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117-494: The details of the Antyesti ceremony depend on the region, social group, gender and age of the dead. Antyeṣṭi (अन्त्येष्टि) is a composite Sanskrit word of antya and iṣṭi , which respectively mean "last" and "sacrifice" or "auspicious ceremony". Together, the word means the "last sacrifice". Similarly, the phrase Antima Samskara literally means "last sacred ceremony, or last rite of passage". The Antyesti rite of passage

234-919: A food source , and as a raw product, and depicted often in arts, such as in bamboo paintings and bambooworking . Bamboo, like wood , is a natural composite material with a high strength-to-weight ratio useful for structures. Bamboo's strength-to-weight ratio is similar to timber , and its strength is generally similar to a strong softwood or hardwood timber. Some bamboo species have displayed remarkable strength under test conditions. Bambusa tulda of Bangladesh and adjoining India has tested as high as 60,000 psi (400 MPa) in tensile strength . Other bamboo species make extraordinarily hard material. Bambusa tabacaria of China contains so much silica that it will make sparks when struck by an axe. Bambuseae (tropical woody bamboos) Olyreae (herbaceous bamboos) Arundinarieae (temperate woody bamboos) Pooideae Oryzoideae Bamboos have long been considered

351-429: A local delicacy . Bamboo is also used for livestock feed with research showing some bamboo varieties have higher protein content over other varieties of bamboo. Bamboo forestry (also known as bamboo farming, cultivation, agriculture or agroforestry) is a cultivation and raw material industry that provides the raw materials for the broader bamboo industry, worth over 72 billion dollars globally in 2019. Historically

468-931: A monophyletic group ; instead, the tropical woody and herbaceous bamboos are sister to the temperate woody bamboos. Altogether, more than 1,400 species are placed in 115 genera. 21 genera: 73 genera: 31 genera: Acidosasa , Ampelocalamus , Arundinaria , Bashania , Bergbambos , Chimonobambusa , Chimonocalamus , Drepanostachyum , Fargesia , Ferrocalamus , Gaoligongshania , Gelidocalamus , Himalayacalamus , Indocalamus , Indosasa , Kuruna , Oldeania , Oligostachyum , Phyllostachys , Pleioblastus , Pseudosasa , Sarocalamus , Sasa , Sasaella , Sasamorpha , Semiarundinaria , Shibataea , Sinobambusa , Thamnocalamus , Vietnamocalamus , Yushania . Most bamboo species are native to warm and moist tropical and to warm temperate climates. Their range also extends to cool mountainous regions and highland cloud forests . In

585-487: A rishi (sage) and his family of students. Within each collection, the hymns are arranged in descending order of the number of stanzas per hymn. If two hymns in the same collection have equal numbers of stanzas then they are arranged so that the number of syllables in the metre are in descending order. The second to seventh mandalas have a uniform format. The eighth and ninth mandalas, comprising hymns of mixed age, account for 15% and 9%, respectively. The ninth mandala

702-702: A blooming interval well in excess of 130 years. The lack of environmental impact on the time of flowering indicates the presence of some sort of "alarm clock" in each cell of the plant which signals the diversion of all energy to flower production and the cessation of vegetative growth. This mechanism, as well as the evolutionary cause behind it, is still largely a mystery. Some bamboo species are acknowledged as having high potential for becoming invasive species . A study commissioned by International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation , found that invasive species typically are varieties that spread via rhizomes rather than by clumping, as most commercially viable woody bamboos do. In

819-402: A collection of compositions by many authors. The first mandala is the largest, with 191 hymns and 2006 verses, and it was added to the text after Books 2 through 9. The last, or the 10th Book, also has 191 hymns but 1754 verses, making it the second largest. The language analytics suggest the 10th Book, chronologically, was composed and added last. The content of the 10th Book also suggest that

936-625: A commercial basis in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, especially in Rwanda. In the United States, several companies are growing, harvesting, and distributing species such as Phyllostachys nigra (Henon) and Phyllostachys edulis (Moso). The two general patterns for the growth of bamboo are "clumping", and "running", with short and long underground rhizomes, respectively. Clumping bamboo species tend to spread slowly, as

1053-556: A complementary relationship between kings and poet-priests but no discussion of a relative status of social classes. Women in the Rigveda appear disproportionately as speakers in dialogue hymns, both as mythical or divine Indrani , Apsaras Urvasi , or Yami , as well as Apāla Ātreyī (RV 8.91), Godhā (RV 10.134.6), Ghoṣā Kākṣīvatī (RV 10.39.40), Romaśā (RV 1.126.7), Lopāmudrā (RV 1.179.1–2), Viśvavārā Ātreyī (RV 5.28), Śacī Paulomī (RV 10.159), Śaśvatī Āṅgirasī (RV 8.1.34). The women of

1170-436: A day of death. While practices vary among sects, generally, his or her body is washed, wrapped in white cloth, if the dead is a man or a widow, or red cloth, if it is a woman whose husband is still alive, the big toes are tied together with a string and a Tilak (red, yellow or white mark) is placed on the forehead. The dead adult's body is carried to the cremation ground near a river or water, by family and friends, and placed on

1287-457: A dish called gulai rebung . Other recipes using bamboo shoots are sayur lodeh (mixed vegetables in coconut milk) and lun pia (sometimes written lumpia : fried wrapped bamboo shoots with vegetables). The shoots of some species contain toxins that need to be leached or boiled out before they can be eaten safely. Pickled bamboo, used as a condiment, may also be made from the pith of the young shoots. The sap of young stalks tapped during

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1404-809: A dominant raw material in South and South East Asia, the global bamboo industry has significantly grown in recent decades in part because of the high sustainability of bamboo as compared to other biomass cultivation strategies, such as traditional timber forestry . For example, as of 2016, the U.S. Fiber corporation Resource Fiber is contracting farmers in the United States for bamboo cultivation. Or in 2009, United Nations Industrial Development Organization published guidelines for cultivation of bamboo in semi-arid climates in Ethiopia and Kenya. Because bamboo can grow on otherwise marginal land , bamboo can be profitably cultivated in many degraded lands. Moreover, because of

