SUPERSTITIONS OR DEFINITE SCIENTIFIC THEORIES????[part 3]

The next three….

7. How Yogis float in the air?

You must have seen in some advertisements or in cartoon films
based on Hindu mythologies that some Yogis possess the power of
floating in the air while meditating. This can be explained
with the phenomenon of superconductivity. This is a POSSIBLE
scientific explanation.

Superconductivity is a phenomenon in which the electrical
resistance of certain materials becomes exactly zero, below a
characteristic temperature, usually well below 0 degrees
Celcius. For example, some cuprate-perovskite ceramic materials
become superconductors at -183 degrees Celcius.

When the material becomes superconductor, magnetic lines do not
pass through them and they float in the air. This can be easily
demonstrated in the lab using liquid nitrogen and the
superconductor material. The same principle applies to the body
of the Yogi.

In Dnyaneshwari, written by Saint Dnyaneshwar, he has described
his experience of what happens when Kundalini Shakti arises in
the body. He has mentioned that it feels like Kundalini power
drinks all the blood and eats up all the flesh in your body and
your body becomes very, very cold. After some time, it again
regenerates everything and your body becomes as fresh as a
newborn.

It is quite possible that when the temperature of Yogi’s body
decreases, it reaches to a point where Yogi’s body becomes a
superconductor and hence, the gravitational lines do not pass
through his body and he floats in the air. Though, there is no
proof for this but it is quite POSSIBLE.

Hence, it is not a superstition that Yogis float in the air.
The ad makers who mock the Hindus in the ads by making fun out
of the Yogis floating in the air should consider this fact.

8. It is an age old practice for Indians to observe a fast
(vrat) on Ekadasi days. Ekadasi is 11th day of the moon cycle,
both from the full moon and from the new moon (equidistant).

According to scientific research, it is known that the air
pressure on the earth varies to extreme limits on both the new
moon (Amavasya) and the full moon (Purnima) day. This is
because of the orbital path combination of the sun, moon and
earth. This imbalance has adverse effects on the human body,
the only way to control which is minimal nutrition to slow the
metabolic rate. Hence, the fasting.

9.As far as food is concerned, turmeric (Curcuma longa) is an
integral part of all ceremonies and pujas. Turmeric has been
shown to possess lot of beneficial medical properties. The
application of turmeric paste on the Bride’s body during
marriage can be explained in the light of scientific research
which shows that it has the property of curing Melanoma, or
skin cancer.

More to follow…

SUPERSTITIONS OR DEFINITE SCIENTIFIC THEORIES????
Traditions in Hinduism were considered mainly as superstitions, but with the advent of science, it is becoming evident that these traditions are based on some scientific knowledge and moved from generations to generations as traditions. Though the common people did not know science in it, they were following it very religiously over the years. This article is an attempt to bring forward the science involved in these traditions and rituals. Ancient Rishis, who were scientists actually, did not tell the common people the science involved in these traditions, but instead related them with the God and religion, so that the common people would benefit from them.

1. Why every Hindu should have a Tulsi plant in front of his/her house?

Answer: The Latin name of Tulsi plant is ” Ocimum Sanctum.” It is also called as Holy Basil. For thousands of years, Tulsi has been worshiped by Hindus. It is considered as a sacred plant and it is necessary for every Hindu family to have a Tulsi plant in front of their house. The recent studies, have shown that Tulsi plant releases Ozone (O3) along with oxygen, which is very essential for ecological balance. World Ozone Day is celebrated on 16th September of every year, at which time some environmental organizations distribute Tulsi plants in large number.

Besides that Tulsi has lots of medicinal uses and is a very important herb according to Ayurveda. Tulsi leaves strengthen our immune system. So, the Tulsi leaves are mainly used for treating fever, common cold, cough, sore throat, and respiratory disorders.

Therefore, I think not only Hindus but all of us should have a Tulsi plant in front of our house.

2. Why Hindus worship some particular trees and not all the trees?

Answer: It is true that Hindus honor all the trees but some particular trees and plants are considered sacred and have been worshiped over thousands of years.

Some of the examples are Peepal Tree (Ficus religiosa) and Audumbar Tree (Ficus racemosa). These two trees are 24-hour oxygen generators and cannot be planted manually. They grow on their own mainly through the birds, which eat their fruits. Audumbar tree is associated with Guru Dattatreya, one of main Hindu deities and cutting or dishonoring the tree in any way is considered as a sin. Both of these trees are very important for ecological balance. So by associating them with Hindu deities, they have been protected, so that no one would cut them.

