World has so many religions but only one Dharma and i.e.

, Vedic or Hindu
Dharma
Dharma is a set of laws following which one can save humanity, animals and mother earth while religions are
the cause of misery and suffering.

WORLDS
INTELLECTUALS ON
BHARAT i.e., INDIA
(A must read by Modern English Educated Indians and others also)

COMPILED BY
BHARAT SOMAL
2015 (USA)
Dedicated to Vedic Dharma aka Hindu Dharma

PS: Not even a single word is from my side in this book. I have compiled it from different libraries, books
and Internet with only one thought in mind that it might help modern youth to know who they were
and what they are now. You are free to replace your name on my name and print or propagate this as
much as possible. This will be considered as duty towards our motherland. Please contact me for word
file in case you need to further edit, format and get this printed.

Hinduism is like Ganges polluted by Modern waste, to taste its purity one
must dive into Vedas and Upanishads.

CHAPTER ONE

THE GREAT INDIA

Julius R. Oppenheimer
(1904-1967), One of the world's greatest
physicists, known as 'the father of the
Atomic bomb'- Julius R. Oppenheimer

The general notions about human understanding which are illustrated by discoveries in
atomic physics are not in the nature of things wholly unfamiliar, wholly unheard of or new. Even
in our own culture they have a history, and in Buddhist and Hindu thought a more considerable
and central place. What we shall find [in modern physics] is an exemplification, an encouragement,
and a refinement of old wisdom.
Source-The Tao of Physics: An exploration of the parallels between Modern Physics and
Eastern Mysticism Fritjof Capra

Erwin Schrodinger
(1887-1961), Austrian physicist, known
as the father of Quantum Physics,
awarded Nobel Prize for his invention of
Wave Mechanics

Some blood transfusion from the East to the West must save Western science from spiritual
anemia.
Source-My view of the world By: Erwin Schrodinger Chapter IV
3

Albert Einstein
(1879-1955), One of the greatest
scientists, philosophers, received Nobel
Prize for his Theory of Relativity.

We owe a lot to Indians who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile
scientific discovery could have been made.
Source - Vedic Revelations

Werner Heisenberg
(1901-76), One of the greatest physicists,
co-founder of Quantum
Physics, received Nobel Prize

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

Source- Uncommon Wisdom: Conversation with Remarkable people- Fritjo Capra Vasiant- Pride
of India (2006) by Sanskrit

Jean Sylvain Bailey

(1736-93), Great French astronomer and

politician, noted for his computation of an
orbit for Halley's Comet

The motion of the stars calculated by the Hindus before some 4500 years vary not even a
single minute from the modern tables of Cassine and Meyer.

Source- The Politics of History- By N.S. Rajaram Voice of India

William Butler Yeats

(1856-1939), Great Irish poet, dramatist,

essayist and Nobel laureate

It was only my first meeting with the Indian philosophy that confirmed my vague
speculations and seemed at once logical and boundless.

Source- India & World Civilization- By D.P. Singhal Pan Macmillan Ltd. 1933, p.262-263,
WP Yeats and Indian Tradition- By Sankaran Ravindran p. 2-3

George Bernard Shaw

(1856-1950), Great dramatist, Nobel

laureate in literature

The Indian way of life provides the vision of the natural, real way of life. We Western veil
ourselves with unnatural masks. On the face of India are the tender expressions which carry the
mark of the Creators hand.

He was an active socialist on the executive committee of the Fabian Society along with
Annie Besant. Famous British Author and Playwright, of books such as Pygmalion.

Source- Wisdom of Annada Gomasasway- By S. Dwai Raja letter

John Archibald Wheeler

(1911-2008), Eminent American physicist, the first one
to be involved in the theoretical development of the
Atomic bomb and the first to coin the Black Hole who
later occupies the chair that was held by Albert Einstein

I like to think that someone will trace how the deepest thinking of India made its way to
Greece and from there to the philosophy of our times.

Source- Indian Conquests of the Mend- By Saibal Gupta

6

Niels Bohr

(1856-1962),

Danish

nuclear

physicist

who

developed the Bohr model of the atom. He received

the Nobel Prize in physics in 1922 for his theory of
Atomic structure
I go into the Upanishads to ask questions.
Source- Indian Conquest of the mind- By Saibal Gupta

David J. Bohm

(1917-1992), One of the most eminent

quantum mechanical physicist and
philosopher
One would say Atman is more like the meaning. But then what is meant would be Brahman,
I suppose; the identity of consciousness and cosmos. This claims that the meaning and what is
meant are ultimately one, which is the phrase 'Atmanequals Brahman' of classical Hindu
philosophy.

Source- Creat Minds on India by Salil Gewali

Friedrich Hegel

(1770-1831), One of the

greatest German philosophers and writers

It strikes everyone in beginning to form an acquaintance with the treasures of

Indian literature, that a land so rich in intellectual products and those of the profoundest order of
thought.

Source- Philosophy of History- p. 113 Gearg Wilhelm Friedrich

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(1803-1882), Great American author,
essayist, lecturer, Unitarian Minister

The vedas haunt me. In them I have found eternal compensation, unfathomable power,
unbroken peace.In the great books of India, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but
large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence, which in another age and climate had
pondered and thus disposed of the questions that exercise us.
Sources - Commemorative Sanskrit Souvenirs 2003 of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan p. 28.
We, the people: India- The largest democracy by Navi Ardeshis
8

T.S. Eliot
(1888-1965),

Great

American

poet,

philosopher, critic, received Nobel Prize

for literature in 1948

I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the GangaAstronomy, Astrology, Spiritualism, etc. It is very important to note that some 2,500 years ago at
the least Pythagoras went from Samos to the Ganga to learn Geometry but he would certainly not
have undertaken such a strange journey had the reputation of the Brahmins' science not been long
established in Europe.

Source- After Strange Gods- By T.S. Eliot

Mark Twain
(1835-1910), Celebrated
American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer

"So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man ornature, to make
India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been
forgotten, nothing overlooked."

Source- A Tramp Abroad- 1891-1901-Mark Twain

9

Frederich Von Schlegel

(1772-1829) German writer, critic,
philosopher, philologist, the most
prominent
founder
of
German
Romanticism
There is no language in the world, even Greek, which has the clarity and the philosophical
precision of Sanskrit, and this great India is not only at the origin of everything. He is superior in
everything, intellectually, religiously or politically and even the Greek heritage seems pale in
comparison.

Source- Soul and Structure of governance in India- page 271

Arthur Schopenhauer
(1788-1860), One of the greatest German
philosophers and writers

In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads.
It has been the solace of my life; and it will be the solace of my death. They are the product of the
highest wisdom."Vedas are the most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible
in the world."

Source- The Exposilary times, Volume 9- page 147- James

10

Francois M. Voltaire

(1694-1774) Frances greatest writer and

philosopher

The Veda was the most precious gift for which the West had ever been indebted to the East.

Source - A Critical Study of the Contribution of the Arya Samaj to Indian Education", p. 68

Herman Hesse
(1877-1962) Much acclaimed German
poet and novelist, awarded Nobel Prize
for literature in 1946

The marvel of the Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables
philosophy to blossom into religion.

Source- Education about Asia, Volume I-L, India & World

11

Henry David Thoreau

(1817-1862)
Greatest
American
philosopher, writer, social critic and
transcendentalist

Whenever I have read any part of the Vedas, I have felt that some unearthly andunknown
light illuminated me. In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of sectarianism. It is of
all ages, climbs, and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge.
When I read it, I feel that I am under the spangled heavens of a summer night.

Source- Walden, his masterpiece, by David Henry Thoreau

Alan Watts
(1915-1973) Eminent English philosopher and one of
the widely read prolific writers of the 20th Century

It is, indeed, a remarkable circumstance that when Western civilization discovers

'Relativity Theory' it applies it to the manufacture of atom-bombs, whereas Oriental civilization
applies it to the development of new states of consciousness.

Source- The Legacy of Asia and Western Man- by Alan Watts

12

"To the philosophers of India, however, Relativity is no new discovery, just as the concept of light
years is no matter for astonishment to people used to thinking of time in millions of Kalpas, (A
Kalpa is about 4,320,000 years). The fact that the wise men of India have not been concerned with
technological applications of this knowledge arises from the circumstance that technology is but
one of innumerable ways of applying it."

Alan Watts: (Source- Spiritual Practices of India- By Frederic Spiegelberg)

Fritjof Capra
(1939) Eminent physicist and systems theorist, a
founding director of the Center for Eco-literacy, USA

To the Indian Rishis the 'Divine play' was the evolution of the cosmos through countless
aeons. They say, there are an infinite number of creations in an infinite universe. The Rishis gave
the name kalpa to the unimaginable span of time between the beginning and the end of creation.

"Modern physics has thus revealed that every subatomic particle not only performs an
energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction. The
dance of Shiva is the dancing universe, the ceaseless flow of energy going through an infinite
variety of patterns that melt into one another."

Source Vedic Texts and the Birth of Modern Physics

13

Aldous Huxley

English novelist, critic and philosopher

Hinduism, the perennial philosophy that is at the core of all religious.

Source- The Perennial Philosophy- By Aldous Huxley

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

(1850-1919) Most endearing American

poetess and journalist

India- the land of Vedas, the remarkable works contains not only religious ideas for a
perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship,
all are known to the seers who founded the Vedas.

Source- Poems of Pleasure & Maurine and other Poems

14

Roger-Pol Droit
(1949) Eminent French writer and
philosopher

The Greeks loved so much Indian philosophy that Demetrios Galianos had even translated
the Bhagavad-Gita. There is absolutely not a shadow of a doubt that the Greeks knew all about
Indian philosophy.

Source- Louble de I' Inde- Une a mreesie philosophigele

Romain Rolland

(1866-1944)

Great

French

writer,

dramatist, critic, historian, Nobel laureate

"If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living menhave found a
home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India."

Source- Life of Ramakrishna by Roman Rolland, Philosophy of Hinduism by T.C. Galav, Life of
Vivekanand and Universal

15

Dr. Carl Sagan

(1934-1996)

Most

famous

modern

astrophysicist, authored several science

books

The Hinduism is the only of the world's greatest faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos
itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only
religion in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology.

Source- Cosmos- by Dr. Carl Sagan

Lord Curzon
(1859-1925) British statesman, Viceroy of Indian from
1899-1905, and later became chancellor of Oxford
University

India has left a deeper mark upon the history, the philosophy and the religion of mankind,
than any other terrestrial unit in the universe.

Source- The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 102, page 525, Independence

16

Johann Gottfried Herder

(1744-1803) Great German philosopher,
poet and critic

Mankind's origins can be traced to India, where the human mind got the first shapes of
wisdom and virtue with simplicity, strength and sublimity which has- frankly spoken- nothing at
all equivalent in our philosophical, cold European world.

Source- Thoughts of some Brahmins by Herder, Johann Gottfried Herder's Jmag of India, by
Pranebenlsanath Ghol p.339

Heinrich Heine
(1797-1856) Great German romantic
poet, essayist and Journalist

The Portuguese, Dutch and English have been for a long time year after year, shipping
home the treasures of India in their big vessels. We Germans have been all along been left to watch
it. Germany would do likewise, but hers would be treasures of spiritual knowledge.
Source- India & world Civilization by D.P. Singhal, page, No man in alien essay on the unity of
mankind p. 2 by Willem Adolph
17

Prof. F. Max Muller

(1823-1900)

Famous

German

philosopher, writer and philologist

I maintain that to everybody who cares for himself, for his ancestors, for his intellectual
development, a study of the Vedic literature is indeed indispensable.

"There is no book in the world that is so thrilling, stirring and inspiring as the Upanishads."
('Sacred Books of the East')

Mark Tully
(1935) BBC correspondent in India for
many years, authored many books

But I do profoundly believe that India needs to be able to say with pride, 'Yes, our
civilization has a Hindu base to it.'

Source- Pride in the Present: A Hindu Cure of "Colonical Hangover by Mark Tully

18

Pierre Simon De Laplace

(1749-1827)

French

greatest

mathematician,

philosopher and astronomer, contemporary of

Napoleon, best known for his Nebular Hypothesis of
the origin of the Solar System
It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by ten symbols,
each receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value, a profound and important idea
which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit.

Source- H. Eves Return to Mathematical Circles, Boston: Prindle, Webes and Schmidt, 1908,
Discovery of India, By J. Nehru, A Mathematical Journey page 135 by Stanley Guetler, Cosmic
calculation, Kemeth Williams page 9

Paul William Roberts

Professor at Oxford, award-winning
television writer, producer, journalist,
critic and novelist

The Vedas still represent eternal truth in the purest form ever written. And they are what drew me
to India in the first place, what kept me there, and what draws me back still.

Source- Empire of the Soil, some journeys in India by Paul

19

Brian David Josephson

(1940) Welsh physicist, the youngest

Nobel laureate

The Vedanta and the Sankhya hold the key to the laws of mind and though process which
are co-related to the Quantum Field, i.e. the operation and distribution of particles at atomic and
molecular levels.

Source- Science and Vedanta- by H.M. Ganesh Rao, Mandala: Luminous Symbols for pealingpage- 38, Judith Comell Joa

Paul Deussen
(1845-1919)

Direct

disciple

of

Arthur

Schopenhauer, founded the Schopenhauer Society

Whatever may be the discoveries of the scientific mind, none can dispute the eternal truths
propounded by the Upanishads.

Source- Indian Antiquity By: Paul Deussen

20

H.G. Wells
(1866-1946) Eminent prolific English
writer and philosopher

In Hinduism, tolerance is not simply a matter of Policy but an article of faith.

Source Encyclopedia of Hindu Gods and Goddesses by Suresh Chandra

August Wilhelm Von Schlegel

(1767-1845) Great German scholar, poet, critic

Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans appears like a feeble spark before the
Vedanta.

Source- Is India Civilized? - Essay on Indian Culture- By Sir John

21

A.E. George Russell

(1876-1935) Eminent poet, artist, and mystic, a
leading figure in the Irish literary renaissance of
the late 19th and early 20th century

The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads contain such godlike fullness of wisdom on all
things that I feel the authors must have looked with calm remembrance back through a thousand
passionate lives, full of feverish strife for and with shadows, ere they could have written with such
certainty of things which the soul feels to be sure.

Source: Pyramids of Wisdom by B.S.Murthy

Lord Warren Hastings

(1754-1826) First governor general of
British India
I do not hesitate to pronounce the Gita a performance of great originality, of sublimate of
conception, reasoning and diction almost unequalled; and a single exception, amongst all the
known religions of mankind.
Source Medha Journal

22

Mircea Eliade

(1907-1986)

Eminent

Romanian

philosopher, writer and critic

Yoga, as a 'science' of achieving this transformation of finite man into the infinite, one has to be
recognized as something intrinsically Indian or, as 'a specific dimension of the Indian mind.

Source - Yoga, Immorality and Freedom by Mircea Eliade

Charles H. Townes
(1925) American Nobel Prize winning scientist, worked
extensively during World War II in designing radar
bombing systems, invented the microwave-emitting
system
Indian students should value their religious culture and of course, the classical Indian
culture bears importantly on the meaning of life and values. I would not separate the two. To
separate science and Indian culture would be harmful. I don't think it is practical to keep
scientific and spiritual culture separate.

Source- Interviews with Nobel Laureates and eminent scholars

23

Sir William Jones

(1746-1794) Great British scholar, philologist and
authored several books. He came to India as a judge of
the Supreme Court at Calcutta. He pioneered Sanskrit
studies. His admiration for Indian thought and culture
was almost limitless.
The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect
than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either: yet bearing
to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs, and in the forms of grammar, than
could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine
them all without believing them to have sprung from some common source which perhaps no
longer exists."
Source- The work of Sir William Jones, Vol-4

He noted that "the analogies between Greek Pythagorean philosophy and the Sankhya school, are
very obvious."

Source: Arise O' India - By Francois Gautier ISBN 81-241-0518-9 Har-Anand Publications
2000. p. 21-22.

India's femininity and sexual ambiguity, is the very antithesis of Western virility."

Source: The Genius of India - By Guy Sorman ('Le Genie de l'Inde') Macmillan India Ltd. 2001
p. 197).

24

Leonard Bloomfield
(1887-1949)

American

linguist

and

Author

It was in India, however, that there rose a body of knowledge which was destined to
revolutionize European ideas about language.
Source Great Minds on India by Salil Gewalli

Queen Fredricka

(1931-1981) Wife of King Paul of Greece

and research scholar of advanced physics

I envy the Indians. While Greece is the country of my birth, India is the country
of my soul.

Source- A newsletter of the Kanchi Kamokoti Centre of California and from the
new physics to Hinduism

25

Georges Ifrah
(1947) French historian of mathematics, his most
famous book was 'The Universal History of Numbers'

It is the ancient Indian culture that has regarded the science of numbers as the noblest of
its arts A thousand years ahead of Europeans, Indian Savants knew that the zero and infinity
were mutually inverse notions.

Source- The Universal history of number by Georges Ifrah

Wilhelm Von Humboldt

(1767-1835) Prussian Minister of education, a
brilliant linguist and the founder of the science of
general linguistics

The Gita, the most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any
known tongue- perhaps the deepest and loftiest thing the world has to show.

Source A Tribute to Hinduism

26

Pierre Sonnerat
(1748-1814), Eminent French naturalist
and author

Ancient India gave to the world its religious and philosophies. Egypt and Greece owe India
their wisdom and it is known that Pythagoras went to India to study under Brahmins, who were
the most enlightened of human beings.
Source Quotes on Hinduism

Leopold Von Schroerder

(1851-1920) Eminent German Ideologist

Nearly all the philosophical and mathematical doctrines attributed to Pythagoras are
derived from India.

Source- German Indologists by Volentina Stoche Rozer

27

Dr. Lin Yutang

(1895-1976) Great Chinese scholar and
prolific writer

India was Chinas teacher in religion and imaginative literature, and the world's teacher
in Trigonometry, Quadratic Equations, Grammar, Phonetics, Arabian Nights, Animal fables,
chess, as well as in philosophy, and that he inspired Boccaccio, Goethe, Herder, Schopenhauer,
Emerson, and probably also old Aesop

Source- Religions East & West- p. 71 by Word J. Fellous

Andrew Tomas
(1906-2001) Australian UFO pioneer,
author of several physics, astronomy and
spiritual books

The atomic structure of matter is mentioned in the Hindu treatises Vaisesika and Nyaya.
The Yoga Vasishta says:- there are vast worlds within the hollows of each atom, multifarious as
the specks in a sunbeam- which we have assumed now as true.
Source Talk on Vedas and India

28

Dale M. Riepe
(1918) Professor of Philosophy at the
State University of New York
Western thinkers, throughtheir study of Indian philosophies and religions have discovered
a new technical philosophy of undreamed-of complexity and ingenuity. "He felt much of Indian
thought to be close to his own and he used it to clarify his own visions."

Source- The philosophy of India and its impact on American

Hans Torwesten

(1944) Noted German scholar and writer

Western thinkers, through their study of Indian philosophies and religions have
discovered a new technical philosophy of undreamed-of complexity and ingenuity."He felt much
of Indian thought to be close to his own and he used it to clarify his own visions."

Source- The philosophy of India and its impact on American

29

Dr. Heinrich Zimmer

(1890-1943) Great German Ideologist

The whole edifice of Indian civilization is imbued with spiritual meaning.

Source Great Minds on India by Salil Gewalli

Juan Mascaro
(1897-1987) eminent scholar, taught at
Oxford University

The greatness of the Bhagavad Gita is the greatness of the universe, but even as the
wonder of the stars in heaven only reveals itself in the silence of the night, the wonder of this
peom only reveals itself in the silence of the soul.

Source- The Bhagavat Gita by- Juan Mascaro

30

Muhammad Dara Shikoh

(1627-1658 AD) Sufi son of Mogul
emperor Shah Jahan, noted for his
mysticismand scholarly pursuit

After gradual research; I have come to the conclusion that long before all heavenly books,
God and revealed to the Hindus, through the Rishis of yore, of whom Brahma was the Chief, His
four books of knowledge, the Rig Veda, The Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda.
The Quran itself made veiled references to the Upanishads as the first heavenly book and the
fountainhead of the ocean of monotheism.