1521-496: A few verses. The following information is known about the shakhas other than Śākala and Bāṣkala: The Rigveda hymns were composed and preserved by oral tradition . They were memorized and verbally transmitted with "unparalleled fidelity" across generations for many centuries. According to Barbara West, it was probably first written down about the 3rd-century BCE. The manuscripts were made from birch bark or palm leaves , which decompose and therefore were routinely copied over

1638-402: A garnish known as hendua . It is also cooked with tender pumpkin leaves to make sag green leaves. In Konkani cuisine, the tender shoots ( kirlu ) are grated and cooked with crushed jackfruit seeds to prepare kirla sukke . In southern India and some regions of southwest China, the seeds of the dying bamboo plant are consumed as a grain known as "bamboo rice". The taste of cooked bamboo seeds

1755-425: A human. Mountain gorillas of Central Africa also feed on bamboo, and have been documented consuming bamboo sap which was fermented and alcoholic; chimpanzees and elephants of the region also eat the stalks. The larvae of the bamboo borer (the moth Omphisa fuscidentalis ) of Laos , Myanmar , Thailand and Yunnan, China feed off the pulp of live bamboo. In turn, these caterpillars are considered

1872-634: A millennium by oral tradition alone. In order to achieve this the oral tradition prescribed very structured enunciation, involving breaking down the Sanskrit compounds into stems and inflections, as well as certain permutations. This interplay with sounds gave rise to a scholarly tradition of morphology and phonetics . It is unclear as to when the Rigveda was first written down. The oldest surviving manuscripts have been discovered in Nepal and date to c.  1040 CE . According to Witzel,

1989-465: A more typical growth rate for many commonly cultivated bamboos in temperate climates is in the range of 30–100 mm (1–4 in) per day during the growing period. Primarily growing in regions of warmer climates during the late Cretaceous period , vast fields existed in what is now Asia. Some of the largest timber bamboo grow over 30 m (100 ft) tall, and be as large as 250–300 mm (10–12 in) in diameter. The size range for mature bamboo

2106-446: A plant declines and often dies entirely. In fact, many species only flower at intervals as long as 65 or 120 years. These taxa exhibit mass flowering (or gregarious flowering), with all plants in a particular 'cohort' flowering over a several-year period. Any plant derived through clonal propagation from this cohort will also flower regardless of whether it has been planted in a different location. The longest mass flowering interval known

2223-400: A possibly lost Central Asian language. The linguistic sharing provides clear indications, states Michael Witzel, that the people who spoke Rigvedic Sanskrit already knew and interacted with Munda and Dravidian speakers. The "family books" (2–7) are associated with various clans and chieftains, containing hymns by members of the same clan in each book; but other clans are also represented in

2340-439: A pyre with feet facing north. The eldest son, or a male mourner, or a priest – called the lead cremator or lead mourner – then bathes himself before leading the cremation ceremony. He circumambulates the dry wood pyre with the body, says a eulogy or recites a hymn, places sesame seeds or rice in the dead person's mouth, sprinkles the body and the pyre with ghee (clarified butter), then draws three lines signifying Yama (deity of

2457-572: A total of 1025 regular hymns for this śākhā. In addition, the Bāṣkala recension has its own appendix of 98 hymns, the Khilani . In the 1877 edition of Aufrecht, the 1028 hymns of the Rigveda contain a total of 10,552 ṛc s, or 39,831 padas. The Shatapatha Brahmana gives the number of syllables to be 432,000, while the metrical text of van Nooten and Holland (1994) has a total of 395,563 syllables (or an average of 9.93 syllables per pada); counting

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2574-490: A wide range of hardiness depending on species and locale. Small or young specimens of an individual species produce small culms initially. As the clump and its rhizome system mature, taller and larger culms are produced each year until the plant approaches its particular species limits of height and diameter. Many tropical bamboo species die at or near freezing temperatures, while some of the hardier temperate bamboos survive temperatures as low as −29 °C (−20 °F). Some of

2691-512: A wider approximation of c. 1900–1200 BCE has also been given. The text is layered, consisting of the Samhita , Brahmanas , Aranyakas and Upanishads . The Rigveda Samhita is the core text and is a collection of 10 books ( maṇḍala s) with 1,028 hymns ( sūkta s) in about 10,600 verses (called ṛc , eponymous of the name Rigveda ). In the eight books – Books 2 through 9 – that were composed

2808-412: Is 120 years, and it is for the species Phyllostachys bambusoides (Sieb. & Zucc.). In this species, all plants of the same stock flower at the same time, regardless of differences in geographic locations or climatic conditions, and then the bamboo dies. The commercially important bamboo Guadua, or Cana brava ( Guadua angustifolia ) bloomed for the first time in recorded history in 1971, suggesting

2925-635: Is a sustainable crop that brings environmental, economic and social benefits. Its production can be used from construction to food. Recently, it was qualified and classified for the National Commission for Sustainable Development Objectives - CNDOS of the Presidency of the Republic of the federal government of Brazil. Bamboo used for construction purposes must be harvested when the culms reach their greatest strength and when sugar levels in

3042-488: Is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns ( sūktas ). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ( śruti ) known as the Vedas . Only one Shakha of the many survive today, namely the Śakalya Shakha. Much of the contents contained in the remaining Shakhas are now lost or are not available in the public forum. The Rigveda is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text. Its early layers are among

3159-535: Is called Shmashana (in Sanskrit ) or "Shoshan" in Bengali, and it is located near a river, if not on the river bank itself. Those who can afford it may go to special sacred places like Puri , Gaya , Varanasi , Haridwar , Prayagraj , Srirangam , Brahmaputra on the occasion of Ashokashtami and Rameswaram to complete this rite of immersion of ashes into water. The last rites are usually completed within