3. Why Hindus pierce ears of a baby?

Answer: After a baby is born, it is a general practice in Hindus to pierce his/her ears. Actually, it is a part of acupuncture treatment. Acupuncture and acupressure is not new to Hindus. Even it is said that these techniques originated in India and later they were conserved and modified by Chinese. Outer part of ears carry a lot of important acupuncture and acupressure points. The point where the ears of a baby are pierced is known for curing asthma. That is why even ancient Hindus used to wear earrings but now a days most Hindus do not wear earrings. They do not even pierce the ears after first piercing. The holes in their ears become invisible after as they grow up. Only Hindu female wear earrings as a tradition.

But there are males of some castes in Hinduism who wear earrings as a tradition till now.

More such intriguing questions and answers to follow….

SUPERSTITIONS OR DEFINITE SCIENTIFIC THEORIES????[part 2]

The next three questions follow here….

4. Why Hindus do not eat meat on particular days?

Answer: Hindus do not eat meat on particular days, not limited but including:

Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays of every week, Sankashti Chaturthi, Angarki Chaturthi, Ekadashi, Gudhipadwa, Akshaytrutiya, Diwali (all the days) and many more auspicious days.

Amongst these, the reason for not eating meat on some particular days excluding weekly days is purely religious. Killing of animals is considered as a sin in Hinduism. So, people avoid eating meat at least on those auspicious days to maintain sacredness of that particular day.

The reason behind not eating meat on weekdays including Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays is that as a human being we need only a little amount of meat to fulfill requirements of our body such as iron, vitamin B12 and other vital nutrients. But human being basically is an animal and we get addicted to eating meat. As we all know eating excessive meat is not good for health. It can cause diseases like piles, kidney stones, colon cancer, blood pressure, heart attack, etc. Then also people cannot refrain themselves from eating flesh. Therefore, Hinduism has placed some restrictions by assigning the days to particular deities. E.g. Monday is dedicated to Lord Shiva, Thursday to Lord Dattatreya, and Saturday to Lord Hanuman. In this way, people have been assigned some religious restrictions and as most of Hindus are religious, they do obey this rule. In this way, they restrict the meat in their diet which is good for their health.

5. Why only some castes are allowed to eat non-vegetarian food and others are not?

Answer: Basically, who should eat and who should not depends on the occupation of a person. If you ask a modern doctor, he will simply tell you that if you have need for more calories and you do a lot of physical labor, then only you should eat nonvegetarian food. If your occupation is of sedentary type and you eat a lot of high-calorie food, you are bound to gain more weight and invite many sorts of diseases related to obesity.

The medieval caste system of India was based upon the occupation of a person. Therefore the people from a particular caste doing more physical labor were allowed to eat meat. For example, job of a Kshatriya was to fight with enemy and protect the people. So, they required a lot of energy. Hence, Kshatriyas were allowed to eat meat. In the same way, a farmer who requires a lot of physical work was allowed to eat meat. On the other hand, other castes like Brahmins who do Prayer and intelligent work requiring less hard labor were restricted from eating meat. In the same way, weavers, businessmen were not allowed to eat meat.

Aside from that, some non-vegetarian products like meat and chicken are hard to digest. If you do not have enough body movement, it will be hard for you to digest that food and you will be unnecessarily inviting the ailments.

6. We get the human body after our soul passes through 84,00,000 species.

Hindus believe we get a human body after our soul passes through 84,00,000 species. Initially, critics of Hinduism used to say that this is just a myth, so many species do not exist. But with the advent of science, it is revealed that there are about 84,00,000 species on the earth. So, the above statement is symbolic for the fact that human being is born through evolution and we human beings are the most advanced stage of evolution.

More to come….

Indian Rebellion of 1857:

In this series we try to give a comprehensive study of “Revolt of 1857”.

Our first post is about “Causes Of The Indian Rebellion Of 1857”

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the East India Company’s army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northern Madhya Pradesh, and the Delhi region.The rebellion posed a considerable threat to Company power in that region and was contained only with the fall of Gwalior on 20 June 1858. The rebellion is also known as the India’s First War of Independence, the Great Rebellion, the Indian Mutiny, the Revolt of 1857, the Uprising of 1857, the Sepoy Rebellion, and the Sepoy Mutiny.

