"... in rivers in England, America, Canada, and New Zealand" -- but not in India?
Rich Salomon
The grids on the sides of the cubes are indeed magic squares. Every row
of numbers, whether read orthogonally or diagonally, adds up to 36,
which identify the magic squares as associated with Rāhu. This is also
borne out by the inscriptions at the bottom which read: "aum rāhave
namaḥ".
A quick search online reveals several reports of circular and triangular
tokens with magic squares of either Rāhu or Ketu turning up in rivers in
England, America, Canada, and New Zealand. E.g.:
[1] http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php?topic=20365.0
[2]
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/286825-lead-elephant-coins-lead-bull-squares.html
A poster on the latter forum states that: "I saw this a few summers ago
in St. Louis MO. There was a whole family beside the river and two were
throwing these type coins in and a few other items. Didn't ask anything
as you could tell they were trying to keep it private."
I did not find any reports about cubes, but the circular tokens can, for
instance, be bought here:
https://www.nanubhaiindia.com/products/283-rahu-yantra-coin.aspx
I wonder if it would be considered inauspicious to pick them up, or
whether they would already have served their ritual purpose (whatever
exactly that might have been)?
Best,
Jacob
Jacob Schmidt-Madsen
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Copenhagen
Denmark
Richard G. Salomon via INDOLOGY skrev den 2020-05-14 00:30:
> How strange! I wonder if these are "magic squares," which Allen
> Thrasher studied years ago (but I don't know if he's on this list).
>
> Rich Salomon
>
> On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 1:58 PM Valerie Roebuck via INDOLOGY
> <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Intriguing. However, not the River Thames, but the River Sowe at
>> Coventry (the city in the MIdlands where Lady Godiva took her famous
>> ride).
>>
>> Valerie J Roebuck
>> Manchester, UK
>>
>>> On 13 May 2020, at 20:31, Charles DiSimone via INDOLOGY
>>> <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear friends,
>>>
>>> Is anybody familiar with the lead cubes in the attached picture?
>>> These were intriguingly found in the Thames River recently. The
>>> story from a local periodical is here:
>>>
>>
> https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/mystery-60-peculiar-cubes-inscriptions-18232422
>>>
>>> I imagine these were deposited in the river rather recently, but
>>> maybe someone knows more. I’m curious what the ritual
>>> surrounding depositing such items in a body of water might be.
>>>
>>> All my best,
>>> Charles
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Dr. Charles DiSimone
>>> Ghent University _______________________________________________
>>> INDOLOGY mailing list
>>> INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
>>> indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing
>>> committee)
>>> http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list
>>> options or unsubscribe)
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> INDOLOGY mailing list
>> INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
>> indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing
>> committee)
>> http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list
>> options or unsubscribe)
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
> indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing
> committee)
> http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options
> or unsubscribe)
_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)
_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.infoindology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)