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Ancient India Quotes

Browse 28 quotes about Ancient India.

Ancient India Quotes

“The forest chieftains were not considered part of the circle of kings by the political theorists, but they were recognized as a generic po- litical force that kings had to deal with. The ultimate triumph of mon- archy and empire involved the destruction of the oligarchies and the partial subjugation of the forest tribes. Along the way, the latter be- came recognized not only as cultural others, but also as political adver- saries as well as potential allies, although usually of an inferior kind.”

Ancient IndiaMonarchiesCultural OthersForest ChieftainsForest TribesOligarchies
Book:Political Violence in Ancient India
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“Even two hundred years ago, when the British finally defeated the divided yet dominant Marathas in the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817, India was a very static place. Most Indians could not have just packed their bags and easily relocated from Maratha Pune to Mughal Delhi, or from British Calcutta to Sikh Lahore—much less from a small fort–town in Rajputana to rural Mysore. Besides logistics, language was a significant barrier and so were social acceptance and job opportunities. The average Indian had almost nothing to fall back on without backing from the biraadri or gotra. The farm and the local market defined most people’s lives, punctuated occasionally by a rare long-distance pilgrimage. Large-scale relocations mostly happened during times of distress. Marrying contrary to parental wishes was unimaginable. Life was ‘nasty, brutish and short’, to borrow the famous Hobbesian description, and solace was found in the Gods.”

KingdomsSolaceMobilityAncient India
Book:A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State
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“Once upon a time, there was a civilization in the eastern side of the world. It was one of the most advanced civilizations on the planet that existed during that time. This civilization was the glorious Indus valley civilization. No, I am not talking about India. I am talking about the land of greatness that got lost in time. Today, in the same geographical location of that great civilization, we have a piece of earth, which is known as “India”. But do not mistake it to be the same glorious land that existed thousands of years ago, along with other magnificent civilizations, such as the Greeks, the Mayans, the Egyptians, the Babylonians etc.”

InspirationalIndiaHistoricalIndianWorld HistorySocial PsychologyAncient India
Book:Prescription: Treating India's Soul
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“I am pain-stricken to say, since the moment I was born, I have found nothing extraordinary in this ancient land of greatness to be exceptionally proud of. I am not a proud Indian. India at its present condition has given me no reason to feel proud. However, I do feel proud of the ancient Indians, just like I feel proud of the ancient Greeks, the Mayans, the ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians and so on. Scientists are beyond borders, just like the ancient scientists of India, whom you prefer to call as sages.”

InspirationalIndiaIndianNationalismSocial PsychologyAncient IndiaIndus Valley
Book:Prescription: Treating India's Soul
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“At most periods of her history India, though a cultural unit, has been torn by internecine war. In statecraft her rulers were cunning and unscrupulous. Famine, flood and plague visited her from time to time, and killed millions of her people. Inequality of birth was given religious sanction, and the lot of the humble was generally hard. Yet our overall impression is that in no other part of the [Page 9] ancient world were the relations of man and man, and of man and the state, so fair and humane. In no other early civilization were slaves so few in number, and in no other ancient lawbook are their rights so well protected as in the Arthaśāstra (p. 152f). No other ancient lawgiver proclaimed such noble ideals of fair play in battle as did Manu (p. 126). In all her history of warfare Hindu India has few tales to tell of cities put to the sword or of the massacre of noncombatants. The ghastly sadism of the kings of Assyria, who flayed their captives alive, is completely without parallel in ancient India. There was sporadic cruelty and oppression no doubt, but, in comparison with conditions in other early cultures, it was mild. To us the most striking feature of ancient Indian civilization is its humanity.”

IndiaAncient India
Author:Arthur Llewellyn Basham
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“While Indian CEOs in Non-Indian companies are getting all the praise and admiration from the Indians, startups born on Indian soil remain unrecognized - this is not a matter of pride, it's a matter of shame, especially for a population whose history is replete with mathematical, scientific and philosophical achievements.”

Brainy QuotesEntrepreneurshipStartupStartupsIndian CultureIndiansAncient IndiaIndia QuotesIndian CeosIndian Population
Book:Every Generation Needs Caretakers: The Gospel of Patriotism
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“There is no such thing as Hinduism - the actual phrase is Sanatana Dharma, which is not a religion, but an everyday sense of oneness or advaita - which is the very backbone of the Indian society. Only in India people celebrate Eid with as much enthusiasm as they celebrate Diwali - they celebrate Christmas with as much enthusiasm as they celebrate Nanak Jayanti - and that's Sanatana Dharma for you.”

