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Time of India
2 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Pondering Existential Question: Why Are We Here?
Since time immemorial, people have wondered about human existence . Galib laments, "I am doomed because of my existence, what would have happened if i didn't exist?" Individual existence may carry more emotional and personal concern, but it is the collective existence that has engaged religion, philosophy, and science. Religions see human existence as creation of God. Philosophers have attempted to substantiate God's existence through it. The classical argument of William Paley tries to prove the existence of God based on apparent design, complexity, and purpose in human organs, such as the eye. Modern arguments support the existence of God through the anthropic principle , which posits that the universe is finely tuned for human existence. The ultimate answer in theist religions and philosophies is the same: Human existence is God's creation. In the Indic context, religions such as Jainism, and philosophies including Sankhya and Mimansa, endeavour to answer the mystery of human existence in terms of eternal substance - atman, purusha, jiva, soul. Jiva takes human form in a cycle of birth and death due to karm and avidya. The basic scheme is as follows: the soul transmigrates between births due to ignorance and/or the karmic effect. Atheistic religions and philosophies, however, fail to answer why this cycle of birth and death started? How, for the first time, did the soul come into bondage to take birth? Atheistic Indic schools of thought attempt to sidestep this question by invoking the concept of anadi, a standard response to questions they are unable to answer. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like An engineer reveals: One simple trick to get internet without a subscription Techno Mag Learn More Undo If atheistic religions and philosophies suffer from logical inconsistency, theists fare no better. Considering God as purn or self-sufficient, they fail to give any reason why God created humans? For example, Semitic religions believe that God created humans out of desire. As desire emanates from deficiency, accepting desire in this context would compromise the concept of purn God. Hinduism, being mindful of this problem, describes God's creation of humans as lila. Lila doesn't mean playfulness; it is anirvachniya - that which cannot be explained through speech. However clever this explanation may be, it does not suffice. Science, a late entrant to this debate, tries to explain human existence as an outcome of the blind and chance-based interplay of matter and forces resulting in chemical and biological development. Chemistry produced self-replicating complex molecules, which led to the emergence of life in single-cell organisms. Simpler life forms gradually developed into more complex life forms, including humans. According to mainstream science, human existence is just a contingent feature of the universe. There is no guarantee that, given another chance, the universe will again produce life and/or humans. Even after the best minds contemplating human existence for thousands of years, it remains largely unanswered to date. Many leading scientists, including Einstein, were not comfortable with the idea of the universe as an outcome of the blind and chance-based interplay of matter and forces. On the other hand, explaining human existence as God's creation or as anadi cycle resulting from the soul's bondage with matter has logical inconsistencies that many thinkers have accepted. In a world facing growing existential challenges, explaining human existence and acknowledging the value of life would always be of paramount importance. The future may have a better answer to why we exist. Authored by: The writer is joint secretary, GOI. Views are personal
Indian Express
20-06-2025
- General
- Indian Express
Consonant-gods and vowel-goddesses of many Brahmi scripts
Hanuman wrote Ram's name on rocks while building a bridge to Lanka. The Mahabharata was written by Ganesha who used his tusk as his stylus. This gave rise to the community of scribes known as Kayastha in North India and Karanam in South India. To save themselves from Parashuram, many warriors became scribes and turned their swords into styluses. That's another legend on the origin of scribes. But what script did they write in? Brahmins preferred oral transmission of ideas. So did the Buddhists. Brahmins remembered the hymns composed by Rishis in a complex mode of repetition (patha). Knowledge of various subjects was transmitted as terse sentences (sutra) and rhythmic poetry (shloka). At Buddhist councils, monks would chant all that Buddha had spoken to ensure the transmission was standardised. But while Brahmins managed to keep the fidelity of Vedic hymns, many Buddhist schools emerged with many different ideas. Digambar