Article 12

Ancient JewelFrom early Greece to the modern civil rights movement, Indian thought and philosophy

have had a wide-ranging influence on Western culture.

T. R. (Joe) Sundaram

The very word India conjures up exotic images in one’s mind.Yet this name for the south Asian subcontinent is of Westernmaking, mediated by the Persians and the Arabs. The name usedin ancient Sanskrit texts is Bharat (for the land of Bharatha, alegendary king), which is also the official name of the modernrepublic. Other familiar Western words such as Hindu, caste,and curry are also totally foreign to India. The general knowl-edge that exists in the West about India, its early history, philos-ophy, and culture is, at best, superficial. Nevertheless, since itwould be impossible in a brief article to do justice to even oneof these topics, I shall provide a brief, accurate glimpse intoeach.

India covers about 1.2 million square miles and is home to apopulation of 895 million; in comparison, the United Statescovers 3.6 million square miles and has 258 million residents.Thus, the population density of India is nearly 10 times that ofthe United States. (The size of classical India—which includesmodern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and parts of Afghani-stan—is about two-thirds that of the continental United States.)

But statistics about India can be misleading. For example,while only about one-quarter of the population is “literate,” ableto read and write, this has to be viewed in light of the strong oraltraditions present in India since antiquity. Therefore, while a“literate” American may often be unaware of the collectivename of the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, an “il-literate” Indian peasant would be aware of the history of his an-cestors from antiquity to the present day.

Not only is India one of the oldest civilizations in the world,being more than 6,000 years old, but also it may be the oldest

continuing civilization in existence; that is, one without anymajor “gaps” in its history. As the renowned historian A. L.Basham has pointed out,

Until the advent of archeologists, the peasant of Egyptor Iraq had no knowledge of the culture of his forefa-thers, and it is doubtful whether his Greek counterparthad any but the vaguest ideas about the glory of Peri-clean Athens. In each case there had been an almostcomplete break with the past. On the other hand, theearliest Europeans to visit India found a culture fullyconscious of its own antiquity.

India is a land of many ancient “living” cities, such as, for ex-ample, Varanasi. Even at sites like Delhi, many successivecities have been built over thousands of years. Among oldburied cities that have been unearthed in modern times by ar-chaeologists are Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.

Of these cities, the renowned archaeologist Sir John Mar-shall writes that they establish the existence

in the fourth and third millennium B.C., of a highly de-veloped city life; and the presence in many houses, ofwells and bathrooms as well as an elaborate drainagesystem, betoken a social condition of the citizens atleast equal to that found in Sumer, and superior to thatprevailing in contemporary Babylonia and Egypt.

Thus, India was the “jewel of the world” long before theGreek and Roman civilizations.

Nor was classical India isolated from developing civiliza-tions in other parts of the world. Clay seals from Mohenjo-Darohave been found in Babylonia and vice versa. Ancient Indian ar-

1

Article 12. Ancient Jewel

tifacts such as beads and bangles have been found in many partsof the Middle East and Africa. India and Indian culture wereknown to the Greeks even before the time of Alexander theGreat. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote extensively aboutIndia during the sixth century B.C. Also, during this periodmany Greeks, including Pythagoras, are known to have traveledto India.

Sixth century B.C. was a period of great religious and philo-sophical upheaval in India. Hinduism was already an estab-lished, “old” religion, and reform movements were beginning toappear, such as one by a prince known as Siddhartha Gautama,who later came to be known as the Buddha. The religion thatwas founded based on his teachings spread not only throughoutAsia but also to many parts of the world, including Greece, andit helped spread Indian culture in the process.

In Alexander the Great’s campaign to conquer the world, hisultimate goal was India; he died without achieving that objec-tive. When Seleucus Nicator, Alexander’s successor, tried tofollow in Alexander’s footsteps, he was soundly defeated by In-dian emperor Chandragupta Maurya. A peace treaty was signedbetween the two, and Seleucus sent an ambassador, Megas-thenes, to the court of Chandragupta. Megasthenes sent glowingreports back to Greece about India, and he pronounced Indianculture to be equal or superior to his own, a high compliment in-deed, since Greece was then near its zenith.

For the next 1,500 years or so, India—rich in materialwealth, scientific knowledge, and spiritual wisdom—enjoyedthe reputation of being at the pinnacle of world civilizations.Arab writers of the Middle Ages routinely referred to mathe-matics as hindsat, the “Indian science.”

And as is well known now, it was Columbus’ desire to reachIndia that led to the discovery of America. Indeed, the explorerdied thinking that he had discovered a new sea route to India,while he had merely landed on a Caribbean island. Columbus’mistake also led to the mislabeling of the natives of the land as“Indians,” a label that survived even after the mistake had beendiscovered.

