A dictionary of names and terms in the Mahabharata

This is a dictionary of names and terms in the great Indian epic the Mahabharata. I compiled the vocabulary in Microsoft Excel. Devanagari script was transliterated into "romanized" script using the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST). I inserted a pivot table to  put the content into a dictionary format. I saved the file as PDF, which was uploaded to Scribd. 

Copyright: Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike (BY-NC-SA)

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Names and Terms in the Maha... by thebahuofbengal

The "Fire Temple" of Baku, Azerbaijan

 The Baku Ateshgah, often called the "Fire Temple of Baku", is a religious temple located in a suburb in Baku, Azerbaijan. "Ātash" (آتش) is the Persian word for fire.

The complex, which has a fire altar in the middle, was built during the 17th and 18th centuries. A vent from a subterranean natural gas field located directly beneath the complex fed the fire. The temple ceased to be a place of worship after 1883, with the installation of petroleum plants. The natural eternal flame went out in 1969, after nearly a century of exploitation of petroleum and gas in the area. Today, gas piped in from Baku feed the fires and the fires are only turned on for the benefit of visitors.

Attribution: painter from Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (between 1890-1907), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Persian and Indian inscriptions suggest that the temple was used as a Hindu, Sikh, and Zoroastrian place of worship.  Inscriptions on the Ateshgah are in either Sanskrit (in Nagari Devanagari script) or Punjabi (in Gurmukhi script), with the exception of one Persian inscription. Below is an inscription in Sanskrit from the temple that I used as a cover for my course in Sanskrit.

Attibution: Wikifex, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1925, Zoroastrian priest and academic Jivanji Jamshedji Modi went to Baku to determine if the temple had been once a Zoroastrian place of worship. Modi observed that after examining this building with its inscriptions, architecture, etc., any Parsee who is familiar with Hinduism or Sikhism and their temples and their customs would conclude that this is not a [Zoroastrian] Atash Kadeh but a Hindu Temple.  The trident (Trishula) mounted atop the structure is a distinctly Hindu sacred symbol.

Source:

En.wikipedia.org. n.d. Ateshgah of Baku - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ateshgah_of_Baku> [Accessed 16 August 2022].

Review of The Hunt for Mount Everest

The Hunt for Mount Everest by Craig Storti 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

My review on Goodreads

The Hunt for Mount Everest documents the 70 year history from the measurement of Mt. Everest in 1850 to the expedition in 1921, when westerners came closest to Mt. Everest, about 40 miles. It would be another 30 years until George Mallory and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest. 

After the 1921 expedition, explorer Francis Youngblood wrote: 

The doom of Everest is sealed, for the simple and obvious reason that man grows in wisdom and stature, but the span of mountains is fixed … This doom can be seen to be relentlessly closing in on Everest.

Out of all the passages in The Hunt for Mount Everett, this one haunted me most. 

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer documents the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. After a surprise snowstorm, six climbers didn’t make it back to their camp. When the storm finally passed, five of them were dead and the sixth climber was so badly frostbitten that his right hand had to be amputated. In the epilogue, Krakauer quoted a Sherpa orphan who lost his parents on climbing expeditions:

 I never have gone back to my homeland because I feel it is cursed. My ancestors arrived in the Solo-Khumbu region fleeing from persecution in the lowlands. There they found sanctuary in the shadow of 'Sagarmathaji'* …In return they were expected to protect that goddesses’ sanctuary from outsiders. … 

But my people went the other way. They helped outsiders find their way into the sanctuary and violate every limb of her body by standing on top of her, crowing in victory, and dirtying and polluting her bosom. … even the Sherpas are to blame for the tragedy of 1996 on 'Sagarmatha.' I have no regrets of not going back, for I know the people of the area are doomed, and so are those rich, arrogant outsiders who feel they can conquer the world." 

Both these passages refer to doom, but while Younghusband views doom positively in terms of man’s growing “wisdom and stature,” the Sherpa orphan views it negatively in terms of desecrating ‘Sagarmatha.’ 

---

* Literally, the mother of the oceans. I like this name better, as many of the great rivers of Asia originate in the Himalayas

Sources (Harvard style)

Krakauer, J., 1997. Into thin air: a personal account of the Mount Everest disaster. 1st ed. New York: Anchor Books.

Storti, C., 2021. The Hunt for Mount Everest. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Is hing casteist?

Vidya Balachander

(Sigh) Another example of injecting caste into everything. As a friend said:

Mix caste into every Indian narrative as "masala " to be served in food for western audiences... Tired of these folks who spin these theses endlessly :-(

So true. In 2021, Vidya Balachander won a writing award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) in the Food and Drink category for her article Asafoetida’s Lingering Legacy Goes Beyond Aroma. 

Here's what ASJA said about Balachander's article:

This is a beautifully written piece exploring the spice. The writer strikes an intriguing balance between her personal experience and history, anthropology and politics. A fantastic piece combining in-depth research and skillful writing. 

References:

American Society of Journalists and Authors. (2021). ASJA > For Writers > ASJA's Annual Writing Awards. Asja.org. Retrieved 15 July 2021, from https://asja.org/for-writers/annual-writing-awards.

Balachander, V. (2021). Asafoetida’s Lingering Legacy Goes Beyond Aroma — Whetstone Magazine. Whetstone Magazine. Retrieved 15 July 2021, from https://www.whetstonemagazine.com/journal/asafoetidas-lingering-legacy-goes-beyond-aroma.

What's behind the Assam-Mizoram border dispute?

 The boundary dispute between Assam and Mizoram dates back nearly 150 years. Boundary demarcations in 1875 and 1933, particularly the latter, are at the heart of the dispute. The 1933 boundary was made without consent and approval of government  authorities and the people of Mizoram.  The boundary dispute has simmered since Mizoram became a Union Territory in 1972 and then a state in the 1980s.

The dispute between Assam and Mizoram has recently escalated, as firing on the boundary left at least six Assam police dead and over 50 others injured.While Assam claims that its boundary has been transgressed, Mizoram cites unilateral moves by Assam inside its territory.   

Following a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah,  Mizoram wants “the inter-state border issue with Assam be resolved in an atmosphere of peace and understanding". Twenty-four hours after the meeting, however, people are unable to travel through the border areas between Assam and Mizoram by vehicle. Mizoram blames Assam for blocking the road. According to Assam, Assam withdrew its travel advisory and  nobody is being stopped from travelling to Mizoram. 

Sources:

Deb, D. (2021). Explained: Why did a 150-year-old Assam-Mizoram dispute get violent now? The Indian Express. Retrieved 7 August 2021, from https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/the-assam-mizoram-dispute-violence-policemen-dead-7425600/.

Purkayastha, B. (2021). Bonhomie after Assam-Mizoram talks yet to reflect at border points. Hindustan Times. Retrieved 7 August 2021, from https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bonhomie-after-assam-mizoram-talks-yet-to-reflect-at-border-points-101628280061118.html.