தமிழ் எழுத்துக்களின் ஒலிப் பிறப்பு/ முறையான உச்சரிப்பு / எழுத்து-பிறக்குமிடம்

எழுத்துக்களைச் சரியாக உச்சரிக்கவில்லையென்றால் சொற்களின் பொருள்கள் வேறுபட்டுவிடும். நாம் பேசுவதன் கருத்தைப் பிறை தெளிவாக மயக்கத்திற்கு இடமின்றி உணர்ந்துகொள்ள வேண்டுமெனில் நாம் சொற்களில் உள்ள எழுத்துக்களைச் சரியாக உச்சரிக்க வேண்டும். தமிழ் மொழியில் சில எழுத்துக்களை உச்சரித்தல் கடினமானது. சிற்சில எழுத்துக்களின் உச்சரிப்புகளில் நுண்ணிய வேறுபாடுகளே உள்ளன. தமிழ் மொழிக்கே சிறப்பாக அமைந்துள்ள சில (ல,ள,ழ, ந,ன,ண,ர,ற) எழுத்துக்களைச் சரியாக உச்சரிப்பதற்கு இது உங்களுக்குத் துணையாக இருக்கும் என எண்ணுகிறோம்.

உச்சரிப்புக்கு முதன்மையாய் உள்ளது வாய். வாயில் பலவேறு பகுதிகள் உள்ளன. அவற்றுள் முக்கியமானவை.நா(க்கு)பற்கள்உதடுகள்அண்ணம்ஈறுஉள்நாக்கு முதலியன.அண்ணம் என்பது, வாயில் அரைவட்டமாக உள்ள மேல் பகுதி. இந்த அண்ணத்தை மூன்று பகுதிகளாகக் கூறலாம். மேல் முன் பற்களுக்கு அருகில் உள்ளது நுனி அண்ணம்; அண்ணத்தின் இடைப்பகுதி நடு அண்ணம்; நடு அண்ணத்துக்கும் உள் நாக்குக்கும் இடைப்பட்ட அடி அண்ணம். முதலில் இவற்றை நன்றாக நினைவில் கொள்ள வேண்டும்.உச்சரிப்பில் நுணுக்கமான வேறுபாடுகளை உடைய எழுத்துகள் சில உள்ளன. அவ்வெழுத்துகளை மூன்று தொகுதிகளாக இங்கு எடுத்துக் கொள்வோம். அவை;(அ) ல, ழ, ள(ஆ)ண, ந, ன(இ) ர, ற என்பன.முதலில் ல, ள, ழ - இவற்றை எப்படி உச்சரிக்க வேண்டும் என்பதை அறிந்து கொள்ளலாம்."ல"வின் பின், "ள", அதன் பின்னர் "ழ" என்னும் முறையில் இம்மூன்று எழுத்துகளும் வரும் என்பதை நினைவில் கொண்டால் உச்சரிப்புச் சீராய் வரும்.ல, ள, ழ - என்னும் இவ்வெழுத்துகளையும் இவற்றின் இன எழுத்துகளையும் கொண்ட சில சொற்களும் அவற்றின் பொருள்களும் கீழே கொடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. அவற்றைத் தெரிந்து கொள்வது நல்லது.பலம் - சத்து , வலிமை ( ஒரு பலம் - முன் வழக்கில் இருந்த நிறுத்தல் அளவை )பழம் - கனி, மூத்தது, முதிர்ந்ததுவலம் - வலப்பக்கம்,வெற்றிவளம் - மிகுதி,அழகு,செல்வம்,செழுமைவிலா - வயிற்றின் பக்கப் பகுதிவிளா - விளாமரம்விழா - திருவிழாவலி - நோய்,வல்லமை,இழு(த்தல்)வளி - காற்றுவழி - பாதை,இடம்,காரணம், மிகுந்து வடி(தல்)விலை - பொருளின் மதிப்புவிளை - உண்டாக்கு, ஏற்படுவிழை - விரும்பு,வேண்டு,பழகுகொழு - கொழுத்தல், கொழுப்புகொளு - கருத்து,பொருத்தும் கருவிகொலு - கொலு வைத்தல், கொலு வீற்றிருத்தல்வால் - விலங்குகளின் வால், தொங்கும் உறுப்புவாள் - வெட்டும்/அறுக்கும் கருவி, அரிவாள்வாழ் - பிழைத்திரு,உயிர்வாழ்இவ்வாறு பல சொற்கள் உள்ளன. அவற்றின் எழுத்துகளும் உச்சரிப்புகளும் மாறுபடுவதால் பொருள்களும் மாறுபடுகின்றன என்பதை நினைவில் கொள்ள வேண்டும்.இப்படிப் பொருள் வேறுபடும் சில வாக்கியங்களையும் காண்போம்.