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IDOL
post Feb 4 2007, 04:52 AM
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Hello Friends!



I found it very interesting to share that last night i watched a documentary ( borrowed from university library) which was very amazing to know. The documentary was about human being's origin on earth. According to Dr. Spencer's research, we are all from Africa. 50 thousands of years ago, we were less than 10,000 people in Africa. Then, a branch of us moved to Austerlia through India(meanwhile some settled in India). The other branch went to Central Asia and China. 10 thousand years ago some of them from Central Asia moved to Europe. The most exciting thing i learned was that skin colour is not in our DNA. We get skin colour from exposure to sun light. In real, there is no race and no colour. If you want to watch the documentary , go for it.
  1. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr...er#PRA2-PA16,M1
  2. https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html
  3. The DVD is called " The Journey of Man"

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IDOL
post Feb 8 2007, 06:12 AM
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Got it from my Psych Prof.



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IDOL
post Feb 8 2007, 06:13 AM
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Got it from my Psych Prof.


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LEGENDRAFI
post Feb 8 2007, 01:58 PM
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Heavy stuff this! wacko.gif

I don't know what to make of these researches and scientific predictions but the one thing that I know is that evolution of the human race is inevitable. What we are today is the result of an evolution and what we will be in the future would also be due to evolution. However, as the first report claims that the future might see humans having an average height of 6'6 and so on, well, is surely questionable. Look, I am no scientist and neither do I have any technical explanations for this but look at the variations in our physical attributes today - whether we talk about height, weight, color or anything else - it is difficult to believe that we will evolve to a stage where we all have an almost similar color tone and similar physical attributes. This seems to be one of those time-pass theories that we keep reading about every other day.

Firstly, will we survive till the 3000s - what with the Global Warming threat, population explosion, ever growing pollution levels and of course the threat that we humans presnt to each other in the shape of terrorism - Phew! Where's this World Going? Doesn't seems like we will be reaching the 3000s at this rate! What do you say?

Well, on a lighter note, what do you think about the advancements in consumer products like 'FAIR AND LOVELY'? That might come in handy when we get to this stage! tongue1.gif
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IDOL
post Feb 9 2007, 02:05 AM
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QUOTE(LEGENDRAFI @ Feb 8 2007, 01:28 AM) *
Heavy stuff this! wacko.gif

I don't know what to make of these researches and scientific predictions but the one thing that I know is that evolution of the human race is inevitable. What we are today is the result of an evolution and what we will be in the future would also be due to evolution. However, as the first report claims that the future might see humans having an average height of 6'6 and so on, well, is surely questionable. Look, I am no scientist and neither do I have any technical explanations for this but look at the variations in our physical attributes today - whether we talk about height, weight, color or anything else - it is difficult to believe that we will evolve to a stage where we all have an almost similar color tone and similar physical attributes. This seems to be one of those time-pass theories that we keep reading about every other day.

Firstly, will we survive till the 3000s - what with the Global Warming threat, population explosion, ever growing pollution levels and of course the threat that we humans presnt to each other in the shape of terrorism - Phew! Where's this World Going? Doesn't seems like we will be reaching the 3000s at this rate! What do you say?

Well, on a lighter note, what do you think about the advancements in consumer products like 'FAIR AND LOVELY'? That might come in handy when we get to this stage! tongue1.gif




First, i also thought it is a high claim............then i thought, nothing is impossible for human beings.......we might suffer global warming and other disasters........but guess what.....our body's magic is adaptation to the environment...........we came black with good height from Africa...........we got brown and short in Asia.............we turned pale and got medium hight in Europe...........see, we from the hot weather of Sahara......to -70 degree of North, we survived............there are many human beings living in North Pole............we have ability of adaptation to environment....and that's how we exceed among other speices while some disappeared over the time like dinosours


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NATURE
post Apr 12 2007, 05:01 PM
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QUOTE(LEGENDRAFI @ Feb 8 2007, 02:58 PM) *

Firstly, will we survive till the 3000s

we sure will, just wait and watch. tongue1.gif
***************************************************

Nalanda, Is it really the oldest university ?