Causes Of The Indian Rebellion Of 1857:

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 occurred as the result of an accumulation of factors over time, rather than any single event.
The sepoys were local soldiers, the majority Hindu or Muslim, that were recruited into the Company’s army. Just before the Rebellion there were over 200,000 sepoys in the army, compared to about 50,000 British. The forces were divided into three presidency armies: Bombay, Madras, and Bengal. The Bengal Army recruited higher castes, such as “Rajputs and Brahmins”, mostly from the Awadh (near Lucknow) and Bihar regions and even restricted the enlistment of lower castes in 1855. In contrast, the Madras Army and Bombay Army were “more localized, caste-neutral armies” that “did not prefer high-caste men."The domination of higher castes in the Bengal Army has been blamed in part for initial mutinies that led to the rebellion. In fact, the role of castes had become so important that men were no longer "selected on account of the most important qualities in a soldier, i.e., physical fitness, willingness and strength, docility and courage, but because he belonged to a certain caste or sect”.

In 1772, when Warren Hastings was appointed India’s first Governor-General, one of his first undertakings was the rapid expansion of the Company’s army. Since the sepoys from Bengal – many of whom had fought against the Company in the Battles of Plassey and Buxar – were now suspect in British eyes, Hastings recruited farther west from the high-caste rural Rajputs and Brahmins of Awadh and Bihar, a practice that continued for the next 75 years.

It has been suggested that after the annexation of Oudh by the East India Company in 1856, many sepoys were disquieted both from losing their perquisites, as landed gentry, in the Oudh courts and from the anticipation of any increased land-revenue payments that the annexation might bring about.Others have stressed that by 1857, some Indian soldiers, reading the presence of missionaries as a sign of official intent, were convinced that the Company was masterminding mass conversions of Hindus and Muslims to Christianity.
Financial grievance stemmed from the general service act, which denied retired sepoys a pension. Also the Bengal Army was paid less than the Madras and Bombay Armies, which compounded the fears over pensions.

A major cause of resentment that arose ten months prior to the outbreak of the Rebellion was the General Service Enlistment Act of 25 July 1856. Men of the Bengal Army had been exempted from overseas service. There were also grievances over the issue of promotions, based on seniority. This, as well as the increasing number of European officers in the battalions,made promotion a slow progress, and many Indian officers did not reach commissioned rank until they were too old to be effective.

Tallow-greased cartridges:
The final spark was provided by the ammunition for new Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle.These rifles had a tighter fit, and used paper cartridges that came pre-greased. To load the rifle, sepoys had to bite the cartridge open to release the powder.The grease used on these cartridges included tallow derived from beef; which was offensive to Hindus,or lard derived from pork; which was offensive to Muslims. In August 1856, greased cartridge production was initiated at Fort William, Calcutta, following a British design.The Indians were therefore convinced that the British had desire of degrading the Indian religions

Civilian disquiet:
The civilian rebellion was more multifarious in origin. The rebels consisted of three groups: the feudal nobility, rural landlords called taluqdars, and the peasants. The nobility, many of whom had lost titles and domains under the Doctrine of Lapse, which refused to recognize the adopted children of princes as legal heirs, felt that the Company had interfered with a traditional system of inheritance. Rebel leaders such as Nana Sahib and the Rani of Jhansi belonged to this group;In other areas of central India, such as Indore and Sagar, where such loss of privilege had not occurred, the princes remained loyal to the Company even in areas where the sepoys had rebelled.The second group, the taluqdars, had lost half their landed estates to peasant farmers as a result of the land reforms that came in the wake of annexation of Oudh. As the rebellion gained ground, the taluqdars quickly reoccupied the lands they had lost, and paradoxically, in part due to ties of kinship and feudal loyalty, did not experience significant opposition from the peasant farmers, many of whom joined the rebellion, to the great dismay of the British.It has also been suggested that heavy land-revenue assessment in some areas by the British resulted in many landowning families either losing their land or going into great debt with money lenders, and providing ultimately a reason to rebel; money lenders, in addition to the Company, were particular objects of the rebels’ animosity.The civilian rebellion was also highly uneven in its geographic distribution, even in areas of north-central India that were no longer under British control.
The company had annexed several states under the Doctrine of Lapse, according to which land belonging to a feudal ruler became the property of the East India Company if on his death, the ruler did not leave a male heir through natural process. Such discourtesies were resented by the deposed Indian rulers.
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References:
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857
2.http://www.preservearticles.com/201012271730/causes-of-revolt-of-1857-in-india.html
3.http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A5%A7%E0%A5%AE%E0%A5%AB%E0%A5%AD_%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A5%E0%A4%AE_%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%AF_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%97%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AE

