BHARATA : World's Educational Capital

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Slightly adapted this thread from the works of Sahana Singh.

Sahana Singh is a writer/editor who specializes in environmental issues, current affairs and Indian history. She is a member of Indian History Awareness and Research (IHAR), a think tank headquartered in Houston.

The author would like to acknowledge the inputs and hard work of the members of

Indian History Awareness and Research (IHAR)

and would like to specially thank Jyoti Gangopadhyay for her support.




Bharata, World's education capital.

Just a thousand years ago, India was dotted with universities across its length and breadth where international students flocked to gain credentials in advanced education. But in the last 200 years, the connection with age-old knowledge streams has been severely disrupted.


Author will examine the pedagogy of ancient BHARATIYA universities and the demise in late 18th century.

When Tagore started an open-air school at Shantiniketan in 1901, which later went on to become a famous university, he was one in a long line of educators from India, who believed that holistic learning could only be obtained in the midst of nature under the close supervision of a parent-like guru.

India’s earliest teachers were the gurus, who taught in Gurukulams and Ashrams located far away from the hustle and bustle of towns in what could be called forest universities. It is no surprise that the VEDAS , which are the earliest known oral books containing the thoughts of a highly civilised society are replete with exquisite references to nature and the concept of inter-dependence of living organisms. To these gurus, it was important for humans to realise their humble status in the infinite universe before embarking on the long journey of learning.
Over time, the systems of transmission of learning to newer generations got institutionalised and gave birth to famous universities such as Takshshila, Nalanda and many famous temple universities of which the remains are still found in southern India. A sizeable number of foreign students came to study in India from China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and West Asia. While the most famous names are Fa-Hien and Xuanzang, who left behind detailed accounts, there are scores of others, who made difficult journeys by foot and on board the ships just to imbibe knowledge from Indian professors. Many of the foreign students copied texts and commentaries to carry back to their countries. The rush for gaining an education from the Brahmins and Buddhist scholars of BHARAT was similar to today’s rush to study in or be certified by amreekan and european universities.
There is a curious hesitation among modern historians to refer to India’s multi-disciplinary centres of traditional learning as universities. This comes from the excessive importance given to the written word, to solid buildings with established pedagogy and rigid systems of certification. Thus, the talented, but bare-chested and dhoti-clad engineers and architects of ancient India, who built incredible irrigation canals, rainwater harvesting structures, palaces, forts, roads, dams and aqueducts are barely acknowledged as professionals, who learned from professors in universities. Similarly, the medical practitioners of yore, who knew which combination of herbs could help in healing diseases, where to procure them in forests, how to conduct complex surgeries and who additionally possessed spiritual insights are often regarded as quacks or witch doctors.

Learning was a sacred, important duty

Ancient Indians were obsessed with gaining perspectives about “the material and the moral, the physical and the spiritual, the perishable and the permanent”. During the process of gaining these perspectives, they made important discoveries in the sciences, mathematics and applied medicine. The sacredness of learning is evident from the large number of Sanskrit shlokas that deify the guru such as “Acharya devobhava” (Taittiriya Upanishad). Initiation of children (both male and female) into the alphabets for the first time was done ceremonially in most parts of India.

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Vidyarambham or Aksharabhyasa is an important Hindu ceremony marking the initiation of young boys and girls into the writing of alphabets. Photo Credit: Shiju Sugunan

Even today, the ceremony survives in the Haathekhori in Bengal (performed during Saraswati Puja) and the Vidyarambham in Southern India (when children are asked to trace alphabets on rice). The sacred thread ceremony or the Upanayanam ceremony performed for Dwija children between the ages of eight and 12 customarily marked the beginning of education. It was considered terrible to barter knowledge for money. Gurus usually took a token gift (Guru Dakshina) in return for the long years of knowledge they imparted.

The forest universities of Ancient India BHARATVARSH
The Mahabharata gives examples of famous ASHRAMAS such as Naimisha, which was a forest university headed by Saunaka. Other hermitages mentioned in the epic are those of Vyasa, Vasishtha and Visvamitra. One hermitage near Kurukshetra even mentions two female rishis. Among Vyasa’s famous disciples were Sumantra, Vaisampayana, Jamini, Paila and Suka.

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Forest Universities

Rishi Kanva’s hermitage is not mentioned as a solitary unit, but as an assemblage of numerous hermitages around the central one presided by Rishi Kanva. There were specialists in every branch of learning cultivated in that age; in each of the four Vedas; in Yagna-related literature and art; Kalpa-Sutras; in the Chhanda (Metrics), Sabda (or Vyakarana), and Nirukta. There were also Logicians, knowing the principles of Nyaya, and of Dialectics. Specialists in physical sciences and art also taught their skills. The art of constructing altars of various dimensions and shapes for conducting yagna was regarded as significant and this required the teaching of Solid Geometry. There were no artificial demarcations between religion and science and often, one led to the other. Other topics that were taught included properties of matter (dravyaguna) and physical processes. Zoology was also a subject. Thus, the forest universities laid out an entire spread of subjects that imparted a holistic view of the world as it was then known.

The citadels of learning distributed across BHARATVARSH :

There were a staggering number of universities spread across the length and breadth of India. The oldest excavated so far is Takshashila, which is dated to the 6th century bce, but could be much older. It is located in today’s Pakistan in the Rawalpindi District of Punjab. Others were Nalanda, Valabhi, Vikramshila, Pushpagiri, Jagaddala, Odantapuri, Somapura, Bikrampur, Ratnagiri, Mithila, Ujjaini and Kanchipuram, though this is only a partial list. Even today, archaeologists are coming across the remains of ancient universities close to the already excavated on
es.

It is possible that both the forest universities and the brick and mortar universities existed side by side. There is an instance of Svetaketu, who is a graduate in the “arts” from Takshashila. He set out to gather practical arts by wandering all over the country, when he came across 500 RISHIS in a cluster of hermitages, who taught him their arts, texts and practices.

