A couple of years ago I went back to India where I had lived for some fifty years. I came to know a French couple rather well. They were living well in Paris,- and both were professionals, and one day they had enough of it. Love for India had completely taken possession of them. They [...]
Archive for the ‘culture’ Category
My Cultural Baggage
Posted in culture, tagged Benny Thomas, culture, culture hype, habit, incredible India, private illusions, reality, spiritual India on May 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Gray’s anatomy-religion
Posted in culture, religion,, tagged auto da fe, Benny Thomas, conscious mind, culture, Grand Inquisitor, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, gray, Haiti, Mexican Americans, religion,, unconscious mind, voodoo, worship of the dead on May 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Color of Religion Is there a color to code religion as founded by a prophet and organized by his disciples? The purity of a vision seen from the unconscious mind has to be translated by the rational mind. Prophet can only approximate rationally what is revealed in the other. To compound the confusion it has [...]
The Silk Road and Via Appia-conclusion
Posted in Christianity, culture, tagged Assyrian empire, Babylonian empire, Clement of Alexandria, Constantine the Great, dia spora, expulsion from Jerusalem, gnosticism, Hebrew Christians, Hellenism, Manichean belief, Origen, Persia, Pope Clement I, rituals, St. Paul, Theodocius, Titus on May 5, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Spread of Christianity outline: waves of diaspora create hubs to facilitate spread of new religion, merchants and missionaries, St. Paul-religion mixed with gentile ideas and worship Christianity spread through the Roman empire. Via Appia made it easier. St. Paul as a Roman citizen( he was from Tarsus in South- Central Anatolia) was free to move [...]
The Silk Road and Via Appia-3
Posted in culture, history, tagged Benny Thomas, Buddhism, culture, Daoism, Genghiz Khan, history, Islam, Kublai Khan, Marco Polo, recidivism, the Black Death, the Mongols on May 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
outline: Silk road carried trade,exchange of ideas, culture,religion- ups and downs Trade along the route was adversely affected by the strife which built up between the Christian and Moslem worlds. The Crusades brought the Christian world a little nearer to Central Asia, but the unified Moslem armies under Saladin drove them back again. In the [...]
The Silk Road and Via Appia-2
Posted in China, culture, history, tagged Christianity, culture, Gandhara style, Greek ideals meet East, Islam, middle men, Nestorians, Tang dynasty, the Mongols on May 2, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
II trade carried ideas,culture route-religions,Buddhism, Christianity and Islam This region along the Silk Road was taken over by Alexander the Great of Macedon, who finally conquered the Iranian empire, and colonised the area in about 330 B.C., superimposing the culture of the Greeks. Although he only ruled the area until 325 B.C., the effect of [...]
The Silk Road and Via Appia
Posted in culture, history, tagged Buddhism, China, Christianity, culture, Gobi desert, India, Islam, Jews, Seres, Taklimakan desert, the Mongols, the Parthians on May 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Rise of humans on the earth is a chronicle of mass migrations. Among these a road is surely a consequence of choices people make to reach their destination. In times of famine they sought places where food was in abundance. Later trade between peoples connected by roads. Road is the straight line between two points [...]
Fabled Bestiary-Persepolis
Posted in animals, culture, tagged archeology, art, Benny Thomas, Bird, brush and ink, Bull, Iran, pen, Persepolis, Pre-Islamic, world heritage on March 25, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The Search for Atlantis- Indian Epics
Posted in culture, tagged Bhils, caste system, Drona, eklavya, Indian epics, Indo-Aryan influx, inward looking, Prince Arjuna, sub-continent on January 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Epics are a fair indication of national character. The Iliad and Odysseus of Homer give the reader the wider arc of Greek civilization in touching the entire western world: geography of the people touches their way of life and in the case of Greeks added to their martial prowess and hardiness. If their city-states cut [...]
My Indian Identity
Posted in culture, tagged Benny Thomas, cosmopolitan, India, Indian identity, Spiritual World on December 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Having lived my first five decades in India for the life of me I cannot say what exactly is my Indian Identity and where it lay. As far as I could think for myself I showed my partiality for everything outside India. I seem to have set focus on English as my language even as [...]
Recidivism of Islam
Posted in culture, history, tagged falling back, history, Islam, Mongol invasion on November 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The word recidivism is used in cultural context meaning falling back from the general path of development where prevailing trends are frowned upon and resisted. Islam which was in the forefront of learning and thought ceased to develop. In short they fell back from leading Europe and it is their recidivism I am discussing here [...]
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