india is on the verge of becoming the diabetic capital of the world. the fact is that even in ancient india diabetes was prevalent and reference of diabetic-like condition is there in atharvaveda, known as one of the oldest literature in the world. a search through ancient indian religious, political and medical scripture shows various references of diabetes, better known aspramehaor madhumehat...

drama has an ancient history in india. the sanskrit dramatic literature developed in an organized traditional infrastructure and continued during centuries. the main origins of drama in india are the dialogue-like vedic chants, vedic rituals, and epic recitation. related arts such as dance and music were important in appearance and development of drama in india. moreover, greek dramas may have ...

Gold was obtained through washing or panning of the river sands during initial periods of civilisation. With the advent of knowledge of metallurgical processing of ores it was recovered through mining of in-situ quartz reefs, and then from auriferous sulphide ores. The metal mining activities are evidenced in the form of large number of ‘ancient metal mines’ or ‘old workings’ and ‘placer mining...

Recent analyses of ancient Mesopotamian mitochondrial genomes have suggested a genetic link between the Indian subcontinent and Mesopotamian civilization. There is no consensus on the origin of the ancient Mesopotamians. They may be descendants of migrants, who founded regional Mesopotamian groups like that of Terqa or they may be merchants who were involved in trans Mesopotamia trade. To ident...

‘Veda’ means knowledge. Since we call our earliest period Vedic, this is suggestive of the importance of knowledge and science, as a means of acquiring that knowledge, to that period of Indian history. For quite some time scholars believed that this knowledge amounted to no more than speculations regarding the self; this is what we are still told in some schoolbook accounts. New insights in arc...

A first course on probability (at the high-school level) typically begins with an account of the theory of permutations and combinations needed for calculating probabilities in games of chance, such as dice or cards. Like many other aspects of mathematics, this theory of permutations and combinations first developed in India, although an account of its history is usually missing in stock presen...

Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the presence of Gondwanan lineages in tropical Asia including, the out-of-India hypothesis, the Eurasian route hypothesis, long-distance transoceanic dispersal and the boreotropical hypothesis. Recent molecular studies support an out-of-India Gondwanan origin of some tropical Asian taxa. Specifically these studies suggest that ancient Gondwanan line...

Several arguments have been forwarded for the stagnation of Ayurveda, and most of these focus on the discrimination that Ayurveda faces under Mughal and then under British rule. Even for Ancient India, the halcyon portrait of Ayurveda synergetically related with religion and politics during the period, as has been portrayed in many books of history and in countless lores, is false. This paper t...