Indian Foundations of Modern Science
Scholars see India and Greece as the two principal birthplaces of science. School textbooks tell us about Pythagoras, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, and Ptolemy, geometry of the Vedic altars, the invention of zero in India, Yoga psychology, and Indian technology of steel-making that went into the manufacture of the best swords. But if you take the trouble of reading scholarly books, articles and encyclopedias, you will find that in many ways the early Indian contributions are the more impressive for they include a deep theory of mind, Pāṇini’s astonishing Sanskrit grammar, binary numbers of Piṅgala, music theory, combinatorics, algebra, earliest astronomy, and the physics of Kaṇāda with its laws of motion.
Of these, Kaṇāda is the least known. He may not have presented his ideas as mathematical equations, but he attempted something that no physicist to date has dared to do: he advanced a system that includes space, time, matter, as well as observers. He also postulated four types of atoms, two with mass (like proton and electron) and two without (like neutrino and photon), and the idea of invariance. A thousand or more years after Kaṇāda, Āryabhaṭa postulated that earth rotated and advanced the basic idea of relativity of motion.
And then there is India’s imaginative literature, which includes the Epics, the Purāṇas and the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha (perhaps the greatest novel ever written), that speaks of time travel, airplanes, exoplanets (that is many solar-like systems), cloning of embryos, sex change, communication over distances, and weapons that can destroy everything. Some nationalists take these statements to mean the literal scientific truth, which claim is ridiculed by their political opponents who then use this broad brush to tar all Indian science.
There are also anomalous statements in Indian texts whose origin is not understood. Just to mention a few: the correct speed of light, the correct distance to the sun, cosmological cycles that broadly correspond to the numbers accepted currently, the fact that the sun and the moon are approximately 108 times their respective diameters from the earth, the correct number of species on earth (about 8.4 million), and so on. Historians either ignore them or say that they are extraordinary coincidences. We will come to these anomalies later in the essay.
To return to the history of mainstream science, the discovery of infinite series and calculus by Newton and Leibniz heralded the Scientific Revolution that was to change the world. But new research has shown that over two centuries prior the Kerala School of Mathematics had already developed calculus and some historians suggest that this and advanced astronomical knowledge from Kerala went abroad via the Jesuits and provided the spark for its further development in Europe. Other historians discount the transmission of this knowledge to Europe.
There is more agreement about the many achievements of Indian medical sciences. For example, the Royal Australia College of Surgeons in Melbourne, Australia has a prominent display of a statue of Suśruta (600 BCE) with the caption “Father of Surgery”. The ancient Ayurveda texts include the notion of germs and inoculation and also postulate mind-body connection, which has become an important area of contemporary research. Indian medicine was strongly empirical; it used Nature (which is governed by Ṛta) as guide, and it was informed by a sense of skepticism. In the West the notion of skepticism is usually credited to the Scottish philosopher of science, David Hume, but scholars have been puzzled by the commonality between his ideas and the earlier Indian ones. Recently, it was shown that Hume almost certainly learnt Indian ideas from Jesuits when he was at the Royal College of La Flèche in France.
There are also indirect ways that Indian ideas led to scientific advance. Mendeleev was inspired by the two-dimensional structure of the Sanskrit alphabet to propose a similar two-dimensional structure of chemical elements.
A Vedantic vision guided Jagadis Chandra Bose in his pathbreaking discoveries in a variety of fields. Bose is considered the true father of radio science which, as we know, has changed the world. Bose also discovered millimeter length electromagnetic waves and was a pioneer in the fields of semiconductor electronics and biophysics.
Erwin Schrödinger, a founder of quantum theory, credited ideas in the Upanishads for the key notion of superposition that was to bring about the quantum revolution in physics that changed chemistry, biology, and technology.
I now briefly touch upon Indian influence on linguistics, logic, philosophy of physics, and theory of mind.
Linguistics, algorithms and society
Pāṇini’s work (4th or 5th century BCE) showed the way to the development of modern linguistics through the efforts of scholars such as Franz Bopp, Ferdinand de Saussure, Leonard Bloomfield, and Roman Jakobson. Bopp was a pioneering scholar of the comparative grammars of Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages. Ferdinand de Saussure in his most influential work, Course in General Linguistics (Cours de linguistique générale), that was published posthumously (1916), took the idea of the use of formal rules of Sanskrit grammar and applied them to general linguistic phenomena.
