© Ashish Kumbhare 2019

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First Published in January 2019 ISBN: 978-93-5347-173-6

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Acknowledgements “Knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgement ” I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who helped me create this book.  First and foremost I would like to thank God for his never ending grace and mercy during what ended up being one of the toughest times of my life. Thank you Blue Rose Publishers for your trust in me and providing me with an opportunity to tell my story to the world. Sometimes I forget to thank people who make my life happy in so many ways. Sometimes I forget to tell people how much I really appreciate them for being such an important part of my life. So, Thank You all of you, just for being here for me. I dedicate this book to my family and friends  To my siblings, Alice, Abhishek and Sujay thank you for being my shelter during the storm To my parents, thank you for believing in me when no one else did. To my friends, I never had many friends but what I had was just enough. To my ’first in town’ friends Ashutosh, Ajay and Arjun I would never have survived without you guys. To my roommates Shlok, Yogesh, Shubham and Akshay thank you for encouraging me to pursue my dreams and passion To my buddies Nishank, Vaibhav and Shubham thank you for helping me find my potential To my new friends Aniket, Shubham, Vaibhav and Ujwal thank you for your valuable suggestions and improvisations Lastly, to my only female friends Kajal and Surbhi. Surbhi, thank you for appreciating me even in my blunders And 

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Kajal, thank you for teaching me to laugh more often even if life seemed hard xD... To my teachers To my coach, ’Real Madrid is the best team in the world’. To Rahul sir,  keep inspiring others. With sincere courtesy and acknowledgements to all of you Together through thick and thin This book is for All of you.

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Contents Acknowledgements

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Introduction

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1 Ancient Search for Wisdom

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2 Brotherhoods 10 3 The Renaissance Part-1

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4 The Renaissance Part-2

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5 Religious Havoc

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6 Origi autem Destinare

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7 The Debate

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Bibliography

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Introduction When I was a kid I still remember being taught about religion and culture as our History. During my schooling days I was in love with History. I liked reading historical books which contained facts and stories. I always excelled in history. As I was coming of age I began to notice the historical flaws in our textbook. Such as, ‘The story of Newton and the Apple’ which was a made up tale to keep students entertained. Then, to my surprise I noticed that our history is filled with stories which were nothing more than just rumors. While doing my research I came across brilliant men such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Micheal Angelo, Raphael and of course the Athenian philosophers such as Socrates, Plato , Aristotle… While reading their works I found that many of our Theories and Theorem were already discovered and used in Ancient times. Such as the Sun- centered Copernican model of the universe which was already discovered by the Sumerian civilizations of the Near East. In this book I have widely mentioned my findings on the subject. We were all taught that our history is that of our strange cultures and beliefs but to be honest, History is more than just Cultures, beliefs and weird traditions. History is a tale of Sacrifices, wars, Inventions and battle between religious beliefs and Scientific logics. This war of science and religion has been going on for centuries. During such times religion was in power and Scientific people were obliged to hide their discoveries and inventions in their most celebrated work and a part of my book is the Decoding of such ancient codes. While doing my research on this subject I faced many odd challenges. The books I referred were hard to understand and to

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read those books you already need to be a historian yourself. So, I came up with the Idea of writing ‘ The Scrutiny’ which would be easier to learn and comprehend. All of the facts and tales I used in my book are factual. My readers can all investigate these facts themselves but I would personally recommend the books mentioned in the Bibliography section for their investigation of facts. During my School and college tenure I came across people who didn’t like reading History because they thought of it as boring. So, in this book I made a pact to combine history with Science and Religion. This book is devised on history and concluded on Scientific terms. I took a historical tale and observed its history in the mirrors of Science and Religion. As you will read you will see that every historical tale ever told has two perspectives or two sided. First perspective is that of Religion and the Second perspective is that of Science. As you will read, you will notice that actually our history is coded in Religion. For example The First World War was coded in a Kings dream mentioned in the bible! All of our religious texts are filled with prophecies and I have tried my level best decoding them. The Scrutiny concludes with an explanation of God in the lights of Science and Religion.. My only suggestion to my readers is to read this book with an open mind and an unbiased opinion. It is really of very importance for us to read and know our history and learn historical lessons which made Great nations fall on their knees because “Those who don’t Know their History are destined to repeat it”

Ashish Kumbhare

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Chapter 1 Ancient Search for Wisdom Since the origin of Mankind or some would say the creation of Humans, there always had been a curiosity. Humans always have been curious about Nature, Gods, Cosmos, Climate and much more fascinating phenomenon. The ancient civilization’s always had this upper hand that they were ahead, of most of the uncultured tribes present in ancient times. By Ancient Times I mean times when Humans began their journey of discovery of new lands, Made homes for dwelling, lived in tribes had their own family and the most important they communicated with each other. In times such as these most of the stuff that humans could not understand they thought of it as the works of God. They all worshipped and hailed their Gods and when in time of crisis they fasted and repented for the redemption of their sins that they may have committed against their gods. Now, when we talk of sins we mean acts which are not pleasing to our Gods. So, they created rules by which every Man of the tribe should abide and their tribe should be pleasing to God and they could all receive his blessings. They all believed in a greater being, a power which punished the sinners and rewarded the worthy. So, they made themselves a set of rules and norms to be pleasing to their Gods; So that, their tribes would be blessed by the God. Much like the Ten Commandments that Moses received on Mount Sinai followed by a book of Deuteronomy about their conduct on various aspects of life. Each of the Religious books that are still present teaches us a “way of life” is it Bible, Quran, Vedas, Bhagavad Gita or Tripitaka.  These rules were all followed by our Ancestors, ‘as a way of life’ and we still abide under those laws not because we read those books ourselves but because that was something taught to us in our childhood. They were rules for them during their time but now we follow them as something we

