EARLY AND MEDIEVAL HINDUS' CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The contribution of Hindu India to the field of science and technology during ancient and medieval ages is no less significant than its contribution to the field of spiritual wisdom. The word 'rishi' is generally translated as 'sage'—just signifies a man of knowledge, in any field for that matter, since it is derived from the Samskrit root 'rish' to know. Thus if Vaasishta and Vyaasa were rishis in the field of spiritual wisdom, Dhanvantari, Varaahamihira, and Bhaaskara were rishis in the fields of medicine, astronomy and mathematics.
India's work in science is both very old and young as an independent and secular pursuit, old as subsidiary interest of her vedantic and priestly pursuit and young in its modern pursuit. Religion being the core of Hindu life, those sciences were cultivated first that contributed to religion.
Surya siddhanta, considered as a revealed work, is the earliest of the available works on Hindu astronomy. Other great treatises in astrology are known as Sathya Samhita and Saptarishi Naadi, which consists of twelve books in Tamil. Bhrigu Samhita consists of four books and about ten thousand verses. The Hindu god of astrology is Lord Subrhamanya, the son of Shiva. Most of the valuable knowledge is lost due to the practice of utmost secrecy by the learned sages and today's astrology is only a skeleton, according to some. As per legends, sage Bhrigu wrote astrological charts giving the horoscope of every person ever born or to be born in the world. The writings of Bhrigu are popularly known as Bhrigu Samhita and are available from few astrologers in India.
Astrology grew out of the worship of heavenly bodies, and their observations of their movements aimed to fix the calendar of festival and sacrificial days. As in the Middle Ages, the scientists of India were her priests or gurus.
At a time when vedic sacrifices were all important, there was a great need to determine the correct times for performing them. This gave rise to a new branch of knowledge called 'Jyotisha' or 'Jyautisha' which was deemed as a Vedanga, a subsidiary science of Vedas. This was the origin of Hindu astronomy. It dates back to 1400 B.C. Astronomy was an incidental offspring of astrology. The earliest astronomical treatise, Suryasiddhanta (ca 425 B.C.) was thoroughly revised by Varaahamihira (6th century A.D.)
The works attributed to him are: Brihajjaataka, Laghujaataka, Panchasiddhaantika and Brihatsamhita. Varaahamihira's compendium was significantly entitled complete system of Natural Astrology, who drew considerable support from Greeks. The greatest Hindu astronomer Aryabhatta discussed in verse such poetic subjects that covered quadratic equations, sine and the value of pi ( ); he explained eclipses, solstices and equinoxes, announced spheroid of the earth and its diurnal revolution on its axis and wrote, in daring anticipation of Renaissance Science: "the sphere of the stars is stationary, and the earth, by its revolution produces the daily rising and setting of planets and stars".
His most famous successor Brahmagupta, systematized astronomical knowledge of India, but obstructed its development by rejecting Aryabhatta's theory of the revolution of the earth. These men and their followers adopted to Hindu usage the Babylonian division of the skies into zodiacal constellations; they made a calendar of twelve months, each of thirty days, each of thirty hours inserting an intercalary month every five years; they calculated with remarkable accuracy the diameter of the moon and the sun, the position of the poles, and the position of the major stars. They expounded the theory, though not the law, of gravity, when they wrote in Siddhanta: "the earth, owing to its force of gravity draws all things to itself". The vedic sages were fully aware of the following astronomical facts and phenomena:
- The earth is round, rotates on its own axis and also around the sun.
- Sunlight has seven colors, allegorically described as seven horses.
- The twelve signs of the zodiac.
- There are 366 days in a year.
- The number of days per month is 29 11/16 or 29.762 days.
To make these complex calculations, the Hindus developed a system of mathematics, superior in everything to that of Greeks. Among the most vital parts of Western Oriental heritage are the "Arabic" numbers and the decimal system, both of which came to the West through the Arabs from India. The miscalled Arabic numbers are found on the rock edicts of Ashoka (256 B.C.), a thousand years before their occurrence in Arabic literature.
The decimal system was known to Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta long before its appearance in the writings of the Arabs and Syrians; adopted by China by Buddhist missionaries; Muhammad Ibn Musa-al-Khwarzami, the greatest mathematician of his age (ca 850A.D.) seems to have introduced it into Baghdad. The oldest use of the 'zero' in Asia or Europe is in Arabic document dated 873 A.D., three years sooner than its first appearance in India. But by general consent Arabs borrowed this from India and the most modest and most valuable of all numerals is one of the subtle gifts of India to mankind.
Algebra was developed in apparent independence by both Hindus and the Greeks, but the Western adoption of its Arabic name, al-jabr meaning adjustment, indicates that it came to Western Europe from the Arabs—i.e. from India. The great Hindu leaders in the field as in astronomy were Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta and Bhaskara. The last (1114 A.D.) appears to have invented the radical sign and many algebraic symbols. Bhaskara is the author of Beejaganitha, a work on mathematics, the Siddhanta Siromani on astronomy and Lilavati. In his computation of the size of the hydrogen atom, he used differential calculus. Valuable information regarding Hindu mathematics is found in Bakshali manuscript discovered in India in 1881. These men created the conception of negative quantity without which algebra would have been impossible; they formulated rules for finding permutations and combinations, they found the square root of 2, and solved, in 8th century A.D., indeterminate equations of the second degree that were unknown to Europe until the days of Euler, a thousand years later. They expressed their science in the poetic form, and gave mathematical problems a grace characteristic of India's Golden Age. Algebra was known as "kuttaganita" first. The term "beejaganita" used in the modern period was given by one Prithhoodaka Swami (860A.D.)
The construction of sacrificial altars and the arrangement for laying the bricks for them posed a problem to the vedic Aryans. While attempting to solve the problem, they discovered geometrical methods of algebra. The Sulbasaastras of Aapasthamba (400B.C.), Baudhaayana(600B.C.), Kaatyaayana(400A.D.) and others gave the solutions of linear, quadratic, simultaneous or even indeterminate equations. Signs of numbers counting up to very huge quantities like 'Praraardha'(10 raised to the power of 31), the decimal and the duo-decimal systems, the concept of zero and infinity, surds and indeterminate analysis were all familiar subjects to the ancient and medieval Hindus. In the Sthaanaangasutra (100 B.C.) simple, quadratic and cubic equations are given..
Aryabhatta, probably influenced by Greeks, found the area of a triangle, a trapezium and a circle and calculated the value of pi at 3.1416—a figure not equaled in accuracy until the days of Purbach (1423 A.D.) in Europe. Trigonometry evolved as an integral part of astronomy. Bhaskara crudely anticipated the differential calculus; Aryabhatta drew up a table of sine and the Suryasiddhanta provided a system of trigonometry more advanced than anything known to Greeks. The functions of sine and cosine were called 'jyaa' and 'kojya'. A number of elementary formulae—such as sine (90 – 0) = cos 0, as also trigonometry series had also been developed.
Coming to geometry as such, it had its origin in the building of vedic sacrificial altrars. The so called Pythagoras Theorem had already been enunciated by Baudhaayana (600B.C.). Problems like the area of quadrilateral or the diagonals of cyclic quadrilateral have been successfully solved by Brahmagupta in his Brahmasphuta Siddhanta. Rudimentary ideas of integral calculus and differential calculus are found in the works of Brahmagupta and Bhaskara II (A.D. 1150).
According to Baudhayana's mathematical work known as ShulbhaSutra, it was Indians who actually discovered what is today known as the 'Pythagorus Theorem', at least 1000 years before Pythagoras was born. It seems that Pythagoras took or even may have stolen this theorem from India and was given credit for it by the Western ''scholars''.. It's one of the many examples of cases when Greek mathematicians/scientists took credit of various Indian discoveries/inventions and the original Vedic Hindu contributors were written out of the history books and forgotten..
Incidentally, Baudhayana Śhulbasutra is also one of the oldest books on advanced Mathematics. The actual shloka (verse) in Baudhayana Shulbasutra that describes 'Pythagoras theorem' is given below -
dīrghasyākṣaṇayā rajjuH pārśvamānī, tiryaDaM mānī, cha yatpṛthagbhUte kurutastadubhayāṅ karoti.
Interestingly, Rishi Baudhayana used a rope as an example in the above shloka which can be translated as -
'
'A rope stretched along the length of the diagonal produces an area which the vertical and horizontal sides make together.''
As you see, it becomes clear that this is perhaps the most intuitive way of understanding and visualizing geometry in general and Baudhayana seems to have simplified the process of learning by encapsulating the mathematical result in a simple shloka in a layman's language (sanskrit was the language of choice back then).
Kanada, founder of the Vaisheshika philosophy held that the world was composed of atoms as many in kind as the various elements. The Jains nearly approximated to Democritus by teaching that all atoms were of the same kind, producing different modes of combinations. Kanada believed light and heat to be varieties of the same substance. Udayana taught that all heat came from the Sun and Vaachaspati, like Newton, interpreted light as component of minute particles emitted by substances striking the eye. Musical notes and intervals were analyzed and mathematically calculated in the Hindu treatise on music, Sangeeta Ratnaakara of Saarangadeva. The Pythagorian Law was formulated by which the number of vibrations as the length of the string between the point of attachment and the point of touch in the stringed instrument. There is some evidence that the Hindu mariners of the first century A.D. used a compass made by an iron fish floating in a vessel and pointing north.
Chemistry developed from two sources—medicine and industry. Mention has been made about the chemical excellence of cast iron, in ancient India, and about the high industrial development (1210—47), of Gupta period, when India was looked to, even by Imperial Rome, as the most skilled of nations in such chemical industries as dyeing, tanning, soap making, glass and cement. As early as 2nd century B.C., Nagarjuna devoted an entire volume to mercury. By the 6th century, Hindus were far ahead of Europe in Industrial Chemistry; they were masters of calcinations, distillation, sublimation, steaming, fixation, the production of light without heat, the mixing of anesthetic and soporific (hypnotic) powders and precipitation of metallic salts, compounds and alloys.
The tempering of steel was brought to perfection in ancient India unknown in Europe till modern times. King Porus is said to have selected, as a special valuable gift to Alexander, not gold or silver, but thirty pounds of steel. The Moslems took much of the Hindu chemical science to the Near East and Europe; the secret of "Damascus" blades for example, was taken by the Arabs from the Persians and by the Persians from India.
The Arthasastra of Kautilya (300 B.C.) and the Samhita of Charaka (300 A.D.) and Sushruta (500 A.D.) contain a wealth of information regarding chemistry also along with that of medicine and metallurgy. Procedures for extracting and purifying metals like lead, copper, silver and gold, preparation of various kinds of fermented liquors and anhydrous alcohol by distillation, formation of sulfides, preparation and properties of alkali carbonates and caustic alkalis as well as neutralization of the acid by an alkali—these and many more things have been described in these works. An elaborate discussion about the chemistry of digestion of food in human beings is found in the Charaka Samhita and Ashtanga Hridaya Samhita of Vagbhatta II (A.D. 650)
The process of melting, refining and coloring of glass was known even as early as the 6th century B.C. as borne out by the discovery of earliest specimen of glass at the Bhirmound in Takshasila or Taxila. The art of making painted, decorated and glazed pottery was current by 300 B.C. So also was the use of indigo, shellac, turmeric, resin and red ochre. Preparation of elixir of life and conversion of base metals to gold were the two-fold objectives of alchemists. In medieval India, Tantric cults were interested in alchemy.
The Rasaarnava (12th century), the Dhaatuvaada (8th century), the Rasendrachoodaamani were some of the treatises composed during the middle ages which dealt with subjects like purification of mercury by distillation, making cuprous sulfide and sulfuric acid.
Mining for precious metals and precious stones have been described by Megasthanes, as well known to Hindus.
The archaeological excavations at Baragunda (Singbaum), Mosabani (Singbaum), Agnigundala (A.P.) and Wynad (Kerala) have revealed extensive, abandoned copper and gold mines.
Vedic Aryans were familiar with the use of metals such as gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, bronze and iron. This presupposes that they had a fair knowledge of mining and metallurgy.
Much of the gold used in the Persian Empire in the 5th century B.C. came from India long before its known appearance in Europe. Vikramaditya erected at Delhi (ca 380 A.D.), an iron pillar that remains untarnished which is considered as a marvel even today. It is 24 feet in height and 16 inches in diameter, weighing 6 tons. The quality of metal or manner of treatment which has preserved it from rust or decay is still a mystery to modern metallurgical science. Before European invasion the smelting of iron in small charcoal furnaces was one of the major industries in India. The copper image of Buddha found at Sultanganj (Bihar) is another marvel. It is cast in pure copper. It is 7.5 ft in height and weighs 1 ton. It belongs to the 5th century A.D. Huen Tsang (A.D.600—664) refers to a colossal 24 meters (80 ft) copper statue of Buddha established by King Poornavarman near the Nalanda University in Bihar.
Silver and gold jewelry with granulation and filigree work made on copper and bronze moulds have been found at Taxila site (circa 3rd century B.C.)
Specimens of implements and a large variety of weapons discovered at Tirunelveli (TN) have been assigned to the period of 4th century B.C. Radio-carbon dating of some of the samples of iron objects obtained in the archaeological excavations in parts of North India and Delhi varies from 1025 to 537 B.C.