The structure of Pāṇini‘s grammar contains a meta-language, meta-rules, and other technical devices that make this system effectively equivalent to the most powerful computing machine. Although it didn’t directly contribute to the development of computer languages, it influenced linguistics and mathematical logic that, in turn, gave birth to computer science.
The works of Pāṇini and Bharata Muni also presage the modern field of semiotics which is the study of signs and symbols as a significant component of communications. Their template may be applied to sociology, anthropology and other humanistic disciplines for all social systems come with their grammar.
The search for universal laws of grammar underlying the diversity of languages is ultimately an exploration of the very nature of the human mind. But the Indian texts remind that the other side to this grammar is the idea that a formal system cannot describe reality completely since it leaves out the self.
Modern logic
That Indian thought was central to the development of machine theory is asserted by Mary Boole — the wife of George Boole, inventor of modern logic — who herself was a leading science writer in the nineteenth century. She claimed that George Everest, who lived for a long time in India and whose name was eventually applied to the world’s highest peak, was the intermediary of the Indian ideas and they influenced not only her husband but the other two leading scientists in the attempt to mechanize thought: Augustus de Morgan and Charles Babbage. She says in her essay on Indian Thought and Western Science in the Nineteenth Century (1901): “Think what must have been the effect of the intense Hinduizing of three such men as Babbage, De Morgan, and George Boole on the mathematical atmosphere of 1830–65.” She further speculates that these ideas influenced the development of vector analysis and modern mathematics.
Much prior to this, Mohsin Fani’s Dabistani-i Madhahib (17th Century) claimed that Kallisthenes, who was in Alexander’s party, took logic texts from India and the beginning of the Greek tradition of logic must be seen in this material. In Indian logic, minds are not empty slates; the very constitution of the mind provides some knowledge of the nature of the world. The four pramāṇas through which correct knowledge is acquired are direct perception, inference, analogy, and verbal testimony.
Physics with observers
Indian physics, which goes back to the Vaiśeṣika Sūtras (c. 500 BCE), does not appear to have directly influenced the discovery of physical laws in Europe. But Indian ideas that place the observer at center prefigure the conceptual foundations of modern physics, and this is acknowledged by the greatest physicists of the twentieth century.
In the West, the universe was seen as a machine going back to Aristotle and the Greeks who saw the physical world consisting of four kinds of elements of earth, water, fire, and air. This model continued in Newton’s clockwork model of the solar system. Indian thought, in contrast, has a fifth element, ākāśa, which is the medium for inner light and consciousness. With the rise of relativity theory and quantum mechanics, the observer could no longer be ignored. In one sense, the journey of science is the discovery of self and consciousness.
It is one of those obscure footnotes to the history of physics that Nikola Tesla, who was very famous in the 1890s, was asked by Swami Vivekananda to find an equation connecting mass and energy. We know that Tesla didn’t quite succeed at this but he was to work on various models of wireless transfer of energy for the remainder of his career.
Cosmology and evolution
The Ṛgveda speaks of the universe being infinite in size. The evolution of the universe is according to cosmic law. Since it cannot arise out of nothing, the universe must be infinitely old. Since it must evolve, there are cycles of chaos and order or creation and destruction. The world is also taken to be infinitely old. Beyond the solar system, other similar systems were postulated, which appear to have been confirmed with the modern discovery of exoplanets.
The Sāṅkhya system describes evolution at cosmic and individual levels. It views reality as being constituted of puruṣa, consciousness that is all-pervasive, and prakṛti, which is the phenomenal world. Prakṛti is composed of three different strands (guṇas or characteristics) of sattva, rajas, and tamas, which are transparency, activity, and inactivity, respectively.
Evolution begins by puruṣa and prakṛti creating mahat (Nature in its dynamic aspect). From mahat evolves buddhi (intelligence) and manas (mind). Buddhi and manas in the large scale are Nature’s intelligence and mind. From buddhi come individualized ego consciousness (ahaṅkāra) and the five tanmātras (subtle elements) of sound, touch, sight, taste, smell. From the manas evolve the five senses (hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, smelling), the five organs of action (with which to speak, grasp, move, procreate, evacuate), and the five gross elements (ākāśa, air, fire, water, earth).
