Radiation still so intense, the area is highly dangerous. A heavy layer of radioactive ash in Rajasthan, India, covers a three-square mile area, ten miles west of Jodhpur. Scientists are investigating the site, where a housing development was being built.
For some time it has been established that there is a very high rate of birth defects and cancer in the area under construction. The levels of radiation there have registered so high on investigators' gauges that the Indian government has now cordoned off the region. Scientists have unearthed an ancient city where evidence shows an atomic blast dating back thousands of years, from 8,000 to 12,000 years, destroyed most of the buildings and probably a half-million people. One researcher estimates that the nuclear bomb used was about the size of the ones dropped on Japan in 1945.
Many spells, especially divinition spells require the invocation of certain spirits. Well, this can be good and bad. For the beginner, i'd advice against it. Amongst the dangers of spiritual invocations are possesion, where the spirit takes hold of your body. Although most spirits are virtually harmless, there are those who, over the years have gotten their own brand of magic, and it is there spirits you have to watch out for.
The ancient art of summoning spirits is known as necromancy. In some places, experienced necromancers summon spirits to posses them temporarily to get in contact with the "other side".
Local Chinese believe that some banana plants have spirit dwellers. This is especially true that if a banana plant is smeared with human blood; hence the banana plantation workers are very careful when working around banana plants. These types of spirits are normally manifested as female spirits. In the perspective of feng shui, banana plants are said of ‘yin’ type and tend to attract spirits.
Legend has it that the lady spirit of a banana plant is extremely beautiful and can be summoned for various purposes. These rituals must be done when a banana plant is blossoming:
DADU, Nov 29: Fear and bewilderment overtook some parts of Dadu district after some mysterious objects fell on a number of villages late on Wednesday night.
The biggest fragment weighing 187 kilograms fell on a ground in Allah Jurio Lund village, 30 kilometres from Dadu. Other pieces fell on Pir Mashaikh, Shehak Rodnani and Khandhani villages.
There were no injuries or damage to property.
(According to news agencies, military authorities took possession of the “heavy pieces of engine and other metallic objects, believed to be splinters of a satellite or missile”.
An Army team, headed by Commanding Officer of Hyderabad, Col. Mushtaque, arrived in Dadu on Thursday and started investigation after taking two pieces of the object).
Sain Bux Loond, a villager, told journalists that he was at his home when a loud bang drew him outside. “First I couldn’t make head or tail of the scene before my eyes. After gathering my wits I dashed to the police station and told them what I had seen,” Loond said.
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The ruins of Bhangarh Fort in the Rajasthan state in India are known for being the most hunted place in this south Asian country. While it’s understandable that not all people believe in ghosts, there are warnings at all entry points to the Bhangarh Fort advising people not to venture into the city at night. In fear that something terrible could happen, some of the signs posted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) not only advise against, but literally prohibit visitors from entering Bhangarh Fort at night. The sign reads in Indian language: “Entering the borders of Bhangarh before sunrise and after sunset is strictly prohibited.” If you are a ghost hunter or like visiting mysterious places, especially those known to be haunted by ghosts, then Bhangarh Fort deserves a solid spot on your “Must Visit Before I Die” list.
The Government of India wanted to put the myth of ghosts haunting the Bhangarh Ruin to rest by deploying the military to patrol the fort at night. However, none of the Indian military personnel dared to participate in this ghost busting operation because the belief that it’s haunted by ghosts is so deep. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the official government body responsible for maintenance of monuments and ruins throughout the country officially recognizes the Bhangarh Fort as a place haunted by ghosts. Because of that, no accommodation if offered within the ruins and even the office of ASI was built at a safe distance from the fort, instead of within it as is the case of other similar sites.
t is a big film city in Hyderabad like Universal Studios. The hotels in Ramoji film city are believed to be haunted. Legend says thet the film city is built on the war grounds of the Nizam Sultans.
Witnesses report paranormal phenomena happening during the shoots like lights falling off the ceiling, light men (who sit with the lights on top) have been pushed by invisible hands and have been seriously injured on multiple occasions.
What is the idea of a haunted place that most of us have in our mind? Those of us having grown up watching spooky Hollywood and Bollywood flicks will undoubtedly be flashed with the image of place with dark and secluded surroundings covered with dense trees, rare visitors, located off the nearby city or town, a big house or a bungalow majority of the times and forests, jungles and other deserted places the remaining times. But who would have thought of beach as a haunted place. Dumas Beach located near the city of Surat in the state of Gujarat is reportedly haunted
India is a large country and in every city, big or small, you'll find various legends and folklore about paranormal activity. The places listed on this page are the 10 most haunted places in India.