3276-512: Is comparatively slight. There is also a certain amount of material peculiar to each of them. The Kaushitaka is, upon the whole, far more concise in its style and more systematic in its arrangement features which would lead one to infer that it is probably the more modern work of the two. It consists of 30 chapters ( adhyaya ); while the Aitareya has 40, divided into eight books (or pentads, pancaka ), of five chapters each. The last 10 adhyayas of

3393-470: Is entirely dedicated to Soma and the Soma ritual . The hymns in the ninth mandala are arranged by both their prosody structure ( chanda ) and by their length. The first and the tenth mandalas are the youngest; they are also the longest books, of 191 suktas each, accounting for 37% of the text. Nevertheless, some of the hymns in mandalas 8, 1 and 10 may still belong to an earlier period and may be as old as

3510-459: Is in Padmasana sitting position with legs folded and arms resting on the thigh simulating meditative position. The burial pit is prepared in the community burial ground called Shamshana, usually situated outside the city or village. Some affluent will bury their dead in their own field. The burial pit for sleeping position is generally three feet wide and six feet long and for sitting position it

3627-576: Is isolated in pausa form and is used for just one way of memorization; and the Samhitapatha , which combines words according to the rules of sandhi (the process being described in the Pratisakhya ) and is the memorized text used for recitation. The Padapatha and the Pratisakhya anchor the text's true meaning, and the fixed text was preserved with unparalleled fidelity for more than

Antyesti - Misplaced Pages Continue

3744-449: Is organized in ten "books", or maṇḍalas ("circles"), of varying age and length. The "family books", mandalas 2–7, are the oldest part of the Rigveda and the shortest books; they are arranged by length (decreasing length of hymns per book) and account for 38% of the text. The hymns are arranged in collections each dealing with a particular deity: Agni comes first, Indra comes second, and so on. They are attributed and dedicated to

3861-459: Is related to the species, soil and climate conditions. Some send out runners of several meters a year, while others stay in the same general area for long periods. If neglected, over time, they can cause problems by moving into adjacent areas. Bamboos include some of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, with reported growth rates up to 910 mm (36 in) in 24 hours. These depend on local soil and climatic conditions, as well as species, and

3978-450: Is reported to be similar to wheat and the appearance similar to rice, but bamboo seeds have been found to have lower nutrient levels than both. The seeds can be pulverized into a flour with which to make cakes. The Indian state of Sikkim has promoted bamboo water bottles to keep the state free from plastic bottles The empty hollow in the stalks of larger bamboo is often used to cook food in many Asian cultures. Soups are boiled and rice

4095-578: Is rooted in Rig Veda's section 10.18, where the hymns mourn the death of the child, praying to deity Mrityu to "neither harm our girls nor our boys", and pleads the earth to cover, protect the deceased child as a soft wool. The ceremonial offerings varies across the spectrum of Hindu society. Some of the popular rituals followed in Vedic religions after the death of a human being, for his or her peace and ascent to heaven are as follows. The cremation ground

4212-486: Is species-dependent, with the smallest bamboos reaching only several inches high at maturity. A typical height range covering many of the common bamboos grown in the United States is 4.5–12 m (15–39 ft), depending on species. Anji County of China, known as the "Town of Bamboo", provides the optimal climate and soil conditions to grow, harvest, and process some of the most valued bamboo poles available worldwide. Unlike all trees, individual bamboo culms emerge from

4329-597: Is structured around the premise in ancient literature of Hinduism that the microcosm of all living beings is a reflection of a macrocosm of the universe. The soul (Atman, Brahman) is the essence and immortal that is released at the Antyeshti ritual, but both the body and the universe are vehicles and transitory in various schools of Hinduism. The human body and the universe consist of five elements in Hindu texts – air, water, fire, earth and space. The last rite of passage returns

4446-409: Is three feet by three feet. As a thumb rule in all the sects invariable the saints are buried in sitting position in a separate place where later on a Samadhi is built which becomes a place of worship. For example, followers of Ayyavazhi sect bury the body, facing the geographic north in a padmasana position, without coffins and it is covered by sand or Namam (sacred soil) as an act austerity for

4563-402: Is uncertain. The surviving padapāṭha version of the Rigveda text is ascribed to Śākalya. The Śākala recension has 1,017 regular hymns, and an appendix of 11 vālakhilya hymns which are now customarily included in the 8th mandala (as 8.49–8.59), for a total of 1028 hymns. The Bāṣkala recension includes eight of these vālakhilya hymns among its regular hymns, making

4680-527: The ṛc s. The codification of the Rigveda took place late in the Rigvedic or rather in the early post-Rigvedic period at c.  1200 BCE , by members of the early Kuru tribe, when the center of Vedic culture moved east from the Punjab into what is now Uttar Pradesh . The Rigveda was codified by compiling the hymns, including the arrangement of the individual hymns in ten books, coeval with

4797-587: The Asia-Pacific region , they occur across East Asia, from north to 50 °N latitude in Sakhalin , to south to northern Australia , and west to India and the Himalayas . China, Japan, Korea, India and Australia, all have several endemic populations. They also occur in small numbers in sub-Saharan Africa , confined to tropical areas, from southern Senegal in the north to southern Mozambique and Madagascar in

Antyesti - Misplaced Pages Continue

4914-470: The Court of Appeals in 2010, the judge, Lord Justice Neuberger, ruled that such a cremation would be legal under the 1902 Act, so long as it was performed within a building, even an open-air one. Upon his victory, Ghai told reporters that "I always maintained that I wanted to clarify the law, not disobey or disrespect it" and expressed regret at the amount that the trial had cost the taxpayer . He stated that he

