Fifteen Indian Inventions and Discoveries That Shaped the Modern World

[INDIC]

I thought the Indus people live in the area of modern day Pakistan. When you refer to ancient India do you mean Aryans mostly? Or it's Indian culture in general terms that could include Pakistan also?

Indus valley was in both countries. Both Indians and Pakistanis study the history of historical India/Bharat/Hindustan.

 

[IndoCarib]

Your personal beliefs don't matter either. Facts do.

When you say "ancient India" which one do you mean? The Vedic civilization was confined to a small part of today's India and Pakistan.

And could you tell me how women had more rights in "ancient india" than now? Which rights did women have back then, that they don't have now?

read post no. 11. I gave you some reference at least. Can you give me some source on your contention ?

 

[INDIC]

Your personal beliefs don't matter either. Facts do.

When you say "ancient India" which one do you mean? The Vedic civilization was confined to a small part of today's India and Pakistan.

And could you tell me how women had more rights in "ancient india" than now? Which rights did women have back then, that they don't have now?

Women in ancient India(not just Vedic period) had more respect and rights in Indian society compared to Medieval India. However I still doubt that with modern India.

 

[janon]

read post no. 11. I gave you some reference at least. Can you give me some source on your contention ?

Source for which contention?

In post 11, you did not give any references or links. You just gave your opinion.

Anyway, my question is simple - you said that ancient India had more regard for women's rights than modern India. So tell me factually, what rights women did women have in ancient India, that they do not have now? If you can't answer that, stop peddling that lie.

Women in ancient India(not just Vedic period) had more respect and rights in Indian society compared to Medieval India. However I still doubt that with modern India.

In modern India, women have equal rights as with men,, from a legal point of view. Completely and unequivocally. That has never been true before.

 

[Nan Yang]

The Indian/Hindu Numeral System might be a myth.

Actually the Chinese has been using the Chinese abacus, the Suan Pan and been calculating in decimal since ancient times. The Suan Pan is based on decimal system. And it is still being taught in schools.

This device works as a bi-quinary based number system in which carries and shifting are similar to the decimal number system. Since each rod represents a digit in a decimal number, the computation capacity of the suanpan is only limited by the number of rods on the suanpan. When a mathematician runs out of rods, another suanpan can be added to the left of the first. In theory, the suanpan can be expanded indefinitely in this way.

Suanpans can be used for functions other than counting. Unlike the simple counting board used in elementary schools, very efficient suanpan techniques have been developed to do multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, square root and cube root operations at high speed.




Abacus versus Calculator - YouTube

 

[HariPrasad]

WRONG. There are no exaggerations in the article. Women enjoyed equal status and rights during the early Vedic period. Works by ancient writers such as Patanjali and Katyayana suggest that women were educated in the early Vedic period. Rigveda verses suggest that women married at a mature age and were probably free to select their own husbands. However in approximately 500 B.C., the status of women began to decline with the advent of Manusmriti, and with the Islamic invasion of Babur and the Mughal empire and Christianity later curtailing women's freedom and rights. That decline is still on.

Manusmiriti states that "Yatrah Naryastu Pujayante, Ramante tatra devtaha". God resides there, where laddies are respected.

Yes it is true that status of women began to decline with Islamic invasion of Babur and the Mughal empire and Christianity. As they started looting and rapping women.

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

Manusmiriti states that "Yatrah Naryastu Pujayante, Ramante tatra devtaha". God resides there, where laddies are respected.

Yes it is true that status of women began to decline with Islamic invasion of Babur and the Mughal empire and Christianity. As they started looting and rapping women.

Hariprasad, we need to own up the responsibility for our own misdeeds, passing the buck to Islam will not help, in Rigvedic period women had more or less equal statues, but in the later periods statues of women declined in the society.

 

[INDIC]

The Indian/Hindu Numeral System might be a myth.

Actually the Chinese has been using the Chinese abacus, the Suan Pan and been calculating in decimal since ancient times. The Suan Pan is based on decimal system. And it is still being taught in schools.

