Ancient Indian Scientists, the first timer in Science & Technology

Discoveries and inventions in modern science & technology began at the end of 15th century in Europe with Ptolemaic astronomical system. However, the discoveries & inventions under various disciplines of modern science were already put place in ancient India much before the European Scientists started. Unfortunately, due to foreign invasions in India the discoveries and inventions done by the Indian scientists (Rishis) were not globally recognized.
Indigenous Knowledge in India is an Ocean, vast, deep & diverse. Indian disciplinary formations include fields as diverse as philosophy, architecture, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, metrics, sociology (dharma-shastra), economy and polity (arthashastra), ethics, geography, logic, military science, weaponry, agriculture, mining, trade and commerce, metallurgy, mining, shipbuilding, medicine, poetics, biology and veterinary science. In each of these a continuous and cumulative series of texts continues to be available in spite of widespread loss and historically recorded destruction.

Indian knowledge system mentions 18 major vidyas, or theoretical disciplines; and 64 kalas, applied or vocational disciplines, crafts. The 18 vidyas are: the four Vedas, the four subsidiary Vedas (Ayurveda – medicine, Dhanurveda – weaponry, Gandharvaveda – music and Silpa – architecture), Purana, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Dharmasastra and Vedanga, the six auxiliary sciences, phonetics, grammar, metre, astronomy, ritual, and philology — these formed the basis of the 18 sciences in ancient India.
British rule fabricated a new history of India to ensure that present and future generations of mentally colonised people to believe in the inferiority of their ancient knowledge and the superiority of the western ‘modern’ knowledge. This has been called ‘Macaulayism’, named after Lord Macaulay, who successfully championed this colonial strategy from the 1830s.
To know about the rich heritage of India, some of the acclaimed works and rich heritage of India have been produced here to inspire young generations.

Mathematics –
Baudhayana (Born in 800 BC) -
1.    He was the first-ever Indian Mathematician who came up with several concepts in Mathematics.
2.    In a shloka of his Sulbasutra, he gave Pythagoras’s Theorem, at least 1000 years before Pythagoras.
3.    The value of pi was first calculated by him.
Aryabhatt (Born in 476 CE in Kusumpur, Bihar) – 
1.    He was first to calculate p (Pi) to four decimal places: 3.1416 and the sine table in trigonometry. Centuries later, in 825 CE, the Arab mathematician, Mohammed Ibna Musa credited the value of Pi to the Indians.
2.     He gave the concept of zero without which modern computer technology would have been non-existent.
 
Mahaviracharya (Born in 8th CE) –
He explained “Least Multiplication Method” to solve arithmetic problems which was introduced much later by John Napier.
 
Bhaskaracharya (Born in 12th CE in Bijapur, Karnataka) –
In his book Siddhant Shiromani, he divided it into four sections viz. Arithmetic, Algebra, Sphere and mathematics of planets. He introduced cyclic method to solve algebraic problems which was re-discovered six centuries later by Europeans.
 
Physics -
Bhaskaracharya (Born in 1114 BCE in Vijjadit near Jalgaon, Maharashtra)
He was first to discover the force of gravity, 500 years before Sir Isaac Newton, i.e., objects fall on earth due to a force of attraction by the earth and the earth, planets, constellations, moon, and sun are held in orbit due to this attraction.
 
Chemistry -
Acharya Kanad (Born in 600 BCE in Prabhas Kshetra, Dwarka, Gujarat) – Founder of Chemistry & Atomic Theory -
He has expounded that every object of creation is made of atoms which in turn connect with each other to form molecules. He gave Atomic Theory for the first time ever in the world, nearly 2500 years before John Dalton. He also described the dimension and motion of atoms and their chemical reactions with each other.
 
Nagarjuna (Born in 100 BCE in Baluka, Madhya Pradesh) – Wizard of Chemistry
He discovered the alchemy of transmuting base metals into gold.
 
Botany –
Varahmihir (Born in 499 BCE in Ujjain Madhya Pradesh) –

1. He revealed his discoveries in the domains of geography, constellation, science, botany and animal science.

2.    In his treatise on botanical science, Varamihir presents cures for various diseases afflicting plants and trees.

Cosmology -
Acharya Kapil (Born in 600 BCE in Nainijor village in the Bhojpur District of Bihar) – Father of Cosmology –
He revealed the secrets of creation.
 
Astronomy –
Vedanga Jyotiṣa (700-600 BCE) –
One of the oldest astronomical texts, it details astronomical calculations, calendrical studies, and establishes rules for empirical observation. It also details several important aspects of the time and seasons, including lunar months, solar months, and their adjustment by a lunar leap month of Adhikamasa, twenty-seven constellations, eclipses, seven planets, and twelve signs of the zodiac were also known at that time.
Aryabhatt (Born in 476 CE in Kusumpur, Bihar) –
In 499 CE, at the age of 23, He formulated the process of calculating the motion of planets and the time of eclipses. Aryabhatt was the first to proclaim that the earth is round, it rotates on its axis, orbits the sun and is suspended in space – 1000 years before Copernicus published his heliocentric theory. In India, navagrah puja is from time immemorial which has sun in centre and planets rotating around it.
 
Bhaskaracharya (Born in 1114 BCE in Vijjadit near Jalgaon, Maharashtra)
He elucidated planetary positions, eclipses, cosmography, mathematical techniques and astronomical equipment.
 