(எ-டு)தவலை கிணற்றில் விழுந்தது.தவளை கிணற்றில் விழுந்தது.முன்னது " தவலை " - அதாவது நீர்க்குடம் கிணற்றில் விழுந்தது என்றும், பின்னது " தவளை " - நீர்வாழ் உயிரினம் ஒன்று நீரில் குதித்தது என்றும் பொருள்படும்.தலையை வெட்டினான்.தழையை வெட்டினான்.இவற்ற்றில் முன்னது உடல் உறுப்பாகிய " தலையை " வெட்டினான் என்னும் பொருளையும், பின்னது " தழையை " - அதாவது தாவரங்களின் இலையை வெட்டினான் என்னும் பொருளையும் உணர்த்தும். உச்சரிப்புத் தவறானால் பொருளே வேறுவிதமாய்ப் போய்விடுகிறதல்லவா ? இப்படிப் பல எடுத்துக் காட்டுகளைச் சொல்லலாம்.ல, ள, ழ - இம்மூன்று எழுத்துகளின் முறையான உச்சரிப்பையும், அவ்வெழுத்துகளாலாகும் சொற்களைத் தவறாக உச்சரிப்பதால் ஏற்படும் பொருள் மாற்றத்தையும் அறிந்தோம்.தொல்காப்பியம் > எழுத்ததிகாரம் (பிறப்பியல்)உந்தி முதலா முந்து வளி தோன்றிதலையினும் மிடற்றினும் நெஞ்சினும் நிலைஇபல்லும் இதழும் நாவும் மூக்கும்அண்ணமும் உளப்பட எண் முறை நிலையான்உறுப்பு உற்று அமைய நெறிப்பட நாடிஎல்லா எழுத்தும் சொல்லும் காலைபிறப்பின் ஆக்கம் வேறு வேறு இயலதிறப்படத் தெரியும் காட்சியான. 1அவ் வழி,பன்னீர் உயிரும் தம் நிலை திரியாமிடற்றுப் பிறந்த வளியின் இசைக்கும். 2அவற்றுள்,அ ஆ ஆயிரண்டு அங்காந்து இயலும். 3இ ஈ எ ஏ ஐ என இசைக்கும்அப் பால் ஐந்தும் அவற்று ஓரன்னஅவைதாம்,அண்பல் முதல் நா விளிம்பு உறல் உடைய. 4உ ஊ ஒ ஓ ஔ என இசைக்கும்அப் பால் ஐந்தும் இதழ் குவிந்து இயலும். 5தம்தம் திரிபே சிறிய என்ப. 6ககார ஙகாரம் முதல் நா அண்ணம். 7சகார ஞகாரம் இடை நா அண்ணம். 8டகார ணகாரம் நுனி நா அண்ணம். 9அவ் ஆறு எழுத்தும் மூ வகைப் பிறப்பின. 10அண்ணம் நண்ணிய பல் முதல் மருங்கில்நா நுனி பரந்து மெய் உற ஒற்றதாம் இனிது பிறக்கும் தகார நகாரம். 11அணரி நுனி நா அண்ணம் ஒற்றறஃகான் னஃகான் ஆயிரண்டும் பிறக்கும். 12நுனி நா அணரி அண்ணம் வருடரகார ழகாரம் ஆயிரண்டும் பிறக்கும். 13நா விளிம்பு வீங்கி அண்பல் முதல் உறஆவயின் அண்ணம் ஒற்றவும் வருடவும்லகார ளகாரம் ஆயிரண்டும் பிறக்கும். 14இதழ் இயைந்து பிறக்கும் பகார மகாரம். 15பல் இதழ் இயைய வகாரம் பிறக்கும். 16அண்ணம் சேர்ந்த மிடற்று எழு வளி இசைகண்ணுற்று அடைய யகாரம் பிறக்கும். 17மெல்லெழுத்து ஆறும் பிறப்பின் ஆக்கம்சொல்லிய பள்ளி நிலையின ஆயினும்மூக்கின் வளி இசை யாப்புறத் தோன்றும். 18சார்ந்து வரின் அல்லது தமக்கு இயல்பு இல எனத்தேர்ந்து வெளிப்படுத்த ஏனை மூன்றும்தம்தம் சார்பின் பிறப்பொடு சிவணிஒத்த காட்சியின் தம் இயல்பு இயலும். 19எல்லா எழுத்தும் வெளிப்படக் கிளந்துசொல்லிய பள்ளி எழுதரு வளியின்பிறப்பொடு விடுவழி உறழ்ச்சி வாரத்துஅகத்து எழு வளி இசை அரில் தப நாடிஅளபின் கோடல் அந்தணர் மறைத்தே. 20அஃது இவண் நுவலாது எழுந்து புறத்து இசைக்கும்மெய் தெரி வளி இசை அளபு நுவன்றிசினே. 21