Source- India and Europe : An essay in understanding- by Wilhelm

Hu Shih
(1891-1962) Great Chinese philosopher
and author

Never before had China seen a religion so rich in imagery, so beautiful and captivating in
ritualism and so bold in cosmological and metaphysical speculations. She begged and borrowed
them all freely from this munificent Indians. China's indebtedness to India can never be fully
told.
Source Quotes on Hinduism
31

Sir Arthur Holmes

(1890-1965) A great Geologist who
contributed to our understanding of Earth's
age.

"Long before it became a scientific aspiration to estimate the age of the earth, many elaborate
systems of the world chronology had been devised by the sages of antiquity. The most remarkable
of these occult time-scales is that of the ancient Hindus, whose astonishing concept of the Earth's
duration has been traced back to Manusmriti, a sacred book."

Source- Hinduism and Scientific Quest- By T. R. R. Iyengar

Count Maurice Maeterlinck

(August 29, 1862 - May 6, 1949), a Belgian
poet, playwright, and a French essayist. He
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1911.
"He falls back upon the earliest and greatest of Revelations, those of the Sacred Books of India
with a Cosmogony which no European conception has ever surpassed."

Source- Mountain Paths - By Maurice Maeterlinck (He is a great Belgian Nobel Prize winning
writer)

32

Huston Smith
1919 - born in China to Methodist missionaries, a
philosopher, most eloquent writer, world-famous religion
scholar who practices Hatha Yoga. Has taught at MIT and
is currently visiting professor at Univ. of California at
Berkley. Smith has also produced PBS series. He has
written various books, The World's Religions, "Science
and Human Responsibility", and "The Religions of
Man".

While the West was still thinking, perhaps, of 6,000 years old universe- India was already
envisioning ages and cons and galaxies as numerous as the sands of the River Ganga. The Universe
so vast that modern astronomy slips into its folds without a ripple."

Source: By Huston Smith: (Source- The Mystic's Journey- India and the Infinite: The Soul of a
People

33

Nancy Wilson Ross

A great scholar made her first trip to Japan, China, Korea
and India in 1939. She was the author of several books
including The World of Zen and Time's Left Corner. She
gave a lecture on Zen Buddhism at the Jungian Institute in
Zurich. She served on the board of the Asia Society of New
York which was founded by John D. Rockefeller III since
its establishment in 1956
"Many of India's ancient theories about the universe are startlingly modern in scope and
worthy of a people who are credited with the invention of the zero, as well as algebra and its
application of astronomy and geometry: a people who so carefully observed the heavens that, in
the opinion of Monier- Williams, they determined the moon's synovial revolution much more
correctly than the Greeks."

(Source- Three Ways of Asian Wisdom- By Nancy Wilson Ross

34

Guy Sorman
(born March 10, 1944, Paris, France) A
visiting scholar at Hoover Institution at
Stanford and the leader of new liberalism in
France is a French professor, columnist, author,
and public intellectual in economics and
philosophy.
According to him,

"Temporal notions in Europe were overturned by an India rooted in eternity. The Bible had been
the yardstick for measuring time, but the infinitely vast time cycles of India suggested that the
world was much older than anything the Bible spoke of. It seems as if the Indian mind was better
prepared for the chronological mutations of Darwinian evolution and astrophysics."

Einstein and Shiva's Cosmic Dance

'There is a striking resemblance between the equivalence

of mass and energy, symbolized by Shiva's cosmic dance
and the Western theory, first expounded by Einstein,
which calculates the amount of energy contained in a
subatomic particle by multiplying its mass by the square
of the speed of light: E=mc2."

35

Source- India: Living Wisdom- By Richard Waterstone p. 135

The Serpent of Infinity

The late scientist, Carl Sagan, in his book, Cosmos asserts that
the Dance of Nataraja (Tandava) signifies the cycle of evolution
and destruction of the cosmic universe (Big Bang Theory)"It is
the clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion
can boast of." Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of
creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the
seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but also
the very essence of all living creatures, but also the very essence
of inorganic matter.
For modern physicists, then, Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. Hundreds of years
ago, Indian artist created visual images of dancing Shiva's in a beautiful series of bronzes. Today,
physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the pattern of the cosmic dance.
Thus, the metaphor of the cosmic dance unifies ancient religious art and modern physics. The
Hindus, according to Monier-Williams, were Spinozists more than 2,000 years before the advent
of Spinoza and Darwinians many centuries before Darwin and Evolutionists many centuries before
the doctrine of Evolution was accepted by scientists of the present age.

Source- Cosmos- By Carl Sagan

Why not we include the following facts above TIME with comments / appreciations from
Carl Sagan and others?
1.

One day and night in the life of Brahma is 8,640,000,000 human years.

2.

The life time of Brahma is 311, 040, 000,000,000 human years.

3.

One day and night in the life of Vishnu equals 37,324,800, 000,000, 000,000

4.

The life time of Vishnu is 671,846,400,000,000,000,000, 000 human years.

5.

One day and night in the life of Shiva is 4,837,294,080, 000,000, 000,000 human years.

6.

Shiva's lifetime is equal to 87,071,293,440,000,000,000, 000 ,000, 000,000,000 human yrs

36

7.

One

glance

from

the

Mother

of

the

Universe

is

87,071,

293,440,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 human years.

Dick Teresi
Author and co-author of several books
about Science and Technology including
The God Particle

He is co-founder of Omni magazine and has written for Discover, The New York Times
Magazine, and The Atlantic Monthly. He says "Indian cosmologists, the first to estimate the age
of the earth at more than 4 billion years. They came closest to modern ideas of atomism, quantum
physics, and other current theories. India developed very early, enduring atomist theories of matter.
Possibly Greek atomistic thought was influenced by India, via the Persian civilization."
Two thousand years before Pythagoras, 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." "Twenty-four centuries before Isaac Newton, the Hindu Rig-Veda asserted that
gravitation held the universe together. The Sanskrit speaking Aryans subscribed to the idea of a
spherical earth in an era when the Greeks believed in a flat one. The Indians of the fifth century
A.D. calculated the age of the earth as4.3 billion years; scientists in 19 it was 100 million years."
Source: Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science - By Dick Teresi p. 159 and
174 -212). For more refer to chapter Advanced Concepts

37

Gene D Matlock
Author of several books including India
Once Ruled the Americas and Jesus and
Moses Are Buried in India, Birthplace of
Abraham and the Hebrews
In his book, Yishvara 2000, he has remarked that: "In ancient times, the country we of today call
India was not confined to the Indian subcontinent alone. Its northern limit was the Arctic Circle or
North Polar regions. Its human inhabited parts began in the north eastern extreme of Siberia,
including Alaska, extending downward through what are now Russia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Kashmir, and every other nation in those regions not named down to and including
Antarctica or the uninhabited South Polar regions. As far as we know, everyone originally spoke
Sanskrit dialect, also such North Indian languages as Brahma Bhasha or Balhika Bhasha. We are
told that Sumerian was the worlds first civilized people behind. They are going to be disappointed
to find out that a highly developed civilization existed in India at least two millenniums before the
Sumerian civilization from 8,000 to 6,000 CE, in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet and
Kashmir. According to Hindu tradition a privilege few in that society even owned flying machines
"The citizen of that region of Northern India were known as Yadvas, Yadu, Yahu-Deva, Yauda,
Yahuda, etc.In his book, India Once Ruled the Americas! he states:
Source- Yishvara 2000- By Gene D Matlock p. 1-3 and India Once Ruled the Americas!

38

James Donald Walters

Kriyananda (born

James Donald Walters; May 19, 1926 April 21, 2013),

was a direct disciple of the

yogi Paramahansa

Yogananda and was the founder of Ananda, a worldwide

movement of spiritual intentional communities based on
Yogananda's World Brotherhood Colonies ideal.

He

authorized him to teach Kriya Yoga while with SRF, and

appointed him the head monk for the SRF Mount
Washington monks only. SRF President Daya Mata and
given the name Kriyananda.
The Laya Yoga Samhita stated that just as the beams of sunlight entering a room reveal the
presence of innumerable motes, so infinite space is filled with countless Brahmanas (solar
systems). The atomic structure of matter was discussed in the ancient Vaisesika treatises.
And in the Yoga Vashista it was stated, in a passage very similar to the foregoing: "There are vast
worlds all placed way within the hollows of each atom, multifarious as the motes in a sunbeam."

Source- Crises in Modern Thought: The Crises of Reason)- (J. Donald Walters) vol. 1 p. 95).

Rig-Veda
The Rig Veda is a collection of Vedic Sanskrit
hymns counted among the four Hindu religious texts
known as the Vedas. The Rig Veda was likely
composed between roughly 17001100 BCE, making
it one of the oldest texts of any Indo-Iranian language,
one of the world's oldest religious texts

39

The Rig-Veda repeatedly "How is it that though the Sun is not. A question asked by Isaac
Newton more than three thousand years later, and no one else, because the Greeks had furnished
the crystal spheres to which these objects were attached! When we talk of gravity, Newton comes
to our mind, but in the text Surya Sidhantha dated around 400 AD, Bhaskaracharya described it
stated. "Objects fall on the earth due to one force. The Earth, planets, constellations, moon and sun
are held in orbit because of that one force.""Seven horses draw the chariot of Surya" Rig-Veda
5.45.9
These seven horses are the seven colors compromising light. These seven colors become
visible in a rainbow or when light passes through a prism. Vedic literature used large numbers and
employed modern decimal enumeration, compared with the primitive Greek and Roman
arithmetic. The first recorded evidence of "Hindu" numerals is at least as old as the Ashoka's
edicts, circa 250 B.C.

Walter Raymond Dreake

19131989 was a British disciple of Charles
Fort and writer. He published nine books on
the ancient astronaut theme, the first four years
earlier than Erich von Dniken's bestseller Chariots
of the Gods.
The oldest literature in the world is probably the Rig-Veda, meaning verse-knowledge',
comprising 10,000 invocations to the Gods written in Sanskrit about 1500 BC, wonderful epic of
the 'Ramayana' the inspiration of the world's great classic literature, intrigues us most today by its
frequent allusions to aerial vehicles and annihilating bombs which we consider to be inventions
of our own 20thcentury impossible in the far past. Students of Sanskrit literature soon revise their
preconceived ideas and find that the heroes of Ancient India were apparently equipped with
aircraft and missiles more sophisticated than those we boast today. The Indian lyricize of
spaceships faster than light and missiles more violent than H-bombs; their Sanskrit texts describe

40

aircraft apparently with radar and cameras; the wonderful 'Mahabharata' rivals the 'Iliad' and the
'Odyssey', the 'Aeneid,' the plays of Shakespeare and most of our modern fiction all combined.

Source- Gods and Spacemen in the Ancient East- By Walter Raymond Dreake p.25 and 226 and
9-49 and 1-65)

Daniel J. Boorstin
(1914-2004) was the grandson of Russian Jewish
immigrants, American historian, lawyer, professor,
Librarian of Congress from 1975 to 1987, prizewinning author of several books including The
Discovers, The Creators and The Seekers.

"The Hindus have left an eloquent history of their efforts to answer the riddle of Creation.
The Vedas, sacred hymns in archaic Sanskrit from about 1500 to 900 BC do not depict a benevolent
Creator, but record a man's awe before the Creation as singers of the Vedas chant the radiance of
this world. Their objects of worship were devas (cognate with Latin dues, god) derived from the
old Sanskrit div., meaning brightness. Gods were the shining ones. The luminosity of their world
impressed the Hindus from the beginning. Not the fitting-togetherness, not the hierarchy of beings
or the order of nature, but the blinding splendor, the Light of the World. How the world once came
into being or how it might end seemed irrelevant before the brightness of the visible world.

41

Jerry Earl Johnston

Jerry Earl Johnston two-time winner of the national Wilbur
Award. He is a columnist, critic, and feature writer for the
Desert

News. He has won awards from the Associated

Press, Reader's Digest, Society of Professional Journalists,

and the Utah Arts Council. He is also the author of Dads
and Other Heroes.

He has observed that:

Of the five major world religious Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Islam and Hindu Hinduism is likely
the least understood by Westerners people see aspects of the bathing in the Ganges River, Yogis
in meditation, the Hare Krishna but they seem like so many random puzzle pieces.
There is no doctrine to follow in Hinduism. No central authority. To be a Hindu you only
have to declare yourself one. And unlike the other four major religions, Hinduism has no
founder, no beginning which leads many Hindus to claim the religion has existed as long as the
universe. Scholars have so far traced the religion back at least 3,500 years, to the Indus Valley in
what is now Pakistan. There, an ancient civilization blossomed and became surprisingly
sophisticated" The striking together of those two cultures produced our earliest traces of modern
Hinduism, though scientists have few answers for how it all came to be. Do Hindus worship
animals? Well, yes and no. They worship animals as manifestations of the great Absolute, or
Brahman an eternal reality behind the multiplicity of forms.

Source- Hinduism for beginners- By Jerry Johnston-deseretnews.com 10/18/2009)

42

Dean Brown
An

eminent

Theoretical

Physicist,

cosmologist,

philosopher and Sanskrit scholar, whose translation of

the Upanishads was published by the Philosophical
Research Society
In an interview with Jeffrey Mishlove of Thinking Allowed TV has pointed out that
most European languages can be traced back to a root language that is also related to
Sanskrit. Many English words actually have Sanskrit origins. Similarly, many Vedic religions
concepts can also be found in Western culture. He discusses the fundamental idea of the
Upanishads that the essence of each individual, the atman, is identical to the whole universe, the
principle of Brahman. In this sense, the polytheistic traditions of India can be said to be monistic
at their very core.

Source- Interview with Jeffrey Mishlove- Thinking Allowed.

The Sanskrit Source- According to the Evidence- By Erich Von Daniken p. 161 and Chariots of
the Gods- By Erich Von Daniken p. 1-50

43

Alexander Gorbovsky
An expert at the Russian Munitions Agency

He has written: The Mahabharata is a poem of vast length and complexity.

According to Dr. Vyacheslav Zaitsev: "The holy Indian Sages, the Ramayana for one, tell of "Two
storied celestial chariots with many windows" "They roar like off into the sky until they appear
like comets."
The Mahabharata and various Sanskrit books describe at length these chariots, powered by
winged lighting, it was a ship that soared into the air, flying to both the solar and stellar
regions."They had a weapon which has a blazing shaft possessed of the effulgence of a smokeless
fire (was) let off' That was how this weapon was perceived. The consequences of its use also
evoke involuntary associations. This makes the bodies of the dead unidentifiable. The survivors
lose their nails and hair, and their food becomes unfit for eating. For several subsequent years the
Sun, the stars and the sky remain shrouded with clouds and bad weather.'"This weapon was known
as the Weapon of Brahma or the Flame of Indra".

Source- Riddles of Ancient History- Alexander Gorbovsky, The Sputnik Magazine, Moscow, Sept.
1986, p. 137)

44

D. Hatcher Childress
David Hatcher Childress (born 1957) is the Author
of Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology' From The
Anti-Gravity Handbook by D. Hatcher Childress
(1914-2003) author of several

books, including

The Bermuda Triangle, was the grandson of the

founder of the world-famous Berlitz schools.

He wrote:
"If atomic warfare were actually used in the distant past and not just imagined, there must
still exist some indications of a civilization advanced enough to develop or even to know about
atomic power. One does find in sone of the ancient writings of India some descriptions of advanced
scientific thinking which seemed anachronistic to the age from which they come.

The Jyotish (400B.C.) echoes the modern concept of the earth's place in the universe,
the law of gravity, the kinetic nature of energy, and the theory of cosmic rays and also deals, in
specialized but unmistakable vocabulary, with the theory of atomic rays. And what was thousands
of years before the medieval theologians of Europe argued about the number of angels that could
fit on the head of a pin. Indian philosophers of the Vaisesika were discussing atomic theory,
speculating about heat being the cause of molecular change, and calculating the period of time
taken by an atom to traverse its own space. Readers of the Buddhist pali sutra and commentaries,
who studied them before modern times, were frequently mystified by reference to the "tying
together" of minute component parts of matter; although nowadays it is easy for a model reader to
recognize an understandable description of molecular composition."

Source- doomsday 1999- By Charles Berlitz p. 123-124

45

Pingala (Shaunak)
Shaunak (Sanskrit: ) is the name applied to
teachers, and to a Shakha of the Atharvaveda.
It is especially the name of Pingala, (approx.200B.C),
the celebrated Sanskrit grammarian, the author of
the igveda-Prtikhya, the Bhaddevat, the Caraavyha and six Anukramas (indices) to the Rigveda.

According to Shaunaka, the regions of the sky are 5, named, Rekhaapathaha, Mandala,
Kakshaya, Shakti and Kendra. In these 5 atmospheric regions, there are 5,19,800 air ways traversed
by Vimanas of the Seven Lokas or worlds, known as Bhooloka, Bhuvarloka, Suvarloka, Maholoka,
Janoloka, Tapoloka and Satyaloka. Dhundinaatha and "Valalmeeki Ganita" state that Rekha has
7,03,00,800 air routes. Mandala has 20,08,00200 air routes, Kakshya has 2,09,00,300 air routes,
Shakti has 10,01,300 air routes, and Kendra has 30,08,200 air routes.
It discusses what kind of food to eat, clothing to wear, metals for vimanas, purification of
metals, deals with mirrors and lenses which are required to be installed in the vimaanas,
mechanical contrivances or yantras and protecting and different types of vimaanas.

Sources - Vymaanika Shaastra Aeronautics of Maharshi Bharadwaaja- By G.R. Josyer

International Academy of Sanskrit Research 1973).
Also Refer to Vymanika Shashtra- Aeronautical Society of India
History is the propaganda of the Victors of the victors" Ernest Toller (1893-1937) playwright

46

Will Durant
(November 5, 1885 November 7, 1981) - an American
writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known
for The Story of Civilization 11 volumes written in
collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published
between 1935 and 1975.
India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the
mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother,
through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village
community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us
all"
Source Come to India (YFU India)

Keith Bellows
Keith Bellows was the editor in chief of
National Geographic magazine until
October 2014

"There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won't go. For me,
India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush
beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated
intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds... I had been seeing the world in black & white
and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant
technicolor."
Source Life in India (Life Program)

47

Norodom Sihanouk
Head of the State of the Royal Government
of Cambodia (1954-1970) traced the cultural
evolution in Southeast Asia to the pervasive Indian
cultural influence

When we refer to thousand year old ties which unite us with India, it is not at all a hyperbole.
"In fact, it was about 2000 years ago that the first navigators, Indian merchants and Brahmins
brought to our ancestors their gods, their techniques, their organization. Briefly India was for us
what Greece was to Latin Orient."
(Source: The Fossilized Indian Culture of Southeast Asia - By Y Yagama Reddy)

Sir Marc Aurel Stein

(1862-1943), a Hungarian and author of several books
including Ra`jatarangini: whose valuable researches have
added greatly to our knowledge of Greater India.
"The vast extent of Indian cultural influences, from Central Asia in the North to tropical Indonesia
in the South, and from the Borderlands of Persia to China and Japan, has shown that ancient India
was a radiating center of a civilization, which by its religious thought, its art and literature, was
destined to leave its deep mark on the races wholly diverse and scattered over the greater part of
Asia."

Source: The Vision of India - By Sisir Kumar Mitra p. 178 and Main Currents of Indian Culture By S. Natarajan (p. 50).

48

Henry Mouhot
Sir Marc Aurel Stein
(1826 -1861) a French naturalist and explorer, who had
Sir Marc
Stein
gone to South-east
Asia inAurel
the late
1850's and succumbed
to fever there in 1861.
Mesmerized by what he saw at the temple of Angkor Vat, Mouhot in lyrical descriptions
said: "At the sight of this temple, one feels one's spirit crushed, one's imagination surpassed.
One looks, one admires, and, seized with respect, one is silent. For where are the words to praise
a work of art that may not have its equal anywhere on the globe? ... What genius this
Michelangelo of the East had, that he was capable of concaving such a work.''

Source: Le Tour du Monde, 2-1863-299

A.M.T.Jackson
Arthur Mason Tippetts Jackson (1866-1909) was
a British officer in Indian Civil Services. He was
a learned Indologist and a historian. He was the
Magistrate of Nasik when he was murdered by
Anant Kanhere for a political reason.
He writes: "The Buddhist Jatakas and some of the Sanskrit law books tell us that ships from
Bhroach and Supara traded with Babylon (Baveru) from the 8th to the 6th century B.C."

