Live data from Hacker News

Ancient Indian Texts

sites.google.com

81–90 of 98 posts

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> vastu shastra, which is astrological woo. I'd give you that in its current marketed form it is astrological bullshit, but originally Vastu Shastra was a formal form of science [1] grounded on engineering principles and urban design. All persevering to obtain a 'calm' for the dweller. One can still infer from the high precision N-S-E-W positioning of fairly huge ancient Hindu temples, historical remains of homes and…

>from Egypt to Indonesia (Hindu kingdoms spanned that far, yes!). wait, what?? Clear to elaborate? I know alexander had a huge kingdom, i know gnehis khan conquered a very very large area of land. I know muslims had an ENORMOUS empire but this looks like news to me. So clear to elaborate? Specifics?

Depends on how do you define a Hindu kingdom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hindu_distribution.png

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#82
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>from Egypt to Indonesia (Hindu kingdoms spanned that far, yes!). wait, what?? Clear to elaborate? I know alexander had a huge kingdom, i know gnehis khan conquered a very very large area of land. I know muslims had an ENORMOUS empire but this looks like news to me. So clear to elaborate? Specifics?

Depends on how do you define a Hindu kingdom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hindu_distribution.png

I'd define it as places RULED by Hindus (preferably a single central monarch)

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> vastu shastra, which is astrological woo. I'd give you that in its current marketed form it is astrological bullshit, but originally Vastu Shastra was a formal form of science [1] grounded on engineering principles and urban design. All persevering to obtain a 'calm' for the dweller. One can still infer from the high precision N-S-E-W positioning of fairly huge ancient Hindu temples, historical remains of homes and…

>from Egypt to Indonesia (Hindu kingdoms spanned that far, yes!). wait, what?? Clear to elaborate? I know alexander had a huge kingdom, i know gnehis khan conquered a very very large area of land. I know muslims had an ENORMOUS empire but this looks like news to me. So clear to elaborate? Specifics?

I have never heard of ancient Indian kingdoms going beyond present day afganistan[1]. This falls quite a bit short of Egypt. On the eastern side though, Indonesia seems to have had Hindu kings[2]. I do recollect reading somewhere that at some point of time Indonesia was controlled from Kalinga but can't seem to find a reference any more. I don't think that the whole area from Afganistan till Indonesia was ever under a single king at any point of time. But I am not much of a historian so wouldn't really bet on any of this stuff.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indonesia

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> vastu shastra, which is astrological woo. I'd give you that in its current marketed form it is astrological bullshit, but originally Vastu Shastra was a formal form of science [1] grounded on engineering principles and urban design. All persevering to obtain a 'calm' for the dweller. One can still infer from the high precision N-S-E-W positioning of fairly huge ancient Hindu temples, historical remains of homes and…

>from Egypt to Indonesia (Hindu kingdoms spanned that far, yes!). wait, what?? Clear to elaborate? I know alexander had a huge kingdom, i know gnehis khan conquered a very very large area of land. I know muslims had an ENORMOUS empire but this looks like news to me. So clear to elaborate? Specifics?

the biggest hindu temple(actually the largest religious monument in the world) is well outside India in Cambodia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat Also try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism_in_Indonesia

Indian rulers did not have much intentions of ruling outside India but in the ancient world presence of Hinduism had spread to Egypt to Indonesia and even China,Japan. Even though it was not that much successful as Buddhism or Jainism.

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#85
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>from Egypt to Indonesia (Hindu kingdoms spanned that far, yes!). wait, what?? Clear to elaborate? I know alexander had a huge kingdom, i know gnehis khan conquered a very very large area of land. I know muslims had an ENORMOUS empire but this looks like news to me. So clear to elaborate? Specifics?

I have never heard of ancient Indian kingdoms going beyond present day afganistan[1]. This falls quite a bit short of Egypt. On the eastern side though, Indonesia seems to have had Hindu kings[2]. I do recollect reading somewhere that at some point of time Indonesia was controlled from Kalinga but can't seem to find a reference any more. I don't think that the whole area from Afganistan till Indonesia was ever under…

I suppose hinduism could spread that far. I mean consider this, Buddhism actually originates from India. Buddha was a Hindu Prince! And yet its all over the far east (and ironically not much in India). So i suppose Hinduism could spread that far too. (Well Islam and Christianity sure spread a lot!)

Btw, I think you are right about the whole area not being in Hindu control at one point in time. The largest Indian kngdom i remember was of Ashoka, and even that din't completely cover all of modern day India+Pakistan (he gave up war right before conquering the south-most tip because he converted to Budhism).

I think Muslims actually ruled all of the south-asian subcontinent at one time. The Mughals

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#86

//Ancient India was a land of sages, saints and seers as well as a land of scholars and scientists. Rishis were the sages who built our great culture. They devoted their life, energy and experience for the welfare of people. They wrote Vedas - the manual of vibrations. Following this many field of science evolved in India. // This is typical hindutva propaganda, where they claim that anything and everything originate…

>>They wrote Vedas - the manual of vibrations. Following this many field of science evolved in India.