The claims and stories of ghostly apparitions have been verified by various paranormal experts, on-or-off-the-record.
1) Forts of Bhangarh, Rajasthan
2) Dumas Beach, Gujarat
3) Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad
4) Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai
5) Hotel Savoy, Mussoorie
6) Shaniwarwada Fort, Pune
7) Dow Hill, Kurseong, West Bengal
8) Raj Kiran Hotel in Lonavala, Mumbai
9) d'Souza Chawl of Mahim, Mumbai
10) Brij Raj Bhavan Palace in Kota, Rajasthan
In the cultures of the West, Werewolves and Vampires are very much popular.
However in the East, where Asians lived in, it is instead more about Weretigers.
While werewolves were thought to be the predators of vampire by nature but however, most of the time these predators are in the control of their prey, the Vampires in most stories.
So , Werewolves are by nature predators of Vampires and in turn the are the prey to their predators , the Weretigers whom are mostly Asian, their distant cousin!
We have all heard of the werewolf. The werewolf has a distant cousin, so to speak. Not as well known outside of Asia, is a mythical creature called a weretiger, also more recently known as a werecat. Before the late 19th century they were all known as weretigers. They are not to be mistaken for the spirit tiger which is a familiar under the control of a supernatural being or a “nat”. The familiar is used to do the bidding of the nat.
What and why makes the Taj Mahal an ancient Asian wonder of the world ?
Please view video as follows :
The Taj Mahal (also "the Taj"), located in Agra, is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Turkish, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. The focus of the Taj Mahal is the white marble tomb, which stands on a square plinth consisting of a symmetrical building with an iwan, an arch-shaped doorway, topped by a large dome. It was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1628-1658), grandson of Akbar the great, in the memory of his queen Arjumand Bano Begum, entitled 'Mumtaz Mahal'. The plinth and tomb took roughly 12 years to complete. The remaining parts of the complex took an additional 10 years and were completed in order of minarets, mosque and jawab and gateway. A labour force of 20,000 workers was recruited across northern India.
The Taj Mahal was built on a parcel of land to the south of the walled city of Agra. Shah Jahan presented Maharajah Jai Singh with a large palace in the center of Agra in exchange for the land. An area of roughly three acres was excavated, filled with dirt to reduce seepage and leveled at 50 meters above riverbank. In the tomb area, wells were dug and filled with stone and rubble as the footings of the tomb. Instead of lashed bamboo, workmen constructed a colossal brick scaffold that mirrored the tomb. The scaffold was so enormous that foremen estimated it would take years to dismantle. According to the legend, Shah Jahan decreed that anyone could keep the bricks taken from the scaffold and thus was dismantled by peasants overnight. A fifteen kilometer tamped-earth ramp was built to transport marble and materials to the construction site. Teams of twenty or thirty oxen were strained to pull blocks on specially constructed wagons. An elaborate post-and-beam pulley system was used to raise the blocks into desired position. Water was drawn from the river by a series of purs, an animal-powered rope and bucket mechanism into a large storage tank and raised to large distribution tank. It was passed into three subsidiary tanks, from which it was piped to the complex.
The plinth and tomb took roughly 12 years to complete. The remaining parts of the complex took an additional 10 years and were completed in order of minarets, mosque and jawab and gateway. Since the complex was built in stages, discrepancies exist in completion dates due to differing opinions on "completion". For example, the mausoleum itself was essentially complete by 1643, but work continued on the rest of the complex. Estimates of the cost of the construction of Taj Mahal vary due to difficulties in estimating construction costs across time. The total cost of construction has been estimated to be about 32 million Rupees.
The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia. Over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials during the construction. The translucent white marble was brought from Rajasthan, the jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, twenty eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.
A labour force of twenty thousand workers was recruited across northern India. Sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayer from southern India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a specialist in building turrets, another who carved only marble flowers were part of the thirty-seven men who formed the creative unit. Some of the builders involved in construction of Taj Mahal are:
The main dome was designed by Ismail Afandi (a.k.a Ismail Khan),of the Ottoman Empire and was considered as a premier designer of hemispheres and domes.
Ustad Isa of Persia (Iran) and Isa Muhammad Effendi of Persia (Iran), trained by Koca Mimar Sinan Agha of Ottoman Empire, are frequently credited with a key role in the architectural design, but there is little evidence to support this claim.