Having covered all the languages spoken in the southern parts of India,it is apt we try to study the genealogy of the primary dravidian languages spoken in India with the aid of this tree diagram.

The origins of the Dravidian languages, as well as their subsequent development and the period of their differentiation are unclear, partially due to the lack of comparative linguistic research into the Dravidian languages.

Proto-Dravidian is thought to have differentiated into Proto-North Dravidian, Proto-Central Dravidian, Proto South-Central Dravidian and Proto-South Dravidian around 500 BCE, although some linguists have argued that the degree of differentiation between the sub-families points to an earlier split.

The existence of the Dravidian language family was first suggested in 1816 by Alexander D. Campbell in his Grammar of the Teloogoo Language, in which he and Francis W. Ellis argued that Tamil and Telugu were descended from a common ancestor. However, it was not until 1856 that Robert Caldwell published his Comparative grammar of the Dravidian languages, which considerably expanded the Dravidian umbrella and established it as one of the major language groups of the world. Caldwell coined the term “Dravidian” from the Sanskrit drāvida, which was used in a 7th century text to refer to the Tamil language of the south of India. The publication of the Dravidian etymological dictionary by T. Burrow and M. B. Emeneau was a landmark event in Dravidian linguistics.

****Telugu****

Telugu is a South-Central Dravidian language,written in a Brahmic alphabet.

Telegu is a richly developed language and the biggest linguistic unit in India, second only to Hindi. Linguistically, the language has deviated a good deal from its southern sisters – Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam. It’s an old one too, with origins as early as the 1st century AD, or perhaps even before as one of the later Vedas (700BC) mention the Andhras, another name for the people of Andhra Pradesh. Early inscriptions of the language date from around the 6th century, but a proper literary career starts five centuries later. The script, almost similar to that of Kannada, took shape in 1000AD from the Pahlava script of 7AD.

Most literatures began with translations from Sanskrit. So did Telegu with Nannayabhatta (1020AD), the adikavi or ‘first poet’ of Telegu translating the Mahabharata. It was a unusual translation, with lots of clever innovations but no deviations from the story. But Nannayabhatta couldn’t complete the job. Tikanna came along sometime in the 13th century and furthered it. However, it was Yerrapragada (14th century) was finally able to clinch it. Nannaya, Tikanna and Yerrapragada are known as the kavitraya or ‘the three great poets’ of Telegu for this mammoth effort. Other such translations followed, like Marana’s Markandeya Purana, Ketana’s Dasakumara Charita, Yerrana’s Harivamsa and others. Shaivite (in praise of Shiva) works like Sivatattwa Sara, Basavapurana and Panditaradhya Charitra were a part of this initial stash too.

By the time the Telegu poets wrote down some original stuff along with translations, it was almost the end of the 14th century. Slowly but steadily they picked up, some landmarks being Srinatha’s Sringara Naishadha, Potana’s Dasamaskandha, Jakkana’s Vikramarka Charitra and Talapaka Himmakka’s Subhadra Kalyana. Literary activities flourished, especially during the mighty Vijayanagara emperors. The 16th century was the golden age in the history of Telugu literature, thanks to the king Krishna Deva Raya. The raja, a poet himself, introduced the prabandha (a kind of love poetry) in Telegu literature in his Amukta Malyada. He had in his court the Ashtadiggajas (literal: eight elephants) who were the greatest of poets of the times. Original verse compositions and stories were written in a new zeal. Of those eight, Allasani Peddana (1510-1575AD) is known as Andhra Kavita Pitamahudu or ‘Grandfather of Andhra Poetry’.

