Ancient India

Text 1.

What associations does the word “India” cause?

Read the text and try to explain what makes many travellers believe that India is a mysterious land.

From time immemorial, India has been seen as a mystery land. A land full of paradoxes, it causes travellers to marvel and also to despair during their journey through India. Like an enigmatic lady, India has always attracted the attention of the world for various reasons.

The famous writer and traveller, Mark Twain wrote after his journey across India in 1896: " So far as I am able to judge nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his round. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked. Always, when you think you have come to the end of her tremendous specialities and have finished hanging tags upon her as the Land of the Plague, the Land of Famine, the Land of Giant Illusions, the Land of Stupendous Mountains and so forth,..." It was best, he decided, to discard the labels and call it simply the Land of Wonders.

Unlike most countries, India has a rich and glorious past going back to thousands of years back. A lot of heritage to pass on to generations? Also a lot to learn from. In fact, it is in the Vedic scriptures that the key to a lot scientific and medical mysteries have been found. India’s cultural heritage goes back uninterrupted to the time when ancient civilizations had thrived in Babylon.

Learn more about India from: http: //www.ancientindia.co.uk