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Glimpses
of Indian History
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HINDU
SUPERIORITY- HAR BILAS SARDA
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Prof.
Heeren says: "India has been celebrated even in the
earliest times for its riches."1
Milton sang of the wealth of India:
"High on a throne of royal state which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormuz and of Ind
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her king, barbaric, pearl and gold."2
Periplus says that, " the Greeks used to purchase pieces
of gold from the Indians."3
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Prof.
Heeren says: "India is the mother country of species,
and from the most ancient times she supplied the whole
Western world with that article."4
Mrs. Manning says: Nard or spikenard, cassia,calamus
and what appears to be bolellium of scripture may be
traced to India, where scents where easily valued and
carefully prepared."5
"There was a very large consumption of Indian manufactures
in Rome. This is confirmed by the elder Pliny, who complained
that vast sums of money was annually absorbed by commerce
with India."6
It (India) exported its most valuable produce, its diamonds,
its aromatics, its skills,and its costly manufactures.
The country which abounded in those expensive luxuries,
was naturally reputed to be the seat of immense riches,
and every romantic tale of its felicity and glory was
readily believed. In the Middle Ages, an extensive commerce
with India was still maintained through the ports of
Egypt and the Red Sea; and its precious produce, imported
into Europe by the merchants of Venice, confirmed the
popular opinion of the highest refinement and its wealth."7
Mrs. Manning says that the Hindus traded even in the
Vedic period "and the activity in trade thus early noted
has continued to be the characteristic of the country."8
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Herbert
Spender says that the position of women supplies a good
test of the civilization of a people. Prof H.H Wilson
says: "And it may be confidently asserted that in no
nation of antiquity were women held in so much esteem
as amongst the Hindus."9
"The annals of no nation on earth," says Colonel Tod,
"record a more ennobling or more magnanimous instance
of female loyalty than exemplified by Dewalde, mother
of the Binafur brothers."10
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Baron
Dalberg was greatly struck with the architecture of
Dwarka, which he calls "the wonderful city", and says:
"The natives of that country (India) have carried
the art of constructing and ornamenting excavated
grottoes to a much higher degree of perfection than
any other people."11
Prof. Weber says : "It is , indeed not improbable
that our Western steeples owe there origin to the
invitation of the Buddhist topes."12
Comparing the Hindu with the Greek and the Egyptian
architecture, Professor Heeren says: "In the richness
of decoration bestowed on their pilasters, and, among
other things, in the execution of statues resembling
caryatides they (the Hindus) far surpass both those
nations (the Greeks and Egyptians)."
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The
cosmogony of the whole world has been derived from India.
That the Greeks derived theirs from the Hindus may be
seen in the accounts which 'Damascius ' has given of
the doctrine of Orheus'. It is as follows: In the beginning
was kronos, who out of chaos created 'oether' (day)
and 'erebos' (night); therein he laid an egg (hindu)
from which came 'phanes' furnished with three heads
(the Brahmin Trimurti). 'Phanes' created the man and
the woman from whom the human race is derived. The cosmogony
of the Egyptians also adopts the Hindu egg which, divided
into two formed heaven and earth."13
Prof. Heeren says: "India is the source from which not
only the rest of Asia but the whole Western world derived
their knowledge and their religion."14
W.D. Brown says: "By careful examination the unprejudiced
mind cannot but admit that Hindu is the parent of the
literature and theology of the world. The researches
and investigation made in Sanskrit language, which was
once spoken in that country, by scholars like Max Mullar,
Jaccolliot, Sir William Jones and others, have found
in the ancient records of India the strongest proofs
that thence were drawn from many or nearly all the favourite
dogmas which later theologians have adopted…"15
David Frawley says: "Hinduism as an open tradition has
room for everything, even a fair amount of wishful thinking.
Its highest truth is the self, the real individual,
which should never be made subordinate to any external
authority, idea, emotion or imagination."
David Frawley says: "Indeed there is nothing in science
or science fiction that the Hindu mind has not already
thought about."
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"Philosophers
arise after the security of a state has been established;
after wealth has been acquired and accumulated in
certain families, after schools and universities have
been founded and taste created for those literary
pursuits which even in the most advanced state of
civilization must necessarily be confined to but a
small portion of an ever toiling community."16
To what high pinnacle of civilization, then, must
the ancient Indians have reached, for he says further
on that, "the Hindus were a nation of philosophers."17
Bjornstjerna says: "the Hindus were far in advance
of the philosophers of Greece and Rome, who considered
the immortality of the soul as problematical."18
Mr. Princep says: "The fact, however, that he (Pythagoras)
derived his doctrines from an Indian source is very
generally admitted. Under the name of Mythraic, the
faith of Buddha had also a wide extention."19
Mr. Elphinstone, in comparing the ancient Greeks with
the ancient Hindus, says: "Their (Hindus) general
learning was more considerable; and in the knowledge
of the being and nature of God, they were already
in possession of a light which was but faintly perceived
even by the loftiest intellects in the best days of
Athens."20
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The
Englishman (a Calcutta daily), in a leader in 1880,
said: "No one can read the rules contained in great
Sanskrit medical works without coming to the conclusion
that, in point of knowledge, the ancient Hindus were
in this respect very far in advance not only of the
Greek and Romans, but of medieval Europe."
