Posted on 10/20/2013 12:45:22 PM PDT by Theoria
The Indian government on Friday began digging for treasure near an ancient temple after a tip off from a holy man who said he dreamed 1,000 tons of gold was buried there.
Swami Shoban Sarkar said he was approached in a dream by a 19th century ruler called Rao Ram Bux Singh who told him about the $40 billion bonanza buried near an ancient temple.
But despite having no money, land, or even a bank account, Sarkar did not keep the mystical vision to himself. Instead the civic-minded citizen informed the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) in the hope the gold could solve India’s economic crisis.
Bowing to political pressure, the ASI has decided to see if Sarkar’s dream checks out. The excavation, in the village of Daundia Khera, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, began Friday.
"I cried the day I realized that India is going to collapse economically," the holy man told the Mail Today newspaper, according to Reuters. "It is a hidden treasure for the country."
Around a dozen labors sent by the ASI arrived at the site on Thursday and cordoned it off with a bamboo fence.
The dig has attracted a lot of interest, with people flocking to see if there is any truth in the holy man’s dreams. Enterprising locals have set up stalls and started selling tea at what has become something of an attraction.
Following the instructions from Sarkar’s dream, the workers have been told to dig in an area based on a shadow cast by the nearby temple, sources told NBC News. They plan to uncover two 100-square meter areas beside the building.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnews.nbcnews.com ...
Oh...those wacky Indians. Maybe this is a derivation of nobama’s vaunted “jobs program”.
India is one of the oldest civilizations on earth. There would be a lot of hidden treasure in that country.
Then I checked the numbers.OC
ROFL, Best Post Award!
LOL, you nailed it!
any reports of stampedes yet?
It is also stupid because the $35B it would represent (at most) would be a drop in the bucket.
It's 0.75% of GDP. Three days' income for the average Indian.
Assuming that none of it were wasted on bureaucracy and that all of it were returned to the economy as a tax break (which could never happen), it would be like every American getting a one-time check for $400.
A welcome little windfall, but one that would not have a noticeable long term impact on the economy.
Archaeological Survey of India, Geological Survey of India refute dream theory in Unnao gold dig
Shailvee Sharda, TNN | Oct 20, 2013, 03.37 AM IST
LUCKNOW/UNNAO: Official agencies executing the treasure hunt in Unnao’s Daundiya Kheda, that supposedly began with a seer’s a dream, are against the theory.
Only time will tell if there is gold under the mound in Daundiya Kheda, but indications given by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) are positive. The nine-page document is in fact the basis of archaeological survey of India’s mega excavation exercise that invited global spotlight on Friday. “This prominent non-magnetic anomalous zone indicates presence/possibility of gold, silver or alloy. It may be tested by excavation at the specific site,” the report concludes, according to sources.
GSI conducted its preliminary work on October 3 and 4 and found traces of metal under the soil. The report also said that GSI found identical magnetic waves formed in most parts of the area except for a particular 10 to 20 meters wide and 5 to 20 meters deep area. It was found that the magnetic field in this area was not uniform, which hints presence of gold, silver or some other alloy.
Additional director general of ASI, Dr BR Mani, also wants scientific facts and reasoning to come to the fore. “We have never claimed that 1,000 tonnes of gold will be found. Our effort is based on scientific findings and not on somebody’s dream,” he said. He added that the method used by geologists is called ground penetrating radar survey (GPRS) which is a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. “In archaeology, it can detect and map archaeological artifacts, features, and patterning which helps excavation,” he explained.
Excavation exercise being initiated after a dream cannot be denied completely. Opening page of the report has taken reference of a mail addressed to director general, GSI, dated September 29, 2013, received from Vivek Kumar Dewangan (IAS) and personal secretary to minister of state for agriculture and food processing, (Charan Das Mahant). In his letter, a request to “launch an express programme to ascertain the extent of probable site of treasure of martyr Raja Rao Ram Baksh Singh in Baksar area of Unnao reported by Swami Bhaskaranand Dev of Shobhan (also known as Shobhan Sarkar) Ashram Kanpur” was made.
But how did Shobhan Sarkar come to know about the treasure? Ask this question and his uneducated and illiterate believers and followers, including disciple Swami Om Ji Awasthi, say “He saw a dream”. The swami has a long list of elite and powerful politicians and senior officials and they say that “swamiji is an exalted being... he lives in a trance and gets divine messages.” And the seer wraps up the issue saying, “everything in this world is a dream... you are a dream, I am a dream, every action is also a dream.”
Headed by SK Mishra, the team included superintending geologists Narendra Singh, Anil Kumar Singh, MK Rai, and Sanjay Kumar Singh, senior geologist Alok Kumar and Shambhu Nath Dwivedi among others were later joined by representatives from ASI’s Lucknow circle. The GSI team submitted its findings to the DG GSI on October 8. Officials in the ministry of culture and ASI were also roped in. On October 9, DG ASI issued instructions to officials at the Lucknow circle to get ready to dig the mound. On October 10, ASI asked district magistrate, Unnao to help them plan and hold the excavation as per provisions of different acts.
Even the district administration doesn’t endorse the dream theory. District magistrate VIjay Kiran Anand told TOI that he acted on a proposal sent by the local gram sabha. “We got the proposal on September 27 and soon after different teams started coming... First it was GSI and then ASI. The administration is only facilitating the agencies so that law and order stays in place which is our duty in all ways. We have not even initiated it,” he said.
Don’t forget, on a reserve basis, that 35 billion in gold could back the issuance of 3.5 trillion in dollars. That’s 75% of GDP.
Even so, it is more likely that India would cut taxes and return that find to the taxpayer than it is that India would adopt a hard money reserve system.
Yes, but just imagine how many Lotto tickets that could buy! Now what were the winning numbers?/s
That's about 6 trillion dollars.
Or 8% of global annual GDP.
Or about a third of our national debt.
Banks are able to issue credit here on approximately 1% or less reserve. That was the insinuation. There doesn’t need to be hard money backing for printers to print, just a positive balance on a sheet...
Or about 0.5%-1% of all outstanding paper creations of wealth.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.