DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE

In the development of science it is hard to say

which precedes which - theory or practice -
clearly there is a relationship of logical
discussion of ideas and opinions between
both, and the neglect of either theory or
practice leads to the death of science.
Ancient India produced some of the most
fascinating series of debates on what constitutes the
"scientific method":
ƒHow does one separate our sensory perceptions from
dreams and hallucinations?
ƒWhen does an observation of reality become
accepted as fact, and as scientific truth?
ƒHow should the principles of inductive and deductive
logic be developed and applied?
ƒHow does one evaluate a hypothesis for it's scientific
merit? What is a valid inference?
ƒWhat constitutes a scientific proof?
In ancient India these and other questions were
attacked with an unexpected intellectual vigour.

Today most philosophers of science agree that:

 Science is a two-step process.
9The first step involves the discovery of new
facts, irregularities, exceptions, or seeming
contradictions in nature.
9This is followed by the difficult intellectual
achievement of developing a concept - a
concept that can integrate a mass of
previously disparate facts, or one that is more
successful as the basis of scientific theory.
9Hand in hand with the above are the need for
data collection, the disappointment of invalid
theories, the narcissism of colleagues and a
multitude of other frustrations.
John Moors (1993): eight criteria for determining whether a certain
activity qualifies as a science.
1. A science must be based on data collected in the field or laboratory
by observation or experiment without invoking supernatural factors.
2. Data must be collected to answer questions and observations must be
made to strengthen or refute conjectures.
3. Objective methods must be employed in order to minimize any
possible bias.
4. Hypothesis must be consistent with observations and compatible
with the general conceptual framework.
5. All hypotheses must be tested and if possible competing hypothesis
must be developed and their degree of validity and or (problem solving
capacity) must be compared.
6 Generalisations must be universally valid within the domain of that
particular science. Unique events must be explicable without invoking
supernatural factors.
7. In order to eliminate the possibility of error, a fact or discovery must
be fully accepted only if repeatedly conformed by other investigators.
8. Science is characterised by the steady improvement of scientific
theories, by the replacement of faulty or incompetent theories, and by
the solution of previously puzzling problems.
(Moor J.A. (1993), Science as a Way of Knowing. Cambridge: Haward University Press.)
 Two aspects of Philosophy- The Root of All
Civilizations
Concern with the affairs of the spirit and "after-life“.
1. Concern with developing philosophical
paradigms grounded in reality.
™ Aspects of Vedic and Upanishadic literature point to
an intuitive understanding of nature and natural
processes.
™ Extensive commentaries illustrate the popular
methods of debate, of developing a hypothesis, of
extending and elaborating theory, of furnishing proofs
and counter-proofs.
Vedic and Upanishadic-I
ƒAspects of literature point to an intuitive understanding of nature
and natural processes.
ƒMany of the ideas are presented in a philosophical and exploratory
manner - rather than as strict definitions of inviolable truth.
ƒFollowing an era when rituals and superstitions had begun to
proliferate, in some ways the Upanishadic texts helped to clear the
ground for greater rationalism in society. Orthodoxy and ideas of
ritual purity were superseded by a spiritual perspective that avoided
the rigidity & domination and could be practiced universally,
unfettered by an individual's social standing.
ƒThe Upanishadic period gave way to an era which was
not inimical to the development of rational ideas, even
encouraging scientific observation and advanced study in the fields
of logic, mathematics and the physical sciences.
Vedic and Upanishadic-II
ƒWithin the broad stream of ancient thought - there were several
different currents that asserted a predominantly atheistic view.
ƒThe early Buddhist world view was an essentially atheistic world
view. Hieun Tsang describes the merchants of Benaras as
being mostly "unbelievers"! The ancient Jains were agnostics.
ƒMany scholars from each of these philosophical schools felt the
imperative to prove their extra-worldly theories using rationalist
tools of deductive and inductive logic. They go to great lengths in
describing competing rationalist and worldly philosophies rooted in
a more realistic and more scientific perception of the world.
ƒTheir extensive commentaries illustrate the popular methods of
debate, of developing a hypothesis, of extending and elaborating
theory, of furnishing proofs and counter-proofs.
Vedic and Upanishadic-III
ƒUpanishadic philosophers sometimes displaying remarkable
worldly insight and analytical skill in attempting to win over their
followers through analogies from nature.