Traditionally, it is believed that the MAHABHARATA was first recited at Takshashila by Vaishampayana, student of Vyasa. Takshshila is described as a centre of great learning in the Buddhist Jātaka tales, written around the 5th century ce. The Chinese traveller Fa-Hien mentioned it in his account of his visit to Takshshila in 405 ce. Xuanzang (Hieun Tsang), another Chinese monk, visited Takshshila in 630 and 643ce. The city was overrun by the Huns in 455 CE so it was in ruins by the time Xuanzang visited.
Takshashila made great contributions to world culture and Sanskrit language. It is associated with Acharya Chanakya, also known as Kautilya. His famous Arthashastra is said to have been composed in Takshashila itself. The renowned physician Charaka to whom Ayurveda owes a huge debt, also studied at Takshshila. He later became a professor in the same institute. Jivaka, another famous physician and surgeon studied here, according to Pali texts. The ancient grammarian Pāṇini, who codified the rules that would define Classical Sanskrit, was also a part of the Takshshila alumni. Clearly, Takshshila produced some formidable scholars.
According to the Jatakas, the students went to Takshshila for higher education, and they were trained in the Vedas. Apart from this, there were 18 Sippas or Arts that were taught. The Sippas include scientific and technical education. Takshshila also had special schools teaching Medicine, Law and Military Sciences. There was a demand for its archery courses, and there is a mention of 104 princes studying there at the same time. Not everyone came from affluent families.
It is said that Jivaka, a Takshashila alumnus cured Emperor Bimbisara of fistula and, as a result, was appointed as the physician to the King and to the Buddhist sangha. He is also credited with curing King Pradyota of Ujjaini of jaundice. Jivaka was noted to be a skilled surgeon. A case has been described where a merchant, who was suffering from a head disease, was treated by Jivaka by tying the patient to his bed, cutting through the skin of his head, drawing apart the flesh on each side of the incision, pulling two worms out of the wound, then closing up the sides of the wound, stitching up the skin on the head and anointing it with salve. He is also said to have successfully cured cases of twisted intestines.

Practical training was an important component of university learning
Great store was set by practical training. For example, in medicine, the practical course included a thorough knowledge of medicinal plants. Nature study was considered the best means of awakening a healthy curiosity. Students were required to give a practical demonstration of what they had learned in their colleges. So, Jivika, for example, was cited as having demonstrated his ability to conduct successful surgeries on patients. There is also a mention of a student, who gave a practical demonstration of the technical education he got, in front of his parents, after he returned from Takshshila. Extensive foreign travel was required at the end of the theoretical education in universities. This was specially insisted upon in the case of students from rich families, brought up in luxury, in order to make them experience the hardships of travelling, and to endure heat and cold.

Splendiferous Nalanda :

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Nalanda – a beacon of learning for students far and near

By far the most detailed description we have is of the Nalanda University in the ancient kingdom of Magadha thanks to the writings (seventh century ce) of Chinese travellers Xuanzang and Yijing. Students flocked from near and far to learn from the acclaimed teachers at the university and some came all the way from Tibet, China, Korea and Central Asia.


It was not easy to gain admission into Nalanda University (just as in an earlier era, it was not easy to be accepted as pupils by renowned gurus). From the accounts of Xuanzang, it appears that Nalanda had a very tough entrance examination. Only about 20% of the students, who applied, seem to have got through it. And yet, the university had as many as 8,500 students and 1,500 teachers. There was even a network of schools that helped students prepare for getting into Nalanda, which sounds uncannily similar to today’s coaching centres for Iit Jee and other competitive examinations.
The students of Nalanda were looked up to as models all over BHARATA and were highly respected, confirms Xuanzang. Taking advantage of this, some people even faked their Nalanda degrees! By the seventh century, there were four other universities in Bihar, all largely inspired by Nalanda. They worked in collaboration, and by the tenth century, one of them—Vikramshila—emerged as a serious competitor to Nalanda in higher education.
A wide range of subjects were taught in Nalanda; sacred and secular, philosophical and practical, sciences and arts; it was the most complete education available at that time, says Xuanzang, who studied there for five years. He studied Yoga shastra under the highest authority of the time – Silabhadra. He also studied Nyaya, Hetuvidya, Shabdavidya and the Sanskrit grammar of Panini. There is an interesting side story to this. Xuanzang has written that, when he visited Kanchi, he met a number of monks from Ceylon. When he told them about his impending visit to Ceylon, they said it was futile because he would not meet anyone superior to them in knowledge. Intrigued, Xuanzang began to discuss yoga texts with them. To his disappointment, he found their explanations not as good as the one he got from Professor Silabhadra in Nalanda University.

Nalanda mainly flourished under the patronage of the Gupta Empire as well as emperors such as Harsha and later, the rulers of the Pala Empire. Various endowments were made by the kings, which led to the construction of impressive buildings, majestic in their size with richly adorned towers and turrets that gave the look of hill-tops, and observatories that were covered by mist in the mornings. According to Xuanzang, there was a lofty wall all around the grounds and a big gate, which opened into the university with a big main hall from which was separated eight other halls. He describes that the upper rooms towered above the clouds and from their windows, one could see the wind and clouds producing new forms, and from the soaring eaves (overhang from the roof), splendid sunsets and moonlit glories could be seen. A similar description is given in the Nalanda Stone Inscription of Yasovarman of the 8th century stating that the rows of monasteries had their series of summits (shikhara-shreni) licking the clouds (ambudhara). The grounds had deep, translucent ponds bearing blue lotuses interspersed with the deep red Kanaka flower, while Amra groves spread their shade all around. The massive external grandeur of the buildings is said to have contrasted with the delicate artistic beauty of the interior.

