Rare Vedic Ritual: Ashwamedha Yagam in Hyderabad

October 2005
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Oct 20: Come December 11 and Hyderabad will witness the revival of a rare Vedic ritual that was practised by saints and kings thousands of years ago.
City-based Aananda Aashramam will organise the "Ashwamedha Yagam", a quite popular Vedic ritual in ancient India but gradually lost patronage about 2000 years ago. Being performed for the first time in modern India, Ashwamedha Yagam is aimed at achieving world peace, communal harmony, individual and societal development and general well-being of humanity.
A notable feature of this Yagam is that people of all communities, religions and castes can participate in it offering prayers to the Almighty and invoking His Blessings for all.
"It is once in a life time opportunity. Ashwamedha Yagam is of two types - Snarta Ashwamedha Yagam and Srouta Ashwamedha Yagam. Kings who performed Srouta Ashwamedha Yagam used to sacrifice a horse at the end of it. The Snarta Ashwamedha Yagam was performed by saints and divine personalities without involving animal sacrifice. We are going to observe the Snarta variety in Hyderabad, reviving the tradition that had become extinct long ago," says organiser (Yaga Kartha) Dr PV Sesha Sai.
It is the most solemn and impressive cultic celebration of the Vedas and at the same time it is one of the most secular and political. The priestly role is not here so prominent as in most of the other sacrifices.
The sankalpa for this Yaga took place in the month of Maha Maghi (February) this year and after lot of exercises, we have selected the bright day of Margasira maas coupled with Sunday and Revati Star, which falls on December 11. Initially, we planned for 11 days but it is now reduced to eight days.
Jagadguru Sri Ganeshanada Bharathi Mahaswami will bless the Yagam which is performed as per Vedic traditions. It is a satvik yaga with an objective of Viswa Kalyan and Viswa Shanti. Soorya Yagam, Sri Yagam, Rudra Yagam and Sudharshana Yagam will also be performed as part of the main Ashwamedha Yagam. There will also be Pasupatha Prakriya and Brahmastra all under one roof.
Participant individuals may participate in Sri Sowra Yagam (for political prosperity), Sri Varuna Yagam (timely rains), Sri Runa Vimoc-hana Pasupatam (clearance of debts), Sri Kanya Pasupatam (for marriage), Sri Kubera Pasupatam (business development), Sri Mrutyunjaya Homam (long life), Sri Navagraha Pasupatam (relief from bad incidents). It is the first time that so many sub-yagams are performed along with Ashwamedha Yagam in the country.
Dr Sesha Sai points out that there is a clear distinction between the Ashvamedha (horse sacrifice) as an outward rite and that as an inward yagam. The external rite is declared to be the ‘king of the rites' by Shatapatha Brahmana and the rite was performed by kings. Even though the rite itself is performed over a period of three days, it needed preparation for a year or two.
Ashva the steed is the standard symbol for life-energy or life-power prana both inside the human and in the cosmos and Medha means both `offering' and ‘intelligence'. Ashvamedha for saints means offering of the life-power with all its impulses, desires, enjoyments, frustrations and also its material counterpart. And for kings it is a royal sacrifice offered by a victorious rulers, he explains.
The programme will also include two Avadhanas, honoring of 108 couples, 108 students, 108 housewives and 108 small girls and recitation of Shri Vishnu Parayana for 1000 times, 100,00,000 Kunkumaarchana; Rudrabhishek using 100000 rudraakshaas and 108 Havan Kunds, besides a Sarva Dharma Sammelan to send a signal of oneness of the humankind.
About 100 acres of land is selected for the Yagam and 300 Vedic scholars will participate in it. There will be horses, camels, elephants and cows for worship. Kuchipudi, Bharata natyam, vocal, carnatic, hindustani and mrigandam artistes will give live performance during the programme.

