La ciencia en la antigua India

http://www.indiaoz.com.au/hinduism/articles/amazing_science_3.shtml

Mathematics

Zero –The Most Powerful Tool

India invented the Zero, without which there would be no binary system. No computers! Counting would be clumsy and cumbersome! The earliest recorded date, an inscription of Zero on Sankheda Copper Plate was found in Gujarat, India (585-586 CE). In Brahma-Phuta-Siddhanta of Brahmagupta (7th century CE), the Zero is lucidly explained and was rendered into Arabic books around 770 CE. From these it was carried to Europe in the 8th century. However, the concept of Zero is referred to as Shunya in the early Sanskrit texts of the 4th century BCE and clearly explained in Pingala’s Sutra of the 2nd century.

Geometry

Invention of Geometry

The word Geometry seems to have emerged from the Indian word ‘Gyaamiti’ which means measuring the Earth. And the word Trigonometry is similar to ‘Trikonamiti’ meaning measuring triangular forms. Euclid is credited with the invention of Geometry in 300 BCE while the concept of Geometry in India emerged in 1000 BCE, from the practice of making fire altars in square and rectangular shapes. The treatise of Surya Siddhanta (4th century CE) describes amazing details of Trigonometry, which were introduced to Europe 1200 years later in the 16th century by Briggs.

The Value of PI in India

The ratio of the circumference and the diameter of a circle are known as Pi, which gives its value as 3,1428571. The old Sanskrit text Baudhayana Shulba Sutra of the 6th century BCE mentions this ratio as approximately equal to 3. Aryabhatta in 499, CE worked the value of Pi to the fourth decimal place as 3.1416. Centuries later, in 825 CE Arab mathematician Mohammed Ibna Musa says that "This value has been given by the Hindus (Indians)".

Pythagorean Theorem or Baudhayana Theorem?

The so-called Pythagoras Theorem – the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle equals the sum of the square of the two sides – was worked out earlier in India by Baudhayana in Baudhayana Sulba Sutra. He describes: "The area produced by the diagonal of a rectangle is equal to the sum of the area produced by it on two sides."

[Note: Greek writers attributed the theorem of Euclid to Pythagoras]

Mathematics
The Decimal

100BCE the Decimal system flourished in India

"It was India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by means of ten symbols (Decimal System)….a profound and important idea which escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity."

-La Place

Raising 10 to the Power of 53

The highest prefix used for raising 10 to a power in today’s maths is ‘D’ for 10 to a power of 30 (from Greek Deca). While, as early as 100 BCE Indian Mathematicians had exact names for figures upto 10 to the power of 53.

ekam =1
dashakam =10
shatam =100 (10 to the power of 10)
sahasram =1000 (10 power of 3)
dashasahasram =10000 (10 power of 4)
lakshaha =100000 (10 power of 5)
dashalakshaha =1000000 (10 power of 6)
kotihi =10000000 (10 power of 7)
ayutam =1000000000 (10 power of 9)
niyutam = (10 power of 11)
kankaram = (10 power of 13)
vivaram = (10 power of 15)
paraardhaha = (10 power of 17)
nivahaaha = (10 power of 19)
utsangaha = (10 power of 21)
bahulam = (10 power of 23)
naagbaalaha = (10 power of 25)
titilambam = (10 power of 27)
vyavasthaana

pragnaptihi = (10 power of 29)
hetuheelam = (10 power of 31)
karahuhu = (10 power of 33)
hetvindreeyam = (10 power of 35)
samaapta lambhaha = (10 power of 37)
gananaagatihi) = (10 power of 39)
niravadyam = (10 power of 41)
mudraabaalam = (10 power of 43)
sarvabaalam = (10 power of 45)
vishamagnagatihi = (10 power of 47)
sarvagnaha = (10 power of 49)
vibhutangamaa = (10 power of 51)
tallaakshanam = (10 power of 53)

(In Anuyogdwaar Sutra written in 100 BCE one
numeral is raised as high as 10 to the power of 140).

Astronomy

Indian astronomers have been
mapping the skies for 3500 years.

1000 Years Before Copernicus

Copernicus published his theory of the revolution of the Earth in 1543. A thousand years before him, Aryabhatta in 5th century (400-500 CE) stated that the Earth revolves around the sun, "just as a person travelling in a boat feels that the trees on the bank are moving, people on earth feel that the sun is moving". In his treatise Aryabhatteeam, he clearly states that our earth is round, it rotates on its axis, orbits the sun and is suspended in space and explains that lunar and solar eclipses occur by the interplay of the sun, the moon and the earth.

