Author: Swami Tathagatananda
Publisher: Advaita Ashram
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 268
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8175052775
Description
Asia was destined by the Providence to become the cradle of human civilization. Among the known old civilizations like the Egyptian, Mesopotamian Incan, Mayan, Greek, Roman, and other, the one that bloomed on the banks of the Indus is today undisputedly knowledge as the oldest.
In its chequered journey through the past several millennia, its invaluable literary treasures were wafted to all directions, paving the way for the cultural growth in distant lands. Archaeological, historical, and Ideological probing has shed enough light on the contributions of Oriental thought on humankind in general. Will Durant, the great historian, begins The Story Of Civilization saying:
Our story begins with the Orient, not merely because Asia was the scene of the oldest civilization known to us, but because those civilizations formed the background and basis of that Greek and Roman culture, which Henry Mine mistakenly supposed to be the whole source of the modern mind. We shall be surprised to learn how much of our most indispensable inventions, our economic and political organization, our science and our literature, our philosophy and our religion, goes back to Egypt and the Orient.’
Swami Tathagatanada’s Light from the Orient is an illuminating sequel to his earlier well-researched Journey of the Upanishads to the West, both focusing on the glorious Oriental literary heritage to the world at large.
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1:
Swami Vivekananda
On the world’s debt to India
Chapter 2:
India in the Eyes of the Westerners
Chapter 3:
The Bhagavad Gita
Casts Its Spell on the west
Chapter 4:
Abhijnana Shakuntalam:
"A Wonder Coming from a Land of Wonders"
Chapter 5:
Further Observations on the Universal
Influence of Sanskrit through Shakuntala
Chapter 6:
Nalanda Mahavihara: One Ideal University
Chapter 7:
Impact of Great Prophets
On the mind throughout the Ages
Chapter 8:
Mother India and Mother Greece:
The Brahmanic Life and Work of
Demetrius Galanos
Chapter 9:
A Brief Introduction to
India’s Oral Tradition and Sacred Literature
Chapter 10:
Interest of the West in Sanskrit Literature
Prior to the Famous Publication of
Anquetil-Duperron
Chapter 11:
Sanskrit Studies and Comparative Philology
In 18th-and-19th - Century Europe
Chapter 12:
Vedic Mathematics and Astronomy
Select Bibliography
Index