01-11-2009, 02:10 AM
This is the press release issued on the second day of the conference:
PRESS RELEASE
<b>âMahabharata War Occurred in 3067 BCâ</b>
<b>âCalculus is Indiaâs Gift to the Westâ</b>
New Delhi January 10: A well-known Indian physicist has used advanced planetarium software and astronomical data detailed in the slokas of Mahabharata to conclusively date the ancient Indian epic to 3067 BCE.
Speaking at the ongoing International Conference on Indian History, Civilisation and Geopolitics 2009 (ICIH-2009) here, professor Narahari Achar said that most of the previous attempts at astronomical dating of the famous epic made the critical error of equating the Sanskrit word âGrahaâ with a planet.
âHowever, Graha actually meant not only a planet but any heavenly object moving through the sky that can âgrasp,â such as a comet or asteroid,â he said. âOnce we understand this, all apparent confusion and contradiction in the planetary positions given in the Mahabharata disappears.â
Though the epic has been variously dated from 5000 BCE to 1000 BCE by historians, this is the first time that a scholar has taken into account the movement of planets excluding the comets to reproduce by simulation the astronomical references given in the Mahabharata.
âThe year 3067 BCE arrived at by this method is consistent with the Hindu tradition and correlates perfectly with the time references given in Rigveda and Puranas for the epic,â Prof. Narhari added.
In his speech at the conference, Professor C.K. Raju revealed that calculus was an Indian invention that was transmitted by Jesuit priests to Europe from Cochin in the second half of 16th century. âIndian infinite series has been known to British scholars since at least 1832, but no scholar tried to establish the connection with the calculus attributed to Newton and Leibnitz,â he said.
Dr. Rajuâs 10-year research that included archival work in Kerala and Rome was published in a book âCultural Foundations of Mathematics.â It established that the Jesuit priests took trigonometric tables and planetary models from the Kerala mathematicians of the Aryabhata school and exported them to Europe starting around 1560 in connection with the European navigational problem.
âWhen the Europeans received the Indian calculus, they couldnât understand it properly because the Indian philosophy of mathematics is different from the Western philosophy of mathematics. It took them about 300 years to fully comprehend its working. The calculus was used by Newton to develop his laws of physics,â Dr. Raju added. Ironically, some British scholars claimed credit for this research despite being warned against plagiarizing Professor Rajuâs work.
PRESS RELEASE
<b>âMahabharata War Occurred in 3067 BCâ</b>
<b>âCalculus is Indiaâs Gift to the Westâ</b>
New Delhi January 10: A well-known Indian physicist has used advanced planetarium software and astronomical data detailed in the slokas of Mahabharata to conclusively date the ancient Indian epic to 3067 BCE.
Speaking at the ongoing International Conference on Indian History, Civilisation and Geopolitics 2009 (ICIH-2009) here, professor Narahari Achar said that most of the previous attempts at astronomical dating of the famous epic made the critical error of equating the Sanskrit word âGrahaâ with a planet.
âHowever, Graha actually meant not only a planet but any heavenly object moving through the sky that can âgrasp,â such as a comet or asteroid,â he said. âOnce we understand this, all apparent confusion and contradiction in the planetary positions given in the Mahabharata disappears.â
Though the epic has been variously dated from 5000 BCE to 1000 BCE by historians, this is the first time that a scholar has taken into account the movement of planets excluding the comets to reproduce by simulation the astronomical references given in the Mahabharata.
âThe year 3067 BCE arrived at by this method is consistent with the Hindu tradition and correlates perfectly with the time references given in Rigveda and Puranas for the epic,â Prof. Narhari added.
In his speech at the conference, Professor C.K. Raju revealed that calculus was an Indian invention that was transmitted by Jesuit priests to Europe from Cochin in the second half of 16th century. âIndian infinite series has been known to British scholars since at least 1832, but no scholar tried to establish the connection with the calculus attributed to Newton and Leibnitz,â he said.
Dr. Rajuâs 10-year research that included archival work in Kerala and Rome was published in a book âCultural Foundations of Mathematics.â It established that the Jesuit priests took trigonometric tables and planetary models from the Kerala mathematicians of the Aryabhata school and exported them to Europe starting around 1560 in connection with the European navigational problem.
âWhen the Europeans received the Indian calculus, they couldnât understand it properly because the Indian philosophy of mathematics is different from the Western philosophy of mathematics. It took them about 300 years to fully comprehend its working. The calculus was used by Newton to develop his laws of physics,â Dr. Raju added. Ironically, some British scholars claimed credit for this research despite being warned against plagiarizing Professor Rajuâs work.