5031-673: The Ehrhartoideae . The subfamily in its current sense belongs to the BOP clade of grasses, where it is sister to the Pooideae (bluegrasses and relatives). The bamboos comprise three clades classified as tribes, and these strongly correspond with geographic divisions representing the New World herbaceous species ( Olyreae ), tropical woody bamboos ( Bambuseae ), and temperate woody bamboos ( Arundinarieae ). The woody bamboos do not form

5148-541: The Rigveda are in different poetic metres in Vedic Sanskrit. The meters most used in the ṛcas are the gayatri (3 verses of 8 syllables), anushtubh (4×8), trishtubh (4×11) and jagati (4×12). The trishtubh meter (40%) and gayatri meter (25%) dominate in the Rigveda . As with the other Vedas, the redacted text has been handed down in several versions, including the Padapatha , in which each word

5265-407: The Rigveda are quite outspoken and appear more sexually confident than men, in the text. Elaborate and aesthetic hymns on wedding suggest rites of passage had developed during the Rigvedic period. There is little evidence of dowry and no evidence of sati in it or related Vedic texts. The Rigvedic hymns mention rice and porridge, in hymns such as 8.83, 8.70, 8.77 and 1.61 in some versions of

5382-470: The Rigveda . The family books are associated with specific regions, and mention prominent Bharata and Pūru kings. Tradition associates a rishi (the composer) with each ṛc (verse) of the Rigveda . Most sūktas are attributed to single composers; for each of them the Rigveda includes a lineage-specific āprī hymn (a special sūkta of rigidly formulaic structure, used for rituals). In all, 10 families of rishis account for more than 95 per cent of

5499-713: The Sapta Sindhu , and the Sarasvati River ). The Adityas , Vasus, Rudras, Sadhyas, Ashvins , Maruts , Rbhus , and the Vishvadevas ("all-gods") as well as the "thirty-three gods" are the groups of deities mentioned. Of the Brahmanas that were handed down in the schools of the Bahvṛcas (i.e. "possessed of many verses"), as the followers of the Rigveda are called, two have come down to us, namely those of

5616-846: The Sharada and Devanagari scripts, written on birch bark and paper. The oldest of the Pune collection is dated to 1464 CE. The 30 manuscripts of Rigveda preserved at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute , Pune were added to UNESCO 's Memory of the World Register in 2007. Of these thirty manuscripts, nine contain the samhita text, five have the padapatha in addition. Thirteen contain Sayana's commentary. At least five manuscripts (MS. no. 1/A1879-80, 1/A1881-82, 331/1883-84 and 5/Viś I) have preserved

5733-728: The Southeastern United States . Bamboo thickets called canebrakes once formed a dominant ecosystem in some parts of the Southeastern United States, but they are now considered critically endangered ecosystems. Canada and continental Europe are not known to have any native species of bamboo. Many species are also cultivated as garden plants outside of this range, including in Europe and areas of North America where no native wild bamboo exists. Recently, some attempts have been made to grow bamboo on

5850-520: The early Iranian Avesta , deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the early Andronovo culture of c.  2000 BCE . The Rigveda offers no direct evidence of social or political systems in the Vedic era, whether ordinary or elite. Only hints such as cattle raising and horse racing are discernible, and the text offers very general ideas about

5967-405: The internodal regions of the stem are usually hollow and the vascular bundles in the cross-section are scattered throughout the walls of the stalk instead of in a cylindrical cambium layer between the bark ( phloem ) and the wood ( xylem ) as in dicots and conifers . The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent. The absence of secondary growth wood causes the stems of monocots , including

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6084-478: The palms and large bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering. Bamboos include some of the fastest-growing plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome -dependent system. Certain species of bamboo can grow 91 centimeters (36 inches) within a 24-hour period, at a rate of almost 40 millimeters ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 2  in) an hour (equivalent to 1 mm (0.04 in) every 90 seconds). Growth up to 120 centimeters (47.2 in) in 24 hours has been observed in

6201-410: The red panda of Nepal , and the bamboo lemurs of Madagascar . The red panda can eat up to 9 pounds (4.1 kg) a day which is also about the full body weight of the animal. With raw bamboo containing trace amounts of harmful cyanide with higher concentrations in bamboo shoots, the golden bamboo lemur ingests many times the quantity of the taxiphyllin -containing bamboo that would be lethal to

6318-519: The sap are at their lowest, as high sugar content increases the ease and rate of pest infestation. As compared to forest trees, bamboo species grow fast. Bamboo plantations can be readily harvested for a shorter period than tree plantations. Harvesting of bamboo is typically undertaken according to these cycles: Leaching is the removal of sap after harvest. In many areas of the world, the sap levels in harvested bamboo are reduced either through leaching or post-harvest photosynthesis. For example: In

6435-629: The subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae . Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in the case of Dendrocalamus sinicus having individual stalks ( culms ) reaching a length of 46 meters (151 ft), up to 36 centimeters (14 in) in thickness and a weight of up to 450 kilograms (1,000 lb). The internodes of bamboos can also be of great length. Kinabaluchloa wrayi has internodes up to 2.5 meters (8 ft) in length. and Arthrostylidium schomburgkii has internodes up to 5 meters (16 ft) in length, exceeded in length only by papyrus . By contrast,

6552-579: The Aitareyins and the Kaushitakins. The Aitareya-brahmana and the Kaushitaki- (or Sankhayana- ) brahmana evidently have for their groundwork the same stock of traditional exegetic matter. They differ, however, considerably as regards both the arrangement of this matter and their stylistic handling of it, with the exception of the numerous legends common to both, in which the discrepancy

6669-678: The Brahmanas are referred to as the "Rigveda Brahmanas" (etc.). Technically speaking, however, "the Rigveda" refers to the entire body of texts transmitted along with the Samhita portion. Different bodies of commentary were transmitted in the different shakhas or "schools". Only a small portion of these texts has been preserved: The texts of only two out of five shakhas mentioned by the Rigveda Pratishakhya have survived. The late (15th or 16th century) Shri Guru Charitra even claims