The Law of Gravity - 1200 Years Before Newton

The Law of Gravity was known to the ancient Indian astronomer Bhaskaracharya. In his Surya Siddhanta, he notes:

"Objects fall on earth due to a force of attraction by the earth. therefore, the earth, the planets, constellations, the moon and the sun are held in orbit due to this attraction".

It was not until the late 17th century in 1687, 1200 years later, that Sir Isaac Newton rediscovered the Law of Gravity.


Measurement of Time

In Surya Siddhanta, Bhaskaracharya calculates the time taken for the earth to orbit the sun to 9 decimal places.

Bhaskaracharya = 365.258756484 days.

Modern accepted measurement = 365.2596 days.

Between Bhaskaracharya’s ancient measurement 1500 years ago and the modern measurement the difference is only 0.00085 days, only 0.0002%.

34000TH of a Second to 4.32 Billion Years

India has given the idea of the smallest and the largest measure of time.

Krati Krati = 34,000th of a second

1 Truti = 300th of a second
2 Truti = 1 Luv

2 Luv = 1 Kshana
30 Kshana = 1 Vipal

60 Vipal = 1 Pal
60 Pal = 1 Ghadi (24 minutes)

2.5 Gadhi = 1 Hora (1 hour)
24 Hora = 1 Divas (1 day)

7 Divas = 1 saptaah (1 week)
4 Saptaah = 1 Maas (1 month)

2 Maas = 1 Rutu (1 season)
6 Rutu = 1 Varsh (1 year)

100 Varsh = 1 Shataabda (1 century)
10 Shataabda = 1 sahasraabda

432 Sahasraabda = 1 Yug (Kaliyug)
2 Yug = 1 Dwaaparyug

3 Yug = 1 Tretaayug
4 Yug = 1 Krutayug

10 Yug = 1 Mahaayug (4,320,000 years)
1000 Mahaayug = 1 Kalpa
1 Kalpa = 4.32 billion years


Plastic Surgery In India 2600 Years Old

Shushruta, known as the father of surgery, practised his skill as early as 600 BCE. He used cheek skin to perform plastic surgery to restore or reshape the nose, ears and lips with incredible results. Modern plastic surgery acknowledges his contributions by calling this method of rhinoplasty as the Indian method.

125 Types Of Surgical Instruments

"The Hindus (Indians) were so advanced in surgery that their instruments could cut a hair longitudinally".

MRS Plunket

Shushruta worked with 125 kinds of surgical instruments, which included scalpels, lancets, needles, catheters, rectal speculums, mostly conceived from jaws of animals and birds to obtain the necessary grips. He also defined various methods of stitching: the use of horse’s hair, fine thread, fibres of bark, goat’s guts and ant’s heads.

300 Different Operations

Shushruta describes the details of more than 300 operations and 42 surgical processes. In his compendium Shushruta Samhita he minutely classifies surgery into 8 types:

Aharyam = extracting solid bodies

Bhedyam = excision

Chhedyam = incision

Aeshyam = probing

Lekhyam = scarification

Vedhyam = puncturing

Visraavyam = evacuating fluids

Sivyam = suturing

The ancient Indians were also the first to perform amputation, caesarean surgery and cranial surgery. For rhinoplasty, Shushruta first measured the damaged nose, skilfully sliced off skin from the cheek and sutured the nose. He then placed medicated cotton pads to heal the operation.

India’s Contributions Acknowledged

Contributions

"It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system."

Will Durant (American Historian, 1885-1981)

Language

"The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either".

Sir William Jones (British Orientalist, 1746-1794)

Philosophy

~If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point out to India".

Max Muller (German Scholar, 1823-1900


Religion

"There can no longer be any real doubt that both Islam and Christianity owe the foundations of both their mystical and their scientific achievements to Indian initiatives".

- Philip Rawson (British Orientalist)


Atomic Physics

"After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense".

W. Heisenberg (German Physicist, 1901-1976)

Surgery

"The surgery of the ancient Indian physicians was bold and skilful. A special branch of surgery was devoted to rhinoplasty or operations for improving deformed ears, noses and forming new ones, which European surgeons have now borrowed".

Sir W.Hunter (British Surgeon, 1718-1783)

Literature

"In the great books of India, an Empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the questions that exercises us".

- R.W.Emerson (American Essayist, 1803-1882)

Panini's grammar has been evaluated from various points
of view. After all these different evaluations, I think that the grammar merits asserting ... that it is one of the greatest monuments of human intelligence.
- An evaluation of Panini's contribution by Cardona