Debating – An intrinsic part of education in ancient BHARATA

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The famous Debate between Adi Shankaracharya and Mandana Mishra. Credit: http://vipasana-vidushika.blogspot.in
Logic and debate were extremely significant for India’s philosophical traditions. This love for debate and presentation of arguments from ancient times formed the root of democracy, which has endured even today right down to the village level. The debates we see on TV channels and legislative bodies are a part of a continuum, albeit in a degraded form going back to a hoary past. References to Tarka-Vidya, the science and art of logic and debate and Vaada-Vidya, the art of discussion can be found in innumerable ancient texts such as Ramayana, Manusamhita, Mahabharata, Skandapurana, Yajnavalkya Samhita, and Chandogya Upanishad, to name just a few.

The terminology of debate was well-developed. To give a flavour of the terms, consider SAADHYA(thesis which is to be established), SIDDHANTA(proposition, tenet or conclusion), HETU(reason), UDHAARANA(example), SAADHARMYA(affirmative example), VAIDHARMYA(negative example), PRATYAKSH(perception), ANUMAANA (inference) and PRAMAANA(proof).

In his book on BHARAT Indian logic, Satish Chandra Vidyabhusana refers to Maitreya, an eminent teacher, also called Mirok in Chinese, who lived 900 years after the nirvana of Buddha. He wrote a treatise on debate in which, he postulated that the subject of debate should be a useful, not an irrelevant one. Further, he said debate should not be entered into in any place but in the presence of scholars or in a parishad (council). Maitreya laid out the rules by which a candidate’s victory or loss could be decided in a debate. He stressed that debaters should be well-versed in each other’s scriptures, must never discard dignity and use disrespectful language, must be fearless, must speak continuously and intelligibly, and with voice-variation, that is sometimes slowly and sometimes loudly. Is it not amazing that even today, these are the skills taught to public speakers and debaters?

According to Xuanzang the monks at Nalanda frequently assembled for discussions to test intellectual capacity. Those who were able to put forward finer points in philosophy, who could give subtle principles their proper place and who were ornate in diction, were rewarded. These universities played a big role in nourishing the spirit of open debate in ancient India. Yijing, another Chinese traveller to India, who came after Xuanzang mentions that kings were fond of organising intellectual tournaments in which people with superior knowledge and debating skills were richly rewarded.

Nalanda had a famous, well-equipped library with many rare manuscripts. According to Yijing, the library had three huge buildings called Ratnasagara, Ratnadadhi and Ratnaranjaka of which Ratnasagara was a nine-storeyed building that stored rare sacred works such as Prajna Paramita Sutra. Today, we marvel at the imposing libraries housed in Ivy League universities. Throw back your imagination to a time when such libraries were a part of Indian tradition.

Competition and collaboration between universities

Among the competitors of Nalanda was Valabhi University in Gujarat, which was famous for its teaching of secular subjects. Students went to study there from all over the country. Some of them got high government positions on graduating.

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Credit: http://madhurima-bharati.blogspot.in

Vikramshila University was built by King Dharmapala in the 8th century, again a rival of Nalanda, but it also collaborated with it. The alumni of this university is said to have practically built the culture and civilization of Tibet. The most important of them is Dipankara Sri Jnana. Then there was Mithila, which specialised in logic and scientific subjects. According to historian Keay, it was so strict in guarding its knowledge that students were not allowed to take any books outside or even copies of lectures. They could only leave with their diplomas or degrees.


The monopoly of Mithila University was broken by the Nadia University, which also specialised in logic. Vasudeva Sarvabhauma in the 15th century, studied in Mithila University, but when he was prevented from copying the texts, he committed to memory, the whole of Tattva Chintamani and the metrical part of Kusumanjali. Then, in Nadia, he wrote down the texts he had memorised and founded a new academy of logic. Nadia soon outrivaled Mithila by producing better scholars.

When scientists, astronomers and mathematicians made a beeline for Ujjaini University


One university that simply stands out for its academic output in astronomy and mathematics is Ujjaini (also called Ujjain), which was equipped with an elaborate observatory and stood on the zero meridian of longitude of those times. Had those coomer europeans had not assumed control of the scientific discourse of the world, perhaps Ujjain, not Greenwich would have been today’s prime meridian.
Brahmagupta was among the most celebrated astronomers of Ujjaini University, who continued the tradition of Varahamihira and made significant contributions to mathematics. He worked on trigonometrical formulae, quadratic equations, area of cyclic quadrilateral, arithmetic progression and improved Aryabhata’s sine tables. In his treatise Brahmasphutasiddhanta, he was the first to treat zero as a number in its own right, rather than as simply a placeholder digit. He established basic mathematical rules for dealing with zero such as 1 + 0 = 1; 1 – 0 = 1; and 1 x 0 = 0. Brahmagupta’s works reached the court of Khalifa al-Mansur in Baghdad and played a path breaking role in making the Arabs conversant with Indian astronomy and mathematics.
Later, this knowledge of BHARAT was transmitted to arabs and from there to europe.



The tradition of BRAHMAGUPTA was continued by BHASKARA II, also called Bhaskaracharya, who became the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjaini. He wrote the famous Siddhantasiromani and Lilavati. In the New World Encyclopedia, J. J. O’Connor and E. F. Robertson are quoted to have said in their paper for the School of Mathematics and Statistics that Bhaskaracharya “reached an understanding of the number systems and solving equations, which was not to be achieved in europe for several centuries.”

He was said to be the first mathematician to write a work with full and systematic use of the decimal number system. Bhaskaracharya is also considered as the founder of differential calculus, who applied it centuries before Newton and Leibniz. He too had a profound impact on Islamic mathematicians just like the earlier AACHARYAs of Ujjaini.

In the next part, we will examine the role of temple universities in southern India, the role of Indian scholars in influencing global streams of knowledge and the weakening of India’s education fabric during colonial rule.

The author would like to acknowledge the inputs of the members of Indian History Awareness and Research (IHAR) and would like to specially thank Jyoti Gangopadhyay for her support.


Choices, choices
A student who completed basic education in ancient India and wished to learn more, had a plethora of institutions to choose from, depending on whether he wanted to specialise in the Vedas, logic, medicine, sciences, classical music or any other subject. Thus, a student who wanted to learn classical music could, for instance, move to Varanasi and learn from the maestros in the city’s ancient college of music. If he found a friend keen on studying in Varanasi’s college of astronomy, then perhaps the two could travel together. Travelling was a risky proposition in those days when the land was covered with forests abounding in predators, and parents would celebrate when their children returned home after four to 12 years of higher education.

