Name: Vedic Science & History: Ancient India's Contributions to the Modern World
Rating: 3.92 (3 reviews)

Dr.J.G.

2,142 reviews27 followers

June 16, 2022

"Real Knowledge

"We suggest that a body of knowledge does exist which provides sufficient explanation of the nature and origin of the universe and the living organisms that inhabit it. We refer to the ancient Sanskrit Vedic literatures of India, an internally and externally verifiable and consistent presentation of information. Herein we find profuse descriptions of an intelligent creator and his creation.

"Perhaps the most well known of these literatures, The Bhagavad Gita explains the nature of the conscious spiritual spark, atma as an indweller in the bodies of various species and it’s journey to other bodies after the death of it’s present body according to the laws of karma. The living entity has free choice to act properly or improperly and receives the resultant good and bad reactions in terms of success and failure, happiness and distress.

"Also encoded within this vast body of literature is a description of the process of bhakti-yoga, a process for obtaining enlightenment and rising beyond the ordinary platform of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. The essence of these teachings may be found in the Bhagavad Gita.[105]
***

"In ancient India, mathematics served as a bridge between understanding material reality and the spiritual conception."

"The adoption of zero and the decimal place-value system from India unbarred the gates of the mind to rapid progress in arithmetic and algebra."

"Marco Polo has written of India as, “the richest and noblest country in the world.” A significant number of famous writers and high thinkers, such as Emerson, Thoreau, Schopenhauer, and Sagan, have praised the Vedas and Vedic culture as the inspiration for many of the higher philosophical and scientific concepts the world has known. The knowledge of the Vedic literatures profoundly influenced the writings of the 19th Century authors Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau – so much so that they became known as ‘The American Transcendentalists.’ Even the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, a central figure in modern philosophy, suggested that, “mankind together with all science must have originated on the roof of the world (the Himalayas).”

"Voltaire, the famous French writer and philosopher, stated that, “Pythagoras went to the Ganges to learn geometry,” and professor emeritus Abraham Seidenberg, acclaimed historian of mathematics, credits the early Shulba Sutras as inspiring all mathematics of the ancient world from Babylonia to Egypt to Greece. Indeed India is credited with a great many significant additions to science, such as the Pythagorean Theorem, the decimal numbering system, the introduction of zero and the concept of infinity, to name a few of them.

"The binary number system, essential for computers, was originally used in Vedic verse metres a millennia ago. Also, in South Indian musicology we find a simple hashing technique, a precursor to modern search algorithms, such as that developed by Google.

"Noted scientist and writer Carl Sagan stated, “Vedic Cosmology is the only one in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology.” ... "
***

"Michael Danino, in his excellent article Genetics and the Aryan Debate,[25][26] presents the conclusions of nine major studies done by 114 authors from 1999 to 2006, studying the mutations of genetic markers ‘haplotypes’ referring to an individual’s genetic fingerprint and the haplogroups (DNA of particular ethnic groups) to establish a ‘genetic distance’ between different populations. His conclusions state –

"None of the nine major studies quoted above lends any support to it (differences between North and South Indians or higher and lower castes within the invasionist framework), and none proposes to define a demarcation line between tribe and caste. The overall picture emerging from these studies is, first, an unequivocal rejection of a 3500 BP arrival of a ‘Caucasoid’ or Central Asian gene pool. Just as the imaginary Aryan invasion / migration left no trace in Indian literature, in the archaeological and the anthropological record, it is invisible at the genetic level…"

"In simple terms, except for Africans, all humans have ancestors in the North-West of the Indian peninsula. In particular, one migration started around 50000 BP towards the Middle East and Western Europe: indeed, nearly all Europeans — and by extension, many Americans — can trace their ancestors to only four mtDNA lines, which appeared between 10000 and 50000 years ago and originated from South Asia.[27]"

So far so good, but then author makes a horrendous mistake.

"All this suggests that (the haplogroup) M17 could have found his way initially from India or Pakistan, through Kashmir, then via Central Asia and Russia, before finally coming into Europe.[28]"

He's mentioning a so-called nation that never existed even in name, until British divided India in a bid to fracture India as per Macaulay policy, and has been ever since then a combination of two horrible things - one, a jihadist factory, and two, a military base for an expensive free use by West.
***

" ... When the British indologist Sir William Jones discovered the common roots of Sanskrit and the European languages, his Eurocentric world view and religious bias would not allow him to admit that Indo-European languages originate from Sanskrit.

"It is of no surprise that early indologists and historians credited European culture to be the origin of Vedic civilisation. Yet history refuses to be kind to these scholars, as archaeological, scientific, genetic, cultural and numerous evidence from other disciplines continues to mount against their erroneous ‘Aryan Invasion Theory.’ Such scientifically verified evidence, in consistent agreement with statements in Vedic literatures, also indicates a cultural continuity in Indian civilisation, thought, philosophy, metaphysics and socio-religious traditions, stretching back from millennia to the present day.