THE UPANISHADS

Indian philosophy is almost as old as Indian civilization, and itszenith was reached nearly 3,000 years ago with the compilation,

Embassy of India

Continuous civilization: Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa reveal well-planned towns and a sophisticatedurban culture dating back to 2500 B.C.

Crucible of Learning

• India’s may be the oldest continuing civilization in existence.

• To avoid misunderstanding India, it is essential to appreciate three central tenets of Indian thinking: assimilating ideas and experiences, a belief in cycles, and the coexistence ofopposites.

• India has made numerous contributions to contemporary Western understanding of mathematics, science, and philosophy.

2

ANNUAL EDITIONS

by unknown sages, of 108 ancient philosophical texts known asthe Upanishads. These texts reflect even older wisdom, whichwas passed down from generation to generation through oraltransmission. A Western commentator has remarked that in theUpanishads the Indian mind moved from cosmology to psy-chology, and that while most other contemporary civilizationswere still asking the question “What am I?” the Indian mind wasalready asking, “Who am I?”

When translations of the Upanishads first became availablein the West in the nineteenth century, the impact on Europeanphilosophers such as Goethe and Schopenhauer and on Amer-ican writers such as Emerson and Whitman was profound. “Inthe whole world,” wrote Schopenhauer emotionally, “there isno study as beneficial and as elevating as the Upanishads.” Em-erson wrote poems based on the texts.

One of the principal underlying themes in the Upanishads isthe quest for a “personal reality.” This quest began with the con-viction that the limitations of our sensory perceptions give us animperfect model to comprehend the real world around us; this isknown as the concept of maya. Since individual perceptions canbe different, different people can also have different “realities.”

For example, a happy event for one individual may be an un-happy one for another. Recognition and perfection of our per-sonal reality is the quintessential goal of Indian philosophy andis also the basic principle behind yoga. Indeed, the literalmeaning of the Sanskrit word yoga is “union,” and the unionthat is sought is not with any external entity but with one’s self.This is, of course, also the principal tenet of modern psycho-analysis.

From a Western perspective, to avoid misunderstandingIndia in general, and Indian philosophy in particular, it is essen-tial to appreciate three central tenets of the Indian way ofthinking. These are:

Assimilation. In the Indian way of thinking, new experi-ences and ideas never replace old ones but are simply absorbedinto, and made a part of, old experiences. Although some have

characterized such thinking as static, in reality such thinking isboth dynamic and conservative, since old experiences are pre-served and new experiences are continually accumulated.

Belief in cycles. Another central tenet of the Indian characteris the belief that all changes in the world take place through cy-cles, there being cycles superimposed on other cycles, cycleswithin cycles, and so on. Inherent in the concept of cycles is al-ternation, and the Upanishads speak of the two alternating statesof all things being “potentiality” and “expression.”

Acceptance of the coexistence of opposites. Early Westernreaders of the Upanishads were puzzled by the apparent in-herent ability of the Indian mind to accept the coexistence ofseemingly diametrically opposite concepts. Belief in, and ac-ceptance of, contradictory ideas is a natural part of the Indianway of life, and the logical complement to the tenets alreadymentioned. It is an indisputable fact that birth (creation) mustnecessarily be eventually followed by death (destruction). Cre-ation and destruction are inseparable alternations. Even con-cepts such as “good” and “evil” are complementary, as each ofus may have within us the most lofty and divine qualities and atthe same time the basest qualities. We ourselves and the wholeworld can be whatever we want to make of them.

These three tenets are responsible for the amazing continuityof the Indian civilization, its reverence for the elderly, and theacceptance of the aging process without a morbid fear of death.

Ironically, the culture that taught of the need to renounce ma-terialistic desires also produced some of the most pleasurablethings in life. The intricacies and highly developed nature of In-dian art, music, dance, and cuisine are examples. And the KamaSutra is perhaps the oldest, and best known, manual on the plea-sures of love and sex.

FROM PYTHAGORAS TO KING

Throughout history, India’s contributions to the Western worldhave been considerable, albeit during the Middle Ages theywere often felt only indirectly, having been mediated by theMiddle Eastern cultures.

After the early contacts between Greece and India in thesixth and fifth centuries B.C., many concepts that had been inuse in India centuries earlier made their appearance in Greek lit-erature, although no source was ever acknowledged. For ex-ample, consider the so-called Pythagorean theorem of a righttriangle and the Pythagorean school’s theory of the “transmi-gration of souls”; the former was in use in India (for templeconstruction) centuries earlier, and the latter is merely “reincar-nation,” a concept of Vedic antiquity. There was also a flour-ishing trade between the Roman Empire and the kingdoms insouthern India, through which not only Indian goods but alsoideas made their journey westward.

