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Hi All,*
*After all the sordid dramas of the last few days, played out at our
Indraprasta, here is something to make us feel proud of.*
*Bala*
*The Story of India by Michael Wood*
Little known facts on India taken from the book.
1. India's GDP was largest in the world till 1500. By 1900 sank to less
than 3 % of world's GDP. But will overtake USA by 2013.
2. Only in India, you will find all human histories from Stone age to
Global village in one place.
3. Kallar tribe in Tamilnadu were found to have M130 gene of the first
humans of Africa.
4. Mantras work on emotions, the physiology, and the nervous system.
Along with yoga, they are a way of achieving hightened mental and physical
state. Patterns of mantras analysed by a computer shows them to be close to
birdsongs.
5. Mohenjo-daro takes its cities back to 3000 B.C., before the pyramids
of Giza.
6. Puranas show Indian heritage to be of bronze age.
7. John Marshall said- Anyone walking for the first time in Mohenjodaro,
will fell as if they are walking in a present-day Lancashire working town.
8. Sir William Jones discoveries in 1786-Sanskrit is more perfect than
Greek or Latin., more refined than either.
9. Asiatic Society , kolkota, has the oldest manuscript of Rig veda,
written on paper, dated 1418- Samvat or 1362- Western.
10. Rig- veda is the longest poem in the world with 100,000 verses.
11. Sri.B.B. Lal did lot of work post Independence on archeology. He
suggested Mahabharata war date as 860 B.C.
12. Benaras- first settlement was in 6th century B.C. at Rajghat.
13. 500 B.C. known as Axis age when great thinkers were born within 200
years., - Buddha, Mahavira, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Old Testament prophets,
Greek philosophers, Zoraster etc.
14. Buddha lived and died in 4th Century B.C, a contemporary of
Alexander, the great.
15. Buddha died in Kushinagar, a small place- 15 foot like statue of him
in the state of mahaparanirvana by Dinna in 5th century B.C.in a shrine.
16. 302 B.C.- Chandra Gupta Maurya- first great ruler.He married a greek
princess, and his grandson Ashoka had Greek blood and spoke Greek too.
Chandra Gupta used do pooja for Alexander in Taxila in a shrine( as per
Plutarch). His capital was Pataliputra, the modern Patna., a living witness
to all the history of India.
17. Megasthanes- Pataliputra was 10 miles into Ganges,had 64 gates, 570
towers.I have seen great cities of the world, but this is the Greatest.
18. Chandragupta became a Jain, took sanyas, came all the way to Shravana
belagola near Bangalore and starved himself to death in a cave in 297 B.C.
19. Kalingapatna in Andhra Pradesh was great trading port for tamils,
singhales and romans. There was regular steamer service to Rangoon from
here.
20. Kalinga war- 100,000 died, 150,000 carried away.Ashoka's words after
Kalinga war-All people who live here share human values such as respect for
parents, respecting elders, showing kindness and attachment to friends,
relatives, but they all suffered, injured, killed , and cutoff from loved
ones. To me it is desperate matter.Ashoka though heavily into Buddhism,
never got converted. He remained a lay member.Ashoka built shelters for
travelers/ pilgrims, which is still being followed ( ashrams/Satrams).He
also put the rule of ropes to control crowds, still being followed all
over the world even today.He died in 233 B.C aged 72.
Ashoka's question in his edict- How do you persuade human beings to do good?
21. Cranganore in kerala – muziris lived. Trading post of all sea routes.2000 year
old temple for pattana devi.oldest mosque in india- a wooden prayer hall in
Cranganore ( Kodungallur). See chandamagalam oldest jewish synagogue. St.
thomas landed in 50 a.d. A statue of Goddess Laksmi from here, was found in
Pompeii ruins in AD 79.
1. Madurai one of the oldest cities in the world going back to bronze
age.
2. Adichanallur excavations are dated 1000.B.C.The city appears in
Ptolemy's map. In 21 B.C. Pandian ambassador went to Augustus court in Rome
by sea.
3. Swaminatha Iyer as a young man collected all old palm leaf
manuscripts, travelling in bullock carts to many villages.
4. Kushans ruled India. In A.D. 78, King Vima Takto inaugurated the new
era called Saka Era. The greatest rule of kushan India was Kanishka. His
only statue is found at Mathura. At Gokarneshwar temple.Kushans captured
Mathura in late first century A.D.
5. Peshawar, one of the best cities in the world- City of
flowers.Kanishka built a temple for Buddha burying his begging bowl here. He
built the biggest stupa in the world here.Kushan Kasyapa Matanga was the
first to go to Peshawar and take Buddhism into China in first century
A.D.Estimtes of Indian wealth at Kushan period was 30% of world wealth.
6. Nalanda in Gupta period, was the first residential university in the
world.
7. Arya bhatta defined zero. Proved earth revolved around the Sun, 1000
years before Copernicus and Galileo.
8. King Harsha distributed all the wealth accumulated in five years, in a
matter of 75 days at Allahabad kumbh mela location.
9. There is muslim Rama story told by mopylas, called Sultan Rama.
10. Babur walked around Humayun, his son's death bed and sacrificed his
life to save his son. Sikh records say that Babur was blessed by Guru Nanak
before his death in 1530.
11. In his late twenties, he was influenced by Suhrawardi, which says Sun
as the Light of Lights( God). Sun, the illuminator of the universe, the
embodiment of the book of perfection, the receptacle of all virtues. Called
Sun farr-i-izidi, the divine light,Khaihan- Khurira, the light that
illuminate the world.He ordered that law should be the same for hindus and
muslims, which is not, even in modern india.
12. He ruled over 100 million people, when Queen Elizabeth was ruling
over 3 million.Agra had a population of 750,000, whereas London had 200,000.
13. Parsees were the first photographers, first car dealers, first native
lawyers, dentists, doctors.
14. Colonialism was largely destructive, despite what English historians
project it as.
15. Lord Macaulay edict in 1835, that education in India should be in
English, replacing Persian, as the new language of the Government.
16. India has never existed as one united state at any time in its
history.
17. A.O.Hulme, forgotten in England, is one of the most important
influences in India's freedom movement. In Etawah, there is a Hulme Ganj in
his memory.
18. In 1900, British chose Hindi as the official language of India. | 
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