Ever since discussions were held at the Indian Science Congress (ISC) where India’s contribution to science and technology was acknowledged, certain intellectuals and liberals have raised hue and cry in the leading dailies with their articles. A few have referred history as myth and myth as history; others referred to passing off fiction as fact.
Left-intellectuals-liberals are not able to digest the fact that ancient India was so advanced that the people of that time knew how to fly planes, cloned humans and carried out plastic surgeries. One columnist had sarcastically written “I have been told about the extraordinary qualities of a cow, which is usually white but never of the buffalo, which is black. And the cow dung can resist nuclear radiation”. Another columnist took a swipe at the Indian Science Congress for glorifying ancient India past–aircraft technology existed in India 7000 years ago. Whether Cow dung can do miracle or not, may be debatable. But recently L V Subramanyan, principal secretary, health, medical and family welfare speaking at the conference organised by the Food and Drug Toxicology Research Centre said “Cow urine has a lot of potential as a traditional method for cancer treatment. We cannot lose our ancient wisdom.”
But what caused so much of anathemas and heart burn among these left-liberal-intellectuals? They are of the opinion that Indian Science Congress was propagating unscientific temper or trash. As far as Aircraft technology is concerned, we all know Ravana kidnapped Sita and took her to Lanka in his Pushpak Viman and that Lord Rama, after defeating Ravana, reached Ayodhya in Pushpak Viman. In Hinduism, Garuda is a Hindu Divinity, usually the mount (vahana) of Lord Vishnu. Indonesia, now a Muslim- dominated country has an airline called Garuda. Similarly, Bangladesh, also now a Muslim country, has an airline—Biman Bangladesh. The usage of words “Garuda” and “Biman” testifies that both Indonesia and Bangladesh acknowledge and take pride in their ancient glorious past of pre-Islamic era. Muslim Bangladeshis may be reading Arabic Quran but are still using in their daily life sweet Bangla Bhasha, which is very close to ancient Sanskrit language. So are other regional languages of India.
In the mid- 80s, when Doordarshan first beamed Ramayana, we all saw from Lord Rama to Laxman using wide range of weapons. Ravana’s brothers also used immense range of weapons in their fight with Lord Rama’s army. Hanumanji flew Lord Rama and Laxman on his shoulders to cross the sea between Bharat and Lanka and flew to get the Sanjivani booti when Laxman was hit and fell unconscious. Isn’t this strange our scriptures written thousands of years back mention flying objects (Viman) and Hanumanji able to fly? Only a society which had a firsthand experience to these happenings could have mentioned it in its scriptures.
In the West and Hollywood, fictional characters like Superman and Supergirl are a recent creation for the entertainment of the masses. But there is no religious significance attached with these characters. A certain section of the anglicised-liberal-left-intellectuals from the Hindus who question the glorious past of Indian civilisation must be asked why the West, in particular, came out with magazines 7000 years late on Superman and Supergirl; probably West had not experienced such interactions or encounters in their religious text books. It was only when they came to India and read our holy books that they were first enlightened and produced movies where a person could fly and had extraordinary powers.
The Hollywood studios in early part of the last century were engrossed in making movies on cow boys. Hollywood Flicks on subjects ‘The Planet of Apes’ could not have clicked in the mind of a Hollywood producer unless he had an interaction with our revered, not mythological, holy book–Ramayana. Our Mumbai film industry, long before Hollywood, had a fixation for producing movies like Jai Santoshi Ma, Kam Dhenu, Shiv Shakti, Vaishno Devi etc where our Gods and Goddesses could transmit themselves, change their appearances etc and do what they wished for the welfare of the human race. The Mumbai film industry and the legendary NTR were able to do all this in their films with such a conviction because they had heard, read and saw dramatised versions of legendary stories with great moral values since childhood. Hollywood, to my knowledge, never ever accused our yesteryears script writers, producers and directors of plagiarism when they made movies where Hanumanji could be seen flying and Gods and Goddesses changing their appearances. This is not true with our current crop of Mumbai film industry.
Growing up in the late 70s and mid 80s, we all had read Hindi novels where two young boys, Rajan-Iqbal, played the roles of detectives. Remember, the novels always started with black car– Ambassador or Fiat cruising at high speed and soon left the city. The occupant of the car was always described wearing black suit, dark sun glasses paired with a hat, smoking an expensive cigar. In the story, whenever Rajan-Iqbal were in trouble or in emergency, both or either of them was always looking for telephone booth as mobile phones had not made a debut in those days.
In the 60s and 70s, our Hindi movie heroes, when played the role of spies and detectives, sent telex messages to police headquarters from their secret station. Same was true for our famed Rajan-Iqbal. They did not send SMS or messages from their mobile phones or blackberry messengers. In the novels, readers did not read Rajan-Iqbal using twitter, whatsapp or bluetooth!! Our heartthrobs from film world and Rajan-Iqbal of famed detective series used the technologies as they were the best possible options available in their times. And this is a fact which can be testified by the people of that era and novels of that time. What’s mentioned in Ramayana and Mahabharata are the facts witnessed, experienced, encountered and inventions made and solutions found by our great Rishis and forefathers. And they ensured that same was passed on to their posterity by compiling it in Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Another respected left- leaning columnist and a Rajya Sabha Member acknowledged the path- breaking achievements made by India in astronomy and mathematics. He also acknowledges that modern science would have been impossible without the invention of Zero. It would be worth mentioning that the West has recently started counting millions, billions, and trillions. Our civilisation felt the need long before them and invented terms:
- Koti –One Crore (107 )
- Sanku–1012
- Mahasanku–1017
- Vrnda–1022
- Maha-vrnda–1027
- Padma—1032
- Maha Padma–1037
- Kharva–1042
- Maha kharva–1047
- Samudra–1052
- Ogha–1057
- Mahaogha–1062
Only a society or civilisation which was well developed and felt the need to count up to Mahaogha could have only developed the number. After all, necessity is the mother of all inventions.
The question that strikes one’s mind why the left-intellectuals-liberal brigade denounces, opposes, criticises or is reluctant to accept anything and everything which is related to glorious ancient Indian past. According to them, there is no carbon dating available to prove the existence of Vimanas, plastic surgery and powerful arrows (read missiles) as referred in our religious scripts. Then they must answer how come Vimanas (flying objects) find mention in Ramayana-written thousands of years back? How come Pythagoras Theorem was discovered in India in 800BCE and is found in Shulva Sutra? How come ancient India people had the know-how to carry out brain surgeries by opening the skull? History channel, in its programme, also acknowledged the role played by the ancient India in medical science.
Then why do the left-liberal- intellectuals-anglicised Hindus doubt or question the very existence of Pushpak Viman? Why do they discredit and doubt the contribution of Rishis—like the wise Bhardwaj who referred to no less than 70 authorities and 10 experts of air travel. What is the harm in accepting that Baudhayana was behind Pythagoras theory 800BCE? Why deny contribution of Sulbhasutras in Vedic mathematics? The critics must know great wise people of ancient India would not come to claim the Nobel Prize from the West for their contribution is Science and medicine nor would they accuse the winners of Nobel Prize of plagiarism!!
All the ISC wanted was awareness and recognition to the contribution made by great Rishis of ancient India to be passed on to the current generation who are oblivion to these facts.
~ Manoj Sharma, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi
