Varadaraja V. Raman is an emeritus professor of physics and humanities at Rochester Institute of Technology. He attended the University of Calcutta before completing his doctoral work on the foundations of quantum mechanics at the University of Paris under Louis de Broglie. This book was a gift signed by the author, V.V. Raman. (For his books I’ve read, click on his name.)

V.V. Raman is exceptionally qualified to write this book, as the following facts about him reveal. Born of Tamil parents in Calcutta, V.V. became multilingual: Tamil, Bengali, Hindi, and English in his early years; Sanskrit and Latin at school. And he later learned some European languages. He was associated with UNESCO during his career as an educator. V.V. has authored papers on the historical and philosophical aspects of physics and science, as well as on India’s cultural heritage. He is an associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Hinduism Project (2010), a recipient of the Raja Rao Award from Jawaharlal Nehru University, the IRAS (Institute for Religion in an Age of Science) Scholar’s Award, and the Interfaith Services Award from the Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue. He is an elected member of ISSR (International Society for Science and Religion), Cambridge, and a Metanexus Senior Fellow. He chaired the academic board of the Metanexus Institute (Philadelphia) and is a regular contributor to its online magazine – www.metanexus.net. Having met him in Ames, IA, I can attest that this eminent scholar and scientist is a very friendly, soft-spoken gentleman with whom one can converse on numerous topics, as I learned to my great pleasure and benefit. But we spoke primarily about physics, philosophy, and religion.

This paperback’s back cover has this brief but very meaningful summary about this book: “Indic Visions is the tenth book by the acclaimed scientist and humanist Varadaraja V. Raman. In it he provides a detailed introduction to Indic religions and contemporary interpretations thereof consistent with modern science. In a world of rapid changes, dangerous fundamentalism, parochial chauvinisms, culture wars, and clashing civilizations, this book provides both a soothing balm and a potent antidote. By delving more deeply into Indic civilization, Raman shows us the way to transform our emerging global civilization in wholesome and healthy ways consistent with science and the great challenges of the 21st century.”

A summary by Philip Clayton (Claremont School of Theology), whose books I’ve found to be excellent, needs also to be included: “Indic Visions is V.V. Raman’s magnum opus. In ten succinct chapters, he traces the development of Indian religion and philosophy from its distant origins to its most recent evolutions in an age of science. Comprehensive, scholarly, and eminently readable, this work explores the great questions of humankind: the origins of life and the cosmos, the mind-body relation, the quest for knowledge and liberation, and the nature of the Ultimate. The more I immersed myself in these pages, the more my respect for the unparalleled achievements of Indian civilization – past and present – and the incredible author who has brought this altogether in this outstanding volume.” I couldn’t agree more heartedly.

The Amazon website for this book is:

http://www.amazon.com/Indic-Visions-Age-Science-Multilingual/dp/14628836...

But, unfortunately, it does not have the option Click to LOOK INSIDE, so I’ll list the book’s contents and provide some comments. It begins with a 4-pp Foreword by William Grasse, Metanexus Institute, a 2-pp Foreword by E.C.G. Sudarshan, Univ. of Texas, and a 3-pp Preamble by V.V. Raman. This is followed by its ten chapters, listed with their titles:

• Ch I – Deep Roots, Spreading Branches: History and Commentaries
• Ch II – Universal Science and the Subcontinent
• Ch III – Mythic Origins and Ends
• Ch IV – Mind: The Science of the Self
• Ch V – Knowing Indic Postmodernism
• Ch VI – Classical Philosophies in New Light
• Ch VII – Classical Texts: Interpreting the Upanishads and the Gita Today
• Ch VIII – Mythic Inklings of Future Sciences
• Ch IX – Global Science and Modern India
• Ch X – Science in Context: Debates within Transnational Civilizations

The book has no footnotes, but the 15-pp Selected Bibliography consists of many references to the extensive material discussed in the book.

While in graduate school at Indiana University, Bloomington, 1962-1967, I became friends with two Indian physics graduate students and a professor from India, so I learned a little, all of which new to me, about the ancient and present civilizations of India. But this book by V.V. greatly expanded my knowledge. Both India (and China) developed many technical skills centuries before Europeans did, as Europeans were still rather primitive hunter-gatherers while civilizations in India (and in China, and later in Greece), were developing theologies, philosophies, mathematics, and natural philosophy. (The term ‘natural philosophy’ changed only a few centuries ago into what today we call science). After the rise of European civilization, and during the many decades of European colonization of much of Asia and Africa, the colonizers failed to recognize the high level of civilization that had already existed in Asia. Instead, they assumed Asia only had very ancient religions. Through such European (and later also American) ignorance and arrogance, they failed to recognize India’s (and China’s) long-lasting cultures and the history of theologies, philosophies, mathematics, and natural philosophy that preceded by centuries the rise of a civilized Europe.

This ignorance and arrogance led Europeans to claim the discovery of new ideas which, as V.V. Raman thoroughly explains, had long been known and used in India. One striking example is the numbers we use – the so-called Arabian numbers. Actually, Arabia had learned about these numbers from India. For good reasons, the so-called Arabian numbers soon replaced Roman numbers which are useless even for simple mathematics such as arithmetic – try multiplying or dividing using them! Roman numbers are only good, albeit cumbersome, for numerical labels. In Ch IX Raman discusses briefly several scientists from India who made very important contributions to modern science – all of these modern physicists' names and their important contributions were learned by us physics grad students working towards a Ph.D. However, pre-modern physics work done before the last dozen or more decades by natural scientists in India are unlikely to be known by European or American scientists.

As I share and strongly agree with Phillip Clayton about this superb book, I give it my highest rating of five stars, but I tell potential readers “to think six stars”!