The credit for almost all the great
inventions and discoveries so far has always rested with the Western world. We
have read about them in schoolbooks, heard about them on television or in
movies and talked about it tirelessly. Sadly, it’s the knowledge and teaching
of our ancient science that has taken a beating. Just because their
achievements were well-documented, it doesn’t mean that they were the first
ones to do that. Here are 10 facts, as found in our written and oral
literature, about the supremely advanced ancient Indian science that you were
never taught in school.
1) Sushruta Samhita, The Oldest Medical
And Surgical Encyclopedia Known To Mankind
Written during the 6th century BC, the
Sushruta Samhita contains 184 chapters with descriptions of 1,120 illnesses,
700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations
based on animal sources. Its author Sushruta is also considered to be the first
ever human to perform medical surgeries on humans. The book also has vast
details on embryology, human anatomy, along with instructions for venesection,
the positioning of the patient for each vein, and the protection of vital
structures (marma). The oldest documented evidence (9000 years) for the
drilling of human teeth of a living person was found in Mehrgarh along with the
evidences of orthopedic surgeries.
2) The First Ones To Acknowledge The
Existence Of The Solar System
While history credits Copernicus for
proposing the heliocentric model of our solar system, it was the Rig Veda that
first noted the central placement of the sun and other planets orbiting it in
the solar system.
Rig Veda 1.164.13
“Sun moves in its orbit which itself is
moving. Earth and other bodies move around sun due to force of attraction,
because sun is heavier than them.”
Rig Veda 1.35.9
“The sun moves in its own orbit but
holding earth and other heavenly bodies in a manner that they do not collide
with each other through force of attraction.”
3) Mahabharata Mentions The Concept Of
Cloning, Test Tube Babies, And Surrogate Mothers
The fact that in the Mahabharata, Gandhari
had 100 sons is pretty well known. But what’s unknown is the scientific
explanation behind her giving birth to a 100 kids. Each ‘Kaurava’ was created
by splitting the single embryo into 100 parts and growing each part in a
separate kund (container). This is identical to the cloning process today. The
birth of Karan, who was ‘born from the “characteristics adopted from men of her
choice” also has striking resemblance to the present-day test tube baby
concept.
4) ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ Precisely Calculates
The Distance Between Earth And Sun
“Yug sahasra yojana par bhanu,
leelyo taahi madhura phal jaanu”
The above excerpt is from the Hanuman
Chalisa and translates to: ‘[When] Hanuman travelled thousands of kilometers to
swallow it thinking of it as a fruit’. The word-to-word translation of the same
excerpt reveals the distance that Hanuman travelled.
1 Yuga = 12000 years. 1 Sahsra Yuga =
12000000 years. Also, 1 Yojan = 8 miles.
Hence, “Yug Sahsra Yojana”, the first 3
words mean 12000*12000000*8 = 96000000 miles or 153,600,000 kilometers.
Interestingly, the actual distance from earth to sun is 152,000,000 kms.
Bafflingly, there’s error of just around 1%.
5) Indian Vedas Figured Out Gravity Before
The West Did
Yet again, way before Isaac Newton
explained gravity, ancient Indian scholars had already figured out how it
worked.
Rig Veda 10.22.14
“This earth is devoid of hands and legs,
yet it moves ahead. All the objects over the earth also move with it. It moves
around the sun.”
6) We Already Knew About The Speed Of
Light
Sayana, a vedic scholar from the 14th
century once said, "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202
yojanas in half a nimesha." A yojana is 9 miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a
second. Therefore, 2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 miles per
second or 2,99,000 kilometers per second. That’s astonishingly close to the
real ‘scientifically-proven’ 3,00,000 kilometers per second figure. It’s often believed
that his source was none other than the Vedas.
7) Vedas Explained The Science Behind The
Rather ‘Feared’ Eclipses
While the world feared the eclipses and
associated all types of paranormal occurrences with the phenomenon, Vedas
already had a very proper and scientific explanation. The below excerpt is also
proof that they knew that the moon wasn’t self illuminated.
Rig Veda 5.40.5
“O Sun! When you are blocked by the one
whom you gifted your own light (moon), then earth gets scared by sudden
darkness.”
8) They Knew The Exact Length Of A Year
Ancient Indians used 4 ways to measure the
length of a year namely ‘Nakshatra’, ‘Savana’, ‘Lunar’ and ‘Saura’. Saura was
one method based on the tropical zodiac that defines the seasons: equinoxes,
solstices, year-halves, and months in relation to the (six) seasons. As
unbelievable as it sounds, Saura estimates the length of a year to be exactly
365 days, 6 hours 12 mins and 30 seconds.
9) Aryabhatta’s Deduction Of The Value Of
Pi
According to documented history, the
irrationality of pi was proved in Europe only in 1761 by Lambert. The great
Indian mathematician Aryabhata worked on the approximation of the value of pi (
), and concluded that is irrational and its value is approximately 3.1416. He
did this in 499 Common Era at the age of 23.
10) First Ones To Measure The
Circumference Of Earth
Sadly, the Greeks enjoy the credit for this discovery while it
was actually Aryabhata, who deduced a formulation proving that the Earth is
rotating on an axis. Then, by estimating the value of pi to be 3.1416, he
concluded that the circumference of Earth was approximately 39736 kilometers.
The actual circumference of Earth, as deduced by scientists today, is 40,075
kilometers. How freaking cool is that!
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