Sunday 29 November 2015

India - the precursor

India - the precursor
I am zapped. As time passes, you discover that so many things, which one thought, are western in origin, are actually, made in India. The lip kiss is described in a 3500 year old Sanskrit manuscript and it is the oldest known mention of the lip kiss anywhere in the entire world. Previously I thought that only the concept of ZERO, originated in India. At least, that was what our school books said. But as you grows older, you are more and more, enlightened. So at a certain age, long ago, I came to know that, the art of making love, was immortalised in the Indian classic called Kama sutra. Not only was it written down, but was illustrated in all glory as well sculptured, in ancient India.
The same thing about plastic surgery. Again it was a surprise that rhinoplasty (nose surgery) and other plastic surgeries used to be conducted in ancient India. It was described in a well known treatise by Sushruta.
Humans took to flight due to the pioneering work of the Wright brothers. But there are descriptions of flights in many Indian classics like Ramayana and Mahabharata!! And these descriptions are so detailed that you are forced to believe, describing how the world is seen from the air. Vaimanic shastra by maharishi Bharadwaj is easily available on the net.
And what about the atom bomb? Again there are descriptions in Mahabharata, about weapons which were so lethal that they could annihilate thousands upon thousands of fighters in an instant. Again the descriptions are uncannily similar to the havoc caused by the nuclear weapons. There are descriptions of great fireballs, mushroom clouds, people being incinerated, nails falling off, etc.
Extraction of zinc from its ore was an Indian monopoly, no one else in the world knew how to do it. Talking of metals and metallurgy, no one yet knows how the non-rusting iron pillar was manufactured since it has never been done in modern times!!
The world goes gaga over the engineering excellence required for constructing the pyramids. But just imagine the engineering excellence required for constructing the Ellora temple in Aurangabad. It has been excavated out starting from the top of a huge stone hill!! Just imagine how it could have been done... No one can, it's so intricate and perfect. And in the nearby Ajanta caves, one huge cave has been made, again by the same method of excavation of rock, and the sun shines exactly on the stupa, through the high windows carved near the entrance, exactly on the summer and the winter solstice. That's amazing, isn't it!
So be proud that you belong to this amazing country called India.
Yatin

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