Guest guest Posted July 21, 2003 Report Share Posted July 21, 2003 Jai Ramji Ki! Shashi Tharoor is wrong in saying that we were not good in technology. In fact, we were much better than just good, we were superb in technology. Who built the vimaanas? Regards, Dhruba. > > vediculture > 2003/07/21 Mon AM 09:12:26 EDT > vediculture > [world-vedic] Digest Number 633 > > > This is an information resource and discussion group for people interested in the World's Ancient Vedic Culture, with a focus on its historical, archeological and scientific aspects. Also topics about India, Hinduism, God, and other aspects of World Culture are welcome. > Remember, Vedic Culture is not an artificial imposition, but is the natural state of a society that is in harmony with God and the environment.Om Shantih, Harih Om > > ------ > > There are 3 messages in this issue. > > Topics in this digest: > > 1. Fw: [allplanets-hollow] Seven_Days > "Dean" <deandddd > 2. Re: Paola Mosconi:Author of Jews:A Branch of the Vedic Family > "deen chandora" <deenbc > 3. The Things India Knew First > "vrnparker" <vrnparker > > > ______________________ > ______________________ > > Message: 1 > Sun, 20 Jul 2003 11:37:22 -0300 > "Dean" <deandddd > Fw: [allplanets-hollow] Seven_Days > > A cross post- > > - > Dean > allplanets-hollow > Sunday, July 20, 2003 11:35 AM > [allplanets-hollow] Seven_Days > > > There are not a few new people on the allplanets-hollow list. So let me mention that the article Seven Days North of Tibet is a nice, introductory article -even intriguing- because it makes a connection between the Tibetan and Hindu folklore concerning the hollow earth and Shambala, and the experiences of the Arctic explorers who came across anomolies suggestive of a nearby opening. > > http://www.holloworbs.com/Seven_Days.htm > > Dharmapad > > [This message contained attachments] > > > > ______________________ > ______________________ > > Message: 2 > Sun, 20 Jul 2003 09:13:24 -0400 > "deen chandora" <deenbc > Re: Paola Mosconi:Author of Jews:A Branch of the Vedic Family > > > > [This message is not in displayable format] > > > > ______________________ > ______________________ > > Message: 3 > Mon, 21 Jul 2003 12:49:22 -0000 > "vrnparker" <vrnparker > The Things India Knew First > > The things India knew first > By Shashi Tharoor > United Nations Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public > Information. > > IN an earlier column I wrote of how the roots of Indian science and > technology go far deeper than Nehru. I cited a remarkable new book, > Lost Discoveries, by the American writer Dick Teresi, which studies > the ancient non-Western foundations of modern science. While Teresi > ranges from the Babylonians and Mayans to Egyptians and other > Africans, it is his references to India that won me. Where my > previous piece focused on ancient India's remarkable breakthroughs in > mathematics, in this column I'd like to cover the other sciences in > which our ancestors excelled. > > For a nation still obsessed by astrology, it is ironic that Indians > established the field of planetary astronomy, identifying the > relative distance of the known planets from the sun, and figured out > that the moon was nearer to the earth than the sun. A hymn of the Rig- > Veda extols "nakshatra-vidya"; the Vedas' awareness of the importance > of the sun and the stars is manifest in several places. The > Siddhantas are amongst the world's earliest texts on astronomy and > mathematics; the Surya Siddhanta, written about 400 A.D., includes a > method for finding the times of planetary ascensions and eclipses. > The notion of gravitation, or gurutvakarshan, is found in these early > texts. "Two hundred years before Pythagoras," writes > Teresi, "philosophers in northern India had understood that > gravitation held the solar system together, and that therefore the > sun, the most massive object, had to be at its centre." > > The Kerala-born genius Aryabhata was the first human being to > explain, in 499 A.D., that the daily rotation of the earth on its > axis is what accounted for the daily rising and setting of the sun. > (His ideas were so far in advance of his time that many later editors > of his awe-inspiring "Aryabhatiya" altered the text to save his > reputation from what they thought were serious errors.) Aryabhata > conceived of the elliptical orbits of the planets a thousand years > before Kepler, in the West, came to the same conclusion (having > assumed, like all Europeans, that planetary orbits were circular > rather than elliptical). He even estimated the value of the year at > 365 days, six hours, 12 minutes and 30 seconds; in this he was only a > few minutes off (the correct figure