Interesting facts about India

thx murthy sir, besides  being very informative, it gives us a tremendous sense of pride in our Bharat. let me add two more. Siachen is the highest battle field in the world. also, the highest golf course (now accepted by guiness as well) is located just short of Nathu La in Sikkim. it is also wonderful to see so many of our friends writing with such pride about our country. long live the spirit of "our bharat". that is India's "soft power". my respects.

A Kashmiri is as different as possible from a Dravidian & a Marathi is very different from a Naga. Yet we all feel are Indians. I do not know any county in the world that has such diversity of cultures, religions, geographical topography etc... but still maintains a feeling of nationhood. Really a wonder. 

sanskrit is also the most complex language in the world. in english v have only singular n plural bt in sanskrit v hav ek vachan dui vachan n bahu vachan.
also the hindu religion wich originated in india is the only religion in the world whose time of birth is not know!!
v missed about our holy river. its the only water body whose water does'nt gets germs.
really our india is incredible. v need to maintain this 
jai hind jai bharat!!!

sir thanx for this excellent information. we all should be proud to be an indian.  our civilization is the greatest civilization in this world. Still there is more to learn about india and its spirituality.  I have seen many foreigners in places like varanasi and in stretches of Himalayan mountains exploring about our spirituality which thought every thing to us.  I have seen an swiss national who spend 12 years of his life in learning naadi jyosyam and he lives like an ancient indian in his own country and speaks excellent telugu and sanskrit.  I salute to my country.  The greatest contribution to this nation will be following its core values. 

Thanks for sharing these facts, Murthy Sir.

lovely insight sir:)

Yes, about time!! We knew it all along, didn't we???

ACTUALLY...If the leave results UNPRODUCTIVE..@ the End of the DAY...

Amazing, good to read but where do we stand.........................

The world is opening to what our ancestors have taught us that is why we see a lots of people in Europe and America turning towards spiritualism and Sanatan. 

Thanks for sharing Mr Murthy. 
Yet ironically most Indians do not seem to have much knowledge, pride or respect for roots.

Thank you, Namrataji !

interesting facts!! thanks Mr. Murthy.

Really Nice Article Sir, thanks for sharing with us.

To sum up, Our fore-fathers knew the Universe very well which helped the other thinkers to corroborate the vision perpetrated by the Great Ancient Scholars of BharatVarsha. 

Carl Sagan was highly influenced by the Vedic texts on the existence of our Universe. It is their realization which has led to many astounding inventions and knowledge to have had passed the legacy to the later philosophers and visionaries across the world including the Greeks, Persians, Chinese etc...  

I am fan of your all articles sir as usual it's amasing  

now the chinese claim that chess was invented by them,i for one think otherwise--->

The earliest precursor of modern chess is a game called Chaturanga, which flourished in India by the 6th century, and is the earliest known game to have two essential features found in all later chess variations — different pieces having different powers (which was not the case with Checkers and Go), and victory depending on the fate of one piece, the king of modern chess.[11] Other game pieces (speculatively called "chess pieces") uncovered in archaeological findings are considered as coming from other, distantly related, board games, which may have had boards of 100 squares or more.[11]

Chess was designed for an ashtāpada (Sanskrit for "having eight feet", i.e. an 8x8 squared board), which may have been used earlier for a backgammon-type race game.[18] Ashtāpada, the uncheckered 8�8 board served as the main board for playing Chaturanga.[19] Other Indian boards included the 10�10 Dasapada and the 9�9 Saturankam.[19] Traditional Indian chessboards often have X markings on some or all of squares a1 a4 a5 a8 d1 d4 d5 d8 e1 e4 e5 e8 h1 h4 h5 h8: these may have been "safe squares" where capturing was not allowed in a dice-driven backgammon-type race game played on the ashtāpada before chess was invented.[18]

A theory started in the late 19th century, mainly from the works of Captain Hiram Cox and Duncan Forbes, that the four-handed game chaturaji was the original form of chaturanga.[20]. Other scholars dispute this and say that the two-handed form was the first.[21]

In Sanskrit, "Chaturanga" literally means "having four limbs (or parts)" and in epic poetry often means "army" (the four parts are elephants, chariots, horsemen, foot soldiers[12]). The name came from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic Mahabharata.[11] The game Chaturanga was a battle simulation game[12] which rendered Indian military strategy of the time.[22].

Some people formerly played chess using a dice to decide which piece to move. There was an unproven theory that chess started as this dice-chess and that the gambling and dice aspects of the game were removed because of Hindu and Muslim religious objections.[23]. Such theories arose later among some Christian religious bodies in Europe, resulting in some priests trying to forbid chess as a game of chance, including forbidding the diceless version by classing it as an "evasion".[24]

The Arab scholar Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī detailed the use of chess as a tool for military strategy, mathematics, gambling and even its vague association with astronomy in India and elsewhere.[7] Mas'ūdī notes that ivory in India was chiefly used for the production of chess and backgammon pieces, and asserts that the game was introduced to Persia from India, along with the book Kelileh va Demneh, during the reign of emperor Nushirwan.[7]

In some variants, including in its Arabic form shatranj, a win was by checkmate, or by stalemate, or by "bare king" (taking all of an opponent's pieces except the king).