6786-517: The British colonial government, suffered discriminatory laws that did not allow cremation, and other rites of passage such as the traditional marriage, because the colonial officials considered these as pagan and uncivilized barbaric practices. The non-Hindu government further did not allow the construction of a crematorium. After decades of social organization and petitions, the Hindus of Trinidad gained

6903-517: The Himalayas. In Assam , India, for example, it is called khorisa . In Nepal , a delicacy popular across ethnic boundaries consists of bamboo shoots fermented with turmeric and oil, and cooked with potatoes into a dish that usually accompanies rice ( alu tama ( आलु तामा ) in Nepali ). In Indonesia , they are sliced thin and then boiled with santan (thick coconut milk) and spices to make

7020-614: The Kaushitaki-brahmana) of Shunahshepa , whom his father Ajigarta sells and offers to slay, the recital of which formed part of the inauguration of kings. While the Aitareya deals almost exclusively with the Soma sacrifice, the Kaushitaka, in its first six chapters, treats of the several kinds of haviryajna , or offerings of rice, milk, ghee, etc., whereupon follows the Soma sacrifice in this way, that chapters 7–10 contain

7137-573: The Paippalada Samhita tradition points to written manuscripts c.  800 –1000 CE. The Upanishads were likely in the written form earlier, about mid-1st millennium CE ( Gupta Empire period). Attempts to write the Vedas may have been made "towards the end of the 1st millennium BCE". The early attempts may have been unsuccessful given the Smriti rules that forbade the writing down

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7254-594: The Rig Veda was composed on the banks of a river in Haraxvaiti province in southern Afghanistan ( Persian : Harahvati; Sanskrit : Sarasvati; possibly the Helmand or Arghandab ). Other evidence also points to a composition date close to 1400 BCE. The earliest texts were composed in the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent, and the more philosophical later texts were most likely composed in or around

7371-589: The United States, the National Invasive Species Information Center agency of the Department of Agriculture has Golden Bamboo ( Phyllostachys aurea ) listed as an invasive species. Bamboo contains large amounts of protein and very low amounts of carbohydrates allowing this plant to be the source of food for many animals. Soft bamboo shoots , stems and leaves are the major food source of the giant panda of China,

7488-457: The Vedas, states Witzel. The oral tradition continued as a means of transmission until modern times. Several shakhas (from skt. śākhā f. "branch", i. e. "recension") of the Rig Veda are known to have existed in the past. Of these, Śākala Śākhā (named after the scholar Śākalya ) is the only one to have survived in its entirety. Another śākhā that may have survived is the Bāṣkala, although this

7605-404: The ancient Indian society. There is no evidence, state Jamison and Brereton, of any elaborate, pervasive or structured caste system . Social stratification seems embryonic, then and later a social ideal rather than a social reality. The society was semi-nomadic and pastoral with evidence of agriculture since hymns mention plow and celebrate agricultural divinities. There was division of labor and

7722-490: The approval of law n~21,162 in the state of Paraná , which encourages Bamboo Culture aiming at the dissemination of its agricultural cultivation and the valorization of bamboo as an instrument for promoting the sustainable socioeconomic development of the State through its multiple functionalities. Bamboo cultivation neutralizes carbon emissions. Bamboo cultivation is cheap and in addition to adding value to its production chain, it

7839-496: The authors knew and relied on the contents of the first nine books. The Rigveda is the largest of the four Vedas, and many of its verses appear in the other Vedas. Almost all of the 1875 verses found in Samaveda are taken from different parts of the Rigveda , either once or as repetition, and rewritten in a chant song form. Books 8 and 9 of the Rigveda are by far the largest source of verses for Sama Veda. Book 10 contributes

7956-432: The body to the five elements and its origins. The roots of this belief are found in the Vedas, for example in the hymns of Rigveda in section 10.16, as follows, Don't burn him through, Agni; don't scorch him; don't singe his skin, nor his body.| When you will make him cooked to readiness, Jātavedas, then impel him forth to the forefathers.|| When you will have made him cooked to readiness, Jātavedas, then deliver him to

8073-584: The complete text of the Rigveda . MS no. 5/1875-76, written on birch bark in bold Sharada, was only in part used by Max Müller for his edition of the Rigveda with Sayana's commentary. Müller used 24 manuscripts then available to him in Europe, while the Pune Edition used over five dozen manuscripts, but the editors of Pune Edition could not procure many manuscripts used by Müller and by the Bombay Edition, as well as from some other sources; hence

8190-693: The composition of the younger Veda Samhitas. According to Witzel, the initial collection took place after the Bharata victory in the Battle of the Ten Kings , under king Sudās , over other Puru kings. This collection was an effort to reconcile various factions in the clans which were united in the Kuru kingdom under a Bharata king. This collection was re-arranged and expanded in the Kuru Kingdom , reflecting

8307-511: The core 'family books' (mandalas 2 – 7 , ordered by author, deity and meter ) and a later redaction, coeval with the redaction of the other Vedas , dating several centuries after the hymns were composed. This redaction also included some additions (contradicting the strict ordering scheme) and orthoepic changes to the Vedic Sanskrit such as the regularization of sandhi (termed orthoepische Diaskeuase by Oldenberg, 1888). The text

8424-541: The correct time of year and then exposed to ground contact or rain will break down just as quickly as incorrectly harvested material. Gardeners working with bamboo plants have occasionally reported allergic reactions varying from no effects during previous exposures, to immediate itchiness and rash developing into red welts after several hours where the skin had been in contact with the plant ( contact allergy ), and in some cases into swollen eyelids and breathing difficulties (dyspnoea). A skin prick test using bamboo extract

