Maverick's World

My problem with the "Ancient India was Sooooo Advanced" bullshit

So some jackass decided to go up and present nonsense about ancient Indians knowing about "Stem Cells" because in the Mahabharat there is a description of what sounds similar to a modern cloning experiment.

I'll admit it - I think it is hugely entertaining to spout this kind of nonsense to set off idiots but there is a major problem with this narrative. This is why I don't go around using this line of discussion to troll the immensely stupid*.

Let's assume that that whole "ancient India was AWESOME" story is somehow real. That the Mahabharat and Ramayana were stories of a very real, very fratricidal and very genocidal war. Under that line of thought, there idea of a lost world of technology gains ground.

One might make the case in that limit - that India was once a technological superpower but then regressed (technologically and sociologically) due to a war that wiped out significant portions of socially forward and technologically innovative communities.

So far so good. In fact it all sounds highly believable (how many times have we seen this same tape played over and over in Modern Europe over the last 200 years?)

Then it all goes bad.

The immediate question that comes to mind is - so why is it that in the intervening thousands of years - has India not been able to claim it lost prowess back?

Yes Yes Yes - I know "EVILLL MOOSSLIMS" etc... you might say but that is bullshit. Clearly Chandragupta Maurya was a Hindu emperor who ruled all of India several hundred years before Islam came into being. So why is there no mention of cellphones in the Maurya empire? did Chanakya have email address that I don't know about? - Did Ashoka learn about Buddhism on the internet? .. No ... so clearly Muslim rule have nothing to do with India's continued state of technological regression.

And of course as with all things only Brahmins are the custodians of true knowledge of all matters (And being one myself - I should know a thing or two also) but then why did Brahmins emphasize rote memorization over the rediscovery and rejuvenation of Indian science and technology?

Why was there no Indian renaissance led by Brahmins who sought to rediscover "Ancient Indian" technological secrets?

Or did they rediscover them after the age of the epics and never thought it worth their while to share them outside a few guilds who served their interests?

What was done with the wealth earned from such rediscovery? - stashed away in "Gupt Dhan" under the myriad tunnels that run below major Indian temples?

Dear readers - do you get my drift?

Stating India was an "Ancient Technological Superpower" is path to extremely uncomfortable questions about why and how India remains so underdeveloped today and why there are so many temples with secret basements full of gold!

I get it - your friend feels depressed about his/her science experiments and you tell them a story about ancient India's glory so that they feel better - but this is best left a bedtime story.

Unless you want to answer the questions I have raised above - you might want to stop with this "Ancient India Technological" nonsense.

* the only exception to the above is making up this kind of rubbish to get the fanatically foolish to part with legitimate research funds. If that is what the unnamed jackass was doing, I withdraw my opposition completely - good work my friend!!

posted by maverick @ 12:58 PM