Ancient Hindu civilisation and mathematics

[Guest guest]

Excellent piece of consolidated information! Many Hindus may not be aware of

such great achievements of our ancient civilisation. Our children should be

educated on these to instil a sense of pride in them in being a Hindu.

 

Why can't the California Board of Education take a look at this piece for the

text book review?

 

 

 

Ancient Hindu civilisation and mathematics

By Dr R.N. Das

 

The ancient Hindu sages discovered the miracles of modern scientific

tools. Believe it or not, the following are the glorious examples of

them.

 

I. The Concept of Zero

 

The concept of zero came from the revered Hindu sages in Vedic times

thousands of years ago.

 

Without the concept of zero the binary system is blind. No counting,

no commerce or no computer business. The earliest documented " date "

was found in today's Gujarat [bC 585-586] in an inscription on

Sankedia copper plate. In Brahamaphuta—Siddhanta of Brahamagupta

(7th century CE), zero was lucidly explained. Muslim invaders from

Central Asia crossing the Hindukush mountain ranges invaded Bharat

1300 years ago and plundered its beauty, riches, books, thrones and

what not. They plagued the holy land with sword, loot, arson and

rape and destroyed and ravaged the whole land in the name of jehad

and " Allah " . There was no Steven Spielberg (Schindler's List) like

cinema director who could document this sordid past of our history.

There was no patent system at that time. Might was right. They

considered those substances of robbery maal-e-ganimat (booty looted

from kafirs to be distributed among themselves and friends of

theirs) and thus inculcated those invaluable theorems of

mathematics, astronomy and geometry in Arabic books in around 770-

1200 CE. From there, those extraordinary concepts were carried to

Spanish Europe in the 8th century. However the concept of zero was

referred to as shunya in the early Sanskrit texts of the 4th century

BC and was clearly explained in Pingala's Chand Sutra of the 2nd

century too.

 

II. The Contribution to Astronomy

 

Hindu sages told modern scientists how to map the sky in terms of

glaring stars almost 4000 years ago. Copernicus published his theory

of revolution of the Earth around the Sun in 1543 AD only. But our

Aryabhatta in the 5th century had stated that the Earth revolves

around the Sun in these specific words: " Just as a person boarding

on a boat feels that the trees on the banks are moving, people on

the revolving earth also feel that the sun is moving " . Such

illustrious teaching of astronomy was rarely seen in the

contemporary writings of the Greek astronomers. In his Aryabhatteem,

he clearly stated that our Earth was round and it rotated on its own

axis, orbited the Sun and was suspended in the space. It also

explained that the lunar and solar eclipses occurred by the

interplay of the shadows of the Sun, the Moon and the Earth.

 

III. The Law of Gravity

 

The Law of Gravity was known to the ancient Hindu astronomer

Bhaskaracharya. In his Surya Siddhanta he noted: " Objects fall on

the Earth due to force of attraction of the Earth. Therefore, the

Earth, planets, constellations, the Moon, and the Sun are all held

in the galaxy due to this great cosmic attraction. "

 

It was in 1687—1200 years later—that Sir Isaac Newton discovered (re-

discovered?) the Law of Gravity, which was already invented by the

greatest Hindu astronomer Bhaskaracharya, of course which was

written in the holiest language, Sanskrit.

 

IV. The Invention of Trikonmiti

 

The word geometry seems to have emerged from the Sanskrit word

gyaamiti, which means measuring the Earth. And the word trigonometry

is similar to trikonmiti meaning measuring triangular forms.

 

Euclid was famous for the invention of geometry in 300 BC whilst the

concept of trikonmiti had emerged in 1000 BC in Bharat. It is

evident lucidly from today's " practice of making fire alters (at

homagni kshetra) in different shapes, e.g., round, triangular,

hexagonal, pentagonal, square and rectangular " . It was part and

parcel of daily pujas and homagnis in ancient times. The treatise of

Surya Siddhanta (4th century) described in fascinating details about

trigonometry, which was introduced in Europe by Briggs 1200 years

later in the 16th century.

