If all the world’s cultural heritage was contained in a time capsule, what would you include to demonstrate the legacy of your country?

LEGACY OF INDIAN CULTURE

ARYABHATA

•The eminent ancient Indian Mathematician discovered ZERO.•His definitions of Sine, Cosine, Versine, and inverse sine influenced the birth of Trigonometry.

VEDAS

The Vedas are the breath of God.” They can be rightly called the treasure-trove of Hindu religion, tradition and culture. They contain codes of righteous conduct and are supposed to have been taught by God Himself thousands of years ago. They help build moral integrity and norms that are applicable even today.

• Unity in diversity at the world level is the favourite theory of the Vedas and they have kept in mind, man’s needs and aspirations, his quest for peace and the link that ought to be established between God and an individual soul.

• Digging into the mine of Vedic knowledge has resulted in unearthing several secrets which the scientific knowledge has discovered at a later stage.

THE EPICS

It is the story of a war between two rival sections of a dynasty. It is the story of evolution of all life, a code of universal ethics, and it is also a history of the human race in its most general sense.

•The Mahabharata is the longest known epic poem known ever.

• The importance of the Mahabharata has been compared to world civilization to that of the Bible, the works of Shakespeare, the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the Quran.

•It exposes the secrets of leadership and the path to success. Whether it is man management, human behavior, game theory, management by objectives, all aspects of modern management can be discovered in various characters and episodes of the great epic.

It is one of the most important literary work of Ancient India.The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven books and 500 cantos, and tells the story of Rama, an avatar of the Hindu supreme-god Vishnu, whose wife Sita is abducted by Ravana, the king of Lanka. It then narrates the story of how Lord Rama managed to win back his wife from Ravana with the help of his brother Laxmana and his follower Hanuman.

•The story ushered in the tradition of the next thousand years of massive-scale works in the rich diction of regal courts and Hindu temples. It has also inspired much secondary literature in various languages.•The Ramayana became popular in southeast Asia during the 8th century and was represented in literature, temple architecture, dance and theatre.•The Ramayana has also been depicted in many paintings, most notably by the Malaysian artist Syed Thajudeen in 1972.

THE TAJ MAHAL

•One of the 7 wonders of the world, Taj Mahal was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage•Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

THE KHAJURAHO GROUP OF MONUMENTS

The Khajuraho Group of Monuments are a group of Hindu and Jain temples in Madhya Pradesh, India. About 620 kilometers southeast of New Delhi, they are one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India. The temples are famous for their Nagara-style architectural symbolism and their erotic sculptures

THE AJANTA CAVESThe Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting.

Since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

THE ELLORA CAVES

Ellora represents the epitome of Indian rock-cut architecture. The 34 "caves" are actually structures excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills.

The Ellora Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Town and city planning through The Mohenjo-Daro & Harappa civilization of ancient India is the driving force of Architecture in the modern era.

Originated in India, Kabaddi is one of the most followed sport

in Asia in the modern era.

Ludo is derived from the Indian game Pachisi. The game and its variants are popular in many countries and under various names.

One of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide, Chess originated in India.

One of the oldest religions of the world, Buddhism has its roots in ancient India during the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BCE.By the late Middle Ages, Buddhism had become virtually extinct in India, and although it continued to exist in surrounding countries, its influence was no longer expanding. It is now again gaining strength worldwide.

Regarded as the oldest religion of the world, Hinduism originated in Ancient India. Today its is the 3rd largest religion of the world surpassed only by Christianity and Islam. Hindu practices such as Yoga is today, the most effective and most followed form of exercise. It is estimated that round 30 million Americans and 5 million Europeans practice Yoga. This number is around 300,000 in Australia and New-Zealand.

Movement of Planets and its effect is the Indian thought and is worth putting into the time capsule. Astrology is the by-product of star movements, originated in India.

In the filed of politics, THE NON-ALIGNMENT MOVEMENT was initiated by India during the 2nd world war which is unique and a rich legacy to the world’s politics.

The Indian Classical dance has given birth to various other dance forms of the world.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Gandhi influenced many important leaders and political movements. Leaders such as MARTIN LUTHER KING, JAMES LAWSON and JAMES BEVEL drew from the writings of Gandhi in the development of their own theories about NON-VIOLENCE- the greatest Legacy of the great Indian leader.

U.S. President Barack Obama in a 2010 address to the Parliament of India said that:

I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of the United States, had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared with America and the world.

BE IT:

Literature

Architecture

Religion

Sports

People

Contribution of INDIA to the world’s cultural heritage is indeed worth applauding.