“India is my Country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters. I love my Country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage. I shall always try to be worthy of it.” This is the pledge we take in our schooling-Of course no one remembers it now. No one understands its meaning in their childhood; when we grow old we don’t have a need and trail to. Do we really have?
Our pledge in the school literally means: India is Very rich and has varied heritage of which we should be proud of. What it explains is no one’s concern today. The fault lies with our Education system. We find no patriotism and National interest being taught throughout our studies. It never advises us, suggesting us to take care of one’s own Country. Instead, it’s sniffing us towards foreign Countries exhibiting paradise in our fingers. Education system was very effective. Not a single student’s education went in vain unlike present day education- we learn and get educated about something; do something else. India had a great culture and heritage. It was destroyed in foreigners’ attacks and invasions. Let’s have a look at those conditions once.
One among the many destructions occurred to our Mother land, is the Greek invasion-earliest invasion ever recorded in history. It destructed and distracted us, distracted from the path towards further development, made such a great and deep wound on India that it was unable to heal the wound. This destruction continued for centuries. Today, we are the ones who are facing its consequences. Have you ever imagined, how it would be like if we still had that education in our hands-perhaps we might have setup our colonies on the Mars by now. Few people tried to heal it.
One among those is Vishnu Sharma or Kautilya or Chanakya-whatever you call him. Chanakya is the person of fame even today; in spite of this busy and ‘developed’ civilization. What was the thing that gave him so much fame that, he’s alive even after two thousand and five hundred years! Let me give the answer: We remember him for his Arthashastra and his famous “Chanakya Shapadham” (Chanakya pledge). Yet we know very less about him-we should accept this fact. Very few of us know that he is a gem, a professor, a HOD of the famous Takshashila University. Let’s learn the consequences and conditions prevailing at that time.
Alexander ‘The great’ – I don’t know why they call him the great despite destroying everything in his style- had his teacher (Guru) as Aristotle; one of the earliest scientists in Greek history, to teach him. Aristotle mastered his arts and sciences from Plato institute-established somewhere in Greece. Plato studied at Socrates institute and Socrates studied from some other institute. Foreigners classify the Greek philosophy into post-Socrates and pre-Socrates. The earliest school of arts and sciences was established by a Greek man by the name Henclites. Xenophanes is the scholar who learnt under him. Both of them are considered as part of the seven famous sages of Greek mythology. Thus, the first school established is believed to be of their origin. Somewhere, I read that Empedocles had the powers to control the storms, winds, fire etc… He was commented to be a wandering monk: wandered everywhere around the world. He was one prominent person in Henclites’ institute. But, if we observe carefully, every one’s -who are said to be related to the school- origin and description dates to not more than 600 B.C. They have no literary or substantial evidences to state that there were scientists, mathematicians of the time predating 600 B.C. in their Countries.
But we have the evidences, philosophies and theories in support of it. (First of all we Indians are not ready to accept that Dwaraka actually existed, despite of the underwater diggings found at Dwaraka. It’s waste of time speaking about Indian government’s negligence towards them). The best example is both the civilizations relate to the Banks of River Indus-Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. Both reflect our great culture and heritage. If one seriously reanalyzes and dates the Takshashila in contrast with other Greek philosophers, they find that both exist at same time approximately.
The Takshashila University was at its peak during 500 B.C and 220 B.C. Many scholars around the world visited the place: Takshashila. People were fond of it-just like people are fond of Oxford University or MIT these days. It was very famous; famous for its innovations and intellectuals. It is said that Pythagorean visited this place and learnt his entire mathematics from the University (Westerners don’t accept these kind of facts, because they don’t want to get a feel that their civilization is inferior to that of Indian civilization). Even Xenophanes is said to have visited this place. Problem is that, we don’t have any evidences in support of that-not even literary evidences directly stating their names-unlike the case of Chanakya or Charaka. People from China and many other places visited the place to learn human sciences, geometry, Economics, commerce, Military sciences, Chemistry, Medicine, Earthy sciences, Political sciences, literary sciences, and Civil engineering etc. It offered a wide variety of subjects. Each department (Sakha) had a HOD, deputy head, Organizer and many such concepts nevertheless of modern day universities.
The exact date of establishment of Takshashila University is not known. It may have been established at least 500 years before the period of its fame. There is a story which states that the university laid its foundations during the time of the time of king Taksha, the great grand son of king Bharata. I don’t know whether it’s a fact.
To know its greatness lets take, one gem who belonged to it, Chanakya. Charaka, AryaBhatta, etc are his contemporaries or his seniors in this institute. Let’s move back to the political situations prevailing during those days. Let’s keep a side what the Westerns taught us, let’s take the context of the Indian versions of the great epic.
