The End Of The World

During the Middle ages, great anxiety surrounded the approach of the year 1000. Many people feared that the new millennium would mark the end of the world – just as it had been described in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. How did the people of the time deal with this fear? And what was it about the year 1000 that made them think it would bring the end of human kind?

In 1890s, a number of historians observed that the approach of the year 1000 in Europe had been accompanied by fears about the end of the world. These fears were fed by the Church, which apparently wanted Christians to believe that they could secure their places in paradise by transferring their property to the clergy. Many Christians did so, there by securing the church’s power base for years to come. It is not difficult to imagine that this caused a sensation, and that the Church angrily denied that anything of the kind ever took place.

 We know that the level of anxiety among the medieval population rose as the year 1000 drew nearer. Naturally, they looked to their priests and to the Bible for guidance. The bible gives a detailed description of number of catastrophes and plagues that would lead to the end of the world. This would fulfill god’s will, and the New Jerusalem would descend from heaven. The problem was that the Holy Scriptures did not give an exact date, but some scholars estimated that the period around the new millennium would be the likeliest time. This leads to proclamations such as that of Parisian cleric, who announced around 975; ‘the Antichrist will come at the end of the year 1000 and the Last Judgment will follow shortly thereafter’. Many people believed such statements in part because a string of natural disasters that took place towards the end of the 10th century led them to fear for the future. In the year 987, parts of western and central Europe were stricken by torrential rains; a severe drought followed in 990; and shortly afterwards storms again devasted these regions. France in particular was badly hit by natural disasters; in 997, a terrible epidemic claimed countless lives, while in Burgundy, a severe famine even produced out breaks of cannibalism.

 Faced with the sign of imminent chaos, it was easy for people to believe in the legends that ‘the end of mankind is at hand’. The appearance of a comet in 1014, and a solar eclipse in 1033, were both interpreted as harbingers of further horrors.

 All these events were meticulously recorded by the monks, who were the chroniclers of history during the Middle Ages. The various disasters and strange celestial occurrences certainly seemed to confirm the apocalyptic predictions of the Church. Raoul Glaber, a monk from the abbey of Cluny in central France, wrote around 1050; ‘ After all the signs and wonders which occurred before or after the year 1000 of our Lord, there was no shortage of innovative people who predicted no less important events for the thousandth return of the passion of the Lord. And indeed there is no doubt that signs were manifest… they fulfilled the prophecy of John, which states that Satan shall be let loose after a thousand years’


The expectation of the thousand year reign of Christ on earth before the end of the world is known as Chilism and was a wide spread belief in the first centuries of Christianity. According to this doctrine,, the souls of the just will be resurrected and will rule with the Messiah, then, Satan will be freed for a short time, and the end of the world will follow.

 (Cont.)

Birth of Physics and Newton’s Apple -1

Newton and the aloe: it’s an image as enduring as any in history. As the story goes, the 23 year old Isaac Newton was sitting in his garden in his home in woolsthorpe, England, when he noticed an apple fall to the ground. A moment’s pondering, and he was inspired to postulate the law of universal gravitation.

Newton himself never put this story in writing, though he did recount it to his friend and biographer, William Stukeley, one evening in 1726, one evening in 1726. Yet, two other biographers of Sir Isaac his physician Henry Pemberton and mathematician William Whiston- interviewed Newton extensively about the origins of his theory of gravity, and neither mentioned the apple.

The story comes to us through Voltaire, who recounted it in Elements de philosophie de Newton, claiming he had heard it from Newton’s niece, Catherine Barton Conduit, who lived with Newton and managed his house hold for 20 years. Some historians speculate that Catherine may have been telling the truth- but she mistook an example her uncle had used to explain gravity for an actual occurrence. Carl Friedrich Gauss, the great 19th century mathematician, dismissed the entire story as an absurd insult to Newton’s genius.

 Whether or not the story is true, the impression it leaves- that Newton formulated his theory in isolation- is certainly misleading. In the late 1670s, Newton was already famous for his theories about light, his experiments in optics, his formulation of calculus and his invention of the reflection telescope. He climbed the academic fame quickly but found himself enrolled in several disputes over who had thought of what scientific theory first. Newton had little patience for such squabbling and resigned from the Royal Society, calling science ”a litigious lady.”

But then, in 1679, one of Newton’s earlier rivals, Robert Hooke, became secretary of the society. Hooke was stymied by several problems in mechanics and believed Newton was the only man who could help. So in November of the year, Hooke wrote a gracious letter to Newton inviting him to correspond on subjects in physics of mutual interest. Newton accepted the invitation, but soon regretted doing so, And the reason? Hook made public some of Newton’s erroneous speculations, much to Newton’s embracement.

 It was in one of Hooke’s letters, however, that Newton first heard the idea that the motion of an object under the influence of a force could be broken up into to composite motions; one I the direction of the force and changing in accordance with Newton’s second law and the other perpendicular to the force and moving uniformly in accordance with the Newton’s first law. Unbeknownst to Hooke, this was the breakthrough idea that Newton needed.

                                      (Cont.)

History Mystery: Mayans Number System!

I think this is the right time to discuss about the Mayan calendar and hence this post for your views. Before going to discuss the Mayan mathematics and numbers it is very important to know how we came to know all about them.

Here is a small briefing: Diego de Landa a Spanish Franciscan aged 17 landed in Yucatan peninsula and helped the Mayan people to resist the invasion of Herman Cotes of Spain. Remember that the people of the Yacatan peninsula were the descendants of the ancient Mayan civilization which was declined after 900 AD. Landa tried his best to protect the people from the Spanish masters and he visited all the ruins of the great Mayan cities of ancient civilization and learnt their customs and their history. Since he is a Franciscan a stunt follower of Christianity he abhorred their religious practice and sentiments he ordered for the Mayan idols and books should be destroyed. Later he has regretted for his action and he did mention in his book “Relación de las cosas de Yucatán” In that book he describes the hieroglyphics , Mayan customs, their temples and temple practices etc. Few Mayan documents which survived after Landa’s destruction were Dresden codex, Madrid Codex and Paris Codex. In the all above the Dresden Codex is believed to be copied from the original documents of Seventh century AD and it is a treatise of Astronomy. Knowledge of Mayan civilization has been greatly increased in the recent years due to the modern technology such as aerial photography, satellite imaging and high resolution radar imaging etc. The Mayan people constructed temples, palaces, shrines, thatched houses, terraced buildings causeways and huge dams to store rain water and the rulers were the high priests and possessed high knowledge in astronomy field. The farming was carried over in the raised fields with the help of the irrigation system.

