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Sharath C V wrote: Onam is a harvest festival and is celebrated under different names in different
states with different Gods. It cannot be considered to have evolved out of any
religious ritual or Vedas.
And yet the legend includes Vishnu (the Hindu god).
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smaaaart wrote: What was there before Hinduism? I'm curious because this is the first time I've
heard of Hinduism "spreading" to some place in India.
Mostly disconnected clans that had primitive religious concepts. Snake worship was common and we still have lots of Sarpakavus (think of it as snake temples) in Kerala. Christianity and Hinduism arrived at around the same time. Islam was a later addition. There are also those who believe that Buddhism was common in Kerala until the Hindu-influence.
A lot of people are uncomfortable acknowledging this because it then portrays them as being less Hindu/Indian than the rest of India. But to me, I think it just makes India more fascinating.
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Nish Sivakumar wrote: I think it just makes India more fascinating.
Certainly!
Thanks for the post. Very interesting! I never knew this fact. It's incredible how diverse India is, and how little we know about it.
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smaaaart wrote: It's incredible how diverse India is
I agree, and very few people outside India understand this. That's why I always find it amusing when we have "Indian" restaurants in the US (and Canada). There is no single Indian-cusine. Every state has their own awesome dishes.
Of course this is now a running joke, but I still get people ask me if I speak "Indian", or "Hindu" (not Hindi, they assume Hindu is a language).
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I never heard this. Do you have any link or book regarding this? Curious to read about it. As per my information, Christianity was a later addition. Let me know if you know of any good book on this.
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Sharath C V wrote:
I never heard this. Do you have any link or book
regarding this? Curious to read about it. As per my information, Christianity
was a later addition. Let me know if you know of any good book on this.
Unfortunately, I don't have any book references. And Wikipedia entries are seriously limited when it comes to Kerala history. My late maternal grandparents were my biggest source of information, as they both had an astonishing interest in Kerala history.
But there are secondary (and indirect) things that indicate how our religious origins are a little different from the rest of India. Our diet for example, which includes meat (and no, eating beef/pork is not a recent trend). Also, some Christians claim that St Thomas arrrived in Kerala and converted then then-Malayalaees into Christianity. Some of them insist that these original Malayalees were Namboodhiris (kerala brahmins) but this has never been historically established.
That said Hinduism itself is hard to define. All the snake-temples and the regional-goddess temples spread across Kerala are now considered to be a part of Hinduism. Some of these dieties have been re-defined to be incarnations of Kali. But this was not always so.
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Hard to believe that Buddhism was common in Kerala as there are no well known Buddist shrines in Kerala. Not sure if there are any either.
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Sharath C V wrote:
Hard to believe that Buddhism was common in
Kerala as there are no well known Buddist shrines in Kerala. Not sure if there
are any either.
Yeah, whoever wiped them off did a good job of it. 
More seriously, this is a rather controversial theory but if you google for "buddhism in kerala" you should get tons of hits, some of them more authentic and well-written of course (as is always the case).
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Interesting theory, will do some research on this and search for some books on this too.
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Namaskaram, Sri Nish, and Sri Sharath,
Thanks for your considerate responses to what may be the most OT post on GIT 
There is clear evidence of continuous human population in what is now geographically Kerala, from 5th. century BCE (i.e, 7000 years ago), 5000 years of spice-exporting (according to a Sumerian text) and yes, I read the Wikipedia article, even before I posted concerning the linguistic evolution of modern Malayalam, and the song unique to the Onam festival.
There seems clear evidence that what is now Kerala was known to the Romans and the Greeks, Sumerians, Egyptians, etc., and was a major (if not the major) entrepot for trade in spices from the east to the west, to the Roman world, and elsewhere, prior to Buddhism's spread in India (thanks to King Asoke).
I have not tried to examine any scholars' work on the evolution of Malayalam, or its possible carry-over of an indigenous languaage's vocabulary, alphabet, etc., prior to the time it was systematically "sanskritized:" that is a topic too far away from my interests in S.E. Asian Theravadan Buddhist iconography.
re King Asoke, great conqueror of most of India, Buddhist convert, who built his stone stelae all over India, with the four lions on top, and a dharmachakra, and sent out "missionaries" all over Asia: I have yet to find any mention of his sending a Buddhist mission to Kerala, though I have read that, in a manuscript dating to his time, preserved through the Puranic period, is a mention of what is now geographically Kerala. The Wikipedia entry cites a 5000 year old rock-inscription by Asoke, implying, but not defintely stating, that it is physically within what is now modern Kerala.