Source: Bombay City Gazetteer, Vol. II, chapter IV, p.3.

49

M.A. Murray
Margaret Murray (1866-1963) Murray's
work in Egyptology and archaeology was
widely acclaimed

" The splendor that was Egypt" that the type of men of Punt as depicted by Halshepsut's artists
suggests an Asiatic rather than an African race and the sweet smelling woods point to India as
the land of their origin.
Source: Art Culture of India and Egypt - By S. M. El Mansouri (p. 14). Refer to Marco Polos
epic journey to China was a big con Team Folks

T.W.Rhys Davids
Author of the Pali-English Dictionary

He observed that "Sea going merchants, availing themselves of the monsoons, were in the habit
at beginning of the 7th century B.C. of trading from ports of the Southwest Coast of India to
Babylon, then a great mercantile emporium."

Source: Buddhist India - By T. W. Rhys- Davids p. 116.

50

The Author of The culture of SouthEast Asia; the heritage of India

He has observed:
"Indian religious art and culture seem naturally to have exercised an extraordinary fascination over
the indigenous peoples of all these territories, no doubt, owing to the attractions offered by
Hinduism and Buddhism, while Chinese art, not bearing any particular religious message,
apparently made little impression, in spite of the fact that the Chinese, too, sailed to southern
seas..."

Source: India and The World - By Buddha Prakash p. 7-8 Institute of Indic Studies Kurukshetra
University 1964

51

Sir John Malcolm

(1769 - 1833) was a Scottish soldier,
statesman, and historian entered the service
of the East India Company

He wrote about Indian vessels that the: "Indian vessels "are so admirably adapted to the purpose
for which they are required that, not withstanding their superior science, Europeans were unable,
during an intercourse with India for two centuries, to suggest or at least to bring into successful
practice one improvement. "

Source: Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. I and India and World Civilization - By D P
Singhal part II p. 76 - 77.

52

Georg Feuerstein
Georg Feuerstein was a German Indologist specializing on
Yoga. Feuerstein authored over 30 books on mysticism,
Yoga, Tantra, and Hinduism. He translated, among other
traditional texts, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the
Bhagavad Gita.
"The Greek influence never penetrated deeply (into the Indic civilization)...On the other hand, the
West learned something from India in consequence of the communications opened up by
Alexander's adventure. Our knowledge of the facts is so scanty and fragmentary that it is difficult
to make any positive assertions with confidence, but it is safe to say that the influence of Buddhist
ideas on Christian doctrine may be traced in the Gnostic forms of Christianity, if not elsewhere.
Source: In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By George

Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 252-253.

H.G. Rawlinson
(23 November 1812 7 October 1902) he was
a 19th-century English scholar, historian,
and Christian theologian.

H. G. Rawlinson, refers to the invasion, had no immediate effect, and passed off like countless
other invasions, leaving the country almost undisturbed."
Source

53

Vincent Arthur Smith

Vincent Arthur Smith, CIE, (18481920) was a
British Indologist and art historian.

Vincent A. Smith British Historian " India remained unchanged. She was never Hellenised. She
continued to live her life of splendid isolation, and forgot the passing of the Macedonian storm.
No Indian author, Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain, makes even the faintest illusion to Alexander or his
deeds."
Source
The notions of Indian philosophy and religion which filtered into the Roman Empire flowed
through channels opened by Alexander."
Source Foreign Influence on Ancient India by Krishna Chandra Sagar Pg 80

The religious scripture of ancient Iranians was the Avesta. The Avesta
available today is only a fraction of what existed thousands of years
ago. When Alexander captured Iran (Persia) in 326 B. C. after a bloody war,
he destroyed each copy of the Avesta available. After return of political
stability Persian priests tried to salvage the Avesta.
After return of political stability Persian priests tried to salvage the Avesta and much had to
be written from memory. Another cruel legacy of Alexander.
Source: Vedic Physics - By Raja Ram Mohan Roy p. 8

54

According to Voltaire, "The Greeks, before the time of Pythagoras, travelled into India for
instruction. The signs of the seven planets and of the seven metals are still almost all over the
earth, such as the Indians invented: the Arabians were obliged to adopt their ciphers."

Source: The Philosophy of History p. 527.

"Our modern numerals 0 through 9 were developed in India. Mathematics existed

long before the Greeks constructed their first right angle. On the other
hand George Cheverghese Joseph (author of The Crest of the Peacock: NonEuropean Roots of Mathematics) points out that the early Indian mathematics
contained in the
Sulbasutras (The Rules of the Cord) contain their own version of the Pythagorean Theorem as
well as procedure for obtaining the square root of 2 correct to five decimal places. The Sulbasutras
reveal a rich geometric knowledge that preceded the Greeks."

Source: Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science - By Dick Teresi p. 32.
For more on Dick Teresi refer to chapter on Quotes301_320.

"We hear of Arabian trade with Egypt as far back as 2743 B.C. probably as ancient as was the
trade with India."

Source: The Story of civilizations - Our Oriental Heritage ISBN: 1567310125 1937 vol.4 p. 157.
"Hindu have venerated the feminine element under its different
manifestations: Mahalaxmi, Mahakali, Mahasaraswati, Maheshwari - and
even India is feminine: "Mother India." She is the consciousness
transcending all things, she is the emptiness beyond all emptiness, the smile
beyond all smiles, the divine beauty beyond all earthly beauties. "

Source: A New History of India - By Francois Gautier p. 1 - 18.

55

Rise up woman," so runs a text of the Rig Veda (X, 18.8) "thou art lying by one whose life is gone,
come to the world of the living, away from thy husband, and become the wife of him who holds
thy hand and is willing to marry thee."

Source: Civilization Through The Ages - By P. N. Bose p. 126-127.

Millions of Hindu women throng Kerala festival.
There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world. It is amazing the
way a whole city makes arrangements for women to make this
offering. -

Diane Jennet, devotee

This is why Rajput women took to immolating themselves en masse to

save their honor in the face of the imminent entry of victorious Muslim
armies, eg. 8,000 women immolated themselves during Akbar's capture
of Chittorgarh in 1568 (whereas this most enlightened among Muslim
rulers also killed 30,000 non-combatants).
Source: The Saffron Swastika - By Koenraad Elst Voice of India ISBN 8185990697 (p. 824).
Colonialism has to try to discredit the cultures of the
colonized to validate the colonial or quasi-colonial social
relationships that it itself has created. Culture can be resistance,
and those seeking hegemony in the realm of political economy
cannot afford to leave that area alone. The self-declared social
engineers in the Third World and their support base within the
tertiary sector of that world know this fully.

No Hindu revivalist could have said it better. ...

Source: Decolonising The Hindu Mind - Ideological Development of Hindu Revivalism - By

Koenraad Elst Publisher: Rupa ISBN: 81-7167-519-0 ( p.513-518).

56

David Frawley
David Frawley, born 1950, is an American Hindu
teacher and author, who has written more than
thirty books on topics such as the Vedas,
Hinduism, Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedic astrology,
published both in India and in the United States.

A few years ago the Pope issued a proclamation telling Catholics, particularly monks and priests,
to avoid yogic practices and mixing Catholicism with Eastern traditions like the Hindu and
Buddhist.

(source: Hinduism: The Eternal Tradition (Sanatana Dharma) - By David Frawley Voice of India.
ISBN 81-85990-29-8 p. 233-234

57

Sir Alfred Comn Lyall

(1835 1911) British civil servant, literary historian
and poet. He was born at Coulsdon in Surrey, the
second son of Alfred Lyall and Mary Drummond
Broadwood, daughter of James Shudi Broadwood.
He died at Freshwater, Isle of Wight.
Throughout his life Lyall also worked as a writer. As a biographer his chosen subjects were Warren
Hastings Lord Dufferin. As a historian he was acclaimed for his imaginative as well as
philosophical insights into the course of Indian history. He also produced a number of volumes of
poetry.

He has pictured Lord Shiva in vivid verse:

I am the God of the sensuous fire
That moulds all Nature in forms divine;
The symbols of death and of mans desire,
The springs of change in the world, are mine;
The organs of birth and the circlet of bones,
And the light loves carved on the temple stones.

I am the lord of delights and pain,

Of the pest that killeth, of fruitful joys;
I rule the currents of heart and vein;
A touch gives passion, a look destroys;
58

In the heat and cold of my lightest breath

Is the might incarnate of Lust and Death

In The Bhagawad Gita, sloka 20, Chapter 10, Lord Krishna says, "I
am the Self seated in the heart of all creatures. I am the beginning,
the middle and the very end of all beings".

All beings have,

therefore to be treated alike. "

Again in the Bhagawad Gita, sloka 29, Chapter 9, Lord
Krishna says,
I look upon all creatures equally; none are less dear to me and none
more dear. But those who worship me with love live in me, and I
come to life in them.
Lord Krishna as saying, in response to the question "How is
Varna (social order) determined?"
"Birth is not the cause, my friend; it is virtues which are the cause of auspiciousness. Even a
Chandala (lower caste) observing the vow is considered a Brahman by the gods."
The four fold division of castes was created by me according to the apportionment of qualities
and duties. Not birth, not sacrament, not learning, makes one Dvija (twice-born), but righteous
conduct alone causes it. Be he a Sudra or a member of any other class, says the Lord in the same
epic, he that serves as a raft on a raft less current, or helps to ford the unfordable, deserves respect
in every way.

59

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

1931-) is a South African cleric and activist who rose to
worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of
apartheid. Tutu was the first black South African
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa. He
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
"It was Christians, you know, not Pagans, who were responsible for the Holocaust.
It was Christians, not Pagans, who lynched people here in the South, who burned people at the
stake, frequently in the name of this Jesus Christ"
Source: Famous Quotes - crusadewatch.org.
For Cruelty inflicted by Christianity - Watch Constantine's Sword movie - By Oren Jacoby

"Evangelical Christianity, born in England and nurtured in the United States, is leaving home."
- Paul Nussbaum, author of Evangelical Christianity shifting outside West - Philadelphia
Inquirer Feb 20, 2006.
"Though its fame is much restricted by its specialized nature, there is no doubt that Panini's
grammar is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of any ancient civilization, and the most
detailed and scientific grammar composed before the 19th century in any part of the world."

Source: The Wonder That Was India - By A. L. Basham (p. 390).

60

Cyril Edwin Michinson Joad

(1891-1953) English philosopher and author of The
Story of Indian Civilization
He said:
"Sanskrit, a language which belongs to the Indo-European group and has been the chief literary
vehicle of Indian thought, is an instrument admirably adapted to give expression to every subtlety
of human thought, every nuance of human feeling...
The writings of Indian poets and dramatists, historians and biographers, contain evidence not only
of richness of imagination and variety of feeling, but of a remarkable talent for expressing precisely
those adventures of the spirit, which chiefly give to human life its meaning and significance.

Source: Indian Culture and the Modern Age - By Dewan Bahadur K. S. Ramaswami
Sastri Annamalai University. 1956 p.179-180

61

Sir Monier Williams

(1819-1899) an Orientalist, professor of Sanskrit at Oxford
in 1860 He made a lengthy and learned introduction to his
monumental work: Sanskrit-English Dictionary.
"The Panini grammar reflects the wondrous capacity of the human brain, which till today no
other country has been able to produce except India."
"Sanskrit has many virtues that attract. Its grammar has been rigorously analyzed, but not in a
doctrinaire way there is room for intellectual debate. The classical Indian culture in which
Sanskrit first flourished offers an immense variety of material, from romantic comedy and sensual
poetry to epic, massive-word play, political science and philosophy. It embodies a contradiction,
that a language whose literature is so lithe, should be indigenously analyzed as a sort of
architectural structure. And I suppose I like the fact that it is so difficult (coming from English,
certainly), yet so familiar in another way (coming at it from Latin, Greek and Russian)."

Source: Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World - By Nicholas Ostler p. 174 - 213
and Interview with Nicholas Ostler.

William Ward
William Ward (17691823) was an English pioneer Baptist
missionary, Author, Printer and Translator.
William Ward notes These grammars are very numerous, and reflect the highest credit on the
ingenuity of their authors. Indeed, in philology the Hindus have perhaps excelled both the ancients
and the moderns."

Source: A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindus - By William
Ward volume II p 469 London 1822
62

Sir William Wilson Hunter

Sir William Wilson Hunter, KCSI CIE (15 July
1840 6 February 1900) was a Scottish historian,
Statistician, a Compiler and a member of the Indian
Civil Service.
"The grammar of Panini stands supreme among the grammars of the world, alike for its precision
of statement, and for its thorough analysis of the roots of the language and of the formative
principles of words. By employing an algebraic terminology it attains a sharp succinctness
unrivalled in brevity, but at times enigmatical. It arranges, in logical harmony, the whole
phenomena which the Sanskrit language presents, and stands forth as one of the most splendid
achievements of human invention and industry. So elaborate is the structure that doubts have arisen
whether its complex rules of formation and phonetic change, its polysyllabic derivatives, its ten
conjugations with their multiform aorists and long array of tenses, could ever have been the spoken
language of a people."

Source: The Indian Empire - By Sir William Wilson Hunter p. 142

63

Walter Eugene Clark

Walter Eugene Clark (8 September 1881 30 September
1960), was an American philologist. He was the
second Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and
editor of the volumes 38-44 of the Harvard Oriental Series.
He translated the Aryabhatiya of Aryabhatta with critical
notes which were published in 1930, by the University of
Chicago Press.
"Panini's grammar is the earliest scientific grammar in the world, the earliest extant grammar of
any language, and one of the greatest ever written. It was the discovery of Sanskrit by the West, at
the end of the 18th century, and the study of Indian methods of analyzing language that
revolutionized our study of language and grammar, and gave rise to our science of comparative
philology.

The most striking feature of Sanskrit grammar is its objective resolution of speech and language
into their component elements, and definition of the functions of these elements. Long before
Panini (who names over sixty predecessors) the sounds represented by the letters of the alphabet
had been arranged in an overly systematic form, vowels and diphthongs separated from mutes,
semi-vowels, and sibilants, and the sounds in each group arranged according to places in the mouth
where produced (gutturals, palatals, cerebrals, dentals, and labials).
Words were analyzed into roots of which complex words grew by the addition of prefixes and
suffixes. General rules were worked out, defining the conditions according to which consonants
and vowels influence each other, undergo change, or drop out. The study of language in India was
much more objective and scientific than in Greece or Rome. The interest was in empirical
investigation of language, rather than philosophical and syntactical. Indian study of language was
as objective as the dissection of a body by an anatomist."

64

Source Shiksha.com

Rick Briggs
NASA Researcher

He suggested that the 'structures' constructed by Paanini (followed by shabda bodhas written later)
could be useful in the development of efficient, high-level computing languages [we may presume
here that these would eventually be based the systematics of deriving words from "roots" (dhaatus),
avoiding the use of alphanumeric operator symbols, so characteristic of 'computer languages'.

As of now, I understand that computer-based tests of the internal consistency of the

"Ashtaadhyaayee" are being developed by Dr. P. Ramanujan at the Centre for Development of
Advanced Computing. Software based on Paaninean rules for the retrieval of word forms has been
developed at the Siddhaganga Mutt. Karnataka Research of an advanced nature is also being
carried out at the Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melukote, also in Karnataka.

While these could be regarded as very active areas of fruitful investigation, the practicality of some
suggestions on the possibility of using the structure of Sanskrit for machine translation (See, for
example, a method of numerical representation of inflections put forward by the present writer in
an article contributed to "Samskrti-94" (the 1994 issue of the organ of the Samskrta Sangha of
the Indian Institute of Science), remains to be tested. Paninis ideas may also contain the germ of
an understanding, based on linguistics that could lead to the unraveling of the connections between
brain activity and how the apparatus of human speech works.

65

The pertinence here is in trying to answer, for example, the

question, "Why is it easier to say jagat + naatha as jagannaatha
or abd-ul + rahman as abd-ur-rahman (both of which exactly
follow the relevant Paninean rule, the second, from a Semitic
language, showing the universal applicability of Paninean
phonetics)?

Such investigations can be expected to yield results only in the far future, however, after much
greater progress has been achieved in understanding how the speech centers of the brain function.

Source: Whence and Whither of Indian Science - Can we integrate with our past and carry on from
there? Contributed by S. N. Balasubrahmanyam - Retd. Professor of Organic Chemistry at the
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore).

Sanskrit - Mother of European Languages

"There is no language in the world, even Greek, which has the
clarity and the philosophical precision of Sanskrit," adding that "
India is not only at the origin of everything she is superior in
everything, intellectually, religiously or politically and even the
Greek

heritage

seems

pale

in

comparison."

Source: Arise O Arjuna - By Francois Gautier ISBN 81-241-0518-9 Har-Anand Publications

2000 p. 25).

66

"Sanskrit no doubt has an immense advantage over all other

ancient languages of the East. It is so attractive and has been so
widely admired, that it almost seems at times to excite a certain
amount of feminine jealously. We are ourselves Indo-Europeans.
In a certain sense we are still speaking and thinking Sanskrit; or
more correctly Sanskrit is like a dear aunt to us and she takes the
place of a mother who is no more."

Source: Chips From A German Workshop - By Max Muller Volume I p 163

Arthur Anthony McDonnell

(1854-1930) Author of History of Sanskrit
Literature, Motilal Banarasi Das Pub. ISBN:
8120800354 p. 717

"We Europeans, 2,500 years later, and in a scientific age, still employ an alphabet which is not
only inadequate to represent all the sounds of our language, but even preserve the random order
which vowels and consonants are jumbled up as they were in the Greek adaptation of the primitive
Semitic arrangement of 3,000 years ago."
Source A History of Sanskrit LiteratureA History of Sanskrit Literature (Illustrated)
By Arthur A. McDonell

67

Prof. Dean Brown

Prof. of Physics, University of Hawaii , Minoa.
an eminent Theoretical Physicist cosmologist,
philosopher, and Sanskrit scholar. He has recently
translated the Upanishads.
He points out that most European languages can be traced back to a root language that is also
related to Sanskrit - the sacred language of the ancient Vedic religions of India. Many English
words actually have Sanskrit origins. Similarly, many Vedic religious concepts can also be found
in Western culture.

Source :

68

Johann Gottfried Herder

Sir John
(1744-1803)
born inMalcolm
East Prussia, a German
Philosopher, Poet, Critic and Clergyman,

When George Forster sent him his German translation of the English version of the Sakuntala in
1791, Herder responded:
"I cannot easily find a product of human mind more pleasant than
this...a real blossom of the Orient, and the first, most beautiful of its
kind! ....Something like that, of course appears once every two
thousand years."
He published a detailed study and analysis of Sakuntala, claiming that
this work disproved the popular belief that drama was the exclusive
Source: India and World invention of the ancient Greeks.

Source: Civilization - By D. P. Singhal Part II p.229 - 231.

69

Juan Mascaro, author of The Bhagvad Gita (Translated By Juan Mascaro. Penguin Classics, 1962)
and he paid a rich tribute to the glory of the Sanskrit literature:
"Sanskrit literature is a great literature. We have the
great songs of the Vedas, the splendor of the
Upanishads, the glory of the Upanishads, the glory
of the Bhagavad Gita, the vastness (100,000 verses)
of the Mahabharata, the tenderness and the heroism
found in the Ramayana, the wisdom of the fables and
stories of India, the scientific philosophy of
Sankhya, the psychological philosophy of yoga, the poetical philosophy of Vedanta, the Laws of
Manu, the grammar of Panini and other scientific writings, the lyrical poetry, and dramas of
Kalidasa. Sanskrit literature, on the whole, is a romantic literature interwoven with idealism and
practical

wisdom,

and

with

passionate

longing

for

spiritual

vision."

Upanishad Pic
Source: The Bhagvad Gita - translated By Juan Mascaro (Penguin Classics, 1962).