University of Hyderabad in a thick of controversy

2005
Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Oct 31: The prestigious University of Hyderabad is once again in the thick of controversy. This time over the decision to allot 200 acres of its prime land to Care Foundation, a private institution which wants to build a superspeciality hospital and research centre on the campus.
The university has reportedly entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Care Foundation without the mandatory approval of the academic council or the executive council. University sources said vice-chancellor Seyed E Hasnain had kept both the councils in the dark over the proposal to allot the land to the Care Foundation.
He simply informed the executive council about the plan without naming the organisation (Care Foundation) to which the land would be given. The VC's decision to hand over 200 acres of land worth around Rs 1000 crore to a private body has raised many an eyebrow. "Does a research foundation require 200 acres of land? Will it not do with a couple of acres," is the general refrain in the university circles.
Moreover, neither the vice-chancellor nor the university has any right whatsoever to alienate the campus land without the prior approval of the State government. The land given to the University of Hyderabad is an "assigned land" which means the university can just enjoy the rights without selling it or leasing it out to a third party. The State government while making the land allocation on February 21, 1975 made it clear that the "allocation was conditional". If the university goes ahead with its proposal, it will be flouting the State government rules and the University Notification.
The University has already lost 700 acres of its total 2300 acres land to various institutions in the past five years. The previous Telugu Desam government alienated 400 acres of HCU land to controversial sports firm IMG Bharata and 34 acres to Reddy Labs. Recently, 13 acres of land was given to a games village for the World Military Games scheduled for next year. The IIIT also took away a major portion of the university land.
But unlike the present Care Foundation deal, the State government whenever it took away university land it did so through a memorandum of understanding i.e. allocation of alternative land to the university. The State government while making allocation of the land to the university had also specified that the campus should be used for education and technology only. If the university wants to alienate the land it should obtain prior permission from the State government. In the Care Foundation case, no such permission has been obtained.
"The vice-chancellor has taken a unilateral decision. He did not get the approval of the EC or the AC. What is the need to keep the information about this deal secret. Proper procedures were not followed. A centre for higher learning like this, in the name of advancement of its academic stature, can not give away land indiscriminately to other agencies which seek to make profit out of the precious University land," argues senior CPM leader DG Narasimha Rao, who has been fighting for the protection of HCU lands.
Land prices in the HCU area have skyrocketed in the recent past and an acre of land there now costs Rs 5 crore. This means the university authority had agreed to give away Rs 1000 crore worth land to a private foundation.
"If there is nothing wrong in the deal, why then it is being kept in secrecy? Why the authorities did not discuss the issue with the academic, non-academic or the student community. Why the State government was not taken into confidence? We demand that all the relevant documents and papers should be made public," observed S Sudharshan Rao, president of HCU Non-teaching Employees' Association.
Many in the academic circles wonder what has forced the vice-chancellor to propose 200 acres of prime land to Care Foundation, when the Central or the State governments are now making do with just a few acres of land for research institutions.
Only recently Hasnain told reporters that the university would have buildings staggered all around the campus to prevent land acquisitions by government. "Our new institutions will be spawned on the university land to enable us to keep our land with us," he had pointed out.

