A Tribute to Hinduism - India and Greece

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A Tribute to Hinduism - India and Greece

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A Tribute to Hinduism - India and Greece

Indian civilization is distinctive for its antiquity and continuity. Apart from its own vitality, the continuity
of Indian civilization is largely due to its ability to adapt to alien ideas, harmonize contradictions and
mould new thought patterns. Her constant contacts with the outside world also gave India the
opportunity to contribute to other civilizations. Whilst other ancient civilizations have long ceased to
exist, Indian civilization has continued to grow despite revolutionary changes. The ancient cultures of
Egypt, Mesopotamia and Persia have not survived. But in India today, Hindus seek inspiration from
concepts similar to those originally advanced by their ancestors.
Jawaharlal Nehru says in his book The Discovery of India, " Till recently many European thinkers
imagined that everything that was worthwhile had its origins in Greece or Rome. Sir Henry Maine has
said somewhere that except the blind forces of nature, nothing moves in this world which is not
originally Greek."
However, Indian contacts with the Western world date back to prehistoric times. Trade relations,
preceded by the migration of peoples, inevitably developed into cultural relations. This view is not
only amply supported by both philological and archaeological evidence, but by a vast body of
corroborative literary evidence as well: Vedic literature and the Jatakas, Jewish chronicles, and the
accounts of Greek historians all suggest contact between India and the West. Taxila was a great
center of commerce and learning. "Crowds of eager scholars flowed to it for instruction in the three
Vedas and in the eighteen branches of knowledge." Tradition affirms that the great epic, the
Mahabharata, was first recited in the city." (An Advance History of India, R. C. Majumdar, H. C.
Raychanduri p.64) Buddha is reputed to have studied in Taxila. Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy

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owe their origin to Indian thought and spirituality.

Alexander's raid, which was so significant to Western historians, seemed to have entirely escaped
the attention of Sanskrit authors. From the Indian point of view, there was nothing to distinguish his
raid in Indian history. Jawaharlal Nehru says, " From a military point of view his invasion, was a minor
affair. It was more of a raid across the border, and not a very successful raid at that."
Indian Thought and the West
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, has said,
"The Europeans are apt to imagine that before the
great Greek thinkers, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle,
there was a crude confusion of thought, a sort of
chaos without form and void. Such a view becomes
almost a provincialism when we realize that systems of
thought which influenced countless millions of human
beings had been elaborated by people who never
heard the names of the Greek thinkers."
(source: Eastern Religions & Western Thought - By S.
Radhakrishnan p. 350).
There has been too much inclination among Western
writers to idealize the Greeks and their civilization, and they
have tended to discover too much of the contemporary
world in the Greek past. In fact almost everything was
traced to ancient Greece. In all that concerned intellectual
activity and even faith, modern civilization was considered
to be an overgrown colony of Hellas. The obvious Greek
failings, their shortcomings and the unhealthy features of
their civilization, was rationalized and romanticized.
In the words of Sir Charles Eliot, who affirms that "it is clearly absurd for Europe as a whole to
pose as a qualified instructor in humanity and civilization. He writes: "If Europeans have any
superiority over Asiatics it lies in practical science, finance and administration, not in
philosophy, thought or art. Their gifts are authority and power to organize; in other respects
their superiority is imaginary."
(source: Hinduism and Buddhism, volume I (1920), pp. xcvi and xcviii )
Modern research, however, has marred this comforting image and is helping to put Greek culture into
its proper historical perspective showing that, like any other culture, it inherited something from
preceding civilizations, profited from the progress of its neighboring cultures (like India and Persia)
and, in turn, bequeathed much to later generations.

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A Tribute to Hinduism - India and Greece