Jains, who migrated south, argued that all oral transmission of Jain teachings was lost during a famine, and rejected what Shvetambara Jains of Magadha remembered. There was clearly a lot of tension between different monastic and religious schools (pasanda) on what their teachers said and what they did not. This may have prompted Ashoka, the Mauryan king, to adopt writing and prevent loss in transmission. The Ashokan script is popularly called Brahmi, though we do not know what it was referred to then. It is an abugida script – so there are consonants and vowels. The two are used in a creative way to generate syllables. So, it is also a syllabary script. The consonants are known as 'aksharas' (eternal sounds) and the vowels are known as 'matrikas' (mothers). Typically, the consonant is placed in the center and the vowel markings are made around the center. Interestingly the akshara is considered masculine while the matras are considered feminine. The feminine vowels are located in a circle around the masculine akshara almost like the milkmaids dancing around Krishna or the Yoginis dancing around Bhairava. This circular design, like beads on a string, is very distinct from the linear Greek script, where consonants and vowels follow one another like ants in a line. Both are written left-to-right, but in Brahmi scripts the vowels are merged with consonants, and not kept separate. They are distinct from the Semitic script. Not only are Semitic scripts written right-to-left, they are very linear, a series of hooked dashes, with minarets and dots in between, like a silhouette of an Arabian city. The Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts are also like beads on a string – but the beads are square while the Brahmi beads are round. North Indian scripts and South Indian scripts have a common origin in Brahmi. But North Indian scripts have sharper lines because it was written using a paint brush on birch bark (Bhoja Patra). South Indian scripts were circular because they were written on palm leaves (Tada Patra) using an iron stylus. Since sharp angles with iron stylus could tear the palm leaves, scribes developed rounded letterforms. Black powder was sprinkled on the leaves to enter the etchings. In the south, the Vatteluttu (round) script and Grantha (knot) script evolved from Brahmi. Vatteluttu was used to write Tamil while Grantha was used to write Sanskrit. South Indian circular scripts traveled with Buddhist monks and Hindu merchants to Southeast Asia which is why there are local varieties of the Brahmi script, with vowels dancing in circles around consonants, and the design like a set of circular beads on a string. The Nagari script of the Gupta period split three ways – Siddham script in the east, Sharada in the north and Nagari in the west. Siddham was used in Sanskrit texts found in Tibet and in the Bengali language. The Gurmukhi script today is based on the Sharada script that was once popular in Kashmir and bears the name of the goddess of learning in the Valley. Sharada is also the name of the goddess venerated by Adi Shankaracharya in his institutions. Devanagari spread to the west and is seen in Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi. Devanagari, which was established by 1000 AD, became very popular in the 19th century. It was used in nearly 100 languages, the most popular among them being Hindi. Sanskrit, which has no script, began to be written using the Devanagari script. But it was written in other scripts too before the 19th century, something that is often forgotten today. The sister script of Devanagari, developed around 700 AD, is known as Nandinagari. It was used for Sanskrit manuscripts of the Vijayanagara Empire and by Madhva Brahmins for their texts on Dvaita Vedanta. Nandinagari does not have the long line (Shiro-rekha) as in Devanagari and so is related in some way to the south Indian circular scripts. Gujarati also removed the upper line (shiro-rekha) to make it easier to write. Many scribes created their own scripts, usually cursive (where consonants are connected to each other) for easy writing. Some examples include the Modi script used by scribes in western India, the Kaithi script used by Kayastha scribes in the north, and the Karani or Chatta script used by Karana scribes in Odia/Odisha. How are legends about Hanuman and Ganesha related to the origin of writing and scribes? How is Brahmi distinct from Greek and Semitic scripts? What is the origin of North Indian and South Indian scripts? Why did South Indian scripts evolve to become more rounded? Which scripts evolved from the Nagari script during the Gupta period? How did material constraints, such as palm leaves or birch bark, shape the visual form of scripts? (Devdutt Pattanaik is a renowned mythologist who writes on art, culture and heritage.) Share your thoughts and ideas on UPSC Special articles with Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.
