DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL INDIA
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“India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition”
: Mark Twain
From time immemorial, the pages of Indian history are ornated with stories and sagas of legends , sages , seers and scholars from all fields. One of the oldest civilization of the world, our motherland hosts the ‘cradle’ for some of the landmark discoveries, inventions, sculptures, architectural developments, dating back to the pre-historic ages. Infact, it’s often argued that Modern Science and technology owe its birth to the then developments , made during ancient and Medieval periods. From the birth of ‘zero, to the decimal system, to astronomy, spanning to the detailed analysis of Ayurveda medicine and the first knowledge of surgery to the illustrative sculptures and architectures , truly we all bow our heads gently as we read these on and on.
One of the interesting fact of this age is that, religion and science moved in close proximity. The developments of science and technology in India, can be dated back to pre-historic India, as early as 5500B.C with Indus Valley Civilization. The traces of this Civilization shows realm of a system of ‘standardization, using weights and measures, excavations at Kalibangan site, yield witnesses of ‘hearths’ , as well as irrigation, making use of drainage and sewerage [Source : Baber, Zaheer : “The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization, and Colonial Rule in India”, Further, the religious texts of the Vedic period, bear the use of large numbers, Source Hayashi , Takao: “Indian Mathematics”, The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism edited by Gavin Flood”. This really hovers a sense of wonderment in our minds… Let’s now pivot this more, with the amusing stories from the vast pages , to just a glimpse of the Spellbound works and inventions of our own Aryabhatta, Brahmgupta , Varahamihira, Susruta, Charaka and more…the forerunners of today.
Science And Technology in Ancient India
“India is at the origin of everything, intellectually, religiously or politically where even the Greek heritage seems pale in comparison “
This eulogy for Indian culture , by none other than Einstein, undoubtedly marks true, if we land ourselves onto the unprecedented developments of Science in Ancient India. This period bore remarkable progress in Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Astrology and Medicine :
PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS
• BRAHMGUPTA: The 7th Century Mathematician and Astronomer, is celebrated for having defined first the concept of “zero” and its rules. He also delineated the negative and positive numbers concept
• ARYABHATTA: The most famous Mathematician and Astronomer of Ancient India was undoubtedly Aryabhatta. He belonged to the 5th century AD. Aryabhatta was the first to use the concept of “decimal system”. It was he who gave a new direction to trigonometry and calculated the approximate value of Pie. His Surya Siddhanta, gave the rules of Geometry.
• PINGALA : Binary numbers were first described in “Chandshutram” by Rishi Pingala as early as 100 B.C
• KANAD AND VAISESHIKA SCHOOL : The theory of Atom dates back to 2500 years ago in the hands of Kanad. He speculated the existence of Anu or small indestructible particles. The Vaiseshika school too delineated the concept of Atomic Theory .
ASTRONOMY
• ARYABHATTA: He explained the true causes of Solar and Lunar eclipses and was the first to state that the Sun is stationary and that it’s the Earth which moves around the Sun. He too stated that the shape of the Earth is not flat, but spherical in his celebrated work : “Aryabhattia“
• VARAHAMIHIRA : Another famous Astronomer of the time, he too stated that the Moon rotates around the Earth and that the Earth revolves around the Sun , in his book Brihat Samhita.
Further treatises like Jyotisha Vedanga is the earliest known source, dealing extensively with Astronomy.
MEDICINE
This is the most interesting achievement made by Ancient Indian science. Infact, modern medical science will ever remain indebted to the treatises of Ayurveda and thoughts on medicinal herbs and surgeries , developed way way back.
• CHARAKA : The father of Ayurvedic Medicine, Charaka in his celebrated work ‘CharakSamhita‘, stated in details the usage of various medicinal herbs and plants.
• SUSHRUTA : The Pioneer for Surgery, Sushruta considered Surgery as “the highest division of the healing arts and least liable to fallacy”. In his well-known work, “SushrutSamhita“, he mentions about 121 surgical instruments and 760 medicinal herbs.
Apart from these, there were remarkable developments in the fields of Metallurgy, Chemistry as well as in Architecture, specially the last mentioned one, which still awestruck us , as we gaze into the intricate designing of the pillars, the Ajanta-Ellora caves, the Ashokan pillar, and the Iron Pillar of Delhi, just to name a few.
DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE IN MEDIEVAL INDIA
Medieval India witnessed some interesting trends regarding the achievements in science and technology. The influx and influence of Islamic culture made a noticeable change in the fields of architecture and medicine. An attempt was made to make a synthesis between Indian traditional scientific culture with that of prevalent scientific tradition in other countries.
• Two outstanding works in Mathematics stand out : Ganitasara by Sridhara and Lilavati by Bhaskaracharya. While the former dealt with division, multiplication, cubes, squares etc, the latter revolves around basic idea of theorem , differential calculus etc. Bhaskaracharya also gave the idea of Algebra and his work ,” Siddhanta Shiromani” has several chapters on this.
• The Unnani-Tibb is an important system of medicine which flourished during this period.
• Chemistry and Agriculture too flourished during this time. The Mughals were acquainted with the production of gunpowder and its use. Improved horticultural methods made its sway in this period and the use of wells, tanks, canals for irrigation
• The most important scientific development in the Medieval period was made in the field of Civil Engineering and Architecture…. Well, it leaves little to wonder about the progress in technology as we look into the spherical structures, domes, , Minars, artesian wells, the massive Mausoleums and the Gothic style of architecture, together with the amalgam of Persian, Turkish and Indian influences, leave us gasping and spellbound till date!
Well….there are infact more to the story and practically never-ending. The cradle of human civilization, our Motherland boasts of inventions and discoveries that have changed the face of the World altogether. The dedication, curious nature, eyes for observations and detailing of the then Legends , leave for us illustrative examples to follow till infinity. To end this story of wonderment, let us recapitulate the famous saying of Grant Duff :”Many of the advances in modern Science that we consider today to have been made in Europe, were in fact made in India centuries ago”!