Religion fears the correct combination of Mathematics and History because it presupposes that retribution is the first human reaction to the confrontation of Truth - Amongst my new found idiosyncrasy is to start the blog with a Vichiism.
The hot topic of today being Jaswant Singh’s stale but probably true reiteration of History of Independent India and the media setting the appropriate touch of Post-Modern (Not for International audience - Please ask Krishnamurthier for a vithpatti) thought, it was inevitable that I chose the topic for Jignyaasaa!
The trigger being a Times of India article (trivia) about Ramadan – a Jindas chitappa speciality - titled “Ramzan occurs about 11 days earlier each year” , and the specific extract being “…The holy month of Ramadan…is the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar. Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the internationally accepted civil calendar, the Islamic calendar is lunar and hence the months have either 29 or 30 days totalling to 354 for a 12-month Islamic year. (The original Islamic Calendar surely has followed the moon over centuries not to allow for this idiotic 29 or 30 days kind of lunar month, but that is, strictly, my opinion) As a result Ramadan occurs about 11 days earlier each year, and it rotates through the seasons in a cycle totalling about 33 years.”
The hot topic of today being Jaswant Singh’s stale but probably true reiteration of History of Independent India and the media setting the appropriate touch of Post-Modern (Not for International audience - Please ask Krishnamurthier for a vithpatti) thought, it was inevitable that I chose the topic for Jignyaasaa!
The trigger being a Times of India article (trivia) about Ramadan – a Jindas chitappa speciality - titled “Ramzan occurs about 11 days earlier each year” , and the specific extract being “…The holy month of Ramadan…is the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar. Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the internationally accepted civil calendar, the Islamic calendar is lunar and hence the months have either 29 or 30 days totalling to 354 for a 12-month Islamic year. (The original Islamic Calendar surely has followed the moon over centuries not to allow for this idiotic 29 or 30 days kind of lunar month, but that is, strictly, my opinion) As a result Ramadan occurs about 11 days earlier each year, and it rotates through the seasons in a cycle totalling about 33 years.”
Well, good mathematics should accept, “a certain obfuscation in inputs”, because a friend of mine in Goodyear by name John Roman once said that the test of truth is in its ability to predict the past!
So, we should accept the thumb rule of the thirty three year cycle for the occurrence of Ramadan on the basis of “same stellar position” of the heavenly bodies.
How do we bring in History? Well, Pune and the Ganesh Festival provided a very good correlation to the train of thought and the newspaper had always been my textbook, with the converse being true.
Aurangzeb, the last relevant Mughal emperor (that is, before the Mughals were Indianized or should I say “Hinduised”) has always been presented in Indian History as the epitome of Muslimhood – I had serious doubts.
That the decimal system is an Indian Invention can be taken as a fact of History (I have doubts, but lets forget this one), inasmuch, as I take History to be a misspelled version of His Story. But coming back to the main narrative, about 33 x 10 = 330 years ago, approximately, (any obfuscation in inputs propagates with time - essence of the book ‘Chaos’ by James Glieck), Shivaji (a Maratha Emperor) was invited by Aurangzeb to a discussion, or was it the other way around – I have my doubts!
Now, Shivaji, the then Chatrapati (a translation of Alamgir in Persian to my knowledge) of the Marathas is said to have visited Aurangzeb, (the grandson of Jehangir, the Mughal Emperor told to me in my History books to have repulsed Sir Thomas Roe, the British representative of the East India Company – my doubts persist in view of the fact that it was the first exposure to then presumed Indian Monarchy to guns of the West!! and Sir TR had to literally travel thru’ South India to establish an alternate land route to the already discovered land route to India from the time of Greeks- what a travesty of application of Mathematical Logic to History!!) methinks, to propose the truce of Hindu-Muslim Unity, in the face of a future takeover by the western scientific thought propelled by Descartes- Galileo-Newton era.
The time was then a combination of Ramadan and Ganesh festival as per the above combination.
2009AD – 330AD = 1669 AD.
Coincidentally, yesterday, Sunday, the day of rest in The Holy Book, 23rd August, 2009 in India was celebrated as Ganesh Chaturthi – the beginning of Ganesh festival and was also simultaneously declared the beginning of Ramadan, the Holy month of Fasting for the Muslims, in India by the chief priest of the Jama Masjid, in Delhi.
My word, does History repeat itself? Well, John , my friend, I agree, that it is wise for the dead to bury their past, only so that we can happily speculate about the future, for that is the freedom that the Great One grants us all in equal measure and without bias.
As to the truth about Alamgir, Shivaji, the British rule, well I guess there is something called mythology which I doubt is not all Myth!
In the end, I would like to mention that there is a curious sect in Maharashtra called the Chit Paavan Brahmins, who may be aware of the truth about the Holy Grail of Hindu-Muslim Unity in the then Hindustan.
So, we should accept the thumb rule of the thirty three year cycle for the occurrence of Ramadan on the basis of “same stellar position” of the heavenly bodies.
