Pride of India
Creating awareness about the knowledge heritage of India definitely
leads to emerge Pride and self belief .
Self esteem is one of the important factors in the
personality development of an individual, community or nation. Enhancement of self-esteem
of a nation happens by understanding its past as well as present achievements
and strength and passing the same to next generation.
Today the scientific literature in Sanskrit available to us
is vast and varied covering subjects as diverse as alchemy and astronomy,
mathematics ,metallurgy, gemology, zoology and many more.
India has the knowledge . But is India/we conscious about
this knowledge?
We have several convictions about our civilization and heritage:
i)We are great in philosophy but not much in material
science.
ii) Sanskrit is a language of religion.
iii)Religious text
concern with only rituals or philosophy.
iv) There has been so much research and development in
modern medicine(Allopathy) how could Ayurveda
be any relevance today?
Interesting point
to note:
·
Sustruta (6th Century BCE) defined
the function of the heart ahead pf Harvey (17th Century AD)
·
Leeches (Mentioned in the Vedas) are back in use
in US hospitals.
·
Town Planning in India was guided by astronomy.
·
The speed of light occurs in a Vedic hymn used
in funeral rites.
·
Plastic surgery was born in India.
It happened so that
the only way to reach anything of value of the Indian hearts and minds has been
by getting idea through West.
Traditional Wisdom-àWestern
Acceptance-àValued
Knowledge
Rekhi ,Thai massage, child delivery at home, music therapy..
the list of ideas have been exported and re imported is long and growing.
Ancient Indians have always been acclaimed for their
contributions to art ,literature philosophy, and all branches of knowledge .
Unfortunately the contribution made in the field of science and technologies
have remained relatively unknown.
It is important to have an alternate mindset to change the
common understanding of the mass that of
western acceptance is only valued
knowledge.
Exercise left with us is
Uncovering the manuscript wealth of Inida.
Reaching Sanskrit to the scientist community.
Ref: Pride of
India: A glimpse into India’s Scientific Heritage by Sanskrita Bharati.
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Note:
Nalanda University
was the first great university in recorded history and one of the
world's first residential university as it had dormitories for students. It is
also one of the most famous universities. In its heyday, it accommodated over
10,000 students and 2,000 teachers.
At its peak, the university attracted scholars and students from Korea, Japan, China,
Tibet, Indonesia, Turkey, Greece, and Persia. The
subjects taught included religion, history, law, linguistics,
medicine, public health, architecture, metallurgy, pharmacology,
sculpture andastronomy.
Notable scholars who studied at Nalanda
included Emperor
Ashoka, Harshavardhana, Vasubandhu, Dharmapala, Suvishnu, Asanga,Silabhadra, Dharmakirti, Shantarakshita, Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Padmasambhava (the
reputed founder of Buddhism in Tibet), Xuanzang andHwui Li.