In the Kathasaritsagara, there is a reference to a Brahmin, who decided not to send his son for further studies to Nalanda or Varanasi, which were closer to his place of residence in the Ganga plains and instead took the risk of choosing a far-off Valabhi university located in today’s Gujarat (Bose, 1990). Valabhi’s graduates were known to secure employment in government services. Its courses in political science (niti) and business (varta) were well known alongside religious studies of Hinayana Buddhism (Apte).

An interesting reference to co-education is found in the Sanskrit play Malatimadhava written by Bhavabhuti (in the eighth century) where a female student Kamandaki is indicated to be a classmate and close friend of male students Bhurivasu and Devarata at a famous university in Padmavati. All three characters hail from different regions. (Mirashi, 1996)

There seems to have been a remarkable mobility of students and teachers across the universities of ancient BHARATA. Thus, we find professors in Nalanda, such as Sthiramati and Gunamati who had earlier established Valabhi University in the west. Dinnaga and Dharmapala, two famous scholars of Nalanda were both natives of Kanchipuram in the south. Ratnavajra, a noted professor at Vikramshila hailed from Kasmira (Kashmir). Xuanzang himself, after finishing his studies in Nalanda went to teach in Orissa upon receiving a directive from King Harsha (Mookerjee, 1960). The famous Bhaskara II, hailed by some as the greatest mathematician ever, taught at Ujjaini, but hailed from Bijapur in the south (Puttaswamy, 2012). Clearly, many of the learned people of yore travelled to centres of excellence in their areas of interest.
Bhaskara II, head of the astronomical observatory at the famous Ujjaini University in central India was a native of Bijapur in southern BHARAT/India.

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Funding of higher education


An interesting aspect about the education system was that it was subsidised for pupils and teachers by the ruling kings as well as communities that lived around universities. The Nalanda University was described by Xuanzang as having been endowed with buildings and lands by ruling kings of the time. He also mentions that the revenues of 100 villages were allocated for meeting the expenses of the university. The students and teachers received clothes, food, bedding and medicine free of cost. (Mookerjee, 1960)

However, according to the Jatakas, students who wished to study at Takshshila were required to either pay their tuition fee at the beginning or if they lacked cash, to pay in the form of services to the teacher, such as bringing firewood. Most Brahmin students were too poor to pay upfront and would opt to carry out menial tasks. Some would get permission to pay at the end of their studies, and there were instances of Brahmin students soliciting financial assistance from households. We also hear of some winning state scholarships and not being required to pay any fees. Often, families living around the universities would generously host meals at their residences for the students. (Mookerjee, 1960)

There was a well-established ecosystem to support learning. Since the ethos of the times demanded that Brahmin scholars lead a simple life engaged in the pursuit of knowledge without amassing riches, it fell upon the shoulders of wealthy non-Brahmin families as well as humble farmers to support those who were devoting their entire lives to learning and teaching (Hazra, 1987).

Graduating the Indian way the BHARTIYA way : Samavartana

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The Snataka Dharma recitation from Shiksha Valli in the Taittiriya Upanishad



Given that the ancient Indians BHARTIYAS set so much store by learning, it should not come as a surprise that they had a meaningful rite of passage to mark the graduation of students, called Samavartana or Snana. In the presence of students, teachers and invited guests, the graduating student would offer his guru-dakshina (gift to guru), after which the guru would recite the snataka-dharma from the Taittiriya Upanishad. This would be followed by a homa (fire ritual) and snana (ceremonial bath). (Kane, 1941)

The Snataka Dharma recitation from Shiksha Valli in the Taittiriya Upanishad was an important ritual in the graduation ceremony.
A partial translation of the Snataka Dharma recitation is as follows:
Never deviate from Truth,
Never deviate from Dharma,
Never neglect your well-being,
Never neglect worldly activities (for gain and welfare),
Never neglect Svādhyāya (self study) and Pravachana (teaching of VEDAS).

We all know the famous shloka

Maatru devo bhava,
Pitru devo bhava
Acharya devo bhava
Atithi devo bhava

This verse stating that one’s mother, father, teacher and a visiting guest are all equivalent to Devata comes from the Taittiriya Upanishad, which also was recited during the Samavartana. Equipped with holistic knowledge and blessings from the guru, a graduate or vidya-snataka (one who is bathed in learning) would be ready for the next stage of life – usually teaching and of course, marriage.

The Temple universities of India BHARATVARSH :

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Photo courtesy Kanniks Kannikeswaran


An interesting aspect about ancient BHARTIYA temples is that often, they became centres of knowledge dissemination and debating. There was a continuity of learning with conferences and assemblies of learned scholars that have been mentioned in the RIGVEDA itself, for disseminating the philosophies that form the core of VEDIC literature. Well-endowed temples became magnets attracting students and teachers, which led to annexes being built for the temples and even entire colonies housing intellectuals from a variety of disciplines.

Multiple inscriptions on several temples of southern BHARATA reveal the extent to which higher education had got institutionalised. Ennayiram is one such location in Tamil Nadu, which abounds in inscriptions giving minute details related to the subjects taught, number of students, endowments and so on. For example, an inscription from the time of Rajendra Chola I (11th century) lays out the endowments given for the boarding and tuition of 340 students studying at a Vedic college.

The college received 45 velis (300 acres) of land. Each student of Veda was noted to cost 6 Nalis of paddy per day and ½ Kalanju of gold per year. A student studying the more advanced Vedanta, Mimamsa or Vyakarana got 66% more. Meanwhile, a teacher was noted to receive a meal allowance equivalent to that of 16 students per day. The inscription notes that 75 students were studying the Rig Veda, 75 Yajur Veda, 10 Atharva Veda, 20 Chandoga Saman, 20 Talavakara Saman, 20 Vajasaneya, 25 Vyakarana, 35 Prabhakara Mimamsa, 10 Baudhayaneya Grihya, Kalpa and Gana, 40 Rupavatara and 10 Vedanta (Mookerjee, 1960).

