AWANG KOUBRU ASUPPA AND ORIGIN OF OBLIQUITY OF EARTH AND PLANETS

AWANG KOUBRU ASUPPA AND ORIGIN OF OBLIQUITY OF EARTH AND PLANETS

#Awang_Koubru_Asuppa
Leima-Lai Khunda Ahanba
Nongthrei Ma-u Lingliba
Eerik Eepan Thariba
O! Lainingthou....

#The above invocation of Meetei Puya (sacred manuscript/scripture) is very intricate and is related to genesis of first human race and Meetei race. The rough literal meaning of the above verse is – the place Koubru is the cradle of the first human race called Lai and Meetei race is progeny of Lai race. Therefore, Meeteis are also known as Laigi Macha and Meetei Leipak is called Laileipak (Laireipak).
#However, today’s subject is different from the above as well as from its literal meaning! And is there any Science in the verse particularly in the triplet Awang Koubru Asuppa is the focus of today! The answer is – YES, which takes the Meetei race on the zenith of philosophy & science. The meaning is like this & is outcome of humble mind and it is left to the learned readers to take a call….!!! The words Awang Koubru Asuppa had buলমদমনি।।।

mind and started thinking why all are together that Awang (North), Koubru (North West), and then Asuppa (Together or Common). All the directions – N & NW are independent and what is common to both North & North West!!! And is it really related to evolution..??? This is the beauty of the Meetei Verse – Awang Koubru Asuppa….!!! Please have a look.
#We’ve already unraveled the meaning of the puya verse Malem Leikoi Poong in earlier post which indicates that the Earth Rotates about its own axis, Revolves round the Sun and the shape of the Earth is like a Poong (Oblate Spheroid). Now, the next immediate question is what about the Axis of Earth’s rotation (Spin Axis) and where does the Axis stand…??? Does the answer sought contain in the another Puya verse Awang Koubru Asuppa ??? 
#The_north pole of a planet is defined by the right-hand rule: if the fingers of the right hand are curled in the direction of the rotation then the thumb points to the positive pole. The tilting of the Axis of the rotation or Spin Axis of a planet or axial tilt called Obliquity is defined as the angle between the direction of the positive pole and the normal to the orbital plane. In the solar system, there is no planet whose spin axis is not tilted. Even Sun’s axis is tilted. And probably, all exo-planets in the universe have tilted spin axis. However, Were the Spin axes straight even for earth too? How was Spin Axis of the Earth (and others) tilted? What happened from straight axis to tilted axis? Let’s look at understanding of Science and that science in Meetei Puya (Philosophy). 
#The_Earth's axis of rotation or Spin Axis is not straight, not perpendicular to the plane of rotation and tilted to some degrees since the formation of the solar systems i.e. ~ 4.5 billion years ago. At present, the axis is tilted 23.5° from the vertical, but it is not fixed. This axis angle (Obliquity of earth) varies, from 22.1° to 24.5° over a period of 41,000 years called #Milankovitch_Cycle. The current tilt is 23.5°, roughly halfway between its extreme values. The tilt last reached its maximum in 8,700 BCE. Currently Earth is in its fourth Quarter of Milankovitch Cycle and is decreasing at a rate of 0.013 degree per Century. It will reach its lowest to 22.1 Degrees in about 11,800 years.
#The_Obliquity angles for all other planets in solar system are different. For Uranus and Venus, tilting angles are approximately 97°, and 177° respectively. Interestingly, due to variations in their obliquity angles, with respect to earth – Sun rises in the West & sets in the East on Venus, Sun rises in the North & sets in the South on Uranus.
#Spinning of Earth and tilting of the Spin Axis came about early in the formation of the solar system, 4.5 billion years ago and is a result of the history of the planet. The solar system started out as a large cloud of gas and dust called a nebula. This cloud was not uniform so when it started to collapse because of gravity, it didn't collapse evenly and it started to rotate gaining angular momentum. As it collapsed more and more the rotation increased (more angular momentum), much like a figure skater increases her spin by drawing in her arms. The central portion eventually formed the sun. Around the sun, other parts of the protoplanetary disk of cloud began to condense and form small bodies called planetesimals. As these planetesimals moved around the sun, they gathered more and more material until they reached the size they are today. They were already moving around the sun in orbits and probably had some spin from the collapse of the original nebula. The Earth (in fact all planets) is a top, and all large bodies out there with a spin, will continue to spin until something slows them down. In the case of the top on floor, the friction with the floor, and with air around the top, slowed it enough for it to fall over. The Earth has nothing to slow it. Earth is not slowing down in its rate of spin. That is Planets are born with some amount of angular momentum, and angular momentum must be conserved. The only way for the angular momentum to change is through interactions with other bodies. In interactions, total angular momentum is conserved, but may be exchanged between different bodies. Throughout the history of a planet, it may have many gravitational interactions which affect its obliquity. The obliquity (tilting of Spin axis) is a result of the history of all of those #Gravitational_Interactions. This is origin of Spin and obliquity of Planets as per science.
The #Giant_Impact_Theory is the best known theory for Obliquity of Earth. Prior to the giant impact, the earth spun on a perfect straight axis means there was no tilting of spin axis. Astronomers theorize that over 4.5 billion years ago, “#Theia” a plenetisimal about the size of Mars, collided with Earth to create a tilted axis. An impact #above_the_equator changes the rotational axis and speed. Following the Giant impact, Earth ended up with an axis tilt. This is the origin of Obiquity of earth’s spin axis as per science. At present, the axis is tilted 23.5° from the vertical, but it is not fixed. This tilt angle (Obliquity) oscillates between 22.1° to 24.5° over a period of 41,000 years. The reason for this changing obliquity angle is that Earth's axis also wobbles (Precession) around itself. A complete wobble of Earth's axis takes around 26,000 years. The North Star changes because of precession (wobble). 13,000 years ago, the North Star was Vega; currently, the North Star is Polaris. The North Star has changed over the past 13,000 years, and in another 13,000 years it will switch back to Vega again.
#Earth's obliquity may have been reasonably accurately measured as early as 1100 BC in India and China. The ancient Greeks had good measurements of the obliquity since about 350 BC. About 830 AD, the Caliph Al-Mamun of Baghdad measured the obliquity. In 1437, Ulugh Beg determined the Earth's axial tilt as 23.5047°.
#Now, let’s look at the #Philosophy. From immemorial time in the Meetei Race Kangleipak, there is chronicle called “#Nongkhong_Koiba (Racing around the World or Universe)”, in which – when Salailen Sitapa (Ipa Sorarel) become aged, one day Salailel Sitapa called His two sons - Sanamahi & Konchin Tukthaba and told them that as He became old, He wanted to give His fampan (seat of Kingship /throne) to one of them. “Any one of you, who can go round the Nongkhong will get the Fampan”. Powerful Sanamahi went immediately to go round the Nongkhong (Earth or Universe). While weak Konchin Tukthaba made 7 rounds of Faman Fangkhong of His father Salailel Sitapa and got the Fampan (seat of kingship) and also epithet of #Pakhangba, from His father Salailel Sitapa, before came back of Sanamahi who went round the Nongkhong. However, when Sanamahi came back, He was not happy with decision of His father of granting His fampan to Pakhangba. Thus, #Sanamahi who is actually #Eepung_Loinaba_Apakpa or #Tingpalpa_Mapu, the Universal God father, the creator of the earth ( universe) and who has incarnated just as a child to Salailel Sitapa to create Human beings, had thought of destroying the Earth (Universe) as He was not satisfied with the end result of Nongkhong Koiba. Thus, #Sanamahi_Kicked_down the Earth so vigorously with the aim of destroying it, and in this act of God, earth got tilted that is direction of True North got changed. Which means that earlier, North was pointing North i.e. Spin Axis was straight pointing at North as Science found it. Also, Sanamahi #Kicked_vigorously is equivalent to that there was a Giant Impact as Science told and also #Kicked_Down means that North (Awang) was moved downwards towards South through South West (Koubru), as a result of which North (Awang) has changed towards North West (Koubru), which actually means that Earth got Tilted Spin Axis (Obliquity). Also, since Kangleipak is above the equator, the giant impact (kick) might be above the equator as science theorized and caused the tilt of the axis. However, how much is tilted by what degree!!! The Meetei Puya Triplet “Awang Koubru Asuppa” subtly means that “Awang Su Oire Koubru Su Oire Animakpu Suppe” that is “It is also North-Awang (0 degree) and it is also North West-Koubru (45 degrees) and it is common to both that is mean of 0 degree & 45 degrees = 22.5 degrees, that is the angle at which Earth’s Spin Axis points as per Meetei Puya. The value of 22.5 degrees is within the range of 22.1 degrees & 24.5 degrees of Spin Axis as per Milankovitch Cycle and very close to the present value of 23.5 degrees as per Science. Also, since due to the vigorous kick (giant impact), the entire fabric of the space-time might have got disturbed changing the gravitational forces of interaction of all the planets and all the planets might have got tilted axes. Also, since the Nongkhong Koiba tradition is before the advent of Sanamahi creating the Beings, definitely it must be at the beginning of the evolution of the earth i.e. around 4.5 billion years old. That is, tilting of earth’s spin axis might be related to the history of planet i.e. 4.5 billion years ago.
#Summarizing, Puya verse “Awang Koubru Asuppa” means that – “Awang Oina Leijarambadu Koubru Romda Chepthakhi/Peithakhi, Aduna Awangsu Oire Koubru Su Oire Animak Suple Haibani” - has everything about science of Obliquity of Earth – about its origin of Tilt, by 22.5 degrees (Milankovitch range) , due it Giant Impact of Theia (Kick) and timeline of tilt – 4.5 billion years (Nongkhong Koiba). What a great Philosophy of Puya of Meetei race of Kangleipak !!!
#কংলৈ_সনা_লৈমায়োল্
#লাইনা_থাবা_লমদমনি।।।