Daily Mirror
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Greta Thunberg attempts to reach Gaza despite Israel's chilling threat
Israel's defence chief has vowed to prevent an aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists from reaching the Gaza Strip. Israel Katz said Israel will not allow anyone to break its blockade of the Palestinian territory. He said: "To the anti- Semitic Greta and her fellow Hamas propagandists, I will say this clearly: You should turn back, because you will not make it to Gaza." Mr Katz added: "I have instructed the IDF to act so the hate flotilla does not reach the shores of Gaza - and to take any means necessary to that end." Greta, 22, is among 12 activists on the Madleen, a British-flagged boat operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. The Swedish activist has previously denied anti-Semitism. She added: "We are a humanitarian aid ship." An attempt last month by Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza failed after another vessel was attacked by two drones off Malta. Yesterday, 13 people were killed by Israeli fire near an aid station in Rafah, Gaza. Witnesses said the shooting occurred at 6am, when they were told the centre would open.
Spectator
28-05-2025
- General
- Spectator
Spinoza, Epicurus and the question of ‘epikoros'
With surprise, I heard from a Jewish friend that a Hebrew term for a heretic is epikoros, apparently derived from the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 bc). The word cropped up recently in a row over a film on the life of Baruch Spinoza, showing that he is not forgiven more than 360 years after his expulsion from the Sephardic community in Amsterdam. An American professor of philosophy, Yitzhak Melamed, asked the Portuguese Jewish synagogue there for permission to film some footage. The rabbi pointed out that Spinoza had been excommunicated 'with the severest possible ban, a ban that remains in force for all time'. So, no he could not visit the synagogue. The rabbi's letter called Spinoza an epikouris, a form of the word used of him in the 17th century. The reason for Spinoza's excommunication (herem in Hebrew) is unknown. Spinoza did write difficult stuff later about all things being God, but not when he was cast out in 1656, aged 23. Anyway, 12th-century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides discussed the nature of an epikoros as someone who denies God's providence. That is what Spinoza was to deny, as far as I can understand him, and what Epicurus had denied. To add a complication. Maimonides said in an early work that epikoros came from Aramaic, and others have since derived it from the p-q-r Semitic root, signifying 'licentiousness'. By the time he wrote Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides had learnt about Epicurus's philosophy. Do, then, epikoros and a modern form, apikoros, come from the Greek philosopher, or was his fame projected on to an extant Semitic word? Professor Melamed eventually received a letter from the Ma'amad (churchwardens) of the synagogue saying the rabbi had exceeded his authority and he was welcome to visit.
India.com
23-05-2025
- Science
- India.com
10 Oldest Languages In The World
photoDetails english 2905301 Language is one of humanity's oldest and most powerful tools, shaping civilizations, preserving cultures, and connecting generations. While thousands of languages have emerged and evolved over millennia, a few have withstood the test of time, remaining in use—either in daily life, liturgy, or scholarly circles—since ancient eras. Updated:May 23, 2025, 07:13 PM IST 1 / 11 These languages offer a fascinating glimpse into our collective past, showcasing the richness of human expression across centuries. In this article, we explore 10 of the oldest languages in the world, tracing their origins, historical significance, and continued relevance today. Tamil 2 / 11 One of the oldest classical languages with origins dating back over 2000 years. Sanskrit 3 / 11 Ancient Indo- European language, considered the language of classical Indian literature and Hindu scriptures. Hebrew 4 / 11 Ancient Semitic language, sacred in Judaism, with origins dating back over 3000 years. Aramaic 5 / 11 Semitic language, used in ancient Mesopotamia and spoken by Jesus Christ. Greek 6 / 11 Ancient language with roots dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE, know for its rich literature. Chinese 7 / 11 Ancient language family with written records dating back over 3000 years. Egyptian 8 / 11 Ancient language of Egypt, with hieroglyphic inscriptions dating back to around 3200 BCE. Farsi 9 / 11 While not the earliest known language in the Indo- Iranian language family, Farsi is the longest surviving spoken language of the Iranian family of languages almost 522 BC. Latin 10 / 11 Classical language of the Roman empire, influencing many European languages. Italian 11 / 11 It is quite challenging to determine whether this is one of the oldest languages in the world or if it is now extinct. It's possible that the language originated around 75 BCE, or even earlier—perhaps during the time of the Roman Republic, which was established in 509 BCE. Modern Italian is a direct descendant of Latin.
