Thursday 23 February 2012

SANSKRIT-HINDU NUMERALS AND SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS!

Sanskrit is most scientific literature of the world! Once upon a time, we Indians were leading the entire globe in science and technology. The concept of zero was invented by our ancestors.The Arabs borrowed it from us and the European borrowed it from the Arabs .Our numerals is expressed  in numbers  in astronomical terms.
Markandey Katju, a former judge of the Supreme Court, in his lecture delivered to non-resident Indians in California in June 2011, has dwelt at length these scientific terminology of numbers and alphabets, discovered by our ancestors. Remarkably Katju's explanations about the zero  is wonderful- for example, Katju has said," one thousand requires 1 with three zeros, add two more zeros it becomes one lakh, add two more zeros it becomes one arab, two more zeros one kharab, two more zeros one neel, two more zeros one sankh, two more zeros on mahasankh etc. Each of these large numbers has names."
Notably, Arabian, Persian and Urdu are written from right to left, but you ask any of writer of these languages to write any number randomly, say, 152 of 1,085, he will  write it from left to right. What does it indicate? It indicates that these numbers were taken from language that was written from left to right, and now it is accepted that decimal system was invented by Indians, who could conceive very high numbers unlike the Romans, Kattju has said.
One more example will substantiate the arguments and logic of Katju. It is believed that Kaliyuga, in which we are living, has 4,32,000 years; according to Vishnu Purana.. The Yug (age) before Kaliyuga was Dwapara yug, in which Krishna lived. That was twice as long as Kaliyuga, therefore it was of 8,64,000 years, Before that there was Treta yuga, in which Ram lived. It was thrice as long as Kaliyuga. And before that there was Satyyuga, which was four times as long as Kaliyuga. One Kaliyuga+one Dwapara yuga+one Treta yuga+one Satyuga is known as Chatiuryugi and one Chaturyugi is hence ten times as lons as one Kaliyuga (1+2+3+4=10).Katju has said that that means one Chaturyugi is 43,20,000 yerars long. Seventy-two Chaturyugis make one Manvantara. Fourteen Manvantaras make one one Kalpa, and 12 Kalpas make one day of Brahma. Brahma said to have lived for trillion of years. When traditional Hindu do their sankalp every day they have to mention particular day, the yuga, the Chaturygi, the Manvantara and the Kalp and the date changes daily. It is believed that out of 72 Chaturyugis, half have passed and we are in the second half of the Vaivaswsata Manvantara."
While concluding the topic,  I must mention that one must look at the flight of imagination of our ancestors about Sanskrit language and literature. In the various field of Science, for instance medicine, we made great advance. Shushrutu did plastic surgery 2000 years ago but the westerners discovered it only 200 years back. Indians are far ahead of the westerners in medical science. Similar is the case with the astronomy, which I have dwelt in my earlier write-up in the blog.END

Sunday 19 February 2012

SANSKRIT-URDU CULTURE IN INDIA!