 They were the highly cultured and civilized people who used calendar for their routine and religious life. Since they are masters in astronomy and calendar it is evident that they are masters in Mathematics too. The Mayan followed a very refined number system. It is assured that their mathematical system was the very advanced one of those times. Mayan number system is based on twenty (it is worth remember we are following number system based on ten). Most of the scholars give the following reason for their d vigesimal (twenty) system. Ancient people used both of their fingers and toes for calculation hence it is. Though it is of base twenty it has only three symbols for representing a particular number amazing isn’t it? They had the number zero and it was represented by a shell. Though the number system looks like positional, it is not actually so.

 The Mayan number mentions the unit numbers from one to nineteen in the first place and in the second place twenties up to nineteen and in the third place it denotes the numbers up to 360’s instead of 400’s after that the system reverts to the multiples of twenties ( i.e. 202 , 203 204 so on…)

 Let us see one example:

Consider one Mayan numeral: [9; 8; 9; 13; 7]

It actually represents the following number : + 13 × 20 + 9 × 18 × 20 + 8 × 18 × 202 + 9 × 18 × 203 =1357107

The above example was derived using the Dresden Codex. Some of the historian argued that they have followed different systems for astronomy, calendar and merchandizing but there is no written evidence for that.

 Let us discuss about the Mayan Calendars, they followed two calendars namely ritual calendar and civil calendar. The ritual calendar was known as the Tzolkin based on 260 days and it contained thirteen months of twenty days each. Each month was named after their gods and the days were numbered from zero to nineteen. The Haab, namely civil calendar consisted of 365 days and it had eighteen months of twenty days each and the remaining last five days were mentioned as wayem. According to Landa’s “Relación de las cosas de Yucatán” this last five days were considered as unlucky period for them and during those days they won’t wash comb and not even do any hard work. A satisfactory reason for why they followed two calendars could not be found. The years coincide after every 18980 days in other ward after every 52 civil years or 73 ritual years. Mayan astronomers accurately calculated the movements of Venus. Apart from these calendars the Mayans measured the time in another way also. It was an absolute time scale based on the creation date. 12th August 331 BC is taken as creation day but some historians differ from this Long count. The long count based on 360 days in a year is nothing but the count of days in Mayan number system hence it is more accurate than the other two calendars. Most of the inscriptions available from the Mayan towns are in terms of long count only.

Let us see one example for this:

 This [8; 14; 3; 1; 12] date is mentioned in a Plate found from the town Tikal.

 Let us calculate the year of inscription. 12 + 1 × 20 + 3 × 18 × 20 + 14 × 18 × 202 + 8 × 18 × 203 = 1253912 That is it was made 1253912 days after the creation date of 12th August 3113 BC. Hence the plate was carved in the year 320 AD.


The Mayans astronomical measurements are outstanding and more accurate. They don’t have any instruments other than sticks. They made a cross like shape with the help of two sticks both tied together at 90 degrees and through this they observed celestial bodies and their movements. Many of the historians believe that The Caracol building at Chichen Itza to be a Mayan observatory. Many of the windows in Caracol follow certain rules with respect the movement of moon and Sun. With their crude instrument namely with sticks the Mayans accurately calculated the length of a year as 365.242 days. Our modern scientific world recorded the same as 365.242198 days. In the similar manner Mayan accurately calculated the lunar month as 29.5302 days and latest findings displays it as 29.53059 days.

History Mystery: “Lothal” Proof For Dravidian maritime knowledge!

      The maritime activities of India were very much old as that of Bronze Age (i.e. of between early third and mid second millennium BC). The excavation of Lothal at Gujarat coast constructively gives evidence for the maritime activities of the Dravidians. The Gujarat coast is with several creeks and rivers that provide a natural environment for the harbor along the coast. The Gujarat coast is rich in marine wealth such as conch and shells which were exported during those days. Since from the prehistoric period the Harappan people aware of the behavior of the tidal waves and they were the first who used the ebb and neap flow of the water effectively in berthing and moving the ships from the dockyard. They constructed a harbor at the coastal city Lothal in Gujarat. The early works of Tamil and the later works in Sanskrit illustrate, the ancient’s have the thorough knowledge in the tidal waves and they were also aware how the tides changes its behavior according to the position of moon. Sadly there is no physical evidence to show that they had a thorough knowledge in astronomy.

      In the early historic period the Harappans had a clear understanding about the coastal tidal features and their special importance for maritime navigation. The Indus valley Dravidian people have a very close trade contacts with Sumeria, Srilanka and others both by the land and sea. This was supported by the finding of a seal and a pot - sherd portraying a ship. It is further substantiated by the discovery of the Lothal, a Harappa civilization site in Ahmadabad district in Gujarat. The Harappans constructed a dock for berthing and servicing the ships near the mouth of the river Sabarmati (But the river Sabarmati’s course was shifted later years).This is the earliest structure based on the knowledge relating to the ebb and the neap tides in the world. And the remains of the Lothal port prove the sound knowledge of the Dravidian in the maritime engineering and the hydro-graphic. They have the better understanding in the effects of tidal water on the brick build structure also. They have constructed the walls of the dock with the kiln burnt bricks. The ships were allowed through the flood gate into the dock through the river estuary flooded by an inlet channel at high tide from the Sea. Similarly the ships have to leave the yard during the high tide and the buttress walls were constructed either side of the inlet near the embankment to avoid the erosion and scouring of the tidal waves.

     The selection of Lothal for the construction of a dock yard is a cleverly selected one and this reflects the knowledge of the Dravidian of those days. Why because, even now the Cambay reason is the only region with highest tidal range in India. Even now the Spring tides in the Cambay Gulf rise and fall as much as 33 feet with a velocity of more than six knots and the neap tide raise more than 23 feet with more than 5 knots wind speed. In the first century AD an anonymous Egyptian navigator wrote “Periplus Maris Erithrei” in it he gives a detailed descriptions of the harbors, the kings and the people of that period anchorages and about the climate, prevailing wind and also he recorded his observations about the tides in the Arabian sea and the part of Indian ocean and he mention that In India the seas ebb and neap with tides of extra ordinary strength. Lothal site is now silt laden but excavations carried out by the archaeologists and they found 5 phases of structural activities so far. And the first four phases belongs to Harappa culture and the fifth one represents the late or degenerate phase. The dockyard is in the eastern side of the mound with trapezoidal plan. The western and eastern embankments of this dockyard had the facility for berthing and handling of cargo of length 218 meter and 38 meters with the height of more than 4 meters constructed with the kiln burnt bricks. The inlet channels are of 7 meter height and 2.5 kilometers long.