In the following years, poets still wrote their prabandhas, but kind of overdid on the love bit which make some critics dismiss it as ‘a decadent age’. Of the dozens of poets of the 18th to mid 19th century, the only bright spot was Kankanti Paparaju whose Uttara Ramayana in campu style and the play Vishnumayavilasa were admirable. But other genres bloomed. Innumerable Yakshagansa or indigenous dramas of song and prose works were also produced. Tyagaraya of Tanjore (19th century) composed devotional songs in Telegu which form the repertoire of the classical ragas of South India.

Although the first printed Telegu book was out in 1796, it took some time before the modern period in literature set in. Young men acquainted with English literature tried to imitate Shelly, Keats and Wordsworth, and a new type of romantic poetry called the Bhavakavithwa was born. Bengali novelists like Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Ramesh Chandra Dutta were a major influence on modern Telegu fiction. Viresalingam Pantulu (1848-1919) wrote the first novel in Telegu, Rakashekharacharitramu. Other writers joined forces to build modern Telegu literature, like the dramatist Dharmavaram Krishnamachari, Chilakamarti Lakshminarasimham (also called the ‘blind poet of Andhra Desha’) the poets and dramatists Gurujada Apparavu and D. Krishnamacharlu.

The literary group Sahiti Samiti was set up in 1921, and their ‘progressive and rationalist’ journal Sahiti was followed by several others. Even now many writers preferred the old traditional style, like Tirupati Venkata Kavulu, Sripada Krishnamurthy Shastry and Vavilakolanu Subbarao. The other school was that of the Neo-classicist group of Sri Vishwanatha, Katuri, Pingali, Gadiyaram, G. Joshuan and others. Today the drama, novel, short story, essay and criticism in Telegu have reached high standards although they started only a century ago.

****Tamil****

Tamil is the oldest and purest of the four Dravidian languages.

Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world according to available evidence. It is also the only Indian language other than Sanskrit to be considered ancient and authentically original in its form and rich literature.

Ancient Indian literature is not all about the Vedas; it’s about Sangam literature too. Tamil, the oldest and truest of the Dravidian speeches, boasts of this literary tradition of more than 2,200 years, the most remarkable body of secular poetry extant in India. While other pre-Aryan languages were happily courting Sanskrit and Prakrit (600 BC-600AD), Old Tamil stood firm in its corner refusing to yield. However, the evolutionary story of the language and script are a controversy among scholars even today.

The Sangam compositions are anthologies of poems grouped into two – the Eight Collections (Ettuttokai) and the Ten Idyls (Pattu-p-pattu). There are also few individual long narrative poems (Kavyas). Based on two distinct themes, akam (romantic) and puram (martial), the poems are replete with imageries of seasons, places, plants and animals, enabling scholars to know the world of these ancient poets. The literary output till about 500AD is simply amazing.

By the next century, Shaiva (in praise of Shiva) and Vaishanva (in praise of Vishnu) writers began rising from sleep, leading to a religious renaissance. It was the turn of devotional literature to hog the limelight. The corpus of Shaiva hymns, sung till today, were compiled in Tirumurarais (early 11th century). The Vaishnava saints lay the foundation of the Bhakti cult not only for South India (500-1000AD), but for the whole of India. Their songs were put together in the colossal Nal-ayira-p-pirapantam or the ‘Book of 4000 Hymns’.

Some of the great Tamil poets lived in the times of the mighty Chola kings (10th-13th centuries), a period of literary revival. Kampan’s Ramayana is the best in Tamil till today; Ottakkuttan wrote the Uttara Kanda, the last canto of the Ramayana; Pukazhenti popularized the Mahabharata with his simple adaptations in Tamil, and Chayam Kontar wrote a long war poem Kalingattu Parani, in the Sangam style. Didactic works, grammatical treatises and lexicons were produced from time to time by Jain writers.

The following centuries were the age of learned commentaries on Sangam poetry, Shaiva and Vaishnava philosophies, and literature influenced by Sanskrit. Some of these were the esteemed Bharatham by Villiputthurar, Thiruppuhazh (hymns) by Arunagirinathar and translations of many Puranas. Some brilliant stray verses of this period have been collected in late anthologies like Kalamegham, Satthimutthapulavar and Padikkasu Thambiran. European Christian missionaries also took to Tamil in the 16th century, and the first book was printed in 1579. Muslim poets like Sakkari Pulavar and Umaru Pulavar brought new themes in Tamil writings in the 18th century.

