Indian Science and Technology


Science and technology in India covered all the major branches of human knowledge and activities, including mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, medical science and surgery, fine arts, mechanical and production technology, civil engineering and architecture, shipbuilding and navigation, sports and games.

British historian Grant Duff has remarked: "Many of the advances in the sciences that we consider today to have been made in Europe were in fact made in India centuries ago".

Introduction

Ancient India was a land of sages, saints and seers as well as scholars and scientists. Some examples of India's contribution to science and technology include:

• Mathematics – Vedic literature is replete with concepts of zero, the techniques of algebra and algorithm, square root and cube root. Arguably, the origins of Calculus lie in India 300 years before Leibnitz and Newton. 

• Astronomy – Rig Veda (2000 BC) refers to astronomy. 

• Physics – Concepts of atom and theory of relativity were explicitly stated by an Indian philosopher around 600 BC. 

• Chemistry – Principles of chemistry did not remain abstract but also found expression in distillation of perfumes, aromatic liquids, manufacturing of dyes and pigments, and extraction of sugar. 

• Medical science & Surgery – Around 800 BC, the first compendium on medicine and surgery was complied in ancient India. 

• Fine Arts – study of sound and phonetics arose from the need of correct recitation of the Vedas. The natural corollary was the emergence of music and other performing arts. 

• Mechanical & Production Technology – Greek historians have testified to smelting of certain metals in India in the 4th century BC. 

• Civil Engineering & Architecture – The discovery of urban settlements of Mohenjodaro and Harappa indicates the existence of civil engineering and architecture, which blossomed to a highly precise science and found expression in innumerable monuments. 

• Shipbuilding & Navigation – Sanskrit and Pali texts have several references to maritime activity by ancient Indians. 

• Sports & Games – Ancient India is the birth place of chess, ludo, snakes and ladders and playing cards. 

Mathematics

Mathematics represents a very high level of abstraction attained by the human brain. In ancient India, roots to mathematics can be traced to Vedic literature, which is around 4000 years old. Between 1000 BC and 1000 AD, a number of mathematical treatises were authored in India.

American historian Will Durant (1885–1981) has said that "India was the mother of our philosophy... of much of our mathematics." Australian Indologist A. L. Basham writes in his book, The Wonder That was India, "... the world owes most to India in the realm of mathematics, which was developed in the Gupta period to a stage more advanced than that reached by any other nation of antiquity. The success of Indian mathematics was mainly due to the fact that Indians had a clear conception of the abstract number as distinct from the numerical quantity of objects or spatial extension."

It is now generally accepted that India was the birth place of several mathematical concepts, including zero, the decimal system, algebra, algorithm, square root and cube root. The concept of zero origininated in Indian philosophy's concept of "sunya", literally "void". A symbol for zero emerged to represent this philosophical concept.

Geometric theories were known to ancient Indians and find display in motifs on temple walls, which are in many cases replete with mix of floral and geometric patterns. The method of graduated calculation was documented in the 5th Century AD book Five Principles (Panch-Siddhantika).

Algebraic theories and other mathematical concepts circulating in ancient India, were collected and further developed by Indian mathematician Aryabhatta, who lived in the 5th century in Patna city (then called Pataliputra). He referred to Algebra (as Bijaganitam) in his treatise on mathematics named Aryabhattiya. A 12th century mathematician, Bhaskaracharya, authored several mathematical treatises; one of them, Siddantha Shiromani, has a chapter on algebra. He is known to have given the basic idea of Rolle's Theorem and was the first to conceive of differential calculus. In 1816, James Taylor translated Bhaskaracharya's Leelavati into English. Another translation of the same work by English astronomer Henry Thomas Colebruke appeared in 1817.

The Arabs and Persians fine-tuned and internationalized these mathematical concepts. Persian mathematician Al-Khawarizmi developed a technique of calculation that became known as "algorism." This was the seed from which modern arithmetic algorithms have developed. Al-Khwarizmi’s work was translated into Latin under the title Algoritmi de numero Indorum, meaning "The System of Indian Numerals." A mathematician in Arabic is called Hindsa, which means "from India."

The 14th century Indian mathematician Madhava of Sangamagrama, along with other mathematicians of the Kerala school, studied infinite series, convergence, differentiation, and iterative methods for solution of non-linear equations. Jyestadeva of the Kerala school wrote the first calculus text, the Yuktibhasa, which explores methods and ideas of calculus repeated only in 17th-century Europe .


