What India gave to world..

[Rima Biswas]

1. The earliest moral and legal codes (Dharma-sastras and Niti-sastras) originated in India, as did the earliest representative institutions (Sabha and Parishad).

2. Chemistry
The Rig Veda, one of four Vedas, refers to metallurgy. The Vedas also refer to mining iron ore, copper, brass and bronze. By the 6th century A.D., India was far ahead of Europe in industrial chemistry. The Hindus were masters at calcination, distillation, sublimation, steaming, making anesthetics, soporific powders, metallic salts, compounds and alloys. India was producing steel during the era of Alexander. Centuries later, steel would be introduced to Europe by the Muslims.

3. Medicines
The Vedas mention herbal medicines. They also discuss various afflictions and symptoms, and prescribe cures, depending on whether the disease is chronic and acute, and contagious or non-contagious. Jivaka (6th century B.C.) was adept at surgical operations such as trepanning of the skull, abdominal openings to cure hernia, etc.

Panini’s classical work on grammar, the Ashtadhyani contains a comprehensive list of parts of the body (human anatomy) as well as rare and common diseases. He further describes ligaments, sutres, lymphatics, nerve plexus, adipose and vascular tissues, mucous and synovial membranes with astonishing accuracy. Susruta dealt with surgery, obstetrics, dieting, baths, drugs, infant feeding, personal hygiene and medicinal education. He also understood the process of digestion and the functions of the stomach and liver.

4. The ancient Sanskrit literatures contain the Manu-Samhita, which has been called the religious lawbook for mankind—comparable to Mosaic Law or the Sharia. These Laws of Manu warn against marrying someone with tuberculosis, epilepsy and chronic dyspepsia. A remarkably accurate account of prenatal human development—from fertilization to birth—is given in the third canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, one of Hinduism’s most revered devotional texts.

5. Bhavamisra, in 1550, detailed the circulation of blood in a book written on anatomy and physiology, a century before the West. Susruta described cataract surgery, hernia, cesarean section, the dissection of cadavers and the use of skin grafts to repair a torn ear. Rhinoplasty (fixing a broken nose) was a common practice. A drug called "sammohini" was used as an anesthetic. Ancient in Indians were experts in plastic surgery until the 18th century. They knew the importance of taking a pulse. They were aware that mosquito bites transmit diseases as far back as the 6th century B.C.

6. Square roots and cube roots and the "Pythagorean" theorem are mentioned in the Sulbha Sutras of Bodhayana. (700 B.C.) Bodhayana also calculated the areas of triangles, circles, and trapezoids and determined pi = 3.14136 when measuring and constructing altars. Aryabhata (5th century A.D.) drew up a table of sines and provided India with a system of trigonometry more sophisticated than that of the Greeks. Ancient mathematical texts such as the Jyotisha Vedanga dealt with geometry, fractions, quadratic and cubic equations, algebra, permutations and combinations.

7. In the West, we have been taught to call our base-ten system of numeration (which replaced Roman numerals) "Arabic numerals." India gave the world the base-ten numerical system, our modern numerical script, and the concept of zero as a placeholder and a numerically recorded quantity. Indian mathematics came to the West through the Arabs. The Arabs called mathematics "Hindisat," or "Indian art."

8. Before Newton, Bhaskara (1150 A.D.) was well-acquainted with the principles of differential calculus and the concept of infinity. Astronomers such as Vachaspati (800 A.D.) anticipated the foundations of solid coordinate geometry centuries before Descartes. They also explained the movement of celestial bodies in terms of the earth’s rotation and motion about the sun. Charaka, a physician from the 7th century B.C., described the wave motion of light, had a calendar of 12 lunar months and classified stars into zodiacal constellations.

9. India had rockets in the late 18th century; they were even used in military battles against the British. This generated interest in rocket technology in England. The Indian people built "iron forts and thousand pillared halls" and were described by observers as adorning themselves in silk, wool, linen and cotton.

10. For thousands of years, India has enjoyed music, orchestral bands, dance, song, stage acting and all the other fine arts. A. Kalyanaraman writes that in comparison to other parts of the world, slavery was virtually nonexistent. There did exist various forms of indentured servitude, but none as brutal as in the West. Kalyanaraman further insists that the whole of Southeast Asia received most of its culture from India. India gave the world rice, cotton, sugarcane, spices and chess. Indian philosophy and metaphysics can be found in Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, Emerson, Thoreau, and Schopenhauer. India has much to offer the West. India’s real treasure is her spiritual heritage.

