[drieddust]

Hindus imagined this thousand of years ago.

Uncountable universes(multiverse) are born when Supreme consciousness Vishnu breathes out. Inside each universe God Bharma is born with the responsibly of managing the affair. Brahma lives for his 100 years which is roughly 311 billion years. During this time many mini cycles of creation and dissolution takes place. When Bharma finally dies after completing his 100 years,that particular universe dies with him. After another 311 billion years another Brahma is born again and universe restarts. When supreme god Vishnu finally breathes in, multiverse stop existing and creation end till the time supreme god breathes out again.

[Keyframe]

That's beautiful. I always wondered if there's some lost knowledge from ye olde ancient past where people knew more (about what we consider scinetific facts now) than we thought they did when they came up with these stories.

[drieddust]

Hindus were thinking about time ranging from nano seconds to billions of years[0]. As far lost knowledge is concerned Indian civilization have faced numerous attacks especially on its knowledge system and wealth. During one such attack Nalanda university was destroyed, more than 10000 teachers were killed, and library with millions of books was set on fire which raged for 3 months. Invaders themselves recorded these event gleefully. As per them India was a land of idol worshipers.Here is summary article which contains links to primary sources[1]. It's through struggle and luck Indian civilization have survived although with lots of gaps.

I am sure there were others great civilizations. But they are not here any more to tell the tale.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time

[1] https://www.myindiamyglory.com/2017/09/11/nalanda-9-million-...

[monroeclinton]

I think the Greeks through Anaximander had the concept of "apeiron", or the infinite. Some of them believed the universe to be infinitely old, therefore they must have had the concept of one to infinity, including billions.

[drieddust]

Yep ancient civilizations have thought about these concepts for a long time. Some got destroyed by floods, some by famine, but horrific destruction have happened when Abrahmic religions came on the scene with "holier than thou" philosophy which made destruction of others a religious duty.

Hindus were obsessed with zero and infinity and to them it was the same as god itself. Shanti mantra(used to wish well to all living being) from īśopaniṣad says.

> ओं | पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते । पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥

> oṃ | pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidaṃ pūrṇātpūrṇamudacyate | pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate ||

> That is Whole and this is Whole, the perfect has come out of the perfect; having taken the perfect from the perfect, only the perfect remains. Let there be Peace, Peace, Peace.

Verse above describes God superficially but it also describes zero and infinity[0]. This small text with only 18 verses and yet it is so profound. Similarly Buddhist philosophy which also came out from India is based on Shunya(zero).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isha_Upanishad

[kamaal]

>>but horrific destruction have happened when Abrahmic religions came on the scene with "holier than thou" philosophy which made destruction of others a religious duty.

Both true and false. Most of the killing and destruction was done by the pagans to themselves. The pagan wars were no joke. Here in the Indian subcontinent itself there was a war called 'Kalinga War', the death and destruction was just so much and complete. Nothing remained standing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinga_War

This is just to be honest one of many hundreds to thousands of wars in India alone. Paganism was mostly destroyed by its own people.

[drieddust]

After Kalinga war Ashoka renounced voilence as per the teaching of Buddhism. Do you have a parallel example from Abrahmic kings?

Having said that every civilization have had destructive infights. People fought for money, power,fame etc.

But that doesn't mean they destroyed each other's knowledge system, temples, and monuments. That's is only true for Abrahmic philosophy which stresses on destroying the culture and knowledge systems of the conquered.