LEXICON- DEFINITIONS & INTERPRETATIONS (PART 3)

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Babylon

Babylon (/ˈbæbələn, -ˌlɒn/; Akkadian: Bābili(m); Sumerian logogram: KÁ.DINGIR.RA^KI; Hebrew: בָּבֶל, Bavel; Ancient Greek:Βαβυλών Babylṓn; Old Persian: Bābiru; Kassite language: Karanduniash; Arabic: بابل‎, Bābil) was a significant city in ancientMesopotamia, in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphratesrivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river\'s seasonal floods.

Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BC. The town attained independence as part of a small city state with the rise of the FirstAmorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Claiming to be the successor of the more ancient Sumero-Akkadian city of Eridu, Babylon eclipsed Nippur as the \"holy city\" of Mesopotamia around the time Amorite king Hammurabi created the first short lived Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia.

The empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabi\'s death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rules of the Achaemenid, Seleucid,Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires.

It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c. 1770 to 1670 BC, and again between c. 612 and 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the maximum extent of its area range from 890 to 900 hectares (2,200 acres).

The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate,Iraq, about 85 kilometres (53 mi) south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris.

Brahma:

(to be distinguished from Brahma or its alternative Brahma) In Hinduism, a postvedic deity. Brahma is the god of creation and first in the Hindu triad of Brahma, Visnu and Siva. He is represented as red in colour, with four heads and four arms, the hands holding, respectively, a goblet, a bow, a scepter, and the Vedas. Today Brahma is seldom worshipped, and his shrines are few; only two major temples in India are dedicated to him: one at Pushkar, near Ajmere, the other at khedbrahma. Nevertheless, Brahma does figure in both Buddhism and Jainism.

Buddhism:

This began historically (although, of course, in its own account it has always been the truth, with along pre-history) bin the 6^th and 5^th cents. BCE, in India, with the enlightenment of Gotama, who became there by muni of the Sakya clan (i.e. Sakyamuni) and (in his own self-description) Tathagata. As presented now in the texts, he taight in the context of the basic components of Hindu cosmology and psychology (long cycles of time, and equally long periods through which a self or soul, atman, is reborn as it moves, controlled by karma as cause, toward freedom or salvation, moksa), but modified them drastically: he saw all appearance as characterized by dukkha (transience, anicca, accompanied by the suffering which arises if one seeks something permanent or eternal in its midst). It follows that there cannot be a soul, but only the sequence of one moment giving rise to the next, constituting appearances with characteristic possibilities (human, e.g., as opposed to animal, through the skandhas, aggregations). The no-soul doctrine is referred to as anatman. The teaching of the Buddha is summarized in the Four Noble Truths (the truth of dukkha and how to escape it), the Eightfold path (astangika-marga) (the route to escape or enlightenment and paticca-samuppada (the analysis of the twelve-step chain of cause which gives rise to entanglement in samsara, the continuing process of reappearance (Punabhava). Buddhism commitment can be summarized in the three Jewels or Refuges: I take refuge in the Buddha: I take refuge in the Dhamma (pali for Skt., dharma); I take refuge in the Sangha. The sangha is the communal organization of the bhiksus (bhikkhus), or monks. The Buddha’s teaching was gathered, over a long period, into canonical collections, especially the Tripitaka and the Sutras, though the status particularly of the later, may be disputed. From about the end of the 4^th cent. BCE, different interpretations of teaching were leading to different schools, and especially to the major difference between Theravada (teaching of the elders’), with its eighteen schools, and Mahayana (great Vehicle, hence their derogatory reference to Theravada as Hinayana, minor vehicle), with its innumerable styles and divisions. The spread of Buddhism was greatly accelerated during the reign of Asoka (3^rd cent. BCE).

Under this endorsement, popular Buddhism flourished, especially Pilgrimages, in the rituals and beliefs associated with them, and in the proliferation of art and of art and image-making. But philosophy (abhidhamma) also began its quest for more exact analysis of Buddhist concepts: three major schools emerged in the 3^rd cent. BCE): Puggalavada (Skt., Pudgalavada), Sarvastivada (Pali, Sabbatthivada), and Vibhajjavada (Skt. Kibhajyavada). Later, and even more important, came the development of ‘the Great Vehicle’, Mahayana, between the 2^nd cent. BCE and first CE. It was not a single school or movement but a drawing out of elements of practice and belief which had been in Buddhism form the outset, but without formal elaboration. Nevertheless, as the implications of these elements were elaborated, a new style of Buddhism began to emerge. In particular, the emphasis was no longer on making one’s own way as near to enlightment as possible (arhat) but on attaining what the Buddha promised and then turning back from selfish attainment in order to help others bodhisattva). This led to entirely new cosmologies, as the whole spectrum of buddhas and bodhisattva was mapped into its place. But even more disjunctively, new philosophical realizations were achieved of what the true Buddha-nature must be, and how there can not be other than that nature which is empty of self and of all differentiation (buddhata; bussho; sunyat). A key figure here was Nagarjuna and the Madhyamaka school.

The reasons for the decline and virtual disappearance of Buddhism in India remain a matter of academic dispute. Long before the decline, Buddhism had begun to expand, in three different geographical directions, which produced very different versions of Buddhism (for which see following articles and TIBETAN RELIGION): north into Tibet; east into China, Korea, and Japan; and south-east into Srilanka.

French Revolution

The French Revolution (French: Révolution française) was an influential period of social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799. Inspired by liberal and radical ideas, the Revolution profoundly altered the course of modern history, triggering the global decline oftheocracies and absolute monarchies while replacing them with republicsand democracies. Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history.

The causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years\' War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt and attempted to restore its financial status through unpopular taxation schemes. Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789. The first year of the Revolution saw members of the Third Estate taking control, the assault on the Bastille in July, the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August, and a women\'s march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Paris in October. A central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy. In a momentous event that led to internationa