Now There’s a Way Around Paralysis: “Neural Bypass” Links Brain to Hand

The achievement, reported today in Nature, caps a decade of research on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) for paralyzed people.

Doctors couldn’t fix Ian Burkhart’s spinal cord injury. So engineers figured out a way around it.

Their “neural bypass” system uses a brain implant to record the electrical signals generated when Burkhart tries to move one of his paralyzed hands. Those signals are decoded by a computer and routed to an electronic sleeve that stimulates Burkhart’s forearm muscles in precise patterns. The result looks surprisingly simple and natural: When Burkhart thinks about picking up a bottle, he picks up the bottle. When he thinks about playing a chord in Guitar Hero, he plays the chord.

Yet the technology at work is far from simple. The achievement, reported today in Nature, caps a decade of research on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) for paralyzed people. In 2006, a quadriplegic man used a brain implant to control the movements of a computer cursor; six years later a quadriplegic woman used an implant to control a robotic arm, which she used to independently bring a coffee drink to her lips. Meanwhile, other researchers have investigated different ways to control paralyzed limbs with electricity, using stimulating electrodes to jolt muscles into action.

Today’s announcement marks the first time these two technologies have been combined to help one human. BCIs had previously shown progress “with cursor control, using a computer, being able to operate devices, and even prosthetic arms,” says Chad Bouton, a study coauthor who researches bioelectronic medicine at the Feinstein Institute on Long Island. “But no one had restored any movement to the arm. We decided to take it to that next level.”

Burkhart broke his neck during a beach vacation in 2010 when an ocean wave drove him down into a sandbar, breaking his neck. He was paralyzed from the fifth cervical vertebrae down, meaning that he could move his head, neck, and upper arms, but nothing else. “For me, being in a wheelchair and not being able to walk isn’t the biggest thing,” he said at a press briefing yesterday. “It’s the lack of independence I have, because I have to rely on other people for so many things.”

By demonstrating that Burkhart could use the neural bypass for functional movements like swiping a credit card, the researchers offer hope to paralyzed people seeking renewed autonomy. Right now, the experimental system can only be used in the lab. But the long-term goal is to build a system that’s safe and simple enough for people to use at home.