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call “Culture”. They followed those rules to please their Gods but now we follow them because we want to keep alive our so-called “Culture”. I didn’t mean to point out the fault in our religion but my primary motto is that we are celebrating their culture but without knowing it’s meaning. We have forgotten its true knowledge and meaning. We lost our wisdom and we are just carrying out Rituals. My point is we have lost the true meaning of our culture, Ritual, Holy Books and our Tribe in ages. ”The ancient knowledge has been lost in Time”. “Holding to a form of Godliness (culture), although they have denied its Power (knowledge)” –2 Timothy: 3:5. Then came a tribe of certain intellectual individuals that refused to abide under such laws. Brave men who thought there is something more to this world than some certain laws. Such people were out casted by societies just to prove their Gods were right. “Observers” who questioned every human intervention with Nature, they were curious about the working of nature rather than taking it for granted. We still remember such people by their works and theories- a new tribe emerged of talented and intelligent beings “scientist” we call them today. Ancient observers became today’s scientist.

THE ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHERS Then came the scientific outburst of Mankind around 469 B.C when in Ancient Greece a philosopher was born-- Socrates. Although not much is known of his work. But we can see a glimpse of him in the works of his disciples, like the ’Aplozy’ by Plato in this text we can get a character visualization of Socrates. He once infamously quoted  True knowledge exists in knowing that we know nothing. –Socrates (apolozy by Plato) During his final years, Socrates was accused of betraying his nation’s God and leading youth to worship other Gods. He

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was later executed by drinking hemlock, for the same case. We can read about this incident in Plato’s Apolozy. Now, Apolozy is a Greek word derived from Apology meaning Defense. So, whatever Plato told us in his work, about Socrates was about his defense and not about him asking Apology for his crime. Socrates said that he didn’t have had any personal interactions with God’s so he refused to believe in God. Almost all of Socrates handiwork is destroyed or had been destroyed nobody knows for sure. Among his famous disciples were Xenophyl and Plato. Plato later found the western academy of Athens. Plato is considered as the first philosopher worldwide. Unlike other written manuscripts Plato’s worked is believed to have survived intact for almost 2400 years. Other believe that the oldest ever exact manuscript found dates around 895 A.D 1100 years after Plato which makes it difficult to know what exactly Plato wrote. Among places disciples were Aristotle and Pythagoras. Now, consider Plato if he was indeed a philosopher as the world knows him today, he may have devoted most of his time observing and thinking and this is what today’s scientist do they observe and they think. But all of his ideas were considered hoax because he had no solid evidence for proving his observations. Plato was encouraged by the idea that ’this whole creation depends on Numbers and that we can understand cosmos if we understood numbers’. This idea of numbers was the sole focus of one of his disciples Pythagoras who famously stated the Pythagoras theorem. Plato never believed in God even if he did he didn’t bother to mention God in his Manuscripts. Even today we know of Plato as a philosopher but were he really a man of science? Nobody knows for sure. Hopefully, Wikipedia recently attached founder of philosophy and Science to Plato’s updated wiki information.  Plato’s most recognized disciple was Aristotle of Greece. Aristotle later left plutonian academy after Plato’s death and later left Athens. He became the tutor of Alexander the Great in 343 B.C. Aristotle’s views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance and was not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics. Some of Aristotle’s [5]

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zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl (reproductive) arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. He played a major role in shaping Alexandria, the greatest metropolis of the age. He made a library which included theories, philosophies and work of art he was an open-minded man, who believed that every man has something to offer.  He welcomed foreign cultures, knowledge and intellectual beings. He made the city into a global market.  Aristotle is believed to have joined Plato’s western academy at age 18 and remained there till age 37 his writings cover many subjects including Biology, Metaphysics, Logic, Zoology, Poetry, Theater, Music and Politics which made most of the comprehensive structure of Western Philosophy. This was a boost for all former observers and philosophers as they were encouraged by Aristotle and Alexander the great to carry on their experiments under legal norms. Many discoveries were made in ancient Alexandria out of which only a few are known. Only if those artifacts survived, we would have known the discoveries upheld in Alexandria.

