Madras and its American connections by Mr. S. Muthiah, OBE, on April 9, 2016

 Attended talk by Mr. S. Muthiah on "Madras and its American connections" at the Dr. C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation. The lecture was very informative. Mr. Muthiah started with a brief biography of Elihu Yale before moving on to Cornwallis, Madras handkerchiefs, cotton, the ice house, American Jaffna missionaries, Samuel Green's Tamil translations of medical books, Winslow's Tamil-English dictionary, the Scudder family's contributions and Ida Scudder, the story of how the Americans tried to introduce the cotton gin into South India, J.S. Chandler the American who edited Madras University's Tamil lexicon, Henry Steel Olcott, the Women's Christian College, YMCA, the TB sanatorium at Madanapalle founded in 1915 by American missionaries which was the largest for its time, Pond's and the Tamil translation project sponsored by the Ford foundation. The lecture ended appropriately with a reference to the celebrated film-maker Ellis R. Dungan. Was utterly surprised to learn that United States of America in its fledgling days tried to start a sort-of East India Company along the Coromandel coast in the 1780s with a factory at Porto Novo. But the British in India appeared too strong for them and well entrenched, too. Also, I got to know that Kovilpatti in Tirunelveli dt. (then known as Tinnevely) was one of the biggest cotton producing centres in India back then. Another interesting fact was that Kodaikanal was discovered by American missionaries. But Mr. Muthiah (perhaps deliberately) left out any reference to the widespread belief that the first Indian to sail to the US in the 1790s was a native of Madras. Yeah, I know it is a baseless rumour not worth commenting upon. Also, the colourless life of Nathaniel Higginson, the first mayor of Madras and later a President of Fort St George wasn't worthy of consideration.

Kutar Memorial Lecture: Sogdian Fire Worship - Between Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Heating

 This is the first time that I'll be reviewing a talk that I attended online - the Kutar Memorial Lecture conducted by SOAS SPIZS on the topic "Sogdian Fire Worship - Between Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Heating" by Dr. Pavel B. Lurje at 5.00 PM GMT (10.30 PM IST) on 01-05-2025. For a starter, Sogdiana is the English name of Sugdh, a historical region that extended over western Tajikistan and eastern Uzbekistan. The region was the easternmost of the Persian-speaking world and comprises the second of the 16 divine lands created by Ahura Mazda, according to the Zoroastrian holy book, the Vendidad. The people followed a multitude of religions - Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Nestorian Christianity, Hellenistic paganism, Manichaeism and probably Tengrism and Turkic nature-worship, with Buddhism and Turkic ethnic groups predominating, before the region slowly accepted Islam between the 8th and 13th centuries AD.

And now, as for the lecture, Dr. Lurje began with a short history of Sogdiana and its traditional boundaries. Then, with beautiful photographs and illustrations, both historical and current, of the archaeological site of Panjikent, Dr. Lurje explained the importance of fire in Buddhist worship in the form of lamps and incense burners and points of overlap with Zoroastrianism in this respect. Many varieties of fire-stands and incense burners (and also fire altars) have been found in archaeological excavations in Sogdiana that it is almost impossible to conclude whether they were connected with Zoroastrian or Buddhist worship, as both the religions were prevalent here. But the speaker adopts a comparatively safe and secure method to conclude whether they were Buddhist or Zoroastrian First, Sogdiana was more Buddhist than Zoroastrian. Secondly, dating these archaeological sites was crucial in determining the nature of these shrines. Those of the Kushan period (1st century BC to 2nd century AD) were more likely Buddhist. Some of the so-called fire altars were too small and could instead be small fireplaces or lamps that served to illuminate the surrounding areas. The buildings in which they were found, too, didn't resemble temples. Moreover, Dr. Lurje gave the example of the Indus Valley, where incense burners and fireplaces were found, to put forth his point that such fire places need not serve a religious purpose alone. Dr. Lutje also explained the eclectic spiritual life of ancient Sogdians who even worshipped Hindu gods by assimilating them with their own Sogdian deities.

Dr. Lurje also interestingly remarks on how despite the fact that most religious texts of the Manichaen religion are written in the Sogdian language none of the texts were actually found in Sogdiana, itself.

Buddhist, Christian and Manichean manuscripts in the Sogdian language
 

Watercolor of a "chapel" in Panjikent with a fire-place

Drawing of a typical Sogdian "chapel" with a fire-place