Here’s how the neural bridge works. The implant’s array of 96 electrodes record the electrical activity when brain cells “fire” in a particular part of Burkhart’s motor cortex, which is active when he imagines hand movements. But understanding the data from the implant is a monstrously difficult task. Each of the 96 electrodes measures activity 30,000 times per second, so there’s a great deal of noise obscuring the discrete signal that means, for example, “flex the thumb.”

Burkhart attended up to three sessions weekly for 15 weeks to train the system in understanding his brain signals. First he would watch an animated hand on a computer screen flex its thumb, and he’d imagine making that movement while the implant recorded his neurons’ activity. Over time, a machine-learning algorithm figured out which pattern of activity corresponded to a thumb flex.

Now that the system recognizes the signal, it can generate a pattern of electrical pulses, mimicking the pulses the brain would typically send down an undamaged spinal cord and through the nerves. The pulses go to the sleeve on Burkhart’s forearm that consists of 130 electrodes, which stimulate specific muscles to flex the thumb. The researchers carried out the same process for many different motions of his fingers, hand, and wrist.

While other research groups are experimenting with wrapping implanted electrodes around the nerves themselves to stimulate muscles, Bouton’s team chose to use non-invasive electrodes to stimulate the muscles through the skin. Bouton says they made that decision to keep the system simple and make it adaptable to home use. The electrode sleeve “could be part of a shirt in the future,” he says.

Making a home-use model of the neural bypass still requires some big technical leaps, however. To use the current system, Burkhart must attach a cable to the small “pedestal” that juts out of his skull. The researchers want to develop a way to wirelessly send the implant’s data to a computer, but the sheer amount of data being transferred poses a problem. “About 1 gigabyte of data comes off Ian’s brain every three minutes,” says Nick Annetta, a study coauthor from Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio.

Researchers are also working to keep the implant functional over many years. The brain treats it as a foreign body and can “encapsulate” the electrodes as a protective measure, preventing them from recording signals from the neurons. In the two years since Burkhart received his implant, some of the 96 electrodes have stopped transmitting data, the scientists say. But enough are still operating to keep the system functioning.

But having come this far, the research team is optimistic that the next challenges will be overcome in due course. And for all the technological prowess required, Burkhart says the most exciting part is how the gear could eventually fade into the background of his life. Burkhart adds that regaining use of his natural arm appeals to him much more than using a BCI to control a robotic prosthetic arm. “It allows me to function almost as a normal member of society,” he says, “and not be treated as a cyborg.”

http://www.nature.com/…/journal/vaop/…/full/nature17435.html

http://spectrum.ieee.org/…/now-theres-a-way-around-paralysi…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60fAjaRfwnU

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5167938.stm

Cecile G. Tamura 

What is quantum weirdness?

Physicists reveal a new explanation that could help build superfast advanced computers

From particles that only exist as probabilities to cats that are both alive and dead until you open a box, the strange features of quantum physics have been studied for the last hundred years.

But now two papers have been published that put these 'weird' features of the quantum world to good use.

Researchers have developed a method to quantify how useful different quantum systems might be for practical applications - and which will help us build efficient, small quantum computers.

Einstein described classical and quantum mechanics as 'two contradictory pictures of reality; separately neither of them fully explains the phenomena of light, but together they do.'

Things observed in quantum mechanics do not fit into our understanding of reality, because we observe only classical physics in our day to day lives.

One example of the strange features of quantum physics, or the rules that govern the smallest particles, is quantum superposition.

This is the property that allows an object to be in two states at the same time, which can be described by the famous Schrodinger's cat.

Quantum superposition, also known as quantum coherence, means particles can be in two states at once until a measurement takes place.

We know superposition actually occurs at the subatomic level because there are observable effects of interference, in which a single particle is demonstrated to be in multiple locations simultaneously.

For example, interference of particles in the double slit experiment.

But researchers from Nottingham and Strathclyde Universities are trying to put a measurement to these strange features.

Now, in two new papers, a team of physicists (Carmine Napoli, et al., and Marco Piani, et al.) has introduced a way to quantify the usefulness of quantum coherence by looking at this property from a different perspective.

The team has developed a new measurement method, which can be applied to different quantum systems and work out how useful it might be.

