Amazing facts about India you must know

1.India never invaded any country in his last 100000 years of
history.
2.The name 'India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys
around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan
worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.
3.The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name
'Hindustan' combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to
the land of the Hindus.
4.Chess was invented in India.
5.Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies, which
originated in India.
6.The 'Place Value System' and the 'Decimal System' were
developed in India in 100 B.C.
7.The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara
Temple at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The shikhara of the temple
is made from a single 80-tonne piece of granite. This
magnificent temple was built in just five years, (between
1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola.
8.India is the largest democracy in the world, the 7th largest
Country in the world, and one of the most ancient
civilizations.
9.The game of Snakes & Ladders was created by the 13th
century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called
'Mokshapat'. The ladders in the game represented virtues
and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with
cowrie shells and dices. In time, the game underwent
several modifications, but its meaning remained the same,
i.e. good deeds take people to heaven and evil to a cycle of
re-births.
10.The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal
Pradesh. Built in 1893 after leveling a hilltop, this cricket
pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.
11.India has the largest number of Post Offices in the world.
12.The largest employer in India is the Indian Railways,
employing over a million people.
13.The world's first university was established in Takshila in
700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world
studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda
built in the 4th century was one of the greatest
achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
14.Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to
mankind. The Father of Medicine, Charaka, consolidated
Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
15.India was one of the richest countries till the time of British
rule in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus,
attracted by India's wealth, had come looking for a sea
route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
16.Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the
earth to orbit the Sun hundreds of years before the
astronomer Smart. According to his calculation, the time
taken by the Earth to orbit the Sun was 365.258756484
days.
17The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian
Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of
what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered
this in the 6th century, long before the European
mathematicians.
18.Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus also originated in
India.Quadratic Equations were used by Sridharacharya in
the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the
Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as
big as 10*53 (i.e. 10 to the power of 53) with specific
names as early as 5000 B.C.during the Vedic period.Even
today, the largest used number is Terra: 10*12(10 to the
power of 12).
19.Until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds in the
world
(Source: Gemological Institute of America) .
20.The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is
located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru
rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian
Army in August 1982.