Lost and found.. or still lost?

Please note that my blogs do not follow any format.. I write as it comes my head..

I was reading Ashwin's post just now and that got me thinking.. Usually, my thought process is fast enough to make me forget the start point (or am horribly forgetful and my thought process erratic).. :p Any way, I remembered this conversation that I had with this person- about how Indians had already discovered that earth revolves around the Sun long before the heliocentric views surfaced in the modern world. He took out a fat book which had translations along with shlokas. He asked me to read this particular one, which in his view proved the point. I read it and I did not know what to say really.. My linguistic skills are terrible enough that I can not comprehend the original shloka written in Sanskit (I really feel ashamed). Thus, I read the translation. It was two pages long and vaguely conveyed his point. I did not know if the one who translated, superimposed his/ her views on the actual matter..

As I see it, the problem is at two levels- 1. hardly anyone today has a good hold on Sanskrit (am talking about mass. Adwait's Sanskrit is fantastic compared to mine). 2. As most of the literature available is not easily read in the original language, one tends to read the views of the person who translates it. For anyone who thinks logically, 2nd point strikes while reading translations. At least as far as I am concerned, I have to read the actual text it to believe that that is the matter author is trying to put forth. I can not believe just because someone told me that 'they' have found ancient Hindu texts sighting the inventions of the olden times and how they were advanced. Prove it.. show the original texts.. carry out carbon dating.. Many tend to receive my stance as 'she does not believe in our culture or something like that..' Now why will I do that? It is a simple thing that scientific proof is required. It does not take an Einstein to consider that one who knows Sanskrit can easily write what he/ she wishes. It is like, how do you know that it is not a fake Picasso?

All our texts are with Germans (how shameful is that!!) and on top of that, most of the people are educated in English who can poorly read their mother tongue.. leave apart Sanskrit. As most of the mass is of that kind (including me, though medium of my education was Marathi and I can read Marathi very well, I can't understand Sanskrit much) we are so ignorant about what was already known to ancestors.. I was reading this book on Greece and I was stunned to know that majority of the mass knows about how Greeks lived in the past, what they knew etc. It was so well preserved through the time. Now, Greece compared to India is a very small country with almost a single language of communication. I know that. We have too many languages and slowly we are losing on the knowledge of those as well..

We need to collaborate.. the people who know current science and people who have good hold on languages in which olden text was written. Western people are coming here to excavate and find how Aryan towns were planned.. why can't we do that? Rather, why don't we already know it? I really am thinking of learning Sanskrit all over again and keep it alive in my head. I don't want to read translations. Think about it. It is in our hand to preserve what's already known so that learn from our past and take it along.

:)