ƒBy employing the methods of abstract reasoning and debate, they

created an environment where dialectical thinking and intellectual
exchanges could later flourish.

ƒMany rationalist and/or naturalist philosophical streams emerged

from this initial foundation. Some were nominally theistic others
(early Jains), were agnostic while the early Buddhists and the
Lokayatas were atheists.

ƒThus Upanishadic philosophers had leveled the ground for the

seeds of rationalism to flourish.
 Early Rationalist Schools
1.Lokayata –
™ They acknowledged nothing but the material human body and
the material universe around it. they gave primacy to human
sense-perception, and through the application of the
inferential process - they developed their theories of how the
world worked.
™ In essence they had discovered the principle that:
i. the whole was greater than the sum of it's parts;
ii. physical and chemical processes could lead to dramatic
changes in the properties of the substances combined;
iii. special transformations could produce new qualities that were
not evident in the constituent elements of the newly-created
entity.
ƒLokayatas believed that consciousness emerged
from the living human body, and ended with it's
death.
ƒKeen observers of nature, they were probably
amongst the first to understand the nature of
different plants and herbs and their utility to
human well-being.
ƒEarly Indian medicine gradually evolved from
the early scientific knowledge and understanding.
ƒLokayatas' understanding of the world was not as
elaborate and precise as that provided by today's
science. But what is more important is that their
world view was driven by a rational and scientific
approach.
2. Vaisheshika School
•Founded by Kanada, 6th century B.C author of the Vaisesika Sutra
was an early realistic school whose main achievement lay in it's
attempt at classifying nature into like and unlike groups. It also
posited that all matter was made up of tiny and indestructible
particles - i.e. atoms that aggregated in different ways to form new
compounds that formed the variety of matter that existed on the
earth.

•Important contribution : careful study of the time-relation in a chain

of causes and effects. In a very rudimentary way, the school (along
with other such schools) anticipated the theory of time calculus
which could also be extended to space calculus.

•Served as an important step in the study of science by enumerating

concepts that could further the study of physics and chemistry. In
addition, the the study of medical science (including veterinary
science) received considerable impetus from such attempts at
methodical observation and classification.
3.Nyaya and related schools
• Elaborated on the process of accumulating valid scientific
knowledge and gave a general methodology of ascertaining the
truth and generating valid inferences by:
i. accurate perception through one of the senses;
ii. inference;
iii. comparison with a well-known object;
iv. verbal testimony
• identified various types of arguments that hindered or
obstructed the path of genuine scientific pursuit.
• defined a very sophisticated school of rational philosophy
where the process of scientific epistemology was analyzed
threadbare and all the dangers of unscientific reasoning and
propaganda ploys were skillfully exposed.
• Nyaya texts on causality indicate that there was an awareness
that light travelled at a very high speed but the transmission of
light was not instantaneous.
4.Jain School
ƒJain Logic – contributed the idea that the truth of a concept or
observation could not only be true or false but indeterminate.
Matrix of seven possible states of the truth (true, false, true or
false, indeterminate, true or indeterminate, false or indeterminate,
true or false or indeterminate).
Proposed that every real is hedged round by a network of
relations and attributes, which they propose to call its system or
context or universe of discourse, which demarcates it from others.