'Puru' from Benarus, Persia (Iran) has been mentioned as a supervising architect.
Qazim Khan, a native of Lahore, cast the solid gold finial.
Chiranjilal, a lapidary from Delhi, was chosen as the chief sculptor and mosaicist.
Amanat Khan from Shiraz, Iran was the chief calligrapher. His name has been inscribed at the end of the inscription on the Taj Mahal gateway.
Muhammad Hanif was a supervisor of masons and Mir Abdul Karim and Mukkarimat Khan of Shiraz, Iran (Persia) handled finances and management of daily production.
Commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the remains of his cherished wife, the Taj Mahal stands on the southern bank of the Yamuna River in Agra, India. The famed mausoleum complex, built over more than 20 years, is one of the most outstanding examples of Mughal architecture, which combined Indian, Persian and Islamic influences. At its center is the Taj Mahal itself, built of shimmering white marble that seems to change color depending on the sunlight or moonlight hitting its surface. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983, it remains one of the world's most celebrated structures and a stunning symbol of India's rich history.
Taj Mahal: Shah Jahan's Romantic Gesture
Shah Jahan was a member of the Mughal dynasty that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid 18th-century. After the death of his father, King Jahangir, in 1627, Shah Jahan emerged the victor of a bitter power struggle with his brothers, and crowned himself emperor at Agra in 1628. At his side was Arjumand Banu Begum, better known as Mumtaz Mahal ("Chosen One of the Palace"), whom he married in 1612 and cherished as the favorite of his three queens.
In 1631, Mumtaz Mahal died after giving birth to the couple's 14th child. The grieving Shah Jahan, known for commissioning a number of impressive structures throughout his reign, ordered the building of a magnificent mausoleum across the Yamuna River from his own royal palace at Agra. Construction began around 1632 and would continue for the next two decades. The chief architect was probably Ustad Ahmad Lahouri, an Indian of Persian descent who would later be credited with designing the Red Fort at Delhi. In all, more than 20,000 workers from India, Persia, Europe and the Ottoman Empire, along with some 1,000 elephants, were brought in to build the mausoleum complex.
Wonderfull documentary by National Geographic about the Taj Mahal, world's greatest and divine symbol of true love.
KANNUR: Though not for first time in the state, red rain in parts of Kannur on Thursday did create some panic and curiosity among the residents in the district. The strange phenomenon happened around 6:50am and lasted for 15 minutes. People in the 1km area in and around Edachery in Puzhati panchayat panicked as their courtyards turned blood red after rain.
Kannur block panchayat president Shaija M, who collected the sample of the rainwater, said the water was as dark as black coffee and had the smell of raw beetroot. "I thought someone killed some animal and its blood got mixed with water on the courtyard," she said. Akshay Sajeevan, another resident in the locality, said in his compound the colour of rainwater was a bit lighter. According to meteorological department, though red rain is a rare phenomenon, but it is no way harmful. "I assume this is due to atmospheric pollution. The pollutants in the air get dissolved in rainwater resulting in red rain," said M Santhosh, director of meteorological department, Thiruvananthapuram.
Panspermia is the idea that life exists throughout the universe in comets, asteroids and interstellar dust clouds and that life of Earth was seeded from one or more of these sources. Panspermia holds that we are all extraterrestrials.
While this is certainly not a mainstream idea in science, a growing body of evidence suggests that it should be carefully studied rather than casually disregarded.
For example, various bugs have been shown to survive for months or even years in the harsh conditions of space. And one of the more interesting but lesser known facts about the Mars meteorite that some scientists believe holds evidence of life on Mars, is that its interior never rose above 50 degrees centigrade, despite being blasted from the Martian surface by an meteor impact and surviving a fiery a descent through Earth's thick atmosphere.
If there is life up there, this evidence suggests that it could survive the trip to Earth.
All that seems well established. Now for the really controversial stuff.
In 2001, numerous people observed red rain falling over Kerala in the southern tip of India during a two month period. One of them was Godfrey Louis, a physicist at nearby Cochin University of Science and Technology. Intrigued by this phenomena, Louis collected numerous samples of red rain, determined to find out what was causing the contamination, perhaps sand or dust from some distant desert.
Under a microscope, however, he found no evidence of sand or dust. Instead, the rain water was filled with red cells that look remarkably like conventional bugs on Earth. What was strange was that Louis found no evidence of DNA in these cells which would rule out most kinds of known biological cells (red blood cells are one possibility but ought to be destroyed quickly by rain water).