11. "What extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like the light of a higher and purer stratum," wrote Henry David Thoreau in his Journal. "The religion and philosophy of the Hebrews are those of a wilder and ruder tribe, wanting the civility and intellectual refinements and civility of Vedic culture."

12. In Rig veda, light is explained as a sorce of energy or source of our life. Nature of light as a wave or as a particle was not come into picture till late into the modern age, but in Rig Veda it is clearly mentioned that

"Seven horses draw the chariot of the sun, tied by snakes". Rig-veda 5. 45. 9
Above poetic verse speaks about the nature of light as being composed of 7 rays and the snake symbolizes it's curved path. Now, these colors are actually described as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, Indigo and violet in the yoga sutras and the Vedic Upanishads.

These colors was not discovered in western science till
Newton (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727 ) experimented to split light into it's 7 colors by a prism.

14. Speed of light!!
The speed of light, (defined as 299 792 458metres/s) is a universal constant which was often believed to be impossible to breach. However it is now known that the speed of light is approximately 41.7 miles an hour (sometimes inaccurately rounded up to 42 m/h).The simplest and most successful attempt to measure the speed of light was performed by Max Planck, Different physicists have tried to measure the speed of light throughout history.

Galileo attempted to measure the speed of light in the seventeenth century. An early experiment to measure the speed of light was conducted by Ole Rømer, a Danish physicist, in 1676. Rømer calculated that light takes about 22 minutes to traverse the diameter of Earth's orbit. Unfortunately, its size was not known at that time. If Ole had known the diameter of the Earth's orbit, he would have calculated a speed of 227,000,000 m/s.

In Rigveda, following sloka’s state about the speed of light which is nearly about of modern value of 186,282.397 miles / seconds:

“Yojananam Dwe Dwe Shate Dwe Cha Yojane
Aken Nimishardhena Krammana Namostute” (Rig-veda I,50-4)


In the verse Sun light speed is measured with the help of units called Yojan & Nimesha.This verse explain that sunlight moves 2202 Yojans in Half Nimish.



Taranir Vishvadarshato Jyotishkrdasi Surya |
Vishvamaa Bhaasirochanam ||

Meaning:
Oh Sun! (You) overwhelm all in speed, visible to all, source of light. (You) shine pervading the Universe.

Rigvedic commentary, Sayanacarya who was a minister in the court of Bukka of the great Vijayanagar Empire of Karnataka in South India (in early 14th century) says:



Tatha Ca Smaryate Yojananam. Sahasre Dve Dve Sate Dve Ca Yojane
Ekena Nimishardhena Kramaman.

Meaning :

“It is remembered here that Sun (light) traverses 2,202 yojanas in half a nimisha”


Sayanacarya’s Calculation for Speed of light (The commentary on the Rig-veda by Sayana (c. 13 15-1387), a minister and scholar par excellence in the court of King Bukka I of the Vijayanagar Empire in South India):

In the Vedas, Yojana is a unit of distance and Nimisha is a unit of time.

Distance travelled =2202 Yojanas

1 Yojana = 9 miles, 110 Yards =21,144.705 miles (Apprx)

Time taken 1/2 nimesha = 0.114286 seconds(Apprx)

Speed of light= 185,016.169 miles / seconds.

Modern Value= 186,282.397 miles / seconds.
Modern science claims the speed of light to be aproximately 186,282.397 miles / seconds

This Sukta is attributed to the son of Kanva Maharshi and is prescribed for use in two different occasions - in Suryeshti sacrifice (a ritual to please the Sun God)


Unit of Time: Nimesa

Nimesa Definition as per Moksha dharma parva of Shanti Parva in Mahabharata

15 Nimisha = 1 Kastha
30 Kashta = 1 Kala
30.3 Kala = 1 Muhurta
30 Muhurtas = 1 Diva-Ratri (Day-Night) One Day-Night = 24 hours

Unit of Distance: Yojana

Yojana Definition as per “Vishnu Purana”

