Diana, princess of Wales

original name  Diana Frances Spencer 

born July 1, 1961, Sandringham, Norfolk, Englanddied August 31, 1997, Paris, France

Diana, princess of Wales, 1995.

Tim Graham/Getty Images

                            HAJJ also spelt hadjdj , or hadj , in Islam, the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which every adult Muslim of either sex must make at least once in his or her lifetime. Fifth of the fundamental Muslim practices and institutions known as the Five Pillars of Islam, the pilgrimage rite begins on the seventh day of Dhu al-Hijjah (the last month of the Islamic year) and ends on the twelfth day.

 The hajj is incumbent on every Muslim who is physically and financially able to make the pilgrimage, but only if his absence will not place hardships on his family. A person may perform the hajj by proxy, appointing a relative or a friend going on the pilgrimage to "stand in" for him or her. The Prophet Muhammad established the pattern of pilgrimage rites, but variations have arisen in it, and the stringent formal itinerary is not strictly adhered to by the mass of pilgrims who frequently visit the various Meccan sites out of their proper order.

 When the pilgrim is about 10 km from Mecca, he enters the state of holiness and purity known as ihram and dons the ihram garments, consisting of two white seamless sheets that are wrapped around the body. Neither cutting his hair nor his nails until the pilgrimage rite is over, the pilgrim enters Mecca and walks seven times around the sacred shrine called the Kabah, in the Great Mosque, and kisses or touches the Black Stone (Hajar al-Aswad) in the Kabah. He prays twice in the direction of the Maqam Ibrahim and the Kabah, and runs seven times between the minor prominences of Mount Safa and Mount Marwah. On the seventh of Dhu al-Hijjah the pilgrim is reminded of his duties. At the second stage of the ritual, which takes place between the eighth and the twelfth days of the month, the pilgrim visits the holy places outside Mecca - Jabal ar-Rahmah, Muzdalifah, and Mina - and sacrifices an animal in commemoration of Abraham's sacrifice. The pilgrim's head is then usually shaved and after throwing seven stones at each of the three pillars (that exemplify various devils) at Mina on three successive days, he returns to Mecca to perform the farewell tawaf, or circling, of the Kabah before leaving the city.

About 2,000,000 persons perform the hajj each year, and the rite serves as a unifying force in Islam by bringing followers of diverse backgrounds together in religious celebration. Once a believer has made the pilgrimage he may add the title haji to his name.

                                   RIVER GANGA  also called Ganges , great river of the plains of northern India. Although officially as well as popularly called the Ganga, both in Hindi and in other Indian languages, internationally it is known by its Anglicized name, the Ganges. For several millennia it has been the holy river of the Hindus. A wide and sluggish stream, flowing through one of the most fertile and densely populated tracts of territory in the world and despite its importance, its length of 2,510 km makes it relatively short by both world and Asian standards. Rising in the Himalayas and emptying into the Bay of Bengal, it drains a quarter of the territory of India, while its basin supports an immense concentration of people.

                    For most of its course the Ganga flows through Indian territory, although its large delta in the Bengal area lies mostly in Bangladesh. The general direction of the river's flow is from north-northwest to southeast. At its delta, the flow is generally southwards.

Physical features

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Physiography

                         Rising in the southern Himalayas on the Indian side of the Tibet border, Ganga's five headstreams - the Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Mandakini, Dhauliganga, and Pindar - all rise in the Uttarakhand region (the northern mountainous districts), a division of Uttar Pradesh. Of these, the two main headstreams are the Alaknanda (the longer of the two), which rises about 48 km north of the Himalayan peak of Nanda Devi, and the Bhagirathi, which originates about 3,050 m above sea level in an ice cave at the foot of the Himalayan glacier known as Gangotri. Gangotri itself is a sacred place for Hindu pilgrimage. The true source of the Ganga, however, is considered to be at Gaumukh, about 21 km southeast of Gangotri.

                          Uniting at Devaprayag, the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi form a main stream known as the Ganga, which cuts through the outer (southern) Himalayas to emerge from the mountains at Rishikesh. It then flows onto the plain at Haridwar (Hardwar), another place held sacred by the Hindus.

                             With seasonal variations in the river's flow, its volume increases markedly as it receives more tributaries and enters a region of heavier rainfall. From April to June the melting Himalayan snows feed the river, while in the rainy season from July to September the rain-bearing monsoon winds cause floods. Within Uttar Pradesh, the principal right bank tributaries are the Yamuna river, which flows past Delhi, the capital of India, to join the Ganga near Allahabad, and the Tons, which flows north from the Vindhya range in Madhya Pradesh and joins it soon after. The main left-bank tributaries in Uttar Pradesh are the Ramganga, the Gomati, and the Ghaghara.

                         Next entering Bihar, its main tributaries from the Himalayan region to the north are the Gandak, the Burhi Gandak, the Ghugri, and the Kosi, and its most important southern tributary is the Son. The river then skirts the Rajmahal Hills to the south and flows southeast to Farakka, at the apex of the delta. In West Bengal, the last Indian state that the Ganga enters, the Mahananda joins it from the north. (Throughout West Bengal in India, as well as in Bangladesh, the Ganga is locally called the Padma.) The westernmost distributary of the delta is the Hugli (Hooghly), on the east bank of which stands the city of Kolkata. Two tributaries flowing in from the west, the Damodar and the Rupnarayan, join the Hugli itself. Joined by the mighty Brahmaputra in Bangladesh (which for about 241 km before the junction is called the Yamuna) near Goalundo Ghat, the combined stream, now called the Padma, joins with the Meghna river above Chandpur. The waters then flow to the Bay of Bengal through innumerable channels, the largest of which is known as the Meghna estuary.