"Even Max Muller, the principal architect of the Aryan Invasion Theory, was forced to admit that his chronology of Indian history was arbitrary and speculative at best, adding further doubt to the Aryan Invasion hypothesis. Whereas the scientific and cultural contributions of China, Greece and Babylon are famous and well documented, those of India have been greatly overlooked in spite of the now overwhelming evidence supporting the Vedic conclusions. Indeed it almost seems that some indologists and historians have deliberately neglected India’s ancient traditions."
***

" ... Astronomical references to planets and constellations in Vedic literatures, calculated with modern planetarium software, indicate the development of an indigenous civilisation in India prior to 7000 BCE, in continuous existence up to the present.

"Volumes of archaeological data support the astronomical, ecological, genetic and anthropological conclusions that the highly advanced civilisation of the Aryans were originals of India largely unchanged for the last 10000 years. Innumerable descriptions of geology, agriculture, cultural/religious rituals & customs, architecture, etc. within the Vedas and Epics are in concert with present day observations and analysis of the same activities, thereby supporting the continuity of this civilisation and refuting the discredited Aryan Invasion Theory.

"Corroboration of such dating is also supported by references found in ancient historical works relating to the fluctuations of the water volumes of ancient rivers as well as by satellite remote sensing and Paleo-climatic research. Oceanographical research analyzing the microorganisms found in layers in sea beds reveal very accurate measurements of sea level fluctuations over millennia, further corroborating such findings.

"Paleo-botanic research shows the continuous cultivation of plants, herbs and trees, mentioned in the Vedas and Epics, uninterrupted for more than eight to ten thousand years. Such continuity as corroborated by so many disciplines negates the idea of an invasion of foreign influence. Anthropological research has established that DNA dating for Paleolithic continuity starts from 60000 BCE and that the genetic profile of humans across India has not changed in the last 11000 years and does not match the genetic profile of Central Asians or Europeans.
................................................................................................

"The Pope & Fibonacci Try to Introduce the Indian Decimal Number System into Europe

"It is astonishing how many years passed before the Indian numeral system finally gained full acceptance in the rest of the world. There are indications that it reached southern Europe perhaps as early as 500 CE, but with Europe mired in the Dark Ages, few paid any attention. The first surviving example of the Indian numerals in document form in Europe was, however, long before the time of Al-Banna in the 14th Century. The Indian numerals appear in the Codex Vigilanus copied by a monk in Spain in 976.[60]

"Significantly, the main part of Europe was not ready at that time to accept new ideas of any kind. Acceptance was slow, even as late as the 15th Century when European mathematics began it’s rapid development, which continues today.

"During this time counting tables were used by ‘bankers’ in medieval Italian cities for exchanging currencies. If they cheated their table would be broken and this banker was then know as rukta or broken (banka-rukta), an early version of the modern word ‘bankrupt.’"

Was "rukta" a word borrowed from West Asia?

"That the European monks depicted Indian numerals in a variety of orientations is clear evidence that they did not understand the usefulness of place-value number systems. Calculations in Europe were still made on calculation boards. Among the first uses of the Indian system in Europe was the introduction of Indian numerals for checker board calculations by Gerbert d’Aurillac, who became Pope Sylvester II in 999. When he encountered Indian numerals in Arabic manuscripts held in a Spanish monastery, he introduced round tokens with Indian numerals to his calculation board.

"However, this system encountered stiff resistance in part from accountants who did not want their craft rendered obsolete and to clerics who were aghast to hear that the Pope had traveled to Islamic lands to study this foreign method. Because of this Islamic connection it was widely rumored that he was a sorcerer, and that he had sold his soul to Lucifer during his travels. This accusation persisted until 1648, when papal authorities reopened Sylvester’s tomb to make sure that his body had not been infested by Satanic forces.[61]

"The early Christian world view was largely a product of Aristotelian conceptions, where the Earth was the centre of the universe, set in motion by an ‘unmoved mover,’ or God. Because there was no place for a void in this cosmology it followed that the concept of zero and everything associated with it was a godless concept. Eastern philosophies however, rooted in ideas of eternal cycles of creation and destruction, had no such qualms.

"Leonardo of Pisa, also known as Fibonacci, the young son of an Italian diplomat, who is now regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, discovered the ‘Arabic numerals’ in the port of Bijaya, Algeria. The Indo-Arabic system was re-introduced to Europe by Fibonacci, in his 1202 CE book, Liber Abaci (Book of the Abacus or Book of Calculating), which was a showcase for the Indian numerals, with emphasis on it’s usage by merchants.[62]"

"Bijaya" is Bengali form of the Sanskrit word 'Vijaya'! Evidence of India's influence in West?

Influence of India to South and East, particularly Southeast, is known. Vietnam and Cambodia, as reported by Marco Polo, were three kingdoms of which at least two had Sanskrit names, Champa and Vijaya.

"Although this work persuaded many European mathematicians of the day to use this ‘new’ system, usage of the ten digit positional system remained limited for many years, in part because the scheme continued to be considered ‘diabolical,’ due to the mistaken impression that it originated in the Arab world, in spite of Fibonacci’s clear descriptions of the ‘nine Indian figures’ plus zero.[63]"

And yet they were wrongly called Arabic instead of Indian numerals! Racism?