The evolution in Sāṅkhya is an ecological process determined completely by Nature. It differs from modern evolution theory in that it presupposes a universal consciousness. In reality, modern evolution also assigns intelligence to Nature in its drive to select certain forms over others as well as in the evolution of intelligence itself.
The description of evolution of life is given in many texts such as the Mahābhārata. I present a quote from the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha on it:
“Iremember that once upon a time there was nothing on this earth, neither trees and plants, nor even mountains. For a period of eleven thousand [great] years the earth was covered by lava. In those days there was neither day nor night below the polar region: for in the rest of the earth neither the sun nor the moon shone. Only one half of the polar region was illumined. [Later] apart from the polar region the rest of the earth was covered with water. And then for a very long time the whole earth was covered with forests, except the polar region. Then there arose great mountains, but without any human inhabitants. For a period of ten thousand years the earth was covered with the corpses of the asuras.” [YV 6.1]
The reverse sequence, of the end of the world, is also described in various texts. First, the sun expands in size incinerating everything on the earth (quite similar to modern accounts of the aging sun becoming a red giant). The specific sequence mentioned is that the fireball of the sun transforms the Pṛthivī atoms into Āpas atoms, which then together change into Tejas atoms and further into Vāyu atoms, and finally to sound energy that is an attribute of space, and so on (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva Section 233). In our modern language, it means that as temperatures become high, matter breaks down becoming a sea of elements, then the protons break down into electrons, further into photons, and finally into neutrinos, and on to acoustic energy of space. At the end of this cycle the world is absorbed into Consciousness.
Vivekananda was aware of this sequence which is why he asked Tesla to find the specific equation for transformation between mass and energy.
Mind and Yoga
We are in the midst of a worldwide Yoga revolution. For many, it is about health and well-being but that is only a portal that leads to the understanding of the self and its relationship with the body.
Although the roots of Yoga lie in the Vedas, most read Patañjali’s Yoga-sūtra for a systematic exposition of the nature of the mind. The text is logical and it questions the naïve understanding of the world. According to it, there is a single reality and the multiplicity we see in it is a consequence of the projections of our different minds. Therefore to obtain knowledge one must experience reality in its most directness.
The Vedic texts claim to be ātmavidyā, “science of self” or “consciousness science” and they also provide a framework to decode its narrative, establishing its central concern with consciousness.
In the Vedic view, reality is unitary at the deepest level since otherwise there would be chaos. Since language is linear, whereas the unfolding of the universe takes place in a multitude of dimensions, language is limited in its ability to describe reality. Because of this limitation, reality can only be experienced and never described fully. All descriptions of the universe lead to logical paradox.
Knowledge is of two kinds: the higher or unified and the lower or dual. The higher knowledge concerns the perceiving subject (consciousness), whereas the lower knowledge concerns objects. The higher knowledge can be arrived at through intuition and meditation on the paradoxes of the outer world. The lower knowledge is analytical and it represents standard sciences with its many branches. There is a complementarity between the higher and the lower, for each is necessary to define the other, and it mirrors the one between mind and body.
The future of science
I have gone through a random list of topics to show that Indian ideas and contributions have shaped science in fundamental ways. I hope to show now that they remain equally central to its future growth.
We first note that in spite of its unprecedented success and prestige, science is facing major crises. The first of these crises is that of physics for it has found no evidence for dark matter and dark energy that together are believed to constitute 95% of the observable universe, with another 4.5% being intergalactic dust that doesn’t influence theory. How can we claim that we are near understanding reality if our theories are validated by only 0.5% of the observable universe?
The second crisis is that neuroscientists have failed to find a neural correlate of consciousness. If there is no neural correlate, then does consciousness reside in a dimension that is different from our familiar space-time continuum? And how do mind and body interact with each other?
The third crisis is that there is no clear answer to the question if machines will become conscious. The fourth crisis is related to the implications of biomedical advances such as cloning on our notions of self.
It becomes clear that the three crises are actually interrelated when it is realized that consciousness is also an issue at the very foundations of physics. These questions also relate to the problem of free will.
Researchers are divided on whether conscious machines will ever exist. Most computer scientists believe that consciousness is computable and that it will emerge in machines as technology develops. Bu there are others who say there’re things about human behavior that cannot be computed by a machine. Thus creativity and the sense of freedom people possess appear to be more than just an application of logic or calculations.
