From: fafat@aludra.usc.edu (Vijay Fafat)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Narrow Hindu Beliefs- was- Ram (Was he Fact or Fiction)??
Date: 14 Dec 1992 17:27:46 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu

Krithi writes:
>  By examining various Sanskrit Slokas from some VimaanaShaasthra, 
>  they were able to get the know how to manufacture various alloys, 
>  hithero unknown. 
>
>  One of the alloys was that of lead and lead-oxide, when a laser 
>  was allowed to strike on  the alloy, the  entire laser beam was 
>  absorbed. Though a speculation, it was possible that this alloy 
>  was used as a heat shield to crafts.It is very difficult to see
>  what moral or social value  was intended to be conveyed through 
>  such an alloy !!!

	Philosopher's stone and Elixer of life need not have been the
	prerogative of the Greeks only. I would be surprised to hear
	of a civilization with Aircraft capabilities which did'nt
	have a simple water distribution system through taps, leave
	alone electricity.... 


>  There was a time during the Nazi Germany, when German scientists 
>  used to pour into India, and buy any palm leaf inscriptions that 
>  they could  lay their  hands on. Perhaps we have something, that 
>  they wanted so badly, to aid their pre-war research machinery. 

	Perhaps NiRmmala can throw light on that :) To date, not a single
	blueprint has come out of any ancient scripture.


>  Perhaps there are so many things that  our ancestors had to give 
>  to the progress  of mankind. And that  we do not know about them. 
>  Perhaps it  is there  for us  to find  and prosper. Afterall our 
>  ancestors  wouldn't  have  spent all  their time to find various 
>  methods to teach us moral and social values. 

	No, they had to spend a lot of time in painstakingly garbing
	all the wonderful knowledge in imagery so that the future 
	generations would'nt understand it.... 


>  And yes it takes  us just  a second  to dismiss  such notions as 
>  fables and fiction.And if we disown every part of what we are as 
>  fables  and stories, we refuse  to consider ourselves seriously. 
>  We start refusing to listen to ourselves, and wait for the world 
>  to tell us what we are. 

	And it only takes another second to think our forefathers were
	the greatest. I would'nt be hesitant in accepting that if only
	there was *just one* place where scriptures tell me how I can
	go and make a dynamo or what light is or what matter is made up
	of or.... But no. They don't do anything of the sort. rather, they
	tell me that the eclipses are because of Rahu-Ketu eating up
	sun/moon, that the earth is resting on a giant elephant who
	stands on a tortoise floating in an infinite ocean.... yes,
	our ancients sure did'nt spend all the time in only talking about
	moral values....


>  Tipu Sultan one of  the  pioneers   of the art of rocket science. 

	duh?? pliss to give specific reference???

>
>  Like the journals of today which  publish papers, perhaps it was 
>  vogue in those days, to annex such discoveries through epics and 
>  poems. In a country where written records of history is so much 
>  absent, what better way to propogate .........
>Krithi. 

	What better way to propagate, indeed! If all the epics and vedas
	can survive, I would think simple definitions and operational
	descriptions would have too. 

	FFT

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian