The South Asia File: A Colonial Paradigm of Indian History Altering the Mindset of the Indic People

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It is a tribute to the persistence and tenacity of the colonial overlords, hailing from a nondescript island of the northwest coast of the vast Eurasian landmass, that the prevailing paradigm on the origins and chronology of the Indic civilization is largely constructed by them. This is all the more astonishing, when we ponder on the fact that their domination of the subcontinent, which had a tradition going back several millennia lasted less than two centuries. Such a paradigm which we shall define as the Colonial paradigm, while substantially erroneous, is posited on certain assumptions.

The key assumption is that the Indic civilization that remains extant has been brought into the area by migrating races such as the Aryans, and in fact some would argue, that such a statement holds also for the so called Dravidians of India. The second assumption implicit in all the assertions made by Occidentals about India is that no date for any significant scientific advance should be attributed to the Indics prior to the Golden age of Greece beginning in 600 BCE.

Kosla Vepa is a member of the Global Indic Diaspora, originally a native of Andhra Pradesh state in India and has had the good fortune to have been brought up and have had his education in various parts of India including Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka. He matriculated from Andhra University in 1955. Among the schools which he has attended are St. Xaviers College, Bombay, Karnataka University. Karnataka, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. His highest degree is a PhD in the area of Engineering Mechanics. His professional and technical interests include successful research and development engineering experiences in the information technology, aero-engine and energy industries across the globe and an abiding interest in the history of the Mathematical sciences in antiquity.

Currently, Dr. Vepa has significant interests in a wide variety of subjects including ontological principles in science and philosophy, Ancient Indian history, Vedas and Vedanta, Mathematical Sciences in India during antiquity, the growth and evolution of civilizations to name a few. His major activity is to further the aims and objectives of the Indic Studies Foundation, and to further the progress towards an accurate rendering of the narrative of the Story of the Civilization of the Indic peoples.

At a time when politics is overriding on history, it is refreshing to find the beginning of a welcome politics-exposing and scientific-data- emphasizing new trend in Indian historiography. This trend is being set up by an emerging group of scientists and technologists who want to correct, and guard against, the politically polluted Indian historical writings. The author of the present book, Dr. Kosla Vepa, is a distinguished member of this new trendsetting group.

Dr. Vepa and other members of this group happen to have an advantage over professional historians. In a situation of paradigm shift. necessitated by discovery of basically new kind of data and evidence, the professional historians (the writer of these lines included), find it arduous in coming out of the mould in which they have been cast. Since unlearning is a task ever more difficult than learning, it is irksome for them to unlearn much what their gurus had taught them. As against it, Dr. Vepa and his batch of 'unburdened historians' are more open to new ideas and alternative thinking. Furthermore, being science- oriented, they are intrinsically more objective and exact in their approach to historical problems and issues.