The medieval Arabs took over the art of making cloth from cotton from India and their word 'Quattan' gave English the word cotton. The name of Muslin was originally applied to fine cotton weaves made in Mosul from Indian models. Calico came from Calicut in Kerala. Europe looked upon Hindus as experts in almost every line of manufacture—wood work, metal work, glass blowing, gun powder, fire works, cement etc. China imported eye glasses from India in 1260 A.D.
A fairly good knowledge of botanical sciences existed in India even in the Vedic period. The Vedic Aryans were aware of what is now termed as 'photo-synthesis'. The Arthasastra of Kautilya (300 B.C.) refers to gulmavriksha ayurveda (science of bushy plants and trees). A lot of information regarding soils, seed selection, sowing, germination, grafting and cutting, rotation of crops, plant classification and so on is found in some puranas like Agnipurana (800 A.D.). An account of the different parts of a plant body like the roots, and shoots, stem and branches, leaves, flowers and fruits are found in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda, Taittareeya Samhita, Vaajasaneyi Samhita. Indian literature of the post-vedic period (600B.C. to 600 A.D.) bears ample evidence to the knowledge of morphology, physiology, ecology and taxonomy of plants. The famous Samskrit lexicon Amarakosha of Amarasimha (A.D. 400) has enumerated more than three hundred species of plants. Medicinal herbs and plants naturally received great attention due to their being closely associated with Ayurveda, the science of medicine and surgery. All the methods of propagation now known to us were a common knowledge. To mention a few: propagation of seeds, roots, cuttings and grafting. Treatise such as Arthasastra, Brihat Samhita and Manu Samhita refer to all of them.
Plants have been regarded, even from the Vedic times, as living organisms. In the naming of the plants, a rational and scientific procedure was followed, which is in no way inferior to modern methods.
During the medieval period botanical research—including possibilities of developing new species—for further fillip, is evidenced in the Sarangadhara Paddhati of Saarangadhara (14th century).
Being agro-centered society, the Hindus depended heavily on cows, bulls and other animals of the bovine species. The rulers of the land needed horses and elephants for their armed forces. Hence these categories attracted much attention of the society and a veterinary science centered round them developed in course of time. They are: Gavaayurveda, Asvaayurveda and Hastyaayurveda (pertaining to the bovine species) attributed to the sage Gotama, were the standard works current until the middle ages. Apart from diseases and their treatment, the texts contained information about diet, breeding, calving, lactation and milk.
The principle work on Asvaayurveda is the Saalihotra Samhita of uncertain date. Extracts from it are found in Agnipurana. The Saalihotra Samuchchaya of Kalhana (12th century A.D.) is believed to be a redaction Samhita. It is a voluminous work throwing light on different aspects of the horses like anatomy, physiological and pathological conditions relating to breed, sex, age and so on.
The Paalakaapya Samhita attributed to to Paalakaapya, is an exhaustive treatise on Hastyaayurveda. It is a work in the form of question and answers between the sage and his disciple Romapada. It deals with anatomy, physiology, pathology, major and minor diseases with medical and surgical treatments, drugs and diet. Another work on the same subject is the Maatangleela of Nilakhantaacharya. The date of both these works is unknown. It is interesting to note that there was a regular veterinary hospital in the campus of Nalanda University.
The Arthasastra of Kautilya (300 B.C.) has several references to fish and fisheries, to rearing animals such as cows, buffaloes, goat, sheep, horses and elephants.
Foreign travelers like Megasthanes (300 B.C.) and Strab (54-24 B.C.) have declared that 1) the Hindus of India attained longevity due to good food, pure air and good habits. 2) the Hindu physicians and surgeons were greater experts in their field than their contemporary Greeks 3) Even Alexander preferred to employ the Hindu physicians to look after his army men 4) Ashoka had established hospitals not only for human beings but also for animals.
It is very interesting to note that a very strict code of conduct has been laid down in their medical works for the doctors. They are: 1) A doctor should treat his patients to the best of his ability since they trust him for their lives 2) A doctor should refuse to treat morally deprived persons since they are a scourge to the society 3) A doctor should not take up terminal cases where he is sure that death is imminent, as also refuse to treat persons suffering from incurable diseases. 4) Once he agrees to treat a patient, he should provide him with proper medical and nursing facilities and also treat him kindly; 5) a doctor should never attend to a woman patient in the absence of her husband and guardians; 6) all professional information should be kept strictly confidential. Many of these medical treatises were translated into Arabic language and their practices introduced into Europe by the Arab physicians.
Anatomy and physiology, like some aspects of chemistry, were products of Hindu medicine. As far back as the sixth century B.C., Hindu physicians described ligaments, sutures, lymphatic, nerve plexus, fascia, adipose and vascular tissues, mucous and synovial membranes and many more muscles than modern cadaver is able to show. Doctors of pre-Christ era share Aristotle's mistaken conception of the heart as the seat and organ of consciousness and supposed that the nerves ascended to and from the heart. But they understood remarkably well the process of digestion—the different functions of the gastric juices, the conversion of chime into chyle, and this into blood. Anticipating Weissmann by 2400 years, Atreya (ca 500B.C.) held that parented seed is independent of the parent's body, and contains in itself, in miniature, the whole parental organism. Examination of virility was recommended as prerequisite for marriage in men; and the code of Manu warned against marrying mates affected with tuberculosis, epilepsy, leprosy, chronic dyspepsia or loquacity. Birth control in the latest theological fashion was suggested by the Hindu schools of 500 B.C. in the theory that during twelve days of menstrual cycle conceiving is impossible. Fetal development was described with considerable accuracy; it was noted that sex of the fetus remains for a time undetermined, and it was claimed that in some cases the sex of the embryo could be influenced by food or drugs.
Though the elements of Ayurveda are found even in Rigveda, it is only in Atharvaveda, the record of Hindu medicines begin; more embedded in a mass of magic and incantations, is a list of diseases with their symptoms. It is said that the original text of Ayurveda, composed by Lord Brahma himself, contained 100,000 verses and was composed long before the creation of the beings (Sushmita Samhita 1:1-5). Now the Atharvaveda contains only 6000 verses. Some call Ayurveda as the fifth Veda. Healers in Ayurveda are Dhanvanatari, Brihaspati and Indra. The prominent physicians of Ayurveda were Charaka (80-180 A.D.), Sushruta (around 350 A.D.), Vagbhatta (610-850 A.D.) and Madhva (around 1370 A.D.). Medicine arose as an adjunct of magic; the healer studied and used earthly means of cure to help his spiritual formula; later he relied more and more upon such secular methods continuing the magic spell, like bedside manner as psychological aid. Appended to Atharvaveda is Ayurveda (science of longevity). In this oldest system of Hindu medicine, illness is attributed to disorder in one of the four humors—air, water, phlegm and blood and treatment is recommended with herbs and charms. Many of its diagnoses and cures are still used in India, with a success that is sometimes the envy of Western physicians. The Rigveda names over a thousand such herbs and advocates water as the best cure for most diseases. Even in Vedic times physicians and surgeons were differentiated into magic doctors and were living in houses surrounded by gardens in which they cultivated medicinal plants. The great names of Hindu medicines are those of Sushruta and Charaka. Sushruta, professor of medicine in the University of Benares wrote down in Samskrit, system of diagnosis and therapy whose elements descended to him from his teacher Dhanvantari. His book dealt at length with surgery, obstetrics, diet, bathing, drugs, infant feeding, hygiene and medical education.
Charaka composed a Samhita (or encyclopedia) of medicine which is still used in Ayurveda, and gave his followers an almost Hyppocratic (followers of Greek physician 400 B.C.) conception of their calling: "Not for self, not for the fulfillment of any earthly desire of gain, but solely for the good of suffering humanity should you treat your patient, and so excel all".
Only less illustrious than these are Vagbhatta II (625 A.D.) who prepared a medical compendium in prose and verse, and Bhava Misra (1550 A.D.), whose voluminous work in analog physiology and medicine, mentioned a hundred years before Harvey the circulation of blood and prescribed mercury for that novel disease syphilis, which had recently been brought in by the Portuguese as a part of Europe's heritage to India.
The standard texts generally deal with Ashtangas or eight subjects. They are: Kaayachikitsa (therapeutics), Salyatantra (major surgery), Saalaakyatantra(minor surgery including ENT), Bhutavidya (psychiatry), Kumaarabhrityatantra (pediatrics), Agadatantra (toxicology), Rasaayanatantra(geriatrics) and Vaajeekaranatantra(virilification).
Some additional information is given in these texts as also the Arthasastra of Kautilya: details of the bones and naalas or naadees (blood vessels and nerves) in the human body; duties of the toxicologists and nurses; rules and regulations for the surgeons; certain modes and methods of treatment like the application of oils and ointments; bandaging techniques; surgical instruments and how to use them and so on. Susshruta described many surgical operations—cataract, hernia, lithotomic, caesarian section etc. and 121 surgical instruments including lancets, sounds, forceps, catheters and rectal and vaginal speculums. Despite brahminical prohibitions, he advocated the dissection of dead bodies as indispensable in the training of surgeons. He was the first to graft upon torn ear portions of skin taken from another part of the body. The surgical reconstruction of the nose descended into modern medicine from him and his Hindu successors. "The ancient Hindus" says Garrisons, "performed almost every major operations except legation of arteries. Limbs were amputated, abdominal sections were performed, fractures were set, hemorrhoids and fistula were removed. Sushruta laid down elaborate rules for preparing an operation, and his suggestions that the wound be sterilized by fumigation is one of the earliest known effects at antiseptic surgery. Both Sushruta and Charaka mention the use of medicinal liquors to produce insensitivity to pain. In 927 A.D. surgeons trepanned the skull of a Hindu king, and made him insensitive to the operation by administering the drug called Sammohini.
For the detection of the 1120 diseases that he enumerated, Sushruta recommended diagnosis by inspection, palpitation and auscultation. Taking the pulse was described in a treatise dating 1300 A.D. Urinalysis was a favorite method of diagnosis; Tibetean physicians were reputed, able to cure any patient without having seen anything more than his water. In the time of Yuan Chwang, Hindu medical treatment began with a seven day fast; in this interval the patient often recovered; if the illness continued drugs were employed. Even then drugs were used sparingly; reliance was placed largely upon diet, baths, enemas, inhalations and blood letting with leeches or cups. Hindu physicians were especially skilled in concocting antidotes for poisons; they still excel European physicians in curing snake bites. Vaccination, unknown in Europe before 18th century was known in India as early as 550 A.D.; if we may judge from a text book attributed to Dhanvantari, one of the earliest Hindu physicians: "take the fluid of the pock on the udder of the cow…; upon the point of a lancer and lance with it the arms between the shoulders and elbows until the blood appears; by mixing of the fluid with the blood, the fever of the small-pox will be produced.
A very large but unacknowledged
contribution of Hindu dharma traditions has been in Mind Sciences. This
covers psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, clinical therapies
and metaphysics of mind. But this remkais obscure and unrecognized.Rajiv malhotra is working on it in his research studies.
Hypnotism, as a therapy seems to have originated among the Hindus, who often took their sick to temples to be cured by hypnotic suggestion or 'temple sleep' as in Egypt and Greece. The Englishmen who introduced hypnotherapy into England—Braid, Esdaile and Ellison undoubtedly got their ideas and some of their experiences from their contacts in India.
The ancient Hindus practiced plastic surgery before 1000 A.D. They worked with steel surgical instruments and used alcohol to dull the senses. One reason for that development of this skill was the common punishment for adultery—cutting off the nose. Surgeons repaired the damage with tissues cut from either the cheek or forehead rebuilding the nose around the stump. During the operation the patient breathed through the reeds placed in the nasal openings. World War I, with its attendant disfiguring injuries was largely responsible for making plastic surgery more widely available in Western medicine.
Sushruta lived in sixth century BC He originated plastic surgery and the operation of the cataract in the eye. His technique as laid down in his texts was studied by the West and the science of Plastic surgery was evo0lved out of it. Sushruta knew how to repair bad or desisted noses and it is said that he fixed once torn ear and also grafted portions of skin from other parts of the body. He knew how to remove stones from the bladder. Despite religious objections, he advocated the cutting up or dissection of dead bodies for teaching of medical trainees.
Modern European physicians believe that caste separateness was prescribed because of the Brahmin belief in invisible agents transmitting diseases. The caste system had the eugenic value (relating to the production of good off-spring--keeping the presumably finer strains from dilution and disappearance through indiscriminate mixture. It established certain habits of diet and cleanliness as rule of honor which all might observe and emulate. Eugenics, a science that deals with improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed, probably was well understood by the sages, as cited in Puranas. Many of the laws of sanitation enjoined by Sushruta and Manu seem to take for granted what the moderns, who love New Worlds for old things, call the germ theory of diseases.
The great picture of Indian medicine is one of rapid development in the Vedic and Buddhist periods followed by centuries of slow and cautious improvement. How much Atreya, Dhanvantari, and Sushruta owed to Greece, and how much Greece owed to them, we do not know? In the time of Alexander, says Garrison, Hindu physicians and surgeons enjoyed a well deserved reputation for superior knowledge and skills and even Ariostotle is believed by some to have been indebted to them. So too, with Persians and Arabs. It is difficult to say how much Indian medicine owed to the physicians of Baghdad, and through them to the heritage of the Babylonian medicine of the Near East; on the one hand certain remedies like opium and mercury, and some modes of diagnosis like feeling the pulse, appear to have entered India from Persia, on the other hand we find Persians and Arabs translating into their languages in eighth century A.D., the thousands year old Compendium of Sushruta and Charaka.