10 ParamAnus = 1 Parasúkshma
10 Parasúkshmas = 1 Trasarenu
10 Trasarenus = 1 Mahírajas 10 Mahírajas= 1 Bálágra 10 Bálágra = 1 Likhsha 10 Likhsha= 1 Yuka 1o Yukas = 1 Yavodara 10 Yavodaras = 1 Yava 10 Yava = 1 Angula

6 fingers = 1 Pada
2 Padas = 1 Vitasti

2 Vitasti = 1 Hasta
4 Hastas = a Dhanu, a Danda, or pauruSa (a man’s height), or 2 Nárikás = 6 feet

2000 Dhanus = 1 Gavyuti = 12000 feet
4 Gavyutis = 1 Yojana = 9.09 miles


Source:
http://www.all-creatures.org/murti/asource-13.html
http://mathomathis.blogspot.com/2011/05/color-and-speed-of-light-ve...

[GOPI KANTA GHOSH]

But what is India today? Unless we bring back ancient glory we must not be proud...think what we shall do...

[Rima Biswas]

India is what we think about her. If we believe in ourselves, on our country, on our cultural heritage, on our knowledge base and if we are proud to acknowledge that we are THE BEST, then and then only we will STOP looking for benchmarks. By 'benchmarks' I mean to say so called 'material developments made by western countries'.

Just ask a simple question.. how often do we look for imported brands for technological innovations? This is because, we have stopped looking at ourselves. Where is the need to reinvent what our ancestors already did? We have everything. Our culture has everything. We have to imbibe these principles in ourselves and in our children. 

 

Had we understood the depth of knowledge we have, the question would have never been asked.

GOPI KANTA GHOSH said:

But what is India today? Unless we bring back ancient glory we must not be proud...think what we shall do...

[Jeeva]

An excellent analysis, informative

[Prof Dr V N Sivasankara Pillai]

Thank you for putting the material on the net. We had a proud past. What about our present and future? Education can be bought, talents are insulted and they migrate. "Indian" is almost synonymous with fraud and poor quality (a generalization), individuals and the government go around the world begging, rulers and associates keep their loot in safe havens and what else !!!

[Vinodh Valluri]

Our past can be our future. It is high time we eschew the negative trends which have been blindly accepted, and begin to cohesively create the foundation for real sustainability using spiritual ecology.

I urge you all to read the book "Searching for Vedic India" by Devamrita Swami.
..and books on Varnasrama Dharma and Make Vrndavana villages by BhaktiRaghava Swami.

http://www.amazon.com/Searching-Vedic-India-Devamrita-Swami/dp/0892...

[Pradipta Halder]

I think the facts presented by Mrs.Biswas are well appreciated by both Indians and non-Indians. There is no doubt that we had a glorious past. However, this past is not very recent past and we are talking about things that happened hundreds if not thousands of years ago. The question is what India is today. We should not hide our failures by bringing forward the past glories all the time as this shows a sign of defeat. Of course India achieved a lot in the last 60 years given the problems that we inherited from both the British and our famous politicians. Today, India is synonymous with corruption and it is the cradle of all sorts of corruption that one can imagine. This corruption is killing all the peanut achievements that we may have had so far. Therefore, first duty of every Indian citizen should be to eradicate corruption from every sphere of life. The task is not easy for an ordinary citizen as the hands of the corrupted people are so strong that it can easily suppress any protest. We need collective actions and probably then we will be able to fight against all the menace in our society. We cannot live in the past. We have to live in the present and think of the future. It is we who are responsible for creating a better future for generations to come.

[Rima Biswas]

Mr Halder pointed out very aptly, "It is we who are responsible for creating a better future for generations to come."

Prof. Pillai, I believe you have truly echoed thoughts of millions of India citizens. True, we cannot keep on harping on our past achievements for all days to come, but when we Indians are being embarrassed time and again in front of the whole world by few corrupted people on power, this small exercise of reminding ourselves of our glorious past will only leverage our morale and we can start working on image repairing with new zeal and enthusiasm. 

I beg to differ from Mr Halder's view (task is not easy for an ordinary citizen as the hands of the corrupted people are so strong that it can easily suppress any protest). People who want to make India free from such corrupted nation image are huge in numbers. Till now, these people were not united in mission. We need to come together like we did during our pre independence period against the British rule. But with Lokpal Bill, I think that revolution is coming. For example, so many people are supporting Team Hazare and Team Ramdev Baba on formulating strict bill on anti-graft.