 

V. The Invention of Infinity

 

The value of " Pi " was first invented by the ancient sages of Bharat.

The ratio of circumference and diameter of a circle is known as " Pi "

which gives its value as 3.14592657932...

 

The old Sanskrit text Baudhayna Sulbha Sutra of the 6th century BC

mentioned that above-mentioned ratio as approximately equalled to

that of Aryabhatta's ratio [in 499 BC] worked out the value of " Pi "

to the fourth decimal place as [3x (177/1250) = 3.1416]. Many

centuries later, in 825 AD, Arab mathematician, Mohammed Ibn Musa

admitted: " This value of " Pi " was given by the Hindus (62832/20,000

= 3.1416). "

 

VI. Baudhayna's Sulbha Sutra versus Pythagoras's Theorem

 

The famous Pythagoras's theorem states: " The square of the

hypotenuse angled triangle equals to the sum of the two sides. " This

theorem was actually discovered by Euclid in 300 BC but Greek

writers attributed this to Pythagoras. But the irony of fate is that

our so-called intellectuals (indeed Macaulay's sons who have

forgotten their old but rich and glorious ancient Hindu heritage)

had also accepted that theorem as a contribution of Pythagoras. They

never read or tried to know that Baudhayna's Sulbha Sutra which has

been existing for many thousands of years (written in the Sanskrit)

had already described lucidly the theorem as follows: " The area

produced by the diagonal of a rectangle is equal to the sum of the

area produced by it on two sides. "

 

VII. The Measurement of Time or Time Scale

 

In Surya Siddhanta, Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the

Earth to revolve around the Sun up to the 9th decimal place.

According to Bhaskaracharya's calculation it is 365.258756484 days.

 

Modern scientist accepted a value of the same time as 365.2596 days.

 

The difference between the two observations made by ancient Hindu

sage Bhaskaracharya just by using his super brain (in the 4th

century AD) and today's NASA (National Aeronautic and Space Agency)

scientists of America by using super computer (in the 20th century

AD) is only 0.00085, i.e., 0.0002 per cent of difference.

 

The ancient Bharatbhoomi had given the world the idea of the

smallest and largest measuring units of Time. In modern time, only

Stephen Hockings, Cambridge University Professor of theoretical

physics, had the courage to venture into the abysmal depth of the

eternity of Time. Astonishingly, our ancient sages taught us the

following units of time:

 

Krati =34,000th of a second

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 Ghadi = 1 Hora (=1 Hour)

24 Hora = 1 Divas (1 Day)

7 Divas = 1 Saptah (1 Week)

4 Saptah = 1 Maas (1 Month)

2 Maas = 1 Ritu (1 Season)

6 Ritu = 1 Varsha (1 Year)

100 Varsha = 1 Satabda (1 Century)

10 Shatabda = 1 Saharabda

432 Saharabda = 1Yug(Kali Yuga))

2 Yuga = 1 Dwapar Yuga

3 Yuga = 1 Treta Yuga

4 Yuga = Kruta Yuga

10 Yuga = 1 Maha Yuga (4,320,000)

1000 Maha Yuga = 1 Kalpa

1 Kalpa = 4.32 Billion Years.

Therefore, the lowest was 34,000th of a second known as krati and

the highest of the measurement of the Time was known as kalpa, which

equalled to 4.32 billion years. Is it not amazing? Are you not

feeling proud to be a Hindu descendent? Swami Vivekananda, the

modern sage of Bharat, stated in his famous sermons compiled in his

Rousing Call to the Hindu Nation, " Take pride in Hinduism; pronounce

yourselves as a descendant of a Hindu. Boast to be a Hindu and give

a clarion call to rouse the Hindu nation from its lethargy and

slumber. "

 

VIII. The Invention of Decimal System

 

It was the ancient Bharatbhoomi that gave us the ingenious methods

of expressing all the numbers by means of 10 symbols (decimal

systems)—an invaluable and gorgeous idea that escaped the genius of

Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest Greek philosophers

and mathematician produced by antiquity (100-130BC).

