FW: India Cover Story. Lost Science of India June 24, 2001 The Week.htm

[Guest guest]

I wanted to forward this ... very interesting info about Ancient India and Vedic Sciences.

 

 

Krishna Maheshwari

 

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India Cover Story. Lost Science of India June 24, 2001 The Week.htm

 

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bot="ImageMap" i-checksum="34819" endspan -->June 24, 2001

METALLURGYMATHEMATICSMEDICINEARCHITECTUREPHYSICSOPINION

 

Cover story

Lost knowledge

By Samuel Abraham

A few thousand years are a short period in the timetable of India. Its myths and

religious symbols take us millions of years beyond archaeological findings. And

so "the Indian mind," as French thinker Guy Sorman puts it, "was better

prepared for the chronological mutations of Darwinian evolution and

astrophysics" that shook the west. Behind this spiritual image is a hint of

historical truth about its materialistic traditions. "By the lowest reckoning,

India, China and the Arabian peninsula take from our empire 100 million

sesterces [coins] every year," records 1st century Roman historian Pliny in his

encyclopaedic Historia Naturalis. "That is the sum which our luxuries and our

women cost us."Post-liberalisation India is familiar with such talk. But in the

early part of the Christian era the active trade between Western Indian ports

and Alexandria on the Mediterranean had spices, muslin, pearl, aquamarine beryl

and steel draining Roman wealth in exchange for wine, vases, glass, tin and

lead. Ideas travelled faster in a world where there were no intellectual

property rights. Scholars from Greece, Arabia, Persia, China and India

interacted with one another, borrowed manuscripts and translated them. Buddhist

scholar Sthavira Prajnadeva's letter of 654 AD to Chinese traveller Hsuan-Tsang

talks of sutras and sastras which he would arrange to copy and send him. There

are clear indications that ancient India gave the world many a legacy in

mathematics, medicine and natural sciences. The 'place value' concept in the

decimal system of numbers and the concept of 'zero' travelled to Europe from

India through the Arab world. The ingenious technology of zinc distillation

predates by a few centuries a similar technique discovered in Europe. The

technology of wootz steel still baffles metallurgists. In the following pages

The Week unrolls the past for a look into some of ancient India's spectacular

achievements in science.

METALLURGYSaladin's sword The finest Damascus steel was made by a process known only to Indians

Saladin the Saracen had a steely edge over Richard the Lion-hearted. Sir Walter

Scott, in his romance The Talisman, describes a meeting of the two mediaeval

monarchs who crossed swords in the Crusades.After examining an iron bar that

Richard cut in two with his sword, Saladin took a silk cushion from the floor

and placed it upright on one end. "Can thy weapon, my brother, sever that

cushion?" he said to King Richard."No, surely," replied the King, "no sword on

earth, were it the Excalibur of King Arthur, can cut that which poses no steady

resistance to the blow.""Mark, then," said Saladin and unsheathed his scimitar,

a curved and narrow blade of a dull blue colour, marked with ten millions of

meandering lines and drew it across the cushion, applying the edge so

dexterously that the cushion seemed rather to fall asunder than to be divided

by violence. Scott mentions that the sabres and poniards of the Ayyubid troops

were of Damascene steel.The original Damascus steel-the world's first

high-carbon steel-was a product of India known as wootz. Wootz is the English

for ukku in Kannada and Telugu, meaning steel. Indian steel was used for making

swords and armour in Persia and Arabia in ancient times. Ktesias at the court of

Persia (5th c BC) mentions two swords made of Indian steel which the Persian

king presented him. The pre-Islamic Arab word for sword is 'muhannad' meaning

from Hind. Wootz was produced by carburising chips of wrought iron in a closed

crucible process. "Wrought iron, wood and carbonaceous matter was placed in a

crucible and heated in a current of hot air till the iron became red hot and

plastic. It was then allowed to cool very slowly (about 24 hours) until it

absorbed a fixed amount of carbon, generally 1.2 to 1.8 per cent," said eminent

metallurgist Prof. T.R. Anantharaman, who taught at Banares Hindu University,

Varanasi. "When forged into a blade, the carbides in the steel formed a visible

pattern on the surface." To the sixth century Arab poet Aus b. Hajr the pattern

appeared described 'as if it were the trail of small black ants that had

trekked over the steel while it was still soft'. The carbon-bearing material

packed in the crucible was a clever way to lower the melting-point of iron

(1535 degrees centigrade). The lower the melting-point the more carbon got

absorbed and high-carbon steel was formed.In the early 1800s, Europeans tried

their hand at reproducing wootz on an industrial scale. Michael Faraday, the

great experimenter and son of a blacksmith, tried to duplicate the steel by

alloying iron with a variety of metals but failed. Some scientists were

successful in forging wootz but they still were not able to reproduce its

characteristics, like the watery mark. "Scientists believe that some other

micro-addition went into it," said Anantharaman. "That is why the separation of

carbide takes place so beautifully and geometrically." Francis Buchanan and

other European travellers have observed the manufacture of steel by crucible

process at several places in Mysore, Malabar and Golconda from the 17th century

onwards. The furnace sketched by Buchanan shows that crucibles were packed in

rows of 15 inside a pit filled with ash. A wall separated the bellows from the

furnace, with only the snout of the bellows sticking out through the wall. Each

crucible could contain up to 14 ounces of iron, along with stems and leaves. The

crucible process could have originated in south India and the finest steel was

from the land of Cheras, said K. Rajan, associate professor of archaeology at

Tamil University, Thanjavur, who explored a 1st century AD trade centre at

Kodumanal near Coimbatore. Rajan's excavations revealed an industrial economy

at Kodumanal. A sword bit excavated from there had a thin layer of high-carbon

steel on the cutting edge. Apart from this, there was a coating of thin white

layer, probably to protect the edge from rust! Pillar of strengthThe rustless

wonder called the Iron Pillar near the Qutb Minar at Mehrauli in Delhi did not

attract the attention of scientists till the second quarter of the 19th

century.The first reports of the pillar were by British soldiers, and Captain

Archer talked about its inscription of 'unknown antiquity which nobody can

read'. James Prinsep, an Indian antiquarian, deciphered the inscription in 1838

and translated it into English in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Scholars consider the pillar to be of early Gupta period (320-495 AD) on