We are not completely in the dark on the question of Indian

influence on Greece. Speaking of ascetic practices in the
West, Professor Sir Flinders Patrie (1853-1942) British
archaeologist and Egyptologist, author of Egypt and Israel
(1911) observes:
" The presence of a large body of Indian troops in the
Persian army in Greece in 480 B.C. shows how far west the
Indian connections were carried; and the discovery of
modeled heads of Indians at Memphis, of about the fifth
century B.C. shows that Indians were living there for trade.
Hence there is no difficulty in regarding India as the source
of the entirely new ideal of asceticism in the West."
(source: Eastern Religions & Western Thought - By S.
Radhakrishnan p. 150).
Gods of heaven
It is significant to note that although the Indians and Greeks (Yavanas) had come from the same
Indo-European stock, they met as strangers in the sixth century B.C. Persian Empire. Soon,
however, the cousins became associates in a a common cultural enterprise. Similarities in language,
associated by similarities in religious beliefs, indicate that these two peoples must have either been in
close contact at some early period or have had a common origin, even though neither had any
recollection of those times.
For
example,
the gods of
heaven
(Varuna Ouranos;
Dyaus Zeus ) and
the dawn
(Ushas Aurora)
were
common to
the Greeks
and
Indians.
The most
prominent
characteristics of the gods of both races was their power of regulating the order of nature and
banishing evil. The Olympian religion of the Greeks and Vedic beliefs had a common background.
The Greek concept of logos was very close to the vedic Vac, which corresponds to the Latin Vox.
Both Greeks and Romans habitually tried to understand the religions of India by trying to fit them as
far as possible into Greco-Roman categories. Deities in particular were spoken of, not in Indian but in
Greek terms and called by Greek names. Thus Shiva was identified as 'Dionysos', and Hare Krishna
as ' Hercules'.

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In a passage of the Rig Veda, Vac is praised as a divine

being. Vac is omnipotent, moves amongst divine beings, and
carries the great gods, Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Agni, within
itself. The doctrine of Vac teaches that "all gods live from Vac,
also all demi-gods, animals and people. Vac is the eternal
being, it is the first-born of the eternal law, mother of the
Vedas and navel of immortality." Vedic Aryans attached such
great importance to the spoken word that one who could not
correctly pronounce Sanskrit was called barbar (meaning
stammering).
The Greek barbaroi had the same meaning. The brisk
intercourse between India and Greece is attested by the fact
that a special rule was inserted in the great grammar of Panini
to distinguish three feminine forms of yavana: a Greek woman
was yavani, the curtain was yavanika, and the Greek script
was yavanani. There is also a striking similarity between the
social life described in the Homeric poems- the Illiad and Odyssey- and that found in the Vedas.
Homeric gods, like the heroes who believed in them, often rode in the horse driven chariots.
Horse-chariotry was a feature of the life of the Indo-European people. The Homeric idea of a
language of the gods is also found in Sanskrit, Greek, Old Norse, and Hittite literatures. Some
scholars, like Fiske, have even asserted that elements of the Trojan war story are to be found in the
war between the bright deities, and the night demons as described in the Rig Veda. It is clear from
Homer that even they used articles of Indian merchandise which were known by names of Indian
origin, such as Kassiteros (Sanskrit, Kastira), elephas (Sanskrit, ibha), and ivory.
Alain Danielou (1907-1994), son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy,
religion, history and arts of India, remarks that: "the Greeks were always speaking of India as the
sacred territory of Dionysus and historians working under Alexander the Greek clearly mentions
chronicles of the Puranas as sources of the myth of Dionysus." He quotes Clement of Alexandria
who admitted that "we the Greeks have stolen from the Barbarians their philosophy."
Alexander's Insignificant Raid
Alexander is supposed to have invaded the Punjab in 326 B.C. Every schoolboy
is taught and is expected to know, that he invaded India's Northwest. Strangely,
this event, so significant to Western historians, seemed to have entirely
escaped the attention of Sanskrit authors. Nowhere did Sir William
Jones, (1746-1794),who came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court at
Calcutta and pioneered Sanskrit studies, find any mention of Greeks or any sign
of Greek influence.
(source: India Discovered - By John Keay p. 33).
British historian Vincent A. Smith, conservatively appraised the impact of
Alexander's invasion as follows:
"The Greek influence never penetrated deeply (into the Indic civilization)...On the other hand,
the West learned something from India in consequence of the communications opened up by
Alexander's adventure. Our knowledge of the facts is so scanty and fragmentary that it is difficult to
make any positive assertions with confidence, but it is safe to say that the influence of Buddhist ideas
on Christian doctrine may be traced in the Gnostic forms of Christianity, if not elsewhere. The notions
of Indian philosophy and religion which filtered into the Roman empire flowed through channels
opened by Alexander."
(source: In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg

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A Tribute to Hinduism - India and Greece

Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 252-253).