       The Ships has to enter the harbor were sluiced through the inlet channel at the high tide and when the water level is about the inlet sill. They are well aware of scouring effect of the tidal waves and so constructed two buttress walls on either side of the inlet walls. The second channels runs towards south embankment and right angle to it. In the either sides of the junction of the embankment was provided with the vertical grooves to inserting the wooden door to close the spill way for maintain the maximum water level in the water way.

    They meticulously designed the water way for desilting. The automatic desilting was achieved by allowing excess water to flow through the spillway and some more grooves were provided at regular intervals in the sidewalls as weep holes. To make the ships float in the low tide the construction of abutments to the wall at the entrance of the dock. To counteract the water thrust in the closed enclosure the walls were buttressed from the outer side with more than twelve meters wide platform with bricks.

     As a conclusion The Harappans were the early users of tidal phenomena and they utilized the tidal phenomena solely for the sluicing and berthing of ships in the dockyard at Lothal.

History Mystery: Angels Part.II

     Among the Talmudic age people, there were different opinions about the angels and their nature. Some of them thought every day new angels were created and they praise the god in the day and then at the end of the day they jump in to Nehar di Nur that is the river of fire. And some others added with that that Michael and Gabriel are the only two who serve the god permanently, hence we can come to the conclusion that the Talmudic age people discriminate the angels with respect to their duties assigned to them as eternal angels and the other angels.

       The Midarsh and the Talmud literature give a brief description about the angels and their creations. According to those literatures they angels were created by the God on the second and fifth day of their creation. They walk upright and they can fly, and they can reach the one end of the world form other end quickly and they can foretell predict the future and they can only speak Hebrew. They look like human but half fire and half water. Both demons and the angels have many things in common. The common belief is that no angel is assigned multiple tasks at a time that is each angle has to carry out a single assignment at a time and they also can make error as a human. There is much classification among angels, peace and evil angels, angels of life and death. Hence it is evident that there is segregation like lower and higher level of angels.

      Apart from already told arch angles Sandalfon Zaagzagael and Suriel are mentioned some places But the Midrash literatures gives much importance to the Metatron Angel. According to apocryphal literature every kingdom and their kings have their own guardian angels and they are chained to avoid doing harm to Israel. When the kings and their kingdoms fall the angels also fall and they also suffer punishment if the kings suffer punishments. Some of the details of guardian angels are there in Christian Neoplatonists also. Rabbis, the guardian angel otherwise mentioned as Dubiel, in Persia. The name of the guardian angel of Nebuchadnezzar was mentioned as Kal.

 The angels are fully depend o the God himself and they cannot act on their own. They have to proclaim the god’s sanctity and glory all day but they could not view the glory of the God himself and not even their dwelling place. The Aggadah the rabbinic literature differ from the above. According to it the god himself consulted the angels before creating the human and Michael and Gabriel played an important role in the marriage of Adam and Eve. Eve was made pregnant by the angel named Samael. During the Talmudic age traces of angel worship are not found. But the Christian writers have the different versions about that.

History Mystery: Angels

     In pre biblical texts angels are mentioned as independent with their own names and with uniqueness. In the early Jewish period the angels played dominant position in mythology than the pre biblical period. This was prevailed until the Hellenistic era of Jewish history with the unique doctrine of angels. Biblical writers mention the existence of angels which is superior to human with extraordinary powers but inferior than God and they served as Gods entourage and they conveyed God’s messages to Emperors and mankind. The terminology of the word Angel in old Hebrew Bible is not so exact. But it is mentioned as “angelos” in Greek bible which has the same meaning of Angel. Only when it was passed on to European language thro’ Latin Bible the word “Angel” got its exclusive meaning. In The post biblical scenario: the term Malakh was used in Hebrew to mention the messengers and representatives of god who have extraordinary and super natural powers. The bible also speaks of Angels with wings (Cherubim and Seraphim).

 

   In the second temple period they assumed that the great prophets had the privilege to communicate with the god and in later period people could be communicate with the god through angels. Hence the people tried to explore the nature and singularity of the angels. The apocalyptic wisdom literature assumed that the hidden secrets of the universe could be explored with the help of the angels. The Jews are very familiar with the Babylonian myths about the creation, the flood and the early human generation. Here worth mention Character is Enoch.
 

      Enoch is a first one created with the influence of the Babylonian myth. He was the creator and forerunner of the human culture and who conveyed the heavenly wisdom to the mankind. He was constantly in touch with the angels. Similar stories are with Noah and Abraham ascribing the awareness about the angels. This dogma of Angels was not evenly spread among the Jewish and the apocalyptic wisdom was kept secret and it was distributed among themselves by means of secret societies. The testament of Solomon in Greek mentions Solomon was acquainted with number of angels.

          The post biblical literature mentions so many angels. The one appear before Zechariah without name, Angel Gabriel in Book of Daniel, Uriel, Raguel, Raphael Michael. The arch angels, a group of seven angels are mentioned in Testament of Abraham. Uriel is the guardian angel of underworld, Raphael is the in charge of human spirit, Raguel is the angel for taking revenge on the world of lights, Angle for Israel is Michael, Gabriel in charge of heaven, Jeremiel guard the souls of underworld and the last one Sariel whose duties were not clearly mentioned. All these seven angels are in the close proximity of the God and call upon their duty. They are staying in four sides of the God’s throne. The angels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Phanuel are mentioned as the angels of presence in Enoch. They played an important part in punishing the fallen angels. The Hebrew Testament of Naphtali mentions the special group of 70 angles as ministering angels.

