In the Vedic world view, the processes in the sky, on earth, and within the mind are connected. The Vedic seers insist that all rational descriptions of the universe lead to logical paradox. The one category transcending all oppositions is Brahman. Understanding the nature of consciousness is of paramount importance in this view but this does not mean that other sciences are ignored. Vedic ritual is a symbolic retelling of this world view. Knowledge is classified in two ways: the lower or dual, and the higher or unified. The seemingly irreconcilable worlds of the material and the conscious are taken as aspects of the same transcendental reality. The idea of complementarity is at the basis of the systematization of Indian philosophic traditions, so that complementary approaches are paired together.

We have the groups of: logic (Nyaya) and physics (Vaisheshika), cosmology (Sankhya) and psychology (Yoga), and language (Mimamsa) and reality (Vedanta). These six views are like the six sides of a cube. Although these philosophical schools were formalized in the post-Vedic age, we find the basis of these ideas in the Vedic texts.

The Sankhya and the Yoga systems take the mind as consisting of five components:

manas, ahamkara, chitta, buddhi, and atman.

Manas is the lower mind which collects sense impressions. Ahamkara is the sense of I-ness that associates some perceptions to a subjective and personal experience. Once sensory impressions have been related to I-ness by ahamkara, their evaluation and resulting decisions are arrived at by buddhi, the intellect. Chitta is the memory bank of the mind. These memories constitute the foundation on which the rest of the mindoperates. But chitta is not merely a passive instrument. The organization of the new impressions throws up instinctual or primitive urges which creates different emotional states. This mental complex surrounds the innermost aspect of consciousness,which is atman (Self or Brahman). In this view matter appears inert only because it has not expressed its potential. By process of transformation, nature (prakriti) attains the capacity for freedom. Sentient beings are free to varying degrees.

Physics and Chemistry

The Vaisheshika system considers nine classes of substances, some of which are nonatomic, some atomic, and others all-pervasive. The nonatomic ground is provided by the three substances ether, space, and time, which are unitary and indestructible; a further four, earth, water, fire, and air are atomic composed of indivisible, and indestructible atoms; self (atman), which is the eighth, is omnipresent and eternal; and, lastly, the ninth, is the mind (manas), which is also eternal but of atomic dimensions, that is, infinitely small. The atoms combine to form different kinds of molecules that break up under the influence of heat. The molecules come to have different properties based on the influence of various potentials (tanmatras). Heat and light rays are taken to consist of very small particles of high velocity. Being particles, their velocity is finite. The gravitational force was perceived as a wind. The other forces were mediated by atoms of one kind or the other. Indian chemistry developed many different alkalis, acids and metallic salts by processes of calcination and distillation, often motivated by the need to formulate medicines. Metallurgists developed efficient techniques of extraction of metals from ore.

Geometry and Mathematics

Indian geometry began very early in the Vedic period in altar problems as in the one where the circular altar (earth) is to be made equal in area to a square altar (heavens). Two aspects of the “Pythagoras” theorem are described in the texts by Baudhayana and others. The geometric problems are often presented with their algebraic counterparts. The solution to the planetary problems also led to the development of algebraic methods. Binary numbers were known at the time of Pingala’s Chhandahshastra. Pingala, who is believed to have lived about the fifth century BC used binary numbers to classify Vedic meters. The knowledge of binary numbers indicates a deep understanding of arithmetic.

Astronomy

For many years the mainstream view was to take Indian astronomy as being essentially derivative, based on Mesopotamian and Greek sources. This view arose from the belief that the Indians did not possess a tradition of sound observation. This view was proven wrong for the Siddhantic period by Roger Billard who, using computer analysis, showed that the parameters used in the Siddhantas were accurate for the date of the texts, establishing that they couldn’t have been borrowed from some old source outside of the country.

This was not accepted by all. In particular, David Pingree, who had invested his career in the paradigm that Greek astronomy was the source of Indian astronomy attacked Billard. The distinguished historian of astronomy B.L. van der Waerden stepped in as a referee. He wrote a famous paper called “Two treatises on Indian astronomy” in the Journal for History of Astronomy (1970), where he stated the problem as: “If Pingree is right, Billard is wrong, and conversely.” Proceeding to summarize the works of each, he concluded:

‘ Billard’s methods are sound, and his results shed new light on the chronology of Indian astronomical treatises and the accuracy of the underlying observations. We also have seen that Pingree’s chronology is wrong in several cases. In one case, his error amounts to 500 years … Billard’s book is reliable and contains very valuable new information. I have checked several of his results, and Billard always proved right’.

Meanwhile, our understanding of Vedic astronomy has changed in which my discovery of an astronomical code in the organization has played a role. These discoveries indicate that there was a long tradition of astronomical observation in India. The origins of Indian mathematics are also much ancient than previously thought. An amulet seal from Rehman Dheri (2400 BC) indicates that the nakshatra system is an old one. The seal shows a pair of scorpions on one side and two antelopes on the other. It has been argued that this seal represents the opposition of the Orion (Mrigashiras, or antelope head) and the Scorpio (Rohini) nakshatras. There exists another relationship between Orion and Rohini, this time the name of alpha Tauri, Aldebaran.

The famous Vedic myth of Prajapati as Orion, as personification of the year, desiring his daughter (Rohini) (for example Aitareya Brahmana 3.33) represents the age when the beginning of the year shifted from Orion to Rohini. For this transgression, Rudra (Sirius, Mrigavyadha) cuts off Prajapati’s head. It has been suggested that the arrow near the head It has been suggested that the arrow near the head of one of the antelopes represents the decapitation of Orion, and this seems a very reasonable interpretation of the iconography of the seal.