8541-415: The cremation is later consecrated to the nearest river or sea. In some regions, the sons and other male relatives of the deceased shave their heads and beards and invite all neighbours, friends and relatives, on the tenth, eleventh or twelfth day, to eat a simple meal together in remembrance of the deceased. This day, in some communities, also marks a day when the poor and needy are offered food in memory of

8658-657: The culm hardens further. The shoot is now a fully mature culm. Over the next 2–5 years (depending on species), fungus begins to form on the outside of the culm, which eventually penetrates and overcomes the culm. Around 5–8 years later (species- and climate-dependent), the fungal growths cause the culm to collapse and decay. This brief life means culms are ready for harvest and suitable for use in construction within about three to seven years. Individual bamboo culms do not get any taller or larger in diameter in subsequent years than they do in their first year, and they do not replace any growth lost from pruning or natural breakage. Bamboo has

8775-408: The dead), Kala ('Time', deity of cremation and finality) and the dead. Prior to lighting the pyre, an earthen pot is filled with water, and the lead mourner circles the body with it, before lobbing the pot over his shoulder so it breaks near the head. Once the pyre is ablaze, the lead mourner and the closest relatives may circumambulate the burning pyre one or more times. The ceremony is concluded by

8892-462: The dead. Both manual bamboo wood pyres and electric cremation are used for Hindu cremations. For the latter, the body is kept on a bamboo frame on rails near the door of the electric chamber. After cremation, the mourner will collect the ashes and consecrate it to a water body, such as a river or sea. Apart from the cremation method, several sects in Hinduism follow the practice of burial of

9009-412: The dead. In some sects, the important gurus , swamis or sadhus are buried. The preparatory rituals are more or less similar to cremation viz, washing the body, applying vibhuti (holy ash) and kumkum or holy paste (sandalwood) on the forehead of the deceased etc., but instead of cremating, the deceased is buried. The body is either placed in sleeping position or in some Shaivite and tribal traditions

9126-550: The earliest, the hymns predominantly discuss cosmology , rites required to earn the favour of the gods , as well as praise them. The more recent books (Books 1 and 10) in part also deal with philosophical or speculative questions, virtues such as dāna (charity) in society, questions about the origin of the universe and the nature of the divine, and other metaphysical issues in their hymns. Some of its verses continue to be recited during Hindu prayer and celebration of rites of passage (such as weddings ), making it probably

9243-459: The early Kuru kingdom. Asko Parpola argues that the Rigveda was systematized around 1000 BCE, at the time of the Kuru kingdom. The Rigveda is far more archaic than any other Indo-Aryan text. For this reason, it was in the center of attention of Western scholarship from the times of Max Müller and Rudolf Roth onwards. The Rigveda records an early stage of Vedic religion . There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with

9360-473: The eastern and northeastern (Assamese) region of India, with roots in Austroasiatic languages . The others in the list of 300 – such as mleccha and nir  – have Dravidian roots found in the southern region of India, or are of Tibeto-Burman origins. A few non-Indo-European words in the Rigveda  – such as for camel, mustard and donkey – belong to

9477-623: The eighth mandala, for a total of 1028 metrical hymns. The Bāṣakala version of Rigveda includes eight of these vālakhilya hymns among its regular hymns, making a total of 1025 hymns in the main text for this śākhā. The Bāṣakala text also has an appendix of 98 hymns, called the Khilani , bringing the total to 1,123 hymns. The manuscripts of Śākala recension of the Rigveda have about 10,600 verses, organized into ten Books ( Mandalas ). Books 2 through 7 are internally homogeneous in style, while Books 1, 8 and 10 are compilation of verses of internally different styles suggesting that these books are likely

9594-406: The establishment of a new Bharata-Puru lineage and new srauta rituals. The fixing of the Vedic chant (by enforcing regular application of sandhi ) and of the padapatha (by dissolving Sandhi out of the earlier metrical text), occurred during the later Brahmana period, in roughly the 6th century BCE. The surviving form of the Rigveda is based on an early Iron Age collection that established

9711-924: The existence of twelve Rigvedic shakhas. The two surviving Rigvedic corpora are those of the Śākala and the Bāṣkala shakhas. The Rigvedic hymns are dedicated to various deities, chief of whom are Indra , a heroic god praised for having slain his enemy Vrtra ; Agni , the sacrificial fire; and Soma , the sacred potion or the plant it is made from. Equally prominent gods are the Adityas or Asura gods Mitra – Varuna and Ushas (the dawn). Also invoked are Savitr , Vishnu , Rudra , Pushan , Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati , as well as deified natural phenomena such as Dyaus Pita (the shining sky, Father Heaven), Prithivi (the earth, Mother Earth), Surya (the sun god), Vayu or Vata (the wind), Apas (the waters), Parjanya (the thunder and rain), Vac (the word), many rivers (notably

9828-405: The forefathers.|| When he will embark on the (way) leading to (the other) life, then he will lead at the will of the gods.| Let your eye go to the sun, your life-breath to the wind. Go to heaven and to earth as is fitting.| Or go to the waters, if it has been fixed for you there. Take your stand in the plants with your limbs.|| The final rites of a burial, in case of untimely death of a child,

9945-433: The generations to help preserve the text. There are, for example, 30 manuscripts of Rigveda at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute , collected in the 19th century by Georg Bühler , Franz Kielhorn and others, originating from different parts of India, including Kashmir , Gujarat , the then Rajaputana , Central Provinces etc. They were transferred to Deccan College , Pune , in the late 19th century. They are in

10062-405: The ground at their full diameter and grow to their full height in a single growing season of three to four months. During this time, each new shoot grows vertically into a culm with no branching out until the majority of the mature height is reached. Then, the branches extend from the nodes and leafing out occurs. In the next year, the pulpy wall of each culm slowly hardens. During the third year,