By

Raghu Ningthoujam
Scientist (ISRO)

Mystery in Manipur

   TALUI, Ukhrul dage nongchup pangna Kachai chatpa lambi romda panglap laptabida 40km muk chatlaga leiba khul amani. Khul ashida EEKON (pond) ama lei haina hainei Ukhrul ge khunja singna hainei. Khul ashida leiba meoising adu Ahenba top topa mahei kaya heinei hiana hainei. Karegumba matam amada makhoige chinjak chaba fanglaktaba/ sa tanbada sa fanglaktrabadi Sa onkheduna Chinglak manlakta chatkhe hianei. Makhoige EEKON adu ge eshing adu atopa meeoi singna thaklurabasu makhoige maong matou adu lounei hiana hainei. Chak tangba natraga Chengchin tha haibase mamangeige matamdade thoina ngaknengai oide. Lou loktrengei matamda chinjak ke awatpa leibana sa tanaba ching man da chatnei chinjak thenei. Chinjak fanglaktaraba matamda (chak tangba) yumda hanlaktabadage Tonganba mee nataba sa makhal ama onkheduna Ching man da leikhe haina wari tami.
Makhoige Ningol ama karegumba Atopa Meeoi singna lourabade Nupi aduna angang unaba matamda angang adu chathokee chadanaba senei hainei. Sa nga thamduna sa nga pejanaba hotnei. Makhoina sa onkhebadu Khutsa sing ashe tensinlakee haibade Khuton dage tang anin subada tekhe hain Matu chonsinlaktuna SAOOM (BEER) su onle Kareegumbada KEI (TIGER) su onle hainei.

    Makhoina atopa khun ge Lou singda chatuna Chucak (Maize) chaba lakee hainei, mee singdasu sarak tambage ware su tami. Makhoige ware ashe takthok tamthoknade hena kena lumna chatnei eina 2008 ta Tangkhul Emanabi amana tamlakapdage Ware ashe takheba su leikhrae, ngashesu Emanaba Amana tamlakpadage tarae. manaba ware anise na takpade haireba mee kanglup ashe mamangei ge matamdage leirake haina takpani. Houjik Houjik mak thengnadrabashu makhoige ahal singna chinhai ware oina hainaduna lakee haire. makhoige ware ashe takthok tamthokpa meeoi sing adu makhoina hatpa tupa touee haibadage ware ashe tamthokadabane. ware ashe eina Ukhrul ge angakpa kharage maramda asum ashum hangbada takthorakpani 2008 ta eisu ware ashe khngbatang khngjillaga leirakpani adubu ngashede khngee eninglakpadage ejabani.

     Karegumba makhoi haibade sa onkhraba sing adu khunja singna Thengnaduna hatpa thoklabadi shiraba SA-MEE aduge makok kaklaga Mamit thugairaga manakong adu leipak na mensille hainei. Lokee eshing chenthafamda mamai maioknaduna thame hiana tami.

Maramde Mamit thugaidrabade Atopa SA-MEE singna Uii, Mana mensinlebaduna Atopa singna Tadanabani hiana thajanabi lei. Chentharakpa Eshing aduga maioknana mamai adu thambage maramna Wa ngangba thoktanabani haina thajanabi leire.
Makhoige Ningol sing lourabadi Macha sing ge maraktage amana SA-Mee ge maong matou amade arotpa touba ngamba kaya chenlakee hainasu thajanare.
Ngashe se ET (Extra Terristrial) sing amade Parallel world theory ge matangda adum ware sanarakpadage aroibada Tangkhul Emanaba amada khngning ningshinglapadage hanglubani.

Maring echil enao kharana masega manaba ware tambada Chahe kharage mamangda Chandel District ke mafam amada Ching da Lang (TRAP) thakaambada Mee su manba Yong maksu natab sa makhal ama thuramkhe haire. haireba sa makhal ashe Mathake ware ashe ga manana mee na onbane su haina thajanei. Sa adu mapangal yam kanle hai, khunja singna Thonglaga Chathokhre haina paodamnei.


Masega manaba ware amadi thoudok sing takheba thengnakheba leibirabadi chingkheimeitei@gmmail.com da pao faobirakuu.

Confucius (551–470 BCE)

Confucius (551–470 BCE)

Baoyan Cheng

Chinese philosopher

Confucius is more important than any other single person in China's five-thousand-year history. Similar to Christ for Christianity, Buddha for Buddhism, and Muhammad for Islam, Confucius is the symbol of a great cultural tradition—Confucianism—that still exerts great influence on the lives and the social ethics of a large population, mainly in East Asia. As a scholar, philosopher, teacher, academic leader, and government minister, Confucius was naturally concerned with leadership and deliberated about it deeply. His thoughts on leadership constitute an important part of his doctrine; they laid a theoretical foundation for the establishment and development of China's political system and the management of social life for more than two thousand years. The significance of Confucius's thoughts has not diminished with time, and a close reading of them has much to offer today's study of leadership.

The Life of Confucius
The word Confucius is the Latin rendering of the Chinese term Kong Fuzi, meaning Master Kong. Confucius's name in Chinese is Kong Qiu; following the style of Chinese names, Kong is the family name and Qiu is the personal name. Confucius lived during an era of Chinese history called the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BCE). During this time, although China was in name ruled by the court of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BCE), the power of government had actually fallen into the hands of the hundred or so feudal lords, each of whom controlled his own state. Confucius was born in the state of Lu which is in Shandong Province in today's China; while his ancestors supposedly had aristocratic roots in the state of Song, when Confucius was born, his family had lost much of its fortune as well as its social status. His father died when Confucius was only three, and Confucius started his learning with his mother. (There was no formal schooling at that time; youngsters were usually taught by private tutors if their families could afford it.) From childhood, Confucius had an insatiable desire to learn everything, a desire that lasted throughout his life, whether in his early years, when he had to make a living playing musical instruments in a band and working as the manager of a warehouse, or in his later years when he was commonly recognized as an academic authority. Mostly through self-education, though he always sought good teachers, Confucius mastered the six arts that were required for a fully educated person—ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and arithmetic.

All these skills and his special interests and knowledge in poetry and history made him a wellknown scholar at a young age, and he started teaching in his thirties. He set up a school that was open to all people regardless of their social class; historians consider it to be the first school in Chinese history. With a style similar to that of Socrates, Confucius taught his students through storytelling and conversation, often debating with them. It is said that he had three thousand students, some of whom later were also regarded as sages in the established Confucian tradition.

Confucius was not only a scholar and teacher, however; he was determined to participate in politics and to put his ideas into action. He dreamed of seeing a world in which a justified social order was established and people's consciences were awakened and fully cultivated. Such a social order would mean the realization of li (righteous social order) and ren (love for humanity), the two most essential values in Confucius's doctrine.

