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81 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Renders all previous studies of Ancient India obsolete., April 27, 2001
George Feuerstein is an excellent writer who is always lively and has many fine books to his credit. In the present book he and his two collaborators - Sanskritist Subhash Kak and Ayurvedic specialist David Frawley - have set out to bring us up to speed on the true nature of Ancient India and the profound importance and continuing significance of Indian thought for world civilization. By fully taking into account the mass of evidence which has been accumulating over the past century, evidence from archaeology, satellite surveys, linguistic studies, etc., which a Eurocentric and reactionary 'educational' establishment continues to ignore, the authors have written an exciting and revolutionary book which pretty well renders obsolete all previous studies of Ancient India. In other words, it is a book which clearly demonstrates that much of what we have been taught about Ancient India (and which our highly paid academics continue to teach) is complete nonsense. But perhaps this will surprise no-one. The book falls into two parts. In the first we learn that there was no such thing as an 'Aryan invasion' of India. It is a myth based upon a few idle conjectures of Max Muller along with a couple of scraps of misinterpreted evidence, an ideology masquerading as historical 'fact' (as is so much else today) because it fitted in so well with the Imperialist ambitions and racialism of the West. India has always been multi-racial and multi-cultural, and the 'Aryans' were there all along. The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro were abandoned, not because of any supposed 'Aryan invasion,' but for the simple reason that the vast and sustaining Sarasvati river dried up c.1900 B.C., and the people of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization had to relocate further East to the region of the Ganges. The Indians have no memory of an 'Aryan invasion.' There is no evidence of an invasion and no sign of the cultural break that such an invasion would have caused. On the contrary, India exhibits a striking continuity of culture which qualifies it as the world's oldest living continuous civilization, and one that stretches back to at least 6000 B.C, if not much further. As portrayed by the authors, the rich and highly advanced Indus-Sarasvati civilization - a civilization of sages, priests, philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, musicians, astronomers, artists, architects, engineeers, navigators, artisans, farmers and merchants covered an area of over 300,000 square miles (in contrast to Ancient Egypt's 15,000 square miles and Sumer's even smaller area). It held over 2500 settlements, towns, and cities, and conducted an extensive commerce with Arabia, Africa, and the Middle East. Also, where influences can be determined, they flowed, not from West to East but from East to West. In short, pace Sumerian scholar Samuel Noah Kramer, everything did not begin in Sumer. It was neither Sumer nor Egypt that was the cradle of civilization. It was India. Chapter 9, 'Why the Aryan Invasion Never Happened: Seventeen Arguments,' summarizes and concludes Part I of the book. Part II, 'The Splendor of Ancient India: Its Cultural and Spiritual Legacy' provides a stimulating overview of the spiritual heritage of Ancient India, the birth of science, the astronomical basis of the Vedic myths, the powerful and long-continuing influence of India on the West, and the Vedas and Perennial Wisdom. We learn that the Vedas are of staggering importance. Far from being a mere collection of myths, they represent a crystallization, in symbolic code, of the incredibly ancient wisdom of a balanced and harmonious civilization in which science and religion were not, as with us, opposed, but were mutually involved in the pursuit of truths which had the aim of bringing both man and society into harmony with the cosmos. Sadly the Vedas, written as they are in a difficult archaic Sanskrit, are little studied even in India, and are even less understood. Given the increasing degeneracy of modern civilization, it is a blessing that a handful of determined scholars have today set about extracting the knowledge from this precious repository that could, if rightly used, help restore us to sanity. One of the most appreciative interpreters of the Vedas today is the Roman Catholic priest and Professor of Religious Studies, Raimundo Panikkar, and readers are referred to his superb anthology of beautifully translated extracts with detailed commentaries, 'The Vedic Experience - Mantramanjari: An Anthology of the Vedas for Modern Man and Contemporary Celebration.' Here is a brief extract (slightly modified since it should be set out as poetry). It should show anyone something of what we have lost and what we must relearn from "the treasures of Asian understanding" if, in the words of British scholar, scientist, and sinologist Joseph Needham, "our civilization [is not] to go down in history as distorted and evil" (p.167): "Now Dawn with her earliest light shines forth, / beloved of the Sky, / Fresh from her toilet, conscious of her beauty, / she emerges visible for all to see. / Dawn, Daughter of Heaven, lends us her lustre, / dispersing all shadows of malignity, / Arousing from deep slumber all that lives, / stirring to motion man and beast and bird, / This maiden infringes not the Eternal Law, / day after day coming to the place appointed" (Panikkar, pages 164-65). Sanskrit and English belong to the same family of languages, and we naturally resonate with family. Official spokesmen of a Eurocentric West continue to promote the arrogant and wholly false belief that "we have nothing to learn from the East." A few hours spent with Feuerstein, Kak, and Frawley's timely and significant study will soon convince you of the foolishness of such a notion. Don't miss this fascinating and extremely important book.
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