Engineering & Metallurgy –
Archaeological sites in such as Malhar, Dadupur, Raja Nala Ka Tila and Lahuradewa in present-day Uttar Pradesh show iron implements from the period between 1800 BCE and 1200 BCE.  Smelting of iron, zinc etc. was found to be well established since 13th century BC.
Nataraja statue the god of dance is made of five metals Pancha Dhatu and Iron Pillar, Delhi is as a silent witness to assert the striking metallurgical skill of the Hindus. Paintings found on walls of Ajanta and Ellora also testify to the high level of chemical science achieved in ancient India.

Medical Science -  
Acharya Charak (Born in 600 BCE in North west India) – Father of Medicine -
He revealed the facts on human anatomy, embryology, pharmacology, blood circulation and diseases like diabetes, tuberculosis, heart disease, etc. In the Charak Samhita, he has described the medicinal qualities and functions of 100,000 herbal plants. He has emphasized the influence of diet and activity on mind and body. He has proved the correlation of spirituality and physical health contributed greatly to diagnostic and curative sciences. He prescribed the ethical charter for medical practitioners two centuries prior to the Hippocratic oath.
 
 
Acharya Sushrut (Born in 600 BCE in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh) – Father of Plastic Surgery & Surgery –
In Sushrut Samhita, a unique encyclopaedia of surgery, he prescribed the science of plastic surgery and the science of anaesthesia. He performed Rhinoplasty (restoration of a damaged nose) and other challenging operations much before the allopathic doctors in Europe. He prescribed treatment for twelve types of fractures and six types of dislocations. He described the human embryology. He used 125 types of surgical instruments including scalpels, lancets, needles, Cathers and rectal speculums; mostly designed from the jaws of animals and birds. He has also described a number of stitching methods; the use of horse’s hair as thread and fibres of bark. He gave details of 300 types of operations. The ancient Indians were the pioneers in cataract surgery, amputation, caesarean and cranial surgeries.
 
Acharya Patanjali (Born in 200 BCE in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh) – Father of Yoga –
He prescribed the control of breath as the means to control the body, mind and soul. He prescribed 84 yogic postures effectively enhance the efficiency of the respiratory, circulatory, nervous, digestive and endocrine systems and many other organs of the body. He was a pioneer in the science of self-discipline, happiness and self-realization.
 
Aviation –
Acharya Bharadwaj (Born in 800 BCE, in Uttar Pradesh) – Pioneer of Aviation Technology –
In his Yantra Sarvasva, he mentioned the discoveries in aviation science, space science and flying machines. He has described three categories of flying machines viz. that flies on earth from one place to another, that travels from one planet to another and that travels from one universe to another. He explained the designs and descriptions of flying machines. He described the techniques to make a flying machine invisible through the application of sunlight and wind force and to make an invisible space machine visible through the application of electrical force. He also described the techniques to listen to a conversation in another plane and to see what’s happening inside another plane.
 
Language and Literature -
Panini (Born in 520 BCE in in Shalatula, a town near to Attock on the Indus River in present day Pakistan) -
He was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a comprehensive and scientific theory of phonetics, phonology, and morphology. Panini is considered the founder of the language and literature.
In Astadhyayi, he distinguishes between the language of sacred texts and the usual language of communication. Panini gives formal production rules and definitions to describe Sanskrit grammar. Starting with about 1700 basic elements like nouns, verbs, vowels, consonants he put them into classes. The construction of sentences, compound nouns etc. is explained as ordered rules operating on underlying structures in a manner similar to modern theory. In many ways Panini's constructions are similar to the way that a mathematical function is defined today.
A PhD scholar, Rishi Atul Rajpopat in St. John’s College, Cambridge, has cracked a grammatical problem posed by the texts authored by Panini (December, 2022). Rajpopat finds that Paṇini’s algorithms produce grammatically correct words and sentences without errors. “Teaching computers how to combine the speaker’s intention with Panini’s rule-based grammar to produce human speech would be a major milestone in the history of human-machine interaction, as well as in India’s intellectual history,” Rajpopat explains.

Theatrologist and musicologist -
Bharata Muni (Birth estimate vary between 500 BCE & 500 CE) –
He wrote the Natya Shastra, a theoretical treatise on ancient Indian dramaturgy and histrionics, especially Sanskrit theatre. Bharata is considered the father of Indian theatrical art forms. The Natya Shastra is notable as an ancient encyclopaedic treatise on the arts, which has influenced dance, music and literary traditions in India. It is also notable for its aesthetic “Rasa” theory, which asserts that entertainment is a desired effect of performance arts. Besides propounding a theory of three types of acting, Bharata discusses in detail the classical Indian vocal/instrumental music and dance integral to Tamil drama. Bharata classified Sanskrit theatrical forms (Natyam/Rupaka) into ten types, of which drama (nataka) is one. Bharata also outlines a set of rasas or moods/emotions that were to be influential in defining the nature of Indian dance, music, and theatre.

Governance, Military Strategy and Economics -
Chanakya (Born in 350 BC in Bihar)
He was the brain behind King Chandra Gupta Maurya (317-293 BCE), which led to consolidation of the Mauryan empire and ushered in the Golden Age of India. The strategy propounded by Kautilya (Chanakya) was the treatise Arthashastra, a comprehensive compendium of the art of ruling a kingdom and defeating one’s enemies. The Arthashastra is a vast compendium comprising 15 books, which are divided into 150 chapters, 180 sections and 6000 shlokas. The treatise is essentially a treatise on the art of governance and covers all aspects required for a society to function internally, and as a nation-state in its relations externally. It covers the aspects of statecraft, war to diplomacy, revenue sources and taxation, commodity prices and their taxes, standardisation of weights and measures, the organisation of the army, descriptions of forts and defences. Interestingly, there exists a very prominent mention of the Navy. For ensuring a successful military strategy, Kautilya has covered in detail the organisation and management of the army.