In his forties and fifties, Confucius held several government posts in his home state of Lu, including magistrate and minister of justice. Unfortunately, his service in the Lu government did not provide him with the opportunity to carry out the political ideas he advocated; although the King of Lu admired Confucius's scholarship, he was not really interested in his political advocacies. Confucius then left Lu and, accompanied by a group of loyal students, started a twelve-year journey, attempting to find a feudal state where his ideas would be not only heard but also practiced. But there was no place in China, then mired in wars and conspiracies, for Confucius to fulfill his visions. After experiencing many disappointments, frustrations, and even great dangers, Confucius returned to his hometown of Qufu in his late sixties and died there several years later. In the last years of his life, Confucius concentrated on writing and editing books on history, philosophy, ritual, poetry, and music. Some of his works have been lost, but most have remained as classics of Chinese culture.

Confucius's Thoughts on Leadership
While it is a complex system, Confucius's doctrine can be understood basically as a philosophy of life and a social ethic, both based in ren. Confucius believed that human nature endowed human beings with ren, but that each individual needs to cultivate it. Ren is the essence of humanity and thus the foundation for any individual's self-development, and for any just social order, or li. Li, a key principle for Confucius, literally means “ritual” but also refers in a more general sense to order and justice. “The realization of ren is to conquer oneself and reestablish li” (Analects 12:1): This fundamental relationship between individuals and society is profoundly reflected in Confucius's thoughts on leadership.

Becoming a Junzi
Confucius tried in many different ways to get involved in local and state leadership; he also encouraged his students to do so, and some did become leaders on different levels. One of his purposes in running his school was to train potential leaders to carry out his political ideas. Whether one was destined to be a leader or not, Confucius emphasized that one should cultivate oneself to be a junzi, or noble man. Like Plato's philosopher-king, only a junzi can be a leader in an ideal society. Yet, whereas a philosopher can only be decided, according to Plato, by a “divine dispensation,” any human being can become a junzi. This difference characterizes the humanistic nature of Confucius's doctrine.

According to Confucius, being a junzi required certain virtues. First was ren, the love for mankind. That love is specific and practical for Confucius. Since the people one loves most dearly are one's parents, xiao, or filial piety, is the core of ren. Next to xiao is ti, one's care and feelings for siblings; then yi, friendship. Thus, ren is presented in ever wider circles from family to community, state, and eventually the whole world. To strengthen the belief in ren and enhance its practice in life, a junzi should also have the virtues of cheng, honesty to oneself and to others; of zhong, loyalty to community and society; of zhi, intelligence and rationality; of xin, credibility and reliability; of lian, cleanness in service; and of chi, the sense of shame. These qualities having been acquired, a junzi is “one whom riches and honors cannot taint, poverty and lowly station cannot shift, majesty and power cannot bend” (Menzi 3B2). So said Mencius (372–289 BCE), the second-most prominent figure in the Confucian tradition.

Further Requirements for Leadership
Confucius believed that a leader, in addition to needing to be a junzi, needed to fulfill other requirements as well. Above all, leadership requires commitment to and responsibility for others and in a broader sense for the world. A leader must have the persistence to maintain that commitment no matter how difficult. As Zeng Shen, one of Confucius's favorite students, put it, “A leader must be resolute and steadfast, for his burden is heavy and his road is long. To practice the virtue of benevolence in the world is his burden, is that not heavy? Only with death does his journey come to an end, is that not long?” (Analects 8:7). Leadership also requires comprehensive education, since Confucius implied that only the learned are to rule. On the other hand, a leader “does not have to be an expert of specific skills” (Analects 2:12) but must acquire fundamental knowledge. A leader should be a diligent person. Confucius took himself as an example: “Wherever people live, there are honest and trustworthy people like me; yet they may not be as diligent as I am in learning” (Analects 5:28). Hence, a leader would “never feel bored in study, and never get tired of teaching others” (Analects 7:2). Another basic quality is modesty, for a good leader should always try to learn from others. “Wherever there are three people,” said Confucius, “there must be one who can be my teacher” (Analects 7:22). A good leader can also “work with people who have different ideas” (Analects 13:23); a leader “does not recommend a man on account of what he says, neither does he dismiss what is said on account of the speaker” (Analects 15:23). Along with modesty comes selfcriticism: “When you meet a man of virtue, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal; when you meet a man without virtue, look within and examine your own self” (Analects 4:17). Zeng Shen was put forward as a good example for engaging in introspection three times a day.

All these requirements for a leader illustrate Confucius's axiomatic belief that although law and rules, rewards and punishment are necessary for order and formality in any community and society, government and leadership can be built only upon ren, love for humankind, because the underlying function of any society and organization is to promote it. To govern is not only to regulate people's behavior, but more importantly, to guide their minds. The art of leadership, accordingly, requires first a virtuous leader. To lead others, one must be morally a good example for others. “To govern is to be upright. Who dares not to be upright if the leader is upright?” (Analects 12:17). To urge people to work hard, “the leader should work hard first” (Analects 13:1). “If the leader acts in an upright way, the people will obey him without being ordered to; if the leader does not act uprightly, the people will not obey him even after repeated injunctions” (Analects 13:6). “Why should a leader have any difficulty in administering if he himself is upright? How could a leader correct others if he himself is not upright?” (Analects 3:13). When a state minister asked Confucius how he could make people respect and be loyal to their superiors and inspire each other in service, Confucius replied, “Be upright in their presence, and they will hold you in respect; be filial and benevolent, and they will be loyal to you; use the righteous and instruct the unqualified, and they will inspire each other in service” (Analects 2:20).

The Confucian Golden Rule
The art of leadership requires respecting and understanding people. “You do not have to worry that others do not know you well; you may worry that you do not know others well” (Analects 1:16). And respecting and understanding lead to forgiving and encouraging. When Zeng Shen was asked by his fellow students what was the real key that he had learned from Confucius, he answered, “Nothing but honesty and forbearance!” (Analects 4:15). Understanding and forgiving, nevertheless, are not the means in leadership, but the display of ren. The golden rule of Confucius is “Do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you!” (Analects 15:23). Logically, the other side of the rule also holds: “A man of humanity, wishing to establish himself, also establishes others, and wishing to enlarge himself, also enlarges others” (Analects 16:28).

A poetic passage in Analects, the most revered work of Confucius, expounds vividly Confucius's general view on leadership and serves as fitting concluding words here (Analects, 2:1): “A leader who rules society on a moral basis would be supported by the people, just as the Polar Star is encircled by all the other stars.”

Baoyan Cheng 10.4135/9781412952392.n61 Further Reading Confucius. (1994). Lun Yu[Analects of Confucius] (Lai Bo, & Xia Yuhe, Trans.). Beijing, China: Sinolingua. Chen, J. (1990). Confucius as a teacher: Philosophy of Confucius with special reference to its educational implications. Beijing, China: Foreign Languages Press. Dawson, R. S. (1982). Confucius. New York: Hill and Wang. De Bary, W. T. (1989). Confucius as a noble man. Singapore: Institute of East Asian Philosophies. Do-Dinh, P. (1969). Confucius and Chinese humanism (C. L. Markmann, Trans.). New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Fingarette, H. (1998). Confucius: The secular as sacred. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Kaizuka, S. (2002). Confucius: His life and thought (G. Bownas, Trans.). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. Mencius (372-289 BCE). (1998). Mencius. Translated by David Hinton. Washington, DC: Counterpoint. Smith, D. H. (1973). Confucius. New York: Scribner's. Szuma, C. (1979). Confucius. In Yang Hsien-yi and G. Yang (Trans.), Selections from records of the historian (Shi Ji) (pp. 1–46). Beijing, China: Foreign Languages Press. Tu, W-M. (1989). Confucianism in a historical perspective. Singapore: Institute of East Asian Philosophies.

Photo : A highly idealized portrait of Confucius, dating to about 1650. Historical Picture Archive/Corbis.