It is likely then that many constellations were named in the third millennium BC or earlier. This would explain why the named constellations in the Rigveda and the Brahmanas, such as the Rikshas (the Great Bear and the Little Bear), the two divine dogs (Canis Major and Canis Minor), the twin Asses (in Cancer), the Goat (Capricornus) and the Heavenly Boat (Argo Navis), are the same as in Europe. Other constellations described similar mythical events: Prajapati as Orion upon his beheading; Osiris as Orion when he is killed by Seth.

The Vedanga Jyotisha (VJ) of Lagadha (1300 BC) is one of the subsidiary Vedic texts, so its contents must be considered to be roughly coeval with the Brahmanas and other post-Vedic texts although the VJ text that has come down to us is definitely of a later period. The Puranas also contain a lot of very old material and their astronomy appears, on all counts, to be earlier than Aryabhata so they provide us with clues regarding the evolution of astronomical thought. It was long popular to consider the Siddhantic astronomy of Aryabhata to be based mainly on mathematical ideas that originated in Babylon and Greece. This view was inspired, in part, by the fact that two of the five pre-Aryabhata Siddhantas in Varahamihira’s Panchasiddhantika (PS), namely Romaka and Paulisha, appear to be connected to the West through the names Rome and Paul. But the planetary model of these early Siddhantas is basically an extension of the theory of the orbits of the sun and the moon in the Vedanga Jyotisha. Furthermore, the compilation of the PS occurred after Aryabhata and so the question of the gradual development of ideas can hardly be answered by examining it. I have presented the technical details of these discoveries elsewhere.

The main conclusion of these findings is that the earliest Indian astronomy is prior to the Mesopotamian one. We have traced certain Indian ideas in Mesopotamia in the second and the first millennium BC. There they were further developed and subsequently transmitted to Greece. Using hitherto neglected texts, an astronomy of the third millennium BC has been discovered. Yajnavalkya, who perhaps lived around 1800 BC, knew of a 95- year cycle to harmonize the motions of the sun and the moon and he also knew that the sun’s circuit was asymmetric. The second millennium text Vedanga Jyotisha of Lagadha went beyond the earlier calendrical astronomy to develop a theory for the mean motions of the sun and the moon. This marked the beginnings of the application of mathematics to the motions of the heavenly bodies. An epicycle theory was used to explain planThe Birth of Science 55 etary motions. Later theories consider the motion of the planets with respect to the sun, which in turn is seen to go around the earth.

Cosmology

The doctrine of the three constituent qualities: sattva, rajas, and tamas, plays an important role in the Sankhya physics and metaphysics. In its undeveloped state, cosmic matter has these qualities in equilibrium. As the world evolves, one or the other of these become preponderant in different objects or beings, giving specific character to each. The recursive Vedic world-view requires that the universe itself go through cycles of creation and destruction. This view became a part of the astronomical framework and ultimately very long cycles of billions of years were assumed. Indian evolution takes the life forms to evolve into an increasingly complex system until the end of the cycle. The categories of Sankhya operate at the level of the individual as well. Life mirrors the entire creation cycle and cognition mirrors a life-history. Cosmological speculations led to the belief in a universe that goes through cycles of creation and destruction with a period of 8.64 billion years. Related to this was the notion that light traveled with a speed of 186,000 miles per second. Since these numbers were not obtained through experimentation, the accuracy of these figures must be seen as remarkable coincidence.

Grammar

Panini’s grammar (5th century BC) provides 4,000 rules that describe the Sanskrit of his day completely. This grammar is acknowledged to be one of the greatest intellectual achievements of all time. The great variety of language mirrors, in many ways, the complexity of nature and, therefore, success in describing a language is as impressive as a complete theory of physics.

It is remarkable that Panini set out to describe the entire grammar in terms of a finite number of rules. Scholars have shown that the grammar of Panini represents a universal grammatical and computing system. From this perspective it anticipates the logical framework of modern computers.

Medicine

Ayurveda, the Indian medicine system, is a holistic approach to health that builds upon the tripartite Vedic approach to the world. Health is maintained through a balance between three basic humors (dosha) of wind (vata), fire (pitta), and water (kapha). Charaka and Sushruta are two famous early physicians. Indian surgery  was quite advanced. The caesarian section was known, bone-setting reached a high degree of skill, and plastic surgery was known.

The Yoga-Vasishtha

Let me take a single book, the Yoga-Vasishtha (YV), to summarize main ideas about space, time, matter, and man in the universe. The internal evidence indicates that it was authored or compiled later than the Ramayana. Scholars have dated it variously as early as first century AD or as late as the 13th or the 14th century. YV may be viewed as a book of philosophy or as a philosophical novel. It describes the instruction given by Vasishtha to Rama, the hero of the epic Ramayana. Its premise may be termed radical idealism and it is couched in a fashion that has many parallels with the notion of a participatory universe argued by Wheeler and others. Its most interesting passages from the scientific point of view relate to the description of the nature of space, time, matter, and consciousness. It should be emphasized that the YV ideas do not stand in isolation.

Similar ideas are to be found in the earlier Vedic books. At its deepest level the Vedic conception is to view reality in a monist manner; at the next level one may speak of the dichotomy of mind and matter. Ideas similar to those found in YV are also encountered in Puranas and Tantric literature. Three kinds of motion are alluded to in the Vedic books: these are the translational motion, sound, and light which are taken to be “equivalent” to earth, air, and sky. The fourth motion is assigned to consciousness; and this is considered to be infinite in speed. It is most interesting that the books in this Indian tradition speak about the relativity of time and space in a variety of ways. Universes defined recursively are described in the famous episode of Indra and the ants in Brahmavaivarta Purana 4.47.100-160, the Mahabharata 12.187, and elsewhere. These flights of imagination are to be traced to more than a straightforward generalization of the motions of the planets into a cyclic universe.