*********************

70

CHAPTER TWO
MATTER OF LIFE AND
DEATH

71

Hinduism remains a vibrant cultural and religious force in the world today.
To understand Hinduism, it is necessary that we examine its history and
marvel at its sheer stamina to survive in spite of repeated attacks across
India's borders, time and again, by Greeks, Shaks, Huns, Arabs, Pathans, Mongols, Portuguese,
British etc. India gave shelter, acceptance, and freedom to all. But, in holy frenzy, millions of
Hindus were slaughtered or proselytized. Their cities were pillaged and burnt, temples were
destroyed and accumulated treasures of centuries carried off. Even under grievous persecutions
from the ruling foreigners, the basics of its civilization remained undefiled and, as soon as the
crises were over Hindus returned to the same old ways of searching for the perfection of the
unknown.
For no other country in the world from east to west, faces the agony that the
Hindus in India have to face. They are the injured party; but even today they are
crucified by the 'so called' secularists most of them themselves Hindus at every
stage. No country in the world has been so ravaged and raped by outside forces
as India has been down the centuries: Not Japan, not China, not Russia, none
of the European countries, neither the Arab nations nor certainly not the United
Krishnadeva Rai of the Vijayanagar Empire did not send his forces to Portugal to tear down
States of America.
churches, use force to convert Christians to Hinduism and indulge in religious terrorism. Prithviraj
Chauhan did not invade neither Afghanistan nor Central Asia and raise temples.

No Chola, Chera or Pandya (Indian) rulers sent a fleet to Saudi Arabia to

tear down the Ka'aba and build a temple of Meenakshi on its ruins or even
next to it to demonstrate Hindu might. India and Hinduism have been
ravaged beyond belief. Hindu missionaries did not accompany a
conquering horde to Britain and under their benign rule set to convert Scottish peasants to
Hinduism or even Buddhism. According to author Ram Gopal"
Pics: Hindu Gods, Raja Krishna Dev Rai, Chola King
Source:

72

A band of dacoits may loot a full busload of passengers at gunpoint but that does not make
the dacoits more intelligent, cultured or superior beings."
No blood has been shed for religion in India except by its invaders. Intolerance came with
Islam and Christianity; the Moslems proposed to buy Paradise with the blood of infidels and the
Portuguese, when they captured Goa, introduced the Inquisition into India.

INTRODUCTION

India before the advent of Islamic imperialism was a country with plenty of wars fought
by Hindu princes. But in all their wars the Hindus had observed some time honoured conventions
sanctioned by the Shastras. The Brahmins and Bhikshus werenever touched. The chastity of
women was never violated. The cows were never killed. There was no ravage of the soil. The
temples were never touched. The non-combatants were never killed or captured. A human
habitation was never attacked unless it was a fort. The civilian population was never plundered.
The martial class (kshatriyas) who clashed, mostly in open fields, had a code of honor.

Megasthenes
As early as the 4th century B.C. Megasthenes (c. 350 BC290 BC). Greek Scholar and historian, noticed a peculiar
trait of Indian warfare.
Whereas among other nations it is usual, in the contests of war, to ravage the soil and thus
to reduce it to an uncultivated waste, among the Indians, on the contrary, by whom husbandmen
are regarded as a class that is sacred and inviolable, the tillers of the soil, even when battle is raging
in their neighbourhood, are undisturbed by any sense of danger, for the combatants on either side
in waging the conflict make carnage of each other, but allow those engaged in husbandry to remain
quite unmolested. Besides, they never ravage an enemy's land with fire, nor cut down its trees."
73

Source: A Brief History of India - By Alain Danielou (p. 106)

Arthur Llewellyn Basham

A. L. Basham one of the leading authority of
ancient Indian culture and well-known
Historian

He has observed:

"No other ancient lawgiver proclaimed such noble ideals of fair play in battle as did Manu.
In all her history of warfare Hindu India has few tales to tell of cities put to the sword or of the
massacre of non-combatants. The ghastly sadism of the kings of Assyria, who flayed their captives
alive, is completely without parallel in ancient India. To us the most striking feature of ancient
Indian civilization is its humanity."

Source: The Wonder That Was India - By A L Basham p. 8 - 9).Refer to Heroic Hindu Resistance
to Muslim Invaders (636 AD to 1206 AD) By Sita Ram Goel.
Voice of India, New Delhi. Refer to Negationism in India: Concealing the record of Islam By
Koenraad Elst.

74

Harold Horace Wilson

(1786-1860) Eminent Orientalist, professor of Sanskrit
at Oxford University author of Wilson's Works and The
Visnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and
Tradition and co-author of History of British India.
"The Hindu laws of war are very chivalrous and humane, and prohibit the slaying of the unarmed,
of women, of the old, and of the conquered." At the very time when a battle was going on, he says,
the neighbouring cultivators might be seen quietly pursuing their work, - perhaps ploughing,
gathering for crops, pruning the trees, or reaping the harvest." Chinese pilgrim to Nalanda
University, Hiuen Tsiang affirms that although there were enough of rivalries and wars in the 7th
century A.D. the country at large was little injured by them.

Source-Hindu Wisdom

75

Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) was one of the
most profound philosophers of this century, author and
educationalist. Radhakrishnan was also a professor of
Eastern Religions at Oxford and later became the
second President of free India.
He has observed:
The intolerance of narrow monotheism is written in letters of blood across the history of man
from the time when first the tribes of Israel burst into the land of Canaan. The worshippers of the
one Jealous God are egged on to aggressive wars against people of alien cults. They invoke Divine
Sanction for the cruelties inflicted on the conquered. The spirit of old Israel is inherited by
Christianity and Islam.
He went on to remark:
Wars of Religion which are the outcome of fanaticism that prompts and justifies the
extermination of aliens of different creeds are practically unknown in Hindu India.

Source: The Hindu View of Life - By S. Radhakrishnan (p. 40).

For more on Dr. S. Radhakrishnan refer to chapter on Quotes. Refer to Negationism in India:
Concealing the record of Islam By Koenraad Elst. Watch The Crescent and the Cross

Source- Hindu Wisdom

Faxian (FaHien)
Faxian (4th century), a Chinese
pilgrim to India

76

He marvelled at the peace, prosperity, and high culture of the Hindus. Having grown up in wartorn China, he was deeply impressed by a land whose leaders were more concerned with promoting
commerce and religion than with slaughtering substantial portion of the population.

Source: Hinduism - By Linda Johnson (p. 38). Watch And the World Remained Silent By Ashok
Pandit

Colonel James Tod

(1782-1835) Late British political agent to the Western
Rajput State, author of Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan:
or the Central and Western Rajput States of India ISBN
8120803809 Vol. II
He wrote: "To spare a prostrate foe is the creed of the Hindu cavalier, and he carried all such
maxims to excess."

Islamic imperialism knew no code of honor. The only rule of war they observed without
fail was to fall down the helpless civil population after a decisive victory had been won on the
battlefield. They sacked and burnt down villages and towns after the defenders had died fighting
or had fled.
The cows, the Brahmins and Buddhist Bhikshus invited their special attention in a mass
murder of non-combatants. Their temples and shrines were their special targets in an orgy of
pillage and destruction. Those that they did not kill, they captured and sold as slaves. The scene
was described by Kanhadde Prabandha (1456 A.D) in the following words:

77

"The conquering army burnt villages, devastated the land, plundered people's wealth, took
Brahmins and children and women of all classes captive, flogged with thongs of raw hide, carried
a moving prison with it, and converted the prisoners into obsequious Turks."

Source: Story of Islamic Imperialism in India - By Sita Ram Goel ASIN 8185990239 p. 41-42).
For more Colonel James Tod refer to chapter on Quotes

Swami Vivekanand
(1863-1902) was the foremost disciple of
Ramakrishna and a world spokesperson for
Vedanta.

India's first spiritual and cultural ambassador to the West, came to represent the religions of India
at the World Parliament of Religions, held at Chicago wrote "the Mohammedans used the greatest
violence" and he asserted: "You know that the Hindu religion never persecutes. It is the land where
all sects may live in peace and amity. The Mohammedans brought murder and slaughter in their
train, but until their arrival peace prevailed."

Source: Complete Works - Swami Vivekananda volume 5p. 190 and volume 8 p. 217

78

John Peter Jones

(1847-1916)
American Congregational Missionary to India &
Author

John P Jones has observed in his book:

"It is a curious fact that the hideous and bloody monster of religious intolerance was hardly known
in India until, first the followers of ISLAM and secondly, the disciples of the meek and lowly
Christianity began to invade the land."
Source: India - Its Life and Thought - By John P Jones p. 166). Refer to Negationism in India:
Concealing the record of Islam By Koenraad Elst

Arthur Schopenhauer
(1788- 1860) German philosopher and writer He was one
of the greatest philosophers of the 19th century. He was
the first Western philosopher to have access to
translations of philosophical material from India, both
Vedic and Buddhist, by which he was profoundly
affected.
Counted among his disciples are such thinkers as

Author of his magnum opus, The World as Will and Representation, in 1819, he narrates the sordid
tale as follows:

Nietzsche and Wittgenstein, as well as Sigmund Freud.

"...This of the fanaticism, the endless persecutions, the religious wars, that sanguinary frenzy of
which the ancients had no conception! The destruction or disfigurement of the ancient temples and
idols, a lamentable, mischievous and barbarous act still bears witness to the monotheistic
fury...carried on from Mahmud, the Ghaznavi of cursed memory, down to Aurangzeb, the

79

fratricide, whom the Portuguese...have zealously imitated by destruction of temples and the auto
defe of the inquisition at Goa...We hear nothing of this kind in the case of the Hindoo..

"

Source: The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer - By T. Bailey Saunders - ISBN 0936128690 p. 42 43). For more on Arthur Schopenhauer refer to chapter on Quotes. Refer to Heroic Hindu
Resistance to Muslim Invaders (636 AD to 1206 AD) - By Sita Ram Goel.
Voice of India, New Delhi:
Refer to Kashmiri Pundits: Are they facing a Dodo future? And Kashmiri Pandits alienated again
- ibnlive.com

Swami Aksharnanda
An Indian of Caribbean origin and holds a Ph.D.
degree in Hindu Studies from the University of
Madison, Wisconsin (USA)

He has observed:
"The concept that All religions are one as propagated by Gandhi incessantly is the most
destructive concept that is affecting us all. It is not only silly but dangerous fallacy to propagate
the idea that all religions are one. Hindus, who are under severe attacks every day by the same
forces of Allah and Christ Hinduism and other religions can't be equated and called same because
religions of the world have been born in the environment of hostility.

Source: All religions are not same - By Swami Aksharanand - theuniversalwisdom.org

80

Karl Marx
(1818-1883)

The

grandfather

ideologue

of

Communists worldwide.

In his article titled Declaration of War on the History of the Eastern Question published in the
New York Tribune of April 15, 1854, he observed that:
"The Koran and the Mussulman legislation emanating from it reduce the geography
and ethnography of the various people to the simple and convenient distinction of two nations and
of two countries; those of the Faithful and of the Infidels. The Infidel is 'harby', i.e. the enemy.
Islamism proscribes the nation of the Infidels, constituting a state of permanent hostility between the
Mussulman and the unbeliever. In that sense the corsair-ships of the Berber States were the holy fleet
of Islam.

Source: The Marxists' Islamic phobia - By Priyadarsi Dutta. Refer to Negationism in India:
Concealing the record of Islam by Koenraad Elst

81

The entire north western India and later the rest of India was gradually butchered and plundered
with ruthless savagery surpassing perhaps even the genocide in the Americas.
Afghanistan was a full part of the Hindu cradle up till the year 1000, and
in political unity with India until Nadir Shah separated it in the 18th
century. The mountain range in Eastern Afghanistan where the native
Hindus were slaughtered, is still called the Hindu Kush (Persian: "Hindu
Slaughter").
It is significant that one of the very few place-names on earth that reminds us not of the victory of
the winners but rather of the slaughter of the losers, concerns genocide of Hindus by the Muslims.
Source: Ayodhya and After - By Koenraad Elst

Sita Ram Goel

(1921- 2003) A scholar, writer, publisher, the founder of
Voice of India, an 'intellectual 'Kshatriya' par excellence,
and a Hindu revivalist. Author of several books,
including The Story of Islamic Imperialism, Defence
of Hindu Society and History of Hindu-Christian
Encounters
He has written:
"The cradle of Hindu culture on the eve of its Islamic invasion included what are at present the
Sinkiang province of China, the Transoxiana region of Russia, the Seistan province of Iran and the
sovereign states of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The Islamic invasion
commenced around 650 A.D., when a Muslim army secured a foothold in Seistan, and continued
till the end of the eighteenth century, when the last Islamic crusader, Tipu Sultan, was overthrown
by the British.

82

Hordes of Arabs, Persians, Turks, and Afghans who had been successively inspired by the
Theology of Islam poured in, wave after wave, carrying fire and sword to every nook and corner
of this vast area. In the process, Sinkiang, Transoxiana region, Seistan and Afghanistan became
transformed into daru'l-Islm where all vestiges of the earlier culture were wiped out. The same
spell has engulfed the areas which were parts of India till 1947 and have since become Pakistan
and Bangladesh."
Source Hindu Wisdom
"Hindus were great temple builders because their pantheon was prolific in Gods
and Goddesses and their society rich in schools and sects, each with its own way
of worship. But by the time we come to the end of the invasion, we find that
almost all these Hindu places of worship had either disappeared or were left in
different stages of ruination."
Source: Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them -Volume 1 A Preliminary Survey - Sita Ram
Goel - chapter Ten -voi.org). Refer to Negationism in India: Concealing the record of Islam By
Koenraad Elst. Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com. Refer to Heroic Hindu Resistance
to Muslim Invaders (636 AD to 1206 AD) - By Sita Ram Goel. Voice of India, New Delhi.

83

Robert Sewell
Robert Sewell (1845-1925) the British civil servant
who discovered the ruins of Vijayanagar.

He wrote of its tragic end, 'Never perhaps in the history of the world has such havoc been wrought,
and wrought suddenly, on so splendid a city'. In A Forgotten Empire says writes about the missing,
defaced or vandalized temples and about the destruction of the mighty Vijayanagar kingdom. An
empire where "it used to rain gold and gems in the days of the mighty rulers here," He has
written:"for five months the Mohammeddans with fire and sword, with crowbars and axes carried
on day after day their work of destruction. Never perhaps in the history of the world has such havoc
been wrought so suddenly, and reduced to ruins amid scenes of savage massacre and horrors
beggaring description".
Source A Tribute to Hinduism Islamic Onslaught

Muhammed Qasim Hindu Shah

(Firishta)
(1560-1620) A Persian Traveler to India & Historian

Firishta' describes the 1565 rout thus "the river which ran near the field was dyed red with their
blood. It is computed that 1,00,000 infidels were slain during the pursuit."

Source: Wanderings in Hampi - hindu.com. For more on refer to the Ruins of Hampi.
Refer to Negationism in India: Concealing the record of Islam By Koenraad Elst and An Architect
looks at the Taj Mahal Legend - By Marvin Mills, AIA and Taj Mahal an analysis of a great
deception By V S Godbole

84

Dr. Anwar Sheikh

(1928-2006) who later converted to Hinduism and took
the name Aniruddha Gyan Shikha . He was a
Pakistani-born author who lived in Cardiff for many
years. He is best known for his many books on Islam.
He has written:
India is yet another major victim of Islam."The day Muhammad bin Qasim, entered Sindh as a
conqueror, must rank as the most ominous, odious and outrageous moment in the history of India,
whose proud, pious and powerful traditions have been the torch-bearer of world civilisation. The
Indians, used to enjoying the warmth of ahimsa, were stunned by the violence that the Arabraiders
displayed in robbing the rich and seducing the indigenous damsels. Yet the irony was that they did
all this in the name of the Most Compassionate and Just Allah, who counts these felonies as acts
of fairness when they are committed to torture the unbelievers.

Source: Islam: The Arab Imperialism - By Dr. Anwar Shaikh and Anwar Shaikh's Interview with
Chandigarh Times - By Dr. Ranjit Kanwar. Refer to online book, The Arab Imperialism -By
Anwar Shaikh. Refer to Religion of Peace, Islam Watch and In the Name of Allah

85

Koenraad Elst
(1959) born into a Flemish (i.e. Dutch-speaking Belgian)
Catholic family. He graduated in Philosophy, Chinese
Studies and Indo-Iranian Studies at the Catholic
University of Leuven.
He has pointed out:
"Hindus too experienced this treatment at the hands of Islamic conquerors, e.g. when Mohammed
bin Qasim conquered the lower Indus basin in 712 CE. Thus, in Multan, according to the ChachNama, "Six thousand warriors were put to death, and all their relations and dependents were taken
as slaves". This is why Rajput women committed mass suicide to save their honour in the face of
the imminent entry of victorious Muslim armies, e.g. 8,000 women immolated themselves during
Akbar's capture of Chittorgarh in 1568 (where this most enlightened ruler also killed 30,000 noncombatants).
"Hindu Society has been suffering a sustained attack from Islam since the 7 century, from
Christianity since the 15 century, and this century also from Marxism. The avowed objective of
each even if the conversion squads are remarkably unsuccessful in India. Consider the situation in
Africa: in 1900, 50 % of all Africans practiced Pagan religion; today Christian and Islamic
missionaries of these three world-conquering movements, with their massive resources, is the
replacement of Hinduism by their own ideology, or in effect: the destruction of Hinduism."

Source: Negationism in India: Concealing the Records of Isalm - By Koenraad Elst p 78 - 79 and
Was There an Islamic "Genocide" of Hindus? - By Koenraad Elst). Refer to Heroic Hindu
Resistance to Muslim Invaders (636 AD to 1206 AD) - By Sita Ram Goel.
Voice of India, New Delhi.
Refer to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - And the World Remained
Silent - Movie http://www.jaia-bharati.org/films/and-the-world.mpg

86

"Let us face it: for almost a millennium, India has been ruled
in different parts of the country, but in one continuous stream,
by Islamic conquerors and their successors, which has caused
a deep psychological scab in the Hindu psyche that starts
bleeding at the slightest provocation.

Our liberal secularists have always failed to understand that. Primarily they refuse to face up to
the past, which only worsens matters. To seem to be secular, the Hindu liberal needs to stand by
Muslim kings and Nawabs, like Romilla Thapar being apologetic about the destruction of Somnath
Temple by Ghazni Mohammad. It is a mind-set that is hard to understand."

Source: Why this row over Tipu? Let Hindus & Muslims come to terms with past - By M V
Kamath - samachar.com)

Bal Raj Madhok

Author of the book, Kashmir the storm center of the world,
has written that: Kashmir - was the abode of Rishi
Kashyap.

It is often described as "Nandanvan" the pleasure garden or paradise of Bharat. According to

tradition recorded in a number of Sanskrit texts and chronicles of Kashmir this valley was once a
vast lake. It was converted into an alluvial plain when Kashyap, a great "Rishi," made an opening
into the surrounding mountains near Baramula. As a result the water of the lake was drained out
and the submerged land became a habitable valley. It then came to be known as "Kashyap Marga"
the abode of Kashyap from which the name Kashmir is derived. Geomorphological evidence has
confirmed that the valley was originally a vast lake. History of Kashmir began with the settlement
of the Indo-Aryan people in it in pre-Mahabharata days. It became a centre of Indo-vedic culture
and civilization. Sanskrit literature is replete with references to it.

87

Source Islamic Onslaught

"Shadow of Islam first fell on Kashmir in the 11th century when
Sultan Mahmood of Ghazani made an unsuccessful attempt to conquer
it. But some Muslim adventurers and preachers of Turkish, Persian and
Khorasani origin entered the valley in the wake of his invasion. "

Source: Kashmir the storm center of the world - By Bal Raj Madhok - iksahmir.net
Refer to Romila Thapar's Kluge Prize By Dr. Gautam Sen- vigilonline.com.

Andre Wink
Professor of History at University of Madison, Wisconsin

He describes that this aspiration to conquer India had existed since the time of the Prophet, as is
evidenced by the sacred texts:
in the hadith collections the prophet Muhammad himself is credited with the aspiration of
conquering India. Participants in the holy war against al-Hind [the Hindus] are promised to be
saved from hell-fire Thus also an eschatological work which is called the Kitab al-Fitan ('Book
of Trials') credits Muhammad with saying that God will forgive the sins of themembers of the
Muslim army which will attack al-Hind, and give them victory.