After discussing about the India and Indian, mainly a nation of a group of hundreds  kinds of immigrants as well as the original or aborginal Indians, believed to be pre-Dravidians tribal people, called Adivasi like Bhils, the Mundas,, the Gonds,, the Todas etc, currently about seven to eight percent of the total population of India in my previous write -up in my blog, now I want to highlight about the Sanskrit-Urdu culture of India, which had continued to adhere secular character of the country!I have tried to base  my write-up on the opoinions of the eminent historians, sociologist, reputed scholars including the speech of the former judge of the Supreme Court Markandey Katju, delivered to the non-resident Indians in California in June 2011.
Both  the Sanskrit and the Urdu languages in India have been misuderstood..While there  misconception about Urdu that it is the language of Muslims and of foreigners, people think that Sanskrit  is a language for chanting mantras in temples and religious ceremonies.About Urdu false propganda is being made after 1947.Likewise, I must make it clear  that only five percent of Sanskrit literature are mantras and used in religious ceremonies. Ninety-five percent of Sanskrit literature are no way connected with religion. Sanskrit deals with varied ranges of subjects like philosophy, science, law (including astronomy, mathematics and medicines), grammar, phonetics and literature. About Urdu, I must say that the language was not only for Muslims alone but of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and others.It was propganda spree after partition by certain vested interests that the Urdu is the language of Muslims and Hindi is language for Hindus. Before 1947, almost all the educated people in India used to study Urdu also. For many  government offices, documents were written in Urdu scripts! Sucha canard had been spread among Hindus and Muslims for deviding and ruling and also make Muslims and Hindus fight each other. All efforts were made to eliminate Urdu language and literature in India. But a lanuguage, which comes out from hearts cannot be crushed as long as people have hearts.
The Sanskrit lkanguage and literature is for enquisitive minds of people. An inquisitive minds means inquiring minds, who want to know about everything and Sanskrit has whole range of subjects, which have been discussed in this language and literature. "Sanskrit is a language of science", a paper in which everything in details have been discussed. For this, we would have to mention the constribution of Sanskrit Scholar Panini and also Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy. Teaching of these days Sanskrit is Paninin Sanskrit, which is called classical Sanskrit or Laukik Sanskrit. There are many earlier Sanskrits. Earliest Sanskrit book is the Rig Veda. It was composed between 2000 and 1500 bc-later it was passed on orally.. With the passage of time language and literature changes-so there has been  few  change in Sanskrit also.
Panini., a greatest grammarian the world has seen, had  fixed  the rules of Sanskrit in his book "Ashtadhyayi" in the fifth century BC. There after  no further changes in the Sanskrit were allowed except some slight changes made by two other grammarians-Katyayana in his book"Vartika" about 100-200 years after Paninin and Patanjali. Patanjali had written his book "Mahabhashya" about 200 years after Katyayna. ecxcept these slight changes, what is taught in schools and colleges is Panini's Sanskrit. Panini had reformed crude sanskriyt prevailing in his time and meticulously systemised and liberalised it to make Sanskrit powerful vehicle of profound and abstaract  Niot only that Panini had made the sanskrit a powerful language in which scientifc ideas could be flowed with precision and clarity for making the language mainly uniform all over India. Thus the Sanskrit language had become interactive not only in the entire India but for thinkers in one part of the sub-continent to ineract easily with thinkers of another parts of the globe and region. Panini had scientifically arranged the consonants of the Sanskrit language unlike English  alphabets in a haphazard manner.Arrangements of letters in the alphabet in Sanskrit is carefully confirmed and has been done on the basis of scientific study.
Sanskrit has great contribution in such manner and second of that is the development of rational and scientific thinking. It was based on Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy.The India philoshophy has six  classical systems-Nyaya, Vaisheshik, Sankya, Yoga, Purva Mimansa and Uttar Mimansa and three non-classical systems,-Buddhist, Jainist, and Charvaka. Among the nine systems eight are  atheistic as there is no place  for god in them. Only Uttam Mimansa, which is also called Vedanta, has a p[lace for God in it, according to Katju.
Vaisheshik was the physics of ancient times(the atomic or parmanu system). Katju has said, " Physics is part of science, hence at one time Vaisheshik was part of Nyaya philosophy.. It was the Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy, which provided the scientific background and gave great encouragement to our scientists to propound scientific theories..Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy, which says that nothing is aceptable unless it is in accordance with reason and experience."At one time we were leading the whole world in science and technology."
There are many advancements of our scientific knowledges like medicines,surgery, astronomy, calculations in comparision to Europe and America. Indians are far ahead iof the western countries in medicines. In astronomy, the calculations, which were made 2000 years ago are still the basis of predicting with great accuracy the day and time of solar eclipseor a lunar eclipse by reading a "patra." These prediction s were made 2000 years ago by our ancestors, who did not have telescopes and modern instruments; by sheer oibservation with the naked eye and power of intellect they predicted what is going to happen 2000 years in future, Katju said..
According to Katju ;with regards to Urdu, there is no match to Urdu language poetry. Urdu poetry is voice of the heart. It is none in other languages..Unlike Arabic and Persian, which are foreign languages, Urdu is an indigenous language and loved by people of India.. Urdu has a dual nature. It is combination of two languages, that is, Hindustani and Persian, which is why it is called Rekhta, which means hybrid. Since it is combination of two languages, the question arises: it is special kind of Persian or a  special kind of Hindustani? The answer is that it is speciasl kind of Hindustani not a special kind of Persian. why? Because the verbs in Urdu are all in Hindustani. The language is to which a sentence belongs is deterimined the verbs used in it, not the norms or adjectives. In Urdu, all the verbs are in simple Hindi (which is called Hindustani or khadiboli).
Urdu has dual nature because it is a combination of Hindustani and Persian. Hindustani is the  language of the common man, while Persian is the language of aristocrats. Now the question arises, Persiaian is the language of Persia, how it came to India? To explain this it has been noted that it often happens that the elite or upper class of a society speaks a foreign language. For instance, In India and Pakistan, the elite speaks in English. In Europe, elite  upto to the end of 19th century, the European aristocrsats often spoke each other in French though they spoke to their servants in the native languages. French was the language of the elite in large parts of Europe for many centuries.Elite want to distinguish itself from the common people. In India Persian was the language of the court and the elite for the centuries although Persian originated in Persia, it spread to much of South Asia including India. Akbar's foreign minister Todarmal, had passed an order that all court records throughout the Mughal empire shall be maintained in Persian, Katju said .
Katju has added further that Urdu is the common man's language, "awaam ki zubaan" because part of of it is Hindustani and, the common man's language. It is also the aristocrats' language because another parts of it is Persian, which as the aristocrat's language.The content of Urdu, that is, the feelings, emotions etc. in it are of common man. But the form, the style, the andaaz-e-bayaan is that of an aristocrat. That is what gives Urdu such great power.
According to Katju, Urdu places more reliance on emotion and Sanskrit more on  reason. We requere both of our country's progress. Urdu and Sanskrit  complement each other, and in fact Sanskrit is the grand mother of Urdu because 70 percent of the words in Urdu are from Sanskrit.Katju has said, " Since there is so much diversity in India the Only policy which will work is the policy of secularism and giving equal respect to all communities. Otherwise India will break up into hundred of pieces since there is so much diversity." Katju has said in his lecture.

