The Surya Siddhanta

• A textbook on astronomy of ancient India, last compiled in 1000 BC, believed to be handed down from 3000 BC by aid of complex mnemonic recital methods still known today.
• Showed the Earth's diameter to be 7,840 miles, compared to modern measurements of 7,926.7 miles.
• Showed the distance between the Earth and the Moon as 253,000 miles, compared to modern measurements of 252,710 miles.

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Nilakanta

Nilakanta discovered Newton’s Infinite Geometric Progression convergent series.

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Mohenjo-Daro

Mohenjo-Daro, archaeological an advanced civilization located in the Indus Valley, or Harappan, civilization (2500?-1700 bc), south of Larkana, Pakistan. Excavated in the 1920s by the British archaeologist Sir John Marshall (1876-1958), Mohenjo-Daro covers more than 80 hectares (200 acres) and consists of two mounds separated by an unoccupied area. The irrigation produced crop surpluses and required an advanced social and political system.. A major city and commercial center during the Bronze Age, it is the largest Indus Valley settlement.

The small western mound, or “citadel,” has several public buildings, which may have been surrounded by a wall. Early excavators took these buildings for a granary, assembly hall, college, and public bath, but later studies have cast doubt on that conclusion. The larger eastern mound consists of large blocks of brick buildings, separated by streets and housing the inhabitants' residences and workshops. The two major cities, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, had straight streets lined with large, two-story homes equipped with plumbing. Both mounds yielded an abundance of Harappan artifacts. The Indus peoples used wheeled carts, designed creative jewelry and toys, and had written languages.

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Indians cultivated Wheat and Barley

Before 2500BC Indians cultivated Wheat and Barley at Mohenjo-Daro on the Indus River. The city’s inhabitants also eat millet, dates, melons, and other fruits and vegetables.

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Charaka

• 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 civilization.

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Susruta

• Maharshi Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago.
• He and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like caesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery.
• Susruta gave recognizable descriptions of malaria, tuberculosis, and diabetes.
• He also wrote about Indian hemp, or Cannabis, and henbane for inducing anesthesia, and included specific antidotes and highly skilled treatments for bites of venomous snakes.
• He is the first person to perform successful skin grafting and plastic surgery for the nose.
• He quoted as "Strong emotions and passions are the causes not only of mental but also of physical illness".

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The World's first university Takshasila

Takshasila (also known in its corrupted form as Taxila). Takshasila was the world's first center of learning of excellence that existed around 2700 years ago, as early as 700 BCE, located in the northwest region of India (35 km to west of Islamabad Capital territory and to the northwest of Rawalpindi in Punjab-just off the Grand Trunk Road).

It dates back to the Gandhara period and contains the ruins of the Gandharan city of Takshasila which was an important Hindu and Buddhist centre. Takshasila, is reputed to derive its name from "Taksha", who was the son of Bharata (the brother of Lord Rama) and Mandavi, the suffix "sila"means "stone" in Sanskrit.

In the Mahabharata, the Kuru heir Parikshit was enthroned at akshasila. According to tradition the Mahabharata was first recited at Takshasila by Vaishampayana, a disciple of Vyasa at the behest of the seer Vyasa himself, at the sarpa satra yajna, "Snake Sacrifice ceremony" of Parikshit's son Janamejaya.

Historically, Takshasila lay at the crossroads of three major trade routes:

1. The uttarapatha, "the northern road" - the later Grand Trunk or GT Road - the royal road which connected Gandhara in the west to the kingdom of Magadha and its capital Pataliputra in the valley of the Ganga in the east.
2. The north-western route through Bactria, Kapisa, and Pushkalavati.
3. The Sindu (English: Indus) route from Kashmir and Central Asia, via Sri nagara, Mansehra, and the Haripur valley across the Khunjerab pass to the Silk Road in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south. To fully understand the importance of Takshasila it must be noted that the Khunjerab pass between Kashmir and Xinjiang - the current Karakoram highway - was already traversed in antiquity.

Takshashila was an important Vedic/Hindu and Buddhist centre of learning. Takshashila was in real sense an international seat of learning where students from as far as Babylonia (Iraq), Greece, Syria, Arabia and China came to study. Takshashila could accommodate 10,500 students and during its time this university was the Harvard and MIT of the world.

The University taught subjects using the best of practical knowledge acquired by the teachers.Takshashila offered as many as 64 different specialized courses like Vedas, grammar, philosophy, ayurveda, agriculture, surgery, politics, archery, accounts, warfare, astronomy, commerce, futurology, occult, music, dance, etc. There were even curious subjects like the art of treasure hunting, decrypting encrypted messages, etc. The students would opt for electives and then would do indepth study and research into their field of choice.

