The Little Princess

Monday, April 25, 2016

U for University

Welcome to the "Believe it or Not- That's Incredible India!" series. India is home to some of the most astonishing wonders in the world. The rich culture, heritage, food, scriptures, architectural marvels and scores of known and unknown facts come together to create this multicolored melange that is India. Throughout this month, read about the various believe it or not facts about India and know what goes into the making of this incredible country!

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Did you know that the world’s first University was established in India?

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In as early as the 700 B.C. the ancient kingdom of Gandhara was home to a giant University – Takshashila. The University taught 68 subjects to as many as 10,500 students, from not only India but Babylon, Greece, Syria, and China. Well known scholars like Kautilya (Chanakya), Vishnu Sharma, Charaka, Prasenajit, Jotipala, Panini and Jivak taught diverse subjects like Vedas, languages, grammar, philosophy, medicine, surgery, archery, politics, warfare, astronomy, accounts, commerce, documentation, music, dance and other performing arts, futurology, the occult and mystical sciences, and complex mathematical calculations. The vastness and the diverseness of the subjects taught in Takshashila is mind boggling indeed!

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Another well-known university of those times was the Nalanda University which functioned from 500 – 1300 AD. The University was so advanced that it had an observatory called the Ambudharaavlehi for astronomical research, a vast library, laboratories and a 300-seater lecture hall. The university boasted of a strength of 10000 students and more than 200 teachers. In his travelogue, the famous Chinese traveller Huen Tsang makes a mention of how tough it was to gain admission to Nalanda. Students had to write an entrance exam and just 3% of students managed to pass and gain admission! What high standards!

Isn’t it amazing that Indians pioneered the concept of a University? Makes me proud to know that we not only accorded importance to schooling and college education but were well versed with the need of a University too!

Believe it or not - That's Incredible India!

Friday, April 22, 2016

S for Sanskrit

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Sanskrit is said to be the language of the gods! It is also the ‘Mother’ of many languages. Sanskrit has maintained its purity in structure and vocabulary from the Vedic times until today. That is why even today, it is easy to interpret literature written in Sanskrit ages ago.

Sanskrit is unique…and vast!

It is perhaps the only language which has a built-in scheme for pronunciation, word formation, and grammar. Sanskrit is vast, really vast. There are six aspects of the language. It deals with the spoken aspect of the language, the pronunciation, the grammar, the root words, the formation of sentences and studies related to space and time.

Sanskrit is derived from root syllables and all words in Sanskrit can be traced back to their roots. To give an example, the word "guru" consisting of the aksharas "gu" and "ru" stands for a teacher- one who dispels darkness (ignorance) of the mind (person). "gu" means darkness and "ru" means the act of removal.

This is unique only to Sanskrit.

Sanskrit is a complete language.

It has words to describe every feeling, every activity, every philosophy, every aspect of life and in short everything in the universe. In fact, one word can convey different meanings based on how stress is placed on a particular syllable. Conversely, there are so many synonyms of a single word. For example, the word ‘water’ has 120 synonyms! The ‘shabd kosh’ or vocabulary of Sanskrit is so large!

The ancient scripts like the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the great epics are full of verses that have hidden scientific principles, concepts of Mathematics, philosophy, theology, astronomy, and science. All scientific and mathematical terms, therefore, have specific Sanskrit terms! Sanskrit does not borrow from any language.

Sanskrit is the mother of a lot of Languages.

Most Indo-European languages owe their origin to Sanskrit. Sample this- 'Matr' became mother, 'Pitr' became father, 'navagath' became navigation, 'manu' became man, 'naama' became name or nomen, 'sarpa' became serpent, 'gau' became cow and so on and so forth. The list is endless!

Sanskrit for Computers and AI!

The language is pristine and has zero deviation. It is therefore not surprising that Sanskrit has been voted as the choice of language for Computational Linguistics by NASA. It has also been suggested as the best language to communicate with Artificial Intelligence.

Do you wonder if anyone speak Sanskrit these days?

Apparently people in these districts do!

The residents of Mattur and Hosahalli in Karnataka, Jhiri, Baghuwar and Mohad in MP, Ganoda in Rajasthan, and Shyamsundarpur in Odisha reportedly speak in Sanskrit just like we’d speak in our native tongues.