How do we bring in History? Well, Pune and the Ganesh Festival provided a very good correlation to the train of thought and the newspaper had always been my textbook, with the converse being true.
Aurangzeb, the last relevant Mughal emperor (that is, before the Mughals were Indianized or should I say “Hinduised”) has always been presented in Indian History as the epitome of Muslimhood – I had serious doubts.
That the decimal system is an Indian Invention can be taken as a fact of History (I have doubts, but lets forget this one), inasmuch, as I take History to be a misspelled version of His Story. But coming back to the main narrative, about 33 x 10 = 330 years ago, approximately, (any obfuscation in inputs propagates with time - essence of the book ‘Chaos’ by James Glieck), Shivaji (a Maratha Emperor) was invited by Aurangzeb to a discussion, or was it the other way around – I have my doubts!
Now, Shivaji, the then Chatrapati (a translation of Alamgir in Persian to my knowledge) of the Marathas is said to have visited Aurangzeb, (the grandson of Jehangir, the Mughal Emperor told to me in my History books to have repulsed Sir Thomas Roe, the British representative of the East India Company – my doubts persist in view of the fact that it was the first exposure to then presumed Indian Monarchy to guns of the West!! and Sir TR had to literally travel thru’ South India to establish an alternate land route to the already discovered land route to India from the time of Greeks- what a travesty of application of Mathematical Logic to History!!) methinks, to propose the truce of Hindu-Muslim Unity, in the face of a future takeover by the western scientific thought propelled by Descartes- Galileo-Newton era.
The time was then a combination of Ramadan and Ganesh festival as per the above combination.
2009AD – 330AD = 1669 AD.
Coincidentally, yesterday, Sunday, the day of rest in The Holy Book, 23rd August, 2009 in India was celebrated as Ganesh Chaturthi – the beginning of Ganesh festival and was also simultaneously declared the beginning of Ramadan, the Holy month of Fasting for the Muslims, in India by the chief priest of the Jama Masjid, in Delhi.
My word, does History repeat itself? Well, John , my friend, I agree, that it is wise for the dead to bury their past, only so that we can happily speculate about the future, for that is the freedom that the Great One grants us all in equal measure and without bias.
As to the truth about Alamgir, Shivaji, the British rule, well I guess there is something called mythology which I doubt is not all Myth!
In the end, I would like to mention that there is a curious sect in Maharashtra called the Chit Paavan Brahmins, who may be aware of the truth about the Holy Grail of Hindu-Muslim Unity in the then Hindustan.
Chit means the mind, Paavan means Pure and Brahmin is now a very English word.
Hi Naresh
ReplyDeleteYou know my knowledge about anything whether history, or geography, or science or Mathematics or mythology, are all quite limited. I try to camouflage these with lot of vichiism.
When an intellectual treatise like yours starts with this, not only am I flattered, but the hope that one day, the term "vichiism" may find its way to regular english language is kindled, however improbable it might be.
As to your piece, there are these inevitable questions which come to a novice like me
1. The problem of following the moon is probably the reason methinks the months are either 29/30 days. Every poornamasi or Amavasya methinks ( most likely former) constitute their month.
2. Hindu calendar is based on solar ( sun's) entry into a particular Zodiac sign. Here again there is this nirayana and sayana systems which as of today makes Chitra start from either 20th March or say 15th of April. The months sometimes add to even 31/32 days.
3. Todays, Sunday may have been a monday or any other day before this Gregorian thing evolved. ( one of my vichiisms).
4. All I am saying is what's the big deal, except for the sceintists and mathematicians, for whom everything is a big deal.
5. Coming to Ramzan, I had always imagined that there are two Ramzan months in a year. I stand corrected.
6. Going by 11 days loss in a year, every 3 years Ramzan would lose a month as per our calendars; in other words just 6 years back, it should have coincided with our "navarathri" feastivals. Is my understanding right?
7.Whether or not after the shivaji/aurangazeb ru-ba-ru, Ganesh chaturthi and Ramadan month coincided, I doubt if this had anything to do with any kind of understanding between the two is my feeling, however romantically attractive this may sound.
8. If Sonia or Manmohan talk about this unique sangam, it will be hailed as great vision, if any one from BJP dares say this even before the INC and the press pounce on him as a sham the party themselves may dispel him from the party.
Really muddled times exactly in sync with my unease over His scheme of things......
Wither Jignyaasaa???????
Love
Vichu
Pray, Where is the question? and more importantly , "Where" is the questioner? :-)
ReplyDeleteThe blog has been a great outlet for my imgaination-period.
Thanks to the One and the All for reading it!
Naresh
Hi Naresh, Am I right in discerning a bit of disappointment/ angst in your rejoinder? If the question "whither Jignyaasaa" is the cause, I related it purely with present days muddled times, in almost every sphere of our lives.
ReplyDeleteAnd if it was at any other point such as a streak of sarcasm and sophistry, I would say I am sorry, and re assure that none was intended.
Having said that, let me ask you sincerely to elaborate on your "where is the question and where is the questioner" thing, as I have not been able to fully grasp the import.
Love
Vichu