Quantum views
Quantum theory, which is the deepest theory of physics, provides another perspective. According to its orthodox Copenhagen Interpretation, consciousness and the physical world are complementary aspects of the same reality. Since it takes consciousness as a given and no attempt is made to derive it from physics, the Copenhagen Interpretation may be called the “big-C” view of consciousness, where it is a thing that exists by itself — although it requires brains to become real. This view was popular with the pioneers of quantum theory such as Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger.
The opposing view is that consciousness emerges from biology, just as biology itself emerges from chemistry which, in turn, emerges from physics. We call this less expansive concept of consciousness “little-C.” It agrees with the neuroscientists’ view that the processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the brain.
Philosophers of science believe that these modern quantum physics views of consciousness have parallels in ancient philosophy. Big-C is like the theory of mind in Vedanta — in which consciousness is the fundamental basis of reality and at the experienced level it complements the physical universe. The pioneers of quantum theory were aware of this linkage with Vedanta.
Little-C, in contrast, is quite similar to what many take to be standard Buddhism. The Buddha chose not to address the question of the nature of consciousness until the end of his life, and many of his followers believe that mind and consciousness arise out of emptiness or nothingness. Yet in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, the Buddha acknowledges a transcendent category underlying constant change which is quite similar to the conception of Vedanta.
Big-C, anomalies, and scientific discovery
Scientists question if consciousness is a computational process. More restrictively, scholars argue that the creative moment is not at the end of a deliberate computation. For instance, dreams or visions are supposed to have inspired Elias Howe‘s 1845 design of the modern sewing machine and August Kekulé’s discovery of the structure of benzene in 1862, and these may be considered to be examples of the anomalous workings of the mind.
A dramatic piece of evidence in favor of big-C consciousness existing all on its own is the life of self-taught mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, who died in 1920 at the age of 32. His notebook, which was lost and forgotten for about 50 years and published only in 1988, contains several thousand formulas — without proof in different areas of mathematics — that were well ahead of their time, and the methods by which he found the formulas remain elusive. Ramanujan himself claimed that the formulas were revealed to him by Goddess Nāmagiri while he was asleep. The idea of big-C provides an explanation for the anomalous scientific results from old Indian texts that were mentioned at the beginning of the essay.
The concept of big-C consciousness raises the questions of how it is related to matter, and how matter and mind mutually influence each other. Consciousness alone cannot make physical changes to the world, but perhaps it can change the probabilities in the evolution of quantum processes as was first proposed by George Sudarshan and Baidyanath Misra in what they called the Quantum Zeno Effect. The act of observation can freeze and even influence atoms’ movements, as has been demonstrated in the laboratory, and this may very well be an explanation of how matter and mind interact.
With cognitive machines replacing humans at most tasks, the question of what selfhood means will become more central to our lives. It appears to me that the only way to find fulfilment in life will be through wisdom of ātmavidyā. Vedic science will bring humanity full circle back to the source of all experience, which is consciousness. It will also reveal unknown ways mind and body interact and this will have major implications for medicine.
Indian sciences are universal and they have within them the power to inspire people to find their true potential and find meaning in life, as also having the potential to facilitate the next advances in both physical and biological sciences.
Historians may quibble about whether a certain equation should be called Baudhāyana’s Theorem or Pythagoras Theorem, but in the larger scheme names do not matter. The direction of science is the more important thing and it is clear that the mystery of consciousness will be one of its major concerns.
A Very Brief History of Indian Science
The annual Indian Science Congress, which just concluded, had its usual share of controversies about history of Indian science and I have been asked to weigh in. It so turns out that I did precisely that in a brief account titled “Science” for Stanley Wolpert’s Encyclopedia of India(2005) and since that is freely available online, I shall be more selective of themes in this revision of the previous essay. This account does not include the modern period for which many excellent histories exist.
Indian archaeology and literature provide considerable layered evidence related to the development of science. The chronological time frame for this history is provided by the archaeological record that has been traced, in an unbroken tradition, to about 8000 BCE. Prior to this date, there are records of rock paintings that are considerably older. The earliest textual source is the Ṛgveda, which is a compilation of very ancient material. The astronomical references in the Vedic books recall events of the third or the fourth millennium BCE and earlier. The discovery that Sarasvati, the preeminent river of the Ṛgvedic times, went dry around 1900 BCE, if not earlier, suggests that portions of the Ṛgveda may be dated prior to this epoch.
