What is the benefit of studying archeology and epigraphy? The foremost duty of epigraphy is to unearth truths. But no matter how much information we … - S. Srikanta Sastri

The Vedic Aryans, if at all they came from outside, ... must have lived in the Sapta-Sindhu [the region of the seven rivers in the ancient Punjab] so many centuries before the Vedic period that they had lost all memory of an original home.

Other cultures and religions are premised on an assumption that Otherness is both absolute and unalterable through human efforts. This prohibits free philosophical and spiritual inquiry in these religions. These religions preach that the only solution to mankind’s problems lies in a total dependence on the political machinery, that because feelings of superiority and inferiority are eternal, social reform is both an illusion and impossible, that there can never exist economic equality, and therefore the only option is to live with the existing condition…only the culture of India has unambiguously shown the whole world the nature of the relationship that must exist between the doer, the deed, and the cause of the deed. It is a culture, which confidently exhorts that “there is no other way than this” (naanyaH panthA vidyatEyanAyA)… Indian culture, far from being incomplete like other cultures, has a wholesome beauty…The spiritual outlook that lies at the heart of Indian culture is the reason it is still alive and flourishing in the world… [Emphases added]Indian culture is thus like Atman, the Self: timeless and imperishable.

The limits of human knowledge and the pace of scientific progress creates a time difference. The hallmark of a superior culture is its ability to keep this difference in mind and achieve progress in a state of peace. From a spiritual and ethical perspective, if we are to establish culture in the exact, noble sense of the word in the present world, we need to newly create and instil a sense of dharma in human beings.