Admission seekers into this great seat of learning first had to complete their basic education in their local institutions and reach the age of 16 before they were eligible for admission. Admission was highly competitive and based purely on merit. Even the sons of Kings would have to prove their merit before they were considered for admission. The course of study at Takshashila extended to as many as seven years. The students were always spoken of as going to Takshasila to 'complete' their education and not begin it. Every single student who graduated from this university would become a well sought after scholar all across the Indian subcontinent. There are not much of evidence to suggest that Takshashila had any female students in its campus.

The students were usually admitted to instruction in Takshashila by their teachers on payment of advance of their entire tuition fees, which would normally include lodging and food. In lieu of paying the fees in cash, a student was allowed to pay them in the shape of services to his teachers. To this class apparently belonged the majority of the students who attended on their teachers by day and received instruction at night. They gathered firewood for their teachers or cleaned their houses and did the cooking. Some were allowed to pay after the completion of their study. Some would even have to beg to pay their cost of education at Takshashila. Payment would normally be in gold.

Some scholars date Takshashila's existence back to the 6th century BCE. It became a noted centre of learning at least several centuries before Christ, and continued to attract students from around the old world until the destruction of the city in the 5th century CE. Takshashila is perhaps best known because of its association with Chanakya. The famous treatise Arthashastra (Sanskrit for The knowledge of Economics) by Chanakya, is said to have been composed in Takshashila itself.

Besides Chanakya other great scholars of their time like Panini (language and grammar), Jivak (medicine and surgery) and Charaka (Ayurvedic healer), the Maurya Emperor Chandragupta are also taught at Takshashila.

The city of Takshashila is mentioned by the Chinese monk Faxian (also called Fa-Hien), who visited ancient sites of Buddhism in India. He came to Takshashila in 405 CE. In his book "A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms. Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his Travels in India and Ceylon in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline" he mentions the kingdom of Takshasila (or Chu-cha-shi-lo) meaning "the severed Head" (Chapter 11). He says that this name was derived from an event in the life of Buddha because this is the place "where he gave his head to a man".

Xuanzang (also called Hieun Tsang), another Chinese monk, visited Takshashila in 630 CE. He mentions the city as Ta-Cha-Shi-Lo. The city appears to have already been ruins by his time.

There is some disagreement about whether Takshashila can be considered a university. While some consider Takshasila to be an early university or centre of higher education, others do not consider it a university in the modern sense, in contrast to the later Nalanda University. Takshashila is described in some detail in later Jataka tales, written in Sri Lanka around the 5th century.

Takshashila was destroyed by the invading Huns who came from across Hindukush into Punjab in the fifth century, and never recovered.

The British archaeologist Sir John Marshall conducted excavations over a period of twenty years in Takshasila.In 1980 Takshashila was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site with multiple locations. Recently it has been ranked as the top Tourist Destination in Pakistan by The Guardian.

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Nalanda University

• The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
• Nalanda, an ancient university located in the state of Bihar, India, was a famous learning center once thought to exist during the lifetime of the Buddha in the 5th century bc.
• Scholars now believe the learning center came into being in the 5th century ad. At its height during the 7th century, it was host to 2000 teachers and 10,000 students.

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Golden Era

In about ad 320, Chandragupta I, the ruler of the Magadha kingdom, united the many peoples of the valley and founded the Gupta dynasty. For about the next century his son Samudragupta and grandson Chandragupta II brought much of India under unified control for the first time since the Mauryan Empire, controlling the lands from the eastern hills of Afghanistan to Assam, north of the Narmada River. Samudragupta conducted a successful military expedition as far south as the city of Kanchipuram, but probably did not directly rule in those regions. The Guptas directly ruled a core area that included the east central Gangetic Plain, located in present-day Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In addition, they conquered other areas, reinstating the kings who were then obliged to pay tribute and attend the imperial court. Both Chandragupta I and Chandragupta II made strategic marriages that extended the empire, the latter with the successors to the Andhra dynasty in central India. A policy of religious tolerance and patronage of all religions also helped consolidate their rule.

The time of the Gupta Empire has been called the Golden age of Indian civilization because of the period’s great flowering of literature, art, and science. In literature, the dramas and poems of Kalidas, who wrote the romantic drama Sakuntala, are especially well known. During this era India’s level of science and technology was probably higher than that of Europe. The use of the zero and the decimal system of numerals, later transmitted to Europe by the Arabs, was a major contribution to modern mathematics

By 550AD the Gupta Empire had fallen.