Mr. Weber says: "In surgery, too, the Indians seem
to have attained a special proficiency, and in this
department, European surgeons might, perhaps, even
at the present day still learn something from them,
as indeed they have already borrowed from them the
operation of rhinoplasty."21
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Prof.
Monnier Williams says: "To the Hindus is due the invention
of algebra and geometry and their application to astronomy."22
Mrs. Manning says : "The Arabs were not in general
inventor but recipients. Subsequent observation has
confirmed this view; for not only did algebra in an
advanced state exist in India prior to the earliest
disclosure of it by the Arabians to modern Europe,
but the names by which the numerals have become known
to us are of Sanskrit origin."23
The English mathematician, Prof. Wallace, says: "The
Lilavati treats of arithmetic, contains not only the
common rules of that science, but the application
of these to various questions of interest, barter,
mixtures, combinations, permutations, sums of progression,
indeterminate problems, and mensuration of surfaces
and solids. The rules are found to be exact and nearly
as simple as in the present state of analytical investigation.
The numerical results are readily deduced, and if
they be compared with the earliest specimens of Greek
calculation, the advantages of the decimal notation
are placed in a striking light."24
Mr. Elphinstone says: "In the Surya Siddhanta is contained
a system of trigonometry which not only goes far beyond
anything known to the Greeks, but involves theorems
which were not discovered in Europe till two centuries
ago."25
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In
one of Ashoka's inscriptions, five Greek princes appear.
(1)
Antiocluss of Syria, (2) Ptolemy, Philadelphos of Egypt.
(3) Antigonos Gonatos of Macedon; (4) Magar of Kerene
(5) Alexander II of Epirus, "Great intercourse" says
a writer, formerly subsisted between the Hindus and
the nations of the West."26
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The
Wonder That was India - A.L.Basham
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India
and China have, in fact the oldest continuous traditions
in the world. (p.4)
Cotton was to the best of our knowledge first used by
the Harappan people …Perhaps the most widely appreciated
of prehistoric India's gifts to the world is the domestic
fowl. Ornithologists agree that all domestic species
have descended from the wild Indian jungle fowl. (p.
26)
Fa-hein, the Chinese monk, noted the peacefulness of
India, the rarity of serious crime and the mildness
of the administration. (p.67)
Megasthenes speaks of the Indians as remarkably law-abiding,
and states that crime was very rare. (p.115)
At all times the work of Indian craftsmen has been admired
for its delicacy and skill and the technical achievement
of ancient India was far from negligible. her spinners
and weavers could produce semi transparent skills and
mushins of extreme thinness…In the working of stone
on a large scale India's skill is attested by the enormous
monolithic columns of the Mauryan period…The Iron Pillar
of Mehrauli is even more remarkable though it has weathered
the torrential rains of over 1500 monsoons, it shows
no signs of rusting. (pp. 220-222)
Knowledge of music was looked on as an essential attribute
of a gentleman. The man who knows nothing of literature,
music or art is nothing but a beast without a beast's
tail and horns. (p.387)
Panini's grammar is one of the greatest intellectual
achievement of any ancient civilization, and the most
detailed and scientific grammar composed before the
19th century in any part of the world. (p.390)
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Lieutenant-Colonel
Mark Wilks,27
while discussing the political system in
its provincial working, says: "Each Hindu township
is, and indeed always was, a particular community
or petty republic by itself." "The Whole of India,"
he says again, "is nothing more than one vast congeries
of such republics."
Sir W. Jones 28
says: - "The laws of Manu very probably were considerably
older than those of Solon or even of Lycurgus, although
the promulgation of them, before they were reduced
to writing, might have been coeval with the first
monarchies established in Egypt and India."
Dr. Robertson says: "With respect to the number and
variety of points the Hindu code considers it will
bear a comparison with the celebrated Digest of Justinian,
or with the systems of jurisprudence in nations most
highly civilized. The articles of which the Hindu
code is composed are arranged in natural and luminous
order. They are numerous and comprehensive, and investigated
with that minute attention and discernment which are
natural to a people distinguished for acuteness and
subtlety of understanding, who have been long accustomed
to the accuracy of judicial proceedings, and acquainted
with all the refinements of legal practice. The decisions
concerning every point are founded upon the great
and immutable principles of justice which the human
mind acknowledges and respects in every age and in
all parts of the earth. Whoever examines the whole
work cannot entertain a doubt of its containing the
jurisprudence of an enlightened and commercial people.