grounds of palaeography, content and language of the inscription and the style

of execution. But there are differences in opinion over whether the king

referred to in the inscription as Chandra is Samudragupta (340-375) or his son

Chandragupta II (375-415). The pillar was perhaps a standard for supporting an

image of Garuda, the bird carrier of Lord Vishnu.The inscription refers to a

ruler named Chandra, who had conquered the Vangas and Vahlikas, and the breeze

of whose valour still perfumed the southern ocean. "The king who answers the

description is none but Samudragupta, the real founder of the Gupta empire,"

said Prof. T.R. Anantharaman, who has authored The Rustless Wonder, a monograph

published by Vigyan Prasar. The excellent state of preservation of the Iron

Pillar, near the Qutb Minar at Mehrauli in Delhi, despite exposure for 15

centuries to the elements has amazed corrosion technologists. In Pic,

metallurgist Prof. T.R. Anantharaman, who has authored the Rustless wonder In

1961, the pillar (23 feet and 8 inches, and 6 tonnes) was dug out for chemical

treatment and preservation and reinstalled by embedding the underground part in

a masonry pedestal. Chemical analyses have indicated that the pillar was

astonishingly pure or low in carbon compared with modern commercial iron.In

1963, M.K. Ghosh of the National Metallurgical Laboratory concluded that the

pillar had been very effectively forge-welded. B.B. Lal, chief chemist at the

Archaeological Survey of India, also came to the conclusion that the pillar was

not cast, but fabricated by forging and hammer-welding lumps of hot pasty iron,

weighing 20 to 30 kg, in a step-by-step process. The surface of the pillar

retains marks of hammer blows. It is assumed that 120 labourers took a

fortnight to complete this daunting task.The excellent state of preservation of

the Iron Pillar despite exposure for 15 centuries to the elements has amazed

corrosion technologists. High phosphorus, low sulphur, low manganese and high

slag contents contribute individually and collectively to the good corrosion

resistance. Besides, a protective oxide film, 50 to 600 microns thick, has

formed on the pillar. This is less than 50 microns in the bright, polished

section where people used to clasp around for luck.

Galvanising featThe oldest among the triad of metallurgical marvels of ancient

India is the extraction of zinc. Zinc is better known as a constituent of brass

than a metal in its own right. Brass with 10 per cent zinc glitters like

gold.The earliest brass objects in India have been unearthed from Taxila (circa

44 BC). They had more than 35 per cent zinc. "This high content of zinc could be

put in only by direct fusion of metallic zinc and copper," said Prof. T.R.

Anantharaman. The other process, which is no more in use, is by heating zinc

ore and copper metal at high temperatures, but the zinc content in brass then

cannot be more than 28 per cent. Zinc smelting is very complicated as it is a

very volatile material. Under normal pressure it boils at 913 degrees

centigrade. To extract zinc from its oxide, the oxide must be heated to about

1200 degrees in clay retorts. In an ordinary furnace the zinc gets vapourised,

so there has to be a reducing atmosphere. By an ingenious method of reverse

distillation ancient metallurgists saw to it that there was enough carbon to

reduce the heat. Proof of the process came from excavations at Zawar in

Rajasthan. The Zawar process consisted of heating zinc in an atmosphere of

carbon monoxide in clay retorts arranged upside down, and collecting zinc

vapour in a cooler chamber placed vertically beneath the retort.Zinc metallurgy

travelled from India to China and from there to Europe. As late as 1735,

professional chemists in Europe believed that zinc could not be reduced to

metal except in the presence of copper. The alchemical texts of the mediaeval

period show that the tradition was live in India. In 1738, William Champion

established the Bristol process to produce metallic zinc in commercial

quantities and got a patent for it. Interestingly, the mediaeval alchemical

text Rasaratnasamucchaya describes the same process, down to adding 1.5 per

cent common salt to the ore.

MATHEMATICSActs of faith Manuals for rituals are the earliest documents of geometry in India

A 3,000-year-old ritual was resurrected at Panjal in Kerala in April 1975. A

12-day Agnicayana, or Atiratra, was performed on a bird-shaped altar of a

thousand bricks. The altar was a geometricians' delight. The area of each layer

of the altar, for instance, was seven and a half times a square purusa, the size

of the sacrificer or the Yajamana. A fifth of the size of the Yajamana,

panchami, was the basic unit of the bricks. The rules for measurement and

construction of sacrificial altars are found in the Sulba Sutras, the earliest

documents of geometry in India. Sulba means cord. Of the various Sulba Sutras,

those of Baudhayana, Apastamba and Katyayana are best known. Scholars believe

the sutras were composed during 800-500 BC. The mathematical knowledge in the

texts comes from the creation of altars or bricks in various shapes-rhombus,

isosceles trapezium, square, rectangle, isosceles right-angled triangle or

circle. A square-shaped altar sometimes had to become circular without any

change in the area or vice-versa. Obviously, the authors of the Sulba texts

knew the value of pi, which is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter

of a circle.The theory of right angles is attributed to Greek philosopher

Pythagoras (6th century BC). But Baudhayana mentions that the diagonal of a

rectangle produces by itself both (the areas) produced separately by its two

sides. In simple terms, this means that the square of the diagonal is equal to

the sum of the squares of two sides. In the next rule he says that the

rectangles for which the theorem is true have the sides as 3 and 4 [32+42=52],

12 and 5, 15 and 8, 7 and 24, 12 and 35, 15 and 36. The theorem is given in all

the Sulba Sutras. The relation between the length, breadth and hypotenuse of a

rectangle [x2+y2=z2] was discovered by the Babylonians and Egyptians long

before Pythagoras. The Chinese followed almost the same algebraic technique.

Eminent mathematician A.K. Bag, who has edited Sulba Sutras along with S.N.

Sen, has discussed the parallelism in other cultures and ritual geometry in

India. He observes that the Egyptian, Indian and Greek methods may have some

links at some stages because of the use of cord and peg. But he says tackling

of mathematical and geometrical problems with rational numbers and irrational

numbers [such as square-root of 2] was a unique achievement of early Indians.