They must be viewed in the background of an amazingly sophisticated tradition of cognitive and analytical thought. Selected Passages YV consists of 6 books where the sixth book itself has two parts. The numbers in the square brackets refer to the book, (part), section, verse.

 Time

Time cannot be analyzed; for however much it is divided it survives indestructible. [1.23]

There is another aspect of this time, the end of action (kritanta), according to the law of nature (niyati). [1.25.6-7]

The world is like a potter’s wheel: the wheel looks as if it stands still, though it revolves at a terrific speed. [1.27]

Just as space does not have a fixed span, time does not have a fixed span either. Just as the world and its creation are mere appearances, a moment and an epoch are also imaginary. [3.20]

Infinite consciousness held in itself the notion of a unit of time equal to onemillionth of the twinkling of an eye: and from this evolved the time-scale right upto an epoch consisting of several revolutions of the four ages, which is the lifespan of one cosmic creation. Infinite consciousness itself is uninvolved in these, for it is devoid of rising and setting (which are essential to all time-scales), and it is devoid of a beginning, middle and end. [3.61]

Space There are three types of space—the psychological space, the physical space and the infinite space of consciousness. [3.17]

The infinite space of undivided consciousness is that which exists in all, inside and outside … The finite space of divided consciousness is that which created divisions of time, which pervades all beings…The physical space is that in which the elements exist. The latter two are not independent of the first. [3.97]

Other universes/wormholes. I saw within [the] rock [at the edge of the universe] the creation, sustenance and the dissolution of the universe…I saw innumerable creations in the very many rocks that I found on the hill. In some of these creation was just beginning, others were populated by humans, still others were far ahead in the passage of their times. [6.2.86]

I perceived within each molecule of air a whole universe. [6.2.92]

Space

There are three types of space—the psychological space, the physical space and the infinite space of consciousness. [3.17]

The infinite space of undivided consciousness is that which exists in all, inside and outside … The finite space of divided consciousness is that which created divisions of time, which pervades all beings…The physical space is that in which the elements exist. The latter two are not independent of the first. [3.97]

Other universes/wormholes. I saw within [the] rock [at the edge of the universe] the creation, sustenance and the dissolution of the universe…I saw innumerable creations in the very many rocks that I found on the hill. In some of these creation was just beginning, others were populated by humans, still others were far ahead in the passage of their times. [6.2.86]

I perceived within each molecule of air a whole universe. [6.2.92]

Matter

In every atom there are worlds within worlds. [3.20]

I saw reflected in that consciousness the image of countless universes. I saw countless creations though they did not know of one another’s existence. Some were coming into being, others were perishing, all of them had different shielding atmospheres (from five to thirty-six atmospheres). There were different elements in each, they were inhabited by different types of beings in different stages of evolution. [In] some there was apparent natural order in others there was utter disorder, in some there was no light and hence no time-sense. [6.2.59]

Experience

Direct experience alone is the basis for all proofs … That substratum is the experiencing intelligence which itself becomes the experiencer, the act of experiencing, and the experience. [2.19-20]

Everyone has two bodies, the one physical and the other mental. The physical body is insentient and seeks its own destruction; the mind is finite but orderly. [4.10]

I have carefully investigated, I have observed everything from the tips of my toes to the top of my head, and I have not found anything of which I could say, ‘This I am.’Who is ‘I’? I am the all-pervading consciousness which is itself not an object of knowledge or knowing and is free from self-hood. I am that which is indivisible, which has no name, which does not undergo change, which is beyond all concepts of unity and diversity, which is beyond measure. [5.52]

I remember that once upon a time there was nothing on this earth, neither trees and plants, nor even mountains. For a period of eleven thousand years the earth was covered by lava. In those days there was neither day nor night below the polar region: for in the rest of the earth neither the sun nor the moon shone. Only one half of the polar region was illumined. Then demons ruled the earth. They were deluded, powerful and prosperous, and the earth was their playground. Apart from the polar region the rest of the earth was covered with water. And then for a very long time the whole earth was covered with forests, except the polar region. Then there arose great mountains, but without any human inhabitants. For a period of ten thousand years the earth was covered with the corpses of the demons. [6.1]

Mind

The same infinite self conceives within itself the duality of oneself and the other. [3.1]

Thought is mind, there is no distinction between the two. [3.4]

The body can neither enjoy nor suffer. It is the mind alone that experiences. [3.115]

The mind has no body, no support and no form; yet by this mind is everything consumed in this world. This is indeed a great mystery. He who says that  he is destroyed by the mind which has no substantiality at all, says in effect that his head was smashed by the lotus petal … The hero who is able to destroy a real enemy standing in front of him is himself destroyed by this mind which is [nonmaterial].

