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INDIAN CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD CIVILISATION
Saturday,
24th December 2005
Venue:
Thorale Bajirao Peshve Sabhagruha, Thane College Campus
'Jnanadweepa', Chendani, Bunder Road
Thane (W) 400 601. Maharashtra
CORRESPONDANCE:
SHIVSHAKTI, DR. BEDEKAR'S HOSPITAL,NAUPADA, THANE 400602
PHONE: 542 1438, 538 8358
e-mail: vbedekar@vsnl.com
URL: http://www.orientalthane.com
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Invitation
Indian
Contribution to the World Civilisation
India is one of the oldest surviving civilizations in the world.
Though there are controversies and differences of opinions, archeological
dating can safely ascribe 5000 years of history to this civilisation.
Civilisation means an order, a culture, a refinement and a society
with identifiable customs, traditions, beliefs and literature.
We are aware of Greek, Roman, Chaldean and Egyptian civilisations
having their own cultural identities, literature, architecture,
philosophy, law & justice, agricultural practices, trade &
commerce, performing arts, medicine and religious beliefs. For
any civilisation to survive, these are minimum manifestations
of Societal interation and creativity. Almost all these civilisations
are more or less extinct and they survive only in the history
books and museums. Greek and Roman civilisation was lasts to go
and was replaced by then a new religion, Christianity, which is
the dominant belief system for the last 2000 years in the western
hemisphere. The first departure in the newly born western civilisation
happened in the 15th century when Copurnicus and then Galileo,
Newton, DeCartes, Bacon etc. overthrew the dominant worldview
based on Aristotle, Ptolemy and Bible. This new worldview gave
birth to renaissance and industrial revolution in the west. A
paradigm shift in this thinking took place in the beginning of
the 20th century with Relativity and Quantum theories. This was
not a simple change but it was a radical change in the insights
related to how the universe may have come into existence and interaction
of their components. Western scientific discipline practically
made writings in the Bible irrelevant and inconsistent. However,
one has to understand that the architects of this scientific system
from Newton to Bacon did believe in the existance of God, his
creation of universe and to a greater extent the book Bible. Emergence
of Darwin in the mid 19th Century literally uprooted the biblical
stories of creation of the world and even the existance of God.
The most important point here to remember is, these masters did
not work to prove biblical stories wrong though their observations
and inferences were leading to that conclusion.
Mathematics
and physics formed the basis of modern science and everything
in the world and all newly emerging scientific disciplines were
borrowing heavily on the language of mathematics and physics.
Not only chemistry and biology followed this framework, but branches
like philosophy, psychology and even modern branches like sociology,
anthropology, linguistics, etc. tried to talk in the language
of mathematics and physics. Laws which governed matter were applied
to understand non-matter entities like mind, emotions, thought,
consciousness etc. obviously leading to either absurd conclusions
or outright rejection of these phenomena.
These historical
happenings are important because they help us to understand how
modern science evolved out of these happenings as all other non-european
civilisations are judged based on the parameters and indices set
by this very scientific system.
The branch
of knowledge called Indology which deals with Indian civilisation
and culture is a new branch of science based on western scientific
philosophy and moorings in the Greek and Roman civilisation. This
new branch was supposed to have been started by Sir William Jones
in the year 1784 by establishing Asiatic Society at Calcutta.
This was also the beginning of learning of Sanskrit by the west
which literally opened a new window to peep into a civilisation
which was proving to be highly developed and perhaps more advanced
and richer in all respects than the other older civilisations
which they were familiar with. The moorings of every aspect of
Indian civilisation from agriculture, architecture, medicine,
trade & commerce, law & justice, sports and pastime, philosophy,
religion were rooted firmly in the indigenous beliefs and practices
which were different from Greek and Roman civilisational beliefs
and practices. The more they started studying the Sanskrit and
later on Prakrit, Tamil literature, the sharper and clearer were
getting these differences. This was also posing a problem of ascribing
the antiquity to this newly understood Indian civilisation. Indology
as a branch of science was also heavily relying on and borrowing
methodology and language of western science. Though initially
it helped to understand certain mundane issues, they fumbled as
they started approaching some abstract issues in belief systems,
language and even in mathematics. Obviously, this also led to
absurd conclusions or outright disbelief even in the obvious existance
of many of these achievements.
Indian contributions
in mathematics, language, astronomy, architecture are well known.
However, many of the achievements in these fields date back much
earlier to the conventional western understandings and datings.
They have not yet been incorporated into the knowledge books of
respective branches of sciences. These books are heavily euro-centric
denying due credits to non-european achivements in the field.