Astronomy

Ancient India’s contributions to astronomy are well known and documented. The earliest references to astronomy are found in the Rig Veda, which are dated 2000 BC. By 500 AD, ancient Indian astronomy emerged as an important part of Indian studies and its affect is seen in several treatises of that period. In some instances, astronomical principles were borrowed to explain matters pertaining to astrology, like casting of a horoscope. Apart from this link of astronomy to astrology in ancient India, science of astronomy continued to develop independently, and culminated in original findings, like:

• The calculation of occurrences of eclipses 
• Calculation of Earth’s circumference 
• Theorizing about gravity 
• Determining that Sun is a star 
• Determining the number of planets in the Solar System 

There are astronomical references of chronological significance in the Vedas. Some Vedic notices mark the beginning of the year and that of the vernal equinox in Orion; this was the case around 4500 BC. Fire altars, with astronomical basis, have been found in the third millennium cities of India. The texts that describe their designs are conservatively dated to the first millennium BC, but their contents appear to be much older.

A text on Vedic astronomy that has been dated to 1350 BC, was written by Lagadha.

The earliest concept of a heliocentric model of the solar system, in which the Sun that is at the centre of the solar system and the Earth that is orbiting it, is found in several Vedic Sanskrit texts written in ancient India.

The Aitareya Brahmana (2.7) (c. 9th–8th century BC) states: "The Sun never sets nor rises. When people think the sun is setting, it is not so; they are mistaken." This indicates that the Sun is stationery (hence the Earth is moving around it), which is elaborated in a later commentary Vishnu Purana (2.8) (c. 1st century), which states: "The sun is stationed for all time, in the middle of the day. Of the sun, which is always in one and the same place, there is neither setting nor rising."

Yajnavalkya (c. 9th–8th century BC) recognized that the Earth was round and believed that the Sun was "the centre of the spheres" as described in the Vedas at the time. His astronomical text Shatapatha Brahmana (8.7.3.10) stated: "The sun strings these worlds - the earth, the planets, the atmosphere - to himself on a thread." He recognized that the Sun was much larger than the Earth, which would have influenced this early heliocentric concept. He also accurately measured the relative distances of the Sun and the Moon from the Earth as 108 times the diameters of these heavenly bodies, almost close to the modern measurements of 107.6 for the Sun and 110.6 for the Moon.

Based on his heliocentric model, Yajnavalkya proposed a 95-year cycle to synchronize the motions of the Sun and the Moon, which gives the average length of the tropical year as 365.24675 days, which is only 6 minutes longer than the modern value of 365.24220 days. This estimate for the length of the tropical year remained the most accurate anywhere in the world for over a thousand years. The distances of the Moon and the Sun from the Earth was accurately measured as 108 times the diameters of these heavenly bodies. These are very close to the modern values of 110.6 for the Moon and 107.6 for the Sun, which were obtained using modern instruments.

There is an old Sanskrit shloka (couplet) which also states "Sarva Dishanaam, Suryaha, Suryaha, Suryaha" which means that there are suns in all directions. This couplet which describes the night sky as full of suns, indicates that in ancient times Indian astronomers had arrived at the important discovery that the stars visible at night are similar to the Sun visible during day time. In other words, it was recognized that the sun is also a star, though the nearest one. This understanding is demonstrated in another Sloka which says that when one sun sinks below the horizon, a thousand suns take its place.

Many Indian astronomers had later formulated ideas about gravity and gravitation in the early middle ages.

The cosmological time cycles explained in the Surya Siddhanta, which was copied from an earlier work, gives:

The average length of the sidereal year (the length of the Earth's revolution around the Sun) as 365.2563627 days, which is only 1.4 seconds longer than the modern value of 365.2563627 days. This remained the most accurate estimate for the length of the sidereal year anywhere in the world for over a thousand years. 

The average length of the tropical year (the length of the year as observed on Earth) as 365.2421756 days, which is only 2 seconds shorter than the modern value of 365.2421988 days. This estimate remained the most accurate estimate for the length of the tropical year anywhere in the world for another 6 centuries (until Muslim mathematician Omar Khayyam gave a better estimate), and still remains more accurate than the value given by the modern Gregorian calendar currently in use around the world, which gives the average length of the year as 365.2425 days. 

Later Indian astronomer-mathematicians such as Aryabhata made references to this text, while later Arabic and Latin translations were very influential in Europe and the Middle East.