            The book of Enoch and The book of Jubilees mention about the Fallen Angels. According to the Book of Enoch the Fallen Angels, the sons of heaven lusted on the beautiful daughters of men in the world and they decided to land on Mt. Hermon to carry out their plan. They were headed by Shemhazai and take an oath (Herem) to fulfill their purpose and hence the mountain was called as Mt.Hermon. They were successful in their effort and gave birth to giants who were mercilessly destroyed men of the land. They taught them handling of the weapons there by promote the crime in the world which lead to the corruption among the mankind. The men in the world out cry for the help and the arch angels conveyed their plea to the god and God permitted the arch angels to punish the fallen angels. The book of Jubilee gives the different version. According to it the fallen angels came to earth to teach the mankind to order the society and were lusted and seduced by the daughters of the men in the earth.

                                                                                                                               ( to be continued....)

History Mystery: Music Theory of Pre Historic World

  The Sumerian not only developed the first cuneiform writings but all so they developed the new mathematical system with a base number of 60 (Every one of you aware, now we are following a decimal system of numbers based on 10). They have created a far-reaching acoustical theory with mathematical model for their universe. That was the laying stone for their musical system and they assigned each number to their god and their functions which is the basic ratio of music system. Here you have to keep in mind the Sumerians cuneiform writings and mathematical notations were fully exploited by the later period Babylonian who controlled them in the later period. If you are the regular reader of my blog then no need to say In Mesopotamia the myths and mythology took a firm place in their life. They have marked the important events of their gods in bricks in a matrix form they used few symbols and marks to notate them. The classical music tones were to be deciphered and it is waiting more than 2000 years.

    The musical theory is nothing but acoustic science about the notes and the distance between their pitches connecting with the ratios of integers and numbers. This kind of theory was first accredited by the famous mathematician of the 6th century BC the great Pythagoras. All the countries like India Greece, Egypt, and China of those days music was very important in cultural life and all of them have a same mythic values for the same numbers. Amazing isn’t it??? They played a greater role in mention the musical intervals. This similarity between the cultures raises our doubt that any of those people were expert in musical knowledge in other words Acoustics. The Mesopotamian used the word “Harp” which also referred the string length. You can correlate the pitch and the string length. Likely in prehistoric china people used the leg bones of the birds and they hole them accurately to give specific tones as flutes. These pairs of flutes were used in the rituals of the sacred burials. The expertise in making holes to the suitable note proves their knowledge in the music. The Sumerian tombs of fourth millennium BC gives a valuable proof for their music knowledge, harps, lyres and pipes and many literature with musical notes of hymns in clay tablet yet to be deciphered perfectly give evidence to their usage of 60 based number theory. The religious gods were assigned glyph a grooved notation or a symbol followed by a particular number named after that god himself. And the importance of these numbers can be ascertained from the triangular pebble counter.

The Sumerian mythology and cosmology is based upon the symbolic copulation of the male and female numerical number arrays. The head god of the Sumerians is the sky god “An” (A male god; I know my regular blog readers are familiar with this name) is assigned 60 written as one in cuneiform. Mathematically “An” is the geometrical mean and is the mean of any number and it’s reciprocal. Theologically An/ Anu is the central reference point, middle group of sky else it is the middle tone of reference. The Sumerian platonic harmonics are very simple to learn, why because even those can count the base ten can sing and play the scale constructively which resembles the cosmos. Since 60 are perfectly divisible by multiples of 2 and 3 it can be correlate with many subsystem which allows the handling of fractions. Amazingly this is the very early mastery of arithmetic. Most of the pitch ratios- string length calculations of ancient harps, length of the panpipes of those days which is similar to that of the flute, tone -Hole ratios of the Aulos are based on this mastery of the number theory.

Cont.

History Mystery: Catholic Church apologized to Galileo after 360 years

In 1992 the Vatican openly accepted its mistake and formally and publicly accepted and declared of any wrong doing of the great astronomer Galileo. Interesting Isn’t it ? Let us go back on time machine once again.
The great astronomer, the world famous scientist Galileo was the reason for the end of Italian renaissance. His knowledge in astronomy clashed with the medieval theology and philosophy which hold the power in the Catholic churches of those days which resulted in the tragic end of his life. Galileo Galili who had invented isochronisms of the simple pendulum was born on 1564, in which year Shakespeare was born. In the age of 22 he attained the reputation even out of his country and he was accepted as a scientist and father of experimental physics. He accepted his first lecturer ship in the University of Pisa at the age of twenty five. In due course he accepted a position in University of Padua too. During that period he was strongly attracted by the Copernican theory which was published by Nicolas Copernicus in the year 1543 a dissertation which put forth the world-shattering thought; The earth revolves around the sun in an inclined axis. This Treatise challenges the astronomy of Ptolemy, the thoughts of great philosopher Aristotle and the traditional belief of the Catholic Church. By 1590 Galileo confirmed that Copernicus Treatise is true and he confirmed it with German Scientist cum mathematician Kepler who was the founded laws of planetary motion. However he didn’t have enough fortitude to declare that in public and kept that as a secret with his true friends. In 1609 Galileo discovered Telescope that confirmed Copernican thoughts were correct. Though Galileo was a stanch follower of Catholic Church he found Copernican system was true and he openly discussed about those findings in public debates and in parties. He was failed to make good number of educated people to understand his thoughts and findings instead enemies. Since Galileo was self satisfied with Copernicus findings he put forth his arguments more openly than before in the public. Galileo published his Letters on the solar spots in the year 1613. Father Lorini a professor and a Dominican friar of ecclesiastical history in Florence attacked him for defending Copernican doctrine which violates the religious belief of Earth as the centre of Universe. In his Letter to Castelli Galileo responded to his criticism in a biblical way. Instead of pacifying his attackers it increasing the heat and They vehemently attacked him for meddling the Scripture and Theology. Instead Father Lorini sent a modified copy of Galileo’s letter to Casterlli enclosed with his own comments and his criticism. In fact Father Lorini got a good support from Father Tommaso Caccini and Father Ximenes. Galileo believed that Cardinal Bellarmine; Chief theologian will support him but unfortunately that 74years old church’s chief only cared about the administration and wish to hold the power of the Papal instead of accepting the astronomical fact. Bellarmine’s letter to Father Foscarini clearly displays his stand against Galileo. The Pope directed Lord Cardinal Bellarmine to summon Galileo before him to reprove and desert his belief. Galileo was summoned on 25th of 1616 and was admonished and Galileo acquiesced and promised to obey. There are so many contradictions about the Inquisition file which is beyond our focus.
In the mean time The Cardinal Mafeo Barberini, who have positive approach towards science and technology became the new Pope. The Pope’s private secretary wrote Galileo to continue and publish his thoughts and the Pope himself have long hours of discussions with Galileo himself. Galileo started working on his book Dialogue Concerning the two chief world systems. At the end of 1629 Galileo completed his book Dialogue proved him as a scholar, a good writer, a scientist, a astronomer and more. Unlike the writings of Kepler and Copernicus his writings focused the educated public and not the intellectuals. In the mean time his opponents had taken all measures to block his book from printing. The Vatican’s chief licenser Niccolo Riccardi thought that the book may laid on more hypothetical thoughts rather than scientific ideas hence he promised to help him in publication but in reality Dialogue was more scientific rather than hypothetical and Riccardi asked Galileo to revise the preface and conclusions. Reluctantly Riccardi gave permission to publish the book and at last after a herculean task the book rolled out of press and sold out at once.