10179-429: The growth pattern of the rhizomes is to simply expand the root mass gradually, similar to ornamental grasses. Running bamboos need to be controlled during cultivation because of their potential for aggressive behavior. They spread mainly through their rhizomes , which can spread widely underground and send up new culms to break through the surface. Running bamboo species are highly variable in their tendency to spread; this

10296-516: The hardiest bamboo species are grown in USDA plant hardiness zone 5, although they typically defoliate and may even lose all above-ground growth, yet the rhizomes survive and send up shoots again the next spring. In milder climates, such as USDA zone 7 and above, most bamboo remain fully leafed out and green year-round. Bamboos seldom and unpredictably flower and the frequency of flowering varies greatly from species to species. Once flowering takes place,

10413-463: The instance of Japanese giant timber bamboo ( Phyllostachys bambusoides ). This rapid growth and tolerance for marginal land , make bamboo a good candidate for afforestation , carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation . Bamboo is versatile and has notable economic and cultural significance in South Asia , Southeast Asia , and East Asia , being used for building materials , as

10530-478: The larger bamboos, particularly species in the genus Phyllostachys , are known as "timber bamboos". Bamboo is typically harvested as a source material for construction, food, crafts and other manufactured goods. In Brazil, the Brazilian Center for Innovation and Sustainability - CEBIS , a non-profit organization, promotes the development of Brazil's bamboo production chain. Last year , it helped with

10647-584: The largest number of the 1350 verses of Rigveda found in Atharvaveda , or about one fifth of the 5987 verses in the Atharvaveda text. A bulk of 1875 ritual-focussed verses of Yajurveda , in its numerous versions, also borrow and build upon the foundation of verses in Rigveda . Altogether the Rigveda consists of: In western usage, "Rigveda" usually refers to the Rigveda Samhita, while

10764-482: The latter work are, however, clearly a later addition though they must have already formed part of it at the time of Pāṇini (c. 5th century BCE), if, as seems probable, one of his grammatical sutras, regulating the formation of the names of Brahmanas, consisting of 30 and 40 adhyayas, refers to these two works. In this last portion occurs the well-known legend (also found in the Shankhayana-sutra, but not in

10881-427: The lead cremator, during the ritual, is kapala kriya , or the ritual of piercing the burning skull with a stave (bamboo fire poker) to make a hole or break it, in order to release the spirit. All those who attend the cremation, and are exposed to the dead body or cremation smoke take a shower as soon as possible after the cremation, as the cremation ritual is considered unclean and polluting. The cold collected ash from

10998-563: The material in the family books. The first mandala has a unique arrangement not found in the other nine mandalas. The first 84 hymns of the tenth mandala have a structure different from the remaining hymns in it. Each mandala consists of hymns or sūkta s ( su- + ukta , literally, "well recited, eulogy ") intended for various rituals . The sūkta s in turn consist of individual stanzas called ṛc ("praise", pl. ṛcas ), which are further analysed into units of verse called pada (" foot " or step). The hymns of

11115-605: The most basal grass genera, mostly because of the presence of bracteate , indeterminate inflorescences, "pseudospikelets", and flowers with three lodicules , six stamens , and three stigmata . Following more recent molecular phylogenetic research, many tribes and genera of grasses formerly included in the Bambusoideae are now classified in other subfamilies, e.g. the Anomochlooideae , the Puelioideae , and

11232-539: The names of gods and goddesses found in the Rigveda are found amongst other belief systems based on Proto-Indo-European religion , while most of the words used share common roots with words from other Indo-European languages . However, about 300 words in the Rigveda are neither Indo-Aryan nor Indo-European, states the Sanskrit and Vedic literature scholar Frits Staal . Of these 300, many – such as kapardin , kumara , kumari , kikata  – come from Munda or proto-Munda languages found in

11349-505: The number of syllables is not straightforward because of issues with sandhi and the post-Rigvedic pronunciation of syllables like súvar as svàr. Three other shakhas are mentioned in Caraṇavyuha , a pariśiṣṭa (supplement) of Yajurveda: Māṇḍukāyana, Aśvalāyana and Śaṅkhāyana . The Atharvaveda lists two more shakhas. The differences between all these shakhas are very minor, limited to varying order of content and inclusion (or non-inclusion) of

11466-457: The oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language . The sounds and texts of the Rigveda have been orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the bulk of the Rigveda Samhita was composed in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent (see Rigvedic rivers ), most likely between c. 1500 and 1000 BCE, although

11583-632: The opinion of the sage Kaushitaki is frequently referred to in it as authoritative, and generally in opposition to the Paingya—the Brahmana, it would seem, of a rival school, the Paingins. Probably, therefore, it is just what one of the manuscripts calls it—the Brahmana of Sankhayana (composed) in accordance with the views of Kaushitaki. Bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial flowering plants making up

11700-465: The permission to practice their traditional rites of passage including Antyesti in the 1950s, and build the first crematorium in 1980s. In the United Kingdom , it was formerly illegal to conduct a traditional outdoors Hindu cremation under the 1902 Cremation Act , with Hindus having to cremate their dead in indoor crematoriums instead. In 2006, Daven Ghai, a British Hindu who had been refused

11817-439: The practical ceremonial and 11–30 the recitations ( shastra ) of the hotar. Sayana, in the introduction to his commentary on the work, ascribes the Aitareya to the sage Mahidasa Aitareya (i.e. son of Itara), also mentioned elsewhere as a philosopher; and it seems likely enough that this person arranged the Brahmana and founded the school of the Aitareyins. Regarding the authorship of the sister work we have no information, except that

11934-403: The process of water leaching, the bamboo is dried slowly and evenly in the shade to avoid cracking in the outer skin of the bamboo, thereby reducing opportunities for pest infestation. Durability of bamboo in construction is directly related to how well it is handled from the moment of planting through harvesting, transportation, storage, design, construction, and maintenance. Bamboo harvested at

