Importance of Lost Content

Whenever the topic of losing ancient documents or content comes up, the library of Alexandria and Nalanda University of ancient Magadha definitely comes up in conversations. Now these were the ones that, due to tragic circumstances, were razed to the ground and the world was deprived of the endless and vast amount of knowledge that would have enlightened the earth in an even better way. Intellectuals and academicians world over still rue the fact that oceans of knowledge were just plain annihilated to ruination by those who were hungry for power and these great shrines of knowledge were of no importance for them or because they wanted to send a message.

Whether they be Zend Avesta or Sappho’s poetry or even Confucius’ Sixth Classic, we might never find out what great knowledge they had shared with the world or how that might have made us better human beings. Whatever be the reasons, however were the circumstances, but the modern world is now more aware about preservation of cultural documents and other content that would be the only inheritance to pass on to future generations.

Ancient Indian history has been one of the largest and most intriguing history of the world at par with the Romans. However, Indian history is a lot older than any of the other ancient civilisations like the Greeks, Mesopotamian or the Romans. We do not know a lot of them or they got lost somewhere because unlike other cultures, most of Indian folklore and culture were passed on verbally and were documented many centuries later. By the time documentation occurred most of them were filtered down or had already become derelict due to non- interest of future generations.

There were times when kingdoms and aristocrats would encourage art and culture amongst their subjects by funding them to pursue their arts, and also would organise competitions that would bring artistes from far and wide to compete for cultural and academic glory. However, there were times where the kings or the rulers would be more interested in expanding their geographical boundaries or conquering other kingdoms rather than expanding the cultural horizons, and those times historical or cultural content would take a slight backseat. For instance, the famed Hampi of ancient Vijayanagar used to be the centre of cultural humdrum between 1336- 1565, but after the invasion of the Muslim confedaration, the place was plundered and ravaged and became one of the ghost towns with not a single soul residing there taking with them their art and their culture that got lost to us.

Nalanda University was said to be the second oldest university in the world- the first being Takshila, (interestingly also in India), which was established in the 5th Century. Multiple texts from all over the world had mentioned the glory of this university and Buddhist scholars - both Indians and non- Indians would flock there to gain knowledge. The texts and documents enshrined there had no equals in any part of the world. Subjects like philosophy (Darshanshastra), theology (Dharmshastra), logic (Tarkshastra),  and many more subjects were being taught there. Unfortunately, more than 9 million texts were burned down during Mughal invasion in the 12th century helmed by Bakhtiyar Khilji.It was said that the texts that burnt can no longer be retrieved since there were no back- ups and the world got deprived of some of the best knowledge that there ever was or will be.

 Amidst this gloom, there’s a silver lining as Nalanda University was revived under the Nalanda University Act of 2010 and admitted its first students in 2014. The Indian Parliament realised its historical significance and decided to revive it and give it a chance to get back to its original glory. Now, one would wonder why this brouhaha over reviving an ancient university and why nations and academic bodies are hell- bent on protecting and discovering historical content that we seem to have lost centuries ago. Let us delve deeper into this in the following paragraphs.

 We might have heard or know something about Charvak’s Philosophy, but what we might not know is that the entirety of the philosophy got lost either because they were not documented or because they were more complicated than the puranic vedas and was relegated by the then philosophers. To understand the concept or to know more about it we do not have any sources now. This might have made understanding the concepts of Hinduism or Indian culture a lot easier, but now, we will never know because they have been lost for now.

The Panchatantra that we all know and have loved as children and enjoy going back to as adults was a lot more expansive that what we have read and what we ever can read since the original Sanskrit version has vanished without a source, and what we actually know are the translated versions that got preserved due to their documentation into different languages. Our moral compass would have been a lot more evolved had the original text been preserved or documented.

 Again, if we look at the importance of preserving history or discovering lost content at a more microscopic level, we will realise that we all speak languages that have evolved over time, eat food that are specific to certain geographical areas and have been brought over by our ancestors, use technology that had taken centuries to bring them to the level of perfection that we are comfortable using in. We might not realise this, but if we have to know where we are going, we need to know where we come from- we need to know where our roots came from. This can be done only if we know our history in entirety.

 Knowing our history, preserving them, or taking care of them would let us learn from our ancestors’ mistakes, build upon what they had started and change the course of a destructive action that might have snowballed because we know just the tip of our historical iceberg and stopped caring about the rest of the texts or documents that could have helped us in the better understanding of where we came from. Also, reviving lost content and preserving our ancient history would give us understanding on how we came to where we are now and that our legacies are intertwined and there’s no place that belongs to “us” or “them” because for all we know our histories start off in another place and land up in completely another.