BANGALORE: When everyone around was busy speculating about the world coming to an end on 21st December 2012 and giving doomsday predictions, there were some who thought differently. Authors DK Hari and Hema Hari were one of them.
Curiosity got the better of them and they digged into ancient books and manuscripts, interviewed scholars in and outside the country, did intense research and went deep into the roots of these speculations only to find out they were nothing but empty claims. But, how do they prove it?
In their latest book, '2012-The Real Story', the authors have showed the pan-global similarities among various ancient civilisations and have tried to connect the dots between the ancient Indian and American civilisation in terms of the stark resemblance in architecture, games, vocabulary, language, culture, calendars, calculation of time, system of measurement, weaving skills and many more.
The book takes you on a journey back in time, around 5000 years back, to where it all started and what we really like about the book is the colourful representations and pictures throughout, which makes the reading more interesting and fascinating.
One of the many fascinating facts mentioned in the book is the reverence of Garuda, the eagle, this side of the Pacific and the reverence of the same in the lands enroute, such as Thailand, Bali, Cambodia and the rest of Indonesia.
This lends credence to a Pacific Route for navigation between India and the Americas in ancient times. It goes on to say that the reverence of tortoises in these regions as well as the usage of elephants in rituals, also lends weight to the Pacific Route as the most probable route of movement for people between the region around India and the Americas.
A chapter called ‘Similarity in Morphing’ speaks about the similarities between the image and story of Echtill in the Aztec legends with Lord Hanuman of the Indian legend and the pictures just substantiate the claims.
One of the leading descendants of the Mayan Vishwakarma genealogy in India, Ganapathi Sthapathi is quoted in the book saying that he was amazed to see that the dimensions he practised while designing the temple structures back in India were the same followed in the archaeological ruins of the ancient American structures. Many prominent works of study by ancient legends and authors from around the world such as Miles Poindexter, Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, Paul Kirchhoff, Lopez, Dos Santos, Eugene Viollet-le-Duc find mention in the book.
The authors also explain why the year 2012 in particular, attracts sudden interest. According to the book, a calendar called the Long Count Calendar, which spanned across thousands of years, has been calculated to end on 21st December 2012.
Former Chief Justice of India MN Venkatachaliah who was present during the book launch said, “I felt like I was in a spaceship while reading this book and it makes some mind-boggling revelations.”
Jija Madhavan Harisingh, former DGP, Home Guards, Civil Defence & Fire Services, said, “The facts in the book satisfied my cynical mind. One reading of the book isn’t adequate to even get the basics. This tells you what happened 9000 years ago and the authors have done immense research.”
It is truly mind-boggling to find that the pieces of jigsaw was scattered across the Pacific and the authors have successfully managed to fit them snugly and connect the dots. They have managed to remove the fear over the the ‘doomsday’ and their efforts shine through the book.
Of course, this is not the first book written on the truth behind the most talked about date in the history. There is a book named ‘The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History’ written by anthropologist John Major Jenkins published in 2009. Jenkins had also investigated the Mayan culture since 1985.
The book launch was held at the Reliance TimeOut outlet at the Mantri Square mall recently.