IndiaIndianHinduismAdvaitaIndian CultureAdvaita VedantaSanatana DharmaAncient IndiaCommunal HarmonySanatana Hindu Culture Values
Book:Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch
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“The wilderness was a paradisical place of exquisite natural beauty. It was an unpredictable place inhabited by fierce and belligerent tribes. It was an abode of ugly, frightening demons. It was a place of involuntary and unhappy exile from the world of power and pleasure. It was an ideal place for the release from the burden of worldly existence. In exploring the forest as a site of political conflict, killing, and violence, we have to understand all the other things that it was and was not. In doing so, we are taken to the heart of ancient Indian political processes, to fundamental ideas about political and cultural identity, and to the definition of the self and the other.”

WildernessAncient India
Book:Political Violence in Ancient India
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“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”

WellsChildrenEarthGivenParentPiecesTraditionTreatsOur ChildrenInnocenceIndianYour ChildrenNativeAncestorNative AmericanEldersIndigenousMother EarthAmerican IndianNative American WisdomGreat SpiritNative AmericaNative American IndianGreat Native AmericanNative American EarthIndian WisdomNative WisdomNative LandAmerican SpiritNative American Indian InspirationalNative American SpiritualNative American DreamSpiritual IndianNative American ProverbsAncient IndiaAmerican EagleCherokee Indian
Author:Crazy Horse
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“Five hundred years before Christ some physicians of ancient India, working under the influence of the Lord Buddha, advanced the art of healing to so perfect a state that they were able to abolish surgery, although the surgery of their time was as efficient, or more so, than that of the present day.”

YearsArtStatesAbleChristPerfectHealingLordFiveInfluenceHundredIndiaAncientEfficientPhysiciansSurgeryAbolishPresent DayAncient IndiaLord Buddha
Book:The Bach Flower Remedies
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“The seers of ancient India had, in their experiments and efforts at spiritual training and the conquest of the body, perfected a discovery which in its importance to the future of human knowledge dwarfs the divinations of Newton and Galileo , even the discovery of the inductive and experimental method in Science was not more momentous.”

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Book:The Upanishads--II : Kena And Other Upanishads
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“As the only class distinction available in a democracy, the college degree has created a caste society as rigid as ancient India's. Condemning elitism and simultaneously quaking in fear that our children won't become members of the elite, we send them to college, not to learn, but to "be" college graduates, rationalizing our snobbery with the cliché that high technology has eliminated the need for the manual labor that we secretly hold in contempt.”

NeedsChildrenEducationClassTechnologyDemocracyCollegeMembersDegreesLaborIndiaOur ChildrenAncientAvailableDistinctionContemptGraduatesElitesManualsCastesCollege EducationCondemningElitismSnobberyCollege DegreeCollege GraduatesManual LaborAncient IndiaClass DistinctionHigh Technology
Book:Lump It Or Leave It
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“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”

ChildrenWisdomMotivationalEarthPeaceEnvironmentLandWise WordsWords Of WisdomOur ChildrenEnvironmentalClimate ChangeIndianNativeAncestorNative AmericanEldersInheritanceOur PlanetOur EnvironmentEnvironmentalismMother EarthBorrowingDescendantsAmerican IndianEarth DayNature And EnvironmentNative American WisdomGreat SpiritNative AmericaSave Mother EarthNative American IndianEarth And NatureGreat Native AmericanNative American EarthGreen EarthIndian WisdomNative WisdomNative LandNature ConservationWorld EnvironmentBeautiful EarthGreen LivingSave The EnvironmentNative American Indian InspirationalSave NatureNative American SpiritualNative American DreamWorld Earth DayEnvironmental PollutionInspirational EarthInspirational EnvironmentalSpiritual IndianNative American ProverbsSaving The EarthGo GreenHappy Earth DayAncient IndiaEarth FriendlyProtect NatureCherokee IndianNative Place
Author:Chief Seattle
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“We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”

Has BeensMadeScienceTaughtDiscoveryIndiaIndependenceIndianHinduismWorthwhileCould Have BeenTaught UsIndependence DayScientific DiscoveryIndependence Day PatrioticRepublic DayHappy Independence Day UsaHappy Independence Day IndiaHappy Independence DayIndia Independence DayInspiring Independence DayIndian Independence DayUs Independence DayDiscovery In ScienceAncient IndiaIndian PatrioticMake In India
Author:Albert Einstein
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“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.”

IdeasFactsReligiousPerfectKnownLandIndiaIndependenceIndianRemarkableHinduismElectricityIndependence DayElectronicsSeersPerfect LifeRepublic DayVedasHappy Independence Day IndiaHappy Independence DayIndia Independence DayInspiring Independence DayIndian Independence DayAncient IndiaTrue IndependenceAirships
Author:Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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“Hinduism has made marvelous discoveries in things of religion, of the spirit, of the soul. We have no eye for these great and fine discoveries. We are dazzled by the material progress that Western science has made. Ancient India has survived because Hinduism was not developed along material but spiritual lines.”

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Author:Mahatma Gandhi
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