About India & Indians

Lets see what others have to say about India & Indians:

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made. -Albert Einstein

If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.

- Max Mueller (German scholar)

 Mark Twain said: India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

French scholar Romain Rolland said: If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

Mark Twain: The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of traditions, whose yesterday's bear date with the modering antiquities for the rest of nations-the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the world combined.

When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous.  - Albert Einstein

 India - The land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas for a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship, all were known to the seers who founded the Vedas.  - Wheeler Wilcox (American poet)

Lets see some of the brainest Indians have reached in modern era: 

·         Co-founder of Sun Microsystems (Vinod Khosla),

·         Creator of Pentium Chip (Vinod Dahm),

·         Founder and creator of Hotmail (Sabeer Bhatia),

·         Chief Executive of McKinsey & Co. (Rajat Gupta)

·         Current President & CFO of Pepsi Cola (Indra Nooyi)

·         President of United Airlines (Rono Dutta)

·         GM of Hewlett Packard (Rajiv Gupta)

·         President and CEO of US Airways (Rakesh Gangwal)

·         Chief Executive of CitiBank (Victor Menezes),

·         Chief Executives of Standard Chartered Bank (Rana Talwar)

·         Chief Executive officer of Vodafone (Arun Sarin)

·         President of AT & T-Bell Labs (Arun Netravali)

·         Vice-Chairman and founder of Juniper Networks (Pradeep Sindhu)

·         Founder of Bose Audio (Amar Bose)

·         Founder, chip designer Cirrus Logic (Suhas Patil )

·         Chairman and CEO of Computer Associates (Sanjay Kumar)

·         Head of (HPC WorldWide) of Unilever Plc. (Keki Dadiseth)

·         Chief Executive Officer of HSBC (Aman Mehta)

·         Director and member of Executive Board of Goldman Sachs (Girish Reddy)

·         Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund (Raghuram Rajan)

·         Former CTO of Novell Networks (Kanwal Rekhi)

Vedic Philosophy

The Vedas are the oldest written text on our planet today. They date back to the beginning of Indian civilization and are the earliest literary records of the human mind. They have been passed through oral tradition for over 10,000 years, and first appeared in written form between 2500 - 5,000 years ago. 

·         India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta. 

·         India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history. 

·         Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software, according to a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987. 

·         The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects there. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education. 

·         Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization.India was the richest country on earth until the British invaded in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth. 

·         Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun in the 5th century - 365.258756484 days. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. 

·         The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'.

·         The value of "pi" was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians. According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world.

·         Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera 10**12(10 to the power of 12). 

·         Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism, physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts. 

·         USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community, that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

·         Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipment were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.

·         The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra. 

·         Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India. When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindh Valley, known as the Indus Valley Civilization.

·         The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC. Spiritual science, Yoga and most of the religions were found in India and the teachings spread all over the world by Indian Mystics and the Saints. 

·         The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara temple at Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu. The shikhara is made from a single ' 80-tonne ' piece of granite. Also, this magnificient temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola

·         India is.......the Largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest country in the world AND one of the most ancient and living civilizations (at least 10, 000 years old). 

·         The game of snakes & ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat.' The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. Later through time, the game underwent several modifications but the meaning is the same i.e good deeds take us to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.