Contribution Made by Ancient Indian to Science and Technology: All of us know that the Indian subcontinent has a fair share in enriching the world’s material culture. Be it the making of dyes, the extraction of sugar, the concept of zero, the concept of the atom, the game of chess, martial arts, etc.
This indicates that India carries a rich legacy of scientific ideas. There are several pieces of evidence to prove this. So let us unfold the various areas in which we find scientists’ contributions.
Contribution Made by Ancient Indian to Science and Technology
MATHEMATICS
A number of treatises on mathematics were authorized by Indian mathematicians between 1000 BC and 1000 AD. The technique of algebra and the concept of zero originated in India only.
Harappa Town planning indicates that people in those times had a good knowledge of geometry and measurement.
The earliest book on mathematics was Sulvasutra written by Baudhayana in the 6th century. Concepts of Pythagoras’ Theorem were mentioned in the Sulvasutra.
Apastamba introduced concepts of practical geometry which involved acute angles, obtuse angles, and right angles.
Aryabhatta
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Contribution Made by Ancient Indian to Science and Technology : Aryabhatta in 499 AD wrote Aryabhattiya in which concepts of astronomy were explicitly mentioned.
Astronomy was also called khagol shastra in those days. Aryabhatta in his book mentioned that the earth is round and it rotates on its own axis.
Brahmagupta
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Contribution Made by Ancient Indian to Science and Technology : Brahmagupta in his book Brahmasputa Siddhantika mentioned zero for the first time as a number. He also introduced negative numbers in his book
Maharviracharya
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He wrote Ganit Sara Sangraha in which he described the method of finding the Lowest common multiple.
Bhaskarcharya
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Contribution Made by Ancient Indian to Science and Technology : Being among one of the leading mathematicians in 12th century AD, Bhaskarcharya in his book Siddhanta Shiromani described the Arithmetic, Algebra, Spheres, and mathematics of planets.
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MEDICINE
During Vedic times, Ashwini Kumara was a renowned practitioners of medicine. Dhanvantari was the God of medicine.
Takshila and Varanasi emerged as the centers for medicinal learning.
Two important treaties during that time were
- Charak Samhita (deals with Ayurveda)
- Sushruta Samhita (deals with Surgery)
Physics
From the Vedic times, Earth materials have been classified into Panchatantra which was identified with the Human sense of perception.
- Earth with smell
- Fire with vision
- Air with feeling
- Water with taste
- Ether with sound
Chemistry
Chemistry in India evolved in phases through experimentation. Areas of application of chemistry were
- Metallurgy
- Distillation of perfumes
- Making of dyes
- Extraction of Sugar
- Production of gunpowder
- Production of paper
Nagarjuna
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Contribution Made by Ancient Indian to Science and Technology: One of the famous chemists of ancient times was Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna was known as having been blessed with the power to change base metals into gold. He wrote a book on chemistry named Rasaratnakara. The book tells about surveys on metallurgy.
Nagarjuna also wrote Uttaratantra which dealt with the preparation of medical drugs.
Varahmihira
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The contribution of Varahmihira in the field of geology, hydrology, and ecology cannot be forgotten. Varahmihira lived in the Gupta Period and was among the nine gems in the court of Vikramaditya.
Contribution Made by Ancient Indian to Science and Technology : Varahmihira propounded the earth cloud theory in his book Brihat Samhita. In his book, he related earthquakes to the influence of plants, behaviors of animals, underground water, activities beneath the sea, and cloud formation. Varahmihira also made his contribution to Astrology.
SHIPBUILDING AND NAVIGATION
Contribution Made by Ancient Indian to Science and Technology: Sanskrit and Pala Literature mentioned shipbuilding and navigation activities. The infamous Satyanarayana Puja talks of a sea merchant who was caught in a storm and prayed to the lord that he would offer puja to Lord Satyanarayana if he was safe.
A treatise in Sanskrit named Yukti Kalpa Taru deals with various techniques used in shipbuilding during ancient times. The book has mentioned the minute details about the types of ships, their sizes, and the types of materials used to build those ships.
The ships were classified into two classes:
- Samanya (Ordinary Class)
- Vishesha (Special Class)
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