08-29-2007, 11:19 AM
Call for papers: Seminar at the 5th annual Human Empowerment Conference
Dallas, Texas
Fri., Oct. 12th - Sun, Oct. 14th, 2007
PL. contact me for further details. my website indicstudies.us has my email address webmaster at indicethos dot org
Abstract
The issues
It is clear that much of what we learned in our school history books is suspect if not downright erroneous, starting from the chronology of ancient India to the postulation of an Aryan Invasion, the location of the ancient home of the Zoroastrian people, the dating of Chandra Gupta Maurya's reign, the dating of the Buddha himself, the origin of the Brahmi script, the embellishment of the Caste system by the Colonial overlord, the dating of the impregnation of Indic culture in countries of South East Asia to name a few. More importantly, the Eurocentric approach to the narration of the fascinating story of Indian History taken by English authors is at variance with the facts and the history as we knew it prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the Indian subcontinent. We will do our best to peel the layers of the onion, but it is too large a task to be undertaken by a handful of individuals, especially as the narration of this history is firmly in the grip of individuals with certain ideologies who are deeply ensconced in New Delhi and whose viewpoint is for all intents and purposes in conformance with the story as told by the British. The underlying premise here is that the history of ancient India as taught today to our children is substantially at variance with reality, and with the facts as we now understand them
The Rationale - How to remedy the situation
Obviously we need to inform ourselves as to the truth of the matter , apply criteria such as logical consistency to assess the data as it is available and determine whether a particular event or that a substantial portion of the current chronology passes the tests. We invite individuals to contribute in various ways to such a project by participating in the seminar. We are particularly interested in the contributions to the exact sciences such as Astronomy mathematics and linguistics in ancient India, not only to assess the content of the contribution but to use this event to see if it can give us clues and markers which will help us decipher the occurrences of the past several millennia. For example in the many delightful problems that Indian mathematicians pose, such as In Lilavati by Bhaskara II, he may make reference to a currency or a social and legal practice that is particular to a specific era, that would tilt the evidence in the direction of that era. Another example may be the dating of Panini. If texts in classical sanskrit started appearing at a certain date, then it stands to reason that Panini must have completed his monumental work on the Ashtadhyayi prior to this date. This explains why amongst all the dates assigned by Western Indologists , the dating of Panini is one of the oldest. However reluctantly they may have done so , the conclusion that classical sanskrit literature must have post dated Panini is inescapable, since he was the most famous one to codify the language and its grammar.
The Topics
We request interested authors to
1. Identify key distinguishing characteristics and dates of the Indic civlization
2. Indicate those areas of Indian history which are egregiously in error
3. Propose methodology and criteria to evaluate the accuracy of the current or future proposed narratives
4. Discuss the extent to which India borrowed astronomical concepts, such as the Nakshatra system of the precession of the equinoxes from Baylonian, Greek and Chinese sources
5. Discuss the possible connections between Paniniâs Linguistic efforts with the invention of the place value system
We encourage individuals to think out of the box and suggest related topics that fall under the overall rubric of the heading above
Objective
The goal of the seminar is to increase awareness of the importance of learning the accurate History of India and to extricate ourselves from the present situation where we have relinquished control of our history to individuals who have little stake in India and hardly any accountability for any errors that they make.
Methodology
Interested people can take part in the seminar that will be held at the Human Empowerment Conference at Dallas, Texas on 13th October 2007. (Conference dates are 12th, 13th, 14th October 2007). Research papers can be either presented at the seminar or be submitted for publication in the conference proceedings in absentia or both.
Dallas, Texas
Fri., Oct. 12th - Sun, Oct. 14th, 2007
PL. contact me for further details. my website indicstudies.us has my email address webmaster at indicethos dot org
Abstract
The issues
It is clear that much of what we learned in our school history books is suspect if not downright erroneous, starting from the chronology of ancient India to the postulation of an Aryan Invasion, the location of the ancient home of the Zoroastrian people, the dating of Chandra Gupta Maurya's reign, the dating of the Buddha himself, the origin of the Brahmi script, the embellishment of the Caste system by the Colonial overlord, the dating of the impregnation of Indic culture in countries of South East Asia to name a few. More importantly, the Eurocentric approach to the narration of the fascinating story of Indian History taken by English authors is at variance with the facts and the history as we knew it prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the Indian subcontinent. We will do our best to peel the layers of the onion, but it is too large a task to be undertaken by a handful of individuals, especially as the narration of this history is firmly in the grip of individuals with certain ideologies who are deeply ensconced in New Delhi and whose viewpoint is for all intents and purposes in conformance with the story as told by the British. The underlying premise here is that the history of ancient India as taught today to our children is substantially at variance with reality, and with the facts as we now understand them
The Rationale - How to remedy the situation
Obviously we need to inform ourselves as to the truth of the matter , apply criteria such as logical consistency to assess the data as it is available and determine whether a particular event or that a substantial portion of the current chronology passes the tests. We invite individuals to contribute in various ways to such a project by participating in the seminar. We are particularly interested in the contributions to the exact sciences such as Astronomy mathematics and linguistics in ancient India, not only to assess the content of the contribution but to use this event to see if it can give us clues and markers which will help us decipher the occurrences of the past several millennia. For example in the many delightful problems that Indian mathematicians pose, such as In Lilavati by Bhaskara II, he may make reference to a currency or a social and legal practice that is particular to a specific era, that would tilt the evidence in the direction of that era. Another example may be the dating of Panini. If texts in classical sanskrit started appearing at a certain date, then it stands to reason that Panini must have completed his monumental work on the Ashtadhyayi prior to this date. This explains why amongst all the dates assigned by Western Indologists , the dating of Panini is one of the oldest. However reluctantly they may have done so , the conclusion that classical sanskrit literature must have post dated Panini is inescapable, since he was the most famous one to codify the language and its grammar.
The Topics
We request interested authors to
1. Identify key distinguishing characteristics and dates of the Indic civlization
2. Indicate those areas of Indian history which are egregiously in error
3. Propose methodology and criteria to evaluate the accuracy of the current or future proposed narratives
4. Discuss the extent to which India borrowed astronomical concepts, such as the Nakshatra system of the precession of the equinoxes from Baylonian, Greek and Chinese sources
5. Discuss the possible connections between Paniniâs Linguistic efforts with the invention of the place value system
We encourage individuals to think out of the box and suggest related topics that fall under the overall rubric of the heading above
Objective
The goal of the seminar is to increase awareness of the importance of learning the accurate History of India and to extricate ourselves from the present situation where we have relinquished control of our history to individuals who have little stake in India and hardly any accountability for any errors that they make.
Methodology
Interested people can take part in the seminar that will be held at the Human Empowerment Conference at Dallas, Texas on 13th October 2007. (Conference dates are 12th, 13th, 14th October 2007). Research papers can be either presented at the seminar or be submitted for publication in the conference proceedings in absentia or both.