The intelligence which is other than self-knowledge is what constitutes the mind. [5.14] Complementarity The absolute alone exists now and for ever. When one thinks of it as a void, it is because of the feeling one has that it is not void; when one thinks of it as notvoid, it is because there is a feeling that it is void. [3.10] All fundamental elements continued to act on one another—as experiencer and experience—and the entire creation came into being like ripples on the surface of the ocean. And, they are interwoven and mixed up so effectively that they cannot be extricated from one another till the cosmic dissolution. [3.12]

Consciousness

The entire universe is forever the same as the consciousness that dwells in every atom, even as an ornament is non-different from gold. [3.4]

The five elements are the seed of which the world is the tree; and the eternal consciousness is the seed of the elements. [3.13] Cosmic consciousness alone exists now and ever; in it are no worlds, no created beings. That consciousness reflected in itself appears to be creation. [3.13]

This consciousness is not knowable: when it wishes to become the knowable, it is known as the universe. Mind, intellect, egotism, the five great elements, and the world—all these innumerable names and forms are all consciousness alone. [3.14]

The world exists because consciousness is, and the world is the body of consciousness. There is no division, no difference, no distinction. Hence the universe can be said to be both real and unreal: real because of the reality of consciousness which is its own reality, and unreal because the universe does not exist as universe, independent of consciousness.} [3.14]

Consciousness is pure, eternal and infinite: it does not arise nor cease to be. It is ever there in the moving and unmoving creatures, in the sky, on the mountain and in fire and air. [3.55]

Millions of universes appear in the infinite consciousness like specks of dust in a beam of light. In one small atom all the three worlds appear to be, with all their components like space, time, action, substance, day and night. [4.2] 60 The Wishing Tree The universe exists in infinite consciousness. Infinite consciousness is unmanifest, though omnipresent, even as space, though existing everywhere, is manifest. [4.36]

The manifestation of the omnipotence of infinite consciousness enters into an alliance with time, space and causation. Thence arise infinite names and forms. [4.42]

Rudra is the pure, spontaneous self-experience which is the one consciousness that dwells in all substances. It is the seed of all seeds, it is the essence of this world-appearance, it is the greatest of actions. It is the cause of all causes and it is the essence of all beings, though in fact it does not cause anything nor is it the concept of being, and therefore cannot be conceived. It is the awareness in all that is sentient, it knows itself as its own object, it is its own supreme object and it is aware of infinite diversity within itself … The infinite consciousness can be compared to the ultimate atom which yet hides within its heart the greatest of mountains. It encompasses the span of countless epochs, but it does not let go of a moment of time. It is subtler than the tip of single strand of hair, yet it pervades the entire universe … It does nothing, yet it has fashioned the universe. All substances are non-different from it, yet it is not a substance; though it is non-substantial it pervades all substances. The cosmos is its body, yet it has no body. [6.1.36]

The YV Model of Knowledge

YV is not written as a systematic text. Its narrative jumps between various levels: psychological, social, and physical. But since the Indian tradition of knowledge is based on analogies that are recursive and connect various domains, one can be certain that our literal reading of the passages is valid. YV appears to accept the idea that laws are intrinsic to the universe. In other words, the laws of nature in an unfolding universe will also evolve. According to YV, new information does not emerge out of the inanimate world but it is a result of the exchange between mind and matter. It accepts consciousness as a kind of fundamental field that pervades the whole universe. One might speculate that the parallels between YV and some recent ideas of physics are a result of the inherent structure of the mind.

Other Texts

Our readings of the YV are confirmed by other texts such as the Mahabharata and the Puranas as they are by the philosophical systems of Sankhya and Vaisheshika, or the various astronomical texts.  Here is a reference to the size of the universe from the Mahabharata 12.182:36

‘The sky you see above is infinite. Its limits cannot be ascertained. The sun and the moon cannot see, above or below, beyond the range of their own rays. There where the rays of the sun and the moon cannot reach are luminaries which are self-effulgent and which possess splendor like that of the sun or the fire. Even these last do not behold the limits of the firmament in consequence of the inaccessibility and infinity of those limits. This space which the very gods cannot measure is full of many blazing and self-luminous worlds each above the other.’

The Mahabharata has a very interesting passage (12.233), virtually identical with the corresponding material in YV, which describes the dissolution of the world. Briefly, it is stated how a dozen suns burn up the earth, and how elements get transmuted until space itself collapses into wind (one of the elements). Ultimately, everything enters into primeval consciousness. If one leaves out the often incongruous commentary on these ideas which were strange to him, we find al-Biruni in his encyclopaedic book on India written in 1030 speaking of essentially the same ideas. Here are two little extracts:

‘The Hindus have divided duration into two periods, a period of motion, which has been determined as time, and a period of rest, which can only be determined in an imaginary way according to the analogy of that which has first been determined, the period of motion. The Hindus hold the eternity of the Creator to be determinable, not measurable, since it is infinite. They do not, by the word creation, understand a formation of something out of nothing. They mean by creation only the working with a piece of clay, working out various combinations and figures in it, and making such arrangements with it as will lead to certain ends and aims which are potentially in it. ‘

The mystery of consciousness is a recurring theme in Indian texts. Unfortunately, the misrepresentation that Indian philosophy is idealistic, where the physical universe is considered an illusion, has become very common. For an authoritative modern exposition of Indian ideas of consciousness one must turn to Aurobindo.

It appears that Indian understanding of physics was informed not only by astronomy and terrestrial experiments but also by speculative thought and by meditations on the nature of consciousness. Unfettered by either geocentric or anthropocentric views, this understanding unified the physics of the small with that of the large within a framework that included metaphysics.

This was a framework consisting of innumerable worlds (solar systems), where time and space were continuous, matter was atomic, and consciousness was atomic, yet derived from an all-pervasive unity. The material atoms were defined first by their subtle form, called tanmatra, which was visualized as a potential, from which emerged the gross atoms. A central notion in this system was that all descriptions of reality are circumscribed by paradox. The universe was seen as dynamic, going through ceaseless change.