Aristotle, who was the guru of the Alexander, studied under Plato academy. Plato studied under Socrates, who was a good scholar at Takshashila. He worked as a lecturer at Takshashila and later established his own institute at Athens, Greece. It was a very reputed institution to the western world-even today it persists. Today they assume they are superior to us and treat us worst than their slaves. What a pity!
It is said that Alexander’s father died trying to reoccupy his capital and kingdom. Alexander regained his kingdom under the guidance of Aristotle. Aristotle was good at Political sciences, Military and Economic sciences. He guided Alexander at a very early stage, till he was 16. It makes me wonder: Alexander was able to conquer the whole world in his twenties. Alexander wanted to regain the kingdom and power. He rose to his feet, returned strongly on behalf of his father. He didn’t stop with that. He conquered all the Countries and kingdoms of the ancient world. One fine day Alexander decided it’s time to conquer India. He came to India and was ready to attack India-India was a united India in those days (Pakistan, Bangladesh, half of the Afghanistan, Bhutan and Nepal were included). Chanakya warned the King about the political situations prevailing in Indian kingdom. He warned him about the impending Alexander’s attack. But the Emperor was careless, in return insulted Chanakya. Chanakya got angry and took a vow to dethrone the Emperor. He approached a young man, who later came to be known as Chandra Gupta Mourya of ‘The Great Mouryan Empire’. He guided Chandra Gupta to conquer the throne.
During Alexander’s invasion, India was divided into small kingdoms to protect themselves against the Alexander’s attacks: Alexander’s plans and army was very powerful and undefeatable. He established his Roman philosophy and Jewism in India. He forced people to inculcate it. But Chanakya was too quick for that. He eradicated the Jewism with its roots from the Country. He used all his intellectual abilities to recapture and bring back India’s glory.
Alexander died soon after capturing India; at the age of 32. Chanakya was able to do everything, but something was beyond repair. It was the University of Takshashila. (Google for the Takshshila: The present day Taxila. You will find that it’s on the way from Delhi to the west). The whole university was destroyed by the invaders, the scholars and teachers escaped to various parts of the World. Many reference guides, libraries, etc were lost in those invasions. There was a rumor spreading that Aristotle stole the entire books concerned-with the help of his followers during the attack- with all the Education of India. That’s the base for the people who argue that there is vigorous development in west only from past two thousand years and nothing before that! Even though thousands of years of have been passed after the evolution of present human being! It is still a question mark. Same people state that we were already developed and heavily educated before they we knew how to count. Most of the material related with our education and sciences was looted and destroyed beyond repair.
I question, if it is true that people studied under Xenophanes-who is a direct descendent of God- to evolve to present situation, then I question them, what was their God doing before that. Was he playing hide and seek with his angels-with due respect towards their religion! Because, humans evolved and assumed the present form thousands of years before the incident happened. How is it that God showed his mercy only then? How is it that human brains didn’t grow before that, while it has grown this much in the past 200 years? Were there that many ignorant ones existed before Xenophanes? Or is it that they are just ignorant people for not noticing the other civilizations of the world. Dwaraka, Kurukshetra, Panchala and the most famous Egyptian civilization, I suppose.
Coming back, Chanakya influenced Chandra Gupta Mourya to such an extent that no one dared to touch or attack the kingdom, not anymore as long as he is alive. They ruled almost the entire India and became the Emperors of the Emperors. They just made sure everything was under their control in the Country. Chandra Gupta’s great grand son is the great Emperor Ashoka, who was very fond of wars. He envisaged a war, what we call today as ‘the great kalinga war’, which left more than a million people dead on both the sides. It was very bloody war. It is said that a nearby river flowed, filled out of the warfare blood-The present day Mahanadi river in Orissa. He didn’t even feel sad for killing the civilians, but later opted to Buddhism. He is the main reason for such a vast spreading of Buddhism in the East. It’s the second largest religion in the world now. It’s entirely due to his credit.
Takshashila never recovered again after all its literature and shelter were lost. It was just like a skeleton hanged over without muscles, for all its teachers gone. There were no scholars and students. Ashoka, after his war, converted himself completely into Buddhism. Buddhism was given higher priority than the other departments at Takshashila. That made the Universities still more unpopular, because people used to like arts and sciences rather than mythology and psychology. Students started dropping from Takshashila and going to west-to the Plato and Socrates academies. If there is anything wrong that the great Emperor Ashoka did, it’s this deed. As students turned up in the west, those people turned superior. We took a step backwards, fell into a trap laid by ourselves. To compensate it, Ashoka did nothing. Sources say that he tried to bring the lost glory to the Takshashila by reuniting the fled scholars and rebuilding the forts. But, his efforts went futile. But, some body else was destined for that work of reuniting.
