Sunday, 10 May 2015

Precedents and Subsequent Plagiarisms

Baudhayana provided the first documentation of what was later to become known as the "Pythagorean" Theorem about 300 years before Pythagoras travelled to India and studied the Vedas in the course of learning yoga. Even though the knowledge predates Baudhayana it was orally transferred without writing it down, which is why his Śulba Sūtra is the earliest record of the theorem.

There is no evidence that Pythagoras claimed authorship and this was most likely ascribed to him by the Greeks in promoting their nationalistic fame and fortune. As a humble ascetic he opened a monastery and accepted disciples to spread the teachings of ancient Vedic wisdom that he brought back with him.  

This is just one of many incidences dotted throughout European history where credit was never given to the actual original source of knowledge, but instead was claimed by plagiarism. Always, there is a gap of a hundred, perhaps two or three hundred years - even millenia sometimes - between the original "discovery" and the European authorship. The famous early Greeks Hippocrates, Plato, Euclid, etc all sourced from the Indian Subcontinent and the later Europeans Fibonnaci, Newton, Pascal, Bell, etc were notoriously slow off the mark.

All of the "dicoveries" that made these people famous were preceded by examples. There is virtually not a single Art, Philosophy, Science, Law, Theorem, Proof or Doctrine that is purely their own work. The newly formed empires and sovereign states of Europe were devoid of the ancient history and culture of established civilisations of not just India but China and even Meso-America. Their plundering didn't stop at physical property - the wealth of intellectual riches was also mined.


Table of Precedents and Subsequent Plagiarisms:
Many Western "discoveries" can be traced directly to Eastern origin.

Dates for the various Vedas vary due to disputation by Western "authorities". In many cases they were passed down orally for centuries if not millenia. Written scriptures are a more 'recent' addition to the Vedas - only a few thousand years ago! 


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