"Decimal arithmetic began to be widely used by scientists beginning in the 1400s, and was employed, for instance, by Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton, but it was not universally used in European commerce until after the French Revolution in 1793.[64]

"Nicolas Copernicus, said to be the founder of modern astronomy, in his great work De Revolutionibus, published not long before his death in 1543, presented his ‘heretical’ idea that the earth rotated on it’s axis and traveled around the sun once yearly. This went against the philosophical and religious beliefs that the Catholic Church and all of Europe had held during medieval times.[65]

"Copernicus never knew the great stir his work caused, but two other renowned Italian scientists, Galileo Galilei and Giordano Bruno, wholeheartedly supported Copernicus’ system and suffered greatly at the hands of the Church’s inquisitors for daring to oppose the Church’s views and stultifying authority.

"Both were tortured extensively, Bruno for daring to go even beyond Copernicus to claim that space was boundless and that the sun and it’s planets were but one of any number of similar systems. Bruno, after eight years in chains, was burned at the stake—his life a testimony to the drive for knowledge and truth that marked the incredible period of the Renaissance.

"The old and frail Galileo was put in prison for the duration of his life. Nearly 400 years later the Catholic Church grudgingly admitted that Galileo was right."

But not that church was wrong, much less apology for burning Giordano Bruno at stake, never mind going as far as penance?

"The usage of this streamlined decimal number system of counting was not easily accepted in the rest of Christian dominated Europe either. Florence, Italy, banned the usage of this new number system in 1299 CE. Such attitudes forced the continued universal usage of the awkward and difficult Roman numerals."

And yet, Europe claimed racial superiority to India, so much so they invented Aryan Invasion Theory modified to Aryan Migration Theory, when they saw superiority of Sanskrit language and culture.

Was this assumption of superiority indicative if congenital idiocy, or incurably and presumptuously fraudulent character?

"However, use of the calculation board and of the abacus coexisted with the Indian number system for centuries. Because most people in medieval Europe were illiterate (in addition to superstitious) and the Indian calculation method required the writing down of numbers, the abacus remained the preferred tool in commerce and administration. Science, on the other hand, adopted the Indian place-value number system early."

And yet they accused India - fraudulently - of every fault of their own conduct and attitude.

"Despite many scholars finding calculating with Indian symbols helpful in their work, the business community continued to use their finger arithmetic throughout the 10th Century. Abu’l-Wafa, who was himself an expert in the use of Indian numerals, nevertheless wrote a text on how to use finger-reckoning arithmetic since this was the system used by the business community and teaching material aimed at these people had to be written using the appropriate system.[66]

"The parallel use of competing systems for calculation and measurement is not an unusual occurrence. The use of the Fahrenheit temperature scale by the public of the USA and the Celsius temperature scale by the scientists of the USA is another current example. Scientists like Copernicus, Brahe and Kepler understood the superiority of the Indian number system over the Roman numbers and used it for their detailed observations and calculations. Medieval publications demonstrate the use of the Indian method parallel to the use of the abacus and calculation boards during their time."

And other differences of measures such as pounds and gallons vs liter and kilo, miles vs km, and so on, are still prevalent.

"When James Cook in 1776 planned the voyage that brought him to Australia, the financial commitment was comparable to the commitment made by the USA and the USSR to get a man to the moon. Yet the Colonial Office prepared his budget with tokens on a checker board."

Australia and India distracted UK enough to allow US gain independence!

"The use of the abacus or calculation board for administrative purposes continued in Europe until 1791, when the French National Assembly, which was set up through the French Revolution two years earlier, adopted the Indian calculation method for France and banned the use of the abacus from schools and government offices. Government offices in England continued to calculate taxes on calculation boards for another decade.

"The Catholic Church had always regarded charging interest on loans as sinful but with the Reformation in the late Middle Ages, the Church became business friendly, dropping it’s rejection of capitalism. With this new interest in capitalism and the necessity of calculating interest and compound interest, the old Roman numeral system failed badly and the new system was finally accepted. This also allowed European ships to sail afield once they were able to calculate their position consistently and easily."

That's the key reformation? Not repentance about murders committed by church?

"Finally, the Copernican revolution shook European mathematics free from the shackles of Aristotelian cosmology. René Descartes in the 17th Century invented his Cartesian coordinate system of positive and negative numbers with zero at it’s centre. This combined algebra and geometry and led the way to calculus and a complete acceptance of the decimal number system in the western world.[67]

"India pioneered almost every field of mathematics, from the numeral system and arithmetical principles of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, to the invention of zero and the notion of infinity, to the power and place value and decimal systems, geometry and many of the theorems traditionally attributed and named after the Greeks or other Europeans.

"Algebra, trigonometry and even significant parts of calculus, were all developed by Indians to a significant degree of finesse, long before any country or individual that the Europeans have credited."
***

"Vast amounts of data from archaeological excavations prove the indigenous origins and development of civilisation within India since 7000 BCE."

Vedic Science & History: Ancient India's Contributions to the Modern World

Swami B.B. Vishnu

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Swami B.B. Vishnu

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