is just under 365 days and six > hours). The translation of the Aryabhatiya into Latin in the 13th > Century taught Europeans a great deal; it also revealed to them that > an Indian had known things that Europe would only learn of a > millennium later. > > If Aryabhata was a giant of world science, his successors as the > great Indian astronomers, Varamahira and Brahmagupta, have left > behind vitally important texts that space does not allow me to > summarise here. The mathematical excellence of Indian science, which > I described in a recent column, sparkles through their work; Indian > astronomers advanced their field by calculations rather than > deductions from nature. Teresi says that "Indian astronomy, perhaps > more than any other, has served as the crossroads and catalyst > between the past and the future of the science." Inevitably, Indian > cosmology was also in advance of the rest of the world. By the Fifth > Century A.D. Indians became the first to estimate the age of the > earth at more than four billion years. Teresi's book has a > fascinating section relating Hindu creation myths to modern > cosmology; he discusses the notion of great intermeshing cycles of > creation and destruction and draws stimulating parallels with > the "big bang" theory that currently commands the field. > > The ancient Indians were no slouches in chemistry, which emerges in > several verses of the Atharva Veda, composed around 1000 B.C. Two > thousand years later, Indian practical chemistry was still more > advanced than Europe's. The historian Will Durant wrote that the > Vedic Indians were "ahead of Europe in industrial chemistry; they > were masters of calcination, distillation, sublimation, steaming, > fixation, the production of light without heat, the mixing of > anaesthetic and soporific powders, and the preparation of metallic > salts, compounds and alloys." An Indian researcher, Udayana, studied > gases by filling bladders and balloons with smoke, air and assorted > gases. The ancient Jain thinkers predicted the notion of opposite > electrical charges and advanced a notion of the "spin" of particles > which would not be discovered by the West till the 20th Century. > > So what about physics? Indian metaphysicists came upon the idea of > atoms centuries before the Greek Democritus, known in the West as the > father of particle physics. In 600 B.C. Kanada established a theory > of atoms in his Vaisesika-sutra; the Jains went further in later > years, expounding a concept of elementary particles. Indians also > came closer to quantum physics and other current theories than anyone > else in the ancient world. > > The Upanishadic concepts of svabhava — the inherent nature of > material objects — and yadrchha (the randomness of causality) are > startlingly modern. The Upanishads developed the first > classifications of matter, evolving into an awareness of the five > elements and later of the five senses. When the Samkhya philosophers > explained, in the Sixth Century B.C., that "the material universe > emanates out of prakriti, the rootless root of the universe," they > anticipate Aristotle. And when Indian philosophers spoke of maya, or > that which gives illusory weight to the universe, they did so in > terms that evoke the 20th Century idea of the Higgs field, the all- > pervasive invisible field so beloved of particle physicists, which > gives substance to illusion. > > Which brings us back to technology. Did India have any technology of > its own before the IITs? The answer is an emphatic yes. I have > already mentioned last time the extraordinary achievements of the > Harappan civilization, which included terra cotta ceramics fired at > high temperatures, a sophisticated system of weights and measures, > and sanitary engineering skills in advance of the West of the 19th > Century. Our skill at digging up, cutting and polishing diamonds goes > back millennia. In the Sixth Century A.D. India made the highest- > quality sword steel in the world. Iron suspension bridges came from > Kashmir; printing and papermaking were known in India before anywhere > in the West; Europeans sought Indian shipbuilding expertise; our > textiles were rated the best in the world till well into the colonial > era. But we were never very good with machinery; we made our greatest > products with skilled labour. That was, in the end, how the British > defeated us. > > > http://www.hinduonnet.com/mag/stories/2003072000120300.htm > > Shashi Tharoor is the United Nations Under-Secretary General for > Communications and Public Information. ______________________ > ______________________ > > > > Your use of is subject to > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.