Kabir and the Avatars

The Indian religious poet Kabir (d. ca. 1518) often referred to his God using Vaishnava names, names that refer to the Hindu god Vishnu. Kabir also uses names for God that are not specific to Vishnu and even uses Muslim names. Vishnu is said to have been incarnated in several earthly avatars. The most important are Krishna and king Ramachandra. A traditional list names ten avatars. Kabir often refers to these earthly avatars, but he minimizes their importance in various ways such as emphasizing the fact that they all died. Most modern scholars have taken Kabir’s use of Vaishnava vocabulary to identify him as a Vaishnava, albeit an unorthodox one. Kabir’s rejection of the avatars and his focus on a supreme God without form or personality tends to put this identification in doubt

Noah’s Ark and Sir William Jones

Sir William Jones (1746-1794) is considered one of the founders of the modern study of Indian culture and religion. His translations from Sanskrit and his founding of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta were instrumental in making India better known in Britain and Europe. Nowadays particular attention is paid to a passage in which he posits the existence of an ancient language that modern linguists call Indo-European. The present article questions to what extent this hypothesis is indebted to Jones and notes the work of earlier linguistic scholars. It also argues that his historical speculations about both linguistic history and the history of the ancient world were vitiated by his faith in the literal truth of Biblical history, most notably the idea that Noah and his sons and their wives were the only survivors of a great flood that occurred in 2348 BCE. The article also reviews the gradual decline of Biblical literalism both before and after Jones and how this affected European studies of India and its ancient history

Post-treatment of Distillery Wastewater after UASB using Aerobic Techniques

The treatment of high-strength wastewater from a distillery using grape-based feedstock was conducted throughsequencing the upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor and the aerobically-activated sludge reactors. Theperformance of the UASB system was evaluated at the end of a period of 33 days in terms of the final chemicaloxygen demand (COD) removal. Final COD removal efficiency of up to 88.7% was achieved. The effect of varyingthe volumetric loading rates on COD removal was evaluated for the two experimental runs. For run I (undiluted),the volumetric loading rates ranged from 4.06 to 18.90 kg COD/m3.day and the maximum COD removal achievedby the reactor was 57.1%. For experimental run II (diluted), the loading rates ranged between 3.60 to 8.20 kgCOD/m3.day, with the reactor achieving 88.7% COD removal. Post-treatment of the effluent using the aerobicallyactivatedsludge reactor further improved the overall COD removal in run II to 96.5% and also reduced thephosphorous in the effluent to a final value of approximately 20 mg/L. These experimental results indicate thatsequential treatment of the distillery wastewater using UASB followed by aerobically-activated sludge treatment isan efficient system that makes the final effluent compliant with the requirements of environmental legislation

Methodological tests of the use of trace elements as tracers to assess root activity

peer-reviewedN.J.H. was funded by the Irish Research Council, co-funded by Marie Curie Actions under FP7. The field experiments A, B and G were supported by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreements FP7-266018 (AnimalChange) and FP7- 244983 (MultiSward). Experiment F was supported by the German Science Foundation (FOR 456).Background and aims There is increasing interest in how resource utilisation in grassland ecosystems is affected by changes in plant diversity and abiotic conditions. Research to date has mainly focussed on aboveground responses and there is limited insight into belowground processes. The aim of this study was to test a number of assumptions for the valid use of the trace elements caesium, lithium, rubidium and strontium as tracers to assess the root activity of several grassland species. Methods We carried out a series of experiments addressing the reliability of soil labelling, injection density, incubation time, application rate and the comparability of different tracers in a multiple tracer method. Results The results indicate that it is possible to achieve a reliable labelling of soil depths. Tracer injection density affected the variability but not the mean level of plant tracer concentrations. Tracer application rates should be based on pilot studies, because of site- and species-specific responses. The trace elements did not meet prerequisites to be used in a multiple tracer method. Conclusions The use of trace elements as tracers is potentially a very useful tool to give insight into plant root activity at different soil depths. This work highlights some of the main benefits and pitfalls of the method and provides specific recommendations to assist the design of tracer experiments and interpretation of the results.N.J.H. was funded by the Irish Research Council, co-funded by Marie Curie Actions under FP7. The field experiments A, B and G were supported by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreements FP7-266018 (AnimalChange) and FP7- 244983 (MultiSward). Experiment F was supported by the German Science Foundation (FOR 456).European Unio

marco dalla Tomba y la misión de Tibet

Marco della Tomba (1726-1803) was a Capuchin friar and missionary from a village near Senigallia who was in India from 1757 to 1773 and from 1783 until his death in 1803. Most of his time in India was spend in Bihar (Bettiah, Patna and Bhagalpur). The mission he belonged to was called the Tibet Mission although it was forced to leave Tibet in 1745, long before Marco arrived in India. The mission was financed by Propaganda Fide, not by the Portuguese crown. Marco is important today chiefly for the essays, translations, and letters he wrote about his experiences and researches in India. Many of these texts are still available in the Vatican Library and the archives of Propaganda Fide. Among them is a translation a part of Tulsi Das’s Ram-carit-manas. From about 1759 to 1761. Through several passages taken from Marco’s writings, this essay attempts to evaluate his importance as an eye-witness to historical events in this period and as a precursor and contemporary of Sir William Jones and other early Orientalist scholars

New indication for a dichotomy in the interior structure of Uranus and Neptune from the application of modified shape and rotation data

Since the Voyager fly-bys of Uranus and Neptune, improved gravity field data have been derived from long-term observations of the planets' satellite motions, and modified shape and solid-body rotation periods were suggested. A faster rotation period (-40 min) for Uranus and a slower rotation period (+1h20) of Neptune compared to the Voyager data were found to minimize the dynamical heights and wind speeds. We apply the improved gravity data, the modified shape and rotation data, and the physical LM-R equation of state to compute adiabatic three-layer structure models, where rocks are confined to the core, and homogeneous thermal evolution models of Uranus and Neptune. We present the full range of structure models for both the Voyager and the modified shape and rotation data. In contrast to previous studies based solely on the Voyager data or on empirical EOS, we find that Uranus and Neptune may differ to an observationally significant level in their atmospheric heavy element mass fraction Z1 and nondimensional moment of inertia, nI. For Uranus, we find Z1 < 8% and nI=0.2224(1), while for Neptune Z1 < 65% and nI=0.2555(2) when applying the modified shape and rotation data, while for the unmodified data we compute Z1 < 17% and nI=0.230(1) for Uranus and Z1 < 54% and nI=0.2410(8) for Neptune. In each of these cases, solar metallicity models (Z1=0.015) are still possible. The cooling times obtained for each planet are similar to recent calculations with the Voyager rotation periods: Neptune's luminosity can be explained by assuming an adiabatic interior while Uranus cools far too slowly. More accurate determinations of these planets' gravity fields, shapes, rotation periods, atmospheric heavy element abundances, and intrinsic luminosities are essential for improving our understanding of the internal structure and evolution of icy planets.Comment: accepted to Planet. Space Sci., special editio