The new measurement method can answer questions like how useful a system's quantum superposition will be for a task like encoding and decoding secret messages.

In other words, the new method quantifies the advantage of using quantum mechanics.

'We introduce a new way to quantify quantum coherence, the quintessential signature of quantum mechanics, capturing the extent to which a system can live in a superposition of distinct states (like a coin being simultaneously heads and tails, or a famous cat dead and alive),' the researchers said.

The usefulness of quantum coherence can be described by a measure they introduce as the 'robustness of quantum coherence.'

Basically, this measures how easy it is to destroy a state's quantum coherence.

The concept is a specific version of a more general measure the scientists introduce called the 'robustness of asymmetry.'

When a quantum system is asymmetrical, it is possible to distinguish between different 'rotations' of the system.

Physicists can then use the system as a physical reference frame, which could be used to make extremely precise measurements that would not be possible without asymmetry.

Overall, the physicists see the results as a step forward in the quest to turn the strange features of quantum mechanics into something useful.

On top of benefiting physics applications such as quantum measurements and secure communication, the new measure could also be used to quantify quantum coherence in biological systems, like photosynthesis and bird navigation, the researchers say.

'The realisation that quantum properties can be harnessed for practical applications is presently fuelling a heated international race to develop and deploy quantum technologies,' the physicists wrote.

'This is no coincidence: the improved study and test of fundamental quantum properties and our increased ability to exploit them go hand in hand.'

http://journals.aps.org/…/ab…/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.150502

http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.03782

http://journals.aps.org/…/abstra…/10.1103/PhysRevA.93.042107

http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.03781

http://phys.org/…/2016-04-physicists-quantify-quantum-weird…

https://pure.strath.ac.uk/…/robustness-of-asymm…/export.html

Volkswagen Direct Shift Gearbox

You Lose Consciousness Every Minute of Every Day Suggests New Study

Time Slices: What Is the Duration of a Percept?

The world surrounding you right now appears to be fully realized, perceived by you in a continuous stream of information. But a new study suggests that your senses may be deceiving you. According to the research team led by the Swiss Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), there are gaps in consciousness when your brain processes information. During these gaps or “time slices” that last up to 400ms, you are essentially unconscious and cannot perceive time.

Our minds process the world as a series of 'bite-sized slices' edited together

What the scientists propose is that consciousness works in two stages. During the unconscious stage, the brain processes data about the objects it perceived, formulating such features as color and shape.

Then the brain renders all the features conscious, “sometimes even hundreds of milliseconds after stimuli were presented” as the paper states. The delay in processing information is because ”the brain wants to give you the best, clearest information it can, and this demands a substantial amount of time," explains Michael Herzog from EPFL. "There is no advantage in making you aware of its unconscious processing, because that would be immensely confusing."

After the processing concludes, you become aware of the object. How long you are conscious has not yet been concluded. But then you go back to more unconscious processing for another nearly half a second and the process repeats over and over.

The scientists came to their conclusions via experiments that involved showing subjects two images in rapid succession - a green disc in one corner and a red disc in another. While their brain activity was monitored, the subjects were told to differentiate between the images. The subjects seemed to sense the color changes before they happened, indicating that the conscious experience of the objects happened retroactively, with the people seeing each disc at two different positions, processing that visual information and then filling in the gaps.

The implications of this study will go beyond their field, according to the researchers. Their paper sees such conclusions being "crucial for neuroscience and computer vision, which both have to provide answers to the question of what aspects of processing are rendered 'conscious,' and at what time.

