Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Few Interesting Facts about India

here are a few interesting facts about India...I know many people are going to scoff at this and say...we Indians always live in past and glorify ourselves, what are we doing now...but the present belongs to US, and we must do well, but the past always reminds us that what we were yeaterday and motivates us and guides us to a glorious future..that is if we desire so....

INDIA FACTS :
The official Sanskrit name for India is Bharat.
INDIA has been called Bharat even in Satya yuga ( Golden Age )
More INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT India
The name `India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu. The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name `Hindustan' combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus.
The number system was invented by India. Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero.Sanskrit is considered as the mother of all higher languages. This is because it is the most precise, and therefore suitable language for computer software. ( a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987 )..Chess was invented in India.
Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies which originated in India.
The' place value system' and the 'decimal system' were developed in 100 BC in India.
The first six Mogul Emperor's of India ruled in an unbroken succession from father to son for two hundred years, from 1526 to 1707.
The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara temple at Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu. The shikhara is made from a single ' 80-tonne ' piece of granite. Also, this magnificient temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja CholaIndia is.......the Largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest country in the world AND one of the most ancient and living civilizations (at least 10, 000 years old).
The game of snakes & ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat.' The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. Later through time, the game underwent several modifications but the meaning is the same i.e good deeds take us to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.
The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after levelling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.India has the most post offices in the world ! The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system, employing over a million people !.
The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The father of medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
Although modern images & descriptions of India often show poverty, India was one of the richest countries till the time of British in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
The art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh 6000 over years ago. The very word 'Navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'. Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. His calculations was - Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: ( 5th century ) 365.258756484 days.
The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, which was long before the European mathematicians. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus also orignated from India. Quadratic equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 ( i.e 10 to the power of 53 ) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C. during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10*12( 10 to the power of 12 ).
Until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world. ( Source . Gemological Institute of America )
The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.
Sushruta is regarded as the father of surgery. Over 2600 years ago Sushrata & his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones and also plastic surgery and brain surgeries. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism, physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.
"What makes a nation, is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past", says the noted historian Eric Hobsbawm.
Hence, when talking of a nation, it becomes very imperative that the past
should also be talked about. And the past of India is as fascinating and interesting as it is momentous. (source-email) Proud to be Indian !
JAI HIND !

30 comments:

OG said...

what goes up, has to come down :(
that is what has happened with India...

Anonymous said...

thats a great one.. felt like reading from wiki..,. good..


i am still searching for the origin of india

L. Venkata Subramaniam said...

Interesting fact about Bharat. Actually we were never one country, but yes in spirit and in customs we have been one for many ages and have even called ourselves bharat vasis.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know so much abt India
Thnx :)

sansmerci said...

too many facts to digest... but yea ur rite.. we do live in past glory.. it shud act as motivator and shudnt make us lazy... its how we see it is imp

L. Venkata Subramaniam said...

talking of past glory you may find the facts in this post interesting. Just two hundred years ago we had one of the biggest economies in the world, after China. And how things have changed since then!

Balvinder Balli said...

Great facts about India, and if one notices the trend India the tide is again turning in India's favour. The country is doing well on many fronts. We will be too lucky to have been born in an era when India gets its top position again.

Amen

And Renu another lesson from you. please tell me how do your create a link of your blog in some one else's post like you have done.

Smitha said...

We did have a great past - but a lot of us tend to just glorify it and justify every single practise of today's to our glorious past! We need to keep evolving.. Though we had a great start - we also seem to have screeched to a halt somewhere when other countries made so many technological advances! Guess what we need is to remember our past and strive to achieve the same levels today!

Monika said...

Jai Hind!!!

Renu said...

Ajit: No, I dont think so, we havent come down,we are good somewhere and bad somewhere, just like other countries.

Chriz: I feel good with these reminders:) whenevr u find the origin,pl tell me also:)

LVenkat Subramniyam: Thanks for your visit ! I was born in the united India, and wish it to remain the same.

Balvinder: yessssss, thats what i want to say.We are not legging behind anybody, and whatevr is lacking is because of people only....when it comesto action..everybody looks after self interst...want system, but ask anyone to stand in a queue, will they? want corruption to go, but ask everybody to stop giving bribe...will they agree..no, ask everyone to use AC sparsely,save electricity water, environment....everybody bothers about the things that effect him directly and does the economy only for the things for which they pay.

Smitha; Thanks for visiting me !
We had a good start and still we ar quite well off, and the rest depends on the youth of this country--if we follow system and change ourself...everything will change, because I believe that the whole universe is a big chain and every action of ours has a reaction.

Monika:)

Renu said...

swats: Its necessary to know u know:)

sanmerci:, nothing to mug up, its just to take pride in ur country:)

Renu said...

Balvinder: Sorry i forgot, what is that link you are talking about, where did I make one?

Anonymous said...

The game of snakes & ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev...
Wow !!! Claps for the post.

SMRITI said...

Never knew about snake and ladders..always presumed all board games were chinese concepts :( (for some stupid reason)

Thanks for sharing these. Hugs :)

Pixie said...

brilliant post! so much info... thank you for sharing this.
Yes, indeed, very proud to be an Indian :)

Piper .. said...

What a fabulous post! Proud to be an Indian too! :)

Renu said...

Hobo; :)

SMriti; My pleasure..My feeling is that we must take pride in our country and do our best, instead of cribbing all the time.

Piper: Thanx:) me too:)

my space said...

Wow...its great to read about our past accomplishments...now only if we could add on to this list in present..good job renu

my space said...

Wow...its great to read about our past accomplishments...now only if we could add on to this list in present..good job renu

Sandhya said...

Renu, beautiful post. Though we had lagged behind for sometime now, we are picking up - the whole world says 'Indians are brainy people'!

I check for your posts even if I am busy, you know! Thanks. Nice one.

Renu said...

My space: yeah we have added a scam::))

Sandhya: Thank u so much Sandhya, I feel so really honored by your words.

PG said...

what a wonderful collection.
I wanted to add one more thing to the list. Though I'm not 100% sure. A few years ago there was a correction regarding the oldest city of the world and apparently it is no more some city in Iraq but Varanasi, as they could find some records / chronicles or something to show it.

Renu said...

PG; :) Your info may be true, as Varanasi has a lot of culture about it.
I did this post to remind myself and others(who keep cribbibng about India all the time), that we live in a great country and now its our duty to take it forward.

J P Joshi said...

Your post - A very timely reminder and also a very 'much needed motivator' for all Indians. I can only say, JAI HIND. I recently got to know that this phrase was coined by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose to get all Indians in the INA to have a common greeting. He did not want religious greetings in the INA, and Jai Hind was acceptable to all religions.

Can we start using this form of greeting once again?????????? I have nothing against namaste, salaam, good morning, sat sri akal, etc. though!!!!

Renu said...

JP Joshi: Thanks JP ! and its a good suggestion to greet with jai Hind, i am all for it. actually religious greetings are good because we feel that way we take the name of god so many times in a day, but jai Hind is also good.

Padparadscha said...

India was a great country, and still is.

Renu said...

Helene H; Thank u so much:), I also think so:)

Renu said...

Anoymous: welcome here my anonymous friend ! Thank you so much, words like yours make me feel so good:)
For this you can never be off topic:)

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