Beware of packaged drinking water: Check out for pathogens, chemical residues

August 26, 2005
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Aug 25: The next time you buy packaged drinking water make it sure that you are not buying harmful bacteria and other pathogens. Most of the packaged drinking water brands available in the market fail one or the other quality test and only a few of them conform to the international standards.
An analysis of six leading packaged water brands including Bisleri, Kinley and Aquafina at the State government-controlled State Food Laboratory showed that some samples were acidic, which simply means that the water is more fit for gardening than drinking or sprinkling over body to reduce pain from intense mosquito bites.
Moreover, some of the samples had relatively high total dissolved solids indicating that the claim of manufactures of employing reverse osmosis methods is bogus. A water sample even had coliform bacteria and aerobic microbial count which shows that the source of water is contaminated with human or animal faeces.
Bisleri water had failed the all-important microbilogical examination
at the State Food Laboratory. The aerobic microbial count (total plate count) should 100 colonies per ml. There were four colonies/ml of Coliform bacteria. However, no E. coli, salmonella, yeast and molds and S aureus were found either in Bisleri or other water samples.
The presence of coliform indicates that the water may be contaminated with human or animal wastes. Pathogens in water cause diarrhoea, cramps, nausea and headaches and may pose a severe health risk for infants and children.
Packaged water bottles of Bisleri, Kinley, Fresh, Aqua God, Aquafina and Manjeera as also municipal tap water filtered through Aquaguard were analysed. Tap water filtered through Aquaguard was found to be safe. The water bottles were purchased from different shops in Secunderabad area.
However, no tests were conducted for the presence of Cryptosporidium, a protozoan parasite commonly present in water bodies. Cryptosporidium tests are not mandatory though bottled water sources often are just as prone to Cryptosporidium contamination as any other drinking water source.
When contacted M Rajendra Prasad, manager of the local Bisleri unit, told this correspondent that he would not make any comment. "I am out of city and will be back on Tuesday. I will comment only after seeing the laboratory report," he said.
Bisleri and Fresh samples showed a pH of 6.83 and 6.9 respectively which in other words means the water is acidic. Drinking water is normally neutral (pH of 7). According to international standards as also those framed by the United States Environment Protection Agency, any water that has a pH of 5.8 to 6.9 is acidic as it contains full of hydrogen ions. Acidic water is good for external use and industrial purposes, but not for long-term human consumption. If consumed the water attracts minerals from the body and cause mineral deficiencies.
Acidic water is also good for plant growth, crops, and livestock as it will help keep a much lower mortality rate and cleaner environment by killing bacteria. It provides excellent relief from mosquito bites.
Bisleri, Kinley, Fresh and Aqua Gold had total dissolved solids of 62 mg/lt, 68 mg/lt, 112 mg/lt and 118 mg/lt respectively while the US Environmental Protection Agency norms indicate that ideal drinking water from reverse osmosis, distillation, deionisation and microfiltration should contain TDS less than 50 mg/lt. The test showed that the claims of several companies on employing reverse osmosis and other filtration methods were hollow and bogus.
Bisleri and Kinley had 10.44 mg/lt and 0.90 mg/lt of nitrates while tap water had just 2.88 mg/lt nitrates. Though all samples except Bisleri had nitrates within the maximum contaminant level of 10 mg/lt, the lesser the nitrates content the good the quality of water. Presence of nitrates in water means contamination from runoff from fertiliser use, leaking from septic tanks, sewage or erosion of natural deposits.
Infants below the age of six months who drink water containing nitrates in excess of MCL could become seriously ill and, if untreated, may die. Symptoms include shortness of breath and blue baby syndrome.
However, all the samples pass the turbidity, cyanide, mineral oil and fluoride tests. As for as chlorides and sulphates are concerned, even the WHO has not set any standards for these materials.
Except Bisleri, all the samples including tap water were declared "not adulterated" by the State Food Laboratory primarily because they did not contain any pathogens or cyanide.
Of the 358 water samples tested by BIS, 297 passed the quality test and remaining 61 samples failed to meet the required quality norms.
"We have been analysing samples quite regularly. Whenever we find any deviation in quality, we take action including cancellation of licences. If the State Food Lab report mentions about adulteration of water samples, complaint can be lodged with us for further action," Bureau of Indian Standards Hyderabad unit head RS Sarma observed.

IICT develops mechanism to filter out fluoride content from water

2005
Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Aug 4: City-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology has developed a simple but effective mechanism to filter out fluoride content from water in villages affected by fluorosis.
The machine which works on reverse osmosis system provides 600 litres of pure fluroride- and bacteria-free water per hour. A litre of pure water costs less than five paise. It gives out water containing less than 0.5 ppm of fluoride and about 20 ppm of total dissolved solids, which are essential nutrients required by humans, from raw water containing 1200 ppm of TDS.
The IICT has set up a pilot plant in Mylaram village of Nalgonda district at a cost of Rs 3.5 lakh. The rejection of TDS is about 98 per cent and fluoride is 92 per cent. The flux is generally maintained at 25 litres per hour metre cube and quantity of water recovered for drinking is about 65 per cent. The remaining 35 per cent water is the reject for disposal, which can be used for washing of clothes or gardening.
IICT director Dr JS Yadav told reporters on Thursday that Andhra Pradesh had many places with high content of fluoride and people living in these areas were affected by weakening of skeletal and dental framework, knock knee, cataract, low blood pressure and gastro-enteritis. Ground water in Nalgonda contains 20 ppm fluoride as against the permissible level of 1.5 ppm (Indian standards) and 0.5 ppm (WHO standards).
Dr Yadav said current methods such as "Nalgonda Technique", which involve removal of fluoride by adsorption, suffer from disadvantages like poor fluoride removal capacity, inability to separate imputeries (sulphates and micro-organism), low flow rates and high operating costs.