The name came from Sanskrit: it means "giver of knowledge".
Nalam(lotus) is "a symbol of knowledge" and Da is "to give"

It is located about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhist center of learning from 427 CE to 1197
CE partly under the Pala Empire. It has been called "one of the first great universities in recorded history.


Nalanda in the time of the Buddha (500 BC)

The Buddha is mentioned as having several times stayed at Nalanda. When he visited Nalanda he would
usually reside in Pāvārika's mango grove, and while there he had discussions with Upāli-Gahapati and
Dīghatapassī, with Kevatta, and also several conversations with Asibandhakaputta.

The Buddha visited Nālandā during his last tour through Magadha, and it was there that Sariputta uttered his
"lion's roar," affirming his faith in the Buddha, shortly before his death. The road from Rājagaha to Nālandā
passed through Ambalatthikā, and from Nālandā it went on to Pātaligāma. Between Rājagaha and Nālandā
was situated the Bahuputta cetiya.

According to the Kevatta Sutta, in the Buddha's time Nālandā was already an influential and prosperous
town, thickly populated, though it was not till later that it became the centre of learning for which it
afterwards became famous. There is a record in the Samyutta Nikaya, of the town having been the victim of
a severe famine during the Buddha's time. Sāriputta, the right hand disciple of the Buddha, was born and
died in Nālandā.

Nālandā was the residence of Sonnadinnā. Mahavira is several times mentioned as staying at Nālandā,
which was evidently a centre of activity of the Jains. Mahavira is believed to have attained Moksha at
Pavapuri, which is located in Nalanda (also according to one sect of Jainism he was born in the nearby
village called Kundalpur).

King Asoka (250 BC) is said to have built a temple there. According to Tibetan sources, Nagarjuna taught
there

The stupa of Sariputta at Nalanda.
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Nalanda, The University:


The university was founded in 427 A.D. by Buddhist monks at the time of Kumaragupta I (415-455 A.D.),

Nalanda was one of the world's first residential universities, i.e., it had dormitories for students. Nalanda
played host to more than 10,000 students — not just Buddhists, but of various religious traditions — and
its education, provided in its heyday by 2,000 world-renowned professors, was completely free.

The university was considered an "architectural masterpiece," and was marked by a lofty wall and one gate.

Glorious accounts


The Chinese scholar, Hsuen-Tsiang (or Xuanzang in today's Pinyin spelling), who visited India in 630 A.D.
under the Guptas and stayed for some time at Nalanda, has left us a vivid description of the university.
He wrote of "richly adorned towers" with observatories "lost in the vapours of the morning". The university's
architecture was remarkable, with nine-storey buildings, eight separate compounds, ten temples, several
meditation halls, a great library and dozens of classrooms. Its setting, too, was full of beauty, dotted with
lakes and parks. Most important, its finances were secure, since the monarch "has remitted the revenues of
about 100 villages for the endowment of the convent". In addition, the villagers supplied food to the
students, whose material needs were entirely met by the university so that they could concentrate on "the
perfection of their studies".


The library was located in a nine storied building where meticulous copies of texts were produced.
So that the scholars can take those texts and study.
The subjects taught at Nalanda University covered every field of learning, Nalanda was an
extraordinary centre of learning for seven centuries and it attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan,
China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia, Sri Lanka and Turkey. The Tang Dynasty Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang left
detailed accounts of the university in the 7th century.


