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Oct 14, 2017 · Over the next five years Mitra progressed his hole in the wall experiment to focus on delivering more specific knowledge – by posing questions via the computer in the hole in the wall. One question he asked, for example, was ‘why does hair grow’?
- Experiments
The two-stage balloon rocket experiment is a useful...
- Pedagogy
In 1999 Sugata Mitra put a computer connected to the...
- Experiments
Nov 2, 2023 · Mitra found that the children were able to learn how to use the computer with little or no instruction from adults. Mitra has conducted hole-in-the-wall experiments in over 20 countries around the world. His research has shown that children are capable of self-directed learning, especially when they are given access to the Internet.
Beginnings. Dr. Sugata Mitra, Chief Scientist at NIIT, is credited with the discovery of Hole-in-the-Wall. As early as 1982, he had been toying with the idea of unsupervised learning and computers. Finally, in 1999, he decided to test his ideas in the field. On 26th January, Dr. Mitra's team carved a "hole in the wall" that separated the NIIT ...
Using the Hole in the Wall setup with a single PC, children can learn to do most or all of the following tasks in approximately three months: 1. basic computer navigation functions, such as click, drag, open, close, resize, minimize and menu selection. 2. drawing and painting pictures on the computer. 3. loading and saving files.
- Overview
- History
Mithraism, the worship of Mithra, the Iranian god of the sun, justice, contract, and war in pre-Zoroastrian Iran. Known as Mithras in the Roman Empire during the 2nd and 3rd centuries ce, this deity was honoured as the patron of loyalty to the emperor. After the acceptance of Christianity by the emperor Constantine in the early 4th century, Mithrai...
Before ancient religious reformer Zarathustra (Greek name Zoroaster) gained influence in the region during the 6th century bce, the Iranians had a polytheistic religion, and Mithra was the most important of their gods. First of all, he was the god of contract and mutual obligation. In a cuneiform tablet of the 15th century bce that contains a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni, Mithra is invoked as the god of oath. Furthermore, in some Indian Vedic texts the god Mitra (the Indian form of Mithra) appears both as “friend” and as “contract.” The word mitra may be translated in either way, because contracts and mutual obligation make friends. In short, Mithra may signify any kind of interpersonal communication and whatever establishes good relations between people. Mithra was called the Mediator. Mithra was also the god of the sun, of the shining light that beholds everything, and, hence, was invoked in oaths. The Greeks and Romans considered Mithra as a sun god. He was probably also the god of kings. He was the god of mutual obligation between the king and his warriors and, hence, the god of war. He was also the god of justice, which was guaranteed by the king. Whenever people observed justice and contract, they venerated Mithra.
The most important Mithraic ceremony was the sacrifice of the bull. Opinion is divided as to whether this ceremony was pre-Zoroastrian or not. Zarathustra denounced the sacrifice of the bull, so it seems likely that the ceremony was a part of the old Iranian paganism. This inference is corroborated by an Indian text in which Mitra reluctantly participates in the sacrifice of a god named Soma, who often appears in the shape of a white bull or of the moon. On the Roman monuments, Mithra reluctantly sacrifices the white bull, who is then transformed into the moon. This detailed parallel seems to prove that the sacrifice must have been pre-Zoroastrian. Contract and sacrifice are connected, since treaties in ancient times were sanctioned by a common meal.
Beginning with Darius the Great (522–486 bce), the Persian kings of the Achaemenid dynasty were Zoroastrians. But Darius and his successors did not intend to create political difficulties by attempting to eradicate the old beliefs still dear to the heart of many nobles. Thus, the religion of Zarathustra was gradually contaminated with elements of the old, polytheistic worship. Hymns (the Yashts) were composed in honour of the old gods. There is a Yasht dedicated to Mithra, in which the god is depicted as the all-observing god of heavenly light, the guardian of oaths, the protector of the righteous in this world and the next, and, above all, as the archfoe of the powers of evil and darkness—hence, the god of battles and victory.
In the mixed religion of the later Achaemenid period, however, the Zoroastrian aspects clearly dominate the heathen aspects. The sacrifice of the bull, abhorred by every Zoroastrian, is never mentioned. When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire about 330 bce, the old structure of society appears to have broken down completely, and about the worship of Mithra in Persia no more is heard.
Local aristocrats in the western part of the former Persian empire retained their devotion to Mithra. The kings and nobles of the border region between the Greco-Roman and the Iranian world still worshipped him. When Tiridates of Armenia acknowledged the Roman emperor Nero as his supreme lord, he performed a Mithraic ceremony, indicating that the god of contract and of friendship established good relations between the Armenians and the mighty Romans. The kings of Commagene (southeast of Turkey) venerated Mithra. Mithradates VI of Pontus may have been a worshipper of the god, and his allies, the Cilician pirates, are known to have performed Mithraic ceremonies (67 bce). The worship of Mithra, however, never became popular in the Greek world, because the Greeks never forgot that Mithra had been the god of their enemies the Persians.
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- Reinhold Merkelbach
Sunday 9 June 10am – 1pm. This morning, led by Shakyapada, is an opportunity to consider taking your practice deeper by becoming a mitra. We'll be looking at what is involved and what it means to become a mitra: how you ask to be a mitra, the three undertakings, the ceremony itself, where you need to be in your practice, and how becoming a ...
People also ask
Why did Dr Mitra create a 'hole in the wall'?
Why was Mithras important in ancient Rome?
Did Sugata Mitra put a computer in a hole in the wall?
How did Mithra create the world?
Mitra, in the pantheon of Vedic Hinduism, one of the gods in the category of Adityas, sovereign principles of the universe. He represents friendship, integrity, harmony, and all else that is important in the successful maintenance of order in human existence.
