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Comment by curiousDog | Hacker News Reader

Noped out of that. Considering the recent string of these Nationalist, feel Good posts, it's about time they're autobanned.

I'm Indian myself and I've done quite a bit of study on this topic.Vedic mathematics is rooted in ignorance and a disregard for proofs. It's pretty much a way for nationalists (which intensified after the british conquest) to appease and make a billion people feel good about their history. In short, it's pretty much bullshit. What Ramanujan did was math, not this hindutva propaganda crap. Next thing you know, you'll start hearing about astrology and how it's a Vedic science.

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I would like to know what you think about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

Nearly all of his findings were without proof, so what are you trying to imply here?

And about astrology, they did know about the Arundhati twin star system, so they did know something. While you are at it, blow your minds and lookup the fact that they gave a measurement of speed of light in Mahabharata.

It's not about nationalism. No offense, I don't know you but you kind of sound like all those Indians who just have to look down on everything Indian.

I think we both understand where I was coming from with the Ramanujan thing. Regarding the Mahabharata, same story. how did they find it out? Why wasn't the methodology given with proof? Why didn't they put more effort into understanding it's properties? Do you have a source to the exact line in the early scripture? Otherwise, it just sounds like something that was slipped in during the translation process.

None taken. Personally, I believe that if you're vehemently "proud" of your country and heritage, you havent accomplished much else in life thus far. I don't look down upon Indians, only worried that pseudoscience like this is a dent to credibility and only belittles and overshawdows the great work that's being done today/will be done in the future

I think you do not understand why I mentioned Ramanujan. He said in his own words that mathematical facts just came to him while dreaming from a god. Since there is no methodology given for his findings he is a crook, right?

As for early scriptures, suppose after 5000 years if the current civilization is no more and the future generations get hold of a book with no mathematical proofs but astounding facts which clearly state the technological advancements of our time, they should just call it "pseudoscience". Yeah, right.

Personally I believe that if somehow you are proud of only the things YOU have done, you have got way too many problems of your own to take care of.

The fact that you couldn't google a simple fact says a lot about your "achievements/accomplishments" too. Here you go http://alishekh.blogspot.in/2009/05/speed-of-light-in-rig-ve...

It's pretty simple Sanskrit, it's not even riddled, it's plain Sanskrit. If you understand even a little Sanskrit (I do) the translation will make sense. Of course you could trust the author of the article too for having done a good job in translating and explaining. And just so you know that guy who has written this seems to be a Muslim, so zero benefit in advancing the said "propaganda".

Wow your link looks extremely scientific and rigorously researched.

Just one of its more obvious gems:

2000 Dhanus = 1 Gavyúti (distance to which a cow’s call or lowing can be heard) = 12000 feet

2000 Dhanus = 1 Gavyuti hmmm, they must have first calculated a Gavyuti and then just randomly equated it to 2000 dhanus. The fact that they named it after a cow's call (range approximately 12000 feet) is the proof. People named unit erlang after erlang, so <insert a bullshit correlation here>

</sarcasm>

LOL! You do realize it's from a book titled "Vedic Mathematics", and not from the Vedas itself? Do you? Did you actually check link at the top of the article linked by OP[1]?

And, why do think it's bullshit? I don't see anything wrong in the "Vedic Mathematics" book. They are a bunch of mental calculation techniques and tricks. I'd suggest to keep this propaganda propaganda to yourself.

[1]http://www.vedicsciences.net/articles/vedic-mathematics.html

If someone wrote a haiku that's visible in base64 encoding and which stood for a pretty interesting number (like pi, or e or whatever) it would be worthy of a HN post for intellectual curiosity.

... but please do cut out the "Indians did this ages ago" crap, for it is the least intellectually interesting of all things ... unless the poster backs up any such claim with proper first-hand references.

Vedanta Desikan (aka KaviTarkika Simhan - Lion of the Poet Logicians) born 1268 C.E. wrote over 100 books.

One of them is called Padhuka Sahasram, was written in less than a day in response to a challenge and contains 1008 verses in 32 chapters.

The 30th chapter called Chitra Paddathi or Picturesque Chapter (aka Matrix of Artistry) contains verses that whilst paying homage to the feet (Padhuka) of the Lord also paint elaborate patterns, such as The Knight's Tour (1).

One hint as to why "Indians did this ages ago" is of intellectual interest to "some" indians is because the middle name of the early-stage investor and long time board member of google is KaviTark.

[1] http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/vdesikan/rps/chitra.h...

> One of them is called Padhuka Sahasram, was written in less than a day in response to a challenge and contains 1008 verses in 32 chapters.

If he spent 24 hours non-stop writing those verses, he's have to write 7 verses every 10 minutes on the average. If it is really a "less than a day" 8 hours, he'd have to write nearly 3 verses every minute. In summary, this sounds like something that will need some serious substantiation to believe.

The Vedic tradition is typically an oral one. It takes about 3hrs to recite the Padhuka Sahasram.

Those of us who come from India and have grown up with this have older uncles and others who can compose extremely mellifluous and deep meaning verses extemporaneously.

The Chitra Paddathi which comprises of 40 verses (of the 1,008) takes 7mins 37secs.

If you are so inclined you can hear it at (1) - You can follow along with the romanized english phrases with meanings at (2) and you can see it's corresponding visual artistry at (3)

(1) http://andavan.org/audio/7.CHITRA%20%20%20PADDHATHI.mp3 (2) 92, 93, 94 & 95 (10's) at http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/vdesikan/rps/92.html (s/92/93 etc.) (3) http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/vdesikan/rps/chitra.h...

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