The Medieval Period

Astronomical texts called siddhantas begin appearing sometime in the first millennium BC. According to tradition there were 18 early siddhantas of which only a few have survived. Each siddhanta is an astronomical system with its own constants. Some of the famous astronomer-mathematicians that arose in India’s long medieval period are listed below.

Aryabhata (born 476) took the earth to spin on its axis; this idea appears to have been his innovation. Aryabhata was aware of the relativity of motion as is clear from this passage in his book, Just as a man in a boat sees the trees on the bank move in the opposite direction, so an observer on the equator sees the stationary stars as moving precisely toward the west.

Brahmagupta, who was born in 598 in Rajasthan, wrote his masterpiece, Brahmasphuta Siddhanta, in 628. His school, which was a rival to that of Aryabhata, has been very influential in western and northern India. Brahmagupta’s work was translated into Arabic in the eighth century at Baghdad and it became famous in the Arabic world as Sindhind and it influenced Islamic astronomy. One of Brahmagupta’s chief contributions is the solution of a certain second order indeterminate equation which is of great significance in number theory.

Belonging to the Karnataka region, Bhaskara (born 1114), was an outstanding mathematician and astronomer. Amongst his mathematical contributions is the concept of differentials. He was the author of Siddhanta Shiromani, a book in four parts: (I) Lilavati on arithmetic, (ii) Bijaganita on algebra, (iii) Ganitadhyaya, (iv) Goladhyaya on astronomy. His epicyclic-eccentric theories of planetary motions are more developed than in the earlier siddhantas. Subsequent to Bhaskara we see a flourishing tradition of mathematics and astronomy in Kerala which saw itself as a successor to the school of Aryabhata.

Of these, Madhava (c. 1340-1425) developed a procedure to determine the positions of the moon every 36 minutes. He also provided methods to estimate the motions of the planets. He gave power series expansions for trigonometric functions, and for pi correct to eleven decimal places.

A very prolific scholar who wrote several works on astronomy, Nilakantha (c. 1444-1545) found the correct formulation for the equation of the center of the planets and his model must be considered a true heliocentric model of the solar system. He also improved upon the power series techniques of Madhava. The methods developed by the Kerala mathematicians were far ahead of the European mathematics of the day. Another noteworthy contribution was by the school of New Logic (Navya Nyaya) of Bengal and Bihar.

At its zenith during the time of Raghunatha (1475- 1550), this school developed a methodology for a precise semantic analysis of language. Its formulations are equivalent to mathematical logic. With all these brilliant achievements behind them, why didn’t the Indians create a scientific revolution that touched the entire fabric of society? Clearly, the social, political and economic conditions were not ripe for such change. Europe had the advantage of the wealth obtained from the New World part of which went to the support of institutions of higher learning and the development of instruments to aid navigation.

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What is curry? Today, the word describes a bewildering number of spicy vegetable and meat stews from places as far-flung as the Indian subcontinent, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean Islands. There is little agreement about what actually constitutes a curry. And, until recently, how and when curry first appeared was a culinary mystery as well.

But the original curry predates Europeans’ presence in India by about 4,000 years. Villagers living at the height of the Indus civilization used three key curry ingredients—ginger, garlic, and turmeric—in their cooking. This proto-curry, in fact, was eaten long before Arab, Chinese, Indian, and European traders plied the oceans in the past thousand years.

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The subcontinent of India is a vast geographical region that has developed its own unique and yet very diverse culture over the past ten thousand years or more.

These developments in India have been aided by the development of culture and civilization in the rest of the world. Yet India has also contributed greatly to the development of culture and civilization in the rest of the world – a fact that modern history books and their western cultural bias tend to overlook. Most importantly, the nature of India’s civilization is understandable only according to developments within the region, not simply according to outside influences.

As a subcontinent, India is marked by the massive Himalayas to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south, with mountains and deserts to the West, and mountains, jungles and rain forest to the East, making for clearly defined natural boundaries. The many vast river systems flowing in the subcontinent, from the Indus and Ganga in the north to the Godavari and Kaveri to the south, have linked the land and people together and helped sustain a common culture. While India is not entirely geographically isolated from the rest of the world, it does have its distinct geographical identity that has provided foundation to its particular civilizational traits.

India is a vast tropical and subtropical region with abundant rivers and good soils that are very favorable for agriculture, the development of large populations, and urban growth.

Even today the subcontinent of India is the most heavily populated region on the planet and has among the largest and most numerous cities.

The many cultural traditions of India include a widespread honoring of nature, the land and the Earth, so much so that we have the concept of Bharat Mata or Mother India, as an extension of the concept of Mother Nature that many peoples and cultures share. In examining the history of India we should not forget the geographical context and the factors that both link the people of the subcontinent together, and also shield them from outside influences.

India has produced its own type of civilization, marked as one of the great civilizations of the world, most recently perhaps in Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations. We could call this dominant civilization of the subcontinent of India, “the culture and civilization of Dharma.” Dharma implies honoring the ethical and spiritual laws of the universe, and regarding all life and all nature as sacred. Dharmic civilization is based upon Dharmic values.

India has given rise to what is probably the greatest diversity of spiritual, mystical, religious, and philosophical traditions in the world – yet all these are based upon an acceptance of dharma and dharmic values, and an effort to practice these in daily life. India’s dharmic culture over the last several thousand years has had a great influence on South and East Asia, and some influence to the West as well

Whether the spiritual traditions of India have been Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh, whether they have been Vedic or non-Vedic, theistic or non-theistic, they all share a common concern for Dharma.

Such a dharmic culture includes the practices of ritual, mantra, yoga and meditation to achieve or realize a higher state of consciousness and awareness extending beyond all time, space and causation to the Supreme Reality, however may wish to define it.