ƒProposed that the union of atoms required opposite qualities in

the combining atoms - as is true in the case of electrovalent
bonding. However, they erred in thinking that covalent bonding
(which does not require opposite polarities in the combining
atoms) could not occur. But their intuition that opposite polarities
created mutual attraction and facilitated chemical reactions was
correct.
ƒSuccessfully synthesized earlier debates on change and
permanence.
ƒProposed that all objects (or parts of objects) passed
through phases of "existence, persistence, and cessation"
and that reality was therefore a complex combination of
things relatively permanent yet also relatively changing.
5. Buddhist School
Viewed matter as an aggregate of rapidly recurring forces or
energy waves. An atom was perceived as a momentary flash
of light combining and separating from other atoms
according to strict and definite laws of causality.
Physical matter was thus seen as a denser and more
concentrated form of light. Although at odds with other
atomic theories of the time, their approach fit in with their
general view that all things in nature were temporal, that
there was constant change in nature - that degradation and
renewal were continuous processes.
As keen observers of nature and the human body,
India's early scientist/philosophers studied human
sensory organs, analyzed dreams, memory and
consciousness. The best of them investigated &
discussed the the truth of ideas and opinions in nature
- they understood change, both in quantitative and
qualitative terms - they even posited a proto-type of
the modern atomic theory. It was this rational
foundation that led to the flowering of Indian
civilization.

While ancient India did not generally suffer of

religious opposition to science, it did suffer from a
proliferation of rituals and superstitions.
The Age of Science and Reason - 1000 B.C to the
400 A.D
Much of the evidence for how India's ancient
logicians and scientists developed their theories
lies buried in controversial texts that are not
normally thought of as scientific texts but are
extended references found in philosophical texts
and commentaries by Buddhist and Jain monks or
Hindu scholars of the spiritual variety.
These ideas thus formed the foundations of Indian
science and contributed to the gradual elaboration
of mathematics and astronomy, as well as
agricultural and meteorological sciences.
 The basis of Infinity in Mathematics-

Purnamadah purnamidam
Purnet purnamudacyate;
Purnasya purnamadaya,
Purnamevavasisyate”

The Invisible is Full , the Visible is Full.

From the Full (Invisible) , the Full (Visible) has come.
The Full (invisible) remains the same, even after the Full (visible)
has come out of the Full.

Infinity minus Infinity also is Infinity.

