书城外语一本书读懂消失的文明:英汉对照
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第19章 古印度——青铜时代的城市(2)

After the Kalinga War, the Empire experienced half a century of peace and security under Ashoka. Mauryan India also enjoyed an era of social harmony, religious transformation, and expansion of the sciences and of knowledge. Chandragupta Maurya's embrace of Jainism increased social and religious renewal and reform across his society, while Ashoka's embrace of Buddhism has been said to have been the foundation of the reign of social and political peace and non-violence across all of India. Ashoka sponsored the spreading of Buddhist ideals into Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, West Asia and Mediterranean Europe.

孔雀王朝:旃陀罗笈多·孔雀信奉耆那教,阿育王热衷于佛教

孔雀王朝是古代印度铁器时代历史的一个广泛的地理定义,孔雀王朝统治时期为公元前321年至公元前185年。帝国起源于印度次大陆东侧印度恒河平原(今比哈尔,北方邦东部、孟加拉)的摩揭陀王国,首都是帕塔里普城(今巴特那)。帝国由旃陀罗笈多·孔雀成立于公元前322年,当时他推翻了难陀王朝,并迅速向西穿越印度中部和西部,利用希腊亚历山大大帝和波斯军队的西撤后引起的地方势力混战来扩大其权力。到公元前320年为止,帝国已经完全占领印度的西北部,战胜并征服了亚历山大留下的殖民地总督。

孔雀王朝国土面积500万平方公里,它是当时世界上最大的帝国,也是印度次大陆有史以来最大的帝国。它的衰落时期是在阿育王统治结束60年之后。孔雀王朝于公元前185年土崩瓦解,取而代之的是摩揭陀国的笈多王朝。

在旃陀罗笈多的统治下,孔雀帝国征服了印度附近地区,那本来是马其顿人统治的区域;后来,旃陀罗笈多又击败了亚历山大军队的希腊将军塞琉古一世的入侵队伍。在旃陀罗笈多和他的继任者的统治之下,孔雀帝国确立了一套有关金融、管理、安全的单一高效体系,从此印度的内外贸易、农业和经济活动迈进了空前繁荣的时代。

羯陵伽战争以后,帝国在阿育王的统治下经历了半个世纪的和平与安全,印度孔雀王朝分享着一段社会和谐发展、宗教信仰变迁、科学知识增长的时期。旃陀罗笈多信奉耆那教,然而阿育王信奉佛教,这引起了他在位时期的更多的社会变革和宗教革新,据说这成为整个印度社会政治和平以及非暴力文明的基础。阿育王将佛教思想传播到了斯里兰卡、东南亚、西亚和欧洲的地中海地区。

2. The contribution to the human civilizations made by the melting pot of Indian cultures

India is a melting pot of cultures. Ancient India is one of the cradles of human civilization. It has made creative contribution to the human civilizations in writing, mathematics, medical science,music, dance and other aspects.

印度文化大熔炉对人类文明的贡献

印度是一个文化的大熔炉,古印度是人类文明的发源地之一,在文字、数学、医学、音乐、舞蹈等方面对人类文明作出了独创性的贡献。

Indus :The appearance of Indussymbols on many ritual objects

Between 400 and as many as 600 distinct Indus symbols have been found on seals, small tablets, ceramic pots and more than a dozen other materials, including a "signboard" that apparently once hung over the gate of the inner citadel of the Indus city of Dholavira.

Typical Indus inions are no more than four or five characters in length, most of which (aside from the Dholavira "signboard") are tiny; the longest on a single surface, which is less than 1 inch (2.54 cm) square, is 17 signs long; the longest on any object has a length of 26 symbols.

While the Indus Valley Civilization is generally characterized as a literate society on the evidence of these inions, this deion has been challenged by Sproat, and Witzel (2004) who argue that the Indus system did not encode language, but was instead similar to a variety of non-linguistic sign systems used extensively in the Near East and other societies. Others have claimed on occasion that the symbols were exclusively used for economic transactions, but this claim leaves unexplained the appearance of Indus symbols on many ritual objects, many of which were mass-produced in moulds. No parallels to these mass-produced inions are known in any other early ancient civilizations.

印度文字:出现在大量礼仪物品上的印度符号

目前,有关人员已经在印章、小药片、陶瓷盆以及其他十几种物体上发现了多达400~600个不同的印度文字符号,这些文字载体还包括那些曾经挂在朵拉维那城的内部要塞大门上的醒目“招牌”。

典型的印度铭文其长度不超过四或五个字符,其中大部分铭文(朵拉维那城的“招牌”除外)都很小巧,画面上最长的文字才17个字符那么长,小于1英寸(2.54厘米),任何物体上的最长文字只有26个字符长。

印度河流域文明的特点一般可以作为社会文化的证据,但这一说法受到了斯普罗特和威策尔(2004年)的挑战。他们认为印度文字体系没有语言编码,取而代之的是近东和其他社会的类似的各种非语言符号系统的广泛使用。还有人声称,有时候这些符号专门用于经济交易,但这种说法不能解释为什么印度文字符号会出现在大量的礼仪物品之上,其中许多刻在批量生产的模具之上。这些大量生产的文字符号在任何其他早期的古代文明中都没有发现过。

Indus mathematics:Bijaganitam of algebr and Rekha Ganita ofGeometry

In India, mathematics has its roots in Vedic literature which is nearly 4000 years old. Between 1000 BC and 1000 AD various treatises on mathematics were authored by Indian mathematicians in which were set forth for the first time, the concept of zero, the techniques of algebra and algorithm, square root and cube root.