In Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India

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THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT HISTORY-NOT THE KIND OF Adult chronology of dynasties and battles to which we were exposed in our school days but meaningful history that is deeply relevant to our lives today. It is about the human spirit struggling for self-expression and self-understanding, which is a struggle that continues to this day, perhaps more so than ever.

We live in an age of unprecedented challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, we face the grim reality of overpopulation, hunger, ecological disasters, and new devastating diseases, as well as the ever-present possibility of a nuclear holocaust. On the other hand, science constantly expands our intellectual horizon and helps create new technological wonders that, we hope, will solve some of our problems. Biologists are "engineering" genes to increase the productivity of vegetables and fruit trees; chemists are unlocking enzymes to make them usable for nonbiological purposes, such as waste disposal, or to repair DNA in order to enhance and prolong life; and physicists are working on superconductivity and the use of lasers in computers. Scientists are also exploring the possibility of bionic or- gans, the application of electromagnetic fields in the healing process, and artificial intelligence. The list could easily be extended to fill the remaining pages of this book.

Every day science adds a profusion of knowledge to our data banks. Yet only a fraction of this knowledge finds its way into our brains, and only a small proportion of that fraction is truly assimilated by us. Indeed, the knowledge explosion is one of the problems we are facing.

IN THE IMAGINATION OF THE WEST, INDIA IS THE LAND of magic and mystery, wisdom and religiosity, tradition and ritual. India has long held exotic appeal; its arts, literature, music are distinct. But, at the same time, there are aspects of Indic culture that the heart of the West, which should not surprise us and the West have had a shared history going back many thousands of years.

Sanskrit is the oldest of any of the Indo-European languages. The ancient Vedic culture of India resembles the ancient European, particularly the Celtic, which had similar orders of priests and bards. The question of whether the Indic peoples and the Europeans shared the same homeland in remote antiquity has been the grist of ceaseless speculation. Today many Indians are still connected to the glorious past of their country, keeping alive an ancient stream of knowledge and wisdom. We may ask: Is India also a doorway to the long-forgot- ten past of the West?

Columbus set out to find a new sea route to India and ended up discovering America. Since then, the West and India have met in the realm of the mind. Thus, in the last century, Mohandas Gandhi's ideas influenced the human rights movement. Most recently, Hindu wisdom about Yoga, mind-body connection, and self-knowledge has swept the Western hemisphere. It appears that, by understanding the heart of India's great civilization, we are nearing the time when the quest of Columbus will be taken to its logical conclusion.