The Alien World

Our world is full of ancient mysteries. From Mayan or Aztec or Mesopotamia or Egypt or India, thing & events have remained unexplained, and will remain so for generations to come. Of all these ancient civilizations, India’s Indus-Saraswati civilization is most urban of all, at the same time being categorized as one of the oldest.

Archeologist dates back Indus-Saraswati civilization to around 3500 BC. Discovered on sites at Harappa & Mohenjo-daro are baked bricks buildings providing an impressive vista of urban architecture, drains and wells, seals. The use of inscribed seals, along with various forms of writing on a wide range of artifacts (which is still no deciphered), & use of weights & measures appears to be directly associated with the need to communicate social or ritual status and for economic control. Truly, an urban civilization. 5000 year ago it was at its prime.

But then I read about the the discovery of lost city of Dwaraka . In earlry 80s, the Marine Archaeology Unit of the National Institute of Oceanography started offshore exploration and excavation of the legendary city of Dwaraka in the coastal waters of Dwaraka in Gujarat under Dr S. R. Rao. Since then, they were able to discover may artifacts, stone anchors, etc. at the site.

Unlike Atlantis, Dwaraka is for real.  Legend has it that Dwaraka was built by Vishwakarma by reclaiming land from the sea, on request of Sri Krishna. After his death,  36 years after the Mahabharata War (3138 BC), the city was taken back by the sea triggering the start of Kali Yuga.

According to Graham Hancock

The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history. Marine scientists say archaeological remains discovered 36 meters (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old. The vast city – which is five miles long and two miles wide – is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent by more than 5,000 years.

Last ice age was roughly 20,000 years ago. The last ice age did not mean the entire planet was frozen. During that period the ice caps were much larger with a very large percentage of Earths water frozen on land over most of the northern hemisphere. The world’s sea level was about 130 m (426.51 ft.) lower than today, which meant the coast lines were extended much further out then they are now. Check below the Google map’s satellite image. The light blue color near the costal lines represents the shallow sea shores.  20,000 years ago whole of this would have been land. Map of India would not have been much different then what it is today, only a little fatter.

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So this takes back the known date of Urban Indian civilization by few more thousand years, probably to 10000 years. I have always been fascinated by stories of Ramayana & Mahabharata. Believe they are true… Who knows that ancient Indian civilization my be even much older. I remember somewhere reading that Vedas were first written in 23000 BC!!

PS: Another legend it that Dwaraka was claimed by the sea six times. The present Dwaraka is the seventh. (Wikipedia)

Cleopatra – this name is the synonym of love, lust, power, seduction, mystery, and beauty. Many of them are myths. The fact that her tomb is still not found increases the mystery surrounding her.

Cleopatra died pretty young, 2039 years ago in 30 BC at the age of 39. Of these 39 years she ruled Egypt for 17 years from 51 BC till the time of her death. She was 17 when she became the Queen, possibly the youngest ever. Cleopatra is the original seductress and for power and country she slept with two of the most powerful men of her age – Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. In 48 BC she married Julius Caesar and after his death in 44 BC, she married again with Mark Antony in 37 BC. But before getting married with Caesar she married both her brothers to rule Egypt, mostly alone, which is essentially as a female king. She had a child with Caesar and three from Antony.

2^nd September, 31 BC Antony & Cleopatra’s armies attacked Octavian but were defeated. They both fled battle fields and after a year on 1 Aug, 30 BC Antony committed suicide. 10 days after Antony’s death on 12^th Aug, 30 BC Cleopatra also committed suicide, as popularly believed.

Zahi Hawasss, Director of Egypt’s Antiquities, is leading the effort to find Cleopatra’s tomb. According to him “if we find Cleopatra’s tomb we may well be able to solve the mystery of her death.” If her tomb is found then we may well be able to find if she committed suicide or was in fact murdered, or whether she died from a serpent’s bite or ingested a deadly dose of poison.

There are different views about her beauty & sexuality. Many historians believe that she was not all that beautiful based on her picture on the coin. As Margaret Atwood has written of Jezebel, “The amount of sexual baggage that has accumulated around her is astounding, since she doesn’t do any thing remotely sexual, except put on makeup.” The sheer absence of truth has made it a legend. If a tomb is found, probably this is the greatest mystery to be solved. Point to ponder over is if she was not so beautiful than why did the two most powerful men of her time fall for her? It is know that se had a velvety voice, knew many languages, and her conversation stimulating, adding to it were excellent persuasion powers.

We will only know all this if we ever find her tomb.

Egyptian and Indian culture are the testimony of the power and intelligence that was with the people of these civilization thousands of years back. Perhaps the science was more advance then, than it is now. I was recently reading a book on Teleportation – the science of moving from one place to another with the blink of an eye, remember watching Star trek. Incidences related to teleportation are widely used in Indian mythology. Other few technological marvels like Pushpak Viman, Lost City of Dwarka, weapons like Bramastra (equivalent to today’s Atom bomb) are abundant in many of the Hindu epics as Ramayana, Mahabharata. Incidences related to Dwarka mentioned in Mahabharata are now scientifically proven to be correct.

I believe that more than 5000 years ago science was at its peak in these civilizations. If we were so advance then, than why do we have to reinvent the wheel? In all the famous & old civilizations, say Egyptians or Mesopotamian or Indian, people believed that the knowledge was passed to them by Gods. Who were these Gods? Where did they come from? Where did they go?

There are no answers to the above questions.