In mean time some steps were taken to suspend the publication by Vatican and his opponents successfully convinced the Vatican against the book and The Pope complained that Both Ciampoli and Galileo fooled himself. The Pope himself directed the Church to set in motion. Riccardi was severely criticized and Ciampoli Galileo’s friend was exiled from Rome. The special commission was appointed to look into it. The special commission outlined a bunch of indictments against him. Galileo was irritated against that move. And the matter was put for inquisition and the Congress found fault with him and it said Galileo violated his previous injunction in the year 1616. Galileo was summoned to The Holly Office in Rome. Instead of escaping to the Venetian territory Galileo went to the Holly city for facing his trials since his request for moving the trail to Florence was denied. That humble sick old man had no other option to travel a long distance in the winter time. Galileo was ordered to face the trial before a group of ten cardinals. After so many sufferings both physically and mentally Galileo was tired of arguing. The Cardinal Francesco Barberini used his influence on the ten cardinals and convinced them for a lighter punishment in turn Galileo should admit his mistake.
Some of the Historians criticized his decision to admit error as a last stage self degradation where as some other argue that as a rational move which was only available move at that time. Galileo’s renunciation of renunciation of Copernican theory ended with his own words. In 1992 The Vatican formally and publically cleared of any wrong doing.

History Mystery: The famous trial of Socrates -2

Meletus read the written charges against Socrates. The Magistrate questioned both the complaint and the defendant and gave the opportunity to explain the charges and the counter for it. Since he felt the charges against Socrates were correct he drew up the formal charges. Socrates was found guilty for refusing and recognizing the gods of the state and found guilt for corrupting the youths of Athens for which the penalty is death. The trial was happened for ten hours in the court of peoples of Athens. Juries of 500 males of who sat on the wooden benches were drawn a lot from the farmers in the middle age. A proper barricade was there to separate the public from the Juries. Meletus presented his case against the three accusers first then total of three hours were given for the counter argument. The poet Melitus, Anytus and Lycon are the three who found guilty on Socrates. Anytus vehemently accused Socrates, since he strongly believed that his son was spoiled him. In his Meno Plato describes the relationship of Socrates in his own words, “I have a close relationship with your son and we are close in spirit too” (We cannot conclude this connection meant sex but by those times sleeping with their students and doing bisexual relationship was entertained on those days).

With the available resources the historians have different opinion, for example James A. Colaiaco says Melitus and others gave more weight age for the religious crimes where as I.F. Stone says it is for political crime. Stone quotes the words of the most popular orator Aechines (345 BCE) words as the strong reference for religious crime but Stone reject the religious crime since Athenians sometimes treated their gods indecently both in theater and plays. He shows In Aristophnes’s Clouds, rain was nothing but the urination of the god Zeus through a sieve but no one criticized him. Hence from his point of view Socrates was convicted for his political but not for the religious crime. Plato’s Apology narrates the incident very clearly but it did not speak about his close relationship with the thirty tyrants. According to Plato’s Apology Meletus charges Socrates for believing celestial objects such as Sun and Moon as gods but Socrates question Meletus about the religious charges, without counter their atheism charges he attacked him for the inconsistency.
Socrates contented that he was a war hero and he had rendered his service extraordinarily in the previous three battles and saved the life of fellow Athenians. Socrates didn’t apply to the jurors for mercy that he had wife and children or his family did not appear before the court. In Athenian jury system the convict or the accused can appeal for the mercy by for sympathy the jurors by introducing their family before the trial court. And Socrates believed pleading for mercy will render disgrace to the justice. After the three hours long trail ended each Jury is asked to renter their judgment by putting their ballot paper in the pots. Finally Socrates was found guilty by 280 Judges and 220 jurors in favour of his acquittal. After the trial the jurors asked Socrates and Meletus for proposing the punishment. The three accusers proposed for the death sentence. Instead of praying of exile, Socrates daringly proposed he should not be punished instead he should be rewarded. And he asked for the dinner in the public dining hall in the center of the city. Though it shows Socrates was ready to die, his activities irritated the jurors and made his punishment evident. But Jurors want the fair punishment; Socrates un interestingly suggested a fine of one mina of silver (That was the very lesser punishment he proposed). Again the juror voted for the conviction 360 in favour of death by drinking cup of poisoned hemlock against 140 for fining him. He told Athens will one day ashamed for its sin. He was sent to jail and the poison he drunk ate his life slowly. Usually the convicted was allowed to speak before the public hence Socrates also boldly utter the following "The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways--I to die, and you to live. Which to the better fate is known only to God"

Most of the historian and the great scholars believe that the conviction and the execution was his deliberate choice by himself. Yes; The trail is a interesting suicide of himself more deliberately.

History Mystery: The famous trial of Socrates -1

The Great great scholar Socrates was executed at the age of seventy in 399 BCE in the most famous town Athens. Why such an old man was executed in the most civilized and democratic society of those days. Was he put to death for preaching mere philosophy or was he molested anybody like today’s religious preachers? The irony here is Plato and Xenophon the disciples of Socrates gives us a different story. The interesting question is- What made the 500 Athenian jurors to put Socrates to death. To find out the real reason behind his death, we have to go back to those days of Athens. Let us go there and analyze!!!

Socrates rose to power of Pericles in his early age. Those were the golden age of Greece. Pericles promoted peoples courts and promoted the arts and philosophy. Socrates rose against evils and he designed a program to ensure full opportunity for employment to the downtrodden working class. Pericles reconstruction of the citadels and construction of the Parthenon were the worth mention. Socrates developed a set of moral values and beliefs that raised him with in most of his fellow Athenians. Socrates is somehow opposite to egalitarian and his views were opposite to self governing of the people. Instead he thought people should be governed and guided by a wise person like sheep herd were cared by a wise shepherded, this view about democracy shaked the Athenian form of government and he criticized indiscriminately the right of every Athenian to speak in the Athenian Assembly.

