Ancient Indian Science

It would be quite surprising for the average westerner when he or she is told that the scientific achievements that the European countries have been credited with since the past few decades were commonly practiced in India centuries before! The countries in the Asian continent, particularly India and China, were well advanced in various scientific disciplines when most of Europe was lost in the dark ages. In fact historians are coming out with proof to show that scientific credits were given to most western scientists simply because the ancient Indian texts could not be either understood by the west, or effectively popularized by those who handled them in India.

Analysis

It would seem surprising that India, which was repeatedly attacked and colonized by foreigners maintained her rich cultural traditions intact for thousands of years. All the scientific knowledge that India possessed were part and parcel of this culture, and hence they too remained intact with their respective custodians. Perhaps it is the immense bonding between culture, religion and scientific spirit of the Hindus that has helped them to keep the treasures of their scientific knowledge intact.

Ancient Indian Mathematics

The range of mathematical discoveries made by the ancient Indians affects most of the basic knowledge that we have in our lives. The influence of the Indian scientific knowledge had affected many other countries as well. The best example would be the misnamed 'Arabic' numerals, which is in fact is a contribution of Indian scientists. The very basic principles of mathematics had originated and then been perfected in India. The Arabic scholars often referred to the now famous 'Arabic numerals' as "Hindsaa", which means "from India (Hindustan)"

In the Vedic age, India was ahead of the rest in mathematics and astronomy. Thus, the geometry of the Shulba Sutras (The Rules of the Cord), geometrical appendices to the manuals of ritual (Shrauta Sutras) include the oldest known formulation of the theorem named after Pythagoras, developed in the context of Vedic altar-building. The first decimal system and the oldest names of "astronomical" numbers such as quadrillions and quintillions. Arabs still call the decimal system rakmu 'l-Hind, from Hind, "India. [Pandit, 1993, p.20]

"The decimal cyphers, the honor of which, next to letters the most important of human discoveries, has, with the common consent of historical authorities, been ascribed to Hindus" [Schlegel, 1977, p. 123]

"Mathematics is the science to which Indians have contributed the most. Our decimal system, place notation, numbers 1 through 9, and the ubiquitous 0, are all major Indian contributions to world science. Without them, our modern world of computer sciences, earth-launched satellites, microchips, and artificial intelligence would all have been impossible" [Wolpert, 1992, p 194]

Archaeologists also found a "ruler" made of shell lines drawn 6.7 millimeters apart with a high degree of accuracy. Two of the lines are distinguished by circles and are separated by 33.5 millimeters, or 1.32 inches. This distance is the so-called Indus inch [Teresi, p.59, 2002] All these quotes show that the role of the ancient Indian mathematician was very great and profound.

Ancient Indian astronomy

Perhaps the most important contribution to science by the ancient Indian mathematicians was the concept of time. Ancient Indian science, like the western concepts of the Big Bang Theory and the Pulsating Universe Theory, believed that time does not have an origin or end. Everything happens in cycles and at the end of each cycle, there are important and very perceptible changes that happen to the world. Ancient Indians had very precisely derived the age of the universe, which is a source of awe for the modern scientists who could not have done so without the help of advanced machineries and astronomical equipments. "The Hindus with their grandiose Kalpas and their ideas of the divine power which is beyond all human category (male or female). Not so alien to the imagery of modern science that it could not have been put to acceptable use." [Kak, 2004]

"Temporal notions in Europe were overturned by an India rooted in eternity. The Bible had been the yardstick for measuring time, but the infinitely vast time cycles of India suggested that the world was much older than anything the Bible spoke of. It seems as if the Indian mind was better prepared for the chronological mutations of Darwinian evolution and astrophysics." [Sorman,2001].

Ancient Indian Zoology, Physics, Chemistry and theories on life

The Indian belief on zoology, and in general the origin of life, has also been accepted by the modern sciences. "The theory of animal life and particularly of man was correctly understood by the ancient thinkers. The Brihat Vishnu Purana states that "the aquatic life precedes the monkey life" and that "the monkey life is the precursor of the human life." The same theory was explained in an interesting way by the dashavatara (ten incarnations). But evolution, as everything else, was the manifestation of the supreme spirit (Atman) as is testified by Chandogya Upanishad" [Kulkarni, 1974]

Ancient Indian seers had propounded the existence of atoms and also believed that the world was created from a chaotic mass that later differentiated into elements and matter that we perceive with our senses. The fact that the most subtle part of matter, called ether by modern scientists, had been identified by the ancient seers speaks of their advanced thought, mental perception and physical sensitivity to natural happenings around them.

Uddalaka Aruni, preserved in Chandogya Upanishad says "matter was at first a chaotic mass, like the juices of various trees indiscriminately blended together in honey. In order to develop names-and-forms, to discriminate things from one another, or to set them in order, the universal spirit came not in its universal form but as the living, principle, and entered into Fire, Water and Earth. After separating their component but qualitatively distinct parts (dhatus), it made numerous new combinations of them.

"The cause of creative motion is believed to be adrsta, unseen moral force which guides the destiny of souls according to their karma and requires them to be provided with properly equipped bodies and an appropriate objective world for the experience of pleasure and pain. It is due to the operation of this metempirical force that atoms start moving to get together in order that they may be integrated into countless varieties of things." The law of gravitation discovered by Brahmagupta anticipated Newton by declaring "all things fall to the earth by law of nature; for it is the nature of the earth to attract and keep things." [Iyengar, 1997, pp. 153-154 ; Chattopadhyay, 1987, pp.297-299]