implications for Clinical Genetic Epidemiological Research
Koffi N. Maglo, Tesfaye B. Mersha, and Lisa J. Martin

From the abstract: "...contrasts the scientific status of the “cluster” and “cline” constructs in human population genomics, and shows how cluster may be instrumentally produced."

To be frank, I do not yet fully understand the paper.  But this is intriguing (you'll have to read the paper to get the context):

Furthermore, it has been shown that the rate of individuals having membership in multiple clusters increases with the inclusion of admixed populations in studies. This does not however negate the computational possibility of clustering admixed individuals. But under this scenario, many individuals will typically have mixed membership in different clusters (Pritchard et al., 2007; Bryc et al., 2010; Maglo, 2011; Jin et al., 2012). As mentioned above, the correlated allele model was specifically designed to resolve “subtle admixture problems.” Curiously, some researchers perform cluster analysis on admixed populations by bypassing this model (Tang et al., 2005), raising questions about their findings (Graves, 2011). Yet the user guide of Structure states that “Admixture is a common feature of real data, and you probably won't find it if you use the no-admixture model” (Pritchard et al., 2000; Elhaik, 2012).

In a word, computational success does not by itself alone entail the natural reality of clustered entities in evolutionary classification.

On Orlando

The commission of a crime requires the confluence of motive, means and opportunity.

A terrorist has a lot of opportunities in an open society.  There is no means to secure every venue from somebody who wants to spray a crowd with bullets or to blow them up.  Only some opportunities, such as those provided by commercial airline flights, can be diminished.

On the motive side - ISIS has shown itself capable of long-distance conversion of Americans into jihadis, whether or not these converts were previously from a Muslim culture.  Unless we shut down all social media there is no way to prevent to the local crazy from connecting up with the far-away crazies.  The Trump solution of a temporary (or permanent) ban on Muslims entering the US of A can't work, even if somehow it was made palatable to a majority of Americans.

Regarding the means - Americans are quite determined to keep the type of weapons and ammunition that are designed kill and maim people freely available.  The principle involved is called the Second Amendment.

It seems we are stymied on all fronts.  But we are not entirely devoid of hope.  Governments are actually quite pretty good at squashing ISIS-like organizations -- provided such organizations are not themselves state-sponsored (or aided by a wealthy diaspora - e.g., the Irish Republican Army or the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers).    If ISIS still exists, it is because eradicating it is not any government's top priority, and because it likely has state-level covert sponsors.  This is what we can change.

R1a-M780 map in India and AIT

If I had failed to notice before, I notice now that this following paper, if its conclusions stand, places the genetic record completely at odds with the linguistic Aryan Immigration/Migration Theory.

European Journal of Human Genetics (2015) 23, 124–131; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2014.50; published online 26 March 2014
The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a,
Peter Underhill et. al.

A brief explanation of why I say so.
Figure 1 from the above publication:

Caption:
Haplogroup (hg) R1a-M420 topology, shown within the context of hg R-M207. Common names of the SNPs discussed in this study are shown along the branches, with those genotyped presented in color and those for which phylogenetic placement was previously unknown in orange. Hg labels are assigned according to YCC nomenclature principles with an asterisk (*) denoting a paragroup.⁶³ Dashed lines indicate lineages not observed in our sample. The marker Z280 was not used as it maps to duplicated ampliconic tracts.

Notice the positions of M417 -- Z93 -- M780.  Also note:

Of the 1693 European R1a-M417/Page7 samples, more than 96% were assigned to R1a-Z282 (Figure 2), whereas 98.4% of the 490 Central and South Asian R1a lineages belonged to hg R1a-Z93 (Figure 3), consistent with the previously proposed trend.

Let us take the position that M417 (the common ancestor of Indians and Europeans with R1a) originated outside India and its descendants in India are a result of immigration.  This would be (so far) in accord with the Aryan immigration theory.

Here is Figure 3-d from the paper
Caption: Spatial frequency distributions of Z93 affiliated haplogroups. Maps were generated as described in Figure 2.

The M780 map above might make sense if M780 arose well after the Aryans supposedly arrived in India, perhaps just prior to the urbanizing period of the Gangetic plain, well into the Iron Age, i.e., ~500 BC.  But the paper places this at least two thousand years earlier!

The corresponding diversification {of R1a} in the Middle East and South Asia is more obscure. However, early urbanization within the Indus Valley also occurred at this time⁵⁷ and the geographic distribution of R1a-M780 (Figure 3d) may reflect this.

