Ancient Indian History - Quote from Sanskrit-English Dictionary!

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Excerpts from an interesting introduction by Sir Monier Williams in his famous

and highly respected Sanskrit-English Dictionary : (Source: Swami Atmananda of

Vedanta Mission, India)

 

" We are appalled by the length of some of India's literary productions (in

Sanskrit) as compared with those of European countries... In some subjects

too, especially in poetical descriptions of nature and domestic affections,

Indian works do not suffer by a comparison with the specimens of Greece and

Rome, while in wisdom, depth and shrewdness of their moral apophthegms they are

unrivaled. The Hindus are perhaps the only nation, except the Greeks, who have

investigated, independently and in true scientific manner, the general laws

which govern the evolution of languages. More than this, the Hindus had made

considerable advances in astronomy, algebra, arithmetic, botany, and medicine,

not to mention their superiority in grammar, long before some of these sciences

were cultivated by the most ancient nations of Europe.

 

Indeed, Hindus were Spinozists 2000 years before Spinoza, Darwinians centuries

before the birth of Darwin, and evolutionists centuries before the doctrine of

evolution had been accepted by the Huxleys of our times, and before any word

like evolution existed in any language of the world."

 

-- Sir Monier Williams