Ancient civilisation and mathematics

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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 “Allahâ€.

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 movingâ€. 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.â€

 

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

rectangularâ€. 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 “Piâ€

was given by the Hindus (62832/20,000 = 3.1416).â€

 

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.â€

 

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.â€

 

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.â€

 

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.â€

 

(The writer is Associate Professor, Department of

Medicine, Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal,

 

 

 

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