"If
there is one place on the face of this 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."-
Romain Rolland - French Philosopher 1886-1944.
Hindu
Contribution aims at disproving the generally held belief
that in Ancient times India had only been a land of spiritual
development with modest achievements as far as material
culture goes. In the opinion of many Westerners as well
as some educated Indians, ancient India was only a land
of sages, seers, Hermits and philosophers or Sadhus, Sanyasis,
Rishis and Gurus as they are called. But though spiritual
philosophies did flower in India, they were not the only
contribution of India to human civilization.
The
impression that India is only a land of spiritual development
exists because India has been the birthplace of non-temporal
values and attitudes like renunciation, meditation, the
physico-psychic discipline of Yoga, the concepts of non-violence
(Ahimsa), Equality among religions that has found its expression
in our outlook of religious tolerance 'Sarva Dharma Samabhava',
etc.
Even
in today's world we see spiritual movements like Ramakrishna
Mission, ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness),
Chinmaya Mission, etc., originating in India and spreading
Internationally. These movements flourish especially in
the Western seem to countries. Thousands of westerners flock
to India for spiritual enlightenment. The influence of Swami
Vivekananda on the west is well known.
India
has had a long tradition of spiritual development and since ancient times,
foreigners especially the Greeks have been enamored of it. Many foreigners
who came to India as invaders and traders embraced Indian religions like
Buddhism and Hinduism and were absorbed intoIndian society. Apart from
theGreeks (Yavanas), they included Persians (Para-shakas or Para-shikas
- forerunners of
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present day Parsis), Huns (Hunas) and Mongols (Kushanas). Many emperors
looked upon as Indians were actually of foreign origin. Notable among
them were Milinda or Menander who was a Greek, Kanishka who was a Kushana
(Mongol) and Rudradaman who was a Shaka (Scythian).
But,
India also has a fair share in enriching the world's material culture.
It is not well know that among other things; the distillation of perfumes,
the making of dyes, the extraction of sugar, the weaving of cotton (muslin)
cloth, and even the techniques of algebra and algorithm, the concept of
zero, the technique of surgery, the concepts of atom and relativity, the
principle of magnetism actually utilized in making a Mariner's Compass,
the herbal system of medicine, the technique of alchemy, the smelting
of metals.
Even the game of Chess, the martial art of Karate, etc., are to be found
in ancient India and there are evidences which indicate that they might
have originated here. But while doing this it has to be acknowledged that
in the last millennium India has been a borrower of the ingredients of
material culture.
But in antiquity when, with the exception of Greece and Rome, the West
constituted the under-developed world, India had attained a high level
of material culture, which was contemporary with the civilizations of
Egypt and Mesopotamia. Upto the end of the first millennium A.D., India
was way ahead of the developed countries of today.
All
this is not being said here, with the intention of justifying the slackening
of our material pragress, but to make it evident that deep in our history
the inhabitants of this country have some great achievements to their
credit.
But lost as they are in the hazy past, coupled with our country today
being painted as a borrower of technology, expertise, commodities, etc.,
from the developed west, makes it doubly difficult for us to lay claim
to the heritage, howsoever infinitesimal, that we have bequeathed to the
world's culture in earlier times. In this channel we have taken a few
of these issues and trace the roots of their origin, development and transmission
the world over.
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