According to Indian historian Dr. R. C. Majumdar, " The invasion of
Alexander has been recorded in minute details by the greek historians who
naturally felt elated at the progress of their hero over unknown lands and
seas. From the Indian point of view, there was nothing to distinguish his
raid in Indian history. It can hardly be called a great military success as the
only military achievement to his credit were the conquest of petty tribes and
States by installments. He never approached even within a measurable
distance of what may be called the citadel of Indian military strength, and the
exertions he had to make against Poros, the ruler of a small district between
the Jhelum and the Chenab, do not certainly favor the hypothesis that he
would have found it an easy task to subdue the mighty Nanda empire."
According to Paul Masson-Oursel and others, "The importance of this Indian campaign of
Alexander has been exaggerated. It had no decisive influence on the destinies of India, for its
results were short-lived.
H. G. Rawlinson, refers to the invasion, " had no immediate effect, and passed off like countless
other invasions, leaving the country almost undisturbed."
Vincent A. Smith " India remained unchanged. She was never Hellenised. She continued to
live her life of splendid isolation, and forgot the passing of the Macedonian storm. No Indian
author, Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain, makes even the faintest illusion to Alexander or his deeds."
(Source: Ancient India - By V. D. Mahajan 1994. published by S. Chand & Company New Delhi. p.
265-268)
Jawaharlal Nehru in his book Discovery of India says, " From a military point of view his invasion,
was a minor affair. It was more of a raid across the border, and not a very successful raid at that." He
met with such stout resistance from a border chieftain that the contemplated advance into the heart
of India had to be reconsidered. If a small ruler on the frontier could fight thus, what of the larger and
more powerful kingdom further south? Probably this was the main reason why his army refused to
march further and insisted on returning."
(source Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru p. 114-115)

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A Tribute to Hinduism - India and Greece

Another myth is propagated by the Western historians that Alexander was

noble and kind king, he had great respects for brave and courageous men,
and so on. The truth is other-wise. He was neither a noble man nor did he
have a heart of gold. He had meted out very cruel and harsh treatment
to his earlier enemies. Basus of Bactria fought tooth and nail with
Alexander to defend the freedom of his motherland. When he was
brought before Alexander as a prisoner, Alexander ordered his servants
to whip him and then cut off his nose and ears. He then killed him. Many
Persian generals were killed by him.
The murder of Kalasthenese, nephew of Aristotle, was committed by
Alexander because he criticised Alexander for foolishly imitating the
Persian emperors. Alexander also murdered his friend Clytus in anger.
His father's trusted lieutenant Parmenian was also murdered by
Alexander. The Indian soldiers who were returning from Masanga were
most atrociously murdered by Alexander in the dead of night. These
exploits do not prove Alexander's kindness and greatness, but only an
ordinary emperor driven by the zeal of expanding his empire.
(Source: Alexander, the Ordinary - By Prof. Dinesh Agarwal
http://www.itihaas.com/ancient/1.html )
The religious scripture of ancient Iranians was the Avesta. The Avesta
available today is only a fraction of what existed thousands of years ago.
When Alexander captured Iran (Persia) in 326 B. C. after a bloody war,
he destroyed each copy of the Avesta available. After return of political
stability Persian priests tried to salvage the Avesta and much had to be
written from memory. Another cruel legacy of Alexander.
(source: Vedic Physics - By Raja Ram Mohan Roy p. 8)
Marshal Zhukov, the famous Russian commander in World War II, said at
the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun, a few years back, that India had
defeated Alexander
Indian Philosophy
By contrast, philosophical thought in India in the sixth century B.C. had become quite mature. It had
reached a stage which could have been arrived at only after long and arduous philosophical quest.
Jainism and Buddhism, the latter enormously influential in Indian and neighboring cultures, had
emerged by this time. But even before their advent, the philosophical reflections of the early
Upanishads (900-600 B.C.) had set forth the fundamental concepts of Hindu thought which have
continued to dominate the Indian mind.
It is perhaps necessary to point out that there has often been a wide divergence between
Indian and Western interpretations of Indian thought. Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy once
even declared that a true account to Hinduism may be given in a categorical denial of most of
the interpretation that have been made by Westerners or Western-trained Indians.

