In Search of the Cradle of Civilization

by Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak, David Frawley, et al.

Book Overview

For decades, schoolbooks have taught that Sumer was the cradle of civilization. Conventional scholarship has also held that Aryan civilization came to India by way of invasions from the north. But in this ground-breaking book, three renowned scholars show that there was no Aryan invasion, and that India, not Sumer, was the cradle of civilized humanity. Through exploring the rich symbols, metaphors, and myths of the Vedas, this book also examines the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0835607410
• ISBN13: 9780835607414
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Quest Books (IL)
• Length: 359 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The search ends here

Everything you wanted to know about the vedic civilization, its achievements in sciences, mathematics, spirituality etc. This book is an engrossing read, dishing out amazing facts in each page and leaves you in awe of the ancient Indians when you are done.

Really makes one think (or *re-think*).

Barring a couple of weak arguments, the book is simply un-putdownable. A sound example of challenging the Aryan Invasion Theory with scholarship and intuition. The accompanying evidence is fairly compelling. Bravo!Some reviewers have been tremendously disturbed by the book's claims, but have not been courageous enough to go beyond irrational cursing to explicitly point out which evidence was untenable. This lack of open-mindedness is due to the colonial hangover of the eurocentric historians and professors who are now struggling to explain the new evidence with their outdated "racial-superiority" theories. Excuse their students, who are often these agitated reviewers. And for a more balanced discussion, read Edwin Bryant's "Indo-Aryan Controversy".New rational and scientific research, however, is bringing out the truth everyday. E.g. see Thomas McEvilley's "The Shape of Ancient Thought". Meanwhile, the suppression of the Indian (Hindu) contributions will continue in the Western academia, and with the help of some Indian scholars at that! To understand their imperialist motives of establishing the "Western superiority", read Ronald Inden's "Imagining India".Here's an instance of how this works - the currently held belief about the Indian contribution to astronomy is hardly more than transmitting the Babylonian and Greek sources. Modern research has sufficient evidence to, in fact, suggest an opposite direction of transmission! Scholarly works like astronomer Richard Thompson's "Mysteries of the Sacred Universe" thwarts the attempt to show ancient Indian studies (Puranas) as mythological fluff, as supported by the words of Carl Sagan, the eminent astronomer from Cornell, "...that wonderful aspect of Hindu cosmology which first of all gives a time-scale for the Earth and the universe - a time-scale which is consonant with that of modern scientific cosmology. ...As far as I know, it is the only ancient religious tradition on Earth which talks about the right time-scale." In sharp contrast, the Judeo-Christian universe is merely a few thousand years old!The reviewer, being a mathematician, knows how terribly unfairly the ancient Indian contributions in math have been ignored (e.g. Indians used the Pythagorus theorem centuries before Pythagorus). The mid-Eastern traders not only carried to the West the *Zero* and the *Arabic* numerals from India, but almost the entire school-arithmetic of today! The Indian ancients were the first to discover not only Algebra (incl. Number Theory), Trigonometry, and Calculus; but even subjects such as Logic, Linguistics, and Computational math (e.g. accurate calculation of pi or sine). They knew Binary notation, and the Sanskrit grammar was available in Backus-Naur-Form (the same used for the computer-languages today)!! This goes on and on...To understand better where *exactly* the shoe pinches for the eurocentric theorists, many of whom are *distinguished Indologists* with Judeo-Christian affiliations, do sample the B

Renders all previous studies of Ancient India obsolete.

George Feuerstein is an excellent writer who is always lively and has many fine books to his credit. In the present book he and his two collaborators - Sanskritist Subhash Kak and Vedic scholar David Frawley - have set out to bring us up to speed on the true nature of Ancient India and the profound importance and continuing significance of Indian thought for world civilization. By fully taking into account the mass of evidence which has been accumulating over the past century, evidence from archaeology, satellite surveys, linguistic studies, etc., which a Eurocentric and reactionary 'educational' establishment continues to ignore, the authors have written an exciting and revolutionary book which pretty well renders obsolete all previous studies of Ancient India. In other words, it is a book which clearly demonstrates that much of what we have been taught about Ancient India (and which our highly paid academics continue to teach) is complete nonsense. But perhaps this will surprise no-one. The book falls into two parts. In the first we learn that there was no such thing as an 'Aryan invasion' of India. It is a myth based upon a few idle conjectures of Max Muller along with a couple of scraps of misinterpreted evidence, an ideology masquerading as historical 'fact' (as is so much else today) because it fitted in so well with the Imperialist ambitions and racialism of the West. India has always been multi-racial and multi-cultural, and the 'Aryans' were there all along. The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro were abandoned, not because of any supposed 'Aryan invasion,' but for the simple reason that the vast and sustaining Sarasvati river dried up c.1900 B.C., and the people of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization had to relocate further East to the region of the Ganges. The Indians have no memory of an 'Aryan invasion.' There is no evidence of an invasion and no sign of the cultural break that such an invasion would have caused. On the contrary, India exhibits a striking continuity of culture which qualifies it as the world's oldest living continuous civilization, and one that stretches back to at least 6000 B.C, if not much further. As portrayed by the authors, the rich and highly advanced Indus-Sarasvati civilization - a civilization of sages, priests, philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, musicians, astronomers, artists, architects, engineeers, navigators, artisans, farmers and merchants covered an area of over 300,000 square miles (in contrast to Ancient Egypt's 15,000 square miles and Sumer's even smaller area). It held over 2500 settlements, towns, and cities, and conducted an extensive commerce with Arabia, Africa, and the Middle East. Also, where influences can be determined, they flowed, not from West to East but from East to West. In short, pace Sumerian scholar Samuel Noah Kramer, everything did not begin in Sumer. It was neither Sumer nor Egypt that was the cradle of civilization. It was India. Chapter 9, 'Why

A FRESH and REVEALING LOOK AT SACRED INDIA!

Although this monumental work may seem far from complete to some, it contains a lot of sound evidence and good insights into a more accurate and believble history of ancient India. The authors did cover a great deal in the space of this book and tied it all together in a consistent and integrated manner.Although it may take a few more years of archeological digging and the translating of ancient works to further the clearer picture effectively begun by these authors. This book will be a sound basis for rethinking of the real history of this Holy land. They have made a great use of most 20th century (and earlier) discoveries and data to support their views. They did this with the courage to tread a new path of invesigation. This is a great improvement upon the long held myths that were concocted by European scholars who still thought their culture was the origin and geographical center of God's great creation. Many do not realize that the rest of the world was not caught up in flat earth ideas.I don't think we have heard the last of these three authors, and look forward to any future work they may produce along these lines..

THE RECLAIMING INDIA'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO GLOBAL CIVILIZATION

This groundbreaking work could be considered as one of the 20th centuries-great contributions and scholarship on the history of humanities true historical progressions. The authors, Frawley, Kak, and Fuererstein have given us the cream of their accumulated erudition in this revealing study of Indian civilizations amazing gifts to the civilized world. It gives a refreshing and sound look at concepts that for too long have been incorrectly bent by the western mind views. This book will go far in helping to correct so many erroneous ideas about India and civilizations past in general, that have been in circulation far too long. It deals with many important matters concerning the flow of civilized knowledge and change, and symbology between India, the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa. The reader will gain many new insights regarding who did what in the global picture over the last 10,000 years, an excellent resource for students doing oriental, historical and anthropological research. I found this book very concise and believable, written in a simple style that the average reader will appreciate as well. Also recommended: Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda(x SRF Publishers), also supports many of the concepts put forth in this work and will extend your appreciation of India's contributions, especially in the spiritual area.