In 2013, archaeologists found more lines of inscriptions in the basement of a temple in Ennayiram (Subramanian, 2003). Clearly, there is a lot more waiting to be unearthed.


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A temple inscription in Ennayiram, Tamil Nadu describing a college attached to a temple along with a hostel and hospital. Photo courtesy: Tamil Nadu Tourism (http://tamilnadu-favtourism.blogspot.sg)
Even the medical care of students was accounted for. Some inscriptions describe colleges with attached hospitals and hostels. One hospital is described to have 15 beds, a physician, a surgeon, two errand boys and two nurses. It was even equipped with a pharmacy with medicines such as Haritaki, Bilvadighrita, Vajra-kalpa and Kalyanalavana. (Mookerjee, 1960)

BHARAT : Ancient academies of excellence

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Apart from temples, there was the GHATIKA , the AGRAHARA and the MATHHA.

Ghatikas were groups of learned acharyas, which carried out deep discussions on Vedic matters. Ghatikas are said to have played a key part in making Kanchipuram (also called Kanchi) a hub of VEDIC studies. They even played a pivotal role in the selection of kings. Numerous poet-scholars and saint-philosophers who produced the finest of Tamil literary works are associated with Kanchi (Rao, 2008). As we have seen earlier, some of the brightest went on to teach in famed universities in other parts of BHARAT.

Agraharas were entire settlements of learned Brahmins with their own rules of governance and were funded by generous donors (usually non-Brahmins). Mathhas were also educational institutions and along with Agraharas served like modern academies of excellence (Mookerjee, 1960).


Agraharas were entire settlements of learned Brahmins. Photo courtesy incredibleindiaphotogallery.com

Inscription after inscription in southern India talks of the revenues of villages being entirely allocated for supporting agraharas with Brahmin scholars sometimes numbering 108, sometimes 308. The revenues were to be used in supporting the sacred task of learning and teaching, which included building libraries called “Sarasvati Bhandara” (Mookerjee, 1960). The learned Brahmins, who often held titles such as Chaturvedin,

Trivedin, Somayajin, Shadangavid, Bhatta, Kramavid, Sarvakratuyajin and Vajapeyin, which denoted their specialisation in different texts. Mookerjee puts it eloquently when he says:

“These learned settlements were centres of light and life, showing how theory and practice should go together, how precept should be supported by example, ethics by conduct, learning was to be lived and truth or religion was to be realised in the activities of daily life.”


It is important to highlight the contribution of the Kerala school of mathematics and astronomy (14th to 15th century) in the context of Indian systems of advanced learning. Concentrated in a geographical area around Thrissur in Kerala, a rich tradition of mathematics developed and flourished amongst the Namboodri Brahmins. They discovered the infinite series, which laid the foundation for calculus centuries before Newton. There is strong circumstantial evidence that jesuit missionaries who visited India in the 15th century carried back mathematical concepts from Kerala to europe.(Joseph, 2000).

The brilliant scholars of Kerala were believed to be mainly motivated by the mysteries of astronomy. However, George Gheverghese Joseph, in his famous book The Crest of the Peacock – The non-European Roots of Mathematics argues that these mathematicians seem to have revelled in their love for pure mathematics. Why else would Madhava (the founder of the Kerala School) indulge in long and tedious calculations of sine tables to 12 decimal places?

Famous names associated with the Kerala School are Parameshvara, Neelakanta Somayaji, Jyeshtadeva, Achyuta Pisharati, Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri and Achyuta Panikkar. GG Joseph points out that some non-Brahmins such as Sankara Variyar and Acyuta Pisarati were also part of the Kerala School and many from “lower” castes, such as carpenters, construction workers and artisans were conversant with precise calculations, indicating that the symbiotic society did not fit into the neat framework of the caste system envisaged by modern researchers.

Final installment in next post.
 
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asaffronladoftherisingsun

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How Indian scholars transferred knowledge to China :

In the first century ce , Chinese emperor Ming-Ti sent 18 persons to study Buddhist doctrines in BHARAT.
When they returned, they took back many books and also two Buddhist scholars Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaratna. Kasyapa was in Gandhara, when he was invited by the Chinese envoy. His journey from Gandhara to China was fraught with hardship as he passed through the steep mountains of Chinese Turkestan and the harsh Gobi desert. There was also a language problem.

However, the two pioneering scholars persevered and opened up opportunities for hundreds of professors from Indian universities to work in China. A large number of Sanskrit manuscripts were carried to China. Among the well-known Indians who migrated in the first three centuries were Samghavarma, Dharmasatya, Dharmakala, Mahabala, Vighna, Dharmaphala, Kalasivi, Kalaruchi and Lokaraksha (Mookerjee, 1960).

Kashmir, which was a prominent centre of Buddhist learning supplied a steady stream of erudite scholars to China. One such scholar Gunavarman from Kashmir’s royal family first went to Ceylon and Java where he made a name for himself. The Chinese emperor invited him to China, personally received him in Nanking, became his disciple and built a temple for him. A few scholars from southern India also got pulled to China, such as Dharmaruchi who lived in China for 20 years between 693 to 713 ce and translated 53 works into Chinese (Mookerjee, 1960).

Hundreds of Sanskrit works were painstakingly translated into Chinese by the Indian scholars with the help of Chinese intellectuals
. It was a mammoth task considering the totally different syntax and structure of the two languages and many scholars even recorded their struggle and discomfort.

The first printed book in China was the Indian treatise Vajjra-Chhedika-Prajna-Paramita Sutra (or the famous Diamond Sutra), which was translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva in 402 ce. Kumarajiva was prodigiously talented. He studied in Kashmir, Kashgar and Koutcha, and it is said there was a battle for his services between the King of Koutcha and the Chinese Emperor, whose general imprisoned him. For 12 years, Kumarajiva translated more than 100 Sanskrit works, which are considered masterpieces of Chinese literature!! He is also known as the teacher of the famous Chinese traveller Fa-Hien (Mookerjee, 1960).