                            Dhaka (Dacca), the capital of Bangladesh, stands on the Buriganga (old ganga), a tributary of the Dhaleswari. Apart from the Hugli and the Meghna, the other distributary streams that form the Ganga delta are, in West Bengal, the Jalangi and, in Bangladesh, the Matabhanga, the Bhairab, the Kabadak, the Garai-Madhumati, and the Arial Khan.

Constantly vulnerable to changes in its course in the delta region, especially since 1750, the Brahmaputra flowed past the city of Mymensingh in 1785; but now it flows more than 64 km west of it before joining the Ganga.

 The delta, the seaward prolongation of silt deposits from the Ganga and Brahmaputra river valleys, covers an area of about 60,000 sq km and is composed of repeated alternations of clays, sands, and marls, with recurring layers of peat, lignite, and beds of what were once forests. The new deposits of the delta, known in Hindi and Urdu as the khadar , naturally occur in the vicinity of the present channels.

 The southern surface of the Ganga delta has been formed by the rapid and comparatively recent deposition of enormous loads of silt. To the east the seaward side of the delta is being changed at a rapid rate by the formation of new lands, known as chars , and new islands. The western coast-line of the delta, however, has remained practically unchanged since the eighteenth century.

The rivers in the West Bengal area are sluggish; little water passes down them to the sea. In the Bangladeshi delta region, the rivers are broad and active, carrying plentiful water and connected by innumerable creeks. During the rains (from June to October) the greater part of the region is flooded to a depth of several feet, leaving the villages and homesteads, which are built on artificially raised land, isolated above the floodwaters. Communication between settlements during this season can be accomplished only by boat.

To the seaward side of the delta as a whole there is a vast stretch of tidal forests and swampland. The forests, called Sundarbans, are protected by India and Bangladesh for conservation purposes.

In certain parts of the delta there occur layers of peat, composed of forest vegetation and rice plants. In many natural depressions, known as bil, peat, still in the process of formation, has been used as a fertilizer by local farmers, and it has also been dried and used as a domestic and industrial fuel.

Climate and hydrology

Containing the largest river system on the subcontinent, the Ganga basin's water supply is dependent partly on the rains brought by the southwesterly monsoon winds from July to October, as well as on the flow from melting Himalayan snows, in the hot season from April to June. Precipitation in the river basin accompanies the southwest monsoon winds, but it also comes with tropical cyclones that originate in the Bay of Bengal between June and October. Only a small amount of rainfall occurs in December and January. The average annual rainfall varies from 760 mm at the western end of the basin to more than 2,286 mm at the eastern end. (In the upper Gangetic plain in Uttar Pradesh rainfall averages about 762 to 1,016 mm, in the Middle Plain of Bihar from 1,016 to 1,524 mm, and in the delta region between 1,524 and 2,540 mm). Producing strong cyclonic storms in the delta region both before the commencement of the monsoon season, from March to May, and at the end of it, from September to October, some of which result in much loss of life and the destruction of homes, crops, and livestock. One such storm, which occurred in November 1970, was of catastrophic proportions, resulting in the deaths of at least 200,000 and possibly as many as 500,000 people.

Showing little variation in relief over the entire surface of the Gangetic plain, the river's rate of flow is slow. Between the Yamuna river at Delhi and the Bay of Bengal, a distance of nearly 1,609 km, the elevation drops only some 213 m. Altogether the Ganga-Brahmaputra plains extend over an area of 777,000 sq km. The alluvial mantle of the plain, which in some places is more than 1,829 m thick, is possibly not more than 10,000 years old.

Plant and animal life

Once densely forested, historical writings indicate that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries wild elephants, buffalo, bison, rhinoceroses, lions, and tigers were hunted in the Ganga-Yamuna area. Most of the original natural vegetation has disappeared from the Ganga basin as a whole, and the land is now intensely cultivated to meet the needs of an evergrowing population. Wild animals are few, except for deer, boars, and wildcats, and some wolves, jackals, and foxes. Only in the Sundarbans area of the delta are some Bengal tigers, crocodiles, and marsh deer still found. Fish abound in all the rivers, especially in the delta area, where they form an important part of the inhabitants' diet. Many varieties of birds are found, such as mynah, parrots, crows, kites, partridges, and fowls. In winter, duck and snipe migrate south across the high Himalayas, settling in large numbers in water-covered areas. In the Bengal area common fish include featherbacks (Notopteridae), barbs (Cyprinidae), walking catfish, gouramis (Anabantidae), and milkfish (Chanidae).

The people

Ethnically, the people of the Ganga basin are of mixed origin. Descending originally from Aryan ancestors in the west and centre of the basin, soon after, Turks, Mongols, Afghans, Persians, and Arabs came from the west and intermingled with them. To the east and south, largely in the Bengal area, an admixture of Tibetan, Burman, and miscellaneous hill people has also occurred. The Europeans, arriving still later, did not settle or intermarry to any extent.

Historically the Gangetic plain has constituted the heartland of Hindustan and has cradled its successive civilizations. The centre of the pre-Christian empire of Ashoka was Patna (Pataliputra), standing on the banks of the Ganga in Bihar. The centres of the great Mughal empire were at Delhi and Agra, on the western peripheries of the Ganga basin. Kannauj on the Ganga, north of Kanpur, was the centre of the feudatory empire of Harsa, which covered most of northern India in the middle of the seventh century. During the Muslim era, which began in the twelfth century, Muslim rule extended not only over the plain, but over all Bengal as well. Dhaka (Dacca) and Murshidabad in the delta region were centres of Muslim power.

Having founded Kolkata on the banks of the Hugli in the late seventeenth century, the British gradually advanced up the valley of the Ganga, reaching Delhi in the mid-nineteenth century.