 

The highest prefix used for raising 10 to the power in today's

mathematics is " D " for 1030 (for Greek Deca).While as early as 100

BC Hindu mathematicians had exact names for figures up to 1053.

 

a. Ekam = 1

 

b. Dashkam = 10 (101)

 

c. 1 Shatam = 100 (102)

 

d. 10 Shatam = 1 Shahashram = 1000 (103)

 

e. 10 Dash Shahashram = 10,000 (104)

 

f. Laksha = 100,000 (105)

 

g. Dash Laksha = 10,00,000 (106)

 

h. Kotihi = 10, 00, 0000 (107)

 

i. Ayutam = 100,000,000 (109)

 

j. Niyutam = 100,000,000,000 (1011)

 

k. Kankaram = 10,000,000,000,000 (1013)

 

l. Vivaram = 10,000,000,000,000,000 (1016)

 

m. Pararadahaa = 1017

 

n. Nivahata = 1019

 

o. Utsangaha = 1021

 

p. Bahulam = 1023

 

q. Naagbaalaha = 1025

 

r. Titlambam = 1027

 

s. Vyavasthaanapragnaptihi = 1029

 

t. Hetuhellam = 1031

 

u. Karahuhu = 1033

 

v. Hetvindreeyam = 1035

 

w. Sampaata Lambhaha = 1037

 

x. Gananaagatihi = 1039

 

y. Niravadyam = 1041

 

z. Mudraabalam = 1043

 

aa. Saraabalam = 1045

 

ab. Vishamagnagatihi = 1047

 

ac. Sarvagnaha = 1049

 

ad. Vibhutangaama = 1051

 

ae. Tallakshanaam = 1053

 

Is it not amazing to know that the ancient Hindu sages used to

remember them just by using their outstanding memory power or was

there some super computer known to them also, which we are quite

unaware of?

 

In Anuyogadwar Sutra, written 100 BC, one numeral had been shown to

be raised to as high as 10140 which is beyond our outmost stretches

of imagination. All of our remaining hidden treasures, which had not

been destroyed or stolen by the foreign mercenaries and invaders,

were written in Sanskrit, mother of all languages, which should be

revived. It is our legacy to inherit such rich property that our

forefather had left for us by their meticulous observations over

thousands of years ago.

 

All hidden treasures are written in Sanskrit, which we are quite

ignorant of and our so-called Macaulay's sons are trying their best

to prevent us from knowing about our glorious past. Sir Monier-

Williams rightly said: " Hindus are perhaps the only nation, except

the Greeks, who have investigated independently and in true

scientific manner, the general laws that govern the evolution of

languages. "

 

There was no patent system at that time. Might was right. They

considered those substances of robbery maal-e-ganimat (booty looted

from kafirs to be distributed among themselves and friends of

theirs) and thus inculcated those invaluable theorems of

mathematics, astronomy and geometry in Arabic books in around 770-

1200 CE.

 

More than this, the Hindus had made considerable advances in

astronomy, algebra, arithmetics, botany and medicine, not to mention

their superiority in grammar, long before some of these sciences

were cultivated by the most ancient nations of Europe.

 

Indeed, Hindus were Spinozists 2000 years before the birth of

Spinoza, Darwinians many centuries before the birth of Darwin, and

evolutionists, centuries before the doctrine of evolution had been

accepted by Aldus Huxley's of our times, and before any word like

evolution existed in any language in this world.

 

We should take a vow to work together to search those hidden

treasures out, propagate the notion that Sanskrit is not a dead

language. Sanskrit is the elite of the elitist, classic of the

classics and it should be revived once again. We will again sit in

the seat of the world assembly with our head held high and with

pride. I would like to draw the final touch with the quotation from

Swami Vivekananda, " I do not see into the future nor do I care to

see. But one vision I see clear as life before me, that the ancient

Mother has awakened once more sitting on her throne rejuvenated,

more glorious than ever. Proclaim her to all the world with the

voice of peace and benediction. "

 

(The writer is Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Manipal

Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal,

 

E-mail:dar_rabindranath@h...)

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