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)

 

 

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.