A great number of cities have been built on the Gangetic Plain. Among the most notable are Roorkee, Saharanpur, Meerut, Agra (the city of the famous Taj Mahal mausoleum), Mathura (esteemed as the birth-place of Lord Krishna), Aligarh, Kanpur, Bareilly, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi (Banaras; the holy city), Patna, Bhagalpur, Rajshahi, Murshidabad, Burdwan, Kolkata, Howrah (Haora), Dhaka, Khulna, and Barisal.

In the delta, Kolkata and its satellite towns stretch for about 80 km along both banks of the Hugli, forming one of India's most important concentrations of population, commerce, and industry.

The holy river, rituals, the legends

     Revered from the earliest times and still regarded as the holiest of rivers by the Hindus, she is personified as a goddess. Legend has it that Lord Vishnu yielding to the prayers of a great sage sent the goddess Ganga to earth. But the force with which she descended threatened to flood all that came in her path. So Lord Shiva entwined her in his long hair, to control her force, and make her tranquil. By bathing in her waters, one can attain salvation. While places of Hindu pilgrimage, called tirthas, are located throughout the subcontinent, those that are situated on the Ganga have particular significance. Among these are the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna near Allahabad, where a bathing festival, or the Kumbh mela (fair), is held in January and February. During this ceremony, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims immerse themselves in the river. Other holy places for immersion are at Varanasi (Banaras), or Kashi, and at Haridwar. The Hugli river at Kolkata also is regarded as holy. The places of pilgrimage on the Ganga also include Gangotri and the junction of the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi headstreams. The Hindus cast the ashes of their dead upon the river, believing that they thus will go straight to heaven, and cremation ghats (temples at the summit of riverside steps) for burning the dead have been built in many places on the banks of the Ganga.

The economy
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Irrigation

Using the Ganga water for irrigation, either when the river is in flood or by means of gravity canals, has been common since ancient times as described in scriptures and mythological books written more than 2,000 years ago.

The cultivated area of the Ganga valley in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar benefits from a system of irrigation canals that has increased the production of such cash crops as sugar cane, cotton, and oilseeds. The older canals are mainly in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab (land between two rivers). The Upper Ganga Canal, with its distributaries, is 9,574 km long; it begins at Haridwar. The Lower Ganga Canal, which is 8238 km with distributaries, begins at Naraura. The Sarda Canal irrigates land in Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh. The land north of the Ganga, being higher, is difficult to irrigate by canal, and ground water must be pumped to the surface. Channels running from hand-dug wells also irrigate large areas in Uttar Pradesh and in Bihar.

The Ganga-Kabadak irrigation plan in Bangladesh covers parts of the districts of Khulna, Jessore, and Kushtia that lie within the moribund part of the delta where silt and overgrowth choke the rivers.

Total annual rainfall in this region is generally below 1,524 mm, and winters are comparatively dry. The system of irrigation is based on both gravity canals and electrically powered lifting devices.

Navigation

     In ancient times the Ganga and some of its tributaries, especially in the east, were navigable. According to Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador visiting India, the Ganga and its main tributaries were being navigated as early as the fourth century BC. In the fourteenth century, inland-river navigation in the Ganga basin was still flourishing. By the nineteenth century, irrigation-cum-navigation canals formed the main arteries of the water-transport system. The advent of paddle steamers revolutionized inland transport, stimulating the growth of the indigo industry in Bihar and Bengal. Regular steamer services ran from Kolkata up the Ganga to Allahabad and far beyond, as well as to Agra on the Yamuna and up the Brahmaputra river.

The decline of large-scale water transport began with the construction of railways during the mid-nineteenth century. The increasing withdrawal of water for irrigation also has affected navigation. River traffic now is insignificant beyond the middle Ganga basin around Allahabad, much of what there is consists of various types of rural rivercraft.

West Bengal and Bangladesh, however, continue to rely on the waterways to transport jute, tea, grain, and other agricultural and rural products. Principal river ports are Chalna, Khulna, Barisal, Chandpur, Narayanganj, Goalundo Ghat, Sirajganj, Bhairab Bazar, and Fechuganj in Bangladesh, and Kolkata, Goal-para, Dhubri, and Dibrugarh in India. The partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 virtually halted the large trade in tea and jute formerly carried to Kolkata from Assam by inland waterway.

In Bangladesh, inland water transport is the responsibility of the Inland Water Transport Authority. In India, the Central Inland Water Transport Board formulates policy for inland waterways, while the Inland Waterways Authority develops and maintains an extensive system of national waterways. Approximately 1,609 km of waterways in the Ganga basin from Allahabad to Haldia are included in the system.

The construction of the Farakka Barrage at the head of the delta, just inside Indian territory in West Bengal, has been a source of contention between India and Bangladesh.

According to the Indian view, the port of Kolkata had deteriorated because of the deposit of silt and the intrusion of saline seawater. In order to ameliorate the condition of Kolkata by flushing away the seawater and raising the water level, India sought to have quantities of fresh water diverted from the Ganga at the site of the Farakka Barrage. The water there is now carried by means of a large canal into the Bhagirathi river, which joins the Hugli river above Kolkata.

According to Bangladesh, all riparian countries should exercise joint control over the waters of international rivers for the sake of mutual prosperity. The Ganga waters are also vital to irrigation, to navigation, and to the prevention of saline incursions in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has maintained that the Farakka Barrage has deprived it of a valuable source of water upon which its prosperity depends. India, on the other hand, has favoured a bilateral approach to the Ganga waters problem. A series of interim agreements on water sharing has been reached between the two countries, but a permanent settlement has not been achieved. An Indian proposal to divert water from the Brahmaputra in Assam to the Ganga through a canal passing through Bangladesh has been countered by a Bangladeshi proposal to construct a canal from eastern Nepal to Bangladesh through West Bengal; neither proposal has received a positive response. Catastrophic floods in Bangladesh in 1987 and 1988 - the latter being among the most severe in the country's history - prompted the World Bank to prepare a long-term flood-control plan for the region.