They even had technical terms such as dvikarani, trikarani and panchakarani

(for square-roots of 2, 3 and 5) and so on and gave their values to a high

degree of approximation. The mathematics in Sulba texts also involves a highly

sophisticated brick technology. Ten types of bricks were used to build the

altar at Panjal. Astrology is not scientific: Kochhar Fragments of mathematical

works by Jain mathematicians are found in the canonical or non-mathematical

texts before the 4th century AD. Sthananga Sutra, a Jain work of the 1st

century AD, lists several topics including quadratic equations, algebra and

permutations and combinations. The next mathematical work of significance is

the 3rd or 4th century AD Bakshali Manuscript-so called because it was

discovered in a village called Bakshali (near Peshawar). The major portion of

it deals with fractions, square-roots, progressions, income and expenditure,

profit and loss, computation of gold, interest, rule of three and summation of

complex series. The landmark of mathematical work after this is the

astronomical work Aryabhatiya of Aryabhatta (b. AD 476). Here we come across

geometry. Aryabhatiya geometry moves from the earth to sky.

What the stars foretellThe first formal treatise on astronomy is the Vedanga

Jyotisha, dated about 1400 BC. It talks of a five-year yuga (time span)

consisting of 67 lunar months, which incorrectly corresponds to 366 days in a

year. But a peculiar concept was of the Rahu and Ketu which eclipsed the sun

and the moon. This was later identified as two imaginary points where the path

of the moon intersects the apparent path of the sun. For an eclipse to occur

the moon should be at one of these two points.The firm historical hand on

ancient astronomy is the calendrical information in Asoka's edict (300 BC) and

the Mahabharata text (compiled during 400 BC-400 AD). After a grey area from

Asoka's period onwards, the major text later is Aryabhatia (499 AD), the

Siddhantic or mathematical astronomy text of Aryabhatta. "It is the oldest in

whole of Sanskrit literature which is accurately dated," says Rajesh Kochhar,

astrophysicist and director of National Institute of Science, Technology and

Development Studies in New Delhi. Aryabhatta taught that the earth spun on its

axis and gave the correct explanation of the eclipses. Aryabhatta's genius

extends to his development of an alphabetical system of expressing numbers on

the decimal place value model and in calculating the most accurate value of pi

as 3.1416. The development of Siddhantic astronomy came as a result of

interaction with Greece in the post-Alexandrian period (3rd century BC).

"Vedanga Jyotisha does not mention week days or zodiacal signs but in the

Siddhantic astronomical texts zodiacal signs are inbuilt," says Kochhar. "There

are many new inputs in Aryabhatta's work." Aryabhatta's follower Varahamihira

(c. 505 AD) compiled five siddhantas, two of which bear testimony to outside

influence. The most accurate is Surya Siddhanta, which was revised several

times.A significant feature of the siddhantas was the use of time cycles of

mahayugas. A mahayuga starts at an epoch when all planets are in conjunction.

During a mahayuga they will perform an integral number of revolutions and at

the end of a mahayuga they are again in conjunction. A mahayuga is made up of

4,320,000 years and is divided into four: krita, dvapara, treta and kali.

Aryabhatta assumed all the yugas to be of equal duration whereas others took it

in the ratio of 4:3:2:1. In other words, kali would be 432,000, treta double

that, dvapara three and krita four times.An important name in siddhanta

astronomy is Brahmagupta (c. 598 AD). He bitterly criticised Aryabhatta for

deviating from tradition, for saying that the earth is not stationary, and for

dividing a yuga into four cycles. His books Brahmasphuta Siddhanta and

Khandakadhyaya were translated into Arabic in the 8th century. Arab traveller

Al-Biruni of the 10th century describes Khandakadhyaya as "the best known of

all and preferred by astronomers to all others".The main occupation of Indian

astronomers for the next thousand years was the calculation of planetary

orbits. The tradition was alive in Kerala till about 150 years ago. Says

Kochhar: "Till German scientist Johannes Kepler's laws in the 17th century,

when it became easier to calculate planetary orbits, Indian astronomers were

the only ones who could predict eclipses accurately. Kepler's laws are superior

to Aryabhatta's calculations."Calculating planetary orbits led to many

developments in mathematics, the high point of which was the decimal system. It

travelled westwards through 9th century Arab mathematician Al-Khwarizmi.

Aryabhatta also gives tables of astronomical constants and trigonometric sine

tables in the Ganitapada section of his text.

Sum and substanceThere has been a renewed interest in Vedic Mathematics or

Sixteen Simple Mathematical Formulae from the Vedas by Jagadguru Shankaracharya

Swami Shri Bharati Krishna Tirthaji Maharaja of Govardhan Peeth Mutt, Puri,

originally published by Banaras Hindu University in 1965. The book offers

answers to all mathematical problems-including arithmetic, algebra, geometry-in

16 sutras or aphorisms. One of the sutras or aphorisms given by the

Sankaracharya in his book is Nikhilam Navatha, Charamam Dasatha (All from 9,

last from 10) to subtract any number from a power of 10. The idea is to

subtract every digit from 9 and the last from 10.That is, 10,000-2689 would

mean (9-2) (9-6) (9-8) (10-9) = 7311.If the same number is to be subtracted

from 100,000 add one zero to the left of 2689 and use the same technique.That

is, (9-0) (9-2) (9-6) (9-8) (10-9) = 97311Another sutra, Yavadunam

Thevadunikritiya, Vargam Cha Yojaet, is to find the square of numbers.To find

the square of 8 you have to subtract 2 from 8 for the first part of the answer;

2 is the difference of 8 from 10. The second part is the square of 2, i.e. 4. So

the answer is 64.Similarly, the first part of the square of 7 would be

[7-(10-7)] 4. The second part is the square of (10-7) or the square of 3 which

is 9. The answer here is 49.The square of 93 is [93-(100-93)], 7x7 = 8649.The

square of those numbers which exceed the power of 10 like 107 is [(100+7)+7],

7x7 = 11449.The rest of the sutras also are simple formulae to compute many

mathematical problems which have earned many admirers not just in India but

abroad as well. But the book has been mired in controversy with some

questioning the 'vedicity' of the sutras on the ground of the language and the

level of mathematics it deals with. The Shankaracharya, a scholar in

mathematics, had claimed that the sutras are from the parisistha (appendix) of

the Atharvaveda. A.K. Bag, who reviewed the book in the Indian Journal of

History of Science, said no scholar had been able to trace this relationship.