In India, almost everything was in place to favour such a
development.
ƒThere was already a long and established history in the use of
decimal numbers that goes back to the Harappa period;
ƒphilosophical and cosmological constructs encouraged a
creative and expansive approach to number theory;
ƒPanini's studies in linguistic theory and formal language;
ƒThe powerful role of symbolism and representational
abstraction in art and architecture;
ƒThe rationalist doctrines and the exacting epistemology of the
Nyaya Sutras;
ƒInnovative abstractions of the Syadavada and Buddhist
schools of learning.
Developments in metallurgy and civil engineering followed. Medicine and
surgery perhaps received the greatest and the earliest impetus from these
developments, as also art and culture. Developments in philosophy led to
concomitant developments in the realm of science, culture art & technology.
.
Particle Physics:Although particle physics is one of the most advanced and
most complicated branches of modern physics, the earliest atomic theories are at
least 2500 years old.
ƒIn India, virtually every rational school of philosophy (whether Hindu, Buddhist
or Jain had something to say on the nature of elementary particles, and various
schools of thought promoted the idea that matter was composed of atoms that
were indivisible and indestructible.
ƒThese early atomic theories became converted into a molecular theory of
matter.
ƒWhile many details of these theories no longer stand the test of scientific
validity, there was much in these formulations that was conceptually quite
advanced and sophisticated for it's time.
ƒThe requirement of catalytic substances relating to the manufacture of acids and
alkalis (relevant to medicinal and surgical applications) had also been
documented, as had the role of suitable catalysts in metallurgical processes, and
in the manufacture of color-fast dyes.
ƒToday, much more is known about catalytic processes, as a variety of minerals,
vitamins and enzymes have been identified as playing a key role (as catalysts) in
a range of essential chemical processes that take place in our bodies, as do
catalytic compounds in other physical processes).
Particle Physics - II
ƒPrasastapada proposed that the heat (taijasa) factor affected
molecular groupings (vyuhas), thus causing chemical changes.
ƒPilupakavada theory, as proposed by the Vaisesikas held that the
application of heat (through fire, for instance) reduced the
molecules of the earthen pot into atoms; and the continued
application of heat caused the atoms to regroup creating new
molecules and a different color.
ƒPitharapakavada theory offered by the Nyayikas (of the Nyaya
school) disagreed, suggesting that the molecular
changes/transformations took place without a breakdown of the
original molecules into basic atoms, arguing that if that happened,
there would also have to be a disintegration of the pot itself, which
remained intact, but only changed color.
ƒTexts of Prasastapada and the Nyaya-Vaisesikas indicate that all
atoms to be in a state of constant activity. The concept of
parispanda was propounded to describe such molecular/atomic
motion, whether it be whirling, circling, or harmonic.
Optics
ƒSusruta 1st C AD posited that it was light arriving from an external source at the
retina that illuminated the world around us. (This was reiterated by Aryabhatta in
the 5th C).
ƒCakrapani suggesting that both sound and light traveled in waves, but that light
traveled at a much higher speed.
ƒMimamsakas & others imagined light to comprise of minute particles (now
understood to be photons) in constant motion and spreading through radiation and
diffusion from the original source.
ƒVarahamihira discussed reflection as being caused by light particles arriving on a
object and then back-scattering (kiranavighattana, murcchana).
ƒVatsyayana referred to this phenomenon as rasmiparavartana, and the concept
was adapted to explain the occurrence of shadows and the opacity of materials.
ƒRefraction was understood to be caused by the ability of light to penetrate inner