Our model also advances neural coding theory because it allows distinctions to be made between neural states corresponding to the unsconsious processing and stable attractor states that represent the meaningful percept. As importantly, our model challenges prominent theories on philosophy of mind, which assume that consciousness is a continuous stream."

http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article…

http://bigthink.com/…/you-lose-consciousness-every-minute-o…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_coding

http://www.nature.com/neu…/journal/…/n11/abs/nn1199_947.html

பேராசிரியர் முத்துக்குமரன் மறைந்தார்

பாரதிதாசன் பல்கலைக் கழகத் துணைவேந்தராக இரண்டுமுறை பதவி வகித்தவர் பேராசிரியர் ச.முத்துக்குமரன் (வயது 84).
1996இல் தமிழ்நாடு உயர்கல்வி மன்றத்தின் உறுப்பினர் செயலராகப் பணியாற்றினார். 2001இல் அதன் துணைத்தலைவர் பொறுப்பையும் வகித்தார்.
இதனைத் தொடர்ந்து தமிழக அரசின் “சமச்சீர் கல்வித் திட்ட”க்குழுவின் தலைவராகவும் பணியாற்றினார். அறிவியல் நகரத்தின் செயற்குழுவின் தலைவராகவும் இருந்திருக்கிறார்.
தமிழ்ப் பயிற்று மொழியாக வேண்டும் என்பதற்காக பெரிதும் உழைத்தவர்களின் பட்டியலில் முக்கிய இடத்தைப் பிடித்தவர் பேராசிரியர் ச.முத்துக்குமரனாவார்.
1966 முதல் 1976 வரையிலான காலக்கட்டத்தில் கிண்டி பொறியியல் கல்லூரியில் பணியாற்றும் போதே தமிழ் ஆட்சி மொழி, பயிற்று மொழி, கலைச்சொல் ஆக்கம் இவற்றில் ஈடுபாடு கொண்டு உழைத்து வந்தார்.
பொறியியல் கல்லூரி தமிழ்மன்றத் தலைவராக பல ஆண்டுகள் பணியாற்றினார்.
இவர் துணைவேந்தராகப் பதவி வகித்தபோது ஐந்து துறைகளுக்குத் தேவையான எல்லா பாடநூல்களையும் தமிழில் எழுதி வெளியிட ஏற்பாடு செய்தார் என்பது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.
அனைத்துத் துறைகளிலும் தமிழின் மூலம் சாதிக்க முடியும் என்பதில் அழுத்தமான நம்பிக்கை வைத்திருந்த பேராசிரியர் ச.முத்துக்குமரன் அவர்கள்,  (14.04.2016) அதிகாலை தன் இயக்கத்தை நிறுத்திக் கொண்டார்.
அன்னாரின் இறுதிச் சடங்குகள் சென்னை பெசன்ட் நகரில் உள்ள அவரது இல்லத்தில் இன்று பிற்பகல் நடக்கிறது.

(பேராசிரியரின் மகனார் மு.மேகநாதன் அவர்களின் தொடர்புக்கு 97102 29910 -
044 24914270)

The breakthrough that could mean the end of hip and knee replacements

Would you pay 8,000 dollars to get another 20 years out of your knee, hip, and ankle joints? No matter what the cost, you can’t put a price on being able to ski into your 90’s…

“To see these results is incredibly encouraging.”– Dr. Julien Frietag,

Bright Future

Written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Bright Future is a 2003 Japanese psychological drama starring Tadanobu Asano, Joe Odagiri and Tatsuya Fuji.

Mamoru (Asano) and Yuji (Odagiri) are two friends who both work dead-end jobs in a Tokyo factory. Both men hate their boss (Takashi Sasano) and Mamoru is obsessed with acclimatizing a poisonous jellyfish he keeps at home to fresh water. One night, Yuji makes his way to their boss' house with the intention of doing him harm, only to find out that Mamoru has beat him to the punch and killed him and his entire family. Mamoru is arrested and sentenced to death, only to commit suicide on death row and leaving his precious jellyfish to Yuji. As Yuji continues to to take care of the creature, he befriends Mamoru's estranged father Shinichiro (Fuji), who he helps with his electronics salvage business. The two men help each other with their mutual loss but Yuji will still have to come to terms with the bleak life that lies ahead of him.