D.P. Chattopadhyay in his Science and Technology in Ancient India shows it as a

classic example of the 'wrong way of reading the vedas'. He says the title is

worthless, notwithstanding the mathematical excellence of the book.

Is astrology a science?Mainstream science does not accept astrology as science,

says astrophysicist Rajesh Kochhar. "The methodology of science is more

important than the results. Scientific theories are not based on provability

but on falsiability," he says, quoting Karl Popper's theory of falsiability in

verification of a scientific proposition. For instance, if one makes a

prediction and if it does not come true it is false. But when the prediction of

a theory comes true, it does not prove that the theory is right. There is no

guarantee that the next prediction will come true. So if astrology is to

qualify as a science it must lay down a criterion of falsiability.Kochhar, who

wrote the book Vedic People, says the astrology we have today is not Vedic and

hence there is no question of teaching Vedic astrology (as planned by the

University Grants Commission). "It is post-Varahamihira and based on Siddhantic

astronomy. Vedic astronomy did not have zodiacal signs," says Kochhar. "Teaching

astrology is different. You can certainly teach astrology if you can teach

Sanskrit."

MEDICINEA nose for news The first known published account of plastic surgery in

the west is on Indian rhinoplasty

In the war of 1792 Tipu Sultan's soldiers captured Kawasji (Cowasjee), a Maratha

cart driver in the British army, and cut off his nose and an arm. A year later,

a kumhara (potter) vaidya of Pune reconstructed Kawasji's nose in the presence

of two English doctors, Thomas Cruso and James Trindlay, of the Bombay

Presidency. An illustrated account of this operation,-'not uncommon in India

and has been practised for time immemorial'-appeared in the Madras Gazette; the

Gentleman's Magazine of London reproduced it in October 1794. The surgical

procedure closely corresponded to that mentioned in the ayurvedic text Susruta

Samhita (350 AD). Susruta Samhita is the oldest known work that clearly

describes plastic surgery of the nose, ear and lip. Manka, an Indian physician

in Baghdad during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid (786-809 AD),

translated Susruta Samhita into Arabic under the title of Kitab-Shawasoon

al-Hind of Susrud. Persian physician al-Razi (860-925 AD) quotes Sasrad as an

authority on surgery. The surgical procedure of Kawasji's operation closely

corresponded to that mentioned in the ayurvedic text Susruta Samhita. (above)

the illustrated account of Kawasji's operation as it appeared in the

Gentleman's Magazine of London in October 1794 Susruta Samhita enumerates eight

branches of medical knowledge as surgery; treatment of diseases of the eyes,

ears, nose, throat and teeth; therapeutics; psychiatry and psychotherapy;

paediatrics; toxicology and treatment of poisoning; treatment for longevity and

rejuvenation; and treatment for increasing virility. But the text is known more

for its extensive chapter on surgery. It mentions 300 different operations

employing 42 surgical processes and 121 surgical instruments. These include

ophthalmic couching, cutting for stone, removal of arrows and splinters,

suturing, examination of dead bodies for anatomy and Caesarean

sections.Surgery, however, fell into disuse in later times. "According to

Susruta," says P.C. Ray in his History of Hindu Chemistry, "the dissection of

dead bodies is a sine qua non to the student of surgery and this high authority

lays particular stress on knowledge gained from experiment and observation. But

Manu [law giver] would have none of it. The very touch of a corpse, according

to Manu, is enough to bring contamination of the sacred person of Brahmin. Thus

we find that shortly after the time of Vagbhata, the handling of a lancet was

discouraged and anatomy and surgery fell into disuse and became to all intents

and purposes lost sciences to the Hindus."Whatever be the reasons, the Susruta

school did not flourish as much as the Charaka school of therapeutic medicine

in India. Chinese sources place Charaka at the court of the 1st century

Scythian king Kanishka. Arabs knew him as a medical author whose work was

translated from Sanskrit to Persian to Arabic. The ayurvedic texts contain a

vast accumulation of medical and even general information such as the influence

of environmental factors. For instance, a chapter in Charaka Samhita

'Janapadodhwamsaniyam', is on epidemics and pollution of air, water and land

pollution. There is also a meticulous code of professional ethics and social

conduct for the medical profession, much like the Hippocratic oath.While

Susruta Samhita and Charaka Samhita form the cornerstones of ayurveda, there

are a number of other classical texts such as the Ashtangahridaya Samhita of

Vagbhata, which is popular in the south. The tradition of ayurveda by

Ashtavaidya Brahmins is live in Kerala. Ayurveda has its theoretical foundation

in the doctrine of three bodily humours-wind, bile and phlegm (vata, pitta,

kapha). "It takes into consideration the whole human being, and not just the

phenotype. The tridosha concept takes into consideration the phenotype,

genotype and the mind in classifying patients," says Prof. B.M. Hegde,

vice-chancellor of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education and a medical

doctor. "Consequently, treatment differs even for the same disease from

individual to individual, based on the constitutional types."Ayurvedic

medicines are mainly herbal, and therapies include enemas, massage, ointments,

douches and surgery. From the end of the first millennium, metallic compounds

also came into medical use. Experts say that many 'modern concepts' were

already known in ayurveda. Susruta describes pathogenic microorganisms to be

the cause of certain forms of fever, pulmonary consumption, leprosy, smallpox

and tuberculosis. Charaka's description of invisible krimis (corpuscles) in

blood, that they are unicellular structures, circular or disc-like, without

feet and of coppery colour, would marvel even modern accounts. "Even the

authentication of Edward Jenner's vaccination came from ayurvedic vaccination's

proven track record," says Hegde. English physician Jenner is credited with

discovering vaccination on a scientific basis with his studies on small pox in

1796. A group of Fellows of the Royal Society had earlier studied the method of

inoculating people in India and submitted its report in the 1760s. Dr J.Z.