Source: Encyclopedia of Leadership George R. Goethals & Georgia J. Sorenson & James MacGregor Burns

Buddha (c. 463–c. 383 BCE)

Buddha (c. 463–c. 383 BCE)

Leo D. Lefebure

Religious leader and founder of the Buddhist tradition

The term Buddha refers to a fully awakened and enlightened being. According to the Buddhist tradition, there have been many such beings, but the term most commonly refers to Siddhartha Gautama, an influential religious leader in ancient Nepal and India. He was born into the ruling and military class, but at about the age of twenty-nine, he left his comfortable palace life on a religious quest to find a way out of suffering. After six years of searching, learning, and meditating, he was transformed by an experience of enlightenment and then spent about forty-five years teaching, advising laypeople, and forming monastic communities in northern India and Nepal. The Buddhist tradition reveres him as the great teacher of wisdom and compassion, the discoverer of the true nature of existence and the way to overcome suffering; in some Buddhist perspectives he is venerated as the manifestation of ultimate reality itself. The entire human community can recognize that Siddhartha Gautama, who became Shakyamuni Buddha, is one of the most influential religious leaders in all of history, the founder of a tradition that has influenced cultures across south, central, and east Asia for centuries and that is practiced by millions of people throughout the world today.

To distinguish him from other Buddhas, Buddhists refer to Siddhartha Gautama after his enlightenment as Shakyamuni Buddha. His personal name, Siddhartha, means “goal attained.” Gautama (spelled “Gotama” in the Pali language of ancient India) was the name of his family; Shakya was the name of his clan. “Muni” literally means “the one who keeps silent” and commonly refers to a sage. Thus Shakyamuni is the sage of the Shakya clan. His father, Suddhodana, is often called a king by the later Buddhist tradition, but he may have been the elected head of a clan.

Like Socrates, Jesus, and Muhammad, Shakyamuni Buddha left behind no writings of his own. The earliest written accounts of his life and teaching come from the Buddhist scriptures written in Pali, composed long after his death, and contain legendary elements, and so it is difficult to be certain of the exact details of his historical life; indeed, even the dates of his life are in dispute. Most American, European, and Indian scholars have traditionally dated his birth about 566 BCE and his death about 486 BCE; Theravada Buddhists in Sri Lanka and southeast Asia place his birth in 624 and his death in 544 BCE; however, many recent Japanese and Western scholars believe his dates were later, variously from 448 to 368 BCE, or from 463 to 383 BCE. This article will examine his life and teaching as remembered and revered by the later Buddhist tradition.

The Early Life of Siddhartha Gautama
The traditional narrative of the life of Shakyamuni Buddha hinges on a choice between two forms of leadership. As soon as Siddhartha was born, a religious seer named Asita came to see the child and proclaimed to his father, Suddhodana, that the newborn boy would become a very important leader. According to the later Buddhist tradition, however, it was not clear if he would be a great religious teacher or a mighty political and military ruler. Eager to have a powerful heir who would extend the might of the kingdom, Suddhodana resolved to shelter the young Siddhartha from any awareness of suffering, fearing that such knowledge could prompt him to a religious quest. The prince reportedly grew up surrounded by worldly pleasures, unaware of illness, old age, or death. The later Buddhist tradition would see the conditions of his youth as representative of a widespread problem: Humans often block out awareness of suffering because it is unpleasant. For Siddhartha and his followers, this restriction of consciousness is the first and most formidable obstacle to genuine leadership.

When he was sixteen or seventeen, Siddhartha married a beautiful woman, Yasodhara, who bore a son, Rahula. After this, according to the Buddhist tradition, Siddhartha made four trips outside the palace during which, despite his father's best efforts, he encountered in succession an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a holy man. Puzzled by each of these encounters, he asked his charioteer about old age, sickness, and death and learned that these are part of the human condition and come to all human beings. These discoveries prodded him to ponder the transience and fragility of existence and the inevitability of suffering. The fourth encounter with an ascetic holy man taught him that an alternative lifestyle was possible and challenged him to undertake a religious search to resolve the problem of the unsatisfactory character of existence.

After much internal reflection, Siddhartha informed his father and wife that he would leave them to find an end to suffering. They entreated him to stay and perform the duties of his class as a political and military leader, but he insisted on pursuing his goal. He left the palace, cut his hair, and went to study with renowned Hindu religious masters, first with Arada Kalama and later with Udraka Ramaputra. He learned as much as they could teach him about meditation and wisdom, but he was frustrated that they did not teach how to attain full freedom from suffering. He joined a group of ascetics and undertook extreme fasts, but he eventually decided this was not the way to genuine liberation. Instead, he pursued a middle way, neither the luxury of the palace nor extreme asceticism.

Abandoning other teachers, he sat under a tree, determined to stay there until he reached his goal. Mara, a supernatural spirit who rules over the world of suffering and tempts human beings, reportedly came and tried to frighten him into abandoning his quest, but Siddhartha remained firm and sat unmoved. As Mara continued his efforts but only became more frustrated, Siddhartha put his hand on the earth, calling the spirit of the earth as a witness that his resolve was unshaken and his resistance to temptation was firm. This began the process of his enlightenment. That night Siddhartha became a Buddha, sitting through the night, remembering his past lives, and understanding for the first time the cause of suffering and the path of liberation.

The Noble Eightfold Path
This is the Middle Path which the Perfect One discovered and expounded, which gives rise to vision and knowledge, which leads to peace, wisdom, enlightenment, and nirvana—the Noble Eightfold Path:

1. Right Understanding: of suffering, of its origin, of its cessation, of the way leading to the cessation of suffering.
2. Right Intention: of renunciation, free from craving; of good will, free from aversion; of compassion, free from cruelty.
3. Right Speech: abstaining from false speech, abstaining from malicious speech, abstaining from harsh speech, abstaining from useless speech.
4. Right Action: abstaining from taking life, abstaining from stealing, abstaining from sexual misconduct.
5. Right Livelihood: giving up wrong livelihood, one earns one's living by a right form of livelihood.
6. Right effort: to prevent unarisen unwholesome evil states of mind from arising by making effort, stirring up energy and exerting mind.
7. Right mindfulness: mindful contemplation of the body, mindful contemplation of feelings, mindful contemplation of the mind, mindful contemplation of mental objects.
8. Right Concentration: Quite secluded from sense pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states of mind one enters and dwells in the first jhana (meditative absorption), which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought with rapture and happiness born of seclusion.
With the subsiding of applied thought and sustained thought one enters and dwells in the second jhana, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without applied and sustained thought, is filled with rapture and happiness born of concentration.

With the fading away of rapture, one dwells in equanimity, mindful and discerning; and one experiences in one's own person that happiness of which the noble ones say: “Happily lives one who is equanimous and mindful”—thus one enters and dwells in the third jhana.

With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, one enters and dwells in the fourth jhana, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and has purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.

Buddhist Studies. Retrieved September 10, 2003 The Teaching of the Buddha
Immediately after his enlightenment, Shakyamuni Buddha reportedly doubted that anyone else could understand what he had learned. According to later Buddhist tradition, the Hindu god Brahma came and implored the Buddha to share his wisdom with others. Shakyamuni then went to the Deer Park in Varanasi (Benares) and met the ascetics with whom he had earlier lived. His first sermon to them expressed the central content of his enlightenment in the Four Noble Truths.

The First Noble Truth is that life as ordinarily lived is dukkha, unsatisfactory and marked by suffering because it is impermanent and leads to decay and death. Even the greatest pleasures come to an end. The Second Noble Truth teaches that the cause of this unsatisfactoriness lies in tanha, a word often translated as “desire,” but probably better understood as “craving,” as in an addiction. This craving comes from the illusion that we possess a permanent, substantial self, and it leads us to grasp at things that cannot ultimately satisfy us. Craving leads to endless forms of unnecessary suffering. The Third Noble Truth promises that there is an end to suffering; this is called nirvana, the blowing out of the flame of craving. This is an indescribable state. Images and concepts can only point toward it but cannot convey its true meaning. The Fourth Noble Truth teaches the Eightfold Path, which leads to liberation and enlightenment. The Four Noble Truths are similar to a doctor's analysis of a disease, diagnosis of the cause, promise of a cure, and prescription for recovery.

