Notes of Nagesh

Ethiopia is old, even older than Egypt, but its  antiquity is somewhat different. While Egypt was the world's first indisputable nation-state, unique in its complex politico-religious system augmented by magnificent material remains and a corpus of epic literature, in Ethiopia, the very cradle of mankind, the material evidence of its ancient civilisation alone attests to its former glory. The Ancient Egyptians, from the earliest times, kept records of their kings and this chronology is central to the chronological structure of the early Aegean, Levantine and Mesopotamian civilisations. It is, however, of no import to Ancient Ethiopia. If the  Ethiopians did keep records, these have either been lost for ever or not yet discovered. The attempts by unnamed writers to compile an Ethiopian king-list -- the Kebra Negast or Book of the Glory of Kings -- from  the Queen of Sheba to the rise of the Zagwe dynasty, is believed to be a 13th-century creation; its aim seems to have bee...

  Ethiopians have had very intimate relations with Indians. In fact, in antiquity the Ethiopians ruled much of India. These Ethiopians were called the Naga. It was the Naga who created Sanskrit. A reading of ancient Dravidian literature which dates back to 500 BC, gives us considerable information on the Naga. In Indian tradition the Naga won central India from the Villavar (bowmen) and Minavar (fishermen). The Naga were great seafaring people who ruled much of India, Sri Lanka and Burma. The Aryans described them as half man and snake. The Tamil knew them as warlike people who used the bow and noose. The earliest mention of the Naga, appear in the Ramayana, they are also mentioned in the Mahabharata. In the Mahabharata we discover that the Naga had the capital city in the Dekkan, and other cities spread between the Jumna and Ganges as early as 1300 BC. The Dravidian classic, the Chilappathikaran made it clear that the first great kingdom of India was Naganadu. The Naga probably ca...

Mohan Guruswamy It’s not my mother tongue but I speak(Telangana dialect), read and write it; unlike my mother tongue- Tamil, which I only speak, that too in a manner of sorts. I happily go along with this paean to Telugu sent by an editor of a prominent newspaper.  “1. Telugu Language was  known to exist since the Time period 400 BCE. 2. In 2012 Telugu was voted as the 2nd best script in the world by International Alphabet Association, Korean ranks no 1. 3. Speaking Telugu Language activates about 72000 neurons in your body, highest for any Language in the world proven by Science. (???) 4. An ethnic group from Sri Lanka called Sri Lankan Gypsy people mostly speak Telugu. 5. There are many many Telugu communities in Myanmar Just do a Google Search. 6. In 16th century an Italian Explorer Niccolò de’ Conti found that the words in Telugu language end with vowels, just like those in Italian, and hence referred it as “The Italian of the East”. 7. Telugu ranks 3rd by the number of na...