Holwell, one of the members who was in the Bengal Province for more than ten

years to study the Indian vaccination method, lectured at the London Royal

College of Physicians in 1767 "that nearly the same salutary method, now so

happily pursued in England,... has the sanction of remotest antiquity (in

India), illustrating the propriety of present practice". The description of the

vaccination methods prevalent then, based on Holwell's lecture, is mentioned in

a recent book Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century by Prof.

Dharmapal, brought out by Academy of Gandhian Studies in Hyderabad. Holwell

talks about a group of vaccinators inoculating people from home to home with

pus used from the inoculated pustule of the previous year. Following the

inoculation the person had to observe a strict regimen of diet and treatment

for the mild eruptive fever that follows.

 

Root and trunkJivaka, physician of King Bimbisara, a contemporary of the Buddha,

had to undergo a practical examination in the final year of his studies at

Taxila. The teacher asked him to take a spade and seek round about a yojana on

every side of the university and bring the plant he saw which had no medicinal

properties. After long investigations, Jivaka came back saying he did not find

any plant which had no medicinal properties. The teacher was satisfied and gave

him the licence to practise as a physician. Botanical teaching was preparatory

to medical studies in ancient days. Kautilya's Arthasastra refers to

Vrukshayurveda, a treatise on botany, written in the pre-Buddhist period. The

author of the book, Parasara, compiled the treatise at the request of the sages

assembled at a conference to give an account of the herbs and plants beneficial

to mankind. Veterinary sciences, though not treated in the text books of

ayurveda, focused elephants and horses on which the king possessed a monopoly.

Palakapya's Hasti Ayurveda is said to be the earliest book on veterinary

sciences. A work on horse medicine is also said to be translated into Persian

in the 14th century, another one in the 17th century and from that into English

in the next century. King Asoka's inscriptions also mention animal hospitals in

his empire.

The finest example of early Indian temple architecture is the Lingaraja temple

at Bhubaneswar (above), built as a series of four halls: a hall of offering, a

dancing hall, an assembly hall and a sanctuary

ARCHITECTUREBuildings with a genetic code You can clone the whole from a part of

the structure The science of building in India is analogous to genetics. Just as

the DNA, which contains hereditary information on cell life, every element of a

building contains a dimensional code that will speak of the whole structure.

"It is possible to extrapolate the whole from the dimension and position of any

relic," says Balagopal T.S. Prabhu, professor of architecture at the Regional

Engineering College in Calicut, "the way the Harappans would have rebuilt their

cities from the ruins of the old." The cities of the Harappan civilisation were

laid out according to well-established precepts of town planning. Clearly,

surveying instruments were used to fix cardinal points. (right) a view of

Lothal Mohenjo-daro, notes Stuart Piggott in Prehistoric India, passed through

nine phases of rebuilding, often interrupted by disastrous river floods. But

from the top to the bottom of the accumulated layer of debris no change can be

detected in the content of the material culture. The cities of the Harappan

civilisation (the late phase of which was from 2000 BC-1500 BC) were laid out

according to well-established precepts of town planning. Clearly, surveying

instruments were used to fix cardinal points. Archaeologist S.R. Rao mentions

an instrument made of shell in Lothal. "It is a hollow cylinder with four slits

on each of the two edges. When placed on a horizontal board it can be used

almost as a compass in plane table survey for fixing the position of a distant

object by viewing it through the slits in the margins.... Obviously, this

instrument must have been used in land survey and for fixing alignment of

streets and houses." Each city had two major sectors: the citadel meant for the

elite, and the lower town, comprising residences and commercial establishments,

for the common men. The houses had open courtyards, furnished toilets, kitchens

and living rooms, and drainage system from the bathrooms to the main sewer in

the street. The style of construction is said to be bare and utilitarian.

Sun-dried and burnt brick was the common material for walls and floors and

roofings were in timber. "We say that Harappans were utilitarian because of the

grid pattern," says Prof. K.T. Ravindran, head of the department of urban design

at School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi. "This existed all over the world

in different times-in the labour camps for building pyramids, in the Agoras of

Greece, the Bastic cities of France. It also exists in contemporary cities like

Chandigarh designed to build democratic accessibility to everyone, and in Jaipur

or lower Tirupathi. Everything had a meaning. It depends on the value frame of

the society, which is expressed in their structures." The technological

innovation of the Harappans, if not their worldview, is evident from the

citadels, raised on a mud-brick and clay platform to prevent floods, and the

special structures at the citadels (the fire altars at Kalibangan, the Great

Bath, granary and pillared hall at Mohenjo-daro, rangashala or stadium at

Dholavira, and warehouse and dockyard at Lothal). The Great Bath in

Mohenjo-daro, 12x7 metres and 2.5 metres deep, is an engineering marvel, says

historian Abraham Eraly in Gem in the Lotus. "It was water-tight by lining its

floor and two sides with two layers of close-fitting, carefully trimmed baked

bricks set on gypsum mortar, with a 2.5-centimetre-thick skin of bitumen sealer

between the layers. A high, corbelled conduit was provided at its north-western

corner to drain the tank." Planned cities, with fortification walls, properly

aligned houses, drainage, water supply and sanitary provisions, are found again

from the 6th century BC to the early centuries of the Christian era. Greek

writers Megasthenes and Strabo have given detailed descriptions of Mauryan

capital Pataliputra, built a year before the death of the Buddha, and its

palace which was "splendid as that in the capital of Iran". Other cities that

emerged in this period are Kausambi, Taxila, Vaisali and Ujjain. The rise of

Buddhism under the patronage of Asoka (3rd century BC) brought about changes in

socio-cultural values and their expression in construction. Apart from the stone

pillars, one of which at Sarnath became the national emblem of India, the

principal contributions of the Asokan school were stupas. The most famous of

them, the Sanchi stupa in Madhya Pradesh, is basically a dome, surmounted by a

finial or harmika, with a circumambulatory path around it, delineated by a

railing or vedika. The stupas containing relics of the Buddha were the first

Buddhist shrines. Religious architecture came of age with the temples of the

Gupta Age (350-650 AD). Each constituent of the plan and the elevation had a

certain proportion to all other parts of the structure. The rudiments of this

framework for construction and design can be seen in the Puranas, Shastras,

Samhitas and Buddhist classics. Matsya Purana, for instance, has much on

architecture and sculpture. Natya Sastra has a chapter on the design and

construction of theatres while Padma Samhita covers planning and construction

of temples. But the earliest text codifying rules for art, sculpture and

architecture is the early 6th century AD text Brhat Samhita of Varahamihira.