spaces of translucent or transparent materials and Uddyotakara drew a comparison
with fluids moving through porous objects.
ƒAl Haytham (b, Basra, worked in Cairo, 10th C) who may have been familiar with
the writings of Aryabhatta, expounded a more advanced theory of optics using ligh
rays, diagrammatically explaining the concepts of reflection and refraction. He is
particularly known for elucidating the laws of refraction and articulating that
refraction was caused by light rays traveling at different speeds in different
materials.)
SOUND
ƒPrastapada hypothesized that sound was borne by air in increasing circles,
similar to the movement of ripples in water.
ƒSound was understood to have its own reflection - pratidhvani (echo).
ƒMusical pitches (sruti) were seen as caused by the magnitude and frequency
of vibrations.
ƒA svara (tone) was believed to consist of a sruti (fundamental tone) and
some anuranana (partial tones or harmonics). Musical theory was elaborated
on the basis of concepts such as jativyaktyoriva tadatamyam (genus and
species of svara), parinama (change of fundamental frequency), vyanjana
(manifestation of overtones), vivartana (reflection of sound), and
karyakaranabhava (cause and effect of the sound).
Astronomy and Physics
ƒAryabhatta (5th-6th C) made pioneering discoveries in the realm of planetary
motion.
ƒ Yativrasabha's work Tiloyapannatti (6th C) gives various units for measuring
distances and time and also describes a system of infinite time measures.
ƒVacaspati Misra (circa AD 840) anticipated solid (co-ordinate) geometry eight
centuries before Descartes (AD 1644). In his Nyayasuchi-nibandha, he states that
the position of a particle in space could be calculated by assuming it relative to
another and measuring along three (imaginary) axes.
ƒThe study of astronomy also led to a great interest in quantifying very large and
very small units of time and space.
ƒNyaya-Vaisesikas considered the solar day to be made up of 1,944,000 ksana
(units of time), according to them each ksana thus correspnded to .044 seconds.
The truti was defined as the smallest unit of time i.e. 2.9623*10-4.
ƒSilpasastra records the smallest measure of length as the paramanu i.e.
1/349525 of an inch. This measurement corresponds to the smallest thickness of
the Nyaya-Vaisesika school - the trasarenu, which was the size of the smallest
mote visible on a sunbeam as it shone into a dark room.
ƒVarahamihira (circa AD sixth century) posited that 86 trasarenu were equal to
one anguli i.e. three-fourths of an inch. He also suggested that 64 trasarenu were
equal to the thickness of a hair.}
The Laws of Motion
Vaisesikas made the earliest attempts at classifying different types of motion.
Prasastapada 7th C AD
Described linear motion, curvilinear motion (gamana), rotary motion
(bhramana) and vibratory motion.
Differentiated between:
•motion due to external action and motion due to gravity or fluidity.
•motion due to elasticity or momentum,
•motion due to opposite reaction to an external force.
Noted that:
•some types of actions result in like motion, and others in opposite motion, or no
motion at all.
•the variations arising from the internal and inherent properties of the interacting
objects.
•at any given instance, a particle was capable of only a single motion (although a
body such as a blowing leaf composed of multiple particles may experience a
more complex pattern of motion due to different particles moving in different
ways) - an important concept that was to facilitate in later quantifications of the
laws of motion.
Sridhara 10th C. reiterated Sridhara reiterated what had been observed by
Prasastapada, and expanded on it.
Bhaskaracharya (12th C), in his Siddhanta Siromani and Ganitadhyaya, took a
crucial first step in quantification, and measured average velocity as v=s/t
(where v is the average velocity, s is distance covered, and t is time).
A mathematical formula by Newton a few centuries later conceptually
generalized and formally characterized the Law's of motion in an abstract way.

