Ramayana & Historical Rawana- Latest Book By Mr.N.C.K Kiriella

Prof.Madurasinghe's foreword to this new book....

Sri Lanka is at a point of transition. The resultant collective consciousness will provide an ideal platform to critically re-examine certain historical and cultural assumptions carried over the years and a willingness to open to a paradigm shift in thinking. It is natural when critical  scholarship progresses, new names, places, and traditions will emerge challenging hitherto accepted views. This is an inevitable aspect of growth and progress if we embrace them with a spirit of humility and transcend the barriers of petty partisan polemics.

 

This book 'Ramayana & Historical Rawana' edited by Mr.Neil Kiriella  is a valiant attempt to capture such new findings and bring in historicity to our legends aimed at the general public. This effort is indeed salutary and hopefully will lead to a lively debate and help untangle many webs woven around the pre- historical myths that have been passed down from generation to generation.

 

There is a growing body of emerging research to suggest that modern human beings evolved in South Asia, South-East Asia, and perhaps in South China. This challenges the widely held view that they originated inAfrica. This will drastically change the current views we hold about our pre -history.

Dr. Siran Deraniyagala, Former Commissioner of Archaeology , at a discussion held at the Hotel Sigiriya in Dec 2000, as well as at several lectures he delivered subsequently stated that as a result of radiocarbon- tests and excavations carried out in the recent years, the picture of our early civilisation is beginning to drastically change.

The discovery of cultivation of oats and barley, and herding about 10,000 years ago (initially at 17,000 B.P.) in the Horton Plains has given a totally new dimension to what has been known about the origin of farming and herding in the world. It has so far been assumed that it was West Asia, South-East Asia and East Asia, which formed separate cradles of revolution in the subsistence strategy. But now we have yet another nucleus - namely, South Asia.

 

This research was taken further by Dr. D.T. Hawkey of Arizona State University, where she used dental morphological traits to establish the genetic distance between populations. It is comparative work of the greatest value, and what she says is that these dental traits are genetically determined, and have nothing to do with environment. She has done comparative work not only on the Sri Lankan population but various Indian groups and further a field into West Asia and South-East Asia on the one hand, and Australia on the other. She has come up with important results on the genetic affinities of our prehistoric humans. This has confirmed the results of the earlier work done by Cornell University.

There is a large volume of  evidence to suggest that Sri Lanka was a major player on the world stage. WhileChina was still engaged in formative and destructive wars, Sri Lanka had great kings, great art and monumental works of irrigation and buildings. This little island was evidently on a par with ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Egypt of the Pharaohs. Long before the Romans (400 BC), Sri Lanka had hydro spas, swimming pools, public baths with spray-jet showers, major irrigation reservoirs and hydro-engineering skills that worked accurately to a fall of one inch in one kilometre.

In the light of emerging evidence , it is also salutary that a vast of people have started to appreciate an ancient ruler who lived in Sri Lanka by the name of Ravana. This name became familiar to people from the story of Rama and Seetha in Valmiki's Ramayana, which is the oldest edition of Ramayana and is the source of all Ramayana that is relevant in various cultures .  King Kumaradasa who lived in the sixth Century AD authored Janakiharana which reflects the Rama-Seetha story that was popular among the masses.

 

Legend has it that  King Ravana was  a very learned and pious man, a wise, just and peaceful Ruler, a loving husband, a fond father & brother. A famous flutist & composer well versed in Vedas, Angas and Sastras. He is called Dasis Ravana which means the king with 10 great talents. He was a descendant of Surya Wansha and Hela Raskshasa tribe. (Ancient Sinhalese tribe) He was one of the best fighters in Angampora, the traditional martial arts of the people.

King Dasis Ravana was a great Scholar in Ayurvedic medicine. He was the person who invented Arka Shastra. The book Arka Prakshaya reveals this truth to the present world. He wrote several books revealing the cures for many diseases. In one book he wrote "Eating beef is the cause to infect ninety eight new diseases to human beings. The book "Kumara Tantraya" which reveals the treatments for infant diseases was written by him accepting the request of his pregnant queen Mandodari. 

In available records Ravana also emerges as a just ruler who governed the country very well. There was internal peace and no feud. He was the head of civil, judicial, military and spiritual administration of his vast and extensive realm. There was obedience not through fear but out of love for the safety of the peace-giving monarch. Harmony prevailed.

Legend also has it that Ravana had his abode on the summit of an awesome rock,  and that his kingdom ofLankapura surrounded it. It is said that the rock itself was used as a device rather like a sundial to calculate time in his kingdom. In ancient times this rock was known as Lanka Pabbata or Lankagiri, both of which mean Rock of Lanka.

Going down to the southern coast to Galle is another interesting place associated with the Rama and Sita legend. It is a mountain called Rhumassala Kanda. From the top of this mountain you get a panoramic view of the Galle harbour and its environs. On a clear day you could even see Adam's Peak, Sri Pada.

As the author skillfully navigates from ancient legends to historical sites and dwells on Brahmi scripts , Rock inscriptions and Asura Empire, you will surely find it a rich source of many challenging views that may appear contrary to what you have hitherto believed. That would then serve the purpose of the authors well indeed !! "In Sri Lanka there is historical and archaeological evidences Rishi Thrunabindu, Rishi Pulasthi, Rawana and his dynasty. Taking all these into thought an attempt is made to indicate the incidents that meet recorded history. The reader may be puzzled by the differing theories of the origins and its analysis."

 

 

Ramayana Research Team

Kings of Sri Lanka   

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Human Physiology and Veda

The Unified Field of Natural Law

From Prof.Tony Naders' book: Modern science has located the home of all of the Laws of Nature as a Unified Field, which gives rise to and administers the entire universe through its own self-interacting dynamics. It describes this field as the unified source of the four fundamental forces of Nature, from which all force fields throughout the universe are derived.