Whoever looks into any particular title will be surprised
with a minuteness of detail and nicety of distinction
which, in many instances, seem to go beyond the attention
of European legislation; and it is remarkable that
some of the regulations which indicate the greatest
degree of refinement were established in periods of
the most remote antiquity."29
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"In
the fourth century, Friar Jordanus tells us that the
people of India are true in speech and eminent injustice."30
Idrisi, in his Geography (written in the 11th century),
says: "The Indians are naturally inclined to justice,
and never depart from it in their actions. Their good
faith, honesty and fidelity to their engagements are
well known, and they are so famous for these qualities
that people flock to their country from every side."31
Marco Polo (Thirteenth century) says: "You must know
that these Brahmins are the best merchants in the world
and the most truthful, for they would not tell a lie
for anything on earth."32
"The Indians," says Neibuhr, "are really the most tolerant
nation in the world." He also says that "they are gentle,
virtuous, laborious, and that, perhaps of all men, they
are the ones who seek to injure their fellow-beings
the least."
Mr. Burnouf says that the "Indians are a nation rich
in spiritual gifts, and endowed with peculiar sagacity
and penetration."
Sir W. Jones says 33:
"The Hindus are said to have boasted of three inventions,
all of which indeed are admirable; the method of instructing
by apologues; the decimal scale and the game of Chess,
on which they have some curious treaties."
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Colonel
Tod says: "These men of the soil, as they emphatically
designate themselves, cling to it and their ancient
and well-defined privileges, with an unconquerable
pertinacity; in their endeavours to preserve them,
whole generations have been swept away, yet has their
strength increased in the very ratio of oppression.
Where are not the oppressors/ The dynasties of Ghazni,
of Ghor, the Ghiljis, the Lodis, the Pathans, the
Timoors, and the demoralising Mahratta? The native
Rajpoot has flourished amidst these revolutions and
survived their fall; and but for the vices of their
internal sway, chiefly contracted from such association,
would have risen to power upon the ruin of their tyrants."34
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Count
Bjornstjerna says: "The literature of India makes
us acquainted with a great nation of past ages, which
grasped every branch of knowledge, and which will
always occupy a distinguished place in the history
of the civilization of mankind."35
"The Hindu", says Mr. W.D. Brown is the parent of
the literature and the theology of the world." 36
Professor Heeren says: "The literature of the Sanskrit
language incontestably belongs to a highly-cultivated
people, whom we may with great reason consider to
have been the most informed of all the East. It is,
at the same time, a scientific and a poetic literature."37
He also says: "Hindu literature is one of the riches
in prose and poetry."
Sir. W. Jone, the most intellectual of the European
critics of Sanskrit literature, pronounced the Sanskrit
language to be "of a wonderful structure, more perfect
than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more
exquisitely refined than either."38
Professor Max Muller calls Sanskrit "language of languages,"
and remarks that "it has been truly said that Sanskrit
is to the Science of language what Mathematics is
to Astronomy."39
Professor Wilson says: "The Hindus had a copious and
a cultivated language." "The Sanskrit," says Professor
Heeren, "we can safely assert to be one of the riches
and most refined of any. It has, moreover, reached
a high degree of cultivation, and the richness of
its philosophy is no way inferior to its poetic beauties,
as it presents us with an abundance of technical terms
to express the most abstract ideas."40
Mr. Pococke says: "The Greek language is a derivation
from the Sanskrit."41
Count Bjornstjerna says that the Hindus possessed
"written books of religion" before 2800 B.C., or 800
years before Abraham.42
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Manning
says: "The celebrated Panini bequeathed to posterity
one of the oldest and most renowned books ever written
in any language."43
Professor Max Muller says: "Their (Hindus) achievements
in grammatical analysis are still unsurpassed in the
grammatical literature of any nation."
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Mr.
Weber says: "Astronomy was practised in India as early
as 2780 B.C." But some of the greatest modern astronomers
have decided in favour of a much greater antiquity.
Cassini, Bailly, Gentil and Playfair maintain "that
there are Hindu observations extant which must have
been made more than three thousand years before Christ,
and which evince even then a very high degree of astronomical
science."44
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NOTES:- |
- Heeren's
Historical Researches, Vol. II, p. 268, cited in 'Hindu
Superiority', Late Har Bilas Sarda, 4th Edition, 1984,
p. 348, Vedic Hindu Academy, New Delhi.
