Brahma: The God of Gods

Though there is no founder in Hinduism, there are a lot of Gods and Goddesses. The one I chose to do is Brahma:

Brahma is the first god of the Hindu Trinity. Many Hindus add Lord in-front of the name to emphasize, Lord Brahma is recognized as the creator of the Universe according to the Hindus. Brahma is the Supreme Being, the head of gods (Like in Greek, they have Zeus, in Hinduism, they have Brahma). Brahma is the generator of mankind. It symbolizes the work of mind and in the intellect. Something strange about Brahma is that there is a possible reason that worship of Brahma is not popular among Hindus. But it is known that he is worshiped by seekers of knowledge.

As I looked up on the site, it mentioned that

“As an individual is god gifted with the mind and intellect, then it may be assumed that a person has already attained Brahma.”

I chose to select Brahma, since I thought it was the pioneer of Hindu Deities.

As you can see Brahma doesn't look like a creature; the 4 arms symbolize the importance the armed, bearded deity. Hindus believe that Brahma is the foundation of all the knowledge required for the creation of the earth.

Brahma:

Characteristics :	Creator, Generator
Other Names :	Nabhija, Hiranyagarbha, Kanja
Consort :	Saraswati
Abode :	Brahmaloka
Weapon :	Brahmastra
Vahana (Vehicle) :	Swan
Brahma Gayatri Mantra:	Aum Parmeshwaraye Vidmahe Paratattvaye Dheemahi Tanno Brahma Prachodayat

Bibliography:

IloveIndianGroup. "Brahma." I Love India. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2011.
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City of Mounds "Mohenjo-Daro"

"Faceless" Indus Valley City Puzzles Archaeologists

5/22/2011

Many Archaeologists have pondered about this city for a long period of time; many were puzzled about this city due to the fact that this city lacked ostentatious palaces, temples, or monuments.This city situated in Sindh, Pakistan was once one of the largest settlements in Indus Valley. The Indus Valley civilization was unknown until, when archaeologists revealed the ancient city "Monhenjo-Daro."

The excavation have proven that Mohenjo-Daro emerged around 4500 years ago. It is know that its civilization spread out over over 100 (hectares).This city became an interest to archaeologists due to the unknown signs. Signs of evidences proved that they believed in sorts of Gods and Goddesses however there were no proofs of the government, religion, or anything related to them. Modesty, order, and cleanliness were apparently preferred.

On the other hand, the occupants of the Indus Valley were skilled urban planners; they were capable of controlling the water. Evidences have proven that, they maintained a drainage system, this only not made lives easier. The canals helped controlling flooding by catching overflow from the water. As a result, this led to a developed civilization.

No one knows for sure how Mohenjo-Daro disappeared. The unknown city described as abandoned, or destroyed is still a mystery for everyone.

Bibliography:

John Roach. "'Faceless' Indus Valley City Puzzles Archaeologists." National
Geographic Archaeology: n. pag. National Geographic Articles. Web. 22 May
2011. .

Unit Reflection: Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

5/6/2011

• What I learned this unit?
• Egyptian Art and Map
• Learner's Profile

What I learned this unit?

As we approached to the last quarter, we didn't have that much time to focus one topic and others that were associated with it; we had to rush through a bit. As soon as I knew the topic was Ancient Egypt, I thought that short amount of time wasn't enough, since Ancient Egypt was a strong Kingdom, which maintained a lot of histories until today. From my perspective, we focused more on the geography and more of religion, art, cultures instead of big topics such as government, rulers etc. What really interested me was the fact that the Nile River gave a lot of importance to Egyptians. Though Nile is known as the biggest river in the world, I didn't knew, it was an important source to others who lived along the coast. The 6650km long river gave fertile soil, trading relationships, and even food resources for the Egyptians and others to be developed in trading relationships and be open minded in traveling. On the other hand, what I enjoyed in this unit was the architecture. I especially liked this was because I had an opportunity to explain it and the architecture was just incredible. As many archaeologists say, when Mesopotamian built ziggurats, Egyptians constructed Pyramids; both were for same reasons, but there were huge differences. There are endless sentences about Egypt, as like today, famous subjects are more worth to write for.

Egyptian Art and Map

• Art

As I observed Egyptians arts drawn on stones and papyrus, I was stunned due to their creativity. I found that Egyptians were interested in writing and drawing daily lives and hieroglyphics on stones and papyrus. What is good about stones was that, it will stay for a long period but papyrus is portable and light however could be worth nothing when water is poured.

Another reason why I chose art to discuss about was because we had an privilege to draw god and goddess; as my previous blog entry accounted for the importance of my drawing, I chose to explain about it. What really was unique about mine was the difference between others; while other tend to draw about god's vocation, I drew about the opinions of citizens.

" If there is a period of joy, there is a period of sorrow," was the point of my drawing. As today, though a country might be rich, it will always have weakness. Therefore, I found that it would be better drawing about the people's view.

• Map

The map project was fun since it was partner project and everyone loved to draw. This was one of the best moments in humanities where I got to decorate, show my creativity and finish it up with writing some importance of the Nile River. Since it was a decorating project, I had to be organized and a participant, which influenced my organization and participation in a good way.

Learner's Profile: (Thinkers and Communicators)

Thinkers:

This unit required a lot of thinking to do especially when it got to the final visual project where each one of us gets to pick a topic to talk about. According to what I think, I needed to think a lot since I had to think about the importance about Egypt and what could be the best thing to talk about my topic. Even in the Atlantis project, I had to fight for my opinion, so I had to consider a lot of what will make me confident. As a result, those reasons made me think more, and be more knowledgeable.

Communicators:

What I thought that this unit had to do with communication was that, sometimes, we had to be discussing about the ancient Egypt and the present Egypt, the differences similarities. Also, we were discussing about Egypt and their relationships with other countries, making us communicative. To add on, Mrs. Moore let us watch horrible histories video to learn and communicate about the Egypt, to know better. I believe so that those small stuffs (games, jeopardy, quizzes) made us know better about the topic.