Believe it or Not - That's Incredible India!

Thursday, April 21, 2016

R for Ramanujan

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This man hardly needs an introduction! Srinivasa Ramanujan - the world renowned Mathematician who dazzled the world with his genius, continues to amaze us even today! Here are some interesting facts about him-

He was the man who knew infinity – literally! His infinite series for ‘pi’ was one of his most celebrated findings.

He has to his credit 3900 identities and mathematical equations. And this, after having no formal education in mathematics! Most of his findings were intuitive and were later found to be true!

He was the youngest mathematician to be inducted as Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 31!

1729 is known as the Ramanujan -Hardy number. Do you know the story behind it? It's a pretty interesting one.

Godfrey Hardy was a professor of mathematics at Cambridge University. One day he went to visit Srinivasa Ramanujan who was ill. When Ramanujan heard that Hardy had come in a taxi he asked him what the number of the taxi was. Hardy said that it was just a boring number: 1729.

Ramanujan replied that 1729 was not a boring number at all: it was a very interesting one. He explained that it was the smallest number that could be expressed by the sum of two cubes in two different ways.

This story is very famous among mathematicians. 1729 is sometimes called the “Hardy-Ramanujan number”.

Ramanujan’s Magic Square-

The magic in the square is that the numbers in any row, any column, all diagonals, the corner numbers, the center square…in fact in many other permutations and combinations… all adds up to 139! What’s more, the first row is his date of birth- 22-12-1887! Howzatt for a genius?

As a mark of recognition of his genius, his birth anniversary, 22^nd December, is celebrated every year as the National Mathematics Day.

Believe it or Not – That’s Incredible India!

There's a biopic soon to be released titled 'The Man Who Knew Infinity', Here's a link to the official trailer.

Memories...

These memories…

They are like pearls

Hidden

Inside oysters of the mind

That I have dived deep for and sourced

From the unfathomable depths

of the ocean bed.

Silently

I open them- the oysters

Unsure of what each one holds

Did they all make the pearls,

Or are some empty?

Will I have enough

Of these precious beads

To be strung together into

A neck piece?

Or will I be left

Empty handed as I walk

Alone on the shore
Fading into the sunset?

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Q for Quaint Indian Art

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Ancient India seems to have been a hub of art and culture since time immemorial. The sculptures, the paintings, the rock and cave architecture, textile printing, stone sculpturing, jewellery carving, puppetry, mural art, calligraphy, handicrafts and artifacts show that Indians had a great eye for various art forms. It is impossible to do justice to each one of them here. So here are some of my favorites-

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Kundan - Meenakari jewellery of Rajasthan –skillfully and intricately carved jewellery are set with precious uncut stones called kundan stones and then enameled with gold. Did you know that making Meenakari jewellery goes through an assembly line of craftsmen? It is still made in the same way it was 500 years ago.

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Warli art of Maharashtra dates back to 2500 BC. This tribal art made on a mud base using white paint looks simple and yet amazingly beautiful.

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The Tanjavur paintings of South India are colourful and breathtakingly beautiful. They were earlier painted using real diamonds, rubies and precious stones and set in gold and silver foil. Now semiprecious stones are used.

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The stunning Madhubani paintings of Bihar are made using organic colours and are inspired by nature and mythology. They are said to have originated from the times of the Ramayana.

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Pashmina shawls of Kashmir made from the wool of the Central Asian mountain goat are exquisitely embroidered, soft and light in weight and yet amazingly warm and cosy.

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Appliqué and metal works of Orissa is about 850 years old. Intricate stitches and mind blowing embroidery techniques make this handicraft one of a kind.

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The clay handicrafts originated in India during the Indus valley civilization. One of the famous clay crafts are the Terracota crafts of Assam.

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Marble carving of Agra is one of the most beautiful crafts. Intricately carved pieces with floral and geometric designs is a testimony to the patience and dedication of the master craftsmen.

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Indians also had expertise in carvings on metals like bronze, silver, gold etc . The Filigree carvings of Andhra Pradesh stand out among them. It is astounding to see how craftsmen painstaking create delicately carved metal with beautiful patterns.

There art forms are not even one percent of the whole! There’s so much creativity crammed into every nook and corner of the country that it would take ages to explore and enjoy the beauty of each one of them.

Believe it or not – That’s Incredible India!