 

For rebuilding our Nation, we have 3 major issues..1) protecting ourselves from neighboring attacks (China, Pakistan), 2) Protecting citizens from corruptions and terrorist attacks and 3) Avoiding brain drain. Now the question is which one is to be solved first and which one to be solved next.

 

I remember reading a story in my childhood about a new king whose country was being attacked by enemies again and again and there were lots of thieves , dacoites and robbers in his kingdom. So his kin were not having a peaceful lives. He was under dilemma, whether he should build a strong fort first to protect his kingdom from enemies or whether he should eradicate the robbers from his kingdom first by raising a strong police force. One day while travelling withing his kingdom in disguised form he saw a farmer erecting a fence around his field which was full of weeds and grasses. HE was surprised and asked why he needs to erect a fence around a field which has no crops to protect. The farmer said, we would be tilling his farm and sowing seeds shortly, so he would have protect his farm from stray animals then. Once he is assured that there will be no invasion by animals, then he can work peacefully. From his wisdom, the kings dilemma was resolved and he decided to build a strong fort for his kingdom first.

 

Similarly, we should protect our country from infiltration first..be it economic or millitary. Then we should work upon educating and motivating people and corruption through strong legislation. Once corruption is under control, then we can stop terrorism and brain drain also. I know practically, these things are very difficult to achieve, but not impossible. Actually we have enough success rate on our first issue and we should be thankful at least our defense mechanism at borders is not corrupted. We were always united when our country faced attacks from neighboring countries. So now, we have to tackle the tricky issue number 2 (corruption) and we can do it successfully..no doubt abut it. 

[Dr Munmun Sinha Deshpande]

great compilation maam, i feel it is in continuation to the discussion we had earlier and supports my view that past teachings and culture in Indian History is probably the best thing we can be proud of. But as Dr G K Ghosh has reflected, we need to bring the glory back. I remember while going to Kolkata by train, we knew West Bengal border started by the site of earthen tea-cups and now all is plastic. We need to think over first why we should bring the past back, when to bring it back and how to implement the change to that the hi-tech urban population adapts it. As it is said, it is easy to change one's self but very tough to change others.

[Ajay Ranjith V]

Mam, 

on the similar lines, when we were working a challenges of providing sustainable potable drinking water supply to highly quality affected habitations  in rural rajasthan after looking at all the technological advances of modern era, we had to conclude that reviewing traditional  rain water harvesting methods (which have been used for ages and later had a slow death due to if i may call western technological influences) combined with modern technological know how were the best option to provide water to parched areas of the state.

This further reinstates that we had the best technological know how suited for all generations. We rather than letting that precious base die, should be able to build upon that and build India of 21st century.

Mrs Munmun S Deshpande said:

great compilation maam, i feel it is in continuation to the discussion we had earlier and supports my view that past teachings and culture in Indian History is probably the best thing we can be proud of. But as Dr G K Ghosh has reflected, we need to bring the glory back. I remember while going to Kolkata by train, we knew West Bengal border started by the site of earthen tea-cups and now all is plastic. We need to think over first why we should bring the past back, when to bring it back and how to implement the change to that the hi-tech urban population adapts it. As it is said, it is easy to change one's self but very tough to change others.

[Gunwant Joshi]

very very interesting and informative recompilation of the India's past glory. Many thanks for sharing with us. The concepts Environmental conservation and sustainable Development were the cornerstones of our traditions, Customs and practices, Which you aptly named dharma. But unfortunately we are running after the west and following in their footsteps, degrading our environment like never before.Immediate steps are needed to incorporate traditional environmental ethos in our corporate culture to pollute less and create more with minimal impact on the environment

[Ranjeet singh kaurav]

hello madam !!!

great article .....very helpful to make our stand & create sense of nationality in those confused brains who still dont believe in strength of our country !!!!

India has been a source of learning ..its been a long time that government is not creating a platform for nationalism !!!! education sector is not getting specific attention !!!

once again thanks for a wonderful piece of lines.......

i have taken a print  of it to spread the message !!!