(The "mature Harappan phase" is 2600-1900 BC.  Wiki says Early Harappan has two phases - 3300 BC- 2800 BC, and 2800 BC - 2600 BC.)

The paper does say:

The four subhaplogroups of Z93 (branches 9-M582, 10-M560, 12-Z2125, and 17-M780, L657) constitute a multifurcation unresolved by 10 Mb of sequencing; it is likely that no further resolution of this part of the tree will be possible with current technology. Similarly, the shared European branch has just three SNPs.

If R1a-M780 was present at the early urbanization within the Indus Valley, then the "genetic Indo-Aryans" had arrived in India earlier than 2600 BC, well before the first spoke-wheeled chariots (Andronovo, ~2000 BC).  Traditional Aryan immigration theory has them arrive after 1900 BC (after the collapse of the Indus Valley cities) and before 1200 BC (start of the Iron Age in India); and typically around 1400 BC,  around or just after the Sanskritic words (supposedly pre-Sanskritic) that appear in the Mitanni written records.  

The Andronovo culture and AIT

Koenraad Elst goes over Elena Kuzmina's Origin of the Indo-Iranians and finds:

While this is undoubtedly an important book, and as far as I can judge, it is a classic of Andronovo archaeology, but it fails in its primary mission: to show that this culture was the staging-ground for an Aryan invasion of Iran and India. It only assumes that much, but doesn’t demonstrate it.

The Origin of the Patriarchy?

Stilted old English translation but this story from the Mahabharata (PG-13) makes one wonder why the supposedly patriarchal oppressive Brahmins who are supposed to have manipulated the epic for their evil, cunning purposes, preserved this story.

"Vaisampayana said, 'Thus addressed by his loving wife, king Pandu, well-acquainted with all rules of morality, replied in these words of virtuous import, 'O Kunti, what thou hast said is quite true. Vyushitaswa of old did even as thou hast said. Indeed he was equal unto the celestials themselves.

But I shall now tell thee about the practices of old indicated by illustrious Rishis, fully acquainted with every rule of morality. O thou of handsome face and sweet smiles, women formerly were not immured within houses and dependent on husbands and other relatives. They used to go about freely, enjoying themselves as best as they liked. O thou of excellent qualities, they did not then adhere to their husbands faithfully, and yet, O handsome one, they were not regarded sinful, for that was the sanctioned usage of the times. That very usage is followed to this day by birds and beasts without any (exhibition of) jealousy. That practice, sanctioned by precedent, is applauded by great Rishis. O thou of taper thighs, the practice is yet regarded with respect amongst the Northern Kurus. Indeed, that usage, so lenient to women, hath the sanction of antiquity. The present practice, however (of women's being confined to one husband for life) hath been established but lately. I shall tell thee in detail who established it and why.

"It hath been heard by us that there was a great Rishi of the name of Uddalaka, who had a son named Swetaketu who also was an ascetic of merit. O thou of eyes like lotus-petals, the present virtuous practice hath been established by that Swetaketu from anger. Hear thou the reason. One day, in the presence of Swetaketu's father a Brahmana came and catching Swetaketu's mother by the hand, told her, 'Let us go.' Beholding his mother seized by the hand and taken away apparently by force, the son was greatly moved by wrath. Seeing his son indignant, Uddalaka addressed him and said, 'Be not angry. O son! This is the practice sanctioned by antiquity. The women of all orders in this world are free, O son; men in this matter, as regards their respective orders, act as kine.'

The Rishi's son, Swetaketu, however, disapproved of the usage and established in the world the present practice as regards men and women. It hath been heard by us, O thou of great virtue, that the existing practice dates from that period among human beings but not among beings of other classes. Accordingly, since the establishment of the present usage, it is sinful for women not to adhere to their husbands. Women transgressing the limits assigned by the Rishi became guilty of slaying the embryo. And, men, too, violating a chaste and loving wife who hath from her maidenhood observed the vow of purity, became guilty of the same sin. The woman also who, being commanded by her husband to raise offspring, refuses to do his bidding, becometh equally sinful.

"Thus, O timid one, was the existing usage established of old by Swetaketu, the son of Uddalaka, in defiance of antiquity.

Shvetaketu, son of Uddalaka, might be a historical figure (that is, if the ancient Hindus had history :) )

And Pandu was informing his wife Kunti that the practice of Niyoga was legitimate. In the Mahabharata, Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura are the children of Veda Vyasa (traditional author of the Mahabharata), by niyoga.