Science and technology have been an integral part of Indian civilization and culture over the past several millennia. Indians have played an important role in the field of science and technology.
Few are aware that India was the fountainhead of important foundational scientific developments and approaches. These cover many great scientific discoveries and technological achievements in mathematics, astronomy, architecture, chemistry, metallurgy, medicine, natural philosophy, and other areas. A great deal of this traveled outwards from India.
Equally, India also assimilated scientific ideas and techniques from elsewhere, with open-mindedness and a rational attitude characteristic of a scientific ethos.
The Indus Valley Civilization, Vedic age and later periods saw great achievements by Indians in the field of Science and technology.
In modern times many Indian scientists and mathematicians have done phenomenal work and some of them even received awards like Nobel Prize for their contributions to science in technology.
India belongs to the select group of countries that have developed indigenous nuclear technology. India is among the few countries which have developed ballistic missiles. In the field of space science, India has the capability to launch GSLV satellites.
Some Indian scientists have left indelible imprints on the world S&T arena.
Achievements of Indians in Science and Technology in Ancient and medieval India
Baudhayana (800 BCE)
Baudhayana was a mathematician who lived in ancient India around 800 BCE. His major contributions include:
He is considered the earliest author of Sulbasutras which was used for the accurate construction of altars needed for Vedic sacrifices.
He gave a near accurate value of Pi(π).
He gave the theorem today known as “Pythagoras theorem” before Pythagoras had developed it.
He also gave a near accurate value of the square root of 2 (577/408) which is correct to 5 decimal places.
Kanada Sage
Kanada, a philosopher estimated to have lived in India between the 6th century to 2nd century BCE. His name Kanada means atom eater.
He was the first person to give the atomic theory. He gave the idea that Parmanu (Atom) was an indestructible particle of matter which cannot be divided further. Later on, Dalton made similar observations in Dalton’s atomic theory.
Charaka (300 BCE)
Charaka is considered the “Father of Indian Medicine” who lived in around 300 BCE in India. His major contributions include:
He was among the principal contributors to the ancient system of medicine ‘Ayurveda’ and wrote his medical treatise the ‘Charak Samhita’.
He is known for his works on metabolism and the fundamentals of genetics.
He wrote about three doshas which the body contains i.e. Vata (movement), Pitta (transformation) and Cough (lubrication and stability). Diseases occur when the balance among these three doshas gets disturbed.
Sushruta
Sushruta was the author of “Sushruta Samhita” an ancient Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery.
Sushruta invented surgical instruments and worked on the dissection of dead bodies.
Sushruta was aware of cataract operations.
He is also known as the “father of surgery” and “father of plastic surgery”.
Aryabhatta (476- 550 CE)
Aryabhatta also was known as Aryabhatta 1 was the first major astronomer and mathematician from the classical age of Indian astronomy and Indian mathematics.
His major works include Aryabhatiya and Arya-Siddhanta.
He calculated the orbits of planets, and scientifically explained the Solar and lunar eclipses.
He calculated the distance between Earth and Moon. He proposed that Earth rotates on its axis.
He gave the theory that the apparent motion of stars is due to the movement of Earth.
He calculated the circumference of the earth and proposed that the shape of Earth is not flat.
He worked on the place value system and zero as a symbol and concept.
Varahamihira (505- 587 CE)
Varahamihira was born in the Avanthi region during the Gupta rule.
He wrote the Pancha-siddhantika which summarises 5 alias astronomical treatises namely the Surya Siddhanta, Romaka Siddhanta, Paulisa Siddhanta, Vashishtha Siddhant and Paitamaha Siddhanta.
He gave trigonometric formulas and improved the accuracy of sine tables of Aryabhatta.
He explained the shifting of equinoxes and the nature of the scattering of light.
He was also the author of Brihat Samhita and Brihat Jataka.
He gave theories on earthquakes and explained that how the termites may indicate water underground.
Brahmagupta (598 – 670 CE)
Brahmagupta was an Indian mathematician and astronomer. He was the first person to give rules to compute with zero.
He was the author of the “Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta”, a theoretical treatise on mathematics and astronomy, and the “Khaṇḍakhādyaka”, which was a more practical text.
He worked on mathematics and astronomy and he is supposed to have invented many astronomical instruments for his observations.
He explained that the shape of the earth is spherical and worked on the calculation of eclipses.
He worked on methods for calculating the distance of the heavenly bodies.
Bhaskara 1 (600 – 680 CE)
He was a mathematician who first wrote numbers in the Hindu decimal system with a circle for zero.
he was the follower of the Aryabhatta School of astronomy and was the author of “Mahābhāskarīya” and the “Laghubhāskarīya”.
He worked on many trigonometric formulas and give a rational approximation of sine function.
Bhaskaracharya or Bhaskara II (1114- 1185)
Bhaskaracharya was an Indian mathematician and astronomer born in Bijapur in Karnataka.
His main work includes “Siddhanta Shiromani” which has four sections dealing with Arithmetics, Algebra, Mathematics of planets, and Spheres.
He worked on differential calculus and algebra.
Nobel Laureates of India in Science
C.V. Raman:
C.V. Raman was one of the most famous scientists in India. Raman’s academic brilliance was established at a very young age. He had a pioneering work on scattering of light, C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.
He was the first Asian and first non-White to receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences. Raman also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. He was the first to investigate the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian drums such as the tabla and the mridangam.
He discovered that, when light traverses a transparent material, some of the deflected light changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called the Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman Effect.
Comments
Post a Comment