The third millennium urbanization is characterized by a very precise system of weights and monumental architecture using cardinal directions. Indian writing (the so-called Indus script) goes back to the beginning of the third millennium BCE, but it has not yet been deciphered. However, statistical analysis shows that the later historical script called Brahmi evolved from this writing.
Laws and cosmology
The Vedic texts assert that the universe is governed by ṛta (laws) and that consciousness transcends materiality. The universe is taken to be infinite in size and infinitely old. By the time of the Purāṇas, other worlds were postulated beyond our solar system.
It is asserted that language (as a formal system) cannot describe reality completely and linguistic descriptions suffer from paradox. Because of this limitation, reality can only be experienced and never described fully. Knowledge was classified in two ways: the lower or dual अपरा; and the higher or unified परा. The seemingly irreconcilable worlds of the material and the conscious were taken as aspects of the same transcendental reality.
The texts present a tripartite and recursive view of the world. The three regions of earth, space, and sky are mirrored in the human being in the physical body, the breath (prāṇa), and mind. The processes in the sky, on earth, and within the mind are assumed to be connected. This connection is a consequence of a binding (bandhu) between various inner and outer phenomena and it is because of this binding that it is possible to know the world.
The connection between the outer and the inner cosmos is seen most strikingly in the use of the number 108 in Indian religious and artistic expression. It was known that this number is the approximate distance from Earth to the sun and the moon, in sun and moon diameters, respectively. This number was probably obtained by taking a pole of a certain height to a distance 108 times its height and discovering that the angular size of the pole was the same as that of the sun or the moon. It is a curious fact that the diameter of the sun is also approximately 108 times the diameter of Earth.
This number of dance poses (karaṇas) given in the Nāṭya Śāstra is 108, as is the number of beads in a japamālā. The distance between the body and the inner sun is also taken to be 108, and thus there are 108 names of the gods and goddesses. The number of marmas (weak points) in Āyurveda is 107, because in a chain 108 units long, the number of weak points would be one less.
Ancient Indian views of the universe are more subtle than the corresponding Western views.
Physical laws and motion
The history of Indian physics goes back to Kaṇāda (कणाद) (~ 600 BCE) who asserted that all that is knowable is based on motion, thus giving centrality to analysis in the understanding of the universe.
Kaṇāda asserted that there are nine classes of substances: ether, space, and time, which are continuous, and four kinds of atoms two of which have mass and two are massless. He also made a distinction between mind and the self, or consciousness. The conscious subject is separate from material reality but is, nevertheless, able to direct its evolution. Kaṇāda presented laws of motion and also spoke of invariants. He saw the atom to be spherical since it should appear the same from all directions.
The atoms combined to form different kinds of molecules that break up under the influence of heat. The molecules come to have different properties based on the influence of various potentials.
Indian chemistry developed many different alkalis, acids, and metallic salts by processes of calcination and distillation, often motivated by the need to formulate medicines. Metallurgists developed efficient techniques of extraction of metals from ore.
Astronomy
We know quite a bit about how astronomical science evolved in India. The Yajurvedic sage Yājñavalkya knew of a ninety-five-year cycle to harmonize the motions of the sun and the moon, and he also knew that the sun’s circuit was asymmetric. The second millennium BCE text Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa of Lagadhawent beyond the earlier calendrical astronomy to develop a theory for the mean motions of the sun and the moon. An epicycle theory was used to explain planetary motions. Given the different periods of the planets, it became necessary to assume yet longer periods to harmonize their cycles. This led to the notion of mahāyugas and kalpas with periods of billions of years.
The innovations of the division of the circle into 360 parts and the zodiac into 27 nakṣatras and 12 rāśis took place first in India. The schoolbook accounts of how these innovations first emerged in Mesopotamia in the 7th century BCE and then arrived in India centuries later are incorrect.
The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa which was compiled soon after the Vedas says: “The sun strings these worlds [the earth, the planets, the atmosphere] to himself on a thread. This thread is the same as the wind…” This suggests a central role to the sun in defining the motions of the planets and ideas such as these must have ultimately led to the theory of expanding and shrinking epicycles.
