Download The cities of Sumer were the first civilization to practice intensive

The cities of Sumer were the first civilization to practice intensive, year-round agriculture, (from ca. 5300
BC). By perhaps 5000 BC, the Sumerians had developed core agricultural techniques including large-scale
intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping, organized irrigation, and the use of a specialized labor force.
The surplus of storable food created by this economy allowed the population to settle in one place instead of
migrating after crops and grazing land. It also allowed for a much greater population density, and in turn
required an extensive labor force and division of labor. This organization led to the development of writing
(ca. 3500 BC). The most important archaeological discoveries in Sumer are a large number of tablets written
in Sumerian. Sumerian writing is the oldest example of writing on earth. Although pictures - that is,
hieroglyphs were first used, symbols were later made to represent syllables. Triangular or wedge-shaped
reeds were used to write on moist clay. This is called cuneiform. A large body of hundreds of thousands of
texts in the Sumerian language has survived, such as personal or business letters, receipts, lexical lists, laws,
hymns, prayers, stories, daily records, and even libraries full of clay tablets.
Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta
Chant to him the holy song, the incantation sung in its chambers -- the incantation of Nudimmud: "On that day
when there is no snake, when there is no scorpion, when there is no hyena, when there is no lion, when there is
neither dog nor wolf, when there is thus neither fear nor trembling, man has no rival! At such a time, may the
lands of Cubur and Hamazi, the many-tongued, and Sumer, the great mountain of the me of magnificence, and
Akkad, the land possessing all that is befitting, and the Martu land, resting in security -- the whole universe, the
well-guarded people -- may they all address Enlil together in a single language! For at that time, for the
ambitious lords, for the ambitious princes, for the ambitious kings, Enki, for the ambitious lords, for the
ambitious princes, for the ambitious kings, for the ambitious lords, for the ambitious princes, for the ambitious
kings -- Enki, the lord of abundance and of steadfast decisions, the wise and knowing lord of the Land, the expert
of the gods, chosen for wisdom, the lord of Eridug, shall change the speech in their mouths, as many as he had
placed there, and so the speech of mankind is truly one.
Enlil (nlin): a chief deity considered to be the god of breath, wind, loft, and breadth.
Enki: the god of beneficence, ruler of the freshwater depths beneath the earth
Eridug: (from the Sumerian for "mighty place") is an ancient city in what is now Tell Abu Shahrain in Iraq.
Considered the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia, and has been argued to be the oldest city in the world with a
founding date of perhaps ca. 5400 BCE.
------------------------------------------Shrī Rāmcharitmānas is an epic poem in Awadhi, composed by the 16th-century Indian poet, Goswami
Tulsidas (c.1532–1623). Rāmcharitmānas literally means the "Lake of the Deeds of Rām". Tulsidas compared
the seven kānds (literally 'books', cognate of cantos) of the epic to seven steps leading into the holy waters of
a Himalayan lake (or mānas, as in Lake Mansarovar or Manasbal Lake), "which purifies the body and the soul
at once." The core of the work is a poetic retelling of the events of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, centered on
the narrative of Rām, the crown prince of Ayodhya.
Ayodhya Kaand begins with the following verse: May He in whose lap shines forth the Daughter of the
mountain king, who carries the celestial stream on His head, on whose brow rests the crescent moon, whose
throat holds poison and whose breast is support of a huge serpent, and who is adorned by the ashes on His body,
may that chief of gods, the Lord of all, the Destroyer of the universe, the omnipresent Shivam the moon-like
Sankara, ever protect me.
Shivam: from Shiva (Sanskrit: Śiva, meaning "auspicious one";) is a major Hindu deity, and the Destroyer or
transformer of the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. In the Shaiva tradition of
Hinduism, Shiva is seen as the Supreme God.