12051-455: The rainy season may be fermented to make ulanzi (a sweet wine) or simply made into a soft drink. Bamboo leaves are also used as wrappers for steamed dumplings which usually contains glutinous rice and other ingredients, such as the zongzi from China. Pickled bamboo shoots (Nepali: तामा tama ) are cooked with black-eyed beans as a delicacy in Nepal. Many Nepalese restaurants around

12168-507: The rapid growth, bamboo is an effective climate change mitigation and carbon sequestration crop, absorbing between 100 and 400 tonnes of carbon per hectare (40–160 tonnes per acre). In 1997, an international intergovernmental organization was established to promote the development of bamboo cultivation, the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation . Bamboo is harvested from both cultivated and wild stands, and some of

12285-443: The region that is the modern era state of Haryana . The Rigveda ' s core is accepted to date to the late Bronze Age , making it one of the few examples with an unbroken tradition. Its composition is usually dated to roughly between c.  1500 and 1000 BCE. According to Michael Witzel , the codification of the Rigveda took place at the end of the Rigvedic period between c.  1200 and 1000 BCE, in

12402-473: The right to have a traditional funeral by Newcastle City Council , brought a case to court in which he claimed that the current law did in fact allow open air cremations, so long as they were in some enclosed building and away from the public. A High Court ruling disagreed with his claim, and the-then Justice Secretary Jack Straw stated that the British public would "find it abhorrent that human remains were being burned in this way." Nonetheless, upon taking it to

12519-581: The second half of the second millennium BCE. Being composed in an early Indo-Aryan language, the hymns must post-date the Indo-Iranian separation, dated to roughly 2000 BCE. A reasonable date close to that of the composition of the core of the Rigveda is that of the Mitanni documents of northern Syria and Iraq ( c.  1450 –1350 BCE), which also mention the Vedic gods such as Varuna, Mitra and Indra. Some scholars have suggested that

12636-708: The south. In the Americas, bamboo has a native range from 47 °S in southern Argentina and the beech forests of central Chile , through the South American tropical rainforests, to the Andes in Ecuador near 4,300 m (14,000 ft), with a noticeable gap through the Atacama Desert . Three species of bamboo, all in the genus Arundinaria , are also native through Central America and Mexico, northward into

12753-451: The stalks of the tiny bamboo Raddiella vanessiae of the savannas of French Guiana measure only 10–20 millimeters (0.4–0.8 in) in length by about 2 millimeters (0.08 in) in width. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, but it probably comes from the Dutch or Portuguese language, which originally borrowed it from Malay or Kannada . In bamboo, as in other grasses,

12870-444: The tender shoots are grated into juliennes and fermented to prepare kardi . The name is derived from the Sanskrit word for bamboo shoot, karira . This fermented bamboo shoot is used in various culinary preparations, notably amil , a sour vegetable soup. It is also made into pancakes using rice flour as a binding agent. The shoots that have turned a little fibrous are fermented, dried, and ground to sand-sized particles to prepare

12987-406: The text; however, there is no discussion of rice cultivation. The term áyas (metal) occurs in the Rigveda , but it is unclear which metal it was. Iron is not mentioned in Rigveda , something scholars have used to help date Rigveda to have been composed before 1000 BCE. Hymn 5.63 mentions "metal cloaked in gold", suggesting that metalworking had progressed in the Vedic culture. Some of

13104-455: The total number of extant manuscripts known then must surpass perhaps eighty at least. Rigveda manuscripts in paper, palm leaves and birch bark form, either in full or in portions, have been discovered in the following Indic scripts: The various Rigveda manuscripts discovered so far show some differences. Broadly, the most studied Śākala recension has 1017 hymns, includes an appendix of eleven valakhīlya hymns which are often counted with

13221-486: The unfolding of Dharma Yukam . Other Indian rituals after death include Niravapanjali , Tarpana , Śrāddha , Rasam Pagri , Pitru Paksha . Many people visit Hindu pilgrimage sites to perform, Śrāddha ceremonies, like Gaya , Pehowa , Kurukshetra , Haridwar , Gokarneshwar , Nashik etc. where they also update their genealogy registers maintained by pandas . Hindus brought into Trinidad and Tobago as indentured laborers for plantations between 1845 and 1917, by

13338-428: The world serve this dish as aloo bodi tama . Fresh bamboo shoots are sliced and pickled with mustard seeds and turmeric and kept in glass jar in direct sunlight for the best taste. It is used alongside many dried beans in cooking during winters. Baby shoots ( Nepali : tusa ) of a very different variety of bamboo (Nepali: निगालो Nigalo ) native to Nepal is cooked as a curry in hilly regions. In Sambalpur , India,

13455-405: The world's oldest religious text in continued use. According to Jamison and Brereton, in their 2014 translation of the Rigveda , the dating of this text "has been and is likely to remain a matter of contention and reconsideration". The dating proposals so far are all inferred from the style and the content within the hymns themselves. Philological estimates tend to date the bulk of the text to

13572-591: Was positive for the immunoglobulin E (IgE) in an available case study. The shoots (newly emerged culms) of bamboo contain the toxin taxiphyllin (a cyanogenic glycoside ), which produces cyanide in the gut. The shoots of most species are edible either raw or cooked, with the tough sheath removed. Cooking removes the slight bitterness. The shoots are used in numerous Asian dishes and broths, and are available in supermarkets in various sliced forms, in both fresh and canned versions. The bamboo shoot in its fermented state forms an important ingredient in cuisines across

13689-555: Was thankful that he now had "the right to be cremated with the sun shining on my body and my son lighting the pyre" and he and other Hindus and Sikhs in the country had begun investigations into finding a site upon which they could perform the funerary ceremonies. Rigveda Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Rigveda or Rig Veda ( Sanskrit : ऋग्वेद , IAST : ṛgveda , from ऋच् , "praise" and वेद , "knowledge")

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