The Indian astronomer-mathematician Aryabhata (476–550), in his magnum opus Aryabhatiya, propounded a mathematical heliocentric model in which the Earth was taken to be spinning on its axis and the periods of the planets were given with respect to a stationary Sun. He was also the first to discover that the light from the Moon and the planets were reflected from the Sun, and that the planets follow an elliptical orbit around the Sun, and thus propunded an eccentric elliptical model of the planets, on which he accurately calculated many astronomical constants, such as the times of the solar and lunar eclipses, and the instantaneous motion of the Moon (expressed as a differential equation). Bhaskara (1114-1185) expanded on Aryabhata's heliocentric model in his treatise Siddhanta-Shiromani, where he mentioned the law of gravity, discovered that the planets don't orbit the Sun at a uniform velocity, and accurately calculated many astronomical constants based on this model, such as the solar and lunar eclipses, and the velocities and instantaneous motions of the planets. Arabic translations of Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya were available from the 8th century, while Latin translations were available from the 13th century, before Copernicus had written De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, so it's quite likely that Aryabhata's work had an influence on Copernicus' ideas.

Aryabhata wrote that 1,582,237,500 rotations of the Earth equal 57,753,336 lunar orbits. This is an extremely accurate ratio of a fundamental astronomical ratio (1,582,237,500/57,753,336 = 27.3964693572), and is perhaps the oldest astronomical constant calculated to such accuracy.

Brahmagupta (598-668) was the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain and during his tenure there wrote a text on astronomy, the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628.

Bhaskara (1114-1185) was the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, continuing the mathematical tradition of Brahmagupta. He wrote the Siddhanta-Shiromani which consists of two parts: Goladhyaya (sphere) and Grahaganita (mathematics of the planets).

The other important names of historical astronomers from India are Madhava and Nilakantha Somayaji.

On April 19, 1975, India sent into orbit its first satellite Aryabhatta. In 1984, Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to go to outer space. Kalpana Chawla, later a US citizen, became the first woman of Indian origin to go to space.


Physics

The concept of the atom in ancient India derives from the classification of the material world in five basic elements by Indian philosophers. This classification existed since Vedic times (c. 1500 BC). The elements were the earth (prithvi), fire (agni), air (vayu), water (jaal) and ether or space (aksha). The elements were associated with human sensory perceptions: smell, touch, vision, taste and ether/space respectively. Later, Buddhist philosophers replaced ether/space with life, joy and sorrow.

Ancient Indian philosophers believed that all elements except ether were physically palpable and hence comprised of minuscule particles. The smallest particle, which could not be subdivided, was called paramanu in Sanskrit (shortened to parmanu), from param (ultimate or beyond) and anu (atom). Thus, "paramanu" literally means "beyond atom" and this was a concept at an abstract level which suggested the possibility of splitting atoms, which is now the source of atomic energy. However, the term "atom" should not be conflated with the concept of atom as it is understood today.

The 6th century BC Indian philosopher Kanada was the first person who went deep systematically in such theorization. Another Indian philosopher, Pakudha Katyayana, a contemporary of Buddha, also propounded the ideas of atomic constitution of the material world. All these were based on logic and philosophy and lacked any empirical basis for want of commensurate technology. Similarly, the principle of relativity (not to be confused with Einstein's theory of relativity) was available in an embryonic form in the ancient Indian philosophical concept of "sapekshavad" (c. 6th century BC), literally "theory of relativity" in Sanskrit.

These theories have attracted attention of the Indologists, and veteran Australian Indologist A. L. Basham has concluded that "they were brilliant imaginative explanations of the physical structure of the world, and in a large measure, agreed with the discoveries of modern physics."


Chemistry

Ancient India’s development in chemistry was not confined at an abstract level like physics, but found development in a variety of practical activities.

Metallurgy has remained central to all civilizations, from the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and later. It is believed that the basic idea of smelting reached ancient India from Mesopotamia and the Near East. In ancient India, the science of smelting reached a high level of refinement and precision. In the 5th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus observed that "Indian and the Persian army used arrows tipped with iron." Ancient Romans used armour and cutlery made of Indian iron.

In India itself, certain objects testify to the high level of metallurgy. An iron pillar believed to be cast in the Gupta period around the 5th century stands by the side of Qutub Minar World heritage site in Delhi. It is 7.32 m tall, with a diameter of 40 cm at the base tapering to 30 cm at the top, and is estimated to weigh 6 tonnes. Standing in the open for last 1500 years, it has withstandood wind, heat and water without rusting, except for very minor natural erosion. This kind of rust-proof iron was not possible till iron and steel was discovered few decades before.

Ancient India's advanced chemical science also finds expression in activities like distillation of perfumes and fragrant ointments, manufacturing of dyes and chemicals, preparation of pigments and colours, and polishing of mirrors. Paintings found on walls of Ajanta and Ellora World Heritage sites still look fresh after 1000 years, further testifying to the high level of science.


