INDIA AS THE MOTHER OF THE WORLD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 419, 4 August 1908, Page 4

INDIA AS THE MOTHER OF THE WORLD.

The Hon. Alex. Del Mar, writing in the Indian Review claims that nearly everything on which the Western world prides itself was originally introduced from India. The vine came from the base of the Himalayas ; the olive and the fig, mustard and indigo, muslin and silk all came from India. All the simples and drugs of Egypt, Greece and Rome were imported from India. The invention of felted paper is Chinese, and of ink is Indian. The incense-bearing plants, frankincense, myrrh, and the balsams, employed in the religious ceremonies of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Greece and Rome, all of them, even the flowers used in temple decorations, the rose of Miletus, the rose of Paugseus, fhe roses of Jericho, of Damascus, of Alabanda, the lily of Persia, the lotus, saffron, and hyacinth came originally from India. The horse also came from Asia. Tin came directly from India. Iron was made in India long before it was known in the West, But it was not merely in the industrial arts that India and China led the Western world; they led it in astronomy, medicine, the graphic arts, and in legislation.