Intellect, sentiment Record

Scholasticism, intellectual and sentimental life.

The beauty and depth that is the dharmic civilization and traditions is considered elsewhere.

Consider the list of individual heroes involved in scholarly pursuit. Contributions were abundant in the fields of Psychology, philosophy and physical training (remember the yoga-Asanas and the many martial arts). “If we look at the old Hindu education system it clearly had a mechanism to fast-track scientific talent which the modern Indian system woefully lacks. [TW]”

Major contributions

  • Here is a good summary (alternate) from Discovery.

    • Covers: hindu (not-Arabic!) number system with 0, “Damascus”/ Indian wood steel, astronomy, time-computation with 4 second precision, cotton ginning and spinning, steel beams in construction, efficient and timely construction practices using Elephant power, Ayurveda, yoga-Asana-s.

  • Rockets and gunpowder TW.

  • A series of lectures by N gopAlakR^iShNan starting with 1 and ending with 9 provides a good summary of contributions to science, though sometimes wrong.

Biology

Evolution

  • pAncharAtra and sAnkhya: M1,
    • lecture given by a vasiShTha to a janaka named karAla, the ruler of mithilA preserved in the shanti parvan of the great bhArata (12.303 in the Vulgate edition; 12.291 in Critical Pune edition). … “These bhUtas then combined to gave rise to several organs like: ear, skin, eye, tongue, nose, mouth, hands, legs, guts, genitalia and the mind. These then combined to give rise to the organisms of waters, earth and sky. Only those forms that could exist/ or survived in these environments are observed as existing. "
    • sAnkhya pariNAma theory [M1, M2] : “R^iShi yAjnyavalkya to the janaka named daivarAti, the king of mithilA (Mbh shantiparvan: 12.312 in Vulgate edition; 12.299 in critical Pune edition). This lengthy lecture on sAMkhya is said to be an upaniShad. Here in yAjnyavalkya explains that the source organisms (yonis) come into being through the conglomeration of the pa~ncha-bhUta-s (same as described by the vasiShTha). The they are said to compete with each other (anyonya-spardhinaH) and consequently they kill the rival organisms or out-compete them depending on their qualities which result in destruction or survival. Some are said to form associations with each other and exist symbiotically. Thus evolving the organisms come to be.”

Mathematics

  • Just as Euclid was central to the western intellectual tradition, so was Panini to the eastern tradition. There are many fascinating similarities between the two. So, in terms of the conception of analysis and “proof” India is not too far behind. [Jan Houben verse.]

  • Inidan contributions to mathematics: Mumford article. Probability theory/ sampling - RtuparNa - [YT].

  • Sachin’s thoughts (sanskrit).

Astronomy

  • Knowledge of precession :
    • Connection to vAsudeva legends (MT).
  • Good world models:
    • kAshmIra-shaiva recension of yoga-vasiShTha (MT17).
  • 9th century observatory of shankaranArAyaNa subject of ravivarama of keraLa (W).

Civil engineering

  • Irrigation and water works

Tolerance of diverse ideas, even intolerant ones.

Late dimming

“Is it not a great tragedy that none of our people, baring that relatively lackluster attempt by that brāhmaṇa from the Pāñcanada, bothered to follow up on the path of Scottish surgeon? OK, let us even take it that until the English arrived no one was aware of what existed beneath their feet but there is no excuse for what happened after that. Though he the surgeon himself remarks that when the Sarasvati channel was being dug in the days of the Mohammedan tyranny fossils were found. It is truly a failure of the brahma. … As I have remarked before to Lootika much more than the failure of Hindu arms in 1857 the failure of Hindus lay in their ability to develop men with a “mountainous mass of admirable and accurate information” in their midst even when confronted by such. … Even our Scottish surgeon admitted that we were once the spring-head of systematic knowledge. So it is indeed a tragedy, perhaps a symptom of a civilization exhausted from nearly a millennium of conflict with the evils of West Asia.” [MT]

Education

  • Note the statistics by dharmapAl.
  • Tyler Cowen writes in a short post : ..“educational expenditures in India, under the British empire, never exceeded one percent of gdp. To put that in perspective, for 1860-1912 in per capita terms the independent “Princely states” were spending about twice as much on education as India under the British. Mexico and Brazil, hardly marvels of successful education, were spending about five times as much.”
  • sentimental, ritual and vaidika education restrictions based on jAti/ caste /varNa:
    • See Contrast-of-privileges in theory page here, practice here.
    • This restriction was motivated by the need to conserve the veda-s against corruption and subversion - letting all and sundry propagate it would violate the conservative mission of the dvija core.
    • Education in the veda-s is made available to students irrespective of clan or caste by several institutions, including some traditional ones (TTD-NDTV09). But students tend to mostly be brAhmaNa-s anyway.

shUdra representation

From Beautiful tree:

“To make the foregoing tabulation more easily comprehensible the caste-wise data may be converted into percentages of the whole for each district. Table 3 shows the result of such conversion. In Malayalam-speaking Malabar, the proportion of the twice-born was still below 20% of the total. Because of a larger Muslim population, however, the number of Muslim school students went up to nearly 27%; while the Soodras, and the other castes accounted for some 54% of the school going students. In the largely Kannada-speaking Bellary, the proportion of the twice-born (the Brahmins and the Vysees) went up to 33%, while the Soodras, and the other castes still accounted for some 63%. The position in the Oriya-speaking Ganjam was similar: the twice-born accounting for some 35.6%, and the Soodras and other castes being around 63.5%. It is only in the Telugu-speaking districts that the twice born formed the major proportion of the school going students. Here, the proportion of Brahmin boys varied from 24% in Cuddapah to 46% in Vizagapatam; …”

guru-shishya paramparA

  • See guru-pages.

British deeds

  • When swati tirunal opened schools for all castes, he was stopped from doing so in more places as missionaries opposed it.
  • Also see here regarding aid to missionaries.

World exploration and travelling.

Failure: In later times, orthodox brAhmaNa-s were barred from crossing the seas.

Mitigating factors: Hindu/ Bauddha kingdoms outside India:
  • Various kingdoms in south east Asia, dating back to 3rd century AD in Cham [Vietnam].
  • The Indi of Armenia, where two temples are known to have been destroyed by Gregory, who congratulated Julian the pagan revivalist Roman emperor.

Positive influence on the world outside India.

Yoga studios, meditation groups and “repackaged” ideas in science are an apparent measure of hindu influence in the world. Countries in East and South East Asia are deeply grateful to the ancient Indian buddhist tradition.

American Veda explains the deep influence of Hindu thought on the Leukosphere - particularly the USA. I hear that its influence in traditionally protestant countries in Europe is similarly significant.

Easy compatibility with modern science

TBD