The great Caliph Haroun-al-Rashid accepted pre-eminence of Indian medicine and scholarship and imported Hindu physicians to organize hospitals and schools in Baghdad. Lord Ampthill concludes that medieval and modern Europe owes its system of medicine directly to the Arabs and through them to India. Probably the noblest and most uncertain of the sciences had an approximately equal antiquity and developed in contemporary contact and mutual influence, in Sumaria Egypt and India.
The sages of India never considered religion and science as conflicting areas of knowledge. Einstein once said: "religion without science is lame and science without religion is blind". To the Hindu sages both were equally important, one being the quest for the Truth within and the other, without. They were actually two facets of the same Vidya or science. That is why they were called Para-vidya (higher knowledge) and Apara-vidya (lower knowledge). One thing which was basic to all these rishis was that their knowledge was always meant to be used within the perimeters of Dharma, for the Universal good of mankind. They were blessed with yogic powers, superior intelligence and high degree of concentration. The discovery by these sages that Brhman, the basis of external Universe and, Aatman the basis of internal world, are ultimately one and pure Consciousness has obliterated the walls between these two fields of knowledge. It is no wonder therefore there was a rapid development of science and technology in India during the Vedic and Medieval periods, which somehow lost its pace due to gradual changes in people's outlook and outside pressures and influence.
APPENDIX
Indian
Shastras and Scriptures in the Field of Science
Shastra is a broad term and include any book
which has codes and conduct given by God. Shastras include Vedas, Puranas and
Upanishads. The term Veda means knowledge and in ancient India all science were
believed to be derived from and based on Vedas. Vedas were spoken by lord
himself to brahma, from within his heart. Vedic knowledge is “sruti” mean to be
learned by aural reception.
In kali, due to lower intelligence and memory
the people were unable to acquire knowledge by just hearing hence Vedas were
compiled in written form by Vyasadeva rishi. Numerous rishis and scholars have
acquired the knowledge of Vedas and have discovered and invented many things
and have written many books in various fields of sciences.
Concept of Atom
Acharya Kanad conceptualized atomic theory.
Kanad was a sixth century scientist of Vaisheshika School, one of the six
systems of Indian philosophy. His original name was Aulukya. He got the name
Kanad, because even as a child, he was interested in very minute particles
called “kana”. He says, “Every object of creation is made of atoms which in
turn connect with each other to form molecules.” In Srimad-Bhagavatam,
Canto-3,Chapter 11, Calculation of Time, from the Atom is been described.
Concept of Matter
Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.
In bhagavad gita chapter 2. 16th versus it is written as – “naasato vidyate
bhavo naabhavo vidyate satah” it means that “The non-existence cannot be
brought into being and that which exist cannot be un-existed, destroyed”.
Concept of Gravity
Varahamihira was another well-known scientist
of the ancient period in India. He lived in the Gupta period. Varahamihira made
great contributions in the fields of hydrology, geology and
ecology.Varahamihira stated that there were some attractive forces in the stars
of the universe due to such forces the earth was able to float
Bhaskaracharaya had referred about gravity in
his work of Siddanta Siromany Bhuvanakosham 6
Mathematics
Many rishis and scholars have done splendorous
job in the field of mathametics, such as Baudhayan, Aryabhatta, Brahmgupta,
Bhaskaracharya, Mahaviracharya etc.
The value of pi was first calculated by
‘Baudhayan’. The Baudhayan’s Sulva Sutra, describes Pythagoras theorem which
was written several years before the age of Pythagoras.. Baudhayan was the
first one ever to arrive at several concepts in Mathematics, which were later
rediscovered by the western world.
Aryabhatta was a fifth century mathematician,
astronomer, astrologer and physicist. He was a pioneer in the field of
mathematics. At the age of 23, he wrote Aryabhattiya, which is a summary of
mathematics of his time. Aryabhatta showed that zero was not a numeral only but
also a symbol and a concept. Discovery of zero enabled Aryabhatta to find out
the exact distance between the earth and the moon. The discovery of zero also
opened up a new dimension of negative numerals.
Bhaskaracharya was the leading light of 12th
Century. He was born at Bijapur, Karnataka. He is famous for his book Siddanta
Shiromani. It is divided into four sections: Lilavati (Arithmetic), Beejaganit
(Algebra), Goladhyaya (Sphere) and Grahaganit (mathematics of planets).
Bhaskara introduced Chakrawat Method or the Cyclic Method to solve algebraic
equations. This method was rediscovered six centuries later by European
mathematicians, who called it inverse cycle. In the nineteenth century, an
English man, James Taylor, translated Lilavati and made this great work known
to the world.
In 7th century, Brahmgupta took mathematics to
heights far beyond others. In his methods of multiplication, he used place
value in almost the same way as it is used today. He introduced negative
numbers and operations on zero into mathematics. He wrote Brahm Sputa
Siddantika through which the Arabs came to know our mathematical system.
There is an elaborate description of
mathematics in Jain literature (500 B.C -100 B.C). Jain gurus knew how to solve
quadratic equations. They have also described fractions, algebraic equations,
series, set theory, logarithms and exponents in a very interesting manner. Jain
Guru Mahaviracharya wrote Ganit Sara Sangraha in 850A.D., which is the first
textbook on arithmetic in present day form. The current method of solving Least
common Multiple (LCM) of given numbers was also described by him. Thus, long
before John Napier introduced it to the world, it was already known to Indians.
Astronomy and Astrology
In ancient India, the science of astronomy was
well advanced. It was called ‘Khagolshastra’. Khagol was the famous
astronomical observatory at Nalanda, where Aryabhatta studied. In fact science
of astronomy was highly advanced and our ancestors were proud of it. The aim
behind the development of the science of astronomy was the need to have
accurate calendars, a better understanding of climate and rainfall patterns for
timely sowing and choice of crops, fixing the dates of seasons and festivals,
navigation, calculation of time and casting of horoscopes for use in astrology.
Knowledge of astronomy, particularly knowledge of the tides and the stars, was
of great importance in trade, because of the requirement of crossing the oceans
and deserts during night time.
Aryabhatta explained that earth is round and rotates
on its own axis and disproved that earth is achala. He also gave a scientific
explanation for solar and lunar eclipse. He explained that the appearance of
the sun moving from east to west is false by giving examples. One such example
was: When a person travels in a boat, the trees on the shore appear to move in
the opposite direction. He also correctly stated that the moon and the planets
shined by reflected sunlight. Another prominent astronomer was Varahamihira who
declared that the earth was spherical before Aryabhata. He proposed that the
Moon and planets are lustrous not because of their own light but due to
sunlight.
Astrology/Jyotish- Astrology is the science of
predicting the future, which means science of light, originated with the Vedas.
Astrology was given a very high place in ancient India and it has continued
even today. It was presented scientifically by Aryabhatta and Varahamihira.
Aryabhatta devoted two out of the four sections of his work Aryabhattiyam to
astronomy, which is the basis for Astrology. Astrology is the science of
predicting the future. Varahamihira’s predictions were so accurate that he was
considered one of the nine gems, in the court of Vikramaditya.
Medical Science
Medical Science was highly developed in India
and this ancient Indian system of medicine not only helps in treatment of
diseases but also in finding the causes and symptoms of diseases. It is a guide
for the healthy as well as the sick.
One such science is Ayurveda which is an
indigenous system of medicine that was developed in Ancient India. The word
Ayurveda literally means the science of good health and longevity of life. It
defines health as equilibrium in three doshas (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) and
diseases as disturbance in these three doshas. While treating a disease with
the help of herbal medicines, it aims at removing the cause of disease by
striking at the roots. The Atreya Samhita’ is the oldest medical book of the
world. . Charak, Madhava, Vagbhatta and Jeevak were noted ayurvedic
practitioners and Charak was called the father of Ayurvedic medicine. He was
the Raj Vaidya (royal doctor) in the court of Kanishka. His Charak Samhita is a
remarkable book on medicine. It has the description of a large number of
diseases and gives methods of identifying their causes as well as the method of
their treatment. He was the first to talk about digestion, metabolism and
immunity as important for health and so medical scienc. In Charak Samhita, more
stress has been laid on removing the cause of disease rather than simply
treating the illness. Charak also knew the fundamentals of Genetics.
Surgery: Susruta was a pioneer in the field of
surgery and was main author of the treatise Susruta Samhita. In Susruta
Samhita, over 1100 diseases are mentioned including fevers of twenty-six kinds,
jaundice of eight kinds and urinary complaints of twenty kinds are described.
He studied human anatomy with the help of a dead body. In Susruta Samhita, the
method of selecting and preserving a dead body for the purpose of its detailed
study has also been described.
Susruta’s greatest contribution was in the
fields of Rhinoplasty (plastic surgery) and ophthalmic surgery (removal of
cataracts). In Susruta Samhita, there is a very accurate step-by-step
description of these operations. Surprisingly, the steps followed by Susruta
are strikingly similar to those followed by modern surgeons while doing plastic
surgery. Susruta Samhita also gives a description of 101 instruments used in
surgery. Some serious operations performed those days include taking fetus out
of the womb, repairing the damaged rectum, removing stone from the bladder,
etc.
Education and Ethics
Gurukul system of education existed during
ancient times where students used to reside at guru’s place and learn
everything which can be later implemented to find solutions to real life
problems Ancient India very well understood that science and spirituality
complement one another. Albert Einstein said that “science without religion is
lame, religion without science is blind” Science studies mainly the material
nature, whereas Vedanta studies both material nature as well as spiritual
nature. The spiritual nature includes the deeper study of reality beyond
material nature that is beyond atoms and molecules, thus it realizes the
existence of soul, atman and consciousness.
Conclusion
The first precept of Vedanta sutra states- athato brahma jijnasa means in the human
form of life one should inquire about brahman, the absolute truth. The
apara-vidya (scientific knowledge) is lower knowledge and para-vidya (spiritual
knowledge) is higher knowledge. Therefore ancient India and its scriptures lead
us to the Absolute Truth or Higher Knowledge.
Indians Predated Newton ‘Discovery’ by 250 Years
Posted by
The Editor | History and Culture | IndiaDivine.Org
A
little known school of scholars in southwest India discovered one of
the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before
Newton according
to new research.
Dr.
George Gheverghese Joseph from The University of Manchester says the
‘Kerala School’ identified the ‘infinite series’- one of the basic
components of calculus
– in about 1350.
The
discovery is currently – and wrongly – attributed in books to Sir Isaac
Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz at the end of the seventeenth centuries.
The
team from the Universities of Manchester and Exeter reveal the Kerala
School also discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to
calculate Pi correct
to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places.
And
there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Indians passed on
their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable Jesuit missionaries
who visited India
during the fifteenth century.
That knowledge, they argue, may have eventually been passed on to Newton himself.
Dr
Joseph made the revelations while trawling through obscure Indian
papers for a yet to be published third edition of his best-selling book
‘The Crest of the
Peacock: the Non-European Roots of Mathematics’ by Princeton University
Press.
He
said: “The beginnings of modern maths is usually seen as a European
achievement but the discoveries in medieval India between the fourteenth
and sixteenth
centuries have been ignored or forgotten.
“The
brilliance of Newton’s work at the end of the seventeenth century
stands undiminished – especially when it came to the algorithms of
calculus.
“But
other names from the Kerala School, notably Madhava and Nilakantha,
should stand shoulder to shoulder with him as they discovered the other
great component
of calculus- infinite series.
“There
were many reasons why the contribution of the Kerala School has not
been acknowledged – a prime reason is neglect of scientific ideas
emanating from the
Non-European world – a legacy of European colonialism and beyond.
“But
there is also little knowledge of the medieval form of the local
language of Kerala, Malayalam, in which some of most seminal texts, such
as the Yuktibhasa,
from much of the documentation of this remarkable mathematics is
written.”
He
added: “For some unfathomable reasons, the standard of evidence
required to claim transmission of knowledge from East to West is greater
than the standard
of evidence required to knowledge from West to East.
“Certainly
it’s hard to imagine that the West would abandon a 500-year-old
tradition of importing knowledge and books from India and the Islamic
world.
“But
we’ve found evidence which goes far beyond that: for example, there was
plenty of opportunity to collect the information as European Jesuits
were present
in the area at that time.
“They were learned with a strong background in maths and were well versed in the local languages.
“And there was strong motivation: Pope Gregory XIII set up a committee to look into modernizing the Julian calendar.
“On
the committee was the German Jesuit astronomer/mathematician Clavius
who repeatedly requested information on how people constructed calendars
in other parts
of the world. The Kerala School was undoubtedly a leading light in this
area.
“Similarly
there was a rising need for better navigational methods including
keeping accurate time on voyages of exploration and large prizes were
offered to
mathematicians who specialized in astronomy.
“Again,
there were many such requests for information across the world from
leading Jesuit researchers in Europe. Kerala mathematicians were hugely
skilled in
this area.”
Source:
manchester.ac.ukYOGA AND THE SPEED OF LIGHT
It is amazing how much Western science has taught us. Today, for example, kids in grammar school learn that the sun is 93 million miles from the earth and that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. Yoga may teach us about our Higher Self, but it can't supply this kind of information about physics or astronomy.
