INCREDIBLE INDIA

Greetings,

After 4 years or so of creating this blog, I finally decided to post something..

What pushed me though, unbelievably, is my country! Today, on our Republic Day, when I was scanning through the various e-mails and web sites on the internet, searching for all things Indian, I came across content that would awaken the Mangal Pandeys, the Bhagat Singhs and the Subhash Chandra Boses in any true blooded Indian!

So here goes, hopefully you have the time.

"It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system."

- Will Durant (American Historian, 1885-1981)

"If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India."

- Max Muller (German Scholar, 1823-1900)

"The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity is of wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either."

- Sir William Jones (British Orientalist, 1746-1794)


"The surgery of the ancient Indian physicians was bold and skilful. A special branch of surgery was dedicated to rhinoplasty or operations for improving deformed ears, noses and forming new ones, which European surgeons have now borrowed."

- Sir W. Hunter (British Surgeon, 1718-1783)


"After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense."

- W. Heisenberg (German Physicist, 1901-1976)


"In religion, India is the only millionaire......the One land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined."

- Mark Twain (American Author, 1835-1910)


"It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in history, the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian Way."

- Dr Arnold Toynbee (British Historian, 1889-1975)


"If there is one place on the face of this Earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest day when man began the dream of existence, it is India."

- Romain Rolland (French Philosopher, 1886-1994)


"In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing."

- Apollonius Tyanaeus (Greek Traveller, 1st Century CE)


An extract from a German magazine that explains the achievements and facts about India that are completely out of the ordinary.These India facts were recently published in one of the German Magazines which deals with World History

• India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.
• India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
• 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. Christopher Columbus was attracted by her wealth.
• 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, 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 10**53 (10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period.
• Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10**12(10 to the power of 12).
• According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world.
• USA based IEEE has proved 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.
• The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
• According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake aptly called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.
• Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.
• Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, 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.
• When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).
• The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

"India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border."

- Hu Shih, Former Ambassador of China to U.S.A.


JAI HIND!