Science in ancient India
Science and Mathematics were highly developed during the ancient period in India. Ancient Indians contributed immensely to the knowledge in Mathematics as well as various branches of Science. In this section, we will read about the developments in Mathematics and the scholars who contributed to it. You will be surprised to know that many theories of modern day mathematics were actually known to ancient Indians. However, since ancient Indian mathematicians were not as good in documentation and dissemination as their counterparts in the modern western world, their contributions did not find the place they deserved. Moreover, the western world ruled over most of the world for a long time, which empowered them to claim superiority in every way, including in the field of knowledge. Let us now take a look at some of these contributions of ancient Indians.
Aryabhatta
Aryabhatta (476-550 CE), is a famous Indian mathematician and astronomer, born in a place called Kusumpura later called as Pataliputra which is now Patna, the capital of the Gupta Empire. It is a small place situated nearly 30 km from Patna. This is the very empire that has been referred as . . .Read more
Brahmagupta
Brahmagupta (598–668 AD) was a great Indian mathematician and astronomer who wrote many important works on mathematics and astronomy. He was from the state of Rajasthan of northwest India (he is often referred to as Bhillamalacarya, the teacher from Bhillamala), and later became . . .Read more
Varahamihira
Varahamihira was another well known scientist of the ancient period in India. He lived in the Gupta period and also made great contributions in the fields of hydrology, geology and ecology. He was one of the first scientists to claim that . . .Read more
Susruta
Susruta was a pioneer in the field of surgery. He considered surgery as “the highest division of the healing arts and least liable to fallacy”. He studied human anatomy with the help of a dead body. In Susruta Samhita, over 1100 diseases are . . .Read more
Patanjali
The science of Yoga was developed in ancient India as an allied science of Ayurveda for healing without medicine at the physical and mental level. The term Yogahas been derived from the Sanskrit work Yoktra. Its literal meaning is “yoking the mind to the inner self after . . .Read more
Nagarjuna
Nagarjuna (150 - 250 CE) is widely considered the most important Buddhist philosopher after the historical Buddha. Along with his disciple Aryadeva, he is credited with founding the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism. Nagarjuna is also credited with . . .Read more
Bhaskara I
Bhaskara I (c. 600-c. 680) was a 7th century Indian mathematician, who was apparently the first to write numbers in the Hindu-Arabic decimal system with a circle for the zero, and who gave a unique and remarkable rational approximation of . . .Read more
Bhaskara II
Bhaskara also known as Bhaskara II and Bhaskaracharya ("Bhaskara the teacher"), (1114 - 1185), was an Indian mathematician and astronomer. He was born near Vijjadavida (Bijapur in modern Karnataka). Bhaskara is said to have . . .Read more
Baudhayana
Baudhayana, (fl. c. 800 BCE) was an Indian mathematician, who was most likely also a priest. He is noted as the author of the earliest Sulba Sutra—appendices to the Vedas giving rules for the construction of altars—called the Baudhayana sulbasutra . . .Read more
Panini
Panini was a Sanskrit grammarian from Pushkalavati, Gandhara, in modern day Charsadda District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan (fl. 6th century BCE). Panini is known for his Sanskrit grammar, particularly for his formulation of the 3,959 rules . . .Read more