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

10-21-2001, 03:12 PM

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

Krishna Maheshwari

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Subject: 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
METALLURGYMATHEMATICSMEDICINEARCHITECTUREPHYSICSOP INION

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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