Source: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Volume I Early Medieval India and the Expansion
of Islam 7th-11th Centuries - By Andre Wink. Oxford University Press, New Delhi 1999. (p.192193).
For more on Islamic Terrorism refer to chapter on Glimpses XV and Glimpses XVIII. Refer to
My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal" - By Tathagata Roy

88

Dr. Charles Sabillion

The Author of Several Books

He has observed in his article Christianity and Islam: Which is the Worst? "The origins of both
religions are based on the claims of two founders one of Christianity and other ISLAM and both
proved equally incapable of demonstrating their divine mandate.
From that perspective, the two creeds are equally based on false propositions and can be classified
as nothing more than lies. Mohammed ordered his followers to do it by the sword, and that is what
they did once he died. They launched into one of the most enthusiastic conquering ventures the
world has ever seen and forged an empire that extended from Central Asia to the southwest of
Europe.

Source: Christianity and Islam: Which is the Worst? - By Charles Sabillon americanchronicle.com)
Refer to Romila Thapar's Kluge Prize by Dr. Gautam Sen - vigilonline.com. Refer to Negationism
in India: Concealing the record of Islam by Koenraad Elst

89

Islamic Hoards and Their Terror - By B. R. Ambedkar

The first Muslim invasion of India came from the north-west by the
Arabs who were led by Mahommad Bin Qasim. It took place in 711
A.D. and resulted in the conquest of Sind.

This first Muslim

invasion did not result in a permanent occupation of the country

because the Caliphate of Baghdad, by whose order and command
the invasion had taken place, was obliged by the middle of 9th
Century A.D. to withdraw its direct control from this distant province of Sind. Soon after this
withdrawal, there began a series of terrible invasions by Muhammad of Ghazni (the idol breaker)
in 1001 A.D. Muhammad died in 1030 A.D., but within the short span of 30 years, he invaded
India 17 times. He was followed by Mahommed Ghori, who began his career as an invader in
1173. He was killed in 1206. For thirty years Muhammad of Ghazni ravaged India and for thirty
years Mahommad Ghori harried the same country in the same way.
Then followed the incursions of the Moghul hordes of Chenghiz Khan.
They first came in 1221. They then stayed on the border of India but did
not enter it. Twenty years later, they marched on Lahore and sacked it. Of
their inroads, the most terrible was under Timur in 1398.
Then comes on the scene, a new invader in the person of Babar who invaded
India in 1526. The invasion of India did not stop with that of Babar. There
occurred two more invasions. In 1738 Nadir Shah's invading host swept
over the Punjab like a flooded river furious as the ocean.
He was followed by Ahmad Shah Abdali who invaded India in 1761,
smashed the forces of the Marathas at Panipat and crushed forever the
attempt of the Hindus to gain the ground which they had lost to their Muslim
invaders.

90

These Muslim invasions were not undertaken merely out of lust for loot or conquest, but also to
strike a blow at the idolatry and polytheism of Hindus and establishing Islam in India.
Muhammad of Ghazni also looked upon his numerous invasions of India as the waging of a holy
war.

Al'Utbi, the historian of Muhammad, describing his raids writes:

He demolished idol temples and established Islam. He captured cities, destroyed the
idolaters, and gratifying Muslims. He then returned home and promulgated accounts of the
victories obtained for Islam..and vowed that every year he would undertake a holy war against
Hind.

Source: Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches. Reprint of Pakistan or The Partition of
India. Education Department. Government of Maharashtra 1990 Vol. 8. (p. 53-66)

Somnath (Gujarat)

The temple of Somnath, which is not very far from Dwaraka, is

dedicated to Lord Siva as Nagnath or Nageshwar Mahadev, and
enshrines one of the twelve 'Jyotirlingas' which according to the
Puranas manifested themselves as columns of light in different parts
of the country. The magnificent temple that stands there now is a
replica of the original temple.
The 13th century Arab source refers to the glories of the temple thus: "Somnath - a celebrated city
of India situated on the shore of the sea is washed by its waves. Among the wonders of that place
was the temple in which was placed the idol called Somnath. This idol was in the middle of the
temple, without anything to support it from below or to suspend it from above. It was held in the
highest honour among the Hindus, and whoever beheld it floating in the air was struck with
amazement.

91

At the beginning of the third year of the reign, Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan, with their amirs
and generals, and a large army marched against GujaratAll Gujarat became prey to the invaders,
and the idol, which after the victory of Sultan Mahmud and his destruction of the idol of Manat,
the Brahmans had set up under the name of Somnath, for the worship of the Hindus, was carried
to Delhi where it was laid for the people to tread upon

Report to the same effect in Tabqat-I-Tawarikh; the latter also mentions that at the site of the
temple a mosque was constructed.

Source: Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud - By Arun Shourie Harper
Collins India ISBN 8172233558 p. 107-136). Refer to Romila Thapar's Kluge Prize By Dr. Gautam
Sen -vigilonline.com

"In 1193, when the Muslim conquerors reached Bihar and massacred the
'idolatrous unbelievers', the Buddhists were still in the majority on the
lower Ganges. According to an 11th century inscription, the great temple
of Bodh Gaya had been restored by the Burmese - an indication that the
native population had lost all interest.
Source: India - By Martin Hurlimann (p. 224). Refer to Heroic Hindu Resistance to Muslim
Invaders (636 AD to 1206 AD) - By Sita Ram Goel. Voice of India, New Delhi.

92

Dr. Rajendra Prasad

(1884-1963) first President of India, during the
renovation of the historic Somnath temple in
1950which was vandalised by an 11th century
Muslim invader, Mohammad Ghazni.
'By rising from its ashes again, this temple of Somnath will proclaim to the world that no man and
no power in the world can destroy that for which people have boundless faith and love in their
hearts... Today, our attempt is not to rectify history. Our only aim is to proclaim anew our
attachment to the faith, convictions and to the values on which our religion has rested since
immemorial ages.'

Source: Symbol of an awakened civilization - Ram Madhav - rediff.com

Refer to Islam Under Scrutiny by Ex-Muslims - By Alamgir Hussain - islam-watch.org.

Romila Thapar
A Marxist Historian
When Marxist Historian, Romila Thapar tries to make gullible readers believe that Mahmud
Ghaznavi only desecrated temples for their wealth she must know (assuming, as all her quotes do,
that she is competent historian) that Mahmud is revered by the Muslims as a devout Muslim, that
he calligraphed Quran text "for the benefit of his soul", and that he actually refused a huge ransom
which Hindus were ready to pay if he agreed to give back an idol, instead of breaking it. Mahmud
preferred breaking idols to selling them, even if that meant foregoing wealth. So her theory of
Mahmud's economical rather than religious motives is at best an unscientific imposition of Marxist
dogma upon the facts of Indian history, otherwise a deliberate lie.

Source:
93

The myth of Brahmin oppression, the myth of Buddhism as a social

reform movement, the myth of the Buddhist-Brahmin power struggle,
the myth of the economical motives for the Muslim conquests and
destruction, the myth of the non-existence of an indigenous and
nation-wide Hindu culture, the myth of the social reforms brought by
Islam, the myth of Hindu-Muslim amity, the
myth of Nehru and of India as a nation in the making, the myth of the Composite Culture, the myth
that communalism is a British creation, all these myths are bound to give way once a substantial
number of Hindu intellectuals apply their minds to them in a serious and scientific way, and then
use the available channels to speak out.

Source: Ayodhya and After - By Koenraad Elst). Refer to Heroic Hindu Resistance to Muslim
Invaders (636 AD to 1206 AD)- By Sita Ram Goel. Voice of India, New Delhi.Refer to video
Statistics on Islamic Terrorism - By B Raman. Also refer to Blasts in Varanasi
Refer to Ignore this genocide, we're secular - By Rajeev Srinivasan - rediff.com).

"Why are there absolutely no Buddhist temples left in Afghanistan, in

Turkestan? Nor Hindu or Zorastrian or Manichaen temples, for that matter?
Secularist scholars do not seem to know that the Buddhist monasteries and
universities were destroyed and exterminated to the last, in India just as well
as in Central Asia, by none other than the Muslim armies. So, the answer is
that, while, Buddhism had been partly reabsorbed into Hinduism, and had
partly continued as a separate tradition under Hindu dynasties, the Muslim conquerors finished it
off totally."
Source: Ayodhya and After - By Koenraad Elst Voice of India SKU: INBK2650 p. 103).
The Quwwat ul-Islam or 'Might of Islam' Mosque, erected on the site of Delhi's largest Hindu
temple, and it contains on three columns.

94

**************

CHAPTER THREE

THE REAL HISTORY

95

All we ever studied in our history books was all about the glorified history of a very few kingdoms
like Mughal Dynasty, Mysore Dynasty and the Delhi Sultanates.

In this article we are trying to bring out the real legacy of Indian Kings and dynasties under whom
India progressed and flourished as a cultural, spiritual and social nation.

1. PALLAVA DYNASTY

The Pallavas ruled the area of Andhra pradesh, Tamilnadu and Karnataka from 275 BCE to 882
BCE with Kanchipuram as their capital.

They are famous for their architectural work with rocks which produced
marvels like the Mahabalipuram temple and creating the modern form
Brahmi script which influenced the genesis of almost all Southeast Asian
scripts.
Thailand, Indonasia, Burma and other Southeast Asian Scripts are evolved from Brahmi script
which was the Pallavas creation.

Source: Flickr, Mahabalipuram , The Great Indian Kingdoms

96

2. THE MARATHA EMPIRE

The Marathas were a Hindu warrior group who established an empire that existed from 1674 to
1818 in the present day Maharashtra that rose to prominence by establishing Hindavi Swarajya.
They are mainly credited for ending the Mughal rule in India.

They ruled almost the whole India with an exception of Andhra and Tamil Nadu
and a part of kerala. They are known to be fierce warriors of small stature who are
said to be devoted Hindus and never ate meat. Thanjavur was their capital.
Some of the famous rulers include Chathrapathi Sivaji, Baji Rao I and Rajaram Chhatrapati.

Sourcehttp://iyadav.com/, Chhatrapati Sivaji

The Great Indian Kingdoms

97

3. VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE

The Vijayanagara Empire lasted for 3 centuries from 1336 to 1660 before losing it to the
Deccan sultanates. This period is said to be the golden period for the Telugu and Kannada cultures
as they have established many monuments across South India and enabled fine arts and literature
to reach new heights in Kannada,Telugu, Tamil and Sanskrit, while Carnatic music evolved into
its current form. They ruled the whole south India with Vijayanagara as their capital city.

Sri Krishna Dev Raya was the famous king of Vijayanagara samrajya. He was a
devotee of Lord Venkateshwara and the Diamonds and Gold we see on lord Balaji
in Tirumala are mostly his donations. It was known that Vijayanagara
Kingdom was equal to the rule of Lord Sri Ram where people where happy and prosperous. He
was called as Kannada Rajya Rama Ramana (Lord of the Kannada empire) and Andhra Bhoja

Balaji ,
Source: The Great Indian Kingdoms

98

4. KINGDOM OF KOCHI
This Kingdom lasted for 7 centuries from early 1200s to 1947 surviving every foreign invasion.
They are said to be excellent negotiators and tacticians. They formed relations with all their
surrounding kingdoms and played their cards wisely.

Their capital changed over time but they mainly ruled in the areas
surrounding Kochin.

Cochin,
Source: wikipedia, The Great Indian Kingdoms

5. KAKATIYA DYNASTY

The Kakatiyas ruled from 1083 to 1323 with orugallu (Warangal) as their capital extending
to the whole of Andhra along with a part of Telangana, Karnataka and Tamilnadu. The kakatiya
kings are said to be given low importance to Caste system as a social identifier, anyone, regardless
of birth, could use the nayakatitle to denote warrior status and the inscriptions suggest that people
were not bound to an occupation by birth. This helped them flourish in war and arts alike.
Agriculture was encouraged and many tribal people who previously had been nomadic settled as
farmers and remained loyal to the Dynasty

99

The Warangal Fort, Thousand Pillar temple and the famous Kakatiya Toranam
stand as an epitome of the kakatiya legacy. Rani Rudramadevi, the famous
queen of the Kakatiya dynasty set path for the Women to lead kingdoms in
India as early as 12th century.
Source: exploretelangana.com, Warangal Fort , The Great Indian Kingdoms

100

6. GAJAPATHI KINGDOM
The Gajapatis were a medieval Hindu dynastythat ruled over Kalinga (the present day Odisha),
large parts of Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, and the eastern and central parts of Madhya
Pradesh and the southern parts of Bihar from 1434-1541. They were claimed to be descended
from the Surya Vamsha (Sun Dyanasy) of the Mahabharata

Gaja in Oriya means elephant and Pati means master. As such, Gajapati etymologically
means a king with an army of elephants. The literature Oriya flourished during this period and
there have also been a merging of Oriyan, Telugu and Kannada cultures.
They ruled from Mukhalingam of Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh and
later moved their Capital to Cuttack. Religious leader Ramanujacharya had a
great influence on the Raja Choda Ganga Deva, who renovated the Puri
Jagannath Temple and another king from the dynasty, Narasimha Deva built the Sun Temple at
Konark which are both Archaeological wonders.
Source: Sun Temple, Flickr, The Great Indian Kingdoms

101

7. THE PANDYAS

The Pandyan dynasty was an ancient Tamil dynasty, one of the three Tamil dynasties, the
other two being the Chola and the Chera.

No other dynasty in the world has ruled more duration than the Pandyas, if you refer ancient
Mahabharata text you can see the name of Pandya King and they have survived till the early British
conquest.
Pandyas were experts in water management, agriculture (mostly near river
banks) and fisheries and they were eminent sailors and sea traders too. They
controlled the pearl fisheries along the South Indian coast, between
Sri Lanka and India, which produced some of the finest pearls in the known ancient world.

Pearls,
Source : The Great Indian Kingdoms

102

8. THE CHOLA DYNASTY

The Chola dynasty was one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of southern India
spanning between 300s BCE1279 CE.

Together with the Chera and Pandya dynasties, the Cholas formed the three
main Tamil dynasties of Iron Age India, who were collectively known as the
Three Crowned Kings.

They mainly ruled the area between the Kaveri and Tungabhadra rivers. Their rule extended out
of india when they successfully invaded cities of Srivijaya in Malaysia, Indonesia and Southern
Thailand.

Chola Temple,
Source: The Great Indian Kingdoms

103

9. SAVATHANA KINGDOM
The Satavahana Empire also known as Andhra kingdom was an Indian dynasty based from
Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh which is now back as Capital of Andhra Pradesh State. This dynasty
extended to Junnar and Prathisthan in Maharashtra during the later years.
The territory of the empire covered much of India from 230 BCE onward. History suggests that it
lasted about 450 years from 230 BCE to 22- CE.

The Satavahanas are credited for establishing peace in the country, resisting
the onslaught of foreigners after the decline of Mauryan Empire.

Satvahnas Art,
Source : The Great Indian Kingdoms

104

10. HOYSALA EMPIRE

The Hoysala Empire was a prominent Southern Indian Kannadiga empire that ruled most
of the modern-day state of Karnataka between the 10th and the 14th centuries. The capital of the
Hoysalas was initially located at Belur but was later moved to Halebidu.

The empire is remembered today primarily for its temple architecture. Over a
hundred surviving temples are scattered across Karnataka, including the well
known Chennakesava Temple at Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple at
Halebidu, and the Kesava Temple at Somanathapura. The Hoysala rulers also patronised the
fine arts, encouraging literature to flourish in Kannada and Sanskrit.
Source: Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu, The Great Indian Kingdoms

105

11. MAGADHA KINGDOM

Magadha was a kingdom which existed right from by Vedic period. It was born from the Gupta
Kingdom and as the story goes, the kingdom was founded by King Jarasandha with Rajgir of Bihar
as the capital.

Magadha was a kingdom which existed right from by Vedic period. It was born
from the Gupta Kingdom and as the story goes, the kingdom was founded by King
Jarasandha with Rajgir of Bihar as the capital. Later Jarasandha was killed
by Bheema in a wrestling duel and Pataliputra (Patna) was choosen as the new capital of this
kingdom during the start of Kali Yuga. In the later years this kingdom transitioned into the
celebrated Mauryan Empire that spanned almost whole of India.

Source: King Jarasandh , The Great Indian Kingdoms

106

12. THE CHALUKYAS

The Chalukya dynasty was an Indian royal dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central
India between the 6th and the 12th centuries.

They had their capital in 3 cities namely Badami and Kalyani of Karnataka and
Vengi on the river of Godavari. This marks the first time a Southern India based
kingdom took control and consolidated the entire region between the Kaveri
and the Narmada rivers.
The rise of this empire saw the birth of efficient administration, overseas trade and commerce and
the development of new style of architecture called Chalukyan architecture. The Kannada and
Telugu literature flourished during their reign.

Source: Chalukyan Architecture, The Great Indian Kingdoms

107

13. THE MAURYAS

The Maurya dynasty was the superpower of the Iron Age India which existed between 320
BC to 185 BC. It was founded by Chandragupta Maurya in pataliputra and later extended to
Afghanistan

During the rule of Ashoka, the Great the kingdom managed to conquer the
whole Indian sub continent and rule it as one dynasty. They were credited as
the only people who could defeat King Alexander the Great.
The Jain and Buddhist cultures flourished during this Kingdom.

Source: Asoka Pillar, The Great Indian Kingdoms

108

14. THE RAJPUTS

The Rajputs are a ancient dynasty that ruled a vast area of the subcontinent which includes
western, central, northern India and current eastern Pakistan.

They seem to have risen to prominence from the late 6th century CE and governed the country
with Rajasthan as their base. They are credited as one of the very few dynasties who were
unmoved from their capital by the Muslim sultanate.

Source: aroundtheglobe.com, The Great Indian Kingdoms

109

15. THE NANDA DYNASTY

The Nanda dynasty originated from the region of Magadha in ancient India during the 4th
century BC and lasted between 345321 BCE. At its greatest extent, the empire ruled by the Nanda
Dynasty extended from Bengal in the east, to Punjab in the west and as far south as the Vindhya
mountains. The rulers of this dynasty were famed for the great wealth which they accumulated.
The Nanda Empire was later conquered by Chandragupta Maurya, who founded the Maurya
Empire.

The Nandas are described as the first empire builders in the recorded history of
India. They inherited the large kingdom of Magadha and expanded it to yet more
distant frontiers. To achieve this objective they built a vast army,
consisting of 200,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, 2,000 war chariots and 3,000 war elephants.

Source: King Dhananand, The Great Indian Kingdoms

110

16. THE GUPTAS

The Gupta Empire which existed at its zenith from approximately 320 to 550 AD covered
much of the Indian Subcontinent. This period is called the Golden Age of India and was marked
by extensive inventions and discoveries in science, technology, engineering, art, dialectic,
literature, logic, mathematics, astronomy, religion, and philosophy that crystallized the elements
of Hindu culture.

Chandra Gupta I, Samudra Gupta, and Chandra Gupta II were the most notable
rulers of the Gupta dynasty. The Gupta period produced scholars such as
Kalidasa, Aryabhata, Varahamihira, Vishnu Sharma and Vatsyayana who made
great advancements in many academic fields. Vatsayana of this kingdom wrote
the world famous Kama Sutra.
One of the greatest inventions ever 0 was invented by Aryabhata in their period as Shoonya.
Imagine world without it now!

Source: Gupta King, The Great Indian Kingdoms

*******************************

111

CHAPTER FOUR
SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
OF INDIA

112

Ornamental Buttons made from seashells, were used in the Indus Valley Civilization for
ornamental purposes by 2000 BCE. Some buttons were carved into geometric shapes and had holes
pierced into them so that they could be attached to clothing by using a thread.
Ian McNeil (1990) holds that: "The button, in fact, was originally used
more as an ornament than as a fastening, the earliest known being found
at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley. It is made of a curved shell and about
5000 years old."
Buttons made of sea shell, Indus Valley Civilization,
Source -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Carbon pigment: The source of the carbon pigment used in India ink was India. In India, the

carbon black from which India ink is produced is obtained by burning bones, tar, pitch, and other
substances. Ink itself has been used in India since at least the 4th century BC.
Masi, an early ink in India was an admixture of several chemical components.
The practice Indian documents written in Kharosthi with ink have been unearthed in Xinjiang.
The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in
ancient South India. Several Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink.

113

Carbon Black Pigment, Xinjiang,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Calico: Calico had originated in the subcontinent by the 11th century and found mention in

Indian literature, by the 12th-century writer Hemachandra. He has mentioned calico fabric prints
done in a lotus design.
The Indian textile merchants traded in calico with the Africans by the 15th
century and calico fabrics from Gujarat appeared in Egypt. Trade with Europe
followed from the 17th century onwards. Within India, calico originated
in Kozhikode (Calicut).
Calico Print Fabric, Kozhikode (Calicut) in Kerala
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Carding devices: Historian of science Joseph Needham ascribes the

invention of bow-instruments used in textile technology to India. The
earliest evidence for using bow-instruments for carding comes from
India

(2nd

century

CE).These

carding

devices,

called kaman and dhunaki would loosen the texture of the fiber by
the means of a vibrating string.

Carding device
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

114

Chaturanga: The precursor of Chess originated in India during the Gupta dynasty (c. 280-550 BC)

Both the Persians and Arabs ascribe the origins of the game of Chess to the Indians. The words for
"chess" in Old Persian and Arabic are chatrang and shatranj respectively terms derived
from caturaga in Sanskrit, which literally means an army of four divisions or four corps. Chess
spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.
This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of
the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility. Buddhist pilgrims, Silk
Road traders and others carried it to the Far East where it was transformed
and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of
the board rather than within the squares. Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine
Empire and the expanding Arabian empire. Muslims carried Shatranj to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain
by the 10th century where it took its final modern form of chess.

1. Chaturanga Board
2. Chandragupta
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

115

Chintz: The origin of Chintz is from the printed all cotton fabric of calico in India. The origin of
the word chintz itself is from the Hindi language word (( (chitr), which means an image.

Chintz Fabric
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Crescograph: The Crescograph, a device for measuring growth in plants, was invented in the early
20th century by the Bengali scientist Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose.

Crescograph, a device for measuring growth in plants

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

116

Crucible steel: Perhaps as early as 300 BCEalthough certainly by 200 CEhigh quality steel
was being produced in southern India also by what Europeans would later call the crucible
technique. In this system, high-purity wrought iron, charcoal, and glass were mixed in a crucible
and heated until the iron melted and absorbed the carbon.
The first crucible steel was the wootz steel that originated in India before the
beginning of the Common Era. Archaeological and Tamil language literary evidence
suggests that this manufacturing process was already in existence in South
India well before the Christian era exported from the dynasty Chera and called Seric Iron in
Rome.
1. Crucible Steel Sword
2. King of Chera Dynasty
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Dock (maritime): The earliest known docks were not South Asian, but rather those discovered
in Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian habor dating from 2500 BCE located on the Red Sea coast.
117

A structure at Lothal (2400 BC) is considered the earliest Indian dock by some archaeologists,
apparently located away from the main current to avoid deposition of silt. Modern oceanographers
have observed that the Harappans must have possessed knowledge relating to tides in order to
build such a dock on the ever-shifting course of the Sabarmati, as

well

as

exemplary hydrography and maritime engineering. This was the earliest known dock found in the
world, equipped to berth and service ships.
It is speculated that Lothal engineers studied tidal movements, and their
effects on brick-built structures, since the walls are of kiln-burnt bricks. This
knowledge
enabled
them to However,
select Lothal's
in thehave
firstbeen
place,
as
can be sluiced through
flow tidesalso
in the
river estuary.
theselocation
speculations
called
thebeen
Gulfsuggested
of Khambhat
has archaeologists
the highest tidal
amplitude
and ships
into question, as it has
by other
that
the supposed
dockyard at Lothal
was nothing more than an irrigation tank.
1. Lothal Docks
2. Lothal (Pakistan)
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Incense clock: Although popularly associated with China the incense clock is believed to have
originated in India, at least in its fundamental form if not function. Early incense clocks found in
China between the 6th and 8th centuries CEthe period it appeared in China all seem to
have Devangar carvings on them instead of Chinese seal characters. Incense itself was introduced
to China from India in the early centuries CE, along with the spread of Buddhism by travelling
monks.

118

Edward Schafer asserts that incense clocks were probably an Indian invention,
transmitted to China, which explains the Devangar inscriptions on early
incense clocks found in China. Silvio Bedini on the other hand asserts that
cense clocks were derived in part from incense seals in mentioned

in Tantric Buddhist scriptures, which first came to the light in China after those scriptures from
India were translated into Chinese, but holds that the time-telling function of the seal was
incorporated by the Chinese.
Incense Clock, Tantric Scriptures
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

The Indian clubwhich appeared in Europe during the 18th

centurywas used long by India's native soldiery before its
introduction to Europe. During the British Raj the British officers in
India performed callisthenic exercises with clubs to keep in for
physical conditioning. From Britain the use of club swinging spread to
the rest of the world.

The Indian Club

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

119

Iron and mercury coherer: In 1899, the Bengali physicist Sir Jagdish
Chandra Bose announced the development of an "iron-mercury-iron
coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at the Royal
Society, London. He also later received U.S. Patent 755,840, "Detector
for

electrical

disturbances"

(1904),

for

specific electromagnetic receiver.

JC Bose with Iron and mercury coherer

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Kabaddi: The game of kabaddi originated in India during

prehistory. Suggestions on how it evolved into the modern
form range from wrestling exercises, military drills, and
collective self-defence but most authorities agree that the
game existed in some form or the other in India during the
period between 1500 and 400 CE.
Kabbadi, the game!
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

120

Ludo: Pachisi originated in India by the 6th century.

The earliest evidence of this game in India is the
depiction of boards on the caves of Ajanta. This game
was played by the Mughal emperors of India; a
notable example being that of Akbar, who
played living Pachisi using girls from his harem. A
variant of this game, called Ludo, made its way to
England during the British Raj.

Pachisi (Ancient form of Ludo) Board

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Muslin: The fabric was named after the city where

Europeans first encountered it, Mosul, in what is now Iraq,
but the fabric actually originated from Dhaka in what is
now

Bangladesh.

In

the

9th

century,

an

Arab

merchant named Sulaiman makes note of the material's

origin in Bengal (known as Ruhml in Arabic).
Muslin cloth!
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

121

Mysorean rockets: The first iron-cased and metal-cylinder rockets were developed by Tipu
Sultan, ruler of the South Indian Kingdom of Mysore, and his father Hyder Ali, in the 1780s. He
successfully used these iron-cased rockets against the larger forces of the British East India
Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars.
The Mysore rockets of this period were much more advanced than what
the British had seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding
the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile
(up to 2 km range). After Tipu's eventual defeat in the Fourth AngloMysore War and the capture of the Mysore iron
rockets, they were influential in British rocket development, inspiring the Congreve rocket, and
were soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars.
1. Mysorean Rockets
2. Tipu Sultan
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

122

Palampore: ( (Hindi language) of Indian origin was imported to the western world
notable England and Colonial Americafrom India. In 17th-century England these hand painted
cotton fabrics influenced native crewel work design. Shipping vessels from India also took
palampore to colonial America, where it was used in quilting.

Palampore cotton Fabric,

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Prayer flags: The Buddhist Stras, written on cloth in India, were transmitted to other regions of
the world. These sutras, written on banners, were the origin of prayer flags. Legend ascribes the
origin of the prayer flag to the Shakyamuni Buddha, whose prayers were written on battle flags
used by the Devtas against their adversaries, the Asuras. The legend may have given the
Indian bhikku a reason for carrying the 'heavenly' banner as a way of signifying his commitment
to ahimsa. This knowledge was carried into Tibet by 800 CE, and the actual flags were introduced

123

no later than 1040 CE, where they were further modified. The Indian monk Atisha (980-1054 CE)
introduced the Indian practice of printing on cloth prayer flags to Tibet.
Buddhism Prayer Flags!
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Prefabricated home and movable structure: The

first prefabricated homes and movable structures were
invented in 16th-century Mughal India by Akbar.
These structures were reported by Arif Qandahari in
1579.

Prefabricated and movable home!

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Wayang Kulit (shadow puppet) in Wayang Purwa

type, depicting five

Pandava, from

left

to

right: Bhima, Arjuna, Yudhishtira, Nakula, and

Sahadeva (Museum Indonesia, Jakarta). Ghosh,
Massey, and Banerjee (2006) trace the origins of
puppetry in India to the Indus Civilization.
Puppet Show! Source Indian Inventions by Watersone

124

Ruler: Rulers made from Ivory were in use by the Indus Valley Civilization in what today is
Pakistan and some parts of Western India prior to 1500 CEE. Excavations at Lothal (2400 CEE)
have yielded one such ruler calibrated to about 1/16 of an inchless than 2 millimeters. Ian
Whitelaw (2007) holds that 'The Mohenjo-Daro ruler is divided into units corresponding to 1.32
inches (33.5 mm) and these are marked out in decimal subdivisions with amazing accuracyto
within 0.005 of an inch. They correspond closely with the "hasta" increments of 1 3/8 inches
traditionally used in South India in ancient architecture. Ancient bricks found throughout the
region have dimensions that correspond to these units.
Shigeo Iwata (2008) further writes 'The minimum
division of graduation found in the segment of an ivorymade linear measure excavated in Lothal was
1.79 mm (that corresponds to 1/940 of a fathom), while that of the fragment of a shell-made one
from Mohenjo-Daro was 6.72 mm (1/250 of a fathom), and that of bronze-made one from Harappa
was 9.33 mm (1/180 of a fathom). The weights and measures of the Indus civilization also reached
Persia and Central Asia, where they were further modified.

125

1. Ruler
2. Ruler excavated at Lothal
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Seamless celestial globe: Considered one of the most remarkable feats in metallurgy, it was
invented in Kashmir by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in between 1589 and 1590 CE, and twenty other
such globes were later produced in Lahore and Kashmir during the Mughal Empire. Before they
were rediscovered in the 1980s, it was believed by modern metallurgists to be technically
impossible to produce metal globes without any seams, even with modern technology. These
Mughal metallurgists pioneered the method of lost-wax casting in order to produce these globes.

Seamless Celestial Globe,

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

126

Shampoo: The word shampoo in English is derived from Hindustani chmpo (), and dates to
1762.The shampoo itself originated in the eastern regions of the Mughal Empire that ruled
erstwhile India, particularly in the Nawab of Bengal where it was introduced as a head massage,
and usually consisting of alkali, natural oils and fragrances.

Shampoo was first introduced in Britain by a Bengali entrepreneur from Bihar

named Sake Dean Mahomed. He first familiarized the shampoo in Basil
Cochrane's vapour baths while working there in the early 19th century. Later,
Sake Dean Mahomed together with his Irish wife, opened "Mahomed's Steam
and Vapour Sea Water Medicated Baths" in Brighton, England.
His baths were like Turkish baths where clients received a treatment of champi (shampooing).
Very soon due to Sake Dean Mahomed fame as a bathing expert he was appointed Shampooing
Surgeon to both George IV and William IV.

1. Bottles of Shampoo
2. Sake Dean Mahomed
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Single roller cotton gin: The Ajanta caves of India

yield evidence of a single roller cotton gin in use by the
5th century. This cotton gin was used in India until
innovations were made in form of foot powered
gins. The cotton gin was invented in India as a
mechanical device known as charkhi, more technically
the "wooden-worm-worked roller".
This mechanical device was, in some parts of India, driven by water power.

127

Single roller cotton gin

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Snakes and ladders: Snakes and ladders originated in India

as a game based on morality. During British rule of India, this
game made its way to England, and was eventually
introduced in the United States of America by gamepioneer Milton Bradley in 1943.

1. Milton Bradley
2. Snakes & Ladders Board

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Stupa: The origin of the stupa can be traced to 3rd-century CE

India. It was used as a commemorative monument associated with
storing sacred relics. The stupa architecture was adopted
in Southeast and East Asia, where it evolved into the pagoda, a
Buddhist monument used for enshrining sacred relics.

128

Stupa!
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Suits game: Kridapatram is an early suits game, made of

painted

rags,

invented

in

Ancient

India.

The

term kridapatram literally means "painted rags for

playing." Paper playing cards first appeared in East Asia
during the 9th century. The medieval Indian game
of ganjifa, or playing cards, is first recorded in the 16th
century.
Suits Game Cards!
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Wootz steel: Wootz originated in India before the beginning of the

Common Era. Wootz steel was widely exported and traded
throughout ancient Europe, China, the Arab world, and became
particularly famous in the Middle East, where it became known
as Damascus steel.
Archaeological evidence suggests that this manufacturing process
was already in existence in South India well before the Christian era
they also made trains what were pulled by horses underground.

Wootz Steel Knife

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries
129

Stepwell: Earliest clear evidence of the origins of the Stepwell is found in the Indus Valley
Civilization's archaeological site at Mohenjodaro in Pakistan. The three features of step wells in
the subcontinent are evident from one particular site, abandoned by 2500 CE, which combines a
bathing pool, steps leading down to water, and figures of some religious importance into one
structure. The early centuries immediately before the Common Era saw the Buddhists and the
Jains of India adapt the step wells into their architecture. Both the wells and the form of ritual
bathing reached other parts of the world with Buddhism. Rock-cut step wells in the subcontinent
date from 200 to 400 BC. Subsequently the wells at Dhank (550-625 CE) and stepped ponds
at Bhinmal (850-950 CE) were constructed.

Stepwell,
Source : Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

130

Toe stirrup: The earliest known manifestation of the stirrup, which was a toe loop that held the
big toe, was used in India in as early as 500 CE or perhaps by 200 CE according to other
sources. This ancient stirrup consisted of a looped rope for the big toe which was at the bottom of
a saddle made of fibre or leather. Such a configuration made it suitable for the warm climate of
most of India where people used to ride horses barefoot. A pair of megalithic double bent iron bars
with curvature at each end has been excavated in Junapani in the central Indian state of Madhya
Pradesh. They have been regarded as stirrups although they could as well be something else.
Buddhist carvings in the temples of Sanchi, Mathura and the Bhaja
caves dating back between the 1st and 2nd century CE figure horsemen
riding with elaborate saddles with feet slipped under girths. Sir John
Marshall described the Sanchi relief as "the earliest example by some five
centuries of the use of stirrups in any part of the world"
In the 1st century CE horse riders in northern India, where winters are sometimes long and cold,
were recorded to have their booted feet attached to hooked stirrups. However the form, the
conception of the primitive Indian stirrup spread west and east, gradually evolving into the stirrup
of today.
1. Toe Stirrup
2. Figures in Sanchi Cave
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

131

Discoveries (Agriculture)

Jute Plants Corchorus olitorius and Corchorus

capsularis cultivated first in India.

Corchorus olitorius and Corchorus capsularis

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Cashmere wool: The fiber is also known as pashm or pashmina for its
use in the handmade shawls of Kashmir, India. The woolen shawls
made from wool in Kashmir region of India find written mention
between the 3rd century BCE and the 11th century CE. However, the
founder of the cashmere wool industry is traditionally held to be the
15th-century ruler of Kashmir, Zayn-ul-Abidin, who employed weavers
from Central Asia.

Cashmere Wool
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

132

Cotton cultivation: Cotton was cultivated by the inhabitants of

the Indus Valley Civilization by the 5th millennium BCE - 4th
millennium BCE. The Indus cotton industry was well developed and
some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be
practiced till the modern Industrialization of India. Well before
the Common Era, the use of cotton textiles had spread from India to
the Mediterranean and beyond.
Cotton cultivation

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Indigo dye: Indigo, a blue pigment and a dye, was used in India,
which was also the earliest major centre for its production and
processing. The Indigofera tinctoria variety of Indigo was
domesticated in India. Indigo, used as a dye, made its way to
the Greeks and the Romans via various trade routes, and was valued
as a luxury product

Indigo Dye
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

133

Jute cultivation: Jute has been cultivated in India since ancient

times. Raw jute was exported to the western world, where it was
used to make ropes and cordage. The Indian jute industry, in turn,
was modernized during the British Raj in India. The region
of Bengal was the major center for Jute cultivation, and remained so
before the modernization of India's jute industry in 1855,
when Kolkata became a center for jute processing in India.

Jute Cultivation
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Sugar refinement: Sugarcane was originally from tropical South

Asia and Southeast Asia. Different species different locations are
originating in India and S.Edule and S.Officinarum coming
from New Guinea. The process of producing crystallized sugar from
sugarcane was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, and
the earliest reference of candied sugar comes from India.

The process was soon transmitted to China with travelling Buddhist monks. Chinese documents confirm at
least two missions to India, initiated in 647 CE, for obtaining technology for sugar-refining. Each mission
returned with results on refining sugar.

Sugar Refinement
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

134

Mathematics
The Half-Chord version of the Sine Function was
developed by the Indian mathematician Aryabhata!
Aryabhata

(Sanskrit:

IAST:

ryabhaa)

or Aryabhata (476550 CE) was the first of the

major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of
Indian and Indian astronomy.
His works include the ryabhaya (499CE), when he was
23 years old) and the Arya-siddhanta.

Pic: half-chord version of the Sine function

Aryabhata
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Zero, symbol: Indians were the first to use the zero as a symbol and
in arithmetic operations, although Babylonians used zero to signify
the 'absent'. In those earlier times a blank space was used to denote
zero, later when it created confusion a dot was used to denote zero
(could be found in Bakhshali manuscript). In 500 AD circa
Aryabhata again gave a new symbol for zero (0).

Zero,
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries
135

Trigonometry was invented in India. Trigonometric

functions

(adapted

from

Greek):

The trigonometric functions sine and versine originated

in Indian astronomy, adapted from the full-chord Greek
versions (to the modern half-chord versions). They were
described in detail by Aryabhata in the late 5th century, but
were likely developed earlier in the Siddhantas, astronomical
treatises of the 3rd or 4th century.
Later, the 6th-century astronomer Varahamihira discovered a few basic trigonometric formulas
and identities, such as sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) = 1. The first use of the idea of sine in the way we use
it today was in the work Aryabhatiyam by Aryabhata, in A.D. 500. Aryabhata used the word ardhajya for the half-chord, which was shortened to jya or jiva in due course. When the Aryabhatiyam
was translated into Arabic, the word jiva was retained as it is.
The word jiva was translated into sinus, which means
curve, when the Arabic version was translated into Latin.
Soon the word sinus, also used as sine, became common
in mathematical texts throughout Europe. An English
Professor of astronomy Edmund Gunter (15811626),
first used the abbreviated notation sin. Edmund Gunter,
was an English clergyman, mathematician, geometer and
astronomer of Welsh descent.
The origin of the terms cosine and tangent was much later. The cosine function arose from the
need to compute the sine of the complementary angle. Aryabhatta called it kotijya. The name
cosinus originated with Edmund Gunter. In 1674, the English Mathematician Sir Jonas Moore first
used the abbreviated notation cos.
Trigonometry, Edmund Gunter
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries
136

AKS Primality Test: The AKS primality test

is

deterministic

primality-

proving algorithm created and published by

three
Kanpur

Indian

Institute

computer

of

Technology

scientists,

Manindra

Agrawal, Neeraj Kayal, and Nitin Saxena on 6

August 2002 in a paper titled PRIMES is in P.
Commenting on the impact of this discovery, Paul Leyland noted: "One reason for the excitement
within the mathematical community is not only does this algorithm settle a long-standing problem,
it also does so in a brilliantly simple manner. Everyone is now wondering what else has been
similarly overlooked".
AKS Primality test

Manindra Agrawal, Neeraj Kayal, and Nitin Saxena

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

137

Baudhyana, (fl. c. 800 BCE) was the author of the

Baudhayana Stras, which cover dharma, daily ritual,
mathematics, etc. He belongs to the Yajurveda School,
and is older than the other stra author pastamba. He was
the author of the earliest of the Shulba Sutrasappendices
to the Vedas giving rules for the construction of altars
called the Baudhyana ulbastra.
These are notable from the point of view of mathematics, for containing several important
mathematical results, including giving a value of pi to some degree of precision, and stating a
version of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. Sequences associated with primitive
Pythagorean triples have been named Baudhayana sequences. These sequences have been used in
cryptography as random sequences and for the generation of keys.
Pythagorean Theorem
Baudhayana
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Finite

Difference

Interpolation:

The

Indian

mathematician Brahmagupta presented what is possibly the

first instance of finite difference interpolation around 665
CE.
Brahmagupta (Sanskrit: ( )598668) was an

Indian mathematician and astronomer. Brahmagupta wrote

important works on mathematics and astronomy.
Brahmagupta

Brahmagupta, Finite Difference Interpolation Formula

138

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

BrahmaguptaFibonacci

Identity,

Brahmagupta

formula, Brahmagupta matrix, and Brahmagupta

Theorem: Discovered by the Indian mathematician,
Brahmagupta (598668 CE).