Bhaskaracharya Aryabhatta (5th- Varahamira

6th C) 6th C
The Downfall
Several factors posed as hindrances to the development of modern
science.
•In comparison to Europe, India enjoyed a relatively milder climate, and
the production of necessities was deemed sufficient to satisfy the
population of the time.
•This was a setback to industrialization.
•The courts spent a good part of their rich treasuries on cultivating the fine
arts and promoting the manufacture of luxury goods and decorative
objects of exquisite beauty.
•Science and technology simply attracted little attention (except when it
came to improving the tools of war).
•Religious orthodoxy that claimed that all the world's knowledge was
already described in it, had it's negative effect.
•A a sharp divide between the mental and the physical and thus prevented
scientists from going beyond passive observation and intuition to practical
experimentation, active theorizing and quantification.
•Alchemy, astrology, study of omens, numerology and other semi-rational
and irrational traditions drew much more attention and patronage. This
distracted intellect from genuine scientific pursuits.
Renaissance - Europe
ƒEuropean scientists drew on the best works produced in the East - studying
foreign documents with due diligence, often accepting little at face value - but
instead verifying the results with apparatus and scientific measuring tools of their
own creation.
ƒThere was a time when such had also been the case in ancient India - but over
time (due to both internal and external factors) - India's scientific spirit got
eroded.
ƒEurope not only caught up with the knowledge of India and the East, it also
rapidly surpassed it.
ƒTraditional science was transformed by the new heliocentric, mechanistic, and
mathematical conceptions of Copernicus, Harvey, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton.
ƒHumanist scholarship provided both originals and translations of scientific
works
ƒwhich enormously increased the fund of knowledge in physics, astronomy,
medicine, botany, and other disciplines--and presented as well alternative
theories to those of Ptolemy and Aristotle.
ƒThe deductive and inductive methods by which scientists worked analyzed and
formulated the rules was studied and the conception of phenomena studied.
Renaissance - Europe - II
ƒThe proper image is the Renaissance science played the role of a midwife than
of parent, in the realm of technology.
ƒEngineers and technicians of the 15th and 16th centuries achieved remarkable
results. This may have had more to do with changing social needs than with
changes in scientific theory.
ƒThe most important technological advance of all, because it underlay progress
in so many other fields, was the development of printing,
ƒThe invention casting metal type and locking it into a wooden press spread like
the wind, reaching Italy by 1467, Hungary and Poland in the 1470s, and
Scandinavia by 1483. By 1500 the presses of Europe had produced some six
million books.
ƒThus the intellectual Renaissance of the 16th and 17th centuries was
accompanied by a secularization of learning, which shifted the centre of
philosophical and scientific debate from monasteries to universities.
Da Vinci
"For nature, as it would seem, takes vengeance on such as
would work miracles and they come to have less than other men
who are more quiet. And those who wish to grow rich in a day
shall live a long time in great poverty, as happens and will to all
eternity happen to the alchemists, the would-be creators of gold
and silver, and to the engineers who think to make dead water
stir itself into life with perpetual motion, and to those supreme
fools, the necromancer and the enchanter."
References:
•B. Seal The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus.
•Bose, Sen, Subarayappa Concise History of Science in India (, Indian National Science Academy)
•D. Chattopadhyaya (Anthology edited by)Studies in the History of Science in India
•Causation in Indian Philosophy (Mahesh Chandra Bhartiya, Vimal
•Prakashan, Ghaziabad)
•D. Chattopadhyaya: In Defence of Materialism in Ancient India
•R. C. Dutt: A History of Civilization in Ancient India
•Examples of Vedic/Upanishadic Texts: Atharva Veda, Book 19, Hymn 59; Rig Veda, Book 9, Hymn
112, Book 10, Hymn 127; Kena Upanishad, supplement to the Sama Veda; Chandogya Upanishad;
Verses from the Bhagavata Purana etc.
•K. Damodaran: Indian Thought, A Critical Survey
•D Chattopadhyaya: Lokayata: A study in Ancient Indian Materialism
•D. Chattopadhyaya: In Defence of Materialism in Ancient India
•D.Chattopadhyaya: What is Living and What is Dead in Indian Philosophy
•Science and Technology in India (National Geographic insert): Dept. of Science and Technology, GOI;
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research;
•A Cultural History of India (Edited: A.L. Basham)
•History of Science and technology in India: Ed. G. Kuppuram and K. Kumudamani
•Relevant Ancient and Medieval Texts: Atharva Veda, Arthashastra, Silpashastra, Silparatna,
Manasollasa, Kasyapasilpa,Visnudharmottara, Citrakalpadruma, Ansumadbhedagama, Svarna-Rupya-
Siddhi-Sastra (Jinadatta Suri), Caraka Samhita, Susruta Samhita, Hastyayurveda (Veterinary Medicinal
Text), Brihatsamhita (Varahamira), Khargalakshanam (Varahamira), Rasaratnasamuchaya (Vagbhata),
Ashtanga Sangraha (Vagbhat), Rasaratnakara (Nagarjuna), Upaskara (Sankara Misra), Rasarnava,
Rasa-raja-mrganka (Bhoja), Yuktikalpataru (Bhoja), Samarangana-sutradhara (Bhoja), Dhatu-ratna-mala
(Devadatta) - all in Sanskrit. There are also texts in regional langauges such as the Siddha Vaidya in
Tamil, as well as texts with diagrams of manufacturing processes in Persian and Urdu
Here is what Said Al-Andalusi, an 11th C Spanish scholar, court
historian and chronicler wrote then: "Among the nations, during the
course of centuries and throughout the passage of time, India was
known as the mine of wisdom and the fountainhead of justice and good
government and the Indians were credited with excellent intellects,
exalted ideas, universal maxims, rare inventions and wonderful talents ...
They have studied arithmetic and geometry. They have also acquired
copious and abundant knowledge of the movements of the stars, the
secrets of the celestial sphere and all other kinds of mathematical
sciences. Moreover, of all the peoples they are the most learned in the
science of medicine and thoroughly informed about the properties of
drugs, the nature of composite elements and peculiarities of the existing
things." (Abu'l-Qasim's comments on India in Tabaqat al-Umam
(Categories of Nations))

"In the great teaching of the Vedas,

there is no touch of sectarianism.
It is of all ages, climes and nationalities
and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge. "
-Henry David Thoreau, American Thinker & Author
"In India I found a race of mortals
living upon the Earth. but not adhering to it.
Inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them,
possessing everything but possessed by nothing".
-Apollonius Tyanaeus (Greek Thinker and Traveler 1st Century AD)