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The tradition of Indian philosophic thought

is as complex as it is long. The
complexities of Indian philosophy have
arisen through centuries of deep reflection
on the many aspects of human
experience, and, in the search for some
reality behind the external world, various
methods have been restored to ranging
from experimental to the purely
speculative. It is the oldest philosophical
tradition in the world is to be traced in the
ancient Vedas. Although the religious and
philosophical spirit of India emerges
distinctly in the Rig Veda, the Upanishads are its most brilliant exposition, for the Vedic civilization
was naturalistic and utilitarian, although it did not exclude the cosmological and religious speculation.
Older than Plato or Confucius, the Upanishads are the most ancient philosophical works and contain
the mature wisdom of India's intellectual and spiritual attainment. They have inspired not only the
orthodox system of Indian thought but also the so-called heterodox schools such as Buddhism. In
profundity of thought and beauty of style, they have rarely been surpassed not only in Indian thought
but in the Western and Chinese philosophical traditions as well.
The Upanishads have greatly influenced Indian culture throughout history and have also found
enthusiastic admirers abroad. Schopenhauer was almost lyrical about them. Max Muller said: " The
Upanishads are the .... sources of .....the Vedanta philosophy, a system in which human speculation
seems to me to have reached its very acme." The Upanishads are saturated with the spirit of inquiry,
intellectual analysis, and a passion for seeking the truth.

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India, is the home of philosophy. Certainly

India is a country where philosophy has
always been very popular and influential.
An American scholar has stated that
teachers of philosophy in India were as
numerous as merchants in Babylonia. The
sages have always been heroes of the
Indians. If philosophy did emerge in India
earlier than in Greece, and if the two
countries were in close contact soon after
this emergence, it is not unlikely that Indian
thought had some influence on Greek
philosophy.
Indian Inspiration of Pythagoras
The similarity between the theory of Thales,
that water is the material cause of all things,
and the Vedic idea of primeval waters as
the origin of the universe, was first pointed
out by Richard Garbe. The resemblances,
too, between the teachings of Pythagoras
(ca. 582-506 B.C.) and Indian philosophy
are striking. It was Sir William Jones, the
founder of comparative philology, who first
pointed out the pointed out the similarities
between Indian and Pythagorean beliefs.
Later, other scholars such as Colebrooke,
Garbe, and Winternitz also testified to the
Indian inspiration of Pythagoras.
Professor H. G. Rawlinson writes: " It is
more likely that Pythagoras was influenced
by India than by Egypt. Almost all the
theories, religions, philosophical and mathematical taught by the Pythagoreans, were known in India
in the sixth century B.C., and the Pythagoreans, like the Jains and the Buddhists, refrained from the
destruction of life and eating meat and regarded certain vegetables such as beans as taboo" "It
seems that the so-called Pythagorean theorem of the quadrature of the hypotenuse was already
known to the Indians in the older Vedic times, and thus before Pythagoras (ibid). (Legacy of India
1937, p. 5).
Professor Maurice Winternitz is of the same opinion: "As regards Pythagoras, it seems to me very
probable that he became acquainted with Indian doctrines in Persia." (Visvabharati Quarterly Feb.
1937, p. 8).
It is also the view of Sir William Jones (Works, iii. 236), Colebrooke (Miscellaneous Essays, i. 436
ff.). Schroeder (Pythagoras und die Inder), Garbe (Philosophy of Ancient India, pp. 39 ff),
Hopkins (Religions of India, p. 559 and 560) and Macdonell (Sanskrit Literature, p. 422).
(source: Eastern Religions & Western Thought - By S. Radhakrishnan p. 143).
Ludwig von Schrder German philosopher, author of the book Pythagoras und die Inder
(Pythagoras and the Indians), published in 1884, he argued that Pythagoras had been influenced
by the Samkhya school of thought, the most prominent branch of the Indic philosophy next to
Vedanta.
(source: In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg

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Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 252).