Medicine & Surgery

The science of medicine originates in ancient India as "Ayurveda", literally, "the science of life or longevity" in Sanskrit from "ayur" (age or life) and "veda" (knowledge). Ayurveda constitutes ideas about ailments and diseases, their symptoms, diagnosis and cure, and relies heavily on herbal medicine, including extracts from several plants. This reliance on herbs differentiates ayurveda from systems like allopathy and homeopathy. Ayurveda has also always dissociated itself from witch doctors and voodoo.

Ancient scholars of India like Atreya[1], and Agnivesa have dealt with principles of ayurveda as long back as 800 BC. Their works and other developments were consolidated by Charaka into a compendium of ayurvedic principles and practices ,Charaka-Samahita, which remained a standard textbook for almost 2000 years, translated into many languages including Arabic and Latin. It deals with a variety of matters covering physiology, etiology and embryology, concepts of digestion, metabolism, and immunity. Preliminary concepts of genetics are also mentioned; for example, Charaka theorized that blindness from the birth is not due to a defect in the mother or father, but originates in the ovum and the sperm.

Advances in the field of medical surgery were also made in ancient India, including plastic surgery, extraction of catracts and even dental surgery. The roots of ancient Indian surgery go back to at least circa 800 BC. The medical theoretician and practitioner Sushruta lived around the 6th century BC in Kasi (now called Varanasi). He wrote the medical compendium Shushruta-Samahita describing at least seven branches of surgery: Excision, Scarification, Puncturing, Exploration, Extraction, Evacuation, and Suturing. It also deals with matters like rhinoplasty (plastic surgery) and ophthalmology (ejection of cataracts). It also focuses on the study the human anatomy by using a dead body. Shushruta also describes over 120 surgical instruments, 300 surgical procedures and classifies human surgery in 8 categories. Because of his seminal and numerous contributions to the science and art of surgery he is also known by the title "Father of Surgery." Susrutha is also the father of plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery since his technique of forehead flap rhinoplasty (repairing the disfigured nose with a flap of skin from the forehead) that he used to reconstruct noses that were amputated as a punishment for crimes, is practiced almost unchanged in technique to this day. The Susrutha Samhita contains the first known description of several operations, including the uniting of bowel, the removal of the prostate gland, the removal of cataract lenses and the draining of abscesses. Susrutha was also the first surgeon to advocate the practice of operations on inanimate objects such as watermelons, clay plots and reeds; thus predating the modern practice of the surgical workshop by hundreds of years. Inoculation was practiced in China, India, and Turkey, and was a precursor to vaccination for smallpox.

Yoga is a system of exercise for physical and mental nourishment. Its origins are shrouded in antiquity and mystery. Since Vedic times, the principles and practice of yoga have crystallized. But it was only around 200 BC that the fundamentals of yoga were collected by Patanjali in his treatise Yogasutra ("Yoga-Aphorisms"; see Yoga Sutras of Patanjali). In short, Patanjali surmised that through the practice of yoga, the energy latent within the human body may be released, which has a salubrious affect on the body and the mind. Modern clinical practices have established that several ailments, including hypertension, clinical depression, amnesia, acidity, can be controlled and managed by yogic practices. The application of yoga in physiotherapy is also gaining recognition.


Nuclear Science

In 1974, India conducted its first nuclear test in Pokhran codenamed Operation Smiling Buddha. In 1999, two more tests were conducted. Prominent scientists of India's nuclear program include Homi Jehangir Bhabha and Dr. Raja Ramanna.


Fine arts

German Indologist Max Muller has declared that "If I am asked which nation had been advanced in the ancient world in respect of education and culture then I would say it was –India." Ancient India’s fine and performing arts attest to this fact. This find expression in music, musical instruments, dancing, paintings and several other art forms.

Music had a divine character and the Indian Goddess of learning, Saraswati, is always shown holding a veena. Likewise, Krishna is associated with "banshi", (flute) — a musical instrument which traveled throughout the world from India. Indian devotional songs and reciting influenced religious recitations in several eastern countries, where the style was adopted by Buddhists monks. India developed several types of musical instruments and forms of dancing, with delicate body movements and grace.

Paintings have remained the oldest art form as found in several cave paintings across the globe. Pre-historic cave paintings have been discovered in India in places like Bhimbetka, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In relatively recent times, rock paintings and carvings had significantly developed, and many such carvings have been found dating to the period of Emperor Ashoka. Indian influences may be seen in paintings at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, and in Miran and Domko in Central Asia. Sometimes, they depict not only Buddha but Hindu deities such as Shiva, Ganesha and Surya.