Hydroelectric power

The hydroelectric potential of the Ganga has been estimated at 13 million kilowatts, of which about two-fifths lie within India and the rest in Nepal. Some of this potential has been exploited in India with such hydroelectric developments as those along the Chambal and Rihand rivers.

The Gangetic plain is one of the most fertile and densely populated regions in the world. because there is little relief across the surface of the plain, the Ganga for most of its course is a wide and sluggish stream. Its total drainage basin covers an area of about 975,900 sq km, or roughly a quarter of the territory of India, and supports nearly half a billion people. The land of the basin is intensely cultivated. The water supply of the Ganga system is dependent partly on the rains brought by the monsoon winds from July to October, as well as on the flow from melting Himalayan snows in the hot season from April to June.

Also called North Indian plain, extensive north-central section of the Indian subcontinent, stretching westward from (and including) the Brahmaputra river valley and the Ganga delta to the Indus river valley. The region contains the subcontinent's richest and most densely populated areas. The greater part of the plain is made up of alluvial soil, deposited by the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers in the east and the Indus river in the west. The eastern part of the plain has light rains or drought in the winter, but in summer rainfall is so heavy that vast areas become swamps or shallow lakes. The plain becomes progressively drier towards the west where it incorporates the Thar (Great Indian) Desert.

 Ayurveda is a system of medicine thatdeveloped in early India. The Sanskrit word Ayurveda has two components:     ayur and veda . The former means "life" and the latter "knowledge", or more precisely, "science". Its earliest concepts are set out in the sacred writings called the Vedas, especially in the metrical passages of the Atharva Veda, possibly dating as far back as the second millennium BC.

The knowledge of this ancient science comes mainly from the surviving treatises (Samhitas). The Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita, attributed respectively to Charaka, an eminent physician, and Sushruta, a celebrated surgeon, are the two important works that are followed even today. Estimates place the Charaka Samhita in its present form as dating from the first century AD and the Sushruta Samhita probablyoriginated in the last centuries BC andbecame fixed in its present form by the seventh century AD.


The prime object of Ayurveda is the preservation of human, animal, and plant life. In human beings, according to Ayurveda, life is the collective manifestation of the body, mind, and spirit. Ayurveda differs radically from other systems of medicine in its approach to the concept of health. According to Ayurveda health is not just a disease-free state. It is a state in which all the three components of life, that is, body, mind, and spirit, are equally robust and in a harmonious balance. With this integrated vision of health, the physician looks upon the individual as a whole and does not merely focus on the treatment of the separate diseased parts of an ailing body.


Another unique feature of Ayurveda is that its philosophical position holds the soul as an integral and crucial component of the human constitution. It believes that a life of restraint and rectitude, as well as spiritual pursuit, are essential for good health. The celebrated physician Charaka declares "he who has mastered his own senses by the dictates of his soul is the one who is disease-free".


 The doctrine of Tridosha Siddhanta is the cornerstone of Ayurveda. It is held that the workings of a living     human body can be described with reference to three aspects, or "pillars": the dosha , or vitiation (three in number); the dhatu , or the constituent tissue (seven in number); and the mala , or impurities (three in number). Of these, dosha and mala occur in all living organisms while dhatu is found in both the living and the nonliving. Without these three aspects, there is no life. Dosha is a principle that works for the maintenance of the body. It has, therefore, to operate at an optimum tempo. A decrease below or an increase beyond the optimum level upsets the balance and thus vitiates the body. The principle itself is from the root dush , meaning "to spoil" or "to corrupt" - thus, "to vitiate"; dosha becomes visible diagnostically only when such upsets lead to a characteristic manifestation as a disease. Otherwise it is not noticed at all. Three further overall differentiations are recognized in the dosha and named in accordance to their counterparts in nature: air, fire, and water, or vaata, pitta , and kapha . Such literal reading, however, is too simplistic for each of these represents an important role in the body's functioning. Vaata refers to the endocrinological, neuromuscular, and nervous activities that shape the larger dynamics of life. Pitta refers to the chemical actions, in general, and kapha refers tothe physical forces, such as cohesion andlubrication, acting in a circumscribed region. Of the three, pitta and kapha are essentially local in their reactions, while vaata is mobile, spreading its influence all over. Pain is associated with vaata and is thus a signal of any deviation from the norm anywhere in the body. This is why the Ayurvedic texts always consider in elaborate detail the diseases of vaata, or vaata vyaadhi .


 To understand the working of the body apart from the dosha, the two other entities, dhatu and mala, need to be     examined. The dhatu are the constituents of the body, such as the several tissues that the science of human anatomy now recognizes.


 Seven dhatu have been recognized. They all come ultimately from rasa, the essence of the food taken, which is liquid in nature. These are: blood ( rakta ), flesh ( maamsa ), fat ( medas ), bone ( asthi ), bone marrow ( majja ), and semen ( shukra ) in man and oestrum ( aartava ) in woman. Rasa is the first to be formed.     The remaining six dhatu are transmutations of rasa. The several roles played by dhatu in the body are also clearly specified. For example, rasa serves to cause contentment and pleasure, a psychological function, and the nourishment of the blood, which is a physiological function.Rakta (blood) provides colouration to the body, nourishes the flesh, and makes the person alive.


 Mala, or impurities, are three in number: puriisha (stools), muutra (urine), and sveda (sweat). Their formation is natural, although they need to be removed or excreted immediately. It is their absence, excessive, or insufficient formation that causes disease and needs to be attended to clinically.