The Eightfold Path includes three interdependent stages: wisdom, ethical conduct, and meditation. The first stage consists of Right Understanding and Right Intention. Right Understanding is the transformative recognition of the truth of the Buddha's teaching; it is not simply understanding a concept but fully realizing for oneself the Buddha's insight. At the center is the realization of interdependence; nothing exists as a separate and permanent entity unto itself. Right Intention renounces all ill will and violence. The second stage includes Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. This stage centers on the Five Precepts taken by all Buddhists, monastic and lay: not to kill or injure any living being; not to take what is not given; not to indulge in sensual pleasure, especially sexual misconduct; not to speak in ways that are false or unkind; and not to use intoxicants or drugs that affect one's consciousness. The third stage embraces Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. This stage is the practice of meditation, which leads from ethical conduct to a fuller comprehension of transformative wisdom. Most Buddhist traditions trust that a proper practice of meditation will lead eventually to overcoming illusions and cravings and will bring peace and tranquility even amid difficulties. While there is a wide variety of forms of meditation, many focus on following one's breath and being aware of the present moment without judging, grasping, or resisting what arises in consciousness.

The Buddha as Leader
After his enlightenment, the Buddha became one of the most influential leaders in northern India and Nepal. He organized a monastic community called the Sangha for men and women who wished to dedicate themselves completely to the path he taught. Monastics from all classes of society came together and lived as equals. Buddhist monks would go out to beg for food from the surrounding community. The virtue of generosity, dana, allowed lay Buddhists to support and share in the benefits of the monastic community.

Shakyamuni Buddha also taught many principles for ruling society. He saw the reordering of consciousness through meditation and ethical conduct as inextricably linked to reordering social relations. He believed that poverty was a cause of immorality and crime. He rejected punishment as not an effective way to suppress crime, and he called for adequate wages for workers to prevent crime. He urged workers, in turn, to be skilled and energetic in their professions, earn their wages in righteous ways, and spend reasonably in proportion to their income, neither too much nor too little.

The Buddha, coming from the ruling class himself, served as an advisor to kings, and the principles he set forth have shaped the vision of political leadership in Buddhist cultures for centuries. The king had a special responsibility to be an agent for the eternal dharma, the order of truth that is the basis for human duties. The king should give his wealth and reputation for the good of his people and be willing even to give his life for his people. The Buddha was the supreme realization of spiritual authority; the ideal monarch was to be the righteous ruler in the secular sphere.

At the center of Shakyamuni Buddha's life and teaching are the twin virtues of wisdom and compassion. His teaching, example, and the practice of Buddhist meditation have enriched the lives of countless people from many cultures and religious traditions.

Leo D. Lefebure 10.4135/9781412952392.n33 Further Reading Gruzalski, B. (2000). On the Buddha (Wadsworth Philosophers Series). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Ling, T. (1973). The Buddha: Buddhist civilization in India and Ceylon. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. Mascaro, J. (Trans.). (1973). The Dhammapada: The path of perfection. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. Nagao, G. The Buddha's life as parable for later Buddhist thought. Eastern Buddhist 24 (2) (1991) 1–32 Nakamura, H. (2000). Gotama Buddha: A biography based on the most reliable texts (G. Sekimori, Trans.). Tokyo: Kosei. Pande, G. C. (1997). The message of Gotama Buddha and its earliest interpretations. In Yoshinori, T., Van Bragt, J., Heisig, J. W., O'Leary, J. S., & Swanson, P. L. (Eds.). Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and early Chinese (pp. 3–33). New York: Crossroad. Rahula, W. (1959). What the Buddha taught. New York: Grove Press.

Photo : A white marble sculpture of the head of Buddha made between 618 and 960 BCE during the Tang Dynasty in China.
Christie's Images/Corbis.

Source: Encyclopedia of Leadership George R. Goethals & Georgia J. Sorenson & James MacGregor Burns

Akbar (1542–1605)

Akbar (1542–1605)

Anup Mukherjee

Mughal emperor

Akbar was the grandson of Babur (1483–1530), who founded the Mughal rule (1526–1857) in India. Babur was succeeded by his son Humayun (1508–1556), during the first portion of whose reign (1530–1540) the territories conquered earlier by Mughals was lost to the Afghans. After an interregnum of rule by the Afghan dynasty of Sur, the Mughals were again able to set foothold over Delhi in 1555; yet until his death in 1556, Humayun was fighting on many fronts to recapture the empire. After Humayun's death the Afghans under their Hindu Prime Minister Hemu reoccupied Delhi. It was left to Akbar, Humayun's son, to build up the empire from scratch and raise it to glorious heights. Akbar was only fourteen years old when he was coronated, and under his command, Mughals defeated Hemu in the second Battle of Panipat (November 5, 1556) that is considered landmark in reestablishment of Mughal rule in India.

Akbar's leadership skills were not limited to war or to the expansion and consolidation of the Mughal empire; indeed, his most important contribution was the way that he molded the Mughal empire and created legitimacy for his rule that was based not on brute force, but on the consent of the governed. Despite Mughals being Sunni, Akbar refused to identify with any creed and followed an independent policy of enlightened toleration.

Religious Tolerance
Mughal rule under Akbar was largely an extension of his personality. Personally, Akbar was tolerant of other religions. He married Hindu Rajput princesses, but did not force them to convert to Islam; they were free to practice their own religion. In fact, Akbar was interested in exploring the essence of different religions, and to this end he built an ibadat-khana (house of worship) in his capital at Fatehpur-Sikri, near Agra to which he would invite spiritual leaders of different faiths for interfaith dialogues. Akbar also showed respect for other religions by celebrating their festivals. Perhaps the most significant signs of his religious tolerance were that he abolished the jizia, the tax that only non-Muslims were required to pay, and rescinded many of the restrictive laws regarding non-Muslim religious worship. His spiritual curiosity later translated into his founding a faith called din-i-ilahi (also called tahud-i-ilahi), meaning divine faith. This faith was in many ways a distillation of the teachings of the various religions to which Akbar had been exposed, and it was tolerant in nature. It laid stress on individual purity and ethical behavior.

Akbar never forced anyone to become a member of his din, and according to the Ain-i-Akbari (Laws of Akbar), written by Abul Fazl, there were only eighteen full-time adherents and no more than a few thousand followers.

Administration of the Mughal Empire
Akbar conquered all but the southernmost parts of the Indian subcontinent; his empire stretched from present-day Afghanistan to present-day Bangladesh. The most significant aspect of his extension of Mughal power was that in many of the areas formerly under Hindu Rajput rule, he would not annex the kingdoms, but on the princes' acceptance of Mughal soveregnty, he would let them rule their kingdoms as vassals of the Mughals. Further, he recruited the Rajput princes into the ranks of the Mansabdari, his military system of government administration. By thus incorporating his former enemies into his government, he won acceptance for his imperialism. In many of the subsequent campaigns of the Mughals, Rajput princes commanded the Mughal armies. The Rajputs also proved to be an important bulwark against the conservative Islamic elements in the Mughal court.

Under the Mansabdari system of administration, all government officials were incorporated into the ranks of the military, even if their functions were not military, and all were paid through the imperial army. This systematized government functions, and bureaucratized its operation, all the way from the imperial level down to the local level. Rule by whim was replaced by rule according to standardized procedures. For instance, the land tax structure was systematized on a scientific statistical basis with the objective to increase productivity and revenue. Also, procedures were developed for recruitment, for communication, and for a system of checks and balances between the government functionaries. Officials were regularly transferred to maintain the efficiency of the administration, but also to keep up the imperial control. An important aspect of Akbar's administration was that people of ability were assigned high ranks irrespective of their religious affiliation. Consequently, even Shias and Hindu Rajputs held important government positions.

Politics, Law, and the Arts
The most important aspect of Akbar's kingship was that unlike other Muslim rulers, he did not consider the caliph (the supreme Islamic religious authority) to have political authority over him. Akbar did not consider himself subordinate to anyone. Although empires are often associated with particular religions (for example, the Byzantine empire is associated with Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the Ottoman empire with Sunni Islam, the Persian Safavid dynasty with Shi‘a Islam, and so on), Akbar liberated the Mughal regime from any such religious affiliation and placed his subjects on an equal footing. He created a state of sulh-i-kul, that is, a state of peace and reconciliation among all. This was quite in contrast to the wishes of orthodox theologians, whose power was undermined by such measures. Until Akbar's time, the highest title an Islamic king had claimed for himself was zil-i-allah-fil-‘arz (“shadow of God on earth”). Akbar went further and adopted the title farr-i-izdi (“divine effulgence or light of God”). Thus Akbar claimed to derive his power directly from God.

