Was Gun Powder, Fire Crackers used in Ancient India ?
Yesterday I heard many liberals including Arnab Goswami saying that Fire Crackers [Gun Powder] were invented by Chinese and it has come to India very later. So Fire Crackers are not part of Diwali and hence Hindus need not get agitated about Fire Cracker ban on Diwali
That is the problem with Indians - We know so less about our own history and so much about others history. And if someone tries to talk sense about ancient India - He/She is branded as Communal Sanghi
We know so less about India as most of our modern historians dont know Sanskrit and hence cant decipher our ancient literature. All they do is blindly say - What Mueller said. Even Narayana Murthy wants to fund a foregner Sheldon Pollock to research on Ancient indian literature than funding any indian who knows Sanskrit.
You cant interpret ancient india - if you dont know the culture and context of india. Can you understand greek GOds as good as a Greek or Norse gods as good as an Norwegian ? Knowing Language is not enough - We need to know the culture of that Place and we should have lived in that culture. That is the reason - the same people who laugh at monkey God of hindus will feel spiritual when talking about a talking snake who gave apple to Eve.
Now coming back to Gun Powder - Did Chinese invent it ? Didnt Ancient india know about Gun powder ?
Sukra Niti first mentions about Fire Arms in india. There is lot of controversy of the date of Sukra Niti but it would suffice to say that - Sukra and his law was taken with respect in Mahabharata and hence his treatise on law, Kingship and weaponry is before Mahabharat times.It is said that Brahma wrote law in 1 lakh verses and Sukra condensed it to 2200 verses.
There are many references to Gun Powder, Fire weapons and Using Fire for rejoicing in Sukra Niti
The prescription for making gunpowder is, according to the Sukraniti, as follows : mix 5 parts of saltpetre with 1 part of sidphur and 1 part of charcoal. The charcoal is to be prepared from the arka, snuhi, and other similar plants in such a manner that during the process the plants are so covered
that the smoke cannot escape. The charcoal thus obtained must be cleaned, reduced to powder, and the powder of the different charcoals is then to be mixed. After this has been done, the juice of the arka, snuhi, and rasona must be poured over the powder which is to be thoroughly mixed with this juice. ' This mixture is to be exposed and dried in the Sim. It is then finally ground like sugar and the whole mixture thus obtained is gunpowder.
And this is what Gustav Oppert writes in his book - Of the weapons, army and organisation of Ancient Hindus - Explosive powder either used for rejoicings
as fireworks or for discharging projectiles was known in India from the earliest period, and its preparation was never forgotten ; but as India occupied in ancient times such an isolated position, it is not singular that the knowledge of this compound did not earlier extend to other countries.
However wonderful the composition and however startling the detonating effect of powder may be to the uninitiated outrider, to those who have been familiar with them from their earliest youth all seems natural and intelligible. India is the land of fireworks; no festival is complete without them, and as the materials for their manufacture are all indigenous, and of easy access, there is no difficulty in gratifying such desires
There is mention of Gunpowder in Niti Prakashika of Vaishampayana. It his Vaishapayana who told about Bhagavatam and Mahabharat war to Janmejaya the grandson of Arjuna.
RajaLakshmi Narayana Hrudaya skolam describes about worshipping Lakshmi with fire crackers.
Yes Indians didn't use Gun powder as extensively as other civilisations as many of the later Law texts forbid them form usage as indian warfare was based on laws and rules and the purpose was to inflict minimal damage and voilence in war.
What would happen if Barabrians with no ethics and humanity invaded such a wonderful people ?
Courtesy: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=469029863481881&id=100011246130491