 Ayurveda regards disease as an effectof the imbalance in the vitiations (dosha). Restoring the human body to     its normaldynamism is the goal of Ayurveda therapy. Its counselling is basically preventiveand mitigative, and its drugs are curative and restorative. How does Ayurveda conceive of the action of these drugs? The explanation lies in its theory of the factors controlling drug action in the body: (1) the physical nature, or dravya , of the drug - for example, its consistency, light or heavy, in digestion or lubricative capacity, as modern medicine would conceive it; (2) the taste, or rasa; (3) the quality, or guna, whether alkaline or acidic; (4) the virility, or viirya , that is, the potency, whether quick, virulent, or active in small doses; (5) the post-assimilative effect, or vipaaka ; and (6) the unique influence or prabhaava . These factors form a progressive sequence of actions.


 Ayurveda also employs the concept ofconstitutional medicine. This means thatthe medicine is prepared by the     physician himself to suit the specific constitutional needs of the patient - an economic impossibility for most people in the Western system of allopathic (symptom-based) treatment.


In Ayurveda, diet and drugs are also categorized in their two aspects. First, based on their virulence of action, they are classified as mild or severe. The sweet, the pungent, and the astringent are mild, while the bitter, the acidic and the salty are severe. The sweet, the acidic, and the salty are viscous and heavy. The bitter, the pungent, and the astringent are rough and heavy. The mild are cold and the acute are hot. Second, diet and drugs are classified on the basis of the three dosha that predominate in them. This provides the clue for their therapeutic action. For example, brinjal (aubergine, or egg plant), ash gourd, and potato are vaata-promoting foods. They are to be avoided by patients suffering from a predominance of vaata. Garlic and asafoetida run counter to vaata.


 The interaction of all these aspects isdeveloped in meticulous detail as dravya guna vignaana , or     pharmacodynamics, which is the mainstay of drug action in Ayurveda. It is widely considered an effective system of medicine despite its omission of either the pathogenic microorganisms or the molecular basis of drug action central to modern medicine.


 The study of Ayurveda is systematized into eight branches: Shalya (generalsurgery), Shaalaakya (ear, nose, and throat), Kaayachikitsa (general medicine), Bhutavidya (mental disorders), Kaumarabhrutya (paediatrics), Angada tantra (toxicology), Rasaayana (rejuvenation), and Vaajikarna (virilification). This tradition of eight Ayurveda branches is still in use although surgery has almost disappeared.


Ayurveda was the system of healthcare and medication followed by the vast population of India from ancient times till the early British period and the introduction of the allopathy system. In recent years there has been a revival of the popularity of Ayurveda. It serves a large segment of India, both in the rural areas and in urban homes, as common and easily affordable household remedies. Even in the Western world, the science of Ayurveda has caught the attention of modern medical professionals and the lay public.

DALAI LAMA (b. July 6, 1935, Tsinghai Province, China); head of the dominant Dge-lugs-pa (Yellow Hat) order of Tibetan Buddhists, who until 1959 served as both spiritual and temporal ruler of Tibet; living in exile in India.

The thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thub-bstan-rgya-mtsho (1875-1933), ruled with great personal authority. The successful revolt within China against its ruling Manchu dynasty in 1912 gave the Tibetans the opportunity to dispel the disunited Chinese troops, and the Dalai Lama reigned as head of a sovereign state.

The fourteenth Dalai Lama, Bstan-'dzin-rgya-mtsho, was born of Tibetan parentage and was recognized as the reincarnation of the thirteenth Dalai Lama. (The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or the Bodhisattva of Compassion and patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have chosen to take rebirth in order to serve humanity. The first of the line was Dge-'dun-grub-pa [1391-1475], founder and abbot of Tashilhunpo Monastery in central Tibet.)

The Dalai Lama was enthroned in 1940 in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. He began his monastic education at the age of six, majoring in logic, Tibetan art and culture, Sanskrit, medicine, and Buddhist philosophy. He also studied poetry, music and drama, astrology, motre and phrasing, and synonyms. He was awarded the Geshe Lharampa degree, the highest-level degree equivalent to a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy.

In 1950 Dalai Lama assumed political responsibility after China invaded Tibet in 1949. In 1959, the Tibetan people unsuccessfully revolted against the Chinese forces and the Dalai Lama was forced into exile in India with a group of some 100,000 followers, where he was given political asylum. The Dalai Lama set up a government-in-exile in Dharmshala, India, in the Himalayas. Since the Chinese invasion Dalai Lama has been pleading for the cause of Tibet in the international forums - his struggle has all along been non-violent. In September 1987, His Holiness proposed the Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet as the first step towards a peaceful solution to the worsening situation in Tibet. Addressing members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on June 15, 1988, he made another detailed proposal stressing on the last point of the Five Point Peace Plan. He proposed for a self-governing democratic political entity that would be in association with China and the Chinese government would continue to hold control over Tibet's foreign policy and defence. In 1992 he issued guidelines for the constitution of a future, free Tibet.

Dalai Lama is known for his message of peace and non-violent struggle against aggression. He has also been a champion of environmental protection. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his non-violent campaign to end the Chinese domination of Tibet. He has written a number of books on Tibetan Buddhism, as well as an autobiography.

