Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), a very famous American philosopher, Unitarian, social critic, transcendentalist and writer was quoted to have said: “In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny."
The Indian civilization has enhanced every art and science known to man. It was India that reckoned the use of zero to ten invented by Aryabhatta, oddly being misnamed “Arabic” numerals, and the use of a decimal system, which our modern computer age is wholly based on.
Ancient Indians were the first humans to spin and weave cotton into cloth. Indians were the first humans to play chess, to gamble with dice, to love mangoes, and elephants, to stand on our heads (yoga) for good health, and to believe in the coexistence of paradox, and to appreciate the beauty and universal possibility of nonviolence. India is the birthplace of Hinduism as well as Buddhism. It is the motherland of Sikhs and Jains, the dwelling of more Rishis, Sadhus, Mahatmas, and Maharishis than any place on earth.
Some interesting facts about India are stated below:
• An important Mathematics book prescribed by the New York State Education Department acknowledges the debt in the following words:
“The Western world owes a great deal to India for a simple invention. It was developed by an unknown Indian more than 1500 years ago. Without most of the great discoveries and inventions (including computers) of western civilization would never have come about. This invention was the decimal system of numerals - nine digits and a zero. The science and technology of today (including the computers) could not have developed if we had only the Roman system of numerals. That system is too clumsy to be used as a scientific too. Today we take the decimal system for granted. We don't think about how brilliant the man who invented zero must have been. Yet without zero we could not assign a place value to the digits. That ancient mathematician, whoever, he was, deserves much honor."
Indians also made advances in other areas of mathematics. Very early in their history they developed a simple system of geometry. This system was used to plan outdoor sites for Hindu religious ceremonies. Indians also added to our knowledge of even more complicated branches of mathematics such as trigonometry and calculus. They studied these branches of mathematics in order to apply them to astronomy."
• The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century CE was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
• Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software - a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987.
• Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization.
• Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British in the early 17th Century.
• The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAV Gatih. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit `Nou'.
• Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days.
• The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians. Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus came from India.
• Quadratic equations were propounded by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 1053 with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 1012.
• According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world.
• USA based IEEE proves what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
• Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, contracts, artificial legs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.
• Grammar: Panini's Sanskrit grammar, produced in about 300 B.C.E. is the shortest and the fullest grammar in the world.
• This is what Manu said, perhaps 10,000 years before the birth of Christ: The first germ of life was developed by water and heat.
"Many of the advances in the sciences that we consider today to have been made in Europe were in fact made in India centuries ago." - Grant Duff, British Historian of India. Dr. Vincent Smith has remarked, "India suffers today, in the estimation of the world, more through the world's ignorance of the achievements of the heroes of Indian history than through the absence or insignificance of such achievement." It is needless to say that India is a great nation with distinguished achievements – the world has just got to realize it.
India throbs, shakes, scintillates with such a superfluity of human, animal, botanical, insect, and divine life that no camera or recording device, no canvas, pen, or cassette can fully capture the rich sketch of daily "ordinary" reality.
Jai Hind!
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