Statue of Kumarajiva in front of Kizil Caves, Kuqa, Xinjiang, China. Photo Courtesy Yoshi Canopus.

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Unlike Kumarajiva, another scholar, Dharmakshema’s life was cut short by an assassin, when two Chinese rulers competed for his services. Reference is also found to a well-travelled and much-in-demand scholar Amoghavajra who earned titles such as Prajna-moksha and Tripitika Bhadanta from a Chinese emperor. The poor man was made to return from the shores of India the very moment he landed back in the year 749 because the Chinese emperor decided there was little time to be lost. It is not just in modern timelines that employees get called back from vacations by hard-hearted bosses.

Amoghavajra collected more than 500 texts from different parts of India to take back to China and translated at least 77 works, including Dharanis and Tantras. In China, he is known as the founder of Tantrik Buddhism (Mookerjee, 1960).

Several BHARTIYA Indian mathematicians and astronomers from the best universities held high positions in China’s scientific establishments. One Indian scientist called Gautama Siddha (Qutan Xida in Chinese) became the president of China’s official board of astronomy in the 8th century
.

He translated the Indian navagraha calendar into Chinese. He also introduced Indian numerals into China. The invention of printing is also attributed to Buddhist scholars who went from India to China and printing was used as a means to spread Buddhist thought. (Sen, 2009)


BHARAT and chinese martial arts origins..jpg


This painting from ancient Shaolin temple (China) depicts the Indian BHARTIYA monk BUDDHABHADRA, who was the founder of Shaolin temple and its first priest, teaching martial arts to his Chinese disciple Sengchou.

Buddhabhadra
founded the famous Shaolin temple in 496 CE. According to Chinese primary sources, Buddhabhadra was a Brahman monk from South India who first came to the Chinese capital Luoyang.

The Chinese Emperor Xiaowen offered to provide quarters inside the royal palace for the Indian monk. Nevertheless Buddhabhadra declined this offer. He set up an Ashrama on top of Mount Song which later came to be known as Shaolin.

In this painting, the dark skinned Indian man is Buddhabhadra and his Chinese disciple Sengchou learns martial arts from him.

Source: The Bodhidharma Anthology (translation) The Earliest Records of Zen, Jeffrey L. Broughton; The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts", University of Hawaii press 2008




Knowledge transfers from BHARATVARSH : India to Greece, INDIA to arabs and INDIA to europe.


The antiquity of civilisation and the ecosystems set up for the propagation of knowledge turned India into a veritable garden with exquisite flowers that attracted honeybees. Royle, in an essay on the antiquity of “Hindoo medicine” mentions Barzouyeh, a royal physician in the court of Persian King Khosrau (531-579 CE), who returned from India with medical texts as well as a variety of herbs and who was proficient in Sanskrit (Royle, 1837).

There was a thriving trade between India BHARATA and western Asia in ancient times, which involved not just spices and textiles, but also medicines.

In his talks on the antiquity of Indian medical systems, Raj Vedam, co-founder of Indian History Awareness and Research has laid out the trajectory by which the knowledge of Ayurveda was transmitted from India to Greeks/Romans, the Islamic world and then Europe. He points out how the scientific concepts articulated by the Indian Rishi Kanada (6th Century BCE), for example, were taken up by the Greek philosopher Democritus (4th Century BCE). According to Bertrand Russell, Democritus travelled widely and had visited Egypt and Persia “in search of knowledge”. Hippocrates, considered the father of western medicine was a student of Democritus.


Excerpt from page 62 of JF Royle’s “An Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine Including an Introductory lecture to the Course of Materia Medica and Therapeutics delivered at the King’s College”

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Dr Vedam shows how the library of Alexandria played a major role in transmitting texts from the East to the West. It has been well chronicled that the library administrators went to any extent (“buy, borrow or steal”) to get the “most original, most authoritative copies” (Philips, 2010). The Materia Medica compiled by Greek physician Dioscorides during 50 to 70CE, which was used for 16 centuries in europe , contains a large number of Indian BHARAT's herbs (Vedam, 2016). Another data point offered by Dr Vedam is the fleeing of Nestorians to Persia to escape the persecution of the Christian Church and from there to Kerala in the fifth century that served to transmit Indian medical knowledge back to Syria.

The fifth Abbasid Caliph Haroun Al Rashid had an Indian physician Manka in his court, who translated ancient India’s indispensable medical text – the Sushruta Samhita into Persian. The imprint of Indian scholars on Islamic sciences, not just medicine has been well-acknowledged by the Islamic scholars such as Alberuni themselves. Indian scholars were often invited to Baghdad. The works of Muslim intellectuals such as Al Kindi, Al Farabi, Al Farghani, Al Tabari and Al Khwarizmi played a paramount role in transferring Indic knowledge of mathematics, medicine, astronomy, philosophy, chemistry and even music to the Islamic world (Khan, 2009). While the Islamic scholars often credited their knowledge to Indic sources, the European scholars often plagiarised from Arabic texts without references. The Renaissance was propelled by the works of Arabic scholars, which were passed off as original works by Europeans (Hasse, 2016).

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Toledo School of Translators in Spain employed many scholars to translate major Arabic works into Latin (Bronowski, 2011). These translators produced a prolific output and helped to transfer a substantial amount of ancient Indian knowledge to Europe. The transfers continued with even greater intensity during the colonial period from the 14th century onwards when the contents of hundreds and hundreds of Indian books made their way into monographs and books in Europe. A catalogue of the Indian books and manuscripts that were translated into European languages during this period would itself form a bulky book! A case in point is the Bibliotheca Malabarica, a catalogue of over 100 Tamil manuscripts collected by the missionary Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg during his first two years in India (1706–1708).


Garcia D’Orta, Portuguese traveller to BHARATA wrote a detailed treatise “Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India” on the medicinal plants of India in 1563. Photo Courtesy Martins Correia.

