Konkani language

Konkani (Kōṅkaṇī) is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-European family of languages and is spoken along the western coast of India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages mentioned in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution and the official language of the Indian state of Goa. The first Konkani inscription is dated 1187 A.D. It is a minority language in Maharashtra, Karnataka, northern Kerala (Kasaragod district),Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu.

Konkani is a member of the southern Indo-Aryan language group. It retains elements of Old Indo-Aryan structures and shows similarities with both western and eastern Indo-Aryan languages.

Appellations

It is quite possible that Old Konkani was just referred to as Prakrit by its speakers. Among the inscriptions at the foot of the colossal statue of Bahubali at Sravanabelagola in Karnataka are two lines reading thus: (i) Sri Chamundaraje Karaviyale and (ii) Sri Ganga raje sutthale karaviyale. The first line was inscribed circa 981 AD and the second line in 116-17 AD. The language of these lines is Konkani according to Dr. S.B. Kulkarni (former head of Department of Marathi, Nagpur University) and Dr. Jose Pereira (former professor, Fordham University, USA). Considering these arguments, these inscriptions at Sravanabelegola may be considered the earliest Konkani inscriptions in Devanagari script. Reference to the name Konkani is not found in literature prior to 13th century. The first reference of the name Konkani is in "Abhanga 263" of the 13th century Marathi saint poet, Namadeva (1270–1350). Konkani has been known by a variety of names: Canarim, Concanim, Gomantaki, Bramana, and Goani. It is called Amchi Bhas (our language) by native speakers (Amchi Gele in Dakshina Kannada), and Govi or Goenchi Bhas by others. Learned Marathi speakers tend to call it Gomantaki.

Inner Worlds

Inner Worlds is an album by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was the group's sixth album release.

In 1975, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and keyboardist Gayle Moran left the band. Stu Goldberg was brought in as a replacement for Moran. Although they were not officially recorded, initially this version of the group still retained Norma Jean Bell, Carol Shive, Phillip Hirschi, Russell Tubbs and Steve Kindler. After some hasty rehearsals, this line-up toured with Jeff Beck. After the tour, McLaughlin pared the band down to a quartet of himself, Goldberg, Walden and Armstrong, and then the album was recorded.Goldberg interview

This would be the last album by the Mahavishnu Orchestra for nearly ten years, when leader and guitarist John McLaughlin re-formed the group in 1984.

The track "Planetary Citizen" was often used by early hip-hop DJs and producers for its drum break and vocals . One example is the use of the vocals as a significant feature of the Massive Attack track "Unfinished Sympathy".

Active Worlds

Active Worlds is an online virtual world, developed by ActiveWorlds Inc., a company based in Newburyport, MA, and launched on June 28, 1995. Users assign themselves a name, log into the Active Worlds universe, and explore 3D virtual worlds and environments that others have built. ActiveWorlds allows users to own worlds and universes, and develop custom 3D content. The browser has web browsing capabilities, voice chat, and basic instant messaging.

History

In the summer of 1994, Ron Britvich created WebWorld, the first 2.5D world where tens of thousands could chat, build and travel. WebWorld operated on the Peregrine Systems Inc. servers as an after hours project until Britvich left the company to join Knowledge Adventure Worlds (KAW) in the fall of that year. In February 1995, KAW spun off their 3D Web division to form the company Worlds Inc. Britvich was eventually joined by several other developers, and the renamed AlphaWorld continued to develop as a skunk works project at Worlds Inc, internally competing with a similar project known internally as Gamma and publicly as Worlds Chat. While AlphaWorld was developing a strong cult following due in large part to Britvich's open philosophy of favoring user-built content, Worlds, Inc. favored Gamma for the company produced contract projects for Disney and others.

Vedas

The Vedas (/ˈveɪdəz, ˈviː-/;Sanskrit: वेद véda, "knowledge") are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. Hindus consider the Vedas to be apauruṣeya, which means "not of a man, superhuman" and "impersonal, authorless".

Vedas are also called śruti ("what is heard") literature, distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called smṛti ("what is remembered"). The Veda, for orthodox Indian theologians, are considered revelations seen by ancient sages after intense meditation, and texts that have been more carefully preserved since ancient times. In the Hindu Epic the Mahabharata, the creation of Vedas is credited to Brahma. The Vedic hymns themselves assert that they were skillfully created by Rishis (sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.

There are four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda. Each Veda has been subclassified into four major text types – the Samhitas (mantras and benedictions), the Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices and symbolic-sacrifices), the Brahmanas (commentaries on rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices), and the Upanishads (text discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge). Some scholars add a fifth category – the Upasanas (worship).

Marathi language

Marathi (English pronunciation: ⁱ/məˈrɑːti/; मराठी Marāṭhī [məˈɾaʈʰi]) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken predominantly by Marathi people of Maharashtra. It is the official language and co-official language in Maharashtra and Goa states of Western India respectively, and is one of the 23 official languages of India. There were 73 million speakers in 2001; Marathi ranks 19th in the list of most spoken languages in the world. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India. Marathi has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indo-Aryan languages, dating from about 900 AD. The major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and the Varhadi dialect. There are other related languages such as Khandeshi, Dangi, Vadvali and Samavedi. Malvani Konkani has been heavily influenced by Marathi varieties.

Marathi is strongly influenced by Sanskrit & is the Indo-Aryan language with 50% of vocabulary identical to the Sanskrit language . Additionally, it has some special grammatical features derived from Sanskrit that are not retained in other major Indian languages. For example, Marathi has inclusive as well as exclusive forms of 'we' and also a neuter gender which is rarely present in languages like Hindi and Punjabi and absent in Bengali. Also, it is one of the three Indo-Aryan languages retaining Sanskrit letter ळ (the others are Gujarati and Punjabi).