ancient India: What is the ancient scientific song!

By Editorial Team Published : 30 Dec 2025 03:09 IST Ee Font size

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History means kings, wars, revolutions. Such things will be mentioned. But, behind those external developments, mental developments also have a strong influence. Therefore, as much as the political history of the respective countries is important, so is their scientific and intellectual history. 

Amoment is often mentioned in the history books of modern physics. An Italian scientist named Galileo Galilei climbed onto the ramparts of the city of Pisa and dropped two stones (one large and one small) from there and showed that both hit the ground at the same time. This happened at the end of the 16th century. Even sixth graders now know that objects fall together due to gravity regardless of weight. And, what is the significance of Galileo's experiment? BC Aristotle, a Greek philosopher of the 4th century, commented on many developments in nature. (Now we know most of them are wrong!) Aristotle said that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects in that order. Galileo pointed out that error experimentally. Today's history books of physics describe this moment well. 

Wonderful consequences

Europe, which was crushed by religion for thousands of years and intellectually dead, suddenly woke up with Galileo's experiments. Write books. But, in the course of 1900 years, was there no one on the continent of Europe who was curious to decide which of the two stones would fall first? Yet we honor Galileo as the father of modern physics, and forgive Europe for nearly a thousand and five years of mental torpor. We give that period a place of honor in history by giving it beautiful names like 'Middle Ages'. However, within that one and a half millennium, amazing developments took place in the field of science in India. AD Aryabhata, who lived between 475-550 CE, proposed that the Earth rotates on its own axis. Methods were invented to accurately calculate many of the constants involved in astronomical calculations. Methods of accurately calculating 'sine' and other involvements in trigonometry have been brought to light. Ramarami AD There was another mathematician named Aryabhattu II who lived around 920-1000. He wrote a book on astronomy and mathematics called 'Maha Siddhanta' or 'Arya Siddhanta'. In it, a method called 'Katapayadi' was suggested to express numbers in letters and poems. According to it the value of 'pi' is enshrined in the hymn 'Gopi Bhagya Madhuvrata...'. AD Brahmagupta who lived during 598-668 introduced zero and negative numbers in arithmetic. Treating zero as a special number for the first time in history - he defined formulas that dictated what would happen when various mathematical operations were performed between zero and other numbers. Thus the foundations of algebra were laid. All those methods are explained in the book 'Brahmasphuta Siddhanta'. The concept of gravity was proposed in physics. It is explained that because of that, an object thrown upwards falls down, and people stand upright in the same way on all sides of the earth. All this is a one and a half year old saying in our country. On the other hand, even five hundred years ago many people in Europe believed that the earth was flat. That is why in those days the sailors did not sail the ships too far from the coast. Their fear is that if they go away, their ships will reach the edge of the earth and fall into the abyss! 

Self-reliance in research

We learned that Isaac Newton (1643-1721 AD) invented calculus. In recent times, the mathematical community has acknowledged the originator of calculus as a mathematician named Madhava (1340-1425 AD) from the village of Sangama in Kerala. Defines the cornerstones of calculus, differentiation and subtraction, and describes how to apply them. That is why Taylor series is now called Madhava-Taylor series in intermediate mathematics books. Not only in mathematics, but also in astronomy, metallurgy, linguistics, biology and medicine, historians should promote the progress made by ancient Indians among the masses. International science history books should be written, giving Indians a rightful place in the long history of science. Such literature inspires to achieve self-reliance not only in the field of products but also in the field of research. 

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