Eh? What gives? How can people believe that?

PS: I thought the original Aryans brought the Vedas with them from central Asia, instead of the Rishis of India writing them. No?

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#87
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never heard of ancient Indian kingdoms going beyond present day afganistan[1]. This falls quite a bit short of Egypt. On the eastern side though, Indonesia seems to have had Hindu kings[2]. I do recollect reading somewhere that at some point of time Indonesia was controlled from Kalinga but can't seem to find a reference any more. I don't think that the whole area from Afganistan till Indonesia was ever under…

I suppose hinduism could spread that far. I mean consider this, Buddhism actually originates from India. Buddha was a Hindu Prince! And yet its all over the far east (and ironically not much in India). So i suppose Hinduism could spread that far too. (Well Islam and Christianity sure spread a lot!) Btw, I think you are right about the whole area not being in Hindu control at one point in time. The largest Indian kngd…

No they didnt. The were not able to cover Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the southern parts of Andhra Pradesh.

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> vastu shastra, which is astrological woo. I'd give you that in its current marketed form it is astrological bullshit, but originally Vastu Shastra was a formal form of science [1] grounded on engineering principles and urban design. All persevering to obtain a 'calm' for the dweller. One can still infer from the high precision N-S-E-W positioning of fairly huge ancient Hindu temples, historical remains of homes and…

>from Egypt to Indonesia (Hindu kingdoms spanned that far, yes!). wait, what?? Clear to elaborate? I know alexander had a huge kingdom, i know gnehis khan conquered a very very large area of land. I know muslims had an ENORMOUS empire but this looks like news to me. So clear to elaborate? Specifics?

Wait, yes. Dude, Alexander and Genghis Khan are like they happened only yesterday. Hindusim is much older than all of that, and I don't mean only in terms of religion. The culture itself is very old, so to speak.

God this is going to be a long comment.

I don't know how immersed you are w.r.t Hinduism, which gave birth to, no rather off-shooted other religions like Buddhism & Jainism. Here I can only give a very top-level view to help you make an entry:

There are two epics of the Hindus: The Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Read both, they're brilliant classics. These two epics are stories about rise and fall of political power, affairs, conceit and ensuing wars between leaders of different Hindu kingdoms. Let's say kingdoms of an aggregate land mass we now call India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan that stretches up to far, far east to places like Cambodia.

I could not confirm how far in the west did Hinduism spread out but will do so given that I am excited about it now.

Both epics are mythology by today's standards, but the stories in each are what Hindus vehemently believe as true. All (not most) of warring cities in both these epics exist inside and outside of India (or sunk under the ocean [1]) even today. I mean literally.

On axis of time, both these two epics are separated from each other by two 'Yugas' [2]. We are living in the Kaliyug where kali == machines and yug == time-frame. Yugas are of varying length, first being Satayug about 1,728,000 million years. Man exists during this period as life forms from scratch in this universe. Alexander was like a fucking second ago when you're talking ages of this length.

I suggest start with Yugas and you'll start seeing math, numbers, conclusions, geometric progressions and astronomy right in there. No need to accept anything is true or false, w.r.t written and confirmed history. But you'll love visiting places, and connecting it with the historical texts.

It goes up the Bohr's model of atom (Paramaṇu), the theory of what nucleus and subatomic particles were about (hell yes!), the nuclear bomb (Brahma Asthra) and how these were used in warfare, negotiation and peace keeping. Several other concepts of what seems similar to magic of quantum physics, treatment of time-space curvature, extraterrestrial life, theory of relativity and additional dimensions of gravitational physics (though refuted by modern practitioners of course) all exist in discussions. May or may not be correct, but the level of thought can be appreciated.

Astronomy, for example, scales to the level of predicting solar cycles, cycles of universe (311.04 trillion years?[3]), variable length of life of man/species, sub-sub-events like the ice age, age of the machines, age of only truth which you will find pretty fascinating to read, if not believable.

Let me just throw in the starting point [2]:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarka

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrics_of_time_in_Hinduism

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is really pathetic to see how people try to defend their fundamental beliefs without any substance. People are brainwashed to believe that vedic scriptures are full of knowledge (I was a victim too. I used to recite some parts of the scriptures like purusha suktam). In reality, the scriptures are filled with filth like procedures of sacrificial, bestiality and orgy rituals, calls upon gods to slaughter their enemi…

It is really pathetic to see how people are quick to snub off anyone or anything that's related to Hinduism, ancient Hindu works, scriptures etc as propaganda, brainwash etc. Is it some kind of reverse propaganda?? >>> You can also see that the site claims that Jyotish is astronomy but it actually means astrology. Where? They do mention it as "astrology". >>> In reality, the scriptures are filled with filth like proc…

>Where? They do mention it as "astrology". //Astronomy - Rig Veda (2000 BC) refers to astronomy. Astronomy is called Jyotish.// The site claims Jyotish as astronomy. I'm saying it is just Astrology and showed an example from the text to indicate that it is not talking astronomy. There is no problem in treating and considering the text as myth. The problem is they are claimed as science.
Post reply on HN