booknotice (occasioned by Civility on the List: "heresy" discussion)

[N. Ganesan]

Recently I watched a Dicovery channel program on
the last chapter in the Bible, the apocalypse.
A fine comparative study. It talked about two destructins
by war of a great temple, and reworking that memory
into this last chapter in 4th cent. CE or so.
It talked of Alexander, Indo-Greeks etc., Showed
about Parsees worshipping fire, Vedic homa
and, how IE ideas about light and dark are integrated.
Appreciate any references about analysis of the
Bibl'e last chapter and, comparative history/myth
integration. Many Thanks.

---------

Vishnu is called mAl = 'black' one in Tamil.
In all sangam texts, Vishnu is "maal", and Alvars sing of
black one sleeping on the serpent couch many
times. In tamil, na.l has two meanings 1) black
and 2) center. naa.l= night and, nA.lmI_n = nakshatram...
So, nALagiri/nAlagiri(elephant in buddha myth),
nArAyana, nala (MBh.) all are related to 'black' color.
Note DraupatI whose personal name is the black one
(krishnaa) is nalAyini in a former birth.

In early Tamil literature, the prefered skin color
is black. Some references fron sangam texts is given
in this list before. This is in direct contrast
with praising whiteness/lightness of the RV
(Geldner's translation passages in Dr. Hock's
paper, Looking through the glass ...)
It will make a good contribution if the early
Dravidian ideas on colors ia analyzed in depth,
and compared with those from Skt. philology.

Regards,
N. Ganesan

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