Will Durant, American historian:
"India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother
of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother,
through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the
Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the
village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is
in many ways the mother of us all".
Mark Twain, American author:
"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of
human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and
the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most
instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in
India only."
Albert Einstein, American
scientist: "We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to
count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have
been made."
Max Mueller, German scholar: If I
were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed
some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest
problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.
Romain Rolland, French scholar :
"If there is one place on the face of earth where all the
dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days
when man began the dream of existence, it is India."
Henry David Thoreau, American
Thinker & Author: Whenever I have read any part of the Vedas, I
have felt that some unearthly and unknown light illuminated me. In
the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of sectarianism.
It is of all ages, climbs, and nationalities and is the royal road
for the attainment of the Great Knowledge. When I read it, I feel
that I am under the spangled heavens of a summer night.
R.W. Emerson, American Author: In
the great books of India, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or
unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old
intelligence, which in another age and climate had pondered and thus
disposed of the questions that exercise us.
Hu Shih, former Ambassador of
China to USA: "India conquered and dominated China culturally
for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across
her border."
Keith Bellows, National Geographic
Society : "There are some parts of the world that, once
visited, get into your heart and won't go. For me, India is such a
place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the
land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to
overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its
colors, smells, tastes, and sounds... I had been seeing the world in
black & white and, when brought face-to-face with India,
experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor."
A Rough Guide to India: "It
is impossible not to be astonished by India. Nowhere on Earth does
humanity present itself in such a dizzying, creative burst of
cultures and religions, races and tongues. Enriched by successive
waves of migration and marauders from distant lands, every one of
them left an indelible imprint which was absorbed into the Indian
way of life. Every aspect of the country presents itself on a
massive, exaggerated scale, worthy in comparison only to the
superlative mountains that overshadow it. It is this variety which
provides a breathtaking ensemble for experiences that is uniquely
Indian. Perhaps the only thing more difficult than to be indifferent
to India would be to describe or understand India completely. There
are perhaps very few nations in the world with the enormous variety
that India has to offer. Modern day India represents the largest
democracy in the world with a seamless picture of unity in diversity
unparalleled anywhere else."
Mark Twain: "So far as I am
able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or
nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun
visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing
overlooked."
Will Durant, American Historian:
"India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature
mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all
human beings."
William James, American Author:
"From the Vedas we learn a practical art of surgery, medicine,
music, house building under which mechanized art is included. They
are encyclopedia of every aspect of life, culture, religion,
science, ethics, law, cosmology and meteorology."
Max Muller, German Scholar: "There
is no book in the world that is so thrilling, stirring and inspiring
as the Upanishads." ('Sacred Books of the East')
Dr Arnold Toynbee, British
Historian: "It is already becoming clear that a chapter which
had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is
not to end in the self-destruction of the human race. At this
supremely dangerous moment in history, the only way of salvation for
mankind is the Indian way."
Sir William Jones, British
Orientalist: "The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity
is of wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious
than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either."
P. Johnstone: "Gravitation
was known to the Hindus (Indians) before the birth of Newton. The
system of blood circulation was discovered by them centuries before
Harvey was heard of."
Emmelin Plunret: "They were
very advanced Hindu astronomers in 6000 BC. Vedas contain an account
of the dimension of Earth, Sun, Moon, Planets and Galaxies."
('Calendars and Constellations')
Sylvia Levi: "She (India) has
left indelible imprints on one fourth of the human race in the
course of a long succession of centuries. She has the right to
reclaim ... her place amongst the great nations summarizing and
symbolizing the spirit of humanity. From Persia to the Chinese sea,
from the icy regions of Siberia to Islands of Java and Borneo, India
has propagated her beliefs, her tales, and her civilization!"
Schopenhauer: "Vedas are the
most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible in
the world." (Works VI p.427)
Mark Twain: "India has two
million gods, and worships them all. In religion all other countries
are paupers; India is the only millionaire."
Colonel James Todd: "Where
can we look for sages like those whose systems of philosophy were
prototypes of those of Greece: to whose works Plato, Thales and
Pythagorus were disciples? Where do I find astronomers whose
knowledge of planetary systems yet excites wonder in Europe as well
as the architects and sculptors whose works claim our admiration,
and the musicians who could make the mind oscillate from joy to
sorrow, from tears to smile with the change of modes and varied
intonation?"
Lancelot Hogben: "There has
been no more revolutionary contribution than the one which the
Hindus (Indians) made when they invented ZERO." ('Mathematics
for the Millions')
Wheeler Wilcox: "India - The
land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas
for a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true.
Electricity, radium, electronics, airship, all were known to the
seers who founded the Vedas."
W. Heisenberg, German Physicist:
"After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the
ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much
more sense."
Sir W. Hunter, British Surgeon:
"The surgery of the ancient Indian physicians was bold and
skilful. A special branch of surgery was dedicated to rhinoplasty or
operations for improving deformed ears, noses and forming new ones,
which European surgeons have now borrowed."
Sir John Woodroffe: "An
examination of Indian Vedic doctrines shows that it is in tune with
the most advanced scientific and philosophical thought of the West."
B.G. Rele: "Our present
knowledge of the nervous system fits in so accurately with the
internal description of the human body given in the Vedas (5000
years ago). Then the question arises whether the Vedas are really
religious books or books on anatomy of the nervous system and
medicine." ('The Vedic Gods')
Adolf Seilachar & P.K. Bose,
scientists: "One Billion-Year-Old fossil prove life began in
India: AFP Washington reports in Science Magazine that German
Scientist Adolf Seilachar and Indian Scientist P.K. Bose have
unearthed fossil in Churhat a town in Madhya Pradesh, India which is
1.1 billion years old and has rolled back the evolutionary clock by
more than 500 million years."
Will Durant, American Historian:
"It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has
sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and
fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal
system."