Mayamata and Manasara are early texts which are held as standard reference

works on Vastuvidya-the science of building.The fountainhead of Vastushastra is

the Sthapatyaveda, annexure of Atharvaveda. "At the level of Sthapatyaveda it is

only at a conceptual level," says Prabhu. "Certain concepts can be applied to

any situation, be it cattlesheds or huts, bridges or dams, palaces or

temples."Planning, design, construction and maintenance are the four aspects of

the science of building. Sthalam (topographical features), jalam (hydrological

characteristics) and vriksham (biotic features) are considered in the planning

stage. "The basic philosophy is that a building is also a living thing," says

Kanippayyur Krishnan Nambudiripad, a traditional exponent of Vastuvidya in

Kerala. The philosophical underpinning of the inter-relatedness of all things

in the universe is expressed best in the form of a temple. Several parts of the

temple are thus likened to the body of a man. For instance, the tapering roof

above the sanctuary or vimana is called the shikhara (head). Inside the vimana

is the garbha-griha (the womb-house).The finest example of an early north

Indian temple architecture is the Lingaraja temple at Bhubaneswar, built as a

series of four halls: a hall of offering, a dancing hall, an assembly hall and

a sanctuary. The sanctuary is crowned by a great tower (shikhara) curving

inwards terminated by an amalaka disc and a finial (kalas). The other three

elements of the temple are also roofed with towers of smaller size. The

southern style of temple architecture became quite distinct with the Pallava

school (the shore temples of Mamallapuram, 7th century AD) and the Chola school

(Brihadeswara temple at Thanjavur, 10th century). The Minakshi temple at

Madurai, Ranganatha temple at Srirangam and the Vittala temple at Hampi are a

few other examples architectural excellence.

PHYSICS

Mind over matter Ancient Indian philosophy has much in common with modern physics

The first Indian who formulated ideas about the atom as the indivisible particle

of matter in a systematic manner was 6th century BC philosopher Kanada.

Katyayana, a contemporary of the Buddha, put forward ideas about the atomic

constitution of the material world. The Greek theories of matter closely

corresponded to the Indian theories. Leucippus and his pupil Democritus

(460-370 BC) declared that atoms are the primary building blocks of the world.

Earlier, philosophers believed that one or all of the four elements-earth,

water, fire and air-were the primordial substance of which the world is made.

In India, the Rigveda Samhita expresses the first monistic principle as water.

The doctrine of the five elements took place in the Upanishads. Though there

have been suggestions of the "historical possibility of the Grecian world of

thought being influenced by India through the medium of Persia", scholars like

Max Mueller and Paul Dessen say the developments were independent.Kanada's

Vaisesika Sutra is the main literary source that deals with a number of

physical concepts like space, time and atomism. These were later developed by

the Vaisesika and the Nyaya schools. By 10th century AD the two schools began

to be known as Nyaya-Vaisesika. In the Vaisesika system of philosophy, matter

is described in its elementary and composite forms, the gunas (qualities) of

the fundamental kanas (quanta) and the dravya (primary substance) of the

universe. The dravyas-earth (prithvi), water (jalam), air (vayu), substratum

(akasa), time (kalam), space (dik), mind (manas), radiation (tejas) and self

(atma)-are the raw material for world-building. The first four are divisible

and their elementary units are the paramanu or kana (quanta). These four

dravyas together with akasa constitute the panchabhuta. "The Vaisesika system

is a pluralistic presentation consisting of the material and the non-material,

the finite and the ubiquitous, and the conscious self as well as mind in an

ingenious way," says B.V. Subbarayappa in 'The Physical World: Views and

Concepts', forming a part of A Concise History of Science in India brought out

by the Indian National Science Academy. "During the development of Quantum

Theory, it became apparent to many scientists that the results of the

experiments were making many suggestions about the true nature of our

universe," observes physicist E.C.G. Sudarshan. "The quantum reality of the

microworld is inextricably entangled with the organisation of the macroworld.

In other words, the part has no meaning except in relation to the whole." In

Hindu tradition, the entire universe is said to be a manifestation of the

paramatma or supreme soul. Hence, everything contained within the universe is

also a manifestation of this paramatma. The ancient medical treatise Charaka

Samhita also upholds this view. "Physics of lepto-quarks [the infinitesimally

small subatomic particles] and our Upanishads have realised the unitary nature

of all things on this planet," says Prof. B.M. Hegde, vice-chancellor of the

Manipal Academy of Higher Education. "The mind is a subatomic quantum state.

Human mind or otherwise called the human consciousness, is a quantum level

thinking. Just as the seed has the tree in it, the zygote, that little speck of

protein that man is made of the day he is conceived inside his mother's womb,

knows all about every other living thing in the universe." Hegde draws

parallels to the four levels of consciousness in modern science-the waking, the

dreaming, the sleeping and the quantum consciousness-to shivam, sundaram,

advaitam and chaturtham."I do not think physics is as yet able to fully answer

the question, 'what is consciousness?' But I have great doubts that beautiful

old poetic assertions do this either," says physicist Yash Pal, disagreeing

with people who use physics terminology to postulate that we had the answer to

these questions in our ancient texts. Yash Pal says these assertions are full

of mumbo-jumbo, with much appeal to the supra-natural where the laws applicable

to the physical universe should have no meaning. "A better understanding of

consciousness would ultimately emerge from neurobiology and psychology. Then

only it would be appropriate to quote wise and beautiful generalities from the

past. At the moment they do not explain much but only assert," he says. "But

those who proceed on the basis of 'faith' alone are hard to convince."