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire on 14 March 1879. His father was Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer. His mother was Pauline Einstein (née Koch). In 1880, the family moved to Munich, where his father and his uncle founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a company that manufactured electrical equipment based on direct current.
The Einsteins were non-observant Jews. Albert attended a Catholic elementary school from the age of five for three years. At the age of eight, he was transferred to the Luitpold Gymnasium (now known as the Albert Einstein Gymnasium) where he received advanced primary and secondary school education until he left Germany seven years later. Contrary to popular suggestions that he had struggled with early speech difficulties, the Albert Einstein Archives indicate he excelled at the first school that he attended. He was right-handed; there appears to be no evidence for the widespread popular belief that he was left-handed.
His father once showed him a pocket compass; Einstein realized that there must be something causing the needle to move, despite the apparent "empty space". As he grew, Einstein built models and mechanical devices for fun and began to show a talent for mathematicsWhen Einstein was ten years old, Max Talmud (later changed to Max Talmey), a poor Jewish medical student from Poland, was introduced to the Einstein family by his brother. During weekly visits over the next five years, he gave the boy popular books on science, mathematical texts and philosophical writings. These included Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and Euclid's Elements (which Einstein called the "holy little geometry book")
In 1894, his father's company failed: direct current (DC) lost the War of Currents to alternating current (AC). In search of business, the Einstein family moved to Italy, first to Milan and then, a few months later, to Pavia. When the family moved to Pavia, Einstein stayed in Munich to finish his studies at the Luitpold Gymnasium. His father intended for him to pursue electrical engineering, but Einstein clashed with authorities and resented the school's regimen and teaching method. He later wrote that the spirit of learning and creative thought were lost in strict rote learning. At the end of December 1894, he travelled to Italy to join his family in Pavia, convincing the school to let him go by using a doctor's note. It was during his time in Italy that he wrote a short essay with the title "On the Investigation of the State of the Ether in a Magnetic Field."
In 1895, at the age of sixteen, Einstein sat the entrance examinations for the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich (later the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule). He failed to reach the required standard in several subjects, but obtained exceptional grades in physics and mathematics.On the advice of the Principal of the Polytechnic, he attended the Aargau Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland, in 1895–96 to complete his secondary schooling. While lodging with the family of Professor Jost Winteler, he fell in love with Winteler's daughter, Marie. (Albert's sister Maja later married Wintelers' son Paul. In January 1896, with his father's approval, he renounced his citizenship in the German Kingdom of Württemberg to avoid military service (He acquired Swiss citizenship five years later, in February 1901.) In September 1896, he passed the Swiss Matura with mostly good grades (including a top grade of 6 in physics and mathematical subjects, on a scale of 1-6)and, though only seventeen, enrolled in the four-year mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the ETH Zurich. Marie Winteler moved to Olsberg, Switzerland for a teaching post.
Einstein's future wife, Mileva Marić, also enrolled at the Polytechnic that same year, the only woman among the six students in the mathematics and physics section of the teaching diploma course. Over the next few years, Einstein and Marić's friendship developed into romance, and they read books together on extra-curricular physics in which Einstein was taking an increasing interest. In 1900, Einstein was awarded the Zurich Polytechnic teaching diploma, but Marić failed the examination with a poor grade in the mathematics component, theory of functionsThere have been claims that Marić collaborated with Einstein on his celebrated 1905 papers,but historians of physics who have studied the issue find no evidence that she made any substantive contributions.

Marriages and children

In early 1902, Einstein and Marić had a daughter they named Lieserl, born in Novi Sad where Marić was staying with her parents. Her fate is unknown, but the contents of a letter Einstein wrote to Marić in September 1903 suggest that she was either adopted or died of scarlet fever in infancy.
Einstein and Marić married in January 1903. In May 1904, the couple's first son, Hans Albert Einstein, was born in Bern, Switzerland. Their second son, Eduard, was born in Zurich in July 1910. In 1914, Einstein moved to Berlin, while his wife remained in Zurich with their sons. They divorced on 14 February 1919, having lived apart for five years.
Einstein married Elsa Löwenthal on 2 June 1919, after having had a relationship with her since 1912. She was his first cousin maternally and his second cousin paternally. In 1933, they emigrated to the United States. In 1935, Elsa Einstein was diagnosed with heart and kidney problems and died in December 1936

Scientific career 

Throughout his life, Einstein published hundreds of books and articles.In addition to the work he did by himself he also collaborated with other scientists on additional projects including the Bose–Einstein statistics, the Einstein refrigerator and others.

1905 – Annus Mirabilis papers

The Annus Mirabilis papers are four articles pertaining to the photoelectric effect (which gave rise to quantum theory), Brownian motion, the special theory of relativity, and E = mc² that Albert Einstein published in the Annalen der Physik scientific journal in 1905. These four works contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics and changed views on space, time, and matter.

Thermodynamic fluctuations and statistical physics

Albert Einstein's first paper submitted in 1900 to Annalen der Physik was on capillary attraction. It was published in 1901 with the title "Folgerungen aus den Kapillarität Erscheinungen," which translates as "Conclusions from the capillarity phenomena". Two papers he published in 1902–1903 (thermodynamics) attempted to interpret atomic phenomena from a statistical point of view. These papers were the foundation for the 1905 paper on Brownian motion, which showed that Brownian movement can be construed as firm evidence that molecules exist. His research in 1903 and 1904 was mainly concerned with the effect of finite atomic size on diffusion phenomena.

General principles

He articulated the principle of relativity. This was understood by Hermann Minkowski to be a generalization of rotational invariance from space to space-time. Other principles postulated by Einstein and later vindicated are the principle of equivalence and the principle of adiabatic invariance of the quantum number.

Theory of relativity and E = mc²

Einstein's "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper" ("On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies") was received on 30 June 1905 and published 26 September of that same year. It reconciles Maxwell's equations for electricity and magnetism with the laws of mechanics, by introducing major changes to mechanics close to the speed of light. This later became known as Einstein's special theory of relativity.
Consequences of this include the time-space frame of a moving body appearing to slow down and contract (in the direction of motion) when measured in the frame of the observer. This paper also argued that the idea of a luminiferous aether – one of the leading theoretical entities in physics at the time – was superfluous
In his paper on mass–energy equivalence Einstein produced E = mc² from his special relativity equations Einstein's 1905 work on relativity remained controversial for many years, but was accepted by leading physicists, starting with Max Planck.

