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NT Bureau
Chennai, Dec 24:
 

Murugappa Group vice-chairman and director A Vellayan releasing the book — 'Pride of India,' in Chennai yesterday. Columnist S Gurumurthy receives the first copy. Also seen are author of the book N R Kumar and Samskar Bharathi president Dr Alex.

        'Pride of India,' a book on ancient India's brilliant strides made particularly in Science and Technology, was released by Vice Chairman and Director of Murugappa Group, A Vellayan, in a simple function held here yesterday.

        An initiative of the Samskrita Bharati the book was authored by N R Kumar, which rediscovers the stunning scientific heritage of ancient India.

        'The discovery of many scientific facts in the western world, like the rotation of earth, speed of light and age of the universe were common knowledge in ancient India,' Kumar said making a presentation on the Pride of India.

        The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wing of the US Federal government has now classified Leech therapy as a medical equipment on an application of a Boston surgeon. However, the Vedas and the Sushruta Samhita 6000 and 1400 years ago respectively, gave an arresting account of the utility of using Leech for various ailments, Kumar explained pointing to the superiority of the country over the western world.

        Similarly, proof of rotation of earth was discovered by a French scientist Leon Foucault only in 1851. However, the same was known to Indians as early as the 5th century AD and Aryabhateeyam speaks of it in graphic detail. What is more interesting is that a 16th century work Madurai Nilakanta Diskshita's Shivautkarsa Manjari makes it pretty clear that the rotation of earth was common knowledge for ages in India.

        The speed of light was another thing which was known in India for thousands of years. Sayanacharya's commentary (1315 - 1387) even wonderfully describes in such simply stunning style the calculation for the speed of light which was 185,106 miles per second. Michealon and Morley validated it as with the help of modern science as 186,282 miles per second as recently as in 1887.

        'The Indian mythology will validate western scietific theory on the much disputed age of the universe,' the author of the book said, detailing the calculation in ancient India and compared it with the debatable and doubtful scientific theories like the big bang.

        Kumar then elucidated that all the rituals of the Hindu religion was oriented towards ecology and rooted in science. However, over the ages the reasoning and logic behind it was lost on us. The duty now is to rediscover it for the benefit of all of us and Pride of India theme is just that.

        What Charaka Samhita prescribed for pregnant women in ancient India was now accepted as 'scientific' by the world and the School of Dietics, Mc Gill University, Canada even validated it.

        Similarly, the US patent granted to Lucknow Medical Plant Centre for Panchakavyam as a drug to lower the dosages for TB and cancer medication was just a drop from an ocean of evidence available to validate the scientific moorings of our rituals. Dr. MM Alex, President Samskrita Bharati, Tamilnadu, Dr.Ramachandran, and columnist S Gurumurthy was among those who participated.