" Nearly all the philosophical and mathematical doctrines attributed to Pythagoras are derived
from India."
Orphic religion, Pythagorean philosophy, Neo-Platonism, Stoicism and several others not so
well-known have been influenced by the Samkhya-Vedanta thought of India. In pre-Christian
centuries Persia served as a middle ground between India, and Greece. It is known that Indian
archers with their long bows, one end of which was planted in the ground, fought in Darius's war
against Greece. Brahmins and Buddhists were in Greece before Socrates. Later Alexandria became
a great center of commerce and learning, where Buddhists and Brahmins congregated and where
Neo-Platonism was born. The great astronomical observatory at Ujjayini (now Ujjain) in central
India was linked to Alexandria in Egypt. The first Greek book about India was perhaps written by
Scylax, a Greek sea-captain whom Darius commissioned to explore the course of the Indus about
510 B.C. (Herodotus, iv. 44 ).
Vitsaxis G. Vassilis, in his book Plato and the Upanishads, argues that exponents of literature,
science, philosophy and religion traveled regularly between the two countries. He points to accounts
by Eusebius and Aristoxenes, of the visits of Indian sages to Athens and their meetings with Greek
philosophers. And reference to the visit of Indians to Athens is found in the fragment of Aristotle
preserved in the writings of Diogenes Laertius who was also one of Pythagoras biographers.
The essence of Socratic and Platonic philosophy has remained
unintelligible in the West because of lack of insight into Indian
thought. Plato's view of Reality is the same as that of the Upanishads.
His method of attaining knowledge of the Good is that of Vedanta. In
the Phaedo, Plato describes silent meditation as withdrawal of the
senses from their objects and as stilling the processes of mind.
The Greek theoria of the Pythagoreans, of Socrates and Plato, from
which the world 'theater' comes is the vision or darshana of the
Upanishads. Plato mentions that philosophic wisdom can only be
communicated directly from a teacher to disciple, like lighting one
lamp by another. The Timaeus indicates after the manner of the
Upanishads that the receiver of philosophic truth must be a fit person
- fit by character and not by reason of intellect alone. Platonic thought
is so un-Greek in the sense in which Greek thought is generally
taken, namely, purely rationalism, that some philosopher, such as
Nietzsche, have called it " un-Hellenic."
According to Voltaire, "The Greeks, before the time of Pythagoras, traveled into India for
instruction. The signs of the seven planets and of the seven metals are still almost all over the
earth, such as the Indians invented: the Arabians were obliged to adopt their cyphers."
(source: The Philosophy of History, p. 527).
Pythagoras was particularly influenced by Indian philosophy. Professor R. G. Rawlinson remarks
that,
"almost all the theories, religious, philosophical, and mathematical, taught by the
Pythagorians were known in India in the sixth century B.C."
Even Aristotle, the great rationalist and empiricist, upheld so strongly by teachers of philosophy in the
West, is not fully understood. Aristotle speaks of intellect in the same sense as do the Upanishadsintellect which is not thinking logically but which grasps truth immediately. The Indian term for intellect
is buddhi, the purest understanding.

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The thought of Plotinus is Hindu.