Photons and energy quanta

In a 1905 paper, Einstein postulated that light itself consists of localized particles (quanta). Einstein's light quanta were nearly universally rejected by all physicists, including Max Planck and Niels Bohr. This idea only became universally accepted in 1919, with Robert Millikan's detailed experiments on the photoelectric effect, and with the measurement of Compton scattering.
Einstein concluded that each wave of frequency f is associated with a collection of photons with energy hf each, where h is Planck's constant. He does not say much more, because he is not sure how the particles are related to the wave. But he does suggest that this idea would explain certain experimental results, notably the photoelectric effect.

Quantized atomic vibrations

In 1907 Einstein proposed a model of matter where each atom in a lattice structure is an independent harmonic oscillator. In the Einstein model, each atom oscillates independently – a series of equally spaced quantized states for each oscillator. Einstein was aware that getting the frequency of the actual oscillations would be different, but he nevertheless proposed this theory because it was a particularly clear demonstration that quantum mechanics could solve the specific heat problem in classical mechanics. Peter Debye refined this model.

Adiabatic principle and action-angle variables

Throughout the 1910s, quantum mechanics expanded in scope to cover many different systems. After Ernest Rutherford discovered the nucleus and proposed that electrons orbit like planets, Niels Bohr was able to show that the same quantum mechanical postulates introduced by Planck and developed by Einstein would explain the discrete motion of electrons in atoms, and the periodic table of the elements.
Einstein contributed to these developments by linking them with the 1898 arguments Wilhelm Wien had made. Wien had shown that the hypothesis of adiabatic invariance of a thermal equilibrium state allows all the blackbody curves at different temperature to be derived from one another by a simple shifting process. Einstein noted in 1911 that the same adiabatic principle shows that the quantity which is quantized in any mechanical motion must be an adiabatic invariant. Arnold Sommerfeld identified this adiabatic invariant as the action variable of classical mechanics. The law that the action variable is quantized was a basic principle of the quantum theory as it was known between 1900 and 1925.

Wave–particle duality

Although the patent office promoted Einstein to Technical Examiner Second Class in 1906, he had not given up on academia. In 1908, he became a privatdozent at the University of Bern. In "über die Entwicklung unserer Anschauungen über das Wesen und die Konstitution der Strahlung" ("The Development of Our Views on the Composition and Essence of Radiation"), on the quantization of light, and in an earlier 1909 paper, Einstein showed that Max Planck's energy quanta must have well-defined momenta and act in some respects as independent, point-like particles. This paper introduced the photon concept (although the name photon was introduced later by Gilbert N. Lewis in 1926) and inspired the notion of wave–particle duality in quantum mechanics.

Theory of critical opalescence

Einstein returned to the problem of thermodynamic fluctuations, giving a treatment of the density variations in a fluid at its critical point. Ordinarily the density fluctuations are controlled by the second derivative of the free energy with respect to the density. At the critical point, this derivative is zero, leading to large fluctuations. The effect of density fluctuations is that light of all wavelengths is scattered, making the fluid look milky white. Einstein relates this to Raleigh scattering, which is what happens when the fluctuation size is much smaller than the wavelength, and which explains why the sky is blue Einstein quantitatively derived critical opalescence from a treatment of density fluctuations, and demonstrated how both the effect and Rayleigh scattering originate from the atomistic constitution of matter.

Zero-point energy

Einstein's physical intuition led him to note that Planck's oscillator energies had an incorrect zero point. He modified Planck's hypothesis by stating that the lowest energy state of an oscillator is equal to ¹⁄₂hf, to half the energy spacing between levels. This argument, which was made in 1913 in collaboration with Otto Stern, was based on the thermodynamics of a diatomic molecule which can split apart into two free atoms.

General relativity and the equivalence principle

General relativity (GR) is a theory of gravitation that was developed by Albert Einstein between 1907 and 1915. According to general relativity, the observed gravitational attraction between masses results from the warping of space and time by those masses. General relativity has developed into an essential tool in modern astrophysics. It provides the foundation for the current understanding of black holes, regions of space where gravitational attraction is so strong that not even light can escape.
As Albert Einstein later said, the reason for the development of general relativity was that the preference of inertial motions within special relativity was unsatisfactory, while a theory which from the outset prefers no state of motion (even accelerated ones) should appear more satisfactory. So in 1908 he published an article on acceleration under special relativity. In that article, he argued that free fall is really inertial motion, and that for a freefalling observer the rules of special relativity must apply. This argument is called the Equivalence principle. In the same article, Einstein also predicted the phenomenon of gravitational time dilation. In 1911, Einstein published another article expanding on the 1907 article, in which additional effects such as the deflection of light by massive bodies were predicted.

Hole argument and Entwurf theory

While developing general relativity, Einstein became confused about the gauge invariance in the theory. He formulated an argument that led him to conclude that a general relativistic field theory is impossible. He gave up looking for fully generally covariant tensor equations, and searched for equations that would be invariant under general linear transformations only.
In June 1913 the Entwurf ("draft") theory was the result of these investigations. As its name suggests, it was a sketch of a theory, with the equations of motion supplemented by additional gauge fixing conditions. Simultaneously less elegant and more difficult than general relativity, after more than two years of intensive work Einstein abandoned the theory in November 1915 after realizing that the hole argument was mistaken.

Cosmology

In 1917, Einstein applied the General theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe as a whole. He wanted the universe to be eternal and unchanging, but this type of universe is not consistent with relativity. To fix this, Einstein modified the general theory by introducing a new notion, the cosmological constant. With a positive cosmological constant, the universe could be an eternal static sphere
Einstein believed a spherical static universe is philosophically preferred, because it would obey Mach's principle. He had shown that general relativity incorporates Mach's principle to a certain extent in frame dragging by gravitomagnetic fields, but he knew that Mach's idea would not work if space goes on forever. In a closed universe, he believed that Mach's principle would hold. Mach's principle has generated much controversy over the years.