According to Diogenes and Laertius, the views of Socrates in the streets and market places made the fellow Athenians who passed by to get anger but Socrates accepted all the insults and opposition silently. Because of his old students like Alcibiades and Critas the democratic government was overturned for some period. According to I.F.Stone, Critias who is the cousin of Philosopher Plato is inhuman in nature and he is very strong to overturn the democratic system at the cost of human life. He executed more than 1500 most popular democrats and killed more than 5000 Children women and slaves with the oligarchy. Thirty Tyrants who run their parallel government asked Socrates to execute Leon Salamies and appropriate his assets and wealth. He refused to do so but he neither stopped them or their thugs to do so. This incident made the Athenians to view Socrates and his preaching in another dimension. And the every fellow citizen believed that Socrates and his thoughts are very treacherous and most corrupting which can destroy the common man of that town.


In the year 403 a general amnesty was issued to Socrates by which he could not be prosecuted for any of his offence during the thirty tyrant’s period. Hence his trail was only after 403 to 399BCE a mere four years of duration. In the people’s democratic Athens any public can initiate a criminal proceeding. The poet Meletus, initiated oral summon to Socrates before the witness. According to the summon Socrates required to appear before the King or the lower court judge. The preliminary hearing was happened in the Royal Stoa a fortified building in the central Athens.

(Cont.....)

History Mystery: Did a historical Jesus exist? Part.II

According to the Gospels Jesus may crucified on the first day of the Passover or the day before (Depends upon the Gospel According to John Jesus was crucified on the day before the Passover).

The Passover is one of the holiest of Jewish holidays and it was the time for forgiveness and celebration. On those days only Jews made public scarifies to their god hence there is less chance for crucifixion. The arrest and quick trial of Jesus was happened on the pass over eve night. And the Jewish Sanhedrin could assemble in the middle of the night and spelt the quick judgment is highly impossible. The Sanhedrins were slapped and spit on Jesus could not be possible. (Sanhedrin was the Jewish judicial and administrative council which acts on set of rules). Mishnah Sanhedrin has certain rules to follow:

Tomb of Jesus

• No criminal trail can be hold at night.
• The Sanhedrin session could be taken place in the temple premises.
• Capital crime could not be trailed in one day sitting alone.
• No criminal session could be happened on the Sabbath day or of any festival day.
• The own confession of the accused is not enough to judge any one guilty.
• The blasphemy charges cannot be hold good if the accused pronounced the god before the witness.
But the trial of Jesus had broken all the rules.

The crucifixions of Jesus in the Gospels are completely symbolic in nature and based on the scriptures but not on the history. His arrest, trial and the execution all flout the Jewish law. And for blasphemy stoning is the ultimate sentence and there is no reason to hand over the execution to the Romans. The famous Jewish writer Philo of 20BCE wrote elaborately about the political and religious activities of those periods but he never mentioned or wrote anything about Jesus (he wrote about the political rivalry between Pontius Pilate in Judea and the Jews)
There are four documents, in other words historical documents available. Antiquity of the Jews by Josephus, The Annals by Tacitus, Letter to Trajan by Pliny the Younger, and The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius. It is available in Catholic Encyclopedia.

According to Suetonius, “The Jews continuously made disturbance at the instigation of Chrestus and hence Chrestus was expelled”. Here we can only assume that Suetonius mentioned here Jesus as Chrestus. Chrestus is not the proper Latin translation of Greek Christos. Since the document itself talking about 49 CE by which Jesus was already dead.

Here The Annals by Tacitus mention the following,

Capernaum

“Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular”

Bethany

Christus mentioned here clearly refers Jesus Christ but it is not enough to establish the historical existence of himself. Keep it in mind Tacitus wrote these forty years after the ruin of Judea.

The peoples of other civilizations don’t have a religious book like Bible to refer and cross examine the religious structure in other hand Jews have a scripture based religion. The Romans and Greeks have separate Law, Philosophy etc but for Jews all come under the same religion. In Judaism more particularly in Hellenistic Judaism the cult of Jesus Christ is a very small part of their religion.

From all the above “The story of Jesus Christ” fully relay on the Gospels rather than any historical evidences. For the Jesus story you can identify plenty of literary and conventional materials which raise the possibility for the observed historical events. That much only can say.

History Mystery: Did a historical Jesus exist? Part.I

Today all most every one of us in the world believes that Jesus Christ was a real personality. Perhaps he may not be the son of god or perhaps he may not be the real Messiah. The belief, Jesus as a human being came out as Eucharist ritual and theology concept of flesh and blood. Then what is the basis for the claim that “Jesus ever existed”?

There are two views we are going to analyze here. The first one is the Biblical or the religious view that Jesus as a real personality and the other one; The materialistic or the historical view. Here I wish to point out one thing. We have only one source of information about him which is the bible alone; that too more particularly from the Gospels. Everything we know about him is derived from the Gospels alone.

According to the Gospels, Jesus Christ was most popular and well-known personality who done splendid miracles and have the capacity of his own to pull the crowd. He not only done miracles but some revolutionary changes in religious system in the Jewish priesthood hence arrested and put to death before thousands of his followers who stood as eye witness. The historical view removes some exaggerated accounts in the life of Jesus in the Gospels taking into account.

Both of the views purely depend on the Gospels alone but, Are the Gospels give a reliable historical account? When the Gospels were written, where the gospels were written? which is the origin? Nobody knows. Earlier estimates dates the Gospels were written from 50 to 150CE and some ascertain that may be 4th Century. The traditional belief is that the Gospels had been written by the disciples of Jesus or someone who directly connected with them. It is believed that the Gospels are the eyewitness.


Let us gain some knowledge about the Gospels and its writers through the account of early church leader Papias of 130CE. According to him the Gospel Mark was not written by him but it was someone named Mark and the Gospel of Mathew was recorded by someone named Mathew in Hebrew dialect and so on… Since the Gospel of Mathew contains the virgin birth of Jesus and the hereditary lineage with David, the early theologians thought it was the first Gospel. Since the Gospel of Luke was not an eyewitness in nature and it was a self described one. So there is no possibility for it being first one.