Monday 13 February 2012

INDIA AND INDIAN !

About six month back, I had read a judgement of the Supreme Court about who are the initial aboriginals and Indian in our vast land? The judgement had clearly mentioned that the pre-Dravidian tribal people people such  the Bhils, the Santhals, the Gonds, called Adivasis or Scheduled caste were the original inhabitants of India. Time changed fast, they are now hardly eight percent population  of India today-that also neglected, discriminated, oppressed etc. Thereafter I have gone through an interesting article of the justice Markandey Katju in an English fortnightly , based on a speech delivered to non-resident Indians in California in June 2011 and other sources like various articles on the website,kgfindia.com, under the title "What is Urdu-, Great injustice to Urdu in India" and "Sanskrit as a Language of Science" about initial and real inhabitants of India, its language and culture, roles of successive rulers, immigrants' invasion to India, communal harmony etc.
All these facts and opinion of Kataju and various other writers have left my mind wandering  that real and aboriginal Indians were put in the background and India now remained a country of immigrants like North America. Thus over 92 percent of population of India are not  original inhabitants of India. Their ancestors gradually came from the outside, mainly from the north-west. Only because of that India has become country of diversity, having many religions, castes, languages, ethnic groups. Despite all these diversities in India, a common culture gradually had developed, called the Sanskrit-Urdu culture.
Before deliberating Sanskrit -Urdu culture in India, I want to put forward  the present state of affairs in the country. India is passing through transitional phase, mainly from feudal agriculture society to a modern industrial society. Such situation in India, as per opinions of various historians and academicians,  are very painful and agonising period in the history of the country. Such situation are expected to continue for some more years and only thereafter India will emerge as a stable and powerful country. For examples, history of Europe had also similar churning  during 17th  to 19th centuries. Many ups and downs were witnessed In Europe during those period. There were wars, revolutions, turmoils, intellectual ferment, chaos, social upheaval etc. Only after passing through such agonising periods, Europe emerged modern society! In north America, mainly   immigrants came from Europe in over last 400 to 500 years.
India is country of old immigrants. In India people have been coming in  for 10,000 years or so.Only on two occasions, the Indians had migrated to other countries. During British Raj, huge number of Indians migrated to South Africa, Fiji, Mauritius, West Indies , different islands etc as indentured labourers in 19th century. On an another occasion after independence in the last 30 to 40 years, b brain drain had happened in India and  highly qualified engineers, scientists, doctors etc had migrated to Europe and America in search of better life! Except these two periods , hardly Indians had migrated to other countries as immigrants. Instead people continued to come to India as immigrants since long.
Usually people migrate from one place to other for greener pastures or comfort or  earn livelihood.Justice Katju has rightly said, " the reason is obvious. People migrate from uncomfortable areas to comfortable areas, obviously because  everybody want comfort. Before the industrial revolution which  started in western Europe from 18 th century and then spread all over the world, there were agricultural societies every-where. Agriculture requires level land, fertile soil, plenty of water  for irrigation, etc. All this was in abundance in the Indian subcontinent from Rawalpindi to Bangladesh and to the deep south up to Kanya Kumari. Why, will anybody migrate from to , say, AAfghanistan, which is  cold, rocky and uncomfortable and covered with snow for four  five months a year? For an agricultural society, India was really paradise, hence everybody kept rolling into India, mainly from the north-west and to a much lesser extend from the north-east."
Now the main crux of the facts  about the original inhabitants of India! Originally, it was said that Darvidians were the original inhabitants of India. Gradually, this notion was faded away. Presently it is said that even Dravidian  were also outsiders. Historians have cited certain proof like there is a Dravidian language called Brahui, spoken in western Pakistan even today by over  three million people.
Now a new theory has come to light.. The original inhabitants of India were the pre-Dravidian tribal people. They are called Adivasis  or Scheduled  Tribes in  India. They are Bhils, Santhals, the gonds, the Tedas etc- "that is, the speakers of  Austric, pre-Dravidian languages like Munda and  Gondvi. They are hardly  seven to eight percent of the Indian population today. They were pushed into the forest by the immigrants and treated badly. Except them We are all of us are descendants of immigrants, who came mainly from north-west of India", this references have been quoted by Justice Katju, referring articles "Kalidas Ghalib Academy for Mutual Understanding" on the website kgfindia.com.
There are vast difference between China and India on this score. There is homogeneity in China-they have  Mongoloid features, they have one common written scripts called Mandarin Chinese. Ninety-five percent population of China belonged to one ethnic group where as in India there is tremendous diversity, because which ever of  immigrants came into India brought in its own culture, religion, language etc. Thus India is a nation at all or is it just group of hundreds of kinds of immigrants.However the immigrants, coming to India in phases in the last over 10000 years or so by their interaction and intermingling, created a common culture, which  can be by and large  be called the Sanskrit-Urdu culture, by far the present culture of India!
(IN MY NEXT BLOG, I WILL WRITE ABOUT FAMOUS SANSKRIT-URDU CULTURE)