The above diagram shows the four fundamental forces of Nature, from which all force fields emerge. Modern science has discovered that these fundamental forces are unified on the level of the Unified Field.

 

The Unification of the Four  Fundamental Forces of Nature is the Unified Field of Natural Law

This discovery is described mathematically by the Lagrangian of Superstring Theory, which presents the detailed structure of the Unified Field.

Maharishi's Vedic Science identifies the Unified Field as an unbounded field of consciousness—an eternal, silent ocean of intelligence that underlies all forms and phenomena. This field of pure consciousness is the unified element in Nature on the ground of which the infinite variety of creation is continuously emerging, growing, and dissolving.

Maharishi has provided a profound account of how this purely abstract field expresses itself into material creation. In his description, he explains how fully awake, self-referral consciousness moves within itself, and in this self-interaction it unfolds its own, infinitely dynamic structure. This dynamic structure is the totality of all the Laws of Nature that create and administer creation; this same structure is found in the forty branches of Veda and the Vedic Literature.

Veda and the Vedic Literature in Human Physiology

This historical discovery is that the human physiology, including the DNA at its core, has the same structure and function as the holistic, self-sufficient, self-referral reality expressed in the forty branches of Veda and the Vedic Literature. He explains that each of the forty branches of Veda and the Vedic Literature can be located in both structure and function in the human physiology.

Vyakaran

For example, Maharishi describes Vyakaran as the branch of the Vedic Literature that embodies the expanding quality of self-referral consciousness. The tendency of Veda to sequentially elaborate itself—to unfold from its first syllable to the forty branches of the Vedic Literature—is expressed by Vyakaran. Raja Raam locates the similarity between this expansive tendency and the function of the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus releases factors that activate the pituitary gland, neurohypophysis, and the autonomic nervous system. These releasing factors represent the expansion necessary for the evolution of the endocrine and autonomic response, which leads to biochemical and physiological responses that bring the system to a new state of balance.

Structurally the Ashtadhyayi, the principle text of Vyakaran, is comprised of 8 Adhyayas (or chapters) of 4 Padas (a metrical unit) each, totaling 32 Padas. Similarly, the hypothalamus is comprised of 8 regions—anterior, posterior, middle, and lateral, right and left—with 4 nuclei each, making 32 nuclei, corresponding to the 32 Padas of the Ashtadhyayi. Raja Raam noted a correspondence between each Pada of the Ashtadhyayi and specific anatomical functions.

Vyakaran and the Hypothalamus

This diagram illustrates a cross section of the cerebral cortex and a highlight of the anterior hypothalamus areas, corresponding to the first and second chapters of Vyakaran. The 4 nucleii in each area correspond to the 4 divisions of each chapter. The other three chapters have been similarly correlated with different aspects of the hypothalamus.

Nyaya

A second example of the relationship between Veda and the human physiology is Nyaya, the branch of the Vedic Literature that Maharishi describes as the embodiment of the distinguishing and deciding quality of consciousness, which simultaneously comprehends opposite qualities of consciousness.

Nyaya corresponds functionally to the thalamus, which relays sensory inputs to the primary sensory areas of the cerebral cortex, conveying information about motor behaviour to the motor areas of the cortex. Structurally, there are 10 Ahnika (chapters) of the Nyaya Sutras, and 10 areas of the thalamus: rostral, medial, lateral, caudal, and intralaminar, each found on both sides of the brain. Furthermore, while the Nyaya Sutras describe 16 topics of reasoning (Pramana, Prameya, etc.), the thalamus functions through 16 groups of cells called nuclei.

The first of the 16 areas of Nyaya (Pramana) corresponds to the first nuclear group of the thalamus called the pulvinar. Pramanahas 4 subdivisions—Pratyaksha (direct perception), Anumana(inference), Upamana (comparison), and Shabda (verbal testimony)—which correspond respectively to the 4 subdivisions of the pulvinar. The first subdivision connects the superior colliculus with areas of the cortex and is responsible for higher order visual integration—i.e. perception (Pratyaksha). The second connects the superior colliculus and the temporal cortex with areas of the cortex and of the temporal cortex. These areas are involved in functions such as vision, hearing, memory, and language—together they are at the basis of processes of inference (Anumana). The third part of the pulvinar connects the parietal cortical areas back with other parietal cortical areas, and is responsible for polymodal sensory integration. This area gives a higher order perception about sensory inputs in relation of one with the other, serving the function of comparison (Upamana). The fourth connects the temporal cortex with the superior temporal gyrus and is responsible for memory, language, and speech. This is the basis of verbal testimony (Shabda). The fifteen following categories of Nyaya are similarly linked to different aspects of the thalamus, in structure and function.

Nyaya in the Thalamus

In this diagram, we see (on the right) a view of the thalamus with its 16 nuclei. On the left, we see the names of the nucleii and the 16 aspects of Nyaya to which they correspond.

Click for details of Prof.Tony Nader's book

Vagueness and Ambiguity

This week the Legal Theory Lexicon entry focuses on "ambiguity" and "vagueness"--two important concepts for the theory of interpretation.  Some legal texts are ambiguous--they can have two or more distinct meanings.  And some legal texts are vague--they use concepts that have indefinite application to particular cases.  And some legal texts are both vague and ambiguous--they have multiple meanings, some (or all) of which have indefinite applications.  Because "vagueness" and "ambiguity" are basic concepts in the theory of interpretation, its important to master each of them and to understand the difference between them.

As always, this entry in the Legal Theory Lexicon is aimed at law students, especially first year law students, with an interest in legal theory.

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