Vedic Culture Covered all aspects of life

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Devangshu Datta takes us through a world of ideas that were born in

India and then travelled beyond its shores in myriad forms.

 

 

 

 

Posted online: Sunday, January 01, 2006 at 0000 hours IST

 

 

 

PHILOSOPHY

Mind-expanding drugs

 

In the Vedic era itself, sages were exploring the possibility that

the path to enlightenment led through substance abuse. The

progression: from soma-rasa to ganja, charas, bhang and dhatura, to

opium, LSD, and ecstasy.

 

 

 

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Atheism & agnosticism

Buddhism and Jainism are two faiths neutral to the existence of God.

A prac-tising Buddhist, a Jain or a `nastik' Hindu philosopher may be

an atheist.

 

Carnal pleasure

Sex manuals like the Kama Sutra prove our ancestors went way beyond

the needs of procreation in their explo-ration of sex without guilt.

What a pity we've turned our backs on this part of our glorious

heritage!

 

Yoga

Hatha Yoga for physical fitness and Raja Yoga for a clear mind is one

prescrip-tion for healthy living, which can be followed from infancy

into extreme old age.

 

TECHNOLOGY

Parachutes

In 800 AD, the philosopher Haribhadra lamented that his nephews

wasted their time making "umbrellas" to jump off high buildings

apparently for pure entertainment.

 

Flush toilets

The loos of Mohenjo Daro were certainly among the wonders of the

ancient world. They had flush tanks with cisterns, valves and sundry

other modcons.

 

Artificial harbours

Lothal, (circa 2000 BCE) had an artificial harbour with dredged chan-

nels and brick breakwaters.

 

Fingerprinting

Fingerprinting, still the most common system of biometric

identification, was developed in the Bengal Presidency during the

19th century.

 

SCIENCE

Zero

It is a fundamental breakthrough to realise that nothing is also a

quantity. Zero is at the root of every useful number system. From

here, Indian mathematicians went on to complex and negative numbers.

 

Infinite series

Indians solved the Paradox of Xeno (a.k.a. Achilles and the

Tortoise). They understood `infinite series'. That leads to the

concept of limits and the foun-dations of calculus.

 

ADMINISTRATIVE INNOVATIONS

Golchowks

Gupta period cities had traffic round-abouts with radial roads. It

took anoth-er 1,200 years before modern urban planners figured out

that this was an improvement on the city square.

 

Animal rights

The Mauryas were conservationists. Kautilya describes fines for

cruelty to animals. Asoka listed protected species in his edicts (the

cow wasn't on the list).

 

Organised gambling

The Arthashastra mentions that public superintendents were appointed

for the supervision of licensed casinos and the collection of taxes

thereof. A shocking concept for the "modern Indian tradi-tionalist".

 

EALTHCARE & HYGIENE

Public healthcare

Asoka established the first public healthcare system with public

hospitals.

 

Malaria

Ronald Ross' breakthrough came in Calcutta in 1898. Locals like U.N.

Brahmachari developed quinine-based medicines to combat a disease

that remains a scourge.

 

Cremation

All those ossified shraddha rituals started out as rules for

quarantining the families of people who may have died of infectious

diseases. Cremation is also a reliable method of reducing the chance

of epidemics.

 

BUSINESS

Badla From time immemorial, traders dealing in commodity and stocks

have found themselves in situa-tions where either the asset or cash

is in short supply. The age-old badla sys-tem recon-ciled all for-

ward trans-actions in a complex chain, which involved buyers, sellers

and lenders of assets and cash.

 

Hoondis

The Indian letter of credit, the hoondi, has been around at least

since the time of Hiuen Tsang. Hoondis are still used to make hassle-

free, cross-border transfers. Business clans developed hoondi code

into art forms; these letters would be honoured by every mahajan but

could be deciphered only by a few.

 

Currency exchange

Hundreds of princely states issued coin and currency during the Raj.

The British rupee was based on silver. The pound sterling was based

on gold. The com-plicated mechanics of exchange had to be worked out

for use by a largely illiterate populace. It was a stunning feat of

practical monetarism on the part of the Raj.

 

SPORTS & RECREATION

Mindgames Complex mindgames like chess and pasha were developed in

India. These were considered excellent means for young kshatriyas to

learn the art of war (and gambling).

 

Snooker

The modern version of snooker was worked out by General Chamberlain

in Poona. He coloured billiard balls and created the points system.

 

Rum

There are rum recipes dating back to 1000 BCE, describing the process

of distillation from cane sugar along with the addition of permitted

colours and flavours.