Production technology

Mechanical and production technology of ancient India ensured processing of natural produce and their conversion into merchandise of trade, commerce and export. A number of travelers and historians (including Megasthanes, Ptolemy, Faxian, Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Al Baruni and Ibn Batuta) have indicated a variety of items, which were produced, consumed and exported around that society's "known world" by the ancient Indians.

India’s urban civilization is traceable to Mohenjodaro and Harappa, now in Pakistan, where planned urban townships existed 5000 years ago. From then on, Indian architecture and civil engineering continued to develop, and was manifestated temples, palaces and forts across the Indian peninsula and neighbouring regions. Architecture and civil engineering was known as sthapatya-kala, literally "the art of constructing".

During the Kushan Empire and Mauryan Empire, Indian architecture and civil engineering reached regions like Baluchistan and Afghanistan. Statues of Buddha were cut out, covering entire mountain cliffs, like in Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Over a period of time, ancient Indian art of construction blended with Greek styles and spread to Central Asia.

On the east, Buddhism took Indian style architecture and civil engineering to places like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, China, Korea and Japan. Angkor Wat is a testimony to the contribution of Indian civil engineering and architecture to Cambodian Khmer heritage.

In mainland India, there are several ancient architectural marvels, including World Heritage Sites like Ajanta, Ellora, Khajuraho, Mahabodhi Temple, Sanchi, Brihadisvara Temple and Mahabalipuram.


Civil Engineering & Architecture

India’s urban civilization is traceable to Mohenjodaro and Harappa, now in Pakistan, where planned urban townships existed 5000 years ago. From then on, Indian architecture and civil engineering continued to develop, and was manifestated temples, palaces and forts across the Indian peninsula and neighbouring regions. Architecture and civil engineering was known as sthapatya-kala, literally "the art of constructing".

During the Kushan Empire and Mauryan Empire, Indian architecture and civil engineering reached regions like Baluchistan and Afghanistan. Statues of Buddha were cut out, covering entire mountain cliffs, like in Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Over a period of time, ancient Indian art of construction blended with Greek styles and spread to Central Asia.

On the east, Buddhism took Indian style architecture and civil engineering to places like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, China, Korea and Japan. Angkor Wat is a testimony to the contribution of Indian civil engineering and architecture to Cambodian Khmer heritage.

In mainland India, there are several ancient architectural marvels, including World Heritage Sites like Ajanta, Ellora, Khajuraho, Mahabodhi Temple, Sanchi, Brihadisvara Temple and Mahabalipuram.


Shipbuilding & Navigation

The science of shipbuilding and navigation were well-known to ancient Indians. Sanskrit and Pali texts are replete with maritime references. Indians, particularly from coastal regions, traded with several nations across the Bay of Bengal like Cambodia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, even China and South America, and across the Arabian Sea like Arabia, Egypt and Persia. A panel found in Mohenjodaro depicts a sailing craft, and thousands of years later Ajanta murals also depict a sea-faring ship.

Even around circa 500 AD, sextants and mariner’s compass were not unknown to ancient Indian shipbuilders and navigators. J.L. Reid, a member of the Institute of Naval Architects and Shipbuilders, England, around the beginning of the 20th century wrote in the Bombay Gazetteer (Volume XIII, Part II, Appendix A) that "The early Hindu astrologers are said to have used the magnet, in fixing the North and East, in laying foundations, and other religious ceremonies. The Hindu compass was an iron fish that floated in a vessel of oil, pointing north. The fact of this older Hindu compass seems placed beyond doubt by the Sanskrit word Maccha-Yantra ("fish-machine"), which Molesworth calls "mariner's compass".


Games & Sports

Several games now familiar across the world originated in India: chess, ludo, snakes and ladders, and playing cards. The epic Mahabharata (variously dated around 1000 BC to 500 BC) narrates an incident where a game called Chaturanga was played between two groups of warring cousins. In some form or the other, the game continued till it evolved into chess. H. J. R. Murry, in his book A History of Chess, concluded that "chess is a descendant of an Indian game played in the 7th century AD". The Encyclopædia Britannica states, "we find the best authorities agreeing that chess existed in India before it is known to have been played anywhere else".

The game of cards also developed in ancient India. Abul Fazal was a scholar in the court of Mughal emperor Akbar. His book, Ain-e-Akbari, which mirrors life of that time, records game of cards is of Indian origins.

Kalaripayattu martial arts are native to Kerala State. Kalaripayattu consists of a series of intricate movements that train the body and mind. It is believed to have been the predecessor of Shaolin martial arts.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_science_and_technology