This is what I came across while reading the book, "The Laws of Manu" (by Wendy Doniger) and I wanted to share it with you. The following (in italics) are the paragraphs in the beginning of the book. Here, Manu ('Indian Adam', for those of you who do not know) is explaining the origin of the universe to the maharshis.
Listen! Once upon a time this (universe) was made of darkness, without anything that could be discerned, without any distinguishing marks, impossible to know through reasoning or understanding; it seemed to be entirely asleep.
Then the Lord who is Self-existent, himself unmanifest, caused this (universe) to become manifest; putting his energy into the great elements and everything else, he became visible and dispelled the darkness.
You might've already observed one point here (and so did I). Doesn't it sound too familiar? Is it not something that we've heard and read before (somewhere in our social textbooks probably)? Yes people, I'm talking about the Big-Bang theory. The universe was as if it was non-existent, a point; which exploded and 'this' whole crap came out of it.
The first question that came into my mind was: "Could the scientists have picked this theory from hindu philosophy?" I mean, this book was written around 100 or 200 C.E. Going through some web-pages, I found out something fascinating. This theory is not only in Hinduism, but also, in other religions and philosophies too; Jainism, Sikhism, some 'nepal'ism (I don't remember the name), ... with some minor changes, of course. But, I think that this theory first originated from our sacred texts, considering the time when "Manusmriti" was composed.
Listen! Once upon a time this (universe) was made of darkness, without anything that could be discerned, without any distinguishing marks, impossible to know through reasoning or understanding; it seemed to be entirely asleep.
Then the Lord who is Self-existent, himself unmanifest, caused this (universe) to become manifest; putting his energy into the great elements and everything else, he became visible and dispelled the darkness.
....
....
(he goes on to describe how he created the entire universe; the planets, the sun, the moon, life on earth, ... and then at one point, everything is destroyed for this cycle to start over again.)....
You might've already observed one point here (and so did I). Doesn't it sound too familiar? Is it not something that we've heard and read before (somewhere in our social textbooks probably)? Yes people, I'm talking about the Big-Bang theory. The universe was as if it was non-existent, a point; which exploded and 'this' whole crap came out of it.
The first question that came into my mind was: "Could the scientists have picked this theory from hindu philosophy?" I mean, this book was written around 100 or 200 C.E. Going through some web-pages, I found out something fascinating. This theory is not only in Hinduism, but also, in other religions and philosophies too; Jainism, Sikhism, some 'nepal'ism (I don't remember the name), ... with some minor changes, of course. But, I think that this theory first originated from our sacred texts, considering the time when "Manusmriti" was composed.
well, tht might not be necessary...scientists came up with big-bang theory b'coz they observed tht all the stars and galaxies are moving away from one point with a certain speed as if blown from tht point...but ya, may be they were inspired by the idea from manusmriti...
ReplyDeleteIn the old times, India lo chaala knowledge undedi ra...chaala mandi saale gallu copy kottesi valle chesamu ani eguruthuntaaru...the concept of surgery is known to be invented by some foreigner when actually, a sage named 'sushrutha' did it ages ago...if i remember correctly, he used white ants for stiching the wounds
deja vu.
ReplyDeletewell... its not necessary that they copied the idea... its entirely possible that they got that idea on their own, which i believe is the case... and the theory gained acceptance after a lot of evidence and debating...
ReplyDeletei had just finished reading "Big Bang" by Simon Singh... This guy had Indian origins, so i had expected some mention of Indian contribution towards astronomy... but not even a single Indian was mentioned though an entire chapter was dedicated to the early greek ideas of the universe... now there could be 2 reasons for this... either there was no contribution from the Indian camp or the author is a pure asshole... :)
ReplyDelete@ pavan : Hmm ... interesting !!! probably the second option is true ... ;)
ReplyDelete