Contributions of India to the world

La India, that country that is more a continent in itself than a State, due to its millenary history and the great number of cultures who have lived in it is the founder of many artistic, philosophical, thought, scientific and engineering disciplines ... not to mention its gastronomy and the rich flavors that it has left us with multiple contributions from India.

These are some of the contributions of India to the world, since Alexander the Great, brought news of the technical, cultural and artistic advances developed in this subcontinent. 

To begin with, I will talk about the language, since it is considered that European languages ​​emerged in India. And there are important similarities between four of the oldest known languages: Sanskrit, Latin, Greek and Persian.

To be brief, I will tell you that the Indian grammarians made a classification of the elements that formerly constituted Sanskrit, which is completed with another comparative study of the phonetic and grammatical systems of European languages. The conclusion of both studies is that there was a Proto-Indo-European, the mother tongue common to the languages ​​studied, carrying out a reconstruction of the phonetic and grammatical features that it should have. Indo-European is a reconstructed language dating from around 3000 BC. C.

So using this language, which originated thousands of years ago in India, I will tell you about some other contributions of this culture to the rest.

India as the mother of philosophy

India is recognized as the mother of philosophy for it gave to human thought Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism. In the West it is assumed that philosophy was born in Greece, however this culture followed currents of thought and influences from other cultures.

Today the philosophies of India are being studied and some of its tools are being incorporated into our way of thinking, such as meditation poured into mindfulness, and it is that the main interest on the part of many people in today's society is the transformation so complete as possible, so that if successful, individually, but collectively, it will amount to a total conversion or rebirth.

You see, a way of thinking so old that in the XNUMXst century it is reaching millions of people outside its borders.

The sciences and contributions of India

Albert Einstein argued that the world owes much to the Hindus since they were the ones who taught how to count. India owes the science of algebra, the number system in general. It is clear that zero owes much to Aryabhatta, the first great mathematician and astronomer of the classical era of Indian mathematics and astronomy. He lived between the years 476 and 550, was born in Bihar, and mathematics is not understood without his concept of 0, although he did not use spelling and his studies of approximation to the number Pi.

In addition to in mathematics and astronomy the contemporary era owes much to traditional Indian medicine, Ayurveda. Interest in this medicine has been growing thanks to Research done in specialized centers, when it has been shown that Ayurvedic principles are compatible with modern medicine and can be scientifically proven.

Art as contributions from India

I do not want to end this article without talking about the contributions from India that are artistic and that the rest of the world owes to Hindu culture. And it is that we are fortunate to contemplate the beauty of such an exquisite monument as the Taj Mahal, a complex of buildings built between 1631 and 1654 in Agra by an emperor, Shah Jahan, King of the World, as a mausoleum for his favorite wife.

But if you decide to visit India, you cannot fail to admire other monumental works that bring beauty to the rest of the world, such as the Friday Mosque, in front of the Red Fort, in Delhi. The pink city of Jaipur, and its Hawa Mahal or Palace of the Winds, the Sun Temple of Konarak, Fatehpur or Qutab Minar, but if there is a monument that I think the rest of the world should thank India for, it is the Raj Ghat in New Delhi, dedicated to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, a simple place , almost a pilgrimage full of history and emotion. Because in the list of the most influential of the XNUMXth century, this man and his particular way of understanding politics cannot be forgotten. Without a doubt, he is one of the characters who changed history, not only because of the independence of India, but also because of the way, and that is the contribution he made to the rest of humanity.

Do you know more contributions from India that are worth highlighting?