Dharmic symbols and practices can be seen in the oldest artifacts of civilization in India. These include the sacred pippal tree motifs, swastikas, figures in meditation postures, images of sacred bulls and other sacred animals, sacred water tanks, and sacred fire altars that can be found in Harappan archaeological sites going back at least five thousand years in the country.

The current human species, according to the ‘Out of Africa theory’, is at least 200,000 years old. According to theories of local development of the human species in diverse centers on the planet, perhaps 2,000,000 years old. In either case humanity is much older than our meager historical time line for civilization of around five or six thousand years that still dominates textbooks today. There have been human beings of our current species inhabiting India for at least 70,000 years, possibly much longer as the coastal areas for human habitation during the Ice Age period have largely gone under water.

Ancient India’s texts, both Hindu and Buddhist, speak of earlier humanities going back many thousands of years before our current historical era. The Hindu Puranas outline five Manus or humanities, of which ours, Manu Vivasvan, is only the last.They connect human life with longer cycles of tens of thousands of years, extending to many billions of years.

Regardless of the details of these different cycles, clearly dharmic traditions have a place for human culture and spirituality going back long before what our current historians estimate, and which could hold the heritage of yet earlier humanities still unknown to us. This is perhaps why Hinduism has no historical origin or founder but defines itself as Sanatana Dharma or the ‘Eternal Tradition’.

In this regard, India, with its location by the tropics and the ocean, has been able to sustain a favorable climate for human life throughout the Ice Ages.During the last Ice Age, the most habitable region of the planet was India and Southeast Asia, which remained comparatively warm in temperature and had sufficient rainfall.

The Ice Ages rendered most of Europe and Central Asia difficult to inhabit owing to cold and ice. Yet the Ice Ages also caused the interiors of larger tropical continents, like Africa, to be difficult to inhabit owing to arid and dry conditions. India, though having rising waters along the coastlines at the end of the Ice Age, had interior tropical regions that would have been free of such flood danger, and allowed for a greater continuity of human populations and culture.

This means that India could preserve the memory of an older spiritual culture that may connect current civilization to eras before our present accounts of history.This has a basis in the land and climate of the region. Indeed India’s dharmic culture may be the legacy of a yet earlier humanity than the one that we have known over the last five or ten thousand years.

Vedic thought, like many ancient traditions throughout the world, speaks of human history as connected to greater cosmic and astronomical times cycles. These cycles can be equated to some degree at least to Ice Age cycles of a hundred thousand years and more. Yet we should note that several such cycles and influences exist on different levels, so the details of one cycle or another can be a subject of dispute. But that human life must follow greater natural time cycles is something that even modern civilization, with all of its science and technology, must accept in the ecological age. Our modern culture and all of its sophistication is still vulnerable to earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, floods and droughts, among other natural forces.

Generally Hindu thought agrees that humanity entered into a spiritual dark age around 3102 BCE, a similar date to the Mayan calendar that began in 3114 BCE. This is very interesting because modern civilization – which is highly materialistic in nature and arguably not very spiritually aware – regards the time of around 3000 BCE as when civilization as we know it today first began, with what it regards as the first cities, writing, and other technological developments.

In short, the Hindu view of history is sometimes opposite the modern view, and can regard the modern age as a dark age, and prehistoric eras as more spiritually aware. Yet Hindu thought also holds the hope that in the future we can unite modern science and ancient spirituality for a more enlightened culture on both inner and outer levels. This requires reclaiming our older spiritual past.

Ancient India shows its own unique development of civilization in terms of agriculture, urban development, transportation, arts and crafts, religion and spirituality. It does not appear at any point as simply a borrowing from outside cultures or from currently better known civilizations to the East.

Early Indian civilization can be traced to at least 7300 BCE in early cultures in the Ghaggar-Hakra valley – or what was known as the Sarasvati region in Vedic times – which remained central to civilizational development in the subcontinent for many thousands of years. Similar ancient village sites can be found in Baluchistan to the West (Mehrgarh) and may have occurred throughout the region.

There are also be a number of sites in Gujarat, including some under water today in the Gulf of Cambay, that reflect an oceanic and maritime basis to this ancient culture, whose earliest point of origins has yet to be determined and could go to a very early period.

Note quote below:

The beginning of India’s history has been pushed back by more than 2,000 years, making it older than that of Egypt and Babylon. Latest research has put the date of the origin of the Indus Valley Civilization at 6,000 years before Christ, which contests the current theory that the settlements around the Indus began around 3750 BC.

Ever since the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in the early 1920s, the civilization was considered almost as old as those of Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The finding was announced at the “International Conference on Harappan Archaeology”, recently organized by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in Chandigarh.

Based on their research, BR Mani, ASI joint director general, and KN Dikshit, former ASI joint director general, said in a presentation: “The preliminary results of the data from early sites of the Indo-Pak subcontinent suggest that the Indian civilization emerged in the 8th millennium BC in the Ghaggar-Hakra and Baluchistan area.”

“On the basis of radio-metric dates from Bhirrana (Haryana), the cultural remains of the pre-early Harappan horizon go back to 7380 BC to 6201 BC.”Excavations had been carried out at two sites in Pakistan and Bhirrana, Kunal, Rakhigarhi and Baror in India.

From this early era was marked a continuous development of culture up to the urban Harappan phase (3750 – 1700 BCE), when India marked the largest of the great civilizations of the ancient world. This Harappan era is also known as the Indus Valley civilization. More properly its name should be the Sarasvati civilization as the great majority of the archaeological sites are located on the now dried banks of the Sarasvati that was once a great river in North India, and is well described in Vedic texts. Landsat satellite photography and many studies by the Geological Survey of India have revealed the importance of the Sarasvati River as a major river in the subcontinent in early ancient times. The Sarasvati River is regarded in the Vedas as the ancient homeland of the Vedic people and their central region of habitation, much as the archaeology proves.