Louis published his results in the peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space in 2006, along with the tentative suggestion that the cells could be extraterrestrial, perhaps from a comet that had disintegrated in the upper atmosphere and then seeded clouds as the cells floated down to Earth. In fact, Louis says there were reports in the region of a sonic boom-type noise at the time, which could have been caused by the disintegration of an object in the upper atmosphere.
Since then, Louis has continued to study the cells with an international team including Chandra Wickramasinghe from the University of Cardiff in the UK and one of the leading proponents of the panspermia theory, which he developed in the latter half of the 20th century with the remarkable physicist Fred Hoyle.
Swarms of never-before-seen spiders descended upon a cultural festival in the northeastern Indian town of Sadiya last month, biting several people and leaving two dead. The arachnid “invasion,” as the Times of India called it, caused a panic among festival-goers who reportedly jostled one another and tripped over benches in an effort to escape the venomous spiders.
Scientists from Dibrugarh University and Gauhati University have not been able to identify the spiders, which resemble tarantulas but may be a new species altogether. Ratul Rajkhowa, a professor of zoology at Cotton College in the city of Guwahati, told the Times that the spiders could be black wishbones, a species native to Southern Australia. If that’s the case, the spiders’ venom would not be deadly but could, in some individuals, cause severe allergic reactions that may result in death. The individuals who died after being bitten by the mysterious spiders were reportedly cremated before autopsies could be performed, and scientists have yet to test the toxicity of the spiders’ venom.
The sudden infestation nevertheless remains a concern for both scientists and Sadiya residents, as venomous spiders are not native to India’s Assam region, where the attacks occurred.
British naturalist Vejay K. Singh told the Times that, while swarms of spiders are rare, ”a certain anomaly in conditions may provoke an unusual surge in breeding populations…usually after flooding when the spiders search for dry and higher ground.” Post-flood spider swarms in Australia last March left farmlands blanketed in spiderwebs, while in Pakistan millions of spiders enveloped trees following last year’s devastating floods.
The mysterious fall of the largest of the world's earliest urban civilizations nearly 4,000 years ago in what is now India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh now appears to have a key culprit — ancient climate change, researchers say.
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia may be the best known of the first great urban cultures, but the largest was the Indus or Harappan civilization. This culture once extended over more than 386,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers) across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges, and at its peak may have accounted for 10 percent of the world population. The civilization developed about 5,200 years ago, and slowly disintegrated between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago — populations largely abandoned cities, migrating toward the east.
"Antiquity knew about Egypt and Mesopotamia, but the Indus civilization, which was bigger than these two, was completely forgotten until the 1920s," said researcher Liviu Giosan, a geologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "There are still many things we don't know about them."
Nearly a century ago, researchers began discovering numerous remains of Harappan settlements along the Indus River and its tributaries, as well as in a vast desert region at the border of India and Pakistan. Evidence was uncovered for sophisticated cities, sea links with Mesopotamia, internal trade routes, arts and crafts, and as-yet undeciphered writing.
"They had cities ordered into grids, with exquisite plumbing, which was not encountered again until the Romans," Giosan told LiveScience. "They seem to have been a more democratic society than Mesopotamia and Egypt — no large structures were built for important personalitiess like kings or pharaohs."
HYDERABAD (AP)- Tens of thousands of asthma-sufferers have mobbed a southern Indian stadium to swallow live sardines smeared with a yellow herbal paste they believe will cure their breathing problems.
Photo: Associated Press
Despite doctors' criticism, the Goud family has drawn throngs of people for years with its secret fish and herbal formula it says it received from a Hindu saint about 170 years ago.
Hyderabad police say a man died of a heart attack and several others sought medical attention for breathing difficulty after waiting for hours. Police say the stadium was unprepared to deal with the 70,000 people who rushed the gates on Friday.
The family offers the treatment annually on a day chosen by astrologers.
Some mythical creatures have their origin in tradition and tales from the distant past. However, each culture is associated with a multitude of interesting and odd creatures, many of these beings are humanoids. One of these legendary humanoids is the Rakshasa.
Statue of a Rakshasa
The Rakshasa are a race of humanoid beings in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. They are seen as a type of goblin or evil spirit. They are not equal in evil traits, but have been classified into four subraces:
Ak'chazar - These rakshasa have the heads of white tigers and are skinnier than common breed. They are unusually powerful spellcasters and specialize in necromantic magic. To use their necromantic powers to their full potential the Ak'chazar often use graveyards or old battlefields as their headquarters. When working on one of their dark schemes they often let their undead do the physical work while they stay behind the scenes themselves.
