Said al-Andalusi wrote Ṭabaqāt al-ʼUmam (Categories of Nations) in Muslim Spain in 1068.
It is a fascinating text that assesses the sciences of different nations.
He says that the sciences are most advanced in India (calling it the first nation in science).
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Other nations with sciences are Persians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Arabs, Jews.
He says remaining nations do not have sciences.
He gives a summary of main contributions.
Translation (by S.I. Salem and Alok Kumar) published Univ of Texas Pr., Austin, 1991.
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King of China is "king of humans" for the Chinese people are obedient to authority.
King of India is "king of wisdom" for Indians love the sciences (ulum) and are advanced in all forms of knowledge.
King of Turks is "king of lions" because of courage & ferocity of Turks.
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Sa'id al-Andalusi:
"The Indians are the essence of wisdom, source of fairness and objectivity. They are the peoples of sublime pensiveness, universal apologues, and useful and rare inventions."
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Andalusi has chapters on religion of different nations.
He says apart from the ritual of the Brahmins, Indians follow the Sabian religion (Shaiva religion?) that believes in the eternity of the world and the connections between the stars and worldly life (astrology).
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Andalusi's description of the pre-Islamic Arab religion is ASTONISHING.
He says their religion was a form of Sabian religion: "All the worshipers of idols, among the Arabs, believed in the unity of Allah, the Highest, but they worshiped idols as a form of Sabian religion."
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The link to the book "Science in Medieval World: Book of the Categories of Nations" published by University of Texas Press.
Encyclo. Britannica: "Etymologically, the name Allah is a contraction of the Arabic al-Ilāh, “the God.” The name’s origin can be traced to Il or El, the latter being used in the Hebrew Bible." Many see this the same as Ila इल or इला of the Veda.
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इल a. -ला 1 Earth; पुष्टिकाम इलां यजेत् Bhāg.2.3. -2 A cow; Bhāg.3.18 -3 Speech; Bhāg.1.13.64. &c. see इडा. -गोलः, -लम् the earth, the globe. -तलम् 1 the fourth place in t the zodiac. -2 the earth. -धरः a mountain; -वृत्तम् one of the nine Varṣas of the known world. (Apte)
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Looking from his vantage point (1068 CE), al-Andalusi sees that China and Northern Europe have no sciences.
A history lesson here: sustaining progress in science requires a proper mixture of cultural values and material prosperity.
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Shiva is Universal Consciousness (Bhagavad Gītā 5.29 calls the inner Self “Maheśvara”, the Great Īśvara, another name for Śiva) and Nandi is the individual who keeps vigil, & the gaze unites the two.
Nandi is patient.
Nandi in Kashi got to see Shiva again after 353 years.
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The land was in darkness, but Nandi remained steadfast in faith.
Shiva is Pashupati & the individual (paśu) is in bondage (pāśa) to embodied nature. For freedom, one needs the equivalence with Pashupati, which is celebrated as the deep experience of Śivoham.
In the theatre where I saw Kashmir Files, a tall young American man a few rows down from us, let out a terrifying scream near the end of the movie and ran out.
He was crying he couldn't take the pain, but he must have crept back in for I saw him again as the movie ended.
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A different movie that captured deep pain is Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers, a movie on the horrors of emptiness, of betrayal of oneself.
This one captures the naked faces of evil, deceit, and betrayal, all hidden under the mask of ordinariness.
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If this movie has captured the public imagination, it is also because it is a contrast from the mostly vacuous and shallow stuff Bollywood produces.
For a long time, the Indian audience has been patient with shallow, cleverly-packaged stories good to kill couple hours.
3)
I just saw the amazing Kashmir Files in Miami this afternoon.
It is a great movie not only because it speaks truth to power in ways not done in cinema for a long time; it exposes layers of deceit within the echo-system of Indian media, academic, and power establishments.
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The horror of the cultural and physical genocide of Kashmiri Hindus is a searing story.
Compared to the genocide and sexual-slavery of the Yazidis, it is more terrifying psychologically, because while the Yazidis have returned home, the Kashmiri remains in perpetual exile.
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And in a diabolical twist, media accounts of the exodus made it out as if the Kashmiri Hindus had brought the tragedy upon themselves.
As one who grew up in Kashmir, I can say that this was a system that normalized public and private humiliation and insults to them.
3)
Western experts are shocked by the election results in India, because their contacts in the Indian Anglosphere (IA) had assured them this won’t happen.
The IA after 75 years of political independence is clueless and in a bubble, seeing India through the colonizer’s eyes.
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This view of India is racist, and false, and bizarrely, the IA has embraced self-hate.
The British destroyed India’s education and economy, stole 35 trillions dollars worth of wealth, precipitated devastating famines, and somehow convinced Indians it was all their fault.
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The IA speaks of patriarchy in India but doesn’t speak about the est. 3-5 million executed as “witches” in Europe from the 15th century on; women who resisted for the sake of own livelihood.
It considers Indian culture regressive and ridicules Indian customs and festivals.
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कहां राजा भोज कहां गंगू तेली is corrupt form of कहां राजा भोज कहां गंगेय तेलंग
Gangeya Telang was king of Telang country who was his ally sometime and also a rival.
This saying indicates that Bhoja was absolutely incomparable in royalty and achievement.
Also the story of Raja Bhoja and Kalidasa is like a novelistic thing in a play (because they didn't belong to the same time) quite like A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur.
To understand the jibe by an MP in the Indian Parliament who called Hindus go-mutra drinkers, note that India may have gained political independence but it remains intellectually colonized.
It is under the heel of Anglosphere-sepoys of European racism.
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The racism is perpetuated using language and colonial ideas that are so embedded in the school and media narratives that they are taken to be the truth.
The sepoys say:
-Hindus are not mature enough to run their temples
-their festivals are profane and noisy
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-their languages are judged not fit for the courts
-it is all right for people to mock their gods and their manners, but if they reply in kind they are put in jail
-they are told that they should accept insults in silence and just work hard
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