In some parts of India the pieces in the places of the Rook and Knight and Bishop were renamed by words meaning (in this order) Boat, Horse, Elephant, or Elephant, Horse, Camel, but keeping the same moves.[18]

In early chess the moves of the pieces was:

* King: as now.
* Queen: one square diagonally, only.
* Bishop:
o In the version that went into Persia: two squares diagonally (no more or less), but could jump over a piece between
o In a version sometimes found in India in former times: two squares sideways or front-and-back (no more or less), but could jump over a piece between.
o In versions found in Southeast Asia: one square diagonally, or one square forwards.
* Knight: as now.
* Rook: as now.
* Pawn: one square forwards (not two); captured as now. Promoted to queen only.

India is an ancient and extremely interesting civilization. Not only were many of the individuals able to think ahead of their time, there are also some ancient India inventions that are quite noteworthy. Some of these may only be considered to be an idea or concept but they gave rise to some notable inventions over the years.

As with most ancient cultures, India was interested in the universe, both in the origin of the universe and in the sky that they looked at during the day and at night. That is why one of the more notable ancient Indian inventions came about as a result of this interest. A man by the name of Aryabhata was an inventor and a mathematician that lived around 1500 years ago. Some of the concepts that he came up with were mathematical equations, one of which explained the rotation of the earth on its axis. This concept was far ahead of its time but he was fairly accurate in his description of it. He also came up with a lot of other ideas about the solar system but many of them were flawed because he considered the earth to be the center of the solar system, not the sun. Aryabhata is often given credit for coming up with the number zero and using it as a placeholder but more than likely, this was used centuries before.

Another interesting theory that came from this general area, came about during the fourth century B.C. A man by the name of Panini came up with the first concept for a spoken and written language. Through a series of some 4000 different rules, this was the first time that a language was described in such a way and it is rare for it to have taken place, up until modern times.

There are also several ancient Indian inventions which may not have taken place as a result of original thinking. There is some speculation that people from this area visited the area of ancient Greece and that many of the ancient India inventions may have traveled back with those visitors. It is also possible, however, that the ideas were taken from India and the Greeks were given the credit for coming up with the concepts for these inventions.

    Plastic surgery: Plastic surgery was being carried out in India by 2000 BCE. The system of punishment by deforming a miscreant's body may have led to an increase in demand for this practice. The surgeon Sushruta contributed mainly to the field of Plastic and Cataract surgery. The medical works of both Sushruta and Charak were translated into Arabic language during the Abbasid Caliphate (750 CE). These translated Arabic works made their way into Europe via intermidiateries. In Italy the Branca family of Sicily and Gaspare Tagliacozzi of Bologna became familiar with the techniques of Sushruta.

thanks sir /....Amazing and interesting facts ....
             That's why I LOVE MY INDIA....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/oldest-university-on-earth-is-reborn-after-800-years-2042518.html

Some say Nalanda and some say Taxila :)

http://wikimapia.org/7359843/Takshashila-Taxila-By-RAFI-RAZA-SDQ-The-Oldest-University-in-the-world

Please refer to Arthashastra (Sanskrit for The knowledge of Economics)
Said to have been written in Taxila by Chanakya, he was a teacher in Taxila... :)

http://www.astrojyoti.com/historicindianfirsts.htm

Well, we just cannot rely on one website however we should try to find some more source to authenticate the claim made by this websites as we all know that there are websites which tries to sell... :)

Nice and inspiring information.
Thanx for sharing.

Good and interesting facts are there in your message...Thanks....

Good & nice  information ,Thanks

nice information... thanks for sharing with us sir.

Very Interesting Info Sir, Thanks for Sharing

It's really very amazing and interesting..Thanks for sharing with us Sir.
I think every one should know this facts and especially to those who always criticize India.So, they can also be proud to be an INDIAN.

excellent information. And thanks for sharing.

Sir Never to forget the starting number in any mathematical manner is ZERO (0) was also provided by India through Aryabhatta the greatest astronomer.  
My point of giving this information is only to enhance my countries contribution to the whole world and mankind.

Yes sir, very interesting fact and i did not know about some facts. Thanks sir for referal,

Astonishing facts.  

......The world's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education...... Now we dont have atleast one world class University today.  Universities are becoming agitation hubs. Professors are involved in agitations and terrorist activities.

Forgot to add one more.....Sanskrit is the mother of all the European Languages . Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software - a report in Forbes magzine July 1987.