India is the motherland of our race

and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages.
India was the mother of our philosophy,
of much of our mathematics, of the ideals embodied in
Christianity... of self-government and democracy.
In many ways, Mother India is the mother of us all."
-Will Durant (American Historian 1885-1981)

“Ancient Indian theories were brilliant imaginative explanations

of the physical structure of the world, and in a large measure,
agreed with the discoveries of modern physics. “
- A.L. Basham,
Australian Indologist
ƒMegasthenes - who travelled extensively through India in
the 4th C. B.C also left extensive accounts that paint India
in highly favorable light (for that period).

ƒPythagoras - the Greek mathematician and philosopher

who lived in the 6th C B.C was familiar with the
Upanishads and learnt his basic geometry from the Sulva
Sutras. (The famous Pythagoras theorem is actually a
restatement of a result already known and recorded by
earlier Indian mathematicians).

ƒHerodotus (father of Greek history) was to write that the

Indians were the greatest nation of the age.

ƒBy the 6th C. A.D, with the help of ancient Greek and
Indian texts, and through their own ingenuity.
Alberuni on Indian Science: In his memoirs, Al-beruni of Khiva
(10-11th C) cites Brahmagupta and Varahamira and their
arguments concerning the earth being spherical and the attraction
of objects on the earth towards it's centre. He also cites how the
daily phases of the tides were calculated relative to the rising and
the setting of the moon. He also left commentaries on Indian
mathematics, philosophy and other aspects of Indian life.

Gloria Emeagwali brings up how discoveries made outside the

Western world have rarely been properly credited in the West.
She points to how the national origin of ancient scholars of North
African and Middle Eastern descent is not correctly
acknowledged, adding that Africans and Middle Easterners made
important contributions to developments in science and
philosophy in the ancient 'Greek' world.

Gloria Emeagwali's Eurocentricism and the History of Science and

Technology
ƒIndian astronomers made significant discoveries about
planetary motion. An Indian astronomer - Aryabhata, was to
become the first to describe the earth as a sphere that rotated on
it's own axis. He further postulated that it was the earth that
rotated around the sun and correctly described how solar and
lunar eclipses occurred.

ƒBecause astronomy required extremely complicated

mathematical equations, ancient Indians also made significant
advances in mathematics.

ƒDifferential equations - the basis of modern calculus were in all

likelihood an Indian invention (something essential in modeling
planetary motions).
ƒIndian mathematicians were also the first to invent the
concept of abstract infinite numbers - numbers that can
only be represented through abstract mathematical
formulations such as infinite series - geometric or
arithmetic.

ƒThey also seemed to be familiar with polynomial

equations (again essential in advanced astronomy) and
were the inventors of the modern numeral system (referred
to as the Arabic numeral system in Europe).

ƒThe use of the decimal system and the concept of zero

was essential in facilitating large astronomical calculation
and allowed such 7th C mathematicians as Brahmagupta to
estimate the earth's circumferance at about 23,000 miles -
(not too far off from the current calculation). It also
enabled Indian astronomers to provide fairly accurate
longitudes of important places in India.
ƒIndia's rational age was thus a period of tremendous intellectual
ferment and vitality. It was a period of scientific discovery and
technological innovation.

ƒThe rational period thus saw progress on several fronts. Not only
did it create an enduring foundation for India's civilization to
develop and mature - it has also had it's impact on the growth of
other civilizations. In fact, India's rational period served as a vital
link in the long and varied chain of human progress.

ƒIt is important to note that fundamental and

important discoveries in science and innovations in technology
have come from many different parts of the globe, albeit at
different times and stages of world civilization. India made
significant contributions in this regard. If India is to fully recover
from the depredations that followed, it is imperative that we honour
the achievements of this inspiring epoch.