Hot Masala Today at Kauai Aadheenam

September 06, 1998 - Shubha

Not much news flowing in from the outside today. but we got this fascinating input on India which was posted on the Hinduism forum of AOL.

Don't know if all these facts are true, posted by VN Sharma (sharmav@aol.com), another poster on Hinduism Board wrote encyclopedia britannica (1962) says diamonds were found in Brazil in 1725.

Facts about India.
(A Learning Lesson for the Teachers of History)

1. India never invaded any country in her last 10,000 years of history.
2. India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta..
3. The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700. BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects..
4. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century CE was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education. .
5. Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for the computer software - a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987. .
6. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization. .
7. Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by her wealth. .
8. The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAV Gatih. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'. .
9. Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the Sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days. .
10. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians. .
11. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were propounded by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10**12(10 to the power of 12). .
12. According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world. .
13. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi. .
14. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra. According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake aptly called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time. .
15. Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India. .
16. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts. .
17. When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization). .
18. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

QUOTES ABOUT INDIA

Albert Einstein said:.
We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

Mark Twain said:.
India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

French scholar Romain Rolland said:.
If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said:.
India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border

We learned the other day that Kate Winslet, star actress in the Titanic movie, just returned home from filming a new movie in India and has fallen in love with the bindi, now wearing one herself. Of course now all girls will just HAVE to wear the bindi too. A journalist from the Baltimore Sun called our editor, interviewing him about the Hindu view of the bindi phenomenon, which is sweeping across America, with young teenage girls wearing the cool dot. But they wear it in sometimes strange ways, on their cheek or hand, on their tummy or foot. The writer wanted to know if Hindus are offended by this unorthodox use, and openly said she was surprised to hear that Hindus do not take offense, though we may have a chuckle about it all.

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