Brahmagupta Theorem
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Algebraic

abbreviations:

The

mathematician Brahmagupta had begun using

abbreviations

for

unknowns

by

the

7th

century. He employed abbreviations for multiple

unknowns occurring in one complex problem.
Brahmagupta also used abbreviations for square
roots and cube roots.

Algebraic abbreviations

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

139

Chakravala method: The Chakravala method, a cyclic

algorithm to solve indeterminate quadratic equations is
commonly attributed to Bhskara II, (c. 1114 1185 CE)
although some attribute it to Jayadeva (c. 950~1000 CE).
Jayadeva pointed out that Brahmaguptas approach to
solving equations of this type would yield infinitely large
number of solutions, to which he then described a general
method of solving such equations.
Jayadeva's method was later refined by Bhskara II in his Bijaganita treatise to be known as the
Chakravala method, chakra (derived from cakra ( meaning 'wheel' in Sanskrit, relevant to
the cyclic nature of the algorithm. With reference to the Chakravala method, E. O. Selenuis held
that no European performances at the time of Bhskara, nor much later, came up to its marvellous
height of mathematical complexity.
Bhskara II
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Hindu number system: With decimal place-value

and a symbol for zero, this system was the ancestor
of the widely used Arabic numeral system. It was
developed in the Indian subcontinent between the
1st and 6th centuries CE.

Hindu Number System

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries
140

Fibonacci numbers: This sequence was first described

by

Virahanka

(c.

700

AD),

Gopla

(c.

1135),

and Hemachandra (c. 1150),[122] as an outgrowth of the

earlier writings on Sanskrit prosody by Pingala (c. 200 BC).

Fibonacci numbers
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Law of signs in multiplication: The earliest use of

notation for negative numbers, as subtrahend, is
credited by scholars to the Chinese, dating back to the
2nd century BC.
Like the Chinese, the Indians used negative numbers
as subtrahend, but were the first to establish the "law
of signs" with regards to the multiplication of positive
and negative numbers, which did not appear in
Chinese texts until 1299.
Indian mathematicians were aware of negative numbers by the 7th century, and their role in
mathematical problems of debt was understood. Mostly consistent and correct rules for working
with negative numbers were formulated, and the diffusion of these rules led the Arab
intermediaries to pass it on to Europe.

Law of signs in multiplication

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries
141

Madhava series: The infinite series for and for the

trigonometric sine, cosine, and arctangent is now
attributed to Madhava of Sangamagrama (c. 1340
1425) and his Kerala school of astronomy and
mathematics. He made use of the series expansion
of arctan x to obtain an infinite series expression for
. Their rational approximation of the error for the
finite sum of their series is of particular interest.
They manipulated the error term to derive a faster converging series for . They used the improved
series

to

derive

rational

expression,

for

correct

up

to

eleven

decimal

places, i.e. 3.14159265359. Madhava of Sangamagrama and his successors at the Kerala School
of astronomy and mathematics used geometric methods to derive large sum approximations for
sine, cosin, and arttangent. They found a number of special cases of series later derived by Brook
Taylor series. They also found the second-order Taylor approximations for these functions, and
the third-order Taylor approximation for sine.
Madhava of Sangamagrama
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries ,
http://www.storyofmathematics.com/indian.html

Pascal's triangle: Described in the 6th century CE

by

Varahamihira[136]

and

in

the

10th

century

by Halayudha,[137] commenting on an obscure reference

by Pingala (the author of an earlier work on prosody) to the
"Meru-prastaara", or the "Staircase of Mount Meru", in
relation to binomial coefficients. (It was also independently
discovered in the 10th or 11th century in Persia and China.)
Pascal's triangle,
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries
142

Pell's equation, integral solution for: About a

thousand years before Pell's time, Indian scholar
Brahmagupta (598668 CE) was able to find
integral

solutions

to

vargaprakiti

(Pell's

Equation):where N is a nonsquare integer, in

his Brhma-sphua-siddhnta treatise.
Pell's equation
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Ramanujan Theta function, Ramanujan Prime,

Ramanujan Summation, Ramanujan
Graph and Ramanujan's Sum:
Discovered by the Indian mathematician Srinivasa
Ramanujan in the early 20th century.

S. Ramanujan
S. Ramanujan Graph
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

143

Shrikhande graph: Graph invented by the Indian

mathematician S.S. Shrikhande in 1959.

S.S. Shrikhande, Shrikhande graph

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Sign convention: Symbols, signs and mathematical

notation were employed in an early form in India by
the 6th century when the mathematician-astronomer
Aryabhata recommended the use of letters to represent
unknown quantities. By the 7th century Brahmagupta
had already begun using abbreviations for unknowns,
even for multiple unknowns occurring in one complex
problem.
Brahmagupta also managed to use abbreviations for square roots and cube roots. By the 7th century
fractions were written in a manner similar to the modern times, except for the bar separating
the numerator and the denominator. A dot symbol for negative numbers was also
employed. The Bakhshali Manuscript displays a cross, much like the modern '+' sign, except that
it symbolized subtraction when written just after the number affected. The '=' sign for equality did
not exist. Indian mathematics was transmitted to the Islamic world where this notation was seldom
accepted initially and the scribes continued to write mathematics in full and without symbols.
144

Sign Convention
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Medicine ----

Ayurvedic and Siddha medicine: Ayurveda and Siddha are ancient and traditional systems of
medicine. Ayurveda dates back to Iron Age India (1st millennium BC) and still practiced today as
a form of complementary and alternative medicine. It means "knowledge for longevity".
Siddha medicine is mostly prevalent in South India. Herbs and minerals are
basic raw materials of the Siddha system which dates back to the period of
Siddha Saints around the 5th century BC.

Ayurvedic Herbs
Siddha Saints
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Cataract surgery: Cataract surgery was known to the

Indian physician Sushruta (6th century BCE). In India,
cataract surgery was performed with a special tool called
the Jabamukhi Salaka, a curved needle used to loosen the
lens and push the cataract out of the field of vision. The eye
would later be soaked with warm butter and then bandaged.
Jabamukhi Salaka
145

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Though this method was successful, Sushruta cautioned that

cataract surgery should only be performed when absolutely
necessary. Greek philosophers and scientists travelled to India
where these surgeries were performed by physicians. The
removal of cataract by surgery was also introduced into China
from India.
performing Cataract surgery,
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Cure for Leprosy: Kearns & Nash (2008) state that the first mention of leprosy is described in
the Indian medical treatise Sushruta Samhita (6th century BCE).
However, The Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine holds that the
mention of leprosy, as well as ritualistic cures for it, were described in
the Atharva-veda (15001200 BCE), written before the Sushruta Samhita.
Susruta Samhita
Susruta saint
Leprosy
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

146

Plastic surgery: Plastic surgery was being carried out in

India by 2000 BCE. The system of punishment by
deforming a miscreant's body may have led to an increase
in

demand

for

practice.

this

The

surgeon Sushruta contributed mainly to the field of plastic

.

and cataract surgery. The medical works of both Sushruta

and Charak were translated into Arabic language during
the Abbasid Caliphate (750 CE). These translated Arabic
works

made

their

way

into

Europe

via

intermediaries. In Italy the Branca family of Sicily and

Gaspare Tagliacozzi of Bologna became familiar with the
techniques of Sushruta.
Plastic Surgery
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Lithiasis treatment: The earliest operation for treating

Lithiasis, or the formations of stones in the body, is also
given in the Sushruta Samhita (6th century BCE). The
operation involved exposure and going up through the
floor of the bladder.

Kidney Stone pic

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

147

Treatment of Visceral Leishmaniasis: The Indian (Bengali) medical practitioner Upendranath

Brahmachari (19 December 1873 6 February 1946) was nominated for the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for his discovery of 'ureastibamine (antimonial compound for
treatment of kala azar) and a new disease, post-kalaazar dermal leishmanoid.'
Brahmachari's cure for Visceral Leishmaniasis was the urea salt
of para-amino-phenyl stibonic acid which he called Urea
Stibamine. Following the discovery of Urea Stibamine, Visceral
leishmaniasis was largely eradicated from the world, except for
some underdeveloped regions.
Upendra Brahmachari
Kala Azar
Urea Stibamine

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

148

Mining ---

Diamonds were first recognized and mined in central India, where significant alluvial deposits of
the stone could then be found along the rivers Penner, Krishna and Godavari. It is unclear when
diamonds were first mined in India, although estimated to be at least 5,000 years ago. India
remained the world's only source of diamonds until the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in the 18th
century. Golconda served as an important centre for diamonds in central India. Diamonds then
were exported to other parts of the world, including Europe. Early references to diamonds in India
come from Sanskrit texts.
TheBCE
Arthashastra
of Kautilya wear
mentions
diamondin trade
in
A Chinese work from the 3rd century
mentions: "Foreigners
it [diamond]
the belief
India.
worksdiddating
from
the 4thincentury
BCE
that it can ward off evil influences".
TheBuddhist
Chinese, who
not find
diamonds
their country,
mention
it asinstead
a well-known
and precious stone but don't
initially used diamonds as a "jade cutting
knife"
of as a jewel.
mention
Godavari River, Diamond, Diamond
Tool the details of diamond cutting. Another Indian
description written at the beginning of the 3rd century
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries
describes strength, regularity, brilliance, ability to scratch
metals, and good refractive properties as the desirable
qualities of a diamond.

149

Zinc mining and medicinal zinc: Zinc was first smelted from zinc ore in India. Zinc mines of
Zawar, near Udaipur, Rajasthan, were active during early Christian era. There are references of
medicinal uses of zinc in the Charaka Samhita (300 BCE).
The Rasaratna Samuccaya which dates back to the Tantric
period (c. 5th - 13th century CE) explains the existence of
two types of ores for zinc metal, one of which is ideal for
metal extraction while the other is used for medicinal
purpose.

Zinc Mine, piece of Zinc,

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Science ---

Ammonium Nitrite, synthesis in pure form: Prafulla Chandra Roy synthesized NH4NO2 in its
pure form, and became the first scientist to have done so. Prior to Rays synthesis of Ammonium
nitrite it was thought that the compound undergoes rapid thermal decomposition releasing nitrogen
and water in the process.

Ammonium Nitrite, synthesis in pure form:

150

Prafulla Chandra Roy

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Ashtekar variables: In theoretical physics, Ashtekar (new) variables, named after Abhay
Ashtekar who invented them, represent an unusual way to rewrite the metric on the threedimensional spatial slices in terms of a SU(2) gauge field and its complementary variable. Ashtekar
variables are the key building block of loop quantum gravity.

Ashtekar variables, Abhay Ashtaker

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference Balance: Invented jointly by Shanti Swarup

Bhatnagar and K.N. Mathur in 1928, the so-called 'Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference
Balance' was a modern instrument used for measuring various magnetic properties. The first
appearance of this instrument in Europe was at a Royal Society exhibition in London, where it was
later marketed by British firm Messers Adam Hilger and Co, London.

151

S.S.Bhatnagar, 'Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference Balance' Instrument

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Bhabha scattering: In 1935, Indian nuclear physicist Homi J. Bhabha published a paper in
the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which he performed the first calculation to
determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering. Electron-positron scattering was later
named Bhabha scattering, in honor of his contributions in the field.
Homi J.Bhabha, Bhabha scattering
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

BoseEinstein statistics, condensate and Boson: On 4 June 1924 the Bengali professor of
Physics Satyendra Nath Bose mailed a short manuscript to Albert Einstein entitled Planck's Law
and the Light Quantum Hypothesis seeking Einstein's influence to get it published after it was
rejected by the prestigious journal Philosophical Magazine. The paper introduced what is today
called Bose statistics, which showed how it could be used to derive the Planck blackbody spectrum
from the assumption that light was made of photons. Einstein, recognizing the importance of the
paper translated it into German himself and submitted it on Bose's behalf to the
152

prestigious Zeitschrift fr Physik. Einstein later applied Bose's principles on particles with mass
and quickly predicted the Bose-Einstein condensate.
S.N.Bose, Bose Statistics
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Braunstein-Ghosh-Severini Entropy: This modelling of entropy using network theory is used in

the analysis of quantum gravity and is named after Sibasish Ghosh and his team-mates, Samuel L.
Braunstein and Simone Severini.
Sibasish Ghosh, Braunstein-Ghosh-Severini Entropy
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Chandrasekhar

limit

and

Chandrasekhar

number:

Discovered

by

and

named

after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his work
on stellar structure and stellar evolution.

S.Chandrashekhar, Chandrashekhar limit

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries
153

Galena, applied use in electronics of: Bengali scientist Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose effectively
used Galena crystals for constructing radio receivers. The Galena receivers of Bose were used to
receive signals consisting of shortwave, white light and ultraviolet light. In 1904 Bose patented
the use of Galena Detector which he called Point Contact Diode using Galena.
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose
Galena crystals
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Mahalanobis distance: Introduced in 1936 by the Indian (Bengali) statistician Prasanta Chandra
Mahalanobis (29 June 1893 June 28, 1972), this distance measure, based upon the correlation
between variables, is used to identify and analyze differing pattern with respect to one base.

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis

154

Mahalanobis distance
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Kosambi-Karhunen-Love theorem: Also known as the KarhunenLove theorem. The

Kosambi-Karhunen-Love theorem is a representation of a stochastic process as an infinite linear
combination of orthogonal functions, analogous to a Fourier series representation of a function on
a bounded interval. Stochastic processes given by infinite series of this form were first considered
by Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi.
Kosambi-Karhunen-Love theorem, Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Mercurous Nitrite: The compound mercurous nitrite was discovered in 1896 by the Bengali
chemist Prafulla Chandra Roy, who published his findings in the Journal of Asiatic Society of
Bengal. The discovery contributed as a base for significant future research in the field of chemistry.
Mercurous Nitrite
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries
155

Ramachandran plot, Ramachandran map, and Ramachandran angles: The Ramachandran

plot and Ramachandran map were developed by Gopalasamudram Narayana Iyer Ramachandran,
who published his results in the Journal of Molecular Biology in 1963. He also developed the
Ramachandran angles, which serve as a convenient tool for communication, representation, and
various kinds of data analysis.
G.N. Ramchandran, Ramchandran Plot
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

156

Raman effect: The Encyclopdia Britannica (2008) reports: "change in the wavelength of light
that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules. The phenomenon is named for Sir
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who discovered it in 1928. When a beam of light traverses a
dust-free, transparent sample of a chemical compound, a small fraction of the light emerges in
directions other than that of the incident (incoming) beam. Most of this scattered light is of
unchanged wavelength. A small part, however, has wavelengths different from that of the incident
light; its presence is a result of the Raman Effect.
C.V.Raman, Raman Effect
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Raychaudhuri equation: Discovered by the Bengali physicist Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri in

1954. This was a key ingredient of the Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems of general relativity.
Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, Raychaudhuri equation
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

157

Saha-ionization equation: The Saha equation, derived by the Bengali scientist Meghnad Saha (6
October 1893 16 February 1956) in 1920, conceptualizes ionizations in context of stellar
atmospheres.

Meghnad Saha, Saha Equation

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

Innovations -

Iron Works - Iron works were developed in the Vedic period of India, around the same time as,
but independently of, Anatolia and the Caucasus. Archaeological sites in India, such as Malhar,
Dadupur, Raja Nala Ka Tila and Lahuradewa in present-day Uttar Pradesh show iron implements
in the period between 1800 BCE1200 BCE.
Early iron objects found in India can be dated to 1400 BCE by employing the
methodof radiocarbondating. Spikes, knives, daggers, arrowheads, bowls, spoons, saucepans,
axes, chisels, tongs, door fittings etc. ranging from 600 BCE to 200 BCE have been discovered
from several archaeological sites of India.

Iron Works
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

158

Ancient India's Contribution to Mathematics

"India

was

the

motherland

of

our

race

and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages.

India

was

the

mother

of

our

philosophy,

of much of our mathematics, of the ideals embodied

in Christianity... of self-government and democracy.
In many ways, Mother India is the mother of us all."
- Will Durant
- American Historian 1885-1981

Mathematics represents a high level of abstraction attained by the human mind. In India,
mathematics has its roots in Vedic literature which is nearly 4000 years old. Between 1000 B.C.
and 1000 A.D. various treatises on mathematics were authored by Indian mathematicians in which
were set forth for the first time, the concept of zero, the techniques of algebra and algorithm, square
root and cube root.
Ancient India map
Source - http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

Despite developing quite independently of Chinese (and

probably also of Babylonian mathematics), some very
advanced mathematical discoveries were made at a very early
time in India. Mantras from the early Vedic period (before
1000 BC) invoke powers of ten from a hundred all the way up
to a trillion, and provide evidence of the use of arithmetic
operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication,
Maths Signs
fractions, squares, cubes and roots.
http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

159

A 4th Century AD Sanskrit text reports Buddha enumerating

numbers up to 10, as well as describing six more numbering
systems over and above these, leading to a number
equivalent to 10. Given that there are an estimated 10 atoms
in the whole universe, this is as close to infinity as any in the
ancient world came. It also describes a series of iterations in
decreasing size, in order to demonstrate the size of an atom,
which comes remarkably close to the actual size of a carbon
atom (about 70 trillionths of a metre).

Cosmic Maths of Buddha

http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

The method of graduated calculation

was documented in the Pancha-Siddhantika
(Five Principles) in the 5th Century
But the technique is said to be dating
from Vedic times circa 2000 B.C.

160

Pancha-Siddhantika (Five Principles)

Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

As in the applied sciences like production

technology, architecture and shipbuilding, Indians
in ancient times also made advances in abstract
sciences like Mathematics and Astronomy. It has
now been generally accepted that the technique of
algebra and the concept of zero originated in India.

Algebra Formulae
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

But it would be surprising for us to know that even the

rudiments of Geometry, called Rekha-Ganita in ancient
India, were formulated and applied in the drafting of
Mandalas for architectural purposes. They were also
displayed in the geometric patterns used in many temple
motifs.
Many motifs in Hindu temples and
Palaces display a mix of floral and
Geometric patterns.

161

Geometrical Patterns
Motifs displayed on TajMahal roof
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

Even the technique of calculation, called algorithm, which

is today widely used in designing soft ware programs
(instructions) for computers was also derived from Indian
mathematics.

Algorithm Table
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

ALGEBRA, THE OTHER MATHEMATICS

In India around the 5th century A.D. a system of mathematics that made astronomical calculations
easy was developed. In those times its application was limited to astronomy as its pioneers were
Astronomers. Astronomical calculations are complex and involve many variables that go into the
derivation of unknown quantities. Algebra is a short-hand method of calculation and by this feature
it scores over conventional arithmetic.

162

In ancient India conventional mathematics

termed Ganitam was known before the
development of algebra. This is borne out by
the name - Bijaganitam, which was given to the
algebraic form of computation. Bijaganitam
means 'the other mathematics' (Bija means
'another' or 'second' and Ganitam means
mathematics).
The fact that this name was chosen for this system of computation implies that it was recognised
as a parallel system of computation, different from the conventional one which was used since the
past and was till then the only one. Some have interpreted the term Bija to mean seed, symbolizing
origin or beginning. And the inference that Bijaganitam was the original form of computation is
derived. Credence is lent to this view by the existence of mathematics in the Vedic literature which
was also shorthand method of computation.
Bijaganit
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

But whatever the origin of algebra, it is certain that this

technique of computation Originated in India and was
current around 1500 years back. Aryabhatta an Indian
mathematican who lived in the 5th century A.D. has
referred to Bijaganitam in his treatise on Mathematics,
Aryabhattiya. An Indian mathematician - astronomer,
Bhaskaracharya has also authored a treatise on this
subject. the treatise which is dated around the 12th century
A.D. is entitled 'Siddhanta-Shiromani' of which one
Aryabhatiya

section is entitled Bijaganitam.

Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

163

Brahmagupta established the basic mathematical rules for

dealing with zero: 1 + 0 = 1; 1 - 0 = 1; and 1 x 0 = 0 (the
breakthrough which would make sense of the apparently
non-sensical operation 1 0 would also fall to an Indian,
the

12th

Century

mathematician

Bhaskara

II). Brahmagupta also established rules for dealing with

negative numbers, and pointed out that quadratic
equations could in theory have two possible solutions, one
of which could be negative. He even attempted to write
down these rather abstract concepts, using the initials of
the names of colours to represent unknowns in his
equations, one of the earliest intimations of what we now
know as algebra.
Brahmaguptas Rules
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

Thus the technique of algebraic computation was known

and was developed in India in earlier times. From the 13th
century onwards, India was subject to invasions from the
Arabs and other Islamised communities like the Turks and
Afghans. Along with these invader: came chroniclers and
critics like Al-beruni who studied Indian society and polity.

Alberuni, critic
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

164

The Indian system of mathematics could not have escaped their

attention. It was also the age of the Islamic Renaissance and the
Arabs generally improved upon the arts and sciences that they
imbibed from the land they over ran during their great Jehad. The
system of mathematics they observed in India was adapted by
them and given the name 'Al-Jabr' meaning 'the reunion of broken
parts'. 'Al' means 'The' & 'Jabr' mean 'reunion'. This name given
by the Arabs indicates that they took it from an external source
and amalgamated it with their concepts about mathematics.

A page from Al-Khwrizm's al-Kitb al-mutaar f isb al-abr wa-l-muqbala

Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

Between the 10th to 13th centuries, the Christian kingdoms of

Europe made numerous attempts to re-conquer the birthplace of
Jesus Christ from its Mohammedan-Arab rulers. These attempts
called the Crusades failed in their military objective, but the
contacts they created between oriental and occidental nations
resulted in a massive exchange of ideas. The technique of algebra
could have passed on to the west at the time.
Crusade
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

165

During the Renaissance in Europe, followed by the industrial

revolution, the knowledge received from the east was further
developed. Algebra as we know it today has lost any
characteristics that betray it eastern origin save the fact that the
tern 'algebra' is a corruption of the term 'Al jabr' which the
Arabs gave to Bijaganitam Incidentally the term Bijaganit is
still use in India to refer to this subject.

Industrial Revolution
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

In the year 1816, an Englishman by the name James

Taylor translated Bhaskara's Leelavati into English. A
second English translation appeared in the following
year (1817) by the English astronomer Henry Thomas
Colebruke. Thus the works of this Indian mathematician
astronomer were made known to the western world
nearly 700 years after he had penned them, although his
ideas had already reached the west through the Arabs
many centuries earlier.

Lilavati book on Algebra by Bhaskaracharya

Henry Thomas Colebruke
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

166

In the words of the Australian Indologist A.L. Basham

(A.L. Basham; The Wonder That was India.) "... the
world owes most to India in the realm of mathematics,
which was developed in the Gupta period to a stage
more advanced than that reached by any other nation of
antiquity. The success of Indian mathematics was
mainly due to the fact that Indians had a clear
conception of the abstract number as distinct from the
numerical quantity of objects or spatial extension."
Thus Indians could take their mathematical concepts to an abstract plane and with the aid of a
simple numerical notation devise a rudimentary algebra as against the Greeks or the ancient
Egyptians who due to their concern with the immediate measurement of physical objects remained
confined to Mensuration and Geometry.
Algebra Formulae
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html
GEOMETRY AND ALGORITHM
But even in the area of Geometry, Indian mathematicians had their contribution. There was an area
of mathematical applications called Rekha Ganita (Line Computation). The Sulva Sutras, which
literally mean 'Rule of the Chord' give geometrical methods of constructing altars and temples.
The temples layouts were called Mandalas. Some of important works in this field are by
Apastamba, Baudhayana, Hiranyakesin, Manava, Varaha and Vadhula.
The Buddhist Pagodas
borrowed their plan of construction
from the geometric grid of the Mandala
used for constructing temples in India
(A majestic Pagoda at Bangkok)

Pagoda in Bangkok
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html
167

The Arab scholar Mohammed Ibn Jubair al Battani studied Indian use of ratios from Retha Ganita
and introduced them among the Arab scholars like Al Khwarazmi, Washiya and Abe Mashar who
incorporated the newly acquired knowledge of algebra and other branches of Indian mathema into
the Arab ideas about the subject.
The chief exponent of this Indo-Arab amalgam in mathematics
was Al Khwarazmi who evolved a technique of calculation from
Indian sources. This technique which was named by westerners
after Al Khwarazmi as "Algorismi" gave us the modern term
Algorithm, which is used in computer software.

Al-Khwarizmi
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

Algorithm which is a process of calculation based on decimal

notation numbers. This method was deduced by Khwarazmi
from the Indian techniques geometric computation which he had
studied. Al Khwarizmi's work was translated into Latin under
the title "De Numero Indico" which means 'of Indian Numerals'
thus betraying its Indian origin. This translation which belongs
to the 12th century A.D credited to one Adelard who lived in a
town called Bath in Britain.

168

Thus Al Khwarazmi and Adelard could be looked upon as pioneers who transmit Indian numerals
to the west. Incidents according to the Oxford Dictionary, word algorithm which we use in the
English language is a corruption of the name Khwarazmi which literally means '(a person) from
Khawarizm', which was the name of the town where Al Khwarizmi lived. Today unfortunately',
the original Indian texts that Al Khwarazmi studied are lost to us, only the translations are
available.
Al-Khwarizmis geometrical demonstrations

Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

The Arabs borrowed so much from India the field of

mathematics that even the subject of mathematics in
Arabic came to known as Hindsa which means 'from
India and a mathematician or engineer in Arabic is
called Muhandis which means 'an expert in
Mathematics'. The word Muhandis possibly derived
from the Arabic term mathematics viz. Hindsa.
Arabic Numerals
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

The Concept of Zero

The concept of zero also originated in ancient India. This concept
may seem to be a very ordinary one and a claim to its discovery
may be viewed as queer. But if one gives a hard thought to this
concept it would be seen that zero is not just a numeral. Apart from
being a numeral, it is also a concept, and a fundamental one at that.
It is fundamental because, terms to identify visible or perceptible
objects do not require much ingenuity.
But a concept and symbol that connotes nullity represents a qualitative advancement of the human
capacity of abstraction. In absence of a concept of zero there could have been only positive
numerals in computation, the inclusion of zero in mathematics opened up a new
169

dimension of negative numerals and gave a cut off point and a standard in the measurability of
qualities whose extremes are as yet unknown to human beings, such as temperature.
Zero
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html
In ancient India this numeral was used in computation, it
was indicated by a dot and was termed Pujyam. Even today
we use this term for zero along with the more current term
Shunyam meaning a blank. But queerly the term Pujyam
also means holy. Param-Pujya is a prefix used in written
communication with elders. In this case it means respected
or esteemed. The reason why the term Pujya - meaning
blank - came to be sanctified can only be guessed.
Bindu
Source: http://www.storyofmathematics.com/indian.html

Indian philosophy has glorified concepts like the material world being an illusion Maya), the act
of renouncing the material world (Tyaga) and the goal of merging into the void of eternity
(Nirvana). Herein could lie the reason how the mathematical concept of zero got a philosophical
connotation of reverence.
In a queer way the concept of 'Zero' or Shunya is derived from
the concept of a void. The concept of void existed in Hindu
Philosophy. Hence, the derivation of a symbol for it. The concept
of Shunyata, influenced South-east Asian culture through
the Buddhist concept of Nirvana' attaining salvation by
merging into the void of eternity'(Ornate Entrance of a
Void

Buddhist temple in Laos)

Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

170

It is possible that like the technique of algebra; the concept of zero also reached the west through
the Arabs. In ancient India the terms used to describe zero included Pujyam, Shunyam, Bindu the
concept of a void or blank was termed as Shukla and Shubra.
The Arabs refer to the zero as Siphra or Sifr from
which we have the English terms Cipher or
Cypher. In English the term Cipher connotes zero
or any Arabic numeral. Thus it is evident that the
term Cipher is derived from the Arabic Sifr which
in turn is quite close to the Sanskrit term Shubra.

Sifr, zero
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

In the earlier Roman and Babylonian systems of numeration,

a large number of characters were required to denote higher
numerals. Thus enumeration and computation became
unwieldy. For instance, as E the Roman system of
numeration, the number thirty would have to be written as X:
while as per the decimal system it would 30, further the
number thirty three would be XXXIII as per the Roman
system, would be 33 as per the decimal system. Thus it is
clear how the introduction of the decimal system made
possible the writing of numerals having a high value with
limited characters. This also made computation easier.
Decimal System
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

171

Apart from developing the decimal system based on the

incorporation of zero in enumeration, Brahmagupta also
arrived at solutions for indeterminate equations of 1 type
ax2+1=y2 and thus can be called the founder of higher branch
of mathematics called numerical analysis. Brahmagupta's
treatise Brahma-sputa-Siddhanta was translated into Arabic
under the title Sind Hind).
A page from the book Brahma-sputa-Siddhanta
Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

For several centuries this translation remained a standard text of reference in the Arab
world. It was from this translation of an Indian text on Mathematics that the Arab
mathematicians perfected the decimal system and gave the world its current system of
enumeration which we call the Arab numerals, which are originally Indian numerals.
The so-called Golden Age of Indian mathematics can be said to extend from the 5th to 12th
Centuries, and many of its mathematical discoveries predated similar discoveries in the West by
several centuries, which has led to some claims of plagiarism by later European mathematicians,
at least some of whom were probably aware of the earlier Indian work. Certainly, it seems that
Indian contributions to mathematics have not been given due acknowledgement until very recently
in modern history.

172

Golden

Age

Indian

mathematicians

made

fundamental advances in the theory of trigonometry,

a method of linking geometry and numbers first
developed by the Greeks. They used ideas like the
sine, cosine and tangent functions (which relate the
angles of a triangle to the relative lengths of its sides)
to survey the land around them, navigate the seas and
even chart the heavens. For instance, Indian
astronomers used trigonometry to calculate the
relative distances between the Earth and the Moon
and the Earth and the Sun.
They realized that, when the Moon is half full and directly opposite the Sun, then the Sun, Moon
and Earth form a right angled triangle, and were able to accurately measure the angle as 17. Their
sine tables gave a ratio for the sides of such a triangle as 400:1, indicating that the Sun is 400 times
further away from the Earth than the Moon.

Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/maths.html

Although the Greeks had been able to calculate the sine function of some angles, the Indian
astronomers wanted to be able to calculate the sine function of any given angle. A text called the
Surya Siddhanta, by unknown authors and dating from around 400 AD, contains the roots of
modern trigonometry, including the first real use of sines, cosines, inverse sines, tangents and
secants.

173

As early as the 6th Century AD, the great Indian

mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata produced
categorical definitions of sine, cosine, versine and
inverse sine, and specified complete sine and versine
tables, in 3.75 intervals from 0 to 90, to an accuracy
of 4 decimal places. Aryabhata also demonstrated
solutions to simultaneous quadratic equations, and
produced

an

approximation

for

the

value

of equivalent to 3.1416, correct to four decimal

places. He used this to estimate the circumference of
the Earth, arriving at a figure of 24,835 miles, only 70
miles off its true value.
But, perhaps even more astonishing, he seems to have been aware that is an irrational number,
and that any calculation can only ever be an approximation, something not proved in Europe until
1761.
Aryabhatt estimated the circumference of the Earth
Source: http://www.storyofmathematics.com/indian.html

Bhaskara II, who lived in the 12th Century, was one of

the

most

accomplished

of

all

Indias

great

mathematicians. He is credited with explaining the

previously misunderstood operation of division by zero.
He noticed that dividing one into two pieces yields a
half, so 1 12 = 2. Similarly, 1 13 = 3. So, dividing 1
by smaller and smaller factions yields a larger and larger
number of pieces. Ultimately, therefore, dividing one
into pieces of zero size would yield infinitely many
pieces, indicating that 1 0 = (the symbol for infinity).
174

Infinity as a reciprocal to Zero

However, Bhaskara II also made important contributions to

many different areas of mathematics from solutions of

quadratic, cubic and quadric equations (including negative and

irrational solutions) to solutions of Diophantine equations of
the second order to preliminary concepts of infinitesimal
calculus and mathematical analysis to spherical trigonometry
and other aspects of Trigonometry.

Some of his findings predate similar discoveries in Europe by several centuries, and he made
important contributions in terms of the systemization of (then) current knowledge and improved
methods for known solutions.

Cubic Equation
http://www.storyofmathematics.com/indian.html

Ancient India's Contribution to

ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING
"The Indian way of life
provides the vision of the natural, real way of life.
We veil ourselves with unnatural masks.
On the face of India are the tender expressions
which carry the mark of the Creators hand. "
- George Bernard Shaw, Famous British Author
175

The Science of Architecture and Civil Construction was known in Ancient India as SthapatyaShastra. The word Sthapatya is derived from the root word Sthapana i.e. 'to establish'. The
technique of arhitecture was both a science and an art, hence it is also known as Sthapatya-kala,
the word Kala means an art.
Source - http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/arch.html

Panel at Khajuraho
created in the 10th century
in Madhya Pradesh
in Central India
Khajuraho
From very early times the construction of temples, palaces, rest houses and other civil construction
were undertaken by professional architects known as Sthapati. Even during the Vedic times, there
existed professionals who specialised in the technique of constructing chariots and other heavy
instruments of war. These professionals have been referred to in the Rig Veda as Rathakara which
literally means 'chariot maker'.

The excavations of the ruins at Mohenjodaro and

Harrappa (today in Pakistan) proved the existence of a
developed urban civilisation in India. The Indus Valley
civilization is dated around 3000 B.C. Thus since the last
5000 years India has had an urban civilisation. The
existence of an urban civilization presumes the existence
of well developed techniques of architecture and
construction.
These techniques would no doubt have had been systematically stated in record books for
transmitting them to the later generations as well for being used as reference media for actual
construction. Unfortunately, as far as the Indus Valley civilization goes no such records have been
176

preserved either as rock edicts, manuscripts, etc., or in folk tales and legends. But the fact that
cities on the scale of Mohenjodaro had been constructed bear testimony to the existence of a
systematised and highly developed technique of architecture 5000 years ago.
Ruins at Mohenjodaro and Harrappa

Boddhisattvas (huge Buddha Statues)

at Bamiyan in Afghanistan
These statues were carved out of this hillside
in the 1st Century under the patronage of the
Kushana emperor Kanishka
(These are the statues which the Taliban has vowed
to blow up)

Buddha statue in Afghanistan

However the huge Boddhisattvas (statues of Buddha) that were cut out of rock faces covering
entire mountain faces and cliffs, have survived human and natural ravages and can be seen even
today at Bamiyan in Afghanistan. During Kushana times, Central Asia was a part of the Kushana
empire. Indian art blended with Greek and Kushana styles, and spread into central Asia.

But in the later ages, from about the 7th century B.C., we
have both literature references as well as archaeological
evidences to prove the existence of large urban civilizations
in the Ganges Valley. Like in most other sciences, even
remotely connected with religion, in architecture also the
scientific ideas and techniques have been integrated with
philosophy and theology.
177

This was so as the majority of the large constructions were temples. As the construction of Hindu
temples rarely used mortar but used a technique where the stones could be affixed to one another
with the force of gravity. The technique followed in doing this was similar to the one used in the
Roman Aqueducts. The exquisite carvings were engraved after the stones had been fixed in their
places. Thus the carving of figurines right up to the top of a temples roof must have been a
demanding task.

Another
panel
from
Khajuraho
Note the intricate and fine outline
of the figurines carved. The temples were
completed over a period of 200 years

Such carvings are especially seen in the Gopurams i.e. roofs over the south Indian temples and on
the tall doorways to the temples. The Raj-Gopurams or main roofs of such temples rise to a height
of nearly 90 to 100 ft. and are fully carved with various figurines depicting gods and goddesses
from the Hindu pantheon.

Borobudur in Indonesia
is a temple complex devoted to Buddha
This complex was built in the 7th Century
Borobudur means "Big Buddha"

178

Source: http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/arch.html
INDIAN ARCHITECTURAL TRADITION OVERSEAS

Indian techniques of art and architecture spread both

westwards and eastwards. During the reign of Ashoka;
Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Seistan were parts of the
Mauryan Empire. Buddhist Stupas were constructed in
these Mauryan provinces. Unfortunately, very few of
them have survived till today.
Mauryan Stupa
Thus India's cultural frontiers at one time extended upto Balkh (referred to as Vahalika in Vedic
texts) on the river Oxus (Akshu) and beyond, and played an important role in shaping the art
traditions which flourished between the 1st and the 8th centuries in Central Asia.
The Gandhara school of art of Afghanistan and Central Asia was actually derived from Indian art
styles. In fact even the portrait art of the Oxus region claimed by some scholars to have been an
independent school is actually an extension of Indian art forms.
Besides Central Asia, the whole of Southeast Asia received most its art and architectural traditions
from India. Alongwith Buddhism, Indian art and architecture also travelled to countries like
Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma as also to China, Korea and
Japan. Sri Lanka being on our back door was heavily influenced by Indian art and architecture.

The Mandala was a blueprint

for any Vastu (edifice)
Vastu-Shastra was an amalgam
of architecture and theology

179

The Stupas in Sri Lanka which belong to the period from 3rd Century B.C. to 4th century A.D
follow the Indian pattern of a hemispherical Stupa shaped like an egg and called Anda, as
referred to earlier in the chapter.

The inter-locking dome of the Stupa

was to be the prototype for
the Domes (over Mosques and churches)
that were built later by Romans and Arabs

The Dome of the Mosques in Islamic Architecture is derived from the Stupa
The hemispherical construction of the stupas also seems to have influenced Byzantine architecture
perhaps through Pre-Islamic, Sassanian Persia. The famous Sophia mosque at Istanbul overlooking
the Bosphorous Straits has domes which closely resemble the Buddhist Stupa. In fact th minarets
in the mosque were erected late when the Ottoman Turks captured Istanbul (then called
Constantinople) from the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century.
The dome over this Mosque at Istanbul has
borrowed the technique from the Indian Stupa
The mosque, incidentally was built as a Church
But was later converted into a mosque by the
conquering Ottoman Turks

Mosque at Islanbul

180

One can imagine that without the minarets, the mosque, which was originally a Christian Cathedral
must have looked very much like a Stupa. In fact this style of architecture also influenced Islamic
architecture. The dome mosques in all Muslim countries perhaps have borrowed the style of having
dome from the Anda of the Buddhist Stupa.
Indian influences have also felt in Europe Christian Basilicas
have similarities with the Buddhist Stupas. Their mosaics
seem have borrowed ideas from, the Buddhist chaityas.
Indian motifs can also be traced in Gothic sculpture in the
carvings in the cathedrals of Bayeux, Achen and Trier.
Though this influence has been indirect and slight, its
existence cannot be denied. But the more pervading
influence of Indian art and architecture through Buddhism
St .Peters Basilica

was in countries of south-east Asia.

Bernard Groslier

Bernard Groslier the author of the section on

'Indochina' in the 'Art of the World Series'
He has made the following observations about the influence of Indian Art "It was one of the most important civilising movements of the ancient times, worthy to compare
with the Hellenisation of the Mediterranean world. And India can justly be proud to have spread
the light of her understanding over such distant lands, which without her might have remained in
darkness". The regions to which Bernard Groslier is referring to are the countries of south-east
Asia. Many architectural and art forms in these countries display a clear Indian influence.

Bernard Groslier
181

One instance is the famous 108 metre high statue of

Buddha at Dong Duong which closely resembles the
Amravati sculptures. The presence of curly hair
especially, indicates Indian origin in a country where
people have straight hair.

108 metre high statue of Buddha at Dong Duong

In the Bali islands in Indonesia many idols of

Ganesha have been found. The people of Bali
call themselves Hindus.

Manjangan (Ganesha) temple in Bali

Source - http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/india_contribution/arch.html

182

It is due to the immense contribution of India in the field of Mathematics, Science and Art that
the great Mark Twain must have remarked -

India is the Cradle of Human Race,

The Birthplace of Human Speech,
The Mother of History
The Grandmother of Legend and
The Great Grandmother of Tradition.
Our most Valuable and Constructive
Materials in the History of Man
Are treasured up in India only

*********************************

183