Let's Fire Up Those Neurons!

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by Gauri03, Jul 23, 2014.

  1. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    It looks like everyone is done with the puzzle # 3516 (http://www.indusladies.com/forums/e...th/258242-lets-fire-up-those-neurons-352.html) and I was waiting for Gowri to publish her answer before me. I guess she is busy and hence I am going ahead with publishing the answer.

    The person is: Friedrich Max Müller

    Image 7: He studied Upanishads and Sanskrit to learn more about the religion and he is one of the many foreigners who have made significant contributions to propagate the Vedic literature into Europe.

    Image 3: He was born in Dessau, Germany

    Image 2: His academic career started in Oxford University

    Image 4 & 6:
    In June 1874 Müller was awarded the
    Por le Merite (civil class), much to his surprise. In 1875 Müller was awarded the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art. The award is given to acknowledge excellent and outstanding achievements in the field of science and art.

    Image 5: He was closely associated with Brahmo Samaj started in 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

    Image 1:
    Swami Vivekananda, who was the foremost disciple of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, met Max Muller over a lunch on 28 May 1896. He described the visit as a great revelation to him. He went on to add he didn't see a philologist nor the scholar, but a soul that is every day realizing its oneness with the universe.

    I would like to end this with a quote from Max Muller: "If philosophy or religion is meant to be preparation for the after-life, a happy life and happy death, I know of no better preparation for it than Vedanta".

    Viswa
     
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  2. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    @jskls,

    I am so sorry that I published the results earlier thinking that everyone is done with the puzzle. You are right and I should have waited until 24 hours from the time I published the puzzle. I don't know how I missed noticing that you have not responded earlier. My apologies.
     
  3. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    Post #3517 is an indirect clue.

    The pic is a poster for the film
    "The Blue Max" (1966) with George Peppard playing a WWI German ace hankering for the Order of Merit.

    The Prussian
    "Orden Pour le Mérite", awarded to Max Müller, was also known as the "Blue Max". One of the other famous winners of the medal was the pilot Max Müller, posthumously knighted as Max Ritter von Müller (no relation, that I know of, to our Max) who had 36 kills to his credit.

    The clue was intended to point to the medal, the name 'Max' and this other "Max Müller". The emojis underneath were a warning to say that he's not your man, but a pointer to the real Hero of Viswa's puzzle!
    :wink:
     
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  4. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    Let Madam Gauri post her answer.Let Rohsik announce the puzzle.I shall wait.
    Jayasala 42
    Dear Viswa, that Maxmuller puzzle was much interesting.I could get a catch as we have read a lot about Max muller in our college days.Actually in 1960 there was a debate in our college that Maxmuller received more popularity than he deserved and that he was responsible for some wrong information published in History Text books. Unquestionably the interest he evinced in Sanskrit is really noteworthy.
    Actually the forum has transformed me into a 20 year old girl.
    Jayasala 42
     
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  5. rohsiK

    rohsiK Gold IL'ite

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    Jayasala Mam my puzzle is related to a thing which deviates from this Indian theme, I will wait till this theme gets done, please go ahead and post your puzzle...
     
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  6. Gauri03

    Gauri03 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Answer to # 3483

    The common link between the images is Pāṇini, Sanskrit grammarian and mathematician.

    Pāṇini is known for his Sanskrit grammar, particularly for his formulation of the 3,959 rules of Sanskrit morphology, syntax and semantics in the grammar known as Aṣṭādhyāyī, meaning "eight chapters", the foundational text of Sanskrit grammar. His theory of morphological analysis was more advanced than any equivalent Western theory before the mid 20th century, and his analysis of noun compounds still forms the basis of modern linguistic theories of compounding.

    Image 1: AND, OR, XOR etc., logic gates. The clue referred to Boolean logic, a primitive form of which was employed by Panini while constructing the rules of Sanskrit grammar.

    Image 2: Noam Chomsky, probably the most well known linguist in the world. A reference to language and linguistics.

    Image 3 and audio clip: Shiva with his damaru. The clue referred to the Maheshwara Sutras.

    The fourteen sounds of the Maheshwara Sutra, is the most ancient known Sanskrit alphabet sequence. The fourteen sutras contain all the letters of the Sanskrit varnamala - the svaras (vowels) and all the vyanjanas (consonants). The sounds of the alphabet are said have been revealed to Panini by Lord Shiva's 'damru'.

    The audio clip was a recitation of the Maheswara sutra by Illayaraja.