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We have seen how India’s ancient systems of education helped to fuel a knowledge revolution around the world.

However, in the later 12th century, marauding incursions by jihadi invaders disrupted the idyllic world of university learning in Bharata.

The blow to Bharats great education also came from britvermin who destroyed our education system and as a result in 1947ad well rest you know what happened.

Power is a sine wave nobody sits in the throne forever. Be back soon !!

Bharat's greatest legacy heritage of knowledge cannot be can never be summed up in any number of words.

The purpose of this small post is only to give you mere an idea of how magnificent were Bharat's indigenous education systems. Bharat remained pinnacle of culture and education for many thousand years of which 2000 years is well documented.

References :

Ancient Indian Education by Radha Kumud Mookerjee
Vedam, R. . (2016). Lecture on Antiquity of Indian Medical Systems [Youtube Video].

Universities in Ancient India by D.G. Apte
The Travel Records of Chinese Pilgrims Faxian, Xuanzang and Yijing by Tansen Sen
A History of Indian Logic by Satish Chandra Vidyabhusana

Ancient Indian Leaps into Mathematics By B.S Yadav and Manmohan
Apte, D. Universities in Ancient India.
Bose, M. (1990). A Social and Cultural History of Ancient India. Concept Publishing Company.
Bronowski, J. (2011). The Ascent of Man. BBC Books.
Hasse, D. N. (2016). Success and Suppression: Arabic Sciences and Philiosophy in the Renaissance. Harvard University Press.
Hazra, R. C. (1987). Studies in the Puranic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs. Motilal Banarsidass.
Joseph, G. G. (2000). Crest of the Peacock, Non-European Roots of Mathematics. Princeton University Press.
Kane, P. (1941). History of Dharmashastras Vol II, Part I. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
Khan, M. (2009). Islamic Jihad – A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism and Slavery. iUniverse.
Mirashi, V. V. (1996). Bhavabuti. Motilal Banarsidass.
Mookerjee, R. K. (1960). Ancient Indian Education – Brahminical and Buddhist. Motilal Banarsidass.
Muller, M. Lectures on the Science of Knowledge delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in April, May and June 1861, 1868.
Philips, H. (2010). The Great Library of Alexandria?
Puttaswamy, T. (2012). Mathematical Achievements of Pre-Modern Indian Mathematicians. Elsevier.
Rao, P. N. (2008). Kanchipuram: Land of Legends, Saints and Temples. Readworthy Publications.
Royle, J. F. (1837). An Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine Including an Introductory lecture to the Course of Materia Medica and Therapeutics delivered at the King’s College. Allen.
Russell, B. (1972). History of Western Philosophy. Simon & Schuster.
Saraswati, S. D. (2016). Taittiriya Upanishad. Arsha Vidya Research and Publication Trust.
Sen, A. (2009). The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity. Allen Lane.
Subramanian, P. (2003). 100 year old, long Tamil inscription found.
 
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asaffronladoftherisingsun

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The works of the medieval Persian mathematician Al-Kḥwārizmī (Ibn Musa) (خوارزمی) who lived from 780-850 CE First, let us understand that Al-Kḥwārizmī did *not* invent a new science or discover it. So what is Algebra then? Kḥwārizmī's chief treatise was named "Hisab Al-Jabr va Al-Muqabla"(Al-Jabr) meant the restoration of an equation by eliminating negative terms. Or multiplying both sides of the eqn. to remove fractions. While, Al-Muqabla meant subtracting negatives from both sides of eqn.

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This is confirmed by an anonymous Arabic writer whose quotation was preserved by the scholar Michael Casiri in his encylopedic work (Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana). So according to Islamic tradition itself - Musa was just the first Muslim to write a treatise on this

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Leave aside Muslim tradition, we already know such a claim (of Ibn Musa writing the first treatise on Algebra) is patently false considering Diophantus, the Hellenic mathematician wrote a treatise on algebraic equations centuries before. The name "Algebra" isn't the science!

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BHARTIYA science had already been transmitted to the Abbasid court (where Kḥwārizmī would later find work) during the reign of Al-Mansur. In 773 AD, an Indian scholar, as part of an embassy, had given a SANSKRIT astronomical treatise called the Mahāsiddhānta to the Arabs.

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This SANSKRIT work was translated into Arabic by Muhammad Al-Fazari & rendered as "Sindhind Al-Kabīr" This fact is also mentioned by the astronomer Ibn Al Adami. Now, Kḥwārizmi would later work at the Abbasid court & under the reign of Al-Mansur write his first book.

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The Hindu book was used to compile an astronomical table called the "Zij al-Sindhind" Later on, Kḥwārizmī himself wrote a revised "Zij al Sindhind" based on the Sanskrit text containing 37 chapters of calendrical, astronomical calculations & a table of sine values.

Ibn Al-Qifti says Khwarizmi used the tables of the mean motions of the Sindhind (as well as Ptolemy's table). The values in Khwarizmi's book are actually all taken from the Brahmasphutasiddhānta of Brahmagupta (6th century).

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To be continued.
 

asaffronladoftherisingsun

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Continued from []https://defenceforumindia.com/threads/bharata-worlds-educational-capital.82928/post-2052584

There is direct evidence of course, as Al-Kḥwārizmī wrote a treatise "Book of Hindu Computation" (kitāb al-ḥisāb al-hindī) which only survives today in a 12th century Latin translation (Algoritmi de numero indorum). However, some of the evidence isn't direct...

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For example, Khwarizmi gives a method which gives the value of pi as 3.1416~ But his method is exactly (verbatim) taken from Aryābhaṭa-s treatise (Chapter II, 28). Now, Khwarizmi says "the mathematicians" say this and the "astronomers among them" - but who is "them" ?

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The "mathematicians" here are the Hindu mathematicians and the astronomers are the astronomers amongst this group of Hindus. This is clear from the language used (ahl al-hindisah).

