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It's a miracle that India was spared this fate. All thanks to the East India Company being a soulless megacorp devoted to profits instead of religious zeal lik

by fooker 4y ago

It's a miracle that India was spared this fate. All thanks to the East India Company being a soulless megacorp devoted to profits instead of religious zeal like the other colonists.

i67vw3 4y ago
Even before East India Company, India faced several outsider attacks. From Alexander the Great to various Khan's, then Mughals, then Portuguese etc. Some important Indian texts were burned/destoryed in these attacks, For eg., the Nalanda University Still, a lot of texts remained both in written format and in Oral format.
- fooker 4y ago
  >Nalanda University. I feel like the role of Nalanda in Indian history has been greatly exaggerated. The education system was very decentralized, and that's really why most things have survived. There is not much evidence of concrete knowledge/resources being lost at Nalanda.
  - hackernewds 4y ago
    Nalanda U operated for 600 years from 427 CE (!!!) holding over 9m texts [2] The importance of texts from that generation at that scale cannot be overstated [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20220120055253/https://www.patnauniversity.ac.in/e-content/social_sciences/aih/MAAIH53.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20220120055253/https://www.patna... [2] https://www.myindiamyglory.com/2017/09/11/nalanda-9-million-books-burnt/ https://www.myindiamyglory.com/2017/09/11/nalanda-9-million-...
    - fooker 4y ago
      The 9 million figure is exaggerated by a few order of magnitudes. Also, think about it in this way: if some of the manuscripts there was the only copy available, were those really impactful?
blackoil 4y ago
Two more factors, India had contact with most of the world since the beginning, so no new disease wiped it on contact. Also you can not overestimate the population of India.
- fooker 4y ago
  The population density was not higher than the Mayans, Aztecs (and several dozen civilizations in the middle east) who did get wiped out. You are right about the diseases being endemic in the population.

by fooker 4y ago

It's a miracle that India was spared this fate. All thanks to the East India Company being a soulless megacorp devoted to profits instead of religious zeal like the other colonists.

i67vw3 4y ago

Even before East India Company, India faced several outsider attacks. From Alexander the Great to various Khan's, then Mughals, then Portuguese etc. Some important Indian texts were burned/destoryed in these attacks, For eg., the Nalanda University Still, a lot of texts remained both in written format and in Oral format.

fooker 4y ago
>Nalanda University. I feel like the role of Nalanda in Indian history has been greatly exaggerated. The education system was very decentralized, and that's really why most things have survived. There is not much evidence of concrete knowledge/resources being lost at Nalanda.
- hackernewds 4y ago
  Nalanda U operated for 600 years from 427 CE (!!!) holding over 9m texts [2] The importance of texts from that generation at that scale cannot be overstated [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20220120055253/https://www.patnauniversity.ac.in/e-content/social_sciences/aih/MAAIH53.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20220120055253/https://www.patna... [2] https://www.myindiamyglory.com/2017/09/11/nalanda-9-million-books-burnt/ https://www.myindiamyglory.com/2017/09/11/nalanda-9-million-...
  - fooker 4y ago
    The 9 million figure is exaggerated by a few order of magnitudes. Also, think about it in this way: if some of the manuscripts there was the only copy available, were those really impactful?

blackoil 4y ago

Two more factors, India had contact with most of the world since the beginning, so no new disease wiped it on contact. Also you can not overestimate the population of India.

fooker 4y ago
The population density was not higher than the Mayans, Aztecs (and several dozen civilizations in the middle east) who did get wiped out. You are right about the diseases being endemic in the population.