    Image 4: A statue of Alan Turing, often called the father of modern computing.
    With its complex use of metarules, transformations, and recursions, Panini's grammar has been likened to the Turing machine, an idealized mathematical model that reduces the logical structure of any computing device to its essentials.

    Image 5: An example of the Backus Naur form used in computer science to specify computer languages. Panini is often thought of as the forerunner of the modern formal language theory. The Backus Normal Form was discovered independently by John Backus in 1959, but Panini's notation is equivalent in its power to that of Backus and has many similar properties. It is remarkable to think that concepts which are fundamental to today's theoretical computer science should have their origin with an Indian genius around 2500 years ago.

    Image 6: A Panini sandwich! This clue was intended to be a joke. I was worried that too many of the clues required a comp sci background and wanted to put something in there that would hide the answer in plain sight! I shouldn't have doubted the brilliance of the neurites. Next one won't be so easy!!
    :)

    Image 7: 8 Parts of speech. Dual reference to grammar as well as Panini's text the Astadhyayi. Ashtadhyayi is a Sanskrit treatise on grammar, written in the 6th to 5th century BCE by Panini. This work set the linguistic standards for Classical Sanskrit. It sums up in 4,000 sutras the science of phonetics and grammar that had evolved in Vedic sanskrit. Panini divided his work into eight chapters, each of which is further divided into quarter chapters, beyond defining the morphology and syntax of Sanskrit language.

    Some quotes on the magnitude of Panini's contributions --

    "Panini's grammar has been evaluated from various points of view. After all these different evaluations, I think that the grammar merits asserting ... that it is one of the greatest monuments of human intelligence."


    "[Sanskrit's] potential for scientific use was greatly enhanced as a result of the thorough systemisation of its grammar by Panini. ... On the basis of just under 4000 sutras [rules expressed as aphorisms], he built virtually the whole structure of the Sanskrit language, whose general 'shape' hardly changed for the next two thousand years. ... An indirect consequence of Panini's efforts to increase the linguistic facility of Sanskrit soon became apparent in the character of scientific and mathematical literature. This may be brought out by comparing the grammar of Sanskrit with the geometry of Euclid - a particularly apposite comparison since, whereas mathematics grew out of philosophy in ancient Greece, it was ... partly an outcome of linguistic developments in India."


    *Liberally sourced from Wikipedia and Wikiquote due to a lack time.
     
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  7. Gauri03

    Gauri03 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Sorry to keep everyone waiting. Please post the next one.
     
  8. jskls

    jskls IL Hall of Fame

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    @Viswamitra sir, no apologies please. It's ok, I was busy and its not easy for you to track all the participants. but still I could learn something about Max Mueller.
     
  9. jskls

    jskls IL Hall of Fame

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    @Gauri03, good one. I just used linguist + math + India and reached the answer Panini. It was an interesting read to learn lot of things.

    Are you planning to index Sokanasanah's answers (which in itself will be a puzzle) too?
     
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  10. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    Puzzle Post #3483
    Additional Clues:


    #3484
    Portrays Hanuman, in his incarnation as the "Nava vyakarna vethi ..", as described in Valmiki's Ramayana. Hanuman is considered a scholar, well versed in the Nine Schools of Grammar: Indhram, Saandhram, Kaasakruthsnam, Koumarakam, Sakadayanam, Saarasvatham, Aabhisalam, Saakalam and Paanineeyam. Note that, in this telling, Panini is the most modern!

    Surprisingly, Panini himself acknowledges sixteen schools of grammar / grammarians before him. These must have been spectacularly amazing people, in an amazingly fecund cultural and intellectual milieu, able to sustain such abstraction and refined intellectual exchange!

    What is notable is that, by tradition, the Tamil grammar treatise "Tolkappiyam" is attributed to have its antecedents in the Indhram school (derived from Indra himself), so in some sense prides itself as older?!

    Writer and Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz, who was Mexico's ambassador to India, used Hanuman as a starting point for a meditation on language, life and everything else besides in his book "The Monkey Grammarian" (1991)



    #3514
    is the more direct clue as requested by Gauri, presented as a play on words. It refers to the Sanskrit word for hand - "pANi". I chose "wedding hand-holding" as the clue image because a wedding is a "Paanigrahanam" - literally an 'acceptance of the hand'. This comes from the Sanskrit verse in Valmiki's Ramayana:

    Iyam Sita mama suta, saha dharma cari tava l
    praticcha enam badram te panina grhaneshava paninam* ll


    Many of you married neurites may have recited this verse at your own wedding!

    *The underlined bit translates as : "take her hand in yours ..." as Janaka said to Rama when he gave Sita away in marriage.




     
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