Pride Of India - A Glimpse Into India's Scientific Heritage

[Guest guest]

You might have already heard about 'Pride of India' - the latest

publication from Samskrita Bharati. A review of this book published

in lokvani.com is at the end of this mail. This is a coffee table

book in English(with the original Sanskrit verses and their meanings

also given) that gives a glimpse in to India's scientific heritage.

It gives in a clear, concise manner the knowledge system that has

been present in India over the last several thousand years in the

fields of Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Medicine, Metallurgy,

Engineering, Town Planning, Architecture, Astronomy, Medicine.... The

book has been compiled together by Samskrita Bharati with the help of

a panel of experts in the above mentioned fields. This is a good book

for adults and also children(of middle/high shcool age, especially

when are trying to learn about India or do school projects). This

would be a good book to have in every home. Also, it would make a

good birthday or graduation gifts or even a house-warming gift.

The book was released only two months ago in India. Now, we

have got copies of the book here in the U.S. and we are trying to

market it here. Several pages from the book have been scanned and

placed in the www.samskrita-bharati.org website(follow the link

there) for review. Some sections of the book are also in the process

of being uploaded in Google books. The book is available for sale

from the Samskrita Bharati website and also from Amazon. The cost of

the book is $50/- plus shippin&handling. Copies of the book are

available for sale thru' SB volunteers in several regions(Bay Area,

Boston, NJ, DC, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, Austin,

Phoenix, Ottawa, Atlanta). If you can get it directly from one these

volunteers directly, there is no shipping charge. Also, we are trying

to find volunteers in other regions too. If you would like to help,

please let me know. Please help spread the word about this book to

your friends and relatives.

Also, we are trying to reach out to the town and university

libraries. As a town resident, you can make them a recommendation. As

a university student/faculty, you can request your university library

to procure the book. Details of the book are given below.

Btw, Library of Congress has also acquired it and the

LCCN number is 2006-413252

Town & University libraries would normally procure the books from the

publisher/distributors. So, please direct them to the SB website -

http://www.samskrita-bharati.org/newsite/publications.php#bestseller

Catalog # 127

Pride of India

208 pages, hard-bound, multicolor

ISBN 81-87276-27-4

Price: $50/- plus S&H

 

 

http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=3489

 

Book Review: Pride Of India A Glimpse Into Indias Scientific Heritage

R.S.Ayyar

 

Pride of India A Glimpse into Indias Scientific Heritage

Compiled by Bhartiya Bouddhik Sampada and Published by Sanskrita

Bharati

 

The book is a veritable treasure house containing the findings of a

large team of dedicated scholars in various fields of language,

literature, history, science and technology. All of them have worked

with single minded devotion to unearth and bring forth, for the

benefit of the modern generation, the astounding Vedic knowledge in

all their fields that lay dormant, long forgotten and unknown today

even about their existence. The book is actually a compendium of

their research studies. A comprehensive review of the same

highlighting their findings and relating them to the western

knowledge in those fields will itself be a treatise if it has to do

proper justice.

 

The book begins with a lucid explanation of its objectives. While

applauding the benefits that have accrued to mankind through the

current explosion of knowledge in the fields of science and

technology, it hastens to point out the resultant maladies that have

also cropped up alongside. Thus, today agricultural specialists are

fighting hard to restore the fertility of soil lost through extensive

use of chemical manures and pesticides. Medicines have led to several

side effects and the growth of many new viruses which are resistant

to modern antibiotics. One of the reasons for this undesirable state

of affairs, particularly in India, is the influence of foreign

domination over the Indian subcontinent for a long time. The pristine

glory of traditional knowledge was berated and could become valued

knowledge only through western acceptance. The spiritual and cultural

heritage preserved in Vedas written in Sanskrit soon vanished due to

the imposition of English as an official language of the nation.

Today the west is looking to the East for solution to many of their

problems which have eluded them so far. This book is a timely eye

opener.

 

The deplorable situation today has evolved over a period due to the

misconception that Indians are great in philosophy but not in

materials science and the Vedas written in Sanskrit are spiritual and

are for religious rituals. This book clearly shows that behind the

superficial meanings, there lie latent scientific postulates based on

systematic observations and correlation of countless sages and

scholars.

 

The book is systematically and logically serialized into chapters

dealing with distinct disciplines of pure sciences like mathematics,

physics and astronomy and applied sciences like civil and mechanical

engineering, metallurgy, chemistry, medicine and life sciences.

 

The format of the presentation of the postulates in each chapter

dealing with that discipline deserves special mention. After giving

gleaming from the Vedic verses pertaining to a given topic in

Sanskrit, the corresponding transliteration is given followed by the

meaning of the same in the form of an explanatory note. Elaboration

of the same follows and the source for the same is also appended. The

corresponding western reference in terms of innovations and

discoveries follows highlighting the parallelism between the two.

 

Some of the Vedic postulates are really outstanding and unbelievable

to the modern man. To cite one example, the number of Vedic verses in

praise of each of the 5 planets corresponds exactly to the number of

days the planet takes to orbit once around the sun in an elliptical

path, for example, Mercury (87), Venus (225), Mars (687), Jupiter

(4350) and Saturn (10816).

 

Coming now to the chapters dealing with disciplines, the chapter on

Mathematics is fairly exhaustive dealing with many rules of algebra

like solution of indeterminate equations of second degree, treatment

of surds, permutations and combinations, Pascals triangle etc. Each

of these topics is highlighted from the Vedic angle and profusely

explained through several numerical examples. Under trigonometry

Bhaskaracharya s contributions and Madhavas sine, cosine and tangent

series are elegantly explained. The reason for these ideas having

been forgotten seems to be that most of them are empirical and not

proof tested as insisted by the western world.

 

The chapter on Physics deals with the properties of matter,

elasticity, magnetism, optics (including lenses and rainbow) while

the chapter on Astronomy deals with rotation of earth, earths

gravity, Helicentonic theory, speed of light, lunar eclipse, moon as

a satellite of earth and planets in motion. Enroute, the

contributions of Aryabhatta (5th Century AD), Brahmagupta (7th

Century AD) and Bhaskaracharya (12th Century AD) are underscored.

 

Among applied sciences, the chapter on civil engineering deals with

rules for building construction, materials, soil testing etc.

Architecture brings out the guidelines for temple architecture,

choice of stones for sculptures, etc. while town planning gives

specifications for road construction including royal paths, national,

state and local highways, tank bunds etc. The chapter on mechanical

engineering deals with qualities and attributes of machines, physical

balances, earth model and carts. Metallurgy describes crucible,

furnaces, air blowers, metals for aircraft etc. Chemistry explains

distillation, caustic alkali, generation of electricity in a cell and

explosive. Medicine is an important chapter dealing with anatomy,

embryology and obstetrics, surgery (including plastic surgery),

elimination therapy and pharmacology. Life sciences deal with plants

while sciences in traditions have identified major diseases like

cancer, leprosy etc.

 

The book also describes in detail the highlights of the Indus Valley

civilization, eternal values of Sanskrit, the dating of the Vedas

(6000 BC) creation etc. through logical extrapolation through the

ages.

 

The book is definitely a sort of encyclopedia on Vedic sciences. It

is a ready reference for scholars and researchers doing in depth

study of the relevance of Vedic knowledge to modern science and

technology. The work of the team which has produced this monumental

compendium is really commendable. This book should find its rightful

place in the libraries of all educational and research institutions

all over the world.

 

To order a copy, visit http://samskrita- bharati.org