This device works as a bi-quinary based number system in which carries and shifting are similar to the decimal number system. Since each rod represents a digit in a decimal number, the computation capacity of the suanpan is only limited by the number of rods on the suanpan. When a mathematician runs out of rods, another suanpan can be added to the left of the first. In theory, the suanpan can be expanded indefinitely in this way.

Suanpans can be used for functions other than counting. Unlike the simple counting board used in elementary schools, very efficient suanpan techniques have been developed to do multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, square root and cube root operations at high speed.

Indian numerals greatly eased the method for calculation and brought a revolution in complex mathematical calculation. Indian took the use of zero one step further as place value in Indian numerals.

"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

 

[HariPrasad]

Hariprasad, we need to own up the responsibility for our own misdeeds, passing the buck to Islam will not help, in Rigvedic period women had more or less equal statues, but in the later periods statues of women declined in the society.

I quote a quotation from Manusmriti. You replying with your opinion brother.

Do you know the incident of Padmini (If I have not forgotten name) 5000 women burn themselves to protect theim from being the victim of Islamic Invaders. Do you know the Incident of Rani Roopmati? All this came in the time of Barbaric Islamic Invasion.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Manusamriti is a racist book with casteist divisions and unequal treatment towards women,that divided the country and left us vulnerable to foreign invasion.
The 2 bane of indian middle age were-
Feudalism[and consequent poliical disunity]
Social rigidity[No one except kshatriyas and brahmins had any interest in fighting for the land.No peoples war.Division and mistrust between different castes.Despite huge manpower it couldn't be used due to caste divisions.There is a hindi proverb-
'' as long as the rains come in time and the tax collector stays away,who cares who reigns in delhi?''

This feudalism and caste sytem destroyed ancient india.And manusmriti institutionalized the latter.
Rig vedas ,upanishads,gita-these are true philiosophical great books.

 

[OrionHunter]

Add another Indian discovery: The art of mass producing corrupt, self serving, ball-less politicians!

 

[AUz]

Indians, Arabs, Persians, Egyptians, Chinese etc have made tremendous contributions to the human civilization. Sad part is, West has manipulated history and made itself sit on "higher seat" of humanity.

Non-Westerners need MASSIVE scholarly investment in archaeology, history, social sciences etc to develop their own historical narrative...

Right now, world history is seen through westernized perspectives..which are biased as fcuk..

@AUSTERLITZ

What say?

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Indians, Arabs, Persians, Egyptians, Chinese etc have made tremendous contributions to the human civilization. Sad part is, West has manipulated history and made itself sit on "higher seat" of humanity.

Non-Westerners need MASSIVE scholarly investment in archaeology, history, social sciences etc to develop their own historical narrative...

Right now, world history is seen through westernized perspectives..which are biased as fcuk..

@AUSTERLITZ

What say?

Look. non westerners have massive contributions till about the beginning of the scientific revolution in europe.After that there is no denying hat western civilization has been benchmark in all fields.Given that much of this progress could not have been possible if europe had stuck to roman numerals which are nightmare as far math is concerned,and that epic chinese inventions as well as mesopotamian civs have been downplayed is knwon.Still west's contribution to humanity can't be denied,the modern world is creation of western civilization it must be acknowledged.

 

[AUz]

Look. non westerners have massive contributions till about the beginning of the scientific revolution in europe.After that there is no denying hat western civilization has been benchmark in all fields.Given that much of this progress could not have been possible if europe had stuck to roman numerals which are nightmare as far math is concerned,and that epic chinese inventions as well as mesopotamian civs have been downplayed is knwon.Still west's contribution to humanity can't be denied,the modern world is creation of western civilization it must be acknowledged.

No one is doubting Western carving of Modern world from 18th century to now...

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

No one is doubting Western carving of Modern world from 18th century to now...

Particularly chinese technical advances have not got the amount of publicity they deserve,china was a very advanced civilization.
Same for the ancient babylonians and mesopotaminas.First use of algebra,first written script cuneiform,first use of irrigation canals and heavy ploughs.First use of iron tools began in asia minor probably by hittites.
The indus valley had town planning and sanitation systems that were unmatched anywhere in the world for their time.
The indus sanitation system was unmatched anywhere in the world till the roman civilization!