THE STORY OF ALEXANDRIA Consider the discovery that the earth is a little world was made in the ancient Near East, in a time some human called the third century B.C In the greatest metropolis of the age Alexandria. Hear their lived a man named «Eratosthenes». One of his envious contemporaries called him “Beta”(as in Greek number system) because he considered him second best in everything he did. Eratosthenes was an Astronomer, Historian, Geographer, philosopher, Poet, Theatre Critic and Mathematician the titles of the book’s he wrote range from Astronomy to on freedom from Pain. He was also the director of the great Library of Alexandria. Once when he was in his library reading a papyrus (ancient documents written on paper), he read that in the Southern frontier outpost of the Syrene, near the first cataract of Nile, at noon of June 21 vertical sticks cast no shadows. He read that on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, as the hours crept [6]

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to the midday, the shadow of the temple column grew shorter. At noon, they were gone. A reflection of the sun could then be seen at the bottom of a deep well the Sun was directly overhead.  It was an observation that someone else might have ignored. Sticks, shadows, reflections in wells, the position of the sunwhat importance could such simple everyday matters are? But Eratosthenes was a scientist, and his musing on these common things and place’s changed the world; in a way, they made the world. He had a presence of mind to do an experiment, actually to observe whether sticks cast shadows at the exact same time (noon) in Alexandria as they cast on Syrene on June 21(considered the longest day). And he discovered sticks do. Eratosthenes asked himself-- how at the same time sticks do not cast shadows in Syrene and a pronounced shadow in Alexandria (far northeast)? At that time people considered the earth to be flat.  If it were to be flat then sticks should not cast any shadows as the sun was directly overhead. From his observations, he could only conclude that earth was not flat and that the surface of Earth is curved. Not only that, but he also stated that the greater the curvature the greater the difference in shadows. Thus, he calculated the difference in the degree of shadows cast between Syrene and Alexandria and it was seven degree along the surface of Earth; that is if you extended those sticks down the centre of Earth they will intersect at an angle of seven degrees. Seven degrees is like one-fifth of three hundred and sixty degrees (the full circumference of Earth).  Eratosthenes then hired a man to pace out the distance between Syrene and Alexandria which was 800 km. now, 360/7 is 51.42 he considered it something close to 50. Now, 800 multiplied by 50 is 40,000 km. This is the right answer. His only tools were sticks, shadows, brain plus a taste to experiment. He calculated the circumference of our planet with an error margin of only a few percents. A remarkable achievement for someone 2200 years ago. He was the first man to precisely measure the circumference of Earth.

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But sadly he passed out without getting enough credit for his work because very few believed his conclusions that earth has a curved surface. More likely they all doubted him off. So, his Contribution to Astronomy goes unregarded. He was in the true sense the first Geographer and created the concept of latitude and longitude that we still use today. But much of his credit is given to the discoverer Christopher Columbus. Columbus first voyage is connected to Eratosthenes in the most straightforward ways with the calculations of Eratosthenes. Columbus was fascinated by what he called “the Enterprise of the Indies” a project to reach Japan, China and India not by following the coastline of Africa and sailing East but rather by plunging boldly into the unknown Western Ocean- More as Eratosthenes had predicted travelling from Liberia to India in bold voyage from Western sea. Columbus had been an itinerant peddler of old maps and an assiduous reader of books by Ancient geographers, including Eratosthenes, Ptolemy and Strabo. But for the “Enterprise of Indies to work” and the crew and ship should survive this long voyage the Earth had to be smaller than Eratosthenes had imagined. Columbus, therefore, cheated on his calculations as the University of Salamanca quite correctly pointed out. He used the smallest possible circumference from all available books and exaggerated even that calculation. If he had not found America (Red Indians he called them) his mission would have utterly failed. Frankly speaking, if he would have not discovered [8]

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America he would have died of Starvation during his Voyage. Science has much older roots than most of us think. But sadly, it was considered a work of fiction as they had no solid evidence to prove their theory.  For centuries now, religion has tormented science just to prove its integrity. People have been killed to maintain this Integrity of religion. Still today, we categories ourselves based on religion we feel close to those who share a common tribe. We just are ignorant of the fact that we should not judge anyone on his religion; rather our opinion should be based on their character. While making my notes I stumbled upon this question many times, if science existed such a long time ago then why didn’t we have a record of their findings? Or why didn’t they passed their knowledge to their offspring’s? So they didn’t have to rediscover the same facts again. The fact is they indeed passed on their knowledge to upcoming generations but we are just so ignorant to see it. They left their knowledge in the most Ancient language known to man-- “The Language of Symbol’s”. They graved their findings on walls and stones so that their children could learn from them. Study of symbols is indeed a complicated issue. Because the same symbol could have a different meaning based on their tribes and cultural belief. Consider the symbol of a Circumvent it is one of the oldest symbol known to man and surprisingly it is used almost in every religion known to man. In Buddhism it is a symbol of Human Intervention with god, In Jainism, it is the symbol of the “enlightened one”, In Hinduism, this symbol is used to have a conversation with the spiritual world and for some, and it is a symbol of the satanic cult. Sumerian civilizations in Mesopotamia were the first men to grave their precious information in stones they were far advanced from civilizations of their time. We will read more about their role in the coming chapters...

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