In an empire in which Qur'anic laws took precedence, Akbar took the innovative step of assuming the powers of religious interpretation. By a proclamation Akbar was certified to be an imam-adil (just ruler), and by virtue of that status his interpretation of religious law was declared to be superior to that of the mujtahid (learned scholars or jurists). In other words, the monarch, not the ulama (Islamic scholarly community), was the source of legislation and of interpretation of that legislation should any dispute arise. This appropriation of religious as well as legal authority made it possible for Akbar to restrict the influence of the orthodox ulama.

A similar universality of outlook is visible in Akbar's patronage of the arts. It is very interesting to note that during his reign painting were totally devoid of religious symbolism. He would patronize artists without being concerned with their religious affiliations. It was in his time that a form of Indo-Islamic architecture that was a synthesis of Islamic as well as Hindu traditions became part of the landscape. Thus in every aspect of life Akbar promoted religious tolerance and liberalism. He not only had a deep impact on the Mughal empire, he furthered a liberal Indian tradition that has been present in Indian civilization over the centuries.

Another View: The Real Akbar, the (Not So) Great
The addition of the adjectival phrase “the great” to the names of famous leaders such as Akbar, Alexander, and Peter is rarely without controversy. What is great to some is horrible to others. Akbar is a good example of this, as he is revered by Muslims but considered less than great by some modern Hindus as indicated by the text from a website reprinted below.

Akbar is considered as the great Mughal emperor who put the Mughal empire on a firm and stable footing, with a reliable revenue system and with expansion of its borders deeper into Indian heartland. There is a belief prevalent in the present day India that Akbar's rule was secular and tolerant of the native Hindu faith. This belief is fostered by the Indian history texts, Hindi movies like Mughal-eAzam, a TV serial on Doordarshan and the fictional tales of Akbar and his Hindu court jester Birbal. Although Akbar did abolish two obnoxious taxes on Hindus namely the pilgrimage tax in 1563 CE and Jizya (a tax stipulated in the Koran to be paid by Zimmis or unbelievers) in 1564 CE, his rule was better compared ONLY to the other Mughal and Turko-Afgani rules. This article illustrates this with two specific historical events. First, Akbar like all Mughal rulers had the holy Muslim title of GHAZI (SLAYER OF KAFFIR—infidel). Like Timur Lane and Nader Shah, AKBAR HAD A VICTORY TOWER ERECTED WITH THE HEADS OF THE CAPTURED/SURRENDERED ARMY OF HEMU after the second battle of Panipat. Later, AKBAR AGAIN SLAUGHTERED MORE THAN 30,000 UNARMED CAPTIVE HINDU PEASANTS AFTER THE FALL OF CHITOD ON FEBRUARY 24, 1568. The Hindu Universe. Retrieved September 29, 2003 Anup Mukherjee 10.4135/9781412952392.n7 Further Reading Majumdar, R. C. (1973). The History and Culture of Indian People: Vol 7. The Mughal empire. Bombay, India: Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. Pandey, A. B. (1990). Later medieval India (1526–1761 A.D.). Allahabad, India: Central Book Depot. Rizvi, S. A. A. (1987). The wonder that was India: Vol 2. 1200–1700. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. Smith, V. (1919). Akbar the great Mogul, 1542–1605. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. Spear, P. (1968). History of India: Vol 2. London: Penguin. Tripathi, R. P. (1956). Rise and fall of Mughal empire. Allahabad, India: Central Book Depot.

Source : Encyclopedia of Leadership George R. Goethals & Georgia J. Sorenson & James MacGregor Burns

Meetei Yumjao

"Meetei Yumjao" - The Endangered Art

Every place and every society has its own art, style, culture and Architecture, so do "The Meetei Society". When we talk about the Meitei Architecture, the first thing that comes in the mind is the Meetei Yumjao, the space and place of birth of the entire Meetei Generation. Meitei Yumjao used to be a perfect dwelling unit of an ideal Meetei family, few generations back. Few people of our generation had the opportunity to live in it and enjoy the essence of it and cherish the life style. Meetei society had stopped constructing Meetei Yumjao since 50 to 60 years back and replaced it with timber post - GI sheet or RCC –brick structures. It will be seen only in photographs or museums in days to come. The essence, importance and specialty of Meitei Yumjao can be seen only when we look deeply into our life style, culture and ethics. Each and every part has been properly designed and detailed to suit the lifestyles of Meitei people and the environment. he "Meetei Yumjao" was of two types by its mode of wall construction. First one was of complete straw reinforced mud thick wall up to the roof height embedding the main load bearing post bamboos with Pungcei in different heights as reinforcement steel grass rod.

Second system of wall was of thick straw reinforced mud half wall up to a height of 4 to 5 feet and above that with split bamboo (Wachet) with uniformly distributed and binded Shinghoot by bamboo strips (chepsi Paya) and straw reinforced and cow dung mix mud plastering in different coats. This thick mud wall gives the required thermal insulation for a comfortable living space. Selection of mud was also one of the factors for creating a smooth, fine texture wall which is an earth-friendly and inventive way to bring a healthy and naturalistic life.

Ningol Chakouba na Lakpada Yaifa paojel Pejare

Ngasi Heyangei ge NENe panba Yaifaraba Numit asina Lakpada Yaifa Paojel Pejare.
Kumhei Asi Ching tam ani ge Achetpa Machil manao oibage lipun adu leirengei matamdage pangthoklakle.
Mamangei dage houna Numit asi Machae Amadi Machal oibi kayabu Mapam Lamdam da leireba Mabung Maupwa kayana Machal Machae singa Chak chara ama  chaminanabage Tangna fangba Tanja amani.
Kumhei Asi na Takli Mabung Maupwa kayana Lapna Leikhraba Machal Machae singbu Kaoba leite haina.
Ngamjaba Khudol tamjaduna Machal Machae singna Mabung Maupwa singbu Yaifa Thoujal pebirami.

Adubu Echel asidage theidoktuna Globalisation ge Mingda Ahenba Kaya ama hapchile Khudolpot singe Hidanaba kaya amana Kumhei asi lakani khnbada Sel di leijada Machal Machae singbudi Chakouning Thamoi khudum suduna Leiba Emung kayasu yaodaba nate.
Numit asi Supnatage Chak chara ama chaminaraga Awa nungai Tathok tasin touba na hena Mapung ni, khudol pot ki damak nate haina haijaninge.

Khunai ama sembada Nupi singe Thoudang Chaona Lei.
Kanglei Khunai da Nupi singbu Awangba thakta Thamle.
Akhang kanbi Ninghanadabi Kanglei emage Mamomloi Kaya amana Malemda Amukta thokhedreba Chak tangbage mari leinana Nupi singtage Oiba Akanba ehou Thengkhang Anirak thoke Ahanba Nupi Lan ani suba hiana...

Malemge afaoba Meoi kayana asumna haibirami

“If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a family (nation) – Dr. James Emmanuel Kwegyir-Aggrey (1875 – 1927)

Masidani Nupi ge thoudang kaya lei haina haijarebase.
Tunge Achangba Machang oiba Khunai ama oinanaba Chetna lepiro.
Ahongba Naiba matam ni adubu Matam na hongakeeba makhei khunai su Masak kharadi hongani.
Honglakliba khunai adu mamai chumbinaba Nupi oibi Echae echal singna Afaba Khunai ama ge damak mamai chumbiuu.

Ngasidage chahe 5 muke mamagdadi Nisa Ban/ Meira Paibi ema ebel singe Mapangal yamna kanlambana Khunai ge amotpasing Matam chana Sengdoklami , manghanlami adubu Ngasidi Thouna pumba hankhebagumle.

Masigumba Khunai ase kan nabage damak Achouba Thoudang kaya Loubiramba Ema Ebel Echae Echal pumnamak ki mangluraba Thouna sing adusu amuk hanjinlaktuna Afaba Khunai ama Semlase.