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The Mauryan era

The rulers of Mauryan empire (India, except the area south of Karnataka) 4th-2nd centuries BC

• 321 to 298 BC - Chandragupta Maurya
• 298 to 272 BC - Bindusara Amitraghata
• 272 to 232 BC - Asoka (Vardhana)
• 232 to 185 BC - later Mauryas

By the 6th century bc, Indian civilization was firmly centered at the eastern end of the Gangetic Plain (in the area of present day Bihar), and certain kings became increasingly powerful. In the 6th century bc the Kingdom of Magadha conquered and absorbed neighboring kingdoms, giving rise to India’s first empire. At the head of the Magadha state was a hereditary monarch in charge of a centralized administration. The state regularly collected revenues and was protected by a standing army. This empire continued to expand, extending in the 4th century bc into central India and as far as the eastern coast.

Chandragupta Maurya, the first king of the Mauryan dynasty, succeeded the throne in Magadha in about 321 bc. In 305 bc Chandragupta defeated the ruler of a Hellenistic kingdom on the plains of Punjab and extended what became the Mauryan Empire into Afghanistan and Baluchistan to the southwest. Chandragupta was assisted by Kautilya, his chief minister. The empire stretched from the Ganges Delta in the east, south into the Deccan, and west to include Gujarat. It was further extended by Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta, to include all of India (including what is now Pakistan and much of what is now Afghanistan) except the far southern tip and the lands to the east of the Brahmaputra River. The Mauryan Empire featured a complex administrative structure, with the emperor as the head of a developed bureaucracy of central and local government.

After a bloody campaign against Kalinga in what is now Orissa state in 261 bc, Ashoka became disillusioned with warfare and eventually embraced Buddhism and nonviolence. Although Buddhism was not made the state religion, and although Ashoka tolerated all religions within his realm, he sent missionaries far and wide to spread the Buddhist message of righteousness and humanitarianism. His son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta converted the people of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and other missionaries were sent to Southeast Asia and probably into Central Asia as well. He also sent cultural missions to the west, including Syria, Egypt, and Greece. Ashoka built shrines and monasteries and had rocks and beautifully carved pillars inscribed with Buddhist teachings.

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Ancient Vedic Hymns

Vedas:

• Rig Veda - Knowledge of Hymns, 10,859 verses
• Yajur Veda - Knowledge of Liturgy, 3,988 verses
• Sama Veda - Knowledge of Classical Music, 1,549 verses
• Ayur Veda - Knowledge of Medicine, over 100,000 verses

Upanishads:

• Jyotisha – Astrology and Astronomy.
• Kalpa – Rituals and Legal matters.
• Siksha – Phonetics.
• Aitareya – Creation of the Universe, Man and Evolution.
• Chandogya – Reincarnation, Soul.
• Kaushitaki – Karma.
• Kena – Austerity, Work, and Restraint.
• Dharnur Veda – Science of Archery and War.
• Mundaka – Discipline, Faith and warning of Ignorance.
• Sulba Sutra – Knowledge of Mathematics

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Vedic Philosphy

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.

Veda means Knowledge in Sanskrit.

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Vedic Civilization

In about 1500 BC the Aryans, a nomadic people from Central Asia, settled in the upper reaches of the Indus, Yamuna, and Gangetic plains. They spoke a language from the Indo-European family and worshiped gods similar to those of later-era Greeks and northern Europeans. The Aryans are particularly important to Indian history because they originated the earliest forms of the sacred Vedas (orally transmitted texts of hymns of devotion to the gods, manuals of sacrifice for their worship, and philosophical speculation). By 800 BC the Aryans ruled in most of northern India, occasionally fighting among them selves or with the peoples of the land they were settling. There is no evidence of what happened to the people displaced by the Aryans. In fact they may not have been displaced at all but instead may have been incorporated in Aryan culture or left alone in the hills of northern India.

The Vedas, which are considered the core of Hinduism, provide much information about the Aryans. The major gods of the Vedic peoples remain in the pantheon of present-day Hindus; the core rituals surrounding birth, marriage, and death retain their Vedic form. The Vedas also contain the seeds of great epic literature and philosophical traditions in India. One example is the Mahabharata, an epic of the battle between two noble families that dates from 400 BC but probably draws on tales composed much earlier. Another example is the Upanishads, philosophical treatises that were composed between the 8th and the 5th centuries BC.

As the Aryans slowly settled into agriculture and moved southeast through the Gangetic Plain, they relinquished their semi nomadic style of living and changed their social and political structures. Instead of a warrior leading a tribe, with a tribal assembly as a check on his power, an Aryan chieftain ruled over territory, with its society divided into hereditary groups. This structure became the beginning of the caste system, which has survived in India until the present day. The four castes that emerged from this era were the Brahmans (priests), the Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), the Vaisyas (merchants, farmers, and traders), and the Sudras (artisans, laborers, and servants).

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