Ancient India during the Harappan era had one of the largest populations in the ancient world, far greater than the Middle East or Europe. It had the largest number of cities of any region of the time. Its urban culture spread over a larger area than any contemporary civilization, being greater in size than Mesopotamia and Egypt put together, extending from what is now the coast of Iran to Mumbai, from the Amu Darya River in Afghanistan to the West to the Ganga in India to the East. This culture endured longer with greater uniformity and less signs of internal breakdown or conflict than contemporary cultures of Mesopotamia. That such a vast civilization might influence the rest of the world needs more consideration.

That it left an enduring mark upon the later civilizations of India cannot be doubted. It was not an historical anomaly or dead end, but seeded many of the later cultures of the region.

The Harappan civilization was centered on the Sarasvati River of Vedic fame. Its decline reflects the corresponding decline of that great river – which began by 3000 BCE and the Sarasvati ceased to be a major river in North India around 1700 BCE. At the end of the Harappan Era there occurred a relocation of the center of civilization in India primarily to the East and the nearby Ganga basin, with a movement of the same peoples and cultures. Yet there were also secondary movements of peoples to the south of India and to the west outside of India. There is no evidence of any major movements of populations into India at that time.

A study of the skeletal remains from various archaeological sites in ancient India, including in Harappan sites, shows the same basic ethnic groups in ancient India as in modern India, including the Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Australoid. This means that the same basic human types have been living in India and contributing to its civilization throughout the millennia. Some groups have certainly come into India from the outside and some have migrated out of India, as in other parts of the world, but the core population has remained remarkably continuous.

Early Indian civilization through the Harappan and pre-Harappan Era is one of the largest and most sophisticated in the entire world, as well as the largest urban civilization of its time. Yet to date there is no literature that has been specifically equated to it, even though Harappan sites have produced numerous seals, symbols and artifacts.

Similarly the Vedic literature from ancient India (which is often speculatively dated to after 1500 BCE or after the Harappan Era) is the largest and most detailed in the world, dwarfing anything that the rest of the world has preserved. The Four Vedas and their different branches extend to several thousand pages. However, by the speculations of many modern scholars, Vedic literature is a literature without a civilization to produce it, created by nomads or pastoral people who were illiterate and unsophisticated, and not part of any urban culture.

However, Vedic literature speaks of the same region of India as the Harappan and pre-Harappan ruins indicate, centered on the Sarasvati River of Vedic fame. Vedic literature speaks of the gradual drying up of the Sarasvati River that occurred in the Harappan Era. Vedic literature was preserved by the same ancient peoples that migrated from the Sarasvati to the Ganga.

If we look more deeply at the Vedic hymns we find a very sophisticated poetic language and symbolism. The Vedas present the oldest form of the Sanskrit language, regarded as one of the best and most perfectly formed of all languages. It is difficult to equate such a language with a primitive nomadic culture, but it would make sense relative to a great civilization like the Harappan.

If we equate Vedic literature with Harappan culture, we can solve this mystery of a civilization without a literature and a literature without a civilization.

Clearly Vedic literature needs a civilization and ancient India provides the archaeology that can easily be equated with it.

The Vedas and Puranas reflect the development of civilization in ancient India beginning after a great flood that can be identified geologically with the end of the last Ice Age. That is the era of the current Manu, said to be the fifth, called Vivasvan. There are references to the era of the previous Manu called Chakshusa as well.

Manu Vivasvan is portrayed as connected to the ocean as well, and in the Matsya Purana is said to have been a great yogi who migrated from Kerala to the north at the time of the flood. It is likely that the previous Manu was placed in South India, which during the last Ice Age when the ocean levels were higher covered a much larger area, the famous Kumari Kanda of Dravidian thought.

The central region of Manu after the flood was the Sarasvati-Drishadvati region that was the main site of habitation in ancient India in both the Harappan and the Pre-Harappan era.

This can hardly be a coincidence, particularly since the Sarasvati disappeared as a major river in India over 3500 years ago. The Manu civilization of ancient India can easily be connected with archaeological remains.

Vedic literature, we should note, does not portray any migration into India from the West, but shows an expansion out of the central Sarasvati region, after what is probably an earlier migration from the South. Curiously most of the Vedic rishis like the Angirasas, Bhrigus, Agastya and Vasishta are connected to the sea.

In this regard, the dominant geographical image in Vedic texts is the ocean. There are over a hundred and fifty references to the ocean in the Rigveda alone, with numerous additional references to ships and crossing the sea.

The universe is viewed as a series of oceans, with earthly, atmospheric and heavenly oceans. This is hardly the worldview of nomads from Central Asia but does reflect a maritime culture like that of ancient India.

Aryan Invasion and Migration Theories Discredited

Western scholars in the nineteenth century discovered a linguistic affinity between languages from Europe, Iran and Central Asia to India, which they named the Indo-European family of languages. They simplistically equated all these languages with an older Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) spoken somewhere, they thought, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, from which its speakers migrated and brought this type of languages to the rest of the world, entering into India at a very late period around 1500 BCE, which meant that prior to that time the civilization of India was not Vedic. This was the basis of the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), which has since been modified into a migration theory, since no real evidence of any destructive invasion during that time period has ever stood the test of time.

