Hindu Achievements | By an Indian King of the 19th Century

Below is an excerpt from a book named A short history of Aryan Medical Science. The writer is HH Sir Bhagwat Singh Jee [M.D, D.C.L, LL.D, F.R.C.P.E], Thakore Saheb of Gondal (Gujarat). The book was published in 1896 AD.

From the credentials of the writer, it is clear that he was a product of the English education system, a medical doctor, knighted by the British Crown, who existed more than 120 years ago. Yet, the below article will make it clear that how the Indian mind was back then, and will give us a chance to ponder upon how much we have become indoctrinated.

The history of Aryan Medicine forms an inseparable chapter of the history of Aryan civilisation. The word 'Aryan' is here used in what the Hindoos believe to be the original and only proper sense (Arya - Noble). It has been customary of late years to give it a much wider meaning, so as to make it denote the supposed original people, from whom, according to the Western Ethnologists, Celts and Teutons, Italians and Greeks, Persians and Hindoos, are all descended. The similarities which modern science has discovered between such outlying members of a supposed original stock as the Celts and the Hindoos, have led certain scholars to believe that the ancestors of these nations were first living together in the Caucasus, but afterwards separated, the Hindoos migrating into India, where they settled with their families after conquering the aboriginal tribes. This theory is European in its conception, and is not accepted by the Indians in general, who call themselves autochthonous. The Indian Savants (Sages) adduce internal and external evidence to show that, far from being outsiders, it was possible for the early Hindoos to have sent colonies beyond the frontiers. It is no part of our present purpose to attempt to compose this controversy. It is enough to note at starting that throughout these pages the term ' Aryan ' is used to designate the 'Hindoos,' to whom alone it is applied both in common parlance and in their sacred books. 

The Hindoos call their country 'Aryavarta' or the abode of the Aryans. Manu, the ancient law-giver, applies the name to the tract of land between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges (the land below was called as the Dravida desha), from the eastern to the western sea ; and teaches that the Brahmans born within that tract are suitable teachers of the several usages of men. Latterly the whole country from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and from the Irawaddy and the Bay of Bengal to the Indus and the Western sea, came to be recognised as Aryavarta. It is a beautiful country with natural boundaries. It enjoys the six seasons of the year, and the position of its mountains and its seas gives it a variety of climate, inasmuch as it possesses the hottest, coolest, and the most temperate places of resort. The country was a cradle of learning for the whole world, and history bears witness to the fact that many a nation that now walks with its head erect would have been nowhere had it not borrowed considerably from the intellectual storehouse of the ancient Hindoos. This country was at the pinnacle of glory when other nations were either not in existence or were wallowing in crass ignorance. Most of the sciences, which the present century boasts of so much, were not unknown to the ancient Hindoos ; and one has but to look into their writings to see whether the truths propounded by them some thousands of years ago do not still endure in their natural freshness. 

The Hindoos were the first to cultivate Astronomical Science (Jyotisha). All modern astronomers admit the great antiquity of their observations. Cassini, Bailly, and Playfair have stated that observations taken by Hindoo Astronomers upwards of 3000 years before Christ are still extant, and prove a considerable degree of progress already made at that period. The ancient Hindoos fixed the Calendar, observed and predicted the eclipses, and were acquainted with the phases of the moon and the motions of the several planets. According to Mr.Colebrooke, they were more correct than Ptolemy in their notions regarding the precession of the equinoxes. 

In Mathematics (Ganita) the Hindoos had attained a high degree of proficiency. They invented the decimal system, the differential, integral and infinitesimal calculi. The world owes to them the invention of numerical symbols. They also discovered Geometry (Bhoomiti) and Trigonometry (Triconamiti), in both which sciences they made great advances. Most of the credit given to Pythagoras for the discovery of mathematical truths properly belongs to the ancient Hindoos. 

Their knowledge of Chemistry was not meagre. They were familiar with the preparation of sulphuric, nitric, and muriatic acids ; the oxides of copper, iron, lead, tin, and zinc ; as well as many chlorides, nitrates, sulphates, and carbonates. 