Monday 6 February 2012

"I", UNSUCCESSFUL MAN!

For the last over 14 years at least, I am searching my heart and soul and exactly I am not getting what was is wrong with me! I feel myself disgusted and disappointed and exactly remember one verse of the Bhagwad Geeta 18\66, "sarva-aharman parityajya mam ekam sarana m vraja aham tvam sarva-paparbhyo moksayami ma sucah (abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions.Do not fear)." Right from 1998, I have faced and am facing all misfortunes, agonies, miseries-some time I smile, laugh, wonder at my plight.Although pain , anguish, regret are not new in my life since I grew up!
It look just I am a helpless creature on the earth. Different type of ailments because of my old age is also aggravating my woes. I find no where to give me helping hands although I earn that enough to fulfil my own requirements. I have lovely wife and lovely son .Even than I feel that I have plunged into the world of disappointment and despair. (About my wife and my son , I will try to write before I die).
Some time I feel there must be some thing serious  bad with me-that is because I have been cursed and I will have to live amid all these misfortune situations!
I try very much to move for long journey of life- but I fail to take a tangible  decision. During the period I have only lost ever things and there appear no end of my misfortunes. I think I should take some firm decisions and move out from here for unknown destinations, living everything on Almighty-that I will have to do.
My ideal dreams started crashing in the last over 14 years and I silently watched all these mishappenings-but I am not not worried for that but what I am sad is that what sins I have committed-but for that I also -I do not get any answers from my heart-Ecatcly I remember my parents-even than I do get nothings. My life has become so hard that at this age I face problems in even finding some one to help in reaching me to doctors -but no doubt I , some time, get help from my some close relations! Otherwise even for doctors advice, I go alone but pain and regrets push me to fight back to the wall and also encourages me to do some efforts to reach the destination!
During this critical phase, of course very long, I will have to take decisions. But I remember Almighty Krishna telling the panacea for every things bad and live every thing to the great Loard. And I invite a death in sleep! (more in next time although my mental frame is OK by the grace of Almighty- and I do reading, writings and other karmas with the blessing of Almighty-but peace is not there in my heart and soul-Wheat her I will get salvation or enlightenment in days to come a big question!)