Eusebius in his biography of Socrates,
relates an incident recorded in the
fourth century B.C. in which Socrates
met a Brahmin in the agora or the
market place. The Brahmin asked
Socrates what he was doing. Socrates
replied that he was questioning people
in order to understand man. At this, the
Brahmin laughed and asked how one
could understand man without knowing
God.
The Socrates conception of freedom
and virtue is that of the Upanishads.
Socrates defined virtue as knowledge.
Virtue is character, the realization of
the essence of man. Know thyself,
which is exactly the same as the
Upanisadic command, Atmanam
biddhi. In the Gita, knowledge or
wisdom is defined as character. Virtue,
comes from the Vedic word vira (hero, man).
Greek philosophy began in Asia Minor and Greek writers refer to the travels of Pythagoras, and
others, to the East to gain wisdom. According to his biographer Iamblichus,
"Pythagoras traveled widely, studying the esoteric teachings of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and
even Brahmins." According to Gomprez, "It is not too much to assume that the curious Greek
who was a contemporary of Buddha, and it may be of Zoraster, too, would have acquired a
more or less exact knowledge of the East, in the age of intellectual fermentation, through the
medium of Persia."
Vivekananda said that Samhkya was the basis of the
philosophy of the whole world. " There is no philosophy in the
world that was not indebted to Kapila. (Kapila is the founder
of the Sankhya philosophy). Krishna says in the Gita that,
among the perfected sages, he is Kapila. Pythagoras came
to India and studied his philosophy and that was the
beginning of the philosophy of the Greeks. Later it formed the
Alexandrian school, and still later the Gnostic."
Panini, who speaks of the Greek script as yavanani lipi.
The Prakrit equivalent of yavana, viz. yona, is used in the
inscriptions of Ashoka to describe the Hellenic princes of
Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia, Epirus, and Syria.
"It is believed that the Dravidians from India went to Egypt
and laid the foundation of its civilization there. the Egyptians
themselves had the tradition that they originally came from
the South, from a land called Punt, which an historian of the
West, Dr. H.R. Hall, thought referred to some part of India.
The Indus Valley civilization is, according to Sir John Marshall who was in charge of the
excavations, the oldest of all civilizations unearthed (c. 4000 B.C.) It is older than the
Sumerian and it is believed by many that the latter was a branch of the former.
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Some people called the Brahui who dwell in Baluchistan which is at present a part of Pakistan, still
speak the Dravidian language. It is likely that their ancestors were the people who sailed across the
narrow waters at the entrance of the Persian Gulf to Oman and then to Aden along the southern
littoral of Arabia, crossing over to Africa at the narrow strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, near Somaliland and
proceeding north along the Nile Valley."
(Source: The Bhagvad Gita: A Scripture for the Future - Translation and Commentary by
Sachindra K. Majumdar p. 28).
"We hear of Arabian trade with Egypt as far back as 2743 B.C.
probably as ancient as was the trade with India." (Will Durant,
The Story of Civilization, vol. 4 p. 157).
Klaus K. Klostermaier, in his book " A Survey of Hinduism " pg
18 says:
"For several centuries a lively commerce developed between the
ancient Mediterranean world and India, particularly the ports on the
Western coast. The most famous of these ports was Sopara, not
far from modern Bombay, which was recently renamed
Mumbai. Present day Cranganore in Kerala, identified with the
ancient Muziris, claims to have had trade contacts with
Ancient Egypt under Queen Hatsheput, who sent five ships to
obtain spices, as well as with ancient Israel during King
Soloman's reign. Apparently, the contact did not break off after
Egypt was conquered by Greece and later by Rome.
According to I .K. K. Menon:
"there is evidence of a temple of Augustus near Muziris
(Cranganore, Kerala) and a force of 1200 Roman soldiers
stationed in the town for the protection of Roman commerce." Large hoards of Roman traders, who
must have rounded the southern tip of India to reach that place."
(Note: The ancient Alexandrian port of Muziris, now Cranganore, Kerala is where the Romans built a
temple to Augustus in the first century.)
Thus, both upon archaeological and historical grounds, India is the mother of civilizations.
Material skill and spiritual ideas spread from the Indus valley to Nineveh and Babylon, to the
entire Middle East, to the Nile Valley and thence to Greece and Rome.
Other Indic Influences:
American mathematician, A. Seindenberg has demonstrated that the Sulbhasutras, the ancient
Vedic mathematics, have inspired all the mathematic sciences of the antique world from Babylonia to
Egypt and Greece". "Arithmetic equations from the Sulbhasutras were used in the observation of the
triangle by the Babylonians and the theory of contraries and of inexactitude in arithmetic methods,
discovered by Hindus, inspired Pythagorean mathematics." writes Abraham Seidenberg.
In astronomy, too, Indus were precursors: Jean-Claude Bailly (173693) 18th century French
astronomer and politician. His works on astronomy and on the history of science (notably the Essai
sur la thorie des satellites de Jupiter) were distinguished both for scientific interest and literary
elegance and earned him membership in the French Academy, the Academy of Sciences, and the
Academy of Inscriptions. Bailly had already noticed that:

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"the Hindu astronomic systems were much more ancient than those of the Greeks or even the
Egyptians the movement of stars which was calculated by Hindus 4,500 years ago, does not differ
even by a minute from the tables which we are using today." And he concludes: "The Hindu systems
of astronomy are much more ancient than those of the Egyptians - even the Jews derived from the
Hindus their knowledge." There is also no doubt that the Greeks heavily borrowed from the
"Indus."
Alain Danileou (1907-1994), son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy,
religion, history and arts of India, including Virtue, Success, Pleasure, & Liberation : The Four
Aims of Life in the Tradition of Ancient India. He was perhaps the first European to boldly
proclaim his Hinduness. He settled in India for fifteen years in the study of Sanskrit. He had a wide
effect upon Europe's understanding of Hinduism. He has remarks that:
"the Greeks were always speaking of India as the sacred territory of Dionysus and historians working
under Alexander the Great clearly mention chronicles of the Puranas as sources of the myth of
Dionysus." Alain Danielou quotes Clement of Alexandria who admitted that "we the Greeks have
stolen from the Barbarians their philosophy."
We know that the Greeks had translated the Bhagvad-gita and French philosopher and historian
Roger-Pol Droit writes in his classic "L'oubli de l'Inde (India forgotten) "that there is absolutely not
a shadow of a doubt that Greeks knew all about Indian philosophy."
William Jones (1746-1794) came to India as a judge of the
Supreme Court at Calcutta. He pioneered Sanskrit studies. A
linguist of British India, his admiration for Indian thought and
culture was almost limitless. He noted that "the analogies
between Greek Pythagorean philosophy and the Sankhya
school, are very obvious."
(source: Arise, O India - By Francois Gautier ISBN
81-241-0518-9 Har-Anand Publications 2000. p. 21-22).
Jean-Paul Droit, French philosopher, and Le Monde
journalist, recently wrote in his book "The Forgetfulness of
India, that:
"The Greeks loved so much Indian philosophy that Demetrios
Galianos had even translated the Bhagavad-Gita"
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The Roman Empire - A Gangster State?

