On Dec 29, 2011, at 9:46 AM, richardatrwilliamsdotus wrote:
Ravi Chivukula: > And then remember Indians made great progress > in to the Science of the inner, of these > mysterious, unknown energies... > It's not just the inner aspect that the ancient Indians made great progress in. Don't forget that the ancient Indians had discovered the ratio of pi, the circumference to diameter ratio from paridhi vyas anupati, over a thousand years before Pythagoras. Science historians have long agreed that the international numeral system (1, 2, 3,), based on the concepts of decimal placement and zero were invented by the ancient Indians, as well as the decimal system itself. Now, it has been discovered that the ancient Indus Civilization inhabitants may have invented the alphabet!
Here is a partial, and somewhat dated list of Hindutva claims for priority in scientific discoveries taken from D. B. Thengadi's much- cited 1983 lecture, "Modernization without Westernization":
1. The well-known theorem of Pythagoras who was described by King Clement of Alexandria as "pupil of a Brahmin." 2. The atomic theory of the West which was anticipated thousands of years ago by pramanuvad of Kanaad. 3. Dialecticism of Hegel and Marx, which was first envisaged and systematized by Kapil Muni. 4. The fact that it is the earth that moves around the sun... which was proved by Copernicus, and more than a thousand years before Copernicus by Arya Bhatta, 5. Materialism of Democratus (sic), of which the first ever sutra was written by Brushaspati centuries back... 6. Scientific concepts of space and time explained by Einstein and enunciated first by Vedanta philosophers. 7. The scientific definition of matter given for the first time to modern science by Heisenberg and to Hindus by Patanjali. 8. The relativity of space and time, the unity of the universe, a space-time con- tinuum, established in ancient times by Vedantic thinkers and proved in this century by Einstein. 9. The process of scientific philosophical thinking initiated by Parmesthi Prajapitha of "nassdeeya suktha" and climaxed by Einstein. (Thengadi 1983, 5)
In addition, just about every "miracle" like the Ganesha idols "drinking" milk, every age-old ritual (fire sacrifices, or yagna), and Sanskrit chant (e.g., the Gayatri mantra) and every superstition like fire ceremonies for rains and vastu shastra (architecture that tries to align built structures with cosmic energy, the Indian equiv- alent of the Chinese Feng Shui) has been declared to be "scientific."' Just about every verse of the Vedas, which has anything even remotely to do with elements of nature, whether literally or metaphorically, has been declared to contain "scientific" facts, including the speed of light, the distance of the sun from the earth, and other such cosmological constants — corresponding to the last decimal point! — to the values obtained by modern physics. It has been claimed, for example, that the Rig Veda had discovered the Newtonian laws of gravity as well as Einstein's theory of relativity and calculated the velocity of light, discovered cosmic rays, so on and so forth. Nearly all important discoveries of biological sciences are right there in the sacred books as well, from the discovery of photosynthesis, the knowledge of molecular receptors of Ayurvedic medicines, microscopy, even test-tube babies, etc, If the apologists are to be believed, the Vedas were actually engineering manuals, describing precisely those technological advances that have already taken place in the West, from airplanes to submarines, running on everything from solar power to nuclear energy. Everything of value that Western science and technology has produced, even if the "value" lies in warfare and destruction, is claimed to be presaged by Hindu holy men of a bygone era.
The examples in the above paragraph are taken from the recent output of only two think-tanks — the Dharam Hinduja Foundation with centers in India as well as in Columbia and Cambridge universities, and Prajna Bharati, a "national forum for thinkers with a nationalist orientation."' There are many academics, with degrees in sciences, many of them working in the United States and Canada — notably, Subhash Kak, David Frawley, N. S. Rajaram (now in India), Ram Mohan Roy, the 'Vedic creationists" associated with the Hare Krishna movement and the Ramakrishna Mission, the "unified field" "physicists" associated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and the monks of Ramakrishna Mission's Vedanta centers around the world — who are publishing books claiming that Vedic literature is actually a record of scientific discoveries. Needless to say, all the discoveries are invariably exactly those that modern science made later on!
-Prophets Looking Backwards Meera Nanda