-
'Hindu Superiority', Late Har Bilas Sarda, 4th Edition,
1984, p. 349, Vedic Hindu Academy, New Delhi.
-
-
Heeren's Historical Researches,
Vol. II, p. 274, cited in 'Hindu Superiority', Late
Har Bilas Sarda, 4th Edition, 1984, p. 336, Vedic
Hindu Academy, New Delhi.
-
Ancient and Medieval India, Vol.
II, p. 353, cited in 'Hindu Superiority', Late Har
Bilas Sarda, 4th Edition, 1984, p. 336, Vedic Hindu
Academy, New Delhi.
-
Pliny: Historical Nation, XII, p.
18.
-
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. XI,
p. 446, cited in 'Hindu Superiority', Late Har Bilas
Sarda, 4th Edition, 1984, p. 347, Vedic Hindu Academy,
New Delhi.
-
See AsiaticResearches, Vol. III,
pp. 297-298, cited in 'Hindu Superiority', Late
Har Bilas Sarda, 4th Edition, 1984, p. 346, Vedic
Hindu Academy, New Delhi.
-
Mill's History of India, Vol. II,
p. 51, cited in 'Hindu Superiority', Late Har Bilas
Sarda, 4th Edition, 1984, pp. 76-77, Vedic Hindu
Academy, New Delhi.
-
Tod's Rajasthan, Vol. I, p. 614.
-
Geographical Ephemerides, Vol.
XXXII, p. 12, cited in 'Hindu Superiority', Late
Har Bilas Sarda, 4th Edition, 1984, p. 319, Vedic
Hindu Academy, New Delhi.
-
Indian Literature, p. 274, cited
in 'Hindu Superiority', Late Har Bilas Sarda, 4th
Edition, 1984, p. 319, Vedic Hindu Academy, New
Delhi.
-
Theogony of the Hindus, p. 130-131(vide
Diodorus & Plutarch), cited in 'Hindu Superiority',
Late Har Bilas Sarda, 4th Edition,
1984, p. 366, Vedic Hindu Academy, New Delhi.
-
The Daily Tribune, Salt Lake City, United States,
America, Holiday Morning, 20 February, 1884, cited
in 'Hindu Superiority', Late Har Bilas Sarda, 4th
Edition, 1984, p. 366, Vedic Hindu Academy, New
Delhi.
-
The Daily Tribune, Salt Lake City, United States,
America Holiday Morning, 20 Feb. 1884.
-
Max Muller, Ancient Sanskrit Literature,
pp. 564-65.
-
Max Muller, Ancient Sanskrit Literature,
p. 31.
-
Theogony of the Hindus, p. 27.
-
India
in Greece, p. 361. Pythagoras, according to Mr.
Pococke, was a Buddhist Missionary. He was: Sanskrit,
Bud'ha-Gurus, Greek, Putha-Goras, Bud'has Spiritual
Teacher. English, Pytha-Goras,
-
Elphinstone's History of India,
p. 49.
-
Weber's Indian Literature, p. 270.
-
-
Ancient & Medieval India, Vol.
II, p. 375.
-
Edinburgh Review, Vol. 29, p. 147.
-
History of India, p. 129.
-
See Asiatic Researches, Vol. III,
pp. 297-298.
-
Historical Sketches of the South
of India, Vol. I, p. 119.
-
Houghton's Institutes of Hindu
Law, Preface, p.x.
-
Disquisition concerning India,
Appendix, p. 217.
-
Macro Polo, ed. H. Yule, Vol. II.
p. 354.
-
Elliot's History of India Vol.
I, p. 88.
-
Marco Polo, ed. H. Yule, Vol. II.
p. 350.
-
As quoted by Mill in his History
of British India, Vol. II, p. 43.
-
Tod's Rajasthan, Vol. II, p. 160.
-
Theogony of the Hindus, p. 85.
-
The Daily Tribune (Salt Lake City)
for February 20, 1884.
-
Heeren's Historical Researches,
Vol. II, p. 201.
-
Asiatic Researches, Vol. I, p.
422. "Sanskrit has the most prodigious compounds,
some of them extending to 152 syllables' - Asiatic
Researches, Vol. I, p. 360.
- Science
of Language, p. 203.
-
Historical Researches, Vol. II,
pp. 109, 110. As an example of Mr. James Mill's
perverted taste and inveterate prejudice against
everything Hindu, the following may be cited: Le
Pere Paolino says that "Sanskrit is more copious
than Latin. It has several words to express the
same thing. The sun has more than 30 names, the
moon more than 20; a house has 20, a stone 6 or
7, a leaf 5, an ape 10.
-
-
Weber's Indian Literature, p. 22,
Footnote.
-
Ancient and Mediaeval India, Vol.
I, p. 384.
-
Theogony of the Hindus, p. 32.
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