Modern quantum theory

Einstein was displeased with quantum theory and mechanics, despite its acceptance by other physicists, stating "God doesn't play with dice." As Einstein passed away at the age of 76 he still would not accept quantum theory. In 1917, at the height of his work on relativity, Einstein published an article in Physikalische Zeitschrift that proposed the possibility of stimulated emission, the physical process that makes possible the maser and the laser. This article showed that the statistics of absorption and emission of light would only be consistent with Planck's distribution law if the emission of light into a mode with n photons would be enhanced statistically compared to the emission of light into an empty mode. This paper was enormously influential in the later development of quantum mechanics, because it was the first paper to show that the statistics of atomic transitions had simple laws. Einstein discovered Louis de Broglie's work, and supported his ideas, which were received skeptically at first. In another major paper from this era, Einstein gave a wave equation for de Broglie waves, which Einstein suggested was the Hamilton–Jacobi equation of mechanics. This paper would inspire Schrödinger's work of 1926.

Bose–Einstein statistics

In 1924, Einstein received a description of a statistical model from Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, based on a counting method that assumed that light could be understood as a gas of indistinguishable particles. Einstein noted that Bose's statistics applied to some atoms as well as to the proposed light particles, and submitted his translation of Bose's paper to the Zeitschrift für Physik. Einstein also published his own articles describing the model and its implications, among them the Bose–Einstein condensate phenomenon that some particulates should appear at very low temperatures. It was not until 1995 that the first such condensate was produced experimentally by Eric Allin Cornell and Carl Wieman using ultra-cooling equipment built at the NIST–JILA laboratory at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Bose–Einstein statistics are now used to describe the behaviors of any assembly of bosons. Einstein's sketches for this project may be seen in the Einstein Archive in the library of the Leiden University.

Energy momentum pseudotensor

General relativity includes a dynamical spacetime, so it is difficult to see how to identify the conserved energy and momentum. Noether's theorem allows these quantities to be determined from a Lagrangian with translation invariance, but general covariance makes translation invariance into something of a gauge symmetry. The energy and momentum derived within general relativity by Noether's presecriptions do not make a real tensor for this reason.
Einstein argued that this is true for fundamental reasons, because the gravitational field could be made to vanish by a choice of coordinates. He maintained that the non-covariant energy momentum pseudotensor was in fact the best description of the energy momentum distribution in a gravitational field. This approach has been echoed by Lev Landau and Evgeny Lifshitz, and others, and has become standard.
The use of non-covariant objects like pseudotensors was heavily criticized in 1917 by Erwin Schrödinger and others.

Unified field theory

Following his research on general relativity, Einstein entered into a series of attempts to generalize his geometric theory of gravitation to include electromagnetism as another aspect of a single entity. In 1950, he described his "unified field theory" in a Scientific American article entitled "On the Generalized Theory of Gravitation". Although he continued to be lauded for his work, Einstein became increasingly isolated in his research, and his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. In his pursuit of a unification of the fundamental forces, Einstein ignored some mainstream developments in physics, most notably the strong and weak nuclear forces, which were not well understood until many years after his death. Mainstream physics, in turn, largely ignored Einstein's approaches to unification. Einstein's dream of unifying other laws of physics with gravity motivates modern quests for a theory of everything and in particular string theory, where geometrical fields emerge in a unified quantum-mechanical setting.

Wormholes

Einstein collaborated with others to produce a model of a wormhole. His motivation was to model elementary particles with charge as a solution of gravitational field equations, in line with the program outlined in the paper "Do Gravitational Fields play an Important Role in the Constitution of the Elementary Particles?". These solutions cut and pasted Schwarzschild black holes to make a bridge between two patches.
If one end of a wormhole was positively charged, the other end would be negatively charged. These properties led Einstein to believe that pairs of particles and antiparticles could be described in this way.

Einstein–Cartan theory

In order to incorporate spinning point particles into general relativity, the affine connection needed to be generalized to include an antisymmetric part, called the torsion. This modification was made by Einstein and Cartan in the 1920s.

Equations of motion

The theory of general relativity has a fundamental law  – the Einstein equations which describe how space curves, the geodesic equation which describes how particles move may be derived from the Einstein equations.
Since the equations of general relativity are non-linear, a lump of energy made out of pure gravitational fields, like a black hole, would move on a trajectory which is determined by the Einstein equations themselves, not by a new law. So Einstein proposed that the path of a singular solution, like a black hole, would be determined to be a geodesic from general relativity itself.
This was established by Einstein, Infeld, and Hoffmann for pointlike objects without angular momentum, and by Roy Kerr for spinning objects.

Other investigations

Einstein conducted other investigations that were unsuccessful and abandoned. These pertain to force, superconductivity, gravitational waves, and other research.

Einstein received numerous awards and honors, including the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Death

On 17 April 1955, Albert Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which had previously been reinforced surgically by Dr. Rudolph Nissen in 1948. He took the draft of a speech he was preparing for a television appearance commemorating the State of Israel's seventh anniversary with him to the hospital, but he did not live long enough to complete it. Einstein refused surgery, saying: "I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly." He died in Princeton Hospital early the next morning at the age of 76, having continued to work until near the end.
During the autopsy, the pathologist of Princeton Hospital, Thomas Stoltz Harvey, removed Einstein's brain for preservation without the permission of his family, in the hope that the neuroscience of the future would be able to discover what made Einstein so intelligent. Einstein's remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed location.
In his lecture at Einstein's memorial, nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer summarized his impression of him as a person: "He was almost wholly without sophistication and wholly without worldliness ... There was always with him a wonderful purity at once childlike and profoundly stubborn