Many a time, efforts to correct the misrepresentations are dubbed
as nationalistic attempts. In agriculture, drill plough and crop
rotations are Indian innovations. In music the connection to seasons
and moods of the day are of Indian origin. The whole system of
medicine in which approach is towards a lifestyle than curing
a disease is typically Indian. Indian calendar is more scientific
than Gregarion. Indian sports and past-times are competitive,
economical and gadget independent at the same time highly entertaining
and creative, inclusive of all genders and age groups. Yoga is
also an exclusive contribution of India. Indian justice is not
with blind eyes but with open eyes and again unique in independence
from middle men like lawyers. Indian worldview, relegious beliefs
are environmental friendly. Inspite of such exclusiveness and
originality, it has yet not been granted its rightful place in
the historical documents and knowledge books.
This seminar
is an attempt to Indianise the whole process of Indological inquiry
based more on indigenous literature, commentaries and traditional
methodologies and tools, than on secondary western writings. Scholars
will have to delve deep into the original Sanskrit, Prakrit and
Tamil literature to justify their claims. I am sure scholars would
participate in this exercise and help understand Indian contributions
to world civilisation better.
With warm regards
(Dr. Vijay
V. Bedekar)
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Seminar Details
Subject
: Indian Contribution to World Civilisation
Venue : Thorale Bajirao Peshwe Sabhagruha,
Thane College Campus, "Jnanadweepa',
Chendani, Bunder Road, Thane (W) 400 601. Maharashtra
Date : Saturday, the 24th December 2005
Time : 09.00 am onwards
Last Date
of receiving Abstract : 31st August, 2005
Last Date of receiving Papers : 30th November, 2005
Registration: Rs 300/-
All Abstracts
should be accompanied with Registration fee.
All drafts should be drawn in favour of Institute for Oriental
Study, Thane.
(a) Papers for the Seminar should strictly adhere to the subject
of the Seminar.
(b) Kindly specify the topic you have chosen for your presentation.
(c) Restrict yourself to the topic avoiding all generalisations.
(d) Refer to the primary sources from Sanskrit and Prakrit.
(e) Send your paper neatly typed on one side of paper. Handwritten
papers won't be accepted.
(f) Use dialectical marks appropriately.
(g) Along with the Roman Script rendition supply the Devanagari
Version.
(i) The abstract should be epitomised version of the whole paper
comprising of 300 words atleast. Avoid generalities. The abstract
should reach us not later than 31st August 2005
(j) Organising seminars has become a very expensive affair bound
by limitation of time. To gain maximum dividend out of this exercise
the scholar should examine critically the available Sanskrit literature
and the paper should be an original contribution rather than a
repetition of facts already known. The paper may be short or elaborate
but it should reach us not later than 30th November 2005. Electronic
versions and e-mail attachments would be preferred.
If you need any more information write to us without any hesitation.
Your co-operation is the only means of reaching towards the success
of the forthcoming Seminar.
There will
be two awards of Rs. 1000/- each to the outstanding Research Papers
presented at the Seminar.
1. The Prof. Shankar Yadav Ponkshe Education Trust Prize.
2. Shri A.V. Damale Prize.
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Seminar
Conducted In The Past
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|
Science
& Technology in Hindu Tradition |
26th
June, 1982. |
Music & Musical
Instruments in Hindu Tradition |
25th September,
1982. |
Dance & Drama in
Hindu Tradition |
23rd April, 1983. |
Sanskrit Outside
India |
4th September,
1983. |
Paninian Grammar |
31st March, 1984. |
Minor Sciences (from
Ancient Sanskrit Literature) |
30th June, 1984. |
Hindu Mythology
& its Interrelationship with other Mythologies of the world |
2nd September,
1984. |
Museology |
27th April, 1985. |
Tantra |
1st September, 1985. |
Smrtis |
26th April, 1986. |
Administration in
Ancient India |
25th April, 1987. |
Varnasrama Institution
in Ancient India |
30th April, 1988. |
Purana, |
29th April, 1989. |
Ecology & Ancient
India |
28th April, 1990. |
Greater
India Outside India |
27th April, 1991. |
Agriculture
in Ancient India |
27th April, 1992 |
Kama as a human
goal in Ancient India |
25th April, 1993. |
Vedanga |
23rd April, 1994. |
Education in Ancient
India |
29th April, 1995. |
Law & Justice in
Ancient India |
27th April, 1996. |
Sports and pastime
in Ancient India |
26th April, 1996. |
Science
and Technology in Ancient India |
25th & 26th April,
1998. |
Second
International Conference on Marine Archaeology |
8th -
10th January 1999. |
Sthapatya
in Ancinet India |
25th
December, 1999. |
Bio Revolution
and Hindusm |
23rd December 2000 |
Dietetics
In Ancient India |
24th November 2001 |
Kalas
and Vidyas in Indian Tradition Abstracts |
28th
December, 2002 |
Panini,
Bharata, Kautitlya, Vatsyayana and Indian Civilisation |
27th
December 2003 |
Dialogues
in Indian Tradition Abstracts |
25th
December 2004 |
Indian
Contribution to World Civilisation Abstracts |
24th
December 2005 |
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