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Ancient Indian Texts

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Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#91

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?

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-l…

>The culture itself is very old, so to speak.

A humble evidence based look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_civilization#Indian_s...

No known evidence shows anything meaningful in the civilization department happened before 4000BC.

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#92

This is neat! Thanks. I have wanted to learn Sanskrit for a long time, and I think the stuff you could read after learning that would be interesting. And then there is NASA (apparently) using Sanskrit for AI: http://www.vedicsciences.net/articles/sanskrit-nasa.html

And then there is NASA (apparently) using Sanskrit for AI: http://www.vedicsciences.net/articles/sanskrit-nasa.html*

This is a hoax. The article reproduced there does exist though: it was published in an artificial intelligence journal in 1985 and made no reference to NASA, except for the fact that the author worked at the NASA Ames Research Center. You can find it there: http://www.aaai.org/ojs/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/46...

A quick search on internet for "sanskrit nasa" shows that all occurences are either copies, extracts or translations of this article taken out of its context. The belief that NASA has used sanskrit seems to come from this internet echo chamber.

I could find no reference about it on any NASA website, nor any other articles written by this Rick Briggs. I was able to find only one other article on sanskrit and AI, quoting the one by Briggs, dated to 1987: http://www.cedar.buffalo.edu/~srihari/papers/KRIS87.pdf

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#93

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…

> What is legit or scientific about it? Nothing. And no one here is claiming that all parts of these texts are to be taken as absolute fact with empirical proof. Most of it, as you mention, is riddled with imaginary stories probably because scientific discovery was being carried out by religious philosophers of that time. However, there are parts of these texts that are legitimately impressive, philosophically or sci…

But the site says: ... [sages] wrote Vedas - the manual of vibrations. Following this many field of science evolved ...

I have provided references to show that the basic 4 vedas are tribal in nature and there is no basis to claim them as the origin of other scientific oriented texts. I am not denying all of the texts as bad.

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-l…

>The culture itself is very old, so to speak. A humble evidence based look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_civilization#Indian_s... No known evidence shows anything meaningful in the civilization department happened before 4000BC.

Well, no. The evidence you present is of civilizations that disappeared or were destroyed and were excavated later on. These do not tie to the age of Hinduism or the age of the culture, but only represent a few dots on its timeline.

Ayodhya, for example, the city of Ram exists even today [1]. You're an Indian, you'd know it of course. The modern version of this city is considered more than 9000 years old, that's roughly about 7000 BC on wards. Buy a plot of land in Ayodhya, start digging and you'll hit structures and temple tops of another buried city underneath as you go deeper.

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

This cave for example Bhimbetka [2], is between 50,000-200,000 years old. It is mentioned in epic Ramayana which has yet to be dated. Bhimbetka is declared a world heritage site, and gives a proof of homo erectus with skills in the Deccan area that early in time.

Some crazy estimates suggest approximately 100,000 to 900,000 years ago for Ramayana, but then it is a crazy estimate [3] indeed. There are pearls of available proof, mythology and craziness all over the place. Someone needs to connect them together so that we might get a better picture of it. Obviously I don't wish to over state the age of Hinduism, but it is mystic by virtue of its age for sure. It makes me lose my calm, ironically.

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

[3] http://www.rense.com/general30/nasa.htm

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#95
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…

On the western edge, I found some context about various books and papers linking up Hindu migrations into the Horn of Africa, particularly Egypt. Most of what I read about this was offline, so unable to provide additional dope in here.

Here is a write up listing some studies and names of books to consider:

http://amlanroychowdhury.webs.com/antiquityofegypt.htm

For far eastern links, read about inter-marriages and relationships for a period of over two millennium between Ayodhya(India) and Seoul (South Korea) [1]. A search on the Kim clan and Princess Heo Hwang-ok and the spread of Buddhist/Hindu culture right up to Japanese coastline can be inferred.

This is kind of the spread of Hinduism in South East Asia [2] before convertists of other religions (like Muslims or Christianity) emanated.

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

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

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Astronomy was the same as astrology until 1700 or so. Kelsey, who discovered the law of planetary motion, was an astrologer. Copernicus was an astrologer. After Newton formulated in universal gravitation, went into occult studies.

Astrology is different from astronomy in the present day, but not in the past.

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#97
post #92

This is neat! Thanks. I have wanted to learn Sanskrit for a long time, and I think the stuff you could read after learning that would be interesting. And then there is NASA (apparently) using Sanskrit for AI: http://www.vedicsciences.net/articles/sanskrit-nasa.html

And then there is NASA (apparently) using Sanskrit for AI: http://www.vedicsciences.net/articles/sanskrit-nasa.html* This is a hoax. The article reproduced there does exist though: it was published in an artificial intelligence journal in 1985 and made no reference to NASA, except for the fact that the author worked at the NASA Ames Research Center. You can find it there: http://www.aaai.org/ojs/index.php/aimagazine/…

Thanks! It did seem weird to me (sketchy website and what not). Thanks for clearing that up.

Re: Ancient Indian Texts

#98

This is neat! Thanks. I have wanted to learn Sanskrit for a long time, and I think the stuff you could read after learning that would be interesting. And then there is NASA (apparently) using Sanskrit for AI: http://www.vedicsciences.net/articles/sanskrit-nasa.html

As someone who put in the years required to learn Classical Latin and Attic Greek I can but only heed you to make very, very sure you are willing to invest the enormous amount of time required to learn an ancient language. If you have a normal job, wife and children, and can't find at minimum 2 hours out of your day to dedicate to language study, then don't bother. You will never read any Sanskrit at a comfortable pa…

That's good to know. Ya, I understand it would be a huge time investment. Luckily I don't have any of those barriers, and am still quite young!
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