According to Petr Beckman, author of ' A History of Pi: " While Alexandria had become the world
capital of thinkers, Rome was becoming the capital of thugs. Rome was not the first state of
organized gangsterdom nor was it the last; but it was the only one that managed to bamboozle
posterity into an almost universal admiration. Few rational men admire the Huns, the Nazis or the
Soviets; but for centuries, schoolboys have been expected to read Julius Caesar's militaristic
drivel. They have been led to believe that the Romans had attained an advanced level in the
sciences, the arts, law, architecture, engineering and everything else.

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A Tribute to Hinduism - India and Greece

It is my opinion that the alleged Roman

achievements are largely a myth; and I feel it is time
for this myth to be debunked a little. What the
Romans excelled in was bullying, bludgeoning,
butchering and blood bath. They enslaved
peoples whose cultural level was far above their
own. They not only ruthlessly vandalized their
countries, but they also looted them, stealing their
art treasures, abducting their scientists and copying
their technical know-how, which the Romans' barren
society was rarely able to improve on.
Then there is Roman engineering: The Roman
roads, acquaducts, the Coliseums. Warfare, alas,
has always been beneficial to engineering. In a
healthy society, engineering design gets smarter
and smarter; in gangster states, it gets bigger and
bigger.
The architecture of the Coliseums and other places
of Roman entertainment are difficult to judge without
recalling what purpose they served. It was here that
gladiators fought to the death; that prisoners of war,
convicts and Christians were devoured by a many
as 5,000 wild beasts at a time; and that victims were
crucified or burned alive for the entertainment of
Roman civilization. When the Roman screamed
for ever more blood, artificial lakes were dug
and naval battles as many as 19,000 gladiators
were staged until the water turned red with blood. The only Roman emperors who did not
throw Christians to the lions were the Christian emperors. They (Christians) threw the pagans
to the lions with the same gusto and for the same crime - having a different religion.
Romans were not primitive savages, but were sophisticated killers. The Roman contribution to
sciences was mostly limited to butchering antiquity's greatest mathematicians, burning the Library of
Alexandria. and it demonstrates an abysmal ignorance of sciences. Pliny tells us that in India there
is a species of men without mouths who subsist by smelling flowers.
Yet most historians extol the achievements of Rome. "it accustomed the Western races to the idea of
a world-state, and by pax romana....."
(source: A History of Pi - By Petr Beckman p. 55-59).
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Did You Know

Iron with Mettle

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A Tribute to Hinduism - India and Greece

Ancient India developed advanced metallurgical technology that

made it possible to cast a remarkable iron pillar, dating to about
300 B.C.E. Still standing today in Delhi. This solid shaft of wrought
iron is about 24 feet high and 16 inches in diameter. It has been
exposed to weather and pollution since its erection, yet shows
minimal corrosion, a technology lost to current ironmakers. Even
with today's advances, only four foundries in the world could make
this piece and none were able to keep it rust-free.
The earliest known metal expert (some 2,200 years ago) Rishi
Pantanjali. His book Loha Shastra, "metal manual" describes in
detail metal preparation.
The pillar is a solid shaft of iron sixteen inches in diameter and 23 feet high. What is most
astounding about it is that it has never rusted even though it has been exposed to wind and
rain for centuries! The pillar defies explanation, not only for not having rusted, but because it
is apparently made of pure iron, which can only be produced today in tiny quantities by
electrolysis! The technique used to cast such a gigantic, solid pillar is also a mystery, as it
would be difficult to construct another of this size even today. The pillar stands as mute
testimony to the highly advanced scientific knowledge that was known in antiquity, and not
duplicated until recent times. Yet still, there is no satisfactory explanation as to why the pillar
has never rusted!
(source: Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients - By David Hatcher
Childress p. 80)
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