Or can it? Professor Subhash Kak of Louisiana State University recently called my attention to a remarkable statement by Sayana, a fourteenth century Indian scholar. In his commentary on a hymn in the Rig Veda, the oldest and perhaps most mystical text ever composed in India, Sayana has this to say: "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha."
A yojana is about nine American miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. Mathematically challenged readers, get out your calculators! 2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 m. p. s.
Basically, Sayana is saying that sunlight travels at 186,000 miles per second! How could a Vedic scholar who died in 1387 A. D. have known the correct figure for the speed of light? If this was just a wild guess it's the most amazing coincidence in the history of science!
The yoga tradition is full of such coincidences. Take for instance the mala many yoga students wear around their neck. Since these rosaries are used to keep track of the number of mantras a person is repeating, students often ask why they have 108 beads instead of 100. Part of the reason is that the mala represent the ecliptic, the path of the sun and moon across the sky. Yogis divide the ecliptic into 27 equal sections called nakshatras, and each of these into four equal sectors called paadas, or "steps," marking the 108 steps that the sun and moon take through heaven.
Each is associated with a particular blessing force, with which you align yourself as you turn the beads. Traditionally, yoga students stop at the 109th "guru bead," flip the mala around in their hand, and continue reciting their mantra as they move backward through the beads. The guru bead represents the summer and winter solstices, when the sun appears to stop in its course and reverse directions. In the yoga tradition we learn that we're deeply interconnected with all of nature. Using a mala is a symbolic way of connecting ourselves with the cosmic cycles governing our universe.
But Professor Kak points out yet another coincidence: The distance between the earth and the sun is approximately 108 times the sun's diameter. The diameter of the sun is about 108 times the earth's diameter. And the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times the moon's diameter.
Could this be the reason the ancient sages considered 108 such a sacred number? If the microcosm (us) mirrors the macrocosm (the solar system), then maybe you could say there are 108 steps between our ordinary human awareness and the divine light at the center of our being. Each time we chant another mantra as our mala beads slip through our fingers, we are taking another step toward our own inner sun.
As we read through ancient Indian texts, we find so much the sages of antiquity could not possibly have known-but did. While our European and Middle Eastern ancestors claimed that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago, the yogis have always maintained that our present cosmos is billions of years old, and that it's just one of many such universes which have arisen and dissolved in the vastness of eternity.
In fact the Puranas, encyclopedias of yogic lore thousands of years old, describe the birth of our solar system out of a "milk ocean," the Milky Way. Through the will of the Creator, they tell us, a vortex shaped like a lotus arose from the navel of eternity. It was called Hiranya Garbha, the shining womb. It gradually coalesced into our world, but will perish some day billions of years hence when the sun expands to many times it present size, swallowing all life on earth. In the end, the Puranas say, the ashes of the earth will be blown into space by the cosmic wind. Today we known this is a scientifically accurate, if poetic, description of the fate of our planet.
The Surya Siddhanta is the oldest surviving astronomical text in the Indian tradition. Some Western scholars date it to perhaps the fifth or sixth centuries A. D., though the text itself claims to represent a tradition much, much older. It explains that the earth is shaped like a ball, and states that at the very opposite side of the planet from India is a great city where the sun is rising at the same time it sets in India. In this city, the Surya Siddhanta claims, lives a race of siddhas, or advanced spiritual adepts. If you trace the globe of the earth around to the exact opposite side of India, you'll find Mexico. Is it possible that the ancient Indians were well aware of the great sages/astronomers of Central America many centuries before Columbus discovered America?- the Mayans or Inca-s!!!
Knowing the unknowable: To us today it seems impossible that the speed of light or the fate of our solar system could be determined without advanced astronomical instruments--as Sanjee argues!!
How could the writers of old Sanskrit texts have known the unknowable? In searching for an explanation we first need to understand that these ancient scientists were not just intellectuals, they were practicing yogis. The very first lines of the Surya Siddhanta, for of the Golden Age a great astronomer named Maya desired to learn the secrets of the heavens, so he first performed rigorous yogic practices. Then the answers to his questions appeared in his mind in an intuitive flash.
Does this sound unlikely? Yoga Sutra 3:26-28 states that through, samyama (concentration, meditation, and unbroken mental absorption) on the sun, moon, and pole star, we can gain knowledge of the planets and stars. Sutra 3:33 clarifies, saying: "Through keenly developed intuition, everything can be known." Highly developed intuition is called pratibha in yoga. It is accessible only to those who have completely stilled their mind, focusing their attention on one object with laser-like intensity. Those who have limited their mind are no longer limited to the fragments of knowledge supplied by the five senses. All knowledge becomes accessible to them.
"There are [those] who would say that consciousness, acting on itself, can find universal knowledge," Professor Kak admits. "In fact this is the traditional Indian view."
Perhaps the ancient sages didn't need advanced astronomical instruments. After all, they had yoga.
Distance between Sun and Earth is Mentioned in Hanuman Chalisa
Posted
by The Editor |
Sep 13, 2015 | IndiaDivine.Org
According
to modern astronomy and science, we know that the earth’s orbit around the sun
is not a circle and is slightly elliptical. Therefore, the distance between the
earth and the sun varies throughout the year. At its nearest point on the
ellipse that is the earth’s orbit around the sun, the earth is 91,445,000 miles
(147,166,462 kms) from the sun. This point in the earth’s orbit is known as
Periapsis (perihelion) and it occurs around January 3.
The
earth is farthest away from the sun around July 3 when it is 94,555,000 miles
(152,171,522 km) from the sun. This point in the earth’s orbit is called
Apoapsis (aphelion). The average distance from the earth to the sun is
92,955,807 miles (149,597,870.691 km).
According to records,
for the first time in 1672, Jean Richer and Giovanni Domenico Cassini measured
the distance between the Earth and Sun as 22,000 times of Earth Radii. (Earth’s
Radius is 6,371 Km) i.e. 22,000 * 6,371 km = 140,162,000 km (140 million km).
Two
lines of the Hindu prayer Hanuman Chalisa compute this distance with great
simplicity.
जुग सहस्त्र योजन
पर भानु, लील्यो ताहिमधुर फल जानू
This
means that the Sun (भानु)
is at a distance of yuga sahastra yojanas (जुग सहस्त्र योजन
– Distance Unit in Sanskrit/Hindi).
According
to the following conversion practices that are in use as per Hindu Vedic
literature:
1
yuga = 12000 celestial years
1
sahasra = 1000
1
yojana = 8 Miles
yuga
x sahasra x yojana = para bhanu
12,000
x 1000 x 8 miles = 96,000,000 miles
1
mile = 1.6kms
96,000,000
x 1.6kms = 153,600,000 km to the Sun.
The
earth moves in an elliptical orbit around the sun, so there will be slight
variation depending on the season.
Hanuman
challisa was written by Goswami Tulasidas (born 15th century) in Awadhi
language who belongs to 15th century, which means the distance between the Sun
and earth had been calculated much more accurately than the 17th century
scientists even before 2 centuries.
The
question here is how Tulsidas calculated this distance or how he is able to
know about this distance. We also have to observe that the people of that age
had more knowledge, capabilities and much more advanced technology that is
beyond the imagination of our present day technologies.
History
is not presented to us in the way it should be. There are still many
elements and precious jewels of information that are being kept hidden from us.
The ocean of history is before you, dive in and dig the jewels out. The
gleaming beam of knowledge from these jewels will not only enrich our country
but will also keep bestowing direction to our future generations.
We
hope that this post will help you to understand the significance of our ancient
principles, technology and culture.
Sulbasutras: Indian Texts on Sacred Geometry
Posted by The Editor | IndiaDivine.Org
The Sulbasutras deal with geometrical constructions, a large
majority of them for the purpose of carrying out Vedic rituals at precisely
constructed altars and similar such ends, that are popularly believed to date
to the millennium before Christ or the end of the Vedic age. Of these,
Baudhayana’s Sulbasutra is believed to date to the 8th century B.C. Later,
other authors including Apastamba, Manava, Katyayana,Satyasadha Hiranyakesin,
Vadhula, Varaha and Kathaka composed sulbasutras as well, although the
chronological order in which these texts were composed remains unknown as yet.
The first five of the sulbasutras is found available in text
form while the manuscripts of the others are known to exist. Still later, the
commentaries of Kapardi, Karavinda, Sundararaja and Dwarkanath appeared. In
more recent times there have been commentaries written by Thibault and Van
Geldner in the second half of the 19th century A.D., followed by S. N. Sen and
the last by A.K. Bag in 1983.
Baudhayana’s work and his successors
The Baudhayana Sulbasutram (BSS) is possibly the most
important sulbasutra text since it contains the principles of prescribed
geometry for the Vedic altar space. Baudhayana, after dwelling upon the basic
geometrical construction concepts prevalent during his and earlier times in the
first set of sutra, described the Vedic altar space in general and then the 14
uttaravedi forms. His descriptions of the uttaravedis reveal a remarkable
approach to geometry and the text serves as a model for technical accuracy and
brevity. The order present in the geometrical analysis as well as in the flow
of the text, its subject matter, reveal great clarity of thinking in the
author’s mind and set the text apart from its later counterparts.
The later sulbasutras either dealt with matters mentioned in
Baudhayana’s work and developed it further, or discussed issues that were
omitted from this earlier work. Some of these works may be considered
supplementary material. Katyayana’s text described how the construction of the
uttaravedis may range from a size of 7.5to 101 purusam square in a clear narrative
style. Similarly, Manava documented the examples of 8.5 square purusam
uttaravedis, something that neither Baudhayana nor Katyayana had done. Manava
further stated a new approach to the use of the purusam measure and a new unit
of measure called pancangi. While a continuity of subject-matter may be
observed in Katyayanaand Manava’s work, Apastamba’s output did not conform to
the trend set by Baudhayana. No clear enhancement or elucidation of former
works on geometry was discernible in his work. He described two forms of brick
layout for the pithan syenaciti and new kanka and alaja citis, and his work on
this proved to be very popular.
Recent Interest in the Sulbasutras
The cryptic style of the sulbasutra texts was essentially
suited to the Vedic ritualists and in the wake of a break with traditional
rituals and practices after the Vedic period, the texts could have lost their
popular relevance. In some cases, this seems to be exactly what happened- a
disconnect between the content of the text and the purposes to which it no
longer was applicable. This made it very difficult to retrieve the sulbasutras
completely at a later date when scholastic interest in them was reawakened.
Therefore, it is doubtful how far the earlier mentioned commentaries are
capable of revealing the real geometrical contents of the sulbasutra in all
their glory.
The work done on the sulbasutras since the 19th century A.D.
has, however, been followed with interest in recent times. It is clear that the
major concern of the sulbasutra is geometry alone, although some observations
of the srauta nature and certain mathematical operations connected with
geometry also find mention in these texts. It is worth noting that the geometry
of the sulbasutra has more affinity to modern engineering practice than to
theoretical mathematics of the present times. This is natural given that the
Vedic geometers were more concerned with accurate constructions of ritual
altars and the altar space than with proving a theorem.
The essence of the sulbasutras lies more in the concepts
discussed therein than in the authors’ use of grammatical accentuation. The
latter was incidental Baudhayana employed the then prevalent style of the sutra
and the other authors followed in a similar fashion. One of the reasons for the
perhaps inaccurate reproduction of the geometry of the sulbasutra may be the
approach adopted by later commentators, an approach that was affected by
strongly pre-conceived grammatical notions. Instead, the sulbasutras ought to
be approached with an inquiring mind regarding the meanings of the words in
association exclusively with the subject under discussion. The modern Indian
commentators further tend to find arithmetical and mathematical references in
the sulbasutra, references that are unlikely to have been intended as such by
the authors. One of the acid tests for the accuracy of presentation of a
particular meaning is whether it may result in constructions of the Vedic
style. Thus, while?2 is of great concern to the sulbavid (author of a
sulbasutra) the same may not be said of?3 which is irrelevant to Vedic
constructions, although more recent commentators have interpreted the
sulbasutras to ascribe relevance to this numerical value.
The sulbasutra on the other hand reveal a great degree of
development of geometry not only as applied to techniques of constructions, but
also extending to conceptual symmetries and an unknown methodology of evolution
of the conceptual approach to such geometry. While this is the very approach to
basic geometry, it then becomes a passionate progress to various shapes of the
uttaravedis. In fact, the very geometry of the mahavedi, in which the
uttaravedi is an element, is of unique conceptual beauty. The 30-36-24 regular
trapezium of the mahavedi contained several triples in their construction
format such as 3-4-5, 12-5-13,15-9-17, 35-12-37 which could be employed to
attain the accuracy of layout. The area of the mahavedi thus being 972 square
of 18 prakramam, the uttaravedis were initially of 1/3rd of 972 and at the same
time the square of 18. Then 1.3rd of 324 is 108, an important number since
ancient times for obvious reasons. A trapezium shape of 10-12-8 amounting to an
area of 108 thus became the smallest size of the uttaravedi in prakramam
measures.