People in Andhra Pradesh are nutritionally "backward"

2005
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, July 15: People in Andhra Pradesh are "starved" nutritionally when compared with those living in many States in the country.
According to a research study carried out by Andhra Pradesh Social Watch (Report 2005), chronic energy deficiency is observed in 37.4 per cent of men and 42 per cent of women living in villages. The scenario, however, is slightly better in towns and cities.
The average protein intake of both rural and urban Andhraites is just 62 (gm/cu/day) as against the all-India figure of 71.50. They also lag behind in fat intake. The State's average fat consumption is 50.7 gm/cu/day as compared with the all-India intake of 60.70 gm/cu/day.
Consumption of pulses in the State is 860 grams per head per month as against the all-India average of 960 grams.
The study points out that the per capita consumption of food items in the State is largely below the Indian Council of Medical Research norms. Even in urban areas, out of 10 food items examined during the survey, not a single food item is consumed according to the ICMR norms.
As many as 10.5 per cent of children in the State are severely undernourished and 28.2 per cent are moderately undernourished. The incidence of moderate malnutrition implies that the affected children may not reach their full physical and mental potential while severe malnutrition indicates that they may be functionally impaired.
No wonder then that Andhra Pradesh ranks 13 among 16 top States in the country in terms of food availability situation.
The per capita consumption of milk in the State is 3.96 litres per month as compared with 4.59 litres national average. Fish consumption is just 0.08 kgs per month in the State while the all-India average is 0.22 kgs. Break-up of other food items in the State with national average in brackets is: edible oil 0.60 kgs (0.72 kgs), vegetables 2.93 kgs (3.02 kgs), fruits 0.97 kgs (1.06 kg) and sugar 0.67 kgs (1.00 kg). Only in the case of cereals, the State is slightly ahead with just 42 grams per month. The State's per capita monthly consumption of cereals is 10.94 kgs (10.42 kgs all India).
Even in the case of production too, the State lags behind. Production of cereals in the State is only 363.35 grams per capita while ICMR norms stipulate 420 grams per head per day. The all-India average is 430.33 grams. About 40 grams of pulses are needed per head per day while the actual net production in the State is just 22.68 grams (all-India average is 31.94 grams).
"Consumption of food too provides important information about the food security status. In Andhra pradesh there's deficit in production over consumption of cereals. While net production of cereals is 381.90 grams per day the actual consumption is 442.33 grams," the report points out.
Though the Rural Food Insecurity Atlas (prepared by Dr MS Swaminathan Foundation and World Food Programme) has shown surplus net production of milk, edible oil, sugar and fruits in Andhra Pradesh, the same is not reflected in the per capita consumption in urban areas. In the case of cereals, 87 per cent of the ICMR norm is fulfilled but when it comes to pulses it is only 73 per cent. It is as low as 24 per cent in the case of eggs.
Stating that food consumption pattern across classes of consumers too demonstrates the food insecurity situation, the report points out that per capita monthly consumption for cereals is 10.94 kgs for all classes while it is only 9.67 kgs for the lowest 10 per cent.
This difference is viewed in the consumption of other food items as well. The per capita monthly consumption of pulses for all classes is 0.86 kgs but it is as low as 0.46 kgs for the lowest 10 per cent of the population.

"Marriage pill" to reduce the high incidence of central nervous system defects in children

2005
Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, July 6: City doctors have come out with what they call "marriage pill" to reduce the high incidence of central nervous system defects in children born in Andhra Pradesh.
The "marriage pill" is nothing but a simple combination of folic acid and vitamins which, if taken by pregnant women, will result in the birth of healthy babies. Andhra Pradesh, particularly Hyderabad has been witnessing high incidence of child births with central nervous system and spine defects.
This is linked to lack of awareness and care during pregnancy.
"The foetus with central nervous system defects have open skull. Such babies die. In foetus with spine defects the back is open with nerves being exposed. The nerves are destroyed leading to poor or lack of bladder and bowel moments. We always thought a healthy mother will give birth to a healthy baby. Which is not true, a healthy mother can still have a foetus with defects," says Dr Evita Fernandez.
The marriage pill will help solve the problem to a large extent, she pointed out. Folic acid when combined with a dose of vitamins particularly B vitamin, prevents birth defects of the brain and spinal cord. The marriage pill has to be taken very early in pregnancy.
Research studies suggest that folic acid may also protect women and men from stroke and cancers of colon and breast.