Nitin Singhania Test: Indian Culture Abroad - UPSC MCQ

The naval trade with various countries during the ancient and medieval times platrole in the spread of Indian culture abroad. The detailed account of the India can be found from the books Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and Geographia. During Mauryan rule, the Navadyaksha, i.e., Superintendent of Shipping used to look after the shipping administration. The coins of the last Satavahana king Yajna Sri Satakarni contained the figure of ships, probably indicating the naval strength of the dynasty.

Puhar - Tamil Nadu

Zero was invented by Aryabhatta. Indians, as early as 500 BCE, had devised a system of 500 BCE, had devised Pa system of different symbols for every number from one to nine. This notation system was adopted by the Arabs called it the numerals. Moreover, the maritime traders took the decimal system to Arabia. The Arabs acknowledged their debt to India by calling mathematics "hindisat' (pertaining to India). The concepts were later adopted by the western world from there. The binary number system was first described by the Vedic scholar Pingala, in his book Chhanda Shastra which is the earliest known Sanskrit treatise on prosody (the study of poetic metres and verse) in the 3rd/2nd century BC.

India was actively contributing to the field of science and technology centuries long before modern laboratories were set up. Many theories and techniques discovered by the ancient Indians have created and strengthened the fundamentals of modern science and technology. Indian scientist Bhaskaracharya (5th century) contributed to world by rightly calculating the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. His calculation was - Time taken by earth to orbit the sun is 365.258756484 days. Kanad devised the atomic theory centuries before John Dalton was born. He speculated the existence of Anu or a small indestructible particles, much like an atom.

Ancient Indians developed Wootz Steel which was used to make Damascus swords of yore that could cleave a free-falling silk scarf of wood with the same ease. It was known by different names such Hindwani and Seric Iron. The first iron-cased rockets were developed in the 1780s by Tipu Sultan of Mysore who successfully used these rockets against the larger forces of the British East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. Shampoo originated from India.

The word shampoo is derived from Hindi wordchamp and dates to 1762. The shampoo itself originated in the eastern regions ofthe Mughal Empire where it was introduced as a head massage, usually consisting of alkali, natural oils and fragrances. Shampoo was first introduced in Britain by a Bengali entrepreneur from Bihar named Sake Dean Mahomed. Cataract surgery was first found in ancient India.

King Ashoka made great efforts to propagate Buddhism outside India sent his son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra to Sri Lanka to spread the message of the Buddha. The teachings of the Buddha were transmitted orally by the Srilankan people who had gone from India. For around 200 years the people of Sri Lanka preserved the recitation of Buddhist scriptures as transmitted by Mahendra. The first monasteries built there are Mahavihava and Abhayagiri. The Dipvamsa and Mahavamsa are well known Sri Lankan Buddhist sources. Thonmi Sambhota, a Tibetan minister was a student at Nalanda. Thonmi Sambhota studied there and after going back, he preached Buddhism in Tibet. A large number of Tibetans embraced Buddhism. Even the king became a Buddhist. He declared Buddhism as the State religion. Many Chinese and Indian scholars travelled through ancient Silk routes to propagate the philosophy of Buddhism.

People from all over the world came to visit the land of the Buddha. They stayed in India and collected Buddhist relics and manuscripts related to Buddhism and learnt about its sayings at the various educational centres. Buddhism went to Korea through China. Sundo was the first Buddhist Monk who entered Korea, carrying a Buddha image and sutras in AD 352. He was followed by Acharya Mallananda, who reached there in AD 384. Out of devotion to wisdom, Buddhist texts were printed by the Koreans in six thousand volumes. In Japan, Buddhism is given the status of State Religion. Thousands of Japanese became monks and nuns.

India (780 languages) has the world's second highest number of languages, after Papua New Guinea (839). Sanskrit which originated from India is the mother of all European languages. Thousands of Sanskrit books were translated into Chinese. Sanskrit was accepted as the sacred language in Japan. Even today, there is a keen desire among the Japanese scholars to learn Sanskrit. Bengali Language is also the official language of Bangladesh. Tamil Language is also the official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore. In Myanmar, people developed their own Pali language and translated both Buddhist and Hindu scriptures in their version of Pali.

The Nalanda Mahavihara established in the 5th century AD, was one of the greatest achievements of India in the field of Education. Hiuen Tsang, a Chinese Buddhist traveller, studied at Nalanda for two years under the guidance of Shilabhadra. He was given an Indian name Mokshadeva here. I-Tsing, a Chinese Buddhist traveller stayed at Nalanda for 10 years. Shantarakshita, who pioneered the propagation of Buddhism in Tibet in the 8th century, was a scholar of Nalanda. Other scholars associated with Nalanda Mahavihara included Aryabhatta, Atisha, Dignaga, Dharmapala and Nagarjuna.

Indian Sports and Games Abroad Chess, snakes and ladder, playing cards, Polo, the martial arts of Judo and Karate which is played worldwide actually originated in ancient India. The game of snakes and ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandey. It was originally called 'Mokshapat'. The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. Chess is believed to have originated in Eastern India in the Gupta Empire where its early form was known as Chaturanga. It also finds its mention in Mahabharata. Kho-Kho originated in Maharashtra in ancient times where Kho-Kho was played on 'raths' or chariots, and was known as Rathera. It is now played in different countries. India invented card game called Suits. Kridapatram which also means paintedrags for playing', is an ancient suits game.