A 1000 year slumber
Ginger . Its been a depressing few months : scam after scam, social strife, political bungling.. the early morning newspaper has hardly brought any cheer. … so let me start with something that’s not so sad. Do you know that the English word Ginger (the cooking thing) has an Indian origin ? It is derived from the south Indian (tamil/ mallu) word Inji (The English name ginger comes from French: gingembre, Old English: gingifere, Medieval Latin: ginginer, Greek: zingiberis (ζιγγίβερις). Ultimately the origin is from Tamil:inji ver (இஞ்சி வேர்). The botanical term for root in Tamil is ver (வேர்), hence inji root or inji ver.[3]) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger )
And this brings me to Zero, a major concept of humankind developed in India. Now while it is widely acknowledged that the Zero originated in India, what is NOT widely acknowledged is that so did the rest of the numbers. For some reason they are referred to as Arabic numerals. Now think for a moment. A culture that came up with Zero, would they not have come up much earlier with the other numerals ? In fact sometime back this set me thinking and I googled a bit. On the net I DID find mention that the Arabic numerals were indeed of Indian origin. So why are the called Arabic ? Because they were presented to the western world through the Arabs, much like Ginger. (ref http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals )
Now , having invented the zero, Indians went on to do a lot more.. ayurveda, mathematics, literature, philosophy, magnificient temples, astronomy… so many things which form our heritage today. Then curiously about a 1000 years back it all stopped.. In the last 1000 years India saw the building of forts and palaces and mosques, but hardly anything else. It is as if the Indian spirit of enquiry, quest for knowledge and discussion had died. In fact contact with foreigners was forbidden. Gandhi faced resistance when he had to travel to UK to study, because traveling overseas was considered taboo.
There are probably theories why this death of the spirit of enquiry came about. A probable theory could be that knowledge advances only in times of peace and from the 9th century onwards, Northwest India saw continuous invasions from Arabs, Afghans, Perisans and Turks. But can this full explain the death ? Even before the Islamic invasions, the Indian kings were fighting amongst themselves and through much of this time, the South remained free of Islamic invasions… I really have no answer , nor have I researched it. But what I do see is that we have yet to revive the spirit of enquiry. Of the half dozen or so Nobel prizes that Indians have won, only one was an Indian citizen and that too pre-indepenence.. Tagore. In Science, economics , peace and literature , “Indian” winners have been all NRI’s.
..to be continued
Ginger . Its been a depressing few months : scam after scam, social strife, political bungling.. the early morning newspaper has hardly brought any cheer. … so let me start with something that’s not so sad. Do you know that the English word Ginger (the cooking thing) has an Indian origin ? It is derived from the south Indian (tamil/ mallu) word Inji (The English name ginger comes from French: gingembre, Old English: gingifere, Medieval Latin: ginginer, Greek: zingiberis (ζιγγίβερις). Ultimately the origin is from Tamil:inji ver (இஞ்சி வேர்). The botanical term for root in Tamil is ver (வேர்), hence inji root or inji ver.[3]) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger )
And this brings me to Zero, a major concept of humankind developed in India. Now while it is widely acknowledged that the Zero originated in India, what is NOT widely acknowledged is that so did the rest of the numbers. For some reason they are referred to as Arabic numerals. Now think for a moment. A culture that came up with Zero, would they not have come up much earlier with the other numerals ? In fact sometime back this set me thinking and I googled a bit. On the net I DID find mention that the Arabic numerals were indeed of Indian origin. So why are the called Arabic ? Because they were presented to the western world through the Arabs, much like Ginger. (ref http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals )
Now , having invented the zero, Indians went on to do a lot more.. ayurveda, mathematics, literature, philosophy, magnificient temples, astronomy… so many things which form our heritage today. Then curiously about a 1000 years back it all stopped.. In the last 1000 years India saw the building of forts and palaces and mosques, but hardly anything else. It is as if the Indian spirit of enquiry, quest for knowledge and discussion had died. In fact contact with foreigners was forbidden. Gandhi faced resistance when he had to travel to UK to study, because traveling overseas was considered taboo.
There are probably theories why this death of the spirit of enquiry came about. A probable theory could be that knowledge advances only in times of peace and from the 9th century onwards, Northwest India saw continuous invasions from Arabs, Afghans, Perisans and Turks. But can this full explain the death ? Even before the Islamic invasions, the Indian kings were fighting amongst themselves and through much of this time, the South remained free of Islamic invasions… I really have no answer , nor have I researched it. But what I do see is that we have yet to revive the spirit of enquiry. Of the half dozen or so Nobel prizes that Indians have won, only one was an Indian citizen and that too pre-indepenence.. Tagore. In Science, economics , peace and literature , “Indian” winners have been all NRI’s.
..to be continued
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