FURUP kharagi Yek Salai

Meetei – Mangang, Luwang, Khuman, Angom, Moirang, Kha-Nganba, Salai Leisangthem

Koireng – Yeite, Songthu, Leisen, Tumtin, Tentey, walbe, Meekal

Kom – Yuhung, Thao, Marim, parpa, Rangsai, Makal, Rakung

Kabui – Kamei, Gangmei, Golmei, Longmei, maringmei, Palmei, Faomei

Maring – Dalla, Raja, dingthoi, chongdur, thoitak, sampar, Thanga

Moyon – Ruin, Chinir, sesong, songsir, nguru, sirbum, bungjir

Monsang – wangran, nungchim, hungam, khartu, langrom, turip, charu

Chothe – yuhang, Thao, marim, parpa, rangsai, makal, rakkang

Tangkhul – Duidang, sadang, khodang, khapudang, choudang, seethudang, kingdang

Kharam – saifu, saichal, rangla, rakhou, seilon, mariyam, kailam

Anal – murchal, masum, pasen, chantung, runlal, hrangbung, yasa.

Meetei Waheigi Wangulon

1. Arubana mataida aneibana mayaida chellani. Asengba sana maklagani, aruppa sana langlagani :

Houjikki matam ashida aranbana achumba saba, phattabana aphaba saba kaya lakle, achumba wangang ngangba, achumba thabak touba, achumba chatchaba minungshi leiba mee ( asengba sana gi gun chenba achumba mee) masing hantharakli. Aduga amaromdana phattabana asengba saba, aranbana achumba saba, minungshi khangdaba mee na minungshi leiba saba, manungdana aranba touraga mapandana achumba thabak touba saba (arangba aruppa sana), aronba phattaba aranba pambei lonna sijinnaba meeoi mashing yamkhatlakli. Aranba aronba touba meebuna ekaikhumnaba utpa aduga mabukchel sengba chumna thabak touba mee buna chatnabi khangdaba apangba mee ama oina lounaba chatnabi ama lakli. Honglakliba mawong matou ashida paorou puyada asumna erammi. Aranba aronba chatnabina khwai mayamgi chatnaba mayaida chenba lonchat oire. Achumba asengba chatnabina khajikta oire, mataida chatnaba lonchat oire, mataida chelle. Arubana mataida aneibana mayaida chellani. Asengba sana maklagani, aruppa sana langlagani hairibasini.

2. Haying Keithel Karani:

Kangleipak (Manipur) gi leibakta keithel achouba macha mashing yamlagani. Achouba keithel khudingmakta pot chei acha athak mana mashing yonbagi mathi makum phattaba amot akaising mapei mapei leiraklagani. Apum asa mayamsing adu chaba haying mapot mapot sanggu sanggu mayam ama laklani tonglani. Maikei khudingmakta haying mapei mapei tonglagani. Mashibu Manipur gi paorouda Haying keithel karani haiduna erammi.

3. Lepna Lepna Sirani. Mapa Leitaba Macha Yamlani :

Angak angakpa taheidaba uheidaba asibagi thoudok wathok leibak ashida toina thokkani. Naha oiba mapa oiba meeoi kaya ekhang khanghoudana siba nabagi thoudok thokkani. Naha oina sikhraba mapa oiba kayagi angang nouwa mashing kaya leiragani. Mapa leitaba angang mashing hen gatlakkani.

Paorou puyana haibasi houjikti chumle.

Nehru and Patel: Rivals or comrades?

Nehru and Patel: Rivals or comrades?

The best biography of Vallabhbhai Patel has been written by Rajmohan Gandhi. Based on full access to Patel’s own papers, it is a rich account of his life and struggles, set against the context of the historical forces which shaped them.

Rajmohan Gandhi’s Patel: A Life was first published in March 1991. The preface, written in April 1990, begins thus: “The establishment of independent India derived legitimacy and power, broadly speaking, from the exertions of three men, Gandhi, Nehru and Patel. But while its acknowledgements are fulsome in the case of Nehru and dutiful in the case of Gandhi, they are niggardly in the case of Patel.”

To underline the point that Jawaharlal Nehru loomed large in the public imagination, Rajmohan mentioned the recent celebration (in 1989) of his birth centenary, which “found expression in a thousand billboards, in commemorative TV serials, in festivals and on numerous other platforms”. Then he continued: “Occurring on October 31, 1975 — four months after Emergency had been declared — the Patel centenary was, by contrast, wholly neglected by official India and by the rest of the Establishment, and since then the curtain drawn on the life of one of modern India’s most remarkable sons has been only occasionally and partially lifted”.

In 1991, and for several decades before that, it was certainly true that Nehru was celebrated and Patel neglected. One reason was that Patel died a mere two and a half years after independence. On the other hand, Nehru served three full terms as prime minister. The India of the 1970s and 1980s was the India that Nehru shaped politically, socially, economically.

A second reason why Nehru’s name was high in the public imagination was that his daughter and grandson too had served as prime minister. In her own long tenure, Indira Gandhi sought to keep her father’s memory and legacy alive. The Nehru centenary occurred when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister, so he threw the full weight of the government machinery behind it.

Rajmohan’s own book was researched in the 1980s, when Indira and Rajiv were in power. In the 1989 elections, Rajmohan was chosen by the Janata Dal to contest against Rajiv Gandhi in the parliamentary constituency of Amethi. This was billed in the media as a battle between the ‘asli Gandhi’ and the ‘nakli Gandhi’, since Rajmohan was a direct descendant of the Mahatma, whereas Rajiv got the ‘Gandhi’ name only because his Zoroastrian father changed it from ‘Ghandy’ (the standard Parsi spelling).

Rajmohan lost the election, but was soon afterwards sent by his party to the Rajya Sabha. The preface to his Patel biography was therefore written while he was an MP of a party opposed to the Congress and to the politics of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi in particular.

Rajmohan’s book played its part in making Patel and his contributions better known.

But they still remained under-appreciated, not least because between 2004 and 2014 the Nehru-Gandhis were once again in power, and they, of course, promoted only their own.

In his election campaign, Narendra Modi seized on Patel as one of his heroes. Accusing the ruling dynasty in Delhi of deliberately suppressing Patel’s memory, he vowed to build a massive statue in his honour. Patel, he went on to say, would have made a better prime minister than Nehru.

Because of such partisanship, many Indians have come to believe that Nehru and Patel were personal rivals and political adversaries. This is because Nehru is now affirmed and avowed by the Congress (and Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in particular), and Patel by the Bharatiya Janata Party (and Narendra Modi in particular).

There are two ironies in Modi’s invocation of Patel. First, Patel was himself a lifelong Congressman; indeed, as home minister, it fell to him to ban the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh after the Mahatma’s murder. Second, Nehru and Patel were in fact not rivals but comrades and co-workers. They worked closely together in the Congress from the 1920s to 1947; and even more closely together thereafter, as prime minister and deputy prime minister in the first government of free India.

In April 1948, Robert Trumbull of the New York Times wrote a long essay on the Nehru-Patel jugalbandhi. The men had different temperaments, but wrote Trumbull, “their differences are too easily overdramatized”. Both Patel and Nehru recognised that after Gandhi’s death, they had to work together to unite a fragmented nation. In the partnership between the two men, wrote Trumbull, “lies a great deal of the Government’s strength, for they complement each other”.

In a recent election speech in Haryana, Narendra Modi praised Nehru for the first time. Let us hope it is not the last. Patel’s treatment by the post-Nehru Congress was a travesty. Influential elements in the RSS and the BJP would now like to answer that by consigning Nehru to oblivion. That would be a tragedy, not just because Nehru was a real maker of modern India, but because in those crucial years after

Independence and Partition, Nehru and Patel worked shoulder-to-shoulder in building a united and democratic nation.

In his book, Rajmohan Gandhi meticulously documents how, in the aftermath of the Mahatma’s death, Nehru and Patel set aside their differences. Nehru focused on maintaining religious harmony, forging an independent foreign policy, and building a technological and industrial base. Patel focused on getting the princely states to join the Indian Union, modernising the administrative services, and building a cross-party consensus on the major elements of the Constitution.

Nehru does not belong to Sonia Gandhi’s Congress; nor Patel to Modi’s BJP. Indians of all parties (or none) should have the grace and understanding to celebrate both individuals, for having contributed jointly and separately to the nation we call our own.