Naityan - These are shapeshifters with the ability to utilize different supernatural combat styles based on their current forms.
Naztharune - Naztharune have the heads of black tigers and are covered in black fur. They have few magical powers but compensate by being strong fighters, specializing in assassination. They lack most Rakshasa's need to be the leader of any organisation that they are part of, often working for other Rakshasa.
Zakyas - Zakyas resemble standard rakshasas, but rather than focusing on sorcery, they are skilled melee combatants and weapon masters. They use their weak magical powers to supplement their martial prowess.
The great ten-headed demon Ravana, enemy of Lord Ram, was a Rakshasa king
According to the legend, Rakshasas emerged from Brahma's foot. The Vishnu Purana also makes them descendants of Kasyapa and Khasa, a daughter of Daksha, through their son Rakshas; and the Ramayana states that when Brahma created the waters, he formed certain beings to guard them who were called Rakshasas. It is thought that the Rakshasas of the epic poems were the rude barbarian races of India who were subdued by the Aryans.
The Rakshasas are described in the Ramayana: "the Rakshasas sleeping in the houses were of every shape and form. Some of them disgusted the eye, while some were beautiful to look upon. Some had long arms and frightful shapes; some were very fat and some were very lean; some were mere dwarfs and some were prodigiously tall. Some had only one eye and others only one ear. Some had monstrous bellies, hanging breasts, long projecting teeth, and crooked thighs; whilst others were exceedingly beautiful to behold and clothed in great splendour. Some had two legs, some three legs, and some four legs. Some had the heads of serpents, some the heads of donkeys, some the heads of horses, and some the heads of elephants."
Many traditional Hindus believe these creature are indeed real and that it feeds on human flesh. They are shape changers and magicians, and often appear in the forms of humans, dogs, and large birds. They can make themselves invisible and can not enter a home without being invited. In the popular lore, Rakshasas are demons and fiends who haunt cemeteries, disturb sacrifices, harass priests, possess and devour human beings, and vex and afflict mankind in all sorts of ways. They are said to drink blood and preferred to attack infants and pregnant women.
Rakshasas are most powerful in the evening, particularly during the dark period of the new moon, but they are dispelled by the rising sun. Most powerful among them is their king, the 10-headed Ravana. Putana, a female demon, is well known for her attempt to kill the infant Krishna by offering him milk from her poisoned breast; she was, however, sucked to death by the god.
They usually disturbed the sacrifices, and tortured the priests. Rakshasas are known to carry away beautiful women to whom they were attracted. The Rakshasas, male or female, were ugly in appearance, but they could assume any form they pleased with the powers they possessed. Occasionally they would serve as rank-and-file soldiers in the service of a warlord. There are epic tales of certain members of the race who rose to prominence, some of them as heroes, most of them as villains.
Most weapons don't work against these creatures. But all Rakshasas have a common weakness; that any crossbow blessed by a priest will kill them instantly. In addition there is said that a dagger of pure brass has the ability to slay it.
Scientists say they are investigating the mysterious deaths of 877 dolphins washed ashore in Peru this year. More than 80% of those dolphins were found in an advanced state of decomposition, making it difficult to study their deaths.
The porpoises and dolphin carcasses have washed up in a 220-kilometer (137-mile) area from Punta Aguja to Lambayeque, in the north of the country. Marine experts say the most likely cause is some sort of virus, but environmentalists claim sound waves from seismic oil exploration are to blame. The head of a local fisherman’s association said that he estimated more than 3,000 dolphins had died so far this year, based on what he saw in the water and on beaches.
The dolphin deaths in Peru are mark the third set of high-profile strandings in about two months. In February, 179 dolphins –108 of which were dead — washed ashore in Cape Cod, in eastern United States. Marine biologists are still trying to determine the cause of those deaths. In early March, amateur video taken from a beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, showed more than 30 dolphins on shore. In that instance, all dolphins were safely returned to the sea.
In the fourth such incident in the past month, an eight-ft-long dead dolphin was washed ashore at Bandra Bandstand in Mumbai on the west coast of India. A humpback whale was found dead at Diveagar coast in Raigad last week. This came after two whales of the same species were found beached at Uran and off Priyadarshini Park, Napean Sea Road, on March 29 and March 31.