Making a departure from his usual more disturbing movies, director Kiyoshi Kurosawa delivered a surreal film about modern alienation in Japan with Bright Future. Shot on digital video, the cinematography has a cold yet beautiful look and the film has a subdued creepy undertone throughout. Like its characters the narrative appears aimless, the pace often odd and the movie seems hellbent to be hard to grasp. Narrative clearly isn't at the forefront here as this is more of a mood piece and might therefore not necessarily appeal to everyone. If that, however, doesn't put you off and you want to see something distinctive and oddly entrancing, Bright Future is a trip well worth taking. The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes and won four Japanese Professional Movie Awards for Best Movie, Director and Best Actor awards for both Joe Odagiri and Tatsuya Fuji.

Introducing Hinduism to Non-Hindu Kids

Hinduism is a religion that originated in the Indian subcontinent. Purists refer to it more as Sanātana Dharma (the eternal path/law) than a religion, believed to be a virtuous way of life.

It is the oldest practised religion in the world and has the third largest following after Christianity and Islam. It has over a billion practising followers, 90% of whom live in South Asia, particularly India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan (the only official Hindu state in the world). Having originated in the Indian subcontinent, it has spread selectively to other parts of the world owing to migration, as the ideas of conversion and evangelisation are absent in Hinduism. Other countries having high Hindu populations include Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom and Canada. 

Hinduism is derived from the word ‘Hindu’, a Persian distortion of ‘Sindhu’, the ancient name for the River Indus running through northern India. To that end, it is less a religion than a codification of the region's inhabitants' evolving way of life and beliefs. A conglomerate of diverse beliefs and traditions, Hinduism has no single founder. 

The advent of the Aryans into north India assimilated certain beliefs of the late Neolithic and early Harappan period (5500–2600 BC) to their own religious beliefs. Modern Hinduism grew from the ancient texts called Vedas and bore much similarity to other Indo-European religions like Zoroastrianism, incorporating vital elements of nature gods and their worship. Vedic Hinduism had spread throughout the Indian subcontinent by the 4th century BC, assimilating elements of all local religious beliefs and practices. Over the next 10 centuries, it evolved further and absorbed tenets of Buddhism and Jainism, including the doctrine of non-violence and an emphasis on vegetarianism. Under the classical Golden Epoch of the Gupta period (4th to 6th century AD), more formalized Hindu thought and its systematization flourished. By then, many classical works (shastras) of Hindu philosophy had been codified, and the major epics—the Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata—received their present form and rules for idol worship, representations of the deities and for building structures and temples also developed. This assimilation lasted until the advent of political Islamic control in India in the 7th century. While there were several attempts to reconcile both Hindu and Muslim theology over the next 8 centuries, mainstream Hinduism became more orthodox and codified. The rise of the Bhakti (devotion) and Sufi movements at this time, preaching piety and love for God, brought about a point of communion between the two religions that left in its wake some of the most evocative devotional corpus in Indian history. Under the British Empire, Hinduism underwent several social reforms, and there were many revivalist and spiritual movements in the 19th century. 

Hinduism has no central doctrinal authority and most practicing Hindus do not claim to belong to any particular denomination. However, there are various denominations in Hinduism based primarily on the God worshipped as the Supreme One, as well as those that developed as a result of the reform and revivalist movements within Hinduism, though they are not antagonistic to each other. 

The religious texts of the Hindus span a very large corpus, most important of which are the four Vedas (called Ṛg-, Sāma- Yajus- and Atharva-) which focus on rituals, and the Upanishads and Puranas , which focus on spiritual insight, mythological accounts and philosophical teachings. Apart from this, there are a number of classical texts (shastras) of Hindu philosophy as well as the major epics—the Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata. 

Hinduism is the religion of the majority of people in India and Nepal. It also exists among significant populations outside of the sub-continent and has over 900 million adherents worldwide.

In some ways, Hinduism is the oldest living religion in the world, or at least elements within it stretch back many thousands of years. Yet Hinduism resists easy definition partly because of the vast array of practices and beliefs found within it. It is also closely associated conceptually and historically with the other Indian religions Jainism,Buddhism and Sikhism.