Ramachandra Guha’s most recent book is Gandhi Before India

The views expressed by the author are personal

Source : HT

Atom bomb is Drop in Hiroshima

On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

U.S. President Harry S. Truman, discouraged by the Japanese response to the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender, made the decision to use the atom bomb to end the war in order to prevent what he predicted would be a much greater loss of life were the United States to invade the Japanese mainland. And so on August 5, while a "conventional" bombing of Japan was underway, "Little Boy," (the nickname for one of two atom bombs available for use against Japan), was loaded onto Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets' plane on Tinian Island in the Marianas. Tibbets' B-29, named the Enola Gay after his mother, left the island at 2:45 a.m. on August 6. Five and a half hours later, "Little Boy" was dropped, exploding 1,900 feet over a hospital and unleashing the equivalent of 12,500 tons of TNT. The bomb had several inscriptions scribbled on its shell, one of which read "Greetings to the Emperor from the men of the Indianapolis" (the ship that transported the bomb to the Marianas).

There were 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped; only 28,000 remained after the bombing. Of the city's 200 doctors before the explosion; only 20 were left alive or capable of working. There were 1,780 nurses before—only 150 remained who were able to tend to the sick and dying.

According to John Hersey's classic work Hiroshima, the Hiroshima city government had put hundreds of schoolgirls to work clearing fire lanes in the event of incendiary bomb attacks. They were out in the open when the Enola Gay dropped its load.

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On August 6, 1945, the United States used a massive, atomic weapon against Hiroshima, Japan. This atomic bomb, the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT, flattened the city, killing tens of thousands of civilians. While Japan was still trying to comprehend this devastation three days later, the United States struck again, this time, on Nagasaki.

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

At 2:45 a.m. on Monday, August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, took off from Tinian, a North Pacific island in the Marianas, 1,500 miles south of Japan. The twelve-man crew (picture) were on board to make sure this secret mission went smoothly. Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot, nicknamed the B-29 the "Enola Gay" after his mother. Just before take-off, the plane's nickname was painted on its side.

The Enola Gay was a B-29 Superfortress (aircraft 44-86292), part of the 509th Composite Group. In order to carry such a heavy load as an atomic bomb, the Enola Gay was modified: new propellers, stronger engines, and faster opening bomb bay doors. (Only fifteen B-29s underwent this modification.) Even though it had been modified, the plane still had to use the full runway to gain the necessary speed, thus it did not lift off until very near the water's edge.1

The Enola Gay was escorted by two other bombers that carried cameras and a variety of measuring devices. Three other planes had left earlier in order to ascertain the weather conditions over the possible targets.

On a hook in the ceiling of the plane, hung the ten-foot atomic bomb, "Little Boy." Navy Captain William S. Parsons ("Deak"), chief of the Ordnance Division in the "Manhattan Project," was the Enola Gay's weaponeer. Since Parsons had been instrumental in the development of the bomb, he was now responsible for arming the bomb while in-flight. Approximately fifteen minutes into the flight (3:00 a.m.), Parsons began to arm the atomic bomb; it took him fifteen minutes. Parsons thought while arming "Little Boy": "I knew the Japs were in for it, but I felt no particular emotion about it."2

"Little Boy" was created using uranium-235, a radioactive isotope of uranium. This uranium-235 atomic bomb, a product of $2 billion of research, had never been tested. Nor had any atomic bomb yet been dropped from a plane. Some scientists and politicians pushed for not warning Japan of the bombing in order to save face in case the bomb malfunctioned.

There had been four cities chosen as possible targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki, and Niigata (Kyoto was the first choice until it was removed from the list by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson). The cities were chosen because they had been relatively untouched during the war. The Target Committee wanted the first bomb to be "sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapon to be internationally recognized when publicity on it was released."3

On August 6, 1945, the first choice target, Hiroshima, was having clear weather. At 8:15 a.m. (local time), the Enola Gay's door sprang open and dropped "Little Boy." The bomb exploded 1,900 feet above the city and only missed the target, the Aioi Bridge, by approximately 800 feet.

Staff Sergeant George Caron, the tail gunner, described what he saw: "The mushroom cloud itself was a spectacular sight, a bubbling mass of purple-gray smoke and you could see it had a red core in it and everything was burning inside. . . . It looked like lava or molasses covering a whole city. . . ."4 The cloud is estimated to have reached a height of 40,000 feet.

Captain Robert Lewis, the co-pilot, stated, "Where we had seen a clear city two minutes before, we could no longer see the city. We could see smoke and fires creeping up the sides of the mountains."5 Two-thirds of Hiroshima was destroyed. Within three miles of the explosion, 60,000 of the 90,000 buildings were demolished. Clay roof tiles had melted together. Shadows had imprinted on buildings and other hard surfaces. Metal and stone had melted.

Unlike many other bombing raids, the goal for this raid had not been a military installation but rather an entire city. The atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima killed civilian women and children in addition to soldiers. Hiroshima's population has been estimated at 350,000; approximately 70,000 died immediately from the explosion and another 70,000 died from radiation within five years.

A survivor described the damage to people:

The appearance of people was . . . well, they all had skin blackened by burns. . . . They had no hair because their hair was burned, and at a glance you couldn't tell whether you were looking at them from in front or in back. . . . They held their arms bent [forward] like this . . . and their skin - not only on their hands, but on their faces and bodies too - hung down. . . . If there had been only one or two such people . . . perhaps I would not have had such a strong impression. But wherever I walked I met these people. . . . Many of them died along the road - I can still picture them in my mind -- like walking ghosts.6

While the people of Japan tried to comprehend the devastation in Hiroshima, the United States was preparing a second bombing mission. The second run was not delayed in order to give Japan time to surrender, but was waiting only for a sufficient amount of plutonium-239 for the atomic bomb. On August 9, 1945 only three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, another B-29, Bock's Car (picture of crew), left Tinian at 3:49 a.m.

The first choice target for this bombing run had been Kokura. Since the haze over Kokura prevented the sighting of the bombing target, Bock's Car continued on to its second target. At 11:02 a.m., the atomic bomb, "Fat Man," was dropped over Nagasaki. The atomic bomb exploded 1,650 feet above the city.

Fujie Urata Matsumoto, a survivor, shares one scene:

The pumpkin field in front of the house was blown clean. Nothing was left of the whole thick crop, except that in place of the pumpkins there was a woman's head.

I looked at the face to see if I knew her. It was a woman of about forty. She must have been from another part of town -- I had never seen her around here. A gold tooth gleamed in the wide-open mouth. A handful of singed hair hung down from the left temple over her cheek, dangling in her mouth. Her eyelids were drawn up, showing black holes where the eyes had been burned out. . . . She had probably looked square into the flash and gotten her eyeballs burned.7
Approximately 40 percent of Nagasaki was destroyed. Luckily for many civilians living in Nagasaki, though this atomic bomb was considered much stronger than the one exploded over Hiroshima, the terrain of Nagasaki prevented the bomb from doing as much damage. Yet the decimation was still great. With a population of 270,000, approximately 70,000 people died by the end of the year.

I saw the atom bomb. I was four then. I remember the cicadas chirping. The atom bomb was the last thing that happened in the war and no more bad things have happened since then, but I don't have my Mummy any more. So even if it isn't bad any more, I'm not happy.
--- Kayano Nagai, survivor8
Notes

1. Dan Kurzman, Day of the Bomb: Countdown to Hiroshima (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986) 410.
2. William S. Parsons as quoted in Ronald Takaki, Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1995) 43.
3. Kurzman, Day of the Bomb 394.
4. George Caron as quoted in Takaki, Hiroshima 44.
5. Robert Lewis as quoted in Takaki, Hiroshima 43.
43.
6. A survivor quoted in Robert Jay Lifton, Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima (New York: Random House, 1967) 27.
7. Fujie Urata Matsumoto as quoted in Takashi Nagai, We of Nagasaki: The Story of Survivors in an Atomic Wasteland (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1964) 42.
8. Kayano Nagai as quoted in Nagai, We of Nagasaki 6.

Bibliography

Hersey, John. Hiroshima. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.

Kurzman, Dan. Day of the Bomb: Countdown to Hiroshima. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986.

Liebow, Averill A. Encounter With Disaster: A Medical Diary of Hiroshima, 1945. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1970.

Lifton, Robert Jay. Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima. New York: Random House, 1967.

Nagai, Takashi. We of Nagasaki: The Story of Survivors in an Atomic Wasteland. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1964.

Takaki, Ronald. Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1995.

  
Source : http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/hiroshima.htm