In any case Buddhism was systematically purged/extinguished in India by the Brahmin/Pandit Kingdoms during the Puranic period, and, only secondarily, by the later invasions of Mughals from the west, and Turkic Mughals, who were busy destroying sacred Hindu sites, as well.
The extent of Mughal conquest or destruction in Kerala is an unknown to me.
The re-discovery of Buddhism, and its most sacred sites in India, all forgotten (except in places like Sri Lanka, and the ancient Pyu Kingdom in what is now Myanmar), all un-maintained, overgrown, dilipidated:
Is primarily due to a remarkable group of English scholars, all employees of the rapacious East India Company with their Hindu and Jain colleagues (referred to as "Munshis"), just before the time of the onset of all-Indian dominance of the later English occupation, the suppression of institutions that combined English and traditional Indian education by way of the "sterilizing and imperialist" reforms of Macaulay, and the unleashing of the Christian "missionaries" in the later period, that led to the Raj, and India, as colonial subject nation within the British Empire, considered an "inferior and pagan" primitive culture, to be re-made in the image of, surprise, England.
In Kerala I had the privilege of visiting the Ayurvedic Hospital at Kottakkal, Arya Vaidya Sala; an Ayurvedic treatment ward for bone-fracture victims in what was then known as Trivandrum, witnessing demonstrations of Kalaripayattu martial arts, etc.
My impression is that, because of its distance from the centers of power in north India, or south central and south-eastern (Tamil) India, and its protection by such natural features as the Nilgiri mountains, that in Kerala certain very ancient aspects of Vedic Hindu culture (including systems of medicine like Ayurveda, Siddha, etc.) are better preserved than elsewhere.
This is, perhaps, similar to the preservation of certain aspects of ancient Chinese culture in Korea (music, for example) long after they had disappeared from mainland China?
Of course it is a "dramatic" fact that the educational demographics of Kerala today, and for some time, have made it the most literate state in India, and, in the United Nations "Human Development Index" Kerala is rated as high as many so-called "developed" modern western nations (if you adjust for income levels). Kerala's health system is extremely advanced, and the UN has sponsored several studies of the "Keralan development model" as a possible guide for other nations in the world.
The question of the "asuran" (demonic) heritage of the legendary Mahabali ("Maveli") in Keralan ancient tradition has been explained by one scholar as related to the differences in interpretation of asuras (vs. devas) between the two types of Aryans conquering, settling in India, Irano-Aryans vs. Indo-Aryans: a matter I am certainly not competent to comment on.
But, the story of Mahabali seems to indicate that he got very special treatment from Lord Vishnu, in the underworld, and, as he was brought forth from the underworld, to re-emerge in Kerala at Onan festival time..
best, Bill
"When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images." Niels Bohr
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Yeah, lots of links on Buddism in Kerala as you mentioned. Interesing read. Although I did Masters in Computers, I used to get history book from Public Library and read those. Never heard about this fact though. Thanks for this detail. I will continue reading on this.
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Malayalam got formed around 6th century as per this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam[^]. Either this song must have been a folklore earlier in the Tamil flavour of Malayalam, and later got translated into Malayalam. As it is an harvest festival, the song might have existed earlier.
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Interestingly, there is a group of folks who now insist Malayalam was not derived from Tamil and instead both languages have a common ancestor
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Malayalam and Tamil scripts are very different unlike Kannada and Telugu.
In context of the original post, I also feel that some of the east India scripts (Ex: Oriya script) looks similar to Thai language. Thaliand also refer to Ramayana I believe.
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Sharath C V wrote: Malayalam and Tamil scripts are very different unlike Kannada and Telugu.
I agree. But Mallus and Tamils do understand each other (more or less).
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I have heard limited Tulu, and find some similarity between Malayalam and Tulu. Some of the Tulu scripts are similar to Malayalam script.