His name is Sakraditya. He did his intense research. He found out most of the lost talent. He discovered various people in and around the world studying the arts generated at Takshashila. They might have passed on to them by their ancestors. They were at different locations. He united all of them at a place and established a great grand university which is to become ‘the greatest university ever’. Not only he was able to recover the distributed arts but also few texts which survived the exploitation. That University is what we call ‘’ Nalanda University’’. It operated for almost thousand years without any flaw. It was very famous; its present location is in Bihar. But, how much ever it tried; it couldn’t attain the heights of Takshashila in terms of the quality and depth of the subject it explained. Glory lost was lost and couldn’t be recovered.
We should also consider the fact that teachers taught their wealthiest skills only to the students who are more obedient to them. We can take an example of ‘Marma kala’ of Kerala, sustained till today.
Soon after there was the downfall of the Mouryan empire, there were small and big kingdoms, but none of any greater significance. Nalanda University was at its peak during 7th to 8th century A.D. Then entered the Muslim invaders into India, lead by Bhakthiyar Khilji in 1193. They invaded entire India. They also destroyed the Library at Nalanda University completely and left it clueless. It is said that, the library was so big and contained so much stuff that, even after the invaders set the fire to the library, it continued to burn for months together. Imagine how huge the library was. Descriptions say it was nine floors high. (Refer Wikipedia for description of University and Library). The wound burnt again before it was completely cured. What a pity! At the same time, the science and the art rise to its peak in the west. People started understanding the importance of science and started learning it.
People fled away from Nalanda after those invasions and never returned back to Universities. If Muslim invaders would have looted us with wealth or anything else we could have recovered it very easily, instead they looted our culture and knowledge. In fact, they looted in all the possible ways. That’s what left us reeling. It changed the entire way of living, culture and made us puppets in the hands of few people. Normal people were not allowed or capable of getting education-perhaps because they were not wealthy or ineligible or their life wasted earning rather than learning. That’s when drastic changes took place in India. People became ignorant and their IQ dropped.
Still, we had some half-completed, half-known knowledge with us-at least with few wealthy and tough people. Very few among the general public knew it and mastered it. As it was half, it soon turned void. British entered India learning from the books written by their travelers many years ago. They tried and tried for centuries to reach India after the land route was sealed. Finally, they succeeded and took control of India; looted like none did ever in history to anyone.
They declared openly that our knowledge is waste and useless. They were unable to understand the fact that those texts were way beyond the then prevailing conditions. It was way beyond their sciences during that time. It was very much advanced and they just treated it as equal to impossible. A simple example is the concept of flying. We described about Airplanes while they merely dreamt of it. Since they had no idea of them, they were treated as foolish. Its widely accepted fact that, they are the ones who said, watching something that happened at some point of time in past is impossible. And, now it’s them who are watching Television and invented the television kit. So, what do they speak now? It fills me with humor when they answer this with, Technology advanced and human brain developed, while we did it some hundreds of years ago. They were never advanced; in addition to that, laughed at the people who were advanced hundred years than them.
Our texts are advanced than 500 years from today, and still our own people don’t believe and accept it. We don’t accept our heritage and neither do we know its value. What a shame!
Our texts are well framed and most technologically advanced than they could ever dare to imagine, applicable even to the present day educational standards. We dreamt about flying soccer, apparition, foresight of future, (Gyana and divya drishti) divine and knowledge eye and situations happen under the command of our mouth(Vaak Shuddhi), sukshma rupa dharanam – turning bigger and smaller, parakaya pravesham- leaving the body we possess and take the form of other bodies, shila dharanam- turning one’s self into a stone etc… Man reaching the moon etc… is made possible now then why aren’t the above impossible. That’s to say that We, Indians are the most advanced clan of the whole Earth.
But, we are not interested in our texts and always speak less of us: we feel that we are inferior. So, it’s our duty to act upon our ability to be worthy of the culture once we lived in. It’s just the way of living we inculcate based on the environmental conditions and weather factors etc that separate us from them, makes us worthy of our heritage, graces us a happy and comfortable life. Let us feel that never ever foreigners are superior to us. We were and are never inferior to someone. We should be proud of our culture and history. We should always try to be worthy of our heritage. Remember, Takshashila and Nalanda are not the only ones we had. We had the great Vikramshila University, Acharya Nagarjuna University and many other such glorious institutions.
Thus the statement “India is rich and has varied heritage. We should always try to be worthy of it” is justified.
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