[INDOLOGY] Scientification in India

Wed Sep 12 05:06:47 UTC 2018

Thanks, Prof. Dominik Wujastyk for bringing origins of such ideas into
discussion and mentioning Arya Samaj. That may indicate that you are aware
of the origin of such ideas in Arya Samaj. Whether you are aware or not,
Swami Dayananda Saraswati , the founder of Arya Samaj, in his Rigvedadi
Bhaashya Bhumikaa tries to show 'sciences' such as Astronomy, political
thought etc.  in the Vedas.

When you trace the origins of ideas such as ' all science is rooted in
India.' to such 19th century ideas as those of the founder of Arya Samaj,
you can see those ideas to be the extreme opposite ideas to the view of
Indians as savage, barbarian, ignorant lot without any rational thinking,
full of superstitions etc. Those ideas were a reaction to the humiliation
of a colonised nation by the coloniser community. This article
<https://gosai.com/writings/early-indology-of-india> is one of many
historical studies of such humiliating attitude of the intellectuals from
the community of the British people who colonised India. "No science, no
rational / logical thinking" was responded with claims ranging from "no
dearth for logical thinking, 'sciences etc.' "  up to the claims of all
'sciences'. India-humiliating colonial historiography was responded to by
India- praising nationalist historiography. Though most of the nationalist
historiographers were rigorous in their methodology and were careful enough
not to make unjustifiable claims, as it always happens, particularly in the
emotional conditions such as the Indian national movement, the tracing of
ancient India's advancements in various knowledge areas lead to the popular
exaggerations such as   ' all science is rooted in India.' . The two models
of knowledge development, both extremes exaggerations, one of "Paradise
Lost" and the other of linear evolutionist strand for which all older
knowledge has to be inferior to the newer one by definition, have been
running parallel to each other, opposing each other, swinging the pendulum
to their own extremes. The claims such as   ' , of the all science is
rooted in India.'  of the  "Paradise Lost"  school of thought very quickly
exploited by the  linear evolutionist strand for discounting the well
founded claims of advanced knowledge in India in certain knowledge areas.

On Wed, Sep 12, 2018 at 1:50 AM, Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Axel,
>
> Madhusudana Ojha
> <https://archive.org/stream/BrahmaVidyaRahasyam1/Brahma%20Vidya%20Rahasyam-1#page/n1>
> (1866-1939) was an important early-twentieth century voice in popularizing
> this view.  He published a lot of material, like *Indravijaya*, some of
> which still circulates I believe.  I once visited his former home in
> Jaipur, and many of his unpublished papers and diagrams were still there,
> and the family was keeping alive a devotion to his cosmic visions and
> scientist message.  One of Ojha's students was Vedavācaspati Paṇḍit Motilal
> Śāstrī (1908-1960) who continued to publish in the same vein, as do others
> <https://archive.org/stream/CosmicMatrix/Cosmic%20Matrix#page/n3>.
>
> Some notes from my visit in 2011:
>
> *Manvashram *(map <https://goo.gl/maps/Kp1Rkk2rzi12>)
> Shree Krishna Sharma, Gopalpura Mode, Tonk Road, Jaipur.
> A little , quiet, grassy enclosed courtyard with a grazing cow.  Various
> buildings around, labelled "university," printing press," etc., as if it
> were a small campus.  And a rusting 1903 English printing press at the
> front.
> Not a single Sanskrit MS, though.  The story of the place is quite
> interesting, nevertheless.  *Vedavācaspati Paṇḍit Motilal Śāstrī*
> (1908-1960) was the spirit of the place, and the father of the present
> occupant.  Motilal wrote 80,000 pages of materials on the interpretation of
> the Veda and on the Śatapathabrāhmaṇa.  He discovered a special code or
> cypher that explained everything.  He also developed a series of coloured
> geometrical drawings that showed a kind of evolutionary and hierarchical
> cosmology.  It turns out that his teacher was *Madhusudana Ojha*
> (1866-1939), which explains all the pseudo-science and back-to-the-vedas
> ideology (independent of the Arya Samaj, as far as I know).
> Motilal Śāstrī's father Balendu (I think) had the first printing press in
> Jaipur.
>
> Best,
> Dominik
>
> --
> Professor Dominik Wujastyk <http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk>
> ,
>
> Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
> ,
>
> Department of History and Classics
> <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>
> ,
> University of Alberta, Canada
> .
>
> South Asia at the U of A:
>
> sas.ualberta.ca
>
>
>
> On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 at 01:33, Michaels, Axel via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>>
>>
>> In the course of the recent WSC discussions on this list, Dr Iris Iran
>> Farkhondeh recently mentioned a little brochure by the RSS: “There was also
>> this little booklet produced by the RSS (samskrit samsthan and not svayam
>> sevak even though it seems now that the two RSS are getting nearer and
>> nearer) with a mention of astrolomy (sic) and all the other sciences that
>> for sure originated in ancient India.” Unfortunately, she did not keep this
>> booklet. Since I am co-editing a book on this topic, I would be very
>> grateful if someone who attended the conference could share the brochure
>> with me.  I would also be interested in relevant and serious literature
>> focusing and the wide-spread claim that all science is rooted in India.
>>
>>
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Axel Michaels
>>
>>
>>
>> Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels
>>
>> Seniorprofessor | Vice President Heidelberg Academy of Science and
>> Humanities |
>>
>> Director Research Unit "Historical Documents of Nepal" (नेपालका पूर्व-
>> आधुनिक कालका लिखतहरू), Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
>>
>> South Asia Institute
>> Im Neuenheimer Feld 330
>> 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
>>
>> http://www.haw.uni-heidelberg.de/forschung/forschungsstellen/nepal/index.
>> de.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,

(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )

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