Figure 1: Mahavedi
The taper of this trapezium narrowing down to the east is
impressed upon by all the sulba texts. The eastward striving nature of the
uttaravedi (for, gods reside at the east) is of paramount importance to the
vedic rituals and one could not possibly say for what long period of time it
took, to later develop into highly complex and realistic geometrical shapes in
the form of three later uttaravedis, meant as kamyaciti. In the further
development of the uttaravedis, the concept of “saptavidha: sampadyate”,
meaning that the area of the uttaravedi should follow a certain pattern became
a great spirit of enquiry. The eastward striving nature and this new concept
put together developed into highly complex and yet beautifully conceived
geometrical shapes of symmetry perhaps unparalleled in the history of geometry
and mathematics. It is at an unknown point of time after that Baudhayana stood
and decided to document it for posterity. And it is this very thing that the
modern commentators, in a way, failed to redeem and realise.
At the very first, the term “saptavidha:” was insufficiently
interpreted to mean as 7.5 times the purusam measure, whereas it was really
referred to as the 7 stages of development from the 7.5 to the 101 as area and
corresponding sizes. Later, Katyayana described this in good detail, which also
went properly not delineated. While Manava updated to the mathematical order of
his time and described several types of equalities and arithmetical series, it
was ironically Apastamba who was accredited with several modern mathematical
interpretations. As a whole, it would be fair to state that the magnificent
total geometry of the sulbasutra remains undiscovered as on date. The BSS
contains 21 major sutra sets, of which the first two describe basic geometrical
constructs. They contain basic units of measurements, conversions from one
shape to another of equal area, notions of right angles and the value of ?2
etc. Sutra 3 and 4 describe the geometry and general concepts of the total
altar space. Sutra 5 and 6 are general in nature as well, but in sutra 7 an
initiation of the geometrical complexities to follow is indicated by the
description of the new garhapatyaciti of 21 bricks.
The general
layout of the pracinasala and mahavedi, with a detailed definition of the
position of the uttaravedi, is already clear at this point, since it uses the
rathacakraciti with its well-defined centre for the purpose. The next 14 sutras
are devoted to the various formats of the uttaravedi.
After describing 2 brick-laying orders of the pithan
syenaciti, syenaciti of pancapatri, sadpatri, kanka and alaja forms are
described. These distinct bird shaped altars used different methods to fulfill
the “saptavidha:” concept with the7.5 purusam square as the basis. All of them
are based on clear symmetries and on basic formative squares and rectangles.
Next, two simple triangular praugaciti are described. Then the geometrical
content is intensified to describe the rathacakraciti, 3 dronociti, the
smasanaciti, and the kurmaciti. Esoteric compositions are displayed in the
final sutra which goes beyond the bounds set by basic, definitive principles.
It is possible that this process of creative design and constructions was
already declining before the time of Baudhayana and this motivated him to
create the BSS text.
While going through the BSS text, one may doubt that all of
the citi formats described by him were in practice during his time since the
descriptions contain varying levels of details, though each of the descriptions
could be termed as sufficient in itself. It is here and in the unknown nature
of the time line that the strength of the sruti is revealed in its capacity to
travel intact wide expanses of time. Indeed there are very specific examples of
such demonstration of strength of the system in its further travel to our
present times. What is more demonstrative in the second period of about 2800
years since Baudhayana is that the text travelled intact almost without its
meanings really taken in. And yet there are words in the BSS which could have
easily got transformed into something else but did not. Then there are such
instances where certain versions of the manuscripts tried to inject words into
the body text which were found to be stoically resisted by the extant contents.
In comparison, the later sulbasutra texts are explanatory in
nature with some additional altar designs and some mathematical updates by the
authors. These have definitely added strength to the information system on the
one hand and then silently declared that they have stepped out of the sruti
circuit to certain extent. The very sruti system might indeed have had several
parallel flows where the sulbasutra and that of the ritualistic practices could
have existed even without mixing. Where some amount of cross references only
existed without one being part and parcel of the other is a distinct
possibility. And possibilities for further studies are plentiful, as the
present attempt of delineation of the sulbasutra could open up a better
historical perspective and the timeline of the progress of not only geometry
and mathematics of the period of first millenium BC but a host of other related
subjects. It provides a better clarity to matters beyond the second millennium
BC as well. For the geometrician of today and such enthusiasts, a large volume
of exercise is provided by Katyayana, as his formulae for taking the citi forms
from 7.5 to 101 purusam squares remain untested and untried.
A Few Sutras
An
extract from the book
with Commentary by Parameswaran Murthiyedath
with Commentary by Parameswaran Murthiyedath
Sutra 12
(Kankaciti)
Sutra 12.1
Kankacita
etenatma
Puccam ca vyakhyatam
Puccam ca vyakhyatam
(The
Kankacita defined here will have a body and a tail)
The
Kankacita is known to have the shape of a heron.
Sutra 12.2
sirasi
pancopadadhyat
tasyakrtirvyakhyata
sirasi pancopadadhya
ttasyakrtirvyakhyata
tasyakrtirvyakhyata
sirasi pancopadadhya
ttasyakrtirvyakhyata
(the head
will be obtained as 5 by definition of its shape)
As per the
definition the head will be obtained as 5.
This states
that the length of the head along the east west is 5 aratni from the body. With
the same words a meaning that the area of the head is 5 sq. aratni could also
be derived. Both meanings are true and so meant.
Sutra 12.3
Saptapancasaddaksine
paksa upadadhyat
tathottare
Saptapancasaddaksinepaksa upadadhya
ttathottare
tathottare
Saptapancasaddaksinepaksa upadadhya
ttathottare
(5 and 7 to
south the wing will be obtained next the north)
The wing at
south will be obtained as 5 and 7and likewise the north. Again, The wing tips
are at a distance of 12aratni’s to south (5+7) and at the same time it means
that the area of the wings are 57 sq. aratni.
Sutra 12.4
Vyayamena
sapradesna paksayorapanamah
pancamabhagiyardhyabhih sat sat patrani kuryat
adhyardhavasisyate vyayamena
sapradesnapaksayorapanamah
pancamabhagiyardhyabhih
sat sat
patrani kuryat
adhyardhavasisyate
pancamabhagiyardhyabhih sat sat patrani kuryat
adhyardhavasisyate vyayamena
sapradesnapaksayorapanamah
pancamabhagiyardhyabhih
sat sat
patrani kuryat
adhyardhavasisyate
(by vyayama
measure with the pradesa the wings bent with the pancami and adhyardha six and
six wing cuts as stated an adhyardha will be balanced)
Figure 2:
Karika city layout (BSS-12.2-6)
(The wings will be set out at a measure of 1 vyayama added
with 1 pradesa at an angle and the wings tips will have six notches of a
measurement of 1 pancami by 1 pancami and a half. An adhyardha will be
balanced)
The configuration of the wings are made by the diagonal of a
square of 108A first taken forward and then retraced to give a mirrored bent.
The sutra further categorically states that the wing tips configuration is with
6 nos of 1aratni by 1 adhyardha cuts. This adds to the area of 54 sq. aratni
and additional 3aratni and the statement of 57 sq. aratni are now established.
The statement ‘adhyardhavasisyate’ is about the excess area resulted amounting
to 1½ aratni in the configuration which will be later adjusted by the leg
trimming of the tail.
Fig. 12.1 given here shows the citi geometry. First a basic
square 1-2-3-4 will be established with side as 144A, deriving from the
statement of ‘saratnipradesa’. The south end of the wings from which the wing
tips take off is line 9-10, parallel to1-4 and at a distance of 12 aratni
(288A). Line 4-8 is the diagonal of a square of 108A as side. Line 8-9 is
mirrored from line 4-8. Thus the wing formation of 4-8-9-10-13-1 is
established. The six wing tips are formed by the diagonals of boxes of an
aratni by an adhyardha (1½ aratni) as sides, as shown within9-10-11-12.
Sutra 12.5
taya
pucchasyavastat
padavaratnimatravaratnyantaralau
pradesavyasau bhavatah
tayoravastadabhito
dvaudvavastamabhagau pragbhedavupadadhyat
taya pucchasyavastat
padavaratnimatravaratnyantaralau
pradesavyasau bhavatah
tayoravastadabhito
dvaudvavastamabhagau
pragbhedavupadadhyat
(At the backside of the tail feet of an aratni length in an aratni gap with 1 pradesa as width at the back and near as 2 and 2, and 8 sided with a forward cut will be obtained)
padavaratnimatravaratnyantaralau
pradesavyasau bhavatah
tayoravastadabhito
dvaudvavastamabhagau pragbhedavupadadhyat
taya pucchasyavastat
padavaratnimatravaratnyantaralau
pradesavyasau bhavatah
tayoravastadabhito
dvaudvavastamabhagau
pragbhedavupadadhyat
(At the backside of the tail feet of an aratni length in an aratni gap with 1 pradesa as width at the back and near as 2 and 2, and 8 sided with a forward cut will be obtained)
The tail is
having a forward cut of 1 aratni length and 1 pradesa as width of sides, in a
gap of 1 aratni, and thus having 8 sides split into two as forward cut.
The tail portion of 15-14-16-17 contains the details
mentioned above. Thus the tail have two cuts of 1 aratni square which is
modified to form the root and two such feet are placed touching each other as
stated forming an 8 sided cut in total.
A statement like ‘pancadasa pucche’ is judiciously left out
for the reason of the cut in the tail, though the overall outline agreed to
such a statement. Further in sutra 12.8 the placement of two astamsi bricks at
the tail to obtain this configuration are mentioned, to which the presentation
here corresponds.
Figure 2:
Karika city layer 1
Sutra 12.6
evam
saratnipradesah saptavidhah sampadyate
evam saratnipradesah
saptavidhah sampadyate
evam saratnipradesah
saptavidhah sampadyate
(With only
the aratni and pradesa the saptavidhah concept will be achieved)
Thus with the aratni and pradesa measures alone, the
saptavidhah concept will be achieved. Indeed, the altar shape graphically feeds
back an area report of exactly 7.5 times the purusam square, as could also be
seen from the calculation of area given here.
Table 1:
Area of Kankacit
Sutra 12.7
athestakanam
vikarah
pancamabhagiyah
savayavah
padestakam caturbhih
parigrhniyadardhapradesenadhyardhapradesena
pancamabhagiyah
savayavah
padestakam caturbhih
parigrhniyadardhapradesenadhyardhapradesena
Figure 4:
Karika city, Layer 2
pradesena
pradesasavises eneti
adhyardhestakam caturbhih parigrhniyadardhavyayamena
dvabhyamaratnibhyamaratnisavises eneti
tah sat
adhyardhestakam caturbhih parigrhniyadardhavyayamena
dvabhyamaratnibhyamaratnisavises eneti
tah sat
Figure 5:
Karika city, Bricks
Athestakanam
Vikarah
pancamabhagiyah savayavah
padestakam caturbhih
parigrhniyadardhapradesenadhyardhapradesena
pradesena pradesasavises eneti
adhyardhestakam
caturbhih
parigrhniyadardhavyayamena
dvabhyamaratnibhyamaratnisavises eneti
tah sat
Now the bricks configuration with the pancami all over with the pada square brick with surrounded (sliced) ardha and pradesa and the adhyardha and pradesa and the adhyardha and pradesa with pradesa and a modified pradesa with the adhyardha brick from a square brick with the surrounded (sliced) half vyayama by two and by aratni and aratni modified like that six.
Vikarah
pancamabhagiyah savayavah
padestakam caturbhih
parigrhniyadardhapradesenadhyardhapradesena
pradesena pradesasavises eneti
adhyardhestakam
caturbhih
parigrhniyadardhavyayamena
dvabhyamaratnibhyamaratnisavises eneti
tah sat
Now the bricks configuration with the pancami all over with the pada square brick with surrounded (sliced) ardha and pradesa and the adhyardha and pradesa and the adhyardha and pradesa with pradesa and a modified pradesa with the adhyardha brick from a square brick with the surrounded (sliced) half vyayama by two and by aratni and aratni modified like that six.
With pancami
as the basic brick allover with the pada of a square brick, and the ardha, the
adhyardhardha and pradesa sliced, the vyayama and the aratni sliced, the
modified aratni consisting 6 bricks will be used.
However,
some more bricks are found required and the lists of bricks are as given below:
Sutra 12.8
tasam
caturasrapadyah
sastamabhagah
padayorupadhaya
sesam yathayogam
yathasamkhyam yathaadharmam
copadadhyat
with these the caturasrapadyah and 8 divided part at the wings having placed balance as required in as many numbers as per rules be placed
caturasrapadyah
sastamabhagah
padayorupadhaya
sesam yathayogam
yathasamkhyam yathaadharmam
copadadhyat
with these the caturasrapadyah and 8 divided part at the wings having placed balance as required in as many numbers as per rules be placed
The
caturasrapadyah and the astamsi bricks having placed as the feet, the balance
will be filled with the required numbers as per rules.
Table 2:
Kanchita Bricks
Parameswaran
Murthiyedath is a scholar of Vedic Mathematics. From “Kriti Rakshana”, National
Mission for Manuscripta.
VEDIC
SCIENCE ON CLONING SAME AS MODERN MEDICINE
Puranas
talk about Transplantation and Surgery of Ganesha which is often dismissed as
Myth by many except orthodoxy: Did Vedas talk about Cloning?
