HINDU ARTIFACTS SMASHED AT MALDIVES MUSEUM

MALDIVES MUSEUM REOPENS
MINUS SMASHED HINDU IMAGES

Colombo, Sri Lanka (AP) - The Maldives’ national museum reopened days ago without some of its most valuable exhibits a week after a mob of suspected religious extremists smashed images from the pre-Islamic era of this Indian Ocean archipelago. About 35 exhibits - mostly images of Buddha and Hindu gods - were destroyed. Some of the artifacts dated to the sixth century, museum director Ali Waheed said. Waheed says 99 percent of the Maldives’ pre-Islamic artifacts from before the 12th century, when most inhabitants were Buddhists or Hindus, were destroyed. “Some of the pieces can be put together but mostly they are made of sandstone, coral and limestone, and they are reduced to powder,” he said. The mob of suspected Muslim extremists attacked the museum during the Maldives’ unfolding political crisis. The country has seen weeks of protests and some weeks ago President Mohamed Nasheed stepped down. He later said he was forced to resign at gunpoint.

The attack was the latest blow to the island nation that is best known as a high-end tourist destination. “We are very sad. This is the physical and archaeological evidence of the country, we have nothing to show (of the pre-Islamic history),” Waheed said. The items had been preserved since the museum opened in 1952. Waheed said the the attackers did not understand that the museum exhibits were not promoting other religions in this Muslim country. Practicing or preaching any religion other than Islam is prohibited by the Maldives constitution, and there have been increasing demands for conservative Muslim policies to be implemented. Last year, a mob destroyed a monument given by Pakistan marking a South Asian summit with an engraved image of the Buddha in it. Pakistan is an Islamic republic that also has a Buddhist history.

The Maldives’ national museum reopened days ago without some of its most valuable exhibits a week after a mob of suspected religious extremists smashed images from the pre-Islamic era of this Indian Ocean archipelago.  Some of the pieces made of sandstone, coral and limestone, were reduced to powder, museum director said.  According to some researchers, once upon a time the Vedic culture was spread not only far away the borders of Bharata-varsa (India) but all over the world.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Srimad Bhagavatam gives us a list of kings who ruled in India according to strict Vedic principles during the first 1.000 years of Kali-yuga. After that 1.000-year period the rulers in India went into sharp decline, resulting in weaker and weaker kingdoms with soft borders - thus entered the foreign conquerors. ... But in any case India was not actually called India before 2.500 years ago, it was called Bharata-varsa, a Sanskrit name meaning the region once ruled by Bharata Maharaja, son of Rsabhadeva. India being an English word is actually derived from the older Greek word Indika, referring to the land of the Indus Valley.  In antiquity the borders of Bharata-varsa extended to the Caspian Sea in the west, in the north it included what we now call Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and beyond and, as already stated, in the east the borders of Bharata-varsa reached up to Burma.

Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasingha Mahārāja :
“Who Ruled India?”
http://narasingha.net/
http://gosai.com/writings/who-ruled-india