Flights of fancy?In the early 70s, G.R. Josyer of the International Academy of

Sanskrit in Mysore brought out the English translation of a Sanskrit work,

Vymanika Shastra. It describes different types of aircraft with drawings,

metals used for their production, mirrors and their use in wars and varieties

of machines and yantras. The book was supposed to be only a fortieth of the

Yantra Sarwasa by Sage Bharadwaja. A Hindi translation of the book titled

Brihad Vimana Shastra by Shri Brahmamuni Parivrajaka was published earlier in

1959. This, however, did not have mechanical drawings.Brihad Vimana Shastra was

written on the basis of two manuscripts-one at Rajakiya Sanskrit Library,

Baroda, in 1944 and another with a signature of Go Venkatachala Sharma with

dates 19.8. 1919 and 3.6. 1919 inscribed on it. Josyer, in his introduction to

Vymanika Shastra, states that Pandit Subbaraya Shastry of Anekal dictated the

verses to G.V. Sharma. Shastry apparently was endowed with mystical powers. An

Air Commodore called Goel procured the manuscript for the Baroda University

Library in 1944 and it was featured at an exhibition of rare manuscripts in

Mysore in 1951. Josyer bought it and brought out a translation. He mentioned in

his introduction that the work was several thousand years old.Prof. H.S. Mukunda

and his team from the departments of aeronautical and mechanical engineering of

the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore traced Shastry's adopted son. They

learnt that Shastry had also written his autobiography, apparently inspired by

the famous scientist J.C. Bose.Shastry's early life was full of misery. He was

born in Hosur and having lost his parents, he had to take care of his siblings.

Circumstances forced them apart and a fatal illness almost crippled him.

Starvation drove him to Kolar, where a great saint cured him of his illness.

Initiating him to spirituality, the saint revealed to him the secrets of

shastras like Vimana Shastra, Bhautik Kala Nidhi and Jala Tantra.Shastry made

several trips to Mumbai and dictated many parts of Vimana Sastra there. He got

the drawings of the aircraft made by a draughtsman called Ellappa between 1900

and 1919. Shastry, who had no formal schooling, learnt to read and write Telugu

and Kannada only after meeting his guru. Mukunda and team, who published their

report in 1974, found that the author showed a complete lack of understanding

of the dynamics of flight. The aircraft were poor concoctions rather than

expressions of anything real.The drawings of Shakuna Vimana, in the shape of a

bird, show parts like a cylinder, piston worm gear and pumps which seem

entirely beyond the 18th century. As for the function of the wings and tail,

the Sanskrit text gives great importance to the tail portion for the generation

of lift whereas it is the wings that contribute to the lift and the tail to its

controllability. The Sundar Vimana, described in detail, has no basic

principles of operation mentioned. And whatever has been inferred from the

drawings and the descriptions of the machinery defies the laws of Newton.The

Rukma Vimana was the only one which made sense. It had long vertical ducts with

fans on the top to suck air from the top and send it down the ducts, generating

a lift in the process. The Tripura Vimana is supposed to fly in air and move

over water and land. When moving over water the wheels are to be retracted. The

scientists concluded that none of the planes had properties or capabilities of

being flown.

 

Scientist's soapboxGopalakrishnan captivates audiences with ancient nuggets

After delivering thousands of lectures on Indian heritage since the age of 18

and more than 1,800 of them in the last five years (a lecture a day!), N.

Gopalakrishnan is passionate for more. The 45-year-old scientist at the

regional centre of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in

Thiruvananthapuram considers it his mission to separate the chaff from the

grain in people's minds. The winnow he uses is science. Words of wisdom:

Gopalakrishnan "As a scientist who could go through ancient Indian literature

systematically," says Gopalakrishnan, "I found it my duty to create a true

understanding of our scientific contributions and spirituality." In 1998, he

and a few like-minded friends founded a trust, The Indian Institute of

Scientific Heritage, to conduct seminars, lectures, and prepare audio

cassettes, brochures and books to spread integrated scientific knowledge.

Gopalakrishnan combines his background in modern science and knowledge in

Sanskrit to deliver lectures. His interest in Sanskrit stems from his study of

the Vedas since childhood, which was also a period of deprivation for him. In

college, he struggled to pay the fees, worked as a waiter, but did his

postgraduation in pharmacy in 1978 and in chemistry the next year. Later, he

took Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in

Hyderabad and post-doctoral from University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. "What

scientists lack is the Sanskrit background," says Gopalakrishnan, who has six

patents in biochemistry to his credit. "Sanskrit scholars and mathematicians

together can interpret the remaining 350 theorems of Madhvacharya which no one

has interpreted till now." Bringing scientists and Sanskrit scholars to tap the

hidden knowledge in other ancient texts, he feels, will take India ahead because

the success of liberalisation hinges not on the availability of technology but

on the availability of an idea. Sanskrit is also the best to minimise

complication in communication. The Aryabhatiya number system has ghyu grh to

depict 1578349500, the terrestrial days or the total number of revolutions in a

mahayuga. This is particularly useful in theoretical physics where high

velocities are involved in calculations. According to him, the roots of

Sanskrit words will also help us grasp ideas better. For instance, hridayam

(heart) is made of hri meaning to accept and da meaning to give and ayam which

means to circulate. This explains the functioning of the heart. Gopalakrishnan

uses this knowledge of Sanskrit to replace the language of the theologian with

that of a scientist. There is an unusual coincidence of the terms Milky Way and

the Ksheerapatham, he says. The coiled shape of the galaxy and Vishnu's serpent

with five hoods are a symbolic representation of the conscious self within the

five elements. "The word used in the texts is sankalpam (concept)," he says.

"There is nothing spiritual about it."

OPINIONThe doublespeak of Vedic science

By Meera Nanda

The leading Hindutva ideas-men go around calling themselves "intellectual

Kshatriyas". But Kshatriyas were only supposed to defend dharma as a way of

life. Why, then, are our Kshatriyas so bent upon defending dharma as science?