The Gospel of Mark is also considered as second hand information since the order of events was different in order. The source of information for Mark is Peter. There is a chance that Mark might come from Rome where Peter preached. Theologian ascertains The Gospel of Mark was the first Gospel. Since Peter was shown as a fool who could not understand the messages of Jesus, Peter could not be the source of information for Gospel of Mark hence Mark is the first gospel.                                               (Cont....)

History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.XII

 Religious Dances of Ancient times


In ancient times the dances were of religious or the ceremonial importance. Most of the ancient religious system of temples had female slaves to perform such sacred dances. The religious dances of all most heathen temples were tried to replicate and applaud sexual delights and fantasy since all the early religions were based on sex worship. In those days in and around Egypt the females were trained as musicians and they were expert in them. Throughout their life time went naked and the nudeness in public while doing performance was not embraced them. Note: Most of the Psalms of David emblazoned to the Chief of the Chorus. Hence there is a probability that the leader and the team of musicians were nude.

Not only the Musicians the Dancers also performed by the undressed girls. It is similar to that of the dances performed by the Egyptian dancers named “Ferida “of these days. The dancers otherwise called Awalim also have singers in their troupe. The Orgy was a particular rite in worship of the Greek god Dionysus the god of wine. Those rites were celebrated only by the women and they assembled at the temples in the woods in nude or in brown skins. And they allowed their hair to hang loosely and had a stick in their hand to symbolically represent the sacred scepter of the wine god Dionysus. They danced and danced till their excitement subsides.

During the rituals at nights they sacrificed the scared bull. But in the early period Greeks sacrificed man but not the animal and in both cases the important aspect of the orgy was the respect given with high regard to the Penis or the Phallus of the sacrificed bull or the man. These represent the procreative god and their rituals were called as maenads (bacchantes). In Phrygia the dancers who were dancers of the goddess Rhea Cybele were called as Corybantes. The priests of the Goddess have castrated or remove their testicle of their own and entered into orgy dances with blood oozing out from their mutilated penis. All most all the dances including Greek had phallus as the sexual importance to symbolize the relationship of sexes. When Maenads danced it produces excitement that approached convulsions. Similar is in the religious dances to honor Bacchus. It can be understood that the Jews of those days also danced religious dances.

''Let Israel rejoice in him that made him; let the children of Zion be joyful to their king. Let them praise his name in the dance; let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp." (Ps, CXLIX, 2, 3)

"But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod” (Matt, xiv, 6). In the early Christian churches the choir danced while they sung.

The painting Borgia amusing himself painted by Grainier displays the form of entertainment in dancing by the nude girls of those days. There was a shameful understanding about the nudeness and the dances danced by the naked girls. In Ancient Rome Caracalla gave lavish entertainments in the Capri islands were the dancers were the beautiful dancing girls. Once the appreciation for their dances recedes then the dancing girls will be thrown in to the sea over the cliffs. Even now in Rural Spain there is a popular dance performed by both male and female during the dance the dancers throw off their garments one by one until the absolute nudity.

Art of Realism and Vulgarity

What is mean by Realism? When an artist paints a model, he paints what she is and as she is this called Realism. Most of the medieval artist done the same including the Great Dutch artists. If the model is perfect with enchanting beauty then there is nothing to say the painting is loutish beefiness. This kind of differentiation can be well explained by comparing the two paintings “The Leda” painted by various famous painters of those days. In this comparison the former is improper since she is neither naked full nor she is altogether clothed. For the subject of painting, being partially clothed is obsolete.

Let us see another two examples “Leda and the Swan” was also sculptured by Michelangelo as Jupiter having sexual intercourse with Leda as swan is an example for realism. Compare this with the painting of a nude girl frightened by crackle of a flying bird a bathing veiled corner. Though the later exemplified her innocence and she is alone beautifully by the painter it is not in the category of realism. Hence another term Vulgarity arises.

"The little Bather "

The word Vulgarity was derived from the Latin word Vulgaris means not refine or in bad taste. Most of us think both the words vulgar and obscene means the same thing. A representation of sexual intercourse is not obscene why because it is proper and moral act of a human being. Whereas, it is generally accepted that it is in bad taste to represent it in art. A picture representing coition may be vulgar but not obscene. All the vulgar pictures are necessarily be evil and but they are more or less like that only. The vulgar pictures are often arousing sexual feelings and stimulate the mind and the physique. In other words Obscenity represents the depravity in character or in the habit. It differentiates what is decency and what is indecency. Hence we can conclude Obscenity is harmful. When a female and the male is painted or sculptured together as nude the idealization is difficult but don’t forget to accept it is often done humbly and properly. We can give lots of examples both in ancient and the modern art Cupid and Psyche, Love by Evelyn B. Longman.

History Mystery: Was Cassandra raped?

According to Homer’s Iliad Alexandra (Cassandra) was the offspring of King Priam the ruler of Troy. Cassandra was an attractive young girl who was blessed with the bequest of prophecy by the Apollo. Apollo was smitten on her but Cassandra avoided him so Apollo got angry and soiled his blessings to Cassandra according to that she was destined to tell the reality but never believed. According to Robert Graves Cassandra means “The girl who entangles men”. This was an irony since, even though she was a beauty queen her fore told prophesies about their death kept the men far from her. Cassandra was always been misunderstood and treated as a mad woman and a raving lunatic. Cassandra was an immense beautiful brilliant woman but sadly cursed by the gods because she refused to be a puppet in their hands. Hence she is not a mad woman but she is a heartrending lady.

In Greek mythology more stories of gods lusting and falling in love with the young beautiful girls are there. Since Cassandra is a beautiful young woman she is no exception. There are two versions how Cassandra got the gift of Prophecy from Apollo the most beautiful young god. One day Cassandra was sleeping in the temple of Apollo and her beauty aroused Apollo, he promised her to teach the art of prophecy in turn he expected the sexual favor from her. She agreed to the bargain and learnt the prophecy and later she denied him to keep up the promise. Her activity outraged Apollo and he cursed her according to that curse though she would always speak the truth no one would ever believe her words. One of her most famous prophecies is her prediction of the Greek siege behind the Trojan horse. She foretold their fate but nobody believed her prophecy. Hence the great mass destruction of Troy began and the bedlam infected Trojan and the Trojan girls were at the mercy of the bloody Greeks and outburst the uncontrolled violence on the Troy. The Greek men were pacified only after the sexual aggression and harassment on the Troy women. Helen supplicated Menalaus by showing her bare breast and Cassandra was raped by Ajax.