A modern trend in Tamil literature was begun in the 19th century by a group of writers influenced by English, Vedanayakam Pillai (1824-1889) being among them who wrote the first original novels and dramas. A literary giant of the 20th century was Subramania Bharathi, whose poems and patriotic songs are well known. Although the development of prose has been pretty slow, the historical romances of C R Srinivasa Aiyangar, social novels like Padmavati and Vijaya Marttandam of A. Madhavayya, Kamalambal by Rajam Iyer and S. Venkataramani’s Murugam are prominent. The short story was popularized by V V S Iyer and Rajaji, while Sambanda Mudaliar’s adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays contributed to Tamil drama greatly.

A Tamil-Brahmi inscription on pottery from the 2nd century AD has been excavated in Thailand, by a Thai-French team of archaeologists, led by Dr. Bérénice Bellina of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France and Praon Silpanth, Lecturer – Silpakorn University, Thailand. They discovered a shard of inscribed pottery during their excavations at Phu Khao Thong in Thailand. A touchstone engraved in Tamil in the Tamil-Brahmi script from about the 3rd or 4th century AD had already been found in Thailand and is in a museum in the ancient port city of Khuan Luk Pat in Southern Thailand.
There are also tamil inscriptions found on china and egypt.

****Sindhi****

Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family.

Sindhi is actually an offshoot of some of the dialects of the Vedic Aryans. Sindh, on the north west of undivided India, had always been the first to bear the onslaught of the never-ending invaders, and as such absorbed Hindi, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, English and even Portuguese. Sindh is where Persian and Indian cultures blended, for the area was introduced to Islam in 712AD. Thus, very little of Sindhi literature of the earlier period has survived. The Summara and Summa periods are virtually blank except for the few poems of Hamad, Raju and Isack. The heroic ballads of this period set to music by Shah Abdul Karim (1538-1625) are the earliest records of the Sindhi language.

Real flourish of Sindhi poetic talent came during the last stages of the 18th century. Although the time was not appropriate for cultural developments as invaders repeatedly plundered the country during this period. Several works like Shah Abdul Latif’s Shah-Jo-Rasalo, the magnum opus of Sindhi literature, were produced.

Shah-Jo-Rasalo describes the life of common man, the sorrows and sufferings of the ill-starred heroes of ancient folklore. Sachal, another eminent, poet closely followed Shah Abdul Karim. He was a Sufi rebel poet who did not adhere to any religion and denounced religious radicals. The poet Saami was a complete contrast to Kari, more pious than poetical, yet possessing a charm of his own. There was an excess of songsters in Sindhi who recited similar ideas and themes in varied tones. The notables among them are Bedil, his son Bekas, and Dalpat. Gul Mohamad introduced Persian forms of poetry replacing the native baits and Kafees. Mirza Kaleech Beg who composed on the same lines contributed a lot to Sindhi literature.

Dayaram Gidumal and Mirza Kaleech were two of the early prose writers. The former was a great scholar and he was famous mainly for his metaphysical writings. The noted lexicographer and essayist Parmanand Mewaram wrote essays that educated and instructed both the young and the old. This peer group also comprised of Bherumal Meherchand, Lalchand Amardinomal and Jethmal Parsram, and Acharya Gidwani, N. R. Malkani and Dr H. M. Gurbuxani. The Partition of India, however, did not put a brake on the literary output of Sindhi. Plays and poetry have continued to develop, but their themes have changed. Music and beauty are no longer favoured, while poverty, filth and moral degradation rule the mind of the poets. A very crude variety of stories, though popular, are now the representatives of the Sindhi literature. Essay writing has witnessed a far greater interest on the side of the writers. Sindhi literature is thus a far more junior member of the family of Indian literature.

Sindhis are across the border in Pakistan too. There they write in the Perso-Arabic script, while in India the Devanagari is used.

Milk Nutritional Value

Milk is an unavoidable part of human diet. Different types of milk that we consume include different kinds of nutrients. Milk provides us with minerals, protein, fat, carbohydrate, and vitamins. So it is also called as a complete diet.

It is recommended that every human being should consume a certain amount of milk for fulfilling their nutritional deficits. Milk can be consumed either as a drink or in the form of milk-derivates like dairy products. “Nothing is perfect.” The statement is true for food as well. There is no food item, which has all the nutritional supplements. Still, milk is something which at least comes next to perfection in the world of food products. The nutritional facts prove that milk has most of the nutrients that your body needs to carry out its daily functions. You will find carbohydrate, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals in milk. Milk have all minerals, fat, vitamins except vitamin “C”. Curd has everything including vitamin C. So a person can survive just on Curd with a healthy body.