Why must they insist upon declaring astrology, and the entire Vedic tradition,

'scientific'?But first, get over whatever mental blocks you may have against

this oxymoron called 'Vedic science,' which pairs the archaic, mystical and

unfalsifiable worldview of the Vedas with science. Instead, get used to the

doublespeak of 'Vedic science'. Be prepared for a flood of books, TV-shows and

even new computer programs extolling the virtues of Hindu sciences. After all,

big money is behind it: tax-payers' rupees and large grants from private

foundations are pouring into "research centres" dedicated to showing the

scientificity of Hindu scriptures. Everything Vedic-from yagnas to the gods of

all things, to reincarnation, karma and parapsychology-will make a claim for

the status of 'science'. And everything scientific-from the knowledge of

quantum physics to the laws of molecular biology and ecology-will be declared

to be already there in the Vedas. Modern science will be treated as a western

corruption of the non-dualist Vedic sciences which can synthesise science with

god, facts with values. We are heading toward a schizophrenic national culture

in which the technological products of modern science will be eagerly embraced,

but the secular culture which science was supposed to help create will be

strenuously denied. Symptoms of such schizophrenia are already evident: The

nuclear bomb tests in 1998 were justified and packaged in dharmic terms. Hindu

ideologues celebrated the bomb by invoking gods and goddesses symbolising

shakti and vigyan. This is how the secularist dream ends: with nuclear bombs in

the silos, and the Vedas in the schools; with satellites in space, and

horoscopes in our lives down here on earth. This secularist nightmare is

Hindutva's dream-come-true. From Bankim Chandra to Vivekananda to today's Sangh

parivar, the neo-Hindus have dreamt of uniting the industry and technology of

the west with the dharma of India. They have dreamt of a "Hindu modernity" in

which technology serves to glorify India's "natural" spirituality.If it is

given the cultural authority as a superior way of knowing, modern science has

the potential to demystify the hallowed truths of Hinduism itself, to say

nothing of the countless miracles and superstitions that are a part of everyday

life of average Indians. It is thus imperative for Hindutva that science remains

limited to technological gizmos, and does not spill over into the larger

culture. Hindutva is in the process of creating a myth of "Vedic science" which

can co-opt and absorb modern science into Hindu traditions by declaring these

traditions to be scientific. Hindutva ideologues argue that just as modern

"western science" is scientific from a Judeo-Christian perspective, Hindu

traditions of astrology, yagnas, ayurveda, Vastu Shastra, Hindu ecology, Hindu

meteorology, etc., are scientific from a Hindu perspective. 'Vedic science' is

declared to be ahead of modern science, as it treats all entities in an

integrated whole-never mind that many of its "entities" (atman, the gunas,

"hot" and "cold" substances) and "subtle forces" (of mantras, meditation,

planets, karma) can't even be defined with any precision, let alone measured

and tested empirically with appropriate controls. But "mere" definitions,

measurements and controlled tests are declared to be western. Hindu sciences

use "their own" methodology of meditation and direct realisation. So now we

know why the saffron Kshatriyas are so keen on defending the Vedic lore as

science. This is their way of taming what threatens Hinduism the most, i.e.

modern science. Hinduism has always protected itself from the new and the alien

by turning it into an inferior aspect of itself, quietly metabolising it until

it is absorbed into the existing belief structure. Turning modern science into

just a part of Hindu wisdom is merely a continuation of this classic Hindu

tradition of self-defence and self-perpetuation. But there remains a

philosophical problem. How to convince the sceptics that the Vedas are as

scientific-and indeed, even more "objective" and even more "advanced"-than

modern science? Our Kshatriyas need some arguments to back up their bold

assertions. These arguments have been obligingly supplied by the secular,

academic critics of modern science and the Enlightenment. The leading trend in

sociology of science in the last couple of decades has been to deny that modern

science is a distinctive body of knowledge, which has succeeded in attaining

higher standards of objectivity and reliability than other, pre-modern,

magical-religious ways of understanding nature. Hindutva is in the process of

creating a myth of 'Vedic science' which can co-opt and absorb modern science

into Hindu traditions by declaring these traditions to be scientific.Abusing

the ideas of Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend, two well-known scholars of

science, radical critics have claimed that non-western, traditional ways of

knowing are as scientific in their social context as modern science is in the

western context. These ideas have found great favour among prominent

left-oriented critics of the west in India associated with a host of populist

"alternative science" and "alternative development" movements, with Gandhian,

environmentalist, and even some Marxist elements. All these groups believe that

the problems of modernisation in India stem from the very nature of modern

scientific ways of thinking about nature and human beings. They see the content

of science-and not just its application-to be western or Orientalist, and

believe that real decolonisation will only come with development of indigenous

sciences. Take for example the argument for scientificity of astrology. It is

the neo-Gandhian Ashis Nandy and his followers who have long argued that

astrology can't be condemned as a superstition. On the strength of the argument

that all "ethno-sciences" are equal, and that modern science has no greater

claim to objectivity, Nandy has argued that modern science is the myth of the

imperialist west, and astrology is the myth of the weak, who are the victims of

the west. If that is granted, Nandy argues, the weak should have the right to

challenge the "myth" of science. One finds a similar argument in the Hindutva

literature. They criticise scientists for being closed-minded and westernised

for not allowing Hindu science a chance to challenge the western idea of

science, and for writing off astrology without studying it! The more

sophisticated Hindutva advocates, including US-based/returned scientists like

Subhash Kak, David Frawley and N.S. Rajaram, argue that the conceptual

categories and methods of science must be organically connected to the rest of

the culture of a society. On this account, different cultures will have

different idea of what is reasonable and true: thus, the supernatural is

declared to be real and true for Hindu science. This idea that standards and

methods of rationality differ with different cultures is borrowed from the

postmodernist critiques of science.Secular intellectuals and progressive social

movements have for too long decried it as a ploy of westernised elites. At a

time when modern science needed to establish its cultural authority so that it

could set new norms for public discourse and provide a more rational worldview,

it remained besieged from all sides. Ever since the scientific temper debate in

early 80s, which marked the beginning of the end of the Nehruvian consensus

over secularism and modernity, there have been few voices that have actively

challenged the many signs of unreason and arbitrary authority in our society.

(Meera Nanda is a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies at

Columbia University, New York.)

 

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