Vishwa Thacker : Mumbai Uncensored, 25th January 2022
As Republic Day approaches, we celebrate India, her victories, achievements and glory. We celebrate her independence and war triumph stories. But we often forget to reminisce about India that was long before she was occupied by any invaders. A nation with a vast diversity of culture, knowledge, science and technology. A country with so depth knowledge that frightened the superpowers of the world.
It is widely believed that the West was the pioneer of technology and science. The world remembers Pierre Fauchard, Richard Salter, Harold Gillies and numerous other scientists as inventors of various technologies we enjoy today. The world often mocks about how further back India is in this international marathon of technology. But what is less known is that (many historians agree!) some several centuries ago, India had more science than the world has today.
Let us celebrate some of the ancient Indian engineers, mathematicians, scientists and administrators that made this world a better place.
Flush toilet systems
If you search ‘who invented water-flushed toilets’ on the internet, you will find probably find the names of Sir John Harington and Alexander Cumming around the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. What if we say that India knew this technology almost eight thousand years ago? Yes, during excavations carried out by archaeologists and historians, almost every house of Harappa and Mohanjo-daro civilization was equipped with flush toilets.
Weighing scale
Because of lack of evidence, the credits of inventing the weighing scale were given to Richard Salter because the earliest design of it dates back to 1770. But in the Indus Valley civilization, historians have found evidence of the existence of weighing scales which date back to almost 2400 BC to 1800 BC. There are traces of weighs that were used to measure and compare goods in trade.
Ayurveda
It is known worldwide that Ayurveda originated from the Indian subcontinent around 5000 BC. But the hard pill to swallow is its significance and effectiveness. People still trust allopathic therapies over Ayurveda. But recently, the knowledge about Ayurveda is prevailing, even in the West.
The orbit of the Earth
The orbit on which Earth revolves too was found in Indian ancient civilization. Surya Siddhanta’s Hindu Cosmological time cycles concluded the time taken by the Earth to revolve around the Sun at 365.2563627 days. This was found back in 700 BC to 600 BC. This is 1.4 seconds longer than the modern value and was the most accurate estimate of the time.
The system of cheques
During the Mauryan empire, we find the earliest traces of the cheque system. Back then it was called ‘adesha’ which was an order on a banker asking him to pay the money.
The atomic theory
The title of ‘father of atomic theory’ is given to John Dalton. However, several centuries before him lived Acharya Kanad who gave the idea of anu or atom which was the indestructible part of matter more than 2600 years ago.
Law of Gravity
It is almost tattooed on our brains that Sir Isaac Newton developed the theory of gravitation when an apple fell on his head. It is high time we acknowledge that around 400-500 AD, Hindu astronomer Bhaskaracharya stated, “Objects fall on the earth due to a force of attraction by the Earth. Therefore, the Earth, the planets, constellations, moon and the Sun are held in orbit due to this attraction”. It was after 1200 years that Sir Issac Newton discovered this phenomenon.
At the end of the day, these leave us wondering what we know about our country, but also make us appreciate the immense knowledge this culture has always carried.
