
“Robots” Guarded Buddha's Relics in Ancient India - zerop
https://theconversation.com/robots-guarded-buddhas-relics-in-a-legend-of-ancient-india-110078
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crankylinuxuser
The types of 'android assassins' are tulpas. They're similar to the Jewish
tradition of Golem, which is imbued rock and clay to an automaton. Other terms
would be thoughtforms, egregores.

The belief behind them is that they are 'energy beings' (think of energy as
spiritual and not em/strong/weak/gravity). And one can 'encode' simple ideas
or actions on them, like "Protect this grave" or the like.

~~~
mikelyons
Even warnings written on a wall cause emotions that change the very chemistry
of one's body.

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peteretep
The ideas in this article are considerably less irritating than I thought it
was at first. Essentially:

* "In 300 B.C., two Greek ambassadors, Megasthenes and Deimachus, resided in [North India]"

* "Did they bring plans or miniature models of automatons and other mechanical devices?"

* Is the origin of a legend about robots guarding the remains of Buddha inspired by these automatons the Greeks brought from the West to the East?

It's still all conjecture, takes far too long to get to it's point, and copy-
paste is disabled on the site, but it's not another "Ancient India invented
the internet"[0] howler

[0] [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-
india-43806078](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-43806078)

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hurrdurr2
They lost me at ancient robot assassins chasing robot makers who tried to
escape.

~~~
ropiwqefjnpoa
That's where they got me.

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rishabhd
probably a typo here, the "robots" are referred as "bhuta vahana yanta".
"Yanta" is not a word in sanskrit, it should be "Yantra" which means machine.

Edit : My bad, it does means machine in pali which is the defacto language of
the early buddhist sect.

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rishav_sharan
Does it literally translated to soul carrying machine, or am i completely
wrong

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rishabhd
Bhuta means multiple things in sanskrit, it can mean deities, spirits, what is
conscious, or comes into existence. In pali's context it is correct since
bhuta in pali means something that has an animated in nature, which i believe
is a better translation since pali was the dominant language during the reign
of Asoka & Ajatshatru. On a different note, pali and sanskrit, though have
almost the same vocabulary and inferences, may have different meanings for
similar contexts.

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schoen
I was first imagining spring-loaded or lever-based traps like in the Indiana
Jones movies.

Obviously the ones in the movies were made up for entertainment value, but
does anyone know if these sorts of traps have ever been encountered in a real
archaeological site?

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devnonymous
It's a pity that the major regions that link the greek/roman thought of the
'west' to the Indian/Asian cultures of the 'east' are today places of conflict
resulting in destruction, both intentional and collateral. How much of
archaeological knowledge has been lost to post ww2 wars in Afghanistan, Iran,
Syria?

~~~
paulmd
And in fact ISIS actually specifically targeted many of those sites either for
plundering for artifacts to sell to fund their operations, or for demolition.
It really is a shame, some of the sites are thousands of years old... gone in
an instant.

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aitchnyu
The story of treasures guarded by dormant robots evoked Laputa, Castle in the
Sky by Studio Ghibli. Its a city in the sky, like in Gulliver's travels and a
legend to aviators. Giant robots wake up to guard it. I wonder if Japan also
picked up the lore.

The machines that could efficiently cut down many men evoked Enthiran (same
word as yanthra in Tamil), about an android falling in love like Bicentiennal
Man but at one point building a mega gun with his magnetic powers.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-V_Vp_J9b0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-V_Vp_J9b0)

~~~
jacobush
Also thinking about the Golem. Similar ideas.

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empath75
I love this and I don’t care if it’s bullshit. Such a great story.

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person_of_color
Relevant:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu%27s_Tiger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu%27s_Tiger)

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emmelaich
I wonder if this has some connection to the terracotta warriors of China?

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btbuildem
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

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abc_lisper
Let me explain, because someone downmodded my snarky response earlier.

\- How do the androids see? There isn't any cogent explanation of sight until
the last 100 years. If there is some principle of sight discovered earlier,
why didn't we see other simpler devices from the same era?

\- How do the androids know what they see?

\- How do the androids know who revealed the secrets? How do they know their
address, or where they are right then?

\- How do they act? Where do they get the energy from? How is it stored?

\- How do they walk? Boston Dynamics has been beating its head for quite some
time now. Someone who can read those old documents, please reveal the secret,
and relieve them of their confused misery.

If they are anything they must be glorified rat traps. I am not trying to be
offensive, but this article just offends any rational thought.

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schoen
All of the sources mentioned in the article describe the Romavisaya as a
"legend". It's unclear whether or not it has a real connection with any
ancient device, although some of the sources suggest that the legend was
inspired by ancient technology (which would have been _much_ more limited than
the devices in the story).

This article refers to the account as a "story", "legend", or "tale" deriving
from "oral traditions". Since all of the actual robot content is repeatedly
said to come from a "legend", I don't think the article's author is trying to
convince you that this actually happened historically!

~~~
abc_lisper
Harry Potter, then?

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sohkamyung
It says this at the end: "This story was first published in The Conversation",
but does not provide a link, usually required for content reposted from The
Conversation. A search found it [1]

[1] [https://theconversation.com/robots-guarded-buddhas-relics-
in...](https://theconversation.com/robots-guarded-buddhas-relics-in-a-legend-
of-ancient-india-110078)

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iamnothere123
Why is the BS posted here?

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seabird
Because it's a legend that has real and interesting historical connections to
the relationship between India and the West. I think that it's reasonable to
assume that many readers here aren't familiar with the history and cultural
exchange that influenced or led to these tales.

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aitchnyu
I'm loving the myth Buddha is depicted with curly hair from Greek style. And
Stoic philosophy, developed in Greece and popular with Roman elite was
developed from Buddhist teachings.

