A lil' edification

In an aim to write about more than just yoga, here are a few bits of information which some of you may not have known.

Everyone's familiar with paisley (estampado de cachemira), the print that proper dandies have on their cravats (or any old British fop would wear) and which had a boom in the 80s. Not everyone is aware that the pattern was really Indian in origin, although the name in Spanish suggests something of the sort (cachemira, Kashmir). I'm hoping Prince William will sport some in his upcoming royal wedding gear (maybe a nice silk pocket hanky), not to demonstrate and assert his role as Britain's military leader or the British Empire's superiority over Indians, but rather as a nod to the Indians' influence in fashion today.
http://www.indian-heritage.org/artcraft/designs/mango.html
Oh, I forgot to mention the most important part. The paisley pattern does not feature a "paisley". It features everybody's favorite fruit, the mango. This image and pattern can be found all over India (like on kitchen bowls or bordering a temple's awning/gables). Yes, it is a repeated expression of the Indian's love for mango, which I and most sane people share.

Speaking of paisley, what's today's fashion accessory which most frequently bears the paisley pattern? That's right - gangsters' bandanas (AKA handkerchief AKA panuelo). Did gangs invent the bandana? I don't think so. Who did, you ask? You may have guessed right. The Indians did. And if you've done any yoga, the word bandana may sound familiar to you. Really, it's bandhana (related to tying, like bandhas - inner locks/ties). Bandha is where we get the word bound and bind in English, which is what you do with your bandana if you are a gangster - bind it around your head or wrist or ankle if you want to be cool or whatever. You could also stick it in your pocket to be associated with some gangs, but to me that seems more like you want to be associated with British royalty and aristocracy, except in the cotton sort of way (for animal rights' activists who don't use silk because of the silkworms killed in the silk-making process). If you were gay and had a dog, you could also tie the bandana around your dog's neck, thus associating him/her with some gang or other. Remember, silk paisley print material is upper class wear, for right fops, and cotton bandanas are working class gear, to keep your hair back and the sweat from getting in your eyes. Generally nowadays, you don't see too many working class Indians wearing bandanas, because they'll tie any old rag they can get their hands on around their heads to keep the sweat from pouring into their eyes as they labor and toil under the blazing Indian sun They'll even tie an old wool sweater which will make even more sweat pour into their eyes than if they didn't have anything at all tied around their heads. Remember, you're making a fashion statement when you accesorize - it's not only about functionality.
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/bandana.html
That brings me to the last item of the day: indigo. (The reference to India should be obvious here at least).
I could be talking about a range in the electromagnetic spectrum somewhere from 446 and 464 nanometers per wavelength, as we perceive it in visible light. Sir Isaac Newton considered indigo to be one of seven colors in the spectrum. Many later scientists reject his idea, since possibly he defined seven colors so that waves of visible light (color) could be equated to the seven notes (wavelengths of sound) in a musical scale and to seven days in a week. These later scientists say that indigo and violet are both hues of blue, meaning colors in the spectrum aren't equated to anything, neither sound nor time, which is rather boring and scientific. :(
Besides color and light, indigo was the Greek name for dye (indikon), suggesting that in the past, everybody (or at least the Ancient Greeks) only wore blue clothes and had blue sheets, as that was the color the Indians dyed their fabric. This also indirectly implies that Indians were the ancient world's dyers and technological leaders in this textile industry, which is most assuredly truer than my last declaration. An even more correct statement would be that Indians were the world's dyers for the ancient world (as it is encompassed in the purely Western-centric system), only to be surpassed in time by the Dutch, Flemish, Netherlandish and Brabantine (ok, let's just say the Low Countries) in the medieval era, basically dyeing all of Europe's cloth. To recap, in a western-based perspective, Indians dyed the ancient world's cloth and the Low Country-ers dyed the medieval world's cloth. And of course, we use the word indigo for the color because of the Indians' influence.
This was for all of you who think that India is only great because of Gandhi, having inspired a few Beatles' songs, and palak paneer.