Page 28 - Scientech 2014-15

CONTRIBUTIONS OF ANCIENT INDIA TO
CONTRIBUTIONS OF ANCIENT INDIA TO
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The contributions of ancient India towards science 62,000, by this rule circumference of a circle with a
and technology can be divided into a few sub parts diameter of 20,000 can be approached. This implies
such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine and that the ratio of the circumference to the diameter
a lot more. There are different views on ancient is [(4+100) X 8 + 62000] / 20000 = 62832 / 20000
Indian Scientific heritage. Few are of the view that = 3.1416 which is accurate to five significant figures
all modern basic and technical knowledge were = π
available in ancient India. The latter say that what
we had was only some philosophy and spirituality. Trigonometry
The third group has the opinion that some science Aryabhata discussed the concept of sine in his work
like Pythagoras theorem, value and use of zero etc. by the name of ‘ardha – Jya’ which literally means
were here. They also quote Puranas to say Agneya ‘half – chord’. For simplicity, people started calling
Astra may be atom bomb. Dronacharya is a test
tube baby and so on. From an unbiased approach
based on the modern scientific temper in its true
sense, one can say that all the above views are
equally commendable.

Major contributions to science from ancient India
range from the decimal place value counting
systems and the zero to the holistic philosophy and
practice of Medicine – Ayurveda, distinctly different
from the western medicine. During 12th to 18th
century over ten thousand books were written in
India on science and technology.

Let us see few ancient Indian contributions.

In Mathematics

Aryabhata (476 – 550 CE)
Aryabhata, a great mathematician – At the age of 23
years Aryabhata wrote two books on astronomy - 1.
Aryabhatiya 2. Arya Sidhanta

Place value system and zero: the place value system,
first seen in the 3rd century ‘Bakshali Manuscript’
was clearly in place in his work while he did not it ‘jya’. When Arabic writers translated his works
use the symbol of zero. (Bakshali Manuscript is from Sanskrit in to Arabic, they referred it is ‘jiba’.
a mathematical manuscript written on bricks bark However in Arabic writings, vowels are oriented, and
which was found near the village of Bakhshalins it was abbreviated as jb. Later writers substituted it
1881. It is notable to being “the oldest to extant with jaib meaning pocket or fold (in garment).
manuscript in Indian Mathematics”)
If we use Aryabhatas table and calculate the value
Approximation of π (pi) of sin (30) (corresponding to nasjha) which is 1719
Aryabhata worked on the approximation for π / 3438 = 0.5
(pi) and may have come to the conclusion that is
irrational. In the second part of Aryabhateeyam he
writes: Add four to 100, multiply by 8 and then add

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