Reply #55: Thank you [View All]

[Vehl]

Ive always been fascinated by world history. The fact that my granddad was a history teacher probably played a part in it.I grew up learning about the Iliad and the odyssey..along with my native ones. As Joseph Campbell says in his books..many of the world's mythologies do share a lot of traits...from the Hopi creation myths to the Indian stories of the deluge.

Yes, a lot of the history classes here in the colleges do not really delve deep into south Asian history. After all..Asia here almost always means "East Asia" :)

Maybe part of the reason for this lack of information in the US classrooms about India is the relative lack of Indians as opposed to other Asians, such as Chinese and the Japanese. We are relative newcomers.

yes, the Arabic Numbers and the Zero claims always irked me a bit , but i generally let those comments pass than spend time explaining to a dis-interested person about its origins. Its not often that one gets to see people as interested in history as you.

..yes...the list of things i have to learn is endless...we have a saying "what we have learnt is but like a handful of sand compared to the world of knowledge out there" :)

If you are interested in learning about India/south Asia i would suggest this documentary made by the BBC/PBS. Its called "The Story of India" and is pretty good. It might not be as comprehensive a documentary as one would like to see(but then again that's a herculean task!) but touches all the main points. And is very nicely done.

It can be found on you tube (the following play list has all the episodes in order)
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4801B6BFD418FA4A&page=1


I'ts worth the time:) and also touches on Indian science and maths.


ps: even though i'm hardly an expert on south Asian history, if you do have any questions feel free to ask me/pm me about it. I'll try to help u with it to the best of my ability.