Scientific Marvels from Ancient India

“India is not only at the origin of everything: intellectually, religiously or politically and even the Greek heritage seems pale in comparison.” – Frederich Von Schlegel, German Philosopher.

It is not only him but there are others, including our genius Einstein, who acknowledge the vast contribution of India in various fields. Considering the fact that Indians are the ones who taught the world how to count, how an atom is the smallest particle and the concept of zero, let us know more about which scientific marvels of ancient are making us proud even today –

1. Numeric Systems

Indians developed a system to denote numbers as early as 500 BCE. The Arabs later adopted this system and called it the Hind numerals. After many centuries, this way spread to the rest of the world through Arab traders and the westerners adopted it too.

2. Decimal Numbers

The fact that a number is not always whole, that the fractions can be represented in part through decimals was also a concept devised by the Indians. It gained so much popularity that it was preferred while in need of arithmetic during some invention was being made for its ease of use.

3. Binary System

This is widely used today and even taught everywhere since our computers are able to read only this language of 0s and 1s. These combinations of the two digits were first described by the Vedic scholar Pingala in his book Chandaḥśāstra.

4. Ruler Measurements

It was in the Harappan sites that there was found the earliest evidence of a linear measurement scale. It had subdivisions up to one hasta which is 1 3/8 of an inch. Ancient bricks which are found at excavation sites have been found with the exact measurements of least units of these rulers.

5. Zero

Aryabhatta designed the symbol that is used for zero and gave people worldwide the concept of ‘shunya’. It furthered the use of zero in mathematical operations using zero, put forward by another Indian scientist Brahmagupta.

6. Atom

The Indian sage and philosopher Kanad discovered the atom. He named it ‘anu’, the smallest indestructible particle. It was a theory which came forward centuries before the birth of John Dalton. Kanad stated that an ‘anu’ has two states, of complete rest and of complete motion, and that different objects are made of specific arrangements of atoms to produce diatomic molecules (‘dvyanuka’) and triatomic molecules (tryanuka).

7. Surgery

Specifically, plastic surgery, and even more specifically the plastic surgery of the nose (rhinoplasty). Another kind of surgery done was that of cataracts. The guidelines to surgeries and about medicines were laid down by Sushruta in the 6th century BC in his book Sushruta Samhita.