Vergil gives an elaborate account about the rape of Cassandra. Cassandra escaped to the temple of Athena and she was followed by Ajax. Since Cassandra hold the wooden image of the goddess tightly he could not dragged her away from the statue and so he had taken both of them. Most of the narratives of this story differ here. Very interesting difference is whether Cassandra was actually raped by Ajax or not. Another version of the story elaborates the Athena’s anger at the sacrilege of the temple. Little Ajax grabbed Cassandra who is the head priest of the Goddess Athena and pulled her away by the hair and sanity of the temple. The Alter; where sacrifices to be made are a sacred place. There the pretty girl was humiliated and raped (According to Herodotus 2.64 Greeks were very strictly prohibited from having intercourse in a sanctuary). What happened after the rape (supposed) of Cassandra is enthralling. Agamemnon claimed to Odysseus, Cassandra as a reward for him but Odysseus told him about the rape which was vehemently denied and opposed by Ajax and Ajax escaped and hide himself in the temple of Athena. He finally apologized for displacing Athena’s image from the temple he worked there for his offence. In total Cassandra was the reason of the misery of Greeks in a way here prophetic curse avenged her city came true. If Cassandra had not been humiliated or raped at the altar of the temple of Athena there would have been no odyssey. The people who analyzed the typical paintings of Cassandra and Ajax clearly pointed out no sexual intercourse were suggested in the paintings. Let us analyze the pottery “The Fall of Troy “by Kleophrades in 480.

Cassandra is depicted as nude and a shawl is tied around her shoulders. Her thighs were extended and one of her legs is clamped on the ground and she is knelt the other leg. One of her hand is holding the statue of Athena tightly and the other hand is stretched toward Ajax. Ajax holds her hair tightly with one hand and spread out his sword with the other hand. Ajax’s sword is projected horizontally towards her in a phallic shape. And Cassandra is in an erotic position with her legs wide open and breasts were bare and bulged by the knot of her shawl. Her hand is stretched as signaling Ajax to approach while her palm is facing up and arm is outstretched, this gesture could not be ascertain her acceptance toward Ajax or her fear. There is no actual sign of going to be raped is in this painting and The warrior Ajax looks that he is going to capture here but there is no hint of rape in his body line. She is exceedingly in a submissive sexual position and he is in a dominant position. Cassandra’s life was a tragic one from her initial encounter with Apollo to the last untimely death of her in the hands of Clytemnestra.

History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.XI

Probably India is one of the leading country has the worship of the nature and its power by symbolizing the genital organs of male and female. Tantras, the scared writings of Saktas are (somewhat later than Puranas) are the worshippers of the wives of the Trimurthi, hence they are the real worshippers of the female powers of the nature. This female worship extends to Shiva Sakthi otherwise called as Parvathi, Kali devi, Dhurga, Bhavani and more. This kind of female worship can be found in Puranas and is much described in Tantras.

Tandras have most mystic and magic rituals, it largely consisting vulgar and dissolute practicing methods. The oldest Indian myths say that the sky and the earth are the parents of all the other gods which is similar to same folklore of the Greek Bible by Homer and Hesiod. Prajavathi is another god sometimes equally ranked with the Trimurthi and is believed that he is the creator of all other gods and of the life on earth. Hence Prajavathi is identified as the God of Heaven. In ancient days the Phallus was not adored and promiscuously displayed as of today. The women were not allowed to view the genital part of a male of that period. According to the ancient Vedic stories Urvasi was not allowed to see her husband Pururavas as nude. Similar story could be seen in Amor and Psyche in Greek work.

In ancient days, the eternal feminine that is the attributes of conceiving and producing and of nourishing is mentioned as Goethe. Moses told “The Almighty shall bless thee with blessings ……. of the breasts and of the womb" (Gen. xlix, 25). In Psalm “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy children like olive plants round about the table" (Ps.cxxviii, 3). Similarly the sterility was considered as a curse on Human beings.

History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.X

With mention to Milton’s paradise lost we can conclude the tree of the knowledge of evil and good and the serpent in the Eden only referred the sexual passion. The feast celebrated as Yom Ashoora on the tenth day of Moharran is the celebration in representation of the first meeting of Eve and Adam after they had driven out of the Eden garden once was their paradise land. The snake has been represented as the symbol of evil from the early historic period. The trepidation of the serpent is common throughout the world since the ancient times. Even devil is worshiped by the ancient people to appease the evil spirit. The Persian goddess Ahriman and Dew are the representation of evil spirits and they are supposed to be the poisonous snakes. In Hinduism the supreme power of creation is of two folded. The right side is the male usually represented by lingam and the left side is the female indicated by the yoni, and is called as Maya Prakriti which is undying and non perishable. In some of the Ardanari- Eshwari the right side is provided with real penis and the left with the valva.

Similar theory can be found in Bible. Philo A Jewish philosopher, who is a contemporary of the Jesus mentioned that Adam was hermaphrodite in nature and god only separated Adam and Eve into two. Further Philo mentioned that the yearning for the reunion of the two halves (Adam and Eve) of the bisexual man with love is the prime basis of the sensual pleasure which is represented as the snake. This is the beginning of all wrongdoing.

According to Augustine, Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, Adam was yield to his obsessive desire for Eve and if he stayed away from the sexual pleasure with her even we might have rebuked god and force god to find out some other harmless way of reproduction without the co operation of the sexes. And the world may fill with the people without romance. We aware that god warned Adam and Eve and told them not to eat the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of good and the bad. But the serpent came and tempted Eve and made them to eat.

Philo describes Eve as the representation of the sensual or perceptive side of man and hence serpent easily attacked Eve. Senses only yield pleasure and bind them and obliterate the immortal virtue. Ancient authors called the “Adams apple” musa paradisiaca, a variety of plantain since this fruit resembles as lingam. Some authors believe that may be a citrus fruit lemon. Almost 90% of the people believe Eve gave Adam an apple to eat. This is the great mistake. The name of the fruit that was given by Eve to Adam was no where mentioned in the bible. More over the apple was unknown to the people of Asia Minor which was the supposed location of the Paradise the Eden garden.