Astronomical texts called siddhāntas begin appearing sometime in the first millennium BCE. According to the tradition there were eighteen early siddhāntas, of which only a few have survived. Each siddhānta is an astronomical system with its own constants. The Sūrya Siddhānta speaks of the motion of planets governed by “cords of air” that bind them, which is a conception like that of the field.
The great astronomers and mathematicians include Āryabhaṭa (b. 476), who took Earth to spin on its own axis and who spoke of the relativity of motionand provided outer planet orbits with respect to the sun. This work and that of Brahmagupta (b. 598) and Bhāskara (b. 1114) was passed on to Europe via the Arabs. The Kerala School with figures such as Mādhava (c. 1340–1425) and Nīlakaṇṭha (c. 1444–1545) came up with new innovations of analysis based on advanced mathematics.
Evolution of Life
The Sāṅkhya system speaks of evolution both at the levels of the individual as well as the cosmos. The Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas have material on creation and the rise of humankind. It is said that man arose at the end of a chain that began with plants and various kind of animals. In Vedic evolution the urge to evolve into higher forms is taken to be inherent in nature. A system of an evolution from inanimate to progressively higher life is assumed to be a consequence of the different proportions of the three basic attributes of the guṇas (qualities): sattva (“truth” or “transparence”), rajas (activity), and tamas (“darkness” or “inertia”). In its undeveloped state, cosmic matter has these qualities in equilibrium. As the world evolves, one or the other of these becomes preponderant in different objects or beings, giving specific character to each.
Geometry and mathematics
Indian geometry began very early in the Vedic period in altar problems, as in the one where the circular altar is to be made equal in area to a square altar. The historian of mathematics, Abraham Seidenberg, saw the birth of geometry and mathematics in the solution of such problems. Two aspects of the “Pythagoras” theorem are described in the texts by Baudhāyana and others. Problems are often presented with their algebraic counterparts. The solution to planetary problems also led to the development of algebraic methods.
Binary numbers were known at the time of Piṅgala’s Chandaḥśāstra. Piṅgala, who might have lived as early as fourth century BCE used binary numbers to classify Vedic meters. The knowledge of binary numbers indicates a deep understanding of arithmetic.
The sign for zero within the place value decimal number system that was to revolutionize mathematics and facilitate development of technology appears to have been devised around 50 BCE to 50 CE. Indian numerals were introduced to Europe by Fibonacci (13th century) who is now known for a sequence that was described earlier by Virahaṅka (between 600 and 800), Gopāla (prior to 1135) and Hemacandra (~1150 CE). Nāryāna Paṇḍit (14th century) showed that these numbers were a special case of the multinomial coefficients.
Bharata’s Nāṭya Śāstra has results on combinatorics and discrete mathematics, and Āryabhaṭa has material on mathematics including methods to solve numerical problems effectively. Later source materials include the works of Brahmagupta, Lalla (eighth century), Mahāvīra (ninth century), Jayadeva, Śrīpati (eleventh century), Bhāskara, and Mādhava. In particular, Mādhava’s derivation and use of infinite series predated similar development in Europe, which is normally seen as the beginning of modern calculus. Some scholars believe these ideas were carried by Jesuits from India to Europe and they eventually set in motion the Scientific Revolution.
A noteworthy contribution was by the school of New Logic (Navya Nyāya) of Bengal and Bihar. At its zenith during the time of Raghunātha (1475–1550), this school developed a methodology for a precise semantic analysis of language. Navya Nyāya foreshadowed mathematical logic and there is evidence that it influenced modern machine theory.
Grammar
Pāṇini’s grammar Aṣṭādhyāyī (Eight chapters) of the fifth century BCE provides four thousand rules that describe Sanskrit completely. This grammar is acknowledged to be one of the greatest intellectual achievements of all time. The great variety of language mirrors, in many ways, the complexity of nature and, therefore, success in describing a language is as impressive as a complete theory of physics. Scholars have shown that the grammar of Pāṇini represents a universal grammatical and computing system. From this perspective, it anticipates the logical framework of modern computers.