The sage Panini was the first to teach the formative principles of words, and his system of Grammar, called Ashtadhyayi — the first in the world — is the admiration of Western and Eastern scholars. Lexicography was known to the Aryans long before its acquaintance was made by any other nation in the world. In the Vedic Literature it is treated under the head of Nighantu. 

Music appears to have been cultivated to the highest pitch of perfection by the Aryans, who were the first to invent the Gamut. Their music is systematic and refined. 

India is the home of architectural beauty. Domes, cupolas, minarets, and many ingenious works of architecture which have stood the tempest of time, testify to this fact in silent eloquence ; and the ancient Greeks, who are praised for their skill in this particular art, owed not a little to the Hindoos. Dr W. W. Hunter supposes that Alexander the Great left artists in India to copy the Indian style of architecture, who imported it into their mother country. 

Dhanur-Veda is an old science which treats of the art of war, and mentions different kinds of weapons classified under four heads : 

(1) Mukta (missive), as the discus, etc. 

(2) Amukta (non-missive), as the sword, etc. 

(3) Muktamukta (both missive and non-missive), as the javelin, etc.

(4) Yantra-mukta (machine- projectile), as the arrow, etc. 

The army consisted of infantry, cavalry, car-fighters and warriors fighting on elephants. They were known by the name of Padati, Ashvarudha, Ratharudha, and Gajarudha respectively. The Hindoos have had from a primeval period a fighting class called the Kshatriyas. 

Hindoo Law is as old as their religion. Manu is the oldest of Hindoo writers on Law ; and his book of Institutes still forms the basis of the Hindoo social fabric. It is an important record of Hindoo society at least three thousand years old. Other writers on Law, like Yajnavalkya, Parashara, etc., are also held in great reverence, and are still quoted as high authorities in deciding subtle points of dispute. 

India out-distances all the countries in the world in the domain of Philosophy. There are six systems of Indian Philosophy, called Darshanas, or 'Mirrors of Knowledge.' These are Nyaya or logical, Sankhya or discriminative, Vaisheshika or atomic, Yoga or contemplative, Mimansa or ritual, and Vedanta or the end of knowledge. The aim and object of these schools is to solve the problem of Creation. The Hindoos have a passion for philosophy, and have given their best energies to the better understanding of the subject. They were the first nation to distinguish between matter and spirit. While the world at large has been busy confining its attention to dead matter and its properties, the Hindoo from the very dawn of history has devoted himself staunchly to the study of the spirit. Professor Max Midler justly observes that the Indian Aryan lives this life with a full consciousness of his being a temporary sojourner, who has no permanent interest whatever in the things of this world. Being given to spiritual pursuits rather than to earthly comforts, he is by nature better fitted to solve the problem of existence which puzzles many a thinker and metaphysician of our age. 

All these branches of learning take their origin from the book of religion called the Veda (Knowledge), from Sanskrit vid (Latin, videre), to know. This the Indians believe to be the Knowledge of the Universal Spirit, as distinguished from the knowledge of an individual mortal. The Aryans believe that the creation has a maker, who is eternal and is without a cause, and who, as He has evolved the Universe out of His inner consciousness, is a Knowing Being, and, being Knowing and Eternal, is all Happiness which knows no diminution. The Veda is supposed to be His revealed knowledge. Knowledge, they believe, is acquired and not created. If knowledge could be created, instruction, they argue, would, as a rule, become futile. From time immemorial it is being handed down from father to son, from preceptor to disciple. The Indians therefore trace all knowledge under the Sun from the Supreme High, who is the fountain-head of learning, Ishanas sarvavidyanam (Yajur Ved), i.e., Lord of all kinds of knowledge, the source from which all knowledge flows. So they will never accept a statement unless it is supported by the testimony of what has been revealed to them in their Scriptures, or by the testimony of bygone ages. Their line of investigation thus essentially differs from that followed by the modern investigators, who are solely guided by their intelligence in establishing a truth, which must remain under trial until Science in its progressive course has reached its goal.