Introduction To Indian Knowledge System PDF

INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM By Dr. Rahul Magar Assistant Professor Department of History Savitribai Phule Pune University [email protected] WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?...

INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM By Dr. Rahul Magar Assistant Professor Department of History Savitribai Phule Pune University [email protected] WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE? [email protected] ▪ Facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. (Oxford dictionary) ▪ The fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association (Marriam Webster dictionary) What is Knowledge? [email protected] & What is not? HOW DO WE CREATE A KNOWLEDGE? [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] “मा अतिप्राक्ष्यी, गागी”-Gargi, if you don't want your head to separate from your body, stop asking too many questions (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad). ▪ “Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not [email protected] believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” (Kalama Sutta)  [email protected] ANVIKSHIKI  [email protected] Four sciences Varta Danda-niti Trayi (three (agriculture (public Anvikshiki vedas) and administration) commerce)  [email protected] ▪ Anvikshiki ▪ Anu – smallest part of anything ▪ Ikshiki – person who wants to know ▪ ‘Science of inquiry’,‘right thinking’ ▪ “Aanvikshiki is always thought of as the lamp of all sciences, as the means of all actions and as the support of all laws and duties.” (Arthashastra) KUTUHALSHALA [email protected] ▪ The place for curiosities ▪ “Rivalries and debates were rife. Audiences gathered around the new philosophers in the kutuhala-shalas — literally, places for creating curiosity — in the parks and groves on the outskirts of the towns.” Anubhava Mandap Ibadatkhana [email protected] SCIENTIFIC TEMPER/ATTITUDE [email protected] “It is, generally taken for granted that the Hindus were a dreamy, mystical people given to metaphysical speculation and spiritual contemplation. Due credit is, no doubt, assigned to them for the production of such priceless treasures as the Upanishads, the Six Systems of Philosophy, including the abstruse Samkhya and the Gita, with their transcendental teachings. But the fact that the Hindus had very large hand in the cultivation of the experimental sciences is hardly known in these days.” (P.C. Ray, ‘The Hindu Chemistry)  [email protected] Consolidation of No Question Sspiritualistic caste based to existing knowledge approaches society ▪ “…they take the greatest possible care to withhold it from men of another caste among their own people, still much more, of course, from any foreigner. According to their belief, there is no other country on earth but theirs, no other race of man but theirs, and no created beings besides them have any knowledge [email protected] or science whatsoever. Their haughtiness is such that, if you tell them of any science or scholar in Khurasan and Persia, they will think you to be both an ignoramus and a liar. If they travelled and mixed with other nations, they would soon change their mind, for their ancestors were not as narrow-minded as the present generation is. One of their scholars, Varahamihira, in a passage where he calls on the people to honour the Brahmans, says: “The Greeks, though impure, must he honoured, since they were trained in sciences, and therein excelled others…In former times, the Hindus used to acknowledge that the progress of science due to the Greeks is much more important than that which is due to themselves.