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Today is the birthday of Sir M. Visvesvaraya celebrated as "Engineers' Day" in India. So to all the people out there, Wish you a very happy Engineers' Day.
For more information on Sir M. Visverwaraya have a look at Sir M.Visvesvaraya[^].
Thanks & Regards,
Vani Kulkarni
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Happy engineers day to you all...... 
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Happy Engineers day to all engineers here.
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गूगल टूल बार के बारे में जानकारी देने के लिए धन्यवाद.
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Work.
My name itself is a partial palindrome : AnuraGGuptA
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 ..yes..but apart from that...what are the other softskills should i do?
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Unless he works for Nokia and is lead dev for their new sms auto-complete system.
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Of course!
Is there such a thing, actually? What does it do? Translate txtspk to English?
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Make friends; know the company
Don't say that your knowledge on .NET, Java, etc. is 8/10
Listen.
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Nowadays, nobody cares that because most of them have smart mobiles with 2G/3G connection.
♦ Just because you can't think how it can be done doesn't mean it's impossible to do.
♦ Dissatisfaction is man’s driving force.
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Who hasn‘t asked this question?
How the little arrow moves on the screen of your computer when you move the mouse.
The mystery is finally solved……
Click on the link below, move the mouse towards the centre of the screen and all will be revealed.
Keep moving the mouse back and forth and stop in the centre.
Click here[^]
My name itself is a partial palindrome : AnuraGGuptA
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I can understand you have lot of time to resolve Mystery after Delivery 
Take chances, make mistakes, learn, laugh, love, live, succeed, prosper, and most importantly persevere. For every man dies but not every man truly lives...
There is no official coronation ceremony held to declare the lion as the king of the jungle.........Prerak Patel (SQOTD - 19/09/11)
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amitkarnik2211 wrote: I can understand you have lot of time to resolve Mystery after Delivery
No buddy, moved to another team after Delivery and hell loads of work. 
My name itself is a partial palindrome : AnuraGGuptA
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Also try clicking. 
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Crazy!!
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Hello everyone, I am going to buy a system. The thing is, I heard about something called SSD(Solid State Drive), which can be replaced instead of HDD for improved performance. I just wanted to know, if any one has already used or knew about it, how much is the effect of improved performance. I am asking this because, the price of 512GB SSD is way much higher than 1TB HDD.
The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which; he simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.
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I have gone through many posts in lounge talking about performance of SSD. It's remarkable improvement but if it is for home use, HDD suits quite well. Try a search through lounge.
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SSD's are still not very common in India.
Maybe if you post this in the hardware forum or in the Lounge, you may get more feedback.
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thank you very much
The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which; he simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.
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I spent last night watching 2 keynotes at the same time. My laptop was running VS2012 release event and my PC was running iPhone 5 release event.
I noticed a couple of things about the keynotes:
1. Apples keynote is more focused on Consumers but still it didn't had that captivating effect in it.
2. MSFT keynote was meant for developers but it was indeed quite interesting(so much that my wife watched it for 30 minutes)
The Apple's presentation looked like a specification sheet put in a Projector. While MSFT keynote looked like they wanted to target the IQ and EQ of technical guys. I think Steve Jobs was the king of presentations and after he is gone Apple's presentations are not so good. While MSFT brings a team of technical guys(who are supposed to be not good at presentations) and they conveyed everything pretty nicely.
P.S. As for the iPhone as a product itself - It seems there are not that many features and improvements in it as the hypes and rumors were saying. I was disappointed by Apple's presentation and product both.(and I used to be a die hard fan of Apple's presentations).
Any other thoughts or observations on the same?
Every now and then say, "What the Elephant." "What the Elephant" gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future.
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You know, I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with the iPhone presentation, but I think you're right. It was delivered by an accountant - lots of emphasis on figures, but not a lot of passion.
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Rahul Rajat Singh wrote: Any other thoughts or observations on the same?
I could not watch either of the two launches.
However, I'm a big Windows Phone supporter and I'm sticking to this platform for the moment (see my sig ).
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I am also a windows phone fan and not because I am a die hard MSFT follower or something. I just think Windows Phone is better.(and i have used iPhone and Android in the past)
Every now and then say, "What the Elephant." "What the Elephant" gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future.
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