Russ&Suzie

Trip Log
2004-03-14 08:52:06 (UTC)

Wrapup progress report & book list

Last two days have found me preoccupied with downloading
pictures, then using the photowizard to name them
according to place and date. Finally they're off the flash
cards onto the harddisk but have lost my cue-sheet on when
where. Suzie will give me hers in the morning if I remind
her.

My timing on this shows that I get tired very early and
then of course wake up in the middle of the night. But I
like the solitude and do feel very alert so will work
awhile.

Used Anthony Steven's Sleeping In Silos Poem and fit it
into one of the frames that I acquired in India (upside
down from how it was designed in order that it pointed
downwards and more resembled a silo indeed). Am pleased
with the result. PM from Perth, Australia, also graciously
contributed one of her 100 word statements. My head buzzes
with other ideas that I had conjured up in India and am
fiddling with given objects I have in the workroom next
door to here.

Have liked this format and will use it to make another
diary called Work Log, but will have to use Suzie's email
as my-diary.org allows only one diary per email address.
Suzie did say ok.

To the books:

1. Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy: The Rig Veda: An Anthology.
One Hundred and Eight Hymns. New York: Penquin Books,
1981, 2000.

Or
O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger: The Rig Veda: An Anthology. One
Hundred and Eight Hymns. New York: Penquin Books, 1981,
2000.

I'll enter both under D and O in my book list. I've
alluded to these considerably already. She assumes that
the "Aryan invasion" is factual and that these came after
it occurred. In any event they're millennia old.

2. Wilkens, W.J.: Hindu Mythology Vedic and Puranic. 2nd
Edition. New Dehli, India: Rupa & Co., 1882, 1900.

This very earnest work has helped me get some of my
deities straight, although the going is sometimes rough.
The Puranic writings long after the Vedic ones have the
more humanlike gods of Shiva, Parvati and the like,
whereas the Vedas dealt more with Agni (for fire) and
other gods more linked with elemental forces and entities.
Have dipped into it over the trip and it provided me lots
of answers as I indulged in it on the way home.

3. Page, J.A., Sharma, Y.D.: Qutb Minar & Adjoining
Monuments. New Dehli, India: The Director General,
Archeological Survey of India, 2002.

It starts with the Aryan invasion! Has lots of nice
photographic illustrations. Good chronologies, depictions
of the early savagery of the Islamic invaders (11th and
12th centuries) who ground to dust many Hindu monuments
that likely had existed before leading to a paucity of
such in the northwest.

4. Jain, Hiralal, Udadhye, A.N.: Mahavira: His Times and
His Philosophy of Life. 2nd Edition. New Dehli: Bharatiya
Jnanpith, 1974, 1977.

This was acquired when visiting the Jain temples in
Khajuraho (eastern groupings). I had been searching in
vain for a volume on Jainism and a hawker had this
available. It's a slim paperback. From page 52, "Mahavira
was a contemporary of Buddha, and he stands as the 24th
Tirthakara whose preaching fully breathe the spirit of
what I have called the Eastern stream of thought in India.
All that Mahavira and his predecessors have preached goes
under the name of Jainism today..."

I'm looking forward to reading this more thoroughly.
Jainism represents the earliest depiction of a widespread
policy/moral system that focuses on nonviolence. I wish I
knew more of how it began, but the Encyclopedia Britannica
suggests that there is little historical evidence for the
Tirthakaras that came before Mahavira. In temples,
however, the 24 idols of different sizes (their only
differentiation) clearly show a powerful tradition of
having existed. Their time periods claim millions of years
so that perhaps their very existence is conjectural in the
eyes of some.

5. Carus, Paul (compiler): The Gospel of Buddha. London,
England: Open Court Publishing, 1915, (1995 -- Senate
Publishing).

Have read in this and verified that indeed his stories
resemble Jesus’s parables at times.

6. Singh, Chitralekha, Nath, Prem: Ganesa (Ganapati,
Puliyar, Vinayaka). New Dehli, India: Crest Publishing
House, 1996.

All about the elephant headed god whose function is to
remove obstacles.

7. Kerstein, Holger: Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown
Life Before and After the Crucifixion. New York: Penquin
Books, 1981, 2001.

Recommended by Antonia Price. Most exciting as it treats
Jesus’s life as though he in fact were a historical
figure. I found it quite convincing. Issa has a tomb in
Kashmir I’d like to see sometime. The grave of Mother Mary
is on the border of Pakistan and Kashmir, now a restricted
zone.

8. Sharma, N.K.: Jaisalmer: the Golden City. Jaisalmer,
India: Smt. Madhu Sharma, no date.

9. Sharma, N.K.: Way of Life In Desert (Camel Safari in
Jaisalmer). Jaisalmer, India: Smt. Madhu Sharma, 1997

10. Gascoigne, Bamber: The Great Moghuls. London:
Constable, 1971, 1998. Also recommended by Antonia. read
it with great profit before we actually visited the spots
that they built or influenced, as in Dehli (Homoyan's
tomb), Fatehpur Sikri (Akbar's work), Agra with the Shah
Jahan and Aurangzeb stories (looking at the Taj from the
window that Shah Jahan did in his last 8 years placed in
the Red Fort as he was by Aurangzeb who didn't forgive
Shah Jahan's siding with the oldest son, whom Aurangzeb
killed.




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