1 definition by Prashant Mishra
India is the world's largest, oldest, continuous civilization. Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth.
Here are a few facts about this great country:
-India is the world's largest democracy.
-India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
-Grammar constitutes one of India's greatest contributions to Western philology.Panini, the Sanskrit grammarian, who lived between 750 and 500 BC, was the first to compose formal grammar through his Astadhyai.
-The World's first university was established in Takshashila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
-Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software (Report in the Forbes magazine,July 1987)
-Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization
-The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'
-Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days.
-Varanasi, also known as Benares, was called "the ancient city" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C.E, and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.
-India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.
- The game of Chess,BeejGanit(known better by its Arabic name 'Algebra') are another contributions of India to the world.
by Prashant Mishra November 15, 2006