In
reproductive cloning, researchers remove a mature somatic cell, such as
a skin cell, from an animal that they wish to copy. They then
transfer the DNA of the donor animal's somatic cell into an egg cell, or
oocyte, that has had its own DNA-containing nucleus removed.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT...but this is what
the Rig Veda mantra says...
“nih charmanah gaam arineeta dheeti abhih yaa jarantaa
yuvasa taa akrinotana saudhanvaanaah asvaat asvam atakshataa yuktvaa ratham upa
devaan ayaatana ||
"You,
Oh Ribhus! you took a piece of skin from
the dead calf. And you made a living calf out of it"
A cow gives birth to a calf. The calf
dies. Ribhus takes a piece of skin from the dead calf and after some effort,
creates a new calf. This is the story. The
relevant quote from the Rigveda mantra as well as its bhashya (commentary) are quoted below. Please see for yourselves
what the Veda says:
[nirmāna
means to construct] utpādita-vantaḥ [utpādana means producing] iti. tenaiva [of its own, of the dead cow's
own] charmaņā
[from skin] samvîtām [having extracted the
essence] tādŗśîm
[similar] anyām [another] dhenum kŗtavantaḥ [manufactured]
ityarthaḥ [is the meaning].
In Puranas we hear of surgery and
transplantation like the bringing back to life a human being replacing with
elephant head on humanbody—Gajanana. But we do not know what happened to this
species after transplantation as many say he did not marry some married. We do
not know anything about his progeny. Dasagrieva had Indradyumna as his
son, a normal species with one head and also other sons.
We do not hear about the off-sprigs of
Shanmukha though He married Valli and Devayani. Both Krishna and Rama had
normal off-springs and these deities are also always shown with two hands as
normal human beings unlike Vishnu with four hands. To save the complexity it is
said that Lakshmi dwells only in is heart. That is why many say Puranas are
myths which upsets religious Hindus. Vedas do not present such controversies.
They do mention Gajananas, Hayavadanas, Kinnaras , Kimpurusha and
Gandharvas as extra-terrestrial or celestial with same reproductive
capacity or no sex life.
If someone calls it imagination while
going through the above Rigveda mantra it can't be imagination. Because it is
happening now--they are cloning now. Even though some may call it imagination,
at least during the Vedic period (20000 years ago) they had an idea of cloning.
About Ribhus, as we know, Ribhus, Ashvins and Maruts were three
extra-terrestrial or celestial races which visited the earth very often. The
bottom line: Vedas don't lie! The great sages never lied. Truth stands for
millions of years while untruth dies soon.
\
--E-Mail sent to HR Forum Participaants on July 27, 2018
IndianFoundations of Modern Science
Subhash Kak,
Author, scientist
Scholars see India and Greece as
the two principal birthplaces of science. School
textbooks tell us about Pythagoras, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, and Ptolemy,
geometry of the Vedic altars, the invention of zero in India, Yoga psychology,
and Indian technology of steel-making that went into the manufacture of the
best swords. But if you take the trouble of reading scholarly books, articles and encyclopedias, you will find that in
many ways the early Indian contributions are the more impressive for they
include a deep theory of mind, Pāṇini’s astonishing Sanskrit grammar, binary
numbers of Piṅgala, music theory, combinatorics, algebra, earliest astronomy,
and the physics of Kaṇāda with its laws of motion.
Of these, Kaṇāda is the least known. He may not have presented
his ideas as mathematical equations, but he attempted something that no
physicist to date has dared to do: he advanced a system that includes space,
time, matter, as well as observers. He also postulated four types of atoms, two
with mass (like proton and electron) and two without (like neutrino and
photon), and the idea of invariance. A thousand or more years after Kaṇāda,
Āryabhaṭa postulated that earth rotated and advanced the basic idea of
relativity of motion.
And then there is India’s imaginative
literature, which includes the Epics, the Purāṇas and the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha
(perhaps the greatest novel ever written), that speaks of time travel,
airplanes, exoplanets (that is many solar-like systems), cloning of embryos,
sex change, communication over distances, and weapons that can destroy
everything. Some nationalists take these statements to mean the literal
scientific truth, which claim is ridiculed by their political opponents who
then use this broad brush to tar all Indian science.
There are also anomalous statements in
Indian texts whose origin is not understood. Just to mention a few: the correct speed of light, the correct distance to the sun, cosmological cycles
that broadly correspond to the numbers accepted currently, the fact that the
sun and the moon are approximately 108 times their respective diameters from the earth,
the correct number of species on earth (about 8.4
million), and so on. Historians either ignore them or say that they are
extraordinary coincidences. We will come to these anomalies later in the essay.
To return to the history of mainstream
science, the discovery of infinite series and calculus by Newton and Leibniz
heralded the Scientific Revolution that was to change the world. But new
research has shown that over two centuries prior the Kerala School of
Mathematics had already developed calculus and some historians suggest that
this and advanced astronomical knowledge from Kerala went abroad via the Jesuits
and provided the spark for its further development in Europe.
Other historians discount the transmission of this knowledge to Europe.
There is more agreement about the many
achievements of Indian medical sciences. For example, the Royal Australia
College of Surgeons in Melbourne, Australia has a prominent display of a statue
of Suśruta (600 BCE) with the caption “Father of Surgery”. The ancient Ayurveda
texts include the notion of germs and inoculation and also postulate mind-body
connection, which has become an important area of contemporary research. Indian
medicine was strongly empirical; it used Nature (which is governed by Ṛta)
as guide, and it was informed by a sense of skepticism. In the West the notion
of skepticism is usually credited to the Scottish philosopher of science, David
Hume, but scholars have been puzzled by the commonality between his ideas and
the earlier Indian ones. Recently, it was shown that Hume almost
certainly learnt Indian ideas from Jesuits when he was at the Royal
College of La Flèche in France.
There are also indirect ways that
Indian ideas led to scientific advance. Mendeleev was inspired by the two-dimensional
structure of the Sanskrit alphabet to propose a similar two-dimensional
structure of chemical elements. Erwin Schrödinger, a founder of quantum theory,
credited ideas in the Upanishads for the key notion of superposition that was
to bring about the quantum revolution in physics that changed chemistry,
biology, and technology.
I now briefly touch upon Indian influence on linguistics, logic,
philosophy of physics, and theory of mind.
Linguistics, algorithms and society
Pāṇini’s work (4th or 5th century BCE)
showed the way to the development of modern linguistics through the efforts of
scholars such as Franz Bopp, Ferdinand de Saussure, Leonard Bloomfield, and
Roman Jacobson. Bopp was a pioneering scholar of the comparative grammars of
Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages. Ferdinand de Saussure in his most
influential work, Course in General Linguistics (Cours de linguistique
générale), that was published posthumously (1916), took the idea of the
use of formal rules of Sanskrit grammar and applied them to general linguistic
phenomena.
The structure of Pāṇini‘s grammar
contains a meta-language,
meta-rules, and other technical devices that make this system
effectively equivalent to the most powerful computing machine. Although it
didn’t directly contribute to the development of computer languages, it
influenced linguistics and mathematical logic that, in turn, gave birth to
computer science.
The works of Pāṇini and Bharata Muni
also presage the modern field of semiotics which is the study of signs and
symbols as a significant component of communications. Their template may be
applied to sociology, anthropology and other humanistic disciplines for all
social systems come with their grammar.
The search for universal laws of
grammar underlying the diversity of languages is ultimately an exploration of
the very nature of the human mind. But the Indian texts remind that the other
side to this grammar is the idea that a formal system cannot describe reality
completely since it leaves out the self.
Modern logic
That Indian
thought was central to the development of machine theory is asserted
by Mary Boole — the wife of George Boole, inventor of modern logic — who
herself was a leading science writer in the nineteenth century. She claimed
that George Everest, who lived for a long time in India and whose name was
eventually applied to the world’s highest peak, was the intermediary of the
Indian ideas and they influenced not only her husband but the other two leading
scientists in the attempt to mechanize thought: Augustus de Morgan and Charles
Babbage. She says in her essay on Indian Thought and Western Science in the
Nineteenth Century (1901): “Think what must have been the effect of the
intense Hinduizing of three such men as Babbage, De Morgan, and George Boole on
the mathematical atmosphere of 1830–65.” She further speculates that these
ideas influenced the development of vector analysis and modern mathematics.
Much prior to this, Mohsin Fani’s Dabistani-i
Madhahib (17th Century) claimed that Kallisthenes, who was in Alexander’s
party, took logic texts from India and the beginning of the Greek tradition of
logic must be seen in this material. In Indian logic, minds are not empty
slates; the very constitution of the mind provides some knowledge of the nature
of the world. The four pramāṇas through which correct knowledge is acquired are
direct perception, inference, analogy, and verbal testimony.
Physics with observers
Indian physics, which goes back to the
Vaiśeṣika Sūtras (c. 500 BCE), does not appear to have directly influenced the
discovery of physical laws in Europe. But Indian ideas that place the observer
at center prefigure the conceptual foundations of modern physics, and this is
acknowledged by the greatest physicists of the twentieth century.
In the West, the universe was seen as
a machine going back to Aristotle and the Greeks who saw the physical world
consisting of four kinds of elements of earth, water, fire, and air. This model
continued in Newton’s clockwork model of the solar system. Indian thought, in
contrast, has a fifth element, ākāśa, which is the medium for inner light and
consciousness. With the rise of relativity theory and quantum mechanics, the
observer could no longer be ignored. In one sense, the journey of science is
the discovery of self and consciousness.
It is one of those obscure footnotes
to the history of physics that Nikola Tesla, who was very famous in the 1890s,
was asked by Swami Vivekananda to find an equation connecting mass and energy.
We know that Tesla didn’t quite succeed at this but he was to work on various
models of wireless transfer of energy for the remainder of his career.
Cosmology and evolution
The Ṛigveda speaks of the universe
being infinite in size. The evolution of the universe is according to cosmic
law. Since it cannot arise out of nothing, the universe must be infinitely old.
Since it must evolve, there are cycles of chaos and order or creation and
destruction. The world is also taken to be infinitely old. Beyond the solar
system, other similar
systems were postulated, which appear to have been confirmed with
the modern discovery of exoplanets.
The Sāṅkhya system describes evolution
at cosmic and individual levels. It views reality as being constituted of puruṣa,
consciousness that is all-pervasive, and prakṛti, which is the
phenomenal world. Prakṛti is composed of three different strands
(guṇas or characteristics) of sattva, rajas, and tamas, which are transparency,
activity, and inactivity, respectively.
Evolution
begins by puruṣa and prakṛti creating mahat (Nature in its dynamic aspect).
From mahat evolves buddhi (intelligence) and manas (mind). Buddhi and manas in
the large scale are Nature’s intelligence and mind. From buddhi come
individualized ego consciousness (ahaṅkāra) and the five tanmātras (subtle
elements) of sound, touch, sight, taste, smell. From the manas evolve the five
senses (hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, smelling), the five organs of
action (with which to speak, grasp, move, procreate, evacuate), and the five
gross elements (ākāśa, air, fire,
water, earth).
The evolution in Sāṅkhya is an
ecological process determined completely by Nature. It differs from modern
evolution theory in that it presupposes a universal consciousness. In reality,
modern evolution also assigns intelligence to Nature in its drive to select
certain forms over others as well as in the evolution of intelligence itself.
The description of evolution of life
is given in many texts such as the Mahābhārata. I present a quote from the Yoga
Vāsiṣṭha on it:
“I remember that once upon a time there was nothing on
this earth, neither trees and plants, nor even mountains. For a period of
eleven thousand [great] years the earth was covered by lava. In those days
there was neither day nor night below the polar region: for in the rest of the
earth neither the sun nor the moon shone. Only one half of the polar region was
illumined. [Later] apart from the polar region the rest of the earth was
covered with water. And then for a very long time the whole earth was covered
with forests, except the polar region. Then there arose great mountains, but
without any human inhabitants. For a period of ten thousand years the earth was
covered with the corpses of the asuras.” [YV 6.1]
The reverse sequence, of the end of
the world, is also described in various texts. First, the sun expands in size
incinerating everything on the earth (quite similar to modern accounts of the
aging sun becoming a red giant). The specific sequence mentioned is that the
fireball of the sun transforms the Pṛthivī atoms into Āpas atoms, which then together
change into Tejas atoms and further into Vāyu atoms, and finally to sound
energy that is an attribute of space, and so on (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva
Section 233). In our modern language, it means that as temperatures become
high, matter breaks down becoming a sea of elements, then the protons break
down into electrons, further into photons, and finally into neutrinos, and on
to acoustic energy of space. At the end of this cycle the world is absorbed
into Consciousness.
Vivekananda was aware of this sequence
which is why he asked Tesla to find the specific equation for transformation
between mass and energy.
Mind and Yoga
We are in the midst of a worldwide
Yoga revolution. For many, it is about health and well-being but that is only a
portal that leads to the understanding of the self and its relationship with
the body.
Although the roots of Yoga lie in the
Vedas, most read Patañjali’s Yoga-sūtra for a systematic exposition of the
nature of the mind. The text is logical and it questions the naïve
understanding of the world. According to it, there is a single reality and the
multiplicity we see in it is a consequence of the projections of our different
minds. Therefore to obtain knowledge one must experience reality in its most
directness.
The Vedic texts claim to be ātmavidyā,
“science of self” or “consciousness science” and they also provide a framework
to decode its narrative, establishing its central concern with consciousness.