Unlike most other religions, Hinduism has no single founder, no single scripture, and no commonly agreed set of teachings. Throughout its extensive history, many key figures have taught different philosophies and written numerous holy books. For these reasons, writers often refer to Hinduism as 'a way of life' or 'a family of religions' rather than a single religion.

Defining Hinduism

The term 'Hindu' was derived from the river or river complex of the northwest, the Sindhu. Sindhu is a Sanskrit word used by the region's inhabitants, the Aryans in the second millennium BCE. Later migrants and invaders, the Persians in the sixth century BCE, the Greeks from the 4th century BCE, and the Muslims from the 8th century CE, used the name of this river in their own languages for the land and its people.

The term 'Hindu' probably does not go back to before the 15th and 16th centuries when people used it to differentiate themselves from followers of other traditions, especially the Muslims (Yavannas), in Kashmir and Bengal. At that time, the term may have simply indicated groups united by specific cultural practices such as cremation of the dead and cuisine styles. The 'ism' was added to 'Hindu' only in the 19th century in the context of British colonialism and missionary activity.

The origins of the term 'hindu' are thus cultural, political and geographical. The term is widely accepted, although any definition is subject to much debate. In some ways, Hinduism is a religion of recent origin yet its roots and formation go back thousands of years.

Some claim that one is 'born a Hindu', but many Hindus are now of non-Indian descent. Others claim its core feature is belief in an impersonal Supreme, but essential strands have long described and worshipped a personal God. Outsiders often criticise Hindus as being polytheistic, but many adherents claim to be monotheists.

Some Hindus define orthodoxy as compliance with the teachings of the Vedic texts (the four Vedas and their supplements). However, still others identify their tradition with 'Sanatana Dharma', the eternal order of conduct that transcends any specific body of sacred literature. Scholars sometimes draw attention to the caste system as a defining feature, but many Hindus view such practices as merely a social phenomenon or an aberration of their original teachings. Nor can we define Hinduism according to belief in karma and samsara (reincarnation) because Jains, Sikhs, and Buddhists (in a qualified form) accept this teaching too.

Although it is difficult to define Hinduism, it is rooted in India. Most Hindus revere a body of texts as sacred scripture known as the Veda, and most Hindus draw on a standard system of values known as dharma.

• Hinduism originated around the Indus Valley near the River Indus in modern-day Pakistan.
• About 80% of the Indian population regard themselves as Hindu.
• Most Hindus believe in a Supreme God, whose qualities and forms are represented by the multitude of deities which emanate from him.
• Hindus believe existence is a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth governed by Karma.
• Hindus believe that the soul passes through a cycle of successive lives and its next incarnation depends on how the previous life was lived.
• The primary Hindu texts are the Vedas and their supplements (books based on the Vedas). Veda is a Sanskrit word meaning 'knowledge'. These scriptures do not mention the word 'Hindu' but many scriptures discuss dharma, which can be rendered as a 'code of conduct, 'law', or 'duty'
• Hindus celebrate many holy days, but the Festival of Lights, Diwali, is the best known.
• The 2001 census recorded 559,000 Hindus in Britain, around 1% of the population.


• However, Hinduism's most critical impact has been on society's evolution. According to traditional Hindu belief, there are four stages of human life (Āshramas), which are the stage as a student (spent celibate, controlled, contemplation under a teacher), householder, retirement (gradual detachment from the material world) and finally asceticism to find Moksha. Society was classified into four classes, called Varnas – teachers and priests (Brahmins), warriors, nobles, and kings (Kshatriyas), farmers, merchants, and businessmen (Vaishyas) and the servants and labourers (Shudras). These classes slowly evolved to extremely rigid castes and sub-castes, setting in place an exceedingly oppressive hierarchy throughout history. Most reform movements in the 19th and early 20th centuries addressed several of these issues, and modern Hinduism is far more liberal. However, the principles of caste and class still tend to become important in marriage, social norms and politics. 
• thankshttp://www.bbc.co.uk/

Fascinating White Pencil on Black Paper Drawings by Estonian Artist Marilyn