This means the idea that early ancient civilization in India was not Vedic was not based upon any solid evidence but only on linguistic speculation, that too in a new discipline that remains itself highly speculative overall. While this Aryan invasion/migration theory has long sought archaeological and other more solid forms of evidence, such proof has not been found, or what of this nature has been proposed, like Mortimer Wheeler’s proposed massacre at Mohenjodaro, has been disproved.

To date there is no archaeological evidence of any Aryans invading or migrating into India.

There are no encampments that can be identified with any incoming Aryans, no Aryan skeletal remains or any Aryan racial type at all, no destroyed cities in the path of the invading Aryans, no Aryan horse or chariot trails coming into the region – nothing of the kind. In short, there is nothing in the archaeological record to show any Aryan intrusion apart from the developments of the existing and indigenous cultures.  What as been found is a largely indigenous civilization in ancient India that relocated east after 1700 BCE when the rivers they relied upon, notably the Sarasvati River, no longer provided enough water to sustain their urban culture.

Proponents of the outside origin for the Vedic people argue that horses and chariots are not found, except in perhaps some isolated instances, in ancient India, while these are common in Vedic hymns, suggesting a difference between the cultures. However, there are archaeological remains of horses and chariots in ancient India, including a common Harappan design of a spoked six-pointed wheel. In addition, there are no significant horse remains in nearby Afghanistan or Central Asia that are regarded as the source of the horse in India (and Harappan influence extended to these regions as well). Such arguments resting upon the lack of one item or another cannot counter the many items found in common between the Vedic and ancient Indian archaeology.

We must remember that the dominant animal on the Harappan seals is a mythological creature, a one honored bull or four-legged creature, and that the seals ignore many common animals that existed in the region. The seals are hardly a list of zoological specimens. In addition, the seals have mythological animals that are composed of body parts from other animals. We have such composite creatures mentioned in Vedic hymns as well.

The Greeks under Megasthenes record that they found in India in the fourth century BCE, a record of 153 Kings going back 6400 years to the date of around 6700 BCE. This is a much longer record than even the Egyptian pharaohs. Similar numbers can be found in the Hindu Puranas and their ancient king lists. Clearly even in later ancient times, the antiquity and continuity of civilization in ancient India was well known to the people and their culture.

Some Proposed Dates

Era of the Rigveda

7500 – 3500 BCE

Era of the Four Vedas and Early Era of the Puranas and Mahabharata

3500 – 1700 BCE

Late Vedic Era and middle period of the Puranas and Mahabharata

1700 – 500 BCE.

Classical India

500 BCE – 700 ADE

The Vedic collection that exists historically, what we could call the Veda Vyasa collection, is said in the Puranas to be the twenty-eighth complication of the Vedas, not the first, with earlier compilations going back to previous well-known Vedic rishis and ultimately to Manu. This indicates a great antiquity to Vedic culture even at the time of Veda Vyasa.

The Rigveda period covers the early start of culture and civilization in ancient India from the end of the Ice Age down to the beginning of the urban Harappan era. The main Rigvedic symbol, which is that of the deity Indra, who released the waters from the mountains to flow into the sea, can be interpreted as an end of the Ice Age myth, when the great Himalayan glaciers of the Ice Age melted.

The Harappan Era mainly reflects the period when all four Vedas and their branches were known and used, and when texts like the Puranas and Mahabharata were in their formative phases.

The Late Vedic Era is more properly speaking the main period of the Puranas, in which their core texts took shape. Teachings like Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta became prominent, with Buddhism and Jainism emerging as well.

It is difficult to give precise dates or actual life stories even for figures of a few centuries ago. Whether Jesus lived or what his life actually was, for example, is a matter of doubt. Dealing with figures that could be more than five thousand years old poses yet greater difficulties. Their stories were recorded and preserved, and sometimes embellished in later times, and can reflect aspects of those later eras as well. But we do have king lists from ancient India that are accurate in historical times like that of the Buddha, and so we can at least place these figures in a lineage or time line. We know that Krishna existed long before Buddha and Rama long before Krishna in the Puranic king lists.

Ramayana

The Ramayana reflects a period of time at least thirty kings antecedent to Krishna according to the Puranas. If we were to date Krishna at around 3100 BCE, the traditional date, we would place Rama, sometime before, perhaps before 4000 BCE.

Mahabharata

The Mahabharata was composed in several layers from a key text to a massive encyclopedic work. There are several things that can be used to date it.

The Mahabharata describes the Sarasvati River as in its decline, no longer directly reaching the sea, but broken in the middle of its course. This was the case in the Harappan or late Harappan era. The traditional date of 3100 BCE for Krishna also marks a similar condition to the Sarasvati, as would a slightly later date up to perhaps 1700 BCE at the latest.

The astronomy of the Mahabharata reflects also the time of around 3000 BCE, though some later references can also be found in the text. It is likely that the Mahabharata began to be composed in the Harappan era and had some additions going on in the post-Harappan era, or even later.

In general late Vedic texts like the Brahmanas refer to the astronomical era in which the vernal equinox was located in Krittika or the Pleiades, marking an era of 2500 – 1700 BCE. Earlier references to Rohini and Mrigashiras equinox periods take us back to over 4000 BCE in Vedic literature and in the Mahabharata.

Yet however we determine the dates of individual figures, the antiquity of Vedic culture in India goes back probably ten thousand years. This does not mean that the existing Vedic literature that we have includes all aspects of ancient India’s culture and peoples. Other groups, teachings and cultural influences probably existed in this vast subcontinent over so many thousands of years. But the Vedic culture does indicate one of the main cultures of the region, if not its primary cultural influence.     To Be Continued

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