The University Seal
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True Centre of learning:

The accounts of foreign travellers portray a university throbbing with intellectual excitement, a centre of
learning devoted not only to the study of Buddhist texts but of Hindu philosophy, the Vedas, and theology in
general; logic, grammar and linguistics; the practice of medicine and the study of other sciences, notably
mathematics and astronomy; and more down-to-earth subjects like politics, the art of war and even
handicrafts.
Contemporary visitors speak of a system of education that went well beyond the oral recitation
and rote-learning normally practised in monasteries. Nalanda's teachers practised a variety of instructional
methods: exposition was followed by debate and discussion, lectures featured lengthy question-and-answer
sessions, and ideas were illuminated by extensive resort to parables and stories. Admission required a
strict oral examination; literally so, since strangers were not permitted to enter unless they could
satisfactorily answer a number of questions from the gatekeeper testifying to their basic level of educational
attainment.
bow.gif ( sounds better than 2day's IITs. System, campus, everything. biggrin.gif )

--------------------------------------

Nalanda was, of course, not alone as a prominent Indian university. there were other universities too.
Kasi (Varanasi) and Kanchi were particularly renowned for their religious teaching, and Taksasila
(Taxila in today's Pakistan) placed greater emphasis on secular studies; but Nalanda combined the
religious and the secular. Today, our universities, barring an IIT here and a St. Stephen's there, are a long
way short of world-class. Rebuilding Nalanda must be more than an exercise in constructive nostalgia.
It must involve a new level of ambition, or it will be a futile exercise.




Decline and End:


Nalanda was destroyed three times by invaders, but only rebuilt twice. The first time was when the Huns
under Mihirakula laid waste the campus during the reign of Skandagupta (455-467 A.D.), when Nalanda
was only a few decades old. Skanda's successors Puragupta and Narasimhagupta promptly undertook the
restoration of the university, improving it with the construction of even grander buildings, and endowed it
with enough resources so that the university could be self-sustaining in the longer term. The second
destruction came a century and a half later, with an assault by the Gaudas in the early seventh century.
This time the great Hindu king Harshavardhana (606-648 A.D.) restored the Buddhist university, once again
upgrading the buildings and facilities.

In 1193, the Nalanda University complex was sacked by Turkic Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khilji;
this event is seen as a milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India. It is said that Khilji asked if there was
a copy of the Koran at Nalanda before he sacked it. When the Tibetan translator Chag
Lotsawa visited them in 1235, he found them damaged and looted, but still functioning with a small number
of monks. The destruction of the universities at Nalanda, as well as the destruction of many temples and
monasteries throughout northern India which housed centers of learning, is considered by many historians to
be responsible for the sudden demise of ancient Indian scientific thought in mathematics, astronomy,
alchemy, and anatomy. Fortified Sena monasteries along the main route of the invasion were destroyed,
and being off the main route both Nalanda and Bodh Gaya survived. Many institutions off the main route
such as the Jagaddala Monastery in northern Bengal were untouched and flourishing.

The ruins of the university
Attached Image

--------------------------------------

Plans for revival:


On December 9, 2006, the New York Times detailed a plan in the works to spend $1 billion to revive
Nalanda University near the ancient site. A consortium led by Singapore and including India, Japan and
other nations will attempt to raise $500 million to build a new university and another $500 million to develop
necessary infrastructure.


Courtesy: Wikipedia and The Hindu
--------------------------------------

Hi,

You know about any older university ? if yes, any online article ? I have been searching for, I knew
about nalanda but last few days I got more and more articles. Usually, Al-Azhar University is known
to be the 2nd oldest operating university in the world. and first one is University of Al Karaouine Fez,
Morocco. But Al Karaouine was founded in 859 AD and Al Azhar was in 988 AD.

Khobi jaan, didn't want to create another thread, so posted it here. Your title is also about history. smile.gif

Let me know what you know about these. I know the above article is too long, so take your own time
to read and post.


Thanks a lot
Nature

Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo Egpyt
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Interior of the Al Karaouine Mosque and University
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Jo Milte hain, voh nahi milte
Aur Jo Nahi Milte, Vohin Vaastav mein milte hai
Kaaran jo hai, voh nahi hai
Aur jo nahi hai, vohin hai.
Ye keval Shabdo ki heraa-pheri nahi hai
Aur heraa-pheri hain bhi
Yehin Darshan hai
Aur isi hone naa hone, milne naa milne ke beech mein
maayaa kaa samudra hai
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