Medicine
Āyurveda, the Indian medicine system, is a holistic approach to health that builds upon the tripartite Vedic approach to the world. Health is maintained through a balance between three basic humors (doṣa) of wind (vāta), fire (pitta), and water (kapha). Each of these humors had five varieties. Although literally meaning “air,” “bile,” and “phlegm,” the doṣas represented larger principles. Its division of states into three categories rather than two is more efficient than the binary division of other medicine systems.
Caraka and Suśruta are two famous early physicians. According to Caraka, health and disease are not predetermined, and life may be prolonged by human effort. Suśruta defines the purpose of medicine to cure the diseases of the sick, to protect the healthy, and to prolong life. The Saṃhitās speak of organisms that circulate in the blood, mucus, and phlegm. In particular, the organisms in the blood that cause disease are said to be invisible. It is suggested that physical contact and sharing the same air can cause such diseases to spread. Inoculation was practiced for protection against smallpox.
Indian surgery was quite advanced. The caesarian section was known, as was plastic surgery, and bone setting reached a high degree of skill. Suśruta classified surgical operations into eight categories: incision, excision, scarification, puncturing, probing, extraction, evacuation and drainage, and suturing. Suśruta lists 101 blunt and 20 sharp instruments that were used in surgery. The medical system tells us much about the Indian approach to science. There was emphasis on observation and experimentation.
Mind and consciousness
Vedic deities represent cognitive centers. It is asserted that parā-vidyā or ātma-vidyā (science of consciousness) cannot be described in words or design. In the Śrī-yantra, which is a representation of the cosmos, consciousness (Śiva) is shown as an infinitesimal dot in the middle.
The interaction between matter and consciousness is postulated in terms of an observation process called dṛṣṭi-sṛṣṭi (creation through observation), which is consistent with a world governed by laws. In the orthodox interpretation of quantum theory, consciousness is a separate category as in Vedanta.
Modern scientific subjects like physics, computer science, and neuroscience have been unable to explain the phenomenon of consciousness. Philosophy cannot reconcile our sense of freedom and agency with the framework of machine-like laws. In physical theory there is no place for the observer, computer science cannot explain how awareness arises in the brain machine, and neuroscience has not found any neural correlate of consciousness.
At the same time, the very association of information with physical systems as is done using entropy implies postulation of consciousness. So the use of the reductionist method in the analysis of consciousness has hit a wall.
Indian texts assert that the phenomenon of consciousness cannot be studied directly as a material property. Their analysis of consciousness using indirect methods may very well be relevant for further progress of this question in contemporary science.
Scientific speculations and more
Indian thought is unique in the breadth and scope of its scientific speculations that are scattered within its high literature. These range from airplanes (Rāmāyaṇa) to weapons that can destroy the world (Mahābhārata), and to the most astonishing abstract ideas in a text called Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha.
Many texts speak of the relativity of time and space — abstract concepts that developed in the scientific context just a hundred years ago. The Purāṇas describe countless universes and time flowing at different rates for different observers.
The Mahābhārata has an account of an embryo divided into one hundred parts each becoming, after maturation in a separate pot, a healthy baby; this is how the Kaurava brothers are born. There is also mention of a conception in one womb transferred to another: this is how Balarāma is a brother to Krishna although he was born to a different mother. This Epic has a major section on battle with a space ship whose occupants wear airtight suits (Saubha Parva). Are these to be seen as an early form of science fiction?
Universes defined recursively are described in the famous episode of Indra and the ants in Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa. Here Viṣṇu in the guise of a boy, explains to Indra that the ants he sees walking on the ground have all been Indras in their own solar systems in different times. These flights of imagination are more than a straightforward generalization of the motions of the planets into a cyclic universe.
The context of modern science fiction is clear: it is the liberation of the earlier modes of thought by the revolutionary developments of the 20th century science and technology. But how was science fiction integrated into the mainstream of Indian literary tradition over two thousand years ago? What was the intellectual ferment in which such sophisticated ideas arose?
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Concluding, India’s civilization valued science and knowledge above all and some of the most extraordinary scientific advances took place there. These include the earliest astronomy, geometry, number theory, the Indian numeral system, the idea of physical laws and invariance, the earliest formal system to describe a complex natural phenomenon (as in Pāṇini’s computer program-like grammar that was not rivaled for 2,500 years), a very subtle Yoga psychology, and the idea of immunization in medicine.
This creativity did not end with the ancient period. For India’s continuing relevance in the world of science, see The Indian foundations of modern science