During the Middle Ages, the Arabs translated many classicalIndian works into Arabic, and the ideas contained in them even-tually made their way to Europe. A principal mission of the“House of Wisdom” that was established by the caliph in

Embassy of India

A terra-cotta toy cow: Ancient Indian civilizations featured highlytalented artisans and craftsmen.

3

Article 12. Ancient Jewel

Baghdad in the eighth century was the translation of Indianworks.

Among the major Indian ideas that entered Europe throughthe Arabs are the mathematical concept of zero (for which therewas no equivalent in Greek or Roman mathematics) and themodern numerical system we use today. Until the twelfth cen-tury, Europe was shackled by the unwieldy Roman numerals.The famous French mathematician Laplace has written: “It isIndia that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all num-bers by ten symbols, each receiving a value of position as wellas an absolute value, a profound and important idea which ap-pears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit.”

India’s contributions to other areas of science and mathe-matics were equally important. The seventh-century Syrian as-tronomer Severus Sebokht wrote that “the subtle theories” ofIndian astronomers were “even more ingenious than those ofthe Greeks and the Babylonians.”

The scientific approach permeated other aspects of Indianlife as well. For example, classical Indian music has a highlymathematical structure, based on divisions of musical scalesinto tones and microtones.

In modern times, Indian music has had a considerable influ-ence on Western music. Starting in the 1960s, the famous Indiansitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar popularized sitar music in the West,and now the melodic strains of the sitar, as well as the beat ofthe Indian drum known as tabla, can be heard in the works ofmany pop-music artists, ranging from the Beatles to MichaelJackson. The movies of the Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray havealso made a significant impact on the West.

The contributions of many modern Indian scientists havebeen important to the overall development of Western science.The mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, who died in1920, has been called “the greatest mathematician of the cen-tury” and “the man who knew infinity.” The discovery by theNobel Prize-winning Indian physicist Chandrasekhara VenkataRaman of the effect (which bears his name) by which light dif-fusing through a transparent material changes in wavelengthhas revolutionized laser technology. The theoretical predictionsby the Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist SubrahmanyanChandrasekhar on the life and death of white-dwarf stars led tothe concept of “black holes.”

In the literary area, the poetry of Nobel laureate Rabin-dranath Tagore and the philosophical interpretations of thescholar (and a former president of India) SarvepalliRadhakrishnan have inspired the West. Albert Einstein was oneof the admirers of the former and corresponded with him on themeaning of “truth.”

In terms of our daily dietary habits, many vegetables such ascucumber, eggplant, okra, squash, carrots, many types of beans,and lentils were first domesticated in India. Rice, sugarcane,and tea, as well as fruits such as bananas and oranges, are of In-dian origin. The name orange is derived from the Sanskrit wordnarangi. Chicken and cattle were also first domesticated inIndia, albeit the latter for milk production and not for meat con-sumption. Cotton was first domesticated in India. The processof dying fabrics also was invented in India. Indian fabrics (bothcotton and silk) have been world renowned for their qualitysince antiquity. The game of chess was invented in India, andthe name itself derives from the Sanskrit name Chaturanga.

India’s most popular modern exports have been yoga andmeditation. Hatha yoga, the exercise system that is a part ofyoga, is now taught widely in America, in institutions rangingfrom colleges to hospitals. Many scientific studies on the bene-ficial effects of yoga practice are now under way. A similar stateof affairs is true of Indian meditation techniques, which peopleunder stress use for mental relaxation.

Finally the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., repeatedly ac-knowledged his debt to Mahatma Gandhi for the technique ofnonviolent civil disobedience, which he used in the civil rightsmovement. For all India’s material contributions to the world, itis its spiritual legacy that has had the widest impact. The ancientsages who wrote the Upanishads would have been pleased.

ADDITIONAL READINGA. L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, Grove Press, New York,

1959.

Khorrum Omer/The World & I

Indian music has influenced Western artists, particularly in mod-ern times. The beat of the tabla can be heard in pop music rang-ing from the Beatles to Michael Jackson.

4

ANNUAL EDITIONS

——-, Ancient India: Land of Mystery, Time-Life Books, Alexandria,Virginia, 1994.

Will Durant, the Story of Civilization: Part I, Our Oriental Heritage,Simon and Schuster, New York, 1954.

T. R. (Joe) Sundaram is the owner of an engineering research firm inColumbia, Maryland, and has written extensively on Indian history,culture, and science.

Khorrum Omer/The World & I

Melodic inspiration: Performing traditional dance and music in Orissa.

This article originally appeared in The World & I, October 1996, pp. 24-31. Reprinted by permission of The World & I, a publication of TheWashington Times Corporation. © 1996.

5