Milk Nutrition Facts

Carbohydrates:
250 gm of milk contains approximately 13 gm of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates found in milk are in a di-saccharide (made of two sugar units) form called lactose. It is also sometimes referred to as milk sugar. One molecule of lactose is made of one molecule of glucose and fructose each. There is no dietary fiber or starch found in milk.

Fats:
The fat content in 250 gm of milk is 2.5 gm. Out of this 2.5 gm of fats, 1.7 gm is saturated fats while the rest is unsaturated. The amount of monounsaturated fats is 0.7 gm and that of polyunsaturated fats is 0.1 gm. Milk is also rich in essential fatty acids. The amount of omega-6 and omega-3 essential faty acids present in 250 gm of milk is 73.2 mg and 9.8 mg respectively.

Proteins:
250 gm of milk has 8.2 gm of proteins. The proteins mainly present in milk are casein and whey proteins. The amount of casein is 0.2 grams and that of whey proteins is 0.0252 grams. Milk has alpha-s1, alpha-s2, beta and gamma casein. In the category of whey proteins, milk has beta-lactalbumin, immunoglobulin and blood serum albumin. Milk also has fat globule membrane proteins and certain enzymes.

Vitamins:
Milk is a very rich source of vitamins. 250 gm of milk meets approximately 44% of your body’s daily requirement of vitamins. The amount of vitamin A is 478 IU, vitamin D is 127 IU, vitamin K is 0.2 mcg, riboflavin is 0.5 mg, niacin is 0.2 mg, folate is 12.2 mcg, vitamin B6 is 0.1 mg, vitamin B12 is 1.1 mcg, betadine is 1.5 mg, pantothenic acid is 0.9 mg and that of choline is 43.2 mg. Milk lacks vitamin C, E and B1.

Minerals:
250 gm of milk has 290 mg of calcium , 6.3 mcg of fluoride, 0.1 mg of iron, 8.1 mcg of selenium, 26.8 mg of magnesium, 1.0 mg of zinc, 232 mg of phosphorus, 107 mg of sodium and 366 mg of potassium. Copper is absent in milk. You will get all these minerals by drinking a single glass of milk.

Others:
250 gm of milk has some other essential components of your diet as well. It has 12.2 mg of cholesterol and 220 gm of water.

You can make out from the milk nutrition facts that the fat content of milk is low. By knowing the milk nutrition facts, you must have understood the significance of drinking milk everyday. It is almost equal to a balanced diet. Make sure that you are drinking at least a glass of milk daily. This will not only fulfill your nutritional requirements but also make your body strong and more resistant to diseases. Milk gives you a healthy life.

Milk is not boring and dairy brands such as Mother Dairy, Amul repeatedly will have to remind this in an unconventional way to those who prefer drinking colas. It is milk that is an original drink versus the colas.

Which one would you pick????

****Santhali****

Santali is a language in the Munda subfamily of Austro-Asiatic, related to Ho and Mundari.The language has its own script, known as Ol Chiki which was developed by Dr Raghunath Murmu in 1925.

Santali language is mainly spoken by people who live near the areas of Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan in India. It is basically spoken by the tribal people of India. It is estimated that approximately 6 million people speak the Santali language in the country. There is not a very regular distribution of people who speak the Santali language. One can find some speakers of this language in states like Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Tripura and West Bengal.

The alphabets of the language are known as Ol Chiki, though people are not very well versed in it. The literacy rate in Santali speaking regions is very low, just around 20-30%. The tribe that speaks this language is known as Santhal. One finds the greatest number of Santali speakers in Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal. This language is actually a dialect of the Munda language. The tribe that speaks this language is quite backward as far as the standard of living is concerned. Most of them work in the coal mines or the steel factories in Asansol and Jamshedpur.

These days, though the language is not much in use, some educated Santhals use it to write books and other literary pieces. During the British rule, this language used to be written in the Roman script. But now, it is written in the Devanagari script. Due to its similarities with the Bengali language, many educated Santhali writers prefer writing it in Bengali because of its similarities in the use of phonetics. It is estimated that the Santali language is older than the Aryan languages.