INDIA’S ANCIENT CULTURE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 722, 23 July 1929, Page 9

INDIA’S ANCIENT CULTURE

FIVE THOUSAND YEARS OF CIVILISA'I'ION EFFECT ON WESTERN WORLD Archaeological discoveries in North-West lndia in recent years have proved that India's civilisation and culture equals, if not excels, that of the dynasties of Egypt and Mesopotamia, previously believed to be the oldest civilised centres of the world. A vivid, realistic and fascinating picture of the varying phases of India‘s history and culture through the ages, Professor Mitra, anthropolo. gist, of Calcutta University, draw for the audience that crowded the University College Hall last evening. Indian culture along with China, occupied a special niche in world civilisation. Other nations had come and gone, new civilisationa had been built up on the ruins of the old, new people and new religions had arisen. but there 'was still the same continuity and life in India's culture. The first chapter of the human drama in which he claimed India had played a part was in the creation at man in the tertiary age, and he expounded in this connection an inter. esting side-light on the evolution of man from the apes. Denudation of the forests of Central Asia, by the rising of the earth. he asserted, was held to be responsible for certain types of apes to begin using the hands, and developing the brain, and in support he cited the discoveries in the Himalayas in India of fragments of jawbones and teeth similar to those of an evolutionary character found in England and Germany. Thus it was obvious that India was near the centre 0! human evolution, the skulls showing the transitional stages. WHEN EGYPT FLOURISHED Transporting the audience next to North-West India, the professor said that archaeologists had unanimously agreed that the discovery there oi! the ruins of a buried city on the banks of. the Indus had definitely proved that Indian civilisation was at least. i 5,000 years old—equal at least to the civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. In the excavations copper work and stone knives were unearthed. and similar finds had been made in other archaeological exploration in other parts of India. The coming of Buddhism in the sixth century, 8.C., and its influence on Indian lite, and its expansion to China. Japan and the Malaya, was graphically described, the lecturer re‘ferring particularly to the magnificence and artistry of the people whose culture found expression in the lifelike rock carvings and painting. Invasion of the north of India hundreds of years later by the Greeks had been of mutual benefit to art, the lecturer asserted. The spiritualism of the East was embodied with the materialism or the W'est with wonderfully artistic effect. In the 10th century, A.D., when por‘ztion of India, then decadent, fell easy xprey to the invading Mohammedan. a new influence on Indian culture was introduced, one which was lastingly reflected today in the beautiful marble ot the Taj Mahai and other magnificent architecture in other parts of India. which incorporated the best of the Hindu and Moslem ideas. COMING OF SCIENCE The greatest era. in India's culture was perhaps the third century AD. when literature, art, philosophy and drama flourished vigorously; scientists were then expounding the theory that; the earth revolved round the sun, while mathematics and medical treat!ises, which were to have so profound an influence on the mediaeval world, itcnturies later, were being developed. India today was not a decadent counI try of child widows and other horrors. ‘ihe professor said. Statistics proved lit and India was not laying in the rule inf old civilisation. Its area of agriH‘ultural fields was more than equal to {the miliivated area of the United ; States, its factories employed millions. 12nd its exports and imports were equal 'im those of first—rate nations. proving ironclusively that she had shared in ‘ihc industrial revolution of the last fcentury. Still. however, India lived ilher own life. aiming at the perfection "if the spiritual rather than the 'material world. She was vitally cunr‘orned, however. with her position in relation to n'hrr parts. of the world. and he stronzly appealed for the ac-'(-eptan<-e of India‘s a't "Ant culture as .1 a contribution for the welfare of tho Lhuman raw". There were many afliniK tics hrs? ween India and the Pacific. and ', hotter understanding between the : rapes wrmlll liF- of mutual br-neiit. I On thi- ni'-"Zun 01 Sir George Frnvhls ; 11w l“'_=‘-!"'l‘ was ('("'Ol'd(‘!I :1 ll":ll"_Y 2'0"; vi thank .