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This is confirmed by the fact that both the formulas being discussed here (p = √10d^2) and p = d * 62832 / 20,000 occur nearly verbatim in the Vijaganita and the second in Bhāskara's Līlāvati. (p is periphery of circle, d is the diameter)


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To conclude, Al-Kḥwārizmī (Ibn Musa) was following an established Arab (and Persian) tradition of translating BHARAT or Greek mathematical & astronomical works & writing their own treatises based on the knowledge in them. This is how BHARTIYA numbers were transmitted!
 

asaffronladoftherisingsun

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Ancient BHARTIYA Science :

From Original Works of Dr. ALOK KUMAR Dr VED CHAUDHARY, President of Educators’ Society for Heritage of India (ESHA); Dr DEEN KHANDELWAL, Founder-President, HINDU University of America; Dr AMBALAVNAR SOMASKANDA, a medical doctor from Rochester; and Dr. John Kares Smith, my colleague
from SUNY Oswego.


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References : 1)Salem and Kumar, 1991, p. 11. In the original manuscript, the same term, Hind, is used to define the geographicalregion and the people. In today’s context, the medieval term Hind describes the present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal,and Afghanistan, popularly also known as the Greater India.

2)Salem and Kumar, 1991. I was reading the scientific literature produced during the medieval world while researching for my book, Sciences of the Ancient Hindus. I noticed that S. ā‘id’s book was cited by several medieval scholars. I tried to acquire the book and did not succeed. This led to more efforts and finally the original Arabic version was acquired, authenticated and published with proper translation and annotations.
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References : 3)Roger Bacon was not the only one who worked tirelessly to produce a book to assist the training of missionaries toChristinize India. Max Müller, Professor of Comparative Philology, Robert Boyle, Director of the East India Company, and Monier Monier-Williams, Boden Professor of Sanskrit in Oxford University, are some other noted scholars who produced literature or used their resources to assist missionaries to Christinize India. Monier-Williams even candidly wrote that the purpose of translation was to aid in “the conversion of the natives of India to the Christian religion.” (Goldberg, 2010, p. 28.)

Another person who made a significant impact to achieve this goal was Macaulay (1800–1859), member of the Supreme Council of India. In this capacity, in his Minute on Indian Education, he suggested the britfags empire to introduce western-based reforms in Indian schools. This document became quite successful. Macaulay believed that (1) “a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia” and (2) “all the books written in the Sanscrit [SANSKRIT] language are less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in
england.” With this mindset, the education policy of India was framed during the colonial period. Lord Macaulay’s reformslargely remained in place in India even after the independence.

4)The year 2015 was declared as the “Year of Light” by the United Nations to emphasize the importance of light science and to celebrate 1,000 years of Ibn al-Haytham’s book, Kitāb al-Manazir, a book on optics. Several centuries later, many noted scientists, such as Roger Bacon, Robert Grosseteste, Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Christiaan Huygens, René Descartes, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton, had studied optics from a Latin translation or the original Arabic copy of his book. Some of them wrote their own books on optics later.

5)Smith, a chapter, The Place of Roger Bacon in the History of Mathematics, in the book by Little, 1914, p. 156.

6)The Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 411–413, 429–432. It is interesting to note the evolution of the English language in the past millennium.
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References : 7)This topic caught the attention of scholars during the later part of the twentieth century. However, considerably more research is needed to better understand the contributions of other civilizations. For more information, consult Baber, 1996; Goonatilake, 1984, 1992; and Said, 1978 and 1993.
8)For more information, read Brier, 1999.9Needham in Nakayama and Sivin, 1973, p. 1.10Bernal, 1971, Harding, 1991, 1994; Needham, 1954–99; Rashed, 1996; and Teresi, 2002. This knowledge is yet to be incorporated appropriately in introductory science textbooks
9)Needham in Nakayama and Sivin, 1973, p. 1.
10)Bernal, 1971, Harding, 1991, 1994; Needham, 1954–99; Rashed, 1996; and Teresi, 2002. This knowledge is yet to be incorporated appropriately in introductory science textbooks
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11)Margenau, 1978, p. XXX.
12)Hogendijk and Sabra, 2003; Kennedy, 1970; King, 1983 and 1993; Kunitzsch, 1989 and 1983; Rashed, 1996; Saliba,1994; Samsó, 1994; and Selin, 1997 and 2000.
13)The list of such contributions is long, and is covered by Kumar, 2014; Montgomery and Kumar, 2015
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References : 14)Clark, 1930; Kumar, 1994.
15)Kumar and Brown, 1999.


To be continued.
 

asaffronladoftherisingsun

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Continued from []https://defenceforumindia.com/threads/bharata-worlds-educational-capital.82928/post-2068621

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References :16)The Tao of Physics by Fritzof Capra, The Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav, and Mysticism and the New Physics by Michel Talbotare examples of such works. These books are bestsellers for their insights. These are scholarly works that brought together the disciplines of religion and science.
17)Read Capra, 1980; Josephson, 1987; Restivo, 1978 and 1982; Schrödinger, 1964; Talbot, 1981; and Zukav, 1979
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References :
18)Teller, 1979, p. 216.
19)Datta, 1927; Hammett, 1938; Herschel, 1915; Karpinski, 1912; Mukhopādhyāya, 1994; Ray, 1919 and 1956; Renfro,2007; Royle, 1837; Saidan, 1965; Seal, 1915; Zimmer, 1948.
20)It is a mere coincidence that this term is also associated with a terrorist organization. The journal isis(not to be confused with daeshfags) is a premier journal of the history of science.
21)I am pleased that there are no such concerns with Islam and Buddhism where a good number of new book titles are published every year with explicit mention of religion.
22)Goldberg, 2010, p. 2–3.
23)Cajori, 1980, p. 3. Florian Cajori (1859–1930) was a professor and the first chair in history of mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley. Many of his books on the history of mathematics are still a landmark.
24)Cajori, 1980, p. 3. Columbus-egg, a term that Cajori related to the invention of zero, refers to a brilliant discovery or idea that looks simple after fact.

To be continued.
 

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