Egyptians are considered to be the source of birth of modern medical science. The Eye of Horus was believed to have healing and protective power, and it was used as a protective amulet, and as a medical measuring device, using the mathematical proportions of the eye to determine the proportions of ingredients in medical preparations) to prepare medications. The Egyptians did write prescriptions. Those prescriptions were first magical verses and then the real prescription. The Eye of Horus was an important part of the magical part of the prescription. With time the magical part became smaller, and the real prescription more important.  Eventually, all that was left of the magical verse was the Eye of Horus. The sign has remained in pharmacist’s shorthand to this day with Rx being the sign for a prescription! Archeologists have found many tools dated 4000 years old on bank of river Nile & other sights, which closely resembles modern surgical tools. These tools were made of volcanic glass, which on research have found to be much superior to surgical steel. Who gave all this knowledge to Egyptians and why did it all lost. If science was so advance then, than why do we have to reinvent all again?

Today’s science is still no able to find answers to many of the things. Like the iron pillar in Delhi that was built around 4-5 AD & still does not show any signs of rust and corrosion. It is testimony to the high level of skill achieved by ancient Indians. It was originally made in centeral India, but how it moved to Delhi 1000 years ago still remains a mystery.  It has been something of a riddle for people—historians, archaeologists, palaeographers, metallurgists, etc—for close to a century and a half.

“Nearly everything about the pillar is surrounded by acute controversy: For whom was it made? Exactly when? Where did it originally stand before it was moved to Delhi? What is the true import of the long inscription in Brahmi characters engraved upon it? Who placed the later inscriptions on it, and when? Who had the pillar moved to its present location, and why? What exact processes were followed in forging it into shape at that early a point of time, the 4th/5th century AD? Above all, from the scientists’ point of view, what is the secret, the great mystery, behind the fact of its being virtually non-rusting? There seems to be no end to the questions.” - Enigma of the Iron Pillar, B.N. Goswamy

 
Or consider magnificent pyramids built 4600 years ago. The three pyramids of Egypt were built at different times, the amazing fact is that the largest one is also the oldest and shows much finer work then the later two. It is still highly debatable who built the pyramids. Were they actually humans who designed and architected it or someone else designed and used humans as labors. Many people try to find answers of how it was build. You will find one of the links on my blog under “Great Mysteries”, which describes how the Great Pyramid was constructed. But given the time it was constructed, I doubt how 20000 people can complete the work in 20 years. Is it possible that the first pyramid was solely built by people from outer space and later the knowledge was passed to humans to built second and third and other pyramids?

These are just few of many mystries that show the grandure of science thousands of years ago. It is very likely that we have received help from somewhere in evolution of science.

In one of the breath taking discoveries scientists today found an earth like planet named 581 c, in Gliese 581 star system 120 trillion miles away. The new star system is just 20.5 light years away, making Gliese 581 one of the 100 closest stars to Earth. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_sc/habitable_planet

Key Facts – Why the new planet is potentially habitable?

- Earth Like – Similar in shape and size – only 1.5 times bigger than our planet
- Gravity is just 1.5 times more
- Average temperature is between 32 and 104 – main cause of celebrations among the scientist community
- Probability of water in liquid form – must for life according to scientists

These are important findings, and the fact that the planet is very similar to earth in few cases, makes a high probability of finding life. But this has also triggered a thought in me – why do we have to look earth like planets only for life. Just because such planets may have high probability of life doesn’t mean that other planets may not have life at all.

Why does any planet have to be earth like to have life? From all we know is the life evolved on earth that may be the only reason, but it should not stop us thinking that life could not evolve in any other conditions. Life on earth has evolved from a single cell to humans (which I doubt has evolved on its own). Life has evolved differently in each part of the world – considering that fact that even we humans do not look similar across the planet – black in Africa, whites in Europe tall and heavy in America and small in China. People have evolved differently in different parts of the world. We would have evolved differently if the gravity on the planet was more. Consider the life in Antarctic – there is water everywhere, but nothing to drink because it is in the form of ice. Few of you shall be surprised to know that when female penguins lay eggs, it is the male who hatches them. The male king penguin survives the six month standing at one place, with the egg beneath, without eating anything except the snow. Life seems to survive on earth on toughest of conditions. So why can’t life evolve in any other planet with different conditions.

All living beings on earth breathe oxygen, except plants. So if there is this difference on earth itself, then why can’t we consider that that living beings on any other planet can breathe something else. There are 10 billion trillion (10^22) planets in the universe (http://alienworld.wordpress.com/2007/02/16/are-we-alone-in-this-universe/). Out of these scientist have only discovered 220 planets outside solar system. So the probability of finding extraterrestrial life is still high.

Happy searching!!

More I read & think about the evolution of universe, more my belief is firmed that earth is not the only living planet.

Now here are some interesting numbers (reference ‘COSMOS’, by Carl Sagan):

There are some hundred billion (10¹¹) galaxies, each with on an average having hundred billion stars. In all the galaxies there are perhaps as many planets as the stars, i.e. 10¹¹ x 10¹¹ = 10²², ten billion trillion.

Considering these numbers, it is very unlikely that earth is the only planet inhabited by life.But lets face it that we have not yet discovered life else where, and I have serious doubt about the truth of people sighting UFOs and aliens.

Assuming that earth is the only living planet we must consider overselves very fortunate, or at least consider ourselves fortunate till we find any other planet having life or capable of sustaing life.

I wonder how shall we, human, react if any such planet is discovered. Should we rush for the bookings, blocking the land???