In the Vedic view, reality is unitary
at the deepest level since otherwise there would be chaos. Since language is
linear, whereas the unfolding of the universe takes place in a multitude of
dimensions, language is limited in its ability to describe reality. Because of
this limitation, reality can only be experienced and never described fully. All
descriptions of the universe lead to logical paradox.
Knowledge is of two kinds: the higher
or unified and the lower or dual. The higher knowledge concerns the perceiving
subject (consciousness), whereas the lower knowledge concerns objects. The
higher knowledge can be arrived at through intuition and meditation on the
paradoxes of the outer world. The lower knowledge is analytical and it represents
standard sciences with its many branches. There is a complementarity between
the higher and the lower, for each is necessary to define the other, and it
mirrors the one between mind and body.
The future of science
I have gone through a random list of
topics to show that Indian ideas and contributions have shaped science
in fundamental ways. I hope to show now that they remain equally central to its
future growth.
We first note that in spite of its
unprecedented success and prestige, science is facing major crises. The first
of these crises is that of physics for it has found no evidence for dark matter
and dark energy that together are believed to constitute 95% of the observable
universe, with another 4.5% being intergalactic dust that doesn’t influence theory.
How can we claim that we are near understanding reality if our theories are
validated by only 0.5% of the observable universe?
The second crisis is that
neuroscientists have failed to find a neural correlate of consciousness. If
there is no neural correlate, then does consciousness reside in a dimension
that is different from our familiar space-time continuum? And how do mind and
body interact with each other?
The third crisis is that there is no
clear answer to the question if machines will become conscious. The fourth
crisis is related to the implications of biomedical advances such as cloning on
our notions of self.
It becomes clear that the three crises
are actually interrelated when it is realized that consciousness is also an
issue at the very foundations of physics. These questions also relate to the
problem of free will.
Researchers are divided on whether
conscious machines will ever exist. Most computer scientists believe that
consciousness is computable and that it will emerge in machines as technology
develops. Bu there are others who say there’re things about human behavior that
cannot be computed by a machine. Thus creativity and the sense of freedom
people possess appear to be more than just an application of logic or
calculations.
Quantum views
Quantum theory, which is the deepest
theory of physics, provides another perspective. According to its orthodox
Copenhagen Interpretation, consciousness and the physical world are
complementary aspects of the same reality. Since it takes consciousness as a
given and no attempt is made to derive it from physics, the Copenhagen
Interpretation may be called the “big-C”
view of consciousness, where it is a thing that exists by
itself — although it requires brains to become real. This view was popular with
the pioneers of quantum theory such as Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin
Schrödinger.
The opposing view is that
consciousness emerges from biology, just as biology itself emerges from
chemistry which, in turn, emerges from physics. We call this less expansive
concept of consciousness “little-C.” It agrees with the neuroscientists’ view
that the processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the
brain.
Philosophers of science believe that
these modern quantum physics views of consciousness have parallels in ancient
philosophy. Big-C is like the theory of mind in Vedanta — in which
consciousness is the fundamental basis of reality and at the experienced level
it complements the physical universe. The pioneers of quantum theory were aware
of this linkage with Vedanta.
Little-C, in contrast, is quite
similar to Buddhism. Although the Buddha chose not to address the question of
the nature of consciousness, his followers declared that mind and consciousness
arise out of emptiness or nothingness.
Big-C, anomalies, and scientific discovery
Scientists question if consciousness
is a computational process. More restrictively, scholars argue that the
creative moment is not at the end of a deliberate computation. For instance,
dreams or visions are supposed to have inspired Elias Howe‘s 1845 design of the modern sewing machine and August Kekulé’s
discovery of the structure of benzene in 1862, and these may be
considered to be examples of the anomalous workings of the mind.
A dramatic piece of evidence in favor
of big-C consciousness existing all on its own is the life of self-taught
mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, who died in 1920 at the age of 32. His
notebook, which was lost and forgotten for about 50 years and published only in
1988, contains several thousand formulas — without proof in different areas of
mathematics — that were well ahead of their time, and the methods by which he
found the formulas remain elusive. Ramanujan himself claimed that the formulas
were revealed to him by Goddess Nāmagiri while he was asleep. The idea of big-C
provides an explanation for the anomalous scientific results from old Indian
texts that were mentioned at the beginning of the essay.
The concept of big-C consciousness
raises the questions of how it is related to matter, and how matter and mind
mutually influence each other. Consciousness alone cannot make physical changes
to the world, but perhaps it can change the probabilities in the evolution of
quantum processes. The act of observation can freeze and even influence atoms’
movements, as has been demonstrated in the laboratory. This may
very well be an explanation of how matter and mind interact.
With cognitive machines replacing
humans at most tasks, the question of what selfhood means will become more
central to our lives. It appears to me that the only way to find fulfilment in
life will be through wisdom of ātmavidyā. Vedic science will bring humanity
full circle back to the source of all experience, which is consciousness. It
will also reveal unknown ways mind and body interact and this will have major
implications for medicine.
Indian sciences are universal and they have within them the power
to inspire people to find their true potential and find meaning in life, as
also having the potential to facilitate the next advances in both physical and
biological sciences.
Historians may quibble about whether a
certain equation should be called Baudhāyana’s Theorem or Pythagoras Theorem,
but in the larger scheme names do not matter. The direction of science is the
more important thing and it is clear that the mystery of consciousness will be
one of its major concerns.
Five ways
ancient Indian Maths changed the world
By Christian Yates
It should come as no surprise that the
first recorded use of the number zero, discovered to be made as early as the
3rd or 4th century, happened in India. Mathematics on the Indian subcontinent
has a rich history going back over 3,000 years and thrived for centuries before
similar advances were made in Europe, with its influence meanwhile spreading to
China and the Middle East.
As well as giving us the concept of
zero, Indian mathematicians made seminal contributions to the study of
trigonometry, algebra, arithmetic and negative numbers among other areas.
Perhaps most significantly, the decimal system that we still employ worldwide
today was first seen in India.
The number system
As far back as 1200 BC, mathematical
knowledge was being written down as part of a large body of knowledge known as
the Vedas. In these texts, numbers were commonly expressed as combinations of
powers of ten. For example, 365 might be expressed as three hundreds (3x10²),
six tens (6x10¹) and five units (5x10⁰), though each power of ten was
represented with a name rather than a set of symbols. It is reasonable to
believe that this representation using powers of ten played a crucial role in
the development of the decimal-place value system in India.
From the third century BC, we also have
written evidence of the Brahmi numerals, the precursors to the modern, Indian
or Hindu-Arabic numeral system that most of the world uses today. Once zero was
introduced, almost all of the mathematical mechanics would be in place to
enable ancient Indians to study higher mathematics.
The concept of zero
Zero itself has a much longer history.
The first recorded zeros, in what is known as the Bakhshali manuscript, were
simple placeholders – a tool to distinguish 100 from 10. Similar marks had
already been seen in the Babylonian and Mayan cultures in the early centuries
AD and arguably in Sumerian mathematics as early as 3000-2000 BC.
But only in India did the placeholder
symbol for nothing progress to become a number in its own right. The advent of
the concept of zero allowed numbers to be written efficiently and reliably. In
turn, this allowed for effective record-keeping that meant important financial
calculations could be checked retroactively, ensuring the honest actions of all
involved. Zero was a significant step on the route to the democratization of
mathematics.
These accessible mechanical tools for
working with mathematical concepts, in combination with a strong and open scholastic
and scientific culture, meant that, by around 600AD, all the ingredients were
in place for an explosion of mathematical discoveries in India. In comparison,
these sorts of tools were not popularized in the West until the early 13th
century, though Fibonacci’s book liber abaci.
Solutions of quadratic equations
In the seventh century, the first
written evidence of the rules for working with zero were formalized in the
Brahmasputha Siddhanta. In his seminal text, the astronomer Brahmagupta
introduced rules for solving quadratic equations (so beloved of secondary
school mathematics students) and for computing square roots.
Rules for negative numbers
Brahmagupta also demonstrated rules for
working with negative numbers. He referred to positive numbers as fortunes and
negative numbers as debts. He wrote down rules that have been interpreted by
translators as: “A fortune subtracted from zero is a debt,” and “a debt
subtracted from zero is a fortune”.
This latter statement is the same as
the rule we learn in school, that if you subtract a negative number, it is the
same as adding a positive number. Brahmagupta also knew that “The product of a
debt and a fortune is a debt” – a positive number multiplied by a negative is a
negative.
For the large part, European
mathematicians were reluctant to accept negative numbers as meaningful. Many
took the view that negative numbers were absurd. They reasoned that numbers
were developed for counting and questioned what you could count with negative
numbers. Indian and Chinese mathematicians recognized early on that one answer
to this question was debts.
For example, in a primitive farming
context, if one farmer owes another farmer 7 cows, then effectively the first
farmer has -7 cows. If the first farmer goes out to buy some animals to repay
his debt, he has to buy 7 cows and give them to the second farmer in order to
bring his cow tally back to 0. From then on, every cow he buys goes to his
positive total.
His reluctance to adopt negative numbers,
and indeed zero, held European mathematics back for many years. Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz was one of the first Europeans to use zero and the negatives in
a systematic way in his development of calculus in the late 17th century.
Calculus is used to measure rates of changes and is important in almost every
branch of science, notably underpinning many key discoveries in modern physics.
But Indian mathematician Bhāskara had
already discovered many of Leibniz’s ideas over 500 years earlier. Bhāskara,
also made major contributions to algebra, arithmetic, geometry and
trigonometry. He provided many results, for example on the solutions of certain
“Diophantine” equations, that would not be rediscovered in Europe for
centuries.
The Kerala School of astronomy and
mathematics, founded by Madhava of Sangamagrama in the 1300s, was responsible
for many firsts in mathematics, including the use of mathematical induction and
some early calculus-related results. Although no systematic rules for calculus
were developed by the Kerala school, its proponents first conceived of many of
the results that would later be repeated in Europe including Taylor series
expansions, infinitesimals and differentiation.
The leap, made in India that
transformed zero from a simple placeholder to a number in its own right
indicates the mathematically enlightened culture that was flourishing on the
subcontinent at a time when Europe was stuck in the dark ages. Although its
reputation suffers from the Eurocentric bias, the subcontinent has a strong
mathematical heritage, which it continues into the 21st century by providing
key players at the forefront of every branch of mathematics.
(Christian Yates is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Biology,
University of Bath. This article first appeared in The Conversation.com)
A Very Brief History of Indian Science
The
annual Indian Science Congress, which just concluded, had its usual share of
controversies about history of Indian science and I have been asked to weigh
in. It so turns out that I did precisely that in a brief account titled
“Science” for Stanley
Wolpert’s Encyclopedia of India (2005) and since that is freely available online, I shall be more
selective of themes in this revision of the previous essay. This account does
not include the modern period for which many excellent histories exist.
Indian
archaeology and literature provide considerable layered evidence related to the
development of science. The chronological time frame for this history is provided
by the archaeological record that has been traced, in an
unbroken tradition, to about 8000 BCE. Prior to this date, there are records of
rock paintings that are considerably older. The earliest textual source is the Ṛigveda,
which is a compilation of very ancient material. The astronomical references in
the Vedic books recall events of the third or the fourth millennium BCE and
earlier. The discovery that Sarasvati, the preeminent river of the Ṛigvedic
times, went dry around 1900 BCE, if not earlier, suggests that portions of the Ṛigveda
may be dated prior to this epoch.
The
third millennium urbanization is characterized by a very precise system of
weights and monumental architecture using cardinal directions. Indian writing
(the so-called Indus script) goes back to the beginning of the third millennium
BCE, but it has not yet been deciphered. However, statistical analysis shows
that the later historical script called Brahmi evolved from this writing.\
Laws
and cosmology
The
Vedic texts assert that the universe is governed by ṛta (laws) and that consciousness
transcends materiality. The universe is taken to be infinite in size and
infinitely old. By the time of the Purāṇas, other
worlds were postulated beyond our solar system.
It
is asserted that language (as a formal system) cannot describe reality
completely and linguistic descriptions suffer from paradox. Because of this
limitation, reality can only be experienced and never described fully.
Knowledge was classified in two ways: the lower or dual अपरा; and the higher or unified परा.
The seemingly irreconcilable worlds of the material and the conscious were
taken as aspects of the
be
connected. This connection is a consequence of a binding (bandhu) same transcendental
reality.
The
texts present a tripartite and recursive view of the world.
The three regions of earth, space, and sky are mirrored in the human being in
the physical body, the breath (prāṇa), and mind. The processes in the
sky, on earth, and within the mind are assumed to between
various inner and outer phenomena and it is because of this
binding that it is possible to know the world.
There
is evidence of the knowledge of
biological cycles and awareness that there exist two fundamental
rhythms in the body: the 24 hour related to the sun, and the 24 hour and 50
minute related to the period of the moon (the moon rises about 50 minutes later
every day). This knowledge is not surprising since monthly rhythms, averaging
29.5 days, are reflected in the reproductive cycles of many marine plants and
those of animals.
The
Ṛgveda 10.90 speaks of these connections by saying that the
moon was born of the mind and the sun was born of the eyes of the cosmic self:
candramā
mana’so jātaḥ | cakṣoḥ
sūryo’ ajāyata | RV 10.90.13
The
connection between the outer and the inner cosmos is seen most strikingly in
the use of the number 108 in Indian religious and artistic expression. It was
known that this number is the approximate distance from Earth to the sun and
the moon, in sun and moon diameters, respectively. This number was probably
obtained by taking a pole of a certain height to a distance 108 times its
height and discovering that the angular size of the pole was the same as that
of the sun or the moon. It is a curious fact that the diameter of the sun is
also approximately 108 times the diameter of Earth.
This
number of dance poses (karaṇas) given in the Nāṭya
Śāstra is 108, as is the number of
beads in a japamālā. The distance between the body and the inner
sun is also taken to be 108, and thus there are 108 names of the gods and
goddesses. The number of marmas (weak points) in Āyurveda is 107,
because in a chain 108 units long, the number of weak points would be one less.
Ancient
Indian views of the universe are more
subtle than the corresponding Western views.
Physical
laws and motion
The
history of Indian physics goes back to Kaṇāda (कणाद) (~ 600 BCE) who asserted that all that is knowable is based on motion,
thus giving centrality to analysis in the understanding of the universe.
Kaṇāda
asserted that there are nine classes of substances: ether, space, and time,
which are continuous, and four kinds of atoms two of which have mass and two
that have little mass. A brilliant argument was given in support of this view.
Let
the basic atoms of pṛthivī, āpas,
tejas, and vāyu be
represented by P, Ap, T, and V, respectively. Every substance is composed of
these four kinds of atoms. Consider gold in its solid form; its mass derives
principally from the P atoms. When it is heated, it becoms a liquid and
therefore there should be another kind of an atom already in gold which makes
it possible for it to take the liquid form and this is Ap. When heated further
it burns and this is when the T atom gets manifested. When heated further, it
loses its mass ever so slightly, and this is due to the loss of the V atoms.
The
atoms are eternal only under normal conditions, and during creation and
destruction, they arise in a sequence starting with ākāśa and are
absorbed in the reverse sequence at the end of the world cycle. The sequence of evolution of the elements is given as V→T→Ap→P. The V and T
atoms have little mass (since they do not exist in a substantive form), whereas
P and Ap atoms have mass. This sequence also hides within it the possibility of
transformation from V and T atoms that are energetic to the more massive Ap and
P atoms.
Kaṇāda
also made a distinction between mind and the self, or consciousness. The
conscious subject is separate from material reality but is, nevertheless, able
to direct its evolution. He presented laws of motion and also spoke of invariants.
He saw the atom to be spherical since it should appear the same from all
directions.
The
atoms combined to form different kinds of molecules that break up under the
influence of heat. The molecules come to have different properties based on the
influence of various potentials.
Indian
chemistry developed many different alkalis, acids, and metallic salts by
processes of calcination and distillation, often motivated by the need to
formulate medicines. Metallurgists developed efficient techniques of extraction
of metals from ore.
Astronomy
We
know quite a bit about how astronomical
science evolved in India. The Yajurvedic sage Yājñavalkya knew
of a ninety-five-year cycle to harmonize the motions of the sun and the moon,
and he also knew that the sun’s circuit was asymmetric. The second millennium
BCE text Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa of Lagadha
went beyond the earlier calendrical astronomy to develop a theory for the mean
motions of the sun and the moon. An epicycle theory was used to explain
planetary motions. Given the different periods of the planets, it became
necessary to assume yet longer periods to harmonize their cycles. This led to
the notion of mahāyugas and kalpas with periods of billions of years.
The
innovations of the division of the circle into 360 parts and the zodiac into 27
nakṣatras
and 12 rāśis took place first
in India. The schoolbook accounts of how these innovations first
emerged in Mesopotamia in the 7th century BCE and then arrived in India
centuries later are incorrect.
The
Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa which was compiled soon after the
Vedas says: “The sun strings
these worlds [the earth, the planets, the atmosphere] to himself on a thread.
This thread is the same as the wind…” This suggests a central role to the sun
in defining the motions of the planets and ideas such as these must have ultimately
led to the theory of expanding and shrinking epicycles.
Astronomical
texts called siddhāntas begin appearing sometime in the first millennium BCE.
According to the tradition there were eighteen early siddhāntas, of which only
a few have survived. Each siddhānta is an astronomical system with its own
constants. The Sūrya Siddhānta speaks of the motion of planets governed by
“cords of air” that bind them, which is a conception like that of the field.
The
great astronomers and mathematicians include Āryabhaṭa
(b. 476), who took Earth to spin on its own axis and who spoke of the relativity of motion and provided outer
planet orbits with respect to the sun. This work and that of Brahmagupta (b.
598) and Bhāskara (b. 1114) was passed on to Europe via the Arabs. The Kerala
School with figures such as Mādhava (c. 1340–1425) and Nīlakaṇṭha
(c. 1444–1545) came up with new innovations
of analysis based on advanced mathematics.
Evolution
of Life
The
Sāṅkhya system speaks of evolution both at the levels of the
individual as well as the cosmos. The Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas
have material on creation and the rise of humankind.
It is said that man arose at the end of a chain that began with plants and
various kind of animals. In Vedic evolution the urge to evolve into higher
forms is taken to be inherent in nature. A system of an evolution from
inanimate to progressively higher life is assumed to be a consequence of the
different proportions of the three basic attributes of the guṇas
(qualities): sattva (“truth” or “transparence”),
rajas (activity), and tamas (“darkness” or “inertia”).
In its undeveloped state, cosmic matter has these qualities in equilibrium. As
the world evolves, one or the other of these becomes preponderant in different
objects or beings, giving specific character to each.
Geometry
and mathematics
Indian
geometry began very early in the Vedic period in altar problems, as in the one
where the circular altar is to be made equal in area to a square altar. The
historian of mathematics, Abraham Seidenberg, saw the birth of geometry and mathematics in the solution of
such problems. Two aspects of the “Pythagoras” theorem are described in the texts by Baudhāyana
and others. Problems are often presented with their algebraic counterparts. The
solution to planetary problems also led to the development of algebraic
methods.
Binary
numbers were known at the time of Piṅgala’s Chandaḥśāstra.
Piṅgala, who might have lived as early as fourth century BCE
used binary numbers to classify Vedic meters. The knowledge of binary numbers
indicates a deep understanding of arithmetic.
The sign for zero within the place value decimal number system that was to revolutionize
mathematics and facilitate development of technology appears to
have been devised around 50 BCE to 50 CE. Indian numerals were introduced to Europe by Fibonacci (13th
century) who is now known for a sequence that was described earlier
by Virahaṅka (between 600 and 800), Gopāla (prior to 1135) and Hemacandra (~1150 CE). Nāryāna Paṇḍit
(14th century) showed that these numbers were a special case of the multinomial
coefficients.
Bharata’s Nāṭya
Śāstra has results on
combinatorics and discrete mathematics, and Āryabhaṭa
has material on mathematics including methods to solve numerical problems
effectively. Later source materials include the works of
Brahmagupta, Lalla (eighth century), Mahāvīra (ninth century), Jayadeva, Śrīpati (eleventh century), Bhāskara,
and Mādhava. In particular, Mādhava’s derivation and use of infinite series
predated similar development in Europe, which is normally seen as the beginning
of modern calculus. Some scholars believe these ideas were carried
by Jesuits from India to Europe and they eventually
set in motion the Scientific Revolution.
A
noteworthy contribution was by the school of New Logic (Navya Nyāya) of Bengal
and Bihar. At its zenith during the time of Raghunātha (1475–1550), this school
developed a methodology for a precise semantic analysis of language. Navya Nyāya foreshadowed mathematical logic and
there is evidence that it influenced modern machine theory.
Grammar
Pāṇini’s grammar Aṣṭādhyāyī
(Eight chapters) of the fifth century BCE provides four thousand rules that
describe Sanskrit completely. This grammar is acknowledged to be one of the
greatest intellectual achievements of all time. The great variety of language
mirrors, in many ways, the complexity of nature and, therefore, success in
describing a language is as impressive as a complete theory of physics.
Scholars have shown that the grammar of Pāṇini represents
a universal grammatical and computing system. From this perspective, it anticipates the logical framework of
modern computers.
Medicine
Āyurveda,
the Indian medicine system, is a holistic approach to health that builds upon
the tripartite Vedic approach to the world. Health is maintained through a
balance between three basic humors (doṣa) of wind (vāta), fire (pitta), and water
(kapha). Each of these humors had five varieties. Although literally meaning “air,” “bile,” and “phlegm,”
the doṣas represented larger principles. Its division of states
into three categories rather than two is more efficient than the
binary division of other medicine systems.
Caraka
and Suśruta are two famous early physicians. According to Caraka, health and
disease are not predetermined, and life may be prolonged by human effort.
Suśruta defines the purpose of medicine to cure the diseases of the sick, to
protect the healthy, and to prolong life. The Saṃhitās speak of organisms that circulate
in the blood, mucus, and phlegm. In particular, the organisms in the blood that
cause disease are said to be invisible. It is suggested that physical contact
and sharing the same air can cause such diseases to spread. Inoculation was practiced for protection against smallpox.
Indian
surgery was quite advanced. The caesarian section was known, as was plastic
surgery, and bone setting reached a high degree of skill. Suśruta classified
surgical operations into eight categories: incision, excision, scarification,
puncturing, probing, extraction, evacuation and drainage, and suturing. Suśruta
lists 101 blunt and 20 sharp instruments that were used in surgery. The medical
system tells us much about the Indian approach to science. There was emphasis
on observation and experimentation.
Mind
and consciousness
Vedic deities
represent cognitive centers.
It is asserted that parā-vidyā or ātma-vidyā (science of
consciousness) cannot be described in words or design. In the Śrī-yantra, which is a representation of the cosmos,
consciousness (Śiva) is shown as an infinitesimal dot in the middle.
The interaction between matter and consciousness is postulated
in terms of an observation process called dṛṣṭi-sṛṣṭi (creation through observation),
which is consistent with a world governed by laws. In the orthodox
interpretation of quantum theory, consciousness is a separate category as in
Vedanta.
Modern
scientific subjects like physics, computer science, and neuroscience have been
unable to explain the phenomenon of consciousness. Philosophy cannot reconcile
our sense of freedom and agency with the framework of machine-like laws. In
physical theory there is no place for the observer, computer science cannot
explain how awareness arises in the brain machine, and neuroscience has not found any neural correlate of consciousness.
At
the same time, the very association of information with physical systems as is
done using entropy implies postulation of consciousness. So the use of the
reductionist method in the analysis of consciousness has hit a wall.
Indian
texts assert that the phenomenon of consciousness cannot be studied directly as
a material property. Their analysis of consciousness using indirect methods may
very well be relevant for further progress of this question in contemporary
science.
Scientific
speculations and more
Indian
thought is unique in the breadth and scope of its scientific speculations that
are scattered within its high literature. These range from airplanes (Rāmāyaṇa)
to weapons that can destroy the world (Mahābhārata), and to the most astonishing
abstract ideas in a text called
Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha.
Many
texts speak of the relativity of time and space — abstract concepts that
developed in the scientific context just a hundred years ago. The Purāṇas
describe countless universes and time flowing at different rates for different
observers.
The
Mahābhārata has an account of an embryo divided into one hundred parts each
becoming, after maturation in a separate pot, a healthy baby; this is how the
Kaurava brothers are born. There is also mention of a conception in one womb
transferred to another: this is how Balarāma is a brother to Krishna although
he was born to a different mother. This Epic has a major section on battle with
a space ship whose occupants wear airtight suits (Saubha Parva). Are these to
be seen as an early form of science fiction?
Universes
defined recursively are described in the famous episode of Indra and the ants
in Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa. Here Viṣṇu
in the guise of a boy, explains to Indra that the ants he sees walking on the
ground have all been Indras in their own solar systems in different times.
These flights of imagination are more than a straightforward generalization of
the motions of the planets into a cyclic universe.
The
context of modern science fiction is clear: it is the liberation of the earlier
modes of thought by the revolutionary developments of the 20th century science
and technology. But how was science fiction integrated into the mainstream of
Indian literary tradition over two thousand years ago? What was the
intellectual ferment in which such sophisticated ideas arose?
—
— — — — — — — — -
Concluding,
India’s civilization valued science and knowledge above all and some of the
most extraordinary scientific advances took place there. These include the
earliest astronomy, geometry, number theory, the Indian numeral system, the
idea of physical laws and invariance, the earliest formal system to describe a
complex natural phenomenon (as in Pāṇini’s computer program-like grammar that
was not rivaled for 2,500 years), a very subtle Yoga psychology, and the idea
of immunization in medicine.
This lecture has been prepared by N.R. Srinivasan for the Vedanta Class at Sri Ganesha Temple at Nashville by extracting, abridging and editing texts from the following:
- Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. I, Simon & Schuster, U.S.A.
- Reader's Digest, Book of Facts 1987, Readers Digest Association Inc., U.S.A.
- R. Kumar, North American Panchangam2006, The Hindu Society of American Temples, U.S.A.
- Ed. Viswanathan, Am I A Hindu? Rupa & Co., New Delhi.
- Swami Harshananda, An Introduction to Hindu Culture, Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore, India.
- Dr. N.S. Anantha Rangacharya, Selections from the Upanishads, Bangalore, India, 2002.
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